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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
^November, 1936
iment, “What I do thou iknowest not now; but thou shalt know here after” (John 13:7). The secret of peren nial thanksgiving lies in a man’s attitude toward
The life either expands and blooms under adversity or is blasted and shriveled by it. When fierce disaster strikes, only those whose joy is in God rather than in earthly posses sions can know the trust which issues in thanksgiving.
God and toward his life in general. This world has little to offer but disillusionment and disappointment. I t is a mirage which lures men onward with the promise of ecstasy and delight, but which seems to constantly recede and leave the heart unsatisfied. Be it fame, pleasure, money, power, or success that a man pursues, even if he achieves them all, he will find them but of meager satisfaction in ful filling the desires of his heart. The things of this world are a very poor source of thanksgiving, for even at their best they cannot meet the needs of the soul. Suppose a man is rejoicing in the material possessions which are his; what will he do when such things are gone? Where will be his thanksgiving then? S till R ejoicing Let me illustrate. On the fifth of April, 1936, it rained all day in the city of Gainesville near the Blue Ridge Mountains in northeast Georgia. It was Sunday, and the most faithful Christians and loyal church members went to church as usual. After the night service, the people went to their homes and to bed. Monday morning dawned, dark and gloomy, with an unnatural stillness in the air, but the city was fresh and beautiful after the rain. I t was a peaceful scene. A great dark cloud gathered slowly in the west, and suddenly, when the stores were just opening and the children were going to school at about 8 :30, with an indescribable roar, a devastating, death-dealing tornado swept through the very heart of the town, leaving behind it over 200 dead, $15,000,000 in property damage, and a scene of awful desolation and human misery. Over 900 homes were destroyed. After the storm came long days and nights of cold, drizzling rain which completed the destruction of much personal property and filled the cup of suffering to the brim. In the days following the storm, I endeavored to find our people and help them in their distress, for at that time I was pastor of the Central Baptist Church at Gainesville. On the second morning, I came to the place where one of our deacons had lived. There was nothing left but a pile of kindling—house, furniture, clothing, car, garage—all were gone. He was there with his family trying to salvage what he could, and as he saw me, he hobbled to meet me with tears running down his face, shook my hand with all his might, and said. “Well, it’s all gone, but that doesn’t matter; the Lord has sure been good to us, and we are all alive.” In the midst of the confusion, chaos, and loss, we went to the church at the Wednesday evening prayer meeting hour and found there a fair gathering of people waiting. Practically every one had suffered loss in one way or another; hut we never experienced a prayer meeting in which there was more genuine thanksgiving and gratitude. Things were gone, swept away in the space of three minutes, but God remained and faith in Him was unshaken, and, as though to express their confidence in Him and their gratitude toward Him. the people of the church brought more tithes and offerings to the Lord the follow ing Sunday than for weeks before the storm. This they continued to do through the trying days that followed. But there were those in the city who were interested only in things; they were wrapped in the affairs of this life. Some grew bitter; some blasphemed the God who would allow such tragedies to occur; some denied the existence of God altogether. There was the business man who
declared that he would rebuild in such a way that his building could not be destroyed again! There was the prominent citizen who called his friends together during the first week and indulged in a great “booze party” urging them to make merry and forget it. There were those who almost despaired. Dark days were they for the man who had never learned to “delight” himself “in the Lord” and in Him alone. We are prone to read the Bible thoughtlessly and care lessly. A great man in Old Testament times said, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall be continually in my mouth.” We read such a statement and frequently pass on with no thought. As a matter of fact; -if a man can truthfully say that, he has climbed to the heights of Christian experience. “I will bless the Lord at all times." This involves times of sickness as well as times of health, times of poverty as well as of affluence, times of sorrow as well as joy, times of injustice as well as times of equity, times of unexpected emergency as well as times of peace. How to M aintain the S pirit of T hanksgiving Some one will say, “This is the desire of my heart. How deeply I have longed for the spirit of thanksgiving at all times! How can I attain this high standard of Christian experience ?” First, there should be the abiding conviction that, for the Christian, nothing matters except the will of God. We are to follow the example of those who, above all else, were ambitious to be well-pleasing unto Him. How much of our anxiety, our jealousy, our vanity, our selfishness will be swept away when we are dominated by the thought that the onlv thing of importance for us is that we shall do H is will regardless of what circumstances may arise.
To do Thy will, yes, that is all, To do Thy will, obey Thy call; To follow, Lord, where Thou dost lead, To do Thy will is all I need.
What does it matter, then, if we are poor? Many of those who “obtained a good report through faith” were poverty-stricken all of their lives (Heb. 11:37-39). What matter if we are oppressed by physical weakness and pain? Out of suffering and hardship faith grows strong. Witness Job and Paul, and observe their unconquerable faith. [Continued on page 4+8]
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