408
September 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
ful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” It seemed now to have its usual efficacy, for the recalcitrant one was unable to reply. Elise finally spoke. “As to Beatrice’s rising for our national anthem, I think she is right. We all ought to ! You are forgetting, too, that she is foreign-born, and yet patriotic. She sim ply wishes to express her affection for the United States. What Englishman keeps his seat when ‘God Save the King’ is played ? I ’ve seen them get up in a crowded audi torium when there were only two or three Britishers pres ent, and I ’ve admired their courage, too! Isn’t your point of view just a little—er, local?” Elise did not like to say “provincial,” but she meant it. The spoiled and petted one sensed this and was nettled. “I come from the South, or my father did,” she began. “Where your father was born of a poor family in a mill village,” Althea might have added, but she refrained. The speaker continued. “Why did she bring a-—an African to a church social, sitting there and eating—” “Yes! And I loved Beatrice for i t ! The poor old darky woman thought it was her own church until she got into the middle of the floor and stood there all confused. Bee flew up to her and took her under her wing, and being really warm-hearted, gave her some supper. She was a sweet old Christian, too!” Constance exclaimed. To this the Lemon King’s daughter answered, with a bit of a drawl, “You Northerners never understand.” “I know the South has a problem we but faintly un derstand, but in Christ, there is neither North nor South, neither Jew nor Gentile, nor black nor white,” para phrased Lawrence. “As for Beatrice’s manners,” Constance went on, “she has the very best ever. She is natural. There is nothing so delightful as fine natural courtesy. Oh, I know she is not strictly conventional, and she does not look out upon the world with the bored ennui that is so much affected by girls today, but the Personage is truly sophisticated, and he thought Bee charming. Frankly, I am a bit tired of the ‘canned culture’ that emphasizes the petty things and passes by that attitude of the heart which is loving and considerate of others. True courtesy is rooted in the wish to make those about us at ease. The tendency to criticize them for technicalities defeats the very end for which courtesy exists.” “Beatrice is not conventional,” Lawrence said, as the opposition remained obstinately silent, “but neither, we are told, was Marie Antoinette. But why should we quote queens? Aren’t we to be a peculiar people, separated from the world, not conformed to it? When Beatrice does something unspiritual, then go to her in love and tell her so. Do you think it is helping the work of Christ for you to criticize a Christian worker on these minor points ? Whom did Christ choose for His coworkers—polished, Romanized Jews, or plain men?” “He chose Paul as the great apostle, and he was a scholar and a gentleman.” The Lemon King’s daughter had an edge in that tone. “Yes! And Paul counted all things but loss for the knowledge of Christ. God knew the caliber of the man before He called him. Forgive me, but I feel it my duty to say that you are limiting your own capacity as a Bible teacher and a Christian worker by your critical attitude. Let the Lord set Beatrice right in His own time and way. He chose her. He will attend to her preparation
and fitness to work for Him. You are only hurting His work, and grieving His Holy Spirit by your interference.” The committee had filed sadly out, past the crystallized defiance of the Lemon King’s daughter. They tried to fit themselves into Lawrence’s car and found they could not make it. While Constance and Elise were deciding to walk to the bus, Djemileh murmured into Althea’s ear a rhyme from one of Little Sister’s favorite books: “This haughty dog will not by look or sign, E’en deign to notice any other pup. “Beatrice is to do some special service for the King be fore He comes. When true children of the Lord are per secuted, and persecuted again, without any real faithless ness on their part, I have observed that it generally means some sort of preparation.” It was Uncle Alan who said this in his own quiet, thoughtful way. The scene inspired one to think. The great forest of giant sequoias rose to its tremendous height all around them. They were looking into a golden sunset that glowed from rose to fire, from fire to daffodil, and then lost itself in a translucent paleness of green that met the deep azure of twilight overhead. Seen through the majestic boles of these great forest monarchs, some of which had been in the land before Moses wrote the Penta teuch, the sky-glow took on the appearance of a gateway to glory. A blaze of fragrant cones and sun-dried wood crackled between two stones beneath the shelter of a great rock.' Uncle Alan continued. “I hope Beatrice will keep sweet under it,” he added softly. “But I know it is hard. Yet His grace is there.” “Where is the child?” asked Elise. “She and Althea have gone to Moro Rock to see the Sierras. All the snow peaks will be gorgeous in this rose- colored light,” said Constance. “Does she know about this criticism of her?” asked Lawrence. “Oh, yes! You may be sure one and another would have given her a hint.” There was a short silence, while the wind sighed and soughed through the spicy branches two hundred feet above them. Donald Donaldson spoke at last. “Do you think we should go around with our Bibles in one hand and the ‘Blue Code of Social Usage’ in the other?” he asked belligerently. “We should be careful, I think, as one has said, n o t. to add our offensiveness to the offense of the cross. The trouble is this, that many favored Christians are blaming other Christian workers who are not ashamed of the gos pel of Christ, and are censoring them for holy boldness! We are to contend earnestly and lovingly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints—but we are to con tend !” Donald glared privately into the fire for a moment, and then, catching Djemileh’s sympathetic eye, he burst forth with Scott brusqueness, “Would na Paul ha done better had he been polite and conventional on Mars Hill, noo? Why did he have to go and say, ‘Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.’ He would better have con formed to Athenian conventions. And as for Philip, he should have gotten a letter of introduction to the Eunuch, I suppose.” “Donald, your voice is becoming a growl. The bears He’s just been playing with a porcupine, And that’s why he’s so horribly stuck up.” * * *
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