August 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
371
The Right Estimate of Values f N the rush and hurry of life, with its pressure of daily wants and imperious appetites, our eyes be come dazzled with the glamour of the things im mediately around us. We are in danger of losing sight of the only perfect standard, and of adopting some petty, pocket measure of our own. We fill we do not know a good thing when we see it. Men fail to see things as they are. There is a sad lack of what God’s Word calls “ spiritual discernment.” We expend our enthusiasm with the ball game and the prize fight, and grow drowsy over Bible study and missions. Children have no idea of
for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures o f Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense o f the reward . . . for he. endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” To all thoughtful men, the centuries have vindicated the wisdom of Moses’ choice. He had a divine, intuitive perception of values which dominated his life. The eyes of Daniel were open to the whole immense and decisive range o f values. To him the vision came in youth, and shut him up to a course of splendid heroism. He boldly said, even in the face of death, “ My allegiance
our baskets with inferior fruits, our libraries with inferior books, our houses with inferior pictures, our minds with inferior knowledge, our hands with inferior service, and leave posterity with an inferior inheritance, simply because
to Jehovah I will not exchange for all the honor and riches of court and palace with which they over-awe me and seek to bribe my will ,1 silence my con science and force me to worship other gods.” Magnificent young man! Then look at Paul. Why did not Paul seek a career in poli tics or law or literature or busi ness, availing himself of his proud birth and aristocratic lin eage? Why did he not retire to a lonely wild on the sunny slopes of Judea and enjoy his leisure ? Because h i s human spirit was keenly alive to the supreme idea of values. His was a life dominated or swayed through and through by thé life of Him who hung upon the Cross. With what intuitive dis tinctness he put the truth when he Said, “ The things seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Mea sure things on the broad scale
Jesus Calls Us Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult ■ O f our life’s wild, restless sea, Day by day His sweet voice soundeth, Saying, “ Christian, follow Me.” Jesus calls us from the worship O f the vain world’s golden store, From each idol that would keep us, Saying, “ Christian, love M e more.” In our joys and in our sorrows, Days o f toil and Fours o f ease, Still H e calls, in cares and pleasures, “ Christian, love Me more than these.” Jesus calls us: by Thy mercies, Saviour, may we hear Thy call, Give our hearts to Thy obedience, Serve and love Thee best o f all.
values-—a bit of glass pleases them just as much as a dia mond. The, Lord Jesus came in to the world which had lost all sense of value, and it was a part of His mission to recover and restore. Esau, who for one morsel of bread sold his birthright, and, too late for recovery, came in bitterness and tears to real ize its value, was too sorely pressed with hunger to estimate values correctly. We ought to find it much more easy to for give the semi-barbarous hunter for his folly than to forgive ourselves who live in this en
— Mrs. C. F. Alexander.
lightened day for the too frequent imitation of his im pulsive conduct. Our sensibilities are dreadfully shocked, as we recall the real nobility of Solomon in his early man hood with his rich endowment of wisdom, to see how in later years he succumbed to the pomp, pageantry and prof ligacy of court life, exchanging virtue for vice, spiritual aims for Sensual pleasures, and heaven for a harem—a pitiful example of one whose sense of values became obliterated by. sin. ■Contrast these with Abraham. At the call of God, but dimly understood, the father of the faithful went, leav ing his possessions behind, toward the place which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance. Walking in the obedience of faith it turned out to be a journey toward that “ city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Moses was the man who “ refused to be called the son o f Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people o f God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
of eternity for the fashion of this world passes away. Find out what it means to have nothing and yet possess all things. For dll things are yours,” if you only know how to appreciate and use them. There is but one trustworthy standard of measure ment—the Word of God. One safe example—the Lord Jesus Christ. One supreme value—that is spiritual life, fashioned, inspired and perfected by this holy Word and perfect life. Other things have worth only as they con tribute to the realization of this high end, the enrichment of spiritual life. There is an immense danger of an overestimation' of money, honor, learning, .pleasure and power, as objects of pursuit or avenues o f real happiness. It is impossible to ex- aggerate the value of those qualities that enrich a noble soul, an immortal spirit—goodness, courage, devotion, con science, self-sacrifice, love, voluntary poverty, exile, suf fering, dying for others—these are the virtues that never die, but only grow brighter with the sweep of the eternal
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