THE KING’S BUSINESS
420
You say all I have to do is simply to ac cept Christ; how can that alone save me? I feel I must do something to have forgive ness.” Thus Satan argued, but slowly Ro mans 4:5 was read and made plain; also Ephesians 2 :8, 9. It was a long time before he said, “What shall I do, simply believe? It seems too easy, but it sounds good.” The illustration often heard was new to him: A certain man took a ride into the deep shaft of a coal mine, and found no charge was made. “It surely is cheap,” he said, but received the answer, “Yes, it costs you nothing, but some one had to pay a big price to dig this shaft” This helped the sailor to see a little clearer that while the way of salvation was cheap to him, it was the precious blood of Christ that had made it possible for him to be saved by faith alone. In the little smoky gangway on board that ship, he grasped the worker’s hand and confessed Christ, and was happy because of it. Your prayers are coveted for this man and the work in this needy field, so rich with opportunities. Will you not pray? God does not intend to make me the same as anyone else, or He would have made my circumstances the same. They are the chisels He uses in hewing the statue, and He will use the best fitted for His purpose. (Rom. 8:28.) When our Father means to give us very clear indications of His will, He very often makes these three things to concur—His Spirit, His Word, and His providence. There arises within us a conviction that a certain course is the right one for us to take ; then we find through the Word some confirmation of this feeling, and straightway God’s providence almost shuts us up to this course. It is very delightful when this happens. It would happen much more frequently if we were living nearer God than we are.
■a great opportunity and a great responsi bility. A young man who recently accepted sal vation, after God’s providence led him to see the sin of living a careless life, is re joicing in Christ, and as work has been found for him in the city in answer to prayer, he expects to have his wife come and start a Christian home. He is busy in the meantime in going after .the unsaved, and just a little while ago he had the joy of seeing one of his men whom he had in vited to the Fishermen’s Club, accept Christ. During lunch hour recently, a young sailor was found resting for a few minutes, and sitting down beside him the worker . found that, although a devout Catholic, the man was convicted by the Spirit of God of sin, and was questioning the power of man to forgive sins. However, he also questioned the authority of the Word of God as having the power to bring assur ance to'his burdened heart. After a long talk, he finally said: “What am I to do then ? I don’t see i t ! It seems1 so soft. A MONG interesting and inspiring pre- cepts culled from the writings of H. C. Macgregor are the following: We lose God when we gain our own way. The Christian’s desire must never be that God should go his way but ever that he should go God’s way. Life is not made up of rapture. Raptur ous experiences can only be occasional. Ry the consciousness of God, the con sciousness of self is gradually extinguished. It is only when we search the Scriptures that we are able always to pray according to the mind of God. To put the use of devotional manuals in the place of the study of the Word of God is one of the subtlest dangers to which an earnest Christian is exposed.
------------ 0--------— Some Choice Precepts
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