Christ's Business is Supreme

"His disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray . . . and he said unto them, When ye pray, say. . . Thy kingdom come" (Luke 11:1, 2).

When they said, "Teach us to pray," the Master lifted His eyes and swept the far horizon of God. He gathered up the ultimate dream of the Eternal, and, rounding the sum of everything God intends to do in the life of man, He packed it all into these three terse pregnant phrases and said, "When you pray, pray after this manner."

What a contrast between this and much praying we have heard. When we follow the devices of our own hearts, how runs it? "O Lord bless me, then My family, My church, My city, My country," and away on the far fringe as we close up, there is a prayer for the extension of His Kingdom throughout the wide parish of the world.

The Master begins where we leave off. The world first, my personal needs second, is the order of this prayer. Only after my prayer has crossed every continent and every far-flung island of the sea, after it has taken in the last man in the last backward race, after it has covered the entire wish and purpose, of God for the world, only then am I taught to ask for a piece of bread for myself.

When Jesus gave His all, Himself for us and to us in the holy extravagance of the Cross, is it too much if He asks us to do the same thing? No man or woman amounts to anything in the kingdom, no soul ever touches even the edge of the zone of power, until this lesson is learned that Christ's business is the supreme concern of life and that all personal considerations, however dear or important, are tributary thereto. --Dr. Francis

When Robert Moffat, the veteran African missionary and explorer, was asked once to write in a young lady's album, he penned these lines:

"And His Kingdom shall have no frontier" (Luke 1:33, the old Moravian version).

The missionary enterprise is not the Church's afterthought; it is Christ's forethought;

--Henry van Dyke

THE LAMB AND THE SPIRIT

"I saw . . . a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."¡XREV. v. 6.

In the fourth chapter of The Revelation we read that John had seen "seven lamps of fire burning before the Throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." In our text we see that these Spirits have been taken up into the life of the Lamb: they are His eyes; and through them He works in all the earth. When the Lamb was upon earth, He was obedient to God's Spirit in all things¡X "Through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself unto God." This is why His blood has such divine power, and why the Father gave Him unlimited power to pour out the Holy Spirit in full measure on whom He would.

Let us learn two great lessons. The first, that the Lamb on the Throne has power to fill us with the Holy Spirit, and enable us to follow Him fully, and so fit us to commune with God in the power of the blood, and be more than conquerors. The second, that it is only through the Spirit that we shall understand the glory of the Lamb and be filled with His love, and so stand firm in the faith of that which He can do in us and for us and through us. Beloved Christian, let the Song of the Lamb ring in your ears continually. The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive the power and the glory. God has exalted Him to the Throne and | has put all things under His feet. Do you not long to give Him the place of honor in your heart, and in fervent love submit all I that you have to Him and His service? The glory of heaven is the worship of the Lamb and of Him that sitteth on the Throne. You, too, may experience the glory of redemption as you tarry at the Throne of Grace. Do not rest until in silent adoration and deep humility the song of the Lamb arises as incense before God. "Unto Him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb, be the blessing and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion for ever and ever." Amen.

Nothing Old

"And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).

Glory be to His name! All things need making new, for they are sadly battered and worn by sin. It is time that the old vesture was rolled up and laid aside, and that creation put on her Sunday suit. But no one else can make all things new except the LORD who made them at the first; for it needs as much power to make out of evil as to make out of nothing. Our LORD Jesus has undertaken the task, and He is fully competent for the performance of it. Already he has commenced His labor, and for centuries He has persevered in making new the hearts of men and the order of society. By and by He will make new the whole constitution of human government, and human [character] shall be changed by His grace; and there shall come a day when the body shall be made new and raised like unto His glorious body.

What a joy to belong to a kingdom in which everything is being made new by the power of its King! We are not dying out: we are hastening on to a more glorious life. Despite the opposition of the powers of evil, our glorious LORD Jesus is accomplishing His purpose and making us, and all things about us, "new" and as full of beauty as when they first came from the hand of the LORD.

Morning, December 14

¡§They go from strength to strength.¡¨(Psalm 84:7)

They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress.

Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning. ¡§They go from strength to strength.¡¨ That is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity abounds, but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise which still holds good: ¡§The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.¡¨ Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. ¡§Alas!¡¨ say they, ¡§we go from affliction to affliction.¡¨ Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.

Evening, December 14

¡§I am crucified with Christ.¡¨(Galatians 2:20)

The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what he did as a great public representative person, and his dying upon the cross was the virtual dying of all his people. Then all his saints rendered unto justice what was due, and made an expiation to divine vengeance for all their sins. The apostle of the Gentiles delighted to think that as one of Christ's chosen people, he died upon the cross in Christ. He did more than believe this doctrinally, he accepted it confidently, resting his hope upon it. He believed that by virtue of Christ's death, he had satisfied divine justice, and found reconciliation with God. Beloved, what a blessed thing it is when the soul can, as it were, stretch itself upon the cross of Christ, and feel, ¡§I am dead; the law has slain me, and I am therefore free from its power, because in my Surety I have borne the curse, and in the person of my Substitute the whole that the law could do, by way of condemnation, has been executed upon me, for I am crucified with Christ.¡¨

But Paul meant even more than this. He not only believed in Christ's death, and trusted in it, but he actually felt its power in himself in causing the crucifixion of his old corrupt nature. When he saw the pleasures of sin, he said, ¡§I cannot enjoy these: I am dead to them.¡¨ Such is the experience of every true Christian. Having received Christ, he is to this world as one who is utterly dead. Yet, while conscious of death to the world, he can, at the same time, exclaim with the apostle, ¡§Nevertheless I live.¡¨ He is fully alive unto God. The Christian's life is a matchless riddle. No worldling can comprehend it; even the believer himself cannot understand it. Dead, yet alive! crucified with Christ, and yet at the same time risen with Christ in newness of life! Union with the suffering, bleeding Saviour, and death to the world and sin, are soul-cheering things. O for more enjoyment of them!