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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
(¿!rum L fro m THE KING ’S TABLE . . . By T he E ditor
ing upon us from all points of the compass; the sea is very rough, and the vessel is all but unmanageable, and we faint. What does it mean ? Our fainting means that we have lost somewhat of our old confidence in God. We can at least sit down and say, “ It will be all right yet—the sea is God’s, the boat is mine. I myself am His. He has redeemed me by the precious blood of His Son. He will not cast me away, or if He casts me away, it will be that He may find me again. He will be sowing me as a farmer sows his seed, that I may bring forth fruit to His honor and to His glory.” We can not triumph perhaps in our desolation, in our friendless ness, and poverty. We cannot utter the paean of victory, but we can say, though it be with a sob and a terrible spasm of grief, “ Thy will be done.” A man who says that with his heart, when the wolf is at the door, when there is no fire in the grate, no bread in the cupboard, no money in the bank, no friends about him, has spoken all the lessons that the cross of Christ can teach the heart of man. Will you faint in the day of adversity ? Then you will be unlike the men who have made history glorious by their much-enduring, uncomplaining heroism. Job is one. He said when things were breaking to pieces before him, when the earth was being dried up, when the very footprints of his children were blown out by the cold, cruel wind, when all the earth was to him a gigantic graveyard, “ The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” He did not faint in the day of adversity. Habakkuk came up afterward, and said, “ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” He was prepared for the day of adversity. He was qualified with a deeply religious preparation. Nothing can break through the dark ness of such days, but the light of divine truth. Nothing can heal such wounds, but the balm of the grace of the cross of Christ. Have there been no Christian heroes ? Job and Habak kuk were Old Testament men. Are there not men in the New Testament who hold an equally high tone and an * * * The pictures on this and the following two pages, together with that of the Vice-President, found on the inside back cover, repre sent the faculty of the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles for the ensu ing year. They are all popular teachers and have the added ad vantage of knowing what will be expected o f their students when they shall have entered upon their life service.
Days (or Great Testimony
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.HESE ARE DAYS when we, as Christian men, can show what Christianity has done for us. But if we be as peevish, as restless, as -excitable, as men who have no Ch ristian faith, what is our faith worth? If we be loud in our reproaches and complaints, in o u r weakness and moan- ings, and if we be hardly articulate in our praises and suppli cations and utterances of loyalty, what is our faith worth? It is not easy to leave one’s house and go out into the cold street, to give
W illiam P. W hite , President
up everything. It is not easy, I say. I do not expect a Chris tian believer to do all this as if it cost him nothing. There will be a wrench, a time of pain, a crisis almost intolerable, and yet under the pressure of all these contrary and difficult events, there will be a spirit of sweet submission, of deep religious confidence that where right has been done, if it has ended in failure, joy will surely come after a nighttime of weeping. Things have gone wrong with many of you, who are the friends of the Bible Institute. Though you have risen early, sat up late, and schemed and planned and racked your brain, so as to do that which was right toward both God and men, things have gone contrary with you, and the day of adversity has set in with all its cloudiness and coldness upon your .life. It is now that you are to show the value of your faith, the value of your prayerfulness. It is now that you are to glorify God. This is the day of your martyrdom. Men are watching you, and if, out of the darkness of your present obscurity and the pain of your present adversity, they hear a soft, sweet voice of resig nation and prayer and praise, they will be constrained to say, “ Truly this man is living near to God.” Think what it is to faint as a Christian. It is to distrust God. Circumstances are contrary. Winds seem to be beat-
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