August 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
509
the first story, the lady drew up her dress and said, “ How dark and filthy it is!” “ It’s better higher up,” said her friend. They got to the next story, and it was: no better; the lady complained again, but her friend replied, “It’s better higher up'.”|g At the third floor it seemed still worse, and the lady kept complaining, but her friend kept saying, “It’s better higher up.” At; last .they got to the fifth story, and when they went into the sickroom there was a nice carpet on the floor, there were flowering plants in the window and little birds singing. And there they found this bed ridden saint—one of those saints whom God is polishing for His own temple—just beaming with joy. The lady said to her, “It must be very hard for you to lie here.” She smiled and said, “It’s better higher up.” Y es! And if things go against us, my friends, let us remember that “it’s better higher up.” j The story is told o f the poet Coleridge who had listened to quite a vehement .argument, by a visitor, against religious instruc tion o f the young. His caller had concluded with the statement o f his determination not to “prejudice” his children in favor of any form o f religion, but to allow them, at maturity, to choose for themselves. Coleridge made no immediate comment, but shortly afterward asked this same visitor ,if he wpuld like to see his, garden. Receiving a reply in the affirmative, he led his guest to a strip of lawn overgrown with weeds. “Why, this is no garden. It is nothing but a weed patch,” said the guest. “ Oh,” replied Coleridge, “that is because it has not come to its age o f discretion -and choice. The weeds you see have taken the opportunity to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prej udice the soil toward roses and strawberries.” A u g u s t 17, 1925 Text : Prov. 22 :6
third time,'I stopped again, and looking back, saw you oil the top of the hill, and have waited for you.” “Well,” said the preacher, “ I did call, not on ypu,: but on my heavenly Father to send me an opportunity to rifle, for I was weary, I ,did ,not speak above a whisper.” . The man said, “That is very strange, for I heard a voice, clear and distinct, calling fpr me to ‘.stop,’ and I did so. Three times this voice spoke to me, saying each time, ‘Stop.’ What do you think it meant ?” “ It means,” replied the missionary,?: f‘that the Holy Spirit called on you to ' help answer my prayer.” The preacher was'invited into the buggy and rode several miles with the man,.in whom he found a friend and helper in sowing the good seed o f the kingdom in these far Western wilds. How true it is that God still often moves in mysterious ways- His wonders to perform, and helps His way worn children when they call to Him for aid in time o f need.
A u g u s t 20, 1928 Text : Psa. T 50:6
Much can be learned from Billy Bray about praising. On one occasion he went out preaching. As he went home l i e .was so happy that he danced on the way. He had a basket.on his head, and in the basket were two dresses which had been given him for his daughter. When, he got home, he said to his wife, ‘Praise the Lord, the man, with whom I stayed gave me two dresses for the little one.” And she, too, praised the Lord, and then asked him where the dresses were. “In the basket,” he said. And when his good wife looked into the basket, she found •9ff|y 9ne there. , “Well,” said Billy Bray,-“praise the Lord fp;r the one that’s, left.”
A u g u s t 21, 1928 T ext: Mai. 4 :2
A u g u s t 18, 1928 1 Tim. 4 :12
A great artist once sought to paint the scene o f "the Cruci fixion. With marvelous skill he sketched the skull-shaped Hill crowned by three crosses, and with true delineation pictured the two thieves hanging in agony upon their emblems o f shame büt -when fie-came to depict thé figure upon the central cross he found his. hand had lost its cunning, and that he was impotent to por tray the figure o f the world’s great Redeemer; Finally,:: in despair, he simply enveloped the central cross in à sunburst of glory, and left it thus. Blit what conception could have-been more appropriate, for as the sun burns itself up in giving light, heat and life to the planets o f the solar system which it shep herds, so the Son o f Righteousness was .consumed that man ¡might have-eternal life and, through His sacrificial death, : might learn-that “without shedding of blood there-is no’-’—anything. The supreme fact of the ages, remains : “ Christ died fo r oursins?’
The minister was hard at work repairing the fence .of his chicken yard. Noticing the careful attention given to the work by a small son o f his next-door neighbor, the clergyman asked kindly: “Are you getting some points on carpentry; Harold?” “ No sir,” said Harold. “I’m just awaitin’ to hear wot a preacher says w’en he smashes his thumb wit’ de hammer.”
A u g u s t 19, 1928 Text : Psa. 37:4-5
Some years ago a missionary was traveling on foot in a thinly settled part o f one of the Western States. He was weary in spirit and body and, as he tramped along over the prairie road, he lifted up his heart in prayer to God, that He would in His Divine providence bring about such a’ con dition that would permit him to ride part of the journey that yet remained before him. On reaching the summit o f a'high hill he saw a buggy apparently standing still in the road, and headed the same way that he was going. The preacher soon came up to it, and found a man sitting on the seat as if waiting for some one. - The man spoke to the missionary saying, “ I did not see you the first two times that you called on me to stop, which I did, and looked all around, but seeing no one, I again drove on; but when you called me the
A u g u s t 22, 1928 .1 Jno, 2 :15-16
“I think a Christian can go anywhere,” said a young woman who was defending her continued attendance at some very doubtful places o f amusement. “ Certainly she can,” rejoined her friend, “ but I am teminded o f a little incident that happened last summer when I went with a partyi o f friends to exploré a coal mine. One o f the y'oung women appeared dressed in a dainty white-gown. When: her friends remonstrated with her, she appealed to the, old miner ,who was to act as guide to the party.
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