YOURCHURCHWINDOWS CANINSPIREWORSHIP
BROKEN EARTHENWARE
By REV. ARTHUR HEDLEY*
Through the use of low cost “W in- dowphanie” plain glass windows can be transformed in to rich, colorful de signs. Easily ap plied.
O ne of the most priceless posses sions of the British Museum is the Portland Vase. It is regarded as one of the most beautiful things in the world, a work of beauty and a joy for ever. One day a madman entered the Museum, and with one blow of his stick shattered the vase into a thousand frag ments. There it lay on the floor, mere broken earthenware that before had been a thing of inestimable value. But one came along, picked up the broken fragments, and lovingly, with infinite patience, pieced and cemented them to gether. He was so successful that while one with careful attention might observe the marks of the break, the original beauty had been restored, enriched by the devotion of its restorer. This is the glorious work in which the Lord Jesus Christ is engaged, in a moral and spiritual sense. He is restor ing broken earthenware, —building it up into its original likeness. With infinite love and patience He begins upon the broken fragments of the most ruined life and restores it, so that in time it reflects something of His own image. During His earthly ministry, He was constantly dealing with men and women who were bruised and broken through sin. The religious class despised them, treated them as social outcasts, and cast them aside as they would discard broken vessels. Not so Christ, for He looked upon sinners with tenderness and saw in them souls capable of being restored, recreated, made beautiful and profitable to God. He loved them with a love, which was ready to bear their shame, to be identified with them. He was not ashamed to be called the “friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt. 11:19). It was such love that made men and women like Zaccheus, the publican, and the demon-possessed Mary Magdalene, feel their sin, shame, and hopelessness, and cause them to confess their sins and seek divine pardon. In the pagan and corrupt city of Corinth were those guilty of the grossest sins—drunkenness, immorality in its vilest forms, theft, covetousness—but Christ cleansed and re-made them (1 Cor. 6: 9-11). They became “ a new creation” in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5: 17 R.V.). The Divine Potter took that which had been marred and broken by Satan, and formed it into a thing of beauty and usefulness. Christ is just the same today. No matter how bruised and broken by sin we may be, He is willing and able to transform completely our lives. Many books have been written such as Harold *Dunstable, Beds., England. N O V E M B E R , 1 9 5 2
Begbie’s Broken Earthenware, and Hugh Redwood’s God in the Slums, which give many astounding examples of con version among men and women who were so fettered, crushed, degraded by Satan that they were regarded as the “ Devil’s castaways.” There is no soul so bound that Christ cannot liberate it, no life so broken that He cannot mend it. In my youth there was a man I looked upon as utterly hopeless. He was small in stature and the butt of many a joke. Regularly every Sunday afternoon you would see him come reeling from a public house in an area called the Wool wich Dusthole. All human derelicts gravitated to this quarter. This diminu tive drunkard always stood for a while outside the Salvation Army ring on the street. He was the last person in the world you would have expected to re spond. One day a lad who worked by his side in the Arsenal said, “ Tommy, we’re praying for you at our mission.” He laughed at the very idea of anyone’s praying for him. But within a few months Tommy was soundly converted and instead of staggering home, you would see him neatly dressed, returning from a church, a few yards from the pub where he wasted his money and time so foolishly. He bore a bright and convinc ing witness for Christ. He married a Sunday school teacher and they had two fine lads. Proudly Tommy told me of his boys winning scholarships, and of their work for Christ in the church. I could never despair of the conversion of any man after seeing that miracle of grace. It has been said “ It is never too late to mend,” but man soon finds when he tries to amend his evil ways, that he lacks the power to break with sin, or the courage to break with his com panions in sin. None but Christ can deliver us, and give us power to forsake sin and overcome it. Christ says to us today in our sin and need, “ Wilt thou be made whole?” Do we really want our life to be mended? Do we really desire to conquer that sin which has us in its power, and which we know is working havoc in body, mind and soul? Do we desire deliverance so earnestly that we will suffer persecution and loss if need be? Are we ready to humble ourselves, confess our sins and need? If so, Christ will meet us in our need. He will re ceive us, pardon us, liberate us, trans form us. He will make us whole, and make life from this hour rich, full, joyous and free, a spiritual Portland Vase, worth infinitely more to Him than all the treasures of this earth.
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A Beautiful 16mm. Color and Sound Film p ro d u ce d b y DR. LOUIS T. TALBOT “I SAWBORNE#” A JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR See: • Beautiful jungle scenes • Former headhunters
• Jungle dentistry • Christian Dyaks • Rubber making • Missionary challenge Foreword by Dr. Louis T. Talbot and Dr. J. Arthur Mouw All films available on a free-will offering basis.
Film Department Bible Institute of Los Angeles 558 So. Hope Street Los Angeles 17» California Please send:
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