October, 1938
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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a candlestick: and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ ” She closed the Book and looked at the children. For a long time neither spoke. Then Danny turned to Sister. ‘‘I’m glad you forgot the light in the pumpkin to night,” he said. “I’ll never see a jack-o’- lantern now but I’ll remember how our Big Secret fell flat because the candle wasn’t lit, and then I'll think of ‘Let your light so shine.’ I never knew before that I was part of the biggest jack-o’-lantem of all. W e thought we had a Big Secret for Mother, but she had a bigger and a better one for us.” [ Tw elve-year-old R obert M offat Burns — "B obby Burns”—was unhappy becau se he had to do his sick father s w ork on the farm instead o f getting the education he wanted in order to be a missionary. But when his lam e cousin, M argie, told about how she had learned to thank the L ord Jesus fo r whatever H e planned for her, B obby de cided that he too would pray, " T h y will be done.” H is first big test cam e the very next day, when he hurt his fo o t and could not even do the farm work.] It was a little easier for Bobby to accept his present condition thankfully, when, an hour later, he was propped up on the sofa, his injured foot comfortably bandaged, and a book in hand that would help him forget the throbbing pain. But before the first chapter was finished, his mother appeared in the doorway leading four-year-old Paul by the hand. Her face was flushed and tired. “Bob dear, I’m sorry,” she said, “but Paul is so fussy this morning. I can get nothing done, and I am far behind with my work.” A strength that was not of his own rose in Bob’s heart, and his happy reply took the look of strain from his mother’s face. “Sure, Mother!” he called out. Then, “Here, Paulie, Bob’ll play checkers with you.” After dinner, six-year-old Dickey joined them, but checkers no longer pleased Paul. “P ’ay ‘torel” he demanded. "W ell, Dick’ll have to build the store, and you be errand boy: Bob can’t walk,” Bob said, reluctantly. He thought of Margie’s happy but reverent words, “It’s fun to give up my own way for Jesus." “I don’t just see where the fun comes in,” he thought dolefully. The two small boys went to work with a will to make a roadside stand. Then a box of the big pine nuts which the boys had gathered in the fall, a jug of ice-cold milk from the spring house, and a plate of their mother’s ginger cookies were brought as the "store’s” wares. The warm afternoon was nearly over before the first customers came— a party of dusty men with tanned faces. And to the boys’ delight, they bought everything they had. “They looked like Gov’ment men, and [Continued on p age 359] A R EA L G O IN G -TO -B E M IS S IO N A R Y B y F rances N oble P hair PA RT II
be so surprised.” “Oh, could we?” chorused both children. "W e wanted so much to scare Father, but we didn’t think you’d let us stay up that late.” “Well, we’ll have to make an exception this time. W e can't waste that Big Secret. Somebody has to be surprised.” When Mother had praised the jack-o’- lantern enough and the dishes were all washed, they sat down to wait for Father. “Isn’t it the biggest jack-o’-lantern you ever saw?” asked Sister. “Well, not quite,” said Mother. Danny looked crestfallen. "W ell, doesn’t it have the ugliest face you ever saw?” “Not quite,” said Mother. At the sight of the children’s woebegone faces, she laughed and put her arms around them both. “Your jack-o’-lantem was very large and very ugly,” she said. “I think it is just about the best jack-o’-lantern I ever saw made by a child. But would you like me to tell you a story about the big gest jack-o’-lantern of all—God’s jack-o’- lantern?” "Now you are teasing, Mother," said Danny. “God wouldn’t have a jack-o’-lan tern. They are for children.” “Oh, but He does have a jack-o’-lantern, though," said Mother. “Let me tell you about it: “Once upon a time, back in the begin ning, before any one ever thought of jack- o’-lanterns—before any one ever thought of this world even, there was just God.” “And Jesus Christ,” supplemented Sister. "And, of course, the Holy Spirit," added Danny. “Yes, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, of course," said Mother. “But still there was just God, for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one God. W ell, God began making things, and among the things that He made was this old world, round as a pumpkin and beautiful and smooth as the one you children found in the garden. But it didn’t stay that way long, for when men came to dwell upon the earth, the hand of sin moved over the face of the world, just as Danny's hand moved over the pumpkin, carving ugly lines upon it, gouging here and cutting there until the world was no longer a beautiful golden pumpkin but a hideous grinning jack-o’- lantem. But even though the face of the world had been so changed by sin, the peo ple did not know it. Just as I could not see the jack-o’-lantem tonight because there was no light in it, people could not see the grotesque handiwork of sin because there was no light in the world. They were in darkness and ignorant of how the face of their beautiful world had been changed. You see there was no light in God’s jack- o’-lantern just as there was no light in yours tonight. Then God lit His candle and set it in the midst of the world.” “I know what that was,” interrupted Danny. “You better say you know W h o it was,” said Sister. “Jesus Christ is not a ‘what.’ ” “You are right,” said Mother. "I won der which one of you could tell me a verse about God’s candle?” “I know one,” said Sister. “ ‘That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ ” “I know a better one,” said Danny.
TIME TO BE THANKFUL In the autumn, when crops have been gathered in and all the work of sowing and cultivating and har vesting is over, grateful people often think about ways to show their thankfulness. Some of these people, however, who lived many, many years ago, did not know, as we do, that it is Jehovah-God who is the Giver of every good and per fect gift, and that thanks rightfully belong first of all to Him. A group called Druids used to sacrifice “a horse to the sun-god as a thanks giving for the harvest, and . . . sac rifices were o f f e r e d . . . to the moon-god, on what we now call Hallowe’en” * These people were very superstitious and fearful; they actually thought that on the night of Hallowe’en the spirits of the dead were allowed to return to visit their homes and friends! There is nothing in the name “Hallowe’en” to remind one of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who tells His peo ple always to “ fear not,” and the day was not a Christian holiday at all. Every year at Hallowe’en, and also on our national Thanksgiving Day, many Christian people say something like this: “What a fine thing it is to show our thankful ness! But we must be careful to be grateful to the Lord.” These friends do not have “Hallowe’en parties”^ at all, because they do not want to build their good times around a heathen celebration, but they have “harvest parties” in stead. They know that “seedtime and harvest” (Gen. 8 :2 2 ) always have been the gifts of God to His people. *From T he Book of Holidays by J. W alker McSpadden. “■ ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Fa ther,) full of grace and truth.’ ” “Either one would do,” said Mother. “Danny's is a little more familiar. Just as God’s jack-o’-lantern was bigger and uglier than yours, God’s candle was a great deal better than an ordinary candle too. For it not only revealed to men the condition they were in but it also showed them how to change that condition. Men could not look at God’s candle and remain the same. As long as He was in the world He was the light of the world—” Danny grew thoughtful. “But, Mother,” he said presently, “He isn’t in the world any longer. W ho will show the people now the terrible face of sin? There ought to be some one.” Mother reached for her Bible and turned to Matthew 5:14: ” ‘Ye are the light of the world,' ” she read. “ ‘A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on
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