May 1931
208
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Here we feel our sins forgiven, While upon the Lamb we gaze; ' And our thoughts are all of heaven, And our lips o’erflow with praise. Still in ceaseless contemplation, Fix our hearts and eyes on Thee, Till we taste Thy full salvation, And, unveiled, Thy glories see.”
Again, the day of atonement was a prescribed fast rather than a feast, yet it issued in the unbounded joy of the harvest festival, the feast of tabernacles. The recurrent word convocation adds a third angle of significance. It means “assembly.” This is more than the thought of moed; it grows out of it. Those who have met God in His appointed way must assemble themselves for fellowship, for the sake of the things they have in common—fellowship with God as well as with one an other. So the solemn injunction is given—not to forsake “the assembling of yourselves together.” S equence of th e F easts The arrangement of the feasts is most instructive. The series proper is introduced by the Sabbath, the regu larly kept, weekly Sabbath. This fact sheds much light upon the purpose and progress of the feasts. They are, in effect, God’s week of work (six in number), wherein and whereby redemption is brought to its intended goal. Following the pattern of Genesis 1, where the six work days lead to God’s rest day, a day with no recurring night (Gen. 2:1-3), this week of feasts concludes with contin ual light (Lev. 24:1-4), light that never ceases, reminder of the eternal day in which this series of feasts culminates. Be it noted that here the Sabbath is given a forward- looking significance, leading/ week by week, nearer and nearer to the glorious consummation for which all crea tion expectantly waits. In this, together with its position as “the first day of the week,” it speaks much the same language as our Lord’s Day of the new covenant. The feasts, constituting a week of redemptive work, fall, for us of the church age, into two well-defined groups: three are past, and three are still future. The church occupies the lengthened-out interval between. Her life is a continual feast, lived in blessed fellowship with God and in the benefits that are hers by virtue of the feasts already enacted, at the same time strengthened and upheld by the anticipation of those yet to be. While we must reserve the detailed study, feast by feast, for the next issue, we would ask our readers to meditate upon and partake of the first and fundamental feast of all, the passover-lgthat through which, at such great cost to Himself, salvation has come to us, and fel lowship has been restored between us and our Saviour- God. We can well afford to sit in quiet contemplation be fore the cross. “Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
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Does the United States Appear in Prophecy ? (Continued from page 206) the ‘Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see .the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” T h e G reat P ortent S o everything seems to portend that Jesus is coming. I believe the United States will have a very great part to play in Israel’s restoration, just as England will have. I , might have shown you almost identically the same line of prophecy, taking the same action on the part of Eng- land as is indicated here in relation to the United States. They are both pledged to do what they can for the^ Jews, they are both to be participators in the restoration of Palestine to the Jews, and they are doing their part to day. God has wonderful things in store for Palestine; you know it is to be the very garden of the Lord by and by. T h e W ealth in t h e D ead S ea J I close by telling you that after England had been given the mandatory power over Palestine, they sent a commission to the country to investigate as to its natural resources. Among other things, they examined the Dead Sea, and their report was given about three years ago. They came to the conclusion that the Dead Sea is the greatest gold mine to be found on the face of the earth. I do not mean it produces gold. I am using the, word “gold” in a figurative sense. They say the products of the Dead Sea (the deepest hole on the surface of the globe) are estimated to be worth one hundred billions of dollars, and that is three times' the1whole wealth of the United States. Already a great company is being formed for the exploitation of it, represented by Sir Alfred Mond, with a capital of fifty-seven millions of pounds. I am anticipating wonderful changes soon in Palestine. W h e n A rmageddon C omes See for yourselves the fourteenth chapter of Zech- ariah where God pictures the very last days of this age, when He will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and there will come the greatest war this world has ever seen. Are not things ripe for it today? Talking peace— getting ready for w ar! That is one of the ominous signs of the times, “When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them.” I have tried to show you why I believe this eighteenth chapter of Isaiah portrays prophetically the United States. There you have a great participant in the accomplishment of the work of the restoration of the Jews. * God will bless her in it, but there will be trouble in its accomplish ment.
Which before the cross we spend; Life and health and peace possessing, From the sinner’s dying Friend. Truly blessed is this station, Low before His cross to lie, While we see divine compassion Beaming in His gracious eye. Love and grief our hearts dividing, With our tears.His feet we bathe; Constant still, in faith abiding, Life deriving from His death. For Thy sorrows we adore Thee, For the pains that wrought our peace, Gracious Saviour, we implore Thee In our souls Thy love increase.
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