250
May 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Daniel, loved of God, wrote from a vantage point where he saw afar down the ages! “Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” P rof . S. I suppose you interpret European events by prophecy. B il l . No! I find prophecy being fulfilled rapidly by European events. Do you know that Mussolini has said: “We wish to render Rome great as in the Golden Age,” and “All power for all Fascism” ? He made this terrible announcement, too :«§-“I would enter into alliance this moment with the Devil himself, with Antichrist, if that would give this poor country tranquillity/’ On top of all this, consider that Bolshevism to the north and Fascism to the south are the geographical points whence the great opposing armies will come to the last fearful Battle of Armageddon. Don’t you think that this combination of eventualities is rather staggering? It seems to me that it must assail a truly logical mind. P rof . S. Pll be fair with you! You are rather dev astating when you get started. B ill . It’s not I ! It’s my material! Or I should say, rather, it’s the God back of this wonderful, supernatural Book of His! P rof . S. (pacing up and down restlessly). Yes! Supernatural! “There’s the rub” ! How can a professor of ------------- University believe that Christ arose from the dead, passing through a sealed rock— for the stone was not rolled away until later—and then appeared before the disciples in an upper room, “the door being shut” ? B il l . And yet you put in your first radio set your self, and your boy helped you; you told me so ! And later you bought the expensive one, a beautifully made cabinet, that you set up without any outside aerial. And over this you heard the President of the United States make his inaugural speech, hundreds of miles away. You’ve heard London! You’ve heard Germany! This miracle— for so George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or Ulysses S. Grant would have considered it—you accept daily, and yet— P rof . S. It’s in accordance with natural law! B ill . It is a higher law recently recognized and ap plied. The Son of God, by whom all things and laws were made, used and applied higher laws than we have yet discovered, or been able to understand. He passed through the rock to appear to a grieving woman—and a dying world. He passed through the door to show His hands and His feet to some bewildered shaken followers. “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself : handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” There was always a real reason for His using these higher laws. It was important for His disciples to see His hands and His feet that they might know that He was wounded for our transgressions, that the Lamb of God had indeed been offered for the sin of the world. “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and. wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” I (A silence! The professor is busy with a handker ch ief at the window. Bill looks at him intently.) B il l . Why are you trying to hide those two perfectly innocent tears? They do you credit! P rof . S . Because^—I don’t know why they came. I
only know that when you quoted “Behold my hands and my feet,” I found tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat as well. B il l . Ah! Good! Your heart is better than your head after all, Professor. I t spoke in this way—an invol untary acknowledgment of Him who is its rightful Lord. Will you with will and mind acknowledge Him—thus fol lowing your heart ? P rof . S. And if I do—what price following? How about its effect on you? How is it that such an acknowl edgment sends a young man of your talent to a wild coun try, to be more or less cut off from all civilization . . . . B ill . What’s wrong with leaving civilization? What do I leave behind? Cities full of accidents. Nations full of squabbles. Colleges full of dead fish floating with the popular current. And people whose lives are full of activi ties that lead nowhere. Girls with cigarettes hanging from their once lovely lips. Music that’s become so cacophonous that it makes my hair stand straight up. Art that’s too cubistically futuristic for any but an overtrained, over sophisticated eye to enjoy—automobiles roaring and honk ing and smelling! Radios jazzing in homes, hotels and shops! And even the blessed blue sky above buzzing with planes. The only quiet spot we have left is underground, and if we dig in there we’ll probably run into a subway! Talk about the poet’s “divine discontent” with his age! The thinking youth of this day certainly has a right to i t ! On the other hand, to what, do I, as a missionary of the Cross, go? To hardships! Granted. But young engineers face hardships. And the rising young doctor or business man does not have, so easy a time, generally speaking. As long as I am physically equipped to meet them, why object to hardships ? Loneliness? The loneliness of a shepherd, tending his sheep! Are shepherds really lonely with their flocks around them, I wonder! Sometimes the stars overhead, sometimes the cloud! Sometimes in a dry and thirsty land, sometimes by the still waters and green pastures! But always with the joy of the simple, helpless ones depending on him and needing his care. Our own Great Shepherd knew this! “I am the good shepherd . . . I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself . . . therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.” Furthermore, wherever the Christian goes in these days he is pretty sure to have an exciting or a difficult time, for we are strangers in a strange land, and our cit izenship is in heaven. Last of all, it’s a very good chance to get rid of the monster Self—rl—Me! No shouts of praise for intellec tual feats but the gratitude of a few simple primitive souls to whom one has ministered, and the joy and peace of having obeyed His command:—“Go!” It is something to have spent one’s self—to have, as it were, poured one’s self out as Christ did, even unto death, perhaps. P rof . S. You will, I see, persist in following on. B il l . Yes, because I have a burning heart. That is what sent Paul over to heathen Europe so that our charm ing and barbaric ancestors were arrested in their mutual slaughter and internecine warfare and brought to Christ. It is just a missionary heart! For ours is a missionary religion. Have you the courage to go back to your uni versity and say “I believe He died for me,” and apply His Book to sociology ? It will take courage! ( Continued on page 252)
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