348
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
June 1928
The Seeking of Thrills (F rom a S ermon by D r . O rrin P. G ifford Pastor Emeritus Brookline, Mass., Baptist Church.)
f NE . of the . most fashionable words just at l -.present on lip and printed page is “ thrill.” How j often you find it in reviews of books, in the r press, in attendance on games. Oh, the stories that men tell as they come back from a world wide search for “ thrills” ! The seats are all taken at the movies because o f a thrilling picture. . The leading novels are those that give us great thrills. How people pack the grounds at the games of football and base ball and at prize fights, in order to get thrills! I, remember so well standing upon a street and looking straight up into the blue dome- and watching a: man in an airship writing: “ Lucky Strike.” It - was thrilling, not alone because o f what he did, but o f what he might fail to do—-and come tumbling down, a corpse, at my feet. Wouldn’t that be thrilling? So men will seek literature and the theater-and card parties in order that they may find thrills. ... The wine-cup has been the fountain of thrills for cen turies. Asia Minor, where Paul did much of his work, had large cities and great groups o f clubs and organiza tions, such as we have. Paul belonged to a trades union, and when he went up to the city he sought out men who made tents and got a job. These, guilds, or clubs, held social gatherings and each one brought his own lunch and a bottle o f wine. All evening they had their social club; the Christians o f Ephesus had come out o f the heathen world, and they brought their club notions with them, and so they had their Agapae, or Love Feast. At the Agapae, or feast, they thought of the Church as they thought of their trades union, searching for the same object. A petition recently went around to restore beer and light wine; men forget that the ancient world degenerated into a drunkard’s doom, nation after nation, with the wine- cup in hand. Distilled liquors are a modern invention; fermentation is as old as Noah. But what matters what the'mask is, whether distilled or fermented? It is the spirit behind the mask that does the mischief; that is alco hol. A cup o f wine turns a pauper into a prince, a bank rupt into a millionaire, a common soldier into a general. It widens the horizon, and the physical reason is simple. All the arteries have nerves that hold them in check. When alcohol strikes the nerve centers, it lessens the grip of the nerve on the artery and the heart is called upon to pump more blood, and the surging tide of blood overruns the brain; judgment is dethroned and imagination is en throned, and that is a “ thrill.” Because of the thrill that follows, men want the wine and the beer. Seek not the wine-cup. Seek the thrill that comes with the infilling and quickening of the spiritual life. The body forgotten. The mind passed to the rear. The Spirit face to face with God. T he D ivine T hrill Christ was born o f the Spirit. W e know nothing of His early life, except at twelve He went to the Temple.
Once He lived and wrought in a carpenter’s shop in a peasant’s home. He went up to the Jordan to be bap tized by John, and then the kingdom o f heaven opened, and the silence of the centuries was, broken, and God said, “ This is my Son.” The thrill! And then the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form, and He was filled with the Spirit and was driven into the wilderness, and there faced the prince of this age for forty days:—and conquered him at every point—and then came back filled with the Holy Spirit, Now, all thrills that come to',us by the way o f the nerves weaken the nerves; but the thrills that come with the Spirit strengthen the spirit. “ It is life, whereof the nerves-are scant, more life and fuller, that men want, and Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.” Take the illustration of Peter. Rude fisherman, with the Sea of Galilee, his field of work, and the market-place at the edge o f the sea, thej place to sell his fish. A rude,, unlettered man. A timid, cowardly man. ' The Master called him and took him in hand and taught him the truth. And he was a cowardly soul: terrorized when the sea was lashed to fury by the storm, and weeping when the storm threatened death, to all in the little boat. And the Master sound asleep while the boat was a cradle rocked by the foot of His Father. What needed He to trouble and bother about it ? And the others sprang to His side, “ Awake, Master! Carest thou not that we perish?” Brave men do not talk that way. Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he showed his cowardice when he struck an unarmed man and cut off his ear. No one but a coward will ever strike an unarmed man. And a little later, up in the palace of the high priest, three different times he was challenged whether he was with Christ or not, and three different times he denied Him. Oh, the coward! That after three years with Christ!; Forty days o f special training and ten days of prayer and the gift o f the Spirit! Now, look at Peter! Crys tallized into courage, facing the Jewish world that had crucified his Master,' preaching the most mar velous sermon recorded for centuries. And by and by, a little later, when they told him to stop preaching, he asked “ whether it would be right to obey man rather than God, judge ye. I must speak the message I have.” And then, when they scourged him, he stood again in the church and thanked God he was worthy to suffer. And when his doom was written by the Roman ruler, he was chained to two soldiers, yet slept like a child. Oh, the courage that comes with the Spirit of the living G od ! T hrills of the L ower W orld Take not your thrill from the lower world, but from the higher.. The lower world thrills, debauches and de stroys, and bankrupts. The higher world thrills increase the power to act and react for God. How shall we get this power? From the Spirit, first o f all by knowing what the Spirit has given in the centuries past. The pathway to the crest o f spiritual power is
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker