T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
128
By CLARENCE F. STAUFFER* Los Angeles, California
no hope, no trustful dependence upon the Great Physician, no God-given inner resources in the hour of crisis. It is even more distressing to see Christians who are pitifully impov erished in spiritual resources. Many of them meet the difficulties and ad versities of their lives no better than non-Christians do, because they have not established that, intimate fellow ship with God which opens the chan nels of His grace and enables God to give courage and strength for every need of life. One of my patients had an illness which had made her an invalid. A l though she had been a Christian for a long time, she lacked that peace of heart and quietness of mind which she should have possessed as a child of God. This patient declared that God could and would heal her. She fastened" her hope of recovery on James 5:14. Until the end of her earthly life, there was manifested a lack of inner harmony and spiritual poise which are the possible posses sions of every surrendered and trust ing soul. On the other hand, my own heart was blessed and enriched recently as I ministered to *h e l d « v Chris tian woman who nad gone through an operation for cancer on her eye.
viduals who suffer from this lack. Every life has its inevitable share of adversity, disappointments, sorrow, and suffering, but the tragedy of life is to come face to face with reverses and to find oneself unable to meet them. The hazards of war have a way of revealing the true nature of men. On November 24, 1943, the aircraft carrier, Liscome Bay, was struck by a torpedo and sunk. Tim Woodham of Barstow, California, in describing the catastrophe said the water was soon covered' vyith men swimming away from the stricken carrier. “ I shall never forget it,” he said. “Most of the men were singing hymns or cursing their fate.” The Test of Trouble In my ministry, as the Baptist Chap lain at the Los Angeles County Gen eral Hospital, I have frequent oppor tunities to witness how men and women react to disappointment, pain, and suffering. As one walks through the wards of this great hospital, he ca'n hear some calling upon God to help them in their distress and pain, while others are cu;sing God and their fate. The unsaved person cun trust only in medical science and in the skill of man. Beyond these, he has
TT AST MAY, a fourteen - year - old girl committed suicide in Hoi- I J lywood because she faced cer tain apparent barriers in her life, and she had no inner spiritual resources to help her surmount them. Her pathetic farewell note stated, . . there is no other way out . . . I can’t keep up in school. I try, but it’s so very, very hard, fighting, fight ing just to keep my head above wa ter—but it isn’t worth, i t This last must seem strange to hear from a child (because no .matter how much make-up I put on, how I fix my hair, or what clothes I wear, that’s all I am, just a child) . . . If there is a God, and I know there must be, I especially ask his forgiveness.” This young girl faced difficulties as real to her as those which confront adults. In her case, the home and the church had failed utterly to lay the foundation for the development of inner spiritual resources which come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She was but one of hundreds of indi- * Baptist Chaplain at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, appointed by the Los An- yetes Baptist City Mission Society. He minis ters personally to an average of five hundred patients a month. Before enterina upon this work in May, 19i3, Mr. Stauffer served in con nection with the Dean’s office at Wheaton College, and at Westmont College, Los Angeles. At Wheaton, he was also Assistant Professor of Christian Education,
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