February 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
52
The early church recognized the presence of the Holy Spirit as real a fact as the presence of Jesus Christ had been before His departure. Oh, for a finer hearing than that of the ear, that amid all the clashing of opinions and the confusion of counsels, we might discern the voice that has been given expressly to say to us, “ This is the way, walk ye in it” ! Rev. Loins T . Talbot e welcome to our fellowship the newly elected pastor of the Church of the Open Door, Rev. Louis T. Talbot. The Church of the Open Door is organic ally independent of the Bible Institute, but the Bible Insti tute can be greatly helped by the friendly attitude of the church. Mr. Talbot, being a graduate of a Bible Institute, comes here as the sincere friend of Biola, and he has al ready publicly indicated his desire to create a closer work ing fellowship between the congregation and the Institute, and we earnestly thank God for his coming. On January 10, he was greeted by three great audiences. Unique Dining Service T he B iola D in ing R oom was opened to our friends on January 4. Prior to that date, the dining room was serving only students and faculty; the cafeteria that originally had catered to the public having been abandoned some years ago. The dining room is now operated with table service and not as a cafeteria. The dining room is finding favor with a host of friends. It has been completely refinished and redecorated; the floors are a soft maroon color, with Spanish tile effect, the ceilings tan, and the walls modified shades of tan with sil ver trimmings, in pleasing contrast to baseboards of rich black. Chairs are black and silver, and drapes at the win dows are English shadow prints of a delicate green hue. Every effort is being made to maintain cuisine o f the very highest order, and only the choicest items are selected from the finest California markets. Close supervision and rigid inspection guarantee to our guests sanitary methods and scrupulously clean equipment. There is a main dining room, and there are also several other dining rooms suitable for church, Sunday-school and young people’s committees, and similar groups requiring a private meeting place. The dining room is open every day in the year as fol lows: breakfast 7 :00 A.M. to 9:30 A.M., luncheon 11:30 A.M. to 1 :30 P.M., and dinner 5 :00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. A la carte service is provided, and there are club breakfasts for 25 cents, special luncheons for 35 cents and regular dinners for 40 cents. Friends of the Institute are cordially invited to enjoy the quiet atmosphere and the refined Christian hospitality that distinguishes our dining room. To the Pastors of Our Students e are doing our best to secure work for all of our students in the Institute, but it seems impossible. Will you who have our students in your member ship find out from them or their parents their need, and, if necessary, take up an offering in your congregation, that they may be kept in school the remainder of the year? We do not want any of our students to be compelled to leave before commencement.
The Place of Power e have been told that it is narrow to insist on the death of Christ on Calvary as the great motive to love. We admit that it is narrow, but sometimes narrow things are the most powerful. We recall a familiar stream which, at one point, broadens out for miles into a wide and beautiful expanse of water. Nothing could be more lovely than the tranquil flow and the calm, majestic sweep of the waters at this place, but a little farther down, the stream gathers itself up and plunges through a narrow gorge between the high hills. There is far less of beauty, but here is the place of power. Here is where the huge wheels of industry are placed; here is where the factories, with their ponderous machinery, have been reared. So we admit that nothing could be more majestic than the life of Jesus Christ; nothing could be more beautiful and in spiring than His lofty teachings; nothing could be more quickening to our love than the study of His works of mercy. But after all, it is the cross where the love of Christ culminates and manifests its greatest power. There the cur rent of divine love gathers itself up and pours its mighty tide through one act—the greatest and most powerful which the universe has witnessed. There is where great souls have placed themselves to get the fullest sway and sweep of the love of God. The Abiding Holy Spirit s C hrist sat down at the right hand of God at His ascension, so the Holy Spirit, after His descent, sat down in the church of the redeemed on earth. One has only to search the Scriptures carefully to find this truth confirmed in a multitude of passages. The church of the redeemed on earth is the “ habitation of God through the Spirit.” These hearts of ours, sprinkled with the blood of Christ, are the holy of holies where the Lord dwells. “ WJiat? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” Oh, matchless mystery! The lowliest tabernacle of flesh, if only it has been sancti fied by the sprinkling of the blood, and hallowed by the re newing of the Spirit, is constituted by God’s own author ity the seat of the Holy One, the dwelling place of the Most High through the Spirit. The fact of the present, personal abiding of the Holy Spirit in the church on earth cannot be too strongly empha sized. There is danger that we grieve the Spirit by the un belief that regards Him as distant from us, when God has given Him to abide with us perpetually. It is a great sin to tarry for the Holy Spirit. To forget an absent friend is a serious slight, but to forget a present friend, and to be so little sensible of his nearness that we put him afar off ip our thoughts is the most grievous affront. The sin of the Jews was that they knew not “ the day o f their visitation,” that they looked and prayed for a Messiah yet to come, in stead of recognizing His presence when- He had already come. Likewise, many pray for the Spirit, calling to Him to descend to them from beyond the stars, as though they, knew not that He had been here for nineteen hundred years, perpetually bearing witness on earth and making His abode in the church, which is the body of Christ. If our blessed Lord were to speak to us from the heavens, He might repeat the words which John the Baptist uttered con cerning Him, “ There standeth one among you, whom ye know not.” So little do we seem, to apprehend the mar velous fact that the Spirit of God is personally with us and within us! ■ ,
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