September, 1937
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
331
A round the King's
Tab le
By PAUL W . ROOD
Heart Disease I N the Digest of July 31 under the caption “ Science and Medicine,” we read, “ The menace of heart disease is by far the hugest—of all diseases of all time — is, too, speedily waxing.” It is estimated that between 2,000,000 and 5,000,- 000 people in the United States have this disorder. The article goes on to state: “ Of every five white males now living, one will die of this malady,” and it adds, “ Our car diac death rate has more than doubled since 1930 and is likely to double again.” The death of Senator Joseph T . Robinson, which was caused by overstrain, gave Sen ator Copeland, who in private life is a physician, occasion to say: “ Out of this dis aster may come a warning which will fend off other disasters. The menace is here in the chamber today.” Heart disease may be due to any one of many causes, but there is prevalent today a weakness of heart which the Word of God clearly shows will characterize the closing days of the age. We are reminded of the words of our Lord found in Luke 21:26: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” The context plainly reveals that the Lord Jesus is talking about the time of His return as He describes heart failure caused by fear. Unrest in the world and fear regarding the future have their effect upon the human system, and men’s hearts literally are failing them. But believers are not to give in to this fear. “When these things begin to come to pass,” the Christian is to remember Christ’s command: “Look up, and lift up your heads; for your re demption draweth nigh” (Lk. 21:28). Even apart from the present literal and figurative failure of men’s hearts, we must remember that the whole human race is suf fering from heart disease. “ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). Every child of Adam is included in this indictment. We need to study the first three chapters of the Book of Romans to under stand the desperate condition of the natural man, whether he be Jew or Gentile. There must be first a diagnosis of the disease and a recognition of a need before the remedy can be applied. The Holy Spirit gives the diagnosis through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit also reveals and applies the remedy—the precious blood of the Son of God. As the children of Israel who had been bitten by the serpents were healed by looking, in obedience to God’s command, to the brazen serpent, so we are healed by looking to “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Our Lord re ferred to this Old Testament story in His conversation with Nicodemus: “ And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14, 15). Christ is the Great Physician and the only physician who can cure us of our spiritual heart disease. “ Create in me a clean heart” was the prayer of the Psalm ist, and that prayer was answered. Christ will cleanse and heal the heart of every one who will turn to Him in faith and ac cept Him as a personal Saviour. “ Distress o f Nations, with Perplexity” Spoken by our Lord many centuries ago, the words of our title, found in Luke 21:25, come to our minds with fresh meaning as we read the current newspapers and maga zines. Nations indeed are distressed and perplexed in our day. A civil war has raged in Spain for over a year. A million men have died and two million have been wounded. During the second battle of Madrid, declares the Digest: “Men fought with their fists, knives, airplanes, trench-mortars, armored cars, tanks, machine guns, and pent-up hate.” The same periodical compares the battle with the horrors of the Argonne and the smashing of the Hindenburg Line. Statesmen are concerned lest the flame of war spread and set all of Europe on fire. It is generally recognized that another world war would bring on a universal cataclysm. When General John J. Pershing delivered the address at the dedication of the Meuse-Argonne memorial shaft in France, he sounded this note of warning: “ Hatred and suspicion still exist, and armaments at enormous cost continue to grow. And if no cure is discovered for this temporary madness, we are in a hopeless state, for of one thing we may be certain and that is, if another world war takes place, western civilization as we know it, cannot survive.” Not only is the European situation filled with dynamite, but conditions in the Orient also are fraught with danger to the nations of the world. In the Far East, nations now are arrayed against each other in sharp opposition. In the Near East, Palestine is again in the limelight. The British Gov ernment has expressed approval of a plan proposed by the Palestine Royal Commis sion to give two-thirds of Palestine to the Arabs and one-third to the Jews and to allow Great Britain to have a new perma nent mandate over Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, with a corridor to the sea from Jerusalem. The Jews would receive the coastal regions, which are the produc tive parts of the country and which include most of the area covered by present Jewish colonization. There are now 400,000 Jews
in Palestine, and 100,000 of these came into the country during the last two years. Sixty-nine per cent of this last-mentioned group came from Poland and twenty-seven per cent from Germany. The proposal to partition Palestine does not seem to satisfy the Arabs, and the Jews are protesting vigorously. The latter feel that they are being robbed of their holy places, that the area allotted is woefully inadequate, and that the five million per secuted Jews in east central Europe have no place to turn except to the Holy Land. As one of their leaders put it: “ The soul of the Jewish race hangs in the balance as by a single thread it wavers.” A car toon inspired by this proposed partition of Palestine pictures Zionism as a woman kneeling and weeping at the Wailing Wall. Our Lord has instructed us to “behold the fig tree” (Lk. 21:29)—Israel—and we are obeying Him when we watch develop ments among God’s ancient people. As a matter of fact, Israel’s territorial problem will be solved eventually, for God made a covenant with Abraham, saying: “ Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. 15:18). Thus, in the end, Abraham’s seed will possess a far greater area than Palestine. But Israel is to go through “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7) before this goal will be reached. Meanwhile, events seem unpredictable to human wisdom. Raymond Clapper recent ly wrote an article on “The Political Puz zle.” We quote from the article: “If you want to be your own political prophet, now is the ideal time. You have the perfect combination of mate rials with which prophets do their stuff —a variety of possibilities and no cer tainties, or rather just one certainty, which -is that nothing is certain. You can write your own ticket . . . Every one realizes that moorings have broken quite generally and that to a consider able extent the future is in, the hands of unpredictable tides . . . Thus, the closer you look, the less you see.” Mr. Clapper refers to conditions in the United States, but his words have a wider application. His words reveal that men who devote( their time to the study of con temporary history and tp the interpretation of present-day events are frankly perplexed. We need, to know God’s explanation of these occurrences. We need to study pres ent-day trends and conditions in the light that streams from the prophetic Lamp, the “ light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19). If we do, we shall find that the only solution of the world’s prob lems is the second coming of Christ and that His return is imminent. Thus, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” is our prayer.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker