September 1929
453
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
for that for which we are now ready to chide Him. Yes, in the light of eternity many things will become clear which are now dark arid mysterious. In the mean time, may all that is tangled and perplex ing and disappointing in our life drive us nearer to the Lord of peace. Our troubles down here so often arise from a partial knowledge. We see only a little bit at, a time of God’s plan and purpose; and the way it is all being worked out unrolls but slowly. Did we know more, and especially did we know all, our fears and, regrets would be gone. Those early disciples were troubled because their Lord was going away. This is why He pref aced His last discourse with the words, “Let not your heart be troubled.’’ Yet had they known all the advantages w h i c h would accrue from His leaving them, they would have rejoiced instead of haying mourned.— Russell Elliott. “Will not the end explain The crossed endeavor, earnest purpose foiled, The strange bewilderment of good work spoiled, The clinging weariness, the inward strain, Will not the end explain?” —o— September 14— "I will look forth to see what He will speak with me” (Hab. 2 at, R. V,). God still speaks to the waiting soul. Sometimes, there is a direct answer to its perplexity; at others, there is the assur ance that the vision is yet for the appoint ed time, but that it is hastening toward the end. O long-waiting soul, dost thou hear those words? Thou hast been stand ing long upon the watch-tower. Hope has almost died; but the vision is panting in its haste to be fulfilled. If it tarry, wait for it; because it is already on the way. Every throb of the pendulum brings it nearer. The express train is hurrying toward thee, with its precious freight. How often God’s answers come, and find us gone! We have waited for a while, and thinking there was no answer, we have gone our ' way; but as we have turned the first corner the post has come in. God’s ships touch at our wharves, but there is no one to unload them. It is not enough to direct your prayer unto God; look up, and look out, until the blessing alights on your head. When we ask what is according to His will, we receive while we pray.— Selected. —o—* September 15— “Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Prov. 3:12). Hear me, O God!
and in 1his own need of that friendship as a daily solace, that once, when travel ing, he sent back his companion, that he might converse more freely with the Lord, with whom he spoke audibly. So do we all need friendly converse with Him whom our souls love. “He alone is a thousand companions; He alone is a world of friends. That man never knew what it was to be familiar with God who complains of the want of friends when God is with him.” But who can originate such conceptions of God as are necessary to the enjoyment of His friendship in prayer without time for thought, for self collection, for concentration of soul? Momentary devotion, if genuine, must presuppose the habit of studious prayer. —Austin Phelps. —o— September 19—" Without faith it is im possible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). Use what faith you have. Most people have more faith than they use. They be lieve certain things would be accomplished were they to do their part. But they are not obedient to the heavenly vision; they had faith enough but they decided not to put it into effect. There is a vast amount of unused material in the individual Christian faith that is not at work. Many a man is trying to have faith who, if he used what he had, would see great things accomplished. The manifestation to Mary needs no re telling. Who has not followed every step, the steps that walked and the steps that ran, till at last all was quiet in the gar den, and the weeping woman, turning from the sympathy of angels, addressed herself to the imagined gardener, and found that it was her Lord? There for ever shines the scene before us, radiating the immortal light of both the majesty and the tenderness of Jesus. Never was His bearing and His speech more kingly than when He sent Mary back to His brethren with the message of His coming exaltation, “unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God.” Never was the Shepherd-heart more ten der in its individual sympathies than when He found out Mary’s heart through her name, and devoted to her, al together to her, that first intercourse of His immortal life, as if she were the one charge upon His hands. Let the Chris tian, seeking a fresh realization of the Lord in His holy intercourse with the in dividual soul, often walk in thought to Joseph’s garden, and listen to that col loquy by the empty cavern, while the morning sun smiles upon Mary at the Master’s feet. What He was then, He is now; He knows the individual name which belongs to the individual heart. He can reveal to the solitary disciple, now as then, His glory and His grace. He can send lis also away, sure at least of this, that we have seen the Lord, and He has spoken to us all alone.— Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D. — o — September 21— “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). To stand with the good things of life all stripped away; to stand beaten and September 20— “Jesus saith unto her, Mary” (John 20:16).
R efreshm en t fo r th e Soul “I certainly don’t wish to miss one number of it, as I have en joyed every one of them so much. They have been a real help to me as I teach the Bible class in our church, and in this day when there is so much false teaching it is refreshing to one's soul to have T he K ing ’ s B usi ness come with its clear-cut Spirit-filled message. And may the blessing of God rest on the Bible Institute in its stand for the 'faith once delivered unto the saints.’ “By no means do I wish it discontinued. N e x t to t h e blessed Word of God it is my heart’s desire. I cannot get it often enough."
strength of our understanding, with all the adoration of our heart, it is when He is taking us apart to make us perfect through suffering.— Thorold. September 16— “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, 0 house of Israel” (Jer. 18:6). il saw a beautiful vase, and asked its story. Once it was a lump of common clay lying in the darkness. Then it was rudely dug out and crushed and ground in the mill, and then put upon the wheel and shaped, then polished and tinted and put into the furnace and burned. At last, after many processes, it stood upon the table, a gem of graceful beauty. In some way analogous to this, every noble char acter is formed. Common clay at first, it passes through a thousand processes and experiences, many of them hard and pain ful, until at length it is presented before God faultless in its beauty, bearing the features of Christ Himself. Michael Angelo used to say, as the chippings flew thick from the marble on the floor of his studio, “While the marble wastes, the image grows.” There must be a wasting of self, if the things that are true and just are to come out in life.—j Selected. — o — September 17— “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup o f cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward!” (Matt. 10:42). “A cup of cold water”—such a little thing! But life is made up of little things, and he who would rise to higher useful ness is wise if he cherishes the loving yet seeming trifles of daily living.— Floyd W. Tomkins. — o — September 18— “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4). Zinzendorf, when a boy, used to write little notes to the Saviour, and throw them out of the window, hoping that He would find them. Later in life, so strong was his faith in the friendship of Christ
A broken heart Is my best part: Use still Thy rod, That I may prove Therein Thy love. If Thou hadst not Been stern to me, But left me free, I had forgot Myself and Thee.
—Ben Jonson. If anything, so to speak, is providential, affliction is. If in anything whatever we are bound to trust God with all the com pleteness of our judgment, with all the
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