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T H E K l N S ' S B U S I N E S S
October, 1936
NOTES on Christian Endeavor B y M a r y G . G o o d n e r
a viler slavery manumitted, a greater ty rant deposed.” NOVEMBER 8, 1936 AS A CHRISTIAN I RENOUNCE W AR M atthew 26:51-53 Meditation on the Lesson The impressive incident o f our lesson text is recorded by all four of the Gospel writers, thus emphasizing its importance. The scene is the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Lord Jesus was betrayed. Peter impetuously drew his sword and wounded the servant of the high priest, whereupon Jesus rebuked him. Thus He proved that His purpose for this present age is one of love and peace. In His ministry He stated this principle ¡ “ Resist not evil . . . Pray for them which despitefully use you.” During His three and a half years of teaching, He often contrasted spiritual and carnal means of obtaining peace. He taught that His servants, as heirs of a heavenly kingdom, need not use worldly tactics to establish that future government. He, on the last night of His life, declared His eternal omnipotence: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” O f natural con flict He' said, in essence: “ Those who take the sword must run all the risks o f hu man warfare. My warfare, which does not employ carnal weapons, is attended with no such hazards, but carries certain vic tory.” While we are in this world we may expect war, because the natural heart is full of enmity. Perpetual peace can never be known until the Prince o f Peace comes to reign. The dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ now is in His rule in the hearts of men who accept Him as their peace-offer ing to God. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 that “ we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against pr i nc i pal i t i es , against powers, against the rulers o f the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Again he says: “Be not overcome o f evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). The sword o f the Spirit, the Word of God, is a mighty weapon, in finitely more powerful than the steel of earth ; it alone can conquer hearts. Helps for the Leader I. T he “ E nder of W ar ” From a papyrus wound about an Egyp tian mummy two or three centuries before Christ, we learn that an Alexandrian named Darian made a fighting-machine so deadly that it was called the “ender o f war.” And from that time till now, new inventions have been heralded as destined to put an end to war; but the truth remains ‘that the only sure ender of war is the spread of the knowledge of the gospel and of the acceptance of the Lord in the hearts of men.—G. B. F. H allock .
NOVEMBER 1, 1936 THREE YEARS OF REPEAL P roverbs 23:29-32 Meditation on the Lesson This passage concerning wine and its effect upon people is a classic on the tem perance question. Would that all men had heeded and obeyed the command o f G od: “ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red” ! The awful effects of intemperance are here listed and traced to the true source. “Woe . . . sorrow . . . con tentions . . . babbling . . . wounds . j redness o f eyes,” are the direct result in the experience of those “that tarry long at the wine,” Let us trace the steps downward as sug gested by this portion of Scripture. First, “Look not.” Eve, you remember, “saw that the tree was good for food” (Gen. 3 :6). With that look she courted her fatal temptation. The Arab says, “The contem plation of vice is vice,” and Shakespeare has observed, “The sight of means to do ill deeds, makes ill deeds done.” The next step is the taste. Having warned against the seduction o f the eye, the wise man refers to the taste of liquor: ‘When it moveth itself aright” or “When it goeth down smoothly” (R. V .). A taste is the insidious beginning of an uncontrol- lable appetite. “ It is not the last drink that rums the man, but the first.” Then the final step, “at the last”— oh the sadness of the story! The attractive! sparkling cup is an archdeceiver. The re- sults of excessive drinking are disastrous to body and soul. The steps to such an end are _few, and the descent is rapid. It seems perfectly harmless to sip a little, when it is bright and bubbling, thrilling the nerves and tickling the palate, promising joy and freedom. But, alas, “At the last it biteth •i ? t ,®erPent-” How appropriate the sim ile! Like a serpent, the wine is brilliant in color, gliding in motion, and cruel in its bite, for it “stingeth like an adder”—an exceedingly venomous snake. . At the first, wine brings agreeable ex citement for an evening; “at the last,” it leads to the awful agony of an endless per dition, for it is written: “Nor drunkards SR - shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:10). “Drink is the mother of want and the nurse of crime.” Intoxicat ing drink is the greatest factor of crime, pauperism, orphanhood, disease, and in sanity. Those who deal in the liquor traffic would do well to heed the warning of Habakkuk: ‘ Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle *° makest him drunken also” (Hab. 2:15). The instrument o f unright eousness is condemned equally with the consumer. Helps for the Leader I. P rohibition — B ring I t B ack A large rock fell on the back o f a snake one day, says an old fable. The snake called to a calf who was passing to re
move it, but he refused. “If I take it off, you will bite me,” he said. “ No,” replied the snake, “ I will promise not to bite.” The poor calf removed the rock and they went on together. “Now I am going to bite you,” said the snake. “ But you promised not to,” the poor calf said. “I know, but it is my nature to bite and I cannot help it.” They met a fox just then, and the calf asked him to settle the dispute. He would not, unless he could see the rock on the snake as it was, and see what the calf did. So when the rock was at last placed on the snake, the fox turned to the calf and said„jj “ Now that the rock is on his back, I think it is safest to leave it there.” Many poor simple calves would remove the prohibition rock from John Barleycorn, but it is a matter of safety first. It is his nature to bite; let the rock remain. (It is off now. Bring it back .)—Best Modern Illustrations. II. T he U nfulfilled P romises of R epeal When prohibition was the law of the land and repeal was being proposed, it was difficult to make a new generation realize how bad conditions were before the pro hibition era. Now we have had liquor long enough that it is a task to make people conscious o f how good the days of prohibi tion were. As was suspected in advance, the promises made by the opponents of prohibition have been conspicuous by their nonfulfillment. They said that the sale of liquor could and would be respectable; they assured us that dry territory would be protected; they insisted that irrespon- sibles would drink less under repeal—that the saloon would not come back; they promised billions in tax revenue, and the elimination of the bootlegger. Not one promise has been kept. “Prohibition in 1919 closed legally 177,- 000 saloons. In less than two years of repeal there were legally opened 437,704 places where liquor could be sold .”—A Year o f Meetings, published by the Inter national Society of Christian Endeavor. III. T h e G reatest F oe Banish the entire liquor industry from the United States; close every saloon and brewery; suppress drinking by severe pun ishment to the drinker, and if necessary, death to the seller, or maker, or both, as traitors, and the nation will suddenly find itself amazed at its efficiency and startled at the increase in its labor supply. I shall not go slow on prohibition, for I know what is the greatest foe to my men, greater even than the bullets of the enemy. — G en . J ohn J. P ershing . IV. L incoln S peaks Concerning the banishment of intoxicat ing drinks Abraham Lincoln said: “ In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken,
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