April 1927
264
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
should pray that God would “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit,” but at the same time we must exercise our minds, as we train our bodies into athletic strength. The companionship of great men, whether in the flesh or upon the printed page, is a powerful stimulus to high thinking. To commune daily with the Rabbi of Nazareth, to be often in the company of the Apostles and Prophets, to turn to the words penned by the saints and thinkers of the ages, to talk with some of the holy and humble souls by whom we are surrounded—all these things are desirable (some of them are indispensable) if we would train our minds aright. The habit of high thinking is better than wealth, and brings more lasting satisfaction than rank, or fame, or power. M M ay S. ! “Gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”—Matt. 2:11. THE gifts of the Magi to the infant Christ are very sug gestive of the oblations which we may offer to Him in these later days. There is the gold of our possessions. All we have, be it little or much, is His already and should be used for His glory. All our wealth, our talents, our capabilities should be laid as an offering at His feet. There is the frankincense of Praise and Prayer. These should rise, at morn, at even, and in the noonday, a sacrifice which will be well pleasing in His sight. There is the myrrh of a loving and gracious life; a healing balm poured into the sin-sick and sorrow-stricken hearts of our fellow- men. These are gifts which, in their measure, are within the reach of all. Nor should their presentation be withheld. For there can be no true worship without offerings; sacrifice is of the very essence of devotion. There are some people who desire a “free Gospel” in a perverted sense: they would have all the blessings of Christianity—its peace, its pardon, its assurance, its heaven—but they wish to offer nothing in return. Such expecta tions are doomed to woeful disappointment ; we must “open our treasures” when we approach the presence of the King (now an infant no longer) or we shall have a vain journey to His throne, and go away unblessed. H? M ay 6 . “The Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.”—1 Pet. 1:12. THE Day of Pentecost was the birthday of the Christian Church. The advent of the Holy Ghost to the human heart marks the natal day of the individual Christian. He is not only “the Lord,” He is the “Giver of life.” Without Him we are “dead in trespasses and sins.” All spiritual existence, all beauty of character, all nobility of purpose, all true grace of deport ment, all fruitfulness of life, are His gifts, and His alone. The love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son were but wasted upon us, did He not open our eyes to behold their glory, did He not infuse their efficacy into our hearts. By many Chris tians, we fear the third person in the Holy Trinity is sadly neglected, slighted, forgotten. His presence is not sought, His claims are not realized, His Godhead is overlooked. How sel dom do we think of asking His guidance, how infrequently we pay Him the worship due to the Divine. Yet our hopes of pardon and of heaven depend as truly upon His offices as they do upon those of Christ. It is the soul indwelt by the Holy Ghost that marches to conquest over the powers of Hell. It is the ever-blessed Spirit who is the breath of Heaven, driving from our hearts the miasma of sin, and filling them with the sweet airs of Paradise. Let us daily pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With light and comfort from above.”
M ay 2. “I go a fishing.”—John 21:3.
“WE also go with thee,” said the others, sheep like,1but they caught nothing. Nor ought they to have done: it was a return to the old life. Christ had called them from the fishing nets, and they should not have gone back to them. Probably they thought there was nothing else left to live for—perhaps no other means of living. So they went, in their unbelief, and endured the long night of useless and disappointing toil. But when, in the morning, Christ bade them cast forth the net, they caught a great multitude of fish. We must learn that we are to live, not by fishing, but by faith. Fishing at the Mas ter’s command, and in the path of duty, produces fish; fishing apart from the Lord’s will, yields only disappointment—star vation, if not of body, of mind and of soul. However dark the day, however poor our prospects, no good will come of our forsaking the appointed post, or relying upon earthly schemes for the needed provision. Had Peter and his companions but waited in patient faith, the Master would have come to them, and they would have been saved alike the shame of practical apostacy and all the discomforts and vexations of that night’s fruitless toil. But this was before Pentecost, and only shows how weak and erring we are without the indwelling Holy Ghost. HE, the Son of God, has re-entered His native heaven. But He has taken our Humanity with Him, and it is now seated at “the right hand of the Majesty on High.” This is at once His triumph and ours: the work of redemption is complete; the Race has been re-introduced into the Eden from which it was driven after Adam’s sin. For what was Eden, or what is heaven, but the realized presence of God? Let us never forget the ascension of our Lord. We are far too apt to think of Him as “despised and rejected of men” ; our thoughts cling too closely to the cross and to the tomb: we worship a risen, an ascended, a reigning Christ. On the other hand, let us never imagine that He has ceased to be Man because He has left our earth and ascended into the heavens: He is the “same Jesus” still. Nor has He forgotten us. His last act upon earth was to life His hands in blessing; His first in heaven was to send His angels to comfort and assure the bereaved hearts of His disciples. He is gone “to prepare a place” for us and, until we arrive to occupy it, we shall be the ceaseless object of His thought and care. Meanwhile lef us remember that He is our Forerunner; His presence in the upper courts is the assurance of our right of entry there. M ay 3. "Thou hast ascended on high." — Psa. 68:18. “He is gone! A cloud of light Has received Him from our sight.”
M ay 4. “Think on these things.” — Phil. 4:8.
HIGH thinking is productive of high living; a low standard of thought debases and degrades the life. As a man thinks, so he is; not merely because his personality produces his thoughts, but because his thoughts mould his personality. The mind is the mint-house of the man. This we are apt to over look. We recognize the importance of controlling our actions; we forget the more subtle but equally powerful influence of our thoughts. It is a mistake to imagine that our cogitations are beyond our control. True, we need Divine guidance, and
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