again. MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT KNOW THE TIME OF THEIR VISITATION WHEN HE COMES IN GLORY. He Himself said it would be as in the days of Noah. Then they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark AND KNEW NOT until the flood came and took them all away. Our Lord, in that same discourse, said, “But know this that IF THE GOOD MAN OF THE HOUSE HAD KNOWN in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.” When men say “ Peace and safety” sudden de struction shall come. Scoffers today make light of His coming and know not that in denying the signs, they are a sign themselves! Just as the re ligious experts missed Jesus the first time, some who should know better but are wilfully ignorant, will not know the time of their visitation when He comes again. God would not have us ignorant. The day and hour we cannot know but we can know when His coming draweth nigh. Just as men did not know Him when He came first in the VISITATION OF GRACE, and just as men will not know the day of HIS VISITA TION IN GLORY, it is also true that many do not recognize Him when He comes in other visita tions of blessing. He has come often in REVIVAL and often those who should have been the first to know Him have been blindest. When God visited England in the great Wesleyan revival, a leading churchman declared that he was unable to perceive any great work of God going on anywhere. Mr. Wesley said, “ I don’t believe the good man did see anything.” He knew not the day of his visitation. Just as the scribes missed Jesus, there will be even Bible scholars and prophecy experts and rock- ribbed fundamentalists who will miss Him today, because His visitation is not according to their blueprints. God is working today and it has upset the calculations of some who declared there never could be another revival. I have read o f a man saying to his companion as they stood in front of a pet shop: “Look at that stuffed bird in the window. Whoever fixed him up was a poor taxidermist. No bird ever stood on a limb like that.” At that moment the bird flew down! The bird is flying down these days to the discomfiture of not a few experts. God is moving today and, just as in our Lord’s day, He is bypassing the Pharisees and leaving the ecclesiastical set-up behind to call to Himself through plain apostles the hungry multitudes. He has done it before as in the days of Wesley and Whitefield and Finney and Moody. He will set aside our pet programs and disregard our little arrangements and demonstrate that it is not by might nor power but by His Spirit. Our gigantic official religious world is too busy putting its own
projects over. God is going over their heads, call ing sinners to repentance. True, He works as al ways through His church but He has not always been able to work through the imposing organi zation that calls itself His church. Through the years He has been calling to Himself in all our churches those who meant business, faithful be lievers who have been praying and working for revival. They have made mistakes and blunders and failures such as mar any work in which poor human flesh engages. But God is honoring our faith though it has been weak and our prayers though they have been feeble and now He seems to be gathering what may be a final harvest be fore the curtain of the age rings down. He is working according to His own pattern. “ The wind bloweth where it listeth.” He will not
THE MONKEY SAYS Three monkeys sat in a cocoanut tree Discussing things as they're said to be. Said one to the other, "N ow listen, you two, There's a certain rumor that cannot be true— That man descended from our noble race: The very idea is a disgrace. No monkey ever deserted his wife, Starved her babies and ruined her life. And you've never known a mother monk To leave her babies with others to bunk. Or pass them on from one to another Till they scarcely know who was their mother. And another thing you'll never see, A monk build a fence around a cocoanut tree. Forbidding all other monks a taste. And let the cocoanuts go to waste. Why, if I'd put a fence around the tree, Starvation would force you to steal from me! Here's another thing a monk won't do— Go out at night and get in a stew Or use a gun or club or knife To take some other monkey's life. Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss, But brother, he didn't descend from us!
— Author Unknown
send a revival made to order, planned after our little diagrams. God is sovereign; His ways are not our ways. It matters not what preacher He uses. One plants, another waters, but God gives the increase. The important thing for us is to know the time of our visitation. Pity us if we talk re vival for years and don’t recognize one when it comes! God help us to be ready when Jesus comes by in revival! Let us not be like some orchestras that take more time to tune up than to play! Let us be ready for His visitation. We do not have to wait until a big campaign starts or a much-herald ed preacher arrives. Now is the day for individual revival as well as for salvation. Indeed, we are not to be gullible; we are to try the spirits whether they be of God but, on the other hand, let us not be so stubborn as to miss a blessing rather than
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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