gulf rushed the foul waters of evil which have polluted the human race and are the real source of all life’s bitterness; the cause also of the anguish of Gethse- mane where God’s Son sweat as it were great drops of blood, and of the bitter cup of Calvary on which the Saviour cried, “ I thirst.” The tragedies, heart aches, and griefs which are our human lot are not God’s real intentional will— but the products of human choice which He was obliged to allow in order for man to be man. But there remains His ultimate Will, which will be carried out to ultimate triumph: “ to sum up all things in Christ.” “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:9,10). “ Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put ^11 enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15?24-28). Let us who have drunk the Marah bitterness take that blessed Tree, the Word of God, plunge it deeply into our hearts until it makes the bitter sweet. A few days later I received a beau tiful letter of appreciation for what the Society’s ministry had meant to him during his period of critical readjust ment. “ I thought life held nothing more for me and I was completely discour aged,” he wrote. “ But now I feel that I can resume a normal life: I can read; I can attend church; and best of all, I can feed on the precious Word of God.” These are but a few of the day-by-day ministries of the New York Bible So ciety. It is our privilege to supply the ammunition for the soldiers of Christ who under many banners go forth to battle. With them our own agents take their places shoulder to shoulder. It is therefore with deepest gratitude to God that we look back over 142 glorious years of distributing the timeless Word of life. At the same time we look for ward expectantly to an even greater harvest in the future, if our Lord tarries. THE BIBLE IN NEW YORK (Continued from Page 12)
we should feel safe with Christ.” The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is in control: that is sweetness for Marah bitterness. Let this branch plunge deeply into your life. Then the Providence of God. His over ruling Hand. Let us remember that our understanding of His ways is limited. “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8. 91. “ What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7). Do not forget “He doeth all things well.” He ever acts for our highest good and within His purposes of grace and love. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his pur pose” (Rom. 8:28). In His Word, God displays two ex emplary monuments to His gracious Providence, Joseph and Paul. Joseph, having remained faithful and trustful while drinking cup after cup of Marah waters, suddenly was exalted and began to drink the sweet draughts of the cup of grace, as God fulfilled the Word spoken to him in the dreams of his youth. So he could say to his brethren, “ Ye thought evil against me; [the bit ter] but God meant it unto good, [the sweet] to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20). In similar strains wrote Paul, the pris oner of the Lord in Rome, his heart made glad by the cup sweetened by God’s providential grace, “ The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel . . . and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Phil. 1:12, 18). He is the same today. And then God’s Will. This, of course, is determined by His nature. Paul writes of it thus, “ That good and ac ceptable and perfect will of God”—and a Christian poet speaks of it as the “ Sweet will of God.” For many this may be difficult to understand. The blessing is to be found, however, in considering that Will in its three aspects. In His Word, we see for example, God’s inten tional Will. In the Garden of Eden He created man “ in His own image and after His own likeness.” Here is His Will for man—His blessed companion and co-worker after His own heart. And it shines forth in such words as “ The Lord is . . . not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9). But there is His permissive Will. Al though His gracious intention was that we should live in blessed and harmoni ous fellowship with Himself, the re sponse of man is only worthy as it is volitional and not mechanical. Thus He permitted the power of choice. But it was here the break came; here the gulf was created as man made a proud and disobedient choice. And through this
under an unlucky star.” But that does not take away or deal with the bitter ness. Still others are haunted by doubts. “ Can there be a God who really cares?” “What can God be like, who has allowed this to come my way?” Consider Job. In swift and bitter blows he lost first his property, then his children, and finally his health. He reveals his heart in those words “ Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning” (Job 23:2). His wife had advised suicide: “ Curse God and die.” But Job s deep concern was where God was in his trouble as he sighs, “ Oh, that I knew where I might find him!, that I might come ev&a to his seat! . . .. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I can not see him” (Job 23:3, 8, 9). Philip besought the Lord, “ Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8). If we can be sure of the God who is in control, who creates, over-rules, and guides, that will sweeten the Marah bitterness. It is the Word of God which brings that sweetness. I speak as one who is acquainted with Marah’s waters and has experienced the transforming sweetness of the tree of God’s Word. It is a wondrous tree with strong branches of truth, covered with healing leaves. From those branches I would like to single out three, which are the source of special sweetness—the Nature of God, His Providence, and His Will. The Nature of God. To the questions of Job and Philip, the Word of God provides the answer. God hath spoken. God has shown Himself to us. “ God, who at sundry times and in divers man ners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1,2). “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 14). “ God was in Christ . . .” —“ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” We see God in the Lord Jesus Christ—the Incarnate Word. We find God in and through Him. We know God in Him. By His wondrous life of compassionate service and unspotted pu rity; by His atoning death in which God stretches out to us His reconciling Hand; and by His powerful resurrection, bring ing life and immortality to light—we see God who is over all, and who loves us with an everlasting love. As one has well said, “ In any part of the universe
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