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THE KING’S BUSINESS
and the ones who were ready for his return were the ones who at tended to the work entrusted to them. They kept on trading to the very day of his return. The fact of their faith fulness prepared them for a place of responsibility in his new kingdom. The measure of their faithfulness during the time of waiting determined the measure of their opportunity in the new order. The servant who failed to use his opportunity for his master’s service' suffered untold loss. The enemies who refused to recog nize him as King were subdued and overthrown. That is the Lord’s own picture of this age. He is the noble man that has taken the journey into the far country. We are the ser vants to whom He has committed the responsibility of trading till He comes back. The Godless world is the one who says “ I will not have this man to reign over me.” In the presence o f the rejection of His Kingship by a Godless world we are to recognize Him as the rightful heir whose right it is to reign. He has purchased the Kingdom and it has been given to Him and we are to recognize His right. Our trading is the endeavor to take over all this that has been purchased, and to use it in our Mas ter’s business. His business is the redemption of the purchased posses sion. We make a tremendous mis take when we take the attitude that the world is a hopeless wreck from which we are simply to redeem a few chosen ones. On the contrary, the world is a purchased possession in which God has invested the life of His only begotten Son and we are waiting—working and waiting, for its final emancipation. This final emancipation is to come through the parousia of His Son, but we are to hasten that unveiling of God by rec ognizing His Kingship in ail the sweep of our life and interests" now.
either theoretically or historically. Some of the greatest missionaries in the field today are firm believers in the coming of our Lord. Few men in modern times did more to arouse missionary enthusiasm than did the late Dr. A. T. Pierson and he be lieved in the coming of our Lord the most of his long life. The coming of Christ means that He is going to take possession of what He has already bought with a great price. The world and the heathen have been given to Him and they are His, and of course all who love Him and are waiting for His return are interested in His property. This old world has been purchased not with such corruptible things as silver and gold but by the precious blood o f our coming Lord and it is high time we Christians recognized that fact. How then can we be in different to the very things Jesus is coming to possess? What our attitude as Christians should be is very clearly defined in Luke 19. Here we have a parable that was spoken by our Lord because of some who “ supposed that the Kingdom of God was immediately to appear.” A certain nobleman went away to receive a Kingdom---He gave his servants certain responsibilities that they were to attend to while he was away. - The citizens sent word after him, saying they' would not have Him to reign over them. How ever, his servants were given a cer tain task which involved loyalty to Him till he returned. This they were to perform. They were to be loyal to him as their Lord notwithstanding the fact that the great majority of the citizens would not have him to reign over them. The Lord was to return at an unknown time. This return was to be the event that was to begin his reign over his kingdom. At this time his servants were to be judged
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