October 1927
.636
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
A Sign Out of the Heavens A n A mbassador ' s T estimony to L indbergh
A Sign Out of the Heavens i N Ambassador Herrick’s foreword to Charles Lindbergh’s new book, “We,” (being the famous flier’s own story of his life and his transatlantic flight), there are some most impressive para graphs. As one reads them he cannot but feel that Grid’s hand was upon this youth in whom was something far more than a youthful adventure or an expedition for the advancement of the science of aviation. We take the liberty of quoting several paragraphs written by Myron T. Herrick, of the United States Embassy at ¡Paris. “Lindbergh was needed and he came at the moment which seemed exactly preordained. He was needed by France and needed by America, and had his arrival been merely the triumph of a great adventure the influence of his act would have gone no further than have other great sporting and commercial achievements. “There have been moments here in France when all that my eye could reach or my intelligence fathom, ap peared dark and foreboding and yet, in spite of all, my soul would be warmed as by invisible sunshine. At such times when all human efforts had apparently failed, sud denly the affairs of nations seemed to be taken from out of the hands of men and directed by an unseen power on high. “Just before the Battle of the Marne I was standing on the Seine embankment. “A great harvest moon was rising over the city near Notre Dame. It seemed to rest on the corner of a build ing. The French flag’ was blowing steadily across its face, In fleeting moments while this spectacle lasted.peo ple knelt on the Quay in prayer. I inquired the. meaning of these prayers. The answer was that there is a prophecy centuries old that the fate of France will finally be set tled upon the fields where Attila’s horde was halted and driven back and where many battles in defense of France have been won. And, pointing up the Seine to the French flag outlined across the moon, people cried, ‘See, see the sign in heaven. It means the victory of the French arms. The prophecy of old is come true and France is once again to be saved on those chalky fields.’ “Now when this boy of ours came unheralded out of the air and, circling the Eiffel tower, settled to rest as gent ly as a bird on the field at Le Bourget, I was seized with the same premonition as those French people on the Quay that August night. I felt, without knowing why, that his arrival was far more than a fine deed well accomplished, and there glowed within me the prescience of splendor yet to come. Lo, it did come and has gone on spreading its beneficence upon two sister nations which a now con quered ocean joins. “For I feel with every fibre of my being that Lind bergh’s landing here marks one of the supreme moments in the history of America and France; and the faith we have in the deciding power of spiritual things is strength ened by every circumstance of his journey, by all his acts after landing, and by the electrical thrill which ran like some religious emotion through a whole vast popula tion. ’ The ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ was to the French people
another sign come out of the sky-—a sign which bore the promise that all would be well between them and us. “France took Charles Lindbergh to her heart because of what he was and because of what she knew he re presented. His little ‘ she ' came to the meeting place of the greatest conference that has ever gathered between two nations, for under the shadow of its wings a hundred and fifty million Frenchmen and Americans have come to gether in generous accord. No diplomatic bag ever car ried so stupendous a document as this all unaccredited messenger bore, and no visiting squadron ever delivered such a letter of thanks as he took up the Potomac in returning. Has any such ambassador ever been known? “Lindbergh was not commissioned by our govern ment any more than Lafayette was by h is; in each case it has been merely left for statesmen to register and approve the vast consequences of their acts. Both arrived at the critical moment and both set in motion those im ponderable forces which escape the standards of the poli tician’s mind. Who shall say but that they were God-sent messengers of help, smiling defiance of their faith at an all too skeptical world? What one accomplished has already changed history through a century; what the other has just done the people of America and France will take good care shall not be wasted. aS Hopeful View of China A T the last Monthly Meeting of the National Bible Society of Scotland, an address was given by Rev. Charles N. Lack, of the China Inland Mission. Mr. Lack said that he was not in the least disposed to take a gloomy view of the Chinese situation. He had been through the Boxer rising, and had at that time lost every thing, yet after the Boxer riots, China was more open than ever before for the spread of the Gospel, and he believed it would be the same today. The Nestorian Church which had been planted in China in the sixth century had dis appeared, largely from the fact that it had not given the Scriptures to the people. But as China had now the Bible in millions of copies through the work of the Bible So cieties, it was impossible that Christianity should once again thus vanish. He predicted a rapid spread of Chris.- tianity as soon as Russian influence was removed, and the wave of frenzied Communism died down. He mentioned in detail some of the splendid Chinese converts whom he had known, and stated that he had personally met over a thousand men and women who had become Christians through the simple reading of the Bible. ate ate Needs No Defense Dr. Pusey was right in this statement: “It has been for thirty years the deep conviction,of my soul that no book can be written on behalf of the Bible like the Bible itself. Man’s defenses are man’s word...the Bible is God’s Word, and by it the Holy Ghost who first spoke it still speaks to the soul that closeth itself not against it.” ' “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7: 17). The Bible needs no defense.
America has taken such glowing pride,.and that his flight
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