THE KING’S BUSINESS 93 made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” and while he is waiting for that resurrection body, though he is absent from the body he is “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:1-8).
r p H E WORST THAT CAN COME.
A few months ago it was hoped that America would not be in the war for any great length of time. Indeed it was hoped that the war would close so soon that the great majority of those who had already been drafted would never reach France. Apparently very few of those who> know conditions best entertain any such hope today. The probability is that the war will go on for a long time, that not only will all those who have already been drafted be forced to go into battle, but that there will be other drafts. There seems to be every probability that practically all of us will suffer, hundreds of thousands,by the loss of life or limb, still more by the loss of loved ones, and that every one of us will suffer financial loss of a serious character, and hardships that it is impossible as yet to estimate. In view of this apparently dark future, many hearts, perhaps one might say most hearts, throughout our country are filled with gloom and apprehension in these days. But this is entirely unnecessary. Even if the worst things that we can conjure up come to pass, the believer in Christ has absolutely nothing to fear. We have God’s own sure word for it: “We know that all things work together for góod to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). Whatever may come to pass in our individual lives, or in our families, it will be one of the “all things,” and God will make it to work together with other things for our highest good. Good, and good only, can come to the believer, even out of this awful war with all that it involves. We can face thè future absolutely without fear and with a smile. It is our duty to do this. There is no more specific command in the Bible than that we should “rejoice in tlie Lord alivays” (Phil. 4:4). Indeed the darker the night grows the more jubi lant our, hearts should be, for the darkening night is but the harbinger of the soon coming of the brightest day the world ever saw. Our Lord Jesus bids us that when “men’s hearts (are) failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth,” we should “look up, and lift up your (our) heads; for your (our) redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:26-28). One stands appalled as he thinks of all the miseries and evils that have arisen from the present war, and yet even this awful and wicked war has its compensations. Beyond a question it has made many men and women, who were formerly utterly frivolous, serious and thoughtful. To any intelligent person things that formerly were considered tolerable* are utterly intolerable in view of the solemn questions that confront us today in connection with this war, and not a few have felt it. Many have been led to see and feel how unsatisfying and transitory are all the things that the present life offers. The possibility of death has become a vivid reality to many who hitherto have put the thought away and lived as1if the present life must go on forever. There are many also who have become interested in the Bible and in the things of God, who a short time ago had no thought either of the Bible or eternal things. "D LESSINGS FROM THE WAR.
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