247
B u s i n e s s
T h e K i n g ’ s
June 1932
rum L /-om TH E K IN G ’S TABLE . . . By T he E ditor
men are not saved by happy tricks in controversy. The gospel is an answer—you must provide the question. The gospel does not come down, saying, “ Let us start an argu ment.” The gospel is God’s answer to man’s necessity; therefore, “ go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Every creature will not hear it, every creature will not respond to it, but you will find in every house and town and land and empire those who are asking a question to which there is no true answer apart from the cross of Christ. We get into dangerous places when we change one line of the original program of our Saviour and Founder. Christ comes to few men as an argument, but He may come to all men as a blessing. The light does not come as a puzzle in solar physics ; it comes in cheer ing brilliance and warmth to do manifold good in nature and in life. Few men may be great theologians, but all men may be Christians. If your testimony is only a debate, you will have to evade, arrange, and manipulate so as to es cape the difficulties of history and the pressure of im mediate facts. But when you go out with Christ, contented to be only a witness, you will teach, comfort, and bless all with whom you come in contact. You may be weak in argu ment, but you may be mighty in prayer. The clever man ager of words may outrun you in the race o f eloquence, but when the heart is sad, and the night of loneliness is without one star to break its infinite and intolerable monotony, then your comfort will be sought, as men cry for water when they burnwith thirst.
Blessed Remembrance T f t is a good time to cultivate our memory. Let the old sermons that stirred our hearts stir them again. Let the mighty prayers that took us up to heaven’s gate, so that we had a mind to light there and not return, come back, with energy and pressure on the forgetful mind. It always does my soul good to think of the communion Sabbaths that stand out on the plain of time like great mountains, when the aisles of the church were filled with earnest worship ers, singing, as they reverently went forward to the long tables covered with spotless linen. There may have .been many incon sistencies in the lives of the people who constituted that Scotch-Irish congregation, but I have forgotten them. I have not forgotten, however, the impressions of those holy mountain tops of communion, and in remembering them, they are as fresh and helpful as they were in the days of long ago. Do not let your yesterdays die, lest your tomorrows become the darkest of your fears. It was a good thing for the Psalmist to say, “ The Lord who delivered me out o f the paw of the lion, and out of the “I’ll o f salvation take the cup, And on God’s name will call; Will pay to God the vows I owe, In presence of His people all,”
paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Re member the old battles and the old victories, the ancient fears and the light that drove them away like shadows that could stand no longer in their presence, and say with heightening thanksgiving, “ I will re call the years of the right hand of God.” Do not let history be wasted upon you. Do not let your expe rience evaporate and be found no more. Rightly estimated, human ex perience ought to be among the rich est o f human treasures. Not a Debater, but a Witness TP he wisdom of Christianity is ^ not to be continually answering the enemy, but to be telling its own tale, speaking its own gospel, walk ing its own way, healing the hearts wounded and cursed by sin. The Christian pulpit will become what it ought to be when it pays less at tention to the men who hold debates about Christianity, and goes straight forward on its great evangelistic and missionary tour of telling the world that there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Physician there. Men are not healed\by argument;
The Sin of Slander ere is a man about whom no fault of the usual kind can ever be found, and yet he is continually judging other men, sentencing some to darkness and others to oblivion, and passing various sentences upon those who are about him. In spite of all this, he is sober, chaste, good in all that we can see about him, punctual in his church attendances, exact in his payments, of good stand ing in the market place. How about him? How does Jesus Christ esti mate the censorious spirit? He said plainly that to others it is as a beam compared with a little splinter. The man who is a model in everything else, is always finding fault with everybody else. Now, Jesus Christ says that although he is faultless in all the ordinary senses o f that term, the very spirit of censoriousness that is in him is a great beam across his eyes. The thing that we had imag ined to be no fault at all is our su preme fault. There are people who slander their neighbors by the hour, and still call themselves Christians, never
W e Trust Thee B y A lice E. S herwood
We trust Thee, Lord, When day is breaking, When the sleepy birds awaking Fill the air with song; When the dew is on the roses, Beauties new the morn discloses, To the day belong. We trust Thee, Lord, When the heat relentless Beats upon our brows defenseless From the noonday sun; Parched lips repeat the story O f the Saviour’s matchless glory, Victories are won. We trust Thee, Lord, In twilight dreary, Slanting sunbeams greet the weary, Whisp’ring songs o f rest; Shades o f evening quickly falling, Lonely little night birds calling, O f all times the best. We trust Thee, Lord, .In midnight waking, Darkness deepens, hearts are aching, Tempests fiercely roar; Morn or noon or daylight fading, Midnight darkness all-pervading, Trust Thee evermore.
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