409
THE K I NG ’ S BUS I NESS
November, 1942
Many generations ago a servant of Christ who had known much trouble wrote: “Be careful before all things to place the sentinel of peace over all thy feelings. It will lead thee to great things without any labor, nay, with great calmness and se curity. With this sentinel, sent thee by God, thou wilt so watch over thyself, and endure injuries I without disquiet.” How true this is, every one knows who takes note of his personal re actions to life. If you can confront evils calmly and quietly, with full self-possession, they cannot overcome you. An old Quaker merchant who had learned this truth adopted as his telegraphic address “Undisturbed —London,” and no matter what trouble he might be passing through, the p e a c e of God garrisoned the heart, keeping o,ut every care and fear, and thus the soul maintained its calmness and tranquillity under all circumstances. It is not our peace which is to guard the soul, but thè peace of God. Our own peace is too frail a thing to op pose the forces which -oppose it. It is a peace too dependent on circum stances, and is very easily destroyed when | assaulted by adverse circum stances. We think ourselves very strong and braye when all goes well with us, and think we can he calm and tranquil under any trial, but we get a shock, when trouble does corde. It is then we find our peace cannot keep out the fears and anxieties which spring up from within to at tack the inner citadel of the soul. No, it is not our peace, but the peace of God which alone will enable us to keep out every intruder, every enemy of our soul’s tranquillity. We are .to prepare against our foes—be forehand—by so living with Gpd, in faith and prayer, that His own peace possesses and fortifies our souls. By prayer and supplication; with thanks giving, we must feed habitually upon God’s abounding grace, that Bis peace and not our own will keep guard over our souls. It is God’s p e a c e , the fruit of prayer and thanksgiving, which will successfully withstand our foes within —our fears, antagonisms, jealousies, suspicions, and mistrust.. Therefore the Word says, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts . . . and be ye thankful” (Col. 3:15). Inner Peace in England These lines are written at a time when we in Britain are being put to a severe test; when the w a i l i n g sirens, by night and by day, warn us [Continued on Page 4111
A v o i d i n g
P a n i c
Peace at Pearl Harbor— even in the first terrible hours of Decem ber 7: this was the keynote of the testimony brought to friends in the homeland by Mrs. James W . Downing (Morena M . Holmes, B. Chr. Ed. ’40 at Biola) when she was required to return to the United States on the first shipload bearing evacuees to the mainland. In the days just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Mrs. Down ing had been receiving special ' blessing from reading The Disci pline of Peril by Oswald Chambers (published by, Simpkin Mar shall, Ltd., London). A few excerpts from the book are given below, by permission of the publishers, for the benefit of those who may like wise be' facing disturbing hours.
We get tremendously scared when our social order is broken up, and well we may. We get terrorized by hundreds of men being killed, but we forget that there is something worse—sinful, dastardly lives being lived, day by day, year in and year out . . . These are the things that produce pain in the heart of God. Are the terrors that are abroad pro ducing panic—panic born of coward ice and selfishness? You never saw any in a panic who did not grab for themselves, whether it was sugar or butter or nations . . .- The one great crime on the part of a disciple, ac cording to Jesus Christ, is worry. Whenever we begin to calculate with out God, we commit sin. "Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing" (Psa. 37:8, R.V.). Face facts . . . Our Lord teaches us to look things full in the face, and He says: "When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be scared." . , . There is ho natural heart of man or woman that is not scared by these things, and the evidence that God's grace is at. work amongst us is that we do not get terrified. Our attitude must be: "Father, I do not know what these things mean: it looks like starvation and distress, but Thou hast said, 'Do not be scared/ so I .will not be; and Thou hast said, 'Let not your heart be troubled/ so I will not let it be; and I stake my confidence in Thee." That is the real testimony. The clearest evidence t h a t God's grace is at work in our hearts is that we do not get into panics.
"And when you, hear of wars and disturbances, do not be scared; .these have to come first, but the end is not at once" (Lk. 21:9, a mod e r n translation). Our Lord.'talks so much about peril and disaster, and we deliberately shut our eyes and hearts and minds to it, and then when these things come, if we think at all, we are at our wits' end; we do not khow what to make of them. "But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them" (John 16:4). THE INEVITABLENESS OF PERIL "Wars and disturbances . . . have to come first." Have we realized that the worst must happen? And yet Jesus says, "When ye hear of wars and disturb ances, do not be terrified." We are not only hearing of wars and com motions; they are here right enough. It is not imagination; it is not news paper reports; the thing is here; there is no getting away from it. It is astonishing how we ignore what Jesus Christ tells us. He says that the nations will end in war and bloodshed and havoc; we ignore what He says, and when war does come we lose faith in God; we lose our wits and exhibit panic. The basis of panic is always cowardice.
THE IMPULSE OF PANIC ", . , do not be scared."
There is one thing worse than war, - and that is sin. The thing that startles us is not the thing that startles God.
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs