January 1932
16
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
IN THE BEGINNING . . . By ROY TALMAGE BRUMBAUGH, Tacoma, Wash. I/h e J a c r e d e l a t i o n . . . m a r n a g e I, _ t is not good that the man
the seed, cultivates the field, reaps the harvest, gathers into the barn, grinds the grain, and bakes the bread. God never built a ship. He points to the forest and to the mine. Man’s native ability does the rest. The lightning flashes across a sky swept by storm. Man harnesses the thunder bolt so that it lights his cities and pulls his trolley cars. Man puts a bit into the mouth of the waterfall. He bridles the tide, making things carry his mail and bear his burdens. The Holy Spirit alone can convict and convert, but He does this through consecrated men and women. God permits man to cooperate with Him. So God brought before Adam every beast of the field and every fowl of the air “ and what soever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” L anguage Language leaped on the stage of human history. There was no long-drawn-out period preceding linguistic matur ity. Language was not an evolution, but a supernatural revelation. When God made Adam, He gave the man the power of speech. We have in this chapter a record of the origin of human vocabulary. Without effort, man can shape the very air into sounds that reveal invisible thought. Without language, man could not retain things in the mind nor recall events. Thought, without language, is like a dis embodied spirit. We remember things and happenings be cause we clothe them with words. Language is the only medium of intelligent communication. Without it, every soul would be isolated. Without it, unity of purpose would be impossible. K nowledge Adam was created an intelligent being. What knowl edge he had! At once, he was able to name the animals, un doubtedly according to their characteristics. This is the
should be alone.” Man did not say this. He, perhaps, would not admit it. Neither did a woman speak these words. The statement was made by the One who knows man better than he knows himself. In Genesis 2 :18, it is written, “ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.” God made man for communion with God and with his fel low men. Being a social being, man needs society. There are men who dwell in solitary places. Some are led to places apart because of the work they do. The lighthouse keeper, the aviator, and the explorer experience the disquietude of prolonged solitude. Loved ones depart from the earth. Their departure causes pain. Time heals many wounds, but there are hours when the void in the family circle is quite conspicuous. Only God can help at a time like this. Men are lonely in the wilderness apart from society; but I heard a traveling salesman say that the loneliest place in the world is a hotel room in the heart of New York City. 1 find many homesick and lonely people amid surging mul titudes. Some one has stated that for a man to be alone is sui cide, and for two men to be alone is homicide. Seeing that it is not good for man to be alone, God adds, “ I will make him an help meet for him.”- The man without the woman is like a bird with one wing clipped, like a man with one leg amputated, like a cloud without rain, like a well with out water, or like an apple tree without fruit. Man and woman are the two oars o f the boat called “ Home.” The woman is the complement of the man. She is not an appendix to the male edition, nor a postscript to the masculine gender. God made woman to be a help meet for man. She is to be his help meet in business, in trouble, in sunshine, and in shadow. Paul calls her a“ yokefellow.” She is not to be a yoke around man’s neck, but to receive around her neck the same yoke that the man is carrying. She is
beginning of scientific classifi cation. Adam’s act was one of perception, discrimination and description. Animals were undoubtedly brought before Adam two by two. Every bird ’ and beast had its mate, but there was not found a help meet for Adam. I f Adam had been a product o f the lower life, he could have found a help meet for him in brute creation. God was developing in Adam a desire that He intended to satisfy. So “ the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.” God is the Originator of modern surgery. Surgeons first adminis ter an anaesthetic. That is exact ly what God did. God then took one of Adam’s ribs. The word rendered “ ribs” is better trans lated “ side parts.” “ And God closed up the flesh instead there-
to bear with man the yoke of poverty and of prosperity, the yoke o f sickness as well as of health. What the accompanist is to a singer, that the wife should be to the man. “ For there’s a sweetness in a female mind, which in a man, we cannot hope to find.” C ooperation Verses 19 and 20 of Genesis 2 seem to be a digression. Not at a ll! God brought every beast and fowl before Adam to be named. God and man cooperate. God never made a suit of clothes. He makes the sheep. He whitens-the fields of the South with cotton and gives man skill. Man, how ever, makes his own suit. God never baked a loaf of bread. He gives man the soil, the seed, and the skill. He sends the sunshine and the rain. Man plows, scatters *Second in a series.
T he B rumbaugh F amily
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