January 1926
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
30
The Old Testament tabernacle was beautified in an extraordinary way by the precious metal. The Ark of the Covenant, kept in the holy of holies in the tabernacle and said to be the most perfect type of Christ in the Old Testament, was "overlaid with pure gold within and without,” with a “ crown of gold to it round about.” The actual value of all the gold used in the tabernacle is estimated at about $844,000. When God became incarnate in the Babe Jesus, the first gift mentioned as brought to Him by the wise men from the East was gold. The works of the Christian, the Apostle Paul tells us, may be very valuable or very worth less, as he likens them to “ gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.” Gold leads the list. And in that climax book of the Bible, the Revelation, the inspired description of “ that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God,” includes the statement that "the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” ■ If the Holy Spirit Himself, giving men the God-breathed words of Scrip ture, assigns to gold this pre-eminent place of God-created value, it is not strange that men are unable to repro duce this product of the natural world. But the Bible tells us there is some thing better than gold. When a “ certain man, lame from his mother’s womb,” asked Peter and John for an alms, Peter.replied: “ Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk . . . And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” J It was that same Peter who wrote later, in his First Epistle, urging Christians to continue to trust Christ no matter what “ manifold testings” they might have, “ that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that fcerisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom hav ing not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Faith in Christ is better than gold. And all who will may have this faith in Christ, as they accept God’s Word: “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” m MAY WE HAVE— —— Love without hypocrisy; Initiative without selfishness; Honor without vanity; Reservation without timidity; Wisdom without egotism; Burdens without worry; Excelling ability without superiority; Constancy without feinting; Possessions without greed; Leadership without jealousy; Success without boastings; Failures without grumblings; Orthodoxy without narrowness?
must lose the power of vision of spir itual things. They not only stumble along the path themselves but they be come stumbling blocks to others. The proof that we are- walking in the light is our love for our brethren. This does not mean that we are blind to their sins. How could we be if wo walk in the light? But it means that we are solicitous for them. The Light and Life and Love, and Liberty of a real Christian life inspires us with holy desire that they too might come out into the light, and share its bless ings with us. It also moves us to warn against the darkness and death that awaits those who walk in ignorance of God’s Word fnil. 3:14. 15: 2 Cor. 13:4. 7 ): «F or though he v a n ornollled through wenkneoM, yet he llveth by the p ow er*»! God. F o r w e alao are w eak In him , but w e ahall live w ith him by the power o f God toward yon. “ E xam ine youraelvea, whether ye be In the faith t prove your own aelvee. Know ye not your own aelvea, how that Jeaua C.'hrlat la In you, except ye be reprobateat “ But I truat that ye ahall know that w e are not reprobatea. “ Now 1 pray to God that ye do no evlli not thnt w e ahould appear approved, but that ye ahould do that which la honeat, though w e be aa reprobatea.” Ignorance is darkness. The moral condition of an unsaved man is that of blindness and this condition is mani fested in his life, and the end is eter nal darkness. We are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14) and our business is to shine in the midst of the gross darkness of this present age. (Next month, “ Safe-guarding the Saved,” vs. 12-17). Nor are men able to provide a work ing substitute for gqld. „When no less a scientist than Edison suggested, a few years ago, that "natural resources” might be substituted for gold as a monetary standard for the world, ex perienced financiers promptly rejected, the notion. Mr. Edison had advocated the adoption of an "energy unit” instead of the usual standard gold unit. The reply of the bankers was that it would simply leave the financial world in a confused condition. They re spected his inventive genius, but not his economic wisdom. A professor in a university finance department said; “ No doubt the work of the Creator could be improved upon, but nobody has suggested how to do it.” That men are as eager as ever to get gold was seen in the "frantic rush” occurring in New Mexico, when placer- gold was newly discovered, and in the “ extraordinary preparations” made “ for the gold rush to the Cassiar field, in Northern British Columbia.” And now come stories of a “ gold cure” for tuberculosis from Copenhagen. All this unique and irrepressible valuation given by men to gold is con firmed, or perhaps explained, by tbe Bible. Throughout the Scriptures this inetal has a unique place and those who look to the Bible as the Word of God believe that He intends it to be so.
Believers have His life and light and love. They must walk in the same light and manifest the same love. The right conception of truth equals light. We see the force of truth. This conception lived out is life, and this life is expressed in love. God is love. Christ is love. Love is expressed in life. ‘ ‘Actions speak louder than words” and God’s love was expressed in the Cross. If a man— a believer— walks in the light, he will not become a stumbling block (John 11 :10 ): “ But If a man w alk In the n igh t, he atnmbleth, brcanae there la no ligh t In him .” Where there is no love there is no light. (Matt. 6:22, 23): »The ligh t o f the body Is tbe eyei If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be fu ll o f ligh t. “ Bat If thine eye be evil, thy whole body sball be full o f darkness. I f there fore the ligh t that Is In thee be dark ness how great Is that darkness I” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4 ): ; “ In whom the god o f this w orld hath blinded the m inds of them which believe not, lest tbe ligh t o f the glorious g o s pel o f Christ, who Is the Image o f God, should shine unto them .” Here is a solemn truth, for both sin ners and saints. “ Use or lose” is God’s great law. In Mammoth Cave, in Ken tucky, are fish without eyes. Living in the dark, the power of vision was lost and they became blind. Men who refuse to hear and obey the truth obstinately, wilfully, become blind, and by the action of God’s law are lost. Believers who shut their eyes to the truth become blinded to it, and Mr. I. Hi Hammond, of Ontario, Canada, a valued member of The King’s Business Family, sends us the following editorial which appeared some time since in the “ Toronto Daily Globe.” It has a message for all our hearts: Gold is always a subject of lively in terest; and it promises to continue to be so, as long as human nature and gold remain as they are. Gold gets into the headlines of the papers with persis tent frequency. It interests practically everybody, and it permeates human life in a way seldom realized. Last autumn a scientific magazine announced that it would direct an at tempt to convert quicksilver into gold by a method related to results said to have been achieved by Professor Adolph Miethe of Berlin. The next month Professor Miethe told members of a German scientific society that the process in question had no commercial value, at it would take “ ten thousand freight cars full of quicksilver, treated by electric rays, to yield one gram of gold.” World finance was evidently not going to be upset by artificial pro duction of the metal. That is an in teresting fact about gold: it is not only immensely valuable, but its secret seems to be jealously guarded by Nature, and man can use it but not make it.
BETTER TH A N GO LD
— Exchange.
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