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T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
August 1932
(S rum L s from T m K ING ’S TABLE . . . By T he E ditor
nity, however ostentatious and solemn its expression, we are willing that the Scriptures be subjected to the test of experience. How does the Bible wear? Let the old men speak. Let the ancient student reply,;“ The Bible stands every test of experience.” Self-Control e l f - c o n t r o l is a fruit of the Spirit. Silence may be mightier than passion. Looking upon the meek and forbearing man, we might, from a superficial view, accuse him of timidity, whereas in reality his forbearance is a proof of his strength. When a city is broken down and without walls, it is exposed to the attacks of the enemy from every quarter. It is without defense and without security. It offers an easy prey even to the feeblest assail ants. Precisely so is it with him who has no rule over his own spirit. He is excited by the smallest consequences ; he is drawn away by the meanest allurements ; he takes fire on the smallest provocation; he is the victim of his own passionateness. Losing self-control, he loses what little wisdom he has gathered from experience, and so he be comes a prey to the enemy, and is brought to complete destruction. No man can control his own spirit as a mere act of discipline. Up to a given point this may be pos sible, and no doubt great success of a very limited kind has been thus attained, but by control we must understand com plete sovereignty; so that the man shall, in all his pas sions and impulses, be the willing servant of his own rea son and conscience. Such a miracle can be wrought in the human heart only by the Holy Spirit. This is in very deed a conquest of grace, and this is the seal of heaven attesting the reality of otir divine sonship. How easy it is to return evil for evil, to indulge in the spirit of retort and resent ment ! How easy it is to stand upon the perilous ground of “ dignity” !. Oh the other hand,'how poor and feeble a thing it seems to be to hear without speaking, to receive indignities without vengeance, to suffer wrong without in flicting reprisals ! Yet this is the very acme and crown of Christian discipline—the very perfectness of character as formed by fellowship with Jesus Christ. When men have no control over their own spirit, they prove that their pas sion is stronger than their reason, that their self-love over masters their understanding, and that their so-called sensi tiveness, which is but a longer word for vanity, is of more consequence to them than is the proof of the indwelling and all-ruling spirit of gentleness. Are You Right With G od? ONAH p a id his fare. How particular some of us are about these little pedantries o f morality ! Wé think, when we have defied thé Almighty and run away from His presence, that we can go up to the counter like honest men and put down thé fare. Many of üs are making up by pedantries what we are wanting in the principles of dur life. We have good points without having a good soul. We have beautiful characteristics without having a solid and undoubted character. Jonah has paid his fare, has he? Yes, but he has forsaken God. Can a man like that do anything right? No. You cannot have any right if you cut the
W e Can Trust His Wisdom ~1 s G od a l l - w i s e ? Then the darkest providences have meaning. We set ourselves as God’s interpreters, and because we cannot make straight lines out of our crooked lot, we thifik that God has turned our lives into inextric able confusion. The darkest hours in our lives have some intent, and it is really not needful that we should know all at once what that intent is. Let us keep within our own little sphere and live a day at a time, and breathe a breath at a time, and be content with one position at a time, and the interpretation, providence says, will come when God pleases and as He pleases. God is all-wise. Then His plan of salvation is complete and final, and we shall waste our strength and show how great is our folly by all attempts to improve the method of redemption and recovery of the world. What is there of God’s that we can improve? Find any little plant and improve it. Try it. Surely you can make something more out of a primrose than God has made. _Surely you could amend the buttercup and the daisy. Try it. Is there a blade of grass in all the meadows of the earth that we can im prove, looking at it as God constructed it? Can you im prove anything that God has made? Then why seek to improve the method of salvation which He has set up, ac cording, to the revelation of His holy Book, in the person and through the ministry of His Son Jesus Christ? Im prove what is laid down in John 3 :16, “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Improve it, if you can: divine love giving its only begotten Son that whosoever believeth—not payeth, not worketh, not putteth out some external strength, but be lieveth—should not perish, but have everlasting life. It is a marvel that any heart can hear these words without say ing instantly, “ These words shall lie at the very root of my life, and I will live upon them, and I will defy death in their strength.” Testing the Scriptures h a t does the Bible do for men in the daily humdrum of life ? What does it do for men when they are laid low, when they walk in darkness, when they ,cry out in pain, when they seek water and there is none, when they are dying for help and there is no hand to touch them—what is the Bible then? What then do all its testimonies, pre cepts, and songs amount to? By that inquiry we are will ing that the claims of the Bible should be judged. All formulated faith must come to the same test. The faith that looks well as it is outlined in the catechism or in the outlines of theology may read well. There is no break in its broad and noble flow, but how does it answer in the bat tle? How does it stand fire? What is it worth when the storm rages, and the tempest tries the strength? A faith that will not walk as well as fly, fight for God as well as sing for Him, sit up all night with the sufferer for His sake as well as testify before hundreds of admiring saints for His sake is a faith not to be trusted. However pomp ous its expression, however ecclesiastically guarded its dig
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