244
June 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
¡God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The faithful minister today is teaching his people the prophetic word. God’s people are hungry for the ex position of that part of the Bible which has been neglected so long. The subject that draws the largest audiences and holds interest the longest time is : “What does God say in His Word about the future?” The churches that are cutting down their missionary program and withdraw ing faithful men from the foreign field are the churches that are scoffing at prophecy and saying: “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.” The churches that are growing are those that are teaching a whole Bible. — o — Egotism H OW difficult it is to be certain that our most beautiful and benevolent actions have not sprung from selfish motives! With what nervous anxiety do we watch any action that is likely to affect our interests, and with what ingenious indignation do we regard any person who has remotely touched them! Are we not secretly pleased to hear favorable things about ourselves, and do we not seize every occasion to talk about our own affairs ? Are we not unconsciously in the custom of relating every sub ject to our own life; so that, wherever the conversation begins, it will always end in our diseases or our children or our experiences or our travels: or our views or our ex cellencies or our failings, and, if every other subject be exhausted, our very sin? We spread ourselves on every side and extend ourselves across every neighbor’s, fron tier, till people approaching too near the outer circle of the whirlpool are sucked in and whirled around this maelstrom of egotism. Is it not rare to meet with a person so unself-conscious and so self-forgetful that he will not know he is alluded to either in praise or blame, that he will never dream of obtruding himself or anything that has to do with him on his neighbor, that he will be ready to give himself with undivided mind to the con sideration of his neighbor’s difficulties or ideas as he may be invited ? It is humiliating and exasperating to re flect that some of us hardly ever escape from ourselves. This self-concentration, which is apt to grow with years and may reach monstrous proportions, is the parent of many evils and discomforts. It is apt, for one thing, to rob us of our neighbor’s good will, for even a person who has fallen into some great sin is not always so much disliked as an egotist who is concerned about nobody except himself. For him, friendship with its inspirations and consolations is impossible. He must remain isolated and unloved. He is certain to be a bore before whose weary reiteration of “I ” people will flee as from a pesti lence. He is likely to be peevish and discontented, since the greed of self can never be satisfied, and the weariness of self can never be removed: In his imagination, he is ever being slighted, affronted, and criticized; and as the slave of self-will, he suffers his chief loss in a nar row and stunted character, the sickly growth which has been breathing its own air. He has never stood on those high places where the greatest as well as the least loses himself in God. The passion for self can only be driven out by the passion for Jesus Christ and for others, and our eyes can only be turned from the fascination of our own things if they be brought to rest on the.things of others.; We;
cannot be hopelessly in love with ourselves if we live in fellowship with Jesus Christ. We cannot be forever babbling about ourselves if our minds are exercised with eternal verities. Without self-forgetfulness, no one will be loved ; no one can do any great work. Just in propor tion as we Christians have forgotten ourselves—our health, our position, our interests, our ideas—and have flung ourselves into the service of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and our fellow men, shall we be strong and glad. There is a great temptation these days to divide sin into two classes—sins that are respectable and sins that are not. Let us remember that there is no sin that is re spectable with God. God hates all sin, but perhaps He hates more the sins that professed followers name re spectable sins, such as jealousy, a lying tongue, egotism, complaining, worry, unjust criticism, stinginess, and the whole list of sins that respectable Christians commit with out losing their standing in the church or in society. PP ^.i^. a» m New Contributors F OR a number of months, readers of T h e K ing ’ s B usi ness have been given helpful and suggestive Sunday- school lesson material in the form of blackboard outlines prepared by Rev. I. G. Hoff, a busy and versatile pastor in Rhode Island. In addition to his regular church work, Mr. Hoff is serving the Providence Bible Institute. He finds himself unable, because of the pressure of other du ties, to continue to provide the blackboard outlines. The department in which he served so splendidly will be taken over by Mrs. Bessie B. Burch, of Long Beach, Calif. Mrs. Burch writes : “The Lord has given me whatever talent I have, and I have dedicated everything to Him. The only remuneration I desire is that of Col- ossians 3 :23, 24.” Her first contributions to the magazine are found in this month’s issue. Beginning this month, the exposition of the Sunday- school lessons will be furnished by Dr. B. B. Sutcliffe, well-known and^ greatly loved Bible teacher, formerly of Portland, Ore. *Dr. Sutcliffe was leader for eight years of the Portland Union Bible Classes. He is now leading Bible conferences. Any church securing the services of this good man will be greatly pleased and edified.
HP ܧ The Feast is Spread How sweet and sacred is the place, With Christ within the doors, Where everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores ! While every heart and every tongue Join to admire the feast, We each exclaim, with thankful song, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear Thy voice, And enter while there’s room, While thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come? ’Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly forced us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin. —Isaac Watts.
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