THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S pieces. It is acknowledged to be the most lovely picture ever painted by the greatest artist that ever lived. The artis tic mind is overpowered by it, and any attempt .to copy it shows its outstand ing beauty, and the distance at which it keeps the feeble effort of the copyist. Yet it is not perfect; even a novice can see that. So while we must confess that the holiest men “fall short of the glory of God” as manifested in Christ (and they are the first to own it too), yet we praise God for the faith, the love,"the power, and the beauty of holiness and devotion seen in many such a saved sin ner. It may be our portion also. Let us then press on, for we are far behind, many of us. -Let us not be satisfied with low levels. Let us more habitually walk in Christ that His power may rest upon us. -S&~ ON THE JOB One winter day a gentleman, riding on horseback along a Kentucky road, met an old colored slave plodding on through the deep snow towards the house of God, which was four miles from his home. “Why, uncle,” cried the gentle man, “you ought not to venture out such a distance on such a day. Why in the world don’t you stay at home?” “Ah, massa,” was the answer, “I darn’t do dat; ’cause, you see, I dunno when de blessing gwine to come; an’ s’pose it ’ud come dis snowy mornin’, an’ I away! Oh, no, dat ’ud nebber do.” Would God’s service ever be dis honored by empty houses of worship were all Christians possessed of such MAY HAVE TO' BACK OUT Lord Kelvin, the greatest of modern scientists, says, “I marvel at the undue haste with which teachers in our uni versities and preachers in our pulpits are restating truth in the terms of evo lution while evolution itself remains an unproven hypothesis in the laboratories of science/'
126 revelling in sin to that of unbroken peace with God, and “the testimony of their conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity . . . they have walked” (2 Cor. 1. 12), has been so great that it has seemed like perfection and sinless ness to them, and in their Joy they have testified to it though in faulty terms. Let us seek to walk thus as others do. 4. In other matters where the abso lute is not to be expected A Very High Degree may be attained. Some things are a matter of degree only. Such is the realm of thoughts. So ,long as we are in the body and the flesh in us the flesh will lust. There is no Scriptural ground for believing that Gal atians 5. 17 is a past event with any saint of God. The above quotation from John Wesley shows that he realized it. There will be the lusting of the flesh. Where it begins to be a guilty thing, at what point lust conceives so as to be come sin (James 1. 15), it is impossible to say, probably when the will or the affections are involved in however slight degree. A thought passes through the mind, have we yielded to it before mor tifying it by the Spirit in some degree? It is often a matter of degree, and who can say he has always and only and per fectly dealt with every such lust by the Spirit that it never became sin? If our abiding in Christ were perfect we should perfectly cease from sin (1 John 3.6), but who shall say that this is continu ously so? Yet that many do attain to a high de gree of spiritual mindedness, which is life and peace, we must not deny. 5. We May Walk In Love. This is a matter of degree, for no love of man is perfect. Yet many have at tained a great degree of this first of graces. If compared with 1 Corinthians 13 they are not perfect, yet there is such a sweetness, a gentleness, a courage, and strength in their self-denying love that they are a sweet savour of Christ. We look at one of Raphael’s master-
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