519
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
November 1930
makes you feel near to Christ—so he believes more. One man in chapel last week, said, ‘We must worship God through man.’ And ‘man has his God in himself’ ! I know that’s not true! The highest and best in me just falls down flat the minute I hear jazz music or see a pocket flask. I hate to tell you, but I’ve backslidden several times since last summer!” And the tears gathered in Eleanor’s eyes. Margaret patted her hand, and then referred to the learned preachers. “ That’s modernism,, that talk about God being ‘the immanent law of the universe’ ! I ’ve heard it. It’s like try ing to put an orphan asylum in the place of a real father. You can’t talk to a great impersonal force! Keep away from such ministers, Eleanor; they harm rather than help young Christians. ‘God was in Christ.’ He is a real Fa ther. When you are alone with Him in the early morning, tell Him all about it—everything that bothers you. Just pour it all out! He hears, and He does things when we ask Him to! And then let Him talk to you. Read John, and Romans, and Ephesians and— ” “ That helps! I wish I could be with your—what do you call it? The Red Line?” “ O h ! The Thin Red Line! That’s named after the fighting Scotch Highlanders, partly. Donald Donaldson gave us the name. But of course we are under the red line of the blood of Christ. It runs all through the Bible. ‘The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ ! As to backsliding—don’t be discouraged. Confess it. He forgives us when we confess to Him. Then let Him do the fighting for you, Eleanor. You know— ‘Let go and let God’ ! ‘I can do all things through Christ which strength- eneth me.’ Christ is Victory. Christ is all.” “ Nikolai has been working in a doll’s repair shop in this little suburban town,” said the Personage, as their motor stopped its purring, and their horn simultaneously started its tooting, before a small store labeled “ Doll’s Hospital.” A young American in football clothes came out. His parents owned the shop, it seemed. “ Nikolai’s brother is on his trail,” he informed them. “ He’s a Red all right, and pretty sore at Nikolai for turn ing Christian. But he has not discovered Nikolai yet. So I’m going to take you to the athletic field. Our school team is having a last practice before tomorrow’s game. He will be out there and go to town with you, and make his get away.” The engine turned over and they were off. The boy sat on a let-down seat. “ It’s like a detective story! I never expected to live in one,” said Eleanor. “ My dear young lady,” said the Personage, “ if you have definitely entered the service of Christ, the out-and- out Christian life, you have begun the most interesting, the most surprising life of adventure that is possible in the weary, cold world of today. Your story, too, will always have a happy ending, because we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” “ I’m so sorry for bored worldly people,” Margaret took it up. “ If they only knew what they’re missing! Every day, Eleanor,, you’ll have an adventure, or a contact, or even, sometimes, happenings that are little short of miraculous!” Eleanor smiled, with misty eyes, at the new joy that was growing so fast in her innermost heart. “ Every day is Thanksgiving Day now,” she said. “ Here! Put on these bows of orange. That’s our color. People will think you’re rooters.” ■
“ He knows this; but he is ready to give his life if necessary. He has a plan for taking the Bible in with him.” “ There he is now !” exclaimed Douglas as the telephone rang. But: “ Miss Eleanor Gorham to see Miss Snow don,” was the message. And Eleanor herself appeared presently, in the brownest of boucle suits, and the newest of skin-tight velvet turbans, very much off-the-face. In spite of her lovely appearance, Eleanor was restless. She got Margaret alone as soon as she could. “ I’ve done my best to be different, as I promised Con stance, and I’m a fizzle,” she announced. “ If I try to talk to the girls at College about—about—well, the way Connie talked to the Princeling in Europe this summer, they tell me ‘to step off it !’ ” Margaret gave a wise little nod. “ Althea talked to me about you,” she said. “ Constance wrote her all about you, and how the Princeling is trying to live for Christ over in Europe, and about Bill the Bril liant being there just in time, and everything! But she didn’t know you were doing likewise! Do you know Althea?” “ Just met her once at Connie’s, in Boston, awf’ly nice!” “ Oh, if you only knew her! And if you’d only known her in the old days, and could see the difference Christ has made in her!” “ What was she like before?” “ A regular sorority rush captain, and then some! Snobby and snubby! Looked you over with an appraising eye—perfectly terrible! Nothing escaped her notice. Even too highly glazed finger nails were taboo! I ought to know for she pledged me in freshman year, and I ’ll never forget the palpitations of my heart when I realized I was being looked over by Althea Sumner. And now ! My dear! She’s just all for Christ. We don’t fear her; we adore her ! One girl said: “ You could almost warm your hands at Althea now ! She’s as cozy as an open fire!” “ Has she dropped her college interests?” “ Not all of them! But she’s making all she does count for Christ.” “ How does she do that?” “Well, you know what a Christian is left on earth to do, don’t you?” “ No.” “ Why— just to win souls for Christ. Otherwise, God loves us so, He’d take us to be with Himself. You know the Great Commission ?” “ My dear! I ’m jiist plain dumb. I’ve never even heard it.” “ ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’ ” “ You mean, tell them to live as Christ wants them to?” “ Tell them they must be born again, so that He may give them the power to live and work with Him.” “What does it mean to be born again?” “ ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh,’ and we must be born from above by'believing in Jesus Christ as our Saviour.” “ That’s just what I did in my heart, last summer when we were all together in the Alps. But I was ashamed to let anyone know it. I had done so much contrary talking, and I was in danger, too, of being expelled from College. But they let me return. God did it, I guess.” “ You were born from above when you believed,” said Margaret with her brown eyes alight. “ But you’re just a new-born babe, and need some help.” “ Y e s! And I hear such learned ministers! I wish they believed more and knew less, somehow! Bill the Brilliant
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