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Is It Loyal?

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 19, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 20.

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Is It Loyal?

HAVE just had such a fine visit with my school chum.
“Yes, I saw him pass with you several times; he was a manly looking fellow,” was the reply.
“He is as good as he looks, too, and that’s the best of it,” answered my youthful friend enthusiastically.
“It is nice that you have such a friend, for, coming from a larger city, he could give you many helpful ideas in regard to your circle.”
“O,” the boy hesitated a moment, “he isn’t good in the way you mean; he wouldn’t wear a silver cross!”
“Well, never mind; if he is only a Christian we will claim him as a King’s son, anyway. Many good Christian people object to outward badges, and I respect their opinion, even tho I differ from them. Have they put on Christ? that’s the question.”
“You misunderstood me; I only said he was good; I mean in a general way; I don’t think he pretends to be a Christian,” was the half-embarrassed reply.
“Did I understand you to say that you were intimate friends, Harry?”
“Why, just like brothers. We grew up side by side, when we were little fellows. Then my folks moved West, but we visited back and forth, and corresponded regularly, and last year we were in the same school; so he is like my other self.”
“And still you say, ‘I don’t think he is a Christian’? I do not understand it.”
There was silence for a moment, and then he burst forth in boyish fashion:
“I am not ashamed of my religion. Indeed, I am not. Ralph knows that we do not think alike about such things, but somehow I can’t talk to him. I tell you, it isn’t natural for young folks to talk on that subject.”
“Why, Harry, I went into the young people’s meeting the other night, and as I listened to the leader as he sang—as only you can—‘I love to tell the story,’ I thought, ‘O, for more young men like him to tell that wonderful story!’”
As we walked on, the silence was unbroken for a few moments, save by a sigh from the one at my side, and then he said impetuously:
“Singing it and telling it are so different. One is natural and the other is not.”
“Would it not be nearer the truth to say, ‘One is nature and the other grace’?” was my query.
No, it is not natural, dear sons and daughters, for you to speak of your love for the King to your unconverted friends; but is it loyal to talk of everything but Him?—Our Young Folks.