385
September 1932
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i k e s s
C V s c JH ife WORTH LIVING?
B y MELVIN E. TRO TTER “ Who will shozv us any good?” (Psa. 4 :6 ).
istory is repeating itself. Humanity is the same in all ages. Men look back and are dissatisfied; they look around and are cynical; they look ahead and are pessi mistic. Gloom seems-to mark all classes—-the poor and the rich; the successful and the unsuccessful; the well and the sick; the old and the young. Everywhere, men are saying, “ Who will show us any good ?” A splendid young fellow said to me the other day, “ It is not worth the fight; life is not worth living.” He then made the broad statement that every one felt the same way as he did about it. I informed him that I did not, and I told him why. About three years ago, the Christian Century sent me a questionnaire on the same subject. I answered the editor very much as I answered this young man. I said, “ Had you approached me on this matter thirty- five years ago, I would have told you that life was not worth living, because, at that time, I was bound by habit, I was a victim o f sin, and I had absolutely no control of my life. I had nothing to say about it. I was completely ruled by passion. But when I came to Jesus Christ, He set me free from sin. He became the Lord of my life. Because I am altogether free in Him, life is very much worth living.” It is a wonderful and far-reaching 'question. I have always looked for the long end of it. Naturally, like every one else, I want the best there is, and I have tried things that looked good, regardless of what they cost. As I have grown older, I have found that the cost of most of such things is prohibitive, and to indulge in them is to pave the way to a life that is decidedly not worth living. For instance, if a man indulges in the pleasures of the world, he must neglect his education and must spend money freely. If he does not have the money, he must get it, either by straight or crooked means. Naturally, follow ing such a course, his health cracks. These habit-forming indulgences soon make a slave of him. Their power
to attract and thrill quickly dies, and he can only say, “ I have not found life worth living.” No life is worth living that is lived for self. Selfishness ruins, paralyzes, and kills. If we are to find life worth while, we must live for others. But why go on? You want me to give you my “why” for declaring that life is worth living. As you would expect me to say, my “why” is God. Feed a man, and he will get hungry again. Clothe him, and he will wear out the clothes. Give him money, and he will spend it. Give him the gold cure, and if it works, you have a sober sinner. But get him to God, and he will stand hitched, and life will be worth living from every outlook. I found that out thirty-five years ago, on the nineteenth of January. D arker D ays T han T hese Those were dark days— the days of the saloon, which many o f our citizens are trying so hard to put back in this country. The saloons made the slums, and the slums were more than a word; they were a condition. In fact, they constituted a life in themselves. Missions in those days were situated in the slums, with saloons on every hand, barrell houses, bawdy houses, dope joints. The police of Chicago say that during the winter of ’96 and ’97, when I was converted, there were 30,000 men sleeping on the floors of saloons, police stations, or wherever else they could get in. The majority of them were drunkards. Re ports say that, in the first ward alone, there were more than 2,300 people who took their lives that winter. They had not found life worth living. The missions were filled with drunken men. The Pa cific Garden Mission had a little corner where sober and well-dressed people could sit, because the rest of the house was not fit for them. I have seen more than sixty drunken men in one meeting, all trying to talk at once. No one knows the suffering of the saloon days unless he
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs