THE KI NG' S BUSINESS
January, 1938
26
Lord: “ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be with you . . . Hate the evil, and love the good” (Amos 5:14, 15). As long as sin should continue, the warning would stand: “ I [Jehovah] will take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (v. 21, R. V .). The message of Amos is greatly needed ip our land today. W e as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ not only must be strong in our verbal denunciation of corruption, but our lives also must be empowered and must show practical righteousness if we are to tell others of One who disapproves of evil but who can impart new life for the old. The Lord Jesus Christ said of Him self: “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Lk. 4:18). Our land is bruised and blinded by Satan; it needs the Lord Jesus to heal the wounds, and to open the eyes that cannot now see Him in His ma jesty. Are our lives revealing Him as we seek to use our Christian influence against some of the evils in our nation’s life? It is easy to get up the sentiment of patriotism, but that is far from the reality of patriotism. It is not enough to feel for one’s country; one must live for it. No one is likely to live for one’s country if one is ignorant of it— ignorant of its glorious history, of its heroes and heroines, of its present perils and its great possibilities. The first step toward becoming a worth while American is to learn about America, in other words to look at one’s country. Your country begins at yo.ur own front door. If the front doorway is untidy, you are a poor citizen, no matter how much you are interested in the welfare o f the Fili pinos.—A mos R. W ells . II. C hristians and T heir G overnment The Christian citizen will look at his country and his government as an object of his obedience, “for the Lord’s sake” (1 Pet. 2:13-17; cf. Rom. 13:1-7). In the necessity for linking this submission with the pri mary loyalty to “ God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), Christians in America may indeed rejoice that this nation was founded upon Biblical principles and that the Con stitution of the United States finds its source in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. [The leader for this Chris tian Endeavor meeting will find it helpful to refer to an article by Dan Gilbert, “ The Christian View of Constitutional Govern ment,” which appeared in the November, 1937, issue of T he K ing ’ s B usiness .] If there is to be even a measure of practical outworking of these Scriptural American principles in a world in which those who truly yield themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ are greatly in the minority, the vigi lance, sacrifice, and prayer of the Lord’s people are needful.— S elected . Helps for the Leader I. I nformed P atriotism
love there must be more than one. Outside, the love of benevolence and kindness can be shown; only within the church can we show love of the brethren. What we need today is a church full of love. And in this text (1 Cor. 12:21) we have the principles laid down as to duties of members of the church of Christ.— S ei . fcthd . FEBRUARY 13, 1938 A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT HIS COUNTRY A mos 5:12-15, 21-24; L uke 4:16-21 Meditation on the Lesson Because of its vivid figures of speech and its picturesqueness, the Book of Amos is one of the most striking of the shorter prophetic books of the Old Testament. The object lessons and illustrations which are found in it convince us of its excellency as a piece of literature; the writer knew the underlying principles of effectively trans lating a spiritual message into the lan guage of the hearers of his day. It is significant that its applications and its pic tures are strikingly up-to-date in our own age. Amos himself is a character of force and power. Born in the southern kingdom of Judah, he was a simple herdsman, tending sheep and gathering sycamore fruit. While he was thus employed, God called him to go to prophesy to the rich and flourishing northern kingdom of Israel, which under Jeroboam II had reached the zenith of its power. The Lord Himself fitted him for the difficult task of rebuking and exhorting a wicked and idolatrous people who, reject ing the warning, within fifty years were to suffer the destruction of their kingdom as a punishment for their desertion of the one true God. From our Scripture lesson in Amos we read concerning the misuse of wealth, and the selfish, greedy luxury which everywhere abounded. Court cor ruption with all its attendant evils stirred the righteous heart of Amos as he pro claimed the message of the righteousness and justice of God. W e notice that 'Am os particularly ’ con demned the taking of bribes, and the with holding of. justice from the poor. Do we find any modern parallel illustrations of similar evils? W e must coiifess, with sad ness of heart, that even in our own land which was founded upon righteous prin ciples, justice is not always the lot of those who enter the doors of our courts if wealth and poverty are arrayed against each other. Truly, the human heart is . “ desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9) in whatever genera tion it happens to appear. Amos speaks also of the contempt in which a righteous judge was held: “ They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly” (Amos" 5:10). Then he noticed those who knew the right but who did not have moral back bone enough to state their convictions. Amos calls them “prudent,” and indeed they are, but we feel that there is perhaps a touch of scorn in his voice. Their repu tation they knew would be jeopardized, so they kept silent. In such a state of affairs he cried out clearly, in the name of the
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