190
THE KING’ S BUSINESS
/'"VPTIMISM: TRUE AND FALSE.
An insistent demand is being made upon every -preacher find teacher at the present time that he should be optimistic. It is more than suggested that if we are not optimistic •we are disloyal to oùr country. We also believe èvery Christian should be optimistic. The Bible is the most optimistic book in all the world. But there is a true optimism, an optimism that is built upon a considera tion of the real facts in the case, and there is a false optimism that comes from shutting our eyeg to such facts as we do not like to face, and from entertaining" dreaftis about the future which have no warrant in the Word of God. We recently1 listened to a noted speaker, whose voice has been heard from the Atlantic to the .Pacific, and also heard in many- other lands, who has been at the front, who has ha'd such opportunities for òbsérvation as very few have had. His story about what was going on at the front was not merely most informing,, but stirred one to the very depths. It was a story full of sadness too, and many were on the verge of tears. At that point he changed from the dark facts to his own bright dreams about thè future. He began : “ I see a vision,” and then described his, vision of a new Russia, and a new Germany, and a new France, and “ even a new America” coming out of the war. But this vision that he described has no warrant whatever in the Word of God. It was simply formed out o f what he would like to be the outcome of the war. There was no basis for it in history nor in prophecy. It was purely “ the baseless fabric of a dream.” But the intelligent student of. Scripture can be optimistic in the darkest hour, not with an optimism that comes from imagining things that he would like to come to pass, but an optimism that comes from studying the certainties of the future as they are revealed in the Word of God, an optimism that comes, not from fancying that this present war will make another great war impossible,, for it will not, the Word of God clearly rèvèals that it will not, but an optimism that comes from knowing that when man has proven again his utter failure, that God’s'Own Man, the God Man, the once crucified and now risen and ascended Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will come back to this sin-cursed and distracted earth and where .man has proven his incapacity of reign or rule, He will take the reins óf government, and all the loftiest dreams of men will be more than realized. “He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy-poor with judgment. Thè mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the chil dren of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. And men (They) shall fear Jehovah (thee) as long as the sun and njoon endure, throughout all generations! He shall cóme down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers, that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness.shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust............... Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and him that hath no helper, He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight. And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba ; prayer also shall be made for him continually ; and daily shall he be praised. There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountainsthe fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs