World Security.—A conference to consider the establishing of an organization for world security was held in Washington during the month of August as announced by Secretary of State Cordell Hull. It will focus attention again on a subject that has taxed the ingenuity of good men through the years and has broken the hearts of many statesmen. These exploratory talks, for they are nothing more than that at present, are to pave the way for the setting up of an organization which it is hoped will solve forever the question of peace upon this earth and goodwill among men. And yet the most elementary understanding of Christian truth, and of the nature and cause of war and its miseries, should teach men the folly of seeking a remedy in pacts, treaties and the best efforts of sinful men. Every human heart is a microcosm of the whole world, and every honest man knows that as long as the heart of man is as it is there will be forever war in it and war in the world. God has said that there is no peace to the wicked, and that means the inward peace in the individual and outward peace in the world. There are two ways of life running through this world. There is the way of God and the way of the devil. There is the organized system of the world without God and dominated by Satan that is vainly endeavouring to solve the problems of this world apart from God and the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ; and there is the way of Christ—the system that has God for its Author, that is founded on the realities of sin and redemption, and in which is the only basis for enduring peace. The two systems are forever at war, diametrically opposed the one to the other, yet each professing to seek the same end. Men must take one side or the other. They cannot be neutral. In the end there will be peace upon this earth, when God asserts Himself in a cataclysm of judgment and makes war to cease. These are things to be pondered over as mammon makes its plans for the post-war.—(Evangelical Christian, Toronto.)
Myrrh, Frankincense and Gold.—Some will give myrrh, but not frankincense; some will give frankincense, but not myrrh; and some will give myrrh and frankincense, but not gold.
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Some will give myrrh, a strict moral life, not culpable of any gross eruption of scandalous impiety; but not frankincense. Their prayers are thin sown, therefore their graces cannot come up thick. Perhaps they feel no want. In their thought, they do not stand in any great need of God; when they do, they will offer Him some incense. These live a morally honest life, but are scant of religious prayers; and so may be said to offer myrrh without frankincense.
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Some will give frankincense, pray frequently, perhaps tediously; but they will give no myrrh, not mortify or restrain their concupiscence. The Pharisees had many prayers, but never the fewer sins. These mock God, that they so often beg of Him that His will may be done, when they never subdue their affections to it. There are too many such among us, that will often join with the Church in communion devotions, who yet join with the world in common vices. These make great smokes of frankincense, but let not fall one drop of myrrh.
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Some will give both myrrh and frankincense, but by no means their gold. I will give (saith the worldling) a sober life—there’s my myrrh; I will say my prayers—there’s my frankincense; but do you think I will part with my gold? This same gold lies closer in men’s hearts than it doth in their purses. You may as well wring Hercule’s club out of his fist as a penny from their heaps to charitable uses.—Thomas Adams.
Dr. Kennedy’s Gratitude for Two Things.—”I was once that I could but thank the Lord for two things: first, that I was not in hell; and second, that I was not a devil and when under the conviction of sin of my awful corruption before the Almighty with a hell of corruption raging within me! but thanks be to God for His ‘unspeakable gift.’ My lesser causes of gratitude are as numerous as the stars and what is to meet them all within my heart!—Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire (Enlarged Edition)—Memoir (p. cxxxiv).