December 1925
T H E K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
537
C o n t r i b u t e d A r t i c l e s
SB5BBBSgHZ5BZB5B5S5^BSZHgSB5aa5gBggt ___ AS a j A SilentGoa: Unscriptural, Unnatural, andUnhistorical t ^ U U ^ r ^ Dr. John Murdoch Maclnnis, Dean of the Bible Institute of Bos Angeles
HE Word was made flesh,” and Christmas once again reminds us that ours is not a dead, .lonely and silent world, but a'world in which God speaks. It was possible for Jesus Christ to come in the flesh because this world is the kind of a world in which God can express Himself. He made it so because He wishes to express Himself, for that is His nature. The world is not an accident, and the fact that its activities have been con summated in the creation of a being such as man is not incidental. These are the expression of the nature of God. The first .vision of God given to us in the Scriptures reveals Him to us in a creative activity which finds its cli max in the creation of a being with whom He can have fellowship— a being who responds to His own nature, for he is made in His image. Our next revelation of God comes when man sinned and that fellowship was interrupted. In this revelation we have God seeking to speak to a man who is now silent and trying to hide from God. It is not God who is silent but man. From that on, down through the story of the Bible until we come to the final unveiling of God in the Christmas stoop and in the ascent of the Cross, is the story of a seeking God who yearns for fellowship with men who through sin are constantly turning away from Him. It is useless to quote texts in the support of this statement for this is the throbbing heart of the Bible. The Christmas anthems were thé songs of heaven sung by the angels as they witnessed the quest of God for the lost fellowship of men who were dead to Him because of sin. The Incarnation is God seeking and saving the lost. Why this quest? Because the heart of God craved that fellowship. Man is the creation of that craving in the heart of the divine. Why does mother’s love follow her wandering boy? Because that boy had his birth in mother’s heart and love. She brought him forth because she wanted him. He originated in her nature. God seeks man because' he is His offspring and originated in His love, and that love created him that it might have fellowship in communicating itself to him. What was He to save him to? Of course He was to save him from sin, but that is only a Small part of the story. Sin was the thing that interrupted the fellowship for which he was created. The real story is that He came to save him to the relationship and fellowship for which he was created. This fellowship means friendship. Jesus said, “No longer do I call ye servants, but friends.” Why? “I have talked with you and told you the things that My Father told Me.” Friendship means communion. A genuine friendship can not be sustained long without a genuine communion. In redemption we are brought back to God and our fellowship is with Him, and in this relationship the church is called “the body of Christ.” Hé is the Head. A body apart from a living, vital communion with a head is unthinkable. To break this communion means paralysis, disintegration and death.
Paul also speaks of this body as “the bride of Christ.” This relationship is unthinkable apart from intimate fellow ship-and communion. In His redeeming action He has lifted us up into the most intimate possible relationship, and in that relationship we have communion and fellowship with Him because He wants to speak to us. He speaks by His Word and by His Spirit who is in us, and speaks not only in us but through us. This is the Bible story. To take that out of it would be to take from it its flaming heart and leave us orphans in a lonely and silent world. This is eternal life to know God in a living experience, and nothing else can satisfy the heart of man and nothing else can satisfy the heart of God. One of the :greatest souls of the Christian community has put this'fact in immortal phrase when he said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and we cannot rest until we rest in Thee.” This is the language, of the heart and it is the story of nature. A father that does not want to talk with his children, a friend that does, not want to commune with his friehdS, a bridegroom that does not want to talk with his bride, are all unnatural. . The greatest thinkers of all the ages in their deepest insights have understood the world to be vocal with the voice and radiant with the glory of God. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night, sheweth knowledge.” The heavens are no less radiant and day and night are no more silent today than they were in David’s day. Plato under stood this, and some of the greatest thinkers of our day can find no value or meaning in life only as it is the expression and voice of a greater and higher life. If this is not the voice of God, whose voice is it? History also shines with this glory and is vocal with the voice which by its power has created the world and deter mined the ages.. Abraham heard Him speak and followed a quest that lias proven a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Mosep heard His voice and ventured on the creation of a new nation. Paul heard Him speak and turned from Asia, where he wanted, to go, and accepted the challenge of Europe and turned the flood-tides of- civilization into new channels. David Livingstone listened and heard and opened a pathway into the dark and bleeding heart of Africa. J. Hudson Taylor heard Him and in obedience to the chal lenge, claimed the millions of inland China for Christ. No voice of demon or devil ever calls to quests and exploits like these. The sainted Horatius Bonar sweetly pang: “I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy-head upon My breast.’ I came to Jesus as I was, Weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, And He has made me glad.” (Concluded on following page)
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