August 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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take too long for us to go into detail about these promises, but it includes every spiritual need of every child of God in this house today,'no matter what they may be; if you are not loving enough; if you are not winning the members of your Sunday School class because you do not love them individually; if you are not joyful enough, if you cannot say I am obeying that command, “Rejoice in the Lord always” — and you know a sorrowful Christian is not a soul winning Christian. Mr. Moody, (and no man had more experience than he), used to say that the only Christian whom God Himself could not use is the utterly cast down Christian; that is just where the Devil loves to get us. But if our hearts are full of the joy of the Lord, and if our faces tell forth what our hearts are full of, then indeed we may call men and women and boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us see that that third fruit of the Spirit is manifest in our life— peace. Are we always as peaceful as we ought to be, or do we become worried, distressed and disturbed in the rush about us? No matter what the spiritual need, you and I may have confidence, for our Lord says, “ Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done in you,” and it will. I would like to give an illustration of that, but time forbids. Let us pass on to the third promise John 23:24. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it yon. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” A definite and clear promise. The first was, “I will do it;” the second was, “ It shall be done in you,” and now this is, “ The Father will give it.” The Father in Heaven takes the same kind of pleasure in giving anything to us, His children who love Him, as you and I do in giving things to our children. The Father will give it. Traveling in China, on one occasion I was very much in need of a favorable wind. I had to take a houseboat jour ney that ordinarily took eight hours, and there were only three hours left to do it for I was to make a connection on which a good deal hung. Of course I prayed. First of all, by the by, let me confess that I asked the captain of the boat if the wind was favorable. I went to the wrong quarter; he said, “No, there is no wind.” I thought, “Well, I am going to miss the connection.” Then I remembered I had not gone to the Master who controls the winds and the waves, and promptly remedied the matter by going into my cabin and kneeling down and asking the Father in heaven to give me fair wind. My appointment was not essential to the direct performance of my Christian work, but it was an important matter and I did want that fair wind, and prayed for it. And do you know, when I went out on deck the wind had come. I said, “Don’t you want to put up your sail?” But he shrugged his shoulders in true Chinese fashion and said, “ That wind is no good, it will not last.” Usually on a boat the captain knows better than his passengers, but this time the passenger knew better than the captain. I said to him, “ I think if I were you I would put up the sail and take advantage of the wind while it lasts.” “Very well, foreign teacher, if you wish me to I will put up the sail.” But he hardly put up his sail when the sail was full of wind and in a very short time that man was squatting on his boat looking the picture of satisfaction; but he was not as happy as his passenger, for the Lord says in that same passage, “ Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” I thought the next thing to do was to go back to my cabin and praise the Lord. I knelt down and gave thanks, and as I did so I was conscious of the fact that my faith was (Continued on page 532)
come in. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may know what is good and what is bad.” And the Bible says that the Lord was pleased with King Solomon’s prayer. And the Lord made Solomon the wisest king that ever ruled, and He also made him very rich and his name was known everywhere. Why was God pleased with King Solomon’s prayer? ^Because Solomon knew that God must be the King of his -heart before he could be a good king over the people. That ..was Solomon’s way of saying, ‘‘Not as I will, but as thou .wilt.” Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus we know that when we make ■Thee our Saviour and King, thou wilt give us understand ing hearts. Teach us to say, “Not as I will, but as Thou -wilt.” We ask it in Thy Name and for Thy Glory. Amen. 8 » (¿Sr (¿Sr THE POSITIVE PRODUCT OF PRAYER (Continued from page 481) .pressed him so much that that check was not sent for quite a long time. Expecting that it would be sent immediately, .we mentioned the matter in our letter written the follow ing day. But we received several letters saying the five hundred dollar check had not yet come to hand and the missionaries who wanted to go out to China were «till wait ing. Before we had crossed the Continent, stopping at ..all the principal cities by the way, we came to the fruit region of the Okanogan, which some people here may know, in British Columbia. There we received a letter in which we were told that the check for five hundred dollars had jiot yet come, but they had received in Philadelphia two ..checks for one thousand dollars and another for three .thousand; and while we were praying so earnestly for five -hundred dollars from one source, the Lord was sending in five thousand dollars from another, and by the very next .steamer the fourteen missionaries sailed for China. We arrived in Vancouver the very day they had gone, just missed them and the opportunity of wishing them God speed. Brothers and sisters, when God says He will answer, remember, He means just that. Let us take Him ja .t His Word, “ If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will .do it.” Now let us look at the second promise. John 15:7; “If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto yon.” There are two conditions, but they are not impossible,— they are mot even difficult. They are not intended to rule you and ■me out of court. “ If ye abide in me, and my words abide -in you.” Well, now, who is ruled out? Why, the man -who does not believe the Word of God. How can the Word of God dwell in my heart if I do not believe it. Who else ■is ruled out? The man who allows himself to be in known .sin, because sin that I know to be sin separates between me and my Lord. “ If ye abide in me,” and every Christian /jught to be doing that, “ and my words” these ought to be abiding in every one of us. It is intended to be the normal experience of every healthy child of God. “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Note those two last words, “It shall be done UNTO You.” In the ■Greek it is still more definite. “ It shall be done in you,” and the context agrees with the wording. Our Lord is -telling His own about fruit bearing, “ I am the vine— ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in Him, the .same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do -nothing.” Let us abide in Christ, let us see to it that we are feasting our souls on the Word of God, and then ask -what we will and it shall be done unto us. What kind of fruit is our LordJ talking about here? -Why, of course, spiritual fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, and -that is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. Now it would
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