THE KING’S BUSINESS
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have all been hung by Almighty hands, and no creature oscillation can swing them from their place. A star cannot fall, so that cannot be a “fall ing star.” No, that you see in its shining tumble is but a poor miserable splinter from this revolving mudheap. That is of the earth earthy. So it is in the spiritual sky; so it was in the church at Ephesus. Hymanseus and Philetus, with great noise and display of assertive dazzle, have se ceded from their midst, and Timothy is now not to bother himself about them. He is not to wring his hands in dismay, over those seemingly “fall ing stars,” in his congregational firm ament. Paul bids him remember that amid the fizz and crackle of these se- ceder fireworks the meteors alone de part and descend and disappear. The star is a star and shines on forever, for Christ hath given it light. “Nev ertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Paul the aged has thus comforted Timothy the young, and very likely this Very text was. taken the next Sabbath for the sermon to the faith ful folk of Ephesus. What is it our revered father refers to? Timothy would ask. What is the foundation of God, let us also to-day, brethren, try to get at its comforting truth, and may God the Holy Spirit help us in our search! I. The Foundation “The foundation of God standeth sure.” Talking once to an architect from Hull, he told me that in that town they could not possibly rear a build ing such as some of the great, mas sive stone-block piles of our North ern Granite City. “There is no
there they will lodge, where thou abidest there will they abide, and there will they be buried. As for Hymanseus, Philetus, and Company, let them dance off to the Devil! His they are, and him they serve, and to him are they delivered. Their ‘cave Adullam’ is the porch of the pit (1 Tim. 1:20). The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Amen.” This, brethren, is the God-sent epis tle from Paul in Rome before Caesar the blood-thirsty and torturing, in the name of Jesus in Jerusalem before Caesar, the scourging and crucifying, to Timothy in Ephesus before Caesar the spitting and splitting in the of fended hate of Hymanaeus-Philetism. Timothy world-hunted, Paul world- hit, Jesus world-hanged—Apostolic succession! “Courage, preacher, do not stumble, Darkened sky will soon be bright; This has come to keep thee humble, Trust in God, and SPEAK the right.” • Yes, it is true, You have been out on a winter’s night, and have looked above to the twinkling lift. The great dome of darkness is in its place riveted to the horizon, and the burn ing spheres are all martialed in order on the black midnight bosom. Sud denly one of the bright orbs seems to leave its socket and dart down wards to earth, leaving behind it a blazing track. You look, and you say in a common saying, “Ah! there’s a falling star!” A falling star? A star? Nay. That is but a little speck of earthly dirt that has got inflamed by the friction of the atmosphere in its downward petty course. It is only a meteor. It is no star. The stars, they are all there on high. Not one of the fewer in their in numerable number, the great lamps of God are all alight, inextinguish able and immovable at His palace eate. The mazy multitudes of suns
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