October 1931
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STRUCTURE IN SCR IPTURE [Continued from page 449]
even cook, and still be a gentleman. To those two I am just a cook.’ And I told him that I would talk to you, since I knew you were the one they admired. In brief, he wants some one of whose position they are aware to back up and carry on his work of winning them.” Althea sighed. “Oh, Connie! You don’t know how much I don’t want to ! But I ’ll pray about it.” * * * Pansy was on the set. She was tired. She was hot. She was cross. Only that very day, one of her best scenic effects had failed to screen well. She suddenly decided to jump in the little car that bore her monogram and speed down to a Wilshire tea shop, and relax, and eat a choco late-maple-nut-banana ice cream. This dish had soothing qualities, she had always found. How good the air felt, blowing through her short curls! If only a traffic policeman—sixty miles an hour was rather fast—cr-r-rash! It was the great red roadster in front of her, in imme diate and sudden contact with a telegraph pole. Her own brakes were shrieking even as she realized it all. And was that strange-looking mass the handsome youth who had been at the wheel only a moment before? He was dead. There was no doubt about it. And his whole per sonality, that had been so evident to her as she had absent- mindedly observed his dashing driving, was somehow wiped out. The thing that she was staring at so stupidly was only clay. What had happened? She gave a little moan, and then a voice said, “Did you know him, lady?” She shook her head dumbly and, putting her car in reverse, resolutely backed out of the crowd which had already gathered. Home, and the quiet of her room! “Tell ’em I have a fierce headache, Aunt Mary,” she had called out. “See no one.” Bang! Her door was shut. But she could not shut it out. It was fear. So that was what happened when people died! It was no use to lie down. Pacing the floor was better. Every one died. Some day, she, Pansy—. She shivered. The words of a motto that had once hung on Aunt Mary’s wall flashed across her mind: “In life and death, I am still with thee.” She wished she could claim that. Had that young man known anything about it ? Where had he gone ? Certainly he was no longer there; it was indeed an empty tenement of clay that she had seen. What was one to do in such a world, where in the midst of life one was in death? She was at the telephone now. “Miss Sumner! I want to speak to Miss Sumner.” Her voice was full of desperate fear, and she did not care who knew it. “Miss Sumner, this—this is Pansy—you know! Mr. Wu’s friend. Remember you said to me that day I was at your house, ‘If you ever wish to hear about my Sav iour, I ’ll be glad to talk with you.’ And I walked out, didn’t I? Well, I—I ’ve changed. I ’ve seen a terrible thing—-I’m just plain frightened. Please come and tell me about Him—'what He does that makes you all so—so secure. Please come! Come quick!” And Althea came.
outside her door, humbly seeking admittance, if not of the apostate church, of the individual who hungers for His fellowship (3:20). How pathetic! How tragic! Yet this is where our Lord declares that He is. While apostasy is the prophesied course of the church, our Lord is not defeated thereby. He came to seek and to save the individual. Hence, His address and appeal in each of these letters is to the individual. Whatever the spiritual environment, our Lord seeks to warn him of its perils and evils, bidding him have an ear for what the Spirit is saying. Then comes the promise-, to him as an individual, if he will but show himself an overcomer. The promise is always appropriate to the test presented by the state of the church in which he finds himself. For exam ple, if his faithfulness to Christ calls for a martyr’s death, as in the case of Smyrna, he is promised immunity from the second death, together with the crown of life (2 : 10 , 11 ) . But while the professing church apostatizes and is re pudiated, the true church will always be true to Him. This faithfulness to Him is rewarded with the promise of being raptured, caught up into His glorified presence, as an es cape “from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (3:10). Dear reader, if you have been keeping our blessed Lord on the outside, out of your life, out of your confi dence, do so no longer. Let Him in, as Saviour, as the very life of your life. Then you will not be engulfed with the movements that sweep men away from Him and swal low them up spiritually. Then may you have the joy of being counted an overcomer, sharing His victory here and His glory yonder.
Christ and the World The world was at the Saviour’s- cross ■That day of days of old; The nations of the earth were there, Before His gaze unrolled, With hostile or with friendly eyes, With shrinking gaze or bold. The world is at His cross today To worship or deride, And love of Him and hate of Him The hearts of men divide; He dominates the world thought still As on the day He died. Some pelt Him with assailing words, Some seek Him to adore; Some hail Him as the Son of God, Some call Him man—no more; But they can not forget the Christ, And they can not ignore. With tongues that laud Him or decry, With lips that scorn or pray; With hands that crown or crucify, They can not keep away; For men may choose Him or deriy-ftgll He draws them all for aye.
Y—A nn ie J ohnson F lint .
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