February, 1942
THE K I NG ’ S BUSINESS
69
Junior King's Business By MARTHA S. HOOKER Member of Faculty, Bible Institute of Los Angeles
storyteller -said, “ who Is like this father. No matter how bad we have been, He wants us to come home. He wants this so much that He has made a Way for us to come and has shown us how to take that Way.” Then the storyteller held up a book which he called God’s Word, and he read from it, “For God So loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should'not perish, but have everlast ing life.” “This,” said the storyteller, “ is God’s Way back to Him.” • How comforting these words-were to people who had -traveled long, hard journeys from their homes! And how kind was the face of the man who urged them to take God’s way back to Him! Big Brother decided to wait and ask him whether he knew of any work that he could do that would give him enough money so that he could buy, - rice for the family. The man thought \ that he did, and the next day he took Big Brother to the spinning factory where the boy found w(ork at once. Each evening now the members of the Chen family listened to the story teller as He talked about God’s Word. They began to understand what he was ' explaining to them, and they wanted to give their ¿ hearts to God according to His Way. Tjiey under stood what it meant when they sang: “I must needs go home by the way of the cross; - There’s no other way but this.” It was just then that trouble came again to the Chen family. The mother, became ill and the doctor told the sorrowing family that it would not be long until she must leave them. They were very sad, but the mother smiled up at them and said, “You must not feel sorry; I know the Way I am going. Jesus is the Way.” And they called the storyteller, who was really the evangelist, and he' baptized her. The next day, Big Brother a^nd the sisters and the little grandmother and many others were baptized.. Soon the mother, died and the little family was scattered. The ‘ father’s brother had found them,' and he was going to send Big Brother awhy to work in a fac tory. Again good-byes were said, and Big Brother started traveling to the factory town on a truck. “I am getting: farther and farther away f r o m h o m e ,” - thought Big Brother to himself. “Will I ever seé my earthly father again?” he wondered. “If it were not for Grandmother and Little Brother and the vsisters, I would wish that ! were leaving now for my heavenly home.”
“WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID” B y H elen GA iley
T T T j IE HAD BROKEN out in V / % / North China. y Y “This is no place for my family,” said Father Chen sadly to himself. “I must ..send them back to our old home in South China. They will be safer there, and I can send them money for rice if I Stay here and work. I cannot let them stay here where they must be always running to hide in the fields or hills outside the village whenever the planes fly overhead.” He called his family to him and told them of his plan for them. There was Ills little mother. She was over seventy now. Yes, a journey would be hard on her with her bound feet. *And there •was his wife with the baby son too tiny yet to take care of himself.- The journey would be hard oh them, too. It would be hard on his two little daughters as well. They had never been away from this northern home. The food would be different. They would get very tired, and it would be hard to find beds at night. But what else could he do but send them away to a place of safety? Father Chen looked at Big Broth er, his tall fifteen-year-old son. He knew that Big Brother would do the best he could to get the family to a place of safety. So Father Chen gave Big Brother directions and bade them a peaceful journey aftd went back sadly to his work. Perhaps never again should they all sit around the table together, he thought. And he was right. It was springtime when the Chen family started on their long, long journey south. By autumri they had traveled more than a thousand miles, and they could go no farther. Between them and the South there was more fight ing. They must stop here with the many other refugees. But where could they stay? There was almost no money left, and it waS> a long time since they had had a letter from thte father. Big Brother looked around and ait last was able to rent a little grass hut in the corner of a courtyard. It was the kind of hut that very poor people usually called their home, but the mem
bers of the Chen family were -glad enough to settle down and rest from the long hard days of walking; and, besides, Big Brother must-look around now for work to do. Perhaps there was some one here who could help him, he felt. That very • first night in the new home he found that there was,. After sundown the _ Chen family noticed a crowd gather around a Chinese man who seemed to % be telling them stories. Perhaps it was a traveling storyteller. Big Brother and his mother weflt over to see. Sure enough, it was a storyteller, but the stories he told were ones that they had never heard before. He told of a boy who left-his father’s home and went into a far country and wasted his time and his money. When nothing was left, he told his father that he was coming home. And, al though he had not been a gpod son to his father, yet the father was so glad that he was coming back that he . ran to meet him and had the servants make a feast for him and they all re joiced at his homecoming. “We have a heavenly Father,” the
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