July 1925
THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
291
E D I T T O R I A 1
GOD’S HEROES IN HIS HALL OF FAME The Word of God when read and believed is always effective in changing our view of things. Meditating upon the life and character of some of God’s men whom we have had the privilege of knowing and whom we have learned to love, we were contem plating the difference among them. How varied was the outward expression of their lives for-Christ,—no two alike ¡ ¿And then we remembered that God had never made two men just alike, and turning to the Eleventh of . Hebrews we looked at the pictures of fifteen of His great men as the Holy Spirit has named them. How they stand out before us,^-big in faith and works, noble in the manner of life they lived and in the deeds they wrought! Then there comes the record of the unnumbered men and women—too many to name—whose deeds of v a l o r and suffering for their f a i t h f u l n e s s is described in words delin eating sorrow, suffering and death of whom “ the world was not worthy” ! God’s “ Hall of Fame” ! How different from man’s! What a great host who, through the eternal ages, stood in the conflict true to Him who died for them, carrying t h e i r c ro s s e s ,____________________ wielding the weapons of faith, never faltering,, never fearing, never retreating, counting not their lives dear Unto themselves, count ing Him as worthy of their life-blood, borne along by the power of the Holy Spirit, through thick and thin, good report and,evil report! What a host of them! And we shall see them, with their new, glorified bodies, perhaps bearing the marks of their suffering and sacrifice, “ the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Then came the thought,-^‘how small we will feel! How little we have done, compared with these splendid soldiers whose faith failed not; whose eyes were fixed upon Him; whose lives were woven into the life of Him they lovedJ|who counted it a joyful privilege to do, to dare, to die for the One whose body will carry the marks of suffering through eternity.” The days are different now. This is the “ soft” age. “ Self-denial” and “ self-sacrifice” are not in the church vocabulary now. There are no lion’s mouths to stop. There are liar’s mouths that should be stopped, but it is not respectable to do this! In some fields the privilege of suffering for Him is yet afforded His followers. In the regions beyond some of His chosen ones are laboring, in perils by night and by day, whose names will be added to His “ Hall of Fame,” and who will “ in that day” be giving all glory to the all glorious One.
But is there nothing left in this land of ours that is hard to do? Well, there are some things that could be done. We could go—as did Christ and the-apostles —and preach upon the streets and in the by-ways. We could go with tears in our eyes and love in our hearts from house to house. We could find “ new ways” or “ old ways” to tell out the story of Jesus and His love. But—we don’t! Alas, how.sad to have to confess that we could save something out of the wreck, but our ears are closed and our eyes are blinded to the need, and we fail Him who never failed us. THE SERPENT’S STING What is the world problem? It is told in one word
of three letters—“ .S-I-N ” ! Just one little word,—the fruit of one little seed sown in the G a r d e n of Eden, by Adam and -Eve, but which has resulted in a harvest of sorrow, suffer ing and death, world-wide and age-abiding. There is no other expla nation of the sobbing heart of humanity. For six thou sand years, through all the stages, of progress a n d decline among the nations of the earth, sin has been rampant and death has stalked unchecked. The Twentieth Century
Armnrei) for Action!
■T3READ riot the din and smoke, A * , The stifling poison of the fiery air; rJj?Courage! It is the battle of thy God!
Go! And for Him learn how to do and dare!
Look to thine armor well! Thine the one panoply no'blow that fears;/' Ours is the day of rusted swords and shields, Of loosened helmets and of broken spears. Heed riot the throng of foes! Ho fight ’gainstjiosts is still the Church’s lot. Side thou with God, and thou must win the day; Woe to the man ’gainst whom hell fighteth not! —Selected.
has brought no relief. The culture of the schools, the discoveries of science, have solved none of the moral problems of young or old. The chasm between rich and poor is as wide as ever. Pride sits in its castle and poverty, dwells, in its cell. The haughty looks of the one are met by the hatred of the other. The occasional scattering of the coins of the rich brings no definitely permanent results to the commonwealth. We rejoice in every effort of every kind that soothes a pain, or softens the sorrows of humanity’s heart, but in spite of them all there still remains the little word “ s-i-n” with its unceasing, unchanging power to bring death. There is no rest for the wicked. If your vision is good, you can visualize the slimy serpent working its way down the centuries: Its hiss is heard. Death and destruction is in its wake. It cannot be stayed in its course. It cannot be killed. The Word of God gives us a world picture. Israel is in the wilderness rebelling against God’s provision for them by giving manna from heaven, dissatisfied, distrustful. In punishment, God sent the serpents whose bite was death; but God also provided a remedy for the sting of the serpent, and a look upon the brazen ser pent meant life. Adam and Eve distrusted God, believed a lie, and the history of our world tells the story of the result.
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