September, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
292
ft’
FORTRESS | l§ p | | p m | 9 ÙU B y LOUIS T. TALBOT* Los Angeles, California o f a pencilled note, pasted on a small medicine box and reading as follows: “ For the Church of-the Open Door. This is my wedding ring, all I have to give” ? What appeal to heroism, to Christian courage, captured the heart o f the thirteen-year-old boy who wrote: “ Mr. Talbot, enclosed is a bill for $5.00. I got a job on a farm, paying me a dollar a day. I have to get up at three o clock in the morning. I have worked five days and I give you five dollars” ? • What was it in the heart of “ one o f the least that caused an unwieldy pencil to form these precious words: “ I send you these 181 pennies. The Bible says, ‘A little child shall lead them.’ I am a little child” ? What was it that prompted the writing of such a letter as this? I am sorry to have made three distributions of my offerings. When I brought the first to your office, I did n undreds of letters have been pouring into my office in the last several weeks— letters from all parts of the United States, indeed from all parts of the world. Before I attempt to say anything about why they came, or from whom, let me share one of them with you, for its spirit is typical of them all. As you read it, you will understand, perhaps, why I carried it in my pocket for several days as a peculiarly sacred and precious thing, reluctant to do what the writer requested. It reads like this: The enclosed rings are a gift from my two daughters who are at present taking a rest cure in the Olive View Sanatorium. They had no money,- nothing to give but their high school rings, but they are heart and soul with us all in this great proj ect and want to have some part. They want you to know that they are praying earn estly that the money may be raised and the church and Institute continue to be a lighthouse for God till He come. They are not able to earn any money, but they do want to give,all they have, these two gold rings.'. May God bless you, ■; Enclosed were two rings, bearing the dates of 1925 and 1927. The gold itself was worth only about $1.50, but the sacrificial spirit o f which it was the embodiment was priceless. I told the story o f these two rings to a Sunday morn ing congregation in the Church of the Open Door. Nearly 3,000 people were present. There were tears as they listened. I expressed the desire to go personally to the sanatorium where these girls were confined and return their rings to them, provided two persons in the congrega tion would redeem the rings at $50.00 each, attaching their cards to them. At the close o f the service, six persons came forward to comply with the request. By common consent, only two cards were attached, but each o f the friends paid the $50.00 offered, and when I visited those girls a few days later and returned the gifts they had whole-heartedly given to the Lord, I had the joy o f telling them that they had given, not two rings, not even $300.00, but a gift like Mary’s,- “ very costly,^; '. • • , and the house was filled with the odor” of their self-sacrifice. This is the spirit that has been ruling in the Church of the Open Door and among the friends o f the Bible In stitute. Hundreds of letters and gifts, many o f them with the blood marks o f sacrifice on them, have given elo quent evidence of it. W h a t P rompted t h e G iv in g The questions naturally arise, “ W hy? What is the need for it?” ^ . .,. 15 What, for instance, was the motive behind the writing *Pastor, Church o f the Open Door, and Acting President, Bible Institute o f Los Angeles. not think of the others. The enclosed, my wed ding ring, is the last, all of precious memories. What a joy and blessing it has been to have a part in this blessed task! How near our Lord Tesus Christ has come to us through it! I cannot tell you all it has done for me. By “ three distributions” this woman meant that she had come three times to the Church o f the Open Door, each time giving what seemed to her at the time to be her all. The first gift was a diamond ring— the most val uable o f the many received; the second, a set o f sterling silver, beautifully engraved; and the third, a plain, worn gold band, “ the last o f all precious memories.” The answers to these and hundreds o f questions like them do not come glibly. They form a sacred story that reads like the opening chapters o f the book o f the Acts. The Holy Spirit has been leading, searching, mov ing, and the result has been “ marvelous in our eyes.” Mr. Talbot, on a “warm day,” pointing to the thermometer that registered giving.
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