Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

'
. . hath
courageous"
city; which opened to them of its own
accord."
When you are reading this, you will
be on the threshold of another year
1955. The message that I would send to
you for that year is the message , that
Christ sent to the church of Philadel
phia in Revelation long ago: "Behold, I
have set before thee an open door, and
no man can shut it." The door of 1955
is opening up before you as you come up
to it, and my
wish and prayer for you
all is that it may lead you into great
happiness and willing service for Jesus
Christ. There may be things hard to be
borne in it, there may be things that
look frightening to you as you see them
before you. But if you are trusting Him
you will find as you come up to these
things that the way opens up before
you, and the path is safe. Some of you
will remember how John Bunyan tells
that when Christian was nearing Palace
Beautiful he was dismayed to find that
the entrance was guarded by two lions
whose roaring terrified him so that he
started back and would have fled. But
Watchful, the porter, bade him go bold
ly forward, keeping to the middle of the
path,
and when he did so he found that
the lions were chained and could not
reach him. "I have set before thee an
open door," says Christ, "And no man
can shut it." May that be true for you in
1955!
Have you ever met this man
CALEB: The Man Who "Wholly
followed The Lord"
Condensed from an editorial in
"The Conqueror"
Joshua llf
What an amazing statement! Had you
thought that only Jesus followed whol
ly So many follow so far off that re
mote ones are skeptical of the possibility
of any one's having followed "wholly."
Undoubtedly
we mortals would be less
critical of others if we were more inno
cent ourselves.
Did you ever know a young
man or
woman who had been dedicated before
birth; had been surrounded with love
and the language of the Scriptures; had
confessed Jesus as personal Saviour at
an early
age and had not gone off into
flagrant sins Have you been such a per
son There are such, thank God! But
unfortunately there has been such pub
licity regarding the drunkard or wildlifer
who has turned to Jesus and been
forgiven that we fail to think of the
greater miracle of that one who has
been saved from all the needs of refor
mation and needs but regeneration. And
it even makes it hard for the one
brought up in such a sweet atmosphere
to realize that he really has been born-
160
again by accepting Christ Jesus as his
Saviour and counting it true that the
blood of Jesus is the only
means of
atonement. One's own good works never
saved any one . . . even Caleb. Caleb's
faith was in God.
Illustrating what we have just been
talking about, a few years ago in a
great gathering a man stood to tell how
God had reached down to the gutter to
rescue him, and he told of how wonder
ful a God we have and that he could
stoop so low to save. One young man
hearing it thought of how he had never
had any devastating experience and so
decided that he had better go out to
commit some sin so he might appreciate
God's power to save, and that he might
accept Christ in a powerful way and
ever afterward know it as that man
from the gutter knew it.
About that minute another man rose
and said, "I can give a greater evidence
of God's
greatness than this brother
here. I worship so great a God that He
kept me from the gutter. This brother
had no parents to pray for him. I did
have. Mine prayed that I should be kept
and God did a marvelous job. God has
held me close to Him by some secret
experiences which only God and I know,
all."
but we know that He has done it
Speaking
of this statement: Caleb
wholly followed the Lord, a young man
said, "Now really, do you think that Ca
leb was telling the truth I mean did he
think he was telling the truth"
A companion suggested, "Perhaps he
was childish, he was 85 then, and per
haps he had forgotten the times he had
not followed the Lord."
We'll
grant that the statement is
amazing but let's see if God verifies it.
Turn to chapter 14 of Numbers, verse
24 and we find the Lord God saying,
"But my servant Caleb . fol
lowed me fully, him will I bring into the
land whereinto he went; and his seed
shall possess it." That's evidence that
Caleb was not fabricating. As for his
being too old to know what he was talk
ing about, we find in Joshua 14:11 Caleb
declares, "I am as strong this day as the
day Moses sent me."
What kind of a report would we be
able to give In Romans 14:12 we are
told, "So then every one of us shall give
account of himself to God." Not an ac
count,"
one changed to suit the occasion,
nor doctored or altered in any way; not
an account for the government or
friends or relatives or the earthly "boss"
to hear, but the accurate and unchanged
account is given to God who knows all!
This increases our amazement that Ca
leb could say at eighty-five years of age
what God had said of him when he was
forty. Perhaps God is speaking of that
special occasion when there were twelve
spies sent forth to look over the land
which God had promised to Israel. Caleb
you remember, brought back the only
good report the report of faith.
Forty-five years after the good re
port Caleb comes to Joshua to ask for
his inheritance and Caleb reminds his
friends that God had promised it. Joshua
does not doubt the statement that Caleb
had followed the Lord^holly, and we
can prove right here ^
at Caleb had
been a wonderful frienct and a humble
and sincere man. How 7
For forty-five
years he had cooperated with Joshua in
every way!
Look at the facts :
Caleb felt young!
Caleb could not have felt young if he
had been nursing a torn and rebellious
heart, jealous of his companion of the
spy days. And look at what Caleb asks
for! He wants Hebron! What does he
want Felloiuship! ,
Bless his dear sweet
heart! But Hebron was still infested
with giants! The man who had wholly
followed the Lord "My God" as he called
Him, was strong in the Lord his God!
Caleb knew that God could give him
that mountain! In forty-five years Ca
leb's faith had not wavered! Exactly as
Caleb had said they were well able to
take the land, and they had said, "If
the Lord delight in us, then he will bring
us into the land . . so now at eightyfive
years of age that brave man was
being "very
God!
and believed
And we may be sure that God can
drive out any giant of fear or discour
agement or anything that raises its un
godly head against God, and grant us
fellowship! We should know it better
than Caleb because Christ Jesus has now
defeated the giant Satan and death, and
so now we are invited to come boldly
unto the throne of Grace!
Used by permission of The Conqueror,
50 Avery Drive N. E., Atlanta, Ga.
A DOUBTFUL COMPLIMENT
The sudden illness of an incumbent
necessitated'
a telegram to the bishop.
In the emergency, the bishop came and
took the service himself.
Afterwards,
two very much overawed rural church
wardens felt that they must express
their thanks to the bishop. This they
did in the following : "My lord, we great
ly appreciate your great kindness in
coming to us; a worse preacher would
have done, but we could not find
one."
World Christian Digest.
COVENANTER WITNESS