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June, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
There was a swift appraisal o f values and a sharp con flict. Then— “ I will . . . give up . . . my art! And follow Christ!” The decision was wrung from a breaking heart, but joy flowed in like the colors o f a sunset on a rain- washed sky. Immediately the new convert began planning to come to the Bible Institute. When he arrived, a great surprise awaited him. There, as he entered the old building where so many hundreds have been trained and sent forth to serve, he found that God was giving back to him the talent he had surrendered—blessed, this time, by the touch o f the Master’s hand upon it. During student days, this young man has met many o f his expenses 1by means o f his palette and brush. For two years, he has done most o f the art work for the' K ing ’ s B usiness , and has been engaged to illus trate several books. When sufficient amounts for his board and room at the Institute have not been earned by this means, he has not disdained to work in the kitchen or be hind the clerk’s desk. Following his graduation from the Institute, the artist will spend the month o f July, with other Institute students and workers, in the work o f the Children’s Special Service Mission at Hermosa Beach, Calif.—a definitely evangel istic enterprise conducted each summer among children pn the ocean sands. There crayon and chalk will illustrate many a spiritual lesson that might in no other way be grasped. “ I want you to make it clear,” this young man said re cently, “ that it was because God got hold o f me, and B. I. helped me, that I am where I am today. Otherwise— I’d probably still be doing nothing more than carrying dishes. And I know it.” T h e P ower of G od “ Kept by the power o f God.” Not only are the words the motto o f the graduating class o f June, 1935, and the marching orders o f departing students who go forth to make Christ known, but their truth has also been proved in the lives o f scores o f students during their days o f training. The words are the personal testimony, too, o f every donor whose gifts and prayers and spirit o f sacrifice have been God’s means o f making a Commencement day possible. They are the hope, moreover, o f every Institute official who looks ahead. They are the guarantee—and the only guar antee—of the Institute’s continuance. “ Kept by the power o f God.” The power o f God can never fa il! Is it not very much worth while to risk one’s all in so great a.cause? Every one is either saved or lost. But some one may ask, “ Am I a sinner ? Am I exposed to eternal punishment as a notoriously wicked person is? My life is blameless. I am a Sunday-school teacher, a member o f the church ; I read the Bible daily; I pray morn ing and evening. Am I to be lost in the same way that a drunkard or a profligate is doomed ?” NicodemUs, the Jewish teacher mentioned in John 3, was perhaps the most religious inquirer of all time. Yet he was a sinner and needed to be born again. How may one be saved? “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” (Acts 16:31). If, as you read these lines,.you turn to Christ and;believe|onjHim who bore on the cross the judgment o f God upon sin, and if you then count upon an immediate forgiveness o f your own sin for which He made atonement, salvation is yours. “Come” is the urgent call of God (Isa. 55 :1, 3, 6),; . “ Come” is the pleading call o f Jesus (Matt. 11 :28). r “ Come” is the Spirit’s earnest call (Rev; 22 :17). Whoever comes is received, for, “ him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6 :37 ).— S elected . SAVED OR LOST— WHICH?
Drawn by motives that nobody else knows—perhaps the need for employment—a Dane about thirty years o f age wandered into the Bible Institute, intent on taking his life. In an empty classroom, a student found him lying uncon scious, deep gashes in his wrists. A Christian doctor was instantly summoned. But the diagnosis was discouraging: “ There is nothing humanly to do for him. But we must pray.” It was only a moment until the ambulance, its siren screaming, drew up at the Institute entrance. But in that moment, prayer had been offered that God would save the soul o f the man who was so near to death. Practiced eyes surveyed the patient. “ No hope,” the officers concluded. At the hospital, the report was con firmed. But with God there is always hope. A few days later, while hurrying to a hospital to visit another patient, Mr. Stuchbery heard o f the case o f the would-be suicide. He found that the young man was lying in the very hospital to which he was going. Calling on him, Mr. Stuchbery found him not only alive, but—perhaps for the first time since the accident— able to converse. The visit was like a tonic to the sufferer, for his caller was a native o f England and thoroughly familiar with home scenes and customs in Denmark. Moreover, they both had lost their mothers at an early age, and each o f the men had known the binding power o f sin. One o f them had found liberty in Christ, and the other suddenly longed for that freedom. With so much in common with the young man before him, it was easy for the disciple o f the Lord Jesus Christ to present his Master— the One who will help in every hour o f need. That afternoon, while nurses passed in silent swiftness in and out o f the long ward, while other patients conversed in low tones to their visitors or called across the room to men in other beds, the despondent Dane found himself entirely alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the solemnity and seclusion o f that hour, a decision was made that caused the angels o f heaven to rejoice, for the students’ prayer, uttered in faith as they had surrounded an unconscious form, was answered. The Sunday-school girls came. Before the evangelistic meeting was half over, one o f them slipped a note into the teacher’s hand. It read: “ Don’t you think we should go forward tonight? I think we should.” When the invita tion was given to accept Christ, both girls responded, and their changed lives now offer evidence o f a work o f grace in their hearts. When the Lord asked this student for her $1.25, there was required on her part the same kind o f obedience that Abraham showed when he offered Isaac. But the Lord met her, as He did the patriarch, and made her life richer for the lesson learned. “ K ept ”—Y ielding Among the bus boys working in a large city restaurant, there was one who was “ different.” He made a great im pression upon the slender newcomer who was fresh from high School and the farm, in whose heart there flamed a de sire to be an artist. He had come to the city to work at anything that would enable him to study art. At the res taurant, the older boy: showed unnumbered kindnesses to the bewildered lad from the country. They liked each other. The friendship soon led to a visit in the room o f the older boy, who was at that time a student ;at the Bible Insti-, tute. Within that plain little room, on the sixth floor of the Institute’s thirteen-story building, the would-be artist met Someone whom he had known but had never fully trusted — the Master Artist whose touch upon a life is harmony and peace. KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD [Continued from page 204]
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