THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NES S
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heart disease. When you become con scious of digestive organs, you have dyspepsia. Symptoms of disease may be aggravated if not created by being dwelt upon. Self-examination and in trospection if persistent and excessive may become morbid and harmful. Chas. Dudley Warner says th a t conscience is a kind of gastric juice that gnaws on the coating of a man’s moral nature if it has no indigestible sin to feed upon. We can only discover evil in ourselves, and to be occupied with evil is not to be occupied with God. Objective occu pation with Christ is more sane and sanitary than subjective self-analysis. T h e B i h l e D o c t r i n e o f W o r k . Work ante-dates sin. Labor is not a bane but a blessing. Before the fall, it was refreshing and delightful. After the fall, it was arduous and exhausting. God gave man an alloted task as soon as he was created. The prosperity of a nation depends upon the industrial energy of its people. The world is a great ¿bee-hive in which there is no place for drones. The problems of labor do not arise from the fact that men have to work but from their selfish and sordid views of work and life. The Pauline maxim “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat” is an axiom of political economy. It might be amended and extended to meet modern condi tions by saying, “If a man will not let another man work, th a t man shall not eat.” J e s u s t h e C a r p e n t e r . Scripture discloses the fact that Jesus was brought up to the carpenter’s trade. He followed this calling till he was thirty years of age. He belonged to the third estate. He adorned and dig nified labor by his association with it. The Greek word is more suggestive of a journeyman and a jobber than an ar tistic and skilled workman. He mado yokes and ploughs and rude furniture for the peasants of Galilee. He can sympathize with the working man. He knows by experience the problems, bur dens and sorrows of those who toil. He was made in all respects like unto his brethren. Tradition declares that Joseph died when Jesus was eighteen. By virtue of being the first-born, Jesus would then be the head of the family and responsible for its maintenance. If S U N D A Y , A p r i l 1 7 . G e n e s i s 3 : 4 - 1 5 . M O N D A Y , A p r i l 1 8 . M a r k 6 : 1 - 6 .
unconquered, upon the condition that he should conquer them. No wonder th a t Joshua blessed him and granted his re quest. There, is an inspiration in his example to every age. Faith and fear lessness are better than the fabled fountain of youth in resisting the in firmities and encroachments of age. “By me thy days shall be multiplied' and the years of thy life shall be in creased.” The bill of fare prescribed by God for the Hebrews in the Levitical code is vindicated by modern scientific re search and sanitary teaching. The death rate among the Jews in the New York Ghetto with all its poverty, squalor and congestion is actually lower than among the Gentiles in the fashionable districts up town. The reason may perhaps be found in the Old Testa ment provisions and prohibitions con cerning diet. Daniel’s purpose, Daniel 1:8, was doubtless both religious and hygienic. The functions of the brain are conditioned by the kind of food that nourishes the body. Eating and drink- ing may have a sacramental virtue at our own table as well as at the Lord’s table and become a means of growth in grace. 1 Cor. 10:31. The soul and body mutually affect each other. The inter-relation is close and constant. Every emotion in the mind is accompanied by some physical change and it is a recognised fact .that both our mentality and spirituality may be affected by our physical state. Prof. James has argued that all emotion is the mental reaction to physical condi tion. Without going to th a t extreme, we may admit their close connection and co-ordinate our physical and spiritual Ufe accordingly. Religion is not a sep arate department of life but a spirit and motive that pervades and controls all departments and functions of the per sonality. “Bless the Lord O my soul, and all th a t is within me, bless His. holy name.” Psalm 103:1. S p i r i t u a l H e a l t h . Unconsciousness is the test of health in both soul and body. When you are aware that you have a heart, you have F R I D A Y , A p r i l 1 5 . 3 J o h n 1 : 1 - 1 4 . T h e R e l a t i o n o f S o u l a n d B o d y . S A T U R D A Y , A p r i l 1 6 . P s a l m 4 3 : 1 - 1 1 . T H U R S D A Y , A p r i l 1 4 . D e v . 1 1 : 1 , 3 , 4 4 - 4 7 . D o e s I t M a t t e r W h a t W e E a t ?
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