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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
April 1928
allowed this influential clergyman to send his vitriolic sen tences into the places where Wesley had preached. Wes ley replied briefly and kindly. Even in his old age he was triumphant over the vexing situation because he kept his ear open to God and went ahead. Harriet Beecher Stowe, lover o f the Scriptures, wrote “ Uncle Tom ’s Cabin,” which has had a greater sale than any ofher book outside of the Bible. She had tried to write a book that would reveal the evils o f slavery and unite the North and South. But religious papers poured abuse upon her unprepared head. Preachers caricatured her. She was called a foul, un-Christian outlaw. What praise she got came from most unexpected quarters, Yet who will say that God did not use her and answer her prayers? ass And More Trouble! W ILL IAM CAREY , after long years of prayer, went to India, only to be nearly defeated through the incompetence of his treasurer. Who knows what he suf fered there in a foreign land when he found himself de ceived by his fellow-missionary? Yet afterwards Carey would have said, “ 0 the depth o f the riches both o f the wisdom and knowledge o f God!” Robert Murray McCheyne, Scotland’s saintly preacher whose very presence was a benediction, while using a gym nastic appliance suffered an injury which cut short his life. Why should God permit such a providence to come to him ? “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” Out o f the multitudinous cross-bearings of the saintly Samuel Rutherford came his classical “ Letters,” even as the precious Epistles o f Paul came out of his prison expe riences, and John Bunyan’s immortal “ Pilgrim’s Progress” was born in a prison dungeon. The great Dr. Talmage confessed that his greatest opportunities had been opened to him as a result o f the attempts of enemies to upset him. The beloved Theodore L. Cuyler wrote: “ When I recall the joys o f my forty- four years of public ministry, I often shudder at the fact of how near I came to losing it.” The missionary career o f Hudson Taylor was crowded with strange contradic tions. John Milton in his blindness wrote: “ O merciful One! When men are farthest, then Thou art most near; When men pass coldly by, my weakness shun, Thy chariot I hear. On bended knee ',:'v. ‘ I recognize Thy purpose clearly shown; My vision Thou hast dimmed that I might see Thyself— Thyself alone.” Is there one o f our readers perplexed, despondent, heart-broken— perhaps almost at the point of deserting the service of his Master? Let him say with David: “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord,” and press on, leaving the results with God. It is the privilege o f such an one to say with Dean A lfo rd : “ My bark is wafted to the strand By breath divine: And on the helm there rests a hand Other than mine!”
Trouble! Trouble! Trouble! W E do not know how many times in recent months we have heard servants of the Lord say: “ Christian work was never so hard.” The workings of Satan seem peculiarly subtle. Valued men o f God have succumbed to nervous strain. Some have been made the object of cowardly attacks from brethren, having their work appar ently wrecked. In some cases vile charges have been trumped up to injure the good name o f a worker, and although unsustained, the public suspicion aroused, has left them powerless to proceed. Many have become ut terly discouraged and turned to other occupations, hoping tó find kinder treatment at the hands of unregenerate men. Undoubtedly it is true that there are seasons when Satan is especially active. The shorter his time becomes, the more subtle we may expect his methods to be, and the greater will be the corresponding need o f God’s servants, resolving as did Job: “ Though H e slay me, yet will I trust Him.” One only needs, however, to read his Bible to discover that God’s key men have never been borne through their labors on flowery, beds o f ease. Few present-day Christian workers could, compare their sufferings and persecutions with those which came to the apostles of Christ. _Scarcely can we think of any outstanding witness of Christ in the church age, who has not had to stand against hellish forces. Many o f them went down in apparent defeat, yet from the seed which they planted almost inconceivable harvests have sprung up and we have learned anew that all things do indeed “ work together fo r good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” How many today know the story o f the attack o f the great preacher Rowland Hill upon John Wesley? Even the most eminent servants o f the Lord, men sound as to their doctrinal beliefs, often unconsciously become the tools o f Satan to hinder the work o f the Lord. The young preacher Hill wrote of the aged Wesley, who for half a century in season and out o f season had been lifting up Christ crucified: “ The dictatorial John lyingly maintains argument enough for the gaping dupes whom he leads by the nose. He and his lay lubbers go forth to poison the minds o f men.” He referred to Wesley’s helpers as “ a ragged legion of preaching tinkers, scavengers, draymen and chimney sweepers.” ;; He asked why they did not “ keep the scatterbrained old gentleman locked up in a garret.” He wrote of “ the venomous quill of this grey headed enemy of righteousness.” For some reason God
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