January 1927
36
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
greater blessing from divine truth when he can feel the dews of heaven are re freshing others at the same time. “They continued steadfastly in the apos tles’ doctrine and fellowship” (v. 42). There can be no true, happy, Christian unity and service except where there is steadfastness in New Testament, doctrine. Until our teaching is right, our life must be wrong. “Those who believed were together and had all things common” (v. 44). Let no one quote this as a Scriptural basis for the “brotherhood of man.” This was the- brotherhood' of born-again believers. Socialism virtually says: “What’s yours shall be mine.” These persecuted believ ers said to their fellow believers: “What’s mine shall be yours as long as you are in need.” This is Christianity. The Christian sense of stewardship, not abolition of the right of property, is the cure for the conditions which cause some to shriek: “Poverty is the ft.”L'- P ith and P oint Let your light shine, not twinkle. Salt without savor is another name for an insipid Christian. “And the Lord added to the Presbyter ian (or was it Baptist?) church daily such as should be saved.” “What is God’s Church? Let truth and reason speak: They reply—the born again, the pure, the meek, the one selected race of all professions, in every place.” Only the Holy Spirit can make any real additions to God’s Church. An up-to-date way of being added to the church is to join by telephone and send one’s photo to be sprinkled. Some churches would be more strength ened by subtractions than by additions. Your light will smoke with the wick too high. Too low, ’twill burn too dim. Well trimmed, with oil in rich supply, ’Twill brightly burn for Him. I R H S uggestive Q uestions What is the source of our light? Psa. 18:28; Eph. 5:8. Give some passages referring to the believer as light. In what four things did the early be lievers “continue steadfastly” ? (Acts 2: 42-47). What marked characteristic of the early Church (Acts 1:14; 4:24, 31; 6:4, 6) is equally essential to success today? (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2). Under what conditions alone (Acts 2: 44) are the principles of Socialism work able? (Acts 2:42, 43). Was the communion service in the early Church necessarily part of a church ser vice? (Acts 2:46; cp. 20:7). G olden T ext “We are laborers together with God” (1 Cor. 3:9). Dr. Halbeck, a missionary of the Church of England in the south of Africa, from the top of a neighboring hill, saw lepers at work. He noticed two particu larly, sowing peas in the field. One had no hands, the other no feet, these mem bers being wasted away by the disease. The one who wanted the hands was carry ing the other, who wanted the feet, upon his back; and he again carried the bag of
seed, and dropped a pea every now and then, which the other pressed into the ground with his feet. So they managed the work of one man between the two. Such should be the true union of the members of Christ’s Body, in which all the members should have the same care one for another, laboring together with God. ' I. Matthew 5:13-16. Disciples in the school of Christ—or being and Doing by way of Precept. . ' The Context —These verses f o r m a familiar portion of the Gospel of Mat thew. They find place in that greatest of sermons. The place of its preaching was R ev . W. A. K elly
Thompson in his “Land and the Book” suggests the same. Jesus finds illustra tion in this of a condition in the spiritual sphere. He warns His disciples against becoming savourless. He points to the tragedy of a spiritually insipid life. How is the world, that must have the salt, to be preserved, sweetened by savourless Christians? “What is to be the issue of that Christianity which is found wanting in those elements which can alone stay the corruption and season the tasteless ness of an , all pervading carnality?”* Created in Christ Jesus to be salt we are to be salt that has lost none of its natural properties. “Ye are the light of the world.” ■Jesus sets forth a Christian privilege. By His grace His disciples become the light of the world. We recall t h a t Jesus con stantly appropriated that title of “The Light” to Himself, “I am the light of the world” John 8 :12; “As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world,” John 9:5S |‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4; “That was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world” John 1:9. And here He says we are the light. We become lights by having His light within us. His spirit dwells in us. The mind which is also in Christ Jesus be comes our mind and we shine. Paul’s expression, Philippians 2:15, “in the" midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights—(margin, luminaries) in the w o r 1d.” What a privilege to be His light-bearers I The children’s hymn has it “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.” Vs. 14, 15, “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that dre in the house.” Jesus warns against obscuring the light. Naturally a city set on a hill is seen. No pains need be taken to make a light shine; that is the nature of it. It should be the very nature- of the Christian to shine. The temptation is strong to hide the light. Jesus was using an illustration from lowly cottage life in Palestine. They *lighted the lamp that burned very dimly at the best and set it up where it could be seen. Why should the disciple do less? But the light is often hidden under a bushel. “Better to dim the light,” we say, “that we may gradually accustom men to new ideas.” - Or “Out of deference to opin ions of forceful folk we will keep still.” Or again, “We must avoid rupture by pre mature outspokenness.” Or we are in fear of unpleasant consequences. How Satan must enjoy such dimming of lights ! Of course he wants the bushell placed over them. Billy Sunday tells of the newly converted young man who went to work among the lumberjacks. His friends advised him before he went that they would make life difficult for him if they knew he was a Christian. But he went, and came back. And when they asked him how things went his answer was, “Oh, very well; they didn’t find it out.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” This is the first time in the Gospel that we find Jesus speaking of God as the “Father.” We are glad that He says “your Father.” Letting the light shine becomes a very important service as we view it through the eyes of Jesus. It achieves a high and holy purpose. It
one of the dozen or more m o u n t a i n s which rise in th e vicinity of Galilee, any o n e of which m i g h t answer to Matthew’s word of description. W e s p e a k of the Ser mon “on the Mount.” T h e time—marked
by Matthew in; such a fashion as to- fix it early in thé ministry of Jesus, likely during the first preaching tour. T h e speaker—Jesus himself. The occasion— His opportunity to set forth in clear language the principles of His Kingdom. To present to those who would be citi zens of His Kingdom the necessary quali fications. T h e audience—‘His disciples, “his disciples came unto him” v. 5 :1. The/ few of the inner circle, the larger group of His adherents. The message opened with the beatitudes, the first nine stated in the general. The tenth, verses 10, 11, comes/clo s e r to His hearers, “blessed are ye —great is your reward....”. And then the words of our lesson, verses 13 to 16. They rest upon what has gone before., Possessed of the attributes set forth in the beatitudes, the disciples would be .Salt and Light. The T e x t —“Ye are the salt of the earth." A Roman proverb had it, “Nothing is more useful than the sun and salt.” Salt was and is in universal use. The light is a blessing that reaches to the remotest corners of the world. “Ye” —followers of Christ, Christians, are under obligation to the world. Your commission reads, “all the world.” Was not Jesus thinking of the “other sheep?’! W a s He not visioning, as He spoke, the universal in fluence-of the Christian Gospel? Nineteen Christian centuries bear testimony to what the salt and the light have meant to the world. “Ye are” —we remember that it was to humble unknown disciple folk that he spoke ; yet they and such as they through the .long years to come, includ ing us who follow Him today, howsoever humble we may be, the very benefactors of the race. “Ye are the salt” —f o u r properties of salt may be enumerated. ( 1) S a l t is pure. (2) S a l t preserves against corruption. (3) Salt gives flavor to food. (4) Salt becomes a fertilizing agent. The Master suggests that salt may lose its savour, may become insipid, lack ing its preserving nature. Furrer says, “It has often been observed in our time that salt loses somewhat of its sharpness in the storehouses of Syria and Palestine.”
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