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  ABILENE1942 LECTURES
  by Abilene Christian College
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The annual Abilene Christian College Lectureship for 1942, featuring a series of
sermons, lectures, and addresses by prominent preachers and teachers in the
Churches of Christ on themes of faith, doctrine, and Christian living.

  Chapters: 10

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. Preface
    2. The Need for the Christian School
    3. Hold Fast to Eternal Things
    4. The Lord is our Refuge
    5. Our Abiding Sources of Strength
    6. God's Love Through Jesus Christ, His Son
    7. Jehovah God Reigneth
    8. The Word of the Lord Endureth
    9. Christianity in the Home
   10. Righteousness Exalteth a Nation

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  CHAPTER 1: PREFACE
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Preface PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

We offer the 1942 Lectures of Abilene Christian College with confidence and
appreciation. The speakers are, all, men well known in the fields of educational
and religious endeavor. These lectures, delivered at the February Lectureship,
present a substantial and worthwhile addition to the literature of the churches
of Christ. We commend them all to the attentive consideration of those who read.

G. H. P. SHOWALTER Austin, Texas, October 1, 1942.


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  CHAPTER 2: THE NEED FOR THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
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The Need for the Christian School THE NEED FOR THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL By Don H.
Morris In answer to a query concerning the need of Christian schools and the
right to require students to study the Bible in these schools, David Lipscomb
once wrote: “There are some things so simple and self-evident that it is
difficult to argue them. If a man were to ask me to prove 2 and 2 make 4,1 could
not argue with it much. . .. For a parent to require a child to wash its face
and keep its body clean and not require it to learn and obey the Bible is to
teach that the body is worth more than a pure heart and a clean and holy spirit.
For a parent to require a child to learn spelling and reading and arithmetic
(and, may I add, the essentials of engineering and science and language arts and
business in demand today) and not require it to study the Bible is to teach by a
forcible object lesson that it is more important to be qualified to live in this
world than to be fitted to live in Heaven. There is no evading these simple
truths.”

Brother Lipscomb continues: “This all applies to the family and the school. It
is just as much the duty of the parent to see that his child is taught the Bible
when away from home at school as it is to require it at home. The teachers in
the school occupy the position of the parents to the child and are under the
same obligation to require the children to study the Bible and to teach the
Bible to the children that the parents are. ... He (the Christian) is to teach
‘every creature’ in ‘all the world’. How can he excuse himself fiom teaching
children under him from day to day and from month to month? . . . The Bible
places the study and the teaching of the word of God above everything else. And
he is not a true fn‘end to the Bible, to God, or to men who gives it a secondary
or inferior place. A Bible or Christian family or school is that-which places
the study and practice of the Bible above everything else.”

Whai a forcible definition, and how adequate it is! I repeat the quotation. “A
Bible or Christian family or school is one that places the study and practice of
the Bible above everything else.” In 1892, the year the Nashville Bible School
was established, David Lipscomb wrote in the Gospel Advocate, and again I quote:
“We are doing what we be lieve should be done in teaching every child, whether
he intends to farm or merchandise, pleach the gospel or practice medicine. All
alike read the Bible teaching; need to learn to appreciate religion above all
else, and to carry the teachings of the Bible into their lives, whatever they do
and wherever they go. Every Christian parent ought to seek for every child just
such instruction as we try to give at the Bible school. Every church, every
community, ought to have a Bible school. And every Christian parent should seek,
if possible, a Bible school for every child, girl or boy. Our religion should be
earnest, the highest aim and only end worth living for. ... A Christian man must
be a Bible man, and all his work will be Bible work; his farm will be a Bible
farm, his workshop will be a Bible shop, his school or college will be a Bible
school or college.” But someone thinks—he dare not say it—“Brother Lipscomb
wrote years ago, before the days of modern education.” I answer by saying that
if time and its changes toward materialism and reliance upon self and steel, in
education and out of education, means anything, it means that we need Christian
schools as much or more now than we did a half century ago. Not long ago I was
talking to one who might be called a hard-headed business man. A member of the
Lord’s church, he was, and yet he was a man of business. He said to me bluntly,
“The man who does not believe in Christian education is crazy.” And so I say
that in these days when there are so many things that are uncertain, when so
many of our plans go awry, and when we cannot even “ask to see the distant
scene,” we stand together and re-affirm our faith in Christian teaching and
re-dedicate ourselves to the purposes and the necessity of the Christian school.
The purpose, the need of a Christian school is based on three simple advantages:
First, it provides Bible teaching. The Christian must be a Bible teacher,
whether he is in his home, field, shop, pulpit, or office, in the
school—college—in which he teaches. The purpose of the Christian college is to
provide a place where this teaching can be done in an organized, effective way
in Bible courses, just as the teaching of literature or one of the arts may be
done. In Abilene Christian College, for example, nineteen courses in the Bible
are offered, and others are offered which touch in one way or. .another on Bible
themes. Students register for more classes in Bible than for any other subject.
One time the purpose may be to emphasize an appreciation of God’s word and will.
Another time it may be to present the great fundamental doctrines of
Christianity, or a history of Bible events, or the error of man’s way, or the
essentials of Christian honesty and daily living, but the purpose is always to
teach the Bible. Now, if we had in Abilene today a school where none of the
teachers except the Bible teachers were Christians and where there were very few
students who were members of the church, but where the Bible was taught to the
students by Christian men, this one thing in itself would make it a far above
the average school. And so, to state this purpose of the Christian college—Bible
teaching—is to state the need of the Christian school. The second simple
advantage of, and contribution to the purpose of the Christian school is that it
has Christian men and women as instructors. If a wise man is looking for a
school, grade school, high school, or college for a boy or girl, one thing that
he wants to know about the schools considered is the type of instructors under
whose guidance and influence the student is to be placed. Many a parent has said
to me, “One advantage that my boy will have at San Marcos Teachers College is
that Dean Speck is there/’ Others have said, “Brother Sweet can help my boy at
College Station,”, or “Brother Wilburn Hill can help him at Ok-, lahoma A. & M.”
The purpose of the Christian college is to provide the student with an
environment where godly, consecrated men and women, with all of the humanities
that they might have, are to teach every class, every hour, and every day. I
quote now from a maxim of education and human experience: “As is the teacher, so
is the school.” This is true everywhere and anywhere. And you will find it true
also that as is the school, so will be, to a great extent, the men and women who
have been its students.

If we had, too, in Abilene a school where no Bible could be taught in a formal
way, but where all the members of the faculty were members of the church of
Jesus Christ, this alone would make it a good school. To state this advantage,
this purpose, is to emphasize beyond measure the need of the Christian college.
The third natural advantage of the Christian school is that, in the main, it
attracts students who are Christians or who are from Christian homes. The
records at Abilene Christian College show that at the beginning of the fall
semester over a period of years an average of more than 80% of the students were
members of the church. This fall semester 90% were members and of the 10% who
were not members, more than 1/3 were baptized before the close of the semester.'
If wc had in Abilene today a school where no Bible could be taught, where no
member of the faculty was a member ofithe Lord’s church, but where 90%, 80%—94%
now —of the students’ were, church members, this by itself would make an
unusually desirable school.

Now, the purpose of the Christian school is not just to assemble these three
advantages as so many static, lifeless, admirable parts of a beautiful piece of
handiwork. The purpose is to take these basic fundamentals —Bible teaching,
Christian teachers, and Christian associations, along with that which will
prepare for efficient living in the businesses of life—and by planning, by
direction, and by consistent effort and prayer, to lead those who attend the
Christian school to live as determined, humble, and consecrated Christian men
and women. The degree to which we here and at other places accomplish this
purpose establishes the need of the Christian school.

You will note that the purpose of the Christian school is positive and not
negative (for the protection and guarding of students) only. From a standpoint
of results desired, the aims of the Christian college may be analyzed as
follows: The first aim is to exalt truth. Someone has said, “The true Christian
college is alive and honest, and it is intent on finding, knowing, leaching, and
exemplifying Truth.” Let us never fail to hold up this standard around which
those who lead in our schools may always rally and stand.

Taken from this standpoint, a second fundamental aim of the Christian school is
to build character, to cause men to act according to truth—to put truth to
work.' The'.third-important aim, and this is a natural corollary of the other
two, is to cause the men and women who attend these schools to give themselves
in service. We ask for, we beg for the assistance of all as we work toward the
accomplishment of these ends. If there ever was a day in the history of the
world or the history of the church when Truth, pure and strong and kind and
immovable, needed to be exalted and held up, and if there ever was a time when
men and women of character were needed for the services of the world and
humanity, that day is 1942. So, we need our Christian schools and we need to
protect and hold them in such a way that they may render the best for the
generations to come. Our Christian colleges often fail in reaching in every
particular all of these desired ends. Their leaders and instructors, the best of
their students, make mistakes, but to illustrate the fact that to some extent at
least these goals are reached, I quote you from a rather enthusiastic estimation
of the values found in Christian colleges from an ex-student of one of our
schools: “Thus through words, but chiefly example, the students imbibe the
spirit of the teachers. Furthermore, in a four-year college the freshman comes
into a society in which the rest of the student body, except other freshmen,
have moved for one, two, or three years and have drunk deep of the spirit which,
emanating from the faculty, permeates that society. They associate with many
young men and women of powerful personality who not only are not ashamed of
Christ, but who glory in his cross. They see that men can be scholarly without
renouncing religion as a thing of ignorance and superstition. They are inspired
with the vision of service which makes foreign missionaries, faithful gospel
preachers, well-qualified elders, and faithful fathers and mothers, who bear
into the world the spirit of Christ handed down from godly men and women. They
see that faith is a thing not merely to be guarded, but a force powerful in
leading to deeds of beneficence, to a life of willing sacrifice.” So far I have
been calling your attention to the prin-ciples underlying the purposes of and
the needs for Christian schools. We have said that there must be teaching, that
there must be the proper direction and influence and associations for youth
wherever he lives and whatever he does. This means, of course, that every
Christian has a responsibility for seeing that the proper influences and
teaching are provided for the young who are entrusted to parents, and entrusted,
too, to every member of the church.

Let us go to the Book for help and admonition. The Bible is full of warnings and
injunctions that emphasize the principles underlying the purposes and the need
for the Christian school. The apostle wrote: “Be not deceived: Evil
companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Hosea said, “Ephraim
is joined to idols; let him alone” (Hosea 4:17). And the one of wisdom wrote:
“Walk with wise men, and thou shalt be wise; But the companion of fools shall
smart for it”. Proverbs 13:20). The importance of the right kind of teachers,
whether they be in the church or school or home or wherever they may be, is
suggested over and over again in God’s Word. James 3:1 : “Be not many of you
teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.” Paul
said to Timothy: “And the things which thou hast heard from me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also.” Paul wanted faithful men as teachers which would indicate the
danger of placing especially the young under the influence of unfaithful
teachers. This scripture, too, emphasizes the practicability of and the
necessity of providing for those who desire further education—those who will be
leaders— the inspiring and directing influence of a Christian college. The
teacher, yes! Paul had his Timothy and his Titus and he himself taught two years
in the school of Tyrannus, so '‘that all that were in Asia heard the word of the
Lord." Where shall we go for scripture and example on teaching? To almost any
page of the Bible, Old Testament and New. A few familiar passages will suffice.
(Deuteronomy 6:6-9). “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be
upon thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them
for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy
grates.”

Jesus once answered personal criticism from the Jews by saying, “It is written
in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that hath heard
from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me” (John 6:45). The Master said,
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo! I am with you alway,
even to the end of the earth.”

Since the first couple lived in the garden, men have been led into temptation,
and into ways everlasting, ac-cording to the teaching that has influenced them
most, and according to the teachers that have won their confidence. Adam and Eve
listened to Satan rather than to God. The children of Israel sometimes obeyed
the prophets of God and sometimes followed after the prophets of Baal. These
were all written for our example.

I am reminded that teaching is for the church. Yes! But teaching is a universal
principle. Its obligation rests upon the home and upon the individual, and the
necessity of its being genuine and Christian rides upon every highway and sits
in the classroom of every teacher. And the consequences of teaching, good or
bad, follow after it wherever it is. We need Christian schools. This business of
teaching and the importance of teachers and associates is not just a doctrine to
which we may nod our approval. For a congregation to give voice to the
importance of teaching and to the necessity of spreading the gospel of Christ
and at the same time to fail to provide the most efficient type of local
teaching program possible and the congregation to fail, though its membership,
to assist and direct the lives of its youth, and/or for a congregation at the
same time to fail to go beyond its own borders shows at once poor judgment and a
lack of faith in the doctrines of Christianity. For an individual and certainly
a teacher not to take advantage of his opportunity to lead students aright
reveals the same condition. For parents to trust to chance, or to their own
youthful desires, for their children to study the Bible, and for parents to fail
to see to it that those whose care has been trusted to them are led and taught
in the right way in school, for parents, I say, so neglectfully to face these
solemn duties shows a lack of Christian zeal and interest both in the individual
child and in the Lord’s cause.

It should be said that the Christian college is not re-sponsible for and does
not deserve all of the credit, or all of the criticisms, for the success, or
mistakes, of those who may pass through their halls. First of all, the church in
an organized way must teach and lead. The individual Christian must teach and
lead and encourage and reprove as he finds opportunity, and he must make
opportunities. The home must bring up its children in the nurture and the
admonition of the Lord. As has been indicated, the greater part of the students
who come to our Christian schools have already had the advantage of Christian
teaching in the home and in the church. But what a pity it is to take students
who have been so influenced and taught and place them in educational situations
where that which has already been given them may be either endangered or
nullified. Rather would it not be the sensible and the wise and the Christian
thing for those of us who are older to provide Christian schools for such
students and to lend our influence toward the patronage and support of such
schools? And so, we must keep our Christian schools. We must keep them Christian
with all that that word means, and we must keep them alive, and going, and
serving. There should be other Christian schools built as time and money will
permit. Those established must have more and more the support in money and in
good will of those who believe in Christianity and in the Lord's church. To show
the immensity of our task, there has been spent at Abilene Christian College
during the past 36 years for buildings and equipment alone hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Men who were young when the school was started are now in their 60’s
and 70’s, and scores of them have given themselves almost literally that what we
have might be, and that more might be built in the future. Mistakes have been
made, but when we consider the frailties of life, the work has been done with as
little selfishness and as much sacrifice and good judgment as could be expected
in any enterprise. The results have been over 10,000 ex-students, with
approximately 9/10 of them active members of the Lord's church. More than 40% of
the students who have entered without religious affiliations have become members
of the church before they left school, and more than 4/10 of those who have
entered as sectarians have become members of the church of Christ before their
graduation. Of the hundreds of couples that have met on the campus and married,
only one or two has ended in divorce. As I have said 1/3 of those not Christians
who enrolled last September already have been baptized. All of those who have
entered the school have been protected against the temptations that come from
the teaching and campus life of materialistic insiitutions, and most of those
who have passed through the halls of the institution have gone out with a better
understanding of the right and more zeal for its proclamation than they had at
the time they enrolled. In the days that are ahead much will need to be done.
Educational standards will have to be met; the remaining part of our debt must
be paid; new buildings are needed now and will have to be built. Problems of a
war-torn world will come m a special way to schools like ours. With appreciation
for every dollar and every life that have been contributed and spent here, and
for every prayer that has been prayed that our work may continue in the
righteous purposes for wh-ch it was founded, we ask that you and all of the
friends of youth and the Lord’s way may continue to give, that Christian schools
like ours may continue to h've and serve.


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  CHAPTER 3: HOLD FAST TO ETERNAL THINGS
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Hold Fast to Eternal Things HOLD FAST TO ETERNAL THINGS By Athens Clay Pullias
The scripture reading for our lesson is found in the Second Corinthian letter.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in
despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. . . . We
having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and
therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Know-ing that he
which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall
present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace
might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which
cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things
which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. For
we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2
Corinthians 4:8-9; 2 Corinthians 4:13-18; 2 Corinthians 5:1).

“These are times that try men’s souls.” The last fifteen years have witnessed
cataclysmic changes in human affairs. These changes have seemed to usher in a
reversal of centuries of progress and development. Fifteen years ago we were
dreaming of an area of permanent material prosperity, of unparalleled social
morality and lasting international peace. When I was a student in high school
this beautiful dream of the future was discussed in every class and reflected in
the behaviour of the general public. We had recently completed a war to end all
wars. The prohibition law had promised to make sobriety and temperance a
universal virtue, and political leaders were eloquently portraying a vision of
prosperity which would put two chickens in every pot and two cars in every
garage. Events of the past few years rudely shattered this glorious dream.
Depression, poverty, unemployment and consequent social revolution stumbled over
each other in rapid succession. Then before a staggering world could recover its
economic equilibrium a war descended upon humanity, which by comparison dwarfs
all previous human conflicts. The dream of 1929, at the peak of the golden era
of hope, has been drastically transformed into the ghoulish nightmare of 1939.
That storm of destruction which struck the world in September 1939 daily
increases in ferocity and tends to obliterate the moral, spiritual, intellectual
and social gains of fifty centuries. This is no war to end war. Instead, the
world is in a death grapple for its very existence. In spite of fifty centuries
of practice it appears that man has learned little about how to live usefully
and happily in this present world.

Naturally we ask, “What will remain after this tempest is done?” “What will be
left when the battle drums throb no longer?” “What are the eternal things?”
There are always two separate, and often conflicting, sets of values. These are:
(1) The immediate values and (2) the ultimate values. Those who clearly
distinguish between these two sets ox values whl gain tremendously in the battle
to hold fast to eternal things. This distinction is reasonably simple. For
example, a small boy with ragged trousers and a hungry stomach passes by a fruit
stand. He sees a shining red apple. He has no money with which to buy the apple.
If he gets it, it will be necessary to steal. In deciding whether to steal the
apple or to go on hungry he must make this distinction between immediate and
ultimate values. Immediately ii would be more satisfying to take and to eat the
apple. Physically, he would feel better. Yet there are more permanent values
involved than his immediate hunger. To take the apple would be at the expense of
honesty, integrity and decency. It might easily be the first step in a criminal
career that would end on the gallows. Young people are constantly confronted
with this same decisison. They are tempted to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may,”
or to “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Those who dare to do it will
lose the ultimate values of morality and personal purity. It is essential, then,
that the intelligent Christian studiously distinguish ultimate values from
immediate values. So our question recurs. “What will remain after this tempest
is done?” “What will we have after the present storm of war and strife is over?”
“What are the eternal things?” Paul said: “The things which; are .seen are
temporal.” Those who cling to .the immediate values of wealth, sensual •
pleasure, physical ease, and worldly position will lose eternal life and will
lose the eternal values that go with eternal life.

Literature, both sacred and profane, is replete with confirmations of this
statement of Paul that “things which are seen are temporal.” James Fenimore
Cooper, famous author of “The Leather Stocking Tales,” said, “It is the destiny
of all things to ripen and then decay.” Job, vexed on every side, poured forth
these mournful words: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of
trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a
shadow, and continueth not” (Job 14:1-2). David in the ninetieth Psalm speaks of
the swiftness with which the years roll by. “For a thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou earnest
them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like
grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the
evening it is cut down, and with- creth. . . . The days of our years are
threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
... So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”
(Psalms 90:4-6; Psalms 90:10; Psalms 90:12). In the one hundred and forty-fourth
Psalm David said: “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth
away” (Psalms 144:4). This remeinds us of the lines penned by William Cullen
Bryant:

“As shadows cast by cloud and sun, Flit o’er a summer’s grass So in thy sight,
Almighty One, Earth’s generations pass.”

Isaiah almost screams out the frailty of man. “The voice said, Cry. And he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the godliness thereof is as the
flower of the fields” (Isaiah 40:6). James reminds man that he must be humble in
view of the frailty of the flesh: “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that
he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of
the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning
heat, but it wit.hereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace
of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his
ways” (James 1:9-11). The same writer reemphasizes the uncertainty of life in
the fourth chapter of his epistle. “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow
we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain: Whereas ye knowr not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away” (James 4:13-14). The apostle Peter adds these words: “Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory
of man as the flower of grass. The grass wdthereth and the flower thereof
falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:22-25). “But, beloved, be
not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is long- suffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye
to be in all holy convex sation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may
be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:8-14). Jesus
shocked his Jewish hearers by predicting the destruction of the magnificent
temple, which was the heart of the Hebrew nation. “And Jesus went out, and
departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the
buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:1-2). In Gray’s Elegy this verse is found:

“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth
e’er gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the
grave.” Another poet has said: “ ’Tis the wink of an eye, ’tis the draft of a
breath From the blossom of youth to the paleness of death, From the gdded salon
to the bier and shroud O why should the spirit of mortal be proud?”

Indeed “the brightest glories that earth can boast just glisten then are gone,”
for “the things wdiich are seen are temporal, and the things which are not seen
are eternal.” The ultimate destiny of this generation, and of all generations to
come, does not depend upon our productive capacity or our striking power. The
immediate future may' well depend upon these purely temporal things, but the
final future does not. Physical powder, on which we are so inclined to depend,
will not and cannot decide the eternal issues. The trust which we so
complacently place m material things is misplaced. In a neighboring state there
lived an old Southern gentleman, who owned several hundred acres of river bottom
land. We will call him Uncle Tom, for he was a ty pical old Southern gentleman.
Uncle Tom was past b:s eightieth year. His physical frame was stooped and
feeble. At best his sojourn upon the earth could only be a few more days.

Early one Autumn Uncle Tom fell sick, desperately sick. In view of his advanced
age and enfeebled condition there was no hope for him to recover. Uncle Tom was
not a Christian. To use his own words, he handled all his religion by proxy
through his wife. He wasn’t a bad man, as men go. He was a stable, reliable,
honest citizen, who was so interested in the affairs of this life that he took
no interest in the eternal things. During his last illness a preacher of the
gospel visited Uncle Tom. He tried in vain to arouse some spark of interest in
religion in Uncle Tom’s heart, even in those fading moments of his life. This
preacher thought that he had made some progress. Just as he was about to leave
the. old .man raised up feebly on his elbow and said, “Preacher, I am worried
almost to death, and I want you to do something for me.” The preacher’s face
lightened up, but then Uncle Tom said, “Preacher, the backwater is rising, and I
have got 300 acres of corn that must be gathered in the next few days or it will
ruin. I want you to go down and see Jim Jones, who runs my river land, and tell
him to get that corn out before the backwater gets it.” Then, Uncle Tom fell
back exhausted, and the preacher fell back bitterly disappointed. Poor old man!
With only a few days at most to live he could think of nothing but river bottom
corn. He thought those 300 acres of corn to be very important. In reality they
constituted about the least important thing in his life at that moment. “The
things which are seen are temporal.”

There is a story in the Bible which is similar in many respects. There was a
foolish rich man who thought up to the very last that a program of bigger and
better barns was more important than anything else in the world. Not until it
was too late did the foolish rich man realize that “the things which are seen
are temporal, and the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Jesus would never stoop to the material things. For him life was first spiritual
and moral. He nowhere expressed this better than in the sixteenth chapter of
Matthew, verses twenty-four through twenty-six: “Then said Jesus unto his
disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sak shall find it. For what is a man
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul?” Our original question recurs. “What will
be left when this tempest is done?” “What will remain when the present tempest
is o’er?” “What are the eternal things?” Paul said, “The things which are not
seen are eternal.” The Bible begins with the eternal cornerstone: “In the
beginning God.” Before everything else, and over everything else, as the author
of all things stands the limitless personality of the Almighty God. All eternal
values are in him and through him, for in “him we live and move and have our
continual being.” In the ninetieth Psalm David spake of God in these eloquent
words: “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the
mountains were brought forth, or even thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalms 90:1-2). In the book
of Deuteronomy Moses said: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are
the everlasting arms.” The Son of God is the everlasting personification of
mercy, grace and love. The word of God is eternal wisdom revealed to man through
the sacred pages of the Holy Bible: “The word of God which liveth and abideth
forever.” The kingdom of God, which shall never be moved—a kingdom which is the
symbol and substance of eternal victory, the “gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it”; the children of God, who shall inherit rest in that home where
changes never come—these are the eternal things. God the Father, the Son of God,
the Holy Spirit of God, the word of God, the Kingdom of God and the children of
God—these are the eternal things. Time and circumstance will never overcome
these eternal forces. Therefore, we say, “Hold to the eternal things.”

Those who hold fast to eternal things can face with confidence, complete
confidence, and unshakable cour-age, whatever fate may lie ahead. Even death,
the final destroyer of all that is temporal, holds no fears for the faithful
children of God. The Christian who has laboured faithful and true can say with
calm faith;

“Under the wide and starry sky Dig the grave and let me lie Glad did I live and
gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And
the hunter home from the hill.” --Robert Louis Stevenson. With the aged Tennyson
the faithful Christian can say:

“Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moanmg
of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too
full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns
agam home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be
no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time
and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I
have crossed the bar.” With the aged Paul those who hold to the eternal things
can say: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:68). Therefore, we
plead with you: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). In a world gone mad, in a world of
uncertainty and death, hold fast to eternal things.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: THE LORD IS OUR REFUGE
========================================================================

The Lord is our Refuge THE LORD IS OUR REFUGE By Athens Clay Pullias

David said in the forty-sixth Psalm, the hrsl verse: “God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble.” Frequently in recent days I have
heard many people calmly say, referring to the dreadful crisis that has
descended upon the world, “The Lo^d is our refuge.” This is both encouraging and
thought- provoking. That 'a a beautiful statement, and if true, a glorious
truth. Yet to declare that the Lord is our refuge is to presume that our lives
are acceptable in his sight. It is not a claim to be made lightly or quickly.
God is the refuge and the strength of those who place their lives in his hands.
There is no possible doubt about that. Whether we are among that number who have
committed themselves to Jehovah is the question that each one of us should
thoughtfully and prayerfully consider. The Loid is the refuge of the righteous,
but I am not at all sure that I have the right to proclaim myself as a righteous
person whom the Lord will protect and bless. Jehovah has never prom ised to
defend the wicked or the unrighteous. Those who have refused to do his will have
never received his favor. The Lord is our refuge when, and only when, we are his
people in heart and in life.

Some months ago a new popular song caught the ears and swept across the heart
strings of the American people. The song was in the nature of a prayer.

“God bless America, Land that I love, Stand beside her, And guide her, Thru the
night with a Light from above; From the mountains, To the prairies To the oceans
White with foam; God bless America, My home, sweet home!”

These words have echoed in the hearts of millions from shore to shore. Yet this
prayer for protection brings home a stirring question—What kind of an America
will God bless ? The sacred power of the Almighty will not be prostituted in an
unrighteous cause. If there ever was a time for the American people to ask
themselves the question (Are we the kind of people that God will bless and
protect?) that time is now. There is still shocking evidence of greed, of
ambition and of licentiousness that must be removed before America can pray with
confidence for the protection and guidance of the Almighty. Those who devote
their efforts to making America better, spiritually and morally, will render the
greatest conceivable service to our country and to all mankind.

Jesus challenged his hearers on one occasion with these words, “Why call ye me
Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 1 say.” It is futile to say that the
Lord is our refuge unless we can say with truth we are servants of the Lord. The
vital question resolves itself into this: Under what circumstances will the Lord
be our refuge as individuals and as a nation? Spiritual security lies in knowing
and doing the will of God. Every prayer for help and each reliance on the mercy
of God must be based, if it is to be successful, on determined and unrelenting
effort to do the will of Jehovah, There are some conditions that must exist in
our lives before God will be our refuge. May we briefly consider some of these
requirements that must be present before we can say the Lord is our refuge.

Each Christian must have a clear cut conception of things as they should be.
There is grave danger that we are plunging into the future uncertain of what we
are striving to attain and equally uncertain of the means which may be properly
used. The world of the future, individually and nationally, must be a planned
world. Aimless drifting during and after the present crisis will inevitably lead
to the rocks of chaos again. The first step toward a permanent solution of the
problems of man is the development of a proper conception of things as they
should be. This conception can be obtained .from the word of God. The cynics
have scoffed at the ideal world of which Jesus dreamed and at the methods by
which he proposed to achieve these ideals. These cynics, who like to call
themselves realists, have brought the earth to the brink of utter destruction.
It is high time that men turn to the lowly Galilean that they may catch a vision
of things as they should be.

It would not be enough to develop a Christian con-ception of what men should be
and how men should live. There must then follow hard work over a long period of
time to bring this vision of things as they should be into actual being. No
great thing has ever been achieved without extended effort. Jesus said of
himself: “I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day, for the
night cometh when no man can work.” There seems to be in our land an increasing
tendency to despise labor and toil. Even in this critical hour there remain many
who consider the best position in life one with short hours and high pay. This
country was not built on a love of leisure and luxury. When our forefathers
crossed the Appalachian Mountains in the latter part of the Eighteenth century
and looked down upon the lovely valley of the Tennessee they did not behold
homes, schools, churches and the other equipment of civilization. Instead, they
beheld a trackless wdderness infested with ferocious beasts and sav age men.
Their material equipment was pitiably small; their moral and spiritual equipment
was tremendously better than ours today. Armed with their faith in God and in
the digmty of man they took their broad axes in hand and carved out of that
wilderness the dazzling civilization which we. have inherited. To them til ere
was a job to be done, a vision to be realized. There was no regard for hours and
wages in their minds. Their only concern was for a goal to be achieved. They
arose with the voice of the bird in the morning and toiled through the day till
the set of sun. From their visions and labors we have received inestimable
rewards. An unwillingness on our part to work hard and long, will insure our
complete and final overthrow. Paul said bluntly: “For even when we were with
you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at
all, but are busybodies. Now them that are. such we command and exhort by our
Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they wrork, and eat their own bread” (2
Thessalonians 3:10-12).

If our stake in this present crisis is no more basically moral than a desire to
return as quickly as possible to our earthly pleasures, then disaster is
certain.

“Heights of great men reached and kept, Are not attained in sudden flight; But
they, while their companions slept, Toiled upward in the night/’ Somebody has
put it in these words: “Dream that you may have the courage to work, And work
that your dreams may come true.”

America must get from the word of God a conception of things as they should be,
and America must have the faith, the hope, and the love to work, day in and day
out, year in and year out, to make a reality out of that vision.

There is another quality which those who can truly say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
must possess. Let us call it moral stability, the ability and the determination
to stand for right, truth and decency regardless of the cost and regardless of
the circumstances. Such a course is far from easy. When the crowd is going in
one direction it requires both courage and conviction to set your face in the
opposite direction. A thrilling example of moral stability is recorded in the
Old Testament in the case of Joseph. At a tender age he was sold by his own
brethren into bondage, a heartbreaking experience. While he sought to faithfully
serve as a slave in Potiphar’s house, that evil woman, Potiphar’s wife, planned
his moral ruin. This boy, though a slave, had the resolution to steadfastly
refuse to do wrong. It sent him to prison for a while; because he dared to do
the right, he lost even the humble station of a slave, but his courage and faith
were not lost. It was tins unyielding will to do right in the heart of Joseph
that bridged the yawning chasm between the bottom of Pharaoh’s jail and the
prime ministership of the Egyptian Empire. Godliness lifted this boy out of the
prison and on to the throne.

Victory doesn’t always come in a day. Those who have the courage and faith to
say, “The Lord is my refuge," must also have the patience to- wait until God in
his own way and time brings victory to his people.' There lies before us
hardship and suffering. The storm which has arisen over the face of the earth
will not quickly pass. To use the words of another, “Let us go into the storm
and through the storm, trust ing in the final victory of righteousness and
decency.” How long we must wait and how much we must bear before the glorious
moment of triumph comes no man can possibly know. Whatever may be the burdens
which this stoi m and tempest may place upon us, they must be borne with
patience and fortitude. The people of God must have the patience, and the faith,
to leave the future in the hands of God. The Christian is in partnership with
God, ready to stand or fall upon the truth and power of the Olimtian gospel. Let
us be very sure that our hves harmonize with his will, then we can say with
certainty, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

These then are the qualities that will enable the sons of men to say, “The Lord
is our refuge.” A conception of things as they should be, gained from the word
of God; a willingness to work hard and long in the cause of righteousness; a
determination to stand for right come what may; the patience to leave the time
and manner of victory completely in the hands of God; and finally, a realization
that the Christian lives in constant partnership with God. When these things
have been achieved in our lives, then the Lord is our refuge. \Ye have his own
righteous word to sustain us in that conviction. Through Isaiah he said: “Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he
trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:3-4). “That peace which passeth all
understanding” is the exclusive possession of the faithful children of God. The
promises contained in the first Psalm are enough to thrill the hearts of God’s
people: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his
delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and
night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he
doeth shall prosper” (Psalms 1:1-3). In the fifth Psalm David said: “For thou,
Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a
shield” (Psalms 5:12). The thirty- seventh Psalm is equally comforting to the
people of God. “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious
against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.- Delight thyself also in the
Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the
Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth
thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday” (Psalms
37:1-6). Again in the same thirty-seventh Psalm David said: “The steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he
shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord up- holdeth him with his hand. I
have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is
blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore” (Psalms
37:23-27). In the New Testament our Master was even more positive in pledging
the protection of God to the people of God. “And why take ye thought for
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither
do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,
which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30). In the eighth chapter of
the Roman letter the apostle Paul expresses with eloquence and beauty unlimited
confidence in the power and goodness of the Almighty. “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). We have taken great pains to show that men
call fall by the wayside, and so many have fallen that it is difficult to see
how anyone could ever doubt man’s ability to fall. On the other hand, it is not
necessary for man to fall. If we would get in Christ and stay out of everything
else, “there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus.” In the twenty-eighth verse of the same chapter Paul assures the children
of God that whatever may come will redound to the glory of God and the good of
his people. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). In
the last verses of this eighth chapter of Romans the total power of the Almighty
is pledged to the protection of his saints. “Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or perd, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
8:35; Romans 8:37-39). In his last letter to Timothy, which was almost the last
message of the great apostle Paul, that battle- scarred veteran revealed a faith
unshaken and un* diminished by the storms that raged around him. “For the which
cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom
I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). The Hebrew letter
impressively asserts that God will never desert his people. Listen carefully to
these words: “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with
such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what
man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

Alexander Stephens has well expressed the athtude which a Christian should take
toward whatever fate may chance to bring. He said: “I fear nothing on the earth,
nor above the earth, nor under the earth, man nor beast, angel nor devil, except
that I may do wrong.” The Christian has only one thing to fear, and that is
doing wrong. Do the will of God, and fear nothing. . Our ability to assume this
attitude will depend upon cur faith in God. Often we will not be able to
understand the stormy events that surge around us. A lack of understanding only
serves to make faith more definitely essential to victorious living.

“Not now, but in the coming years, It may be in the better land, We’ll read the
meaning of our tears, And there, sometime, we’ll understand. Then trust in God
thro’ all thy days; Fear not, for he doth hold thy hand; Tho’ dark thy way,
still sing and praise; Sometime, sometime we’ll understand.” In the face of
whatever may come, let us say: “I know not what the future hath Of marvel or
surprise; I only know that life or death His mercy underlies. I know not where
his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond
his love and care.” The people of God can say with Browning: “God’s in his
heaven—All’s right with the world,” for those who trust in Jehovah and do his
will. And so we plead again: “Hold fast to the eternal things.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: OUR ABIDING SOURCES OF STRENGTH
========================================================================

Our Abiding Sources of Strength OUR ABIDING SOURCES OF STRENGTH By Jesse P.
Sewell

Introduction Emerson, somewhere in his writing, expresses a peti-tion in these
words: “Nerve us with incessant affirm-ation.” When our enthusiasms have become
sick and weak; when our dreams have become dim and drab; when we have been all
but completely drained of hope: it is neither argument nor logic we need—when we
stand face to face with our human limitations, weakness, mistakes,
short-comings, failures and sins we are conscious of the need of power superior
to our own. When we stand on the very edge of utter despair and destruction; or
of victory and joy, what our souls need is a constant, steady, confident
affirmation of our abiding sources of strength.

Here is the First One: The Abiding Father 1.Psalms 90:1-2. 1. Lord, thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations. 2. Before the moun-tains were
brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

2. Psalms 102:25-28. 25. "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and
the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26. They shall perish, but thou shalt
endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou
change them, and they shall be changed: 27. But thou art the same, and thy years
shall have no end. 28. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their
seed shall be established before thee."

3. 1 Timothy 1:17. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever." The Holy Scriptures begin, “In
the beginning God.” They close, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,
Amen.” They nowhere argue God—they con-tinuously affirm him, the everlasting
one,—the abiding Father. As we stand in the midst of prosperity or adversity,
gain or loss, joy or sorrow, encouragement or temptation, victory or defeat, and
look for something on which we may lay hold that can give to us strength to
stand and to fight, that can bring to us a song of victory and not a dirge of
defeat:

God Is the Answer 1. Deuteronomy 33:26 to Deuteronomy 29:26. There is none like
unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his
excellency on the sky. 27. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the
everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall
say, Destroy them. 28. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of
Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down
dew. 20. Happy art thou, 0 Israel: who is like unto thee, a people saved by the
Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine
enemies shall be found liars unto thee: and thou shalt tread upon their high
places.

2. Psalms 46:1-3; Psalms 46:7. 1. "God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble. 2. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be
removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3.
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with
the swelling thereof. 7. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Selah."

3. Psalms 121:1 to Psalms 3:1. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from
whence comet.h my help. 2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and
earth. 3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keep- eth thee will
not slumber."

4. 2 Timothy 1:12. "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless
I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

5. 1 Peter 1:3 to 1 Peter 5:3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abun-dant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4. To an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for youc 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time." In the eternal Father, we have an
abiding source of: Strength, power, love, mercy, grace, help, security,
pleasure, jov and victory. We may lay hold (here) and hold on to the end— and
there will be no end! He is “the same yesterday, today and forever,” (Hcb.
13:8). With h’m is, “no variableness, neither shadow that is cast by turning”
(James 1:17). If we would know victory and contentment we must have our lives
anchored by a living faith to this abiding source of strength, the eternal Cod—
the everlasting Father, the One in whom we live and move and have our being, who
is never far from any of us.

Two---Here is the Second One: The Eternal Son
1. Hebrews 1:8 to Hebrews 12:8. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O Cod, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of right-eousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 9. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated -niquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows: 10. And, thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 11. They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment: 12. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. Here we have: An eternal throne; a sceptre of righteousness; an eternal king; unchanging throughout the generations. When we face what seems utter defeat, wreck and ruin, the soul finds shelter, light and victory in Jesus Christ. He is abiding, ever present;—in himself—in his word—and in his deeds. He is unchanging in a changing world. He is untouched by raging human conflicts or by time—he is the Way, the Truth and the Life for each succeeding generation to the end of time.

Jesus—John 15:5. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and
I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Paul—Galatians 2:20. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Php_4:13; Php_4:19. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me. 19. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by
Christ Jesus.

Peter—2 Peter 1:3-4. 3. According as his divine powr' er hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue: 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Paul again: Ephesians 2:4-7. 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved). 6. And hath raised us up
together, and made us sit to-gether in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7. That
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:3 to Colossians 4:3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him m glory.

Hebrews 7:23-26. 23. And they truly were many priests, because they were not
suffered to continue by reason of death. 24. But this man, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them.

Here we have: God, rich in mercy and love; sinners, dead in sin, quickened with
Christ, saved by grace, raised up and sitting in heavenly places with Christ;
living and bearing fruit in him; escaping the corruption of lust, and partaking
of the divine nature through his power; receiving all needs and the strength to
do all things through him; given all things that pertain to life and godliness
by him, lives hid in Christ, saved to the uttermost by him the eternal,
unchanging high priest, exhibited in ages to come as demonstrations of his
grace, to appear with him in glory—what more does man need? The one who stands
in this abiding source of strength, the one who counsels with Jesus, and walks
with him, is safe and secure in life, in death, and even in the end of time, and
the crash of worlds.

Ill. And Here is the Third: The Eternal Spirit The same “Spirit of God” that
“moved upon the face of the waters,” in the.process of the organization of the
earth, the heavens and the sea. The same Spirit that filled Jesus without
measure. The same Spirit promised by him to the apostles, and which came on
Pentecost to make the material he had prepared into a living church, and to
inspire the disciples that they might preach the gospel. The same Spirit that
inspired the writing of the Bible.

1. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17. If any man defile the temple of God,
him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. 19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God’s.

3. Ephesians 3:14-17. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 15. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
16. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17. That Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith.

“But,” says some one, “the Spirit dwells in Christians through the word and only
so.” Why lose or obscure the fact, the great and important truth by entering
into a discussion of the method—the how. What difference does the how make when
the “how” is God’s part in this case? The truth is that the Spirit dwells in
God’s faithful children. Their bodies constitute the temple of God—and as such
are to be kept undefiled that they be not destroyed.

Paul prayed that the Ephesian Christians might be strengthened by the Spirit in
the inner man. “But” what does the Spirit do for Christians that God’s word is
not said to do?

Romans 8:26-27. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we
know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27. And he that
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Then the Spirit, in our hearts, is our ultimate source of power in prayer. This
is one way at least in which he helps our infirmities, in a manner in which the
word cannot. As Christ dwells in us by faith, so the Holy Spirit dwells in us to
strengthen us, and as a source of help in our prayers. And without success in
prayer no man can walk with God.

Matthew 7:7; Matthew 8:7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8. For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be
opened.

1 John 5:14-15. 14. And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if
we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. 15. And it we know that he
heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have
asked of him.

Php_4:6-7. 6. In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7. And
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and
your thoughts in Christ Jesus. John 4:2; John 3:2. Ye lust, and have not: ye
kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, ye have not, because ye
ask. not; .3. .Ye ask. and .receive, not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may
spend it in your pleasures.

IV. And Here is Our Fourth Abiding Source of Strength: The Eternal Word Nothing
is more steadily, consistently and emphat-ically affirmed throughout the Holy
Scriptures than that the word of God is imperishable and that it aoides from
generation to generation to give to men: light, truth, faith, salvation, life,
comfort, strength, conviction, courage, devotion, cleanness and purity of life.

1. Isaiah 40:8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God
shall stand forever.

2. Isaiah 55:10; Isaiah 11:10. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it.

3. Mark 13:31. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass
away.

4. 1 Peter 1:23-25. 23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24. For
all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The
grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 25. But the word of the
Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Hebrews 4:12. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.

5. 2 Timothy 3:14-17. 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15.
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16. All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 17. That the man of
God may be per-fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

6. Romans 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek.

7. John 20:30-31. 30. Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of
the disciples, which are not written in this book. 31. But these are written,
that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing
ye may have life in his name.

8. Acts 20:32. And now, brethren, 1 commend you to God and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all
them which are sancified.

9. John 12:48-50. 48. He that rejecteth me, and re- ceiveth not my words, hath
one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in
the last day. 49. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me,
he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50. And I
know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

“Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be.” The
flesh and the world are temporary, they cannot endure. The material is
transient, a thing here today and gone tomorrow,—but “the word of God shall
stand forever.” The heavens and the earth shall pass away “but God’s word shall
abide.”

It is Spirit, quick, living, powerful—eternal—it cannot become old, obsolete, or
useless. It abides: It meets the present need of each generation.

(a) All of the power it ever contained it retains for this generation, and all
those to come. (b) All of the comfort it ever possessed it possesses for the
broken-hearted of each generation to the end. (c) All of the truth it ever
recorded it records for man of today and the last day. (d) All of the light it
ever flooded on man’s way, it shines on that way for each succeeding generation.
(e) All the life it ever brought to dying men it brings now and to the end. (f)
All of the salvation it ever brought to human souls it brings to the lost of
today and every day. In each case it is all that is necessary to meet the needs
of any human soul at any time, at any place and in the midst of any condition.

“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its
glories pass away.” But the word of God abides forevermore.

It is as new—as young—as vital—as powerful—as much a source of strength for man
now as on the day it was given by the Holy Spirit. When:

1.Our faith becomes thin and pale 2. Our courage becomes cold and gray 3. Our
convictions become weak and limp 4. Our devotions become lazy and lax—and 5. Our
hearts and lives become contaminated with sin—then it is in the word of God that
we find the creative power and redemptive persuasions necessary to. .lift us up
and to restore our faith, our convictions, our courage, our devotion, and our
cleanness of heart, and life. The career of David was drawing to its close. He
had called all of the people together to hear his farewell He had given to
Solomon the pattern and plans of the temple of God. In super abundance the
people had given willingly for the Lord’s house. He then called the multitude to
prayer:

1 Chronicles 29:10-14. ‘‘Blessed be thou, 0 Lord, our Father, for ever and ever.
Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness and the power, and the glory, and the victory,
and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine; thine
is the kingdom, 0 Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and
honor come of thee, and thou rulest over all; and in thy hand is power and
might; and in thy hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now,
therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name. But who am I,
and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this
sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."

This-was age and experience and understanding at prayer. David had reached the
high eminence at the end of the road. From it he looked back over the winding
pathway of life. He saw in the midst of all the experiences of life the one
thing that had been his source - of -'strength and victory -and he fervently
thanked God for' God. Will you join me in a simple but earnest petition to God?

Father:We thank thee for the eternal God, the eternal Son, the eternal Spirit
and the eternal word— our abiding sources of strength and power, and we pray
thee to give us the humility and the good sense to stand in them and to draw
upon them in complete trust and without reservation in all of the experiences of
life. In Jesus’ name and for his sake—Amen!


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  CHAPTER 6: GOD'S LOVE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON
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God's Love Through Jesus Christ, His Son GOD’S LOVE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, HIS
SON By W. B. West, Jr.

Brother Smith, Brethren, and Friends: An introduction, particularly of the type
which Brother Smith has given, is always embarrassing, but I do want to assure
him, Brother Morris and members of the faculty of Abilene Christian College of
my appreciation for the invitation to participate again in these annual historic
lectureships. Nothing affords Mrs. West and me more pleasure than to return to
the campus of Abilene Christian College where in other days, as students, we
received great blessings which continue to mean much unto us. But particularly
fortunate are those of us who are able to return at a time when opportunity is
presented to associate and have fellowship with hundreds of brethren from
various sections of the country with whom we are comrades in the greatest cause
on earth. This evening I have a story to tell you. It is very simple and
familiar, yet beautiful and meaningful, especially in days like these in which
we are living. It is the theme of the entire Bible expressed in one verse which
has been called the most wonderful sentence over written. It is John 3:16, which
reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” For weeks
it has been my constant prayer to be able to present to this congregation
tonight, the story of God’s wonderful love through Jesus Christ his Son.

I. God So Loved the World. 1. “God.” The Bible and nature tell us much about
God, the Bible speaking of him about three thousand times, and in nature we
behold God in every observation of the eye and in every sound of the ear, but
only once is God defined and that is in 1 John 4:8, where the writer said, “God
is love.” It is true that attempts had been made prior to .this definition to
define God. The Jews whose history reached back through the millenniums unto
Abraham had come to think of God as the expression of law. The Greeks whose
civilization developed along the lines of architecture and painting, in their
groping for God, thought of him as beautiful, and the Romans who were led by the
Caesars on a hundred battlefields to victory, with the boast that the Roman
eagles never turned backward, said that God is strength. But it was left to him
who sat not at the feet of Socrates, Plato, nor Aristotle, nor at the feet of
the Stoics, nor the Epicureans, nor even at the feet of Moses, but at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ to give a definition of God as he had seen him revealed
in the person of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, that is, as love.

We may think of many expressions of God’s love, as the creation of the world,
the leading of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, his nursing them as
a father in the wilderness for forty years, his leading them across the river
Jordan into a land flowing with milk and honey to eat of vineyards they did not
plant, his raising up prophets as Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah to lead them back
to God after they had wandered from him, and his blessing Israel in a thousand
ways and loving them with an everlasting love, but it is not this love of which
we read in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have
eternal life.”

2. “So loved.” Love is greater than faith and hope and without these we could
not exist. Love is greater than oratory, however important it may be, or
prophecy, regardless of how much it may be coveted, or the giving of all of
one’s goods to feed the poor or the giving of one’s body to be burned. It is the
greatest thing in the world or in heaven. But God not only loved, but so loved.
This little adverb, “so,” should be spelled with capitals for thus is it
emphasized in the Bible. “I have not seen so great faith, no not in Israel”;
“Let your light so shine”; “If God doth so clothe the grass of the field”; and
“We love him because he so loved us.”

3. “The world.” The measure of love is indicated by its object. Jesus said: “God
so loved the world.” The world which God loved and loves included and includes
all the nations of the universe and the races of the earth, with the more than
two hundred billion that have been and the unnumbered billions to be, if God
postpones sufficiently long, the arrival of the Saturday evening of time. His
great arm of love reached around the globe to every nation and every race of
every clime and of all time when he gave his only begotten Son. In loving the
world, God loves individually. We say, referring to preaching the gospel to
them, we love the Chinese but we mean as we would speak of the trees of a forest
so far as the aggregation is concerned. But that is not the way in which God
loves. He loves every Chinese, every Japanese, and every Englishman, and
everyone in the world individually. And as the beams of the sun come pouring
down into every eye of a group of people looking up to it, so the love of God
comes down, not upon a crowd as an aggregation, but upon every single soul that
constitutes the group. It is easy to see how God could love some people as
Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John, and Paul, but it is hard to understand how
he could love Cain, Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, and Hitler, yet he loves them. In
fact, the word world used by John usually signified sinful men—men separated
from God. And Paul said: “Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” And
Jesus said: “I came not to call the righteous but sinners.”

II. That He Gave His Only Begotten Son. 1. “That he gave.” The Greek should be
translated “gave up” his only begotten Son. The measure of one’s love is his
gifts. If you will tell me how much one gives, I will tell you how much he
loves. A gift is not to be measured in its amount but in cost. Millionaires who
have given millions for philanthropic purposes have usually sacrificed nothing
for themselves nor their families in their benefactions. The widow who crouched
in the shadows of the temple until all the millionaires had given their
thousands, and then untied her little handkerchief and silently slipped in her
two little mites, which was all she had, into the treasury, and slept that night
on a bed of straw, gave more than all the millionaires who cast into the
treasury that day, for what she gave cost her everything she had.

2. “His only begotten Son.” In Php_2:5-8 Paul says: “Have this mind in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not
the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea,
the death of the cross.” Think of it, Jesus in the bosom of the Father as his
only begotten Son before time from all eternity and “emptying himself, taking
upon himself the form of man, becoming obedient unto death, yea, even the death
of the cross.” It has been said that a number of things could have been done by
God to show his love for the men of the world. He could have created other
worlds, worlds of beauty, happiness, and purity, put to have done this would
have cost him nothing. A thousand Grand Canyons, Niagara Falls, and Alps with a
beautiful and gorgeous sunset for every evening in every locality could have
been made but these would have cost him nothing. Ten thousand archangels and
twenty thousand angels could have been sent to the world in the interest of
mankind, but these would have cost him little. To redeem and to save man God
knew he must send to the men of the world his most precious gift— his only
begotten Son. The story is told that one day years ago the keeper of a
drawbridge over a large river, heard the coming of a train, and as he did, bis
little boy, playing by his side, fell down the steep bank of the river into the
angry stream below. He saw if he plunged to rescue his little son he could not
close the drawbridge, and all the passengers on the train would be plunged to
their death. He hesitated a moment, then slowly swung the bridge out to its
place, and plunged into the river and pulled out his dead son. He was unable to
save both his son and the passengers on the train, and it cost him only what a
father who has lost a son whom he has idolized knows, to save the passengers. So
God could not save the world and his Son at the same time and he only knows what
it cost him to save us.

III.The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. In the fulness of time God sent
his Son into the world, his coming into history and not out of it. He was
begotten of the Holy Spirit, conceived by the Virgin Mary, and born in Bethlehem
of Judea. He spent thirty years of his life on earth in Nazareth and three years
in public ministry, always in the service of others. In Nazareth he grew up as
one of a number of children in a simple home in which Jewish religion was
honored, its feasts and festivals observed, and the Hebrew scriptures were read
and committed to memory. At the age of thirty, he said to his mother goodbye at
the door of his earthly home in Nazareth and went out into the world to serve
and to redeem mankind and to show them what the eternal things are and their
value. First, he went to the river Jordan and was immersed by John the Baptist
to fulfill all righteousness and that the Father might announce from heaven that
he was his Son in whom he was well pleased. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil so that he might be made there
and elsewhere like unto his brethren and be tempted in all points like as we
are, yet without sin. After forty days he returned to Nazareth and entered into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, the book of the prophet Isaiah being delivered
unto him, which he opened and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the
poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of
sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). Upon this reading he declared:
“Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears,” upon which an attempt
was made to throw him headlong over a cliff of the city. Upon this he moved to
Capernaum, the crossroads of the Jewish world, and a cosmopolitan city on the
western shore of the Sea of Galilee. From Capernaum, his new home, Jesus began
his life’s work. When it came to its close, he was able to say, “I have finished
the work which thou hast given me to do, and it is finished.” Different from
this, millions across the centuries have been forced to acknowledge failure. As
a teacher Jesus taught as one having authority and not as the scribes. He spoke
as man had never spoken. His words were words of power which calmed tempestuous
Galilee, healed the sick, and raised the dead. In his teaching he emphasized
sincerity, with its implications to practice what one teaches and to know that
heart and not lip service is acceptable to God. His teaching was of such
character that the authorities tried to silence him, his own countrymen drove
him out of their cities, and even his family wondered if he were beside himself.
He wrote no books, yet his teach mg' has set in motion more, pens, typewriters,
and presses than all the teachers of the world combined. Millions across the
centuries have been richly blessed, made blissfully happy, and given eternal
security by his teachings. To many a person on the storm tossed sea of life he
has met, saying to him as to the frightened disciples on Galilee in the long
ago: “It is I, be not afraid.” The supreme message in the teaching of Jesus was
the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth which to him was the rule (if
God m the hearts of men. From the beginning to the end he dreamed and worked for
the coming of the kingdom. He knew this would place every relationship of life
on the right basis, that of husband and wife, father and son, mother and
daughter, employer and employee, friend and friend. He saw the time when the
knowledge of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and the
kingdoms of this world would become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.

Within recent years attempts have been made to show that Jesus was not original
in his teaching—the claim advanced that in contemporary Judaism, in the Old
Testament, and contemporary religions of Jesus’ day, his teachings in essence
can be found. We believe chese attempts have been subjective and know the claims
are not established. But it is significant that these critical scholars without
hesitation and in great reverence, affirm Jesus to have been and to be the most
unique and greatest character of all time, and that his uniqueness and greatness
consist in his life—the fact that he practised what he taught. The question of
Jesus: “Who can convict me of sin?” has not been answered in the affirmative and
the verdict of Pilate: “I find no fault in him,” has not been reversed through
nineteen centuries of history. And when he hung on the cross, he did not pray
God to forgive him of any sin he had done, for he had committed none, but he
asked the Father to forgive those who had crucified him. On one occasion Jesus
said: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat: All things therefore
whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works:
for they say, and do not.” (Matthew 23:2-3). Through the centuries a number of
great teachers have arisen but none have practised what they taught but Jesus
alone. When Jesus taught humility, he took a towel and girded it about himself
and washed his disciples’ feet, saying, “If I then your Lord and Master have
washed your feet, so ought ye to wash one another’s feet.” When he taught
forgiveness, he forgave many. When he said: “A man’s life con- sisteth not in
the abundance of the things he possessed” Jesus practiced this principle by a
life of selfdenial, and of service to others, and no man ever gave himself so
unselfishly for others as he, exemplifying the truth he taught: ‘‘Whosoever
shall lose his life will find it.” Many a teacher goes to teach giving up
everything but the teacher. Many a preacher goes to preach giving up everything
except the preacher. And, even, many a missionary goes to the foreign field
giving up every-thing.except the missionary. But. Jesus came into the world
..emptying himself as. Paul expresses it and. lived and died completely for
others, revealing the heart of the Father. From the beginning of his ministry
Jesus knew that his teaching and his manner of life would not be accepted and
that churchmen would at last crucify him on a cruel cross. If he had desired
Jewish and world church acceptance at the sacrifice of principle and truth, an
escape of the cross, and to have lived to a ripe old age, he would have joined
the Jewish Sanhedrin. But he chose the way of the cross to show men the fullest
expression of the love of God for them and to demon-, strate the greatest
principle in heaven and on earth (John 12:24-25). Except a grain of wheat fall
into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth
much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. In the parts of Caesarea Phillippi
Jesus announced to his disciples his approaching death at Jerusalem and
steadfastly set his face toward it. Sometime thereafter, arriving in Jerusalem
triumphantly welcomed by shouts of praises from those who one week later cried
“crucify him.” On Thursday night he ate the last passover with his disciples,
announcing to them that one of them should betray him.

Judas went out into the blackness of the night on his still darker errand while
Jesus and the eleven remained in the upper room and Jesus instituted the Lord’s
Supper, thereafter departing with them for Gethsemane to pray. He stationed
eight of them at the entrance of the garden, taking Peter, James, and John
farther into the garden with him, requesting them to wait while he went a short
distance to pray, for his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. He
went about a stone’s cast and fell upon the ground and prayed three times: “My
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless not my
will but thy will,” returning each time to find the trusted three apostles
asleep. Someone has said it must have been harder for Jesus by taking the three
into the garden with him. The New Testament says his sweat was not water but
blood and let us remember this was Gethsemane and not Calvary. We shall ever
know the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane with the shadow and the loneliness of the
cross in bold outline before him, with three bosom disciples asleep and one
outside betraying him. The ordeal must have been unbearable for Jesus, for God
dispatched an angel to strengthen him. About that time Judas led his mob of
churchmen to Gethse- mane to arrest Jesus and to carry him to the house of
Caiaphas for a Jewish trial.

All the disciples forsook Jesus except John, Peter following afar off and
denying him at the trial, when Jesus needed him most. Jesus was condemned to
death by the Jewish court, but the power of the execution of a death sentence
having been taken from them, they had to go to the Roman governor, Pilate, with
the case of Jesus. Pilate found no fault in him but yielded to the populace and
the Jewish church leaders in their demand for his crucifixion. In mockery of his
claim to be king, a scarlet robe was placed on his body and a crown of thorns on
his head, and a reed in his right hand. They spat on him and took the reed and
smote him on the head and compelled one of Cyrene to bear the cross to Golgotha
where Jesus with two criminals was crucified. There with nails through hands
that had always helped others, he hung with all the weight of his body suspended
upon those nails, each move of his body tearing wider the wounds and adding to
the torture. Cicero tells us that the most horrible of all deaths was the cross
and that no Roman citizen should die upon one. As Jesus hung on the cross the
mob came by and railed at him saying: “He saved others, let him save himself.”
One of the early church fathers tells us that they turned up their noses at
Jesus. But Jesus looked upon them out of the great compassion of his soul and
asked his Father to forgive them.

About the sixth hour darkness was over land until the ninth hour. Well might the
sun in darkness hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ, the Mighty Maker,
died For man, the creature s sin.

Jesus cried: “My God, my God, why hast thou for-saken me?” Oh, the loneliness of
Jesus in that hour. All had forsaken him except John, his mother, and a few
women and now it seemed God had left him. But soon Jesus said: “It is finished,”
and commended his spirit unto God. He was taken from the cross and buried in
Joseph’s new tomb. Caiphas, Pilate, and even his disciples thought all was
done—Christ had died in shame and his work was a failure, but not so for on the
third day by the power of God he was resurrected from the tomb, regardless of
the Roman seal that had been placed on it and the Roman soldiers that had
guarded it. He spent forty days and nights after his resurrection with his
disciples, speaking unto them the tilings concerning the kingdom of God,
ascending to heaven from Olivet's brow as wondering disciples looked on, having
told them in Matthew 28:18-20 : “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven
and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe, all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

Some of you may be thinking, why the cross for Je-sus? It is true that thousands
had died upon Roman crosses before Jesus, but practically all of them had died
because they were worthy of death. But Jesus had done nothing worthy of
crucifixion. He had committed no sin. Why should the Son of God die? We may
think of the cross of Christ as representing two roads, the first of which is a
long road, thousands of miles in length in which men through sacrifices and
through burnt offerings sought reconciliation with God. The second road which
the cross of Christ represents is the road of atonement, the road of God coming
down in the very person of his Son as a manifestation of his immeasurable love
unto the sons of men. Jesus Christ died upon the cross of Calvary for your sins
and for mine. The story is told some years ago on a train was a young man in his
late twenties. He was exceedingly nervous. He crossed one leg and then the other
one, biting his fingernails, moving from one side of the seat to the other. Then
he would get up and walk up and down the aisle of his coach. A minister was
sitting near who observed that something was wrong, so he went over and
attempted to talk with the man. Sitting beside him, he said, “My friend, I
believe something is wrong. Will you tell me?” The man closed up as a clam. The
minister said, “My friend, I am a minister. I am interested in you. I wish you
would confide in me.” And the man closed up tighter. They rode on a little
distance, the man no longer being able to refrain from telling his life story
and his agonizing experience. Sq jbe.said/to the.preacher. ....“Years ago.,
over..the protests of'my father and mother, I left-home. I went into a life of
sin and disgrace. Many months ago I became tired of it all and wanted to go back
home, back to mother and dad, so I wrote a letter home asking dad if I might
come back. Day after day, for months, I waited. No reply came from dad so one
week ago today I wrote a letter to mother asking if I might return, but in the
letter, I said, ‘Mother, I’m not going to wait for an answer, I’m boarding the
train and if you and dad will let me come back home please place a white rag on
a limb on the old crab apple tree in the old orchard by the railroad track.’ ”
The man said, “Mr. Preacher, just around the curve is the old orchard and I’m
frightened to death that there may be no rag on that crab apple tree.” The
minister placed his arm around the man and said, “Close your eyes. I’ll look for
you.” As the train went around the bend, and the preacher’s eyes caught just the
glance of the crab apple tree, he said to his friend: “Why, my friend, look,
there’s a white rag on every limb of that crab apple tree.” My friends, that was
what was done on a large and world-wide scale by God in the long ago when Jesus
hung on Calvary.

IV. The Meaning of Jesus for Today. 1. Why present conditions? In our present
world of chaos, confusion, sin-sickness, and a world which has been described by
George Bernard Shaw as “the lunatic asylum for the other planets if they are
inhabited,” what place has Jesus? Many men and women today are saying, “Why does
God permit such a holocaust of war as the one in which the world is enveloped
tonight? Was not the sending of Jesus Christ, his Son, into the world to bring
peace to the sons of men, a failure? Is not God being defeated in his purposes?”
Still others are saying, “Why doesn’t God do something about it?” He is, my
friends, but not in your way and mine. He is doing it in a spiritual way. We all
may be assured that he is far stronger than Mussolini, than Hitler, than
Hirochito, or all three of them combined. His plans will materialize whatever
those plans may be. It is reported that Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, America’s
most famous pulpiteer, has said that the axis powers are being used by God to
punish the democracies for their sins. Whether Dr. Fosdick is right, we are not
here to discuss, but in other days Sargon II and Nebuchadrezzar were used to
punish the children of Israel for their sins.

2. The verdict of history is that right will win and that the eternal things
will abide. “Truth though crushed to earth shall rise again The eternal years of
God are hers.” In that ancient civilization, out of which Abraham came,
Hammurabi was a great king, and a man of tremendous power and importance, but it
was not he, but Abraham who has lived through the centuries, and whose faith has
been a stimulus to millions. Rome, in all her powers, came and went, but the
humble Galilean whom it crucified, lives on.“Our little systems have their day
They have their day and cease to be They are but broken lights of thee, And
thou, 0 Lord, art more than they.”

3. Christ, the only hope of the world. I submit to you that the only hope of the
world tonight is the love of God which was manifested in the coming of Jesus
Christ to the world and what his coming has meant. The problem is that Jesus has
not been taken seriously. Theologians have been busily engaged arguing in
theology, and not living the principles of Jesus. If the principle of the Golden
Rule, “doing unto others as you would have others do unto us,” were prac-tised
by the nations of the world, war would be no more. If the principle of the
second mile, “Whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two” were
prac-ticed what a revolution in our conduct would come to pass. And if the
admonition of Jesus to love our enemies could be fulfilled in our hearts, what a
wonderful peace would fill our hearts and our homes. On the horizon, tonight, it
is true there are dark clouds, clouds of war and clouds of hatred, yet I can see
in the not- distant future, the passing away of those clouds and standing m
their place the Prince of Peace with outstretched arms, saying, to the war-worn,
war-torn nations of the earth, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

After the close of World War No. I, Lloyd George said, “It is Christ, or chaos.”
When World War No. II shall have come to a close, we shall feel more than ever
the significance of the statement of Lloyd George. All shall share with Bernard
Shaw who is reported to have said some years ago: “After reviewing the world of
human events for sixty years I am prepared to state that I can see no way out of
the world’s misery but the way Christ would take were he to undertake the work
of a modern statesman.” Struthers Burt, one of our contemporary poets, has
expressed the mood of our time in these lines:

“Out of the dark we come, nor know Into what outer dark we go. Wings sweep
across the stars at night, Sweep and are lost in flight, And down the
star-strewn windy lanes the sky Is empty as before the wings went by. We cannot
brook the wide sun’s might, We are alone and chilled by night; We stand atremble
and afraid Upon the small worlds we have made; Fearful,-lest all our poor
control hould turn and tear us to the soul; A dread, lest we should be denied
The price we hold our ragged pride So in the end we cast them by; For a gaunt
cross against the sky.

Nineteen centuries of experience are compelling men to turn to that “gaunt cross
against the sky” and to the one who hangs upon it.


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  CHAPTER 7: JEHOVAH GOD REIGNETH
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Jehovah God Reigneth JEHOVAH GOD REIGNETH By L. S. White

I count myself happy to have the privilege of ad-dressing you on the great
question, “Jehovah God Reigneth.” Your beloved President assigned this subject
to me; and told me the purpose of these lectures at night: “Is to stress the
eternal things which we can hold to with assurance at any time”; and specially
re-quested me: “To emphasize the fact that there is a God, and that he reigns”;
and I gladly follow his suggestions along this line. For a foundation for this
discourse, we read from Genesis 1:1, first verse in the Bible, and first four
words of that verse: “In the beginning God.” The name “God” is of such vast
importance that it is used several thousand times in the Bible, beginning, as
our text shows, in the first verse, and goes on through the Bible, even to the
very last, as we read: “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation
22:19). There are only two more verses in the Bible after the name of “GOD” is
used the last time. On the meaning of the name “God,” Webster says: “The Supreme
Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, Creator, and Sovereign of the universe,
Jehovah”; and, an inspired apostle says: “God is love” (1 John 4:7). And, many
centuries after the flood, God appeared to Moses to have him lead the children
of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, as we read: “And God spake unto Moses, and
said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to
them” (Exodus 6:2-3). And still later, King David said to God: “That men may
know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the
earth” (Psalms 83:18). Also, a grand old prophet said: “Behold, God is my
salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song” (Isaiah 12:2). And, as to how long the good Lord will be what he
now is, the same prophet says: “Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:3).

And, to further impress this great truth, we read to you from the inspired
apostle Paul, who in preaching to educated heathens, said: “God that made the
world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands;
. . . . seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things; and hath made of
one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and
hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
. . . . and that he is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and
move, and have our being; .... and that we are his offspring” (Acts 17:24-28).
And, in speaking of God to another people, the same inspired apostle said: “To
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Galatians 1:5). And now, a very
important thing to us is: “How shall we think of God?” For, when some one says:
“I believe in God,” he may have in mind an entirely different conception of God
to some other person who says the same thing; and, this is so important, that,
upon one’s conception of God, will depend the nature and quality of the religion
he practices, as well as the character of his life; for it is impossible for us
to rise higher in life than the thoughts of our hearts, as the wise man said:
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). We must have
correct ideas about Jehovah God, and these must be Christian ideas as taught in
the Bible; for nothing else can be right; and wrong conceptions of God will even
lead Christians astray, for all our correct thoughts about God come from the
word of God, the Bible, consequently, we just simply cannot rise higher in life
than our conceptions of God!

Then, Jehovah wants us to understand that he loves and cares for us, as we read
from his word: “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you” (1 Peter
5:7); and also: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”
(John 3:16). And we are so glad that our great Jehovah wants all people to be
saved, as we read: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish,, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Then, to be true
Christ- tians, we must surely have the right conception of God. But what is the
Christian’s conception of God? In the first place, a Christian must realize that
Jehovah God is the source of all things, as we read from his word: “0 Lord, our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth” (Psalms 8:9). Also: “The
heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament showeth his handiwork”
(Psalms 19:1). But, of course, this is only done to those who have been taught
the word of God from the Bible. Hence, we can see at a glance the great value of
teaching the plain word of God. And we are glad, that to real Christians,
Jehovah God is more than the “creator,” for, to Christians, God, is Father,
Savior, Friend!

Then, in the next place, we remind you that Jehovah “God is Spirit” (John 4:24),
and we must “Worship him in Spirit and in truth,” as we can see that Jehovah God
has intelligence, thinks, feels, and wills, as we have already shown that God
does not want any one to be lost. In the next place, to the real Christian,
Jehovah God is personal. For a person who does not believe in a Personal God,
does not believe in the true God at all. By this we mean that God knows himself
as God, directs his own actions, and is the one perfect personality ! Then, we
must fashion our own personality after that of Jehovah, because our personality
is in an imperfect degree. In the next place, The Christian’s conception of
Jehovah is that God is good, as our Savior, Jesus Christ, said: “There is none
good but one, that is God” (Matthew 19:17). The Bible clearly teaches that God
is inwardly perfect, and outwardly consistent with this perfection. And, “in
Christ” we see what the “goodness of God” really means, as we read: “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1 and
verse 14). No greater truth ever challenged the attention of the human family
than that “The Word” became flesh and dwelt among us, for thus we see that the
Holy Christ was the manifestation of Jehovah God in human flesh. And this is so
true, that after one of the apostles wanted Christ to “show the Father to them,”
Christ said: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou
then, show us the Father?” (John 14:9). With these wonderful Scriptures before
us, let us now study Jehovah God’s plan: In Genesis 1:26-27, we see God’s
purpose in creation, as we read: “And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them.” Then, when that image was marred by sin, Jehovah God
never lost sight of the destiny he planned for us; and this plan is worked out
in Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, as we read: “We all, with open face,
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
And the power of “looking” is so great, that Christians are taught to be
“looking unto Christ” (Hebrews 12:2). And our Lord further impressed this truth,
when he said of himself: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me” (John 8:32). And is just as true today as it ever was, that we will
go the way we look. So, if we look the way the holy Christ has shown us, we will
go that way, and he has shown us the “way of salva-tion,” as he said to his
disciples just before he ascended to heaven: “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). Then, by
reading Ephesians 4:7-16, we get a view of the consummation of God’s plan for us
in Christ.

God’s Manifestation in the Old Testament: In Old Testament times, God looked for
people who would open their. eyes to the light of divine truth; and..a .few did
this, such as Noah,. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,'Moses, Daniel,'Isaiah, Job, and
others, including a number of good women. But in New Testament times, God
manifested himself through Jesus Christ, as we have already seen; and he also
manifested himself through the Holy Spirit, as we read in John 14:15-17; John
6:62-63, and other scriptures. And, as we read in Acts 1:8, Christ promised that
the Spirit would come in a few days from that time; and by reading Acts 2:1-4,
we see that promise fulfilled. So now, we have the three-fold manifestation in
the sense of being baptized “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). This is the great “spiritual marriage
ceremony” by which we are spiritually married to the Holy Christ, and the
concluding act by which we become Christians, and entitled to wear the name
Christian. And the distinct personality of these three is made plain in the
Bible: Jehovah God promised Christ; Christ promised that God would send the Holy
Spirit; and the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, and guided them into all
truth in teaching people what to do to be saved, how to live the Christian life;
and also guided them in writing the New Testament as our only guide in the realm
of religion! Then, we can see at once that every Christian has a partnership
with Jehovah Cod, as we read: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you, that ye may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). And to further show this
fellowship, Jesus Christ said to his apostles: “He that receiveth you, receiveth
me, and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me” (Matthew 10:40). Our
success or failure will be counted according as we accomplish that which Jehovah
God has taught us and intends for us to do; for we must take God into account.
When we recognize God’s ownership of all life, it produces a stewardship that
demands for the life a definite plan for living and serving! Then, we must, if
we live the Christian life, take Jehovah God into every phase of every plan and
purpose that we have in life; and love is a large part of the very foundation of
this sublime relationship with Jehovah God, as he has told us through an
inspired apostle: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is also the foundation of our
relation with God on the human side, as we read in the word of God: “And now
abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”
(1 Corinthians 13:13). When we get to heaven, faith will then be sight, and hope
will be a glorious reality, but we still have love to bind us to God and to each
other for ever and for ever. Consequently, as long as real love acts with the
right kind of “faith and hope,” we are sure to be all right; for the faithful
steward — the good Christian — determines to match God’s, plan in.his own life,,
as bur blessed Lord set us the example of prayer to' God, when he said: “Not my
will, b ather, but thine be done (Matthew 26:39). And here, we remind you that
when Jesus Chiist called his disciples, he offered them himself; and asked but
one condition, and that was personal loyalty to him and to Jehovah God his
Father; and the very same condition is binding on us now, as Christ said of
people after being baptized into the “name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit,” they are then Christians, and must “observe all things he has
com manded them to observe” (Matthew 28:19-20); and, this is so tiue that we
cannot get to heaven without faithful obedience to him, as we read: “Christ
became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Ileb. 5:9). Also,
we read: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to
the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation
22:14). Even Jesus Christ did not do his work to please himself, but to please
God his Father, who sent him, as he said: “For I do always those things that
please him” (John 8:29). And now, our invitation to all others is: “And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him
that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”
(Revelation 22:17).

Three Kingdoms of God: And now, let us spend the remainder of our time for this
discourse in the study of “Three kingdoms,” and see what they are, who is
reigning now, and who will continue to reign. The first kingdom we name is “the
kingdom of nature.” This kingdom we entered when we were born into this world.
It is in this kingdom that we “live, move and have our being” at the present
time; and, it is in this kingdom that we receive so many temporal blessings.
Jehovah God rules in this kingdom, and has been the ruler in the kingdom of
nature from the beginning. All people are in this kingdom so long as they live
here on earth; and all kinds of people receive the blessings of this kingdom,
whether saints or sinners, as our dear Lord Jesus Christ says of God: “He maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). And by reading the first two chapters in the Bible,
we see that God created every thing in the “kingdom of nature.” But what will
become of this earth and every thing in it? Answer: The earth and all in it will
be burned up, as an inspired apostle says: “The day of the Lord will come as a
thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works
that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). And, it would be difficult
to make anything plainer than the apostle has made this; and that is, in the
“day of judgment,” the earth and all in it, in fact, every thing in the kingdom
of nature will be burned up. Jehovah God reigns in the kingdom of nature, and
has done so from the beginning. But, of course, while Christ was here on earth
during his personal ministry, Jehovah God gave him control over every thing in
the kingdom of nature when a lesson could be taught by the same, such as healing
the sick by miracle, raising the dead, controlling the wind and the sea,
providing food for the hungry, and many others, all to help make believers that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that people might have life through his
name, as we read: “These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his
name” (John 20:31). And to further show that Jehovah God rules in the kingdom of
nature, we read this scripture: “The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and
giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel 4:17). Blit, as we have already shown,
all these will be burned up in the day of judgment, so we need not spend more
time on this thought. The Kingdom of Grace: The next kingdom we name is “the
kingdom of grace.” The kingdom of nature makes no provision for the forgiveness
of sin; and whoever violates a law in. the kingdom of nature, must pay the
penalty, and therjOs na.escape from this.. But, we thank God that- in the
kingdom' of grace provision is made for salvation, and at last, a home in the
eternal city of God for all people who enter the kingdom of grace, and remain
faithful in living the Christian life. But how do people enter the kingdom of
grace? Answer: We entered the kingdom of nature by a fleshly birth; and we enter
the kingdom of grace by a spiritual birth, as we read: “Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:24). And our dear Lord, himself, tells exactly how
to enter the kingdom of grace when he said: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God” (John 3:5). And, to be “born of water and the Spirit,” is to be
baptized into Christ, as we read: “For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ, have put on Christ,” (Galatians 3:27). And we are happy to know that to
be “in Christ” is to be in “his kingdom,” or the “kingdom of grace,” and to be
in the kingdom of grace is to be in his church, for the church of Christ, the
“kingdom of Christ” and the “kingdom of grace” are exactly the same thing; and,
the kingdom of grace— the church—was established on the first Pentecost after
the resurrection and ascension of Christ; and, to rule over this kingdom of
grace, God gave to Christ “all authority in heaven and on earth,” as we read in
Matthew 28:18. Christ also said to his apostles, “Upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
And, in the very next verse, Christ calls the church “the kingdom of heaven”;
and, on the day of Pentecost, the inspired apostle Peter informed the people
that Jesus had been made both “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). And we thank God
that Jesus Christ still reigns over the “kingdom of grace.” But how long will
Christ reign over this kingdom? Answer: Christ will reign over the kingdom of
grace, his church, till the end of the world, which will be the day of judgment,
as we read: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the
res-urrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits;
afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have
put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”
(1 Corinthians 15:20-26). Then, Christ’s reign as King over the kingdom of grace
will end on the day of judgment, for, on that day, Christ will turn his kingdom
entirely into the hands of Jehovah God. And what will then take place? Answer:
God’s people, on that day, the day of judgment, will enter into the kingdom of
glory, as we read of the faithful: “Wherefore the rather brethren, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter
1:10-11). The grand old apostle, guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote this to the
same people whom he taught on the day of of Pentecost to “repent and be baptized
into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” and who were on that
day “born of water and of the Spirit” into the “kingdom of grace”; and thus we
see, that in the day of judgement, Christians will enter into the “kingdom of
everlasting glory,” or into heaven itself; and then, as long as the eternal
years of God shall roll their cycles on, Jehovah God will reign over this
eternal kingdom, and give his people all the blessings that the Holy Christ is
now preparing for his disciples in the “home where changes never come”; for he
assured his disciples that he was going to “prepare a place for them, and would
come again to receive th^rn into this heavenly home” (John 14:1-3). And here are
some of those marvelous blessings and joys that the Beloved anostle John saw in
store for faithful Christians: “And I John saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more
sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice
out ot heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God- And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be
any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, "Write; for
these words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:1-5). And now, let all of us
while we are here in the “kingdom of nature” and in the “kingdom of grace,” if
we are Christians, do all we can to get all others to enter the kingdom of
grace, the church, and then may we all live in such a manner, that in the day of
judgment, we may hear the welcome: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”; and there we will to
be with God, with Christ and the holy angels, and with all the pure and holy of
earth as long as eternity shall last; and, all the time in “the home where
changes never come,” Jehovah God will reign over us. Amen!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH
========================================================================

The Word of the Lord Endureth THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH By Robert C. Jones

I am very thankful to Brother Morris for the invitation to speak tonight. It is
a pleasure to appear before this great audience. And I consider it an honor to
have a place on this program with the fine men and faithful ministers who have
spoken and who will speak in this lectureship. The Word of the Lord Endureth, is
the subject I have been asked to discuss. In these days, while so many changes
are being made in the world; while so many fine and valuable things are being
destroyed; while many of our loved ones and friends, whose lives we value more
than our own, face the horrors and dangers of war, it is a good time for us to
study this great subject. At a time when some of the disciples of Christ were
strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
when they were in heaviness through manifold temptations, and in the midst of
fiery trials, to them the apostle Peter said: “Seing ye have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see
that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But
the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:22-25). Being under similar conditions we need
the admonition and the assurance of this scripture. While much of the world, as
we have known it, is passing away we need the assurance that the word of the
Lord endureth for ever, and he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1
John 2:17). The ability to recognize things of eternal value, the power to know
that which is of abiding worth, so that we may hold to things that death and
hell cannot destroy, should be desired by all men. No man will set his
affections on things above, while he can be forever satisfied with the things of
the earth. While we live in this world it will change, values will be increased
and diminished, fortunes will be gained and lost, it will be affected by joys
and sorrows, the ravages of time and of war will mar it, and in the end, “the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the
earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). No
wonder God said, to the rich man who laid up treasure for himself, and was not
rich toward God, “Thou fool” (Luke 12:20). “For riches are not forever: and doth
the crown endure to every generation?” (Proverbs 27:24). Seducing spirits,
doctrine of devils, perverse things, pernicious ways, damnable heresies, the
commandments and doctrines of men, and the perverted gospel shall likewise
perish (1 Timothy 4:1-8; Acts 20:29-30; 2 Peter 2:1-2; Colossians 2:20-22;
Galatians 1:7). Our attitude toward truth and error should be that expressed in
Psalms 119:127-128, “I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold,
Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I
hate every false way.”

“The truth of the Lord enduretb for ever. Praise ye the Lord” (Psalms 117:2).
Praise ye the Lord, because his truth endureth forever, and because we are made
free from sin by the truth (Jno. 8:32). We are saved by belief of the truth (2
Thessalonians 2:13). Our souls are purified in obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22).
By believing and obeying the enduring word of God we shall endure. “If thou
shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then shalt thou be able to endure”
(Exodus 18:23). We should “buy the truth and sell it not” (Proverbs 23:23). “The
counsel of the Lord standeth for ever” (Psalms 33:11). Believing in the
permanency and power of God’s counsel the Psalmist said: “Thou shalt guide me
with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory” (Psalms 73:24). “For ever,
0 Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The righteousness of thy testimonies is
everlasting. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast
founded them for ever. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy
righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Psalms 119:89; Psalms 119:144; Psalms
119:152; Psalms 119:160). “The grass wither- eth, the flower fadeth: but the
word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus said: “Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). The
gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, is an everlasting gospel
(Romans 1:16; Revelation 14:6).

Them that obey the eternal word will have eternal life (Hebrews 5:8-9; Hebrews
1; John 2:17). Them that obey not the everlasting gospel will be punished with
everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). When we think of man being
assigned to the place of his eternal destiny, we are reminded of the judgment
day. On this day, after the world and all the material things in it are
destroyed, the word of the Lord, the glorious gospel of our salvation lives on,
and by it all men are judged. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,
hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him
in the last day” (John 12:48). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the
book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:12).

Additional proof of the indestructable vitality of the word of the Lord s found
in the scriptures teaching that the church, which is the kingdom, is an eternal
institution. “ And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to
other peonle, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and
it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44). “And he shall reign over the house of
Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33).
“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,
whereby wTe may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews
12:28). “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end” (Ephesians 3:21). This eternal kingdom is produced by the
word of the Lord, which is the seed of the kingdom (Luke 8:11). Every seed
brings forth after his kind (Genesis 1:12). Therefore we conclude that the word
of the Lord endureth for ever, because it produces a kingdom that shall stand
for ever. The word of the Lord endureth because it came from God. “All scripture
is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). “Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). They received of the Lord that
which they delivered unto us (1 Corinthians 11:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3). The
apostles and inspired evan-gelists knew they were speaking of . themselves, or
of some other man, or the words of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The heroism and martyrdom of these men proves they knew the word received and
declared was the truth of God. They were good men, and good men will not die for
a lie. Good men will not give up all that a man ordinarily considers valuable in
order to deceive their fellow men. Paul said, and the others were like him in
this respect, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ” (Php_3:8). The
word of the Lord endureth because it is the truth. Being the truth of God it is
powerful. It has won its own way, fought its own battles, built its own house,
and erected its own throne, this and much more has been accomplished in the face
of all the forces of hell and the wicked powers of the world. The word of the
Lord frees us from our arch enemy; it changes our grief into gladness and our
sobs into songs. It turns us from death to life, from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God. Surely the word of the Lord is the most
glorious truth. If it is not the most blessed truth ever proclaimed, it is the
most infamous lie ever told. Could a lie, the worst one ever told, accomplish
the greatest good ever wrought in the world ? “A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
Therefore we believe the Bible came from God, and it will endure forever. The
word of the Lord endureth because of its com-prehensiveness. By its voice and
its silence it includes all things essential and righteous, and excludes all
things non-essential and sinful. It approves all righteousness and condemns all
sin. It supplies perfectly all our needs today, just as it did the needs of
those who-lived in theTirst century, of this era, “All scripture-is • given by
inspiration of God, and is.profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “According as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter
1:3). “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and con- tinueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall
be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25). The word of the Lord endureth because of
its power to bless. So great and numerous are the blessings brought into the
hearts and lives of men, for time and for eternity, by the word of the Lord,
good men who know and love the truth will do all in their power to preserve and
proclaim the glorious message. Because of the many great blessings coming to us
through the word of the Lord, we believe our Heavenly Father is the source of
these truths. If a wise man stood at the mouth of the Mississippi river and saw
the vast flow of fresh water pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, without a
knowledge of the geography of the country, he would conclude that the river came
from a great continent. For no stream could gather so much water from a small
island. From many other rivers and smaller streams; from the melting snow on
many mountains; from thousands of springs in the hills and valleys, and from the
rains that fall on the great expanse of many sections this mighty river gets its
water. The many great blessings coming to us through the word of the Lord,
proves to every thinking person that this great stream could not flow from mere
men. It comes from the all powerful, all wise, and ever loving Creator. And he
has said: “The word of the Lord endureth for ever.” The word of the Lord
endureth, although the forces of hell and the evil powers of the world are
arrayed against it. Moved by sinful passions, unholy purposes and vain
imaginations men have tried to literally destroy the word of the Lord. “All this
has been fulfilled in our day, when we saw, with our own eyes, our houses of
worship thrown down from their elevation, the sacred scriptures of inspiration
committed to the flames in the midst of the markets, the shepherds of the people
basely concealed here and there, some of them ignominiously captured, and the
sport of their enemies; It was the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian,
and the month of Dystrus, called by the Romans March, .... when the imperial
edicts were everywhere published, to tear down the churches to the foundation,
and to destroy the sacred scriptures by fire, and which commanded, also, that
those who were in honourable stations, should be degraded, but those who were
freedmen should be deprived of their liberty, if they persevered in their
adherence to Christianity” (Eusebius, book 8, chapter 2). Thousands of books
have been written and millions of dollars spent in trying to destroy the Bible
and its influence. Misguided men and women have written many foolish and
contradictory books, claiming divine origin, for them. Men have met in council,
conference, synod and convention, and written creeds, disciplines, confessions
a'nd manuals. By these, the people have been divided, the importance of the
scriptures minimized, and the completeness, or perfection of the word denied. In
spite of all the strenuous opposition for nineteen hundred years, the word of
the Lord endureth, and this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto
you. The time will soon come when we cannot hold to the temporal things of this
world. We must tell all our ioved ones and all our friends good-bj, But we may
al-ways hold to the eternal truths and precious promises of the word of the
Lord, if we believe and obey its divine teaching. “He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him” (John
14:21).


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  CHAPTER 9: CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOME
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Christianity in the Home CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOME By Eldon A. Sanders

Introduction During these days of trouble, doubt, war,' destruction, and
suffering, there is surely not a subject in which we should be more interested.
We have seen France, a world power, fall due to the disintegration of the home
which preceded her defeat upon the field of battle. We may see America fall
unless we revive an abiding interest in the home and build it as the structural
unit of this nation.

We should be vitally interested in Christianity in the home: First, as
Americans, because our democratic way of life and our government which is “of
the people, by the people, and for the people,” depend upon the Christian home
in order that it “may never perish from the earth,” and that the stars and
stripes may “Forever wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Secondly, as lovers of liberty, because of the security of the four freedoms,
viz., freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from want and fear,
depends upon the Christian home, the birthplace of freedom. Thirdly, as
Christians, because the church depends upon the Christian home to serve as a
training of the youth of today, the church of tomorrow.

Although Christianity and the home are different in-stitutions, when they become
“two in one” the result is a Christian home. Therefore, we shall devote our
study to Christianity, the. home, and Christianity in the home.

Christianity Christianity is that system of religion or righteousness conceived
in the mind of Cod, “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The Son of God set forth the
essence of Christian religion in the Sermon on the Mount wherein he emphasized
purity of heart and the necessity of righteousness and concluded in these words:
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the lain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house; and it fell
not; for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth. them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house upon the sand; And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon the house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it”
(Matthew 7:24-27). The Holy Spirit revealed this system of righteousness through
the instrumentality of the gospel. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come he
will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment: Of sin,
because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and
ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of the world is judged. I
have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he,
the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will
shew you things to come” (John 16:7-13). “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed the
righteousness of God from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live
by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). The apostles and the disciples planted and
propagated Christianity according to the command of Christ in the Great
Commission. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19-20). Being guided by the Holy Spirit,
the apostles began .their work in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost after the
resurrection of Christ, and continued this work until they spread the gospel
throughout the world.

Christianity has been perpetuated by the church, the institution which Jesus
founded and purchased with his blood, that it might be “The pillar and ground of
the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). “Holding forth the word of life” (Php_2:6),

Christianity is founded upon three fundamental, principles: faith, “the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1)
to make man strong that he might be pleasing to God and victorious over sin;
hope, to cheer man lest he be overcome by the weariness of life and the fear of
death; love, that man may sustain the proper relationship between his Creator
and his fellowman. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself” (Matthew 22:37-38).

Christianity is a way of life, a manner of living, in-cluding the highest type
of moral conduct known to man of every race in every walk of life. In order for
a man to live according to this new way or manner of life, he must be a new
creature. “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
have passed away; behold, all things become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). He must
have holy ambitions and affections, mortify the deeds of the flesh, and adorn
himself with Christian graces according to Paul’s resume of this way: “If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on: the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on
things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory. Mortify therefore your members 'which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evd concupisence, and coveteousness, which is
idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh in the children of
disobedience: In the which ye also walked sometime, blasphemy, filthy
com-munication out of >our mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man, which is
renewed m knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of
God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, forgiving one another, if any
man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you so also do ye. And
above all things put on love which is the bond of perfectness, And let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be
ye thankful. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts unto the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”
(Colossians 3:1-17).

Yet some individuals maintain that Christianity as a standard of living has
failed and that we need a new standard. In answer to this charge it may be said:
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult
and not tried.”

Christianity offers riches which are unsearchable, advantages which are
incalculable, and privileges which bring joy beyond measure. Paul made reference
to the unsearchable riches of Christ and to the riches of his grace: “Unto me,
who am the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among
the Gen-tiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). “In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Someone has set forth the advantages and privileges of Christianity as follows:
“The obligations which the world is under to Christianity never can be fully
known. As the riches of Christ are unsearchable, so the advantages of
Christianity are incalculable. The poor and the weak are peculiarly benefitted
by the protection and assistance it affords them. Its foundation is laid deep—at
the bottom of the heart. While other systems only regard the outward forms and
acts of life, this regards the motive—inward thought. While other systems seek
to sweeten the streams, this changes the fountain and purifies all the streams
at once. Who can compare the advantages secured and the privileges enjoyed in
Christian lands, and fail to thank God that he is so highly favored in his lot?
Who would not dwell in a Christian country? Who would not be a Christian? Were
less attention paid to the mint and anise and cummin, the more to judgement and
mercy and the love of God, it would be favorable to the cause of Christianity
and better for those who are designed to be benefitted by its holy principles.

Christianity is not a system of religion for the ascetic, but it sets forth
principles which are applicable by man in every walk and relationship of life.
To citizens, Paul said: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained by God. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to the evil” (Romans 13:1-3). To business men, Paul said:
“Servants, (employees), obey in all thing's your masters (employers) according
to the flesh; not with eyesight, as menpleasers; but m singleness of heart,
feanng God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unio
men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance: for ye
serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24) “Masters, (employers) give unto your
servants (employees) that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a
Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). To man in regard to his social relationship,
Christianity offers many suggestions, admonitions and examples. However, in this
lesson we shall study Christianity as it pertains to the home. The Home Tn the
beginning after God had created the heavens and the earth and all things
therein, he said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis
1-26). So God created man in his own image and placed him where he was
surrounded by the beauty and grandeur of the Garden of Eden. God said that “it
is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him” (Genesis
2:18). “And the lord God, caused a deep sleep tp fall upon Adam, and he slept;
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof: and the rib which
the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she was
called Woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”
(Genesis 2:2 T23). Thus we have the origin of the home, the first institution
ordained by God. In order to perpetuate this institution, God ordained two
things, marriage and birth. By the marriage rela-tionship, God’s laws may
operate for the replenishing of the earth. “And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
Today, many are not considering the marriage rela-tionship with deep concern and
are entering into it without due consideration of the problems associated with
it. Even in regard to the marriage relationship, it may be said: “An ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure.” An individual should consider seriously
the physical, mental, and especially the spiritual characteristics of the one
with whom he plans to enter the marriage relationship. Because a Christian
should “be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever” (2 Corinthians
6:14). He should also remember that the disintegrated home results in a
disintegrated nation and a disrupted church. A young man should select a young
lady to be his wife who will make a great mother. Someone has said: “One good
mother is worth a hundred school masters.” Napoleon said: “The great need of
France to day is more good mothers.” Abraham Lincoln said: “All that I am, or
ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” God has paid tribute to a worthy
mother: “Her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely
trust m her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and
not evil all the days of her bfe. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she
shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom: and in her
tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household,
and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and called her
blessed: her husband also, and he praisech her. Many daughters have done
virtuously, but thou excellent them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is
vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31)

Great men have had great mothers almost without exception: Moses was trained by
his mother and he, although reared amidst the pleasures and temptations of a
king’s palace, became the deliverer of God’s people. Samuel, the priest-judge,
was dedicated to the Lord by his mother when he was only a child. Timothy,
Paul’s son in the gospel, from a child had known the holy scriptures because he
had been taught them by his mother Eunice and grandmother, Lois. A young woman
should select a young man who will be a faithful husband and an honourable
father in order to have cooperation in the home for the discharg ing of her
duties so that her influence for righteousness w ill not be conteracted by the
unfaithfulness and ungodliness of her husband. She should be able to say of him
as God said of Abraham: “For I know turn, that he will command his children and
his household after him, and they shall keep the wTay of the. Lord to do justice
and judgment” (Genesis 18:19).

Jesus’ estimate of the importance of the home has been set forth by a leading
authority: “Ordinarily Je sus had little to say about institutions. ... In only
one case did he depart from the usual rule. That exception was the family. With
all the vehemence of deep conviction he sought to safeguard the family There
were many reasons why he gave this institution a central place in his teaching.
In so doing he was bui following the example of the earlier prophets, priests
and sages of his race. Through all the centuries the chief glory of Judaism has
been the family life. Israel’s entire social structure was buUt upon this
institution as its chief cornerstone. Jesus recognized that, if this was
imperfect or insecure, no stable social order could be established.” For the
budding of the home of the highest type Christianity is as essential as hydrogen
is essential for the making of water. Each may not have a beautiful home nor
even a comfortable house in which to live, but each can have a part in the
building of a Christian home.

Christianity in The Home Christianity teaches that the relationship of the
members of the family should be based upon love and righteousness. Concerning
the relationship of the husband to the wife: “Husbands, love your wives, and be
not bitter against them” (Colossians 3:19). “Likewise, ye weaker vessel, and as
being heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). Paul also teaches
concerning the relationship of the wife to the husband: “That they may teach the
young women to be sober, to love their husbands” (Titus 2:4). “Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). “And the
wife see that she reverence her husband” (Ephesians 5:33). Parents are taught to
bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. “And, ye
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Parents by precept and example
should train their children in righteousness for according to Solomon, “Train up
a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”
(Proverbs 22:6). The children are also taught to obey their parents. “Children,
obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord”
(Colossians 3:20). “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right”
(Ephesians 6:1).

Christianity protects the home, within and without, from foes which would
destroy the home and break every! tie that binds the hearts of the family into
one sweet and blessed union. It protects the home from di-vorce, one of the
greatest enemies in eveiy age. Jesus said: “It hath been said, Whosoever shall
put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement; But I say unto
you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that
is divorced committeth adultery” (Matthew 5:31-32). Speaking again to strengthen
the union in the home, Jesus said: “What therefore God hath joined together, let
no man put asunder” (Matthew 1 S:15). Yet this nation is leading the civilized
world in divorces just because Christianity is not practiced m every home.
During the last fifty years the divorce rate has trebled and is still increasing
more rapidly than the pop Nation. For the sake of the child, give Christianity a
chance to defeat this foe in order that he may enjoy the fellowship and
blessings of a Christian home and be happy.

Other enemies from which Christianity protects the home are Communism and
Nazism. Communists advocate “free love” and declare themselves against the
Christian home and marriage. The Communistic Manifesto says: “Abolition of the
family! Introduction, in substitution thereof, an open legalized com-munity of
women.” The Nazis found it necessary to replace the principles of Christianity
in the home by a form of paganism and hero worship in order to bring the youth
of Germany under their control to usher in the present era of war and
destruction.

Also the home is protected by Christianity from such evils as envy, ingratitude,
avarice, slothfulness, dis-obedience, extravagance, unfaithfulness and
hyprocisy.

Christianity develops wholesome personalities and strong characters in the home.
A perfect example was set by Christ who “was subject unto his parents,” and
“increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
Peter has well described the process of character and development which will
produce Christian character. “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your
faith virtue; and to virture knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). These traits also
suggest Old Testament characters which are worthy of our study and emulation as
Joseph, Abraham, Ruth, Solomon, Daniel, Job, and Moses. The Catholics have said:
“Give me your child till he is ten years old, and you may have him; but. he will
be. a Catholic as long as he lives.” This statement merely sets forth the truth
in regard to the formative period of youth, the period for the laying of a
foundation for character. During this period the parent yields the greatest
influence over the child as the child learns more during the first five years
than any ten year period thereafter. Therefore ’t behooves parents to use the
best system of character developmnt, viz., Christianity to train youth: “To
develop a standard of honor; to make word as good as bond; to face criticism and
injustice; to do what is right; never to let wealth or power influence from the
path of duty; to build into life principles of dependability, love, vision,
frank ness, loyalty, and humility.”

Christianity teaches the members of the family to reverence God’s-word. As Moses
commanded Israel, so should parents be commanded today to plant the word of God
in the hearts of their children while they are young, receptive, and pliable.
“Hear, 0 Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thEphesians 4:14) and “turn away from the truth and be turned aside
unto fables” (2 Timothy 1:4). We cannot expect other institutions and
individuals to do that which only the home can do. State institutions as the
school and the orphans home render a great service. Orphan homes supported by
Christians also serve the child in a commendable manner. But only the Christians
can serve the child as God would have him served.

Therefore, I urge parents to impart to youth in the home the word of God because
it “contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom
of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its histories are true, its doctrines
are holy, its precepts are binding, and its decisions are immutable. ... It
contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It
is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the sailor’s compass, the soldier’s
sword and the Christian’s charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven is opened,
and the gates of hell are disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its
design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart,
and guide the feet. ... It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river
of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be open at the judgment, and be
remembered forever, it involves the.highest responsibility,, rewards the
greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its* holy contents.” Thus the
child who has been properly taught the word of God, when he is ready to depart
from the home to go into the world, will be prepared to face and to overcome the
difficulties of life. God’s word will give him strength that he might be “strong
in the Lord” and it will be a “lamp unto his feet and a light unto his pathway,”
(Psalms 119:105) to guide him safely in the way of righteousness.

Conclusion Christianity is the hope of the home, and the hope of the home is
Christianity. Therefore, let us consider the home as an institution ordained of
God wherein we may teach and- practice the principles of Christianity.

Parents taking advantage of this opporunity will make the greatest investment of
life, a treasure in heaven; will paint upon the canvas of the soul of the child
a beautiful picture, the Christian ideal; will sculptor a masterpiece of the
heart of youth, the image of Christ; will build character of the child’s
immortal soul which will stand, not only for the time but for eternity, upon a
firm foundation, the Rock of Ages.

Christianity in the home will make of it a haven of rest wherein we may enjoy
some of the realities of that eternal home which Jesus has gone to prepare for
the redeemed. To it, father may return at the close of the day to be renewed in
body and mind in order to discharge more efficiently the tasks of life as he
serves his fellowman and worships his God. In it, mother may labor with love,
patience, and hope, so that in time to come “her children arise up, and call her
blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her” (Proverbs 31:28). From it, the
children will go with the principles of Christianity indelibly written upon
their hearts to be as shining lights in a world of darkness, serving their
fellow- man in righteousness and glorifying God in the beauty of holiness.

Christianity in the home will make it one of the sweetest and dearest places on
earth to every member of the family and each can truthfully and sincerely say:

“ ‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s
no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which
sought thru the world is ne’er met with elsewhere. An exile from home splendour
dazzles in vain, Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again; The birds singing
gayly, that came at my call, Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than
all”


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  CHAPTER 10: RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION
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Righteousness Exalteth a Nation RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION But sin is in a
reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34) By Chas. H. Roberson

God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and
worketh righteousness, is ac-ceptable to him (Acts 10:34 f).

Introduction In the word of God the motive for right conduct is mainly
prudential; there is no sense of mystery or won-der, no tendency to speculation
or doubt. The sum of the whole is, “Be good, and you will prosper; be wicked,
and you will suffer.” Such a sentiment as the text well accords with the
utterance of wisdom: “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me
princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that
love me, and those that seek me dili-gently shall find me.” (Proverbs 8:15 ff).

Most religious people are willing to admit that the “fear of the Jehovah is a
fountain of life, that one may depart from the snares of death” (Proverbs
14:27). But it is not always observed that the same attitude is necessary in
every phase of life. In both the religious and the intellectual life of a
nation, it is well to realize what Coleridge said: “There is no chance of truth
at the goal where there is not childlike humility at the starting point.” On the
occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth an-niversary of Harvard University,
James Russell Lowell said: “I am saddened when I see our success as a nation
measured by the number of acres under tillage, or of bushels of wheat exported,
for the real value of a country must be weighed in scales more delicate than the
balance of trade. .. . The measure of a nation’s true success is the amount it
has contributed to the thought, the moral energy, the intellectual happiness,
the spiritual hope and consolation of mankind.” The Psalmist in his praise for
Jerusalem’s restoration and prosperity exclaimed: “He (Jehovah) hath not dealt
so with any nation” (Psalms 147:20).

It is impossible to read the story of Israel seriously and thoughtfully without
running upon the religious motive everywhere. It is the purpose of Almighty God
that his people shall bear witness to the worth of men, without respect of race,
or color, or condition. It is to this principle of the inherent worth of men as
men, entirely apart from the incidental adventitious circumstances of wealth, or
station, or family, or race, that surely is found the innermost heart of a
nation that is true to Jehovah. There can be no great nation that does not rest
upon great manhood. And if the people of God are to demonstrate the worth of
man, and the hope there is for him, it cannot be done theoretically, not by
anniversary speeches, nor even by acts of Congress, but only by producing men
that are worthy.

Under God I believe that righteous conduct can touch helpfully and healingly all
the ends of the earth; act with consideration toward the abolition of war; raise
men to higher national ideals; promote justice and brotherhood and good will
among men. Let not righteousness be only a small candlestick to give light to
those only within her own house, but a city set on a hill whose rays are to
flash out through all this shadowed globe. Even so, let it be, for then men and
nations will be lifted from the morass of friction and strife and conflict, from
the dark valleys of race prejudice and hatred and animosity, from the social
abysses of greed and lust and ambition, up, up to the sunlighted summits of
concord and fraternity and justice.

Righteousness The idea of righteousness is one of the most complex and difficult
of the ruling ideas of the Old Covenant. There it is strictly a personal
attribute, which may be described as forensic, ethical and religious. A.
Campbell said: “The original word, of which righteousness is a translation, is
one of the most compre-hensive in the Hebrew language, or indeed in universal
language.... In the Bible sense, we consider this word as very
important—wonderfully and peculiarly significant. . . . Righteousness combines,
in an eminent degree, the lovable attributes of Jehovah.”

Out of some 520 instances where the Hebrew root, p. 7 y (tsedeq) occurs, about
400 are rendered in AV by “righteous,” “righteousness,” or “righteously”; more
than 100 by “just,” “justice,” or “justify.” In the LXX a great majority are
represented by the Greek, dikaios (dikaios). It belongs to the region of moral
ideas. In the forensic sphere, righteousness means, primarily being in the right
in a particular case; unimpeachable moral conduct. In another sense, it is that
which depends on the public administration of justice. It is “the state of him
who is such as he ought to be” (Thayer).

Nation Usually men think of a nation as a huge organization, quite apart from
themselves, which they are at liberty to step into or out of at will. A nation
is simply a body of individuals bound together by the bonds of brotherhood. A
nation is nothing apart from the individuals that compose it, and men are
beginning to see that individuals have larger relationships than was once
imagined and greater responsibilities than heretofore thought. The true
conception of redeemed hu-manity is not that of an organism existing on its own
account, but that of individuals knit very closely together in their social
relationships and touching one another for good in these relationships (1
Corinthians 1:2; Revelation 7:9 f).

Prophetic Ideal A well-governed State repressing all wrong and vio-lence and
securing to the meanest his rights as a member of Jehovah’s kingdom is a
dominant note in the prophetic ideal of righteousness. Civic righteousness is
perhaps more a function of a sound and normal condition of the body politic,
than a rule of individual conduct. The idea of righteousness is wider far than
that of obedience to written law. There is appeal to moral sense, the intuitive
perception of inherent rights of human personality. It includes a large-hearted
construction of the claims of humanity; it is the humanitarian virtue par
excellence, true in both private and national relations. It is more than merely
a neutral, impartial attitude of mind which may arbitrate between rival
interests; it is a positive energy on the side of right, a readiness to protect
and to aid those who have no help in themselves. Righteousness has as its aim
the upbuilding of individual lives. In this sense righteousness is rooted both
in the moral intuitions of man and in a reflection of the character of Jehovah.
The demand for social righteousness is one of the must inflexible and impressive
things in the word of God. The claims of righteousness are absolute, and the
nation that will not yield to them must perish. It is the moral law of the
universe, and the supreme law of Jehovah’s operations in history.

Cause of Failure: Remedy The lack of righteousness was the cause of Israel’s
destruction and even so the presence of it is a constant feature of the
Messianic reign. It stands written, “A king shall reign in righteousness, and
princes decree justice” (Isaiah 32:1). The Messiah’s kingdom shall be
established in righteousness (Isaiah 9:7), and he shall judge the poor in
righteousness (Isaiah 11:4 f). (See also Jeremiah 22:1 b; Jeremiah 23:5;
Jeremiah 33:15; Hosea 2:19; Isaiah 1:26; Isaiah 32:16 f; Isaiah 33:5; etc.).
Righteousness in men becomes a name for that disposition and method of life
which accords with the will of God. Righteousness is Godlikeness. The Greek
words in the New Covenant connote what is conformable to an ideal or standard,
agreement with what ought to be. Righteousness is rightness according to the
Divine standard.

Jesus said, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisee, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven”
(Matthew 5:20). The Pharisees had reduced righteousness to a matter of
externaks; the inner content was lost almost entirely. But the Master taught
that the central element in righteousness is the intention to be right and to do
right. The keeping of the commandments has, of course, an important place in the
divine economy, but it must not be thought as being of some artificial or
mechanical fashion. The righteous man is the man who is in right relations with
God, who has been made right, who has been properly adjusted to the law and the
plan of Divine government for his life. Men are to hunger and thirst after
righteousness (Matthew 5:6).

Inasmuch as the Master said, “Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness”
(Matthew 6:33), it is imperative to inquire, “What are the characteristics of
true righteousness?” And the answer is: spiritual poverty, that is, a sense of
one’s weakness and sin; mercifulness; meekness; purity; and peacemaking. They
are qualities which stand opposed to pride, presumption, and selfishness. There
is nothing that illuminates this world like the vision of righteousness, and
therefore there is nothing which heals doubt like that vision.

True righteousness is heroic, constructive. It is con-cerned with motive and
truthfulness. It calls upon men to suffer injustice rather than to resort to
revenge, and to love all men. Truth or righteousness is not merely something to
be known; it is something to be done (1 John 1:6; 1 John 2:29). The man is a
righteous man who walks in the truth as his native element (2 John 1:1; 2 John
1:3); in whom the truth dwells, controlling: him and guiding him (John 8:44; 1
John 2:4); who belongs to the truth and draws from it the strength and
inspiration of his life (John 18:37; 1 John 2:21; 1 John 3:19). Doctrine and
life are inseparable.

Truisms The book of Proverbs repeats with numerous varia-tions and shades of
coloring that wickedness is an evil, and that righteousness is a blessing. These
are placed in the form of maxims which may be fastened in mem ory, and so
readily occur to the mind on occasions of trial. Some of these are brought to
your attention with the hope that each of us shall receive some impulse towards
transforming the conviction which none can dispute into a mode of conduct which
none can decline.

These maxims are unflinching in asserting that wickedness is a mistake, a source
of perpetual weakness and insecurity; while righteousness is in itself a
perpetual blessing, ever yielding beautiful and unexpected fruits. The fact that
they are repeated or reiterated impresses the mind of the student deeply.

“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness; but the expectation of the wicked
shall perish” (Proverbs 10:28). “The righteous shall never be removed; but the
wick-ed shall not dwell in the land” (Proverbs 10:30). “Overthrow the wicked,
and they are not (i. e., thereis no rising again for them); but the house of the
righteous shall stand” (Proverbs 12:7). “The wicked earncth deceitful wages; but
he that soweth righteousness hath a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18). “A man shall
not be established by wickedness; but the root of the righteous shall not be
moved” (Proverbs 12:3). “The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them;
but the treacherous shall be taken in their own iniquity” (Proverbs 11:6).

Iniquity, crooked ways, malignant thoughts, hatred against one’s neighbor, guile
in the heart, evil things from the lips have one issue—destruction. Meanwhile,
the light of the righteous man rejoices because he attains unto life.
Righteousness guardeth him that is upright in the way; delivers him from
trouble; brings mercy and truth to shine upon him; brings honor and kindles hope
that, if actual blessedness does not occur in this life, the fruit will grow in
another life. The Great Fact It is a great fact that God is with the righteous
and against the wicked, that he judges them according to their integrity or
perverseness, and accepts them or rejects them simply upon that principle. This
truth is lofty and all our conceptions on the subject are cleared by some
citations: “The perverse in heart are an abomination to Jehovah. Such as are
perfect in their way are his delight” (Proverbs 11:20).

“He weighs the heart and keeps the soul and renders to every man according to
his works” (Proverbs 24:12).

He does not regard prayer so much as righteousness. “He that turneth away his
ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:12).

Sacrifice goes for nothing in his sight if the life is not holy—“To do
righteousness and justice is more ac-ceptable to Jehovah than sacrifice”
(Proverbs 21:3).

It is this solemn truth, the truth of God’s own way of regarding righteousness
and wickedness, that makes- earnestness* on the subject' imperative. • - When-
each man begins to understand that the Supreme Ruler of all things loves
righteousness and hates iniquity, visits the one with favor and the other with
reprobation, a new sanction is introduced. Inspiration teaches simply and truly
the alliance of God with righteousness and the abhorence in which he holds
wickedness. It is a discovery which men are slow to make, and is a principle on
which they seem unwilling to act. Our Lord set forth this truth in the forefront
of his message to men. He made it the very keynote of the gospel that not every
one who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of his Father in heaven. He painted with exquisite simplicity and
clearness the right life, the conduct which God requires of us, and then likened
every one who practices this life to a man who builds his. house on a rock. He
declared that men are judged by their fruits, and made it plain that God loves
righteous-ness and judges and destroys wickedness. May God grant us a clear
vision in this matter! If we see righteousness, let us thank God, for there, be
sure, his Spirit is. And where we see wickedness, let us recognize that it is
evil, and let no profession or orthodoxy of belief restrain us from courageously
contending against it. A Great Text “He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good;
and what.doth Jehovah require of th.ee, but to do justly, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8). A visitor to the Congressional
Library in Washington observes this passage as the motto of the alcove of books
on religion. It contains the three major requirements of all true religion,
namely, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly! It has ever been the function of the
prophet to simplify religion. According to the Talmud David reduced the 613
requirements of the Pentateuch to eleven (Psalms 15). Micah sums them to total
three. The Master reduced them to two: Love God; love thy neighbor (Matthew
22:35-40). Do justly: Justice is recognized as elementary morality. It is the
basis of all moral character. No one renders to his Allows all his fellows have
a right to expect. The justice set forth here is not the justice of Shylock, who
persistently insisted upon his pound of flesh. Mere justice is not enough. The
ideal justice portrayed by the prophet is the eternal justice of the Golden
Rule: “All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also to them; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew
7:12). The last clause is often overlooked.

Love kindness: This is above mere justice. Kindness postulates righteousness;
for while justice implies a debt, kindness implies grace and favor. Indeed,
kindness is the guaranty-of justice. If a-man does-not lqve a principle he will
evade, if possible, its application. True, surely, to say: “The man who does
good, but does not love, is not a good man. He pretends to be, but would be
different if he could.” God wants not so much ours as us! Walk humbly: This
third essential is a condition of the other two. One cannot obey the first two
without keeping the third. Amos asks, “Shall two walk together except they have
agreed?” “To walk humbly” implies “bowing low” as little children. Humility is
the great ornament of a righteous life.

Rights and Duties “Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due;
custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:7). It
is a God-ordained duty to respect the families of others, the lives of others,
the reputation of others, the property of others. As citizens of a nation, men
obtain the same dues as they pay—namely, the right to be shielded from the
adulterer, the murderer, the thief or covetous man, and the false witness. Among
civilized nations, the laws of God set forth in the Decalog stand as the sure
basis of civilization. In the passage under consideration the apostle speaks of
duty to the nation of which each is a member. He does not regard it the duty of
the church— Christians—to upset the existing order and frame another on a new
model. No one today who prefers a Socialistic State to that under which he lives
has the right to appeal to Christianity in support of his preference. This is
not to say he has not the right to his preference, but rather he must not appeal
to Christianity in support of it. The expression “Christian Socialism” is as
meaningless as Christian individualism. Whatever one’s nation is, the apostle
bids each member to render to all members their dues.

Brethren, it is hard to enjoy paying taxes; there is a decided preference that
others should pay them. But this is not really harder than to pay with a glad
heart and ready will the other duties each owes to his fellow- citizens. Let me
venture to say that no one can pay his taxes in a Christian spirit whose active
duty towards his nation is restricted to paying taxes. National duties, like
family and social duties, require for their right performance that feeling of
interest which looks not to one’s own satisfaction ond profit, but also to that
of others. They require that touch of unselfish imagination which enables men to
realize their kinship and common interests. Render therefore to all their dues.
And in order to do this, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for
the flesh to fulfill its selfish lusts. The Blessings of Righteousness Not
Limited to the Righteous Man Himself The blessings of righteousness fall on the.
children of the righteous man. “A righteous man that walketh m his integrity,
blessed are his children after him” (Proverbs 20:7). “A good man leaveth an
inheritance to his children’s children; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up
for the righteous” (Proverbs 13:12). The righteous man is a guide to his
neighbor also, (Proverbs 12:26). His character and his well-being are a matter
of public, even of national concern, for there is something .winning in.him;Jae
acts as. a saving influence upon those who are around him. ’Behold the righteous
shall be recompensed in the earth (Proverbs 11:31). When the righteous mcrcase
the people rejoice (Proverbs 29:2); when they triumph there is great glory
(Proverbs 28:12); when it goeth well with the righteous the city rejoiceth
(Proverbs 11:10); and by the blessing of the upright the city is exalted
(Proverbs 11:12). Yes righteousness cxalteth a nation. Blessing to himself,
blessing to his children, his neighbors, his country, is the beautiful reward of
the righteous man.

Counsel This address is to my younger fellowmen who will yield to none in point
of respectability, prospective in-fluence, and importance. Suggestions have been
made on the high import of righteous conduct, and a plea in your own behalf, and
in behalf of a world which -needs your influence, and your highest, holiest
efforts. Others may talk of philanthropy and benevolence, but who gave their
hearts and their energies for the salvation of the world, except those whose
minds have been enlightened, and whose hearts have been impressed by the truths
of Christianity? Who built the first hospital known on earth? A Christian. Who
cenceived the idea of free schools for the whole community? A Christian. Who are
the men who have pushed civilization among the barbarous, who have broken
fetters, both from body and mind, and created civil liberty, for man? Who ever
made efforts, vigorous, systematic, untiring, to spread free inquiry, to
instruct the ignorant, to invigorate the mind, and raise the intellectual and
moral character of mankind? They are the enlightened men who act under the
influence of the Bible. To the youth of our nation—to those whose minds are now
in a process of cultivation and discipline, we now look for those elevated souls
who will go abroad over the face of the earth for the good of all. If the mind
of man shall ever be raised from its brutishness and debasement; if liberty is
to wave her banner where tyranny now sits; if woman is ever to occupy the
station for which she was created; if domestic happiness is to be known and
enjoyed through the world—the youth in our schools, who have been born from
above, have a great work to do.

Never did young men approach, the stage of action under circumstances more
intensely interesting—circumstances which demand a regenerated, purified heart,
a balanced, disciplined mind, a burning zeal and elo-quence, and a love for
doing good which many waters cannot quench, nor floods drown. You live in a
nation full of enterprise and increasing in daring experiments and hazardous
venture. You will live and act among those who will give permanency to our
institutions, or you will begin the work of undermining. You are coming forward
at a time when mind seems to be exhausting itself, and genius to be leaving
poetry, that he may aid in subduing matter, so that scores of miles may be
reduced to nothing, and time and space so annihilated, that a journey across the
continent is a matter of a few hours. You are to act in a time when public
opinion is most compelling. A standing army retires before it, and marshals only
in the shade of the thrones of tyrants. Every man has opportunity to do good or
hurt. You are coming forward at a time, and in a nation, where a good education
is a sure passport to re-spectability, to influence, to power.

You have friends to cheer you on in every worthy enterprise, who will uphold
your hands when they fall, encourage you when you fail, share your burdens, and
rejoice in your success. You come forward with the history, the experiences of
all other nations in your grasp. You have the Bible, too—the mightiest of all
weapons—, under whose broad and powerful aid, individual and national character
ripens into greatness, and one which is the sole grand instrument of blessing
mankind. Under the full, the purifying light of the gospel, you are called to
live and to act. Live for God, fulfill the high destiny which is before you.
There are thousands all around you to cheer you onward, to strike hands with
you, and go forward as agents of a benevo- ' lence whose aim is to bring many
sons and daughters to glory. Enlist your powers, your faculties, your energies,
your heart in a crusade for righteousness. White and full are the fields that
await you; girded and strong are the companions who will go with you; beautiful
upon the mountains shall be your feet, wherever they carry the tidings of the
beauty of the Lord. The state of the world is such, and so much depends on
action, that every thing seems to say loudly to every man, “Do something"—“do
it”—“do it.” The mother of all graces of conduct is the bowing of the will to
divine authority. To obey self is sin, to obey God is righteousness. The issue
of such obedience are “length of days . . . peace.” “The path of the just is as
a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs
4:18). A Solemn Obligation There is clearly an obligation to treat all men with
a spirit of Christian love. But what is it for which love calls? The answer is:
Love seeks for whatever is best, both for him who receives and him who gives.
The aim of the largest life for all persons whom we can reach must always be
kept in view. In a large measure social righteousness is concerned with the
thought of the world which now is.

There is not the desire to speak in terms that might seem to be reproach and
scolding. The question is far too serious, the ailment is far too widespread, to
need or to warrant any exaggeration. But, brethren, far too often have men
thought of righteousness as a kind of “fire-escape.” To many, it comes as a new
thought that, in so far as practical living is concerned, each life ought to be
that which steadily increases in the manifestation of righteousness. Teachers
who have understood Christianity best have insisted that to the most complete
degree the present world must be re-deemed by the life-giving forces which
inhere therein. It must be in our thinking that earthly righteousness takes its
start from heavenly righteousness. God is present, and manifests his holy love.
This love manifests itself chiefly in the conscience and the love of the
Christian. But the terms must not be used in the abstract. Abstract
conscientiousness leads one’s life out of touch with things that are real.
Abstract love exhausts itself in well-wishing. Both conscience and love must be
kept close to the earth by emphasis upon the actual realities of the sphere of
our existence. Righteousness is the best and the highest in the ordering of a
life here and now, and if the life is right now in the present time, each of us
may be assured that it will be right in the future life.

Conclusion May God grant us a clear vision that we may' know that the principal
thing is righteousness; it is for it that all religion exists. What a man
believes in his heart we can never fully know, but whether he is righteous or
not is a matter as plain as day. If we see the lovely graces which shine in our
Lord Jesus Christ, gleaming, however fitfully, in our fellow-men, let us
recognize the Master there. “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every
one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of him” (1 John 2:29).

Let us know that a nation’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which it possesseth, nor in the extent of the empire which it rules, and that
national sincerity and veracity are bred in a people in proportion as they
recognize the judgments and the mercies of the God of truth. National loyalty
depends at last on common faithfulness to our immortal and invisible King.

“Peace” is a word which includes all well-being. “God gives peace to men through
righteousness. Peace is always the consequence of righteousness. Paul speaks of
‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which is freely accorded to just and
righteous men and nations. There can be no real peace in the world except
through righteousness—the grand source from which all happiness springs.”—A.
Campbell.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/abilene1942-lectures/
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