519
November 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
I have less and less patience with those who are always so bright at church, and so sunny outside, and people say, “What angels they are.” Well, you ought to see some of these angels at home, and then you would wonder whether they really are angels or not. If you want to reap a harvest of wisdom, be a good, lovable fellow in your own home. Of course, God does not want us, whether at home or abroad, to be always moaning and groaning about the brevity of life. But, young men and women, let me use a word that comes to me—common- sensedly. Remember that you have not got endless time here; so number your days. Look that fact in the face. Let me pray ; let me be kept close to the Saviour; let me read my Bible; let me do all the good I can. May I bring home a harvest of wisdom. There is nothing bet ter to gather in this golden harvest than a consideration of life, its opportunities, its possibilities, and all that you can pack into your days. How many we have known who have filled their lives with so much that was good. Think of what McCheyne put into his life. Think of what Rob ertson of Brighton put into his life. Think of what many a man has put into his life. “So teach us.” You can not number your days rightly unless God teaches you. And so I end there. My dear friend, God must teach you, not only how glorious this harvest is,, this harvest of wisdom, but how it is to be gathered. “Teach us.” That is a grand prayer. Go home saying that for yourself, and for those whom you love, and for all, and you will reap the most glorious of harvests that was ever reaped on earth.— Reprinted from the "Christian Herald and Signs o f Our Times.” the cross does not bring light to your soul, light will never come. Do you not see from this verse, that the ground of your justification before God, the full and complete par don of every sin, is simply the fact of Christ having died and satisfied God’s law for ydu, and on>your behalf; and that you may know you are justified before God, in that He has raised Christ up from the dead to show you that He has accepted Him, and accepts you in Him? S in For the second aspect of victory, viz., over sin, look at Rom. 6: “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The central truth is—the spiritual union of the believing soul with a personal, living, risen Saviour. The failure in over coming sin begins, and is continued, because of failure to enter by faith into the enjoyment of this relationship. For peace of conscience as to my sins, I must see Christ on the cross, in His work of atonement. For power to overcome my sins, I must see Him as “the first-born from among the dead,” the risen Head of His church; and He, a living Saviour, must dwell in my heart. If, in my knowledge of Christ, I stop at the cross,. I cannot know His delivering power in my daily life. The wonderful truth of Rom. 7 :4—showing the pur pose of God, in setting the sinner free at the cross, to be the marriage of the sinner to Christ, as raised from the ,^1^,
teach us,” or it might read, “Teach us to so number our days that we may bring home a harvest.” As if to say, “There will be no harvest if you do not number your days.” This, of course, means prayer. You never reap a golden harvest except as you pray. Whether you ask God to help you to follow that method of reaping, or any other method, you must ask God to give, or you will never gain a harvest. What a harvest prayer brings! I sometimes say to myself, “He uses my poor, trembling lips to bring Him a harvest of blessing.” Is it not true of some of you, that if you were to pray more you would have richer blessings and richer harvests? But what do you think of this method of gathering a harvest—-by contemplating life? "So teach us to number our days”— to see their brevity. They poke great fun at the old Methodist preach ers because they were always telling people, and warning people, that life was brief. They say that they were such gloomy old fellows. But, after all, they did that because the Bible does it. The Bible is always warning people of that, whether they like it or not. The Bible does not tiy to conciliate all my preferences. It does not say that there shall be plenty of honey and no brimstone. It gives me the brimstone as well as the honey. "So teach us to number our days,” to see their brevity, and to use them rightly, that we may bring home a har vest of wisdom. “Well,” you say, “you do not want us to be continually saying that life is brief, you do not want us to be gloomy, do you?” No. It is nobody’s business to be gloomy. And, above all, don’t be gloomy at home. HREE things are presented by the apostle in the verses from 1 Cor. 15 over which he re joices that believers have the victory—the law, sin and death. T h e L aw ■ “The strength of sin is the law.” Victory must there fore commence here. So long as the holy law of God condemns me, there can be no victory in anything. I cannot pray to God in faith until I know my sins are forgiven. I cannot love God while I believe I am under His curse. I cannot serve God acceptably until I am justified by God. On the other hand, God cannot bless me while His law still condemns me. He cannot impart His Spirit to me while guilt is yet upon me in His sight. To be made right legally in an absolute and entire release from every demand of the law, must be of necessity the first step in salvation. “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He “was delivered for our offences.” He was “raised for our jus- fication” (Rom. 4:25). “Put my where it says our, and read it again, slowly,” was.said to an anxious soul. “I see it! I see it!” was the happy response, after the request had been complied with. Reader, do you see it? If not, will you read the verse again? Read it slowly. Think what it means. Look to the Saviour in His death as bearing the very sins you now feel to be condemning you. If Jesus Christ upon Cp'/c-
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A Threefold Victory B y M a j . D. W . W hittle
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