September, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
305
“ I wonder whether it is worth while?” she asked her self, while she pressed her hair back from her damp brow, and sank into the welcome cushions on her lounge. “ Ferna!” she cried to the girl who was placing the rich regalia of her mistress away in the oak wardrobe, “ bring me that jardiniere in which I planted my laurel leaf.” “ It’s all dead, Miss Geraldine,” answered the girl sleepily. “ Well, bring it to me; I ’d forgotten all about it; I want to unearth it. It is very important, Ferna, that that leaf should grow. I made a promise that— but never mind; bring it to me quickly while this mood is upon me.” The girl obeyed, and with feverish haste Geraldine took a silver spoon and began the work o f investigation. Ferna walked dreamily away, but a sudden unexpected cry from the inner room brought her in a fully-awakened flurry back to Geraldine’s side. “ Ferna, it’s alive! My laurel has taken root!” “ Well, I don’t see anything to get so excited over,” said the girl, looking a bit worried into the other’s flashing eyes. “ You ’d better go to bed; you’re overtired and ex cited from all the applause and the wonderful things said about your voice.” “ Hush!” cried the awakened opera singer. “ I hate the unreality o f this life which I have been living for one whole year— away— away— from home, and—God.” “ But you have the world at your feet, Miss Geraldine!” “ I ’m tired o f the world and all its pleasures, Ferna! Oh, it’s all so empty and hollow—and sinful! I don’t want it any longer— I want Jesus Christ.” “ O Miss Geraldine,” said the girl, dropping upon her knees and taking her young mistress’ hands in her own with fearful grasp, “ I used to think I was a Christian long ago when we attended the little old Sunday-school so regularly. Do you remember how we joined the church the same Sunday together ?” “ Yes, Ferna! I well remember it. The dear old pastor took it for granted we were Christians, but I was not! How about you, Ferna?” The girl buried her face in Geraldine’s lap and burst into tears. “ I don’t know,” she sobbed, “ I wish I could know !” Geraldine quietly knelt down and wound her arms around the simple country girl. “ Ferna,” she whispered humbly, “ let us ask Jesus Christ to cleanse our hearts from sin.” V “ Oh, do, Miss Geraldine!” sobbed the girl earnestly. Geraldine hesitated— then bowing her head in humble contrition, she sought the heart o f a waiting Saviour, and two young souls received His gift o f everlasting life. “ Miss Geraldine,” said Ferna, when at last they arose to their feet with the light o f heaven shining upon each face, “ I feel quite sure the Saviour was right at our side and that He heard our prayers.” “ I believe He has come into our hearts,” answered Geraldine, twining her arms around the girl whom she now felt was a sister in Christ. Never again could she think o f faithful little Ferna as an inferior servant. “ Ferna,” she said softly, “ do you remember the night you wished to throw away the laurel leaf, while I insisted upon planting it ? It was Easter, a year ago. My soul was stirred that night. I came to the border line o f the prom ised land, and I turned back to wander in the wilderness. But I made this promise to my little leaf— I said, ‘Little leaf, if you lie withered and dead under the earth, and life springs out o f your deadness, I will look to the Life-Giver o f dead souls.’ Month after month I watched and waited, then I gave my little leaf up for dead! But look, Ferna! L ife has sprung u p !” Never did the sun shine brighter, nor the bells peal
with a gladder call to the old brown church than upon that following Easter Sunday when the villagers crowded into their place of worship, with eager expectation. It had been broadcast that Miss Geraldine Villiars was to be the soloist at the morning service. I f some were disappointed, more were made glad by her simple choice o f sacred song; sung from the depths of her new-born soul: “ Take the world, but give me Jesus; All its joys are but a name; But His love abideth ever, Through eternal years the same.” One evening Mrs. Raymond Ashley was singing an appealing message in an evangelistic meeting. Some one turned to Mr. Ashley and said in an undertone, “ Your wife has a wonderful voice, and there’s a power back o f it that moves the soul.” “ Yes, there is,” answered Raymond simply. “ It’s the power o f the Holy Spirit. Satan tried to get that voice, but our God is a God who answers prayer.” striking contrasts, bore witness to the same peace of soul. As a-young man he had come to Hollywood, that city o f golden aspirations and broken dreams, and had been suc cessful in securing employment in the moving picture in dustry. But he found that the glitter and veneer o f the stage and the whirl o f the pleasure-seeking life left him with but a hungry heart. When he found, therefore, that he could not drown that inner restlessness, he joined, in company with a friend, a regular weekly study class of Theosophy. He was progressing in this weird occultism, when one day in a meeting, one claimed that he could remember back four thousand five hundred years. That finished Theosophy; for Ed. A lecturer recommended some Christian Science literature to him, and he began taking readings in that. But a fellow employee’s wife was a Spiritualist medium and urged Ed to attend some of their meetings. Ed now declares that it was only the hand of the Unseen that kept him from being plunged into it. But farther and farther he went into the world. Gambling, betting, and kindred pursuits followed. Some time later, through influences in his home, he was led into Seventh Day Adventism. In this he received his first semblance o f Bible knowledge, perverted as it was. But not satisfied, he finally, through a series of circumstances, was happily brought to a place where the Word o f God in its simplicity and sufficiency was held out as the only hope o f a lost and sin-sick world. In this place Ed found- a group o f young men about his own age who met every Monday night in a club for the purpose o f going out after other young men like himself and bringing them to the full assurance o f salvation by faith in the finished work of the crucified Son o f God. What a message! What a pur pose ! Here, Ed, after becoming established in the faith, found fellowship with other young men in the things of the Lord, and found the joy o f witnessing to the power o f God in one’s life. It was not long before he himself became the twenty-sixth president o f the original group o f the International Fishermen’s Club (known as Club No. 1), and as such he now had the joy o f leading the other boys, and our friend Joe, back to Hollywood—the very place where for so long the world had held him in its grip. With men like this testifying to a deeper reality than the world can fathom, is it any wonder that Hollywood sat up and took notice? FISHING BESIDE ALL WATERS [Continued from page 295]
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