16
January 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
ternoons. At the close of the street meetings, opportunity is offered to ask questions. Invariably the hearers avail themselves of this privilege. It is then that the students find occasion for personal conversations, and often so in tense is the interest that it is with difficulty that the work ers are persuaded to leave. J ew ish B oy and G irl S cout T roops Boy and Girl Scout Troops offer wonderful possibili ties for exercising an influence upon the ideals and char acters of young people. Such channels furnish an in direct and almost unprejudiced form of approach to Jew ish boys and girls. The Institute is organizing two Scout Troops with the help of some of the Hebrew and Gentile students of the Jewish Missions Course. The boys’ troop is already under way, and the girls’ is to follow shortly. At present, one of the workers of the Jewish Department has two splendid classes for girls. One has an enrollment of fifteen, between the ages of eight and ten years. The other class, about the same size, is for girls twelve to four teen years of age. In addition to this work, the Institute proposes to add a Jewish Girl Scout Troop. Owing to Jewish prejudice, it will require God-given wisdom to con duct such a service. The workers would appreciate in tercession on behalf of these boys and girls. J ew ish R adio H our Plans have been completed for the regular broadcast ing of a program of especial interest to Jews, through the Bible Institute Radio Station KTBI. This program will include a series of addresses by the superintendent of the Jewish Department of the Institute; also messages from Hebrew Christian professional and business men. In ad dition, there will be instrumental and vocal selections by talented Jewish and Gentile Christian musicians. Prem illennialism and Practical Christianity (Continued on page 14) peareth to me as an enemy, and my nature doth abhor and fear it. But the thoughts of the coming of the Lord are most sweet and joyful to me; so that; if I were but sure that I should live to see it, and that the trumpet should sound, and the dead should arise, and the Lord appear before the period of my age, it would be the joy- fullest tidings to me in the world. Oh, that I might see His kingdom come!” To the testimony of these witnesses we might add the affirmation of scores of others, such as Melanchthon, Mil- ton, Isaac Newton, Watts, Toplady, the Bonars, and the Wesleys. The hymns of Charles Wesley, abounding in references to the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, express the sentiment not only of. his contempo raries, but of thousands in other generations. For example : “Lo, He comes with clouds descending; Once for favored sinners slain; Thousand, thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of. His train. Hallelujah! God appears on earth to reign.”. T h e T estimony of th e L ord ’ s T able In addition to the verbal testimony of apostles and their successors, there is, in the Lord’s table, a silent reminder of the coming again of Him who said: “This
do in remembrance of me . . . For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Cor. 11:26). At the communion table, a loving memorial feast is spread in honor of the absent Lord. As often as we partake of its emblems, we pro claim our faith in His vicarious death and express our hope of His return. Dr. Horatius Bonar used to say that, in the case of the Lord’s table, one end rests upon the cross, the other upon the throne; and that, when we take our places about this festive board, we look both ways—backward to the cross upon which He shed His blood for us, and upward to the Father’s throne from which He is coming to receive us unto Himself. One wonders how any person, with even a meager un derstanding of New Testament teaching, can take a place at this table if he doubts the efficacy of the atonement which Christ made for sin, or if he questions the fact that He is coming back again. The purpose of this solemn feast is to keep ever fresh and clear the memory of Cal vary and the prospect of eternal glory. T h e T estimony of P resent -D ay B elievers Beside multitudes of believers who, in past ages, looked forward to the reappearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are thousands today who “love his appearing.” All of them, because they have been gripped by this “blessed hope,” earnestly endeavor to keep themselves “unspotted from the world.” They illustrate John’s statement: “Every man that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Moreover, Scripture warrants the statement that, in stead of having a paralyzing effect upon the church, the hope of the Lord’s return is a powerful incentive to ser vice. For instance, the Thessalonian believers (1 Thess. 1 -7-10) “turned to God from idols, to serve the true and the living God; and to wait for his Son from heaven.” One could not think of calling these Christians “star gazers.” Far from i t ! Paul declares that they were “ensamples to all that believe.” And he adds: “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Mace donia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” I should think that even a postmillenarian pastor would be thankful to1Almighty God if he had in his congregation a company of people who would witness for Jesus Christ as these Thessalonian believers did. More of this kind of Christians are sorely needed in the present hour. If we search for such witnesses, we shall find them, without exception, in the company of those who look for the imminent return of the Lord. About thirty-five years ago, with the reception of this truth there came a great change in my spiritual vision. Indeed, that was for me the dawning of a new day. For pine years I had held the opposite view. I had thought that the business of the church was to save the whole world and that this must be accomplished before the King could come to reign. But, as the years went by, my cour age weakened. The outlook seemed to grow darker and darker, not only in th e .world but in the church. The question was always arising, “Can this task ever be ac complished ?” About that time, I heard a message on the second com ing of our precious Lord. It was Scriptural; it was sane; it was sweet. It stirred my very soul. It filled me with new hope—-“that blessed hope.” It set my soul on fire for the lost. It gave me my first real desire to send the glad tidings to those that “sit in darkness and in the shad-
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