HANDY PUB L ICAT ION S FOR BUSY PASTORS Asking God—6 0 0 (Order by Number) “Master, teach us how to pray,” is still the earnest desire of all Christians. Jesus says, “If ye ask . . . I will do.” Prayer is the outlet of our sorrows and the inlet of our support. This book is offered to* you with the hope that its splendid CHAPTERS of INSTRUCTION on Prayer and its MODEL PRAYERS for SPECIAL OCCASIONS will prove to be a help and inspiration to every one who believes that PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. Price, 50 cents. Every minister is anxious to be helpful in the Funeral Service, With this thought in mind we determined to bring out a publication that would meet the minister’s re quirements. The first part of this book contains A FU NERAL ADDRESS which can be easily modified to suit any Funeral Occasion. This book also contains TWELVE (12) CAREFULLY SELECTED OUTLINES for Fu neral Sermons. We believe every minister will highly appre ciate this publication. Price, 35 cents. The Library Magazine Eight to twelve pages (8x11) filled with interesting ma terial for those who are called upon to speak in public. Published Bi-monthly. Let us have your name for our subscription list at once. This publication will be invaluable to you. The magazine with the definite purpose of LIGHTENING THE TASKS of busy Public SPEAKERS. A year’s sub scription (only 50 cents) will be worth Dollars to you. The Preachers Scrap Book has 207 pages, x 11 inches. Printed on a very The Funeral Service—707 (Order by Number)
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Volume XXII
August, 1931
Number 8
TABLE OF CONTENTS Crumbs from the King’s Table—rThe Editor.... .............................. 339 Present-Day Fulfillment of Prophecy—Louis S. Bauman............. 341 Kept Safe in His Life—Charles G. Trumbull.................................343 The Power of the Gospel in Belgium—Edith F. Norton..,............ 344 All Signs Point—to What?—H. A. Ironside....... ............. ......:...... 346 Opportunities Out of Doors........ ........................ ............................349 In Step with Christ—Clinton Kraft......... .............. ............... .........350 The Hidden Life in Christ—Annie McCoy.....................'......... ....351 Structure in Scripture—Norman B. Harrison.............................352 How Science Sustains the Bible—Harry Rimmer........................ 353 The Return of the Tide—Zenobia Bird...................................... ....356 Studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews—John C. Page...................358 Out of Doubt into Faith—Howard A. Kelly....:........................... 360 Heart to Heart with Our Young Readers •—Florence Nye Whitwell........................................................ 361 Junior King’s Business—Helen Howarth Lemmel........................ 363 Our Literature Table ...................... ................. ................................365 Bible Institute Family Circle—Cutler B. Whitwell.......................366 Hoihiletical Helps ................... ......... ................................ ........ ..... 367 International Lesson Commentary..... ............. ............... ..... ........... 368 Notes on Christian Endeavor—Milo F. Jamison...........................375 Daily Devotional Readings ...... .............. ....................... ................. 381
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By Mrs. DOROTHY B. POLSUE SIERRA MADRE. CALIFORN IA (Q^OME day, our great Saviour is coining:— Acts 1:11. O None knoweth the time it will be.— Mk. 13:32. No angel of heaven could tell us,— Matt. 24:36. When we, His great beauty shall see,— 1 Thess. 4:16. But the blessed hope of His coming,— Tit. 2 :12, 13. Is given to you and to me.—Heb. 10:37. Suppose it should be in the morning,— Matt. 25:13. Night’s shadows just fading away?— 1 Thess. 5:6. His glory shall shine through the heavens,— Matt. 24:27. Great signs are proclaiming that day.— Lk. 21 :2 5. When the powers of heaven are shaken,— Matt. 24:29, 30. Will it be for you a glad day?— -Mk. 13:33. Perhaps it will be at the noontide;— Lk. 17:26. Some day, in the rush of that hour,— Matt. 24:38. The skies may reveal our great Saviour,— Rev. 22:20. Descending in glory and power.— 1 Pet. 1:1 3. When He calls the redeemed of all ages,— Matt. 24:31. Will that be for you a glad hour?— Lk. 2 1 :36. He may be returning at evening,— Lk. 12:35, 36. Just after the day’s work is done.— Lk. 12:38. (R oth erh am tra n s la tio n ) Perhaps, in the glow of the sunset,— Matt. 24:44. Our blessed Redeemer shall come.— 2 Thess. 3:5. Would your heart rejoice to behold Him,— Mk. 13:36. That day, at the set of the sun?— 2 Pet. 3 :14. But whether at dawn or at midnight,— Mk. 13:35. Whatever the hour may be,— Acts 1:7. When the heavens declare His appearing,— Jas. 7:8. And Christ, in His beauty, we see,— 1 John 2:28. When He comes to gather His loved ones,— 1Thess. 5:23. I pray He will call you and me.— 1 Pet. 5 :4. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.— Rev. 22:20. (R o th erh am tra n sla tio n ) (R o th erh am tra n sla tio n )
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(Crumbs from THE KING’S TABLE . . . By TH E ED ITOR
II t a ppiness in its highest form is the supreme motive and the supreme goal of human life. It is the by-product of harmony. Its sphere is physi cal, mental, and spiritual. If all the organs of the human body are working in perfect harmony, we are physically happy; if the mind is clear and free from all discord, we are mentally happy; if the conscience is void of offense toward God and men, we are spiritually happy. An ear attuned to music cannot be happy in the midst of discord.
The faith vision must reach beyond the grave. The man who said, “Life is but a barren vale between the cold and ice-clad peaks of two eternities; we strive in vain to look beyond the heights; we lift our voices in the silence of the night only to hear the bitter echo of our cry,” never knew the elements of true happiness. No man can be.genuinely happy without hope. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals what true happiness is and how to obtain it. This knowledge satisfies the great
A mind attuned to serious and uplifting thought cannot be happy with the frivolous. A conscience educated in the high est and best cannot be happy with harbored sin. When body, mind, and soul are all in per fect h a r m o n y , happiness is complete. There must be a standard
est longing of an unhappy world. He who made man made him to be happy, but dis cord found an entrance to body and mind and soul. So He has undertaken to redeem man. He has set before us His own per fect likeness and character; for Christ is the only perfect man. To be like Him is to be happy. Does the sense of my sin make me unhappy? He paid the debt that made me free. Do my pres ent circumstances tempt me to be unhappy? His grace makes me rejoice in the hardest cir cumstances. Do I get discour aged over my unworthiness? He tells me I am worth the life of the Son of God. Do I be come unhappy over my slow progress toward perfection ? He tells me that He who began a good work in me will perfect it. Is my heart about to break with sorrow when death takes
Sing On Sing, heart of mine, yes, sing, sing on; The Master cares for thee. The storm may wreck and seas may toss, And earthly friendships prove but dross —• His love will faithful be. Sing, heart of mine, sing evermore, In darkness or the day; A Hand so strong can guard thy life: Amid the tempest and the strife, However strange the way. Sing, heart of mine, and singing, rest; Thy burdens He will bear; When sparrows have their needs supplied, The children will not be denied An all-sufficient care. —A uthor U n k n ow n .
of perfection for each part of one’s being, and to be abso lutely happy one must attain that perfect standard. Since that is true, one’s happiness, so far as its present possession is concerned, must be relative. A drunkard or a glutton may be happy in the midst of physical debauch, but his is the happi ness of a brute. An idiot boy may enjoy playing with some small toy, day after day, but his is not the happiness of a real man. The man who mocks at God may find a temporary thrill, but his is only the happiness of a fool.
away my loved ones ? He tells me I shall meet them again. Am I fearful when I think of meeting the last great enemy? Then He causes me to sing: “Yea, though I walk through death’s dark vale, Yet will I fear no ill, For Thou art with me, and Thy rod And staff me comfort still. Goodness and mercy all my life Shall surely follow me, And in God’s house for evermore, - „ ■ My dwelling place shall be.” “I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness.” I shall be satisfied and perfectly happy because my body, my soul, and my spirit will be in perfect harmony with God. And with this prospect before me, I am happy now. “In Nothing Be Anxious” hy not feet and worry? Why not fill the sky of life with clouds of misgiving, and darken exist ence by keeping the sun of hope in perpetual eclipse ? Why not pitch tent and dwell under the brood ing fear that although things are right today—health,
There must be a knowledge of the highest ideal. The Epicurean philosopher who said, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” had no capacity for real happiness. There must be faith as well as knowledge—faith that the highest ideal may be reached. Intelligent faith is necessary to a happy mind, and the basis of all genuine faith is truth. If we cannot believe in well authenticated facts, we cannot be happy. The happy mind is the mind that revels in the truth, and that cannot believe a lie. We are on the road to real happiness when truth sits on the throne of conscience as master of the life. The time element must be considered. One cannot be happy when he knows that his happiness is as a vanish ing dream. The conviction that he is reaching out toward a supreme ideal, that he will some day arrive at absolute perfection of body, of mind, and of soul—the faith that is the substance of that thing which he hopes for, the evidence of that thing which is yet unseen, in its complete ness—-is the foundation of the greatest happiness that can be attained by mortal man.
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The Need of Christ’s Suffering O ught C hr ist to have suffered? Was there any commanding necessity laid upon Him to go through what He experienced? Was there any interest at stake of enough importance to justify the humiliation of the cradle and the pang and the shame of the cross ? Or, if there were vast concerns in issue, was there no other way to gain the end? The answer is brief, but it is all-sufficient. Men were sinners, under the condemnation of, the law, helpless and hopeless unless aid should come to them from some source outside of themselves. All the discoveries and advances of science, all the moral progress that the world has made or shall make because of its art and its literature and its political economies, all the new devices and pretenses sought out by infidelity and agnosticism will not alter by so much as a hair’s breadth this one .fact—men were and are, until rescued by the interposition and grace of God, helplessly and hopelessly in the grip of the law which they have broken. Were we to enter into a full discussion of this ques tion of the necessity of the sufferings of Christ, we should find that these factors, along with others, enter into the problem: the character of God, the penalty of the law, the preciousness of the soul, the deep sinfulness of trans gression, and the inadequacy of simple repentance for wrongdoing in the far-off issues of guilt. We condense all these, into a single word, sin. Sin is the fact which undertones the whole sad story of the cross, and it is the hinge on which the necessity of an atoning sacrifice turns. Sin is what brought the Son of God down out of the heavens to tabernacle here in the flesh. Sin is what led Him to walk through all the sorrowing ways of our hu man life. No other way was there—or, at any rate, no other way which seemed so suitable in the estimation of infinite wisdom and infinite love—than this of vicarious suffering. If a man has no sense of sin, does not believe in sin, but thinks what the Scriptures call sin is only a mistake or sort of amiable folly, then he will not be likely to perceive that there was any deep stress of need for the dying of Christ to atone for sin. But if he has some great sense of it and of the mischievous way in which it relates itself to the high welfare of the soul and the character of God and the order and interest of the moral universe, then the necessity for the sufferings of Christ will become clear to his mind. He will be ready to say, “Yes,” to Christ’s own statement that it behooved Him to suffer, that, by suffering, He might open a way of everlasting salvation to all. The Wrong Order The ten spies differed from Caleb and Joshua in their report of the land of Canaan. There are three words here beginning with “G”—the word “God,” the word “giant,” and the word “grasshopper.” Now note, these spies made a great mistake as to the position of these three words. They compared themselves with the people of the land and said: “And in their sight we were as grass hoppers.” If they had compared the people of the land with God, they would have come back, as Caleb and Joshua did, who said in effect: “We have compared the giants with God, and the giants are as grasshoppers.”— F. B. M eyer .
business, friendship—they will be sure to be wrong to morrow? Why not intensify all the pains and perplexities and vexations and burdens of the present moment— severe and trying enough at best—by looking at them through morbid eyes, and then setting the imagination to work to fill the future with sorrows and losses and all sorts of dire calamities? There would be some justifica tion for anxiety were there any good in it, but there is not. Nothing is accomplished by it. The train does not arrive a single minute earlier because a person goes to the station a couple of hours before the scheduled time and makes the long period of waiting seem tenfold longer and more dreary by fancying that the expected friend is surely sick or that the cars are off the track. The forecasting of trouble that may not come never helps anything. It does not reduce the principal on the note that is due. Business is not put on a safe foundation by it. A sick person is not healed by it. The cause of Christ is-not advanced by it. Souls are not brought to Christ and saved by it. Noth ing is so inefficient for good as anxiety. The chief indictment, however, against anxiety is the distrust of God which it implies. A heart filled with the worry which narrows the spiritual horizon and turns the sweet light of the stars into horrible darkness has small place in it for any living and sustaining confidence in Him who notes the fall of a sparrow or who has assured His children that He is ready to take upon His heart all their burdens of care. God has not promised to do everything for us. There are some things which we must do for our selves. But He has promised never to leave or to for sake His own. He has promised that all things shall work together for good to them that love Him. Anxiety is distrust. God has us in His keeping. He knows our needs. He is not watching over the interests of birds and the beauty of lilies and the clothing of grasses and then forgetting all about the necessities of those higher and immortal creatures whom He has redeemed by the blood of His Son. “He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” The things essential to our existence and comfort, which the Gentiles of our Lord’s day were seek ing so eagerly, and which men in our day seek so avidly, are things which our heavenly Father knows we need. Our necessities, our wants, our natural burdens are not sur prises to God. He understands them all, He feels them all. But in the midst of them,He wishes us to trust Him. This does not mean that we are not to be industrious and economical and prudent and forethoughtful. Rational ex ertion in order to gain suitable ends is not denied to us, but is urged and encouraged. The man who quotes, “In nothing be anxious,” and then in justification of laziness or a supine folding of the hands in the presence of ser vices to be rendered and duties to be done, must not forget that the author of this phrase is likewise the author of another: “Diligent in business.” The indifference of neither the fatalist nor of the sensualist has any warrant in the Word of God. “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” But the thing which is condemned and ought to be condemned, and from which our heavenly Father seeks to deliver, us, is the over-solicitude which burdens and benumbs the heart, and which saps energy from brain and hand and makes us forget that God is over us, and that He will provide for all the exigencies of our lives.
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. . . By LOU IS S. BAUMAN
An Upsetting Doctrine I sa iah 30:9-11
13:3-6). Once secure in his own power, he will have no further use for the religion that recognizes “Mary, the mother of God.” The inevitable struggle between the harlot (apostate religious faith finally headed up in the Roman Catholic church) and the beast (apostate political faith finally headed up in the Antichrist) seems near at hand. Mutter- ings of the conflict are constantly being heard. God shall use this last great Nebuchadnezzar for the judgment of apostate religious faith, even ,as it is written: “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the-beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (Rev. 17: 16). But during all this furor, the translated saints will be hidden away in fellowship sweet, with the Rock above —and, thank God, “there’s honey in that Rock.” The Impulse Within the Bones E zek iel 37 T he writer has just received a clipping from The Tyrone Constitution, a newspaper published at Omaugh, Ireland, giving the gist of a recent speech by Lloyd George at a dinner in London, given by the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. Speaking of the British mandate over Palestine, he said: This mandate must be carried out, not nervously and apologetically, as if we had been lured into some- thing_ we now regretted, but firmly and fearlessly, as a policy in which we genuinely believe . . . The honor of the British flag is involved in guaranteeing protec tion . . . The Jews surely have a special claim on Canaan. They are the only people who have made its name immortal, and, as a race, they have no other ' home . . . There never has been such an experiment as this attempted in the history of the world. It is an inspiring ideal. Here is a race which, when it was a small and peasant people, made a greater contribution to the spiritual elevation of humanity than any that ever dwelt on this earth, the people from whom sprang Moses, and Isaiah, and Jesus of Nazareth. . . . They now have an impulse to rebuild their own home, to live their own national life, to renew their contribution to human thought on the same hills, under the same skies. Since they come to Palestine enriched by contact with every civilization on earth, we are entitled to expect great things from such an experiment, not for Palestine alone, but for the world, not only for the children of Israel, but for the children of men. And among all the signs that God has given us to the effect that the present age is growing old, and that the glad new day is about to dawn, no sign is so outstanding as the “impulse” of the Jews “to rebuild their own home” —an impulse given tremendous impetus by the declara tion of Lord Balfour in 1917. This impulse is the central subject of many of the greatest prophecies of the Bible. It is the subject of Ezekiel’s wonderful prophecy “down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones” : “Behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone . . . Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel . . . Ye [Israel] shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.”
^ ^ hortly before the World War, “Sister Eva,” a high-born, philanthropic lady in Germany, who founded a hospital with her own money and preached Christ to the patients, spoke to the German Kaiser of the Lord’s return. The Kaiser abruptly replied: “That will never do ! It would upset all my plans!” Men and nations today are making a lot of plans which are going to be upset by the coming of the Lord. This is the reason for their antagonism to the blessed hope, their unbelief in the great prophecies, and their blindness to the clear signs of the times.' As it was in the days preceding the sunset of Israel, so it is now in the days preceding the sunset of Gentile dominion. The people “say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” But the Bolshevik prayer will not be answered today, even as it was not then. The Holy One of Israel will hardly oblige a com munistic and modernistic world by “ceasing from before us.” When the last taps are sounded, they will not be sounded in the quarters of the eternal Christ of God! I talian B reach B ecomes A cute ” is the headline above a dispatch from Vatican City. The item be gins: “Open clashes between the members of the Catholic organizations and Fascists throughout all Italy centered attention today on what it is believed is becoming a delicate situation.” And then the dispatch continues to tell of the intimidation of and violence against Roman Catholic organizations in various cities throughout Italy. Catholic banners were torn down, “Catholic action” but tons torn off the garments of students, Catholic women students in university courtyards insulted by Fascists, and marching crowds crying, “Down with the Pope!” We have long known that Mussolini and his Fascist followers were at heart an atheistic bunch, kotowing to papal Rome only temporarily as a matter of good policy. The harlot rides the beast, and the beast endures the bur den of the harlot only as a matter of present necessity. But their love for each other is as the love of two tom cats with their tails tied together, and hung over the pro verbial clothes-line. The Roman “beast,” be it Mussolini or another that shall come, only awaits the hour when the “ten horns” which are “ten kings” within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire shall revive and federate. Those ten kings shall give their power and strength unto the beast (Rev. 17:12, 13). This “beast” acknowledges no God above him (Dan. 11:36, 37; 2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. The Beast Shall Hate the Harlot R evelation 17:12-18
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They Shall Fly for Violence H abakkuk 1 :8, 9 ; I saiah 31:5, 8; 60 :8
The reader can judge for himself whether or not this great prophecy is in the course of fulfillment. One thing is sure, that there wds a great “shaking” in 1914 to 1918; and as a result, the “bones” of the old Jewish nation, bones picked bare by the greed of Gentile nations, appear to be rolling about in preparation for the resurrection of the Jewish state in the homeland. The famous “fig tree” is thrusting forth its leaves (Lk. 21 :29-33). The Word of God is literally filled with prophecies affirming that such an impulse will come, and that the Jewish dream of the ages will be realized. And Lloyd George is right, for the blessing therefrom will be “not for Palestine alone, but for the world, not only for the children of Israel, but for the children of men.” The covenant of our God with Abraham stands fast and sure: “I ‘¿¿ill1make of thee a great nation . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth he blessed” (Gen. 12:2, 3). The Earth Weis Filled With Violence M atthew 24:37; G enesis 6:11 ut as th e days of Noah were, so shall alsó the coming of the Son of man be.” Such was the ring ing declaration of our Lord before He mounted the cloud chariots and rode away. And how were the days of Noah? The inspired answer is that “the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” The daily newspaper tells the sickening story. Its col- urns are almost wholly given oVer to the account of each day’s violence the world around. Shooting and killing seem to be the ruling passion of the time. The least quarrel brings the flash of a gun! The second-hand stores everywhere prominently display guns for sale. Men carry them in readiness. Women tote them in their handbags. .Disregard for human life is almost an epidemic. The nations aré even worse than the individuals. Great prophets for peace are ruthlessly cast aside, while nations continue to beggar themsélves for the implements of war. Money flows forth in streams for powder and shot, while the people starve for bread. Horrible, awful beyond description, is the picture of the destruction and death which will strike through the loins of all nations if ever again they march forth to war. They all know it. Statesmen declare it. Scientists confirm it. And yet, in a perfect frenzy, they rush their munition factories day and night in preparation for it. Did ever God look down from heaven upon a madder world ? But all was foretold. It is in preparation for the Antichrist himself, who will honor no god save “the god of fortresses” (Dan. 11:38). Mussolini may not be the man; but he is doing his best to act the part. He said in a public address: “Order comes before culture; the policeman is more important than the professor.” Again: “Every young man, as he grows up, gets two things from me: an appointment in the ranks of the blackshirts, and what is infinitely more important, a first-class gun with plenty of cartridges. I am not satisfied with soldiers who fight only when they are ordered. I want a more aggressive spirit in my army. I want men who fight for the sake of fighting, men who are looking for battle and whose ruling passion is combat and the encounter with the enemy. We are ready now with an army of five million men!” No wonder peace conferences arrive nowhere in Europe! But let the storm come, since come it must! “The god of fortresses” worries us not. We await the upcalling from the God of the mansions.
h en th e ravaging enemies of Israel sweep into the land of Palestine for the last time, those enemies “shall fly as the eagle that hastest to eat. They shall come all for violence” (Hab. 1 :8, 9). “They shall fly . . . all for violence!” How significant that statement! But it is also written: “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; . . . Then shall the Assyrian [Antichrist] fall,” . . . and, “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness” (Isa. 31:5, 8; 32:1). The last days of the age are seen by the prophets as days when the forces of violence shall clash in the air about Jerusalem. Mussolini declares that his “flying birds” must darken the air above Italy by 1936. Russia’s civil aviation schools are training no fewer than 18,000 pilots this year in a three-year course—to be ready for business, if need be, in 1934. The Red Air Force is con stantly engaged in manoeuvers under severe conditions. Pilots are trained in long-distance bombing attacks, with the destruction of whole cities as their objective. First come the “moral” planes whose bombs are intended to create panic. These are followed by heavier machines for dropping high explosives. Then come machines laden with incendiary bombs of a new type, to set the ruins alight. Last come the high-flying, invisible planes from which will be released the deadly poison gas, lingering for days on the earth as a mist, penetrating, agonizing, kill ing—completing the harvest of death. There is just one ray of sunshine in the whole picture: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isa. 26:20). Are we ready? The Danger of Lowering One’s Standard B y G uy E dward M ark I know parents who can date their own spiritual de cline from the hour when they compromised w ith their children and adopted the children’s standard which was lower than their own. I know parents for whom the sun has set, and out of whose lives all joy has gone because they did not have the heart to oppose their children. Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson, were godly souls with high standards. A son was born to them. God fully informed them regarding the influences with which they were to surround their boy. The son grew to young manhood; and, alas, like so many other young men, he turned his eyes toward the land of the Philistines. He went down to Timnath, and there he fell in love with a woman of the uncircumcised enemies of God. But what about his parents ? They protested, but it was a mere lip protestation. He was their son. Why shouldn’t he do as other young men did? So they went down to Timnath with him! What soul agony, what heartache came to those parents later on as they saw their son, the finest specimen of manhood in all Israel, fall to the depths of sin and shame! My parent friend, maintain your high standard. Of course your children will think you are narrow; they will look down upon you; and they may even rise up in re bellion against your control. But do not compromise with them, for the time will come when they will bless you a thousand times for loyalty to your principles.
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KEPT SAFE HIS LIFE • • • By CHARLES G. TRUMBULL, Philadelphia, Pa.
if. —, h e late B ishop M oule , one of the few Prince Bishops of the Church of England, himself a consecrated Christian of true humility and at the same time of deep learning in the Word of God, sug gested a luminous translation for the latter part of the Scripture verse in Romans 5:10. This verse reads: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Bishop Moule translated those
of Keswick Grove, New Jersey, and the Western Kes wick, the question has already been asked and is likely to continue to be raised: “What about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Is that what is meant by the victorious life? Does the Christian enter into the victorious life when the baptism of the Holy Spirit has been received ?” Let us see, first, just what the New Testament teach ing is concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Dr. White, the Editor of T h e K ing ’ s B usiness , has made
last four words, “kept safe in his life.” It is one of the rich “much mores” of the Bible and the gospel. All men by nature are enemies of God. God loved us while we were still enemies. It was the. death of His Son that reconciled us to Him. When we accepted that death as our life, we were saved. Then we were no longer enemies, but we be came God’s very children by the new birth. There follows a “much more” of the grace of God. Having been reconciled, having been chang ed from enemies and aliens to chil dren and friends of God, Christ does still more for us. “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be kept safe in his life.” Christ’s death saved us. His life keeps us safe. “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3.3). Wje are hearing, these d a y s , about the victorious life. What is meant by the expression? The question can be answered in many ways, all equally true, but it would be difficult to find a better answer than in Bishop Moule’s translation of our verse. The victorious life is the life that is kept safe in Christ’s life. How safe? Well, just how
very clear in these pages the scrip tural truth, as to this much-discussed question. The New Testament Epis tles plainly teach that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not “a second work of grace.” They make it plain that this baptism is not a blessing to be prayed for, to be sought, or to be waited for, by the Christian. For no one can be saved, no one can be a Christian, without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one S p i r i t ” (1 Cor. 12:13). When Paul says “we” he means every be liever. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3) ? It was the Holy Spirit who baptized us into Christ and His death, the moment we received Christ as Saviour. No Christian, therefore, is to ask God to do some thing for him that God has already done. Every Christian has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But not every Christian has, by surren der and faith, let God fill him with the Holy Spirit. We are never told,
DR. TRUMBULL Editor of The Sunday School Times
safe can a person expect to be if the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Lord of Glory, is making it His responsibility to protect and to keep that one ? The ques tion answers itself. Some one has well said, “Satan can not understand the omnipotence of a soul that is homed in God.” Certainly no t! For Satan tries in vain to get through to the soul whose home is God—and who stays home! That is why the Lord Jesus Christ counsels all of us who have received Him as Saviour and have been bap tized into Him by the Holy Spirit: “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). We are in Christ if He is our Saviour. We are to rest there, abide there, by simple faith. That is the victorious life. At the Victorious Life Conferences being held this summer on the Pacific coast, from San Diego to Vic toria, under the auspices of the Victorious Life Testimony
in the Epistles, to be baptized by the Holy Spirit-ffor that has been done for all of us who are believers. But we are told, we are commanded, to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). This exhortation shows that it may or may not have been obeyed by the individual Christian. The victorious life, therefore, is of course the life that has been baptized by the Holy Spirit, for it is the only normal Christian life. It has been called “the life that is Christ.” This expression is based on Paul’s word in Philippians 1:21: “To me to live is Christ.” Christ is the life of every believer. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:12). Christ’s life is always vic torious. As we yield ourselves unto Him as those that are alive from the dead (Rom. 6:13), and present our bodies to Him, a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1), and then
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ter not talk quite so much about her Saviour, had bet ter not boast about Him and His salvation so much, for, asked the f r i e n d , “What would you do if Christ should let you slip through His fingers?” “Oh, but I ’m one of the fingers!” replied the happy old lady. She was right. She knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had taken her into literal, inseparable, a n d eternal union with Himself. And there was no s l i p p i n g through His fingers when He had made her part of His own body. That is why He c o u l d say of her and of all believers:
really believe, by simple faith, moment by moment, that He is working the miracle of keeping us safe in His life and expressing His life in us and through us—that is victory. That is the victorious life. The truth and fact of every believer’s union with Christ is inexpressiblywon derful, inexpressibly pre cious. It is the secret of every victory, every virtue, everything we can ever know that is worth while. It is expressed, again, in that wonderful w o r d in Galatians 2 :20: “I am cru cified with Christ: never theless I live; yet not I, but C h r i s t liveth in me.”
Rest in the Lord e s t in the Lord, my soul, J m . Commit to Him thy way; What to thy sight seems dark as night, To Him is bright as day. Rest in the Lord, my soul, He planned for thee thy life; Brings fruit from rain, brings good from pain, And peace and joy from strife. Rest in the Lord, my soul, This fretting weakens thee; Why not be stillf Accept His will, Thou shalt His glory see.
“I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never per ish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). We cannot be plucked out of Christ’s hand because we are part of His hand. And that is how He keeps us “safe in his life.” Christ is our Saviour; Christ is our Lord; Christ is our life; He is our salvation and our safety. Christ is our vic torious life.
The story is told of an old lady who, late in life, re ceived Christ as her Saviour. She was radiant in her new-found salvation and Saviour, for she had “let go and let God,” fully yielding to Him and fully trusting Him. She was a new creation; old things had passed away; all things had become new (2 Cor. 5:17). She could talk of little else but Christ, her Saviour, and her boast was in Him. A cynical friend told her she had bet
THE POWER o/iLGOSPEL IN BELGIUM . . . By ED ITH F . NORTON
T r ium ph in S pite of D ifficultv Mr. John De Heer, who edits the Dutch religious journal, Het Zoeklicht, after speaking at our last Bible conference at Ghent in November, wrote of his impres sions as follows: “What grand things you are seeing in Romish Bel gium ! This, your third conference, has surpassed all ex pectations. We marvel, here in Holland, to see an audience of from 600 to 1,000 attending our Bible conferences, but how much more marvelous to see 500 people in attendance upon the Flemish conference in Ghent! How We thank God for the work of the Belgian Gospel Mission! Were it to shut its doors today, there would be ample reason to thank God for what it has already accomplished in that land. What warmth of character one finds in Flanders! With childlike simplicity the people receive the gospel, ignoring all dogmatic difficulties, and not only do they open their hearts easily to the message of salvation, but the truth of the filling of the Holy Spirit also finds ready access to their souls. As one of the mission workers ex pressed it, ‘The Fleming has a childlike attitude both toward those things which are evil and also toward the things of God, and . . . the children shall precede the older ones in the kingdom of heaven.’ “Your work is not easy there in Belgium. Testimo nies from your workers and believers made me think of the days of the Inquisition. They told me how, when a converted man loses his job, what difficulty the family finds to obtain any sort of help, even to a place in which
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since, on the heels of the armistice, we arrived in Belgium to inaugurate the Belgian Gospel Mission. Shall we ever forget that memorable evening in December, 1918, when our military car topped a small hill between Assche and Brussels, and for the first time we saw below us the distant lights of Belgium’s capital city! It is less than twelve years since we opened, in the heart of Brussels, our first gospel hall, which was destined to be speedily outgrown and replaced by one five times as large. The work has now extended throughout the country, and we have forty-five regular preaching stations in the nine provinces. In thirty-five of these posts, the mission owns its own buildings. On the pay rolls of the mission are inscribed the names of over seventy workers. If the wives of workers were also counted, the number would be well over a hundred. This rapid growth, which is in no way superficial, has been accomplished by intensive evangelism through the medium of colportage work, open air meetings, tent campaigns, and with the aid of two gos pel motor cars. The distribution of over ten million cop ies of the Scriptures, gospel portions, and tracts, since the inception of the work, is probably the greatest factor in the nation-wide interest that is being manifested today. From every side, we are receiving tidings of conver sions, and our people at the different posts are so giving themselves to prayer that we cannot help but feel that, if the Lord tarries a little longer, we shall see a mighty outpouring of the Spirit in revival in Belgium.
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to lodge; how even in such matters as birth, death, or sickness, they find it often impossible to secure adequate help because of the antagonism of the priests. Over against this, these poor people are often offered money or easy jobs, to buy their allegiance to Rome. “One of your workers told us, at one of the informal testimony meetings during our meal time, of three heroes of the faith at his post. One was a notorious blasphemer, the second a great drunkard, and the third r fighter and a thief; now they have all become mighty in prayer and in soul-winning. As he spoke, I thought of David and his cave of Adullam to which all such desperate characters resorted to be transformed into heroes of the faith. An other worker of the mission, from Willebroeck, told of the victories of the cross at that post. How staggered we were to hear him tell of one man who spoke out of his anger and disgust at the Roman Catholic church: ‘I had made up my mind long since, that if I had to choose, I would prefer to spend eternity in hell with saloon-keepers, immoral persons, thieves, and prostitutes, rather than to be in heaven in the company of priests, nuns, and the like pious people!’ ” P ersecuted for th e G ospel ’ s S ake One touching story of constancy in long continued persecution has just come to us from Flanders. A young man in a certain village found Christ as his „Saviour, through personal conversations with one of ourJ^orkers. Night after night, he made his way to the worker’s home in his quest for the truth, and at last, fully convinced, he surrendered utterly to the Lord, In obedience to Christ’s command, he began witnessing to his own house hold, and then to the employees of his father, who was a big flax merchant. When the news reached the ears of the priest, it soon brought a visit from this worthy. A solemn conclave took place at which the priest and the family of the young man were present. The new con vert was arraigned before them and closely questioned regarding his conversion. His reply was unequivocal: “I can no longer accept the teachings of the Roman Cath olic church, for I have found peace and joy at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.” This grave declaration astonished his family—to think that a son of theirs could so confront and affront a powerful priest of Rome! They ordered him imme diately to discontinue his visits to the evangelist; he was watched day and night; and his clothing was constantly searched for booklets and tracts which, upon discovery, were immediately burned. His beloved Bible and New Testament were likewise destroyed. On Sundays, he was obliged to go to mass with two of the family, like jailers, dragging him between them. However, they could not compel him to go to confession; they threatened to force him, but upon his declaring that even though he were dragged thither against his will, they could not make him confess, they wisely abandoned their design. Although deprived of the meetings at our hall, he was given another Testament by the mission worker, who met him one day unexpectedly on the road, and after demand ing an explanation of his absence, was told all the history of the long-drawn-out persecution. The young convert was overjoyed to possess again a copy of the Scriptures and spent precious moments along the banks of the canal, in communion with God. Here also, he had opportunity to witness for Christ to the fishermen. Later on, the young man married, but the persecution of his family has not ceased. They are all wealthy flax merchants; but, unfeelingly, they "have refused to give
employment to their young relative. In his dire need of employment, he recently approached his father to ask for work, as he knew that many men were in his employ. The answer was: “I.will not only give you employment, but a house of youf own and all the money you want, on the sole condition that you return to the Roman Catholic church.” The young man’s answer was definitive: “Not if you gave me this whole town in which we live, would I grieve my Lord and Saviour by doing a thing like this. I pre fer poverty with my Saviour to riches without Him. If this is your ultimatum, then, Father, you must keep what you have for yourself, and I shall continue to keep what I have—my peace and joy and assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ;” The only work that this young man can find is of the heaviest, dirtiest kind, but in it all he rejoices. He is only one of many in Belgium today who are suf fering for their faith. But they “count it all joy” and endure, having “respect unto the recompense of the re ward.” pparently people todaiy are not only tired out physically, but are discouraged. They lack the faith which is essential to personal or national progress. Accompanying this lack of faith is a disrespect for law, order, and experience. Faith, to be effective, must be backed up by righteousness. Faith cannot be bought and quickly obtained when in trouble—like medicine. Faith must be acquired slowly before it is needed—like educa tion. Faith comes through patient devotion, right living, and service to others. A great mass of wage earners, executives, and young business people haye never before witnessed a severe busi ness depression. Ever since Germany declared war in 1914—with the exception of a very short readjustment period after the war ended—there has been a constant demand for labor. In view of the steady work and easy profits . . . this new generation has felt sufficient in itself. Sabbath schools and churches have been neglected; family prayers have been given up, and Sunday has been made a common holiday. Hence, unlike previous generations, a large per centage of the people now unemployed or losing money in business have no faith upon which to fall back. When employed or making money, they did nothing to store up spiritual reserves, and hence have none to draw upon now that employment and profits have vanished. As a result, great masses of people are discouraged and know not where to turn. The material wealth upon which they solely depended has gone. They have no spiritual wealth upon which to draw, and they are tired out physically. What is true of individuals is also true of nations. More religion—rather than more legislation—is the need of the hour. The solution of Britain’s economic dif ficulties will come, as in the past, when a great religious revival sweeps the nation , . . Yea, I expect to see such a revival sweep Europe and America during the next decade. It seems inevitable to any one who studies re ligious and economic history. “O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2). The Need of the Hour B y R oger W. B abson
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