Have you ever noticed how God sometimes uses for His glory the very trials He allows His dear children to go through? These instances are living witness to the precious truth that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Rom. 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28).
This scripture was borne out in the lives of our your g friends, Mae and Ernest, although the sorrows they encountered in their Christian pathway would, perhaps, have been insurmountable stumbling blocks for many less sturdy believers in God's wondrous love.
When Ernest's health broke and he could no longer endure the strain of high-pressure salesmanship, this dear couple moved to the far west. In a small town there they used all their resources to buy a neighborhood grocery and meat market. The Lord blessed their combined labors in this little store so that they were enabled to care for and educate their young family, and faithfully "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
In their sincere desire to be used of God in their daily lives, both Mae and Ernest rarely missed an opportunity to speak to customers and employees about their souls' eternal welfare. Some received the Word gladly, but others turned a deaf ear―and their backs―on God's good news.
One who professed salvation under the ministry of his Christian employer was the butcher in the meat department of the little store. Happy to have such an out-spoken believer working for him, Ernest gladly gave all responsibility for purchase and sales of meat into his hands. And how the number of customers did increase! They would line up and wait for the jovial butcher to fill their orders.
A day came when the usually busy proprietor was at leisure to observe the meat-cutter's department. From a place near the door he watched as, one after another, the customers were waited on and left the market with their heavy cuts of beef, pork, or lamb in their arms or baskets. All seemed so pleased with the friendliness and service they received, and Ernest basked in the pleasant greetings of his very satisfied customers.
But came another day, a day of reckoning. The apparently flourishing little store was beginning to sink into the red. Sales were good, but where were the profits? Observing each transaction more closely, Ernest was amazed to see the cash-register figures. Meat customers who seemed best known to the butcher carried away large, choice cuts, as usual; but purchases were rung up at only a small part of their value.
The next pay-day, certain now that he had traced his losses to the meat department, Ernest approached his butcher with a heavy heart. Handing him his pay envelope, the sadly disillusioned proprietor merely commented: "As a professing Christian, my friend, you should know that 'God loves truth in the inward parts!' His Word tells us 'there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.' Matt. 10:2626Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. (Matthew 10:26).
"And now," Ernest continued, "I shall hire a butcher who will teach me to break down the sides of beef and pork." And this he did, accepting the lesson as from God.
With scrupulous honesty, the new meat cutter and his employer worked together to give all customers the same fair weight and value, and in due time their efforts were owned of God in the increase of sales. But the friends of the first butcher never came back! He himself went his way, probably still using the profession of Christianity for his personal gain while at the same time his unscrupulous methods cast reproach on the precious name of Christ.
Ernest realized that the spiritual Christian must ever be alert to separate the good from the evil, and learn to discern and take the precious from the vile; for "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:36,3736For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36‑37).