July, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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FUEL OF THE FLAME OF GOD [Continued from page 243] slip gradually off key through the ages as though He who^began such a good work were unable to continue it? Who dares to charge Almighty God with such unwisdom that would begin a work by raising high hopes which later He would not fulfill? Those early Christians were no favorites of God, enabled to live lives which never can be duplicated again. They simply paid the price, but we lazily excuse ourselves to day by confining such power to the apos tolic age with the threadbare conclusion that “the day of miracles has passed.” The day of miracles has not passed; the day of faith, miraculous faith, has largely passed I The truth is that the early Christians were a despised sect, for the most part from the poorer and plainer classes, desperately in love with Christ and utterly beside them selves in their devotion to Him. They did not transform the world;—they transcended it. It was only in later years when Con stantine made Christian profession easy and the church ceased looking for the Lord to
ence: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). We cannot love the Lord with human love but only with the love of God, God’s own love, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But that,heart must be hun gry for His love, and willing, and obedi ent. And as' His love is received by faith, it is expressed in love for the brethren, thereby proving that we have passed from death to life; and that love flows out in love for the lost whom God so loved that He gave His only-begotten Son. Yes, it is the apostolic fervor of men and women desperately in love with Jesus Christ that this calloused world needs to witness today. Nowhere has the devil been more successful than in toning down this early zeal to a pale churchly religiousness. Some would have us believe that people are too intelligent nowadays to return to camp meeting emotionalism. Well, this is cer tainly a poor time to credit anything to in creased intelligence! Besides, that theory does not account for the fact that the same intelligent people who sit Unmoved at church can be beside themselves in hours of frenzy at a football game or a political mass meeting. No, there is still plenty of fervor in the land, but not about the Lord! The happiest person on earth is a young Christian ablaze with the fire of a new faith before he has met too many the ologians! For every man bom blind who receives his sight, the devil has fifty Phari sees ready to cool his ardor. The saddest sight I know is a Bible scholar or preacher (often a fundamentalist) who has left some where among his books the,first love of his Christian youth! Better blaze through with more zeal than knowledge than to lose the calliope notes of early faith in a maze of contradictory commentaries and expositions! A Norwegian wrote to me about being marvelously healed by the Lord, and he ex plained it by this significant comment, “Be cause I tried His own words.” Better crash through believing too much than too little, with an uproarious faith that shouts, “Let God be true, but every man a liar ■’ Me- thinks God must prefer a too-exuberant faith that He must check a little (if such is possible) to a pale orthodoxy that says the words but really does not believe theml God give us some fervid souls who will let no one quench the Spirit within them!
therefore not so pronounced. The contrast is more pronounced nowadays than ever whenever a Christian really dares to live the transformed and not the conformed life. Whosoever will be the friend of the world is still the enemy of God (cf. Jas. 4:4); and, the time being Short, we should live accordingly (1 Cor. 7:29-31). “Propriety” and formalism and dim, religious atmos phere have smothered the fire, and repressed Christians huddle over coals that need to be fanned into flame by the stirring up of the Gift of God within us. With some happy exceptions, too often we shall find the brightest flame in some humble church on a back street—which is quite in keeping with the early assemblies—and even there sometimes extravagances reveal that Satan never-sleeping, is in attendance as an angel of light. Living beside oneself is no new or fanci ful thing. Men lose themselves in lesser causes than Christ and the gospel. Men have lost themselves time and again in a flaming devotion to art or literature or sci entific research or exploration. The devil has shown us the opposite of devotion to
return and began try ing to build heaven on earth that Chris tians became “reason able” and the world could live comfortably with them. C hristians A gainst the W orld Let it not be forgot ten that a twice-born and Spirit-filled Chris tian is always a con tradiction to this old world. He crosses it at every point. From the day that he is born again until he passes on to be with th e Lord, he p u lls against the current of a world forever going the other way. If he a llow s it, men will tone him down, steal
Christ in the reckless abandon of Commun ists and anarchists to their causes. Patriot ism num b ers by the m illio n s tho se who have flung themselves into the jaws of death for love of country. But only the man who is beside himself for the love of Christ has truly lost his life to find it. But most of us never get beyond interest— and mild interest at that—in eternal issues. We need not wonder that revival fails to sweep the world, that we make slight im p ressio n upon th is w re tc h e d generation. Men are not moved by merely interested peo
AFIRE! "GET ON FIRE FOR GOD, AND PEOPLE WILL COME TO W A TCH YOU BURN!" These words were Wesley's ad vice to a young preacher who would increase church attendance. The early church was in Jerusalem for weeks, but not until the Fire fell did the multitude gather "con founded," "amazed," and marvel ing, to ask, "What meaneth this?" (Acts 2:7-12). Our place today is not behind closed doors with a pre-Pentecost experience, but out in the midst of the situation with a glowing witness to the "wonder ful works of God.” •
the joy of his salvation, reduce him to the dreary level of the average. The real fire brand is even more distressing to the devil than to indifferent Christians, and when a wide-awake believer comes along taking the gospel seriously, we can expect sinister maneuvering for his downfall. Alas, Satan receives no little aid from church members themselves in this matter, for most church folk dislike having their Laodicean com placency upset by these who insist on walk ing by faith and not by sight. There are many who raise their eyebrows and shrug their shoulders and bid the flaming zealot, “Be not righteous overmuch!” There is no denying that the present-day world set-up is as definitely of the prince of darkness as was the world of the New Testament, yes, even more so as the return of the Lord draws near. It cannot be argued that we are excused from living such otherworldly lives as did the early Christians because the world has now be come more Christian and the contrast is
ple. It takes Pentecost to stir Jerusalem, and it takes the terrific dynamic of the Holy Ghost through flaming witnesses tp make this sleeping world sit up and listen to the wonderful works of God. If we who claim to know and love the Lord display but casual interest in the Prince of Glory, need we wonder that a cynical world sees no reason to be wrought up about the saving of the soul?
T he C ause of F ervent L ove for C hrist But why is our love to Christ so cold, and what may we do about it? I fear that many who name His name never really have met Him in conversion. I am con vinced that we invite many church mem bers forward for consecration who need first to be saved. And after conversion there must be communion. Love increases as we associate with the person loved. This we do with Christ through the Spirit by prayer and the Word. And by all means remember that oft-forgotten road of obedi• Child Evangelism Fellowship Writing of the recent visit of J. Irvin Overholtzer, Director of the Child Evan gelism Fellowship, to the Columbia Bible College, Columbia, S. C., President Robert C. McQuilkin of Columbia tells of the re sulting experiences of students of the school. He tells of how the young men arid young women have been seeking to cover the city in a systematic way, contacting children on the streets, in parks, and on public play grounds. Literature concerning methods of conducting home Bible classes and doing personal work with children may be ordered from the Child Evangelism Fellowship, 203 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111.
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