T HE K I N G ’ S B U S f N E S S
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ing, tor one of the prominent members was a brewer; nor against card-play ing, for many of the members attended card parties. The new supply, dismay ed, asked, “Well, what will I preach against?” The deacon thought a mo ment, and then, with brightening face, said, “Hit the Jews; there isn’t a one in our church.” God pity the preacher who allows himself to be in bondage to a few influential pew holder's. Come Out of the. Fog This is no age in which to preach a bloodless gospel. Through the world’s great heart there is now a vast rent. That awful wound was torn by an in- tellectualism void of an enthroned Christ. There is but one message for this age, when a despondent world is feeling its way out of a cnasm of de spair. Above the roar and tumult comes the heart-hungry cry for Calvary. The world is listening for the voice of Him who spake and the sea slumbered in the hollow of His hand. The sting ing, biting winds from out the valley of an almost universal death have made us long for a shelter in the time of storm. In no age of the world’s his tory has the human race been quite so hungry for the Bread which cometh down from above. O, what an hour this is for the man who has not lost his commission to preach a Risen Lord! What a supreme moment this, in human history, when a Christ can be preached— a Christ Who, remembering that we are but dust, can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities! On this very moun tain-peak of history there is no place for a preacher who moves in the fog belt, no place for the preacher whose head is not above the clouds. Martin Luther preached this doctrine of aton ing blood to slumbering Europe and Europe awoke from the dead. Amid all his defenses of divine sovereignty, Cal vin never belittled or ignored the Atonement. Spurgeon thundered this
glorious doctrine of Christ crucified into the ears of peasant and peer alike. John Bunyan made the Cross the starting point to the Celestial, City. Moody’s bells all chimed to the keynote of Cal vary. O, brother preacher, let us put our ear close to the world’s great big heart! It murmurs and sighs like a tired and restless sea. It is a weary world and longs for rest. Preach Jesus! Tell them, “ He breaks the power of cancel ed sin, He sets the prisoner free.” They can understand that message. Preach Jesus! For when He speaks, new life the dead receive; and, listening to the music of His voice, the mournful, broken hearts rejoice. Let us go back to the Christ of the Ages— back to the very shadow of the Cross. Back to Calvary— the world’s final hope; that’s the supreme need of the hour. —J. Marvin Nichols, in the Indian Witness. Don’t Let Them Sleep It is related of John Lassenius, the chaplain to the Danish Court, who died at Copenhagen in 1692, that having for a long time perceived, to his vexation, that during the sermon the greater part of his congregation fell asleep, he suddenly stopped, pulled a shuttlecock from his pocket, and began to play with it in the pulpit. A circumstance so ex traordinary naturally attracted the at tention of that part of the congregation who were still awake. They jogged those who were sleeping, and in a short time everybody was lively, and looking to the pulpit with the greatest aston ishment. This was just what Lasseni us wished; for he immediately began a most severe castigatory discourse, saying, “When I announce to you sa cred and important .truths, you are not ashamed to go asleep; but when I play the fool, you are all eye and ear,” Here’ s a G ood Work— Send the “ K. B.” to the Shut-ins!
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