THE KING’S BUSINESS Let us never forget that not all spiritual impressions are from the Holy Spirit. There are other spirits beside the Holy Spirit and we need to try the spirits whether they be of God (1 John 4:1). Some people are so anxious to be led of the Spirit that they are
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“Try the Spirits Whether They Are
of God.”
willing to be led by any spirit. So long as it is a spirit, that satisfies them. They thus plunge .into the errors of spiritualism, or of the tongues movement, or other forms of fanaticism. We do well to heed the yery solemn warning of God’s word and fry the spirits that speak to us, or seem to speak to us, and see whether jthey be of God, or whether they be of Satan. We should never forget that our most dangerous enemies are not flesh and blood, our fellowmen, but are “the principalities, the powers, the world rulers of this darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heaven lies” (Eph. 6:12). But while we recognize the existence and the activity in human history, and especially in our present-day history, of evil spirits, unseen forces of evil, we do not need to be in fear, for He that is with us and in us is wiser and mightier than they, and it is our privi lege, by putting on the whole armor of God, to be able to stand against all the wiles of the Devil (Eph. 6:11). And “to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” of Manhattan and Brooklyn, “Our civilization, broadly considered, is a dead failure.” This statement differs widely from Dr. Parkhurst’s optimism about our civilization in times past. “There is no spot in the page of history, said Dr. Parkhurst, “so black as the blot that has just recently been dropped upon it. Our civilization is brilliant, but it is unholy. The fruits of our civilization, such as intelligence, discoveries, inventions of all kinds, have been the most effi cient contributions'to the brutalities of the last two years.” He went on still fur ther to say : “The current ebullition of the patriotic spirit is wonderful, and from one point of view is most encouraging, bu t, is purely thé outcome of our humanism. The world will continue to be a fighting world until it is a better world, and when it is a matter of fighting, the nation with the weakest mil itary equipment will be the victim of a disastrous liability. We think that Dr. Parkhurst is in the right. Indeed, he is waking up to the real character of our civilization and to the baselessness of the expecta tions of 'those who have been hoping that the Millennium would come by a process of evolution from our present civilization. Many have recognized the baselessness of these hopes for years; indeed, ever since they began to understand their Bibles and to understand unregenerate human nature as it is revealed in the Bible, and as it is revealed in history. It is true that the world will continue to be a fighting world until it is a better world and it will not be an essentially better world until the Lord Jesus comes and takes. the reins of government. . , - kt Someone will ask, has not the Gospel then been a failure. No, the Gospel is accomplishing exactly what it was intended of God to accomplish Rev. Dr. Chas. H. Parkhurst, the well-known preacher and reformer of New York City, js reported by the New York Times as having said at the annual meet ing of the Congregational Church Extension Society Our Civilization a Dead Failure.
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