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March 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Fewer Bibles in Hard Times V 0 No! For in hard times the Scriptures have a message o f encouragement. Read this great Bible Passage: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separ ate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39) No! For in hard times (as well as good) the enterprise o f Christianity needs an abundance o f Scriptures. Read the list of American institutions to which the American Bible Society last year furnished Scriptures: Prisons
“Grant us Thy peace that, like a deepen ing river, Swells ever outward to a sea of praise. O Thou, of peace the only Lord and Giver, Grant us Thy peace, O Saviour, all our days.” — P h il l ip s B roo ks . MARCH 25 J oy D esired a n d A t t a in e d “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). This is the joy about which Jesus was silent. Radiant as His face was on the Mount of Transfiguration, and mystic with beauty as it was in the upper room, His disciples never saw the more wonderful glory of the joy Christ, desired and at tained. Perhaps when John the divine saw the face with eyes as a flame of fire, shin ing as the sun in his strength, it may have been the effulgence of this consummated joy of Christ. What is this joy that con summates Christ’s gladness? It is the joy of the resumed fellowship of God, of the unhindered access to His presence, of the re-entry into His glory. It is more. It is the joy of seeing the world of men 'and women whom He loved redeemed by His cross. It is the joy of having finished the work God gave Him to do, and of waiting the issue of it all. When David Living stone made his adventurous journey into the heart of Africa, he had, as his jour nal tells us, days of despair. But ever and again, he had the vision of an Africa re deemed. He heard its wide distances jubi lant with the song of praise to Christ. He saw its people, clothed and in their right minds, at the feet of Jesus. For the joy that was set before him, he endured his cross, despising its shame. So we may rise from a record of a brave man’s Christlike mood to the thought of the constant mind of Christ. The joy Christ desired is the joy that Christ has attained. —W. M. C low . “Be not afraid, only believe” (Mk. 5 :36). Be not downcast if difficulties and trials surround you in your heavenly life. They may be purposely placed there by God to train and discipline you for higher devel opments of faith. If He calls you to “toil ing in rowing,” it may be to make you the hardier seaman, to lead you to lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and above all, to drive you to a holier trust in Him who has the vessel and its destinies in His hand, and who, amid gathering clouds and darkened horizon and crested billows, is ever uttering the mild rebuke to our misgivings: “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest be- believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”— J o h n R. M a c d u ff . MARCH 27 R esu r r ec tio n T r u t h “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). None but those who are Christ’s shall ever attain to the resurrection body of 1 Corinthians 15. None but saints were re vived from the dead in the graveyard of Calvary. None but saints, therefore, shall be of that “great multitude which no man can number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” Those MARCH 26 T h e P u r po se of D if f ic u l t ie s
U. S. Army Posts Seamen’s Institutes U. S. Leper Hospitals Home Mission Churches Young People’s Societies U. S. Veterans’ Hospitals Foreign Language Groups
Churches Hospitals Orphanages Sanitariums Naval Vessels Reformatories Penitentiaries Salvation Army Sunday Schools Rescue Missions Soldiers’ Homes
Schools for American Indian Children Home Mission Boards and Institutions Homes for Delinquents, Aged, Incurables Army, Navy and Marine Barracks, Hos pitals, Training Stations
Missionaries in Foreign Countries turn with expectancy to the American Bible Society for their supply of Scriptures. “Indispensable” was the term used by a secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of a leading denomina tion in describing the service rendered to the missionary enterprise by the American Bible Society. Last year the American Bible Society carried on its work of Scripture dis tribution in thirty-six countries abroad and aided such work in many other lands. The Society issued Scriptures in 285 languages. But “No” will have to be changed to “Yes” What W ill unless funds are immediately forthcoming to help the American Bible Society meet the urgent demands facing it.
Your
r | American Bible Society, Dept. K, Astor Place, New York N o ! | .A- W w W • is my answer. And I enclose $1.......... $5.......... $10............ $20.......... $50.......... $100.......... (circle or check amount you enclose) 1 to prove my belief in what the Bible can do in hard times.
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