December 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
567
'
Crumbs from the King’s Table By the Editor
Men and Machinery
acceptably who does not get his message fresh from God in the closet. God can work wonders if he can get a suitable man. The past has not exhausted the possibili ties nor the demand for doing great things for God. I have no sympathy with the teachings of some of our brethren that there can be no great revival until the Lord Jesus comes. “His arm is not shortened that he cannot save; and his ear is not heavy that he cannot hear.” A Prayerless Church Y EARS of millennial glory have been lost by a prayer less church. The coming of our Lord Jesus has been postponed by a prayerless, church. Hell has enlarged her self in the presence of the dead service of a prayerless church. Do we know we are raising up a prayerless set of saints? Where are the Christly leaders who can teach the modem saints how to pray, and put them at it? Let them come to the front and do the work. It will be the greatest work that can be done. An increase of educa tional facilities and an increase of money force will be the direst curse to the cause of Christ if they are not sancti fied by more and better praying. We are not a generation of praying saints. We are a beggarly gang who have nei ther the ardor, nor the beauty, nor the power of saints. Who will restore the breach? Who, under God, will set the church to praying? “Unto him who is able to do ex ceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, ac cording to the power that worketh in us.” Editorial Announcement In January, 1910, T he K ing ’ s B usiness made its bow to the public. With the present issue it completes its first score of years of service. Year by year it has en larged and developed as a Christian magazine for church and home. In the providence of God, T h e K ing ’ s B usiness , as it passes this new milestone, is in new hands. There will be no boisterous celebration, no boastful glorying in past successes, no lamenting because of past or present trials. The future is faced with confidence. Observant readers have doubtless noted some improve ments that have already been made. Attention is called to announcements on another page of further changes to come, which we modestly claim will enable T h e K ing ’ s B usiness to maintain a very high standard of efficiency. Many classes of readers will be served. Sunday-school teachers and pupils will have most useful lesson helps; the J unior K ing ’ s B usiness will please the children; young people will find helpful lessons in the Christian Endeavor column and in Heart to Heart Talks. The busy pastor will have his share of the good things. The family altar will be enriched by well-selected devotional readings. In short, T h e K ing ’ s B usiness ' will aim to be an ideal church and family magazine.
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HE trend of the day is to lose sight of the man, or sink the man in the plan or organization.. God’s plan is to make much of the man—far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men. “There was a man ”—not a method or an organization— “sent from God whose name was John.” The glory and effic iency of the Gospel is staked on the men who proclaim it. In this age of machinery, we are apt to forget this. What the Church needs is not more machinery, or better; not new organizations, or more methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men. —°— The Messenger and the Message T HE character, as well as the fortunes, of the Gos pel is committed to the messenger. He makes or mars the message from God to man. The messenger is the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must not only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have full, unhindered, unwasted flow. What the messenger says is impregnated by what the messenger is. The man is a part of the sermon. True preaching is not the performance of an hour; it is the outflow of a life. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The_ sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of divine unction because the man is full of divine unction. The messenger must impersonate the message. It is not great talent, nor great learning, nor great preach ers that God needs; but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity; always preaching by faithful sermons in the pulpit and by holy lives out of it. —o— The Messenger and Prayer P RAYER is the messenger’s mightiest weapon. The real man whose life is a message is made in the closet. The weightiest and sweetest messages are found in sacred communion with God. Every messenger who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his life and min istry, is weak as a factor in God’s work, and is powerless to protect God’s cause in the world. Even sermon-mak ing will engross and harden and estrange the heart from God if prayer is neglected. The preacher must be preeminently a man of prayer. In the school of prayer only can the heart learn to preach. No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack. Talking to men for God is a great thing; but talking to God for men is greater. No man can preach
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