485
August 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Baccalaureate Sermon—“Our Appointed Course” P reached by the D ean of the B ible I n stit C tk - J une . 1927
the fact that we owe a duty to the future. The baton of responsibility and privilege must be handed on to the next generation with at least the same advantage that it was handed to us. We must not start the generation whose eyes a re ’toward us and who await our contribu-- tion to the race of the ages, with a handicap. The least we can do is to pass on to them the inheritance entrusted .to -us as true and pure as when it was given to us. Our fathers gave their lives to make real to us the highest and . best things we know. They started us out with reverence for God and holy things, and we should do no less for our children. I nvolves the P ersonal L ife In the third place, “The Appointed Course,” with its ‘far-flung relations and duties, suggests immediate per sonal responsibility and challenge. It means that we must be right with God in order that we may know His will and go His. way. That involves our personal life and fellow ship with.God, and experience of the things wt believe. If we are not right there we are not right anywhere, The man who is not right with God is not right with anything, I f, in all of your work here, you have not mastered this art of a living experience of God and eternal things, your course has’been-a failure. The life that is hid with Christ in God is the source of all great living and true service, and with out it we are nothing and can do nothing. It also means that if we are to run this race we must lay aside every weight. No man can run a race all weighted down with superfluous things. Not bad things, but use less, things; things that may have been greatly used at one time but have been superseded by other and greater things. In the case of these Hebrew Christians, the weights were things which were given by God and appointed for a very definite use, but had been superseded by Jesus Christ in a redeeming work which fulfilled their purpose. The law, the altar, the priests and the .sacrifices all found their ful fillment in Him. To go back to them meant to become a clog in the goings of the eternal, and a denial of the work and glory of our Lord. Good things may keep us from the best, if we tarry with them when God moves forward to the next great interest. I f we are in fellowship with God we can not stand still, Our life is a walk with Him. The past must not enslave us and must be a stepping stone to greater, more glorious, victory. We also must lay aside the sin that clings to us and is in good standing round about. There can be little question as to what this particular sin is. The context makes it plain. It is written all over the letter. The sin that threatened the life and mission of these Christians was the sin of unbelief. They did not dare to venture on the thing Jesus Christ made possible to them. That is our danger today. We are afraid to venture on “The Ap pointed Course.” We find it difficult to actually trust Jesus Christ, yet to fail to do so is to compromise life and to fail to realize the highest things. P ower M ade A vailable To Us God’s set race for us is in His way. Therefore, in the fou rth place, H e is the supreme source of our light and inspiration. Here comes in the application of your class
Hebrews 12:1 HAVE chosen for my text this morning a word that sets our life within the will of God and indi cates its relations to the past, thé present and the future, and marks out its privileges and responsi bilities and the source of its ideals and inspiration. Life is here pictured as “A Set Race,” or “An Appointed Course.” “An Appointed Course” means, first o f all, a marked way, a given task. This means we must have a place within the plan and purpose of God in which He has appointed our course and chosen our task. The recognition of this fact creates for us a sense of responsibility and of the vital importance of life. We are men and women with a commission—a people entrusted with a mission. This gives meaning and value to everything that .we are .doing ; :every life having its own significance and importance and being of value to the sum total of the divine purpose. E very L ife A R elated L ife ' In the second place, “An Appointed Course” means that every life is a related life and is a vital part of the course of the ages. .I t is related to God, to the past, the present and to the futures-bound up within the great program of God on the marked highways of history. : .The race is a single race and is rather what is known in athletics as a relay race; The men of the past have run their course and passed on the baton of responsibility and advantage to the men of today. Paul said, “I have finished my course,” but that does not mean that the task of the ages was finished. He did his appointed part, but apart from us he could not be made perfect—he still awaits consummation. Therefore, our course makes us debtors to the past and we must not betray its confidence and its trust. H anding on T he B aton These burning words from “Flanders Fields” suggest not only our duty to the past, but also our responsibility to the present. In the words of our immortal Lincoln, “It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” What Abraham, Moses and Paul and the other men of faith were to their day, we are to be to our day. They were the pioneers of faith who led the way ; the prophets who interpreted God and His pur pose and program to their age. They were the builders of a new order ; the leaders who led the people out of their bondage into the realization o f a better and truer life. We are to be that to our age. . Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the world, the salt of the earth.” Nothing could mark our responsibility to the world and our. day with greater significance than these wards. The responsibility of the present is heightened by “Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch ; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.”
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