that very much of my work was not in line with the pattern. Presently He took me into a little room and showed me a very small column of silver, and He said, 'That will abide the test. When the fire comes, that will not be destroyed.' I asked Him what it represented, and He said, 'That represents the little gifts to the needy ones.' 'Inasmuch as you have done it to one of these little ones you have done it to me, and inasmuch as the left hand did not know what the right hand gave, it is precious.' Then He showed me another little column of gold, and He said, 'That also will abide the test. That represents the hours of prayer alone with your Master.' At last we passed into a great room, and I pointed out to Him the elaborate carving in the woodwork. I had spent many months on it, but the Master said, 'Yes, it is well done, but it is wood, and when the fire strikes, the wood, hay and stubble will go.'" (Text.)
(2333)
PERSECUTION AND PRAYER
When holding services in a little chapel on
the edge of Manila, we had a young convert
named Candido, about nineteen or twenty
years old, in charge. We had to meet out
under the trees, and there was an old man
who lived close by where we were holding
the services—an old gambler, sixty years old,
named Marcelina. Of all the vile brutes
I ever saw, that old Marcelina was the
worst. He would go at night, and while
we were holding services he would throw
stones and brickbats. If there ever was a
devil incarnate, he was one. We had patience
with him for a long time. One day Candido
came into my office and sat down in a
chair and was looking greatly discouraged.
Finally he said: "What shall we do with that
old Marcelina? He came in last night and
hit one of the little girls on the head with
a stone, and she is seriously injured." I
replied, "I don't know what you ought to
do. I believe if Jesus were on earth, He
would pray for that old man." "That is a
doctrine which you don't find until you
take the gospel," he answered. "With us,
it is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth, and stab the other fellow in the
back." It cheered my heart to hear that
little fellow say that. He went out and
gathered twelve or thirteen young men in
a room as a praying-band, and for two
long months they met every single night
to pray for the conversion of that old man.
Marcelina, hearing of it, came up and asked,
"What are you doing?" "We are praying
for you, that God will give you love in
your heart." He rushed out, raving and
swearing, and the next time they held a
service, he threw clubs and stones. Still
the boys did not give up. After that Marcelina
could not sleep; and one night he
got up when everybody else was asleep and
stole like a sentry to where Candido lived
and called him out. He said, "Candido, I
wish you would tell me what it is that you
have which I haven't got; how can you
treat me so kindly, when I am a brute to
you?" They walked up under the palm-trees
and bananas at the other side of the
house, and that nineteen-year-old boy and
the proud old gambler knelt down side by
side to pray. I do not explain these things,
but I know what happened that night. Marcelina
knelt down and God took away that
stony heart which he had had for fifty
years and gave him as new and tender a
heart as a young child ever had. Later
there stood up thirty-seven people for baptism,
and when I looked at Marcelina my
heart seemed to come into my throat. I
knew the struggles that he had gone through,
and after I had baptized him, he said: "I beg
your pardon; I thought that I was doing
good when I threw stones; I did not know
any better." Before he sat down I put my
hand on his shoulder and said: "Wait, one
word more; what must we do to win a
fellow man for Jesus?" He looked around
and sat down, crying like a little child, and
we all wept with him; we could not help
it. In a moment he arose and gave this
testimony, with the tears streaming down
his cheeks and his voice shaking: "Pastor,
we can not win men by throwing stones at
them; we can not win them by treating them
as I have been treating you; we must love
them to Jesus." That is what we must do
in Latin-America for those people who do
not love Jesus; we must step over the
barrier and help them and "love them to
Jesus." Do they need us?—J. McLaughlin,
"Student Volunteer Movement," 1906.
(2334)
PERSECUTION, RELIGIOUS
It was during the latter half of the eighteenth
century in Europe that some statesmen
commenced the much-needed work of reform.
Conspicuous among them was Joseph II of
had the right to regulate the religion of his
Austria. He went so far as to think he
