MRS. KING'S BIBLE STUDY.
By Jennie M. Drinkwater
"Take an olive," said somebody at the breakfast table. "When I was in India it was quite a joke that if anybody began the day feeling discouraged, an olive helped to see things clearer." "Seeing clearer might make one more discouraged still," replied Mrs. King, as she helped herself to an olive. It was seeing more clearly than she had seen five years ago that had given her the discouraged feeling that somebody saw in her face this morning. "Well, that's the way to more light, then," remarked the somebody who suggested the olive. "I wouldn't object to a full blaze, even if it blinded me, like St. Paul." Mrs. King munched her olive, struck with the thought, but not ready to reply. An hour after breakfast she found something better than an olive. In the quiet of her own chamber, with the door locked, she fell upon her knees, and asked the illumination of the Spirit to fall upon God's word for her this day. The word was more than her daily bread. And then she arose and opened the word at the third chapter of Judges. If you knew how comforted she became with the truth she found, and the light that gave her clearer vision, you would believe, as I do, that the Comforter chose for her this morning reading. Her Bible study was very simple and practical. After you have read the story she made473out of it for herself, will you open your Bible and read the first eleven verses of the chapter, and make a story out of it for yourself? Unless your life is very different from hers, you have a story there. Mrs. King was troubled this morning because of the discipline the last five years had brought upon her (not that she did not need the discipline), because of the certain kind of discipline she had brought upon herself. She was in a very strait place. There was no way of escape. At times her life was burdened with folly as heavy a load as she could live and bear, she told herself often. And yet she was willing to live and bear. She was not glad to live and bear; her sorrow was that she could not be glad. "Was it God who led me into this hard place, or did I bring myself into it by disobedience and willfulness, and thinking I could see clearly when my eye was not single?" Had God had anything to do with her bringing herself into this place of discipline? Vexed, disquieted, with dimmed vision, she sat down to read. She read:— "Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them." Israel was a nation, but a nation made of men and women. Each person stood out distinct to be proved. Israel, then, was herself, Mary King. The nations left might be any circumstance, or set of circumstances (for things around was a good definition of the word circumstances), that could prove or test a person. Therefore, she might truthfully read: Now these are the happenings which the Lord left to prove Mary King. He could have taken them away, but he left them. They were about her five years ago, left by the Lord to prove her. By a touch of his hand, or a breath of his mouth, everything could have been changed, and she would have been outside instead of inside those surrounding things from which then she had not known how to free herself. And how could she, indeed, when the Lord left them there? No touch of hers could drive them away or change them into anything but the things to prove her. She read on: "And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord." Ah, that was just it! To know if she would listen or not listen to all she knew of the commandments of the Lord. With the light the discipline of the five years threw upon her own discussion, her own reasoning at that time, she saw that she had not hearkened to the commandments of the Lord. She had been too full of herself to hearken. Now, what next? "The children of Israel did evil." They were proved, and failed. They proved themselves disobedient. These "left" nations brought out their disobedience. Her "left" happenings brought out her disobedience. And then? "And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel." She had cried unto the Lord, oh, how she had cried unto him! Had he raised up her deliverer? Turning the leaves to the story of the life of the Deliverer upon the earth, she found:— "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted." She had found her Deliverer. God had sent Him to heal her broken heart. After a few moments, when, through her tears of penitence and gladness, she could see the words, she went back to the old story and read, "And the land had rest forty years." Her rest would be forty and forty years—rest all through this life, and never-ending rest, ever-increasing blessedness of rest. "And Othniel the son of Kenaz died." Their deliverer died. Her Deliverer was alive forever more; alive this hour, and she might speak to Him and thank Him. "They did evil again in the sight of the Lord." Her Deliverer would keep her from the evil that was in the world. And now the happenings and circumstances which God still might leave to prove her, whether she would hearken to his commandments or not, might, through Christ, who strengthened her, prove a time of ready, constant, glad obedience. She unlocked her door, and went downstairs, not only willing but glad to be alive, and glad to be burdened, if so God's pleasure was.—Advance.