61
February, 1936
T H E
K I N G ' S
B U S I N E S S
KING’S BUSINESS B y M a r t h a S. H o o k e r
KATHLEEN AND EDITH B y E dith G oreham C larke you were converted!” “But, Mother, you speak as if I were a great sinner. I am not a bad girl; you know I’m not!” “But, dear, our Lord does not parcel out our sin in little bundles, and call some big and others little. All sin, great or small, must be cleansed away in His precious blood. Did I ever tell you how I was con verted, dear ?” “ Y o u c o n v e r t e d ,
O h , M oth er !” cried Edith, as she came running into the house. “What do you think I heard at school to-, day? Kath is converted! You know she wanted me to go with her to some special services they are having at her church, hut I refused because I wanted to get on with my home work.’’ , “Yes, dear, I do remember, and I was sorry to see that you made that excuse.” “Excuse, Mother!” , said Edith, indignantly.
Edith asked her to suggest a little prayer for her to pray. “ I do want Jesus to save me tonight,’” she added. Then Mother prayed a little prayer, which Edith re peated after her, and when they rose from their knees, Edith knew that she, too, was “ born again.” That evening, Kathleen came again to ask Edith to go with her to the meeting, and this time Edith was quite ready. On the way she told Kath that she, too, was converted ;;vand right there in the street Kath threw, her arms round Edith’s neck and hugged her. “ Oh, I am so glad,” she said. “ I have been asking the Lord Jesus to save you, Edith, and now isn’t it won derful that we are both converted!” Our Bible Study Having learned the names o f the books in God’s wonderful library, the Bible (see the January issue of the J unior K ing ’ s B u sin ess ), you are now eager, I am sure, to read through these wonderful books. Know-Your-Bible-Club members will wish to begin with the very first one, which is Genesis. Genesis means “be ginning,” and the first book in the Bible is truly a book o f beginnings. We are living in a world that is full of many wonderful and interesting things. Have you ever wondered how these many things came into being? Have you ever stood on the seashore and looked out at the great blue ocean and wondered just when and how it had its beginning? Or have you ever looked up into the starry heavens at night and wondered when those bright stars first began to twinkle? These and many other questions are answered in the Book of Genesis. In Genesis we find the story o f the very % first garden and the story of the first mother and father and of the very first home and family that ever lived in this world. We learn, too, how sin entered this beaiitiful, wonderful world o f ours. But, best of all, we find in this book the first promise of the coming into the world of the Lord Jesus, our Saviour. Yes, Gen esis is indeed a book of beginnings. As we learned last month, God is the Author of. all the books of the Bible, but He used men to record His words. The human author or man who wrote Genesis was Moses. He wrote the Bible’s first five books, which we call “the Pentateuch.” I am sure most o f you know something about Moses. You will find the story o f his birth and early life in Exodus 2. As we open the first book in God’s li brary, let us pray the prayer o f Psalm 119:18, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out o f thy law,” and God will surely do this as we read and study His Word. Make a list in your notebooks of all the “beginnings of things” that are mentioned in Genesis. Also choose a name for each chapter. In the first two chapters you will read the story of the creation of this wonderful
Mother?” cried Edith in surprise. “ Surely you never needed to be converted!” “Yes, indeed. I did! I was fourteen years old, a headlong, impulsive girl, very thoughtless, and a real trial to my mother, I am afraid.” “ Oh, just like me!” laughed Edith. “Perhaps you are not un like what I was, Edith. I remember the night of my conversion so well. It was Sunday, and Mother had been reading to us children from the Bible, as she gen erally did. It was the story of the crucifixion that day, and as Mother read, I sud denly realized that it was for my sin that the Lord Jesus had suffered. Before I knew it, the tears were running down my face. Mother stopped reading, and coming over to where I was sitting, she put her arms around me and whis pered, ‘The only fitness He requires is for us to feel our need of Him.’ Then, after a pause, she repeated softly: ‘Hear what com fortable words our Saviour
“Yes, darling,- for I no ticed that when May came the night before and asked you to have a game of ten nis with her, your home work did not stop you. Why, I remember,” added her mother, with a laugh, “how you said you could easily get up an hour earlier in the morning to finish your home work,” Edith hung her head, for she knew Mother was right. “Well, Mother, I did not really want to go. That is the truth.” “It is much more honest to say so than to hide be hind an excuse. Well, tell me about Kathleen, dear.” “ She told me today. :She said she was; ‘converted.’ Think of it, Mother —Kath converted! What do you think she meant? Just as if Kath needed to be con verted I Why, she is j ust the dearest, most unselfish girl in the whole school. Now, if it had been that horrid G ertie Lam b, I might think there was something in it—but Kath!
Why, Mother, you know she goes to church twice on Sundays, as well as to Sunday- school, and then she gOes to the weekly prayer meeting; and when she can spare the time from her home work, which is pretty often, she even goes to the Bible Readings! I don’t know how she does it.” Mother looked at her little daughter, and smiled thoughtfully and a bit sadly as to herself she counted over Edith’s play ap pointments in the week, and the many evenings she spent out with her friends. “Well,” said Mother, “I think even you could manage what Kathleen does —if you wanted to! And you remember, darling, don’t you, the words of the Lord Jesus, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom, of God’ (John 3 :3 )? Being ‘born again’ means just the same thing as ‘converted’ does.” “ But that is for the heathen,” said Edith. “No, my darling, it does not say, ‘Except a heathen be born again’ ; it does not say, ‘With the exception of Edith.’ No, but it does say, ‘Except a man’—that means any human being. Oh, Edith, dear, how I wish
said to all them who truly come to Him: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Will you come to Him now?’ “W e knelt down, and Mother prayed, and while she prayed, I came to Him in my heart and said something like this: ‘Lord Jesus, I believe that Thou didst die for me. Please save me!’ Then I repeated a prayer after Mother. “Later in the evening we all went to. church, as our custom was, and the sermon, I remember so well, was about how we might know for certain- that we belonged to the Lord Jesus and that we were saved. I really believe that if I had not come to Him earlier in the evening, I would have come that night in church.” “I think,” said Edith, after her mother had stopped speaking, “I think I do need to be converted. Will you pray with me, Mother?” “ Yes, gladly, my darling.” Edith and her mother knelt down to gether, and after her mother had prayed,
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