March, 1941
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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subject again and again, urging her to accept his Lord also, until at last she flouted out upon him with a cold hard look on her lovely face. “I’m tired of this,” she said haugh tily. “I don’t care to share your love with any one else, even a God! You can choose between us. Either you give up this fanatical nonsense or I’m done with you once and for all.” He pleaded with her.. He tried to make her understand that the thing had been done—that he was no longer in a position to choose. He had died with Christ on that cross long ago! He had given his word! But she only turn ed from him coldly; and at last he went away, sadly, ■with a break in his heart. At home he knelt before his Lord and struggled long. Was earthly love to be denied him? Why could not this beau tiful woman be drawn by God’s Spirit to love his Lord?, It was a long hard struggle, his will against God’s will. But was that dying with Christ? He Was startled at the thought. Worn with the struggle, he flung himself upon his bed, and sharply the words of the young Scotchman came back to him: “It is just in the measure that the T has been crucified, in your life, that Christ in the power of His resurrection can be revealed to the world through you.” Tom between his desire to have his own way, and his growing realization of what it might mean to his Christian witness if he married this girl, he drop ped finally into an uneasy sleep, his last thought a prayer that God would somehow make Enid what she ought to be, and give her to him. And then there came to him a vision of Christ, standing there at the foot of his bed, with the print of the nails in His hands, and the thorns upon His brow, looking deep into Philip Gardley’s soul. “You and I died on Calvary together, Philip,” He said. “Are you remember ing that? And now, if I give you what you are asking for, this girl will come between you and Me! Are you pre pared for that? Are you willing for that? She belongs to the world and cares only for the things of the world. She will not accept Me as her Saviour! You will have to choose, between us as she has said. You may have your way if you will, but you must understand that it will lead you through distress and sorrow, and although I shall never cease to love you, it will separate you and Me in our walk together. It will also prevent you from showing My resurrection power to the world. The world will not be able to see Me through you if you choose this way. Can you not trust Me that this is not best for you?” [Continued on Page 112]
with his Lord, and submissively said: “I am crucified with Thee, Lord Jesus. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, Philip Gardley, 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!” Then a new day began. He went downstairs to breakfast with a different look on his face. He bent over his anxious mother tenderly and kissed her. He said: “Mother, I’ve found the Lord Jesus, and it’s going to be all different now!” They began to feel it almost at once in the office, and as the days went by. “That young man is grooving like his brother!” a member of the office force said. “ He is growing like Jesus Christ!" said an old friend of his father’s who happened to be in the office at the time. “Well, I don’t know but you’re right,” said the first. “That was really what I meant, I guess!” And his voice had a note of awe in it. But then because the enemy never lets a chance go by to hinder a new born soul, Enid Ainsley came into Philip’s life again. Some one had asked her into the church choir for a special musical festival, and she managed it quite easily that Philip should take her home from the rehearsals. She played her part cleverly, leading him on almost to hope that perhaps she too was chang ing, One night he tried to tell her of his own experience and the new hope that had come into his life. But she flung away from him. “ Oh, for pity’s sake, Phil, aren’t you ever going to be yourself again?” she cried out impatiently. “I hope not,” he said gravely. , “Well, I think it’s silly, this trying to be like your brother! For heaven’s sake snap out of it, and quickly, too.” “I’m not trying to be like my brother any longer,” he said quietly. “I found it was impossible, because, you know, it wasn’t he who was living in him; it was Another.” "What do you mean?” “I mean the Lord Jesus Christ.” “For heaven’s sake!” she turned upon him. “Are you turning religious ? Phil Gardley gone religious! Well, that’s a great joke. That’s precious! I’ll have to tell the gang.” “No,” said Philip steadily. “Philip Gardley hasn’t gone religious. Philip Gardley has died! Christ who died for me is living His life in me. Henceforth it’s not to be my life, but His. Enid, this thing is very real to me. It’s not a joke. And Enid, I want you to let me tell you about it. I want you to know Him too. Enid, I’ve been loving you for a long time—” Then Enid used all her wiles to turn his attention to herself and his love for her. But Philip gently brought back the
on In the same channels It had when he was living?” “It is,” said Philip with dawning comprehension. “Well, that’s all, only put Christ in your brother's place. It is Christ whose life must go on through yours; for I am sure that is what happened in your brother’s life. It was Christ who was living in him, not Stephen Gardley. And when his body was crushed, it was Christ whose resurrection power had one less human life to dwell in. Did it ever occur to you that th,e Lord Jesus can be seen today only through men and women who are willing to have self slain with all its old programs, standards, ambitions, desires, aims, will, and let Christ take up His abode in them? The world saw Jesus through your brother because your brother counted himself as crucified with Him, and was therefore under that promise in Romans 6: ‘For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. . . . Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ You see, my friend, the death and resurrection of Christ is the power.of God, and you have a right to it in your life if you are willing for this death-union with Christ Himself. But it is not to be ac quired by any effort of your own.” Philip listened in wonder as the way was made plain. He was deeply moved at the stranger’s prayer for him, and finally went home to read his Bible. McKnight had sent him to the story of the crucifixion, and straight through the four Gospels he read it, till the scene was printed as vividly on his mind as the death of his own brother. For the first time since Stephen’s death, Philip lost sight of that blood-stained face lying in, the dust of the road, and saw his Saviour hanging on the cross instead. He felt the shame, the scoffs, the insults, quivered at the nails driven in the tender hands and feet, saw the trickling blood from the thorn-crown, the awful spear- thrust! Ah! This was the One who had died that he might live eternally! And this King of all the earth wanted to live out His life through him! He was asked to “carry on” for the Saviour of the world! It was just before daybreak that he turned out his light and knelt beside
his open window with the morning star still shining, the dawn creeping softly into the sky, and surrendered to jiis risen Lord; con fessed all his own unworthiness, h is vain efforts of the flesh to be like an other m a n ; l a i d down himself to die
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