Burnham Beeches, Knghuid
I F ANY MAN ever had cause to grow faint and weary in welldo ing, it was the Apostle Paul. Con sider his position when he wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians and his Epistle to the Galatians, which were written within a short interval of each other. During his absence, false teachers had been successful in destroying the faith of some of his converts in Galatia. These believers had brought themselves under the bondage of the law and there was much dissension within the church. There was such discord that Paul had to warn against its fatal re sults: "If you are perpetually snarl ing and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another” (Gal. 5:15, Weymouth). Is there anything more discourag ing to a servant of Christ than to see a good work, which has been built up by much patient and sacri ficial service, injured by selfish, un scrupulous men? This has been the experience of many of our mission aries in pagan lands. In his Second Epistle to the Co rinthians, Paul unveils his innermost soul. There was no relief for his spirit or flesh; "without were fight ings, within were fears” (2 Cor. 2:13; 7:5). He was pressed on every side,
vast, so complex, that nothing man does seems to make any difference. All classes today are suffering from an insidious form of war-weariness. Unless we recognize it as a real thing which must be overcome, it will be productive of worse evils. Reaction after war is inevitable. During the war, men had no time for relaxation; they were set on winning the victory and seemed to possess superhuman strength. There is need of renewal today to rise above this deadening spirit which makes it so easy for Satan to rob us of our faith and hope, and to tempt us to give up Christian service. It is a tragedy to see so many who once were full of zeal for Christ and His Kingdom, losing their enthusiasm. To go on daily when one is weary in body, mind and spirit, is not easy, for it is natural for "mortal spirits to tire and faint,” yet we must carry on for Christ’s sake. To lose heart in the heavenly race, to lose hope in the good fight, is the sure way to disaster. The devil takes advantage of the listlessness of the saints. To grow disheartened and to surrender to the foe is the way to dishonor and defeat. No wreath of victory is promised to those who quit the field. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
perplexed, smitten by exhausting la bors; his journeys were full of dan ger. He was pursued by the hate of his own countrymen and harassed by false teachers. There were times when he despaired even of life it self: “We had the sentence of death in ourselves” (2 Cor. 1:9). He was “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:10). The maltreatment he had re ceived was visible in his physical frame: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Gal. 6:17). If ever a man was tried, slandered, per secuted, exhausted by sacrificial la bors, it was the Apostle Paul. Yet under his physical weakness and weariness, there was an immense fund of moral vigor. After years of unremitting toil, relentless perse cution and torturing' pain, his faith and hope were undimmed, and he was always planning some new mis sionary advance. He ever bade oth ers to keep a stout heart and not to give way to faintheartedness (Gal. 6:9). We stand in dire need of the spirit of endurance and courage which Paul possessed. Many are weary in well doing, wondering if anything is really worth while. The problems of the world and of the church are so
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