January 1927
50
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
than an occasion of festivity and merriment. Marriage was a very solemn thing. The young people were exhorted to prepare for it by fasting and prayer and confession of sin. God was kept in all their thoughts when marriage was impending. The old Rabbis had a sâying that Jehovah Himself blessed the cup at the marriage of our first par ents and Michael and Gabriel were the groomsmen and the angels sang the bridal hymn. Scripture declares marriage to be a holy estate sig nifying the mystical union between Christ and His Church and that therefore it is not to be enterprised or taken in hand lightly-or wantonly, but reverently, soberly, dis creetly and in.the feàr of God. ü i Who Are th e Sp iritual? “Ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the; spirit of meekness.”—Gal. -6 :1. T HE question often arises as to who is best fitted to deal with a backslidden Christian. Gal. 6:1 says, “Ye which are spiritual,” (pneumatikos), a word suggesting invisibility and power. The qualifications for such delicate work as the apostle has in mind here, and which he sums up in the compre hensive term “spiritual,” are set forth in detail in 5 :16-26, above. The spiritual man is one who walks by the Spirit both in the sense of v. 16 and in that of v. 25, and who himself manifests the fruit of the Spirit in his own ways. By no lesser standard than ,that provided by the Spirit of God must a man judge himself. According to the Scriptures, the “spiritual” ¡'state of •soul is normal for the believer,'but to this state all believ ers do riot attain, nor when it is attained is it always main tained. Thus the apostle, in 1 Cor. 3:1-3 suggests a con trast ¡between this spiritual state and that of the babe in Christ, i:e., of the man who because of immaturity and inexperience has not yët reached spirituality, and that of the man who by permitting jealousy, and thé strife, to which jealousy always leads, has lost it. The spiritual state is reached ;by diligence in the Word of God and in . prayer ; it Is maintained by obedience and self-judgment. --Such as are led by the 'Spirit are spiritual, but, of course, spirituality is not a fixed qr absolute condition-—it admits •of growth- indeed growth in “the grace and knowledge of Jour 1.ord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” 2 Pet. 3:18, is evi- ; dence of ¡true spirituality. Somewhat after the same fashion, when he had ex pounded the relation between the “strong” and the “weak” .conscience in Rom. 14, the apostles proceeded to urge upon those whose conscience was “strong” their obliga tions toward the “weak” brethren, 15 :1. Look Over Your E sta te Dr. J. H. Jowett says : “And if a son, then heir! ‘All things are yours’ Samuel Rutherford used to courisel his friends to ‘take a turn’ round their estate. And truly it is inspiring exercise! The Spirit shall lead me over my estate, and I will survey with the sense of ownership, ‘the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ I wonder if I have the manner of a king’s son? I won der if there is anything in my very ‘walk’ that indicates distinguished lineage and royal blood? Or am I like a vagrant who has no possessions and no heartening expecta tions? ‘Lord, I would serve, and be a son!’ ” >
The Pure in Heart T HE person who is f accustomed to shelter evil in thought becomes a fortress that invites attack from its weakness. The heart that dwells upon sin has an enemy within that is undermining its defenses. When the town of Man Soul undertakes a parley with the enemy it is on the eve of surrender. One cannot harbor sin in thought without damage and loss. It is like those diseases that remain hidden in the system. Though they do not show themselves outwardly they are secretly at work impairing the tissues and corrupting the blood. These sinful thoughts, once given entrance to the mind, are hard to dislodge. All men have memories of which they would gladly rid themselves. These memories intrude upon the happiest and holiest moments and cast a bitter drop in every cup of joy. They have a power that we must acknowledge, because we cannot cast them out. Like the ghost in Macbeth they will not down at our bidding, •but-rise up to plague us in the hour of seeming triumph. The only way to avoid this power of sin over the mind isrto refuse it entrance. If we would be wholly free from evil we must not let it appear even in thought. Evil is a foul mass that if touched will leave a stain. We cannot approach it without contamination. We cannot look or think on the appearance of iCwithout harm and danger. It may seem'pleasant to think of a sin, while we would scorn the idea that we would ever commit that sin in act. But if we sin in thought tve have entered the road that leads to the act. We have not waited for temptation to come to us. We are going out to meet it. The cherished thought of sin can only be restrained from growing into act by the grace of God. When we begin -to think on evil we have cast ourselves' into a current ftom which only a miracle can snatch us. The way to keep out of temptation is to keep sin/out of the mind. A mind free from sin becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, i t is the peculiar blessedness of the “pure in heart” that they shall ’see God. T f we do riot’ look on sin we may look on the perfect purity of infinite love. Life is a great responsibility: Every word, every act,; every . thought carries, shut up within its kernel conse quences that can never be estimated. An act that may iseem right to us, but appears wrong to others, puts "our influence over them on the side of sin. A light and care less word spoken, perhaps in jest, starts an .echo that will, ¡reverberate through all eternity. A little' thought of sin ¿treasured in the heart weakens our moral nature and gives; a slight turn to our character, that may bring us into moral ruin. A little turn in life may put us on the way to ¡happiness and heaven, or may .send us whirling .through :the rapids of sin, where we shall be swept over its falls; and broken to pieces on its sharp and sunken rocks, to; come out into eternity, broken in heart, shattered in char acter, ruined in hope. To keep sin out of our heart is to; keep it out of our life.— Dr. Curtis Lee Laws. D on’t Overlook Christ A S we read how Jesus was invited to the Cana mar- r A riage, with His disciples, do we not wish that Jesus -A. JL were invited more to all ojur marriages and that young people would prepare for this solemn ordinance as the prepare for baptism or Holy Communion? We do not know how this young couple at Cana prepared for their marriage. But we know what the Church directed. The Jewish wedding in our Lord’s day was much more
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