Special book review/Through Gates of Splendor/Elisabeth Elliot
tion: is this the voice of God or a sounding board of m y own desires?; the first venturesome step of faith. And then like a sudden burst of morning sun, the clearly intelligible still small voice of God. And man is at rendezvous with his God. There’s a kind of double vision that the letters and diaries furnish which sharply jolts the reader: “ I have one desire now — to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord . . . M aybe H e’ll send me some place where the name of Jesus Christ is unknown.” Ed M cCu lly wrote this letter at a time when Operation Auca was nothing hut a longing in the heart o f God. And as you read, your mind vaults the distance in time and space and you see a bend in a river where lingers still the echo of words spoken to a stone-age people, “ W e like you. W e like you. W e want to be your friends.” This item from Pete Fleming’s diary, “ . . . I would gladly give m y life for that tribe if on ly to see an assembly o f those proud, clever . . . people gathering around a table to honor the Son — gladly, gladly, gladly!” And this time, as your m ind spans the distance you recognize one of the bodies on the beach. And yet, as one of the men once wrote, “ Oh how blind it would have been to reject the leading of these days.” Five men: Nate Saint, Roger You- derian, Pete Fleming, Jim Elliot and Ed McCully. Through Gates of Splendor is their story—a story that does not end with the last chapter, for the work that the martyrs start ed is being continued by their wives as well as other mission workers. There’s the dropping of gifts over Auca villages, the compilation of words in their own language, the conversion o f neighboring Indian tribes. And the hope that some day there w ill come the conversion of the first Auca. And that day will come. “ W e said to ourselves that God does not hear us. And then one day He answered.” (256 pages; 68 photographs; cloth; Harp er & Bros., New York, N.Y.; $3.75.) END.
FIVE TRANSIENT FLAMES by Lucy Barajikian
O ne summer night a young col lege student sat pondering these words from the Book of Books, “ He makes his ministers a flame of fire.” “ Am I ignitible?” he wondered later in his diary. “ God, deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me w ith the oil of the Spirit that I m ay be a flame. But flame is transient, often short lived. Canst thou bear this, m y soul— short life? In me there dwells the Spirit o f the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house con sumed Him. ‘Make me T h y Fuel, Flame of God,’ ” he prayed. And God heard him. A t 28, Jim Elliot was dead. W ith four of his companions, he lies buried on a lone ly sand bar deep in the remote jun gles of Ecuador, and the story of what these five men were trying to accomplish seared the world. The story of these 20th century martyrs now appears in a first-hand account written b y one of the wives of the missionaries. And together w ith the story o f the five men, she includes some fascinating tales of mission life. The cough that almost broke up an expedition. The terrify ing roar of a storm that erased an entire mission station. The quiet ness of sudden death as a result of ancient tribal blood feuds. The writing is simple, serene. There are no sticky histrionics. No insistent interrogations into the in scrutable ways of God with men. She just tells of five men, their life,
their work and their brief encounter with “ isolated pockets of mankind.” And in the telling, Author Elisa beth Elliot achieves a singular re sult. H er book rips into you with all the power and fury of an Auca lance. The impact comes partly from the very nature o f the story, for these were splendid young men: one a school champion wrestler and con sistent honor student; one with a master’s degree in literature; a track and football star, winner o f a na tional oratorical contest; an ex-para trooper, decorated for action in the Battle of the Bulge; and the fifth, a pilot who created several ingenious inventions that have since aston ished the aviation world. Th ey died young, these mission aries. And five, all five died. Not one escaped. And they died on ly because of their deep, earnest desire to proclaim the name of Christ among a people who had never heard of their God. But most o f the impact comes from Author Elliot’s skillful incor poration o f many excerpts from the five’s letters, diaries and journals which gives the reader a glimpse into the fascinating and intriguing ways of God with those who allowed themselves the luxury of knowing H im and His will for their lives. By taking various phases of the men’s lives the book tells o f the first shy, half-formed wishes of a man’s heart; the hesitancy; the introspec
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The King's Business/July 1957
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