September, 1938
THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
299
dua lity
II. I n S ervice for C hrist
“Establish thou the work of our hands.” B y thus committing the inception and the completion of our service to the One who is able to make all grace abound, we may be assured that He will bless it, and glorify Himself through it, however ineffective it may appear to us.
No greater honor can come to any per son than to be entrusted with business for the King. "Church work—God’s work” is the greatest task we can undertake. There are many phases of church work: preach ing, personal evangelism, teaching, visiting the sick, ministering to the poor, visiting jails, and above all, praying for others. The grateful Christian who is rejoicing over the fact of his salvation purchased by Christ Jesus will exclaim with Saul of T ar sus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” When Isaiah had a vision of the Lord, he saw first his own need of cleansing and then, when that was accomplished; he wanted to serve. "Here am I, Lord, send me,” he cried. That is the cry of every grateful child of God who desires to show his love for the One who has saved and commissioned him.— S elected . O CTO BER 16, 1938 WORKERS TOGETHER W ITH GOD J oshua 1:5-9; P salm 90:16, 17; 1 C orinthians 3:9 Meditation on the Lesson One of the marvels of God’s grace is the fact that He permits His frail creatures to work for Him, and more. He works with them. How amazing is His condescension in taking us into His partnership! What accomplished human artist would deign to associate with himself any one en tirely ignorant of the work in which he was engaged? The Almighty God glories in doing just that with His children. He desires to work with us and through us, thereby revealing what His grace and power can accomplish through weak instru ments. Paul recognized this aspect of God’s grace when he said, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Joshua likewise realized that he could not rely upon the arm of flesh. After the death of Moses he was, no doubt, almost over whelmed by the greatness and difficulty of the task before him, that of leading the chil dren of Israel into the promised land. In that hour of weakness God spoke to him and said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” Our Lord, who plans our work for us, amply provides the power to execute His commands. God expects His workers to take advan tage of the means which He has provided for success in His work. The paramount aid to effectual spiritual labor is the Word of God, which is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Faith is a necessary part of the equip ment of the worker who desires to honor God in his task. W e must respond to the command given to Joshua as he, in trep idation, set out to serve acceptably: “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.” The bat tle is hard, but it is the Lord’s, and He will give the victory if we abide in Him and accept His promises as accomplished fact. When we have worked as effectively as we can, empowered by His might, we may ask God to care for the results of our la bor, as did the psalmist in Psalm 90:17:
Attractsf
Helps for the Leader I. N ot a Q uestion of F eeling
Edwin Lewis, a missionary in South In dia, once made the following statement: The question is sometimes put to us: “Are you encouraged in your work?” I do not like the form of the question very well; it but faintly expresses what we feel in regard to our work . . . . In the last great Indian famine, when we were surrounded by multi tudes of poor starving people, many of them too weak to come forward and stretch out a hand to ask for relief, we did not say, “Have we encouragement to feed these people with bread?” W e said, "W e must have bread for these people! They are perishing, and we must give them to eat.” And we must say the very same thing with regard to preaching the gospel. — T h e Illustrator. II. H idden P ower I crossed the ocean on a powerful steam ship, which weighed more than twenty thousand tons and pushed her way against wind and waves at the rate of over twenty knots an hour. I could not see the propel ling force; that was hidden deep down in the glowing furnaces, helped constantly with fresh coal. That experience illustrates the spiritual life of every strong, healthy, growing Chris tian; his strength is measured by the inward supply of divine grace. The spiritual force and progress of a growing Christian prove that his life is hid with Jesus Christ. Happy are you if your neighbors who can see you every day can know by your outward con duct that your inner life is fed by an unseen Christ. For it is God that worketh in you.”—T . L. C uyler . III. G od ’ s I nstruments When Saladin looked at Richard Coeur de Lion’s sword, he was astonished that a blade so ordinary could have done such wonders as this one had done. Richard bared his arm and said: “It was not the sword, Saladin, it was the arm that did the great things.” W e are but the instruments which God wields. —Sunday School Times. O CTO BER 23, 1938 SHARING OUR PROBLEMS W ITH GOD D aniel 6:10; M ark 14:32-39 Meditation on the Lesson Since early childhood we have all known the story of Daniel in the lions’ den, but it is only when we view life from the van tage point of maturity that we are able to enter into and appreciate his experience. Although his predicament is not duplicated in our lives, there are times when the law of the Medes and Persians is decreed and signed, and we have our choice of either acquiescing or taking the bitter conse-
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