November 1932
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
496
NOVEMBER 19 T h e C h r is t ia n a n d t h e W o rld “ The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of. God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17). Earthly things are, in the Scriptures, di vided into two classes: what is in itself sinful, and what is relatively worthless. The former is always wrong; the later is wrong when it becomes absorbing and idola trous. As to things sinful, there is but one course—immediate and complete re nunciation. Obedience to God brooks nei ther delay nor compromise. . . . For known sin, God has no toleration. But frivolities are unworthy o f a child of God. God leaves some things outside the pale of prohibition, partly to test us whether, in a matter of doubt, we will give Him or ourselves the advantage o f the doubt! And, so long as the passing pleasures and pleasantries of this world, its follies and frivolities, its gaieties and gaudiness, practically sway us, our affections are not dislodged from lower things, and seated with Christ in the heavenlies. NOVEMBER 20 F ir e f r o m o n H ig h “Put no fire under” (1 Ki. 18:23). The lesson is, that if the divine fire of the Holy Ghost declines, you are not to try, yourself, to kindle it anew, but to call on God. God’s fire must be kindled by God, and you are to do nothing save, when kin dled, keep it burning by cherishing the sa cred flame... When you find your spiritual life on a low level, do not try to make up for it by something o f man’s devising. Put yourselves anew in communion with the Spirit of God. O Holy Ghost! arise, Thy temple fill: With cleansing fire baptize My yielded will. Cleanse, and illume, and fill— It shall be-so : Then send me where Thou will And I will go. —A. J. G o r d o n . NOVEMBER 21 H o l d in g o n to G od "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). Job is divinely commended for his pa tience. But this cannot mean calmness of feeling, for he was in a great storm of commotion, and even cursed the day of his birth. But, amid all, he resolutely held on to God, and this constituted his patience. Physical ills are o f secondary importance, and we know it, yet for the time they are distressing and often absorbing. . . . It is very gracious of our God not to reproach us with that for which we reproach our selves, but to recognize, as He does, be neath all ebullitions and disturbances of feeling, a real, deep, abiding hold on Him, and a resolute purpose to wait in the dark ness for His self-revelation. The tempor ary and temperamental moods, so largely beyond our control, need not dislodge us from our habitual unchanging purpose:, liv ing or dying to be the Lord’s. NOVEMBER 22 M a i n t a i n i n g t h e H ig h S t a n d a r d “ The ornament o f a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight o f God o f igreat price” (1 Pet. 3:4). Light is the purest of all created things, and cannot take the taint of corruption; yet all it does is to shine, noiselessly. The silent
CDaily CI)evoiional(0^eachings A M E S S A G E F OR E V E R Y DAY OF T HE M O N T H
which is most overwhelming, the grandeur of the ability or the awfulness of the re sponsibility. The endowment is itself a tie of kinship with the Infinite, and its exer cise suggests infinity and eternity. To think is to shape character and conduct. The mystic chambers where thought abides are the secret workshop of an unseen Sculptor, chiselling living forms for a deathless future. From many points o f view, the import ance of regulating our thoughts is appar ent. For example, meditation is simply thought prolonged and directed to a single class of objects. Of what vast consequence is it whether such meditation is fixed on what is pure, true, guileless, elevated, or what is defiling, debasing, degrading 1 How sure an index of what one really is “at heart” would be supplied if the character of his habitual meditations were known! NOVEMBER 17 G od -C e n t e r e d A f f e c t io n “Set your affection on things above” (Col. 3:2). Paul wrote to the Colossians not only to think on things above, but to set their af fections on them—to seat them there, as Christ is seated at the right hand o f God. We need to be permanently inclined, dis posed, in this heavenly direction; to fix our affections, like clinging tendrils, upon God, having in Him a personal object around whom to twine, and in whom to find both satisfaction and support. Such seeking of things above implies deliberate withdrawal of affection from lower^ ob jects, and transfer of desire and delight, preference and purpose, to the higher. Nothing lower than God and heaven de serves to be central and controlling. Thee may our tongues forever bless ; Notice about this prayer, that while Eli jah buried his face between his knees, the servant went to see if there were any sign of rain. By and by there was a cloud “like a man’s hand.” Why like a man’s hand? Perhaps because a man’s hand was raised in supplication, the cloud took that form, for God recognizes the uplifted hand of man in prayer. . . . Although compassed about with infirmities and like passions, this one man held the key which unlocked the floodgates o f heaven, and brought rain after three and a half years’ drought. Mar velous! A man as one o f us, commanding the clouds to withhold, and then command ing them to bestow the rain, so that it comes down in a flood! . . . The man who stands with God and for God—no matter if forsaken by all other men—that is the man who holds the key, that brings down both fire and flood from heaven. Thee may we love alone; And ever in our life express The image of Thine own. — B e r n a r d o f C l a ir v a u x . NOVEMBER 18 T h e H a n d o f P r a y e r “ That this people may know that thou art the Lord God" (1 Ki. 18:37).
[The prose selections this month are all taken from the writings of Dr. A. T. Pierson.— E d ito r .] NOVEMBER 14 L if e A f t e r D e a t h “He being dead yet speaketh” (Heb. 11:4). The life that is absorbed in God is es sentially immortal ; death cannot destroy it. It lives after death, reproduced in others. When the remains of Roger Williams were dug up to be placed in a proper monument, it was found that his body had so become the source of nutrition to a tree that its roots had absolutely penetrated and ab sorbed his whole remains—a typical ex pression of the fact that many living in stitutions draw their life and strength from those whom we call dead, but who did not, and cannot, die. Such a career is crowned, even before death. Its diadem is service. Those who cross Westminster bridge and hear the chimes sounding the hour of the day are reminded of those sug gestive words which are cast on the very rim of “Big Ben” : “Lord, through this hour Be Thou my guide 1 For by Thy power No foot shall slide!” NOVEMBER IS T h e K in g ' s 'B u s in e s s R e q u ir e s H a s t e "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom. 10:14). It would be well if Christians of today would learn a lesson in prompt obedience from the servants of Ahasuerus in publish ing the king’s decree concerning the Jews in Persia. This was one of the greatest empires o f antiquity. It was fifteen hun dred miles east and west, and a thousand miles north and south. The messengers of Ahasuerus had to reach all the provinces with the utmost haste. They had no postal facilities, no telegraphs' or telephones, no steam-vessels or steam-cars; nothing but dromedaries, camels, and horses to depend upon. They had to translate this decree into all the various languages in all the one hundred and twenty provinces—not only translating it, but transcribing it, for they had no printing presses. The messengers had to publish the decree to every indi vidual in all the provinces. How long did it take to accomplish this work? It took ten days less than nine months to do it. And we have taken nineteen hundred years to carry the gospel to one-quarter of the hu man race, when we have the command of the King of kings to do the King’s busi ness in haste! Now that is a burning shame to Christendom, and we shall not honor the Lord if we do not get stirred up on this subject to do our duty in the evangelization o f the world. NOVEMBER 16 T h e V a l u e o f t h e T h o u g h t L if e “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). As to the power to think, we know not
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