May, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
181
KING’S BUSINESS B y M a r t h a S. H o o k e r
A GIFT FOR THE LORD JESUS B y H elen H owarth L emmel
O n that Sunday morning the minister was talking about giving gifts to the Lord Jesus. Bobby was sitting close beside his mother. Bobby was six years old and not very big even for that age. He was not listening to very much that the minister was saying, for the words seemed quite too big for a six-year-old boy to understand. However, Bobby was very quiet and still, as he had been taught to be, and he drew lions on a piece of paper which he was very careful not to rustle. He drew lions because that was what his Sunday-school lesson had been about. No one but Bobby would ever know they were lions, but that didn’t matter. It was the same with the picture of Daniel. But when the minister began to tell about an Indian chief, Bobby forgot the lions he was drawing, and he sat up and listened hard. Playing Indians was his favorite outdoor fun. The minister told the story of how the Indian chief heard about the Lord Jesus and accepted Him as his Saviour. Then as this Indian realized day by day Christ’s wondrous love to him, he wished to lay some gift at the feet of the Lord Jesus. First, he gave the missionary some meat which he had obtained by hunting. He gave this in JesUs’ name,, and this was really the same, he believed, as giving it to the Lord Jesus. The chief next gave the missionary a piece of his land on which to build a real church instead of the mud-floored tent in which the Christians were worshiping. Then one morning he led his favorite pony right up the aisle of the meeting tent. “This is for the Lord Jesus, too,” he said. “I love Him so very much because He has done so much for me. He has made me different. I’m happy now and have hope.” Bobby loved the Lord Jesus, too. He knew the whole wonderful story of Jesus’ love for him. His mother had told him. But this was the first time that Bobby had ever realized that any one could give that Wonderful One anything. As he be gan to wonder what he could give, he for got to listen to the rest of the story about the Indian chief. No, he did not hear the last part of the story, which told of the best gift of all—the gift of the Indian chief himself to the Lord Jesus who had done so much for him. So it was not this part of the story that gave Bobby the happy idea that came. He really was thinking of something else. He was thinking: “I can’t go hunting; I’m too little, and anyway Mother doesn’t want me to play with even a toy gun. And I haven’t a toy horse, even.” Bobby’s mother was very poor, and she, with Bobby’s help, made all the play things he had; but these to Bobby were wonderful. While he was thinking, the happy idea came to him. Yes, he knew the very gift he would give! Once a year the people of Bobby’s little church took up a strange collection. They brought gifts for people poorer than them
that ye present your bodies . . . ” Have those of you who read this story brought your gifts of love to Jesus? If not, won’t you do so today? Mother’s Birthday N ext W ednesday is Mother’s birth day,” said twelve-year-old Phyllis quietly, one cold afternoon as the children were sitting around the fireplace in the living room. She and her twin brother, Philip, had been taking turns reading aloud from a favorite book, while little Elizabeth and Baby Peter played with their blocks on the hearthrug. There was a sudden silence, and then Philip sighed as he said, “Her first one in heaven!” Baby Peter began to whimper, “I want Mummie,” while big tears gathered in his blue eyes and rolled slowly down his plump cheeks. “Hush,” said Elizabeth, who was five years old. “It’s selfish to cry when she’s so happy with the Lord Jesus.” “Let’s think up just the nicest way to celebrate her birthday,” Phyllis proposed, gathering Peter up into her lap. “And let’s keep it a secret to surprise Daddy,” added Philip quickly. “Oh, yes, yes,” chimed in the two younger children; and when Grandmother peeped in a little later, they were all so happy and busy that she smiled and went back to her knitting without disturbing them. And what do you suppose they planned to do? Well, they decided to have a real birthday party for Mother, even though
selves and laid them in the large baskets which were passed from one person to an other. They gave these gifts in Jesus’ name, and that was the same, you know, as giving to Him. And this was the very day for giving these gifts! Bobby could hardly wait until the man with the basket reached him. How glad he was that he was sitting near the aisle! That would make it easier for him to give his gift. Suddenly he thought of his shoes. Yes, they were clean. That was the only nice thing about them. He was glad, too, that he knew the big map who carried the collection basket. At last the man reached the seat where Bobby and his mother were sitting. Bobby’s mother noticed that he spoke to the man and that the man stooped low to hear what Bobby was saying. She won dered more as she saw the light that came into the man’s face and saw the tears come into his eyes. Then he lifted Bobby right up out of his seat and gave him a place to sit right in the crook of his strong arm while Bobby’s poor but clean shoes rested in the basket among the gifts of the peo ple. Bobby had to set his feet down care fully because of the gifts. He saw among them a toy fire engine with very little of the red paint left on it; but even so, it was a better one than Bobby had ever had. “Well,” he thought, “I hope the Lord Jesus can use it. I have nothing to give but just me, so He will have to take me.” The basket was not full, nor did the man collect any more gifts just then. He took what he had, which was mostly Bobby, and stood before the minister, whose own face looked smiling and teary at the same time. It was very still in the little church as the minister laid his hand on Bobby’s head and thanked God for “the gift of Bobby.*’ As for Bobby, he never before had been so wonderfully happy! He was sure that his gift of love had been accepted. Thus the Indian chief and Bobby did in a very real way what we are all told to do in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you . . .
she would not be there as at other birth days. And they would try to do every thing to please Mother, “because she really is alive with the Lord Jesus, even though we can’t see her,” Elizabeth told Peter. Each one was to empty out his or her savings bank just as they had always done before Mother’s birthday. But instead of buying presents, they were to put all the money together and send it to Mother’s missionary friend in China. They would ask Grandmother and Auntie Lu and Uncle John to come to the party also, and to bring money for the missionary instead of presents for Mother. “I know Mother would like that better than anything,” Philip said, “because she
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