138
March 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
‘The pupil of Moses may ask himself whether all the princes of the house of David have done so much for the Jews as the Prince who was crucified. Had it not been for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or known only as a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not He made their history the most famous history in the world ? The wildest dreams of their rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and changed its name to Christendom? The time will come when the countless myriads will find music in the songs of Zion, and solace in the parables of Galilee.’ ” Miss Kominski considered this for a moment. “ Didn’t—uh— didn’t Jesus tell us to forgive our ene mies?” she asked finally. “ Yes, He did,” Althea answered. “Well, I can’t do that. That man—that floor-walker! I don’t want to forgive him, I guess. I just enjoy hating him.” “ I know just how you feel,” replied Althea. “We are all made like that. But the wonderful part of our faith is that zve don’ t do it ourselves—Christ does it all. If I could only get that over to all young Christians that are holding back because they are afraid that they ‘can’t keep on keeping on.’ They don’t have t o ! ‘Christ liveth in me,’ the hymn says, and Paul said: ‘Not I, but Christ liveth in m e : and the life which 7 now live in the flesh I live by the faith o f the Son o f God who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Turn over your hate to Him, Miss Kominski. He will take care of it— you cannot, certainly, as you have discovered. Get your eyes on Him and other things fade out.” The young Jewess regarded Althea meditatively. “ Well, I believe that Christ dwells in you, anyway,” she finally remarked. “ And I,” cried Miss Moran, “ wish to ask Miss Sum ner to speak to all the girls of our club down in the sup per room tonight after we have eaten.” A despairing night letter went speeding southward over the wires about nine P. M .: “ Althea has turned my gymnasium class into a Gospel meeting. The girls are standing by her. What shall I do?” The answer that came swiftly back, read: “ Give her a little dose of prison work.” Althea stood before the relentless iron bars. The prisoners were gathered on the other side, about a, long table that was loaded with greasy periodicals. They looked up in a half-interested way as the Cheerio Crew unfolded a small organ, and got several banjo-ukuleles out of their cases. The instruments were rather hastily tuned and during this process a few “ felons”— for so the man- leader of the crew had called them to Althea on the way over—drifted casually towards them. The bars inter vened, but they were near enough to converse, or hear them. The Cheerio Crew began with a popular ditty concern ing a damsel named “ Sue”—a name which happily rhymed with true, and blue, and few. Happily, because one soon became certain that the mental caliber of the composer would never have been equal to coping with versification upon a more angular soubriquet. After this number a young woman recited a funny poem about a little boy who made it his life purpose to in terfere with his older sister’s social activities. One or two more looked up and deigned to listen, and the group on the other side of the bars increased. Then a soprano from one of the great city’s church choirs sang an Italian love song. Oh, the weary looks on the faces before .them! The leader perceived this.
“ Did you ever hear what Gladstone remarked?” asked Althea. “ You know he was three times Prime Minister of England and knew something about problems. ‘Talk about questions of the day,’ he said. ‘There is but one question and that is the Gospel. It can and will correct everything that needs’ correction. My only hope for the world is in bringing the humap mind into contact with Divine Revela tion.’ ” “ Then why don’t the social workers tell us this?” queried Miss Nielan. “ They feel that they are ‘doing good.’ They do not realize that ‘the good is the enemy of the best.’ Outside reformation is only poulticing the evil. We need a fresh start, a new heart, a real hope. When we believe on Christ as our own Saviour a new life begins in our inner most being. ‘I f any man he In Christ he is a new creature : old things are passed away; behold, all things are be come new.’ ” “ They try to make us good with a lot of rules,” said Miss Nielan rebelliously. “ Why should we let strangers tell us how to live?” “ ‘ The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life’ ! There’s only one way, girls—-just lead people to Christ and He will teach them.” “ I wish you’d say something about how a girl could get on with a mean stepfather,” sighed Kathleen O ’Dare. “ Gladstone has said it !” cried their young confidante. He said, ‘If I am asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart, what a man should chiefly look to in progress through life as the power that is to sustain him under trials and enable him manfully to con front his afflictions, I must point to something which in a well-known hymn is called “ The Old, Old Story,” told in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old teach ing, which is the greatest and best gift ever given to mankind.’ ” Althea had the pleasure of seeing Irish Kathleen’s gray eyes grow soft with the luminous light that comes when the heart of the hearer has felt the touch of the pierced hand. The other girls, too, had been won to listen by her sympathy and the skilful use of the great British states man’s utterances. They had all heard of Gladstone, and felt that their feet were on firm ground when he was being quoted. “ My father and mother always went to synagogue back in Poland,” said Miss Kominski, “ but of course I’m a born American, so I never go to church.” Miss Komin- ski’s parents had arrived from the old country just in time for her to be born American, since she first saw the light of day somewhere near the Brooklyn Bridge, but Althea felt it wiser not to question this utterance but to pursue a positive course. Bill the Brilliant had once said: “ Don’t build up opposition in them by unnecessary arguing, or forcing. It just makes them pile up resis tances against Him in their hearts.” So Althea smiled upon Miss Kominski as she replied: “ Oh! Are you.one of the Jewish people? Just think'! Your race gave me the Saviour—my Saviour! I always feel a pull towards one of His people. In your veins flows the very blood of His race!” “ I don’t know much about that,” murmured Miss Kominski a trifle uncomfortably. Althea saw that she had Miss Kominski on strange ground. She lifted up her heart anew to the One who was using her. “ You know Disraeli, Victoria’s Prime Minister!” she began, drawing on her excellent memory. “ I want you to hear what he said. He was a Jew too. He once wrote:
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