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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1935
NOTES
2 . “The chains o f habit are generally too small to be felt until they have grown too strong to be broken.”— S am u el J ohnson . II. T h e S ecret of J oy As this is the first meeting o f the new year, these suggestions may prove helpful: “ O Christ, give me a motto true, To help me sing the new year through; That I to men Thy love may show.” The answer came: “My will to know.” “Thy will I’ve learned from childhood up, Shall that with joy fill this year’s cup? Or is there more that must ensue?” “Yes, this thing else: My will to do." “My Lord, that task is harder still. But done: Will that give song its thrill ?” Again that voice came from above; “Learn this, My child, My will to love.” “To know My will is smallest part; ’Tis where all men like you must start; But doing is the testing string; And men who love are men who sing.” — J ohn G. N ew m a n . III. “ A n E xam ple . . . in F a it h ” A Christian is continually under the ob servation o f those who wish to know whether he shows a habitual attitude of trust in God. A Japanese, in endeavoring to describe a friend o f his to an American, seeing a Bible, exclaimed, “He believes this Book very much I” Could your friends describe you in like manner ?— S elected . IV. T h e H abit of L istening According to the Sunday School Times, Evangelist “Dick” Huston tells o f two friends who were walking along a busy New York thoroughfare when one o f them asked his companion whether he heard a cricket. His friend laughed and replied that no one could hear a cricket above the din o f trolleys and motor cars and trucks. The other stopped, lifted up a stone, picked up a cricket, and showed it to his friend. “How could you hear it?” the incredu lous friend asked. “I will show you.” And taking a coin from his pocket, he tossed it in the air. When the coin struck the sidewalk, several men nearby put their hands to their pockets and looked about to see whether they had dropped any money. “You hear what you are trained to listen for,” the nature lover observed. “My ears are trained to hear the birds and insects and all the sounds of nature.” Our Lord knew all about the many noises of earth that drown out the still small voice o f God’s Spirit, so He warned: “Take heed . . . how ye hear,” and, “ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” The keenness o f our spiritual “hearing” depends upon whether we have formed habits o f centering our interest upon the things o f God.— S elected .
JANUARY 5, i936 HABITS WORTH FORMING 1 T im o th y 4:8-16 Meditation on the Lesson While this exhortation of the Apostle Paul is in a very special manner meant for Timothy, the young minister, all Christians — and particularly young Christians—will •do well to take heed to these instructions. “Bodily exercise” is contrasted with “godliness.” Paul is not discounting bodily exercise per se, for the opening statement is rendered in the American Revision as follows: “For bodily exercise is profitable fo r a little.” Paul is the very one who has stressed in other epistles the sanctity of the body, which “is the temple of the Holy •Ghost.” But here the apostle is endeavor ing to have Timothy lift his eyes far above all earthly things, no matter how good, and fix them on the “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” Could we but see the actualities wrapped up in those words, with their God-given assurance o f victory in this present world and in that which is to come, we would be more careful to let Christ live out His life in us now, and “habits worth forming” would naturally follow. Some brief imperatives follow which are just as binding upon us as Christians today as they were on the preacher Timothy. Paul enumerates the respects in which Timothy should “be . . . an example of the believers.” Other passages o f Scripture bear out the same thought. Christ’s servant is to be a pattern: “in word” —“Let your ■speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4:6) ; “in conver sation" (or “behavior”—the entire manner of life)—“Be ye holy in all manner of con versation” (1 Pet. 1 :15) ; “in charity” (or ^‘heavenly love” ) —“Love thy neighbor as thyself” (Gal. S :14) and, “ By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his command ments” (1 John 5 :2 ); “in /o iW ’-a “Above all, taking the shield o f faith” (Eph. 6:16) ; “in purity "—“Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matt. 5:8). Then follows instruction which if heed ed makes it possible for the Christian to be “ an example” to his fellow believers. Bible study, witnessing for Christ, medi tation, self-judgment, and continuance in these spiritual exercises—these truly are ■“habits worth forming.”
JANUARY 12, 1936
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SIGNS OF GROWING BROTHERHOOD 1 J oh n 2:9-11; 3:17, 18 Meditation on the Lesson
John, “the apostle o f love,” is the very one to write this “epistle o f love.” Love is the theme o f the letter. It is peculiarly a “ family” letter. Persons who have been born again (John 3 :3) are all regarded as “brothers” in the family o f God their “ Father,” but no other individuals are chil dren o f God in the New Testament sense (John 1:12). As natural human brothers love one another, how much more should Christian “brothers,” made so by the blood of Christ, be bound together by loving hands I In stressing this need for divine love, John makes a strong statement in 1 John 2:9-11, when he announces that hating and darkness are inseparable, while love and light are companions. The meaning be comes more clear when we remember other declarations in this epistle: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1 :5), and “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God” (1 John 4:16). It remains a fact that if a man hates his brother, he has chosen darkness rather than light. He stumbles on in dark ness, and “knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” Only the love o f God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit can give him light. Later, alluding to the family relationship again, John urges the believers, calling them “little children,” to let their love be real (1 John 3:17, 18). Christians are to “ let love be without dissimulation” (Rom. 12:9). I f one brother needs something and the other members of the family refuse to help him, how dare they say they love? James has written similarly: “ If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” The standard for the Christian’s love is infinitely high, for the Lord Jesus said: “ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). May the Holy Spirit bring home to our hearts the appeal: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Helps for the Leader I. B ondage I.
Helps for the Leader I. A R eal B rother
How habits cling to us I The word habit ■comes from a Latin word which indicates that habits have us, instead o f our having them. Instead of saying of a person, “He has a bad habit,” we might well say, “A bad habit has him.” How necessary, then, it is to form right habits!— H urlbut .
Behind the Greek word which is trans lated “lowliness” is our word “tapestry,” and I think I shall not be far away from the apostle’s mind when I say that he counsels us to lay our life down like a soft tapestry carpet in kindly thoughts and gracious sympathies and helpful services,
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