1084
THE KING’S BUSINESS
ii:15). Paul also says, “Wherefore, also, we are ambitious . . . to be well pleas ing unto him (2 Corinthians v. 9). Ambi tion is a good word, but has been grossly abused. Our word “enthusiasm” is another word which has met harsh treatment. “Enthusiasm” really comes from two Greek words which signify “God’s indwelling.” The enthusiastic man, therefore, is the man who is inspired by the consciousness of God’s indwelling. Paul had an ambition, a master passion. He expresses it in such words a s: “For me to live is Christ “this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Caesar, and Napoleon were ambitious men, as is also the Kaiser of Germany, but the ambi tion of these men is characterized by sel fishness. Paul had an ambition—one may even call it an obsession—and that was to be wholly and altogether at the disposal of Christ for service among men. Paul’s Hebrew training and religion, his Greek taste for culture, and his Roman passion for power and territory were all laid at the feet of Christ for service. To these things he gave himself wholly. It is said of Elder Knapp, an evangelist of earlier days, that he was once sent to a church that had been split in two by quarreling and bickering'. After a ministry of six months, the officers of the church came to him and suggested that, inasmuch as he had been unable to heal the breach, and the gospel was seemingly ineffective to bring about spiritual results, they thought it would be better for him to resign and the congregation to disband. This Elder Knapp refused to do, saying that his bones would bleach out on the streets of Pen Yang before he would admit that the gos pel of Christ was a failure. The request of the church officers made a very deep impression on the Elder and brought about a wonderful transformation in his own life. He laid hold of God anew, surrendered himself entirely to the one purpose of mak
ing the—gospel effective in the hearts of the men of this community, his one ambi tion being to see Christ glorified. At the end of one month spent in earnest, pro tracted prayer and labor, he was able to say that every person in that community, with the- exception of two, had been con verted. The breach had been healed, quar reling and bickering had passed away, and the spirit of love had taken the place of enmity. This was the ambition that he had when he first came to the place. His ambition to see the vision realized was praiseworthy. In order that you may carry out your ambition for Christ, you have come to this Institute, and are willing to labor in order that you may be found faithful. You are not looking upon your work here as a vacation but rather as a vocation. You have come prepared to db hard work for God, Genius not many of us possess, but, after all, genius means hard work. Edi son, the great inventor, has not invented anything by accident nor without hard work. “Are your discoveries often bril liant intuitions?” he was asked. “I never did anything worth doing by accident,” he replied; “nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go ahead on it and make trial after trial until it comes.” “This is the gospel of labor; Ring it, ye bells of the kirk, The Lord of love came down from above To dwell among men who work.” You have come prepared to redeem the time and to buy up the opportunities. Interesting indeed is that pithy saying about the use of a minute: “I "have only just a minute with sixty seconds in it; forced upon me, didn't choose it, didn’t ask it, can’t refuse it. If it is up to me to use it, must give account if I abuse it. | Only just a minute with sixty seconds in it, but eternity is in it.” Be prepared to work hard even at the expense of toil and labor. Do not shrink
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter