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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1933
The mere contemplation of the shortness of our days may be an ally of immorality, o f selfishness, of meanness, o f earthly ambitions, as well as lay a cooling hand on fevered brows, and bring down the pulsations of hearts that throb for earth. But while it is not wholesome to be always thinking of death, it is more unwholesome still never to let the con templation of that end come into our calculations o f the future, and to shape our lives in an obstinate blindness to what is the one certain fact which rises up through the whirling mists of the unknown future, like some black cliff from the clouds that wreathe around it. Is it not strange that the surest thing is the thing that we forget most o f all ? It sometimes seems to me as if the sky rained down opiates upon people, as if all mankind were in a conspiracy of lun acy, because they, with one accord, ignore the most prom inent and forget the only certain fact about their future; and in all their calculations do not “ so number their days” as to “ apply” their “ hearts unto wisdom.” T he R esting P lace “ Go thou thy way, for thou shalt rest.” ’ Now, I sup pose, to most careful readers that clearly is intended as a gracious, and what they call a euphemistic, way of speaking about death. “ Thou shalt rest.” Well, that is a thought that takes away a great deal of the grimness and the terror with which men generally invest the close. It is a thought, of course, the force of which is very different in different stages and conditions o f life;. To you, young people, eager, perhaps ambitious, full o f the consciousness o f inward power, happy, and in all human probability, with the greater portion o f your lives before you in which to do what you desire, the thought of “ rest” comes with a very faint appeal. And yet I do not suppose that there is anybody who has not some burden that is hard to carry, or who has not learned what weariness means.Vt* But to us older people, who have tasted disappoint ments, who have known the pressure of grinding toil for a great many years, whose hearts have been gnawed by har- assments and anxieties off different kinds, whose lives are apparently drawing, nearer to their end than the present moment is to their beginning, the thought,. “ Thou shalt rest,” comes with a very different appeal from that which it makes to these others. That rest is the cessation of toil, but the continuance of activity— the cessation of toil, and anxiety, and harassment, and care. And so the darkness, is made beautiful when we think that God draws the curtain, as a careful mother does in her child’s chamber, that the light may not disturb the slumberer. But, dear friends, that final cessation of earthly work has a double character. “ Thou shalt rest” was said to this man of God. What of people whom death takes away from the only sort o f work that they are fit to do? It will be no rest to long for the occupation which you never can have any more. And if you have been living for this wretched present, to be condemned to have nothing to do any more in it and with it will be torture, and not repose. There is only one way by which we can make that inevitable end a blessing and turn death into the opening of the gate of our restingplace; and that is by setting our heart’s desires and our spirit’s trust on Jesus Christ, who is the “ Lord both of the dead and o f the living.” I f we do that, even the last enemy will come to us as Christ’s representative, with Christ’s own word upon his lips, “ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I [because He has given me the power] will give you rest.” T he H ome “ Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” “ Stand’’- —that is Daniel’s way of preaching, what he has
been preaching in several other parts of his book, the doc trine of the resurrection. “ Thou shalt stand in thy lot.” That is a reference to the ancient partition o f the land of Canaan among the tribes, where each man got his own portion, and sat under his own vine and fig tree. However sweet and blessed that reposeful state may be, humanity has not attained its perfection until once again the perfected spirit is mated with, and enclosed within, its congenial ser vant, a perfect body. “ Corporeity is the end o f man.” Body, soul, and spirit partake of the redemption of God. God is the true inheritance. Each man has his own por tion of Jhe common possession. Or, to put it into plainer words, in that perfect land each individual has precisely so much o f God as he is. capable o f possessing. “ Thou shalt stand in thy lot.” And what determines the lot is how we wend our way till we reach that other end, the end of life. “ Thé end o f the days” is a period far beyond the end of the life of Daniel. And as the course that terminated in repose has been, so the possession o f “ the portion o f the inherit ance o f the saints in light” shall be, for which that course has made men meet. And his allotted portion, as it stretches around him, will be but the issue and the outcome o f his life here on earth. We shall all go where we have fitted ourselves, by God’s grace to go ; get what we have fitted our selves to possess ; and be what we have made ourselves. HAROLD GRAHAM WITH THE LORD [Continued from page 2] First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, leaving, about a year later, to become pastor o f the First Baptist Church of Monrovia, Califiy on January 1, 1932. There, to an ever growing congregation numbering about 750 at the time of his death, he ministered faithfully and wisely. At the same time, he served the Bible Institute as the efficient and effec tive instructor in a new department known as “ Youth Evangelism.” His classrooms were crowded with expec tant listeners, for his was the gift of teaching. He knew the students’ viewpoint, for he himself had been an eager and conscientious learner. He attended the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago and Baylor University, WacOj Tex., serving also in the latter school as head o f the “ Y ” work on the campus. A t the University of Califor nia at Los Angeles, from which he was graduated in 1931, his earnestness^ enthusiasm, and gift of oratory made him invaluable as field secretary o f the University Bible Clubs. His pastor, Rev. A. N. Hall, of Muskogee, Okla., says o f him : “ His consecration was without reservation. When he accepted Christ for himself, he gave himself to Christ. He had courage born o f conviction. Measured by the num ber of his days, his life was brief-—his sun went down at noon. Measured by the height o f his aspirations, the depth o f his understanding, the breadth o f his influence, this man lived a large life* in a few years.” Mr. Graham’s remarkable progress in the Christian ministry in an important church in a city of culture and power is a magnificent testimony to Bible Institute train ing. He did not have the privilege o f attending a seminary, and his whole theological training was received from his faithful pastor and Bible Institutes. He “ being dead yet speaketh”— in the ten or more young people o f his church who definitely Consecrated their lives to the Lord at the time o f his death, and in the many others who, remembering the imperative of his appeals and the beauty o f the life o f Christ as he lived it, are taking a new and aggressive stand for the Lord Jesus Christ,
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