54
T h e
January 1927
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
hundred that he may become related to the. rejected king: (It may well be that he thought it a surer way to the throne than mere trust in God). The one act proved him a hero, and brought him honour and renown; the other demonstrates his self-seek ing, and leaves him. a coward and a-fugitive. “The just shall live by faith.;”?but true faith can only exist in the consecrated heart.; If we would not fail as David did; if we would live the highest kind of life, the life of courage and of victory; we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world, the flesh and the devil. “Come out and be ye separate.”?from them;, for “the end of those things is death.”
J anuary 6. “We are labourers together with God." 1 Cor. 3:9.
'THAT is not the usual conception of Christian toil. We pray that God would come and help us to do our work for Him. It is a mistake! it is the Lord’s work, not ours; it is not He who is to help us, but we are to help Him! We are not master workmen, we are but day. laborers. It is. not ours to plan,. but to ask: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The responsi bility is not ours, but His; we do not work at our own charges, but at our Lord’s. The master worker’s toil is never done; he must plan and arrange far into the night, for the responsibility of failure or success, and their consequences,, have to be borne by Him. On the other hand, the day’s work faithfully accomplished, the mere laborer may go home through the shades of eventide to rest. No question as to the results of his efforts need ser iously trouble him; no problems, as to the' methods or the require ments of the morrow' need perplex his mind; no fear as to the ultimate completion of the enterprise need harass,; all these things belong to the Master. His responsibility begins and ends in waiting day by day upon his employer’s will; in doing with diligence and care the allotted' task. His promised reward, his place in the Master’s esteem are equally assured whether the work be a failure or a success. Who, then, would not be a day laborer in the King’s service, rather than bear upon His shoul ders the burden (even with Divine assistance) of some work of his pwn for God? WATERTIGHT compartments are of priceless value in marine engineering; in spiritual .construction they are fatal. Myriads of men and women imagine that religion is summed up in Psalm singing and ceremony; it has only to do with worship, and sacrament, and creed. They lay it aside with their Sunday clothes, and only take' it out on week days for private or family devotion. It is an adjunct to Sabbaths, and fasts, and funerals, but it has no relation to ordinary days, no connection with the things of common life. Such a conception of Christianity is deplorable in its narrowness and pernicious in its results. Reli gion is intended to control and to leaven all the life. “Holiness unto the LORD” is to be graven upon1the bells of the horses and upon the pots in the kitchen, as well as inscribed over the altar of His house. , We are to be Christians in the marketplace as truly as in the Sanctuary. Our dealings with our fellow men are to be no less under its restraining influence (for “religion” sig nifies a thing that binds) than our intercourse with God. In the drawing room or in the office, in the shop or on the cricket field, in the Church or in the Senate, at home or abroad, the Christian should ever remember that he is the Lord’s servant, and his thoughts, words, works should ever be in harmony with that keynote of all true, noble, worthy human life: “To me to live is Christ.” ' Whatever may be the value of a mere Sabbath day religion in relation to the great hereafter ,(and its worth even in that direction is very problematical) it is a hopeless and pitiable failure as regards our existence upon earth.. J anuary 8. “And he . . . scrabbled on the doors of the gate?^-1 Sam. 21:13, “HOW are the mighty fallen!” Is this the hero of the vale of Elah, the conqueror of Goliath, the Anointed of the LORD? Behold him playing the fool amidst the enemies of God! What is the secret of so pitiable a sight? Why has David so sadly fallen ? Once he said: “The LORD . . He will deliver me;” now he flees, filled with unmanly fear, and his faintig heart cries: “I shall surely perish by the hand of Saul.” Once, as Champion of the hosts of the living God, he defied the uncircum cised Philistine; now he is “sore afraid of Achish, king of Gath.” “O,” someone says, “it is just a mere failure of faith.” Yes; but faith ought not to fail, and never does fail without a cause. Such failure is not the disease, it is but a symptom of the malady. Can we, then, discover the predisposing mischief in the case before us? We think we can. “It pleased David well to be the King’s son-in-law.” He had hankered after con nection with the God forsaken Saul; he. would fain have allied himself to the a r m. of flesh. He who had smitten a single Philistine because he had defied the LORD , now slays two J anuary 7. “Every pot . : . shall be holiness.’^Z e c h . 14:21.
J anuary 9. “1 kept silence." — Ps. 1:21.
THE silences of God are deeply interesting. There is the Silence of Mercy. Suppose for an instant that He were to . tell all He knows concerning us (and none could hinder Him if He were so disposed,) who amongst us would be able to face their fellow men? But neither here nor hereafter will He reveal the things that" His eyes have seen in connection with the lives of the children whom He loves : “My people,” He hath said, “shall never be ashamed.” Aga i n, there is t h e Silence of Secrecy. Imagine a God who could not be trusted to guard the secrets which' we had breathed into His ear about ourselves or our contemporaries ! How “cribbed, cabined and confined would be the possibilities of prayer. There is thè Silence of Patience, during which God waits, not blind to the sinner’s sin, nor indifferent to his misdeeds, but only suspending judgment in the hope that His longsuffering will bring the wrongdoer to re pentance. There is also the Silence of Judgment : “He answered him to never a word.” How awful the condition of the man who, by wilful and persistent sin, has brought his soul into such a condition that he can say nothing to God, nor make any re quest. of Him, which is worthy of Divine reply. And yet again, there is the Silence of pity. God might o f t e n upbraid His children for their faithlessness, their failure, their folly, their unbelief. How swift we are to scold, upon the slightest provo cation; how slow is our Heavenly Father, even when we deserve it most. THIS is another of the Divine silences, the Silence of Test ing. (*) To the poor Syro-phenician woman it must have seemed cruel indeed. She had come'to Him in sore trouble,, full of faith and hope, and behold, He will not even speak to her. If by chance the same experience should be ours; if to our almost frenzied prayers the heavens should be as brass; if, in the hour of our agony, “He Whom our soul loveth” and in Whom we have trusted—to Whom we have come, sure as we thought, of sympathy and help—fails to respond; if when we offer our peti tions there is “neither voice, nor any to answer, nor, as it seems, any that regards” ; let us read afresh the Gospel narrative and learn that silence does not always mean denial. Not indifference, but love, sometimes seals the Divine lips and delays the grant ing of the boon. God is never cruel, He cannot be (only the. heathen deities are that) but there are lessons of infinite value; lessons of faith and of patience; lessons of calm asurance which shall be as sheet anchors to our souls in days to come; lessons which shall enable us to strengthen the brethren in their hours of despair; and that we may learn these lessons it is sometimes needful that He should seem to hide His face from us for the moment and that, to all our entreaties, for a little while at least, he should answer us “never a word.” We' may be sure, how ever, that in such hours, though Christ will not speak to us, He does not cease to pray the Father that our faith fail not, and that we may come out of the trial strengthened, ennobled, blessed. *) See Jan. 9. J anuary 10. “He answered her not a word.” — Matt. 15:23
J anuary 11. “The words of my mouth?—Ps.l9:14.
WORDS are like dandelion seeds blown from their stem by the mouth of a child; one never knows where they may take root.
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