May, 1933
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
216
Helps for the Leader I. N ot E volved
N O T E S on Christian Endeavor By MARY G . GOODNER
Contrary to one current of modern thought, the Bible does not teach the religious evolution of the race. Early Jewish history has been regarded by many as the primitive conception of an angry God, which idea later matured, in the New Testament view, in the understanding of God as a Great Father of Love to whom displays of wrath described in the Old Testament were unbecoming. This erroneous teaching arises from a defective knowledge o f the holy nature of God, and a minimizing of the sinfulness of sin. If God is just, He must, because of His righteous nature, punish sin. The full stroke of God’s wrath fell upon His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Lamb o f God, slain before the foundation of the world in the purposes of God, but revealed to the world in His death on the cross. The promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3:15 reveals the earliest record of God’s relation to man as linked with the gospel story. The W ord of God is organ ically one revelation. As the ropes of the British navy are known anywhere by the scarlet cord which runs through every piece, so the W ord of God is of one consistency because of the crimson line of divine blood, the expiation of God’s wrath toward sin, w'hich flows from Genesis through Revela tion.—E. E. W . II. T he T heme of the O ld T estament “ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Through the woman the race fe ll; through the woman the race will be redeemed. So, here in the very first pages of the Bible is this primeval foregleam of Christ; and as the pages pass, the foregleams, hints, glimpses, the plain statements become clearer and more abundant, so that by the time we come to the end of the Old Testament there has been drawn a fairly complete picture of Christ, the Re-Creator of man. Satan’s effort to interfere will result in his own destruc tion.—From Pocket Bible Handbook by Henry H. Halley. When the Psalmist wrote the magnificent portion that is assigned for our considera tion today, he might have prefaced it fittingly, as did the writer of Psalm 45, by these words: “My tongue is •the pen of a ready writer.” In the fifteen verses of our text he applies seven names to the Book of God, His eternal revelation to man. Each of these titles is designated by the possessive “ thy,” indicating its divine source. And in his praise to God for it, the writer repeat edly recognizes the Author. These are the terms which he applies: “ thy word,” “ thy law,” “ thy . . . judgments,” “ thy command ments,” “ thy testimonies,” “thy precepts,” and “ thy statutes.” . JUNE 12, 1938 ENJOYING THE BIBLE P salm 119:162-176 Meditation on the Lesson
JUNE 5, 1938 WHAT'S IN THE BIBLE? E xodus 34:27, 28; L u k e 1:1-4; A cts 1:1-5 Meditation on the Lesson Even those who do not accept the Bible as God’s own Word, uniquely inspired of Him, frankly own it as the masterpiece of world literature, the great criterion by which all other writings are appraised. Every English literary genius has been in fluenced to an amazing extent by the English Bible, the most powerful instrument of our language. It is the progenitor of much of our best poetry and prose. For example, Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, al though theologically incongruent in some particulars, is based directly upon the Scrip tural narrative. Considered even from the standpoint of the opposition to it, the W ord of God is also, one of the greatest factors of English life and letters. W hy should such a volume of controversial literature have been written concerning the authority of the Bible as the veritable W ord of G od? This fact is eminently significant. Brilliant skeptics and agnostics, especially in recent years in the realm of higher criticism, have devoted their lives to the endeavor to prove the invalidity of the Book. And with what suc cess? Every new attack reestablishes the trustworthiness of the Word, for the very conflict reveals the inadequacy of the “ evi dence,” historical, biological, and psycho logical, that has been advanced in the effort to disprove its utterances. As thè voice of God it can never be silenced, nor even softened. What is the secret of the Bible’s endurance and superiority over other books? Millions of volumes have been written on every conceivable subject, but not one has ever lasted and increased in popularity as has the W ord of God, for its sales grow annually. The reason, of course, is that it is the invulnerable W ord of the eternal God. From our Scripture passage in Exodus we read of the giving of the law. In if we dis u j n n T E D POEMS, SONGS For Immediate Consideration Send Poems to Columbian Music Publishers, Ltd. Dept. 192 Toronto, Can. GOSPEL APPEAL IN SONG No. 2 NEW EVANGELISTIC SONG BOOK 224 PAGES 134 New and Semi-New Hymns—Solos—Duets 20 Choice Choir Numbers 60 Vibrant New and Favorite Young People’s Choruses 13 Specially.placed Invitational Hymns 27 Effective Standard Hymns PRICES Single Copy—fibrous Manila—35c Prepaid $25.00 per hundred—Not postpaid Single Copy—Clothbound—60c Prepaid
"I THIRST" By Helen Miller Lehman In agony of body and of soul Christ paid the frightful sacrificial toll Demanded of the Son of God. He died That generations might be justified And cleansed from sin. Although reviled, accursed, His words shall live throughout ail time. "I thirst," He cried, His body feverish with pain. Today, from God's right hand, He thirsts again. His need is not a cooling draught, but hearts— Repentant hearts, that they be counterparts Of Him, made new in joy and faith and peace. Oh Christ, may sin and selfish striving cease, And in their place God's love become entrenched, For only thus can Thy great thirst be quenched. cover the absolute holiness and righteousness of God, a righteousness to which man in his fallen condition can never attain. The record of the Old Testament is the history of the repeated failure of man in his legal covenant with God—his promise to obey the law of God. Man proved conclusively that he was impotent as far as earning merit with God was concerned. His only hope rested in God’s grace and mercy toward him, absolutely independent of his own assistance. With the opening of the New Testament, that hope becomes incarnate in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, sent into the world to become identified with human life that He might reveal to man the love and righteousness of God. Luke, like the other Gospel writers, presents the credentials of Christ as the Promised K ing of Israel, the Saviour and Redeemer o f sinners. Proved to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ concluded His earthly ministry by His ascension into heaven, where He is now interceding for believers, and from whence He shall come shortly to re ceive them unto Himself. The Book of Acts describes the inaugura tion of the present church era, the dispen sation of grace. It is a dynamic treatise on the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead who is continuing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of men now on the earth. The Epistles which follow multiply the gracious evidence of the eternal work of the Spirit in the transformed lives of those who bow to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Revelation shows the culmination in Christ’s triumph.
$50.00 per hundred—Not postpaid Order from—ELDEN R. FARRAR
153 Institute Place
Chicago, III.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5