THE KING ’S BUSINESS
587
PERTINENT ILLUSTRATIONS By W . H. Pike.
T ) AUL improved this opportunity and •*- spake the Gospel to these women on the river bank, as they were gathered to pray to their gods. Out o f this bit o f per sonal work grew the Philippian church. An Open Heart .—A lady who 'had been prominent in infidel circles came to a home Bible study in response to a neighbor’s invi tation. Sometime after she attended an evening church service. When the preacher had finished his sermon he gave the invita tion, and to the amazement o f friends, she arose and walked forward confessing Christ. The Lord had opened her heart, and like Lydia she joined the church and is seeking the salvation o f others. An Open Home .—Over and over again the home has been the birth-place o f a great spiritual movement. Most o f the early churches were started in homes. A large number o f our pioneer Sunday Schools began in some Christian’s home, and out o f that home Sunday School grew a church. A Bible teacher who had taught thousands said he received his first instruction in a little Bible study held in a home. A father, on arriving home; heard his little girl praying for him. It brought him under great conviction o f sin, he went down stairs and asked his wife if there was a Bible in the house. It was found and the wife read the 53rd Psalm, then he asked her to pray for him, but she could not, so little Mary was called to pray. As a result o f her prayer- both father and mother were brought to Christ. Joy in Persecution .—The story is told of an aged Christian who was traveling on horseback in a lonely district, when a sud den report o f a pistol-shot startled him. Hastening home and taking off his coat he found a bullet hole in his coat and a bullet embedded in a New Testament that he always carried in his breast pocket. “Imag ine my surprise,” said he, “when I found the bullet had penetrated through the Gos pel o f John to 17:11 “Holy Father, keep
through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me.” There was joy to know God’s care in persecution. Dr. John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebredes, was surrounded by Savages one night. In the same house was a fel low-missionary and wife. Dr. Paton said, “You stay inside and I will go out.” As he stepped from the house the savages sur rounded him and raised their spears to strike him, and he said, “ In the name of Jesus Christ, I dare you to strike me.” Instantly there was a flash o f lightning and a sharp peal o f thunder and the rain fell in torrents about them. The natives fled in every direction. Ignatius, one o f the early fathers, said, when being put to death, “Let the fire and the cross, the assaults o f wild beasts, the breaking o f bones, cutting o f limbs, batter ing the whole bpdy in pieces, yea, all the torments which the devil can invent come upon me, so I may but attain to be with Christ.” Bishop o f Rochester in 1555, A. D., was led to the place o f execution. On the way he opened his Bible and his eye fell upon this passage, “This is life Eternal, that they mhy know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” With much joy he repeated these words on his way to the scaffold, where, having repeated the TeDeum, he exchanged the scaffold for the throne. Conversion .—This conversion o f the last century is more remarkable than the con version o f the Philippian jailor. Geo. Mueller was a poor Prussian boy; and before he was ten years old was a con firmed thief; a gambling, drinking, profane youth at thirteen; at fourteen, while his mother lay dead, he staggered in the streets in a drunken state. He spent his sixteenth birthday in a prison cell. One night he was led to attend a prayer meeting held in a cottage, and there heard the word o f God for the first time, and gave himself to Christ.
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