February 1932
56
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Here is the inspired account of the Christian’s cross: “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2 :20 ). Again: “ Know ye not, that so many of us as Were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3, 4 ). Sin is the crudest taskmaster in existence.. The Chris tian’s cross is the place where he is delivered from the cruelty of that deadly enemy, sin. By faith in Christ as Saviour, we die unto sin, and we find that “ the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8 :2). Where is the hardship in that? Where is there any suffering? There is none— for the Christian. Christ bore the hardship, endured,the suffering of the cross, in order that we might know only its joyous emancipation. It is true that the child of God is assured o f suffering and tribulation and hardship of many kinds here on earth. But these hardships and sufferings are not crosses; let us remember what the Bible declares about our cross. If a convicted murderer, sentenced to the electric chair and waiting behind prison bars for the execution of this sentence, is brought a pardon from the governor, and the prison doors are flung open, and the sentence of death is forever removed, it is not a hardship for this man to walk out of the prison freed from “ the law of sin and death.” That is what the cross does for the Christian. But if this pardon was made possible only because another had gone to the prison and to the electric chair in the place of the guilty one, that substitute’s suffering and death would in deed be hard for the one who endured it. That is what Christ’s cross was to Him. Upon that cross o f Jesus, mine eye at times can see The very dying form o f One who suffered there for me, And from my smitten heart, with tears, two wonders I confess— The wonders of His glorious love, and my own worthlessness.
the death that occurred on Calvary’s cross is good news is because, in a real sense, our worst enemy, sin, died there. The One who died there was our best Friend, because He was willing to be made sin and to die in our stead. When, taking the place of our worst enemy, symbolized by the deadly serpent that was destroying Israel in the wilder ness, He received in His own person God’s necessary and righteous wrath against sin, and allowed the full con sequences of sin to be poured out upon Him, that death occurred which is good news, the gospel, for the whole world. On the cross, Christ died so that we who believe on Him should not need to die. Because He died, we may live. The gospel, the good news, is “ Christ crucified.” There is no other gospel. That is why Paul “ determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Was the cross, then, easy or hard for the Lord Jesus Christ ? The agony in Gethsemane is our answer. There was. such hardship to Christ in the cross as no one else in time or eternity can ever know. T he C hristian ’ s C ross But what about the Christian’s cross? What is the Christian’s cross? How many crosses may a Christian know in a lifetime here on earth ? Have we not often heard good Christian people speak of this or that hardship, or trial, or affliction, or handicap as a cross that must be borne patiently? But there is no suggestion in the Scriptures that trials or hardships or sufferings make the Christian’s cross. Christians cannot have many crosses; they can have only one. We cannot have different crosses at different times-in our life ; there is but one cross possible for the individual child of God throughout life, and but one cross possible for all children of God. The Bible never uses the plural, “ crosses,” of Christian experience. The cross of the Chris tian is the cross of Christ— there is no other. It is the sign and place of death for both Christ and His disciple— with this difference: For Christ, it was unspeakably hard; for the Christian, it is easy, a joyous deliverance.
THE RIVER OF LOST SOULS . By ROY L. LAURIN, San Gabriel, Calif.
word was sent by courier to Santa Fe. A period of mourning was proclaimed for the lost regi ment, and the river that boomed through that canyon was given its first name — “ El Rio de las Animas Perditas ”—The River o f Lost Souls. Although it was later changed by the French to “ La Purgatoire,” and by the American settler to “ Picketwire,” the pathos of the first name lingers. When I heard of that river, I thought of another River of Lost Souls. It has never been navigated by ships of wood and steel, for its bosom bears only the souls of men. Its source is hidden in the once happy state of man in a garden called Eden, in the foothills of Meso- It commenced in the sin of a man and a woman in flow the laws of evil and iniquity. It has volume with the years of its flowing. It has car-
J ust below the borders of Utah and Colorado, there is a magnificent canyon extending from Southern Colorado into Northern New Mexico. Through this canyon there booms and roars a noisy little river which was named long before the United States be came a great nation. In the days when Spain owned all of Mexico and Florida, the Spanish conquistadors were ordered to extend their conquests. They pushed north to Santa Fe and wintered at what is now Trinidad, Colorado. With the coming of spring, the colonel in command of the expedition of conquistadors in their glistening helmets and shirts of mail, left all the relatives and camp
ROY L. LAURIN PASTOR, SAN GABRIEL UNION CHURCH, SAN GABRIEL. CALIF.
followers behind, and at the head of his regiment, he marched into the canyon. Not one of the company re potamia. who set turned. When all hope of their return had been abandoned, gathered
Made with FlippingBook HTML5