THE K I NG ' S BUS I NES S Irenaeus makes 1200 references, 400 of which are to the Gospels. Clement of Alexandria makes 300 references. Clement of Rome, a disciple of the disciples (died 95 A.D.), wrote a letter to the church at Corinth which is still preserved, quoting copiously from the N. T. Polycarp, disciple of John, wrote a letter to the church at Philippi, still pre served, making many quotations. Papias wrote a work, “The Sayings of Jesus.” Papias was a friend of Polycarp. The N. T. has therefore been possessed since the first Christian era. Books in the N. T. Two of the earliest translations of the N. T. show us what books comprised#the N. T. from th q beginning. 1. The Peshito, or Syriac Version, completed before 150 A.D.—contained the four Gospels,. 14 Epistles of^Paul, 1 John,. 1 Peter, James. Five books missing but no book not found in our present N. T. is included in it. 2. The Latin Version, made in second century. Contains the Gospels, Acts, 13 Epistles of Paul, 3 of John, 1 Peter, Jude, Revelation. Three missing, but
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ASKING AND TAKING Faith as revealed to us in Scripture is of a two-fold nature; there is the faith that asks and the faith th a t ac cepts; the faith th a t appeals and the faith th a t appropriates. This is prob ably the reason why prayer and thanks giving are so often associated in the writings of St. Paul. They represent to us the two aspects of faith. Prayer is the faith th a t asks; thanksgiving is the faith th a t takes. We lose a great deal in our Christian life by failure to dis tinguish between these two aspects of faith. We keep on asking, when we ought" to commence accepting. “Be lieve th a t ye have received, and ye ghall have” (Mark 11:24) . . . . There is a distinction between God’s prom ises and God’s facts. The promises are to be pleaded and their fulfilment ex pected. The facts are to be accepted and their blessings a t once used. When we read, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” it is- not a promise to be pleaded, but a fact to be at once accepted and enjoyed. When we say “The Lord is my shepherd,” we are not dealing with a promise or the ground-work of prayer, we are concerned with one of the present realities of the Christian experience. A man kneels down be fore leaving home in the morning and asks God for grace to be kept every moment th a t day. Then he rises at once and goes, about his work. Has he done all his duty in thus simply asking for grace? There was something more and better th a t he should have done. He should have given a moment more after asking, for the purpose of taking, by saying to God, “O my God and Father, I believe th a t Thou a rt now giving me the grace th a t I have asked for; I here and now take Thy grace.” As the hymn aptly puts it, “ I take, He undertakes.” The faith th a t takes is the secret of power and blessing, and the more tru st of this kind we exercise the more power and the more fulness will come into our Christian life.—W. H. Griffith- Thomas.
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m m CHILDLIKE SIMPLICITY
It is said of th a t good old man, John Quincy Adams, that he tfever went to; his rest a t night, until he had repeated the simple prayer learned in child hood,—the familiar “Now, I lay me down to sleep.”
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