August 1927
527
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
love is worth a thousand years spent in self-examination. The more we fix our eyes upon ourselves, the deeper will become our despair. “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no, good thing^ said the apostle, and the words are true of every one of us. So long as we are engaged with self, though it be in the way of self-condemnation, we shall never be free from Its power. There may be as much spiritual pride in self-humiliation and self reprobation as in self-congratulation. If we would be truly saved, whether from the guilt or from the dominion of sin, we must fix our eyes upon Jesus Christ and upon Him alone. To confess our imperfections is the duty .of every one of-us; to dwell upon theta is as likely to help us as raking in the dustbin is calculated to increase our cleanliness. “Look unto me and be ye saved,” is the Divine exhortation. All fear will vanish, all doubts will be set at rest, when once we have learned to center our gaze upon God. “There is life for a look at the crucified One there is not only life, there is strength and victory and peace. The sooner we realize that self is hopelessly rust-eaten, and re solve to scrap it, the sooner we shall enter into rest and power. THE veil separated the worshiper from thé presence of his God. It was at once the consequence and the symbol of the division between the divine and the human which had been wrougnt by sin. Men might come into the outer courts of the holiest, but they might not go into the presence chamber and hold direct communion with heaven. At the death Of Christ that veil was rent in twain. It was rent, not from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom; not by human hands, but by the hand of God. It was rent all the way from the top to the bottom; no partial access was accorded henceforth to the sinner. There remains no barrier, no hindrance, save such as we chôose to create for ourselves. The way to the Mercy Seat, to the Father’s footstool, to the immediate presence of God, is wide open, and “whosoever will may come]/ True we still approach Him through a priest, as did the Israelites of old; but our Great High Priest, having passed before; does not return as did Aaron and his successors; He waits in the heavenly,court to welcome us and to present us (clothed in the spotless righteous ness purchased by His blood) “faultless in the presence” of the divine glory. Let us rise to a sense of our privilege; let us “come with boldness” into the courts of the Lord; let us present ourselves with humility, but with childlike confidence, in the Holy of holies, that we may find “grace:to help in every time of need/’ THE words were no doubt spoken in derision-— “H e saved others! him self he cannot save.” They were the last people in the world to admit that He had ever saved anyone; to have done so would have been to give away the whole case against Him and to have condemned themselves. But the words were none the less literally true ; He had saved others, and Himself He could not save. The two things were incompatible; had He saved Himself, the salvation of others would have been an impos sibility. This is a truth which applies equally to us. If we would save men we cannot save ourselves. Blessings can only be showered upon others at cost to those who bestow them. The man who is not willing to sacrifice himself will never be a real benefactor to his species. Had Christ stopped to count the cost of His benevolent efforts, for the redemption of the race, the A ugust 8. “The veil o f the temple was rent in twain.^-Matt. 27:51. A ugust 9. “H e saved others, him self he cannot save.’f^ L u k e 23:35.
work would never have been accomplished. With every miracle that He wrought; virtue went out of Him; His whole existence upon earth was one of self-abandonment, until at length He crowned the sacrifice with the- oblation of His life. We are free to choose whether we will make this kind of sacrifice or not. We may. refuse to pay the price;, but if we do so; our pro fessions of sympathy with the sorrows of mankind and our half-hearted desires for their amelioration will -be empty and vain. He so loved us that He laid down His life for us; “we, therefore, ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren/’ Not to get, but to give, should be the highest ambition of the Christian heart. P ILATE lacked the courage to do right and desired to throw, the responsibility of his sinful weakness upon someone else. He knew that justice demanded the acquittal, of Jesus of Nazareth; he dared not set him free, but hb wished the guilt of his condemnation to fall upon other shoulders than his own. How often we are .tempted to follow his example and -to try to :shift the blame for our misdoings or: our shortcomings upon other people.. . Such a course is not Only cowardly,, it is futile. Pilate washed his hands and declared: “I am innocent of the blood of this just person,” but how little the plea will avail when he stands before the . judgment seat of the Victim Whom he thus abandoned to His foes. No water will eradicate the stain from the hands of the unjust judge. No man can bear for us the burden of our sins, for “every man shall bear his own bur den.” It is useless to hope to escape condemnation by blaming others for our transgressions, or by forcing upon them the re sponsibility which it was our duty to carry for ourselves. Moral cowardice is one of the most fieinous sins that beset mankind. Next to it, perhaps, in its fatal consequences, is moral laziness. The man who dare not, and the man who is too idle to do what he knows to be right, will have to answer for his own misdeeds without reference to those of his fellow men. THERE was nothing marvelous in Satan’s desire to have the apostles: the marvel was that.. he was allowed to do so. Would it not have been better for Omnipotence to have stepped in and- frustrated his purpose? Why leave those frail, foolish men to his cruel devices■•Could not their Master have saved them from the trial? So we reason, .in our shortness of sight, both as regards them and as regards ourselves. But listen! . Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat." The purpose of sifting wheat is that the chaff may be separated from the grain. Satan’s aim was the destruction of the dis ciples; the Lord’s purpose in permitting him to sift them was their purification. Note, for instance, the result upon Peter. His Self-sufficiency, his pride, his rashness, dropped from him as the consequence of the bitter experience. Peter would never have been the man he became but for that winnowing. Mean while Christ was praying for him that his faith might not fail. That was far better than shielding him from the trial. We may be sure that, in the hour of sharp and bitter temptation, our Great High Priest is interceding for us, if we be truly His. The Tempter may harass, but he cannot destroy one of God’s people. We may shrink from the sifting, but we need not des pair as to the result. We shall come out of it purified; purged from the things which marred our beauty and hindered our usefulness. Then we shall be able to strengthen our brethren. AuGtfsT 10. “Take ye him and judge him."—John 18:31. A ugust 11. “Satan hath dèsired to have' you." —Luke 22:31.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker