King's Business - 1918-11

THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S must have a definite baptism, or anoint­ ing, or filling, with the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples when they had graduated from the Bible Institute of which He was the Head and in which He was the sole and all-suffic­ ient teacher: "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye he endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49). And He said to them again just before he left them at His ascension: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts 1:8). No man or woman can by any possibility accom­ plish the work which God has given them to do by mere natural gifts. They must have supernatural gifts.' It is not only the preacher or the evangelist who needs this, it is every and each insignificant member of the body. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 12:13, that it is “in the one Spirit” that “we all are baptized into the one body,” as effective, working mem­ bers of that body contributing to the growth of the body. Have you had such a baptism, or anointing, or filling with the Holy Spirit? I put the question to every Christian here, but I put it especially to each member of the grad­ uating class, tfnless you can answer “Yes” to that question I would say to you as the Lord said to His graduating class: “Tarry ye (literally, sit ye down)” “till ye be endued with power from on high.” 5. In the fifth place if we are to finish the work which the Father has given to US to do WE MUST BE MEN AND WOMEN OF prayer . Here is where many fail, here is where multitudes of ministers and missionaries fail: they do not pray enough. One great reason why our Lord Jesus could say, nJ have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gaves me to do” was because He gave so much time to prayer. We read in Mark 1:35 that on one occasion when an enlarging work lay before Him, “In the morning, a great while before day, He rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there

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prayed." And we read that on another occasion, “It came to pass in these days, that He went out into a mountain apart; and He continued all night in prayer to God." (Luke 6:12). No less.than twenty five times in the very brief record of the life of our Lord which is given us in the four Gospels, the words “pray” and prayer” are used in connection with Him. He spent whole nights in prayer. The Apostle Paul followed closely in His footsteps in this respect, as in many others, and therefore he also could say at the close of his life, in ' words that strongly remind us of those of our Lord in our text: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but also to alt them that love His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7, 8). We shall never be able to say what Jesus said, or what Paul said, unless we take much time for prayer. It is told of Dr. Stephen Tyng, perhaps the greatest pastor in the history of the Protestant Episcopal church, that when he lay dying he said to his friends gathered around his death­ bed: “I do not wish that I had preached more (he could not very well, for he was at it all the time) ; I do not wish I had done better pastoral work (he could not very well, for he was a model pastor. In fact a book was written about him after his death entitled, “The Model Pastor” ) ; but I do wish I had prayed morè.” Every one of us when this life is ended and we stand on yonder shore and look back upon this life, will wish that we had prayed more. Be men and women of prayer. I hope that often in the future when you are off in the heart of Africa, or in China, or in Japan, or in India, or in South America, or in some obscure field in America, or it may be, nursing a baby in a lonely shack in the desert or mountains or on the farm, and when multiplying duties are striving to crowd out prayer, you may recall this hour and

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