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2 (674) THE
A Bit of Natural Law
This is a day of streuuous living. Hurry,
worry and irritability are the orders oi' the day.
\\ e sigh for rest. \Ve sometimes think the game
not worth the candle, we wish lor a different life.
But are we sure, when we search our hearts,
that we are willing to have life different t I
don't mean do we want liie different. We want
a great many things, but we will not to have
them because they cost too much, If we will to
have them we get them at any cost. Where there
is a will there is a way, as the old saying goes.
There is a way, a very simple, plain one, to
the life we are sighing for if we will take it.
May I give some suggestions of natural law in
the spiritual world which may help to show the
practical working of the wayf
Take the process by which 'bodily life is
nourished. 1. Food uiust be provided. 1L. We
must by our own free will and choice take the
food into our bodi&*. (Forced feeding is not a
very successful method as witnessed just now by
England and the Suffragettes). 111. We must
assimilate it, or, in other words, get up and go.
We don't eat aud wait for strength but we get
up aud go in the strength of the food. In the
going, food becomes practical working strength.
Suppose we choose not to eat, what will be
the result" Starvation. Suppose we eat just
enough to sustain life, will there be any strength,
any power!
Supppose we eat too much? It is not good,
it is a waste, and sickness and suffering follow.
Suppose TVe eat and sit still, never get up
and go, what follows? No strength, no power, a
poisoned system, death.
Now carry this into the spiritual. Christ says
"I am the bread of life." There is the food
provided.
Except a man cat the Mesh of the son of man
and drink his blood there is no life."
Your own choice. Christ forces no man's will.
"This is a hard saying." How can ice/
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How? 44The words 1 speak to you are life."
Eat them, take them into your mind and heart,
get up and go in the strength of them. Put them
into practice, practice, practice.
Take for instance these words: "Resist not
evil." Practice non-resistance strictly for one
day and you will be astonished to find the
amount of wasted strength and energy Resistance
is always weakening, save when directed
lowara tne aeviL
Take .for example waiting for a friend, who
is not punctual, Ave fume and fuss and Avorry, we
say it is unpardonable, such a Avaste of time,
etc. By the time our friend reaches us we are
irritable, cross, probably angry; weakened, mentally,
physically and spiritually. On the other
hand, we drop resistance and say. It is trying,
but worry does no good. We do the same and we
must improve for it is trying to have to wait. By
the time our friend arrives we have ourselves in
hand, there is a pleasant greeting and a word
of sympathy for unavoidable interruptions and
delay, and we go forth stronger and better,
physically, mentally, and spiritually. Having
gotten up and gone on the Broad of Life, so to
speak. "He that eateth me shall live by me."
There is always a plentiful supply. "He that
eometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth
on me shall nevar thirst. "
Carry this out in every detail of life day by
day, practice, practice, practice, and there will
be a revolutionized life.
"Oh!" you say, "that means "work." Yes.
learning always means work. But we are working
now ro hard, and what are we getting? Unrest.
unhappiness, weakness, disappointment,
discouragement, etc. "Wherefore spend money
PEESPY TERIAN OF THE SOI
in the Spiritual World
lor thuL which is not bread I And Labour for
that which satisiieth nott'* when rest, and happiness,
and strength, and joy, and power are
within reach.
.Again. Mow many of us are slaves to nervous
lears. We can't stand this, and we can't stand
that. We can't go here, nor there. We are so
nervous and we can't help it. As though Christ
had failed to provide for our nerves.
Perfect love casteth out fear. Lie that foareth
is not made perfect in love. * .
We should drop fears of every description.
Fear is just another form of resistance. Drop it,
drop it, and drop it, and trust perfect love.
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ally ami are unwilling to be free. '"For freedom
did Christ set us free." "fc shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free."
Hut only in so far as we get up and go on it.
"To everyone that hatli shall be given." The
more we use the more Christ gives. "But from
him that hath not even that wkioh he hath shall
be taken away." Lack of use destroys. We sometimes
over-fed, but Christ never. No use to cast
pearls oefore swine, to give more when we are
not making use of what we have. -More would
only make our last state worse than the Hrst?
added eondenmation. "Ye mil not come to me
that ye might have life."
Christ lived a normal life. iiow did he stand
the stress and strain, crowds thronging day after
day. continually giving out to them of his vitality,
up all night in prayer, no time so much as to
eat, up before day 's How are we his followers to
stand it Y There is still a world of needy men,
our place is among them touching shoulder
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serving, serving, inHueucing for strength, power,
joy, pence, living the Christ life, lie tells us
plainly, 44Learn of me." "1 live by the Father.
/ do nothing. My lather in uie doetli his uork."
''So he that eatctli iue shall live by me. He
that eateth . . . dwelleth in me and 1 in
him. Apart from me ye can do nothing."
It is no effort to the branch to let the sap
How through, and because of this continual How
of life the branch must bear fruit.
"1 am the vine, ye the branches, abide in me."
We are trying to bear fruit apart from the vine,
to run our engines without steam, expecting
power apart from the electric dynamo. And ot'
course we sigh for rest, of cojurse life is strenuous
and hopeless witli such hopeless striving to
get life out of dead material. The physical and
spiritual are so closely connected we can hardly
separate them. Christ is life, life for the whole
round man, body, mind and spirit. I am come
that. VP lllicht lifrt nmi'a .ilniti/lonlltr
* V *!*-. UU'IU auUilVAUOlViJt lie
that eateth me shall live." "Christ in you the
hope. Christ, the personal Christ, living his life
in you, get up ami go on him. "Ask and it
shall be given, thy strength Lord, thy patience,
thy gentleness, thy love, thy power, thy joy.
"These words have I spoken that your joy might
he full." If we'll keep in touch with life, life
must flow through us. If we'll take the Bread
of Life as we take our daily meals and get up
and go in His strength, the cry, instead of so
little, so little from our T?ible reading, will be
so much, so much that we must give out to our
needy friends of the supply our Friend has {riven
us. "It shall he in you a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Ever springing, ever
flowing over, an in exhaust able supply. "I live
. . . net I. Christ liveth in me. The life I
now live I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Ye ask ... I do."
All stress and strain gone. We work out because
Christ works in, we must work out because
Christ works in. ? have chosen you and
J Til [July 23, 1913
ordained you to bring forth fruit, that whatsoever
ye shall ask the Father in my name he may
give it you. Ask and ye shall receive that your
joy may be full. If any man willeth to do his
will he shall know. "If ye know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them." "1 am the way."
"WHERE IS YOtfR FAITH?"
On one occasion .Jesus and bis disciples were
overtaken by a storm of wind on the lake. The
disciples were scared out of their wits and .seemingly
forgot the presence of the Saviour. But at
last they remembered him aud sought his help.
He quieted the winds and waves and, turning to .
the disciples, said: "Where is your faith?"
The Saviour might very pertinently ask his
disciples the same question to-day on many suhinnfv
Hn wo I*AJk_ 1 1 2 \t Iwiluitrn in fhn ounniif v nf
the Sabbath Y Preachers and church members
everywhere say yes. The Sunday newspaper is
one of the gratest evils of our day, and yet it is
found in the homes of preachers and church
members every Sabbath day. When the Sunday
issue made its appearance it dumped a pile of
corrupt reading matter into the homes of our
Southland that could not be read in a week, and
the impression of which will not be forgotten in
a lifetime. And yet it received a welcome from
the governors of the Southern States with their
photographs, including the Senators from Georgia.
Most of them, at least, were members of
the Church, and all were leaders of the States
respectively. Therefore their sanction will give
even an evil movement sanction and recommend
it to the people. Whoever attempted to read the
Sunday issue through on Sunday surely had no
time for church or the Bible.
Again we claim to believe in the temperance
laws and welcome the relief they bring. Most
dailies carry large adverisements of whiskey,
thus helping the liquor trathe to spread its wares
even in Christian homes. And Christian people,
including preachers, welcome and help pay for
it. To that extent they help to make null our
prohibition laws.
The "so-called" "funny page" of the average
daily paper is filled with immoral pictures that
are travesties on Christian home life. And yet
while claiming to believe in the purity of the
family and the sac redness of the marriage tic,
these papers are welcomed in our "refined"
Christian homes and spread before the children
to read.
To be sure everyone would like to get the news
of the day that is clean and readable. But to
get it, must and will Christian people follow the
world to hell, desecrating the Sabbath, defying
our prohibition laws in aiding the liquor traffic
to debauch our boys and corrupting our sacred
home life by the indecent pictures of the
"funny" page?
Is it not about time a few thousand preachers
and church people, who say they believe in the
sanctity of the Sabbath, and elaim to support our
prohibition laws, and the purity of the home,
(should prove some of their faith by their works?
As long as Christians take these papers so long
will works contradict their faith. And just so
long will people continue to say that they see no
difference between church people and the world,
because they both do the same things.
Sin, from the human side, is great when great
men sin. And truly when Christians, and governors
and senators make the Sunday news
paper sin respectable by their sanction, the sin
is just that much greater before Cod.
Do we believe in the sanctity of the Sabbath,
the maintainance of law, the soberness of our
youth, and the purity of the home? If we do
one of the most effective ways of proving it is
for a few thousand preachers and Christian peo