THE K I NG ' S BUS I NES S 315 organization ready for the leadership of the Anti-Christ, “ the man of sin,” “ the son of perdition,” “ the lawless one,” when that which hinders shall have been taken away. __A. C. D. P r a t for the r . u . c . a . The Pope has complimented the Y. M. C. A. by placing it among organ izations to be avoided by all loyal Roman Catholics. A General Secretary expresses surprise because, he declares, the Y. M. C. A. does not proselyte, and he cannot understand why the Pope, or any one else, should oppose its neutral policy. Perhaps that is the difficulty. The Pope opposes our public schools because they refuse to teach religion of any kind, and the Y. M. C. A. has become so unreligious as to be placed in the same class. Time was. when " the Y. M. C. A. was the greatest evangelical and evangelistic force in this country, if not in the world. It stood behind D. L. Moody in his great evangelistic campaigns, and Mr. Moody led the movement to erect a great Y. M. C. A. building in almost every large city in the English-speaking world. Sir George Williams, its founder, was an enthusiastic soul-winner. ■When one of his employees showed indifference or hostility to Christianity, he would unite with his fellow Christian workmen in a loving conspiracy of prayer and effort for his salvation. In crossing the Atlantic, Sir George made it a point to speak to every passenger on board about his personal relation to Christ. In, those days Y.. M. C. A. Secretaries were filled with the same spirit, holding great meetings for the salvation of men, and training classes in personal work. Is there no way by which the old spirit and methods may be restored? They are not out of date, and were never more needed than they are today. Only God can do it. But He can. Let there be a concert of prayer among evangelical Christians the world over, that the Y. M. C. A. may again become distasteful to the Pope, not because of its indifference to all religion, but because of its loyalty to evangelical truth and its passionate fervor in soul winning. __ a . C. D. G O D ’S Amen “ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me*?” (Matt. 27 :46). “ God hath raised Him from the dead.” (Rojn. 10:9). The resurrection is God’s Amen to His Son’s “ It is finished.” “ He is risen”—yet a few days before He was “ forsaken” , abandoned by the Father. Human speech has no more tragic word than that word “ forsaken.” What does it all mean? As the Son of God uttered that cry from the cross, while crowds jeered and spit upon Him, while the hosts of^hell were in a riot of glee at their seeming triumph, was not the concentrated wrath of God against sin descending upon Him? The word “ why” had been a stranger to His lips throughout His life. It comes now because of sin and sin that was not His own, for He was spotless. He was plunging into eternity’s blackest moment of despair. God the Father could not look upon sin. Jesus was “ made sin for us.” The hiding of the Father’s face was the bitterest drop in the cup.
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