The Bible Family Magazine
DECEMBER • 1939
Official Organ of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
By Ew ing Galloway, N. Y.
Doyoukno^jíu FUNDAMENTALS OF 0ÜR FAITH and why ttó Can you prove to an unsaved why you believe in God, Jesus, Salvation, and the many other doctrines of our Faith? If not, you can easily enrich your life by studying a t home in your spare tim e as thou sands do! FUNDAMENTALS O F CHRISTIAN FA ITH , an easy correspondence course, giving doctrines in short statem ents supported by quotations from Scripture. Certificate upon completion of this or any of the other 16 Bible courses. — SEND FOR FREE BOOKLETS---- , D ept. KX349, 153 In stitu te Place I I Please send FREE Bible Test and folder | on Fundamentals of Christian Faith. l__l Also | Prospectus describing 16 Home Study Courses. ■ N am e ......................................................... . A ddress ....................................................... *
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She Sible Tamily 3Hajj^ine Motto: “Unto him that loved us9and washed us from our sins in his own blood." —Rev, 1:5.
Volume XXX
December, 1939
Number 12
TABLE OF CONTENTS • Ransom D. Margin, Staff Artist
Around the King’s Table —Roy L. Laurin .................................... ....453 Views and Reviews of Current News —Dan Gilbert ..... ..................454 “Peace” — in Wartime ___ ...................................... ............................ 455 The Connections of Christ’s Cradle —Robert G . Lee ......................456 The Glory of Christ’s Birth — Dinsdale T. Young .......................... 457 Not Religion, but Christ for Mexico— W . Cameron Townsend ..........459 God’s View of Greatness — Roy L. Laurin ................................. .........460 The Strange God — Grace Livingston Hill ................................ . 462 The Bible Institute Family Circle ...... ............................................. .......465 Junior King’s Business — Martha S. Hooker ................................. .......467 International Lesson Commentary ............................... |........................469 Notes on Christian Endeavor — Mary G . Goodner ........ 482 Evangelistic Notices .............................. ....................... ........................ ,....488 Our Literature Table ................_................____ __ __________ _ 492 I N F O R M A T I O N FOR S U B S CR I B E R S THE KING’S BUSINESS Is pub lished monthly at the rates below, payable in advance, for either old or new subscribers, in the United States or its possessions. These rates include postage. REMITTANCE: Should he made oy Bank D raft, Express or P. -O. Money Order pay able to “ The King’s Business.” Receipts will not be sent for regular subscriptions, but dat* of expiration will show plainly each month, on outside wrapper or cover of magazine
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Bells of Modern Bethlehem
P h o to g r a p h s b y K e n n e th M . M o n ro e
circled the globe at Christmas time. Many an unbeliever has paused, uplifted by their tone. But tragic it is when the inner message that the bells give forth is received merely with awe and admiration—without that per sonal acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to transformed lives. Bells over Bethlehem! Whether silent or tolling, their greeting is one of “good tidings of great joy.” Amid the world confusion of this Christmas, 1939, the solemn-sweet truth remains: “For unto you is horn this^ day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is Christ the Lord.” Who will receive Him? Who will yield to Him? Who, through the Saviour’s power, will allow his own life to be changed?
Christmas turns the thoughts of all Chris* tendom toward Bethlehem. In the upper photograph are pictured two of the bells on the Church of the Nativity, the rambling, richly furnished structure which has been erected above the traditional site of the birthplace of the Lord Jesus. Beyond the church roof appears the hillside known as “The Field of the Shepherds.” The lower picture is a view from the belfry of the same church, looking down on Bethlehem's house tops. Like a symbol of the changelessness of all human need, Bethlehem appears^ the same today—in architecture at least—as it did two millenniums ago. Through the power of modern radio broad casting, the music of Bethlehem’s bells has
December, 1939
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Around the King's Table By ROY L. LAURINI
field the message was to be carried to the “uttermost part of the earth.” We dare not neglect the need of the near- at-hand for the uttermost, nor should, we be taken in by the glamor of the uttermost at the expense of the near- at-hand. How Much Prophecy? One of the great temptations with which the alert preacher finds himself confronted in these-stirring days is the temptation to deal disproportionately with the prophetic aspect of the Scrip tures. We say disproportionate because the predictive element in Scripture is proportionate to the proclamation ele ment. We do not suggest the ratio, but if the preacher is under divine guidance, he will be able to determine easily the extent of his treatment of the timely themes of the Bible as over against the timeless ones. If Europe is in the grip of a great war, let us remember that there has been war there before. If Hitler con stitutes an international menace, let us
Saving Christmas It becomes increasingly necessary to save Christmas from its enthusiasts. We find it necessary to save Christ mas from Xmas. Many Christians un thinkingly use this pagan expression. Christ is displaced by an “X” which is the algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity. We dare not rob Christmas of its Christ or else we have voided its observance. We find it necessary to save the Christmas Gift of Christ from Christ mas gifts. There is no wrong in ex changing gifts, but even this practice may degenerate into a selfish custom with profit to no one but the commer cial interests. Christmas should remind us supremely of God’s “unspeakable gift.” We find it necessary to save the uniqueness of Christ’s birth into history and the human race from the notion which says that every time a person becomes a Christian, Christ is born in that soul. Christ was bom but once, and He is not reborn in the regenera tion of any soul. It is man who has a birth. It is the new birth in which men become “partakers of the divine na ture.” We are aptly reminded that the birth of Christ is unique in history. Christ was the only babe who could do three things: He was the only babe who could choose His own parents, who could choose His own birthplace, and who could choose the time of His birth. Distance Lends Enchantment The proverbial enchantment which distance gives to our affections is one of the constant menaces to Christian consistency. A current writer suggests this: “To love the Negro in Africa and exploit him in our own town, or to sympathize with the Jew in Germany and despise him on our own street is worse than meaningless.” How great this danger is can be veri fied in our own personal attitudes. We may be more guilty than we are willing to admit. We should remember that in the New Testament program of Chris tian missions there is no intermediate “no man’s land.” The concentric circle of responsibility begins at home. The Lord Jesus Christ said: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). To His hearers the streets and homes of Jerusalem were the first- line trenches, and from that mission
remember that Hitler-like men have been before him. If the fate of the world may seem to hang in the bal ance, let us think somewhat of the fate of individuals who face eternity. More men are dying normal deaths outside of the battle zones of Europe and Asia than are dying violent deaths in our current wars. Every preacher has a commission to preach to the individual needs of man before he has an obligation to preach about the international plight of the na tions. He must keep his garments clean of the blood of souls, and to do this he must preach the gospel message. If Daniel is in the canon of Scripture —so is John. If Antichrist is a menace —-Christ is the panacea. If totalitarian ism threatens—regeneration is still our greatest hope. Some time since, one of our Ameri can magazines printed the account of a cultist who was arrested for violation of an ordinance for solicitation of funds. He informed a newspaperman that the kingdom of God had been here on earth since 1914. The newsman was a Chris tian and said: “I’d have a lot more sympathy for your group if you tried to get people to believe in John 3:16 instead of all the stuff that is printed in your pamphlets.” The greatest need of the world is the need expressed in the desire of the an cient Greeks, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” The Bible Up-to-Date In the Science Section of Time, dated September 4, 1939, is this paragraph: “Snobs who brag of their ances try betray their ignorance of ge netics. Each person receives 24 chromosomes from each parent, an average of twelve chromosome] from his grandparents, six from his great-grandparents, only one or two from his great-great-great-grand parents. ‘If you claimed descent from Miles Standish, the odds may be 20 to one that you are no more related to him than is any one else in town.’’’ This appears to be an up-to-date con firmation of the Biblical law of hered ity found in Numbers 14:18: “The Lord is long-suffering, (and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visit ing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”
, • D ing . . .
Dong . . . Every bell, properly constructed and played, produces two principal sounds: the strike note that is positive and true, and the hum note, sustained and melodious. In an acceptable bell, these two tones are in perfect harmony. Like a bell, the child of God must give forth the strike note of convincing testimony and the hum note of consistent living. There must be no discord, no unequal emphasis. When these two forms of witnessing are in proper rela tion to each other, there is a deli cate blending which issues in the music of a life.
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December, 1939
Soviet .invasion of Poland “as a defen sive move against Hitlerism.” In the House of Commons, Mr. Chamberlain himself has expressed the belief that “it was necessary for the Red army to occupy part of P o l a n d as protection against Germany.” This is an amazing capitulation to Red propaganda, especially when one remembers that only a few weeks ago the Chamberlain government itself re leased documentary proof that Hitler and Stalin had planned the “partition of Poland” before Hitler started- his invasion. In fact, the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet pact was clearly the signal for Hitler’s aggression on behalf of him self and his Bolshevik partner. It is plain that Chamberlain is almost frantic to avoid war with Soviet Russia and to keep Stalin from giving military assistance to Hitler. But it must be questioned whether a compromise of principle will accomplish this goal. Brit ain entered the war to restore the inde pendence of Poland. If Poland’s old boundaries tire to be restored, Soviet Russia will have to be forced to march out of Polish territory. The British overtures to Russia can only be inter preted as meaning that Britain has giv en up the goal of restoring Poland and that she is reconciled to the Soviet seiz ure. Coming on the heels of Russia’s bully ing and bulldozing of the little Baltic states, the British justification of So viet aggression against Poland is likely to have the effect of encouraging Stalin to perpetrate further acts of aggression. Manifestly, Finland’s position is ren dered still less secure. WAR NOT “PHONEY” TO AMERICA: When the writer was in Canada recent ly, he heard the comment on all sides, “The Americans take this war more seriously than we do.” Canadians are earnest about winning the war, but they seem to be resigned to it with a calm ness and quietness directly in contrast to the American attitude. Far-seeing statesmen in Washington fear our “war consciousness” more than any other current phenomenon. In the first place, they fear that it will lead to our involvement in the war. In the second place, they fear that it is taking our attention off of problems here at home which need to be solved. Real thought and attention must be directed to the pressing problems of the home scene, if America is to be safe guarded. MOSCOW DEFENDS EVOLUTION: A dispatch from Moscow states that the Soviet schools are being purged of “the teaching of Mendel’s law,” because it is “contrary to Darwinism and Marxism.” Evolutionists have long found it diffi- £Continued on Page 492]
Views and Reviews of Current News By DAN GILBERT Washington, D. C , and San Diego, California
STALIN WINS: Recently, a well-known and reliable newspaper commentator in Washington, D. C., stated that the fol lowing “word puzzle” was worked out in Chamberlain’s own office. No mat ter where it was conceived, it obviously reveals a striking truth: M u S s o l i n i H i T 1 e r C h A m b e r l a i n D a L a d i e r CHAMBERLAIN COURTS THE SO VIET BEAR: On c e an international outlaw and outcast, Soviet Russia now finds her affections eagerly sought by all the nations of Europe. One may imagine the disrelish with which Mr. Chamberlain’s government h a s ad dressed itself to this task. Apparently, the British feel that the Nazi-Soviet pact, like the Rome-Berlin axis, will not stand bending and straining. Hence, Mr. Chamberlain has appeared again as a competitor for Soviet Russia’s favors. A new British drive is under way to ce ment an “Anglo-Soviet trade agreement on a barter basis.” The last time that Chamberlain went to court Stalin, he was rudely jilted, and Stalih sold out to Hitler. Presumably, the farce is to be re-enacted. In an obvious effort to curry favor with Sovietism, Foreign Secretary Vis count Halifax attempted to justify the W h i c h W i N s ?
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December, 1939
Air raids, blackouts, food and gasoline rationing — all are sadly familiar in Europe today. But that these things hold no terrors for the child of God who is at rest in the will of God is the triumphant testimony of one who is experiencing— "Peace”—In Wartime "Tetters Written from a London Suburb
bursary [scholarship] to take her through, but now the college' has given up as the students are in war work. To her it is perhaps the biggest disappoint ment of her life. She had looked for ward to her course most eagerly, and longed to know her Bible well, that she might serve in visiting, club work, and Sunday-school, etc.; but we know God has something better, and maybe the direct casting of herself on Him will be an enrichment beyond any other . ... Camouflaged Fear It is a heartache indeed to see the squads and squads of our young lads, so bright and full of life, marching in khaki and knowing they’ll have to face the fire and gas. Oh, war is awful! How much it , will mean to this blood- soaked earth for the Prince of Peace to come and reign! Do pray for those who have spiritual care of the lads that they may have the light themselves, and thus be able to give it. The lads have such a fear, and they cover it with laughs and songs, but underneath they say they know when they go they will not come back,, and they want “some stiffening.” Do pray that “stif fening” may come through a real work of God and not through drink and other forms of sin. Like Packing Up
on Saturday, which makes trips to the Mission office even from here impossible except for twice a week, we felt God would have us serve Him right here quietly. This summer we had gone to Kes wick, then to a cousin, then to a mis sionary rest home, and we came back here only two days ago, having been away two months. The region where we were last is counted one of the saf est areas, and but for every one’s car rying gas masks, and the barrage bal loons overhead, and numbers of sol diers, you would not know there was war. It is very different here. I cannot de scribe it. We left one world'in July and have come back to quite another here this month. I think the silence strikes us most. We are not on a thor oughfare, but it is normally quite a busy road. Now hardly a thing or per son passes, and at night it is pitch black. You look down the street, and it seems to be one black row of houses as if all were empty, and there is not a sound or passer-by. Our windows, like those of others, are latticed -with strips of glue paper across the panes of glass so that if bombs drop near, the glass will not splinter. Young People’s Plans Altered i Of our children, I might explain that E--------is with her college right in the country. They are in a country man sion. The owners have one wing and they the other. "They” is the warden, three sisters and two staff members, thirty students, and twenty children of one to four years old. They are cramped for space. It is a makeshift. E—---- is sleeping in an .old hayloft with five others. She told us when we called there on Tuesday on- our way from B------- - to here that they call it the “Black Hole of Calcutta” because it is so dark and stuffy. She has no spiritual help. She feels the isolation, and when winter comes it will be worse. We would be glad for prayer for her that God may not only keep her bright and true' for Him, but also may make her a real power to others and a soul- winner. Our daughter M--------, like so many other young people, has suddenly had her future cut short. She had entered for a two-years’ Bible study course in a Bible school here. We had had a
[In personal letters to a missionary friend who is on furlough in America, the wife of an English deputation secre tary for a faith mission has given inti mate glimpses into conditions in Europe —both as they relate to individual be lievers and to Christian work. With the missionary's permission, excerpts from two letters are shared here with K ing ’ s B usiness readers, for they give a new understan d ing of the peace of God that is possible in the midst of harrowing hours, and present a n e w challenge for intercessory prayer on be half of evangelical witnessing through out a war-stricken world. It has been deemed best to omit names and localities in publishing these letters, but the original communications of course bore the full names of persons and cities .— E ditor .] London, September 14. My d e a r -------- Your letter came this morning and it brought such a sense of fellowship and the joy of being upheld by prayer, that we do thank God for i t . . . I shall never forget that S u n d a y morning when war was declared. I was in prayer with a friend just the minutes before the fateful hour of 11:30 o’clock. As we waited, God deepened the con viction in me that it was war that would come, and I felt I could not gauge'the meaning of that word in its awfulness of lust, cruelty, bloodshed, and suffer ing; and yet, with all that, such a sense of God’s deep, deep peace swept over me! It seemed as if He had baptized me into His peace. I look back to the wonder of that experience when war was loosed in the world, but God drew His children in a peace with- Him that lifted above the strife and turmoil. Again and again I have needed to turn to that, for there is everything to make the natural heart fear and fret, yet God’s peace is independent of all cir cumstances. God just means us to stay right here [in a London suburb], we feel. We had an offer with my sister away in the Highlands, and again an offer to an other dear friend’k in the South in a reception area, i. e., where those from evacuated places are sent. At first we were inclined for the latter, but with the very strict petrol ration ■ coming in
The Lord’s coming seems so near!: I truly can see nothing else ahead. I feel just as I did when I was at school. We were abroad and went for ten months, only coming home in the summer, and those last days were a sorting and packing up to go home for the holi days. These days now seem just a packing up to go Home. One feels a sense of detachment that just cannot be explained. I t is a turning from the “earthly tent” God has lent us for the time down here, to our “building of God eternal in the heavens,” and He is com ing Himself to take -us there—maybe there is a valley ahead — “waters” — “rivers”—God knows just what each one of us will need for that final refining that is to fit us for such glory, for an eternity with Him. But He is ahead— He our God and our Goal up there— our Strength, our Stay-^-our All down here. Yours with much love and prayer, [Continued on page 464] • PLAN TO ATTEND TORREY MEMORIAL BIBLE CONFERENCE, JANUARY 21 to 2 8 ,1 9 4 0 •
December, 1939
456
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
The Connections of Christ s Cradle
By ROBERT G. LEE* Memphis, Tennessee
oelebrated in Scripture as the great mystery, the astonishing wonder of the whole world. “Great is the mystery of godli ness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and be came obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he be came poor, that ye through his pov erty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). He put off the crown of glory to put on the crown of thorns. II. Christ’s Cradle Was God’s Con nection with Man’s Life in This World. In the light and glow and beauty of the Christmas time, teeming as it does with upperworld disclosures, ravishing the heart of childhood, giving rapture to the visions of age, we find the glori ous and startling assertion of Paul: “For God , . . hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Truly God, the high and lofty God who inhabiteth eternity, who holds this world in the hand of His omnipotence and beneath the eye of His omniscience, came near to humanity that morning when men saw the light of His glory in the face of that Bethlehem Babe, who was God’s will, God’s thought, God’s pur pose swathed in mortality. For this Babe, whose every muscle was a pulley divinely swung, was the Light—God seen. This Babe, with no language but a cry, was the Word— God heard. This Babe, whose life in carnated God’s heart, was the Life— God felt. “The Word was God.” “God was in Christ.” “I and my Father are one.” As Deity, He was God, having all the attributes of God, including holi ness and freedom from sin. In His in carnation (John 1:14), as God mani fested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16), He was also free from sin because of His virgin birth by the Holy Spirit. In this double freedom from sin, He identified Himself with our fallen race, partook of bur common humanity. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isa. 9:6). ' I • HIS prediction, most clear in ap plication, most glorious in con- tent, most consolatory in design, most gracious in purpose, points us to the time when the Son of God assumed our nature—entered this world in cir cumstances of deepest humiliation. His manger cradle testifies that the fullness of time has arrived, that the prophecies are accomplished, that the promises are fulfilled, that “the Desire of all nations,” that He who has “a name . . . above every name”—a name which is “as oint ment poured forth”—is come. The cradle in Bethlehem’s bam had significant connections, and of these connections of Christ’s cradle we speak now. I. Christ’s Cradle Was Connected with God Before All Worlds, Jesus, the image of the invisible God, Himself said: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). And in prayer to His Father, He gave this testimony: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). “For thou lovedst me be fore the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). The writer of the Book of Hebrews says, “God . , . hath . . . spoken unto us by his Son . . . by whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2). And we read: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things” (Col. 1:16, 17). Moyer shows the connection of Christ’s cradle with God before all worlds when he writes that the Christ who, in time, rested on the bosom of His mother with out a father, rested in eternity on the bosom of the heavenly Father without a mother. I t is not just poetry or rhetoric when we say that when the Lord of power determined to forsake His royal chariot and to alight on this earth, He disrobed Himself first. He gave to the clouds His bow! He gave to the sky His azure mantle! He gave to the stars His jew els! He gave to the sun His bright ness! And, receiving instead of these the strange homespun clothes of One who had not where to lay His head, He *Pastor, Bellavue Baptist Church
"Emmanuel . . . God with Us" was “made flesh,” “made of a woman,” “made under the law.” His incarnation meant, and means, that the pre-existent Christ was embodied in human flesh, demonstrated in human life, exemplified in human action, crystalized in human form. John said: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). And we express the same truth when we say that that baby embodiment of heaven’s Creator was the dimple-handed infantile disguise of Him who planted the flower-bowers of Paradise and flushed the face of the first morning that looked down upon its bloom. Yes, that holy Child, “every ringlet in whose hair may be taken as a symbol of the curling and shining line of some plane tary orbit gilding the far-away dark ness of eternity,” in obedience to the wisdom which hides within that brow, was the Saviour in miniature, in whom, already, without restriction of essence or suppression of functions, “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” How wonderful that the .Lord of glory was so abased and humbled for us— the vile and sinful progeny of Adam! To think that Christ should strip Him self of His robes and roles of glory to clothe Himself with the mean garment of our flesh! This act is everywhere
December, 1939
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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.Wherever Jesus walked, In dusty highway, -by Galilee’s shores, up moun tain slopes or on city pavements, His were the footprints of God. When He spoke, whether in teaching as "one that had authority, and not as the scribes” or in wooing love that drew sinners to Him, or in rebuke, or in flaming and righteous wrath when His every sen tence was a flash and flare of verbal lightning, His was the voice of God. When His hand touched the loathsome leper or. blind eyes or deaf eardrums or crippled limbs, or the brow hot with fever fires or the hand cold with the ice of death, the touch of His hand Was the touch of God. Ip His connection with man in this world, He spake as never man spake, and He wrought mighty miracles. In His connection with man’s life He was, in His character, heaven’s bread for earth’s hunger, heaven’s water for earth’s thirst, heaven’s light for earth’s darkness, heaven’s glory for earth’s shame, heaven’s grace for earth’s giiilt. In life He never lifted a finger, never took a step, never breathed a word to injure any. , His life record was the record of One who welcomed to His love the most neglected of the outcast, the poorest of the poor, the dullest of the dull, the saddest of the sad, the vilest of the vile-—inviting them all to His holy and happy home in heaven. With these thoughts of His cradle connections with the life of man, let us remember that III. Christ’s Cradle Was Connected with Calvary’s Cross When Christ was “made of a woman,” “made a curse,’’ "made under the law,” He was the predicted Agent of atone ment. With what design was God mani fest in the flesh? "Thou Shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” Let us say tenderly, yet frankly, that Christmas is deception without the cross. The day of His death was foretold from the time despair pitched his black pavil ions over man’s sterile and blasted es tate in Eden’s garden. To what end— let us ask again—was Jesus born, and for what cause did He come into the world? He answers: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” What truth? The whole truth of the plan of salvation. And how did He bear witness to it? Not only by His teaching and not only by His life and^miracles, but, more par ticularly, by His sufferings and death. At Calvary, surrounded by foes, sus pended between thieves, overshadowed with supernatural gloom, He did that for which He lay in the cradle*—He died. And, happier (because of the joy set before Him) than Pilate and Herod on their thrones, happier than the High Priest in his palace, happier than the
Sanhedrin in the temple, He cried from the accursed tree: “It is finished.” And—He died. He exhausted the preci ous treasure of His invaluable blood to pay our debts. And we rejoice, at this Christmas sea son, to know that for all the blind in sin, for all the deaf in sin, for all the crippled in sin, for all those loathsome with the leprosy of sin, for all ithose impure with the harlotry of sin, fo» all those dead in trespasses and sin, there is salvation through Jesus Christ. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ-Jesus came into the world to ' . save -sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). “For unto you is born this day in the city.of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11). B ORN this day”! Is there any- t l i i n g remarkable in that? Why, every day s.ome one is born! . “Bo^n thiaday” ! Who? Listen! “A Saviour, wliMi is Christ the Lord.” If this is true, and there are a thousand experimental reasons for believing it, then it is the grandest news the uni verse ever heard proclaimed; and it is of inexhaustible interest to us all. Yes, a Saviour was born this day, The world needs a Saviour; and you and I need a Saviour; and that need of men has been met in Christ. “Be hold, thou shalt . . . bring forth a
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). “Thanks be unto God for his un speakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). At this Christmas season, we may not bring Him as costly a present as the Magi brought, but we can bring to His feet and cradle the frankincense of our joy, the pearls of our tears, the kiss of our love, the prostration of our worship, move some one to faith in Him—and give testimony that Jesus, our Saviour, our Lord, is Son- of man without sin,- Son-of God with power and glory, whose name is ceaseless music at the throne which overlooks the world! son, and shalt call his name Jesus,” said the Angel Gabriel to Mary. What does the name “Jesus” mean? “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Oh, what a wonderful Saviour He is! He saves people of all ages. I emphasize that word “all” because I share a good deal of the fear that Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to have in his closing years. He thought there was rather too much said about young people as being the only ones likely to be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ can save people of any age, and no one is too old to be saved. “For unto you is born this day in- the city of David a Saviour.” It was a wonderful b i r t h . Wonders cluster about it. Remember, too, that it was a prophesied birth. He was “the Sav iour p r o m i s e d long”1; and He was not only promised, but He was a I s o predicted most vividly. We should study prophecy more than we do. And, mark you, this prophecy is one of the greatest arguments for the inspiration of the Bible. It was a miraculous birth; I do not hesitate to make that statement in the most emphatic tones. There are some people who say that they cannot ac cept the Bible story of the virgin birth, i But the more I ' study it, the more I feel it to be philosophically justifiable. Can you think of God’s being born into the World apart from a miraculous- birth ? I accept the virgin birth and its miraculous e l e m e n t vhole-heartedly. Furthermore, I submit this, that no one has a right to reject it if it is in the Bible. It is all God’s Book, and those who choose to reject certain portions of it do so at their^ peril. Let me point out, further, that this miraculous birth was declared from heaven. The angels burst the mystic
The Glory of Christ's Birth By the late DINSDALE T. YOUNG
December, 1939
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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of life, and for many of us life would not be worth living. Heaven met our deep necessity in the birth of Jesus. In that birth we have our only hope, for that birth foreshad owed His atoning death. Tennyson says, “When Jesus was bom hope was bom” —and he ^as right. What hope in Him we have of pardon, of conquered death, and of being, as one has put it, “openly acquitted at the judgment seat” ! What hope we have of a life that will go on through all the glories of eternity! Yes, He was “born to give us second birth.” He was “born that man no more may die.” He was bom that we might carry the brightness of that hope everywhere. Blessed birth! Thanks be unto God for evermore. Universal Bible Sunday Universal Bible Sunday, sponsored annually by the American Bible Society, will be observed this year on December 10. The theme which has been chosen is the timely topic, “The Truth That Makes Men Free.” It is hoped that individual believers, as well as pastors addressing their con gregations, will use this occasion for meditation upon the relation of the Bible to human 4freedom—first the part played by the Bible in securing the principal liberties which have been en joyed preceding the present crisis of freedom, and, secondly, the particular quality of freedom with which the Bible is supremely concerned.
to gladden us in these days. Life is try ing for us all, and I venture to say that the most glorious fountain of glad ness that ever gushed forth was opened when Christ was bom. You remember that the angel said to the shepherds, “Fear not.” You need not fear any thing that comes to you if you have this Saviour. He is Christ the Lord; He is Jehovah. Is there anything too hard for Him? Is the Lord’s arm short ened ? Never. And there is great joy in the good news. Said the angel, “I bring you glad tidings of great joy.” Matthew Henry translates it, “I evangelize you with great joy.” You are an heir of great joy; and how great it is! It is a joy that comes to all people; it is a uni versal joy. The One who was born this day brings joy wherever He comes. I love to think of the multitudes all'over the world who find great joy in Him, people of different temperaments, and living in all kinds of environments. No wonder that with such a Saviour, we should feel like singing all the time, yes, and singing even when there are tears in our eyes because of trouble! How this miraculous birth glorified God! “Glory to God in the highest,” said the angels. Oh, how the Father must have rejoiced in that wonderful birth! And it, rejoiced all heaven. What a solid joy it gave to men! This birth of Christ imparts salvation to all who will accept it; and there we find the origin of true joy. Take that joy out When a bell is cracked, there are only two ways of repairing the damage. One is to fill In the crack and bind it to gether with a steel band, and the other is to recast it. If the easier method of merely patching the bell is chosen, it is impossible to restore the bell’s orig inal tone. A salvation sought by “good works” Is in reality only an attempt to patch up the old marred instrument. There is never heard the original tone nor any clear and true testimony. John 3 is based on the principle that all life comes from antecedent life of the same classification, and thus the message of the passage Is that divine life in men must begin from above. Therefore, in the figure of the bell, YE MUST BE RECAST FROM ABOVE. Through the Fall, man has lost true knowledge, true righteousness, and the sanctity of truth. He needs to “put on the new man, which after God is cre ated in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24). This “new man” is “re- *i lean of the Faculty, The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, M e l o d y f r o m B r o k e n B e l l s By KENNETH M. MONROE*
barriers of heaven and came forth to declare it. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heav enly host praising God.” What a sen tence that is! My dear old friend, Peter Mackenzie, used to say, “The Lord never had such a work to keep the angels in heaven as He had when Jesus was born.” I can well believe that if ever the angels got beyond control it was then. _ One would have thought that when heaven itself displayed such an interest in His birth, He would have been born amid corresponding earthly splendors. Yet we read, “There was no room for them in the inn”! What a sentence! He who was born this day was bom in great humility. He was laid in a man ger. Think of it. The Lord of glory had His lowly cradle among the beasts! Oh, the wonder of His birth! But it was m o r e wonderful still that God should be bom at all. There must have been some reason for it. What was the reason? He was bom that He might be our Saviour. The Needed Saviour Who was it who was bom this day? A Saviour! Mark the word. Oh, how greatly the Saviour was n e e d e d ! You say, How can I know that He was so greatly needed? Here is the an swer: Look into your own heart, and I will look into mine. We' are sinners; and there is death and the judgment seat to be faced. Oh, how greatly we need a Saviour! And if He was so greatly needed, was He not also greatly qualified to be our Saviour? Indeed He was. John Bunyan says, “He is such a Suitable Saviour.” I am sure we can all say “Amen” to What, pardon, what peace, what renewal He brings to the soul! And what power from on high He brings! Read on, and you will see that He is described as “a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” It is a magnificent descrip tion. He is the Anointed One, anointed to be a Saviour by God, and by the Holy Ghost. He is “Christ the Lord.” And that word ' “Lord” m e a l s what the word means in the Old Testament—Je hovah. It was the most wonderful mir acle of history that Jehovah should be bom into this world as a little Babe. “Unto you is born this day . . . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” That phrase "unto you” is very sweet. It was said first of all to the shepherds, and then to the Jews, and then “to all people.” Mark that word “all.” There is nothing narrow about the Christian religion. Let that thought ring like a merry bell in your soul. He is a Sav iour for all. Oh, it is sweet reading! It was, indeed, a beneficent birth. Never did anything so wonderful happen to the human race before. “Glad Tidings of Great Joy” Thirdly, I go on to say that it, waj^a gladdening birth. We need something
newed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:10). Man is restored to the original image of God in the new creation. Sin caused the bell to crack, but, re made by the Lord Jesus Christ, the life gives forth a tone of even greater sweet ness than before.
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