334
September, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
'Always when I came to the name of 'Jesus Christ,' I tried to cover it." of Jesus
A Jew and the Name
By DANIEL ROSE Los Angeles, California Illustrations by Ransom D . M arvin
H a v i n g been born o f G e r man Jewish pa rents who were strictly orthodox and very reli gious, I was con tinually hearing from my school mates such ac c us ati ons and names as “ Christ K i l l e r ’ ’ and “ Sheeney.” My f a t h e r had a
would even refrain from cleaning my teeth at those times for fear of accidentally get ting a drop of water down my throat. Numerous people spoke to me of Christ, but I was always resentful and thought they were demented. I learned long afterwards that these same people were praying for me. God was carrying forward His work of leading me into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. My sister Carrie and I married a brother and sister—Charles Menard and his sister Selina. None of us knew the Lord, al though each in his own way was striving to know about Him. We were very world ly—drinking, attending theaters, and con tinually using profanity. It was my habit to go to a questionable theater on Sunday evenings. En route to the theater, I always passed a certain church, from which strains of music floated forth to touch my sinful heart. As time went on, I had a longing to stop in to hear more of the hymns that reached my ears as I passed by. Somehow they seemed to still the tumult within me, and they created within me a longing for something unde fined. Finally, I tossed all objections to the winds, and a Jew entered a Christian church. I loved singing, and I soon found myself joining in the songs; but always when I qame to the name of “Jesus Christ,” I tried to cover it, and would pause while the others sang it, and would then rejoin them. Going to the church soon replaced at tendance at the theater, and worldly things began to be distasteful to me, although they were not given up at once. I found myself disliking profanity, although I could not have explained the cause. T he W itness of “T he N ame ” My sister and her husband then moved to an apartment house in another city, where in a neighboring apartment lived a Hebrew Christian who dearly loved his Lord and had a great burden for souls. He and his wife lost no time in speaking with my sis ter about their Saviour, but she resented
their efforts and began to dislike them be cause of their testimony for Jesus Christ, whom she hated. She avoided them when ever possible. fcut God was,dealing with her. “ How unsearchable are his' judgments, and his ways past finding out!” After a time, my sister had a paralytic stroke that affected her entire body and made speech impossible. The neighbor woman asked her whether she would like to have prayer offered for her. She nodded her head in the affirm ative. The Christian friend and others re tired to' another room, and while they were still upon their knees, God touched my sis ter’s body, and speech returned. Later, these friends continued their visits, reading to her from the Old Testament such passages as Isaiah 7:14; 9:6, and Isaiah, chapter 53, as they used these prophecies to present to her the claims of Jesus Christ. After several weeks, she recognized that the Messiah for whom she and her people waited and mourned was none other than the hated Jesus Christ. She opened her heart to Him and was truly regenerated. She was no longer a Jewess seeking to know more about God, and not a Jewess who had abandoned her own religion to embrace that of the hated enemy to the Jew, but a Jewess who had come into her own and had em braced the only true religion, that of Jesus Christ—the Messiah—the Son of God— Elohim Himself—the Jew of all Jews. Her joy was full, and as the days passed, she learned to know Him—not just about Him. She wrote me a letter telling me of the wonderful change that had come into her life, and she asked my opinion of her ac tion. I lost no time in answering, telling her she was old enough to know what she was doing, but that as for me, I was born a Jew and would die a Jew, and would never change my religion. I also said I had nothing in my heart against her, and I invited her to visit us in our new home. When she came we saw a very definite change in her; among other things she re fused liquor, saying she preferred tea or coffee. I was surprised and puzzled. Within a few days, my sister became
Martel-Howlett Studio
[Mr. Rose is a business man, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and a Hebrew Christian whose testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ has touched hundreds of lives. He is the son of the founder of one of the largest and oldest firms of its kind in the United States, the Rose Exterminator Co., with headquar ters in Chicago and branch offices in thir teen other cities. It is the policy of the firm to employ as branch managers only men of approved Christian character who are active in Christian work. For the choice of other employees also, Christian men are sought. The remarkable business success which the company has enjoyed may be attributed to this determination on the part of Mr. Rose and his associates to honor the Lord in all things .—E ditor .] Because my father was religiously ortho dox, I, too, had a great desire to know more about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But it was always knowledge about Him that I sought; I was not learning to know Him. With religious zeal I always observed the fast days and holydays. I Mr. Rose deep hatred for Jesus Christ, and naturally* the name con jured up in my mind all the persecutions of my people for centuries past, and I, too, hated Him. I was tempted to place my finger over His name whenever I saw it in print, so as to avoid reading the hated name.
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