320
June 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
I SNotes on Christian ßndeavor i I A( Î „ By Alan S. Pearce
July 6, 1930 Joys and Dangers When Away From Home Gen. 28:10-22. (Consecration Meeting) S uggestive S ervice Hymn: “Count Your Blessings.” Hymn: “Sweeter as the Years Go By.” Prayer by leader. Responsive reading: Gen. 28. Hymn: “You May Have the Joy Bells.” Announcements and offering. Special musical number. Leader’s remarks (see helps below). Sentence prayers. Closing song: “Coming Home.” Benediction. Jjs * * T houghts on the T opic ' In this day when Dame Pleasure courts much of the time of the youth of our land, it is well that we seriously consider such a subject as has been selected by the Topic Committee for today. The average young person, when away from home on vacation during the, sum mer months, released from the obliga tions of the classroom and home, thinks he is free to cast off jrestraint and can do as he pleases, regardless of the con- .sequences. He has not learned the dif ference between pleasure and joy. While pleasure may please, it only pleases for the time; .but joy satisfies and abides. There are streams of pleasures 8but oceans of joy. As someone has quaintly put it: “Pleasure is a poor substitute for joy. She is forever seeking and not find ing; always giving, and getting nowhere.” It is Christian young people, however, to whom the topic is meant to be applied. Satan has many pitfalls by which he seeks to trap the believer. We need, therefore, to be ever on our guard lest we be deceived into thinking that for bidden pleasures are actually joys. Temp tations are often more fierce when one is away from his home and church. A troop of subtle suggestions may come, such as these: “Since you are a stranger in this town, no one would notice your absence from church on the Lord’s Day. The friends at home need never learn of the proposed fishing trip or hike for that day. Besides, you are rather timid about going ■into a strange church. If you should attend the C. E. meeting the leader might call upon you to take part. Of course, while at home you were accus tomed to attend and lead such meetings, but it certainly would be embarrassing to speak before strangers. Vacation comes only once a year and you need a change from the home- routine, so why not for get the church and have a good time?” The lessons from the story of Jacob will help us to meet these temptations. Jacob was away from home and its wholesome influences, but not away from
God. His experience on this occasion was one of joy and blessing in the pres ence of God. The record of it has been preserved to show us how near we may draw to God even when among strangers and amid unusual surroundings. It was a time of reflection for Jacob, when, alone with God, he remembered mistakes made when at home, and received correction. It was also a time of comfort and encour agement. He gained new confidence in the kind heavenly Father who had for given his sin and was leading him all along his lonely journey. Much can be obtained from this incident bearing on the topic. Contrast this story with that of the Prodigal Son in Luke IS. Call for an expression regarding the “joys and dangers encountered when away from home” that have been suggested to the members while you were speaking. * * * S ide -L ights According to legend, while St. John ministered at Ephesus, he kept a tame partridge which he had found wounded and carried home. A young huntsman pass ing by saw him caressing his pet and taunted him with idleness. “What is that in your hand ?” asked the Apostle. “My bow,” was the answer. “And why is the string loose?” The huntsman replied: “If it were always on the stretch, it would lose its spring.” “And this,” said the man of God, “is my relaxation, refreshing my spirit.” Which was happier and the more truly human, the huntsman or the Apos tle?— Dr. David Smith. Lord Leverhulme, the great English manufacturer, in a letter to a friend, quoted this story of Gladstone: . “During the early coaching days, Glad stone used to inquire of the drivers of the coaches that went out of London through Barnet and St. Albans, whether this route was not hard bn the horses, and whether the alternative road, which goes through Slough and is fairly level, was not better. He was surprised to find that the horses on the Highgate road lasted half again as long as the horses on the level Slough road. He drew the inference that it was variety and change, collar-work at one point and no collar-work at another, that was best for the health of a horse, and in his experience, best for the judge the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a pleasure, take this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tender ness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; whatever increases the authority ,of your body over your mind, that thing, to you, is sin.” A few years ago a policeman shouted to a boy in the Canal at Preston, Eng land, “Hello! Why are you bathing there?” “Please, sir, I’m not. I’m drown ing,” was the boy’s answer, and he sank almost immediately. The policeman dived and rescued him. Many persons who are supposed to be having a good time in the world are really losing their lives. It is the duty and privilege of Christ’s fol lowers to rescue them .—Living Water. — o — July 13, 1930 Worth-While Hobbies Psalm 8:3-9 S uggestive S ervice Hymn: “The Banner of the Cross.” Hymn: “Blessed Assurance.” Prayer by leader. Repeat in unison Psalm 23. Hymn: “Saviour, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us.” Announcements and offering. Special musical number. Leader’s remarks. Two-minute talks on topic by members previously requested. Closing Hymn: “I wa s ' a Wandering Sheep.” Benediction. * * * T houghts on the T opic A “hobby,” according to the Standard Dictionary, is “something in which one takes extravagant interest; an absorbing pursuit.” From the same dictionary we read that a “pastime” is “that which amuses or seems to make time pass agreeably.” What a difference in the meaning of these two words 1 We need to differentiate between that which en gages “extravagant interest” and that which “seems to make time pass agree ably.” A hobby may keep a man from evil but pastimes often lead to temptation and sin. There are many worth-while hobbies for young people to take up today : For boys—stamp collecting, antique collecting, building of radios and airplane models, various studies through books available at our public libraries; for girls—sew ing, cooking, study of flowers, etc. (Add many others to this list or ask for others to be named and their value discussed in the meeting. The eighth Psalm, assigned for this lesson, presents Jehovah’s glory and John Wesley’s mother once wrote to him when he was in college: “Would you
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