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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
October, 1938
with family life. W e are to love God to such a degree that all other loves are as hatred in comparison, and especially so in these last days. That does not necessarily mean that we are to love the family less but that we are to love God more. The world gives too little importance to marriage, as the divorce waves testify; but some Chris tians make it too important, so that it be comes their whole life and they forget that it is a temporary matter of this world and that in heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage. It was a mark of the days of Noah that the people were marry ing and giving in marriage (Matt. 24:38) — that is, such things were their life. In these last days we are not to live as though these were the supreme concerns. N o t Ab sorbed in Sorrow or Joy They that weep are to be as though they wept not. W e are not to be too much taken up with our sorrows. W e are to be "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6 :1 0 ). Concerning lost loved ones we are not to sorrow as others that have no hope (1 Thess. 4 :1 3 ). W e are not to nurse old heartaches, mistakes, and bereavements, living in .the past beside the casket of the dead in the graveyard of yesterday. For getting the things that are behind, letting the dead bury their dead, we are to follow our Lord. God said to Joshua: “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore, arise, go ov er this Jordan " (Josh. 1 :2 ). The time is too short to spend it with our sorrows. Jesus is coming! Let us be up and doing, occupy ing till He come! They that rejoice are to be as though they rejoiced not. W e are not to be too much taken up with our joys. W e are to sit loose to our enjoyments, and not to be so occupied even with wholesome pastimes and recreations but that we can do without them. W e must be moderate even in our mirth, for such things are not our chief portion. Our joy is in the Lord, and it is easy to let the good endanger the best. If Satan cannot entrap us in our sorrows, he will ensnare us with our joys. In times of great crisis, ordinary mirth is quite out of place. A scene of great disaster is no place for wise-cracking. God’s alarm clock is going off every hour nowadays, and Christians should not be content with conduct which ordinarily would have been sufficient in times past. These are no ordi nary times, and we are challenged to a zeal above the ordinary! Dining floods, earth quakes, wars, people forego ordinary com forts, revise all their schedules to meet the conditions, are beside themselves with con cern. Verily, if these temporal things stir men to unusual conduct, how much more should the people of God arouse themselves in these fearful days with unutterable judg ment fast approaching! This is no time for trivial, silly banter and the small talk with which men come even to the doors of the church on the Lord’s Day and which they resume as soon as they go out! Indifferent to Material Things They that buy are to be as though they possessed not. It is not that we are to wear gunny-sack garments as though there were holiness in a hair shirt, but we must be poor in spirit. W hat we possess must not possess [Continued on p ag e 334]
Redeeming the Time By V A N C E HAVNER * Charleston, South Carolina
I T IS evident to any serious Bible stu dent that we live in the last days, that perilous times have come as predicted. W e are in the’ Saturday evening of the age. The night of apostasy darkens. The mys tery of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7, R .V .) heads up toward its appalling climax. The sky already is red with the flames of ap proaching judgment. W e live in a world crisis, and we do well to remember that peculiar conditions de mand peculiar conduct. If some one is dan-? gerously ill in the home, the whole schedule of the household is changed. If the house is on fire, it is justifiable for one to break in a window and to snatch from their beds those who sleep. Conduct must be changed to meet the circumstances. Special emer gencies call for unusual procedure. Unusual Conduct for Unusual Times Nothing is clearer in the Word of God than that in these last days Christians are called to unusual seriousness and special urgency while they walk circumspectly, re deeming the time because the days are evil. Especially does the Word exhort believ ers to "be sober.” The bishop must be sober (1 Tim. 3 :2 ): the deacons’ wives must be sober (1 Tim. 3 :1 1 ); soberness is enjoined upon aged men (Titus 2 :2 ), young women (Titus 2 :4 ), and young men *Pastor, First Baptist Church.
(Titus 2 :6 ). W e are to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober (1 Pet. 1:13), to think of ourselves soberly (Rom. 12:3), and to be ¡sober and vigilant (1 Pet. 5 :8 ). In the light of God’s picture of the times, in the urgency and emergency of a world hastening to disaster, with a thousand souls rushing into eternity every fifteen minutes, surely if ever the church ought to live with loins girded and lamps burning, praying and preaching with the light of another world in her eyes, it is today. But, alas, one be holds all too often that the churches seek their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ. Even true believers grow lax and shallow in conduct. It was for such a time that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 words which per fectly set forth the urgency of the situa tion and our proper behavior: “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remain- eth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that re joice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abus ing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” Loving G o d Supremely “It remaineth, th at. . . they that have wives be as though they had none.” Be lievers are not to be too much taken up
Announcing — VIEWS AND REVIEWS OF CURRENT NEWS A Series of Incisive Comments by Dan Gilbert of San Diego, Calif., and Washington, D.C.
In coming months, Dan Gilbert, brilliant news correspondent and loyal believer in the Word of God, will write especially for KING’S BUSINESS read ers, giving observations based on his close contact with affairs at the na tion’s capital. Treating briefly of several topics in a single issue, Dr. Gilbert will com ment on legislation dealing with uni form divorce laws, indecent literature, “ federalized” education, and similar subjects. He will sketch also the trends in modern thought which vitally affect the youth of America. In this announcement, it is possible to give only one example of Dr. Gil bert’s treatment of these live issues. The following comment, however, will incite more than general interest: “COMMUNISTS ADOPT NEW STRATEGY: A new plan of campaign was given impetus at the biennial con
vention of the Communist Party, U. S. A ., held in New York City this summer. Boasting of an increase in party membership of nearly a full 100% during the past two years, Com munist leader Earl Browder outlined a whole new plan of action. “According to the new Soviet strategy, communism must be sold to Americans under a ’made-in-Wash ington,’ rather than a ‘made-in-Mos cow,’ label. To help advance the red cause, Browder announced the forma tion of a ‘democratic front,’ in which all ‘liberals’ are supposed to join and march in unison with the communists. The projected program for a ‘united front in defense of Democracy and Peace’ is, apparently, part of the Soviet scheme for getting noncom munists to line up with communists and advance the program of the latter group.”
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