December, 1934
423
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
“But you know what I meant. I wasn’t thinking of that general kind of love,” said Marion. “Some one has very wisely said that ‘love does not dif fer in kind, but only in degree,’ ” Dr. Fenwick answered. "Expressions of love vary, of course, according to relation ships, but love is always love. I don’t ask you to accept this point of view, but just to think it over. But we sidetracked a little, didn’t we? The point is, are you willing to hand over this precious life of yours and trust Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, to order it hereafter ? Are you willing to fold up all preconceived plans and be willing to accept substitutes, if He judges a substitute to be better for you? If you are willing to do this, the Book, with all its golden promises, will become a new Book to you, because you will be finding parts of the plan there. There will be a gradual unfolding, you know. You will be sure to find there a promise of your life work, and there’s joy beyond joy in th a t! Whether thatxwork be what you call ‘religious work’ or not, it will be sure to be a means whereby you shall let your own little world know what kind of Christ you have, what kind of Person lives in you and really does things by using your hand and brain.” Marion was silent and Dr. Fenwick went bn: “If you decide to do this—to hand over the key of your life to Christ—you will find praying, too, to be a very different sort of thing than it has been to you. I wonder if you had thought about that.” “I have thought more about praying than any other one thing in connection with all this trouble, and I have longed to be able to get God to do what I asked,” she an swered. “Do you know, I believe that’s just what He is saying about you. He is begging you to have enough confidence in Him to do what He asks—to hand over everything to Him. Once that is done, the door is opened for conversation; prayer was never meant to be one-sided, you know.” “Dr. Fenwick, please don’t tell me that prayer is a means of growth fo r my soul. Honestly, if prayer is not a means of getting what I want, I don’t believe it’s worth while.” Again she sent up a challenge with her eyes. “Prayer is primarily and fundamentally a means of get ting what you want. There are other benefits, but we need not discuss them now. But, did you ever think, my dear girl, that close association with God might change one’s tastes? might supplant certain desires with others? might cause you to desire and ask for just the things His Father- heart had been longing to give you, but would not until you really wanted them? You remember the how-much-more- shall-your-Father-which-is-in - heaven-give - good - things- to-them-that-ask-Him promise. We take it that sincerity is implied in the asking, that real desire prompted the peti tion, so that what we need is to honestly want ‘good things’ and ask for them. Many people do not really want ‘good things,’ you know, and God won’t give anything else, so they never get what they pray for.” “I think I see an application of that already,” said Marion quietly. “I have been wanting Don’s worship. I was willing to have him break the first commandment. It is plain enough that the burden of my prayer was not for a ‘good thing.’ But there is one thing I want that I know is a good thing, and that is work; it won’t be so hard to believe God will give that. I can’t honestly say, as I have [Continued on page 427]
got to send me flowers and other things at the right times, and everything he sent seemed to be complimentary to me •—seemed to say again all the wonderful things he had been saying in his letters. “Last August (he had been away six months then; he lived in the West) I missed hearing from him for five days. You can imagine what I went through during those five days. And then came the letter which changed every thing in the world for me. Well, the substance of it was that he had been grossly untrue—and there were far-reach ing consequences.” Marion’s face burned as she reached the climax of the story, but she saw that the gray eyes of her listener were fixed on the floor—not looking straight into hers, as they had at first—so she went on with less embarrassment. “He said he was unworthy,” Marion continued, “and that he never expected to be happy again. But I wonder if he could have suffered as I have—the disappointment, the humiliation, and then this maddening monotony. The family think I have been jilted, in the ordinary way, or am being jilted. I know he loved me—loves me now, I believe —but we may have to be separated forever. That’s all” —arid for the first time, there was a sob in her voice. “I know religion ought to help me find life endurable and even joyous under any circumstances, and that’s just what I want to talk to you about.” As Marion looked into the kindly, serious face before her, she had no fear of the man’s depreciating her agony of soul, and that realization, in itself, brought comfort. Per haps, long ago, he had walked the same way. Dr. Fenwick met steadily the challenge in the girl’s hon est gray eyes and said, “No, you are wrong there; religion won’t help you. It wasn’t meant for that. Religion is merely a by-product of something else.” “But what is that ‘something else’?” Marion asked. “It is union with Christ, and that simply means recog nizing His presence in you and His authority over your ‘self’—all there is of you; it is ‘bringing into captivity every thought.’ You belong to Him by right of His purchase, made through His sacrifice. But the question i s : Is He allowed to use His property as He desires ? When you turn over the key to Him, you rid yourself of a vast deal of responsibility; did you know that? Thereafter, He must plan concerning the use of the property and must provide for its needs. All you have to do is to find out His plans and follow them. I said, ‘He must plan,’ but I should have said, ‘He has planned’—ages ago—just what He wants to make of the Marion-Berkeley-property. There is one thing you may be sure of—there is nothing commonplace about His plans for you. There is not one doubt in my mind that His plans will lead you into experiences that are not only higher and nobler than any you have known, but which are also infinitely more satisfying than could ever come as a result of your own planning. There is not a question about His willingness or His ability. The only question is in regard to your own will—whether you will to do God’s will or not.” “I am ashamed to admit it,” Marion replied, “but I never thought of God’s will as being anything nice. It seems to me that whenever I ’ve heard it mentioned, it was in con nection with death, or something else as horrible. But, hon estly, I can’t conceive of a plan that would be ‘satisfying’ to me with love left out.” “You may be absolutely sure that love will not be left out. When He who is love has the right of way, an absence of love would be impossible,” ’ he answered, smilingly.
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