T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S place w ith us, where we can meet and hold communion, b u t we are too busy or too tired to keep th e appointment. It used to he such an easy, delightful appointm ent to keep. W hat a precious tim e th e early hou r in the morning used to be. You m et Him before you m et ano ther. You heard H is voice in H is word as you read and m editated and He heard your voice in prayer. You got to know each o th er so well and were the best and closest of friends, b u t now you are in your own home and th e wee ones have come and th e re are so many duties demanding, your atten tion and you feel you haven’t th e tim e and you have missed meeting w ith Him, and while you have no t quarrelled, th ere is ju st a cold, strain ed feeling come in between you. You have allowed business or pleasure to rob you of the tim e you used to tak e to meet w ith Jesus your F riend. Yes, and now they have robbed you of the desire to m eet Him alone. Oh, friend, is th e price you are paying worth th is loss of His friendship? T h ey 'ca n never satisfy as He does. He also made an appointm ent w ith you every Sunday in His church. W ith w h at joy you used to look forw ard to His day— the L o rd ’s day, as you sang His praises, read His word, heard His voice, received new revelations of Him. Then as you gath ered w ith His o th er friends around His table to praise Him, to rem ember His dying and undying love, to pledge your loyalty and love, to Him till He come again, w hat a fellow ship! W hat joy divine! Those were happy days and th e ir memory leaves an aching void. You are too busy now to give one day. You m ust have fresh air and change and so joy rid ing and pic- nicing and visiting friends has made you fail to keep your appointm ent w ith Him and th e re is a strange coldness come in between you. If th e re has, friend, begin again to cultivate th is friendship and th e coldness will vanish and you’ll become a warm and ard en t friend of th e Lord Jesus.
922 if we are no t doing th is we are only de ceiving ourselves. Let me ask you, dear friend, as I ask my own h eart, Are you really a friend of th e Lord Jesu s or only a make-be lieve, a sham, a p retend er? If th e re is m utual tru th and tru s t and tenderness, th en we can tru ly claim friendship w ith Him and He can say of us, ,“Ye” are my friends. Coldness Between F riends. There is danger in every friendship of growing cold or dying out. It must be cultivated very carefully and con stan tly or it may become only a mem ory. Coldness may come in because of ir regu lar communion or lack of com munion. If we tre a te d our bodies after th e ¿same m anner we tre a t our souls, we would not live very happily or healthily. There is ju st as much common sense about friendship w ith Jesus as th ere is about any earth ly friendship. F rien d ship m ust be cultivated and carefully guarded if it is to be retain ed or main tained. How many friends would we have if we trea ted them th e way we have trea ted Jesus Christ? I remem ber meeting a friend I had no t m et or seen or communicated w ith for years. We had been warm friends and ard en t adm irers of each other,' b u t we had d rifted ap art. I went to sea and was away for years. He left our town too. We never quarrelled or disagreed, we merely didn’t communicate or have communion w ith each other. In o th er words, we simply didn’t tak e th e tim e or th e troub le to cultivate our friend ship. We looked each o ther over and trie d to converse as we used to, b u t th e longer we continued th e more strain ed th e conversation became, un til he said to me, “You are no t th e sam e.” I said, “ I was ju st th ink ing th e same about you.”’ Oh, it is so easy to allow coldness to come into our friendship. The Lord Jesus, our F riend and Lover, has made a try stin g tim e and
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