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Scripture Lesson: Mark ix:2-27.
“And having cried out, and torn him, it came out:
and the boy became as one dead; but Jesus took
him by the hand, and lifted him up.” — Mark ix:26-27.
gn
|N order for us to properly appreciate this
I case I think it is necessary for us to go back
I and briefly review the story of the Transfigu
’ ration. You will remember that Jesus took
with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter,
James and John. And when He started with these
three disciples up the mountain to pray and to be
transfigured, He left the rest of His disciples down
in the valley, at the base of the mountain, to grapple
with the multitude and deal with the ordinary com
monplace things of life. I have often wondered why
it was that Jesus took these three disciples and left
the rest. I have heard it suggested that He took
them, perhaps, because of their superior, spirituality;
that inasmuch as He was going to be transfigured
He desired to have with Him only the most spiritual
of His disciples.
I do not know what you think of it, but that does
not fit into my way of thinking. And since He does
not tell us the reason why, I think we may be ex
cused for using our own judgment concerning it. I
do not believe at all that Jesus took these three dis
ciples because they were the most spiritual. They
may have been the most spiritual; I do not know
about that, but I do not believe that that was the
reason. For to me it takes a great deal more spirit
uality to be left than it does to go.
And then I think it takes a great deal more spirit
uality to grapple with the ordinary commonplace in
a crowd than it does to attend a prayer meeting or a
convention. I do not know any task greater than
that imposed upon those left disciples at the foot
of the hill with Jesus away; that great crowd with
those squabbling church officials shouting questions
at them every moment.
I think if I had to judge about this matter I
should say that Jesus took Peter, James and John
because they were not so well off spiritually as the
rest, and especially Peter. For I have no doubt that
had he remained there in the valley with that crowd
he would have said some things that would have
needed patching up a bit. Let us not get into our
heads that because we are given the privilege of
attending conferences and going to prayer meetings
we are essentially better than people who can not
attend because of other duties which they can not
escape.
But they went, and while they were praying Jesus
was transfigured before them, that is to say, He was
metamorphosed, which is a biological word and means
a change without, wrought from within. Jesus was
not transfigured by a light from within. He was
not transfigured for the purpose of revealing His
deity, He was transfigured by the outworking of a
perfected humanity.
There were two occasions in the life of Jesus when
He stood out separate and distinct as a Man; one
was on the Mount of Temptation. Jesus was tempted
there, as man, not God. He was God, but He was
man too; and He was tempted as man and con
quered as Man indwelt and mastered by the Spirit
of God. It was so that He might teach us how we
also may conquer. And the other occasion when He
divested Himself of His deity is that of the Trans
figuration. Jesus in the Transfiguration is reveal
ing His perfected humanity. Peter, when he beheld
this transfigured glory said, “Lord, it is good to be
We find a sort of grim comfort at such a time in noting that no less a periodical than “The Christian Globe” of London, comes out in eight pages
instead of sixteen—the first time in forty glorious years. It is war, war, war J
» Remember the aggregate of the individual “littles” will form the army with which we can march to VICTORY!
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The Golden Age.
Atlanta, Ga.
Dear Friends: — *
I really do not know how or why I have allowed my
self to be so long in debt to the paper, as is shown
by the label to be the case. I simply prognosticated;
I am ashamed of such negligence. I apologize for it
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Enclosed you will find my check for $6.00, paying my
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(the date of expiration shown on label), to February
21. 1915.
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 1, 1914
THE HELPING HAND
By REV. LEN G. BROUGHTON, D.D., of Christ Clrureh, London.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H. —Copyright Applied for.
here; let us build three tabernacles: one for Thee,
one for Moses, and one for Elias.” And you know
what happened. A cloud overshadowed them. A
d always comes over us when we dare to put any
other man on a level with Jesus. Never mind how
good he is, or how great, whenever we put any other
man on a level with Jesus a cloud comes over our
spiritual eyes. Just then a voice spoke out of this
cloud saying, “This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.”
“No time now for M'oses and Elias—He is here,
God’s son; hear Him.” Then we are told that imme
diately the cloud passed, and they looked and saw
“no man save Jesus only.” Ah, happy is the man
who can, as he looks at the law, see it give place to
Jesus only! Happy is the man who, as he looks at
the prophets, can see them give place to Jesus only!
Following this Jesus, with these three disciples,
came down the mountain side. When they got to
the base of the mountain they found a great crowd,
.the crowd which the rest of the disciples were left
to attend to, and they were asking questions of the
disciples. And Jesus walked up and said, “Why
question ye with them?” This was as much as to
say, “If you want to know anything, ask Me; I am
here.” And just then a man came pressing his way
through the crowd whose son was possessed with a
demon. And he said, “Master, my son is possessed
of a demon, and I brought him to thy disciples, and
they could not heal him; and I have brought him to
you.” Then Jesus turns and says to His disciples,
“Oh, faithless and perverse generation; . . . .
bring him hither to M)e.”
And the father brings the lad to Jesus, and Jesus
speaks the word and drives the demon out of him.
“And he became as one dead.” Mind, he was very
much alive before. So long- as he had the demon
in him he was a very live lad, giving a great deal
of disturbance in the community. But the moment
Jesus drove the demon out of him he became as
one dead.
I can see him lying there on the ground, after the
demon had been driven out of him, perfectly limp,
withered, unable to move; all we see him do is to
breathe. He is as one dead. Then “Jesus took him
by the hand and lifted him up.”
Now I want us to gather the essential lesson that
this story has for us. As I see it, it is in five parts.
First, it is the natural aftermath of the Transfigura
tion glory. In the Transfiguration glory our Lord
gave us a glimpse of perfected humanity, as we have
already seen; a humanity indwelt and mastered by
the Spirit of God. In the present study He is giv
ing us a glimpse of this present demonized world
indwelt and mastered by the spirit of the devil.
Then in the next place He shows to us the essen
tial connection between glory and service. If the
prayer meeting with Peter, James and John was
essentially the first phase of the Transfiguration
glory, the work in the valley with this demoniac
boy was its essential aftermath. The. prayer meet
ing was the glory in preparation, and the work upon
this lad in the valley was the glory in expression.
Those of you who have been to Glasgow are ac
quainted with the magnificent water supply that they
have there, and you will remember that they get
their water from beautiful Loch Katrine, far up in
the Highlands of Scotland. It is said to be one of
the most beautiful lakes in all the world. It has
been called “a poem in water.’’ It has so often been
immortalized in story and song that it seems almost
to be transfigured with a glory far beyond its nat-
These have done their part. Have you?
I fully appreciate your good paper and the great
work that it has done and is doing, and I wish for it
continued and even greater successes.
Cordially yours,
L. H.
LET IT CONTINUE TO STIR THE HEARTS OF
OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.
Dear Upshaw:
What sort of away is that you have of so writing
as to force a man to read everything that you write,
even your ads and duns, with interest? The spirit of
the paper gets hold of a man with a Samson-like grip
that will not let him lay it down until he has read
everything in it. Why. Mrs. L’s appeals for monev are
ural charm. Now what is the beauty of that lake
as you stand by its side and look upon its waters?
You do not see its real glory until you get dawn to
Glasgow. There you see it distributing itself
throughout the city, coursing through its parks and
mansions, its factories, its hovels, and its streets of
business, everywhere giving itself to the quenching
of thirst and the cleansing of the filth from the
streets, and to the turning of the great iron wheels
of machinery. All this shows the glory of the lake.
So if a man comes to me and says, “Show me the
glory of Loch Katrine,” I will say, “Come with me
to Glasgow, where it does its wo*rk.” And if a man
comes to me and says, “I want to see the glory of
the church,” I will not point him to our creeds, to
our rituals, or to our liturgies; I will not point him
to our cathedrals, to our great choirs, or to our great
preachers. I will take him to where men and women
live and move and have their being; and I will point
to what the church has done and is doing to relieve
human need. I will show him how this religion of
ours moves in the places of wealth and gives right
conceptions to the men who have it. I will show
him how our people of rank and position are made
willing to lay down their rank that they may the
better serve their fellows. I will show him how this
religion causes men that have it to treat their com
petitors as brothers. Oh, yes, I will take them into
the brothel district and show how under the Chris
tian religion we are changing these places of sin and
making them places of beauty.
Henry Drummond says: “Streams rise in the up
lands, but not to stay there. They hurry to the
valley, that they may feed it and nourish it; for in
the valley is where men live.” How true to Chris
tian experience. We pray, Lord Jesus, make us like
Thee. Why do we pray to be made like Jesus? Is
it that we may shine like Him. The world needs
something besides shining. The world cannot live
on light. There must be labor as well as light. And
Jesus is an example to us of this in what He did
for this lad.
Doubtless you have read Longfellow’s “Tales of a
Wayside Inn.” If you have, you remember that the
story is built up on a legend, the legend of a monk
who had been longing and praying that he might
have a vision of Jesus. At length the vision came.
His room was flooded with a radiant light, such a
light as he had never seen before. And while he
was gazing upon it the convent bell tolled. It was
the hour for him to give food to the poor, and hence
the tolling of the bell. He hesitated when he heard
it, for he feared that he would lose the rapture of
that vision, and so remained for a time in his room.
But finally he went. And Longfellow describes it
as follows:
“Rapt in silent ecstasy
Os divinest self-surrender,
Saw the vision and the splendor.
“Should he slight his radiant Guest,
Slight this visitant celestial
For a crowd of ragged bestial?”
But he heard a voice:
“Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto thy Lord the rest.”
He fed the beggars, and returning, found the
vision still there:
“When the blessed Vision said,
Hadst thou stayed I must have fled.”
But I must hasten on to say, in the next place,
(Continued on page 5.)
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could say stop The Golden Age No, let the good
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Let it continue to stir the hearts of our people and
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We are getting along fine in Abbeville. Come to
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