August 1929
399
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
detected only in the reflected sunlight. God is so hammered into His universe, in to its material nature, and into the moral history of mankind, that if we hold it in the sunlight of His wisdom and love we can see His face in it all.— Sunday School Chronicle. “It is not possible,” says Ruskin, “for a Christian to'walk across so much as a rod of the natural earth without receiving strength and hope from some stone, flower, leaf or sound, nor without a sense of a dew falling upon him out of the sky.” God has crowded this world full of beauty; it is only our eyes at fault when we -find the common and mean. Consider the French painter, Millet, and his work. The peasant or the laboring man, by him self, had never been regarded as a proper subject for art until this “peasant painter of peasants” looked upon him with the eyes of understanding and sympathy. All the world knows and loves his pictures— “The Gleaners,” “The Sowers,” “The An- gelus,” and many more.— Christian Stand ard. When the professor had spoken we stood for a moment silent, then he smiled and said briskly: “I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to Him, having a vision of Him—a Person— before my eyes. As I grew older I con cluded there' was no God. I dismissed Him from the universe. I believed only in what I could see, hear or feel. I talked about nature and reality.” He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly; “And now— it seems to me—there is nothing but God.” —David Grayson. A minister asked an old colored man his reasons for believing in the existence of a God. “Sir,” said he, “I have been here going hard on fifty years. Every day since I have been in this world I see the sun rise in the East and set in the West. The North star stands where it did the first time I ever saw it. The seven stars and Job’s coffin keep on the same path in the sky, and never turn out. It ain’t so with man’s works. He makes clocks and watches. They may run well for a while; but they get out of fix and stand stock-still. But the sun and moon and stars keep on the same way all the while.” The kindness and generosity of Robert G. Ingersoll won for him many friends who deeply regretted his opinions. Among these was Henry Ward Beecher. In the study of the famous preacher was an elaborate celestial globe, which had been sent him with the compliments of some manufacturer. On the surface, in delicate workmanship, were raised figures of the constellations and the stars which com posed them. The globe struck Ingersoll’s fancy. He turned it around and around with admiration. “This is just what I want,” he said. “Who made it?” “Who made it, do you say, Colonel?” repeated Beecher. “Who made this globe? Why, nobody, of course. It just happened.”,— Youth’s Companion. Standing on the top of the Cheviot Hills, a little son’s hand closed in his, a father taught the message of the mea sureless love of God. Pointing northward over Scotland, then southward over Eng land, then eastward over the German Ocean, then westward over hill and dale, and then sweeping his hand round the whole circling horizon, he said, “Johnny,
my boy, God’s love is as big as all that!” “Why, father,” the boy cheerily replied, with sparkling eyes, “then we must be in the middle of it!”— Thoughts for the King’s Children. They tell a story of a great scientist, a great naturalist, who, one lovely summer day, went out in the Highlands of Scot land with his microscope to study the heather bell in all its native glory, and in order that he might see it in its perfec tion, he got down on his knees, without plucking the flower, adjusted his instru ment, and was reveling in its color,- its delicacy, its beauty, lost “in wonder, love and praise.” How long he stayed there he does not know, but suddenly there was a shadow on him and his instrument. He waited for a time, thinking it might be a passing cloud. But it stayed there, and presently he looked up over his shoul der and there was a fine specimen of a Highland shepherd watching him; and without saying a word, he plucked the heather bell and handed it, with the micro scope, to the shepherd that he, to 9 , might see what he was beholding if he-had vision. And the old shepherd put the instrument up to his eyes, got the heather bell in place and looked at it until the tears ran down his rugged face like bubbles on a mountain stream; and then, handing back the little heather bell tenderly, and the instrument, he said, “I wish you had never shown me that. I wish I had never seen it.” “Why?” asked the scientist. “Be cause,” he said, “mon, that rude foot has trodden on so many of them.” When once you get your eyes open and look through the telescope—God’s telescope of the love of Calvary—at God’s dear Lamb for sin ners slain, you will accuse yourself be cause you ever treated Him badly for a moment—when you have got sight, when you have seen Him. The Lord open our eyes!— Gipsy Smith. —o— August 18, 1929 Making th e Best Use of Nature’s Laws Gal. 6 :7; Matt. 13 :8; Mark 4 :28. D a il y R ea d in g s Aujg. 12. Law of Recompense. Gal. 6:8. Aug. 13. Law of Increase. Matt. 25:19-21. Aug. 14. Law of Habit. 2 Pet. 1 :l-8. Aug. 15. Law of Love. Matt. 5:43-48. Aug. 16. Law of Generosity. Matt. 7 :1, 2. Aug. 17. Law of Faith. Mark 11:20-26. C h o ic e N uggets Earth proposes, God determines even to this day; Youth is planning for successes, Heaven is pitying earth’s distresses, From above the call descends:—life leaves its clay. “God is found within this shadow,” dost not thou say? Youth relieved of its distresses, Earth possessed of heaven’s successes, From above the call descends:—life claims its clay. ’Til that time do thou be wise, with love and praise; Scatter seeds for happy reapings, Dry thine eyes of all thy weepings, Cheer thy life in heaven’s reunion-resur rection day.
What a window is to a room, oft- times an illustration is to a message. It sheds light. In the field of helps for the leader of a C. E. meeting, there appears to be an ample supply of good suggestions on how to conduct the meeting, but a great dearth of pointed illustrations on the t o p i c for the evening. The editor of this department there fore seeks in these pages from month to month to give the leader carefully selected illustrations on the topic and daily readings. . These may be used by the leader in his talk, or cut out, num bered and handed to different members to read when called for. August 11, 1929 God’s Goodness Revealed in Nature’s Laws Psa. 104:10-18. D a ily R eading s Aug. 5. Nature’s Voices. Ps. 19 :l-6. Aug. 6. Divine Provision. Acts 17:23-31. Aug. 7. God’s Faithfulness. Matt. 5 :45. Aug. 8. God’s Care for Creatures. Ps. 145:15, 16. Aug 9. Divine Provision. Acts 14:17. Aug. 10. God in His World. Rom. 1 :20. C h o ic e N uggets My Garden A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fring’d pool, Fern’d grot— The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not—v Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign; ’Tis very sure God walks in mine. — Thos. Edward Brown. A man interested in Japan showed a friend of his a Japanese metal mirror. The friend looked at his own face in it, then remarked on the skilled workman ship, the engraved back, and the metal polished with such clearness. “But,” said the owner, “that mirror was not made to see one’s face in. Take it to the win dow, let the sun shine shine upon it, and note the reflection on the wall.” His friend did so, and saw, clearly outlined on the wall, the face of Gautama Buddha, who is worshiped by many Japanese. The skilled workman had hammered in the face of his god so deftly that it could be
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker