June, 1937
THE K I NG ' S BUSI NESS
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IV. W ho I s W elcome
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John 4:11). Friendship with the greatest Friend, the Lord Jesus, gives us His vision and evalua tion of friendship; it sends us forth to seek those who need a friend, and to bring them to the One who makes genuine friendship possible through the love which He gave us when He laid down His life for us. Helps for the Leader ' I. A F riend I ndeed There was once a Jewish-Italian young man who had been reared in the Jewish faith. As he grew to manhood, he lost all of his faith and became the rankest kind of atheist. One night he was giving a soap-box lecture in a city square. A gentle man heard him, and said to himself, “ That man has a brain, and I am going to talk to him and be his friend.” He went and put his hand on the lad’s shoulder, and said: “ Say, my boy, I wish you knew my Friend, Jesus Christ. I used to be an unbeliever myself. Won’t you come on over and eat a meal with me? I want to talk to you.” He began to tell the lad about Jesus Christ, and said: “ You have lost your balance. Jesus Christ is the.greatest force in this world. Saul of Tarsus certainly felt to ward the new imposter, as they called Him, just the way you feel. But if Jesus takes hold of you, and saves you, you will have the greatest Frifend you have had in vour life.” The young man is now one of the finest preachers on the west side of Chicago. He was enabled to win eighty persons to Christ in the past year.—Adapted from an illus tration by John Timothy Stone. II, O n F riendship A friend is one whom you. can always trust, who knows the best and the worst of you, and who cares for you in spite of your faults.— C harles K ingsley : Friendship cannot exist without forgive ness of sins continually.— W illiam B lakj . III. A T est of F riendship A guest at a country house on coming down to breakfast one morning was met by the child of the house, who, running up to him and putting his hand in his, looked up into his face with a smile and said, “I’m your friend now; I put you in my prayer last night!”—H. P ickering . AROUND THE KING’ S TABLE [Continued from page 206] promised Mother that I would by the grace of God be true to the Lord and preach the gospel. This year’s public observances of Moth er’s Day are again only memories. But the memory of that night in my old home has impressed me far more deeply than has any outward homage to motherhood. In the joys and in the problems in the Christian ministry, I have thanked God with a humbled heart for that solemn hour in which my mother brought before me her sole standard for my ministry—faith fulness to the very Word of God and to the Son of God.
W hat Hinders Prayer? By Richard W . -Lewis» D. D. Bible Teacher, Author and Editor With Introduction by Walter L. Wilson, M. D. A very readable analysis of the ten Laws of Answered Prayer (with Scriptural basis), the discussion enlivened by pointed illustrations from the rich experience of years in active Christian service. 48 pages, art stock covers, 25c Bible Institute Colportaqe Ass'n __________81» No. Wells St., Chicago, HI. U n io n L e s s o n H e l p s on the International Uniform Lessons are ROOTED in the BIBLE • • • -Free from denominational bias or sectional flavor, Union In sn irin tt Publications can be used with * # * safety in any Sunday school. P r a c tic a l Thousands of schools are find- T : - , . ing them unusually helpful and interesting. They may be the answer to .the Lesson Help problem in your school. Write todayforfree specimens American Sunday-School Union ,|1816 Chestnut St. Philadelphia. Pa. H O T E L (Frances E .) W IL L A R D »36-40 SO. HOPE ST., LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Catering to Christian Trade MEN AND WOMEN North Wine—Bible Institute Reasonable Rates Write for descriptive folder T ried £ifelal~]HCQtn6 fa Life, Hundreds o f m en and w om en have had all their incom e troubles rem oved by Investing In M oody annu ity contracts. T he incom e is liberal. There is no doubt abou t th e check com ing regularly and on tim e. Y ou can say now Just how you wish your m oney to be used after you are throu gh w ith it. Becom e our partner and help educate young m en and w om en for Christian service around th e w orld. A nnuity con tracts In $100 or m ultiples. Be su re t o ask fo r fre e b o o k le t, “ Facts,” which gives full details. MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE O F C H IC A G O Station WBM I, owned and operated by Moody Institute, broadcasts each week 40 hours of religious programs. © ANNUITY DEPARTMENT KF(I 153 Institute Place, Chicago, Illinois Please tell me how I can invest $100 or any multiple in the work of Moody Bible Institute, and still have an income dur> ing my lifetime. DmL . M oody Address _________ * Founded by D. L. Moody, World-famous Evangelist
Sam Hadley of the Water Front Mission in New York once said, in telling of the kind of people that the mission was trying • to help, “We don’t want any one here who is welcome anywhere else.” If the Lord Jesus had come to save those of us who were so good that we were worth saving on that account, how many of us would be in fellowship with Him today? God sent His Son to die for us “while we were yet sinners.” — P hilip H oward . JULY 25, 1937 PUTTING CHRISTIAN IDEALS Can the fidelity of friendship endure despite the vicissitudes of life which reveal the less noble aspects of human character? The subject of friendships has furnished poets and musicians with beautiful senti ments and lovely melodies for centuries, but the constancy of friends depends upon more than an esthetic foundation. How many so-called friends have proved to be false at a crucial hour when the heart longed for a faithful companion I Let us consider the basis of genuine Christian friendship. How can one “put” Christian ideals into his friendship unless he is a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? There are counterfeits, but a person’s true attitude and actions spring from his inmost charac ter, just as a cherry tree, because of its nature, produces cherries. The description of friends given in our texts in Proverbs applies to those whose trust is stayed in the Lord; the rich quality of the friendship described emanates from a divine source. “A friend loveth at all times” ! Such a love is akin to 'Giod’s, and endures through sickness or health, in prosperity or adver sity, in sunshine or shadow. “ A brother is born for adversity” ; he does not consider the benefits which will accrue to him, for his affection is purely altruistic. W e all crave the friendliness of those about us, and the inspired Word of God tells us the secret of obtaining friends. “A man that hath friends must show himself, friendly.” Thus the psychology of this passage is accurate; one’s attitude is mir rored in the reaction of his associates. “Love begets love.” We read in our text: “ There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Who can this Friend be but the Lord Jesus Himself? His love is greater than a brother’s could be, for He loved us when our hearts were far from Him and when we were hostile to the companionship which He offered us. How enduring His love^ is I He is our ideal and pattern, for He is faithful. His life was an expression of unselfish friendship that led Him to seek out the friendless and lonely and to befriend them. His loving interest in Zaccheus and in the woman at the well demonstrated that He purposed to redeem the lives of those whom society had rejected. How does His motive compare with our selfish selection of a few choice friends? INTO OUR FRIENDSHIP P roverbs 17:17; 18:24; J ohn 15:13 Meditation on the Lesson
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