160
April 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
science has given us through these years, are much more apt to be true on all important matters than they were.” ’‘‘And all that talk about the fall of man,” he had gone on, “is just nonsense, sheer nonsense. If he ever fell, he fell upward. Evolution proves that.” He had been on a pet theme then, and the words had rolled smoothly from his tongue. She had laughed at his witticisms, wondered at his profound and radical think ing, protested when he bordered close to blasphemy and sacrilege. He had gone on and on, more and more elated with himself and the impression he was making on this lovely girl who hesitated with fearful feet to follow him in this new field of knowledge. Her mind went back over it all today. That had been the beginning. The idolized professor had led on, first into fascinating little bypaths, then farther and farther afield, until return to the safe old way seemed difficult-—• then impossible—and at last, undesirable. Nelson had come back from his second year in college a changed man, so altogether different from the Nelson she had known, that it was almost impossible to believe it was really the old chum of her childhood, and her girl hood’s sweetheart. They had tried to talk it over, had tried to bridge the great chasm that lay between them, but the rift seemed only to widen, until in tears one day she had begged him to go away for a while and leave her alone that she might find her way out of the bewildering fog and the entangling meshes of the pagan philosophy that enveloped him. Had she been a stronger Christian, or had she herself known a little better the Bible and its Christ, she might have helped him find the rock again. But she had never made study of the Book a serious mat ter ; it had seemed unnecessary, Nelson was her vade mecum. She believed the Bible of course, and she ac cepted its statements without questioning, but she found herself unable to cope with the subtle reasoning by which clever and unscrupulous men had mined away the foun dation of faith. And then, just after that awful talk with Nelson, had come her mother’s death and the shock upon shock that followed. He had,come to the funeral—both funerals—- but he had not sought to help her. It was one of the crushing sorrows she had had to bear, that he, of all in the world, gave her no word of comfort or faith or hope. He had none, and he knew it. Realizing his utter inability to enter into her feelings in this-new and terrible situa tion, and following that cold, strange, hard philosophy which he had embraced, he had simply left her alone. When she wanted him she could send for him. As she sat there, pondering deeply, and living over it all again, her abstracted gaze was caught and riveted by a little pool in a hollow of the rock a short distance be low her. The tide going out had left behind this little bit of the ocean’s blue. Only a little pocket filled with water fast evaporating in the warm sun, but as she looked closer she was startled to see that there were tiny living creatures feebly moving about in that isolated pool. She felt a throb of pity for them. Stranded high and dry, far from their native el ement, they must soon all miserably perish. As she sat and watched them, suddenly a bit of im agery caught her fancy..Was that little detached fragment of the ocean a picture of her life? It would, seem so. The more she thought of it the more fitting it became. The whole ocean of life had receded, and left her alone, stranded, desolate, and perishing. She felt exactly like that little pool. She seemed no more able to help her-
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H u n d re d s o f y o u n g p e o p le w ill w a n t to re a d Z e n o b ia B ird ’s sto ry , “T h e R e tu rn o f th e T id e .” F o r th e ir b en efit, The King’s Business w ill b e sen t— 10 m o n th s fo r $ 1 .0 0 (in U . S .) W h y n o t give th e m ag a z in e to som e y o u n g frien d ? T h e co st is v e ry little a n d th e b lessing m a y b e v e ry g re a t. T ria l sub scrip tion s a re o ffe red— 3 m o n th s fo r 2 5 cents. A d d re s s The King’s Busi ness, 5 3 6 So. H o p e S t., Los A ngeles, C alif. Write today! she knew, where the rocks came down into the sea. The kind friend who had insisted upon'her spending these few days of rest in this lovely spot knew the healing power of the quiet ocean solitude. She clambered over the rocks to a sheltered spot and sat down, a little heap of utter wretchedness. A year ago she had sat here, with Nelson sprawled on the rocks at her feet. How well she remembered it a ll! How happy they had been through the long beauti ful afternoon! It had been a glorious day, just like this bne, but what a difference now! Could it be that she was the same light-hearted girl who had chattered so gaily then? They had done some serious talking, too, that after noon, she and Nelson. He had come back from his first year in college, where he had become enamored with the study of philosophy. “Marian, that professor is a wonder! I tell you he makes you think,” Nelson had exclaimed enthusiastically. “He told us in the beginning of our class that we must be willing to start with the premise that there is no God. Then as we go on we may be led to change it and come to the conclusion that possibly there is a God, a great Force somewhere, though we never can be altogether sure of course.” Marian, too, had had a year in a small college in which her father was greatly interested. She had met something of the teaching of which Nelson spoke, but the atmosphere had been different, and she had come back to her home no better and no worse, so far as her Chris tian faith was concerned. Her religion seemed to mean so little to her life. .Why trouble at all about these things? Of course one wanted to believe in God and the Bible. She could not conceive of her own life emptied altogether of even its meager faith in a power greater than her own. And she could not but be shocked at some of the things Nelson was saying. “But Nelson,” she had protested, “we can hardly say that, when God has given us some revelation of Himself in the Bible.” “The Bible!” Nelson had sniffed. “When you listen to that man very long, you realize that the Bible is no more than any other book. Those men wrote what they thought about God. Our thoughts, with all the help that
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