THE KING’S BUSINESS
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hew 24:42, “Ye know not what hour” ; Matthew 25:13, “Ye know neither the day nor the hour,” and He here commends them for watching) how say some of those amongst us who are teachers of the Word of God, that He cannot come for a thou sand years. If He cannot come at any time how could we watch? How are we ever to understand the Scriptures if they are to be twisted and turned to meet the views of men? Some were watching for Him when He came the first time—a few. Some have been watching for Him during the weary years of His absence, and some will be watching for Him when He appears the send time without the sin offering. We are not to watch for signs. Those belong to the Jews, but we can see signs and under stand their significance. He wants us to be in such loving sympathy and fellow ship with Himself, that we will be gladly anticipating His coming and' have all of our earthly affairs in order for that great event. Our Lord knew full well how prone we would be to be occupied with other things and to forget Him. Therefore, He puts ' efnphasis upon the matter of watching. In our communion service He-says to us, “re member Me until I come,” He is coming and we should be heart, and soul in-the doing of those things which wrill conspire to give Him the greatest joy. The history of the Church is a conclusive proof that those who have been obedient to this bless ed command to watch for Him have been blessed with great fruitage for-Him. Does He not say, “blessed are they, happy ,are those servants?” Yes, indeed, they are happy. They are joyful. They are living in the sunshine of His blessed promise. The coming of the Lord is the pole-star of the Church. It is the soul-stirring, heart- satisfying, sorrow-comforting, hope-inspir ing doctrine of the waiting, watching be liever, and. as He cannot fail who hath promised, everyone who watches for Him will have some signal blessing from Him.
Lesson X I.—March 15, 1914. G olden T ex t— Mark 2:27. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath The golden text and the words which follow in Mark, “Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath,” are sufficient to settle for all time and for all people the true law of the Sabbath. Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of grace and the Lord over all, and the carping Pharisees of the old dispensation and the carping critics of the new dispensation should be ready and willing to sit at His feet and to learn of Him. If He is Lord, He made the law of the Sabbath and if He desired He could abro gate it. He certainly is qualified to inter pret it and He does. Inasmuch as the chief end of man is to glorify God, then the Sabbath law must have been intended as a means by which man could glorify Him. The letter killeth. The Spirit maketh alive. The formalists and thé legalists are always straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. ■There are Churchmen who would put the believers of this dispensation under the law of, what they term the Christian Sabbath. The Christian belongs to a new era, a new age, a new creation. He is himself a new creation and cannot be made in any possible way to fit into the other age. The Lord of the Sabbath has given us a Lord’s day in which to remember Him. It is the first day of the week. The Lord’s day is itself a witness to His resurrection from the dead and the believer’s privilege is to witness for Him on that day, to make it a glad day of worship and service, a day in which by grace in this land he is free from ordinary duties and has the gracious privilege of magnifying the Name which is above every other name—not by a tire some, tedious round of legal duties, but by a gladsome, joyful, delightful service in which the words of his mouth, the lnedita- tions of his heart and the activities of his body may all bear testimony to the glorious fact of his resurrection with the risen Lord.
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