T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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Above the din, a mother hears God’s melody •
- having taken orders for liquor all day, ' companionship, for she and my father my mother would come up to the big were devoted to each other and he room on the second floor of our home, gave her every consideration. Nor was which I shared with two b r o t h e r s , she in need of diversion, for we chil- Sometimes I would be propped up in dren were unpredictable in our antics bed, reading a cheap, exciting story, and we kept the place in an excited Sometimes the gas jet would be turned .turmoil all the time. Her natural off and the room in darkness when I placidness, her sense of humor, and would hear a familiar tapping at the her penetration into human nature en- door. I remember now the feelings that abled her to enjoy her family to the always arose within, me at the sound fullest extent. She was happy in the of her coming—the sense of deep love work of the church, but still there was and respect for her. a spiritual'aspect in her life in which v , , , ... „ she must have felt solitary and with- “ Louis?” she would say softly, and ,jrawn a .mere slip of a girl, she had come physical standards, she was a frail to love my father. She cared for him woman, but shq had an inner beauty so much that she left England for that gave her great spiritual strength. Australia, and married him on the day Often she would sit on the edge of of her arrival t h e r e . In the home my bed or m o v e about the r o o m church, she had evidenced a true ac- quietly, putting in order the garments ceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour, that I had thrown in every direction, but»neither she nor my father had had I cannot recall her words, for they were any Bible teaching on the dangers of different on every occasion; but the the unequal yoke, the marriage of a theme was always' the same. She believer and an unbeliever. I doubt would warn me of the evils of the that they had ever had^ presented to business in which we were engaged,' them the truth of 2 Corinthians 6:14: and she would urge upon me the ac- “Be ye not uilequally yoked together ceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as with unbelievers: for what fellowship my personal Saviour. While I did not hath righteousness with Unrighteous- them I would see her small dark figure framed in the doorway. Judged by
became willing, himself, to make one great confession—the owning of him self a sinner in God’s' sight, needing the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The high respect that we chil dren had for him would have been increased tenfold had this decision, been made in the years we shared our lives together. I was the sixth in. a family of five boys and three girls; a brother and a s i s t e r were y o u n g e r . My father’s strength and firmness left their im print upon the life of each of us. Per sonally, I count his life as one of the four major factors that molded my early days. The o t h e r contributing agencies were the influence of a godly mother, the ministration of a good pastor, and the restraint of church at tendance. The Control of a Strong Father My father was a polished English man. He was not a brewer in the sense that the term is used in America. Rath er, he was a Sales manager, having under his supervision the work of sev eral hundred men in connection with what was then the largest brewery in the Southern Hemisphere. His business was with “ hotels,” which, in that coun try, are establishments of a superior kind, where liquor is sold. He never drank liquor, and he cautioned his boys not to touch it. His own advancement to a position of high responsibility had been along the path of hard work and diligent study. In turn, he «implanted in his children at an early age an apprecia tion of the value of work. Indeed, when I was still in my teens, I worked for my father on Saturdays, going from hotel to hotel, taking orders foir the business. He kept a steady control over my activities and saw to it that I learned, essential lessons in meeting the pub lic and in perseverance in the daily task. But more than that,.- the very force of the strength of his character kept an - intangible control over his son’s growing personality. Though nei ther realized it then, God in His mercy had His hand upon each of us: upon my father, with his proud, yearning heart, and upon the son that was so headstrong and mischievous. In in fi nite grace, the Spirit of God was woo ing us, though for a long time each in his own way ignored or resisted that call. The Influence of a Godly Mother The family’s association with the liquor business was a cause of anxiety to my mother. I remember well how on many occasions, when I had tum bled into bed on Saturday nights after
Windows . . . Marbles . . . And a Pipe
ness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Thus it was that for many years there was in my mother’s life a want of spiritual fellowship that neither her husband nor her growing children sat isfied. Perhaps it was this very lack that made her so zealous for the salva tion of all of us. Perhaps it was the reason for those daily periods when she would slip away to her room and [ Continued on Page 30]
comply with her wishes then, I did notf resent those talks. They were the ut terances of a mother’s loving, sympa thetic heart, born of prayer and holy ambition. God used them, later, among the links that bound me to Himself. Looking back upon my mother’s life now, from the viewpoint of my ma turity, it seems to me that in a sense she must have been extremely lonely, though she gave no outward evidence of it. Certainly she did not want for
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