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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
May 1928
that they came to understand the Scriptures and the things concerning Himself. There sprang from the old pages new meaning and a vision o f possibilities they had never before dreamed of. There emerged from the pages concerning the “ suffering servant,” Christ Himself, and the Bible became a new Book to them. This was an experience o f God in which their minds were touched and illumined. In the second passage we have Christ’s explanation o f how that happens to man in our day. The Holy Spirit touches and illumines the mind and takes all the things of Christ as we have them in the Word o f God and makes them real to us. He is able to make real to us things that Christ could not teach His disciples while He was with them ;in the flesh. Even Christ who is the perfect Teacher could not make them understand many of the things He •wanted them to know. This was not because He was lim ited -or because o f any imperfection in Him, but because
they were limited and their minds were darkened. The Holy Spirit was given when Jesus was exalted at the right hand o f God, the Father, and when He came, the minds of these men were illumined and Jesus Christ became more real to them than He ever was during His sojourn among them in Palestine. The Holy Spirit is called our guide, and Christ promised that He would guide us into all Truth by taking all His things and revealing them to us. He reveals and. interprets Him in all the sweep o f His infi nite life and relationships. He unveils Him as the origin and'heart of our world and as the Redeemer who is carry ing forth God’s purpose concerning the world to be con summated in His own good time. W hy T he B ible I s A D ull B ook T o know Jesus Christ in the quickening o f the mind is to get a vision o f Him in His cosmic relations and the glorious sweep of' His redemptive purposes. It is impos sible for anyone with an illumined and quickened mind to study the world in its origin and its activities as well as in its movements and nature and in history, without com ing face to face with Jesus Christ, and to experience Him in this way is to be led to a greater appreciation o f His glory as the Lord o f Life. It is said of Augustine that during the days of his sin and darkness, he found the Bible a very dull and uninter esting book. He had one o f the most alert and keenest minds of his day, but it found no particular interest in the Bible. Later on, however, he had an experience in which his life was changed and his mind was quickened and he came to know Jesus Christ as his Saviour and as the key to the Scriptures, and immediately the Bible became to him a joy arid; a delight. He lived in it and some o f the most magnificent things in the literature o f religion are the things that Augustine wrote as a result o f the expe rience o f Jesus Christ, through the illumination of his mind. Wbat the Holy Spirit did for Augustine He can do for all in the measure o f their ability to respond to His ministry. I f we find the Bible and Christ dull and uninter esting, it is because we have not experienced this illumina tion of the Holy Spirit. Just recently Mr. Gamaliel Bradford has written a very interesting book on the life o f D. L. Moody. Evi dently Mr. Bradford himself is not a Christian, but rather a weary soul reaching out after the things that were so real to D. L. Moody, and therefore, the book in its author and subject presents a striking and challenging contrast. He knew, that God was a reality in the life o f Mr. Moody and he wonders as to whether there is anything that can make God more real to men than He was to D. L. Moody. W e know that there is not. • It is only as God is made real in Jesus Christ by the ministry o f the Holy Spirit that the great yearnings of the human soul can be satisfied, and no mind comes to its best until it is quickened and illumined through that experience o f God. He Lives to Intercede In all the power and virtue o f His own Person and work, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for His people. The word entunkano, to intercede, primarily signified to fall in with a person; then, to have intimate dealings with him, so as to gain his ear; and hence, to make an entreaty, or interpose on behalf o f others. He enters into all their concerns, their needs, and sorrows, and desires.
Tell Me About The Blue and The Gray F. M. F inch By the flow o f the inland river, Whence the fleets, o f iron have fled, Where the blades o f the grave-grass quiver, . Asleep on the ranks o f the dead:—
Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the one, the Blue, Under the other, the Gray.
, These in the robings o f glory, Those in the gloom of defeat, All with the battle-blood gory, In the dusk o f eternity meet
Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the laurel, the Blue, Under the willow, the Gray.
No more shall the war-cry sever, Or the winding rivers be red; They banish our anger forever When they laurel the graves o f our dead!
Under the sod and the dew, ■ Waiting the judgment day; Love and tears for the Blue, Tears and love for the Gray.
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