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September 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
This is the great central idea that I am striving to pass on to you,1—-that we should present ourselves wholly unto God. What do we mean when we sing in a Gospel service, “I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord” ? I was in the State of Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, and was con strained of the Lord to give an altar call on the fifth night there. The first four nights I was not prompted to do so, but this night I gave it. Two women came sob bing to the altar, and as they did so, everyone in the audience, like one man, came also. They all grouped around one of the women. I could not understand why they were all sobbing. I waited, and waited, and found that in her “teens” the Lord had called this young woman to China. At the Nyack Institute, she had gone to the altar and definitely consecrated her life for service in China. Her mother and father, and a few other godly people, had been waiting for years. After she had gotten over her deep penitence, she asked whether God would forgive her disobedience. I am not saying she had the Call,—she said so herself. ■'sPerhaps, you should be on the foreign fieldrLyou should be away in the Lord’s service. Thousands, yes, millions of souls, have not heard. The Lord does not say you should stay, but go. What do you mean? It is our sinning—a worldly life—that keeps us from doing God’s will. The Lord has no other plan, and He is depending on you.* He wants you to present your life unto Him, ' Joyously, gladly and definitely,— “that you shall be alive Unto God.” Are you parasites in your work or world? As a min ister, do you think more about what people think of you; about that wealthy man in the congregation, or about your bread and cheese, than Him? I have never yet-seen an American sit down to bread and water. The Lord will not fail to give you bread and water. He can keep you alive, if you walk in His will. What right have I to speak to you unless I am wholly on the altar, my life
wholly yielded to Christ,;—that Christ Jesus can look down upon your life, and my life, and say, “I can de pend on you.” One thing that has impressed me here in America is the lack of reliability, among professing Christians. Why, I do not know. Man’s word is not his bond. I am proud of this motto, “A man’s word is his bond.” In our country, when we make an agreement, it is not a mere scrap of paper. Britain said a few years ago that she would pay her debts, and she is doing so at tremendous sacrifice. Do you remember the poem about the Village Blacksmith,— “He looks the whole world in the face, for he owes not any man” ? Can God depend upon you and me at any hour, any day, any moment? Are we so sensitized by the divine Spirit that the. Lord, at any moment, can give us direc tions, and say, “Not India, but China” ? I have a very particular friend in the Congo. He offered himself for missionary service. His great heart was for India. He presented himself to the Board, and they were delighted with his zeal. They wanted a man at once to go to the Congo, and went to him and said, “We have been considering whether you would respond to an urgent need to go to the Congo.” He replied: “Well, brethren, I have had India on my heart, and have been making a study of India, and preparing my body for India by eating their food. However, I do not want to choose my field, but will do what the Lord wants me to do. I am prepared to go to the Congo. I can go in six weeks, or in six days, if you like. I asked the Lord before com ing here that He would prepare the place for me.” For fifteen years He has been working there. “Where He leads me, I will follow.” My brother, my sister, can you sing that hymn? In this same great, wonderful epistle, in the 12th chapter, the apostle, in. the light of divine revelation and divine grace, turns to the Roman Christians and exhorts them to present their bodies. Rom. 12:1 : “I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies o f God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable ser vice.” Beloved, if . you for get •everything else that I say, just remember this. So m'any of the Lord’s children have dis torted ideas in relation to the will of God. They think the will of God is very exacting. It is the most glorious thing that it is possible for a child of God to know. If you should ask me what it means, I would not give it to you in a code of law, but ask you to make a study of Jesus, as in Jesus you have the will of God perfectly illus trated. Jesus said, “I came to do the will of the Father,” and “I am the will o f God.” The
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