Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

man"
righteousness"
nothing,"
LESSON HELPS FOR THE WEEK OP APRIL 10, 1955
"THE FIELD tS THB WORLD, TH 5D IS THE WORD OF- GOD '
VOLUME LTV WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1955 NUMBER 12
His name was Josef and he owned a fine flock
of the best of the lambs in the land. And there was
one special lamb which, thanks to his loving care,
came to possess the finest of fleece. It became fa
mous throughout the countryside, and many came
to admire Josef's prize possession.
As might be expected, this aroused the envy of
wicked neighbors. Upon the dark of a particular eve
ning, they banded together for the express purpose
of stealing it away from Josef. Stealthily they made
their way to his humble dwelling. Josef saw them
however, and realized their purpose. Quickly he
picked up his prize lamb, hurried within the house,
barred the doors and took down the trusty old rifle,
and began to shoot away at them.
Seeking to confuse them, and throw them off
balance, he would shoot at them from the west win
dow, then hurry over to the east window, then back,
back and forth, again and again. However,
each time
he thus hurried across, he would trip and fall over
the now thoroughly frightened lamb. This could not
go on! and in final disgust he reached down for it,
dragged it across the floor to the front door, threw
it open, kicked the poor beast outside, slammed the
door behind and continued the firing "without fur
ther interruption."
That is just an old Armenian fable, but then per
haps there was a "Josef" at one time, who gave rise
to the account. But at any rate, it is one of that kind
of fable which carries a finish more modern than to
morrow's newspaper. We should not overly laugh at
Josefs lack of proportion, for all too many in this
world and time, follow his foolish footsteps, where
things spiritual, marked of eternal consequence are
concerned. One has only to read the tragic revelation
of "a certain rich in Luke 12, and consider care
fully the divine judgment upon such perilous pro
portion "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re
quired of thee . . (Luke 12:20).
And the old Armenian fable might make many
of the saints feel rather uncomfortable ! One should
The Sense of Proportion
by Edwin Raymond Anderson
welcome that as the exercise of the Spirit in the
heart. Not all the fools in this world are outside of
the kingdom of God; there are tragically far too
many who are sinners saved by grace who have
slipped back into the sin of careless proportion where
the commandments and exhortations of the Lord are
concerned. It will be well for the many of us to re
call that Word of our Lord "But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His
(Matt. 6:
33). This is not a "once-for-all" seeking to be cen
tered wholly about the business of being born again,
out of darkness into light. All of the impress of the
Holy Spirit of God is directed to this solemn remind
er this is to be the continual seeking for every day,
for all things which enter into the scope and sweep
of that day. "God First," in and through everything,
and that not as a matter of accepted theology, but
far deeper, the burning reality
Where the Lord, through the directives of the
Spirit is not first, in all the depths and ranges of that
of activated doxology.
term, then nothing is in right position, or proper
proportion. He will continually confound and irritate
that which we sinfully seek to give primacy unto, and
we shall be humbled and broken "beneath the holy
harrow."
"Without Me ye can do is His
first word to His disciples, if life is to be lived upon
the highest planes of "for-me-to-live-is-Christ." Be
loved, is it not time indeed (Rom. 13:11) to prove the
power, the preciousness, the practicality
of this for
His praise, and for the blessing of our daily walk
Some of us are living on "God's second best". . .
or perhaps it might be the "third or fourth" best.
We have missed far more than could ever be mea
sured, even as we are humbled by the realization of
the greatness of His grace that would suffer it to be
thus. We have all failed somewhere along the life
line, by the forgetting of His "firsts," as He has di
rected attention to them. But need it continue thus
Shall we not take with us words and return unto the
Lord . . . and thus to "first things first" for favor
and fruitfulness