King's Business - 1913-07

358

THE KING’S BUSINESS

in the Lord’s nartie.’ Then take the Bible, read the 23rd Psalm, and pray with mother ■and children. If after that you do not know where heaven is I will pay for what you have expended.” I “If you will let Him walk with you in your streets, sit with you in your offices, and be with you in your homes, and teach you in your churches, and abide with you as the living presence in your hearts, you, too, shall know what freedom is, and while you do your duties, be above your duties; and while you own yourselves the sons of men, know you are the sons of God.” The last words of Charles Reade, the novelist and literateur, as inscribed on his tombstone: “I hope for a resurrection, not from any power in nature, but from the will of the Lord God omnipotent, who made nature and me. He created man out of nothing, which nature could not. He can restore man from the dust, which nature cannot. And I hope for holiness and happiness in a future life, not from anything I have said or done in the body, but from the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. He has promised His intercession to all who seek it, and He will not break His word; that intercession once granted cannot be re­ jected, for He is God, and His merits in­ finite; a man’s sins are but human and finite. ‘Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ ‘If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitia­ tion for our sins.’ ” A hundred millions of children with a score of languages! That is, in its basal form, the problem that faces the India Sun­ day School Union. And it is surely as great a problem as can be met with any­ where in the world. Let us look at it more closely. There are working in .India nearly one hundred missionary societies of different kinds, with an aggregate of near­ ly three thousand missionaries, and a force of Indian workers, men and women, cer­

tainly not less than one hundred thousand. The evangelization of India goes forward apace, though hindered by many obstacles and reactionary movements. It is being accomplished by many methods; bazaar­ preaching, itineration, house visitation, edu­ cational, medical. But of all these .there can be no question that the most promising and fruitful are those methods that have to do with the child-life. And of these the most influential, elastic, and universal is that of the Sunday school. The children may, for convenience sake, be called Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Christians, pagans; but, whatever we call them, they are, at least in their earliest years, just children; children who, in spite of a warped heredity, are able to open their hearts to the regenerating influence of Christ just as children in western lands. Not yet have caste, prejudice, and foul impurity barred the heart to the gospel of Christ; not yet is there found an attitude hostile even to the sweetest stories and truths of the Bible. Here then lies the op­ portunity in the 99,500,000 of non-Christian children.— E. A. Annet in the S. S. T. A friend told us that he was visiting a lighthouse lately, and said to the keeper, “Are you not afraid to live here? It is a dreadful place to be constantly in.” “No,” replied the man, “I am not afraid; we never think of ourselves here.” “Never think of yourselves 1 How is that ?” The reply was a good one: “We know that we are perfectly' safe, and only think of having our lamps bright­ ly burning, and keeping the reflectors clear, so that those in danger may be saved.” That is what Christians ought to do. The Narrow Way The way is narrow? Ay, but think how wide ■The fields it leads to. Wide as hope are they. Into a larger ‘life the path will guide; What matter, then, if narrow be the way? . —Mary M. Currier.

Made with FlippingBook HTML5