September 1924
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
599
THE EMPTY SEAT (Continued from page 557)
million magazines in a single issue. To transport that number of magazines they showed would take an army of fifty thousand men, each burdened with fifty pounds. The pages of that issue if placed side by side would stretch four times around the world— a distance of approximately one hundred thousand miles. It required a thousand peo ple, working in three shifts twenty-four hours a day, twenty- five days to produce that one issue. If one person undertook to count that single edition it would take him three months and twelve days to complete the task. To print that issue of the magazine required twelve hundred and fifty tons of paper; and it would have been possible to fill a swimming-pool twenty feet long, ten feet wide, and four feet deep, with the nineteen tons of ink which were used in the printing. The Woolworth Building in New York is the highest building in the world. It has fifty-five stories. But that one edition of that magazine— those two and a half million copies— piled one on top of another would be three thousand six hundred and fifty stories high. That would be equal to a mountain stretching over ten miles into the sky. Think of the concentrated labor and of the tremendous earnestness necessary to “ put across” one single issue of one single magazine! And think what such labor and such earnestness, applied in the religious realm, would mean for the cause of God! Yonder in one of the western cities, we are told that a group of Socialists, over one hundred strong, have banded together for the distribution of Socialistic literature, and the advancement of that cause. They all get up before daybreak each Sunday morning and distribute their liter ature systematically all over the city by entering the yards of the people and slipping the Socialistic literature into the morning papers. Before the householders arise to get
bedroom door pushed gently open. I lay there only half awake, and yet conscious. I knew what it was. The baby "was in some trouble, and had come to his father. That little figure in the darkness came up to my bedside, and I felt those warm hands upon my face. I laid the covers back, and said, “ Slip in.” I saw by the rapid beating of his heart that the lad was agitated. I stroked his cheek, and asked him what was the matter. He snuggled up a little closer, and there was a moment of silence. At first he did not tell me why he had come, so I waited. (We have not had five babies in our home without learning some things, you know. One of those things is that you cannot crowd a child.) After a moment he said, “ Daddy, what are dreams?” “Now,” I said, “you ask a hard question.” I tried to tell him as best I could what dreams were. I knew something had happened. I said, “Why do you ask?” and he answered, “Daddy, Xsaw a big red thing!” Too much supper, perhaps, or an underdone potato; but in the darkness of the night there had come a terrible experience to that little lad— a nightmare had fallen upon him. He had seen “ a big red thing,” and he did not understand it; and he was afraid. But ho. knew where there was safety— where there was comfort. He came to his father. Oh, in this day when there are fearful forms looming yonder in the gathering shadows, we need our Heavenly Father! We need to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. We need to come back to Him in the fellowship of prayer. The Second Great Essential And we need another thing: we need personal work. This is the other sacred responsibility that Jesus Christ has called us to. Every one of us has that obligation laid upon us. He said: “ Be my witnesses. Go ye, and as ye go preach. Make disciples of all nations.’” That is the pro gramme of His Church; and He is expecting every man and woman and boy and girl of us to win some one to Him. That is God’s plan for the increase of the body of Christ. Just as surely as prayer is His plan for power in the Church, personal work, personal witnessing, is His plan for world wide victory. That was the secret of success in the early church, and we must come back to it. We are doing everything in the churches today but these two supreme things. You can get all the committees man ned without any difficulty. The brethren are very ready to attend to all of the practical duties. You can get the work of the Woman’s Missionary Society and the Young People’s Society well done. All of these secondary tasks are splen didly carried forward. But when it comes to this matter of prayer and of personal effort for lost men, we cannot get it done. The Pastor and the Deacons and a few Sunday School teachers are expected to attend to those things. How often we hear it said when making an appeal for soul-win ning effort, “ Well now, you know I am not gifted in that sphere. I have no talent for that!” But it does not call for a special talent. It only calls for consecration and obe dience. There is a great need today that we should be found faithful as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We need in the religious realm something of the tre mendous earnestness that we see displayed in the commer cial world of today. A little while ago in New York one of the magazine companies printed an edition of two and a half million copies of their magazine. They were proud of this great achievement, and they gave some striking facts about the material and work required to produce two and a half
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