November 1931
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
487
GIVING THANKS ALWAYS . . . By HOWARD A. BANKS, *Pittsburgh, Pa.
“Giving thanks always for all things” (Eph. 5 :20). ( > [ harles H. S purgeon and Theodore Cuyler were walking in the meadows near Lon don one day, where Cuyler related a witty anecdote, and they broke out into a hearty laugh. “Theodore,” said Spurgeon suddenly, “let us thank God for laughter.” So they got down on their knees and gave thanks for humor,
afterward gone with his host to dinner. While they sat waiting on the front porch, the baby of the household fell off the upstairs porch. An addition was being built to the house. Only the girders on which the flooring was later to be nailed had been put in. If the baby had fallen on one of these, it would have been killed. But a wide plank ran across the girders for workmen to walk on, and the infant straddled it unhurt. “There ,”
that s a f e t y valve in t h e human engine. Thanksgiv ing is a double first cousin, or maybe even a twin sister to praise. One of t h e p l a c e s w h e r e God lives is praise. “Jehovah in- habiteth eter- n i t y,” t h e W o r d says, a n d in t h e Person of the risen Christ, He ma k e s His dwelling in the temple of our bodies. He d w e l l s within the in visible church, the temple of s p i r i t u a l stones. B u t Jehovah also “inhabitestthe praise of Is
said Mr. Mil ler, “is an il lustration to go along with my morning sermon.” That nar row escape you h a d—it w a s y o u r guardian an gel that pro tected y o u ; a n d y o u should thank God that He so ordered it, because He h a s further work for you to do f o r Him. G iving T hank s for G ardens Those of us who were raised in the country w i l l
THE LANDING PLACE OF THE PILGRIMS
rael” (Psa. 22 :3). Jehovah loves to be sung about, and all Bible-mentioned singing, by the way, is about redemption. Heathenism has no hymns. Modernism is beginning to give us expurgated hymn books with the precious blood eliminated. To give thanks always at all times means of course to live as a Christian in an attitude of gratitude for all divine blessings. Similarly, we are enjoined to “pray without ceasing.” G iving T hank s for A ngels We do not thank God enough for angels. They are in visible ministerng spirits always working in the behalf of “the heirs of salvation.” Unseen themselves, they minister to us in physical matters. My beloved schoolmate and life long friend, Evangelist Robert V. Miller, of Henderson ville, N. C., had preached one morning on angels, and had
thank God for gardens. While the curse of the thistle and the weed was put in the soil because of our first parents’ sin, there was left in the heart of man something of that element in Adam which made him love his own growing things in his garden of Eden, for “the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Have you ever noticed in your own garden that the grapevine is especially adapted to illustrate what Jesus taught when He became incarnate—that the vine is doubly joined with every branch. You can snap off a branch from a peach, an apple, or a plumb tree with a clean cleavage, but you cannot break off a grapevine branch that way. Fibers from the vine run into the branch, and fibers from the branch run back into the vine. So the Lord could teach the wonder of the abiding life with this illustration, as He and His disciples walked through Judaea’s vineyards.
♦Editor of Christ Life.
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