May 1925
TH E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
196
In other words,Sman was born a criminal, cradled a criminal, cultured a criminal, and consistently lives a civilized, criminal life. He is a violator of the law of God. Maturity does not change his nature. A civil ized culture does not change.his nature, though it may modify it for the sake of respectability. Man will obey some laws through fear of punish ment, but the “ crook” is in his nature. Environment and associations may modify the manifestation of the criminal nature, hut every court of justice, manifests the fact and every attorney when cross-examining a witness for the other side reasons from his own nature the tendency of the witness to deceive, and so he keeps digging deeper and deeper in the effort to reveal deception. - Men hate to acknowledge the fact that all men are liars by nature, but it is so, and any, effort to make a better world is fruitless without a consciousness of this fact. Once admit, it and there is an opportunity to apply the only remedy, which is revealed in God’s Word, What is it ? The power of a new nature injected into the heart hy faith in God’s remedy—the Christ of the cross who bore the penalty of the sin of the world in order to satisfy Divine justice and who implants in the life of a believer a new law,— not simply a change in the old Adamic nature—but a new nature with new powers to overcome the old lying nature. This remedy can be applied to children as well as adults, and is the only cure. Here is the challenge: ■“ No cure for crime excepting the crime cure.” God had no other cure or He .would have supplied and applied it. We can make living conditions better, and we should. We can demand that children attend school, and we should. We can shorten the hours of labor, and that may give men rest for the hody. But there is no known law, and never will be, by which a cure for crime can be devised, other than God’s own remedy. There is always a short cut in the solution of grave problems. Here is the “ crime cure short cut” : The cross of Christ for every child and man and woman in the world! MONEY FOR OUR MASTER “Episcopalians of New York for the past thirty years have heen working on and trying to huild the greatest structure for Christian worship in this country. Several million dol lars have already heen spent upon it, and it is estimated that it will require at least $15,000,000 more to complete it. A persistent drive is being made to raise this amount, ■and members of all churches are being solicited for con tributions,.”— Presbyterian of the South. We read this little comment and then clipped it. We have looked at it a number of times since and finally took our pencil and a slip of paper and began to figure, for we cannot evade a life-long habit of “ fooling with figures” when they stand for money to be used for Christian work. This is a needy world and its greatest need is Christ. As we thought of that need and of the need of churches where the Gospel may be preached, that $15,000,000.00 loomed up so large that we were compelled to cut it up and consider it in smaller amounts. We estimated that $25,000.00 would build a splendid little church which would seat about 500 people, and with room for chil dren besides. $15,000,000.00 would build six hundred churches of this size, which would accommodate 300,000 people, and the investment, if properly handled, ought
Is it possible? Is it probable? Is it promised? These are all natural questions. There must be,—if revival is to come—a renovating, a house-cleaning in the lives of the individual Christians. Any one or any number can have a revival if they “ clean house.” There must he a “ putting off,” a “ putting away,” and a “ putting on.” Christian life is crowded with Christless creeds and cruel criticism; silly, sentimental, selfish desires; hateful jealousies; the chatter of the ‘‘do you know? have you heard ?’’whisperers; the self- satisfaction of the Pharisees. What room is there for Christ? for the Holy Spirit? for fellowship with the simple-hearted saints? No revival is promised or possible until the house is cleaned, the sins confessed, the wrongs righted. The Holy Spirit dwells in every believer, but so often He is shut away in a closed room of the heart that He is helpless to control the life, and consequently there is no response to the call of Christ for service. The door must be opened; the Holy Spirit must have His way and His sway; the will must he surrendered, the life yielded to Him that the believer may live a normal, everyday, joyful Christian life;—a life of faith and faithfulness. When these conditions are met, there will be fellow ship with the Holy Spirit and with all saints; the prayer life will be ieal-S-not formal, stately and stolid, but rising in unexpressed words as natural as the breath. Will the revival come ? We do not know. Thousands are praying for it and those who pray for it have it now. It will come when God’s people want it and when preachers preach it and plead for it. God has not changed. The Holy Spirit has not changed. The Bible has not changed. The promises are always good. There are revivals now. Everywhere, where the condi tions are fulfilled, there will he one. What will a revival do? It will satisfy the craving of the honest, true heart; help save something out of the wreck.; be a testimony to a faithless church, and a hungry world that there is real joy in the life of a Christian; real power in the life; real satisfaction to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is always ready, always willing, always able to gather fruit where He can find willing hearts and devoted lives. Have you a revived heart?" You can have. You ought to have. Your church can have a revival if it will. Nothing in all the world is easier—or harder! Nothing easier, because it is the normal life of Christ in the heart of the believer; nothing harder, because the “ flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh,” and the war is on until the will yields to the Spirit. Then revival is manifest. Pray for Revival. THE CRIME CURE What is crime? Webster defines it as “ any violation of law either Divine or human; an omission of a duty commanded, or the commission of an act forbidden of law.” The history of the world is a history of man’s departure from and defiance of Divine law. Man’s nature is depraved, and no matter how dastardly crim inal a man is he wants the other man to respect his rights and be punished if he violates them. These two things are dominant factors in the constitution of every man—the right to do as he pleases, and the right to demand that the other man do as the law directs.
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