Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1914 — Who Is Your Master? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Who Is Your Master?

B y REV. J. H. RALSTON

SaCMtuy of Gonapoadeoc* Department Miody Bible laatitut,. Chicago

TEXT—No man can serve two master a. —Matt. 6:24.

E x perience proves that every man has some master. While the text intimates that a man may attempt to serve two masters, he can serve only one. Our thought must not be confined to choice between two masters only when there may be several. The point being that a man serves only one.

Mammon may mean seif, the world, the flpah or the devil. We will confine our thought to three possible masters.

Self as Master.

’ Man, as a rule, thinks he Is his own master. He says: “I am the captain of my soul.” He™recalls without hesitation the wordß of the poet’ “Man, know thyself. Presume not God to scan.” and he interprets these words to mean that a knowledge of God is not his first duty. In many cases he utterly Ignores God and sees in himself possibilities of a perfect, man, and strives to develop them by himself. A party of travelers in the Alps were starting out one morning to scale one of the highest peaks, and invited a young man to go with them, and on his declination, asked him if he did not intend to make the ascent. He replied: "Yes, I will make it, but I will make It “by myself: 1 have a guide book, and have my own head.” The party made the ascent and returned in safety. The next day the papers reported the finding of a dead body of a young man at the foot of a precipice with a guide book tightly clutched in his hand. Thus many imagine that they can go on without God. Satan as Master. The teaching of the word of God is very clear that there is an intelligent, powerful, malicious personality in the universe opposed to God, and he is called Satan, or the devil. He is the god of this age, and he is given great power, and seems to be lifted above mankind, to a position from which he exercises this great power. His power is seen in individual lives, and in masses of men. The diabolism that is found in certain companies of human beings is almost beyond belief. The plot against the Jews of Russia charged with the ritual murder of the boy Yushinsky, which, according to George Kennan involved the Russian government itself, can only be accounted for on the proposition that some satanic mind planned It all. Demon possession was clearly taught in the scriptures, and in modem times has been clearly proven in China and, other parts of the world by most conservative and discriminating students. Of some men it can be trqly said, they are devils incarnate. The devil does not always operate in the most debased and fiendish manner, or men would resist him and fly from him. Many whose lives are fairly admirable are. yet in the mastery of the evil one, but do not know it Did not Jesus say that certain men were the children of the devil? In the individual, the mastery of the devil is seep, in his inability to control his appetite, his temper, and his actions. God as Master. But may not God be master? Jesus who was God, claimed to be master, saying: “One is your master, even Christ.” While there are few, comparatively, who acknowledge God as master, there are those who may claim to parallel the 7,000 in Israel who did not bow the knee of Baal. The disciple Thomas freely cglled Jesus Master, and the Holy spirit coupled the idea of the saving power of Jesus Christ with his mastership in the use of the term Lord Jesus. The mastership of God involves several things. First, definite, positive and purposeful surrender to God. When Saul of Tarsus by the gate of Damascus asked: “What shall I do, Lord?” he made a definite surrender He acknowledged himself from that moment as the servant and very slave of God. Secondly, man will at once let God guide him. As God’s guidance is most clearly given in his ward, that word will be man’B study all th 6 days. Thirdly, his life will be one of complete obedience. There will be no further question as to whether the thing God commands is feasible or not. It is only as to whether It la a clear coiqmand. “His not to reason why, his but to do or die." This perfect surrender is not imbecility; it Is a sane, sensible recognition that the leadership of God Is better than his own. An Illustration of frig is seen In the career of auch a man as Dwight L. Moody. Yielding the mastery to God, secures supreme happiness. One of the master tricks of the devil is to make mafi, believe that to serve himself is to secure happiness. The only fear of Dan Crawford, who for $2 years was In the long grass of Africa, was that he might possibly lose his supreme Joy In God—but ha'never lost 1L