Newspaper Page Text
January 22, 1913 ] T H ? P
may be asked you this very day. "How much
owest thou uuto my Lord?"
S. D. Gordon has made such a beautiful comparison
of the Christian grace to the different
fingers on the hand that I feel that I must chose
this article with this gem.
"Then there's the long finger, the middle
finger of this hand; that's the bit of gold we
I I v^i. :
luuacii uut iui uui liuiu uusus. ici me iuiprint
of the mint that tells the ordinary value
of the coin is wholy useless here. You can't
tell the real value of gold by the stamp of the
mint, but only by the red tint of sacrifice upon
it. There's a lot of money given that does
great good of course, but it's like the smallest
copper coin beside the five-dollar gold piece or
the guinea, in comparison with the money
value and practical power of gold depends
wholly upon what it is in the heart that
prompts the giving. The heart touch is the
real mint stamp of value.
There's a peculiar something about gold that
makes it the index of the inner life. A man
may be owned by the gold which he owns, and
so it tells of the slavery in which he is held.
There can be a practical transfer of personality
through gold. You can go through your gift
and change things far away, for its actual
power yonder will depend on your inner purnnoa
? ... J I. ... . 4 ... li. flvl >
uua iituu^ut iUL it. liiuru cuii U6
u doubling of one's personality, for the part
of you bearing your name is busy here, while
the part of you loosened out by the means of
the gold is busy somewhere else.
This thin long linger of gold, held in its
true *place by the others, can reach out cleur
around the world. All the life and love and
sacrifice that have gone in at the giving end
go out at the other end in unweighable, unmeasurable
thansforming power.
And prayer is the medium through which
gold gets uuy value at all iu really touching
human hearts and lives. It briugs and keeps
the heart into that fine heat which gladly
makes what saeridce may be needed. It envelopes
the gold with the spirit of life and
heart and sacrifice as with a fine invisible at
mosphere. So it reaches "the heart and affects
the life and makes the irrestible power of sacrifice
felt at the other end. It is Himself that
gives the peculiar subtle power to the gold,
whose red tints tells of one's own life blood,
given out in the eivincr."
E. H. A.
TO LIVE.
What is Ufa?that time spent between tby cradle
and thy grave?
And why are we given this time of existence?
As a vapor and we are no more 6ave for the slab
that marks our grave.
OTltm 1E * - - ?
rim ja over-?ana our cotftn lowered in its
narrow cell
Can we change our past? Ah, no! It is done.
What matters then .have we gained wealth, social
prestige.
Or should our statute deck the Hall of Fame?
Serve God if thou would live forever.
Praise God! Fear Ood! Love God! Live for thy
neighbor.
To thy own self bo true. Then it is we taste
happiness that is real.
Ah, then our lives aro worth while.
It is then we please God and raise our selves to the
highest
We grow strong as we go on and up;
ho strong we can lift the fallen, help the weak.
And It will be well for us here and in the world to
-come. D. W. Q.
Many a horse has carried ita rider safely home,
when the reins are given to it, though the rider
has completely lost his way. Thus, when we lose
our way in the forest of life, the best thing is to
trust God and allow ourselves to ba carried
along.
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
The Faith o
REV. J. O.
As the prayer of Habakkuk transcends all
others in its magesty of expression and poetical
imagery; so also does his faith rise high
above that of many other men. His faith accounts
for his prayer.
The occasion for both, was the invasion of
Israel, by the Chaldeans, threatening the destruction
of the chosen people. Out of pain
comes his cry of distress.
Like the book of Job, Habakkuk deals with
the problem of the suffering of the righteous,
but steps forward, asking the question: Why
do they suffer at the hands of the wickedt
There is no answer?unanswered yet. This 's
the issue between Habakkuk and Jehovah, and
is the cause of the "complaint" of the prophet.
While God does not explain the problem, yet
He sets up asign-board to be read by both oppressor
and oppressed. The doom of Babylon
~c t~I? u
uuu ouauin;auua ui uuiiuvaii a peupie.
It is significant that at the beginning of the
three great epochs of the history of the people
of Jehovah, He has nailed this sign-board upon
the roadside:?When Abraham was called out.
"he was justified by faith," when Israel's
hope was buried underneath the drifting sands
of Habylon; and again, on the Church-door in
Wittenberg.
"O Jenovah, how long shall 1 cry and thou
wilt not heart I cry unto thee of violence and
thou wilt not save."
This distressing, silent refusal of his God to
interfere in Israel's favor bewildered Habakkuk
and wrings out of him the complaint. Nor
is this all, Jehovah seems to champion the
cause of Clialdca, for He confirms the fears of
the prophet, describing the cruel treatment
His people shall endure at the hands of the
devastating foe.
This is enough to silence many a man of less
faith?Not so with Habakkuk. To him, there
is no escape from total destruction and even
anihilation for Israel except Babylon be destroyed.
Babylon must be destroyed?"Carthago
dolenda est."
In the face of the prophets prayer for relief
Jehovah says, "I am working a work."
This is my doings "For, lo. I raise up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation *
To possess dwelling-places not theirs
They gather captives as the sands." This,
Habakkuk is my plan, I will not interfere" is
the meaning of the answer to the prophet.
Tins does not overcome the faith of the prophet.
It cannot be "We shall not die." Over
this seeming inconsistency of his Qod he holds
on. "Art not not thou from everlastincr. O
Jehovah, my God, my Holy One?"
He anchors his faith in the unchangeable nature
of Jehovah and His convenant with Israel.
Yet how can it be? If we are destroyed
The covenant with Abraham and David will
fail?But God is unchangeable and it cannot
fail.
"Thou art of purer eyes than to look on
and hold thy peace when the wicked
swallow up the man more righteous than he."
Therefore we will be saved from the relentless
hand of Chaldea.
The prophet contends that unless Jehovah
rescues His people from lfabylon His course
will appear in consistent with His nature and
former dealings with men. It is a serious
"complaint." Once often made by frail men?
to shut God up to our certain course of action,
to place nim in a dilema. This limitation of
His power, by The Prophet brings a long silence.
God answers not the charge. He neither
> u T H
(61) a
tHabakkuk
saves Israel nor explains why lie does not. He
is silent.
At the close of the tirst chapter there is a
pause?silence, liow long we know not.
Long enough for the fire of war and famine to
burn out the dross of the prophets conception
of Jehovah's ability. Ilis faith holcli on and he
waits. "1 will sit me upon the tower and 1
will look forth to see what lie shall answer
me." Such a faith! To wait when all is dark
One thing holds him fast. The immutable covenant
that the nation shall have a kiug. A mes
sianic King.
Probably years passed before he saw the tabi
i. rn: i xi - f ii..
let answer, nine aiiu uie ravages ui ar, me
suffering aud pain wrought a change in the
prophet. It boiled down his conceptions distilling
a resigned submission to the will of God
wherever Babylon might be, or what she might
do.
Though the nation be destroyed, our insti
tut ions be dissolved, every Jew a slave and
our enemy, ride to victory over our graves, yet
will "I look forth to see what lie shall speak
with me." Amid the ruin of the raider, the
perplexity over the attitude of Jehovah toward
Babylon and the clanking chains of slavery in
exile still llabakkuk holds firm the hope ot
Israel's final triumph. The promise and its
fulfillment of a king and kingdom. "Jehovah
answered ine." Not what he expected but
enough. "The proud shall perish," but "The
just shall live by faith." The prophet's faith
as overcome. The devastating march of the destroyer
is not stayed.?They read their doom
on the roadside as they go by. Trouble in
creases: exile and bitter bondacre follow: na
tioual identity is broken up; the cherished
world-wide dominion is surrendered but amid
it all?over it all steals the quiet peace of humble
resignation to the will of llis God.
The tablet answer is the life-stream in the
covenant. "The just shall live by faith." Not
all Chaldea's armed force can take down the
tablet. Over the tumult of battle thunders
Jehovah's threatening voice against Babylon,
"lie shall perish," not now, but some day. The
silent sand hills of Chaldea testify to the potency
of the tablet by the roadside. The sign
hnnrrl nf nntinnol ft-on/lnm
The verses closing the book reveal the calm
resignation of the prophet, after he has fought
out the battle.
"I heard and my body trembled *
because I must wait quietly for the day of
trouble; for the coming up of the people that
invadedeth us. For though the fig tree shall
not flourish and the fields shall vield nn fnnd
* * The flock shall be cut off from the fold and
there shall be no herd in the stall; yet will I
rejoice in Jehovah * * The Lord is my strength
* and will make me to walk upon the high
places."
Victorious overcoming Faith!
Not the removal of our enemy or the rescuing
of ourselves out of His hand but the triumphant
victory of faithfulness to Jehovah.
"This is the victory that overcomes the world
even over faith."
Seminole, Texas.
Some men will follow Christ on certain conditions:
if he will not lead them through rough
roads, if he will not enjoin them any painful
x i : e ii.. ? "* ? * "
LursKs, u me sun ana wina ao not annoy tnem, it
he will remit a part of his plan and order. But
the true,Christian, who has the spirit of Jesus,
will say, as Both said to Naomi, "Whither thou
goest I will go," whatever difficulties and dangers
may be in the way.?Richard CeciL