July 1925
TH E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
292
again, and may never have another opportunity to make a public confession of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. What is the urgent urge of the Gospel? “Now is the accepted time! Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” What thou doest, do quickly! “ The night cometh!” “ Ye must be born again!” Why did the woman at the well—a young convert whose past history had just been photographed for her, and the depths of her sinful life portrayed to her by Jesus—leave her pitcher and hasten to the city with the call, “ Come, see a man—-!” And why did the Lord say to the disciples when He found that this saved sin ner had told the people of the town the story of her conversion, “ The fields are white to the harvest.*** He that reapeth reeeiveth wages” ? Notice, He did not say “ He that preacheth” but “ He that reapeth.” Are the fields not white now? Are there not hun dreds of thousands of hungry-hearted, heavy-hearted, restless-hearted people, young and old,, needing this “ urgent urge” .? Why did Jesus say to Zaccheus, “ Come down. **** Today I must abide at thy house” ? Was it not because that was the last opportunity for Zaccheus? Why did our Lord use; the parable of the Great Supper, and make the master- of the house say, “ Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and say, Come, for all things are now ready” ? What is the meaning of the message in Mark 13: 35-37? “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; “Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch!” Is not our love for the Lord manifested in our love for the lost ? How can we sing, ‘‘Oh, how I love Jesus ’’ if we do not exhibit that love in an unselfish effort to win others to Him? What is the meaning of the message of the Lord to the church at Laodicea? “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I w ill spue thee out of ray mouth.*** I would thou wert either cold or hot.” What is the urgent urge of the Gospel? Look at the picture of our Lord in Luke 19 :41, 42: • “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, “Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Is there not a call to all of us who have been bought at the great price of His shed blood to sympathize with His great heart, awake from the sleep of indifference, and plead with Him that we may have a passion for souls? TACT IN THE USE OF TRACTS It is impossible to estimate the value of one tract, for many times one tract has won a soul, and the value of a soul is inestimable. God has always owned and blessed this service, but—as in other matters—there is need of wisdom in their choice and in their use. Because tracts are easy to obtain at small expense, thousands are distributed. They may properly he clas: sified as bad, indifferent, good, and best. The bad tracts are those which are not true to the Scriptures,
The venom of sin rankles in every heart and disturbs and distresses every life. “ The sting of death is sin!?/ and “ sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” There is no human remedy for the disease of sin. God Himself cannot change the sinful nature. He never has. . God has a remedy, hut men by nature hate His remedy. They try to deny the fact of their sinful natures. They deny the need of any help from God. They are ready to try any one of the hundreds of remedies which are offered, none of which have ever worked or ever will work. The natural heart is filled with pride and the knee will not bend or how to God, and so—Satan-possessed—they go on their restless, weary, hopeless way to the chamber of death. What is God’s remedy? What is that simple,, prac tical recipe which produces such satisfactory results in the lives of some people? The problem of the little word of three letters is solved by another little word of four letters, “ M-U-S-T,’’£-“‘Ye m u s t be born again,” i.e.>, “ horn anew,” “ horn from above.” The message of our Lord was given to an exemplary Jew, trained in the religion of his fathers; but restless at heart. God works according to definite laws, and so in this most serious of all problems confronting the children of men, He reveals the solutionS-the introduc tion of a new law, “ Ye must be born again.” He leaves no room for argument. “ Ye must.” But He gives an illustration to His Jewish visitor: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (the brazen serpent, with no sting in i t ) , so must the Son of man be lifted up (the Son of man w ith no sting in Him; the sinless Son of God lifted up on the cross, bearing the sin of the world, paying the penalty— death), that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” There it is. God takes the sting of death, pays the price, heralds the tidings through the church to the world,—“‘Come, ye poor, weary, sin-sick world; come ye heavy laden, sorrowing ones; come! Look and live S Is there not some other way? None ¡ “‘There is none other name under heaven *** whereby ye must he saved.” This is the law of a new life. It meets the law of sin and death and gives victory over the sting of the serpent. Tell the story—simple and profound, yet it works— that there is hope and happiness for all who will come into touch with the law of the new life. Hallelujah! THE URGENT URGE OF THE GOSPEL Many Christian ‘ leaders seem unconscious of the demand for definite dealing with those to whom they speak. If they preach an evangelistic sermon, they quietly tell the audience that if any one wants to make a confession of Christ they would be glad to see them at the close of the service. The effect of this upon any one under conviction is negative. If salvation is the most important thing in the world, why not recognize its importance in dealing with people? Do business men work along these lines, or do they seek to ‘‘strike while the iron is hot ?’’ Does a fisher-, man use the same tactics, or does he endeavor to land the fish while he has him on the line? You never hear a real enthusiastic fisherman say,“ Well, if the trout , is hungry, he will come hack some other day. If he wants to get away now I ’ll not try to detain him!” Do we forget that the devil is on the job every day? Do evangelists and preachers believe the Bible doc trines they teach? If they do, then they know that many in the audience may never hear a Gospel message
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