261
August, 1944
Preach to the times, they say. Well, broken hearts, shattered lives, wasted opportunities, s t r u g g l e s , sorrows, heartaches, and heartbreaks are the times. We need to go again with un compromising earnestness and pro- c l a i m the unchanging fundamental truths of God’s Holy Word. Said one of old, “Give me the right word and the right accent, and I will move the world.” God. is that Word and man redeemed in Christ is the accent. We have but to go and hurl the invectives of the gospel of Jesus Christ against the strongholds of iniquity, with the burning eagerness of the Master, and “ the gates of hell shall not prevail.” Life demands equipment. Jesus says that all authority is given Him in heaven and on earth, and He also says, “ as my Father hath sent me, even so •Send I you” (John 20:21). Our resources are infinite. We have but to draw upon them. Prayer is the means of tapping them. Science today is in the midst of a veritable revolu tion, Swinging away from the material concept, to the spiritual. They are tell ing us now that the iron-bound laws of nature apply in a general way and not to everything in particular. The action of a single atom, they say, is unpredictable—anything may happen. The scientists are now making room for that which they call “creative sur prises.” Prayer is our privilege to share the creative surprises with God in His universe. Life requires inspiration. The Mas ter says, “Lo, I am with you alway, dven unto the end” (Matt. 28:20). David Livingstone knew the inspira tion of Christ’s presence as he gave himself to the wilds of Africa and to a pagan people, for the glory of God. In peacetime, go yonder to Westmin ster Abbey-and you will see tourists, not by costly monuments, but over to the side of a simple slab, whereon is inscribed the name o f this great mis sionary of the cross. You want to make your mark in the world; you will make some mark. Mul titudes are making it the dollar, and a monument cut to the figure o f a d o l l a r sign would -make a fitting memorial to many that are dying to day. Christ made His mark—the cross, and a host of believers have followed in sacrificial service, taking the gospel to many lands. Some went to the Paci fic, to far-off islands, hardly known to us. Because of their obedience to Christ,.an American lad, wearing his country’s uniform, is able to write his mother now: “Dear Mom: If it had not been for Christian missions, I would have been feasted upon, instead of feasted, when I fell out of the skies into this native village in the South Pacific.” With the inspiration of the divine presence of Jesus Christ, we can go anywhere.
Life means a time to labor. We are saved for something. Our belief is to be translated into conduct. Our Chris tian experience is not to be a terminal, but a distribution point. Finders are not keepers in the kingdom of God, but sharers. A baby announcement c a r d that came into my home said, “Being born is the only thing that has happened to me so far.” There are tod many like that in the kingdom of God. Noth ing has happened since they gave themselves to Christ, and time is pass ing and souls are nearer eternity than ever .before. Time is the only thing that God rations. You cannot recall a second from yesterday, nor borrow one from tomorrow. We must work while it is yet day. William Carey, at his church con vention, calling for the birth of a mis sionary passion among its members, was told to sit down. But William Carey refused to sit down, and the great foreign missionary enterprise of the world is a living monument to this man. Too many are sitting still with their handkerchiefs soaked in holy chloroform of a false piety, putting themselves to sleep to the needs of the world that is set on fire by hell. Life presents a program. We are told to go preach and to teach. The end in view is to make disciples.. Great preaching is the overflow of the life, but ft is also the outflow o f words from a heart that is burning with the passion of God for men. Many have gone to the devil’s dictionary and, with the magic and mystification of words, have streamlined, or denied the great saving truths of our gospel. Conse quently we have a world today that is spiritually bankrupt. I spoke to a high school assembly with sixty-four hundred -students, and the vice-principal told me that one thousand of that number were on pro bation. Here is a field that calls for dis tinctive work and the church stands today with a distinctive message, sepa rate from and abbve all other institu tions and agencies and organizations working for the betterment of man kind. God is revealed in nature, and in science, but these do not speak. Man needs the saving knowledge of God. “ I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto / S A L V A T IO N to eve ry one that believeth.” — Romans 1:16.
Studdert-Kennedy, c h a p l a i n in World War I, said before his death, that the supreme question he thought he would face at the judgment in ref erence to his life would be, ■"What did you make of it?” If that is true, we had belter find, then, the meaning of our existence. The Meaning of Life In the possession of two great facts, His origin and destiny, life for the Master found direction, and took on a sense of mission and of destiny. Know ing this—He “took a towel” (John 13:3, 4). This reveals to us the quality of His Spirit and life. Life upon this earth means a time to live. A girl in a hospital who had been given up to die, received good news from her doctor, and wrote her pastor, “The doctors say I have one chance to live; what shall I do with it?” My answer would have been, “ Give it to God.” The possession of physical life gives rise to the possibility of spiritual life. We come to know God through Jesus Christ in th^ new birth (John 3:1-18). Physically speaking,, the conversion ex perience awakens dormant brain cells and gives life to body, mind, and soul. Modem scientific psychology tells us that these would remain dormant ex cept as they are touched by the Spirit of God. In the language' of the man on the street, we are “not all there” until God. comes into our life. The experience of being bom again is like an airplane at the airport that taxis along and then suddenly lifts from the earth, and wings through the air. As it rises, you hear spectators say, “There she goes.” So it is in life. You may move along as a plane does when it taxis down the runway. Then comes the time when you respond to the heavenly pull. You are lifted to the heights in your Christian expe rience, and those standing by say, “There he goes.” Temptation is out ahead, and if the devil .cannot get you on one level, he will try another. Let thy soul be on thy guard for ten thousand foes arise to take thee from the skies. Joseph was not a marble statue, por an Egyp tian m u mm y , but he had a God in whose sight he could not commit evil. If we find meaning in this life, we must find it within the realm of our own selfhood in relationship to God through Christ. If we do not find it here, we will not find it at all. Alexander conquered the world, and wept b e c a u s e there, were no more worlds to conquer, but he failed to con quer his own self, aind died from drink. "He that ruleth his spirit [is greater] ■ than he that taketh a city” (Prov. 16:32). This is not selfish; it is your primary duty.
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