Joy of Obedience continued You, however,' are not one of these. From the very first your soul has cried out eagerly and gladly to all His offers, “Yes, Lord, yes!” You are more than ready to pour out upon Him all your richest treasures of love and devotedness. You have brought to Him an en thusiasm of self-surrender that per haps may disturb and distress the so-called prudent and moderate Christians around you. Your love makes necessary a separation from the world, of which a lower love cannot conceive. Sacrifices and services are possible and sweet to you that could not come into the grasp of a more half-hearted de votedness. The life of love upon which you have entered gives you the right to a lavish outpouring of your all upon your beloved One. An intimacy and friendship, which more distant souls cannot enter up on become now not only your priv ilege, but your duty. Your Lord claims from you, because of your union with Him, far more than He claims of them. What to them is lawful, love has made unlawful for you. To you He can make known His secrets, and to you He looks for an instant response to every requirement of His love. It Is Unspeakably Sweet
matter to you if men shall hate you, and shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for His dear sake! You may well “rejoice in that day, and leap for joy,” for, behold, your reward is great in heaven; for if you are a partaker of His suffering, you shall also be of His glory. In you He is seeing of the “tra vail of his soul,” and is satisfied. Your love and devotedness are His precious reward for all He has done for you. It is unspeakably sweet to Him. Do not bp afraid, then, to let yourself go in a heart-whole devotedness to your Lord that can brook no reserves. Others may not approve, but He will; and that is enough. Do not stint or measure your obedience or your service. Let your heart and your hand be as free to serve Him as His heart and hand were to serve you. Let Him have all there is of you, body, soul, mind, spirit, time, talents, voice, everything. Lay your whole life open before Him, that He may con trol it. Say to Him each day, “Lord, enable me to regulate this day so as to please Thee! Give me spiritual insight to discover what is Thy will in all the relations of my life. Guide me as to my pursuits, my friendships, my reading, my dress, my Christian work.” Do not let there be a day nor an hour in which you are not consciously do
ing His will and following Him wholly.
For the Poorest Life, a Heavenly Glow A personal service to your Lord, such as this, will give a halo to the poorest life, and gild the most monotonous existence with a heav enly glow. Have you ever grieved that the romance of youth is so soon lost in the hard realities of the world? Bring Christ thus into your life and into all its details, and a romance, far grander than the brightest days of youth could ever know, will thrill your soul, and nothing will seem hard or stem again. The meanest life will be glorified by this. Often, as I have watched a poor woman at her wash- tub, and have thought of all the disheartening accessories of such a life, and have been tempted to wonder why such lives need to be, there has come over me, with a thrill of joy, the recollection of this possible glorification of it, and I have realized that even this homely life lived in Christ, and with Christ, following Him whithersoever He might lead, would be filled with a spiritual romance that would make every hour of it grand; while to the most wealthy or most power ful of earthly lives, nothing more glorious could be possible. Christ Himself, when He was on earth, declared the truth that there was no blessedness equal to the blessedness of obedience. “And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” More blessed even than to have been the earthly mother of our Lord, or to have carried Him in our arms and nourished Him in our bosoms (and who could ever mea sure the bliss of that?), is it to hear and obey His will! May our surrendered hea r t s reach out with an eager delight to discover and embrace the lovely will of our loving God! END.
Oh, it is wonderful, the glorious unspeakable privilege upon which you have entered! How little it will
SOMETHING NEW IN A SCOFIELD BIBLE ■ t was back in 1909 that Oxford University Press published ®the first edition of the Scofield Reference Bible. From the very first this King James Version, with its rich store of valuable footnotes and cross references, became vastly popular with evangelical Christians around the world. This summer, in cooperation with the Biola Book Room in Los Angeles, Oxford brought out a handsome, brand new edition of the old favorite: a handy, pocket-size New Testa ment, complete with all notes and references. There’s more information about this Scofield New Testament on page 36 of this issue.
20
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs