492
August 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Living Beautifully T HERE is glory everywhere in life if only we have eyes to see it. The humblest lot affords room for the no blest living. There is opportunity in the most common -1 place life for splendid heroisms, for angelic ministries, for fullest and clearest revealings of God. “ Every day,” says Goethe, “ is a vessel into which a great deal may be poured if we will actually fill it up— that is, with thoughts and feelings and their expression into deeds a s,elevated and amiable as we ca.n reach to.” The days are well enough; it is with ourselves whether we can make them radiant and beautiful, whether we fill them with life. A mere dreamy treadmill round—waking, eating, drinking, walking, working, sleeping-—is not enough to make any life worthy; we must put the glory of love, of best ef fort, o f sacrifice, of prayer, o f upward looking and heav enward reaching, into the dull routine o f our life’s every day, and then the most humdrum and uneventful life will be made splendid with the glory o f God. A secret of sweet and happy Christian life is in learn ing to live by the day. It is the long.stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for years, and it seems too great for us. W e cannot carry this load until we are threescore and ten. W e cannot fight this battle continually for half a century. But really there are no long stretches. L ife does not come to us in life times ; it comes only a day at a time. Even tomorrow is never ours until it becomes today, and we have nothing whatever to do with it but to pass down to it a fair and good inheritance in today’s work .well done and today’s life well lived. It is a blessed secret, this living by the day. Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, till nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, quietly, patiently, lov ingly and purely, till the sun goes down. And that is all life really means ever to any o f us-^-just, one little day. Said Charles Kingsley, “ Do today’s duty, fight to day’s temptation, and do not weaken and distract your self b y :looking forward to. things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.” Godjj.gives, us nights to shut down the curtain o f darkness on our little days. W e cannot see beyond, and we ought not to try to. Short horizons make life easier, and give us one of the blessed secrets of brave, true, holy living. These are some o f the secrets of a beautiful life. We ought not to be content to live otherwise than beautifully. We can live our life only once.. W e cannot go over it again, to correct its" mistakes or amend its faults. We ought, therefore, to live it well. And to do this we must begin at the beginning and make every day. radiant and lovely as it passes. Lost days must always remain blanks in the records, and stained days must carry their stains. Beautiful days make beautiful years, and beautiful years make a beautiful life at its close. —J. R. Miller. ate ate Sin’s Effects Andrew Fuller used to say, “ He that falls into sin is a man; he that grieves over sin is a saint; he that boasts o f sin is a devil.” And another adds, “ He that forgives sin is God.”
J ust a Word
with the UNSAVED
The Root Sin—Rejecting Christ “ When H e [The Holy. Spirit] is come, H e will re~ prove the world, o f sin, and o f righteousness, and o f judgment. “ O f sin BECAUSE THEY BEL IEVE NOT ” (John 16:8-9). I T is the present work o f the Holy Spirit to bring men in guilty on three counts. He will enforce conviction as to the fact that sin belongs to man; the fact that right eousness belongs to Christ; the fact that judgment is due to Satan and all his followers. And upon what sin will the Holy Spirit lay the great est emphasis? “ Because TH EY BEL IEVE NO T ON C H R I S T This is the ROO T SIN OF A LL SINS. Sin from the very first has grown upon the root of unbelief. Since the completion o f God’s Redemption plan in Jesus Christ, the most aggravated form of unbelief is the rejection o f the Saviour God has provided. There is now no other sin-so deeply insulting to the Lord of Glory. No sin can obtain forgiveness of God so long as Jesus Christ is rejected. All sin can have its power over .the heart broken if a man will accept Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Holy Spirit must concentrate His ef forts on the one work of setting before men the guilt of NOT BEL IEV ING on Je^us Christ. “ He that believeth NOT is condemned already, because he hath NOT BE L IEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3 :18 ). Why are there so many today who take no thought of this worst of sins? Why do so many preachers place all the emphasis upon sins o f commission (if they preach against sin at all) and leave in obscurity this great sin of OM ISSION , which, according to the Word of God, is far more deadly in its consequences than any other sin ? The sins of omission are doubtless more numerous in all of us than sins of commission—but when it comes to the unsaved man, his whole life is one vast sin o f omission. The prime sin which the Spirit of God came to convict of, is THE Sin of Omission. Is the Spirit no longer convicting of this sin? H e is where the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed. All sin is too much ignored in modern preaching, iThere are too many fine-spun theories to get around the fact o f sin. The world’s greatest need today is the preaching of the t r u t h a b o u t s i n . If it is not preached, the power of sin will wreck humanity ; and the Holy Spirit, not having access to the consciences of men, will be compelled to stand, by with millions going on their way to a CHR ISTLESS and therefore HOPELESS eternity. A Few Words For Christ “ Some men speak two words for Christ, and ten for themselves. Those fine passages and poetical perorations must be for their own glory among men, for they serve no other end. Truth, which glorifies the Lord Jesus, is often kept back.”
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