T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S b u t you forgot to tell th e people the house was on fire.’ To act like th a t when th ere is no fire is th e p art of a maniac, and when th ere is no sense of impending peril and no realization th a t a soul w ithout Christ is in unspeakable danger th ere will, of course, be little concern about salvation. "There is too much preaching today th a t sounds like, ‘Repent as it were, and be converted in a sense o r you will be lo st to some extent,’ bu t Christ said: •‘Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.’ I have no desire to argue about the n atu re and duration of the lost world. I t’s enough for me to know th a t Jesus said: ‘And these shall go away into eternal punishm ent’— kolasin ainoion. In the ligh t of th a t expression w hat is th e use of building up a system of theology on whether ‘ainoion’ means ‘forever’ o r \a few months less? “We have conventions enough and we organize societies enough; we pass resolutions enough and we appoint com m ittees enough; we p rin t books enough on ‘How to Do Church W ork,’ and we deliver lectu res enough on ‘How to Reach the Masses,’ bu t we don’t seem to get down to the business of the church in real blood-earnestness and do the th ing which we spend so much of God’s time talk ing about. “We need a little more of the rugged readiness and insuperable initiative of old Miles, th e bridge-builder. We spend too much tim e ‘getting ready to get ready.’ When Stonewall Jackson Wanted to get over th e Shenandoah R iver in tw enty-four hours, h e told his bridge-builder to get the th ing done as quickly as he could and said he had ordered his engineer to prepare the plans and hand them over to him a t once. About ten hours la ter he asked old Miles how he' was getting along, and the old man said, ‘General, the bridge is bu ilt; I don’t know w hether th e picture is done y et or no t.’ ”
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SERMON WINDOWS The Garm ents o f Salvation Isa . 61 :1 0 An old lady using crutches attended a mission service. The subject of th e sermon was “The Garments of Salva tion .” A t the close of th e service, the feeble old lady approached the preacher and said: “ I may never be able to come to th is place again, bu t if not, and you never see me on earth , you will know where I have gone.” “Have you no fear of appearing before God?” asked the preacher. “ Oh, n o !” said the lady. “I am too well dressed for th at. He H im self has furnished my garm ents.” A Cough or a Coffin There is always something to be th ank fu l for. A colporteur says: “ I re member hearing a story of a man who was found leaning against a cemetery wall well-nigh exhausted w ith a fearful paroxysm of coughing. A passer-by stayed to sympathize w ith him, and re marked, ‘F riend, you have a terrib le cough,’ ‘I have,’ the man replied; ‘but th ere are many on the o ther side of the wall who would be glad if they could have it.’ ” The Missing Details “ Some years ago a magazine pub lished a series of pictures, .each of which lacked a vital detail, which was to be supplied by the readers as a competitive task. F o r instance, a number of people occupied th e center of one picture and were looking straig h t a t th e reader, while a man w ith outstretched arm s was standing, w ith his back to the reader, apparently th reaten ing all the other figures, who, nevertheless, seemed quit unmoved. The m issing detail was a sheet of plate-glass. The people were gazing into a shop window, and the man was inside the shop, cleaning th e win dow. The ch aracters of people are often a puzzle to th e ir friends, owing to th e existence of a detail which they cannot see. I remember being much per-
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