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T H E K IN G ’ S BU S IN E SS PERTINENT ILLUSTRATIONS
By W . H. Pike.
J ESUS was transfigured from within. The glory shone out o f his flesh. Here is the Method of Transfiguration : People cannot be transfigured by placing them in good-surroundings or putting good clothes upon them. A boy brought up in a wealthy home came into a Sunday School class. He was the “bone, o f contention” o f the class. Teacher after teacher was appointed to take those fifteen boys but failed. Finally a young man was given the class. He began by giving them the simple. Gospel story and applying it straight to their lives. One day he asked the boys how they would like to have a week of camping in the mountains together, and outlined a little preparation for such a camp. He then asked them to get their parents’ permission. Weeks went by, the teacher planned to have every hoy come to his room where he could see them alone. These dates were made unknown to the other boys, and the teacher had the priv ilege of leading everyone o f those boys to Christ. .When camping time came every boy was there, and morning and evening they sat together around the open Bible and read and prayed. 'How marvelous was the transformation in the lives o f those boys. It was from within; not education or cul ture, ’ but Christ. A Transfigured Life .—Sam Simmons was born in Belfast, Ireland. He came to Philadelphia with his parents when a wee baby. At the age o f 12 his father and mother separated. This cast little Sam out into a great city o f a million and a-quarter of people to meet life alone. At first he was handed over as a delivery boy, to a German grocer. This was in a rough part of the city called “Hell’s Half Acre.” Here he learned to drink his first glass o f beer and smoke his first cigarette. As years vieht by the habits grew upon him until he became a drunkard and cigarette fiend. He lost position after position through these habits. When only 22 years old he
did, his first prison term in Homesburg, Pa. This did not transform him. He came out with the same sins, and became worse than ever. At the age o f 39, in the city o f Los Angeles, he came forward with a company o f “trail hitters” in the Billy Sun day, meetings. Jesus heard his cry of repentance and he was saved. A Transfigured G irlSA young girl who was brought Up in a poor home in a Penn sylvania mining town was forced to work in a factory at an early age. Her father wa§ a drunkard and her mother lived a loose,, careless life. She gave her heart to God in some meetings held near her home and she ran away from home that she might get a knowledge o f the Bible. Her father and mother found out where she had gone and came for her, intending to take her away, but the people at the Bible School treated them kindly and they finally allowed her to stay. She became strong in body and soul and soon led her father* mother and sister to Christ Transfiguration is God’s Work .—-“ Moses wist not that his face shone.” God was in Moses. Stephen’s face shone like the face o f an angel because the Holy Spirit had filled Stephen. Paint, culture, educa tion, can never put into our faces that which repentance, faith and yielding to God will put there. “They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed” (Ps. 34:5). When Mr. Moody came back from across the Atlantic, after the great revival in Europe, he was met in New York by an American delegation. They said, “Mr. Moody, we greet you. W e glorify God in behalf o f the things you’ve done in Europe; but, Mr, Moody, you can’t do that over here.” Mr. Moody looked at these Chris tian men and said, “ If God Almighty will take the infidelity out o f the heart of the Church in America, we will bring all Amer ica to Christ.” And he announced a truth -as broad as the depravity o f America.
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