THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S which has been edited by Prof. C. F. Kent and two collaborators from the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. It is but a step from the abandonment of the hope of Christ’s Coming, back to pagan hope lessness. And this pagan hopelessness is common enough in our day.-—Record of Christian Work. ' I m m POWER OF THE CROSS Some recent words of the late Dr. A. B. Simpson are very precious: “We never get past the cross. . It grows more precious every day and every step of the Christian's way. It is heaven’s trade-mark on everything that expects to pass the gates of heaven. The principle of death and resurrec tion is the profoundest principle con nected with our Christian life. Abra ham’s Isaac had to be laid down in death and taken back in resurrection as God’s Isaac before the promise could have right of way. Not only must our evil things be given up to be crucified, but our best things must go through the cross and come forth with the stamp of the resurrection. Our natural graces and virtues must be exchanged for su pernatural gifts and enduements. Our very prayers must first often seem to fail and then come back to us as fro'm the grave. Our service must be buried seed and bear upon it the stamp of the cross. Yes, and even this earth itself must pass through its great and final catastrophe and come forth as the new heavens and the new earth with the sign manual of the cross as the mark of its divinity and immortality.” . GOD WANTS MEN—NOT MONEY A writer in The Christian Advocate recently said with truth, that it is easier to raise a million for missions than to get a dozen strong men on their knees crying, “ God be merciful to me a sin ner.”
260 for their eyes, like fools’ eyes, are wan dering all over the congregation. They bow in the attitude of prayer, but all the while their eyes are upon vacant space. You had better be home than to be here without being HERE. This attendance at the altar may be the crowning sin of a guilty life. To have touched the sacred Book with an irreverent hand, to have looked as if you were interested, whilst all the time your heart was a mile away, may be the blasphemy which outblackens every other profanity. Judgment must begin at the house of God. O Church of the Living God; con version must begin WITHIN thee, and then the fire will burn and throw out its happy influence upon the wide cir cumference, and there shall be joy in the presence of the angels of God over a prodigal Church, repentant and re turned. - THE “ DENATURED” BIBLE “ But I would not have you to be ig norant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no. hope.” And the Apostle, after recounting more partic ularly the hope of the Coming, ends with, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” No. 38 in the Greek Papyri of Milligan gives the pagan par allel to this passage: “ Irene to Tacunophria and Philo, good cheer. I was much grieved and wept over the blessed one as I wept for Didymus and everything that was fitting I did and all who were with me. But truly there is nothing anyone can do in the face of such things. Do you therefore comfort one another. Good bye.” But there are no words of hope with which to comfort one another. It is significant that this passage of Thessalonians— one of the most precious in the New Testament— is eliminated from the denatured “ Shorter Bible”
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