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THE KING’S BUSINESS Much is said today, and rightly so,- of the great amount of harm done to the Bible and the Christian faith by destructive higher criticism. It is natural that those who are zealous for the preservation of
Ignorance of the Bible.
“the faith once for all delivered to the saints” .should be greatly concerned ovet; such a state of affairs. But one sometimes wonders whether the Bible does not suffer as much, even if nob more, at the hands of those who do not read the Bible or know enough of its contents to be critics in any sense of the word. We can easily understand how disastrous results to some people may come from the destructive critical method of Bible study. We should not for get, however, that very bad results must always come from the lack of a defi nite knowledge of the contents of the Bible. A current religious magazine refers to a Sunday school teacher^ mistakes in teaching his class. One of his scholars asked who Sampson was. The teacher replied: “Sampson was a boy who studied with Eli. When he grew up he was very strong, and one day he went out and killed Goliath.” Are there not many such teachers in our Sunday schools ? Do we not need a more thor ough knowledge of the Bible?
Thus far God in wondrous grace has kept America out of actual participation in the present war that is desolating so many lands and homes across the sea. •Not a few of us are inclined to sit in judgment on the
America’s Present Duty.
nations involved in the war, and to think of ourselves as ,a people of superior righteousness because we have kept out of it. Many see in the war and its calamities and in our separation from it, an opportunity to boast of our superi ority to the other nations. We do well to deeply ponder our Lord’s words, “suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered these things ? I tell you nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2, 3). No, it is not of our righteousness but of God’s grace that thus far we'have escaped, and in these awful calamities that are overtaking other lands and peoples we should see, not an occasion to boast, but we should rather hear a call of God to us to repent. America is frequently spoken of as a Christian nation but it is not a Christian nation. It is not gov erned by Christian principles either in its commercial life or its political life, or in its international relations.' As a nation we have departed from God. Our religious life is largely formal; our prayer simply a means of securing some selfish end. God is speaking to us in thunder tones, “except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” There is also a call in these appalling horrors which are devastating the European world, not merely to us as a nation, but to us as individuals; a call for us to examine ourselves; to go carefully into our lives, not merely our out ward lives, but our inward lives; a call to discover whether we are really right with God or not, and if not, to repent. God is showing us how little worth liv ing for, ^nd how fleeting are earthly wealth and honor and pleasure. He is bidding us by His providences as He has already bidden us in His word, “If then, ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not upon the things that are upon earth.” (Col. 3:2, 3),
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