September 1927
552
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
The Christ Who Labored B y A. Z. C onrad in “Comrades of the Carpenter” § WORKLESS life is a worthless life. The struggle for existence has been necessary to overcome the lure of luxury. Everything that moves inclines to stop moving. The ball you throw into the > air stops when the initial force is spent. Only a mighty incentive could keep humanity working. But when men cease to work they begin to die. We are so constituted that only work will prevent deterioration and finally death. The unworked limb hangs helpless at the side. Idleness and parasitism are unforgivable crimes. Hence it is ordained—work or starve. The battle for bread is insistent. It is fierce. It is a war that knows no discharge. Burdens are heavy. Blistered feet on burning highways; calloused hands hardened by toil; bowed forms and aching heads- these are the hard facts of life. For centuries this toil was carried on with no eye to pity and no voice to express sympathy, from any visible Being above man. Tears mingled with the tears of friends and neighbors and kinsmen. The poor were always exploited. The multitudes were made the sport of the winds of cir cumstance ; bodies were broken on the wheel of servitude; work was a calamity that had to be endured. God was not known. Then came the Carpenter! Compassion instead of cold cynicism and cruelty; sympathy instead of sordid selfish ness; helpfulness instead of heartlessness. In the battle for bread nothing cheers, encourages, helps, like knowing God cares. This is precisely what the Carpenter pro ceeded to teach. When throngs of people followed Him and His comrades, it is recorded: “And seeing the multi tude He had compassion on them.” It was a hungry mul titude of workers whom Jesus saw and on whom He had compassion. There are few things Jesus ever said that more endear Him to the toilers of earth than His word of compassion and His open and proud claim to be a work man Himself : “I work.” “I have compassion on the mul titude.” In these words the Carpenter set the divine seal on honest toil. Comradeship without sympathy is impossible. It is just because the Incarnate Son of God experienced the trials of the'shop that today He can become the shopmate of men who are doing the work of the world. If Jesus had not toiled, He would never have been understood. A “ fellow-feeling” is created where another endures what we endure, suffers what we suffer, wearies as we weary, weeps as we weep. All these experiences Jesus passed through. That is why we know He is “touched with the feelings of our infirmities.” He understands when you return to your home at night wearied .with the day’s toil and sometimes ask yourself: “Does it pay?” He under stands when the body is bent and the hopelessness of it all looms up so large that enthusiasm dies. He worked. He, too, was weary. It is : “Come—I will give you rest,” that has encouraged unnumbered multitudes to renew the battle for bread, day by day, and falter not in the fulfill ment of duty. It wonderfully lessens the arduousness of toil to know that divine sympathy will express itself in empowering and re-creating of body and mind.
REV. WILLIAM H. PIKE SECRETARY OF EVENING SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
the weak ; the dependence of organized government and the foundation of religion.” Our beloved George Washington, the father of our country, said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” And our great orator, Daniel Webster, added his tes timony to the long list of earth’s great ones when he said, “I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. The mir acles which He wrought establish in my mind His per sonal authority, and render it proper for me to believe whatever He asserts. I believe, therefore, all His declara tions, as well when he «declares Himself to be the Son of God as when He declares any other proposition. And I believe there is no other way of salvation than through the merits of His atonement.” “The Bible educates men to think, to love, to be wise and true, to reach the best in all life. If is the gateway to the greater life beyond, preparing us for service here, and glory hereafter. The wisest of all ages have believed it, and followed its precepts. The Word of God is living and powerful. Let it work a transformation in your life. Begin to study it now.” ^\(e. ti. My M o th e r ’s Version The unanswerable argument for the truth of Christian religion is a holy life. It makes a plea for God that neither man nor devil can refute, and the clearest interpre tation of the Bible is one who daily lives its teachings. “What is your favorite version of the Bible?” was asked of a group of boys in the Sunday school. Some said: “The King James,” others: “The Authorized.” Some liked Moffatt’s New Testament. One lad said: “I like my mother’s version best. She lives it.” There is no finer exposition of the Scriptures than a holy life.
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