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T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
June 1927
the King with the Golden Touch. A Church of such Christians could not fail to rally, at last, the whole world to the service of that One who declared, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” , T h e L iving C hrist But to share this wonderful gift, to obtain this golden touch, we must come under the hand of, the living Christ. We must submit our case to Him and seek at His hand cleansing, healing, transformation. Only the quickened soul can quicken—only the magnetized soul can draw. And Jesus Himself said, “Whosoever cometh unto Me I will in no wise 'cast out.” Have you come under the golden touch of Jesus? In an American colliery on a certain Sunday the man in charge, who was quite alone, suddenly thought the mine was on fire. A cyclone had burst over the district, causing intense heat. Taking fright badly, he managed to reach the mouth of the shaft that would take him up to the sur face. The cage was lowered and drawn up but fear had so paralyzed the man that he could not step into the cage. T HE Psalmist’s question, “What is man ?” was never more interesting than it is today. The Psalmist’s answer is that man is a little lower than the angels. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews took up the question and interprets the Psalmist’s answer by saying that man is, in the divine intention, what Jesus Christ was in His incarnate life. One of the most popular psychologists of our day answers the question by saying that man is an animal, or a near-animal—-a mere automaton. This theory is known as behaviorism and interprets life as a mere mech anism. This animal man of psychology is not the man of the Bible nor the man of real life. Professor Buckham, having this theory in mind, has well said, “The trouble with the psychological man is that, as a man, he is not all there.” M an A s I nterpreted B y C hrist In considering Bible Psychology, or man as inter preted by Jesus Christ, we find first of all that he is physical. This is our point of contact with him. When Jesus took our form He took a body and we have every reason for believing that that body was necessary to the expression of the essential nature and possibilities of a man in a world like this. Unquestionably Jesus, who was perfect in all His ways, developed a perfect body. That was a part of the realization of His ideal for man. Therefore, no analysis of human personality can afford to ignore tbe physical side of life. .The religion that is going to meet the needs of man must make pro vision for the physical. Jesus, referring to these needs, said, “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” The need is there and was recognized by Him and is fundamentally real and must be met. In the second place, we find that man is a self-con scious and rational being. He is conscious of himself as over against his world and thinks of himself as related to this world in a rational relationship of cause and effect. He can see ends, and works toward them. He is con scious of the fact that there is a real measure in which he can manipulate circumstances so as to help bring about
There was the current of power running that would save his life if he would trust himself to it. But he was with held from it by sheer fear, and by that alone. What a picture that of many a soul! Distraught with this fear and that, yet all the time Christ stands waiting; waiting to touch and lift these souli to splendor and to power. Trust the golden touch of Jesus, and come under His hand. “In His hand we are safe, we falter on Through storm and mire; Above, beside, around us, there is One Will never tire. “What though we fall, and bruised and wounded lie, Our lips in dust, God’s arm shall lift us up to victory, - In Him we trust. “For neither life nor death, nor things below, Nor things above, Can ever sever us, that we should go From His great love.” those ends. He thinks of these from the point of view of good and evil. No life makes these facts more clear than does the life of Jesus Christ. Every line of His story indicates that He was conscious of Himself as over against the world and He was here with a very definite purpose for which He constantly, consciously and definitely worked. His life was so lived'that every circumstance of it was definitely directed toward the realization of His goal. That makes it impossible to explain it on the basis of a merely animal or mechanistic life. The animal may think, but it does not think in this constructive and directive manner. M an A n E motional B eing In the third place, the man of Bible psychology is emotional and craves love and sympathy and seeks con stantly the expression of this phase of his life. This, in some respects, is one of the greatest elements in human personality. Benjamin Kidd maintains that the emotional life, as expressed, for example, in mother love, is the greatest force in human society. This is lifted into the realm of the superlative in the life of Jesus Christ. We shall take up a detailed study of this particular subject in a later1 issue. In the fourth place, Bible psychology recognizes man as having the power to choose and determine the course of his life. Jesus, in speaking of him from this point of view, says, “If any man willeth to do the will of Cod,” indicating that he recognized him as having the power to will and to choose.. This was preeminent in the*life of Jesus Himself. There was not a moment in His con sciousness, as far as we are able to follow that conscious ness in the Gospels, when He was not definitely and know ingly willing to do the will of God. It is this- power to will toward ends that makes the fundamental difference between man and animals. “To every man there openeth
jfe ji§, W? The Psychology That Is of the Scriptures B y T he E ditor - in -C h ie f
A .high way and a low, And every man decideth The way his soul shall go.”
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