The King’s Business
Voi. 4
APRIL, 1913
No. 5
God’s Ways Not Ours O UR God is constantly doing, or permitting to be done, things which we in our shortsightedness cannot understand, but though God’s ways are often inscrutable and His judgments unsearchable (Rom. 11:33), nevertheless His ways and judgments are always right. His ways are as much higher than our ways, and His thoughts as much higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth .(Isa. 55 :8, 9). In the early church there was no one who seemed better fitted for long life and efficient service than Stepheh, and yet God permitted him to be cut off in the very beginning of his ministry. We can see now how Stephen accomplished far more by dying than he could possibly have accomplished by living, but the Christians of that day could not have seen it. Yesterday the Associated Press brought the information that William Borden had died in Cairo, Egypt. We know of no young life that was more full of promise for usefulness in the Church of Christ than his. He was 25 years old, possessed of very large wealth, a graduate of Yale College and Princeton Theological Seminary, in both of which institutions he had made a fine record; and he had turned his back upon all the opportunities that his social and financial position offered him here in America and had gone to Cairo, Egypt, to learn Arabic as a further preparation to do missionary work in the heart of China among the Mohammedan population. He had determined to devote all his wealth to the work of Jesus Christ. We have known him ever since boyhood. It was our privilege and joy to receive him as a boy into the fellowship of the Chicago Avenue Church. A few years later through his father’s death, he fell heir to a large fortune, but he was not in the least spoiled by it. He was never moved from the soundest orthodoxy by different forms of error with which he came in very close contact. He never seemed to be even tempted to give up simplicity of living and devotion to Christ by the many temptations that come to a young man possessed of large wealth. In the last conversation that we had with him he very quietly but forcibly voiced his determination to go out under the China Inland Mission rather than under a church board, and a desire to be ordained in the Chicago Avenue Church rather than in some more ostentatious way. He was a singularly strong and lovable young man, and now he is taken away at the very beginning of his usefulness. Some are saying, “We cannot understand it.” No, we cannot and we do not need to. Our business is not to understand God’s ways but to trust Him. That for some reason, which God has not seen fit to reveal, it was far better for William Borden to depart and be with Christ than to stay here and work for Him, we do not for one moment question. Many who read these words may have been called upon to part with those whom they' dearly love and whose lives seemed full of richest promise, and you cannot understand it. You do not need to understand it. God knows best. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways,
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs