THE KING’S BUSINESS
340'
.Two words are dominant in the lesson— humility and service: The lowest possible place in His service is too good for us, and the humblest possible service is too great for us. “ Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” You will be sorry in the day when the books are opened (1 Cor. 3:13). Seek great things for your Lord; seek to do them in the humblest way, for His glory, and you will be glad when the books are opened. We cannot hope to walk with Him if unholy ambition and pride rules our hearts. He will love us and mourn over us, but He cannot have fellowship with selfishness. W e must come back and learn the old, simple, sweet, heart-lesson from the little child—the highest is the lowest, and the chief is the servant. Whatever we do in His name will live. What is the conclusion o f the whole mat ter ? ; Read it in Micah 6 : 8 . PRACTICAL POINTS (1) With the disciples it was not a ques tion o f affection, but o f ambition. (2) "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con demned.” (3) God’s gift to us was designed to make us gracious. (4) Self-seekers are never - soul-savers. (5) Ecclesiastical intolerance gets a bodv- blow from our Lord. ( 6 ) It is one thing to be child -like, and another thing to be childish. (7) A child is not the example o f service, but the object o f service. ( 8 ) Every Christ-denying higher critic in church and school should read the 42nd verse.
natures; did not keep them from those sordid, self-seeking, ambitious desires which by nature dominate us all. The Lord Jesus reads to them the thoughts o f their hearts and teaches them the lesson so much needed by us all, and one so hard to learn—-that o f unholy ambi tion, unconscious merit and unwarranted authority. This lesson is not for unbelievers;:; it is a lesson for the church and for every chjld o f God. This lesson can only be learned by the power o f the indwelling Holy Spirit, and it is a hard lesson for the best o f us. Selfishness is the root o f unholy ambi tion, and it is our Satanic inheritance from our first parents. Satanic ambition brought ruin upon the first earth (Gen. 1:2), and Satanic ambition wrought ruin upon the reconstructed earth (Gen. 2:14, 19). Selfishness has bathed the centuries in blood; it has cursed the church. What has hindered the spread o f the Gospel and the bringing back of the king? The selfish ness o f believers. Love o f place and power has developed an ecclesiastical system that has hindered the cause o f Christ and hurt His heart woefully. There was Jesus living a meek and lowly life as Son o f Man; there were the chief apostles counting upon a place and prom inence in the coming Kingdom. This spirit is in the world and we expect it there. It is in us, and we should bemoan it. Only by the practice of dying daily; only by the submission o f our will daily; only by the contemplation daily o f our Lord as pic tured in Phil. 2:5-8, can we hope for that victory over the trend o f our nature which is so distasteful to the Lord.
PERTINENT ILLUSTRATIONS
[. Pike. „ workers and church workers are filled with the same thing. Mr. Hunter tells o f a little Japanese friend who was asked if he saw any difference between the English Christian and the American Christian. He
By W . SOMETIMES think it takes a greater Saviour to save us from ourselves than it does to save us from our sins. Self-Seeking. —The American people are full of self-seeking and many Christian
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