Traveling north from Galilee, and descending from the sun-baked lower slopes of snowy Hermon, one comes upon Damascus, the oldest city in the world. There, centuries ago, on the high road near this Gentile capital, Saul of Tarsus, a Jew, fanatic and patriotic, was commandeered by God to be the great apostle to the Gentiles. But clearer than his sight of "near Damascus" was his sight of the High God. There he saw "a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun". There he got his call to be the Lord's bondservant and was commissioned to be an apostle of Jesus, the Christ. And, in the third sentence he heard from the lips of the Risen Lord that day, there sounded the compelling word he was to know so much about in all his later life: "It shall be told thee what thou MUST DO". Such a word needs to take hold on our lives as well.
    This very same word had come into our Savior's life quite early. His first recorded sentence contains it: "Wist ye not that I MUST be about my Father's business?" It was to become the very keynote of His whole earthly life and ministry. Of Him, the creator of all

things, it was truly said: "Even Christ pleased not himself". He once explained, "I do nothing of myself . . . for I do always those things that please him". As "the disciple . . . shall be as his master", into Paul's Christian life there came at once this same commanding word: "What thou MUST do".
    In this lawless, pleasure seeking age, such a word, such an idea has become increasingly unpopular and distasteful; the "self" in us rebels against any control or compulsion; we do not like to be "under authority", and duty seems dull and intolerable! How much more do we enjoy "doing our own thing"! Yet, HOW FATAL! If this tremendous "must" of God's will has not, and does not come into our lives to control our actions and guide our steps, we are like rudderless vessels, and must make utter shipwreck of our lives.
    Indeed, we shall find this "must" of will a wonderful comfort and safeguard once we are yielded to it; it will solve our problems and settle our plans. "Thou sweet beloved will of God", sang Madam Guyon in prison, "In thee I hide me and am still." This may still be a profound spiritual fact, for as

    Throughout the Scriptures God gives warning against being hardened through "the deceitfulness of sin", (Heb. 3:13). Hardness is suggestive of a stubborn rebelliousness, which refuses to yield to what one knows to he good and right.
    Through the disobedience of unbelief the hearts of men become so calloused to truth that they will eventually "believe a lie" and be damned, (2 Thes. 2:11-12). The person who hardens his heart against God and truth will: "fall into mischief", (Prov. 28:l4); "be destroyed" without remedy, (Prov. 29:1); and "treasure up to himself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God", (Rom. 2:5).
    It is most interesting to note how Luke traces the progress of hardening in the enemies of Jesus. When He healed a withered hand on the Sabbath day they 'were filled

with madness; and communed one with another what they might do with Jesus', (Lk. 6:11). After He had denounced woes upon them because of their hypocrisy "the scribes and Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: Laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him", (Lk. 11:53-54). Reacting to His second purification of the temple, they "sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do", (Lk. l9:47-48). Later, He spoke the parable of the vineyard and compelled them to condemn themselves. "And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor", (Lk. 20:19-20). Finally, as the Passover drew near, "the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people", (Lk. 22:2). It was Judas Iscariot -- one of Jesus' own impatient and discontented disciples -- who conveniently (for the Jews) agreed to betray his Master for 30 pieces of silver.
    To harden one's heart against the revealed will of God is both foolish and self - destructive. It involves nothing less than spiritual suicide. Therefore, "harden not your hearts" so as to provoke

soon as faith has cried a joyful "Yes" to every dear command of His, the responsibility is His and no longer ours: "He knoweth the way that I take", and if He leads us into difficult ways, to try us, He will surely bring us forth as gold.
    God's MUST is a tremendous driving force in life. It will buy many a ticket to some foreign mission field. It may thrust one out into far-off lands, to lonely mission stations, and into such tremendous responsibilities as would never be faced alone. Yet, as the Psalmist has said: "though I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there . . thy right hand shall hold me". We do not face the foe alone; we stand with God, and His blessed compulsion will certainly introduce us to many blessed conquests.
    There is still a deeper note in this "must" of God. "The Son of man MUST suffer many things", proclaimed Jesus at Caesarea Philippi. In a world of sin, that was inevitable to Him. And must it be reproduced in His followers? Ananias' word to Paul was prophetic: "I will show Him" (said the Lord) "how great things he must suffer for my names sake". And for us? Each one of us must share with our brethren a companionship in tribulation as we do the kingdom and patience of Christ. Nor must we, think it "strange" when we are made partakers of His sufferings. And we must not faint. The joy far exceeds the sorrow, the peace overbalances the pain. Tho Christ must suffer, & we with Him; thank God He also "must reign", and

we with Him then also. May we, by his grace, live "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; 0 . . . our heart is enlarged!"
    There is still a third implication in this imperative word. We must follow and suffer; and we must STILL ADVANCE to "other cities also". Thronged as the Savior was by the sorrows, needs and sinners near Him, He looked farther afield. His heart still yearned for those "other sheep". Thus, He cried, "I must preach...to other cities also." The truth must be proclaimed in ever - widening circles. The best defense is advance. How firmly did this urge of the unreached take hold on God's servant Paul! "Woe is me", he cried, "if I preach not the gospel!" So "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before", he cries, "I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK -- FOR THE PRIZE!"
    There are still "other sheep" -- unreached millions. And God has graciously commanded us to advance. He is still calling men into His service -- even to foreign mission fields. None of the difficulties ever take Him by surprise. As in the case of his feeding the 5,000, He still "knows" what He will do. He still has SO MANY untouched resources available. Only WICKED UNBELIEF will stop to question whether the increasing number of god - called men going to foreign mission fields are not beginning to "strain the available resources"! He knows -- and He IS ABLE. Are we able to trust HIM?

God to wrath. Rather, commit your way unto the Lord and He will direct your steps into the ways of eternal life, joy and peace.

BUSINESS MEETING: Saturday, 7:00 PM