732
December 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
(2) The second part of His purpose was “that we might receive the adoption of sons” ; not that we might recognize that we are sons already, but “that we might receive the adoption of sons.” And the word adoption means more than taking up a waif child of the street and .by a process of law treating it as if it were your son, to receive your inheritance. It means really producing the condition and experience of son. Jesus came to redeem us from sin, that we might become really sons of God, with the very nature of God; “born from above,” “par takers of the divine nature” by regeneration. (3) The third part of the purpose is that we should recognize and express the fact that we are sons of God. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” You become sons through faith in Jesus Christ, and then enter into the spirit of the son that becomes familiar with the father. “Abba” is the child’s prattling word for “father.” When we have accepted Jesus Christ, we have become akin to the Father; having become real children of God, we then have the spirit of sonship by which we can come into His presence and make known our wants in a famil iar way. H eirs of G od (4) The fourth part of the purpose is that we should be “heirs of God through Christ.” “Thou art no longer a Servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Righteousness, as defined in the letter to the Romans, is primarily right relation. We must get right with God before we can do right before God. Until we get right with God, all our doing right is “filthy rags” in His sight. “I beseech you in Christ’s stead,” pleaded Paul, “be ye reconciled to God.” In other words, get right, and then do right. And you cannot get right by doing right. Through the death of Christ on the cross, making atonement for sin, we get a perfect standing before God. That is justification, and it puts us, in God’s sight, back in Eden before sin entered. God looks upon us and treats us as if we had never sinned. Heirship is a matter of relation. If your name is in the will, you get what is left to you regardless of your age, color, or condition in life. A cartoon in a daily paper, a few days after Mr. Carnegie’s death, pictured a ragged tramp standing on the street corner and weeping,as if his heart were broken. A policeman asked, “What is the matter?” “Mr. Carnegie is dead,” blubbered the tramp. “Well, what of that?” continued the policeman. “Was he a relative of yours?” “No, no,” said the tramp, “that is what I am crying about. If I were a relative of his, I would now be a rich man.” The cartoonist, in this gro tesque way, announced the great fact that heirship de pends upon relation. And yet Mr. Carnegie might have disinherited his own son by leaving him a merely nominal amount. But if his will had said, “All my children shall inherit my fortune,” the heirship would then have de pended upon the sonship, and, as sonship is an unchange able relation, not one of them could have been disin herited. Once a son means forever a son. You cannot unson a man. And God makes my heirship depend upon His unchangeable relation of sonship. “If a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” This brings us to the proposition which a lifetime of searching for the truth has confirmed: JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT A PRODUCT OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE LIVED, BUT OF AN-ji OTHER WORLD, WHO CAME TO TH IS WORLD FOR A PURPOSE.
S ilen t N igh t 1Holy N ig h t ! I T was Christmas Eve in the year 1818 when Joseph Mohr was taking a little stroll. As he walked along enjoying the moonlight and the quiet of the evening, some lines came to his mind:
“Silent night! Holy night! All is calm; all is bright. Round yon Virgin mother and Child! Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.”
That very evening he stopped in to see his musical friend Franz Guber, who immediately suggested a musical setting. A few hours later the song was sung as a duet in the Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf. Joseph Mohr, who had a fine tenor voice, sang it with Gruber, who had a bass voice. It made a deep impression.
“Silent night! Holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight, Glories stream from heaven afar; Heavenly hosts sing, Hallelujah! Christ the Saviour is born! Christ the Saviour is born.”
It seemed destined to become a universal Christmas hymn, though Gruber himself never published it. The music spread from town to town in Germany and then to other lands. Today there is scarcely a land on the globe where it is not sung. Missionaries have carried it out to China, Africa and the far North. “Silent night! Holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light; v Jesus,' Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.” A marble tablet at Arnsdorf, where the hymn was written commemorates it in the following words: Conscience: What Is It? 1. A mirror before which no sin can be concealed. 2. An accuser who cannot be silenced. 3. A witness whose testimony cannot be gainsaid. 4. A judge before whom men cannot stand. 5. A preacher who rests neither day nor night. 6. A brand which cannot be obliterated. 7. A gnawing worm which dies not. 8. A fire which ever burns. Endeavor, therefore, so to act that neither before God nor your own conscience nor any man, sin can be brought against you. Faith gives freedom from sin before God. Through faith all our sins are cast into the deep ocean of divine mercy; for then they are forgiven and forgotten. Before conscience you may be free from sin if you make even the smallest sin a matter of conscience, and therefore seek to shun even the smallest sin. Before men you may be blameless when you seek to “give none offense,” to take offense at no man, so that no one may take offense at you. Radiant beams from thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace, “Who has made thee, O song? Mohr made me so beautiful, Gruber gave me my reverent sound, The priest and the teacher united.”
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