166
THE KING ’S BUSINESS
“I would give the world to have your ex perience,” said a wealthy man to a de voted Christian lady. “ That’s just what it cost me,” she replied; “I gave the world for it.” “ Many Christians •are like the leaning tower of Pisa—as far gone from upright ness as it is possible to go without falling over.” The world does not love thee more, beloved, because thou bendest to its influ ence. It wants thy life to be straight and true, and to ring loud and clear. When men asked Mr. Moody for. the secret of his success, he replied, “Go to work, and stay at work, and you’ll find out.” And when John Wesley was asked the se cret of the development of his converts he replied, “ They are all at it, and always at it. Each new adherent is not only set to work, but kept at work.” Billy Sunday is reported as saying that the less religion a church has the more oyster soup it takes to run it. The young people’s societies and ladies’ aid societies of the modern church would do well to consider that they are often doing the serv ice, at least in part, that Martha did to her Lord. Is this service well-pleasing to God? “ Papa,” asked a saloonkeeper’s daughter, “ why don’t you take me down to the store and let me play there? Mary’s papa takes her to his store.” Like a flash the sinful ness of his business came to him and he said to himself, “I cannot stay in a business I’m ashamed of. I’m going to quit,” and he did quit. No man or woman will be long in executing a sincere purpose of the heart. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork,” says David. But the Cross of Christ, which David never saw, showeth His heart-work, and the song which “the morning stars sang together” in the hour of their birth is forgotten in the “new song” which the
redeemed of the Lord sing unto the Lamb Who hath bought them with His most precious blood. Recently a party of young men went through Cleveland, asking questions. One of these young men met with another young man and started his catechism as follows: “ Do you drink?” “ No, sir.” “Why don’t you drink?” My boss doesn’t like it, my customers won’t stand for it, and my con science won’t let me.” “ Three very won derful practical reasons. What is your business?” “ I’m a bartender.” An old colored woman was describing a young member of her church, as having “jes’ ’nough r’ligion to make her miser’ble-—too much to be happy at dances, an’ too little to be happy at pra’r meetin’.” Alas! the type is common—a troubled spirit that halts half way, afraid to go back and unwilling to go forward. There is no peace in the borderland. The half-way Christian is a torment to himself and no benefit to others. “ Oh,” said a woman to me the other day, “do you belong to us?” “Well,” said I, “who are ‘us’ ? That is a new denomina tion to me. I belong to Him,” I like the Augustinian Creed: “ A whole Christ for my salvation, the whole Bible for my study, the whole church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my parish, that I may be a true Catholic and not a sectarian.”— Charles Ingliss. James Bryce, historian and statesman, lately “ennobled” by royal patents, pleads with British educators for the Bible in pub lic education, because of appalling ignorance of that great English classic and moral compendium. The famed Elizabeth claimed it as the foundation of her kingdom’s pros perity. Mr. Bryce evidently thinks it also the conservator of it. Our own Grant said, “ Hold fast to it, as the sheet anchor o f our liberties.” The wife of a prominent lawyer, who had been under deep conviction for several days,
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online