King's Business - 1968-09

byDr.David C . Morley

quickly withdraws to his immedi­ ate existence. All about him he is confronted with evidence of the tenuous nature of living. Things occur each day which demand that he take a closer look at life and death. His time upon the earth is measured. He will not take one step beyond the calcu­ lated duration of his life. What happens then? By clever uncon­ scious devices he avoids this ques­ tion by ignoring these threaten­ ing thunderclouds that endanger his tight stability, this war with­ in is a struggle which never ceases as long as he continues to draw a breath. This restlessness is not by ac­ cident. God, who crea ted the measureless universe, created man too. Man, however, is a spe­ cial product of creation for the Bible tells us that he is made in the image and likeness of the Cre­ ator (Genesis 12:6). God wanted to walk with man and to com­ municate with him in warm per­ sonal fellowship. In the beginning this intimacy existed, but it did not last for long. Man rebelled against God and sin flooded his nature. The one who once walked with God now walked alone. Man’s loneliness is so complete that even though he may relate to many people he finds that the approach of one man to another is always from outside in. Inside is a chamber to which only non- finite beings can reach. Man will always remain a predominantly empty, lonely creature unless he is able to share that inner cham­ ber with some other being. A lthough man’ s rebellion against God might have seemed irrevocable, God had no intention

Dr. David C. Morley is a graduate of Queens University, Canada, where he re­ ceived his B.A. and M.D. degrees. He has been associated with the Payne Whitney Clinic, New York City, and Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, Connecticut, among others, and has served on the faculty of Cornell Medical School. He is a member of both the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. T h e m y s t e r i e s of the mind have been hidden from man for centuries. It is only very recent­ ly that he has been able to study them with any degree of objec­ tivity. Such investigation makes it increasingly clear that those things which stimulate the think­ ing processes come from two gen­ eral sources: (1) those related to the needs of man as a function­ ing physical machine, and (2) those that transcend the physical and reach out into the spiritual. Man is a creature of instincts, not the least of which is self- preservation. Furthermore, he likes to think of his existence in its simplest possible terms. From this prejudice emerges a rather sparse concept of reality inexor­ ably linked with the immediate. He defends with passion his sim­ ple formula of life by a myriad of unconscious mechanisms. Some threatening forces originate from within; these he projects to other people. Other menacing aspects of life he handles by defenses of denial, conscientiously overlook­ ing a host of unpleasant factors in his environment. By such proc­ esses of self-deception he is able to restrict reality to the rather limited dimensions of his immedi­ ate surroundings. Yet within him generate forces which compel him to forsake the immediate and ponder the deeper aspects of life. However, these fill him with such anxiety that he

DEVOTIONAL TALKS ON EVERYDAY OBJECTS

Robert J . Hastings Here is a collection of "attention-getters" for persons called on to give devotionals or lead worship programs for any age group. Each devotional is complete in itself. Full in­ formation is given for every step, from prep­ aration to delivery. Each one also includes a hymn suggestion and a written prayer. All are built around common, easy-to-obtain articles that relate to a basic spiritual truth. $3.25 available at your religious book store Published by | | BROADMAN PRESS BOOKS Nashville, Tennessee 37203

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THE KING 'S BUSINESS

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