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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
September, 1938
“And now,” adds Pastor Talbot, “if some one will offer a resolution approving the committee’s report, we will open the meeting for ques tions.” The motion is promptly of fered and seconded, and interested questioning begins further clarifying the situation. Th e subscription roll is opened. In some twenty minutes nearly $13,000.00 is subscribed. The great “jam” is breaking up now; the logs are floating fast and free. Pastor Talbot is dismissing the gathering: “I have just eight days in which to use the radio (H e is one o f Los Angeles' most popular radio preachers) and then we have next Sunday’s church services in which to continue our appeal. Pray that $25,000.00 may be raised by August fifth.” The result is history now. On Sunday, July 31, 1938, Dr. Talbot announced that $22,000.00 had been accumulated. Dr. Talbot next read extracts to the great congregation of the Church of the Open Door from the letters that he had received in re sponse to his radio broadcasts. W e doubt whether any one who heard them will ever forget those letters. Sincerity, consecration, and earnest desire for the continuation of the life of the Institute, and the free training which it has been giving for nearly 30 years, were evident in every line. The Holy Spirit had been,at work —Biola is to continue. The convic tion could not be escaped. By Wednesday, August third, more than $25,000.00 was sub scribed, with additional amounts coming in. PAUL W . ROOD, President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, who organized the National 24-hour Prayer Circle of friends who prayed the Institute through to victory.
LOU IS T . TAL BO T , V ice-P resi d e n t o f B i b l e In s titu te of Los Angeles and Pas tor of the Church of the Open Door, whose v ig o ro u s Radio C am p aig n was instrumental in raising more than #30,000.00 in con nection w ith th e d o n a tio n s of the m em bers o f th e C h u rch o f the O p en D o o r and frie n d s of B ib le Institute, thus pre venting the fore closure of the In stitute buildings.
stock had been pledged with it as collateral years ago by the Lyman Stewart Estate, and is now forfeited to the bank making a cash payment on account of some $88,000.00. Un der the circumstances the bank will be lenient with the Institute. R. B. Robinson, chairman of the church committee, is speaking and reporting the committee’s negotia tions with the bank. “First, they wanted $100,000.00,” he declares. “Then they came down to $50,- 000.00; they finally agreed to take $25,000.00 if we would stop bar gaining. ‘If we don’t,’ they said, you’ll be coming down here and offering us a flve-dollar b ill.’ ” (Laughter.) The audience is enjoying the ac count, and Mr. Robinson is reciting his dealings with a relish, born of the fact that he has made a good bargain. “They didn’t like the idea of foreclosing on the Bible Institute, anyhow,” he adds. "Such foreclo sures don’t add any luster to a bank’s reputation. This Institute has been bringing students to Los An geles for nearly thirty years and working to make this city a better place to live in.” (Applause.) Pastor Talbot speaks next. He is a perfectly poised clergyman , beloved by his whole audience. “W e can buy that mortgage for about ten per cent of its face value,” he is say-
ing, “not for any selfish purpose, but to burn it, so that we can help the Institute reduce its indebtedness. (T h e logs in the ‘jam ’ are crackling now.) I have assurance,” he adds, “that this cancellation will induce the holders of the first mortgage to change their attitude toward the In stitute; and that, if the second mort gage is paid, they will be willing to renew their own mortgage. (Th ere is a slide somewhere in the middle o f the timbers.) Another trust estate to whom the Institute owes some $500,000.00 has also agreed to sub ordinate its claim to a trifling amount —just enough to support the Bible Women, if this renewal is effected. (Everyone present knows that he referred to the Stewart Estate.) That means we will get rid of more than $700,000.00 of pressing obli gations by paying just $25,000.00, cash, leaving the Institute with only its first mortgage, its annuity obli gations, and the maintenance of the Bible Women’s work to provide for outside of its regular educational and missionary work.” There is a stir now throughout the whole auditorium. Ideas that woo the fancy are abroad. The pay ing off of an obligation of $291,- 000.00 by the use of only $25,000.00 has a miraculous sound. “The Lord is working here,” whispers my neighbor.
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