of God’s heart, the repository of God’s fullness, the legacy of God’s will. “ In him was life ; and the life was the light of men” (John 1 :4) . “ . . . I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). But Paul says: “ . . . Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14). Until Christ becomes the light of men, there can not be anything but dense and dismal dark ness—individual darkness, home darkness, school dark ness, community darkness, city darkness, national dark ness, world darkness. Without Christ, the Life and Light of men, every light man has will flicker and fail as candles placed in a tunnel through which fierce winds blow. All great reformations that have been to the world as plenteous rain upon drought-smitten fields, all changes that have been to mankind as bread in time of famine, and all exchanges of light for darkness have been due to the fact that God’s life—Christ—became the light of men. Christ, whose life is the light of men, offers himself to you—to manifest His life in your body (II Corin thians 4:10), to think through your mind, to love through your heart, to speak through your mouth, to look through your eyes, to hear through your ears, to work through your hands, to walk through your feet in paths of righteousness that grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Christ is the power and wisdom of God in the en tirety of man’s life. Paul says: " . . . Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col. 1 :27). That glory is the glory of Christly character here and now, of deliverance from the smiling ease with which faith in eternal things is thrown off and doubts and lesser truths grin- ningly taken on, of freedom from intellectual conceit unaware of the rattle of its dry bones, yes, the glory of deliverance from contracting spiritual boundaries while extending intellectual frontiers, of deliverance from superficial mental illumination that lacks the urge of sacrificial passion — the glory of Christ enunciating Himself within the precincts of your personality. To keep Christ off the throne of your life is like taking heat out of fire, melody out of music, color out of rainbows, numbers out of mathematics, water out of the ocean, mind out of metaphysics, sap out of trees, all light out of day—because: “ Christ is the power of God to guide you, Christ is the might of God to uphold you, Christ is the wisdom of God to teach you, Christ is the eye of God to watch over you, Christ is the ear of God to hear you, Christ is the Word of God to give you speech, Christ is the hand of God to protect you, Christ is the shield of God to shelter you, Christ is the host of God to defend you.” Yielding ourselves completely to him, we will be capable of great usefulness and development—individ ually and as a nation. If we have at the outset the capacity of a teaspoon, we may, by doing Christ’s will, have the capacity of an ocean bed — the capacity to love the less to find the greater, to lose the outward to find the inward, to lose semblance to find realities—realities ever rich and abid ing, ever fascinating and never wearisome. Let us give ourselves in complete consecration and diligent devotion to do Christ’s will and works until He shall come again—or until the pierced holy hands that opened to us the gates to GRACE shall open to us the gates to glory.
present is passing, and we can not hold it. Worthily we must pay our debt to the dead, meet the demands of the living, and hand down to posterity our blood- bequeathed legacies unreduced in quality and in quan tity. Because of the immortality of influence, men are linked to all tomorrows. Creatures of a day, men do not close their account with the world at their death. Much about men cannot be put in a coffin and buried in a cemetery. Statesmen of wicked laws live in those laws, cursing successive generations. Authors of base books survive in those books like a chronic pestilence. Libertines who set corrupting fashions live in these fashions as a plague. Long after men die, they agitate currents of world thought and life. When nobody re members the house in which we live, our image will remain among men in evil or righteousness, influencing posterity. Every click of every telegraph instrument says that Sam Morse still lives. Every ring of every telephone says that Alexander Graham Bell still lives. Every newspaper printed says that Gutenberg still lives—the one who widened the blind alley of ignorance into end less highways of wisdom with his moveable type print ing press. Every glow of every incandescent light says that Thomas Edison still lives. Every usage made of ether declares that Long still lives. Every usage of diphtheria anti-toxin vaccine says that Jenner still lives. Every reaper that roams a Western wheatfield says McCormick still lives. So we, too, when the undertakers and grave diggers have finished with our bodies can live on—and, being dead, we can keep on talking—because of the immor tality of influence. We must not pose before posterity nor attitudinize before the unborn years. As we are beneficiaries so must we be benefactors, making social and spiritual bequeathments to those who come after. The men who sought to establish in America a government of the free were blessed by God, whose worship they came to main tain, whose truth they were to transmit to posterity. If we fail to live as they lived and dedicate not our selves to the preservation of our heritage, justice will forsake the laws they gave, liberty will flee our insti tutions, and glory will depart from our nation. Standing now on an ever-moving present between an irretrievable past and a challenging future, we must reach a colossal conclusion. The conclusion is that we must be linked to the Person of persons — as believers. That Person of persons is King of kings and Lord of lords—to whom God hath given a name above every name, Jesus Christ, Son of man without sin and Son of God with power! Jesus said: “ I am the vine, ye are the branches . . . without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Having union with Jesus, as vine with branch, we shall be fruit ful unto good works, meeting wisely the Christian obli gation of personal righteousness found only in Christ. He only is Literature’s loftiest ideal, Philosophy’s high est personality, Criticism’s supreme problem, Theolo gy’s fundamental doctrine—and personally, socially, po litically, religiously, educationally, scientifically, nation ally, internationally, the only hope of our head-dizzy, body - weary, soul - sick, war - wounded, sin - smitten world. “Without me ye can do nothing. ” The branch has nothing but what it gets in linkage with the vine. Jesus Christ, Son of man without sin and Son of God with power, is the verity of God’s truth, the beauty of God’s holiness, the purity of God’s nature, the reality of God’s love, the surety of God’s promises, the majesty of God’s power, the authority of God’s throne, the pity
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TH E KING'S BUSINESS
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