February, 193V
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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PETER’S TEN SPIRITUAL CRISES [Continued from page 54] of humility where he might be equipped for service. Simon’s answer was, literally, “Lord, thou knowest that I have an affection for thee.” He used another word for love, not daring to claim that exalted love that Christ had mentioned. The second question came, “Simon, . . . lovest thou me?” Again the answer, “Thou knowest that I have an affection for thee.” The third time our Lord asked, “Simon, hast thou an affection for me?” Peter was grieved, not because the Lord repeated the question three times; it was a different question each time. He was grieved because the Lord came down to his own word. But Simon had learned his lesson. He answered, “Lord, thou knowest all things." Only a few days before, Peter had ventured to tell the Lord that He did not know all things: He did not know Peter’s heart; He did not know Peter’s love; He did not know that Peter would go to the death for Him. Now Simon says, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I have an affection for thee.” Then came the blessed words, “Follow me.” They had an immediate, literal mean ing, and Simon did walk off and follow Jesus. But the deeper spiritual meaning is that now the time has come for Peter to follow his risen Lord (John 13:36). This recommissioning of Simon was for a threefold service indicated in the three commands the Lord gave following the questions and answers. The first was, literally, “Feed my little lambs,” referring to Peter’s work for chil dren and for young disciples. The second was, “Tend, or take care of, my sheep,” and the third, “Feed my choice sheep.’’ A dif ferent word for sheep is used in each of the three cases, and it seems clear that this threefold commission is parallel with John’s word concerning children, young people, and fathers (1 John 2:12-14). The Climax: Pentecost Now the way was prepared for that great moment toward which all the Gospel records pointed. John the Baptist had in troduced Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and as the One who was to baptize in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ had not yet been glorified (John 7:39). But when He was glorified through His death and resurrection, the promise of the Father was sent. Then came that great crisis when Peter and the others were baptized by the Holy Spirit. What was the significance of this crisis? How the controversy has raged over what seems to be a clear, simple truth! Devoted men have argued that here for the first time Peter and the others were bom of the Spirit, and were saved. Others have con tended that Peter and the other disciples received the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” (This occasion has not been mentioned as one of the spiritual crises, as it seems clear that this was a sym bolic action of our Lord’s that pointed for- [Continued on page 60]
exposed position for five or six days until it becomes intolerable. It is then taken down, wrapped in cloth, and buried with out a coffin. After a year it is disinterred, and the bones are cleaned and placed in a basket under the house. When we showed signs of leaving, a boy who could speak some English asked whether we did not wish to stay to wit ness the slaying of the carabao in prepara tion for a feast. He motioned to one of these heavy beasts tied near at hand. It seems that the view these primitive people hold concerning the after life is accom panied by a belief that in the spirit world the departed will find use for the service of the animals commonly employed in this life. Therefore, according to the wealth of the deceased, or rather of the relatives, these animals are provided, and when slaughtered for the funeral feast they are supposed to go to the region beyond to serve the dead there. The loss of livestock may be ruinous to the grief-stricken fam ily, but their pagan belief is so strong that they consider their own sacrifice better than to have the departed suffer privation throughout the duration of the after life. Had we stayed, we might have wit nessed the dance of the headmen around the animal about to be sacrificed. After their screaming and gesticulating has brought them to a point near exhaustion, one of the men will seize a spear and plunge it deftly into the heart of the un fortunate beast. It is no sooner withdrawn than the leading priest will spring forward, placing his mouth over the wound to drink the spurting blood. This village we found was one inhabited by the famous former head-hunters. In one place we saw beneath a hut a shelf with the row of human skulls exposed. It must have been the dwelling of a man esteemed among his fellows for his great valor, for there were the skulls of over twelve of his enemies taken in battle. The American gov ernment has outwardly restrained this for mer vicious practice, but the people other wise still sit in their unspeakable heathen darkness. The question which pressed our mind was this: Has our government better performed its task than the church has ful filled her Lord’s divine commission? Darkness Over Ifugao Land That night after I retired, it seemed that, although I was now so far away in the city of Manila, I yet could see across the val ley the tiny dancing flames of the fire and hear throughout the long weary hours of the night the mournful chant of those "who through fear of death” are "all their life time subject to bondage.” My heart ached for them. And I wondered in how many other scattered and neglected villages the cry went forth from the restless hearts of those who have never learned of Him who conquered death and brought life and im mortality to light through the gospel. We had merely passed through the edge of Ifugao land. W e caught glimpses of extensive valleys hardly accessible to the traveler, and often in unexpected places clumps of grass-roofed huts would sudden ly become partly exposed. It is said that the Ifugao tribe is divided into "a large number of clans which vary in population from a few hundred up to four or five thou-
His Love By R. E. NEIGHBOUR
True love was born in heav'rv and came to man, Hid in the breast of Jesus Christ, the Lord; It was a love no human e'er could span, A love by God and angels all-adored; That love was seen in doing others good, It carried mercies o'er Judea's hills; A love that in the God-man only could Have been expressed to banish human ills; That love came forth from God for us to be A sacrifice for sin, to save our soul, And lift us up to dwell with God on high; That love loved on, where earthly loves all flee, It loved the loveless, loved from pole to pole, It loved in death, though it can never die. sand people, each distributed in from ten to a hundred villages.”* Contemplating these remote and perhaps unnumbered villages, we realized that sin and sorrow and death play no favorites with the habitations of man. The Ifugaos are one of several branches of the Igorot people, but the Word of God has not yet been given in any of the Igorot dialects. What a further challenge! The American flag has flown over these people for thirty-eight years. W e have done many fine things for the lowland Fili pino, but these people among whom Christ has not been so much as named have large ly been neglected. Do we not have an obligation toward them? Evidence of their deep spiritual need appears in a statement by one of the beist authorities on the Ifugao: "Stupendous as is the Ifugao's ter racing, it in nowise outranks the struc ture of his pantheon. Nor is his reli gion, a vast polytheism with accretions of magic, fetishism, spiritism, myth, and so forth, itself more striking than the extent to which it enters into his daily life. But proportionately as his gods are numerous and his prayers to them unceasing, reverence and adora tion are absent.”"!- The government can try vainly to civil ize these people, but the only effective way to bring permanent good among them is to transform them from the heart outward, to give them a new nature by the regen erating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” *T h e Philippine Journal o[ Science, Voi. V I, No. 5, p. 228. fR . F. Barton, in Asia, Vol. X X IX , No. 10, p. 808.
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