King's Business - 1914-12

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THE KING’S BUSINESS

Work in Los Angeles Harbor Mr. Oscar Zimmerman, Superintendent

that hardened ,man turned his face to one side to hide the tears, saying, “You make me cry. if you talk like that. I cannot stand it.” The message gripped him and the man was won as a token of God’s power. O ne Sunday morning on boarding a lum­ ber .vessel a man was approached who at once threw up his hands and manifested a spirit o f absolute indifference to the mes­ sage. “I don’t believe in it, and that set­ tles it.” At the same time he said that he did believe in Ingersoll, was a socialist but not a sinner. “If you can convince me that I am wrong I’ll believe in your God, but not until then.” When frankly told that the worker could not convince.him and did not expect to, but that God by His Word and the Spirit would do so, if he were honest and not trifling, he was willing to listen. Revelation 21:8 was given him and he ad­ mitted finally that he was a sinner and in danger of hell fire. While the verse was gone over slowly and carefully the Spirit was felt working in that man’s life and cutting to the marrow. He was in agony and found that the law condemned him and he almost accepted Christ, but Satan prompted him to try to make the accusa­ tion that the worker was a sinner also. “I’m a sinner but you are one too,” he said. “Tell me, you must, that you too are lost!” While he had to admit that all his infidelity, Ingersollism and talk of a straight life were false he had hoped to hide behind this last thought, expecting that the worker would deny that he was a sinner. So the man was astonished as the worker said, “I am guilty of breaking God’s law and under condemnation as a sinner.” Finally Gala­ tians 3 :10 and 13 were used to show the difference and God used the message to make clear the sacrifice of Christ. He was a different man and said, “What is it to accept Christ?” We made that plain, and he accepted Christ, saying, “I see it now.” We were happy. ,

/"'VCTOBER has been a busy month at the harbor. God owned the message in a number of definite conversions and we are confident that by His grace many others will take Christ as their Saviour. Some are in the balance and need prayer in their behalf. Among the sad things was the sinking of one of the ships we have often visited, with all on board save two or three passengers rescued by a passing vessel. O ne day while looking over the supply of books and tracts so as to select the tracts to be taken out on a vessel the worker was led to take some Japanese tracts. Naturally he knew there would be no one on board that ship who could speak Japanese but a firm conviction crept into the worker’s heart that he ought to take some of those tracts. As he got off the car on the way to the boat he noticed another fellow jump off at the same place and suddenly saw that he was a Japanese. Having forgotten un­ til then that the Lord had led him to carry those tracts, he immediately approached and gave the young man one which opened the way for conversation about-the Lord. The young stranger said that a Testament had been given him by a Christian woman, yet he apparently rejected Christ and the Word of the Gospel and said that he had given up hope of being a Christian and had stop­ ped going to the mission because he was asked to pray and he =could not pray to God. “I cannot pray; I don’t know God. I cannot become a Christian. It’s no good for me.” When told that God knew of his difficulty and only children of God could really pray and that as a sinner he was asked to accept Christ, he began to be in­ terested but was very hard at heart. What could the worker do? Weak and helpless, as never in his life he offered prayer to God for help in his extreme difficulty. Then a deep sense of God’s love for lost men came into his heart and God spoke through him as he talked of the love of God. Then

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