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Rev. ^ t a f t ^ ' ^ r e r in»titwte °T _ wycUff6 BlbUS S T ’ g S S » ! r 3 » ^ . S erS * C' , j t o M » sS-. t ^ N ° f : : : i w YAotn>n9 YOU C ^ U * / I J! s , turd»ï ^> .W k . Rev- ^ • Catn _ • î n d » VolftBa ^ 1" . j . .1 « ^ j ^ ee s s t Æ S k s ^ ’ " ■ A3 A»*»’- «•.30-" Sun SUBSCRIBERS—PLEASE NOTE: IPs a good idea to attach your name and address, from tho wrapper around your magazine, to your re newal order. No More Financial Worries ★ and we’ve done something fine for the Old Book T ie Holy Biblel It’s always meant a lot to us—helped us stand up against life’s hardest knocks. We wanted to have a real share in giving it to other folks. Then someone told us about the American Bible Society’s Annuity Plan and we discovered how we could do something fine for the Old Book and at the same time protect our income for the future. Those checks from the Society have never fuiled to urrive on lime—and they’re generous too. Besides—they’re barked up by the Society’s over 100 years of experience In writing annuity agreements. Send the coupon today and learn how this Plan ran fit your needs and at the same time further the distribution of the Word throughout the world. r American Bible Society, 4S0 Park Ave., New York, N. Y. Please send me, without obligation, your booklet KB-79 entitled **AGift That Lives!1 " S i n g i n g I G o ” You'll love this collection of heart-touching songs popularised by this well-known gos pel singer, and composer of tho music to "I'd Rather Have lasus." Those are tho numbers put on tho atr over a nation- wide, commercially-spon sored hymn program by "Bov" Shea himself, and sung In Christian Youth rallies and evangelistic meetings from coast to coast. 12 pages, slse 7x10 inches. In a striking ma roon and blue cover. MAIL THE COUPON TODAY Order from year bookstore or I Afarne................ ......... ,... . , , „ ________ _ I Address „— ------- -—— ...— ................. Denomination jC ir y --------------------------------- Stara_________ MB I. Dearborn St., Dept, o n Chicago I, III. J Official Publication of The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Incorporated Louis T, Talbot, D.D. Betty Brucchcrt Managing Editor William W. Orr, D.D« Editor in Chief Associate Editor Copyright, m i . The King’s Business No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission. All Rights Reserved. Easter Number Vol. 38 April, 1947 No. 4 CROWN H IM W ITH M ANY CROW N S C ROWN Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne; Hark! how the heav’nly anthem drowns All music but its own! Awake, my soul, and sing Of Him who died lor thee, And hall Him aB thy matchless King Through all eternity. C ROWN Him with many crowns, Behold His hands and side, Rich wounds, yet visible above, In beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight; But downward bends his wond’ring eye At mysteries so bright. C ROWN Him the Lord of life! Who triumphed o’er the grave; Who rose victorious to the strife For those He came to save; His glories now we sing Who died and rose on high; Who died eternal life to bring And lives, that death may die. CONTENTS Cover: “Now is Christ Risen,” Rev. Ransom D. Marvin. Picture Credits: Adelbert Bartlett, p. 9; U. S. Coast Guard, p. 10. Editorially Speaking---------------------------- 4 The Gladdest News, Louis T . Talbot ----------------------- -------— ...... 6 There Is a Green Hill, Mrs. C. F. Alexander. ----------------------------- 9 Resurrection Realities, Robert G. Lee -------------------------------------- 10 The Easter Hope, Arthur Hedley ----------------------------------------------- 12 The Challenge of Easter, George H . Clement ------------------------------- 13 Miscellanea ................. —----------------------------------------------------------- - 14 A Birthday Gift of Chinese Gospels, Alfred A . Kunx ........................... 15 Biola Family Circle.....................................................................................— 10 Earth’s Treasure Heaps, Paul R . Bauman........ ----- .....------- .....----— 18 The Bible in the News-------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Junior King’s Business, Martha S. Hooker. ........................... .................. 21 Pictorial Section........................................... 24,25 Book Reviews, William W . i ? r r . . — .......----- — .................... 2 / Young People’s Topics, Walter L . Wilson ----------- ----------------------- 28 I t ’s an Idea, Carlton C. Buck -------- ---------*---------------------------------- 29 A Bible Question Game, Dorothy Shreve Cole.... -------------------------- 32 The Lamei, Charles A . Roberts... .....__ ....................— ............—.— 36 Sunday School Lessons-------- ------------------ -------------------------------- — 37 Object Lessons, Elmer L . Wilder. --------------- t------ 1----------------------- 43 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION— "The King's Business" Is published monthly; $2.00, one yr.; $1.00, six months: 20 cents, single copy. Clubs of three or more at special rates. Write for details. Canadian and foreign subscriptions 25 cents extra. It requires one month for a change of address to become effective. Please send both old and new addresses. REMITTANCES —Payable in advance, should be made by bank draft, express, or post office money order payable to “The King's Business.“ Date of expiration will show plainly on outside wrapper or cover of magazine. ADVERTISING! —For information, address the Advertising Manager, 558 South Hope Street, Los Angeles 13, California. MANUSCRIPTS —“The King's Business“ cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to manuscripts sent in for consideration. Entered as second-class matter November 7, 1938, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in the Act of February 28, 1926, embodied in paragraph 4, section 538, P. L. and R., authorized October 1, 1918, and November 13, 1938. ADDRESS: The King's Business, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 13, Calif. — M a t t h e w B r id g e s . Page Three understanding of the deep things of God. The proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ accumulate day after day. The evidence will not be fully completed until the last member has been added to the Body of Christ. How do we know that Jesus Christ lives? There is the evidence of Scrip ture, but there is also the comple mentary experimental evidence that a risen Saviour has exchanged our sorrow for joy, our doubts for assurance, our ignorance for wisdom. “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! “He walks with me, and talks with me, along life’s narrow way. “He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! “You ask me how I know He lives? “He lives within my heart.”* ☆ Missionary Conference AGAIN this year, as for the last seventeen years, the great down town Church of the Open Door in the City of Los Angeles will be host to a mighty missionary conclave. Mis sionaries from many lands will be here. Evangelical missionary boards are asked to send their representa tives to tell of the work which the Lord is accomplishing in the regions beyond. Although the list is not yet fully complete, the speakers’ roster will include Mrs. Ruth Stull, Dr. Paul Bobb, Rev. Van V. Eddings, Rev. Kenneth Pike, Rev. Paul Con- tento, Dr. Cameron Townsend and Dr. Walter Montafio. The dates have been set from Sunday, April 13, to and including Sunday April 20, with seven meetings held daily in the great auditorium of the Bible Insti tute and the Church of the Open Door. Pastors and members of churches of the areas adjacent to Los Angeles are cordially invited to take advantage of this opportunity for the spiritual enrichment which always results from this Conference. Those desiring any of the missionary speakers are asked to write or tele phone the Church of the Open Door. ♦Copyrighted. Used by permission of Rode- heaver HaU-Mack Co. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S Lord’s Day, Christ appeared to the eleven—Thomas being present this time. Jesus invited him to examine the marks of His crucifixion in His resurrected body. The record does not indicate that Thomas did so ex amine the wounds of Christ, but it does clearly declare that the unbe lief in the heart of this disciple van ished completely at the appearance of Jesus. If you were to ask Thomas concerning his belief in a risen Christ, his testimony would be that Christ had utterly vanquished his doubts, and had exchanged them for an absolute assurance. There are multitudes of other Christians who will gladly testify that their doubts, too, vanished com pletely when they trusted the Sav iour. The account of the three on the road to Emmaus is a tender and beautiful story. Two disciples were hastening along the road leading away from Jerusalem and discussing, as they walked, the amazing events of the crucifixion, when a Stranger drew near and walked with them. Because He made inquiry about the matter over which they were con cerned, they told Him of their hopes and their doubts. Then the Stranger masterfully took charge, and, begin ning with Moses, He expounded the truth concerning the Crucified One. Their hearts burned as they journey ed along; when they arrived at their home, He graciously accepted their invitation to enter, and the story closes with the Visitor’s open ing their eyes so that they knew it was Jesus Himself who had been with them. If you were to inquire from the Emmaus two why they believed in a resurrected Christ, they would quickly reply that He had exchanged their ignorance for' the light of the Scriptures, and its clear teaching concerning Himself. How many men and women, and young people, today can testify to similar experience. We too were ignorant of the truth of God; we too understood little or nothing of His teachings. But once we met the risen Christ, our ignorance was ex changed for knowledge, of the Scrip tures. Our lack of appreciation of God’s truth was exchanged for an Up'to-Date Evidence TN GOD’S estimation, the resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ from the dead was one of the mightiest demonstra tions of power ever exhibited in this earth. He surrounded this amazing event with a great wall of impreg nable evidence. There is a great profit to anyone undertaking a study of any portion of this truth, and real growth in grace results from it. From a reverent considera tion of the circumstantial evidence in the case, we see not only the manifest duplicity of the enemies of Christ, but also the harmony of the fact of the resurrection with the life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is still another line of evi dence of a risen Lord which is most convincing. That is the ability of Christ to meet our present-day needs. You will remember that the first visitor to the tomb on the resurrec tion morning was a woman whose sinfulness had been exchanged for a new life of righteousness and love in Christ. She had come, not to see a risen Christ, but to mourn at the grave of a dead one. One can al most feel the anguish of her heart as he witnesses her bitter weeping. We know how her bitterness was turned into joy by the appearance of the risen Christ. If you were to ask Mary Magdalene today how she knew that Jesus Christ lived, her an- answer would be that she knew as suredly, because He changed her deepest sorrow into a heavenly Joy. That, too, is the testimony of countless Christians of this very day. Christ has met our needs. He has delivered us from our sin and woe, and brought us peace. We have come from the depths of sorrow to the highest pinnacles of joy. An interesting aspect of the resur rection has to do with a disciple named Thomas. Christ appeared to all of the disciples save Thomas, who was absent. When he rejoined the group, he refused to believe that Christ was alive, saying that he him self must see the print of the nails in His hands, arid the scar of the spear thrust in His side. The following Page Four until they came to Christ and found in His wisdom and power the secret of victory over circumstances. Few congregations there are that include no heavy hearts and harassed lives. To these God speaks in in effable tenderness as He asks, "Had enough? Had enough of sin? Had enough of blundering? Had enough of following your own way? Then, place your faith and trust complete ly in the One who is exceeding abundantly able to do for you what no one can ever do.” AN ECHO of the recent contro- versy which was widely publi cized through our land when an in dividual atheist brought suit against the constitutionality of religious teaching in the city of Champaign, Illinois, was the recent ruling of the Illinois Supreme Court upholding the affirmative verdict of the lesser courts. This ruling further establish ed the right of school boards to re lease children to the churches of their choice for weekly religious in struction. It is also to be noted that the evangelical forces engaged in this work are strengthening and solidifying their efforts with results from this Bible teaching beginning to be widely felt. In connection with the religious training of our youth, all parents should be interested in the new movement to establish Protestant Christian day schools. This is one of the most significant developments in our country at the present time, and should enlist the interest and prayers of all Christians. JUSTICE J. RUSSELL MORTON of a ** Southern California city recent ly fined three mothers of teen-age boys because they allowed the chil dren to run loose at night. The judge warned: "If you can’t Control your boys, the police will have to.” This seems to be getting at the root of the trouble. It brings to mind the truth which has been taught in the Bible for many years, which is that parents are held responsible under God for the actions of their children. When will America awaken to the neglected truth' that the Holy Scrip ture is the foundation of all right living and true happiness? Surely God will not hold those guiltless who neglect the souls of children, and thus bring disgrace and judgment upon our civilization. P< 9 < Five ☆ Religious Teaching ☆ Parents’ Accountability know the Lord from the least to the greatest. ☆ Unbeliever’s Responsibility I T HAS been repeatedly preached, and rightly so, that there de volves upon every born-again child of God the responsibility to take the message of the Gospel to those who have never heard. One of the iden tifying marks of a truly regener ated person is his desire to bring his friends and loved ones to Christ. While it cannot be stressed too strongly that the Christian lives not merely for himself, but for others, there is a great burden of respon sibility upon every unbeliever, too. God has placed in the world an al most unbelievable amount of evi dence regarding His person and His power. Every blade of grass, every cloud in the sky, every morsel of food, every drop of water, witness eloquently to Christ, the Creator. And, the man, who, in spite of this overwhelming amount of physical evidence, declares there is no God, is solemnly pronounced a fool in the Scriptures. So God holds every in telligent being responsible. It is a dangerous thing to consider lightly such evidence and to decide against God. Each unbeliever, some day, will be confronted with a mass of evi dence relative to the things which God has done in order to reveal Him self. The unbeliever who has re jected Christ all of his days will be absolutely speechless before such evidence. Here is a subject little preached upon, but one which most surely bears the stamp of God’s ap proval. ☆ Had Enough? Y OU WILL remember that this was one of the slogans used in the last political campaign when one party asked the voters to consider the failures of the opposing one. With apologies to the party involved, we should like to point out that such a question is applicable to the sin ner. One of the early church fathers very wisely remarked that the heart of man could find no rest until it found rest in the Saviour. And thus it is. Life has many storms and trials, and difficulties are the fate of everyone, but in the plan and pur pose of God, sinners are allowed to be buffeted until they come to the end of themselves and seek the peace and rest that God alone can give. It has been the testimony of many Christians that their lives were a continual round of failure, dis couragement, and disappointment What Is the Answer? rpHE WORLD continues to be great- ly perplexed I over the problem of the Jew. He is not really desired by any country, and the haven of his own heart, the land of his fath ers, seems unattainable. Various groups in Palestine have sought to use the weapons of terrorism and anarchy, only to find a rising tide of bitter reprisals sweeping upon them. At the conference table of the world there seems to be no workable solution to this problem. The Jew is still the number one world’s wanderer. But there is an answer in God’s Word. You who have earnestly and prayerfully ex amined the prophetic Scriptures know beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is an answer. For nearly four thousand years, the Jewish people have enjoyed a special relationship to God. This has not been because of their worthiness or because of their abil ity, but by the sovereign choice of God Himself. This choice involved very solemn responsibility on the part of the Jews, that they should walk in God’s way and do His will. As a punishment for their continuous failure, fellowship between the na tion and God was broken. Invariably, judgment followed this severance in communion and the nation came under the chastening hand of God. However, on condition of genuine re pentance, God had mercy upon His chosen people, forgave their sins, and restored them to the place of fellowship once more. For the past two millenniums, the Jews have known the chastisement of God. Their sorrow has been mountain high, and their tears and their blood have been shed. God has hidden His face from them, and the heavens have been like brass. Yet the solu tion is the same, that on the condi tion of genuine repentance on a national scale, God will again for give their sins, dry their tears, and restore them to the place of His favor. This is the answer to Israel’s plight, and what is more, we know from the prophetic Scriptures that this very thing is to occur at a time not far off. Over -the hearts of the Jewish people will sweep a wave of remorse and contrition, and they will bow their heads and hearts be fore the searching eyes of Jehovah God. They will cry.to Him for par don, and they will know the sweet sense of the restoration to His fa vor. Such is the answer to the Jewish problem. May God hasten the day when the suffering of Israel shall be no more, when every man shall dwell safely under his own vine and fig tree, and when all shall APRIL, 1947 THE GLADDEST NEWS D URING THE LAST WAR, an American mother received a very special letter. It was written In her son’s familiar handwriting and its heading read: “Somewhere in the South Pacific”: Dear Mom: It is comparatively quiet where I am today, but no one knows how long it will be. If this letter reaches you, it will mean that I can't write another one, for I'm putting this away with my things, and asking that it be sent to you. I just want to say, Mom, don't grieve for me. "I know that my Redeemer llveth." My trust is in Him “who loved me, ana gave himself for me/' And because He lives, I too shall liver Don't ever say of me, "He’s gone." Say, "He lives!" Because, Mom, when you read this. I shall be very much alive, and waiting for you in Christ's presence. With love, John. That letter was read through blinding tears. But in the darkest hour of a mother’s life, this woman at length could say, “This—really—is good news. He lives . . . waiting . . . in Christ’s presence.” The sting of death is gone when one contemplates the blessings of eternal life through Christ. “He lives!” There is no happier news. Throughout the Word, this message applies gloriously to Christ, “the firstfruits of them that slept.” One can not follow Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, without realizing that each writer produces positive proof of Christ’s victory over death and the grave. Each Gospel ends with our Lord’s triumphant mastery over the king of terrors. Every one of the evangelists shows conclu sively that, tearing away the bars of the tomb, Christ emerged as the Lord of life. But this Easter message, "He lives,” is in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Even a casual reading reveals that resurrection truth is everywhere in promise, parable, and prophecy. Through the telescope of revelation, the ancient Job saw Christ, the mighty Victor, and in his astonishing declaration there are the cardinal truths of Christ’s death, resurrection, and coming glory. The portion deal ing with this sublime fact of Christianity, uttered even before Christianity appeared, reads: For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall be hold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. —Job 19:25-27. Here is a glorious message. The chapter out of which the foregoing quotations are taken registers Job’s protest against the supposed kindness of. his so-called friends. At •first, the man of God is found recounting his woes. Then he moves beyond that, and proceeds to avow his faith in Jehovah. He has a Heavenly Redeemer, a Vindicator of righteousness! With an unmistakable tone of exaltation, he testifies to this bright glimpse of his living Redeemer. Here is a profound message. Various endeavors have been made to explain away the- somewhat mysterious Import of these verses. Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit In tended a meaning beyond that which Job himself fully when they were bom or how old they were, but they knew they were alive and aged. Similarly, there are many saints who cannot name the time and place when they were “bom again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Pet. 1:23), but they are truly saved. The question each of us must be assured of is whether the deliverance from the guilt of sin which the Re deemer accomplished by His death and resurrection, has become a personal reality. Can you say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”? If not, then before another moment rolls into eternity, you can, through the simple acceptance, by faith, of what God’s Word declares, pass from darkness into light and share the knowledge that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven your sins. A Complete Atonement Just what did Job mean when he affirmed that he knew that his Redeemer lived? Some expositors explain the word Redeemer by saying that Job expected one of his relatives to arise after his death as the avenger of his blood and to exact retribu tion for it. Job’s hope, however, utterly contradicts this interpretation. Already the man of God had expressed his desire for a daysman (R. V. umpire) between himself and God, who could be no other than a divine personage (9:32-35). He also declared his conviction that he had his “Witness . . . in heaven” (16:19). He longed to have an advocate to plead his cause (16:21). He called upon God to be “surety” for him (17:3). Thus, having already acknowl edged God as his Judge, Umpire, Advocate, Witness, and Surety, Job did not have to take a long step in the acknowledgment of God as his Redeemer. The word Job uses for Redeemer is of intense sig nificance. In the original, it is goel, that is a “kinsman redeemer.” In the Old Testament, goel was one who brought back a forfeited inheritance, redeemed a slave, avenged the slain, or one who perpetuated a family name and heirship among the families and estates of Israel. We have no hesitation in affirming that Job’s Re deemer is likewise ours—even the Lord Jesus Christ— for the language he used suggested a divine Goel: “Shall I see’God” (19:26). Though he lived hundreds of years before Calvary, Job meant, when he used the word Re deemer, exactly what we mean when, in the full blaze of divine grace, we use the same word. Commenting on Isaiah 59:20, Dr. C. I. Scofield reminds us that the Old Testament figure of a kinsman-redeemer is a beautiful type of Christ. Explaining the New Testament doctrine of redemp tion, Dr. Sbolield points out that there are three words translated redemption in the Scriptures. One word means to purchase in the market —in which there is the thought of a slave market. Another word implies to buy out of a market. And still another word suggests to loose or to set free by paying a price. The Saviour performed all of these services on behalf of the believer. Our Heavenly Inheritance was mortgaged by sin, and we were utterly unable to pay the debt, to satisfy God’s justice for sin, to renew our mortgage, or to provide a new settlement of our inheritance. Something of our condition is seen in the experience of Ruth, the Moabit* ish woman. As the widow of Mahlon, she was involved with her first husband in his losses and liabilities. But when she became the wife of Boaz, the redeemer of her estate and the lord of the harvest, she and her inherit ance were redeemed, and she became the sharer of his wealth and social standing. In Christ, we who in Adam were condemned and alienated, are justified and recon ciled. Saves JtouU There were many things that Job did not know. Sud denly stripped of all his possessions and crushed by sor row and disease, he did not know the reason for all his anguish. He could not read the meaning of his tears. But, blessed be God, he could appropriate the grace of God for his specific need, and thus face the future un afraid. Have we this joy of personal assurance? Separating ourselves from the multitude that is about us, the multi tude that knows not Christ, can each of us say: ‘“I know that my Redeemer liveth”? Or, realizing that countless myriads are trusting the Saviour, can we look up into His face and confess: “Thou art my Redeemer”? Unless this matter is intensely personal, and we can say with Job, “I know,” the present Easter season will mean nothing more to us than a spring holiday. If the Christ of Easter is not our personal Saviour, He can become so only by the exercise of a personal faith. Christ died for the sins of all men, and rose from the dead for the justification of all people; but that gen eral truth must be made personal. With the hand of faith upon the dear head of the Lamb of God, each soul must be able to confess: “This is my Redeemer.” A Certain Appearing By faith, Job was enabled to see far into the future, to behold not only the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, but also His second return in glory. It is as though two great mountain peaks loomed before Job, the one obscured by the other, so that he was un aware of the valley that lay between. Job spoke of One who “shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." The picture suggests authority. Isaiah described this coming One as “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” The day is coming when Christ shall take His rightful place, and this sin-scarred, blood-drenched earth shall respond to the holy commands of the King. Earn estly we pray: Come, blessed Lord, bid every shore And answering island sing Thoughts of the Redeemer were, to Job, a constantly purifying hope; and this experience is shared by every true child of God. One’s reactions to the smallest trivial ities of everyday life are influenced by this realization: At any moment, I may be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, “whom I shall see for myself.” What holy joy this fact Imparts! I know a home where there was great excitement. Such a house-cleaning as that place was given! Such buying of supplies for the kitchen and for the wardrobe! Such radiant joy on all faces! What was the reason for all this? A soldier-son was coming home on furlough. Heaven’s dearest Son is coming back to earth, not just on furlough, but to reign forever. Thoughts of His nearness should purify and gladden every moment of our lives. Perhaps, even before we shall have opportu nity to sing together once more that glorious Easter hymn, Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o’er His foes, His victory shall be complete, and He Himself shall ap pear. In heart and life, are we readying ourselves to welcome our triumphant, glorious Redeemer? T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S The praises of Thy royal name, And own Thee as their King. Jesus—the whole creation groans: The air, the earth, the sea, In unison with all our hearts, And calls aloud for Thee. A Confident Aspiration From another angle, we were slaves of Satan and Justly doomed to eternal woe, having no kinsman to vin dicate our cause and interpose for us by power or price. We were sold under sin. Easter, however, reminds us of Christ our Redeemer, who, veiling His deity in human flesh that He might sympathize, suffer, and save, paid a terrible price in order to redeem His enemies from the curse. He “gave himself a ransom for all.” By His own blood, He re deemed us from sin and the grave, and by His power He conquered our murderer. Hallelujah, what a Saviour! The story is told of a Russian officer whose accounts could not be made to balance and who feared that the merciless despotism of the empire would allow no room for leniency in dealing with him. While hopelessly por ing over his balance sheet, and in despair of ever mak ing up his deficiency, he wrote half inadvertently on the page before him, "Who can make good this deficit?” Then he fell asleep at his table. The Czar, passing by, saw Ine sleeping officer, glanced curiously at the pages, and, taking up the pen, wrote underneath the question these words: "I, even I, Alex ander.” Who is there who is really able to pay the sinner’s debt to a broken law? There is One who died and rose again, and from the cross of Calvary, from the tomb in the garden, from the throne in Heaven, He an swers, “I am he.” A Continual Advocacy One of the most amazing aspects of Job’s Easter evangel is that he knew that his Redeemer was alive. He declared: “I know that my redeemer liveth.” This present-tense word liveth, implies a continual existence. As the Eternal One, the Redeemer must have been alive in, as well as before, Job’s day; He is “alive for ever more.” Job used the term liveth, as applied to the Re deemer, in opposition to his own condition. Man dies; his Ooel lives! Because of the ravages of a skin disease, Job antici pated the utter destruction of his bodily frame, but he affirmed that his Redeemer was deathless. Having been made by the living God, Job needed a living Redeemer, one who would be able to undertake for him when he slipped away into the shadows of the tomb. Like Job, we, too, face separation and the grave. Un less we are among the number who are “caught up to gether . . . in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” at His return for His own (1 Thess. 4:17), we must each pass through the experience of death. When we come to the end of life, we shall need the Divine One to hold our “right hand, saying . ... Fear not; I will help thee” —He who has gone, that way before, and has come through, living and triumphant! Bless God, there is no trusting child of His who ap proaches "the valley of the shadow" alone. “I am he that liveth,” cries our victorious Lord, and, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." The advocacy of Christ has to do not only with the possibly distant prospect of our dying, but also with the present fact of our living. He “ever liveth to make in tercession” for us. There, at the right hand of God, He pleads our cause; He prays for us. Sometimes we hear Christian people complaining about a lack of sympathy among believers, and perhaps one will say: “I have just nobody to pray for me!” If you are a child of God, Jesus Christ prays for you. Day and night, He intercedes for you. A Conditional Appropriation In Job’s majestic utterance, note the personal element: / -. . . my. Phrases like I know, my Redeemer, I shall see for myself, and many others, speak of Job’s per sonal faith. t i j e Eight T HERE is a green hill (ar away. Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all. We may not know, we cannot tell What pains He had to bear; But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there. The city of Jerusalem from the Ut. of Olives. L i E died that we might be forgiven, * 1 He died to make us good, That we might go at last to Heaven,. Saved by His precious blood. There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate Of Heaven, and let us in. H, dearly, dearly has He loved, And we must love Him too, And trust in His redeeming blood And try His works to do. For there’s a green hill far away, Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified. Who died to save us all. — Mrt. C. F. Alexander. APRIL, 1947 Psjs Ni«« Robert G. Lee, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D. T h e C r o ss To get the full glory of the empty tomb of Joseph’s of Arimathea, we must stand at the place called Calvary. To know the dawn at its highest, at the unsealed tomb, we must know the night at its darkest, at Golgotha. At Calvary, at the Interlocking of the ages, Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, re deeming man from death to life, canceling man’s debt of judicial obligation by an equivalent which afforded legal satisfaction, voluntarily passing under death’s dreadful shadow, though owing the law no debt. At the Cross, God’s eternal attributes emptied their vials of burning wrath upon the sinless Christ in agony enough to make the earth shudder, the sun in darkness hide, the spheres go wailing in their orbits. There love in carnate was rejected, tortured, killed—there where the history of human guilt culminates, where the purposes of divine love are made intelligible, where the serpent’s head is bruised, where the fountain of salvation is un sealed, where our death sentence is revoked, where God in crimson garments dressed, courted our love, where Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. T h e C o m p l e m e n t The resurrection of Jesus, the whole alphabet of hu man hope, the certification of our Lord's mission from Heaven, the heart of the Gospel in all ages, the best established fact in human history, the proclamation of His claimed and attendant deity, is the complement of the Cross. Christ's Cross, purposed from all eternity, prophesied through ages, peered into by angels, found its complement in the empty tomb. Christ’s sacrifice found its complement in the empty tomb where He wrested from Death's black brow his ebony diadem, where Jesus wrenched from Death’s hand his cruel scep ter, where Jesus shivered at a single blow Death’s em pire of skulls, where Jesus changed humanity's bleak winter into flowery summer, where Jesus took away the hideous skeleton and left the radiant lily, where Jesus “brought life and immortality to light,” where He "arose a victor from the dark domain.” Had the Cross been all, then all the truth we now cherish would be as painted fire where no heat is, as the water of the mirage, as a roofless house where no shelter is afforded. Forever is it true that all Gospel preaching is vain; all Christian faith is vain; all Christians are yet in their sins; all who have fallen asleep in Jesus are perished; and “we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:18), had the Cross been all and had Christ not risen. T h e C e r t a in t y But on the authority of this Book, a work far superior to human invention, 4 Book confirmed and validated by the Spirit of God, a radiation from an orb Infinitely higher than reason, and brighter than fancy, a direct and decisive disclosure from the high and lofty God who inhabits eternity and yet is pleased to dwell with those of an humble and contrite heart—rests this as serted certainty of the resurrection. The Bible, honored with the supreme sanction claimed for it, declares the resurrection with a certainty which makes the fact un doubted save by those who see the light and deny the T H E K I N G ' S I U S I N E S S Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms, Washington, D. C. O F resurrection realities, the following words come to mind: Chief, Cross, Complement, Certainty, Comfort, Confirmation and Confession. T h e C h ie f The chief one, the central personality, amid all resur rection scenes is Jesus, who never sought a chief seat in any synagogue; who “took upon him the form of a servant”; who said: “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mark 10:44). Of Him whom God hath highly exalted, to whom He has given a name which is above every name, these words are written: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief est among ten thousand” (S.S. 5:10). Jesus, the ob served of all observers, during the crucifixion scenes and the resurrection revealings, is among the greatest of men “As the lily among thorns” (S.S. 2:2) and among the most radiant men of all ages, as the sun above candles. Jesus, the most hated by haters, the best loved of those who know the holy sacredness of pure love, is called “the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20). Jesus, who during the crucifixion horrors, was the object of vilifi cation and who, after the resurrection, was the object of adoration and worship, the one upon whom all eyes were fastened, is “the chief shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4), the highest among the high of all who ever lived on earth, the brightest among the bright who serve in Heaven, forever the chief, unlike and unique. The Father of Glory has set Him on an incomparable eleva tion "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1 : 21 ). ' )«|< Ten Sin and death are not stronger than omnipotence. If they were, then ’the ear of the Lord, though never heavy and the arm of the Lord, though never shortened, could not save. But, though sin has wrought wrack and ruin, though death has pitched his black pavilions on man’s sterile and blasted estate, God can repair the con sequences of sin. He can and will, with His voice, break the long and deep stillness of the sepulcher, break the bolts and open the gates and let the light pour in from Heaven upon the darkness. And this He will do in His own time. The dead in Christ shall come forth at His call, invested with bloom and thrilling with the vigor of immortality, the mortal gloriously clothed with the immortal, the corruptible gloriously beautiful with the incorruptible. Thus shall the glory of God be vindi cated. That which is “sown a natural body,” impaired by sin, “under sentence of death, hard to keep alive, fretted with infirmities, gross in itself and sustained by gross food, ever renewing its ever-failing strength until it fails forever,” shall be raised a spiritual body, free from sin, fearless of death, teeming with immor tality, ‘Tull of elements and combinations adapting it to all possible spiritual demands in all immensity and to all eternity.” These truths the resurrection of Jesus confirms. T h e C o n f e s s io n Like a lily abloom in the dark is the confession of Thomas—after the resurrection. “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:24,25). For eight days, Thomas had an interior agony— doubt. All those long days, Thomas was tortured with remembrance of the bloody crucifixion—went mourn ing when he should have been singing, groaning gloomily when he should have been glorying greatly. He missed the sunrise and the climbing sun of the res urrection morning. “After eight days . . . came Jesus... Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but be lieving. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God” (John 20:26-28). It was then that. Thomas came out of the rigors of the arctic night of his gloom into the warm tropical clime of light, and threw off his weights of doubt. It was then that Thomas got out of the quicksand onto the solid rock. It was then that Thomas got off the footstool and mounted the throne, turned from the blind alley to the highway, got into harmonious relations with his fellow disciples. Moreover, the only way I know for you to know thé joy that came into the heart of Thomas is for you to confess Him as Lord of your own heart and life. Con fess Him, thou! Give Him thy ways, and He will over arch life’s pathway as the heavens overarch flowers, filling them with heat by day and yielding cooling dews at night. Confess Him! Give Him but a flickering aspiration, and He will give thee balm for the bruised reed and flame for the smoking flax. Confess Him! Give him the publican's penitent prayer, and He will give thee mercy like the wideness of the sea. Confess Him! Say to Him, “My Lord and my God,” and He will give thee to drink of the water of the river of life and bring thee to the banquet hall in the house of many mansions. By faith, confess Him as your Sav iour in your own heart and before men, and He will bring you out of ruin into riches, even the riches of His grace. Rege Eleven sun. The resurrection, explicitly declared, frequently repeated, amply Illustrated, appears in every form of proposition, of promise, of prophecy. Clear as the cloud less sky, strong as the noonday sun, absolutely irresist ible in convicting and confirming energy, the resurrec tion is actually exemplified, so visibly and tangibly foreshown and pledged in the resurrection of Jesus. He is the “first fruit” from the great harvest field—the cer tainty that the full ingathering will follow in due sea son. The certainty we have had birth in the revelation of God. The Bible is the strong support of the resurrec tion reality. Silent are the mythological imaginings of pagan antiquity. Silent are the philosophical schemings of those who deal mainly in the speculative. Nowhere except in the Bible do we have any provision for the resurrection of the body, or any promise of such a con summation. “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertain ing to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). T h e C o m f o r t All Christians have loved ones who, slipping from their arms into the pathway of glory, still turn to smile upon them from afar/ and beckon them to follow after them. So many millions long for the sound of a voice that is still, for the look of eyes closed in death, for the touch of a vanished hand. Though we sorrow that "as in Adam all die,” we give thanks that “in Christ shall all be made alive.” What a comfort! “Because I live, ye shall live also.” What a comfort—to think upon the resurrection! Without the resurrection, we would have no hope of seeing our redeemed loved ones who have gone on be fore. Man, instead of living forever, would dwindle into the existence of a moment; then the silence of eternity would settle on his tomb. Sin would be triumphant, proven stronger than omnipotence. It would be the master power of the universe. God might sit on the central throne of creation and weep over the withering magnificence and beauty He could neither rescue nor renew. Shocking such thought! But comforting is the as surance, and assuring the comfort, that by the resurrec tion God promises a greeting in Heaven for our goodby on earth, a meeting for our separation from redeemed friends and loved ones, a day a thousand times brighter than the night of bereavement. What comfort is there to know that death shall not, like some coarse comedian or heartless satirist, mock our hopes. What consolation there is to know that we shall not, in deepest mourning dressed, go down to the end, weeping for our children and finding no comfort. T h e C o n f ir m a t io n The huge heart of the world moans with the echoes of the question: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job. 14:14). God brought the resurrection to pass as an eternally affirmative answer to that question. High above all the harmonies of art, and high above all the uproar of passion, and high above every sound that rises from the earth, ascends the original and universal and perpetual cry: the pleading of the mortal race for personal and relative immortality. God, by the resur rection of Jesus from the dead, tells us that we too shall live. To us, living for eternity, death is abolished; life shines upon our vision like the morning star, and im mortality expands to our view like the sunrise on the mountains. Because of this confirmation, we gladly “wear the world as a loose garment,” and are ready, at a moment’s warning, to throw it aside, and sink to our hopeful sleep and rest in the place where Jesus lay, having joy in the ceaseless love of Christ and the in exhaustible fullness of God. APRIL, 1447 I N Great Britain, the manuscripts of radio sermons must be sub mitted to the Director of Reli gious Broadcasting before they may be broadcast to the people. The late Director, Dr. Welch, at a conference on evangelism made the statement that out of six thousand manuscripts he had read only one which dealt with the hope of immortality. It ap pears that we are becoming so im mersed in this world, so occupied with social activities, that we are neglecting to give time and thought to the life beyond. To do so is foolish and fatal. It was the hope of immortality which gave the early Christians faith, courage, confidence and joy amid the trials and temptations of this present life, and which made the Christian faith unique among the world’s religions. (TFwas the an nouncement that life both here and hereafter is one and continuous, with death but a gateway to the next stage, that has given Christian ity such a powerful appeal among those living in heathen darkness. The Gospel of Christ, with its as sured hope of immortality, is the only Gospel which gives deliverance from fear, and lights up the dark valley of the shadow of death. In terror, a dying African asked Dr. Laws of Livingstonia, “White man, where am I going?” Tenderly taking his trembling hand, the mis sionary breathed into his ear the glorious message of the Gospel. Trusting the word of Christ, the dying man found peace and rest. ■ How necessary it is at Eastertide, as at all times, to emphasize the hope of immortality, which is the central message of the New Testa ment. If Christ was not raised from the dead, there is no forgiveness; He died in vain and we are yet in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). By His glorious resurrection from the dead, we are assured of the efficacy of His aton ing sacrifice to Justify us in God’s sight. He “was delivered for our of fences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). His resur- rection is the guarantee of our own. “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). Death met its master in Christ; He triumphed over death and overcame him who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14). Seeing Christ after His resurrec tion, the apostles saw death in a new. light; they too would conquer it and ascend to be with Christ. They had no thought of a long interval in the grave before going into the presence Of Christ. There was nothing in the dissolution of the body that could touch the living spirit, nothing that could separate them from Christ. “Absent from the body . . . present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). To them P«g* Twclv* day extinguish him. / "The life of man," states Bertram RusseU, “is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain. One by bne our comrades vanish from exit sight. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipo tent matter rolls on its relentless way,” From such a dark and hopeless creed, we turn to Him who has abol ished death; who teaches not extinc tion, but a richer, fuller life—an eternal life. “For though our outward man is wasting away, our inward man is being renewed day by day. For this our light and transitory bur den of suffering is achieving for us, a preponderating, yes a vastly pre ponderating, and eternal weight of glory; while we look not .at things seen, but things unseen; for things seen are temporary, but things un seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, Weymouth). For Paul death meant not annihilation, but immortality; not the end of all things, but the beginning of eternal fellowship with Christ in a world in which he would enjoy perfect life and liberty. In contrast with the pessimistic outlook of those who reject the revelation of God in Christ Jesus, we think of the cheery words of that great poet of the Christian hope, Robert Browning, 'whose faith enabled him to sing: “Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.” This sad, despairing world needs the hope of the Gospel if it is to rise out of its misery. The loss of that hope means the loss of all that makes life worth while. This is the hour tor Christians to be bold and to tell forth with confidence and Joy the Gospel of God's forgiveness in Christ, and of the gift of life eternal. We alone have the message which can bring light and life and healing to this dark, sin-stricken world. When Jacob Boehme, the great mys tic, lay dying, his ears seemed to be attuned to the harmonies of Heaven. He appeared to be listening to a rap turous strain which filled his soul. "Open the window,” he cried with his lsst breath, "and let in more of that music!” It was the melody of the Easter hope. T H I K I N O ’S » U S I N E S I Christ had vanquished death so that it was no longer of any account. Christ “hath abolished death,” said Paul, “and hath brought life and im mortality to light through the gos pel” (2 Tim. 1:10). The face of death lost all its terrors for those who had seen the power and glory of God, in the face of the risen Christ. Referring to death, the late Dr. F. B. Meyer said, "Let us learn what death is. It is simply a translation ...n o t a condition, but a passage. We pass through a doorway; we cross a bridge of smiles; we flash from the dark into the light. There is no interval of unconsciousness, no parenthesis of suspended anima tion.” To those in whose hearts is implanted the hope of the Gospel, death is no longer regarded as a grim enemy waiting to pounce upon them, to rob them of life and joy, but as one who opens the portal into the light of the Saviour’s presence forevermore. I believe it was with a shout of defiance that Paul said those words: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy vic tory? . .. thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57). The Christian Church alone has the message of immortality, and never was there a time of greater need for its proclamation. The social gospel is of no use to a world that is full of uncertainty and despair; it is like offering a stone to a starv ing man. The writings of the human ists, who believe that this is the only world, reveal their own conscious ness that they have very little to offer man in the place of the Chris tian faith and hope. For instance, Mr. John Strachey dreams of a day, many centuries hence, when science will double the span of man’s exist ence, and the growth of social con sciousness will take away the sting of death. What hope is there in this theory for all of the millions sor rowing, suffering and dying, in the present world? H. G. Wells in his latter days saw nothing but extinc tion for humanity. To the materialist, there is no God, no Heaven, no eter nal life; death is the end of all things. Man is under the pressure of cruel material forces which will one
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