THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NES S
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ing. I looked into the faces of - the fifty-five high-school and. college age young people who sat before me, and wondered what the need in each heart might be. They were the usual group gathered for a summer conference, having come from various churches in the city, trained in Christian pre cepts, full of spirit—potential for the Lord’s service. I coveted them all for God. I had spoken from the text; “I know - whom I have believed, and am per suaded that he Is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,” an^ had dwelt on the thought of assurance, of knowing that we are saved. '“If you do hot know that,” I said in closing, “know it before you leaye tonight.”
As we came down from Vesper Hill at the close d£ the service, one of the young people fell into step with me and with the frankness of youth said, “I don’t know whether I am saved or not. But I want to know. I thought I was converted and I joined the church when I was nine years old,” she went on; “But Christ hasn’t satisfied me. My life has been mixed up with shows and petting parties, and I have no assurance of my salvation. The only What Gan a Young Person Find in Life? I WALKED through the cathedral like aisles between the towering pine trees at a Bible conference By DICK H ILLIS* as told to ANNE HAZELTON reason I go to church is because I try to please my parents. Is there' any thing real in Christianity after all?” “On what basis did you think you were saved when you were nine?” I asked quietly, praying'for the right words. “I felt that I was,” she replied.
gry heart. “Last night,” she had writ ten, “I was out with—[a prominent young churchgoer who, like herself, knew nothing of Christ’s- mastery of one’s life]. He wasn’t bashful in the way he treated me. Is this all a young person can find in life? Please help me.” I did not know the writer; I did not know the man concerned. But the tragedy of their lives struck me with unusual force. I wondered how many others were standing in the place of that young girl, disillusioned, puz zled, hungry of heart. “How many young people in churches a r e n o t saved and therefore are not satisfied?" I, asked myself. As I knelt, and looked up through the trees to a sky of perfect blue, I brought before the L o r d all-those questions and all the problems and perplexities of the young people who had come to this place for a week’s conference. I asked Him that, as their invited conference speaker, I might be used to show these young people the way of life abundant lived in the Lord Jesus Christ. * * * It was toward the close of the meet-
grounds, and let the stillness of the surroundings quiet my troubled spirit. The murmur of a near-by mountain stream did n o t d i s t u r b , and the snatches of young l a u g h t e r and strains of a.whistled chorus from the young people back at camp were like a muted obbligato against the quiet ness as I brought my burden to the Lord. I had no need to read again the letter, open in my hand. Its words were engraved on my memory. They brought me face to face with a situa tion which is very real to at least a sizable percentage of young people today. The letter had come from a young girl, a girl who attended church, but one who was still entangled in world ly pleasure. It was the cry of a hun- * Graduate of the Bible Institute of Los An geles, Class of 1932, and missionary to China, under, the China Inldnd Mission. He and Mrs* Hillis (Margaret Humphrey, ’32) are at pres ent in Dallas, Tex. •Fictitious names have been substituted for the actual names of the young people whose stories are told on these pages.
We paused, letting others of the young people pass us, and I turned to Romans 10:13 and asked her to read it. Slowly she read, “For who soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Almost immediately, with her heart so prepared by the Holy Spirit, she saw the truth of the passage. Kneeling there by the steps of the dining hall, she opened her heart to the Lord and took Him as her Saviour and Lord. I saw her again the next day and she said, “Yesterday I just took Christ in cold faith, without any feeling at all. But now my heart is filled with assurance" that I am saved, and I have never been so thrilled An my life —thrilled for myself, but burdened for my girl friend. Will you pray for- her?” I told her I would, gladly. “1 didn’t tell you why I dame to this conference,” she Continued quietly, a
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