474
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1937
■— y
Rings and Bells
A Story
By EVELYN McFARLANE McCLUSKY Illustrations by Ransom D. Marvin
W E S T O N s a t studying new s p a p e r ads fo r ring sets. “Why does a fellow have to get the wedding ring at the same time as the engagement ring? . . . Do you sup pose the jeweler thinks it is the best way to be sure of s e llin g the second rin g ? . ! . I w o n d e r whether Esther will say ‘yes’ . . . Should a fellow le t th e g ir l select the rings?” Then he wished the ordeal of proposing to Esther were over, that he were married! “This un certainty is getting on my
girl can’t make a move, it seems, with out in some way turning people’s thoughts to Christ. My! I’d like to witness for Him like that! I’d like to give as clear a testimony—always— as the bells on the priests’ garments. But no one ever seems to know that I wear the robe of an intercessor.” Still musing, Weston nosed his road ster in between two large cars in front of Mr. Aaronson’s store, just as the proprietor was closing the door for the night. “Hello, Wes!” he called out. “Did you get dat ring, my boy?” “Not yet.” “Let’s go in, and ve vill talk busi ness! My vife is in the hospital, and I am nervous. I’d rather go back in here than go home to a lonesomeness.” He turned the key and flung the door open invitingly. Wes’s heart leaped high. “What an op portunity!” he thought. “How good God is to me! For weeks I ’ve prayed for this man, and now I’m going to talk to him 1” “Your wife is in the hospital?” Weston had a sympathy in his question which should appeal to any heart-heavy man. “I hope there is nothing serious?” “Plenty serious, my boy, plenty serious!” The little man rubbed his hands. “When you’ve been married ten years, and you’ve wanted all that time what I want, you’d be nervous, too. But my Rosie! I can’t settle down to anything, for thinking of her. I feel like a cat on fly paper! To think of maybe not having my dear Rosie is driving me mad.” “But, Mr. Aaronson, doctors these days are so fine—” Oh, why didn’t he get at the business of telling this frantic man about the love of the Saviour! The cords
Esther will look lovely wearing thisl" He held the diamond engagement ring before Wes with a gesture of pride.
nerves,” he confided to his inner heart. Suddenly as one pushed to the side of the road by a traffic officer, he knew that he should not be nervous over the outcome nor impatient about having Esther. Sup pose he had never found her! Again his thoughts were halted. He had not been the one to find her. God had given them to each other. God had given him all his blessings, direct unmerited gifts. “Oh, I wish I could tell some one of my Saviour!” he sighed aloud, though there was no one at hand to share the deep gratitude he felt. Weston stuffed one of the ads in his pocket and went out into the crisp night, intending to study the rings in Aaronson’s window, then leave his car parked there while he jostled against the Christmas crowd to do last-minute shopping. Perhaps downtown he might find some one to whom he could tell the good news of the Saviour. He hated to think that it was always Esther, and not he, who was brave enough
to speak for Christ. Well, he’d do some thing about that. He’d speak right out courageously to the next person he met. It did not occur to Weston that, as he launched on his errand, he was not relying very much upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the only One who can “convict the world in respect of sin.” He glanced at his watch. Yes, there was an hour before he could call for Esther at Emmanuel Hospital where she had gone to talk to a patient about the Saviour. He could see her there now—her disarming smile, her open Bible. Every body loved herl Strangely, as he thought of Esther, there came before his mind a mental picture of the priests of Old Testa-, ment times, with the bells on the hems of their garments. He had been reading about them in the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus only that morning. “Why,” he told himself, “their every gesture was a testimony for the Lord! That’s the way with Esther, too. That
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