King's Business - 1914-03

THE KING’S BUSINESS

163

of 9067 boys and 497 girls fills to overflow­ ing their 12S schools. To support the work, the natives gave last year $14,474, the buy­ ing power of which is many times greater than in our land. In seven years the work has increased one thousand per cent. These are hard times for Christian wage- workers who must either compete with or submit to the too often unchristian rules and methods of spcialistic, or I. W. W. unions. In Holland there are The Dutch League of Christian Wage-workers, The National League of Christian Working Men (o f the State Church), and a " Christian National Federation ' of Trades Unions.” The aims of these unions are to conserve their interests as wage-earners without en­ tanglement with' ungodly unionists, and to do it in consistency with Christian princi­ ples and loyalty to the state; are much the same as those of other wage-workers’ or­ ganizations, but “ from different motives and by different methods.” It insists upon, the need of a Christian foundation for all social political life; demands that the schools be kept Christian and not neutral; and that the custom of Sabbath-keeping be retained. - “The Christian God is defeated by the pagan god of war in these lustrous years of the twentieth century, according to G. Ber­ nard Shaw in a letter published in one of the London papers. He says that when he travels through Europe and sees Germany, for example, covered with colossal images of the man of blood and iron, and when he reads the recent history of the triumphs of Mars in Tripoli, Morocco and the Balkan States, and when he discovers that com­ pulsory military service is a fact becoming universal, while Christendom cannot suc­ ceed in doing away with many social abom­ inations, he is convinced that Christianity has not gained an inch since the crucifixion. He says: ‘If one' were to dramatize the world movement of the struggle' between Christ and Mars, Christ is down and out; despised

and rejected of men; spat upon; nailed up and laughed to scorn; not even allowed the right not to be kicked when he is down.’ ” I remember an address that the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor once gave in which he spoke of his prayer life. He said in it that he once made a discovery which awakened and startled him. He had been interested in China, and he used to begin praying for that land, and he would pray for it so long that he had little time to give to other countries. As a result he determined that he would reverse the process of praying, beginning with the forgotten lands and end­ ing with China. On thinking the matter over he discovered that South America was the country most frequently left out, and from that time on he generally began his prayer by remembering that country. Then he added—and I well remember the smile which came upon his face as He spoke the words: “ You may be sure that I never forgot China.” In other words, he had be­ come a true intercessor in the sense of am­ plification. God had set him free, had given him a broad outlook, and had wrought into his soul a large sympathy.—/ /. W. Frost. See how Jesus of Nazareth still goes about doing good. The author of “ Winning a Primitive People,” Donald Fraser, writes: “Xhave seen, the beggarly shelter In which some poor old widows were housed in the rainy season, open to rain and cold, comfort­ less and filthy. They had no power to erect a decent hut, and their heathen friends had no use for them. And I have seen the Chris-' tian hoys spending days, while they were still busy with their own houses, building a goodly dwelling for some poor widow. I have seen the body of a little baby lying in a stream, thrown away by its own (heathen) mother because its upper teeth had appeared before its lower; and I have seen the tender care of a Christian mother for her weakly twins and deformed children, whom she had accepted as a gift from God worthy of all her maternal ove. . . . I know men and women whose lives were drunken, whose conversation was filthy, and whose passions were demoniacal, changed to sober-living, clean«talking, kindly and compassionate people. . . . And I know men whose hands were red with the blood of the slain, and whose kraals were stocked with what they had robbed, becom­ ing peaceable citizens of the kingdom and fervid evangelists of the Message of Peace.” Are such results worth while?

Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online