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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
July-August, 1934
Çirti QUERY CORNER C o n d u c t e d b y M y r t l e E. S c o t t
Questions for answer in this corner should b e s e n t to M iss Scott, 8961 D ick s Street,W. Hollywood, California. No name will be o u b lis h e d .
W e cannot be strong in our own strength. But in the Lord we can have power, for we have “ the omnipotence o f God for any task to which He may appoint us.” Read Isaiah 4 1 :10 and 13, and claim His promise for yourself. Oh, how can we think o f our riches in Christ Jesus and not be radiantly happy Christians! SPURGEON: THE MAN OF GOD [Continued from page 2S1] hush would fall upon the assembly. But that was not all. When he had put his hands on the front rail and said, “ Let us pray,” before he had reached the third or fourth sentence of his prayer, we would feel that we were brought into the presence of God. In the middle o f the prayer, that feeling became so vivid that again and again worshipers were known to say, afterwards, that they would have preferred to have gone home before the ser mon. So much o f the divine Presence had they experienced, that they felt they could hardly bear more. The same “ luminous consciousness” o f God was in the discourse. . . . How often have we experienced that impression when listening to Spurgeon! The speaker can remember in his unconverted days feeling that his soul was being searched by the divine eyes and addressed by the divine voice. God spake evidently through the preacher. From an incident in his personal acquaintance with Spurgeon, Mr. Olney described his sense o f the presence o f the Lord when Spurgeon brought forth, in private con versation, the riches o f the W ord o f God. In accounting for Spurgeon’s depth o f spiritual life, Mr. Olney added: ( ! /a?/ If one asks the source o f this luminous conscious ness of God”—a sense of the divine Presence affecting others—we reply: It is necessary to know something of the private life of the “man of God” in order to answer. It is acquired only in the secret communion with God and the reception of the Spirit continuously. Spurgeon . . . taught and experienced the fact that the Pentecostal Gift is to be received at the same moment that the atoning death of Christ is trusted for salvation. And if that privilege has been neglected, he urged the opening of the heart’s door— the will—to a present and immediate reception of the Holy Spirit, who is present and desires to take possession. We have little doiibt that when Spurgeon’s sermons are no longer read—if such a time should ever come—his great hymn will be sung: “Not far away is He
Dear Miss Scott: I have accepted Christ as my Saviour, but I am not a happy Christian. I am not a silent Christian, for I both testify and pray whenever I have the chance, but I do not feel the joy which testifying and praying give my friends. I feel as though I am not worthy to belong to Christ or to be called a Christian, for I come so far short o f what He must expect o f me. I teach a class in Sunday-school and have asked them to get another teacher for the class. But the superintendent thinks I am the one to teach it, and I am so afraid I will lead their little lives wrong or will cause them to fall. I feel so small and unworthy in myself. What can Christ think o f me ? I have read your answers to girls’ problems in the K ing ’ s B usiness and know you must have helped them. Please write and tell me what is wrong with me. —A n U nhappy C hristian . Dear Unhappy Christian : I f you want to know what was running through my mind when I read your letter, turn to Song o f Solomon 1 :5 and 6. There the bride, sunburned from tending the vineyards, said: “ I am black, but comely.” Black as the tents o f Kedar made o f black goatskins she was, but at the same time she was as the curtains o f Solomon’s royal tent. It is the picture o f a Christian^—in herself all unworthy, but made worthy in Christ. / When we turn definitely from our sin and to Christ for salvation, He blots out our sin and makes us as though we had never sinned. Then God sees us only in the righteousness of Christ]""My dear)^. forget the sins your Lord has forgiven and forgotten. Ask the Lord to search your heart and show you if there is anything that has not been confessed or surrendered to Him (1 John 1 :9 ). Wait on your knees and let Him speak to you. I f He does not rebuke you or point to some thing He would have you do, just rest in His finished work. Turn your eyes from your own unworthiness and un happiness to the Lord. You cannot gaze long into the sun light o f His face, the beauty o f His attributes, and the mar vel o f His love, without having your heart flooded with the joy o f the Lord. Begin to praise Him. Our lives would be far different if we praised Him more, and they would also be much more pleasing to Him. The nearer we get to God, the more sensitive we will be toward sin. It is not a matter o f how much or how little we have sinned. Our sense o f the sinfulness o f all sin will fill our hearts with gratitude and love to God for the wonderful gift o f salvation “ to the uttermost.” You will become a happy Christian as you are occupied with Him, not with yourself. You ask, “ What can Christ think of me ?” What does a mother think o f her child who is learn ing to walk and who stumbles and falls now and then ? Is that mother any more tender and understanding than our Lord? Rejoice in the opportunity to teach that Sunday-school class and to point the members to Christ. When tempted to shirk the responsibility because o f the fear o f your own weakness, remember that He declared: “ My grace is suf ficient fo r thee” (2 Cor. 12 :9 ). W e do not need to be overcome o f evil, “ for sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom . 6 :14 ). “ Be strong in the Lord” (Eph. 6 :10 ).
To be by prayer brought nigh; But here, in present majesty, As in His courts on high. "Our bodies are His shrine, And He the indwelling Lord; All hail I Thou Comforter divine, Be evermore adored I”
The history o f Spurgeon’s ministry reads like a portion from the book o f the Acts— and no wonder, for he, like the early apostles, was filled with the Spirit. Dr. W . Graham Scroggie, o f Scotland, is authority for the state ment that in the thirty years in which this prince o f preach ers was pastor o f the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London — from 1861 to 1891— Spurgeon received into the member ship o f the church 13,179 persons, an average o f 438 a year. Only the Spirit o f God could bring about such a result. Spurgeon’s greatness was his God. “ This God is our God for ever and ever.”
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