559
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
October 1926
M
C o n t r i b u t e d A r t i c l e s
“Much Needed Counsel” DEAN JOHN M. MACINNIS
was going to happen to the nation. Things looked black in every direction. He had eyes and was a good man but his eyes were out of focus and he was not seeing realities. In these circumstances his heart turned to God and In a real experience God adjusted his eyes and he,began to see the realities. First, he looked up. He saw God “ high and lifted up"— on the throne. That meant that in the midst of his despair he came to realize that God was actually in control. He had come to think that the final issues depended upon men but now he Bees that they are deter mined by the throne of God. We need that vision in our day. As individual Christians we need to see God in a new experience of Jesus Christ and to realize that He is on the throne “ high and lifted up.” A man or a church without that vision has no message because there is no power in which the world and its ideals are overcome.. It is in this living experience and vision of God that we get our message for a lost world. “ Why do the nations rage and the peoples dream a vain thing?” Why do they think they can get along without God and succeed by going con trary to His laws? They have lost the vision of the throne and the reality of its sway. If we are to make that real to them we must have the experience in our own life. In the second place the prophet looked in. First he looked up, then having seen the throne of God he looked in upon his own life. To see God is to be searched by Him. When the white light of His throne and power and holi ness falls upon the life we get a glimpse of ourselves as we really are in His sight. No man sees himself as he really is until he sees himself in the light of God’s throne. When Isaiah saw himself in that light he cried out “ Woe is me.” How different from the Laodicean boast “ I have need o f nothing.” No man can see his life in the light of God as manifested in the face of Jesus Christ and not realize how far short he is coming. There we see what we ought to be. When we see what we ought to be we realize how tragically short we are coming of our privil eges and responsibilities. The prophet cried, “ I am undone." That does not mean that he was not a good man as men counted goodness. In all probability he was the best man in Judah atj that particular time. In the light of other men’s lives he ranked high; in the searching light of the throne he was an utter failure. How does our life stand in the light that flashes from that throne as it is manifested in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Are we honest and brave enough to seek that light upon our lives? The Laodicean church said “ I have need of nothing” because the light of God in J cbus Christ was not upon their life. He was outside while they were comparing them selves with others. If they had only dared to look at them selves In the light of His glory it would have revolutionized their thinking. Are we willing to look upon our own lives as individuals and upon the life of the church of Jesus
«4 ^ COUNSEL thee to buy." This was the counsel pirn of the exalted Christ to a needy Church in an hour —*1 of crisis. The other day a reporter of one of the great New York newspapers got a tip from one of the leading financial men of the world that was worth hun dreds of millions of dollars on the stock market: He took it home with him and slept on it for one or two nights and then gave it out indifferently and within a few hours it made and unmade fortunes but it meant nothing to him. If this church at Laodicea had only followed Christ’s lead to buy at the right time, the history of the world might have been different. Its own life certainly would have been trans formed. What did Christ counsel them to buy? Not bonds nor stocks nor any of the things that the world is seeking as riches. Among other things, He counseled them to buy eyesalve. What strange counsel! They were not con scious of any eye trouble. • That is exactly where the tragedy came in. They were suffering from optical illusion — they were actually seeing things that did not exist at all and were falling to see things as they really were. They had eyes but they were out of focus and the light that was in them had become darkness. They thought they were rich but as a matter of fact they were poor. They thought they were richly clothed and boasted of their apparel but in reality they were naked and their nakedness was their shame. Their vision was a blind man’s delusion. How pathetic, how tragic, but it was even worse than this. In their nakedness and failure they were boasting of a higher and superior life— “ Thou sayest I am rich.” Whenever men begin to boast of a higher life and a superior insight it is time to pause and see if all is well. In other words boasting is a danger signal. “ I thank Thee that I am not as other men” is the language of a blind man who thinkB he has superior sight. “ Oh wad some power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us”——but first of all to see ourselves as God sees us. This eyesalve that Jesus Christ counseled this church to buy can do that very thing for men. Prof. Hockings of Harvard has written a big volume on the question as to whether or not human nature can be changed. Jesus says it can. He says that men can be born again and that a blind man can be made to see. A nature that is twisted so that sight is out of focus can be corrected so that we may not suffer from optical illusion. The big gest investment that an individual or a church can make is to invest in that eyesalve, for “ where there is no vision the people perish,” but where there is a correct vision we have victory and a living message. These are the two things that the church needs supremely today— first, victory in its own life, and second, a living Yhessage for a defeated world. What such eyesalve does for men is illustrated in what happened to the Prophet Isaiah. Josiah, the king, was dead and the young prophet was concerned aB to what
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