August 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
472
Ordinary printed books may be read by .blind persons now, through the medium o f a new radio device per fected by Robert E. Naumberg, of Winchester, Mass. Through vibra tions transmitted by the device— called the Visagraph—the blind, and the blind and deaf, can get the mes sage o f the printed page indepen dently o f the Braille system of raised letters.
In Hebrews 1:1-2 we are ,told that through Jesus Christ God “made the worlds.” Now it is a striking fact that the word rendered “ worlds” here means literally “ the ages.” And yet from Tleb. 11 :3 it is evident that the writer is not speaking merely of the flight o f time when he says that Christ “ made the ages.” He had the actual “ world” in mind. A s a matter of fact, the Bible writers never think o f the world as a static affair. This world, to them, is a moving world. They always regard the world from the standpoint of its existence in Time. So the writer of Hebrews, in a single term, unites the conception of the world in Space with the conception of the world in Time. He has in mind the “ world moving through all the successive ages o f its history.” This is a staggering idea. It is sufficiently difficult to grasp the vastness of the world in its extension in Space, but when there is added all those ages through which the world has passed, and is yet to pass, the mind fails utterly. And Christ, we are told, is the maker of this world in Space and T im e! He is the Maker of the world from the standpoint of the ages. (Cer tainly this viewpoint justifies the dispensational method o f Bible study, by wiiatever name we may choose to call it.) For a long time men have looked with deep interest at the movements of world history, and they have asked, “ What is the meaning o f it all?” T o this some have an swered, “ There is no meaning. Lo, we have searched and have found nothing but vanity and a striving after wind,” Others, more thoughtful, have felt that there must be some meaning. And as a result we have the so-called “ Philoso phies of History,” the work o f earnest men, yet always in adequate and missing the mark. But the philosophers were right in one respect—-in believing that there is- a Philosophy of History. Age does not follow age by a kind of “ fqrtuitous concourse.” There is an orderly arrange ment, a plan, in the midst o f seeming chaos and confusion. The great periods o f history were not ushered in by, acci dent, nor were they wound up by the will of man. Christ is the “ Maker o f the Ages,” the “ Father of the Everlast ing,” the God o f History. Because this is so, the man who finds Christ has found the KEY to the “ Riddle of the Universe.” And the more
mere puppet moving when God pulls the strings. Lose sight of this and you have Pantheism or Quietism. But on the other hand, God is a real factor in history; the Universe is not turned over to men and devils entirely. Forget that and you have Materialism and Deism. You cannot get rid of God in human affairs—this is the stern, yet glorious revelation of the Bible. Search out, if you like, the darkest pages of human history and the Bible writers will find God there somehow. Consider Paul’s sermon at Lystfa : The apostle reviews some; of these dark spots-in “ generations gone” when the “ nations walked in their own ways,” but he reminds the pagan audience that« "G od suffered” it to be so;.,’ You can’t escape God! And the important thing, after all, is not that men walked in their own ways, but that there is a God who can set bounds to human iniquity, and without whose permission nothing can take place in the Universe. All this the Christian knows. He knows that God is in the process o f history, but that is not all he knows. The Christian knows God, God Himself, the very God o f His tory. W e have found Him in Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ is the “ God of ./History” in this sense, that the invisible, infinite, eternal God deals w itlpH is world in time and space through the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no higher affirmation of the Christian faith than this. And I am to speak to you on “ KNOW ING CHR IST IN H ISTORY .” T o know Christ in history, we must know H im : I. As th e F ountainhead of H istory In Isa. 9 :6 we find a prophecy which speaks o f Christ as the “ Everlasting Father.” At first glance, this state ment seems to confuse the Persons o f the Godhead, calling the Son the “ Father.” But a more literal translation shows that such is not the case. Christ is not the “ Ever lasting Father.” lie is'literally the “ Father o f the Ever lasting,” the “ Father of Eternity,” according to the Amer ican Revised Version margin. But we must not read any o f our philosophic notions into this statement. Eternity in the Bible is not absolutely opposed to time. It is sim ply an unending succession o f ages. And Christ is the “ Father” of this everlasting succession of ages!
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