October 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
471
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. The first three—Joshua, Judges and Ruth—set forth the times of the judges when Israel was under a theocracy. The next six — 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles—give us a record of the times of the kingdom of Israel; while the last three—Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther—are .those written a fte r the Babylonian Captivity. 3. The six poetical—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccle siastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations. 4. The four Major Prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. 5. The twelve Minor Prophets—Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. I n T h e N ew T estament !• _The first four books are the Gospels, each giving a special view of the person and work of Jesus. 2. The Acts of the Apostles are a record of the early church; its origin, development, persecution, and growth. 3. The fourteen Epistles of Paul give us teaching as to how a believer should conduct himself within and with out the church and how the church itself should conduct its worship and discipline its members. 4. The General Epistles (sometimes called the Cath olic Epistles) are instructions to the church by Tames, Peter, John, and Jude. 5. The last book in the New Testament is a revela tion of Jesus Christ as seen in the day of the Lord when He comes the second time. HOW CAN I KNOW TH IS W O N D E R F U L i T is plain from a reading of the four Gospels that Jesus Christ knew how to live, and that it was His great desire that Christians should learn the secret. “Learn o f me,” He said. It is just as plain to the average man that we have not yet learned the lesson. The whole thing, our trouble in company with His disciples, had arrived unexpectedly at the home of Martha, and she, with true womanly instinct, set herself the task of providing lavishly for their entertainment. Velasquez, the great Spanish artist, has given to us his conception of this incident. He depicts Martha in the kitchen urging the maid to greater speed in her task of preparing some fish for the feast. The mistress’s face has deep lines worn across it through her distraction and worry. In the top right-hand corner of the canvas, within a little inset, we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, eagerly listening to His discourse. The two characters are portrayed; restlessness and peace. The word translated “cumbered,” in its original means “to be drawn around,”
B O O K OF THE B I B L E ? Really feel that there is one of its books that I know as I used to know my old arithmetic? See the subject matter of the book in my mind’s eye? See the placing of every chap ter and verse upon the page ? And best of all, see its con struction, its divisions, its transcendent theme, its special phase of truth, its relations of truth, its view of Christ and its clear-cut statements of doctrine in relation to its ^special theme? Know that the Holy Spirit in His use of words through these inspired writers differentiates, mak ing each color of the divine attributes and work stand out in vivid clearness? Know that when I use a passage of this book in prayer or in personal work, I am using it in the sense in which the Holy Spirit intended it to be used? To know the Bible in this way, one must read a book and reread it, then read it again. Read it at a sitting. Read it till its subjects stand out before you. Read it un til its divisions are clear in the mind. Then search to find what it teaches about God, about Christ, about man, about sin, about salvation, about the wealth of God’s favor and dealing with His children. Search it to know God more intimately. But wait! Before you read, pray this prayer. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold won drous things out o f Thy law.” A native Christian in A f rica was seen sitting under a tree looking up and then down. The missionary asked him, “What were you doing under that tree?” He replied, “I was reading my Bible.” But you were looking up and then down.” “Yes,” said he, I would look up and talk to God and then look down in His Book and let Him talk to me.” This is the only attitude of heart and mind that will ever understand the Bible. Study the Bible in the spirit of prayer.
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Cumbered About Much Serving B y R ev . V ictor E . F ord ( Windsor, Nova Scotia )
i.e., Martha, at this time, was a slave to her work, a vic tim of her circumstances. Is it not a fact that, in this day of commercialism, we find ourselves similarly placed? From morning to night we are crowded to the wall by the “cares o f this life.” The preacher, in Eccl. 3, noticed this even in his day. Mankind had a time for everything; “a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, to heal, to break down, to build up, to weep, to laugh, to mourn, to dance,” etc. He (the preacher) called it “travail,” a terrific expendi ture of energy in multifarious tasks, resulting in distrac tion. God meant work to be a blessing. Adam and Eve were placed within a perfect environment, plus perfect bodies, with seemingly no necessity upon them to work at all; yet Jehovah decreed that they should till the ground. Through work we develop those qualities of patience and persistency, cultivating a certain nobility of character. But we have permitted the perverting of that end for which work was ordained, in common with the degenera tion of many other divine gifts intended to bless life and
and its remedy, is revealed to us within the little incident enacted at Bethany. It is a human-interest story. Jesus,
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