Parables and Insights - Sundar Singh

Part-II

The most wonderful experience the Sadhu has ever had of this peace was on that occasion when he was thrown into a well which was full of dead bodies. "The physical suffering was great, but in spirit I was happy. I began to pray to God, and His joy flowed into my heart to such an extent that I forgot the gruesome place I was in. A wonderful peace filled my heart, so lovely that I cannot describe it." "Never have I experienced greater blessedness in the peace of Jesus, received through prayer, than during those very days. Christ's peace turned that deep well into the Gate of Heaven." "How was it possible to have the peace of God in the pitch-dark night, in the midst of corpses and dead men's bones? Joy like this, peace like this, comes from nothing in this world, God alone can give it. While I was sitting therein the well I reflected that I never felt this kind of happiness while I lived in the house of my parents in comfort and luxury. Whence, then came this overflowing joy in that terrible den? I saw then more clearly than ever, that Jesus is alive, and that it was He who was filling my heart with peace and joy."
"I was talking once with a very learned man, a psychologist, who assured me that the wonderful peace which I experienced was simply the effect of my own imagination. Before I answered him I told him the story of a person who was blind from birth, and who did not believe in the existence of the sun. One cold winter day he sat outside in the sunshine, and then his friends asked him: 'How do you feel now? 'He replied: 'I feel very warm.' 'It is the sun which is making you warm, although you cannot see it, you feel its effect".' 'No!' he said, 'this is impossible; this warmth comes from my own body; it is due to the circulation of the blood. You will never make me believe that a ball of fire is suspended in the midst of the heavens without any pillar to support it.' Well, I said to the psychologist, 'What do you think of the blind man? 'He was a fool!' he answered. 'And you,' I said to him, 'are a learned fool! You say that my peace is the effect of my own imagination, but I have experienced it.'
"The Cross is like the fruit of the walnut-tree. The outer rind is bitter, but the kernel is refreshing and strengthening. From the outside the Cross has neither beauty nor goodness; its essence is only revealed to those who bear it. They find a kernel of spiritual sweetness and inward peace."
"During an earthquake it sometimes happens that fresh springs break out in dry places which water and quicken the land so that plants can grow. In the same way the shattering experiences of suffering can cause the living water to well up in a human heart."
"A newborn child has to cry, for only in this way will his lungs expand. A doctor once told me of a child who could not breathe when it was born. In order to make it breathe the doctor gave it a slight blow. The mother must have thought the doctor cruel. But he was really doing the kindest thing possible. As with newborn children the lungs are contracted, so are our spiritual lungs. But through suffering God strikes us in love. Then our lungs expand and we can breathe and pray."
"Once there was a man who noticed a silkworm in its cocoon; he saw how it was twisting and struggling; it was in great distress. The man went to it and helped it to get free. The silkworm made a few more efforts, but after a while it died. The man had not helped it; he had only disturbed its growth. Another man saw a silkworm suffering in the same way, but he did not do anything to help it. He knew that this conflict and struggle was a good thing that the silkworm would grow stronger in the process, and so be better prepared for its new stage of life. In the same way suffering and distress in this world help us to get ready for the next life."
"Many people despise those who give their health, their strength, their means, for others, and call them fools; and yet they are those who are able to save many." "Not until we lavish our strength do men begin to see that we are not selfish, but that we are really redeemed. Our Savior says that we are the salt of the earth. Salt does not impart its flavour to other things until it is dissolved. Suppose we put some salt into a saucepan with boiling rice, because it dissolves it gives flavour to thousands of grains of rice. In the same manner we can only redeem others by giving ourselves up for them."
This giving out becomes a blessing to others. That is my own experience. When I went up to Tibet, if I did not give out some blessing or power which I felt I possessed, I lost my peace; and when I gave away any gift of strength, then peace came back." "The pipe which carries water from place to place is always clean, because it is always being cleansed by fresh pure flowing water. It is just the same with those who are used by the Holy Spirit to serve as channels of the living water to others. They keep themselves pure and holy and become heirs of God's Kingdom."
As the inner life with God grows through the loving Service of others, so it contracts if it shuts itself up to self centered reflection, caring nothing for the world outside. A mysticism which confines itself to "pure contemplation" spells the death of true fellowship with God. By a series of vivid parables and stories the Sadhu illuminates this side of his experience.
"Fish which always live in the depths of the ocean lose some of their faculties, like the Tibetan hermits who always live in the dark. The ostrich loses his power of flying because he does not use his wings. Therefore do not bury the gifts and talents which have been given to you, but use them, that you may enter into the joy of your Lord."
"While I was in Tibet I saw a Buddhist, a monk, who had lived for five or six years in a cave. When he went into the cave he had good eyesight. But because he stayed so long in the darkness his eyes grew weaker and weaker, and at last he became quite blind. It is just the same with us. If we do not use the blessings which we have received from God for His Glory, we are in danger of losing them for ever."
"When I was in Palestine I stood by the Jordan and said to myself," This fresh water is always flowing into the Dead Sea, and yet the Sea remains dead, because it has no outlet. Even so there are individual Christians and Christian communities and churches which are dead because the living waters of the Gospel are always flowing into them, but they are not flowing out again to make the land fruitful. They receive gifts of knowledge and experience, but they do not share them with others. The gifts of the Word and of the Spirit come to them, but they do not give them out again to those who have them not."
'If we have really received God's redeeming message, it becomes a power within us which impels us to speak of the Lord. Those who have experienced this cannot sit still and keep silence about that which God has done for them; no, they must speak." "We have no right to be silent; even when confession of Christ leads to persecution and suffering we must bear witness."
"It is a joy to me to be allowed to bear witness." "I want to bear witness of my Savior, because I have received so much from Him." "What a privilege it is to be His witness, a witness of the Living Christ! That is a privilege not even given to the angels, because they cannot testify to His power as Redeemer. They have no experience of salvation because they have never sinned. Only those who have been saved by His grace can bear witness." "Oh what love God has shown toward us, in refusing this honor to the angels, and in granting it to men.''
"It is not necessary for everyone to be a preacher." "It is quite possible to be a great preacher without being a witness for Christ. It is also possible to be a living witness, indeed a great witness, for Christ without being a preacher or a speaker." "Every Christian, whether man or woman, boy or girl, rich or poor, workman or peasant, writer or priest, judge or official, doctor or lawyer, teacher or pupil, Government official or missionary, is only a Christian on condition that he witnesses for his Lord. In order to bear witness to Him it does not necessarily follow that we must preach in the bazaar or from the pulpit, or that we must conduct Bible classes, Sunday Schools, and Christian Unions, no, these are only some of the ways by which we can witness; but all Christians, wherever they are, have the opportunity of witnessing for their Master. They can do this by their upright life, their blameless character, by the integrity of their behavior and their sincerity in speech, by their enthusiasm for their religion and their love for their Master, using every possible opportunity of telling others about Jesus Christ."
"Every one of them can be a witness for Christ, not only with his lips but by his whole life." "Every Christian ought to be a living martyr, who lives for the sake of his Master."
"The fishes of the sea live in salt water, yet when we eat boiled fish there is no salt taste in the water in which they have been boiled. They have lived in an atmosphere impregnated with salt, yet they have kept free from its flavor. So do true Christians live in the world, without taking it into their hearts". "The man of prayer remains free from the taint of sin although he lives in a sin-stained world, because his inner life is preserved by prayer."
"The world is like an ocean. We cannot live without water, it is true, but it is also true that we cannot live if we allow the wafer to engulf us, for there is life in water and also death. If we make use of water we find that there is life in it, but if we are drowned we find death." "In this world we are like little boats." "A boat is only useful on the water; for there it conveys men from one shore to another. But if we drag it overland, through fields, or into a town, we find that as a vehicle it is utterly useless. The place for a boat is on a river or on the sea. But this does not mean that the water must be in the boat. For if it is in the boat, the boat will become useless; no one would then be able to steer it over the water. It would fill with water, sink beneath the waves, and whoever was in it would be drowned. The boat must be in the water, but the water must not be in the boat."