KING’S BUSINESS
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ning.” There is nothing higher than that, and so knowing is the highest Christian life. Just so in Psalm 5: 11, we have the three aspects of joy, corresponding with these three aspects in St. John,—the joy of trust, the joy of protection, and the joy of loving the name, the character. Just so in St. Paul’s address at Miletus, we have “the Gospel of the grace of. God,” then “the kingdom of God,” and then “the whole counsel of God,” again corre sponding roughly, but satisfactorily, with these three standards and stages. So I repeat, this is our Christian life, a life of perfect joy, a life of continual safety, and a life of absolute certainty. Or, to put it in familiar words, “safer ty, certainty and enjoyment.” Now the question for every one of us this morning is, Is this ours? Let There once upon the earth was One by whom Great things were done: it seemed as if • His hand Were framed to wield the sceptre of the world And stay the anarchy which long had made This earth a waste. He bade the breeze be still? And it was calm. He seized the robber Death When on his way to hide his spoil, where Nain Looks out on Esdraelon’s plain, and up Old Nazareth’s brown hills, and with a word Compelled him to give back the widow’s treasure; He plucked the demon from the tortured soul
us test ourselves afresh by these fa miliar thoughts from this well-known Epistle. Is this life of “safety, certainty, and enjoyment” ours? First, it ought to be. Are we clear on that? It ought to be. Secondly, it can be. God never mocked a soul. God never puts forth an ideal without providing the dy namic. I know the man of the world says, “Hitch your wagon to a star” ; but there is the star and here is my wagon, and I want to know how I am to hitch it ! God never tells us of an ideal without telling us of the duna- mis, the dynamic. It can be. Thirdly, shall we not take this step: It shall be? And oh, that God will enable us to take one step more, and, by His grace, say, “It is.” That is Christian ity. God make it ours! Of him who wandered ’mid Gadara’s ' tombs; He poured His light into the darkened eye, And sounds, before unheard, into the ea r; He smoothed the writhing wave, and bade the storm Lie down in peace; He touched the burn ing hand Of fever, and the blood once more ran cool; He went in weakness to the Roman cross, And from the tree of blood where He was nailed Returned to Paradise, and took with Him The roibber at His side; into the home Of death He calmly entered, and came forth In triumph—every foe beneath His feet. — Selected.
“The Word Became Flesh”
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