January 1928
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T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Christ Preem inent HIS is the “Christ Preeminent Number” of T h e K in g ’ s B u sin e s s . We could conceive of no better way to start the New Year than to give over our entire magazine to the one topic of His Person and work. As we come to our readers January 1, 1928, the highest New Year’s wish that we can make for each one is that he may know the joy of giving Him the preeminence in all things. We are more than ever convinced that as editors, we have no greater message to present than that of Christ and the doctrine of Christ. We were never more tired of con troversy and we never felt so strongly that the supreme need of the world and the church is Christ Himself. We, therefore, take Cpl. 1 :18 as our K ing ’ s B usiness motto for 1928, and ask our readers to pray, that in every issue,
doctrine which He had imparted to them. Again, if it is meant that we must “get back to Jesus” in the sense of discarding the teachings of the Church Epistles, we are reminded that Jesus Himself points to the further revela tion of Christian truth which during His lifetime His disciples had been unable to hear. Our safeguard today is to be found in the personal knowledge and experience of Christ in all His fulness — teaching, crucified, risen, interceding, empowering, com ing again. Those who open wide the heart to Him and to His counsels, will surely be able to testify with Wesley: “Thou, O Christ, art all I want—a |8 More than all in Thee I find.”
New Year’s Boasters and Believers
T HE man who makes a lot of New Year’s resolutions in his own strength is going to need a repair-kit with him every hour of the day. The wise man is he who makes his New Year’s Day a day of better believing rather than more boasting. Romaine’s New Year wish for his people was: “God grant that this may be a year famous for believing.” It is faith that links the soul with God. No amount of confidence in one’s self can fake the place of faith in God. It is foolish to cast the anchor into the hold of the ship. Let the anchor of your faith grapple anew the promises of God and you will be held steady on the rolling years. A devoted Christian man, when dying, said: “My last act
we may so exa lt, Him as to draw many to a more vital ex perience of His saving and sanctifying power. Two strange theories are abroad in Christendom today. One is that men may be Chris-, tian without Christ. A Los Angeles preacher recently de voted a sermon to proving that Voltaire was a real Christian without Christ. Dr. Fosdick is telling us that religion, reduced to its simplest terms, means de votion to g o o d n e s s , truth, • beauty and love. “To serve these values,” he says, “is to live a religious life. All men are religious. The religion of Jesus was not something to be believed, but a program of action.” The editors of T h e K in g ’ s B u siness must set
of faith shall be to take the blood of Jesus, as the high priest did when he entered behind the veil; and when I have passed the veil, I would appear with it before the throne.” Is that not a suggestion for us all as we make the tran sit from 1927 to 1928? We may see much of sin in retrospect—many a wasted hour—many a defeated pur- posh—many a rash word. We riiay see much of pride and anger, and doubt and inconsistency. What is our only hope? Is it not the blood of Jesus Christ? Like believing Israel, let us end the old and begin the New Year, by faith bearing the precious blood alnd ‘passing within the veil of the unknown year. Surely, he who has found upon earth some city of his affections, and who knows not the redeeming power of the Cross, is with every onward step advancing into a mist and may well count New Year’s; Day as a day of sorrow. With our eyes upon the Christ of Calvary and of the Throne, we may with real assurance p ray :
themselves dead against any attempt to separate Christ crucified from Christianity. That is exactly what some Modernists are attempting to do, and, as Bishop Moule said long ago: “No surer test can be applied to anything claiming to be Christianity than—Where does it put Christ? Is He something in it, or is He all?” On the other hand we have a group who propose to give the world Christ without Christianity—-simply to present Him as-the ideal man who came to tell us about the love of God and the great brotherhood of man. We can see the wisdom of Dr. Stanley J ones ’1 suggestion that the- wisest approach to those steeped in heathen religions is to present Christ Himself, rather than to attempt to unload upon them much that has gathered around Christianity in nineteen centuries claiming to be an essential part of it, but which ought not to be transported into non-Christian lands. But when some go so far as. to separate “the doc trine of Christ” from Christ Himself, again we must protest, for Christ was preeminently a teacher and com missioned His disciples to go to all nations bearing the
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