221
June, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Junior KING’S BUSINESS B y M a r t h a S. H o o k e r
J EW E L S B y M rs . W arren R. R anney
A n old dirty garage is certainly not an r t interesting place at any time, and surely not the place to look f or j ewels. And yet we found some very precious ones there at one time. “Jewels!” you are saying. “Really truly jewels?” Yes, jewels, but o f more value than any that ever adorned the crown o f a king. These were God’s jewels. In Malachi 3:17 we read: “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ." ' There is a lovely song, written because of this very verse, which boys and girls delight to sing. I wonder whether you know it: “When He cometh, when He cometh, To make up His jewels ; All His jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own. “Little children, little children, Who love their Redeemer, Are the jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own.” So if you will come for a walk with me through “Russian town,” the part o f Los Angeles in which Russians live, where the women wear white lace shawls over their heads and the children delight in the oddest little pies filled with mashed potatoes, I will introduce you to some of the rarest j ewels you have ever seen. Our Lord looks on the heart and decides the real value by what He finds there rather than by looking at the outward appearance as we do.
Jesus as Saviour: “But as many as re ceived him [Jesus Christ], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” As the teacher explained the verses and told how we can be saved, the boys and girls who knew the Lord would stand near by and urge the others to accept Him. What a precious scene this was! And many times the new pupils would say, “Yes, Lord Jesus, I want You to save me, too.” One of the boys named Peter gathered nine children on his front porch one day and gave them Bible verses showing them how they, too, might be saved. As we saw this great interest among the boys and girls, we longed that they might know how to use God’s Word in showing the members o f their families and their friends how to be saved from sin and its awful consequences. W e prayed about this need and felt that the Lord wanted us to meet one day during the week. But where? As we talked this plan over with the boys and girls, do you know where these children suggested that we meet ? A ga rage! None of the Russian parents would let us meet in their garages, but the Turk ish boy’s mother was very friendly and kind, and when Kemal asked her for the use of their garage, she said, “ O f course you may use it.” When we first looked at this place of meeting, our hearts lost a bit o f their joy, for the garage was very dirty. There was no floor, and cobwebs were everywhere. “We’ll fix it up,” the children quickly explained, noticing our lack o f enthusiasm.
Peters, a Jean, a Pearl, and a Turkish boy named Kemal. Kemal wore a red Turkish fez for a cap. Now wouldn’t you have been glad to know these boys and girls? Each one was full o f life, and how we enjoyed packing them away in our car and taking them to Sunday-school I They loved to sing, and as we drove along, they sang the songs they had learned at Sunday- school. What a happy time weTnad on these trips! One by one these boys and girls came to understand that the Lord Jesus had died for them on the cross, and that by receiv ing Him as Saviour they received everlast ing life. How eagerly they gave their hearts to Him and became new creatures in Christ! Some of the Russian parents, I am sorry to say, made it very hard for their children to continue going to Sunday- school with us. One boy often got down on his knees to beg his mother to let him go with us. This same boy learned what to do when his playmates would try to persuade him to do things that would grieve his new-found Saviour. He found that he could receive comfort and strength to resist the temptation if he would spend the afternoon in prayer in a garage. One dear girl of twelve was so true to her Lord that she, too, refused to grieve Him by going with her parents to a certain place of amusement, but sat in the car while her parents went. I am sure that the Lord was with her in a special way and that they had sweet fellowship together. What joy these boys and girls surely brought to the heart o f Christ!
First, I want you to meet and know Willie. The first time my husband and I ever saw Willie, he was standing by an old garage, looking dejected and sad as he kicked his bare foot in the dust in the way that boys often do. We dis covered Willie one Sunday morning on our way to Sunday-school. W e were taking a group o f boys with us and drove through Russian town looking for more. There we spied Willie. He recognized one
And “fix it up” they did, for when we arrived on Wednesday for the first meeting, what a wonderful transformation met our eyes! The cobwebs were all gone. The boys had brought sawdust from a great distance to coyer the floor. Boxes had been made into seats, and a box had been taken apart and made into a pulpit. Home-made Scripture te x ts , colored with crayolas, were hung on the walls. On a small shelf in one corner was a
Having found the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, these children became so inter ested in getting their friends saved that we had to make more than one trip to Sunday-school each Sunday. After the services, the regular members would often bring the new pupils to the teacher and say, “ Save them.” O f course the teacher could not save them—only the Lord Jesus can do that. These boys and girls knew this, but it was merely their way of asking the teacher to make the way of salvation plain to these new children. The teacher would use such verses as John 3:16, John 1 :12, and Isaiah S3:6. You, too, may read these from your Bibles. John 1 :12, for example, shows us that we need to receive
o f the boys in the car as being a school classmate of his. W e stopped the car and called out, “Would you like to go to Sun day-school with us?” To our great joy, Willie bashfully nodded his head and soon was in the car with us. The Sunday-school was all very won derful to Willie. He had never attended before, but this first visit made him want to go again. The next Sunday, Willie was not the only one at the garage where we had met him the week before. He had gathered together a group o f other Russian children who were anxious to see and hear all the things that Willie had described to them. The group continued to grow, and soon there was a Mary, a Sally, two
bouquet in a glass jar. No one would realize that it was the same building. Here in this garage on a back alley, twenty to twenty-five boys and girls gathered each week to learn how to win souls for the Lord Jesus. The plan o f study that they liked best of all consisted o f getting one another up in the front of the garage and of showing them how to be saved, using God’s Word to tell what an unsaved person must do. In this way they learned to answer many objections, and they became real soul- winners. Surely in that day when we stand in the presence of the Lord, many o f these dear boys and girls will receive the soul- winner’s crown. [Continued on next page ]
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