T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
417
November, 1939
promises to keep trial from us, He does promise to keep us during trial. The purpose of trial and the refin ing through affliction is threefold: 1. Trial demonstrates the presence of faith. Trial reveals faith. It is evidence of the possession of something more vital than possession. If your faith depends upon your possessions, you do not have any faith. Faith is what is left when all else is swept away. Faith is what re mains when a man can stand in the midst of the debris and wreck of all he held dear and can hold his head high and say, “I still have God.” ; 2. Trial serves to prove faith. Trial not only confirms our faith,.but it also strengthens and multiplies »it. The negative always develops the strength of the affirmative The an tagonist always develops the wrestler. And trial adds to the virtue of the. saint. 3. Trial results in the praise of faith. Are we as careful as we ought to be about offering praise in faith ? Do not most of us complain about our trials rather than praise God in them ? The trial of faith should normally issue' in praise and not protest. There is a very happy word here about this matter of trial. It is but “for a season.” It will not be forever— just “for a season.” VI. Their Inspiration (v. 8 ). It may be that when you fell in love, it was love at first sight. Here is love without sight: “Whom having not seen, ye love.” Christ Jesus, unseen and yet a bright reality to those who knew Him, was their inspiration in trial. VTI. Their Salvation (vs. 9-12). “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (v. 9). Jesus did not come to save society; He came to save the soul. Jesus ?did not come to save humanity; He came to save the man. Sin was a personal matter, and sal vation is a personal matter. If Jesus Christ came to save society by human improvement, then we would be justified in preaching the “social gospel.” But there cannot be any reason for that because it is faith in the Son of God that saves the soul. * # * Life, after all, is a matter of stimu lus. What stimulates us most drives us farther toward our goal. The cold gen eralities of theology move us but little. The inventions of science make us com fortable but give us scant comfort. But when God displays His love, our love is stimulated and we are sustained in the midst of our “manifold tempta tions.” And even though we may be passing through the “fiery trial,” and though now we “see him not,” yet- be lieving, we “rejoice with joy unspeak able and full of glory."
faith. Its potentiality is such that so ciety and all its institutions can be purged and purified. Every other sys tem that is competitive to it dreams of doing what only Christianity can accomplish. There is one word that separates Christianity from all other faiths. It is this word “begotten.” The world tal • about culture, reform, education, and evolution, but the Bible talks about “birth.” You cannot grow men by enriching the soil—you have to have new seed. You cannot have a new society by new culture—you" have to have new character, i \ There was abundant culture in the Empire in which these Christians were scattered. But in The New International Encyclopaedia is thus described the cor ruption with which this advance in cul ture was linked: ^ ' “During the profound peace that the Empire had enjoyed everywhere except on its frontiers, its material prosperity had greatly increased. The population was more than doubled; the towns became popu lous and were embellished with splendid monuments of architecture and sculpture; the wastes were peopled wherever, at least, the pub* licani or f a r m e r s general had not got the l a n d into t h e i r hands; Roman literature reached its culmination; th e 1 refinements of civilization were carried to the Ro man frontiers in the far north and to the borders of the African desert in the south; but the im- m o r a l i t y o f the rich, especially among the women, became even worse than before and corruption reigned supreme.”* Regeneration, new life, was the unique contribution of the message which the persecuted Christians in Nero’s Empire carried. III. Their Provision (v. 4 ). If scattering had made the Christians poor, it had also made them rich. If scattering had taken from them life’s perishables, it had also given to them life’s imperishables. If scattering had performed a work of subtraction, it had also performed a work of addition. Four things are true of their inheri tance and yours if you belong to the progeny of the elect: 1. This heritage is beyond death— “incorruptible.” 2. It is beyond sin—“undefiled.” 3. It is beyond change—unfading. 4. It is beyond time—“reserved in heaven.” IV. -Their Preservation (v. 5). Here are two wonderful facts: *The N ew International Encyclopaedia , Fol. 'X X , p. 131, Dodd, Mead and Company, N ew York
Thanksgiving Prayer By VELMA GRAY SUNDERMAN With reverence, on bended knee, We offer thanks, dear Lord, On this Thanksgiving Day. All that we have are gifts from Thee; • Thy love; our life; the Way To Thee through Christ, our Lord; Our friends; our work; our liberty. And if our thanks are touched with pain, Thou knowest, Lord, our hearts Are greatly pained and sad. Where once men loved, war now holds reign, And the grim reaper, mad, Mows down, and death imparts'; The young, the innocent, are slain. We cannot pray “Bless me,” dear Lord, No matter what our creed, Until we breathe a prayer For those oppressed whose lands are warred. We pray Thy special care; Dear God, soon intercede And make their hearts confess Thee, LORD. 1. The inheritance is reserved in heaven (v. 4). 2. The inheritors are preserved on earth (v. 5). The mercy of God provides the in heritance (v. 4), and the power of God keeps the inheritors (v. 5). The one is the guarantee of the other. I believe in eternal security as one. of the precious possessions of my faith. I be lieve it because God says it. V. Their Temptation (vs. 6, 7 ). Disappointment must never take the Christian unaware. If he has been promised an inheritance, he also has been forewarned equally of “manifold temptations.” If he expects an inheri tance, he must also expect trial. The anticipation of the one is the promise of the other. Manifold trials mean nothing more nor less than trials in many ways, such as the following: , The trial of physical pain. The trial of economic difficulty. The trial of disappointment. The trial of persecution. The trial of being maligned and mis understood. The trial of failure. The trial of parents disappointed in their children. But throughout all the travail of your trial, bear this assurance con stantly before you: While God nowhere
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