December 1931
532
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Glorious Anticipation
holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” are not written to the world, but to the re deemed people of God. How ashamed God must be of some who profess to love H im! Here is a once successful servant of God, who has lost out, and the congregation that he once faithfully served wants him no longer. Instead of seeking another field and a new commission for service, he has allowed Satan to put into his heart to stay around and to block the work of his successor. How our Lord must weep over him! Here is a once successful Bible teacher. He has in the past wielded great power over audiences, but he has drifted and become a money-grabber. He has become a slanderer of other Christians, and the church wants him no more; so his heart is full of hatred and bitterness, and his mouth is full of venom. Oh, what a pity, when men and women are so needy and hungry, when there are so many openings for Bible teachers, all over this country and Canada, that this man has become a castaway! Here is another servant of God. He has a great mes sage ; he is greatly blessed in its delivery. Men and women flock to hear him, but he is so filled with egotism that he is losing his power, and his temper is so wild and so ungov erned that his own children are outside the faith. He can not get a right look at himself or at the rights of others. He will not march in line unless he is the drum major. How sorry we are for him, and how grieved must be the heart of our loving Lord over His erring servant! Here is a woman, a leader in the church. She was once president of the ladies’,missionary society, and God used her. But she began to criticize and to find fault, and she lost her humility. Love went out of her service, and now instead of being a help in the church, she is a hindrance. The world scoffs, and even her own children hate the things of God because their mother has failed to live before them a life of victory. Here is a fundamentalist—God bless him! I know him well, and I love him. He holds to the faith; he marches with my crowd. His head is all right, but his heart is filled with bitterness toward those who fail to hold to the truth of the Bible as we see it. I admire his steadfastness in the faith once for all delivered to the saints, but is not love a fundamental of the Christian life? Is not tenderhearted ness a fundamental? Are not gentleness and sweetness fundamentals ? But this man has none of these things. I think modernism is of the devil, but by the grace of God, I refuse to hate the modernists. I cannot hate a man if I desire to win him back to God and to the old faith. If my belief in the authority of the Word of God and all the doctrines of the old-time faith of the church does not make me more loving, more tenderhearted, more compassionate, more humble than the modernist who denies the faith, then I dare not hold up my head in the presence of the,modernist. If ever the Bible Institute and T he K ing ’ s B usiness have had a program of criticism and hatred, as the Presi dent of the Institute and the Editor of T h e K ing ’ s B u si ness , I hereby apologize to my brethren and to the world. My brethren, let us love one another. Let us, in the love and humility of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, allow Him to make Himself attractive to the lost about us, and if any one of us be overtaken in a fault, let those who are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering themselves lest they also be tempted. .
ou cannot read the Bible with any care, and not be struck with the wonderful variety that marks the imaginery made use of by the secred writers in the references they make to the heavenly state. At one time, it is spoken of as a city that has foundations; at another, it is the marriage supper of the Lamb; at another, it is being present with Christ, and beholding His glory. Again, it is being made like Him. It is seeing His face, and serving Him. It is lying down in green pastures, and beside the still waters. It is going in and out of the heavenly fold. It is seeing the King in His glory, and beholding the land that is afar off. It is sharing in the fullness of joy found in His presence, and the pleasures forever more that are at His right hand. It is walking with Jesus in white and drinking the fruit of the vine anew with Him in His king dom. It is entering into the joy of the Lord, and being made ruler over many things, it is receiving a crown of life, a recompense of reward. It is a sitting down with Jesus on His throne, as He, having overcome, is seated now with the Father on His throne. It is to be made kings and priests unto God and the Lamb, and to reign with Christ. It is to be equal to the angels as the children of the resur rection. Or, to sum up and blend together all these won drous forms and figures of speech, it is to wake up in the divine likeness, and to be satisfied with Him. These varied expressions lead us to think of our future home as a condition of being in which the mind, with its large desires, its deathless cravings, and the soul, with all the warmth of its affections and sympathies, will find the fullest scope for their development. As the vine puts forth its tendrils in the place where God has caused it to grow, and as it finds something to cling to for its support and growth, so doubtless will all the innocent longings of our renewed nature, which are like the tendrils of the soul, find in the heavenly state that which answers to their wants. Blessed, blessed state! Happy those who have entered it, and thrice happy shall we be when permitted to take our place with them in the faultless company to which they have been introduced! Through the love of God our Saviour, All will be well. Free and changeless is His favor— All, all is well.
Precious is the blood that healed us, Perfect is the grace that sealed us, Strong the hands stretched out to shield us, All must be well. Though we pass through tribulation, All will be well. Ours is such a full salvation, All, all is well. Happy still in God confiding, Fruitful, if in Christ abiding, Holy, through the Spirit’s guiding, All must be well. We expect a bright tomorrow; All will be well. Faith can sing through days of sorrow, “All, all is well.”
On our Father’s love relying, Jesus every need supplying, Or in living or in dying, All must be well.
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