March,.1941
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Life Out of Death A Story
98
By GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
Part II When Stephen Gardley suddenly pushed Philip, his worldly younger brother, from the path of a speeding automobile and himself was killed, a whole new set of problems confronted Philip. H e felt that because Stephen had died in his place, he must live, Stephen s life for him■—-\n business and in the home with his widowed mother. Philip ignored his former infatuation for Enid Ainsley, the sophisticated young woman to whom he had been call •• ing at the instant of the accident, and he settled down seriously in an effort to direct the business firm of which Stephen had been head. Conscious of failure to take Stephen s place in all re lations, he was further depressed after hearing two older businessmen discuss ing him and his brother■and comment ing on the fact that Stephen had been "godlike , . , almost as if Christ were come down and were living his life for him." Regarding the work as his duty to Stephens memory, Philip undertook to lead a Boy Scout troop and to teach the same boys in a Sunday-school class. H e was haunted by a sense of complete fail ure in his efforts for the boys, and he at last knelt to ask that God, if there was a God, would help him in the task of living Stephen s life. S EEMING almost as an answer to Philip Gardley’s prayer, there came the idea of going to the minister for help. Late at night—almost midnight it was—he took his hat and went out, walking down the street on what to him seemed a very hopeless errand. But it was a last resort. A stranger opened the door, a young er man than the minister, a man with disarming eyes and a burr on his tongue that came from across the water. Philip liked him. His eyes had something [Copyright, 1935, by Grace Living ston H ill; published by J. B. Lippincott Company. Th e story as it appears on these pages is a condensation of a longer narrative which is available in booklet form. — E ditor .]
in them that reminded him of Stephen. The stranger explained that the min ister had gone out to see a dying man, and he was waiting up for him. He opened the door with such a friendly warmth that Philip stepped in, the while wondering at himself for doing it. He was not in a mood for talking with strangers. But the stranger, who said his name was McKnight, looked at him with that disarming smile and said: “Is there anything that I could do for you? I am a servant of the Lord Jesus also, and shall be glad if there is any way that I can help you.” Philip never knew how it came about. Certainly he had no intention of taking that stranger into his confidence. But he presently found himself sitting in the cosy library telling this man with the holy eyes just what was happening in his life and how unhappy he was. “And so, my friend,” said the stranger, “your brother was a man who knew the Lord Jesus, and had the power of the resurrection in his life. And you are trying to be your brother with out knowing his Lord or having the right, to that power! Is that it? ” “I don’t know what you mean by the resurrection power,” said Philip. “The resurrection power is the life that Christ brought from the tomb when He rose from the dead,” answered McKnight. “It is His life that came out of death. If you have that power within you, it will enable you to live a life on a higher plane than ordinary living. There is no other power that can make you show forth the God-Man Christ Jesus but the power of His resurrec tion.” “That’s all Greek to'me,” said Philip with bewildered eyes. “Well, I’ll put it more simply,” said the stranger. '‘You can’t be like a man unless you know him, can you?” i “You can’t even if you do know him,” said Philip sadly. “I’ve known my brother all my life, and I’ve tried my best to be like him, and let his life go on in me, and I find it can’t be done.” “But you are quite sure that you knew him?” asked the keen-eyed ques tioner. “You have found something about him into which you cannot enter, his godlikeness that people speak of. Did you ever know your brother in this phase of his experience ? Did you ever get to know thoroughly his inmost heart on this matter?”
Philip stared, then answered quickly. “No, I wouldn’t let him talk to me about re lig io u s matters. I wasn’t inter ested.” “Exactly. Then how could you know him thoroughly, and how could you be like him in that respect, if you never went with him through his deepest ex periences?” • “I suppose I couldn’t,” said Philip hopelessly. "Then you think there’s no use?” “No! Oh, no! I think there is great use. It is quite true that your brother’s life can never go on in you, but you can know his Christ, who* made your brother godlike. The Lord Jesus Christ is willing to live His resurrection life through you, if you will let Him, as much as He ever did through your brother. That is a miracle, of course, but we are speaking of heavenly things, you see.” “How could one know Christ?” Philip’s tone was full of awe. “The first step is to accept Him as your own personal Saviour. When you do that, His Spirit takes up His dwell ing in you. Then surrender to Him so utterly that you actually reckon your self-life to have died with Him on the cross, so that you can say: ‘I am cruci fied with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’ Isn’t that substantially the same thing that you have been trying to do for your .brother, to die to your own life that the life of your brother might go
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