137
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
March 1930
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Them That Are Bruised
“ Yes! Too tired for so much exercise,” replied Miss Nielan. : “ On our feet all day .anyway!” ejaculated Miss O ’Dare. “ We like this rest idea,” remarked Miss- Kominski, holding up the leaflet. Althea recognized it. She dropped to the mat and sat tailor fashion beside them. “ I know what you mean,” she declared sympatheti cally, with a real concern for them in her blue eyes. “ It’s just work all day— every day in the year—except for a week’s vacation,” Miss Kominski told her, yron by her solicitude. “ An’ then 'come here, willy-nilly, because it’s store politics,” inserted the incautious Miss O ’Dare. : “ Don’t bother Miss Sumner with our troubles,” Miss Moran exclaimed, shaking her head at the unwise one. “ That’s what I ’m here for,” said Althea; . “ That’s why I came. sI.fatam And so it was all poured out to her—drawn from the dreary hearts about her that held within them no bright hope. The floor-walker was a brute, it seemed. “ And I’ll never fergit it!” declared Miss Kominski in rich vernacular. “ I says right then, and there he’s done me dirt an’ I’m like an Indian, I never fergit an injury!” I “ And how do you suppose us girls feel, Miss Sum ner ?” continued Kathleen O ’Dare. “ Bearin! aljçwe beafl an’ then a flock "of social Üpli'ftefs hds t o /c ^ c ^ r y n on us with a lot of dumb-bells. We don’t want dbmb-feells, We want . . . oh, I dunno ! We want life, I guess.” ‘ Althea’s cheeks burned. Was this God’s time? Oh, how she hoped the Thin Red Line were praying! \ “ ‘I am c'ome that they might have life,’ ” she half un consciously murmured. “ What’s -that ?” asked Miss Komirtski sharply. “Whb has come, did you say, that we might have life? Just talk to us, Miss Sumner. We kind of like -you ! Give us some of this rest talk.” How little can God’s children discern His marvelous purposes! How wonderful and secret are,His ways with those who obey Him ! Little did Althea 'Sumter and the group around .her think that on this' niglit was to be started there, on that very gymnasium floor,'¿ work for Christ that was to grow into one of thé great truly Chris tian movements of the Pacific Coast. I t began because Christ was. Himself present, in the heart of - a true and yielded believer. One that the gréât Fisher of souls cofild use was among them, and so the class started ; it was to reach for, and to brihg forth, many leaders. “ But how,” objected Mis^ Mdfâii dubiously, after Al thea had' told them the great Lové Story, how God so loved the world, “ how doès all this help us in meeting the questions of the day ? Everyone is always telling us, ‘Go to Girls’ Club! Hear Miss So-and-So! She tells us how to answer the questions of the day!” ’ . : U
"The Spirit o f the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”— Luke 4 :18. ^ ¡ g g g ’ HEY had thought that Althea was coming back ' to college “ to be wonderfully used”—they had planned for it, all of them who.made up the little group called The Thin Red Line. It was W i Bill the Brilliant who was first made aware that L-Lli this was not to be. “ Her family are determined to break up her relation ship with us,” he reported dejectedly to Uncle Alan. “ The God who has worked wonders for Althea Sum ner, will continue to work,” was faith’s triumphant answer. And so, when Althea ,was swept remorselessly away from them to a northern city, the Thin Red Line were enabled to smile confidently into her wistful eyes as they said “ good-by.” “ God will bring you back to us,” they said, undaunted by the chilling presence of the distant relative who was to try to interest their Althea in “ wel fare work.” “ Show her that the really big people of the world are turning their energies to bettering social conditions,” directed Althea’s mother. “We will take care 6 f. the ex penses,” she added. “ I feel that God wants'me to go, Uncle Alan,” said Althea. “ I’ve prayed and prayed about it and all I get is. Honour thy father and thy mother.’ He has some im scrutable purpose in it all.” ' “ .‘As for God, his ways are perfect,’ ” was his reply. * * * * . “ Not another dumb-bell will I lift this night,” said Miss Kominski as she, stretched herself wearily out upon the gymnasium floor. .“ Sure an’ it’s too much to stand behind a counter all day and then feel we’ve got to come here because the Girls’ Club members qualify for promotion ever all the other employees,” agreed Miss. O ’Dare from the notions. “Who is the new girl coaching the ball players?” asked Miss Nielan from the millinery. “ From the South—a Miss Sumner—seems sort of nice. She gave me this in the locker room.” It was Miss Moran, assistant buyer in the household goods, who held out a little leaflet entitled “ The Rest of Faith.” “ Let’s see it,” said Miss Kominski. “ ‘There remaineth therefore a rest to the people o f God,’ ” she read aloud from page one. “ Sounds sort of quiet and nice! Is it Shakespeare or what?” “ I think it’s a— from the Bible somewhere,” ventured Miss Moran timidly. “ Tired out, girls?” It was Althea herself looking down at them. She was arrayed in a dark-blue gym suit, her hair bound round with a bright band.
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