B u s i n e s s
T h e
K i n g ' s
October 1930
4 5 7
w r
When the Fire Fell B y C harles L. H uston ( Coatesville, Pa.)
e v ^ i A c S e U s Ä V 6 O
to the foundation, it will tear it out. It must be made strong enough to withstand this service for many years. So we, as Christians, are founded upon the rock Christ Jesus, “ for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” With this immovable bed rock, we, as living (or growing) stones, “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
HEN a college student, I came to Christ very definitely, having before that tried unsuccess fully to live the Christian life without having been born again by the Holy Spirit. As my parents were Orthodox Friends, my first Christian experience was along the line of introspection and seeking holy living. But I found, after some years, that I was simply going in circles and was entirely dissatisfied with my lack of fruitfulness. Although
I believed it because it was in the Bible, I did not see why it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to shed His blood for me. A friend from North Carolina helped me very much by telling me, “ Charles, what I believe thee needs to do is to fix thy gaze upon Jesus Christ hanging up on Calvary’s cross for thee, shedding His precious blood in atonement for thy sins, and believe it just as if thee were the only one concerned in it, and also be lieve it (and-be sure about this) not be cause thee feels it, but because God says it in His Book.” It was quite an effort to change my attitude of mind, but the result was that, obeying John 3:14, 15, I saw that Jesus Christ had borne all my sins and the sins of the whole world. Then I was filled with a desire to bring others to a saving knowledge o f Jesus Christ, and I be came active in Gospel work. S piritual T ruth I llustrated in a S teel M ill I have been engaged during most of my life in iron and steel manufacture. ,1 have found that the iron and steel work ers and the railroad men with whom I have been thrown, have no particular difficulty in believing the realities of the Bible. Furthermore, in the steel mills
I have frequently taken pleasure in showing Christian friends who visit the steel mill a beautiful illustration of the rapture o f the saints. It is a large elec tric magnet,,,shaped like a huge cheese -box, handled by a big Gantry crane which is used for unloading and reload- ing pig iron and scrap for melting in the furnaces. Little pieces of steel or iron fall to the grourid, and accumulate. Some of them are covered with dust. When the operator;, in response to a signal to lower the magnet within a foot of the, ground, turns on the electric current, im mediately all these little particles of steel and iron rise from the dust and cling to the magnet. Copper* silver, nickel or gold coins, thrown on the ground, re main unaffected by the magnet. Once, after I had been showing this to a visiting friend, the operator of the crane came down from his elevated cage and said, “ That is what is going to take place with us Christians when the Lord Himself comes back for us.” T he I mportance of F ire It would be impossible to make iron and steel without flre.. Fire is required, first, to change the iron ore into clean metal. Fire is necessary to refine it,
0 Holy Ghost, arise, Thy temple fill: With cleansing fire baptize My yielded will. Breath from above, refine r My waiting, heart:. Impulse and power divine To me impart. Thou very Light of Light, Poured from, on high, Kindle with vision bright My inward eye. Cleanse, and illume, and fill— It shall be so: Then send me where Thou will And I will go. — A . J. Gordon.
to temper it and make it fit for use. Finally, fire is needed to generate the power to reduce and shape the steel. The iron and steel worker, then, is naturally interested when he sees mention made of fire in the Bible, and after a little study, recognizes the close connection between the priesthood and the priestly sacrifices and the fire. The token of the acceptance of the Old Testament sacrifices was the divine fire that consumed them. For instance, Elijah, in the test with the prophets of Baal, said, “ The God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” The wor shipers of Baal called all day upon their god, but no fire came. Then, at the time of the evening sacrifice, when the sin offering was being sacrificed in the temple in Jerusa lem, Elijah prayed, and the fire of the Lord fell and con sumed the sacrifice and the altar. Abraham and Gideon had similar experiences. David, likewise, in the time of pestilence when thousands of peo- f Continued on pag6 461)
many practical spiritual lessons may be learned. For in stance, in preparing the foundations for machinery and furnaces, wherever possible and practicable, we dig down until we come to solid rock, then build a sub-structure of immense foundations, fastening heavy iron bolts in them from the bottom. These are used to hold down the massive machinery that is placed on top of the foundations ready to roll the steel from large ingots, into the finished product. The machinery is made very strong for the heavy work it has to withstand. The powerful engine has a fly wheel about twenty-five feet in diameter, weighing from fifty to one hundred tons. Its periphery flies around at a speed- of a mile a minute. One can realize that when a large block of hot steel is pushed into the mill rolls, the tremendous power of the engine supplemented by the momentum of this fly wheel, will either draw the steel through the rolls and- reduce its dimensions stage by stage, or, if the machinery has riot sufficient foundation and is not securely anchored
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker