391
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
LIM ITING
Ponder th ese words of Jesus, “ Only believe.” As long as we are able to trust in God, holding fast in heart that He is able and willing to help those who rest on the Lord Jesus for salvation, in all matters that are for His glory and their good, the heart remains calm and peaceful.-G eorge M uller .
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By NEWTON W RAY * Upland, Indiana
scribed as a lack of purpose to follow the Lord at all costs. Absolute surrender to Him will set faith free and streng then its hold upon the unseen. Nothing else will reduce to insignificance the difficulties that beset the path of every one “ called to be a saint.” Moses “ endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” The real trouble with many is that they are living in the seen and temporal. The place of victory is “ the heavenlies,” and faith seats us there. Andrew Murray, in a chapter entitled “ The Secret of Effectual Prayer,” remarks, If the unseen is to get full possession o f us, and heart and life and prayer are to be full of faith, there must be a withdrawal from, a denial of, the visible. The spirit that seeks to enjoy as much as possible of what is innocent or legitimate, that gives the first place to the calls and duties of daily life, is inconsistent with a strong faith and close intercourse with the spiritual world. And this absorption in the seen and temporal, this re fusal to put aside things that are insistent for the first place in order that the demands of the divine and spiritual may become regnant in life, is the explanation for so many baffled prayers. As the British Weekly has expressed it : W e would have health and yet Still use our bodies ill; Bafflers of our own prayers We must not only give God first place but a large place in thought and life. The measure of power and blessing is the outcome of what we make of God. Doubt resolves God into a minus quantity. Faith makes Him the winning factor. The reason why all things are possible to him that believeth is because Omnipotence becomes his servant. “ Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me o f things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work o f my hands command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host I com manded” (Isa. 45:11, 12). A great religious thinker has said that with Christ God was everything and the world nothing. Just in the measure that men have caught that vision and entered into its mean ing have they been mighty in faith and work. It can be seen, for example, why George Muller, through prayer, without soliciting the help of a single human being, secured the erection and maintenance of large or- From earth to life’s last scenes. W e would have inward peace Yet will not look within; W e would have misery cease Yet will not cease from sin ; W e want all pleasant ends But will use no harsh means. G od ’ s P lace F irst and S upreme . .... ...
T he most serious charge that can be brought against a Christian or a church is that which the Psalmist makes against Israel on the way to Canaan. The nation had been emancipated from the bondage of Egypt and was passing through a desert region to the land predestined for its na tional home. We read in one place that “ the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” Visible supplies ceased, dreadful obstacles loomed up ahead, and the gaunt specters o f hunger and war menaced them. They began to murmur; murmuring led to panic and revolt; and the whole expedition was threatened with disaster. Impa tient of trial, they sought present gratification at the ex pense of future good, and thinking they could never reach their destination, wished to go back to the scenes of servitude. “ Yea,” says the Psalmist, “ they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” T he S in of U nbelief “ N ow ,” declares the apostle, “ all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our ad monition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” The sin of limiting God is as common now as when Israel pro voked the Lord ; and it is far more reprehensible, seeing we are admonished by the lessons of past dispensations, and are living when the fullness of the Spirit may be enjoyed. The Scriptures teach that God is limited by only one thing — unbelief. Two sayings of our Lord indicate the relation of this to failure and show the inexcusableness of weak ness in His service: “With God all things are possible” and “ All things are possible to him that believeth.” In the life of the believer and in the work of the church, these sayings cannot be considered apart from each other, since divine power is operative through human instrumentalities. The latter saying is true because that power is available through faith. It then simply becomes a question of whether unbe lief is ever justifiable. This admits of but one answer: “ He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.” Who will dare take this responsibility? With the God-given fac ulty of faith and with the most solemn and weighty reasons that can be drawn from heaven, earth, and hell, for be lieving God, no man can justify his want of faith and plead his inability to live a holy life. Defeat is culpable, because faith guarantees victory, and faith is a duty. This is the inevitable conclusion from the revealed truth that “ the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” and that unbelief is a sin. But with people now, as with Israel then, a fatal hin drance to faith lies back of the unbelief. It may be de- *Professor at Taylor University.
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