/Ær / ^ 4
THE KING’S VBUSINESS
271
Discipline in an African Church How the Spirit uses the Word in the Work of Restoration By LEE H. DOWNING—Africa Inland Mission W E ARE beginning the new year with encouraging pros pects, Zephaniah 3 :17 is being
that they had gone wrong and wished to confess it, they were permitted to do so. The first to speak was one of the boys who had been dangerously ill a short time before. He said he had promised God then, to live for Him if He would spare his life, and now he had broken his promise. At this point he paused a moment, took his seat and sobbed so as to be heard all over the chapel building. Others were deeply moved by his expression of sorrow, and confessions followed rapidly. When they had finished speaking I remarked that in America when Christians were guilty of gross sin, they were debarred from the communion table for a time. With out my saying more, one of the boys exclaimed, “that is what ought to be done in this case.” I then asked how many approved of this penalty and every hand went up. It was also de cided that the teachers should be sus pended from teaching. Never before had we imposed so severe a penalty for such a slight offense. But noth ing could have made them feel their guilt more keenly or have purified the church more thoroughly. The first Sabbath of the new year was the time appointed for re-instht- ing all who manifested real sorrow for their sin and a desire to live for God. All but two were ready to re turn and one of these wanted to come but his conscience condemned him. At the close of the evening service, on lifting a book from the pulpit table, I found a note from this boy asking that we pray for him. In it he said,
verified unto u s : “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save. . . We are rejoicing over the reinstatement of some of our Christians who had been suspended from the church for a time. Last September there was a native dance two miles from here, and many of our Christians went, only to wit ness the performance, but even that was forbidden. At the time I was just recovering from a three weeks’ illness which enabled me to speak very tenderly to them. I began by telling them 1 had come back from the borderland of death, a place where things appear in a light different from that in which we see them when we are in health. Two of you, I said, mentioning them by name, have been there and know that this is true. You remember how eager you then were to be separated from everything that dis pleased God, and to have your every act witness for Him. But your pres ence at the dance was no testimony for Him. Others would say that you were just like them although not par ticipating in the play; and no news would spread more rapidly than this; that Christian boys and girls from the Mission were present. For whom were you witnessing while mingling with the people that day, for Jesus or for Satan? I have rarely seen sad der faces than those into which I looked when I spoke these words. In closing I told them that if any felt
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker