92
February 1928
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Two Soul-Winning Hymns T hrow O ut the L ife - line
mind here. The word “ sanctified” means “ set apart.” With one party in the home a child of God, the unbe lieving party is certainly made more capable of Christian relationship if the believing one glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in the life. While a child is not lost because its parents are un saved, the faith of even one parent gives the child a nearer relationship to the church. One believing, parent will have the child dedicated by the church and will enlist the prayers and efforts o f the church for the child. The words “ else were your children unclean,” in the original simply express the opposite of being “ set apart”— or “ else were they not set apart.” It should be clear that Paul did not teach that personal holiness is something communicated from one person to another by their marriage union. Nor can Christian parents convey their own holiness to their children. It is relative sanctification here suggested. Nor is this an empty idea. It is certainly fitted to issue in saving results, for when, through one of the parties, Christianity enters a home, it may be justly said, as of Zaccheus—who left his house as an avaricious publican and went home a new creature in Christ: “ Today is salvation come to this house.” On this principle, children breathing such an at mosphere are witbin a sacred enclosure and not at all on the same footing.with “ them that are without” (v. 15). .¿Mr. .¿» le. Was Cornelius a Saved Man? To A . R. Y OU say that some are teaching that Cornelius and his household were sayed people and that the pur pose in Peter being directed to go to Caesarea was that they might receive the “ second work o f grace,” the bap tism o f the Holy Ghost, not salvation. Chaps. 10-11 of Acts settle clearly this argument of Pentecostalists. In 10:22 we are told that following Peter’s vision, the men sent from the house of Cornelius to summon Peter, reported that their master was “ a just man, and one that feareth God, and o f good report among all the nations o f the Jews” , They declared that Cor nelius had been warned of God “ to send fo r thee . . . . and to hear words o f thee.” The balance of the chapter records the salvation message which Peter gave at Cor nelius’ home, culminating in the statement : “ To Him give all the prophets witness that through His Name who soever believeth in Him shall receive remission o f sins.” Those who accepted these words, then and there received the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 45). Peter at once sug gests water baptism, which invariably was connected with believing upon Christ for salvation. Cornelius was a man who lived' up to his light and sought more, but he had not received Jesus Christ, and,, therefore, was not a saved man. His sincere prayer was the occasion of his finding Christ. There are many today who profess to be saved, who might well be ashamed to compare themselves with this moral but unsaved centurion, of whom it could be said that he was devout, feared God and gave alms. It is indeed strange that anyone should insist that it was not salvation which Cornelius received that day, in view o f the words of 11:14 — “ who shall tell thee words whereby thou and thy house shall be S A V E D j” and in v. 17 “ God gave them the like gift as H e did unto us who BELIEVED ON the Lord Jesus Christ.” When the brethren were informed of Cornelius’ experience, they said: “ Then hath God also granted to the Gentiles re pentance UNTO LIFE .”
EV. EDW ARD UFFORD , a Baptist preacher and evangelist, was the writer o f both the words and music of this stirring song which has been called the seamen’s favorite. Mr. Ufford one day was watching a drill at a life-saving station at Point Allerton, Nantashet Beach. He heard the order to throw out the line, and saw the men in action with their apparatus. He recalled the story of a ship which had been wrecked on the coast almost at that point. As he walked away from the scene some lines began to take form in his mind. When he reached home he penciled the verses so familiar in revival meetings:
1. “ Throw out the life-line across the dark wave. There is a brother whom someone should save; Somebody’s brother! Oh, who then will dare To throw out the life-line, his peril to share? CHORUS “Throw out the life-line! Throw out the life-line! - Someone is drifting away; Throw out the life-line! Throw out the life-line! Someone is sinking today.
Within fifteen minutes after he had written down the four verses, the tune, which so wonderfully matches the words, came to him. Thousands have been moved to speak a word for Christ as the result of this stirring hymn.
“Throw out the life-line to danger-fraught men, Sinking in anguish where you’ve never been; Winds o f temptation and billows o f woe Will soon hurt them out where the dark waters flow.” L et T he 'L ower L ights B e B urning
Another hymn, which makes a good companion for the one above, is Mr. Bliss’s famous revival song “ Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, when preaching one night, used as an illustration the account of a recent shipwreck on Lake Erie. It had been a stormy night. The pilot of a passenger ship was trying to bring his boat into the Cleveland Harbor. Said the Captain to the pilot: “ Are you sure this is Cleveland ? There’s only one light ahead there.” “ I’m quite sure, Captain,” came the answer. “ Where are the lower lights tonight?” the captain inquired. “ They’ve gone out,” he replied. “ Do you think you can run her in?” the captain asked anxiously. “ W e’ve got to, captain,” he re turned—r “ or die.” The pilot did the best he could without the lower lights which someone had neglected, but he missed the channel, the boat was wrecked and many lives were lost. Mr. Moody, with telling effect, brought out the thought that God will keep the upper light burning without fa il; it is the Christian’s part to keep the lower lights brightly burning so that no one will miss the way into the harbor of heaven. Mr. Bliss was impressed to write— 1. “ Brightly beams our Father’s mercy—
From the lighthouse evermore, But to us He gives the keeping O f the lights along the shore. CHORUS
“Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam apross the wave 1 Some poor fainting, struggling seaman You may rescue, you may save.
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