222
THE KING’S BUSINESS
the “ Paschal Lamb” o f Exodus, the “ Cap tain o f the Lord’s host” o f Joshua, the Messiah or “Anointed One” o f the Psalms, the “ R ose" o f Sharon” o f the Canticles, the “ Man o f Sorrows” o f Isaiah, the “Lord our Righteousness” o f Jere miah, the “ Ancient_ o f Days” o f Daniel, and the “Messenger o f the Covenant” o f Malachi—who closes the Old Testament. In that beautiful pastoral o f Ruth, lying among the records o f wars and -carnage like some Elim with its springs and palms in the desert’s heart, we do not find its raison d’etre in the good mother-in-law; these are multitudinous: nor in the devoted daugh ter-in-law : their name is legion. The clos ing scene reveals the reason for its pres ence. W e see a young mother bending with enraptured eyes above her baby boy. “And they called his name Obed. He is the father o f Jesse, the father o f David.” W e draw aside the curtails and see another Babe in Bethlehem, “Great David's greater Son,” and just beyond, a cross silhouetted against the blue skies o f Judea. Will we close the book? Not till its last word, its omega, is read. It is this same One, with arms extended to a sinning world as' they were on the cross, -and His voice calling to their enfolding love and peace. “And the Spirit and the Bride say come: and let him that fieareth say come. And let him that is athirst come. And whoso ever will let him come and take the water o f life freely.” II. He Is the Alpha and Omega of Man’s Life. Life begins in the new birth. Have we grown careless of this great truth? Per plexing and astounding as it was to Rabbi Nichodemus, unwelcome to any age or class, the truth must still be most emphatically enunciated. In what does man’s life con sist? The spirit o f the age will do violence to the answer o f Jesus. He said they were not in the abundance o f things a man pos sessed. Man’ s attitude to material things denies this. His passion is acquisition— more money, more lands, more honors. But life is never gauged in the mensura tion o f material things. “ I must be meas-
A FL IPPANT PROTEST W e hear much protest today among cer tain people about what they call the “butcher shop idea” of religion. One pagan o f old accused Moses o f being “A bloody bridegroom.” The charge is not young, but it is none-the-less flippant. Our answer is the consciousness o f a race, the intuition o f humanity. Wherever man has lived there remain the ashes o f his altar fires. The idea o f sacrifice is inherent in man— Some atonement for his sins. In every nation the blood has been the condition of his acceptance. Only this could take-away the stain, the guilt. When the words tell us that “Without the shedding o f blood there is no remission,” the statement crys tallizes a world-consciousness. But the critics tell us that the provisions o f the law, the songs o f the Psalms, the periods of the Prophets, need no,such Savior in whom to find their fulfilment. It was o f other and lesser lights that they sang and prophesied. Their perspective was not so great. In the nearer foreground stood the apotheosized human life who gathered these Into the sheaf of his own person. Or it' was an abstract idea which had its being only in the phantom fabric o f their dreams. But there is a strongly certifying scene on the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Two of the followers o f the Master walked with heavy hearts away from-the scenes o f their recent sorrow—the place o f this stunning tragedy. While talking over these strange events a third joins himself to them. With that profoundness and^ perspicuity that always was His way, He opened the scrip tures and showed unto their understanding, darkened with this solar eclipse, the testi mony o i the scriptures concerning Himself. “And beginning at Moses and all the proph ets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself.” His word is better than that o f the critics. KEY TO THE TRUTH When we take this combination to the safe in which God has deposited the wis dom o f the ages, how easily we unlock the door and appropriate the truth. He is the “Seed o f the Woman” o f Genesis,
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker