July 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
305
POURED FORTH
B y AGNES SCOTT KENT* Toronto, Cana&T
ne S unday morning , a missionary spoke in a church in Toronto, Canada. In the course of his address, he told of the wonderful blessing God had bestowed upon his station in response to a determination on the part of the missionaries there to yield their lives to Him in full sur render. The missionary said that certain of his co-workers, be fore coming to the field, had been accustomed to the re finements and luxuries of life, and very naturally retained a secret longing for them. But the Lord led them grad ually to see that, although they should of course take every reasonable care of the temple o f the Holy Spirit, they were feeling too much self-indulgent concern for material com fort and enjoyment, whereas He wanted them, in denial of self, to yield to the deeper spiritual claims. Accordingly, as they entered upon a fuller consecra tion, these missionaries made a pledge among themselves that thenceforth the one compelling motive of their fives and missionary labors would be the doing of the will of God. To His will alone, and to His entire will as He re vealed it to them, they would yield their full and unques tioning and joyous obedience, whatever of personal sac rifice, or even of suffering, it might involve. As a result of this complete consecration, these ambas sadors for Christ, beset with innumerable difficulties, ex perienced a deeper personal joy than they had ever known before, and their labors were blessed with greatly enlarged fruitfulness. Through their fully yielded fives, God wrought with mighty power. In the missionary’s audience that Sunday morning, a worker from another distant field was present. As he lis tened, his heart was gripped profoundly. He went out of the church with a new vision and determination. Setting his face like a flint toward his own difficult labors, he regis tered his promise that thenceforth he would go all the way with God. few months after making this decision, he sailed for his appointed field. He went amid circumstances of peculiar testing. Under the shadow of a deep personal sorrow, he was facing a fife of loneliness and suffering. But with the vision before him of that fife poured out for God, he went with a dauntless courage, the radiant fight upon his face reflecting his triumphant faith and that in ward peace of God which passeth all understanding. T he C hallenge to S urrender The life poured out for God—would that its challenge might strike home to every heart! Would that each one *A graduate o f the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles ( ’21), Miss Kent has devoted her life to missionary work among the Jews.
of us, consecrated to the Master’s service, whether at home or in distant lands, might catch the vision of the whole burnt offering—of the life yielded upon the altar in complete and glad surrender unto H im ! Who among us is willing to live such a life? Who among us, when fiery testings come, will hush our custom ary notes of murmuring and discontent, and will rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for His name ? Who among us, for His dear sake, are willing to endure weari ness, privation, and pain, to welcome scorn, derision, per secution, yea, even to seal our testimony with our blood, if thereby we may glorify our Lord ? Would that we, as ambassadors of the cross of Jesus Christ, might know one fear- and one alone, the fear lest we should miss the will of God. Consciously ensphered within the center of that perfect will, it matters not whether we be abased or whether we abound, whether we be full or hungry, whether we five or die. Let come what may— tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword—all will be well if we are in the will of God. “ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Thus spake Paul, the great est missionary, next to our Lord Himself, that the world has ever known. His exalted words reflect his utter self surrender: “ And now, behold, I go bound in spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to tes tify the gospel of the grace of God.” “ Most gladly there fore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” “ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” “ For our fight affliction, which is but for a moment, work- eth for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” But a greater than Paul is speaking to our hearts. With solemn awe, we contemplate the unfathomable words: “ This is my body, which is broken for you.” “ This is my blood . . . which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” “ I delight to do thy will, O my God.” What infinitude of love! Measured by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, measured even by His faithful ser-
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