435
September 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Rule 3: Girls should stay loyal and true to their girl friends and let nothing change them. “A friend is one who knows all about you and loves you just the same.” See book of Ruth. And as for Esther! The dear brave little queen who had said: “So will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.” Pauline could not stop there but went on to the place in chapter five where the shrinking lovely girl stands trembling in the inner court of the king’s house, “and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.” She drew a long breath of delight because that part never failed to thrill her, and wrote: Rule 4: Girls should dare to do right every time and in every thing, because our King will always receive us and will not only hold out His golden scepter, but His loving arms. See book of Esther. Pauline was now ready to try to discover what her sister so admired in the Queen of Sheba’s conduct. She turned to the ninth chapter of 2 Chronicles and read the first twelve verses through several times before it came to her as she pondered over the beauties of verse 8: “Blessed be the. Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, therefore made He thee king over them,” and so on until the exclamation burst from h e r: “What a generous heart she had!” Yes! that was what Pauline discerned in this famous queen’s conduct. A ruler herself of no mean country, still she could admire with no thought of self, with no jealous withholdings of praise justly earned, and say: “Behold, the one half . . . . was not told me.” And she could follow this up, this frank admission of another’s superiority, with a rich gift which put the fin ishing touch to her royal conduct. Pauline drew the paper towards her rather slowly, and wrote: Rule 5: Girls should always be ready to tell their friends how wonderful they are, even when it hurts because they wish they were only half as wonderful themselves. Was that all? No! There was even more, and she added: Note A, under Rule 5: Girls never should give stingily—I mean grudgingly--to their friends. God loves “a hilarious giver” (see margin). Remember the Queen of Sheba, girls! 2 Chron. 9:1-12. Pauline’s brow was rather damp and there was a blot or two upon Rule 5 as if this exegesis had cost her some thing. She gazed reflectively for a while at the lines on the “Girlhood’s Calendar” that hung near: Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever, Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long, And thus make life, death, and that vast forever, One grand, sweet song. Y es! that was very fine. But how was one to live up to it? One could not in one’s own strength. Then the verse, “I can do all things through Christ which strength- eneth me,” flashed across her mind as if sent by the Com forter who has been well named “the One called alongside to help.” Yes, that was the solving of all this puzzling riddle called “Life,” which was made to seem such a tan gle by some of the world’s wiseacres—Christ was the great divine Answer to it all. He was the great Solution, Pauline reflected, to an otherwise insoluble problem.
If you were in trouble He would bear the heaviest end of the cross, and if you were happy and carefree He, alone, would keep you from falling. And back of all that, if you were lost in this world’s wilderness He was the kind Shepherd who would seek you out and never rest until He found you and brought you home to the Father. A little wistful look came into the girl’s eyes as the wish grew in her heart to make this Saviour, who was daily growing more precious to her, known to her friends. Why were they so afraid of Him? Quickly the answer came: Because they did not know Him. How could they come to know Him ? Why, one’s common sense told one that the only way to know a person was to be with him, hear what he had to say and tell him frankly all about one’s self. How much time did they pass with Him—all these people who avoided Him? None at all! They were not even fair—they gave Him no opportunity to show to them the salvation He had died to give to them. Whole church fuls of people, too, the girl’s mind ran on in her soliloquy, would stand and sing, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul,” and then turn aside from the quiet place in each day where this loving God would have a chance to woo and win them. If one considered it from a simple human standpoint, it was just like being engaged, Pauline thought, and never sitting with your betrothed, and not being anxious to run to the door and let him in when he came, and not being eager for his letters when he was away, and not longing for his return—in short, not loving one’s lover. The Bible gave her these verses: “I am the rose o f Sharon, and the lily o f the valleys.” “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love.” “I t was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him and would not let him go.” “I t is the voice o f my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me.” “I rose up to open to my beloved.” “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” It was the Song of songs! The mysteries of it en thralled one—they were as yet dimly discerned—-more felt than understood, and yet they expressed what Pauline was seeking to make known, that her Saviour, her beloved, was “the chiefest among ten thousand.” Could she add this truth, which seemed just to have burst into bloom for her, to her rules? She opened Elise’s favorite “Madame Guyon” which lay near by, and read : The farther I went, the more my spirit was lost in its Sov ereign, who attracted it more and more to Himself. He was pleased at first that I should know this for the sake of others, and not for myself. Indeed He drew my soul more and more into Himself, till it lost itself entirely . . . To such the words of our Lord seem addressed:— “Your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22). It is, as it were, plunged in a river of peace. Its prayer is continual. Nothing can hinder it from praying to God or loving Him. It amply verifies these words: “I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me" (Song of Solomon 5:2). Oh, unutterable happi ness 1 . . . “When I would possess nothing through self-love, everything was given me without going after it!” Oh, happy dying of the grain of wheat, which makes it produce an hun dred fold! And Pauline bowed her fair young head as the earnest prayer arose in her heart that she might follow on to really know Him, whom to know is life everlasting. “And I am not sure that I quite understand it all, dear Lord,” she prayed, “but I love to trust Thee for every thing—all the more because ‘such knowledge is too won derful for me— it is high, I cannot attain unto it.’ Help
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