June 1930
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K i n g ’ s
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too fearsome to be read aloud. Yet this man, goes there in his own shoes, on his own feet, by his own free choice. Now turn to the very last page of the Book (Rev. 22: 15). It is Jesus Himself talking, who died for us of a broken heart that this might not be true of any one. “Without,” are the male professionals in vile lust, the demon experts, etc. There’s a “without.” I t’s made by man’s free choice. Those “without” are there because they have gone there. The gravity of their choosing takes and pulls them there. “Without!” M oody ’ s C reed Dwight Moody was asked, back in the early 70’s, up to London to meet the ministers. They had heard of the touch of power up in Yorkshire, and were thinking about London. For an hour Moody quietly answered their rain of questions. Then one voice asked, “Mr. Moody, what’s your creed?” Quick as a flash, in his exquisitely quiet way, Moody replied, “My creed’s in print.” “Where ?” scores of voices eagerly asked. And four hundred pencils were pulled out to write down the title of the book containing Moody’s creed. Yet more quietly, with a gentle impressiveness, Moody replied, “Isaiah fifty-three. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,’ ” and so on. Dig in a little. There were the five essentials of belief : the Book, the Man, the Death, the damnable badness of self-willed Sin that necessitated that distinctive death of that distinctive God-Man. And it is most striking to note Moody’s influence. Under the Holy Spirit’s gracious leadership, Moody influ enced all of Christendom as no other man has done in the last hundred years, at least. And Moody’s constant cry was this: “Choose; choose now; choose Christ as your personal Saviour.” " Does it make any difference what you believe, if you’re honest? What do you think? It certainly made a difference to the heart of the Man who died for us, when He didn’t have to, except, ah! yes, except the have-to of our tragic need, and the have-to of His great heart of love. A ND why should we not go forth with the elastic . tread of those who know that they shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing with them their sheaves? We go on God’s errands; we are provided with His seed; we are directed by His unerring wisdom to our plot in the field; we are sure of His cooperation in giv ing sun and shower, dew and rain. We may have to wait, as all true husbandmen must, but there can be no doubt as to the ultimate issue. Oh, what a glorious work is ours! To give effect to the yearnings of divine love; to be the organs and instruments of the redemptive purpose of God; to be associated with Christ in the salvation of the lost; to pluck men as brands from the burning, and to hold them aloft as torches for the progress of the King; to hasten the glad day of His second coming; to be His heralds and ambassadors—these were enough to lure an archangel from his seat. Well is it to have been sum moned to do i t ; and a thousand times better to know that it is to be the employment of eternal ages, of, which it is written, “His servants .shall serve him.” On th e K ing’s Business B y F. B. M eyer , D.D.
Thy Will Be Done O Master, take possession of my boat, That I strive not in unavailing toil;
Speak Thou the word and in Thy presence shall Be stilled the waves tempestuous, waves of fear And doubt and all uncertainties resolve Their being in the morning light of Thy Perfected will.
— The Lutheran.
And here he comes up to the settling time after a long life. And now things are seen in the white searching light of that settling time. That light lays bare things just as they actually are. If, if, as that man sees himself, in that relentlessly pure white light, there isn’t a fault or a flaw to be seen in himself, there’s no question as to the outcome. He is entitled to eternal life on the basis of a flaw less, faultless life. Our God is relentlessly fair. A man gets all he’s entitled to. And, you remember, there will be no witnesses brought against a man. Every man is his own witness, and his only witness then. But, hut, if the man is conscious of just one flaw, one slip, one missing link of conduct—ah, that’s heart breaking ! For, you recall, one fact fixes a law. That’s a com- place. One thief makes a theft, even if it’s only a copper. One act makes adultery, one murder makes a murderer. So man’s law says, and rightly. And this man finds in his own consciousness that he is not flawless. Then he needs a Saviour, plainly. But he has none. It is his own choice. He has not chosen the Saviour as his. No S av iour ! Let us suppose he has honestly chosen not to choose, has not chosen to choose. Does it make any difference now ? ■Let the man himself answer. Let the Book answer. There are two passages, painful, heartbreaking passages. But they are there, and in plain black on white, in one’s own mother tongue. They stand in sharp ,contrast with their Surroundings, like an ugly mongrel cur in a pack of thoroughbreds. In the glory of that description of heaven that fairly beggars the English these two bits come. No mere man would have put them there. But there they are. Listen: “But for the unbelieving” (Rev. 2 1 :8), the non believing, simply those who choose not to believe, choose not to choose. Then follows an ugly list of the company a man finds himself in. Here’s the list: the cowards, those whose daily life makes a foul smell, those who use violent force on others, the lust experts, demon experts, those who worship anything or anybody else than God, and all sorts and shades of liars. It’s a foul list. Ugh! What a crowd to get into! They are tethered together by their own personal choice. That’s what bunches them into one group. And this sup posedly honest man finds himself drawn into that company by the gravity of his choice. These are his brothers in choice, or in choosing not to choose. And that gravity of choice pulls them toward a place whose description may be read with a hushed awe, but is
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