September, 1933
311
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
umor K ING ’S BUSINESS . B y M arth a S. H ooker
THE LITTLE PREACHER It was the usual
With a soft, sweet voice she read, “ And the blood o f Jesus Christ, his Son, cleans eth us from all sin.” Again he asked her eagerly, “And you are not making a mistake; you are per fectly sure that is in the Bible?” “ Yes, perfectly certain, Grandpa.” “Then,” said the old man, sinking back on his pillow, “if any one should ask how I died, tell them I died in the faith of those words, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ ” Soon after that, he passed away, peaceful and happy in the sense o f all his sin being put away by that one perfect sacrifice. The writer of this children’s page then asked the boys and girls to do something for him. Let us follow his instructions: “Get your Bible and open it up at the passage the little girl read to her grandpa. Have you all got your Bibles handy? Now open to the New Testament and to the Epistle of John, not the Gospel of John. Get Epistle number one, and chapter one. Now run your finger down the verses and stop at verse seven. Are you there? Then hold your finger on the verse and let us read it together. “ ‘And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ “Will you believe that? Will you accept this love offering that Jesus Christ made for you? Say ‘thank you’ to Him for it and believe that He has cleansed you be cause you have faith in the work He did. “ Have you said ‘thank you’ ? Then lis ten., ‘As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.’ That passage is in John also, but in the Gospel of John. It is in chapter one also, but verse twelve, not seven. “Is it not wonderful that God gives us the privilege of becoming His children? This is made possible through the shed blood of Jesus for sinners. Let us now go out to tell everybody how happy we are that we are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”ji4E vangelical C hristian . God’s Way “Oh, what dreary, dreary weather 1” said Mabel Wayland disconsolately to her Uncle Matthew, a farmer with whom she had been staying a few weeks. “Just when we expect spring and the fine weather to come, there was that big snowstorm which covered up everything for a week or two, and now it has rained for four days; nothing but rain and slush and mud!” “Yes, I know, Mabel, it seems so, but that snowstorm was worth at least a mil lion dollars to the farmers of this country. Our wheat did not have a very good start last fall, and if it had been exposed to March sunshine by day and March frosts by night, it would have been killed alto gether—the snow saved it. Then the snow and the. rain are both fertilizers, they are both fixing up the soil for next harvest, and we farmers just sit and let them do it.” “ I didn’t know that we got bread out of snowflakes,” remarked Mabel with a smile. “That is God’s way of working,” an swered her uncle.—A uthor U nknown .
the Little Preacher, who take the message exactly as it is written anywhere He sends, whether to Africa, China, or the homeland. “ Then this Little Preacher tells us how to stick to our work. When a letter is ad dressed to a person who has moved away, the letter is readdressed, and the little post age stamp continues its work of locating the person. It never stops until the person is found. When it is put in place on the envelope it stays put, telling us that we should stay in the place where it has pleased the Lord Jesus to put us. “ Surely by now you are convinced that the postage stamp has been called by its right name—the Little Preacher. Get a postage stamp, boys and girls, and let it speak to you.” Reading to Grandpa An old herdsman in England was taken to a London hospital. He was very ill, and the doctors gave no hope of his re covery. His grandchild used often to come to see him, and she would then read to him out of the Bible. One day she came to the words, “And the blood o f Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The old man raised himself up and stopped the little girl, saying with great earnestness: “ Is that there, my dear ?”• I “Yes, Grandpa,” she replied, “it is.” “ Then,” said he, “read it to me again. I have never heard it before.” She read it again. “You are quite sure it is written there?” he said again. “Yes, quite sure, Grandpa,” was the child’s answer. “Then take my hand, and lay my finger on the passage, for I want to feel it.” She took the old blind man’s hand and placed his bony finger on the verse, when he said, “Now read it to me again.”
church service. The f r o n t seats were filled by the children, waiting eagerly for their part of the ser vice — a children’s sermon by the pas tor. As t h e first hymn was sung, you might have seen the
children looking here and there about the pulpit trying to discover the object to be used for their message on this particular day. Yes, there were always objects of various kinds—jars, kites, frogs, and one time a baby lion—each telling a story fori, the boys and girls. But on this Sunday, not a single object could be seen, and as the pastor came for ward, he carried no interesting object in his hands. But he was not the kind of a pastor who would disappoint the children, so he began: “ Boys and girls, today I am going to tell you about the Little Preacher”—and his hand went into his pocket to bring out the Little Preacher. Now what do you think the Little Preacher was? It could not be very big, to be found in the pastor’s pocket, could it? And you are right, the Little Preacher was surely very, very small, even the boys and girls on the front seats could hardly see it, as the pastor held up a white envelope, bearing in the corner the Little Preacher. Now you have all guessed—the Little Preacher was a postage stamp. But how could a little postage stamp ever be called a,preacher? You must listen to what the pastor told the children that Sunday morning: “This little postage stamp is made im portant, boys and girls, by the image it bears. This stamp bears the image of our first President, George Washington. Yes, before this little stamp was ever ready to be of use to any one, it had to have an image stamped on it. Then it was ready to be pressed into service. Can’t you hear it say, ‘I’m working for Uncle Sam’ ?M' “ So it is with boys and girls and older folk, too. Before they are ready to have a part in the service of the King of kings, they, too, must bear an image—the image of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus. Those who have received the Lord Jesus as their own Saviour are bearers o f His name and like ness. “ Postage stamps are always ready to be used. When a letter is written and the stamp box is opened, all the stamps seem to shout, ‘I am ready to go any place you want to send me.’ How the Lord Jesus longs to hear us say, ‘I am ready’ when there’s work to be done for H im ! “ The little Postage Stamp Preacher car ries the message exactly as it is written—» never changes it even by one word. Our Heavenly Father has a wonderful message to be carried to those who know it not. His message is found in His Book, the Bible. Some folk try to change this won derful message by adding to it, or by tak ing from it, but God wants messengers like
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