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R A T E S A S L OW AS A D O L L A R A DA Y
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
(C on sider ilie I /~ lc lvan iages F IR ST : The buildings are constructed of reinforced con crete. They are absolutely firepoof. S E C O N D : Hot and cold running water, softened by new equipment, is in every room. TH IRD : The location is in the very heart of the great metropolitan district of Los Angeles. FO U R T H : Next door is the superb City Public Library. Its reading facilities are unsurpassed. F IF TH : Shaded walks and rest retreats in Library Park re lax and refresh tired bodies. S IX TH : There are two separate buildings, one is for men and the other for women. SEVEN TH :-P leasan t and commodious accommodations for married couples also are provided. E IG H T H : Surprisingly low rates reflect strict adherence to efficient management policies.
BIOLA HOTELS 536-558 S. Hope Street LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Cable Address BIOLA Phone MA dison 1641 OWNED AND OPERATED BY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES • WM. P. WHITE, D.D., PRESIDENT
The Bible in the Home T h e following meaningful article is quoted from Evangelical Christendom : “Public utterances directed to the bring ing home to parents their responsibilities in regard to the reading of the Bible in the home are to be warmly applauded. Scripture is full of precepts and warn ings concerning religion in the home, and there is no age at which it is too early to commence, if our children are to rise up and call us blessed. “Referring to the subject, the Bishop of Chelmsford said he believed that among the great mass of young people there was a tremendous spirit of honesty and sin cerity. They were profoundly anxious to find something that would be a sure guide in life. Perhaps the parents were the hindrance. When he saw parents wring ing their hands and complaining that they did not know what to do about their children, he was strongly tempted to say, You have got the children you deserve.’ It is in the home that the Bible should be enshrined as the guide for youth. _ As the date of the Bible Society’s An niversary coincided with that of the King’s Accession to the Throne, the chairman recalled the words used by His Majesty about the Bible when he Was crowned: “ ‘It is my confident hope that my sub jects may never cease to cherish their no ble inheritance in the English Bible, which in a secular aspect is the first of national treasures, and is in its spiritual signifi cance the most valuable thing that this world affords.’ ” Parents will profit by interesting their children in T h e K ing ’ s B usi ness . Why not use this means of studying the Bible with them ? Milo F. Jamison, editor of the Christian Endeavor Notes, is giving a constructive and connected series of practical Bible discussion subjects and outlines in the Gospel of John-L/- just the thing for family Bible study. The course began in the June issue. Look up your old copy and begin the work now. The problems of young people of today are treated by Florence Nye Whitwell in the department, Heart to Heart with our Young Readers. The serial story, “The Return of the Tide” by Zenobia Bird, is a wholesome tale that inspires faith. Besides these regular features, read Dr. Stewart P. MacLennan’s mes sage in this issue, entitled “The Phil osophy of Paul’s Calling.” This stir ring address was delivered to th e ' 1931 graduating class of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. T h e K ing ’ s B usiness is the Bi ble family magazine. Let it help you to give to the Word of God its right ful place of authority in the home.
W il l ia m P. W h it e , D.D., E ditor
Published Monthly by and Represent- ing the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
©fie 3 ! b ï e T a m i l s D i l a g a t i n e Motto: Unto him that loved us, and washed us from owr sins in his own blood." —R ev . 1 :5.
Volume XXII
July, 1931
Number 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS Crumbs from the King’s Table—The Editor.................................291 Present-Day Fulfillment of Prophecy—Louis S. Bauman...........293 The Philosophy of Paul’s'Calling—Stewart P. MacLennan.........295 Commencement at Biola................................................ ................... 298 The Audacity of Unbelief—James M, Gray...................................299 When Experts Failed—Roy Talmage Brumbaugh.......................301 Fruits of Evangelism in China—Grace Pike Roberts.....................303 Our Lord’s Oversight-^-John MacBeath........................................ 305 Appreciation of Charles A. Roberts—Frank A. Keller...............305 Atheism’s Advance Among Students—George T. B. Davis...........306 Studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews—John C. Page......,......... 307 Biblical Confirmation from Archaeology—J. A. Huffman.......... 308 Structure in Scripture—Norman B. Harrison.................................310 The Return of the Tide—Zenobia Bird............................ ............. 313 Heart to Heart with our Young Readers —Florence Nye Whitwell.........................................................315 Our Literature Table ........................................................................ 317 The Bible Institute Family Circle—Cutler B. Whitwell...............318 Junior King’s Business—Helen Howarth Lemmel.....................,...319 Homiletical Helps .............................................. . 321 International Lesson Commentary ....,...... ...................................... 322 Notes on Christian Endeavor—Milo F. Jamison...........................328 Daily Devotional Commentary......,.,:.;.,.......:......:.............332
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more, 50c reduction on each subscription, sent to one or to separate address as preferred. Trial offer 3 months 25c. REM ITTANCE: Should be made by Bank Draft, Ex press or P. O. Money Order, payable to “Bible Institute of Los Angeles." Receipts will not be sent for reg ular, subscriptions, but date of expiration will show plainly, each month, on outside wrapper or cover of magazine. M AN USCRIPTS: THE KING'S BUSINESS cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to manuscripts sent to it for consideration. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please send both old and new addresses at least one month previous to date of desired change.
? EF[NED BT THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGEIFS htiiA^°rBtan? w n the infalUble Word of God and its great fundamental truths, (b) To strengthen the faith of all mnit th« r hL TT°n.! r / 0Ur 8T“ “ a an
536-558 S. H ope St., BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Lo* Angeles, Calif.
The Word o f God in Our National Life
> here is no other book so various as the Bible, nor one so full of consecrated wisdom. Whether it be of the law, business, morals, or that vision which leads the imagination in the creation of constructive enterprises for the hap piness of mankind, he who seeks for guidance in any of these things may look inside its covers and find illumination. The study of this Book in your Bible classes is a postgraduate course in the richest library of human experience. As a nation, we are indebted to the Book of books for our national ideals and repre sentative institutions. Their preservation rests in adhering to its principles. —H erbert H oover . jQj'oMETiMES it seems as though a popular familiarity with the Scriptures is not as great at the present time as it has been in the past in American life. The foundations of our society and of our government rest so much on the teach ings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teach ings should cease to be practically universal in our country. Every one who has given the matter any thought knows of the great literary value of the Bible and the broad culture, aside from its religious aspect, that comes from a general familiarity with it. Although it has been the subject of most careful and painstaking study for hundreds of years, its most thorough students find in it a constant revelation of new thoughts and new ideals which minister to the spiritual nature of the race. It would be difficult to conceive of any kind of religious instruction which omitted to place its main emphasis on the precepts of this great Book. It has been the source of inspiration and comfort to those who have had the privilege of coming in con tact with it, and wherever it goes, it raises the whole standard of human relation ship.— C alvin C oolidge .
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(Crumbs Jrotn THE KING’S TABLE . . . By THE EDITOR
not be easy for a man who is naturally impatient to subdue himself and to be quiet under misjudgment, misrepresenta tion, and cruel prejudice; but it is always -worth all that it costs. Patience will sweeten the bitterest cup. It will soften the hardest blow. Patience in the soul is like bal last in the ship; it enables one to lie by and ride out the storm. Patience is the golden shield which parries the stroke of every malicious shaft. It is the harp through which shrill winds become music. It is the oil which calms the troubled waters. It is the angel of God that walks with us through all the trials, sorrows, and disappointments that we are called upon to experience. In these strenuous days, when Satan is trying to take advantage of the fact that God’s people get tired and ner vous under their heavy burdens, we need to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ for a long time each day to learn of Him: on the one hand, how not to give offense, and on the other hand, how not to be easily provoked. High Thinking et us not be mistaken as to what high thinking really is. In the last analysis, it is done only by those who, through regeneration, have become the chil dren of God. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” , In the opinion of some, the great thinkers are com monly supposed to be the men who are conversant with the learning of the schools, while simple-hearted believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are looked down upon with a lofty scorn as if scarcely to be credited with ordinary in telligence. But if it be true that thinking is to be graded accord ing to its subject, then a wholly different viewpoint is nec essary; for the things with which the humblest child of God concerns himself are the good, the true, the beautiful, the infinite, the eternal—the very thoughts of God. When we are brought to realize that as far as the heavens are above the earth, so far are God’s thoughts above our thoughts, then we are prepared to understand that the only high thinking worthy of the name is not that which is done by the so-called philosopher, who is destined by and by to perish amid the ruins of the earthly scaling by which he has been trying to reach the heavens, but by the humble and despised believer, whose eyes have been enlightened by the Spirit, and who has thus come to know God and has learned to think God’s thoughts after Him. Our character takes its hue from the. things on which our thoughts habitually dwell. Hence, the pertinence and the importance of the apostolic injunction: “What soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, what soever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, what soever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Obe dience to this command is the great lack of the church to-
h en daniel W ebster deliver ed the oration at the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument, the people, drawn by the fame of the orator and the mag net of patriotism, came in a vast assembly to the historic spot. In their eagerness to see the illustrious speaker and to hear his words, the crowd surged forward toward the stand, and the strong began to crush the weak underfoot. But what can drive back an excited mob? The chairman of the occasion shouted, and officers displayed their em blems of authority, but the crowd came on. Then Web ster arose and, in dignified tones, requested the people to fall back. The cry came from the struggling mass, “It is impossible!” And then the orator showed his marvel ous power. “Impossible ?” thundered W e b s t e r . “Impossible ? Nothing is impossible on Bunker Hill!” Before the magic of those words, the crowd fell back, as if awed by a supernatural power. But there is a greater power than that shown by Web ster on Bunker Hill. “He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” We need to listen today to those words coming down through the centuries, fraught with memories more tender, sacred, and holy than the memories of Bunker Efill. “Nothing is im possible on Calvary!” Patience and Forbearance I n our L ord and S aviour J esus C hr ist we find a sub lime example of patience and forbearance. With Him there was no thought of evil. There was no flashing stroke of resentment. There was no hasty self-vindication. There was no indignant answer to accusations brought against Him. When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In this rushing, blundering, wicked world, there will always be much to vex earnest and righteous souls. Many things will go wrong through the incompetency, the shift lessness, and the perverse dispositions of men. We shall suffer sometimes from the open injustice of our brethren, sometimes from the honest misconceptions of those who are nearest to us, sometimes from the envies and jealous ies of those who do not suspect that their own hearts are capable of entertaining such feelings. But, if we are to walk as our Lord walked, there is just one course for us, and that is to be tenderly forbearing in the face of all wrongs and oppositions, all taunts and provocations, and all misconceptions of our spirit and aim. Defeated utterly in our efforts to help, rudely disappointed in our hopes, and smitten down by the very hands which ought to hold us up, let us still be tenderly forbearing. After all, this is the better way. Only as one is pa tient and forbearing, can he be like Jesus in his daily walk. In like manner, only through patience and forbearance can that life be made to yield the best results. It will
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learned from living men—for these I live. The only trouble is that life is all too short; my eyes are all too dim; my head is all too small.” And so even the seeker after knowledge, as the shades of death close in around him, strains his gazing eyes and whispers with white lips, “I want to know.” But here is one whose life anthem is fixed in the lofti est key, and it rings out clear and true: “For me to live is Christ.” Not that he is a wild-eyed fanatic who for gets that he has a body to be cared fo r; or a stern ascetic who renounces all the sweetness of the life which God has given us richly to enjoy; or one who scorns the treadmill round of business drudgery and expects the Lord to feed him as He fed Elijah, or to support his family by miracu lously multiplying his oil and meal; or an ignoramus who blinks at the light and loves darkness instead; rather, he is a man who loves God, and nothing kindles such a desire for knowledge as does the love of God. Nor does this higher love extinguish or diminish the love of home and country. All experience and observation go to show that the most devoted husbands and wives, the purest patriots, and the broadest philanthropists are those whose master passion transcends all these. That master passion dominated him who said: “For me to live is Christ.” He also said: “The love of Christ constraineth u s ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.” It is the constraining love of Christ that girds and impels the Christian. Not for his own sake does he live, nor for the sake of his country men, nor for the sake of humanity. His motive is a per sonal love for Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. The Christian’s motto is : “Ourselves your ser vants for Jesus’ sake.” This is what the apostle meant when he said: “For me to live is Christ.” This is the Christian conception of life, and this is its highest realiza tion.
day. Of talk we have a super-abundance; but underlying the talk, how little, alas, of real thought! Never was there so much of “fussy activity” and pretentious superficiality, never such ponderous and complicated machinery for the doing of so-called Christian work as there is today. We are driven at such high pressure that we seem to have no time to think. But it behooves us to remember that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The fact is that things below are run by the powers above, and the men that wield the mightiest power on earth are those that draw their inspiration from beyond the stars. What Is It To Live? T h e C hr istian man is the only man that lives at all. Others exist; but mere existence is not life. A man who has an animated body, yet whose mind is a per fect blank, is dead at the top, and he does not live in any true and proper sense. This is the sad state of every unre generate man. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” Christ came to this lost race, that was dead in trespasses and sins, to reimpart the life.that it had lost. “I am come that they might have life.” The first Adam died when he sinned, even as God had warned, and “he begat a son in his own likeness,” and he could not impart what he did not have. We, therefore, as descendants of the first Adam, belong to a race of degenerates. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, is the second or the last Adam. “In him' was life.” “it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” By faith we be come one with Him. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” But the life is from Him. Hence Paul cries: “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Therefore, when Paul says that for him to live is Christ, his meaning is that Christ is the very essence of his life, for “Christ was formed in him the hope of glory.” In this sense, Christ was the life of his life. Not only so, but Christ was the love of his life. In order to live in any true and proper sense, there must be something to live for, some motive that stimulates to action. The motives are as various, as multitudinous, as are the appetites and passions, the tastes, the admira tions, and the aspirations of human nature. What is your life, your ruling passion, your main pur suit? Many a man would be mightily ashamed, if these questions were answered truthfully for him or by him. Here is one who lives as the swine that eat out of a trough and wallow in the mire. He has not a thought above the level of the trough. When asked what he lives for, if he answers truthfully, he will say, “For me to live is to gratify merely my animal nature, my animal appetites.” Another lives merely to make a display of his person, his property, his horses, his jewels, his talents, so that his less favored fellows may look on with green-eyed envy. Another, if he tells the truth, will say, “For me to live is to make money and to save it. I care nothing for the show of it. What I want is the thing itself, the proud consciousness of possession.” Another: “For me to live is to learn. I love learning for its own sake. To know the things in the heavens above, in the earth be neath, and in the waters under the earth, the secrets of the laboratory, the wonders of the observatory, the trea sures that are stored in books, the truths that may be
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He Will Provide T h e Lord’s my Shepherd, I ’ll not want. He makes me down to lie In pastures green, He leadeth me The quiet waters by. My soul He doth restore again, And me to walk doth make Within the paths of righteousness, E’en for His own name’s sake. Yea though I walk through death’s dark vale, Yet will I fear no ill, For Thou art with me, and Thy rod And staff me comfort still. Goodness and mercy all my life Shall surely follow me, And in God’s house for evermore, My dwelling place shall be. —P salm 23.
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Æ e s e n i-C Û a y ¿ L i f i l lm e n i o/pROPHECY ... By LOUIS S. BAUMAN
A Mouth Speaking Great Things D an iel 11:36 ; R evelation 13 :4-7
there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies . . . And he opened his mouth in blas phemy against God” (Rev. 13:4-6). The blatant boasts of Communism are marvellously exact fulfillments of the “sure word of prophecy.” It might be wise for the followers of the beast, so anxious to know “who is able to make war with him,” to investigate a certain vision that the seer of Patmos had, recorded in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revela tion. When the last hour arrives, and some one is “smashed to pulp,” it will not be the living God, nor His Christ. _______ s we write , the morning paper brings us the news that President Hoover, in an address before the International Chamber of Commerce, with more than one thousand delegates present, representing forty- six nations of the earth, solemnly declared that civilization faces disaster through the ever-increasing accumulation of the paraphernalia of war. He based his argument on the following statistics: The world expenditure on all arms is now nearly $5,000,000,000 yearly, an increase of about seventy per cent over that previous to the great war. We stand today with nearly 5,500,000 men actively under arms, and 20,000,000 more in reserve. All the world knows that the piling up of the imple ments of war was a staggering burden before the storm broke in 1914. It created world-wide unrest then, and we know the sad result. But now a world authority tells us that, in spite of the terrible experience of 1914 to 1918, a frenzied world has increased the burden seventy per cent. The nations are literally beating their plowshares into swords. No wonder there is a world cry for bread! More over, this age, boasting its splendid scientific advance ment, seems baffled in its attempt to get from beneath the burden of dynamite whose burning fuse is growing pain fully short. The exact situation was clearly seen by the One who sees the end from the beginning. Therefore He said unto His prophet Joel: “Behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. . . . Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war. . . . Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears. . . . Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye nations”—to Armageddon! And then the great prophet quickly leads us out of the smoke of that last battle of the “multitudes, multi tudes in the valley of decision” into the sunrise of earth’s gladdest day, when God will “be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (v. 16). It is rather a curious fact that the beating of “plow shares into swords, and . . . . pruninghooks into spears” Plowshares Into Swords J oel 3 versus I saiah 2
spiritual portent of first magnitude is sending a quiver of fear up thé spine of the troubled world. It is nothing less than a studied revolt against all that is called God, an attempt to blot the very word out of the minds of vast populations on the earth. Communism is the .modern Goliath that now, strides forth with a pas sionate determination to annihilate everything that would remind us that there is any God but man himself. A stanza from the Communist Marseillaise tells the story: Up! Up! Ye people, avengers of the world’s suffering!
Wake up! Arise! Strike dead; strike dead All those who have stolen our bread ! Ye workers, now smash to pulp With your fists that phantom, God ! You are master of the fate of the world! The end is come, you rulers, the end is come Onwards 1 And—shot .on shot !
With the last two lines of this cry from out of the atheistic night, we may well agree that “the end is .come” ! At least, it looks that way from the prophet’s watch tower. Read again (if your nerves will permit) that awful challenge to the living God, and then read this : 1 “And the king shall do according to his will ; and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accom plished” (Dan. 11:36). Communistic leaders, howling with demoniacal glee at their onward march over the earlh to seeming victory upon victory, may well study those words. “Prosper” ? Yes! The coming “king” (Antichrist) who will combine all the anti-God forces of earth -will “prosper,” it is true; but only “till” the very God he would annihilate has used him, as He used Nebuchadnezzar, His “servant,” to pour out upon a Christ-rejecting earth His last “indignation.” This communistic war cry reminds us of many other passages that have to do with the brief prosperity of an anti-God “king” whose brief reign shall ring down the curtain upon the scenes of the present age. Here is one of these passages : “That day [of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing him self that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4). When man once accomplishes his annihilation of “all that is called God,” there will be nothing left for him to do but to erect an image of himself (Rev. 13:14, 15) as the highest of all creation—therefore, its God. Man will worship. If he knows no other God, he will worship him self. The inclination of this boastful age is very much in that direction right now. But, once again, read this: “And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And
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(John 5 :43), and the whole world will “wonder after the beast” and will worship him (cf. Rev. 13:3, 4). The world even now would readily proclaim as its god any man or superman with genius enough to restore it to its coveted temporal prosperity. When that man comes, a superman at the head of a superstate, a world that has lost all true spiritual vision will fall for the “strong delusion” and “believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:11). Then a devil-blinded world, out of which the church of God, in mercy, will have been removed (1 Thess. 4:13-18), will arrive at the climax of its awful apostasy, will make an image of its god, and will bow in reverent worship. Rejecting the God of heaven, it will worship the god of earth! The present spirit of nationalism will have come to its full fruition—a worship of the state in its representative head, with individualism utterly dead, and supernational ism so utterly in control that “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads,” so “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the number of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev, 13:16, 17). Those inclined to scoff at all this need to be solemnly reminded that the worship of a nation and its head is no new thing in human history. Nor do we need to recall Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, or Caesar. Charles Maurras has spoken of the “Goddess France” ! In a Fascist periodical, we read: If we call Mussolini our god, we express the mood of untold numbers, especially of the young. For them, he is a god of great faith with martyrs and heroes, which is the only oasis in a world plunged in ma terialism. Yes, the present nationalism prepares the way for the supernationalism of the empire of “the beast.” But, praise be to the God who was “ the first” and will be “the last,’’ ' the empire of the beast will scarcely assemble for the first celebration of its victories, than the hand of Omnipotence will send a shudder as of a mighty earthquake through that assembly of the lords of earth, by once again writing on the walls of the palace of that superstate: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” Verily, verily, when “the kings of earth set themselves; and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us; he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. . . . Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.” (cf. Psa. 2). O h , blissful , happy hope! Life’s little day With autumn beauties soon shall pass away; We stand beside the graves of those we love, With happy sorrow as we look above; No passing cloud this precious truth can dim— “Who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him.” Oh, blissful, happy hope! He comes to reign Who came at first to suffer and be slain; Oh, happy antidote to grief and fear, That He who bore our griefs will soon appear! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God,” Our title made secure by precious blood: Though what we shall be is not yet made known, One glimpse of Him will make His joy our own. —W illiam W il em a n . The Blessed Hope
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(v. 10) is an outstanding Biblical sign of the swift ap proach of the hour when the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning- hooks” and “shall learn war no more” (Isa. 2 :4), and that preparation for war shall be the sign of the end of war. Joel spèaks of the night before Armageddon, Isaiah of the morning after. Surely the shades of the night are falling ! But, thank God, the morning also cometh! They Worshiped the Beast R evelation 13:3-5, 14-18; 17:12-14 O ne of th e most significant signs of the time, from a prophetic viewpoint, is the world-wide spirit of nationalism. Even religion is either being national ized or is being dumped as antiquated rubbish. A good example of the nationalistic spirit is found in the following quotation from the lips of Mussolini : Oh, Italian youth of all schools and workshops, make sure that the fatherland does not fail to fulfill its glorious future. Make sure that the twentieth century sees Rome, the center of Latin civilization, become the ruler of the Mediterranean—the lighthouse of all nations. But this spirit, which amounts to nothing less than the submergence of the individual to the interests of the state, is not peculiar to Italy alone. In Turkey, both press and speech exalt nationalism as the ideal. Nationalism has become the spur to all activities and aspects of life in Palestine, Egypt, and Syria. The National-Socialist move ment in Germany is well known. Finland has its Lappo movement; Hungary, its Levante movement; France, its Action Française. Riots by students in Prague, riots in Warsaw, riots in Vienna, riots in Bucarest-—all inspired by the new nationalism. The cumbrous masses of China and India are being moved out of a centuries-old lethargy by this same new movement. But what of our own America ? Men high in the coun sels of our State are beginning to consider a movement toward the establishment of “public machinery for plan ning and control.” A close observer will discover a par allel with Russia’s “five-year plan” and likewise the po litical doctrines of the Italian Duce. The proposal is in the air of America, the strongest citadel of human free dom, to center in the hands of the national governors complete control over the production, the distribution, and the transportation of all commodities. It is proposed to solve our present national distress by unifying the con trol of “all buying and selling, hiring and firing, borrow ing and lending.” President Hoover sees it, but likes it not. He frankly says: Carried to its logical extreme, all this shouldering of individual and community responsibility upon the government can lead but to the superstate where every man becomes the servant of the state and real liberty is lost. How tremendously significant is this world-wide trend, enhanced as it is by the present economic condition of the whole earth ! How it all points to the near coming of that “superstate” so well known to the student of God’s Word, when civilization will make one last supreme effort to save itself from its own follies, by an action on the part of ten kings (Rev. 17:12, 13) who will create a superstate under one head. For very patent reasons, this head will be especially antagonistic to the Lamb (Rev. 17:14) and to the saints (Rev. 13:7). However, he will pose as the Saviour-Christ (Matt. 24:23, 24) with so great success that for a time he will deceive even the Jews
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i * July 1931 295 T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s f THE PHILOSOPHY /PAUL’S CALLING . . . By STEWART P. MacLENNAN f Commencement Address Delivered a t the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, June 18,1931 ► * Paul was distinctly and divinely commissioned by Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles; yet he was a spe cific instance of the generic principle, and that principle holds for every minister of Jesus Christ today. The knowledge of the truth, the experience of forgiven sin, involves obligation and makes one the deposit of a sacred trust which must be discharged in the same way as the apostle proposed to discharge his. ere it m in e to chóose the model for the ministers of Christ in all lands and in all ages, I would unhesitatingly choose the apostle Paul. By race, a Jew ; by culture, a Greek ; by citizenship, a Roman ; and subsequently, by grace, a Christian, he combined in his personality the elements which, by their complete ness, lifted him above all apostles. Stalker says, “In him, Christianity found the opportunity of showing the world the whole force that was in it.” The philosophy of his calling is stated in his letter to the Romans : “I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; . . . for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : . . . for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.” “I am a debtor!” The language is commercial, but the obligation which it acknowledges is not that which the mer chant commonly understands by the word. A debt is that which one man owes to another ; something which he has bought on trust or received as a loan. Paul was not, in any such way, indebted to the Gentiles; he had never bought any thing in their market without paying its price. He was, perhaps, in that sense, the most independent of men, for he owed no one a penny. It was not on the ground of anything obtained from the Gentiles that Paul ac knowledged himself to be their debtor. But he was a debtor in another sense. He had been approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel, and he was under sacred obligation to carry out the trust according to its terms. That is, then, the important question. How did Paul propose to discharge his debt? T h e D ebt of th e G ospel is F irst to be D ischarged by P reaching In the philosophy of Paul’s calling, preaching holds the first place. To the Corinthians he said: “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the fool ishness of preaching to save them that believed.” Preaching is the greatest call ing on earth. It has had a glorious past and it will have a yet more glorious future. It is an undeniable fact that the church is sick, seemingly nigh unto death. In many churches the pews are half- empty, and the case is becoming des perate. Many physicians are prescribing remedies. There are those who say that the need is for more organizers and ad ministrators in the pulpits, and for more religious education directors. But God ordained that the world should be saved through preaching, not through organiza tion or administration. Organizers and administrators have their place and func tion in the church, but they will never take the place or supply the lack of the gift of preaching. * y * k ► TOWER OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHj, HOLLYWOOD, CALIF., WHERE DR. MACLENNAN IS PASTOR. In Paul three civilizations met : the Hebrew, the Ro man, and the Christian. Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews : as touching the law, a Pharisee. But it was not Paul the Pharisee that said, “I am a debtor.” The Pharisee had no sense of obligation to thè world. Rather, his zeal led him to go down to Damascus to persecute and to kill. Neither is it Paul the Hebrew speaking here, nor Paul the Roman who says, “I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians.” Rome had no sense of owing the world anything. Rome was busy collecting her debt from the world, not paying a debt to the world. It was Paul, the Pharisee, on a Roman road, who met the risen Lord. And there a new civilization entered his heart and changed him from a persecutor to a preacher of glad tidings. Some say that the Protestant church is barren in her service, and that thought and time should be given to the development of the worship service. But the most beau tiful and worshipful service possible will never save the church of Jesus Christ, or the world at large. Paul was not going to Rome to establish an altar, to institute a ritual, or to develop the worship life of the con gregation at Rome. He was going to Rome with the “best message.” He was going to erect a pulpit, to preach the gospel, and to declare the whole counsel of God. Many in the church believe that the world will be saved by scholarship and education. Praise be to the reverent, devout, and conservative scholarship of the church; to such our debt is great. But scholarship has its limita tions. God has not ordained to save the world by scholar ship, but by preaching. “The world by wisdom knew not 296 July m i T h e K i n g ’ s ' B u s i n e s s God.” The salvation of mankind has never been discov ered by thinkers and philosophers. “Whatever one’s notion concerning the diviné inspira tion of the Bible may be, it remains true that all we hold of religious conviction that is worth holding is derived from i t ; and if we today were to be deprived of the Bible, and our knowledge of its contents be forgotten, scholar ship would be absolutely impotent to restore and satisfy the hunger of our souls.” Scholarship had nothing to add to Paul’s message. The gospel that is the power of God unto salvation is a revela tion. Concerning the gospel which he preached, Paul de clares that it is not after men, for, he says, “I neither received it of man; neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The church will not be saved uproar. Books on philosophy, written by the great think ers of the day, were outgrown and obsolete in the light of the great truth that Paul preached. When Paul preached, there was either a riot, a revolu tion, or a revival. The trouble with .modern preaching is that there is a lack of passion, a lack of yearning for thé souls of men. Hear the words of Christ, fastened with a nail to His cross: “If any man will come after me, let him deny him self and take up his cross and follow me.” Can any of us dare to represent Christ to men, if we know nothing of His passion? The only thing that will drive out professionalism, place the pulpit where it be longs, and bring the church back to its place of power in 4 the world is for the preacher to get a new vision of Jesus Christ, to come into fellowship with Him and His suffering. After the man comes the message ! The sermon, it has been well said, is “an exhalation, a spiritual vapor emerging from the ocean depths of a preacher’s soul, the life-blood of a Christian spirit, a by-product of his life and experience, fruit on the tree of his life.” A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Hence, the important thing in a preacher and in preaching is the man. The man is the sermon, and t h e greatest need of the church at this hour is not for more men to enter the ministry, but more man in the ministry ! My friends, do not enter the ministry and take a pulpit if there is anything else you can possibly do ; unless you feel with in you the voice crying, “Woe ! Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” The world needs the gospel as it has never before by architecture. Gothic architec ture is beautiful and inspiring and has its place, but architecture will not save the church. There is a striking illustration of the pass ing power of architecture to be found in the little town of Phar- magousta, on the Isle of Cyprus. There stand two beautiful stone Gothic churches, with glorious stained glass windows. One is today used by the Standard Oil Company as a storehouse for oil tins; and the other is a Moham medan mosque! What Rome needed was a her ald of the gospel; one commis sioned and authenticated by God. What the world today needs is preachers—preachers with a mes sage; preachers who know God; preachers who consider the gos pel a trust, and who will dis charge that trust upon the 'prin ciple of pleasing God, not man. Paul proposed to discharge L Preach the Word ive th e bible to the pebple, un adulterated, pure, unaltered, un explained, uncheapened, and then see it work its who lesome work through the whole nature. I t is \very difficult' indeed for a man or for a \ boy who .knows the Scripture ever to kj get away from it. It follows him like the memory of his mother. I t haunts him like an old song. It reminds him like the word of an old and revered teacher. I t forms a part of the warp and woof of his life. —W oodrow W ilson . t ■i A his debt to the Greek and to the Barbarian by pouring his life into his preaching. “I am a debtor . . . so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach.” W it h P aul , P reaching was a P assion In this same letter to the Romans, he says, literally: “I caught myself wishing, praying, that I were ac cursed from Christ for my kinsmen according to the flesh.” What a phrase! “I caught myself wishing . . . ” He discovered his ruling passion. In the soul of the preacher a fire was kindled. He was filled with Christ, eaten up of Christ, burning with Christ. Hence, when Paul preached, he offered himself, spirit, soul, and body. The finest tribute ever paid him was.the accusation brought against him and Silas by the citizens of. Thessa- lonica, who said: “These that have turned the world up side down are come hither also.” Paul’s preaching in Ephesus was so full of fire and power that his converts gathered ten thousand dollars’ worth of pagan books that they had been reading, piled them high, and set fire to them, stirring the city with the needed it, and the only gospel that will save is the old gospel. It must be preached as Paul preached it. Only a living soul with the living experience of the living Christ can preach a living gospel to souls dead in trespasses and sins. Let me repeat with all of the emphasis and power God gives me, and I would that I could write it in letters of light : I t is the man that makes the sermon; the sermon is the man. The first commencement sermon ever delivered to prospective preachers was that spoken by Christ to His disciples and recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew. In that message Jesus Christ puts all of the emphasis upon what a man is, upon being, not having. Character, for the preacher, is supreme. The difference in preachers in the pulpit is not a difference in eloquence, rhetoric, ideas, or training, but in the men themselves. Therefore, young men, guard the heart, for out of it are the issues of life. See that your soul is growing daily in a living experience with the living Christ. The obtaining of a sheepskin or the laying on of the 4 A -t July 1931 297 T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s hands of a Presbytery does not make a man a preacher with power. This only comes.through travail of soul. The sooner great institutions for training men for the ministry learn this, the better for the church: One important thing remains to be said. Paul pro posed to discharge this debt by preaching a gospel that revealed God’s righteousness. T h e P reaching that R eveals G od ’ s R ighteousness There is a preaching of the cross that modifies the gospel, inflates the ego of man, and makes the cross of noneffect. We imagine that religion rnusf be kept abreast of the times. Hence, the shears of human expediency get busy cutting down the message of the cross. Instead of being good news to men in need, the proclamation now is good advice, a helping hand to unfortunate people. Sin is declared to be, not guilt, but misfortune. It has been said that we have almost “lost the sense of God’s glorious, austere holiness, and have so abused the idea of love that we have behaved as if God were indif ferent to moral distinctions.” Yes, we are losing our reverence for sacred things-v the Bible, the church, the Lord’s Day, the courts of our land, the marriage altar. We; are desecrating them all. In stead of a holy day, we have a holiday. The church, in stead of being a place for spiritual attainment, is now a place of public entertainment; the pulpit that was once the throne for divine proclamation is now a platform for political propaganda. Once we prayed earnestly for the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we are urged to put more pep into our program. And as a result of it all, the radi ance of Christian experience has faded from our lives. It is a glorious truth to believe and preach, that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. Let us never forget, however, that first of all, Christ died for God. Let us remember that the first and most important fact at- the cross of Calvary, in God’s sight, is not that the sinner should be justified, but that God, in justifying him, might Himself be just. If Paul’s gospel were preached faithfully today, it would .bring conviction of sin; because, in preaching the cross: and the holiness of God as manifest at that cross, men*would see the depths of His heart, for in the light of that cross, sin is revealed in its true character. There is an. old hymn which expresses the truth for u s : “There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.” Many there are who do not like the figure which runs through that verse. Scores find in these words an offence. The great Dr. Jowett says: “I dislike the figure in that verse. But I want my dislike to be safe, illumined. If I drop the particular phraseology, I want to retain the tre mendous sense of sin which lies behind it. If I refine the word, I don’t want to gild the sin. If I find a more cul tured vehicle, I want it to express the same horrible and loathsome presence. I covet no phraseology which will lend respectability to sin. It is possible to obtain finer poetry at the expense of convicting power. We may in tensify the polish and glitter, and lose the lightning. Pol ished speech will not satisfy those held by a sense of the exceeding bitterness and loathsomeness of sin. Does that sense pervade our preaching ? Do we impress people with the feeling that we are dealing with trifles, or with blind ing and appalling enormities? Conviction of sin has passed in most of our churches because we fail to preach a gos pel that reveals the cross in the true light of God’s holy character.” “Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty!” God’s righteousness is declared when the lightning of God’s wrath strikes His own, beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. There is peace by the blood of that cross, with a pardon to the whole world, to be proclaimed wher ever man is found. And that is the gospel that Paul preached. throughout the Bible, in all the phases of His work—a clearer and more glorious view than ever before seemed possible. In these times of prevalent false teaching, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles stands like a lighthouse, point ing the way to the only safe belief, because it shows God’s truth as revealed in His Word. Error has crept into the church because Christians have not known their Bihles and have not read them intelligently. There are distinct advantages offered by a corres pondence course. The student receives individual instruc tion. He may also determine his own rate of speed in the matter of the completion of the course. While there is always danger that correspondence study will be post poned, yet for many, as for me, a systematic delving into the Word of God would never have been possible: by any other method. * * * A prospectus describing sixteen systematic, compre hensive, and inexpensive Home Bible Study Courses will be sent upon request. Address: Secretary of the Corres pondence School, Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 536 So. Hope St., Los Angeles, Calif. THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY BY CORRESPONDENCE B y a S t u d e n t of t h e C orr espo n d en ce S cho ol I t was for some time my ambition to become acquainted with the books of the Bible, but they remained a mystery to me until I enrolled for a correspondence course with the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. I found that the lesson sheets were carefully prepared by the instructors, so that any one who really wished to learn, and who had a mind opened by the Holy Spirit, would be able to u nd e rs tand God’s dealings w ith men and to g rasp something of His plan for the world through out the ages. The study material is n o t stereotyped, but is deeply devo tional. The lessons are not' extreme in their teaching or forced in- their exposition. The . full gospel is taught, in line with the best of sound scholarship of today. More than that, the lessons enable the student to see Christ
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