August 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
363
Crumbs from the King’s Table By the Editor
A Shorter Bible O Christian can consistently recommend the use of Kent’s Shorter Bible. Yet your Bible is no longer than what you use of the sacred Scrip tures. Some Christians have a very short Bible! This is why they know so little of the program of God and are being led into countless heresies and fads. They are in hopeless confusion. God is not the author of confusion. He is a God of order; therefore His Son can not be understood, or His Book fully appre ciated, if we study the Bible only in detached portions. I am a little afraid" the church school has been studying a shorter Bible. That may be the reason why God’s people are so ignorant of the Word. The whole Book is a harp with a thousand strings. Play on one to the exclusion of its relationship to the others, and you will develop discord. Play on all of them, keeping them in their places in the divine scale, and you will hear heavenly music all the time. The Man of th e Book T O be an intelligent Christian one must read the Book thoughtfully and prayerfully, omitting nothing. The Bible is not a “library of sixty-six books” ; it would be better to call it a book of sixty-six chapters. Each chapter is related to all the rest. It is a logical system of divine truth. When I was a student in Xenia Seminary, the late Dr. W. G. Moorehead said to me one day: “Let me give you an illustration. This morning in my home my two daughters, Mary and Margaret, were playing with a puz zle map of the world. It was composed of a number of thin blocks. On one side was the map; on the other, a picture of Abraham Lincoln. ‘I have tried more than two hours,’ Mary said to Margaret. ‘I don’t know what the world looks like. How can I get it together?’ Margaret said, ‘Neither do I. But I know what Abraham Lincoln looks like. Let us put him together.” They put together Lincoln’s picture in ten minutes, and when they turned it over, to their great surprise, there was the map of the world that had baffled them so long!” If you know the Man of the Book, you can get the Book together. — o — Making a Pulpit Out of Your Circumstances I N his letter to the church a t Philippi, Paul says, “7 have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content.” God has two ways of teaching truth. First, He lays down the principle, and second, He points to some child of His who has illustrated the principle in his life. Paul and Silas were in jail at Philippi with their feet in the stocks, and it was midnight. What would we do in a dirty old jail filled with vermin, with our feet in the stocks, "unable to sleep, in the middle of the night? I suspect that I would growl, at least until the morning light. But Paul perhaps
said to Silas, “Can’t you raise the tune of some good old hymn?” and methinks they sang— “God is our refuge and our strength, In straits, a present aid; And therefore, though the earth be moved, We will not be afraid.” And behold, there was an earthquake, and the jailer and his household were saved. There will always be a spiritual earthquake where a child of God sings songs in the night! And now Paul is in Rome in prison. He had wanted to visit Rome for a long time. He wrote to the Roman Christians that he wanted to visit Rome. He had no idea how he would get there, but now he is in Rome, and it didn’t cost him a farthing. He got to Rome at the expense of the Roman government! He had longed to preach in Caesar’s household. The front door was locked when Paul got to Rome, but the dungeon door was open. What’s the difference how you get to Rome and into Caesar’s household when you are an ambassador for the King? Paul closes his letter to the church at Philippi with the expression, “The saints in Caesar’s household salute you.” Day after day they would chain a Roman soldier .to one of Paul’s arms, and another Roman soldier to the other arm. What a magnificent opportunity to preach the Gospel! His audience could not leave him! And Paul, instead of reciting his troubles, would say to these young Roman soldiers, “Men, I want to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ.” And he preached Jesus Christ to them in the midst of his trying circumstances. In other words, he made a pulpit out of his circumstances, and the whole praetorian guard heard the Gospel. My deaf old mother was blind and lame for many years. She could not distinguish between daylight and darkness. She could not walk a step. Two men of God each Sunday would wheel her over to the church and down the center aisle to the center of the audience. And there she would sit while I attempted to preach. But when I would finish, young people would gather round my mother and she would talk to them about the Saviour. They never heard her complain once; neither did I. She led more souls to Christ from the pulpit of her wheel chair and blind eyes than I did from the platform. The other day I attended the funeral of a Los Angeles banker. It was a beautiful home. The casket that con tained the mortal body of Mr. Dabney Day lay in the midst of a most gorgeous display of flowers, but the man was not there. He had gone to be with his Lord. He had been greatly loved by those who knew him. A thousand people were present in and around that home, among them the leading business men of this great city. There was every evidence that the man who had gone had been true to his Saviour in his social, business and home life. Three ministers officiated. There were no cheap words spoken, for they were faithful to their Master. The sing ing rang true to the Gospel. One of the ministers, a faith ful evangelist, gave an invitation to publicly confess Jesus Christ as Saviour, and five strong business men stood to
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