346
October, 1934
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
The highest conception of this woman’s religious devotion was to die with her husband. Our ideal, set forth by divine revelation, is to live, “espoused . . . to one hus band”—even Jesus Christ, who “loved the church, and gave himself for it.” For a Christian, the normal life is to live Christ-4-“for to me to live is Christ.” Oh, I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved’s miné 1 He brings a poor vile sinner into His “house of wine.” I stand upon His merit; I know no other stand, Not e’en where glory dwelleth, in Immanuel’s land. ARE FOREIGN MISSIONS FUNDAMENTAL? [Continued from page 343] mentalists, awake! Let that which was first in the Lord Jesus’ ministry and first in Paul’s ministry be first, first, first in your ministry, too, and then ye shall be fundamen talists indeed, and not mere babblers of creed.
Another aspect should be considered. When man-raised fences are erected around various portions of the Scrip ture, and signs are set out, saying, “This is for the Jews,” and other restrictions made throughout the NewTestament, let us remember to what kind of Jews the New Testament was written. By exponents of this teaching, the Epistle of James and the Epistles of Peter are looked upon as dis tinctly Jewish; therefore these writings are considered un touchable so far as the church doctrine is concerned. But when James wrote to “the twelve tribes which are scat tered abroad,” he was writing to members of the body of Jesus Christ. In that body of Jesus Christ there are neither racial distinctions nor social distinctions nor sexual distinctions. There is “neither Jew nor Greek,” for “ye are all one in Christ.” In the revelation of the New Testament, there are no racial distinctions in truth which concerns Christian faith and conduct on this side of the cross. The Jew is no longer a Jew; the Greek is no longer a Greek; his only designation is “one in Christ.” T he P ractice of G od ’ s P eople This practice which is for God’s people is contained in those verses between Ephesians 4:17 and 6:18. There are two plain injunctions given concerning the practice or walk of God’s people. First, negative: “Walk not as other Gentiles walk” (4 :!7 ). Second, positive: “Be ye therefore followers of [walk ers after] God” (5 :1). We are not to walk as we formerly did, but to walk after God. From the wider practice of Christians affecting things in general, we are made to face the specifics of practice and things in particular. We notice here that the injunction regarding spiritual leadership and training in the home is made to fathers. The command says: “Fathers, . . . bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Too often, fathers leave this task for mothers and Sunday-school teachers. But the Scripture lays the responsibility on the fathers. In our day, fathers need to demonstrate the virtue of in creasing interest in their children. The most important crop a farmer grows is not in his cornfield but in his home. The most important thing in a father’s life is not his business but his boys. Henry Turner Bailey, in an article entitled, “The Man Who Put His Arm Around Me,” writes with reverent affection of his father, of whom he says, “He put his arm around me when I passed the dangerous straits between boyhood and manhood.” Let us so assist our boys, that not only a father’s arms are around them, but God’s arm also. The only satisfactory and ultimately reliable industrial codes are the codes of the heart which inspire in masters true justice and consideration, and in servants true service and honesty. The highest motive in a Christian’s practice is Christ. It is expressed by Paul in these words: “For to me to live is Christ.” In spite of the law against the burning of the living with the dead, in India, a suttee is said to have re cently taken place. The wife of the deceased man was heavily drugged and seated on the pyre. It was reported that she had “taken her dead husband’s head in her lap (whereat, say the Hindus, the corpse smiled) and was burned to death, while the Hindu priests drove back the men and pushed the women forward to see this ‘holy woman,’ while they exhorted them to ‘go and do like- .wise’ and to follow the example of the holy Hindu wife.” 1. Husbands arid wives (5:22-28). 2. Children and parents (6:1-3). 3. Fathers and children (6 :4). 4. Servants and masters (6:5-8). 5. Masters and servants (6 :9).
d h k U * A J-a M * . t r o ■ t-e e i,
WHENTHE TIDE EBBS.
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Courtesy, Sunday School Times. Awake, O church of today, awake to missions, or die as have your predecessors ! A missionary church is always a virile church. Behold here an overlooked secret of re vival. Face the circumference of your mission, ye soldiers of the cross, and unlimited resources shall make up your vanguard—but keep your vision fixed upon your own prob lems and ye shall die the death of selfishness. Word from Hunan A noble work for God is being accomplished at the Hunan Bible Institute, the China department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. In the face of financial strin gency, which in recent years has been practically world wide in its scope, the leaders of the Institute work in China have continued to carry on an aggressive program of evan gelism. “The members of our faculty have bravely and with deep consecration offered to work on for another year without any stipulated salary, looking to God alone for the supply of their needs,” writes Dr. Frank A. Keller, super intendent of the Hunan Bible Institute. “Some of them are men with large families. Do join us in prayer that God may supply all their needs.” The Hunan Bible Institute is located at Changsha, Hunan, China.
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