November, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
374
the heart softens, and a sweet tenderness creeps into the voice. Are not such things faint illustrations o f the precious ness o f Jesus Christ? No matter how far we may go into the depths of Christ, His love is always as fresh as the dews of Hermon. Each newborn morning, as we rise and look into His face, we vow His presence was never before so sweet or His mercy so tender. Were it not for Him and His promise, the faded letters would be our despair, rather than our jo y ; and the little photograph would be but a re minder of our eternal bereavement, rather than our glad hope o f reunion by and by. Most o f all, H e is precious; and when He leads His peo ple home at last, we shall spend eternity in exploring the unsearchable riches of Christ. His love is eternally expan sive, exhaustless, and boundless. A century ago, in northern Europe, one of the grandest buildings in all that land was one o f the marvelous old cathedrals. Upon one of the arches o f that cathedral was a sculptured face of wondrous beauty. It was long hidden, and no one knew o f its existence, until one day the sun’s light, striking through a slanting window, chanced to re veal its matchless features. Ever after that, upon the days when it was thus illuminated for a brief time, crowds came and eagerly waited for the opportunity to see that face. That wondrous face o f stone had a strange history. When the cathedral was being' constructed, an old man, broken with the weight of years and care, came and be sought the architect to let him work on the building. Out of pity for his age, but fearful lest his failing sight and trembling hand might mar some fair design, the architect set him to work in the shadows of the vaulted roof. One day they found the old man asleep in death, the tools of his craft laid in order beside him, the cunning of his right hand gone, and the face upturned to the marvelous face which he had wrought— the face o f one whom he had loved and lost in his early manhood. And when the artists and sculptors and workmen from all parts of the cathedral came and looked upon the sculptured face, they said: “ This is the grandest work of all, for love wrought this.” That is what shall make heaven glorious. When our hearts fail us at the glory He has prepared, we shall see, wrought into every design in glory, the love o f Christ, which led Him to Calvary for us. Those blessed hands today are busy at the wondrous labor o f God, working His love into mansions o f light for us. That love never fadeth, and that love never faileth. Precious Saviour! A Day of Prayer T he Christian Business Men’s Committee, sponsoring noonday gospel meetings in the downtown theater district o f Chicago, invited Christian people to set apart October 5 as a day for fasting and prayer. Not alone for the work of the committee, but on behalf of the nation as a whole, prayer was urged, for the following and other reasons: 1. There is great unrest, distrust, confusion, and even defiance of God all over the world in every nation. 2. The testimony of Christians is weak. 3. Real prayer and intercession are unknown to most be lievers. Friends in or near Chicago were invited to meet in the Garrick Building. Writing of the gathering, E. G. Zorn, executive secretary, stated: “ With regard to our day of prayer and fasting which began at 5 p.m. last evening and will conclude at 5 p.m., D.V., this afternoon, we are glad to report that this has been a great demonstration of inter est and intercession. No better time could have been chosen for a day and night of prayer and waiting upon God, and we have had as high as ISO in attendance, with not less than thirty all through the night and morning hours.”
door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: . . . I am the d oo r: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. . . . The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to. kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” On another occasion, our Lord said: “ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” And again, “ He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath o f God abideth on him.” Just as a man dying o f starvation needs food, so the soul of man needs Jesus Christ. Without Him, one dies! That is the one thing about Jesus Christ that maddens men. Most people will admit He is good, in fact, much better than they. They will admit the beauty o f His teaching and the fragrance o f His character. They will assent that He pointed the way to eternal life. Some will even admit His claim that He is the way. But when He claims to be not only the way, but the only way to God, they hiss His name and repudiate His claims. But this same utter exclusiveness of His salvation makes Him precious to us who believe. W e know that if it had not been for Jesus Christ, and our acceptance o f Him as the only way to God, we should never have known the meaning of salvation. Like Wesley, who, whenever he saw a dissolute, repulsive character, and was tempted to turn aside in disgust, would say, “ There, except for the grace of God in Jesus Christ, is John Wesley,” we, too, know the depths from which we have been lifted. His L ove is E ternally E xpansive Again, the Lord Jesus is our precious Saviour because His love is eternally expansive. The riches of His grace are exhaustless; the depths o f His love are unsearchable; and we shall never come to the end of the revelations of His glory. How much credence would you give to any one who should say: “ I have tasted of the water of life ; I have ex plored the depths o f God’s grace; I have tasted of the sweet ness o f His love; the fragrance of the Rose o f Sharon has been in my nostrils; the powers o f the age to come have swept over my soul; there is nothing about the Lord Jesus Christ which I have not seen and experienced; my soul, is surfeited with Christ; there is nothing new in Him for me” ? You would know that such an one had never known Christ or seen Him at all. But we who know Him and have seen Him by faith are coming more and more to realize that His love is past finding out. Some of you have treasures, and their charm never fails to thrill your heart. You turn to them when all other things o f life fail. One of them may be a bunch o f old let ters, tied with a bit o f faded ribbon; you pick them up when you are tired of the world and its noise. You turn again the pages which are well-thumbed and stained in places by the splash o f tears. You hear the old, familiar voice; you know every accent in that voice, though it was hushed long ago in silence. For you such letters are your great treasure. They are precious. I have sometimes gone into a home where a parent will take down a little photograph and hand it to me and say: “ This is our precious baby.” And I say, “ Where is she? I did not know you had a little girl of that age.” Then the voice trembles with the answer: “ Baby is in heaven now.” That photograph is precious, and no matter how hard the day has been, or how keen the disappointments, or how annoying the trials, when a parent looks at that photograph,
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