December 1928
773
T h e : K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s . s
across the settlement destroyed in its course the entire improve ments of several farmers, in some cases even the people them selves being unable to escape. When the fire was out, a relief party rode out from a neigh boring town to see if possibly some one might have escaped the flames and be in need of assistance. Riding past the ashes of one of these destroyed homes, one of the men saw what appear ed to be a black hen ¡sitting on the ground. On going up to it he found that it was quite dead, the head and back being burned almost to a cinder; but the bird sat in such a striking position, her wings partly spread out, that he gave her a kick, turning her over; whereupon three little chickens ran out. Bravely the poor mother hen had covered them, in the face of the roaring, consuming fire; paying the extreme price in the midst of the scorching flames, choosing to be burned to death rather than, that one of her brood should be harmed. Does not this true story furnish a striking picture of what Jesus did for us?
D ecember 26, 1928 Text : Gen. 32:26
One Sunday morning a mighty Scotch minister was late in entering his pulpit. The congregation asked the sexton to step to the door of his study and remind him that it was past service time. The sexton rapped softly at the door, but he heard the preacher saying, “I will not go except thou dost go with me.” He returned to the congregation and told them that the minister was trying to persuade some friend to enter the pulpit with him, but that the friend seemed unwilling to do so. Thirty minutes more fled by. Again the sexton returned to the door; but came back with the same report that the friend was not yet persuaded to come with him. After some few moments the saintly minister stepped into the pulpit, his face radiant with holy glory. When he read the simple story of the Cross, and in warm words of godly zeal invited sinners to Christ, then the congregation knew who it was that their preacher was so anxious to have enter the pulpit with him. Over three hundred surrendered themselves to their Saviour. Would today that more ministers could be heard saying in their study, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me!”
D ecember 22, 1928 Text: Psa. 141 :3
A woman who had the name of being a busybody went to her pastor and told '.’.him of the wrongdoing of a man in the church. The pastor said : “Does any one else know this? Have you told any one else?” To both questions she said No. Then the good man replied: “Go home and hide it at the feet of Jesus, and neyer speak of it again! If the Lord wants to bring scandal into the church and neighborhood let Him do it! Don’t abuse your tongue by letting it be the instrument to cause a scandal !”
D ecember 27, 1928 Text: Mie. 6:8
Humility always seeks great things, but never for itself. Napoleon waS at one time conferring with the leaders of Aus tria on a proposal for peace. At one end of the room was an elevated platform with a chair upon it. Napoleon said: . “Re move that chair. I can never see an elevated chair without wanting to sit in it.” Contrast this with that other room where Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Both Jesus and Napoleon were consumed with a great passion, one to get the world for himself, the other to give Himself for the world. RBB
D ecember 23, 1928 Text: Isa. 40:12
When an old woman was being criticized because she be lieved that her sailor boys at sea were in God’s care, her critic said that one or all of them might be drowned. Her answer was sublime, “I trust they are none the less safe for that. It would be a strange thing for an old woman like me to suppose that safety lay in not being drowned. What is the bottom of the sea, sir? The bottom of the sea is the hollow of His hand.”
D ecember 28, 1928 Text: Phil. 4:11
A wealthy gentleman was stripped of all his means, by a series of calamitous events beyond his own control. He sold his estate to pay his creditors, and removed to a distant part of the coun try, where he rented a small cottage, and endeavored to win a maintenance for his wife and himself b.y laboring in the fields of a neighboring farm. An old acquaintance sought him out. He found his friend busy digging in a clay pit; toiling on as if, from his youth, manual labor had been his wont. When the visitor expressed surprise and sorrow at finding one who had been nursed in the lap of luxury, so painfully circum stanced, the reduced gentleman, who was an earnest Christian, looked up to his friend’s face, and with a smile said, as he pointed his finger- to heaven- - , “ “Tis God ordains our daily lot, And He does all things well? ” Yes, all things, bitter and sweet, “work together for good to them that love God.”
D ecember 24, 1928 Text: Acts 16:31
A mother who had brought up a large family of children, all of whom had become members of the Christian fold, was asked what means she had used with so much success, to win them tb the Cross. She replied, “I have always felt that if they wej"fe not converted before they became seven or eight years of age, they would probably be lost; and when they approached that age, I have been in agony lest they should pass it unconverted. I have gone to thè Lord in my anguish, and He has not turned away my prayers, nor His mercy from me.”
D ecember 29, 1928 Text: Jn. 17:21
D ecember 25, 1928
Text: Lk. 2:15,
It is said that a farmer once called on an infidel neighbor and told him that he had just awakened to a sense of his sin, and wanted to restore him four sheep that ought to be in his neigh bor’s pasture, with the offspring of these sheep for the past four years. The infidel was much disturbed and said: “Go away; don’t bother me about the sheep; you are welcome to keep them. If you go on this way much longer I will believe there, is some thing after all in your religion. Keep the sheep, and don’t dis turb my peace of mind.” This is the Gospel opr conscienceless age needs.
When preaching a Christmas sermon, the Rev. D. H. Martin brought out a striking fact that has escaped many. He called attention to what the shepherds in the field said to one another after the angel had brought them definite word about the birth of a “Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” They did not say, “Let us go and see if this thing is come to pass.” They said, “Let us go and see this thing that is come to pass.” What a world of difference between the two ways of taking God’s word 1
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