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THE KING’S BUSINESS
thoughts. God has spoken to us. What shall 'w e do with His word? Shall we neglect it and pass it by, or shall we take it, study it, seek it, as the verse .expresses it, and make it the rule of our lives? Jesus Christ has come down from heaven to live among us, and has said to bur race, “ Come unto me and learn o f me” ; and there are millions to whom this message has come and they disregard and ignore it; they do not; come to Him, they do not learn o f Him. Can we wonder if, the Judge should say to them when they appear at His seat, “ I never knew you?” I f you read the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, you will see pictures.of an angry God, as an avenging fire, in the apostle’s description. On whom does, the fire .fall? On whom does the Judge show his indignation? Is it upon the misers and the miscreants and the murderers o f the race merely? Oh, no. It is upon them that “know not God and obey not the gospel o f his Son.” Is it any wonder that the sacred writer should say, “ Remember thy Creator in the days ,of thy youth” ; not merely remember that there is a God—remember thyJCreator, who made thee and in whose hand thy fortunes are. Remember in the days o f thy youth, the formative days, the days when char acter is being shaped. What is well begun is half ended. The life that is well begun in this way has a guaranty- o f usefulness and success. The life that is not begun in this Way has a dark and gloomy pros pect before it. Remember thy Creator. We all knofe well what is meant, when some one says to us, on going away from our homes, “ Don’t forget your home, don’t forget your mother.” W e know what that means. And God’s messenger speaks to us in the same tone when he makes this appeal': Remember thy Creator; remem ber His power, remember His will, remem ber His statutes, seek His precepts, and by doing this thou w ilt, be able to walk at liberty. LIBERTY IS NOT LIGHT You may have mere liberty, and not light and not the liberty o f God. You may
mon sense dictates that if a man ig in the employment o f others, it is _>vise for him to have a right understanding, to stand well with the head o f the department in which he is engaged. Commpn sense teaches us that if we are subjects in a kingdo'm and wish to be safe and happy, we must respect -the laws by which the kingdom is ruled. And we have only to extend this principle, and we get. to the point that was before the Psalmist’s mind when he says : “ I w ill walk at liberty, for I seek (or, as it is in the revision, without •changing the meaning, ‘I have sought’ ) thy statutes.’’ I am living in Thy world, I am dependent upon Thee, I have taken pains to know what Thy will is, that I may do it; an
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