349
August 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
WHEN JESUS SPEAKS TO YOUTH [Continued from page 346]
need of all mankind! N o! What do we fear? After all, what, save human selfishness and greed? What, save “ man’s inhumanity to man” ? What, save sin, and sin alone ? The world, as a whole, and especially our civilized nations, has at its command everything needed to produce the highest degree of prosperity ever conceived by the mind of man. Why, then, the appalling distress? Why the lengthening bread lines ? Why the crashing of great finan cial institutions? Why the thousands moving out of their once happy homes into the streets ? Something is wrong— terribly, cruelly, wickedly wrong! All the stupendous problems which confront mankind today can be summar ized into that one word— sin! And your training, young men and women, in this Institute has had for its outstand ing purpose, the making of you into specialists for dealing with that one terrible malady, sin. With the remedy for that applied, all the rest will be easy. Graduates of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, a world, grown almost destitute of faith, needs you—needs you more today than it ever has since Luther thundered his anathemas against the iniquities of papal Rome. The world needs a revival of faith. Only faith can beget faith. You have faith. The world needs vision. “ Where there is no vision, the people perish.” . You have vision. The world needs spiritual impulse. “ A golden age can never be made out of leaden instincts.” You have the spiritual impulse. The world needs Jesus Christ. You have Jesus Christ. And “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” After all, the real need of this great nation is not gold. It is not a sustained dollar. It is not “ a balanced budget.” It is not employment. It is not a revival of industry. It is not an anti-hoarding campaign. The preeminent need of the United States of America is for more young men and women who have not lost faith in God. We need more young men and women who can stand alone and erect, and walk unsullied on the streets of our modern Babylons. We need more young men and women who have been born from above, who have dug away all the miserable pagan rubbish and have planted their feet firmly on the bed-rock of God’s eternal Word, who know the meaning of His salvation and who can declare it unto others, who are ac quainted with His eternal purposes and plans, who can read the signs of the times, who are sensitive to the Holy Ghost, who do not hesitate to walk with the minority when the minority walks with God, and who, above all, have given the Lord Jesus Christ absolute mastery over their lives! And now, as you are about to receive your diplomas, we pray the benediction of Him whose you are and whom you serve to rest upon you in all its fullness and its rich ness, as you march forth from these doors tonight. You march in the train of a noble host which has gone out of the same doors ahead of you. They are out there at grips with the malignant forces of the enemy, engaged in the greatest business God ever gave man to do, saving men and women from the agonies of death and of hell, receiv ing only the barest necessities of life as their present re ward. Pitifully small are their resources from men. But their resources are not of men, but of God. Many of them, fallen in the battle, fill heroes’ graves. They need you out there, to help and, if need be, to die! They are calling, calling for reinforcements—reinforcements which seem, oh so long in coming! Will you answer their call? Will you go? And, remember, you “ don’ t have to come back!” Will you go? Then, in the name o f Almighty God, for the love of His Christ, and for the sake of humanity, having only the eternal rewards in view, FOR WARD MARCH !
sorrowful because he had great possessions. But that isn’t all the story. The tragedy of that story is not only with the young man, but it is with Jesus, too. If the young man’s face fell, I am sure that the countenance of our Lord was equally saddened, for He was able to fill that void left by the riches abundantly Himself, with the ex ceeding riches of His joy and grace. There was another fellow standing by—not such a young man either, but one who had heard and obeyed those quiet words of the Master, “ Follow me,” His name was Peter. And as he saw the saddened face of Jesus, Peter sought to express his own fidelity and loyalty as a bit of consolation to his Christ. Peter said to Him, “ Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.” And here is the climax to the whole story, for Jesus answered Peter and said, “ Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions: and in the world to come eternal life.” Jesus looked down the street at the retreating figure of that young man with his head bent low in meditation and sorrow, and He said, “ He is going back to his tawdry little palace. I had a mansion in glory for him. He is going back to play with his money, which will soon be gone, and I would have given him a hundred times all he has. He is going back to enjoy his wealth for a few short years, and I would have given him eternal riches. Blessed art thou, Peter, for thou hast heard and obeyed My call. Thou hast found Me to satisfy an hundredfold what thou hadst.” Young people, you have often asked this question: “ What will I have to give up, if I accept Jesus Christ?” I do not know, except that He will put His finger upon the very root of the cancer in your heart, and when He has cut that out, He will fill you so full of Himself that He will satisfy you an hundredfold. It isn’t giving u p ; it is gain ing. It is riot doing without; it is doing with Christ. When Jesus speaks to youth, He offers Himself as the full and complete sufficiency of the heart. Columbus discovered America. But what did he know about its great lakes and rivers and mountains and forests ? Many of us think we have discovered something of the riches of life in Jesus Christ. But beyond the horizon of our little vision lie undreamed-of riches which eternity itself will never exhaust. You may amuse yourself for a little while with the pretty toys of the world. But when they are gone, it will all be over. Jesus is speaking to you, and He says, “ One thing thou lackest. You need a Saviour. Come, take up the cross and follow Me.” The Ideal of Preaching The sum of the matter is that preaching, however it is done, is the giving of a word of God to men. The preacher rriust receive the Word himself and give his life to it. And in giving the Word to others, he must give his life with it. His word must be given so that the truth shall be revealed and honored, so that men shall feel that they are receiving the very Word of God.— W atchman -E xaminer .
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