423
TH E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
October 1925
The Bugle Call of God A Sermon by Dr. W. B. Hinson, Pastor of the East Side Baptist Church, Portland, Oregon A portion of one of Dr. Hinson’s weekly sermons, which are printed and distributed by the Publicity Committee of the East Side Baptist Church, Portland, Oregon, of which he is the beloved pastor. Dr. Hinson rings true to the Word of God in every message, and always appeals to the hearts of his hearers.
I never heard any other woman in the world talk that way about the monotonous and the commonplace duties of the household. But you see that woman had been to Nazareth. That is where she: learned that lesson. And by the Way you do your work tomorrow, my brother, and by the way you behave yourself tomorrow, my sister, some one will estimate God. For it is a trite saying but a true one;—men are not reading the Bible very extensively but they are reading you, the professor of religion. At the Jordan And then He went to the Jordan—^so I read. And the Jordan is the unique experience in Jesus’ life and in our history, for the only time in all the world and in all the generations when the three persons of the Trinity were present in an articulate form was at the baptism of Jesus. Startling and suggestive is that fact; God the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove; God the Father commend ing Jesus; and Jesus submitting to the ordinance of bap tism. I am asking you to recall what He said to John the Baptist when He approached for baptism. For John had remonstrated and in humility answered, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” Now listen. “And Jesus answering, said, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” And there at the Jordan he enunciated the great law of life— Righteousness. Now the sad thing today is the divorce between creed and deed, between, belief and practice. I know men in this city whose creed is orthodox and their lives are heterodox, and what they need is to go to the Jordan and learn that the great law of life is righteousness. The day you receive money for an eight hour day and have only given seven and one half hours of service is the day that betrays you, and evidences you to be a poor disciple of Jesus Christ. And woman, when last Thursday in the car you went past the conductor and took your seat, he having failed to notice as you went by, and you suddenly remembered that you had paid no fare and you smiled a little to yourself and hushed your conscience by saying, “Well, eight cents is too much anyhow,” to that extent you went away from walking with Jesus. And if that conductor happened to be informed of what you had done and learned that you were a member of this church, you made eight cents, but you hurt the church and you hurt the cause of Jesus Christ and you hurt Christ Himself. So let us go to the Jordan. On the “Hill of Testing” And then He went to the hill of testing Where the duel of eternity was fought, and Jesus the Son of God and Satan the prince of the power of the air met.- And the struggle was protracted and terrible. ‘Have you learned the lesson of that hill? Here is one lesson we should learn from it. (Continued on page 451.)
“J e s u s s a id , I f a n y m a n w ill c o m e a f t e r m e, le t h im d e n y h im s e lf, a n d ta k e u p h is c ro s s d a ily , a n d fo llo w m e .1— L u k e 9:23. B fTjjHOLLOW me.” And if I follow Him, I must go where He goes. And in this world first He went-to 1 | | | Bethlehem, and in a manger there lay the One ¡¿SSI who is the Son of God. And Paul, thinking hack to Bethlehem, said “He emptied himself.” So Bethlehem stands for Renunciation. Now have you been to Bethle hem? Have you gone through an experience of self-empty ing? Has your life become like bruised grapes for God?' Have you really felt that your highest place is lying low at your Redeemer’s feet? Do you recall Monod’s great hymn, which ends with the verse— “H ig h e r th a n th e h ig h e s t h e a v e n s , ' D e e p e r th a n th e d e e p e s t s e a , L o rd , T h y lo v e a t l a s t h a s c o n q u e re d , N o n e o f s e lf a n d a ll o f T h e e .” Have you been to Bethlehem? Will you go' you really say—®',! And w: “H a v e T h in e v o w n w a y , L o rd , H a v e T h in e o w n w a y ; T h o u a r t th e P o tte r , I a m th e c la y .” At Nazareth And He went next to Nazareth. What did He do there, do you ask? Oh, He made chairs and tables and plows for the people. And He was God? Yes! Xam always astounded whqn I read that men said, “Is not this the carpenter?” But in the carpenter’s shop, standing upon the fragrant shav ings, pushing the plane, moving the saw, He behaved like the Son of God and He lifted up commonplace things and made things that were ordinary extraordinary by the way He did them. We need to learn the lesson which we can alone learn in Nazareth. To you women to whom I seldom preach, I would like to tell a story of my former pastorate before I came to Oregon. The woman I have always thought was one of the three foremost women I. have known in intellect and heart, stood up one night and said this, in effect: “We women ought to -thank God for our ministry. Our fathers, hus bands, brothers, sons, toil all day in all sorts of surround ings. And they come home with their physical strength depleted and their nerves all on edge, and they look like wrecks when they enter the house. And there is a grimness about them, suggestive of much. And then our gracious ministry comes in. For we have prepared a meal,— care fully, lovingly prepared it. We say Very little but we place the meal before them, and they partake of it, and the wrinkles go out of the face and the eyes grow larger, and a smile begins to threaten to appear on the countenance. And after a while they find their tongues and they composedly speak about the day, and we have captured them for God.”
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