384
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
M rs . E dith G. W allace M rs . E dith P. Y oungken Sup’t of Women Registrar
C utler B. W hitwell Sup’t of Men
M rs . J. B. N ield
I one L owman
R obert E vans
equally noble attitude? Yes, Paul represents them. When they told Paul that the day of adversity was at hand, that bonds and imprisonment awaited him in every city, that every step that he took was a step into danger, he said, “ None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” That was his tone in the day of adversity. When he was plagued with a thorn in the flesh, when his nights and days were but experiences of pain, and he cried mightily unto God for the removal of his torment, and God said unto him, “ My grace is sufficient for thee,” he was quieted like a child in his father’s arms. He spoke no more about the day of adversity, but about the day of prayer and of renewed consecration. As for the grand old men that come up from olden times, behold them! “ They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being desti tute, afflicted, -tormented; . . . they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” ..See how they deported themselves in the day of adversity. We are in this great succession. They are no medium men who are in front. It is over no common dust that our pathway lies. We set our feet in the footprints o f the giants, and we are to follow them as they followed Christ. Yes, it was the Saviour who showed us how to act in the day of adversity in Gethsemane’s pain, in Gethsemane’s darkness. It was He who taught us that all-inclusive prayer, “ Thy will be done.” That was the Lord’s prayer. That other prayer of His was a prayer that children may learn, but this was a prayer that consecrates Gethsemane forever. This should be the first prayer that a man learns, and when he learns it thoroughly, he will not need to learn to sing—he will sing like Paul and Silas at midnight in the Philippian jail, with their feet in the stocks, and an earthquake will follow, and some Philippian jailer will find the Lord Jesus Christ. G One Way, One Purpose, One Service hristianity has only one way—belief. To believe is to give the soul over to the keeping o f the way of God. It is the eternal that holds the temporal, the divine that en
folds the human. The word “ believe” occurs in the first instance in connection with Abram in the divine revela tion; The Lord took him but to show him all the lights of the night in a land where they can be seen as they cannot be seen anywhere else, and as they were all gleaming like diamonds in the sky, host on host, infinite, endless, the Lord spake certain great promises to Abram, utterly stunned his reason, and overwhelmed his imagination. The man took a little time, and then, according to the divine historian, Abram believed God. What a crisis in human history ¡ And the Hebrew word means so much that is ten der. It means that Abram embosomed and nestled him self in God. Abram, like a little babe, went to the bosom of God and lay there. Abram believed God—how his face shone, how his voice changed, how the whole heaven be came spiritual to him because of his changed kinship with thfrEternal Himself! Belief is not assenting to something, saying, “ That is true. I see no reason against it. In the meantime, your proposition seems to be wholly impreg nable, your position' is invincible, on the whole, I accede and consent.” That is not faith, that is mere intellectual action. To believe is to nestle the soul in God. Where is your soul? We do not want your intellectual assent to dis putable propositions, we want you to say, “ I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. I will go over to the side of God.” Christianity has only one purpose—holiness. Chris tianity ends in conduct. Christianity begins in motive, but it ends in character, in manhood. We are here to represent Jesus Christ. We are here to be as He was on earth. We are to breathe His Spirit, repeat His deeds, follow His footsteps, represent Him to mankind; so that they, look ing at us, will know what Christ Himself is. I f the world does not see Jesus Christ in us, where can it see Him? Christianity has only one test—service. To die for Christ, to work for Christ, to be always repeating Christ’s great mission to the world— one way, belief; one purpose, conduct; one grand test, service. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do—watch a door, light a lamp, preach Thy Word? Wouldst Thou make me a great thunder voice to the age? Wouldst Thou have me teach what little I know of Thy kingdom by patient suffering, by heroic patience? Not my will, but Thine, be done. Only dismiss me not from Thy service, Lord.
Lours T. T albot
F. J amison
RossA. H arris , M.D.
M ilo
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