Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

something."only."was!"spoo^ .lainoflLESSON HELPS FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 26, 1954......S...CMTHE FIELD IS THE WORLD, TH 5EO IS THE WORDOP GODVOLUME LIII WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1954 NUMBER 10"BEING A PROPHETby Edwin Raymond AndersonVIThere is a great parade of pretence in religiouscircles these days. Almost everyone appears to besomething or other, of some high nature, or loftytitle. The stabbing fact that such appearance neveradvances into actuality does not seem to overly concern. "Everybody is doing it," seems to 'be the sloganof the season. . .Thus it is hard and rare to find a "Noble Nobody,"in many a camp and circle. Yet,chance to locate one, we have a treasure of sanctifiwhen we docation and power indeed. An old saint used to remark,"Man is nothing. When man who is nothing wants tobe something, then he is nothing. But when man whois nothing is willing to be nothing, then he can becomeScripture tells us, and that in thevery words of our Lord Himself, that he who is bidden to a feast should take the lowest seat, for thenshall he be given the blessed invitation, "Come uphigher."In the light of that, we may understandalas, how many a feast has faded away into a farce,beholding the sorrowful scramble for the seat ofsupremacy. These things should not be.But then, as we have said, here and there oftat odd seasons and in unexpected corners, we findthat jewel of a "noblenobody,"and lo ! we then cometo actually see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christshining through, clear as crystal. All pretence . . .whatever and however the coating and cloaking . . .is put to shame and to utter confusion, and togetherwe learn how to begin all over again, "at the bestbottom," so that Christ may verily be in all andthrough all,and the sovereign All in all.In this connection, I am often reminded of Amos.What a figure he would ... or would not ! .. . cutin many of our circles in this latter day! A nobodyfrom nowhere, with nothing to commend, and yet. . .and yet ! . . . with the precious paradox of having itall turn out as the highest nature of commendationfrom the Lord Himself. In the midst of a religiousgathering of his day, he could say truthfully, "I wasno prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I wasan herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit"(Amos 7:14). No doubt one could have heard thedropping of a pin in the shocked silence ! To say thathe bore no rank, no credit, no degree . . . what an offense to religious elegance: and then to compound theoffense by saying that he was so far removed fromreligion, as to be a man of the woods and of the fields. . . ! Well, picture it for yourself. And it would bevery much of an up-to-date picture at that, for wherereligion is concerned, very little has changed. . .No doubt his hearers prided themselves uponbespeaking the better profession ; they were men ofthe courts, not crude dolts! But great indeed wastheir inward poverty when Amos went on with hiswords, to reveal an honor and a sacred calling towhich they were almost complete strangers. . . "Andthe Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lordsaid unto me, Go, prophecy unto My people Israel"(v.15). As we might put it in our effective English,"And the Lord took me . . . just as IPerhaps that is why the Lord cannot take, cannot use, so many of us. Amos drives a quivering arrow into our souls with that simple, yet searchingword. In cold truth, we are not what we should be.We desperately lack that simplicity which is basic tothe leadership of the Holy Spirit. For all of our learning, we somehow have not actually apprehended theelementary lesson which teacheth the necessity of,"seeing no man save Jesus We have not beenhumbled to the pivot-place of understanding thateverything of spiritual value must begin with, andonly."forever revolve about, "Jesus(Continued on page 151)