January 1929
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saction of salvation completed. Now he teaches that every Gospel minister and missionary in the last 1900 years, was all wrong, having failed to “rightly divide the word of truth.” Hundreds of earnest Christian people have been par taking of this latest concoction with apparent relish. We are compelled to reiterate our conviction, in spite of the fact that some beloved teachers are given to these views, that this is another poison in the pot. We exhort those who hold these notions to lay aside for a time all printed helps setting forth this new method of interpretation and search the Word of God alone. We feel satisfied that those who do so will fail to find these ideas substantiated, and that they will not be led to believe that the devout lovers of the Bible through the centuries, whom we have always considered Spirit-taught men, were all deluded. m The Ministry of Comfort A N aged lady of our acquaintance who lives in Glen- Ldale, California, has given her life to a ministry of comfort. We have known of her sending regularly for many weeks, beautiful Scripture messages and post cards to shut-ins. Noticing that each message of cheer was a new one, we suspected that she was carrying out a systematic plan. We learned that this dear Christian woman has given her life to the work of love and sym pathy for the afflicted. She has a large assortment of printed messages of encouragement, and these are systematically mailed to the names of shut-ins given her. These, she tells us, are being sent from coast to coast. She prayed daily for guidance as to messages for special cases, and this often necessitates the preparation of special material which she neatly types. All messages, however, are short and to the point. Recently a shut-in who had received a large assort ment of her cards, turned them over to a radio speaker who conducts an hour each day for shut-ins, and her messages went out on the air to hundreds of listeners who never miss this hour. Thus again we see that there is some service for all to do for Christ. If, instead of waiting for some public service, we make use of the opportunities that are easily within our reach, we shall be surprised to discover how much good we can do in the world in Christ’s name, and incidentally we shall find abundant joy ourselves and the privilege of laying up treasures in heaven. When our Lord began His ministry, He entered the synagogue one day, and, taking up the Scriptures, read from Isaiah’s prophecy the words: “He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted.” Let us not forget that at the close of his ministry, He prayed: “Father, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them.” Per haps one reason the work of the church lags today is because so many believers have forgotten that they are called to the blessed ministry of comfort. There are hun dreds of burdened, bleeding hearts. The Word of God provides the only balm. But who will administer it? “You cannot set the whole world right, Nor all the people in it; You cannot do the work of. years In just a single minute. But keep one little corner straight, By humble, patient labor,
crop of souls for Christ both at home and in the far-away lands. There is a sacredness in individuality of character; each one born into the world being a fresh new soul intended by His Maker to develop himself in a fresh way. We are what we are, and cannot be other than ourselves. So it is with the church. With all our differences of form and emphasis, there may be peace and concord among us, and we may strengthen and stablish one another and work to the same ends. Poisons in th e Pot A great deal depends in these days upon the ability of Christians to analyze their food. There are all kinds of concoctions being served up to the church, and there is no doubt but that wild gourds are being put into the soup. The devil is on hand to see to that, and he cares not whether it be a Modernist or a Fundamentalist who mixes the concoction. In Elisha’s time there might have been a dead congre gation one day but for the timely discovery made by some wide-awake folks that there'was poison in the pot (2 Kgs. 4 :38-41). There is some hope for people who have enough personal knowledge of the Bible so they can analyze their diet. One class of people to be pitied are those who want something soothing, regardless of what it is, and gulp down with relish the sweet nothings of modernism. But there is another class in no less danger. They have gone to the other extreme and want some novel Bible teaching that will make them feel they are on a higher spiritual level than any one else, having had some special illumination promised for the last days. The strange thing is that some who have cried the loudest about poison being put in the pot by Modernists, have themselves been slowly poisoned by extreme teaching and have not awakened to the fact that the devil has done for them practically what he has done for Liberalists, but in another way. Satan has more than one kind of poison in his medicine case. Before us is a Fundamentalist paper called Separation Truth. The object of its editor is evidently to separate believers from much that has been precious to the church from the days of the church fathers down to the present, and give them, at the same time, to feel that the devout expositors of God’s Word throughout the church age were 1very much in the dark as to heavenly truths as compared with themselves. Modernists in some of our denbminations have been endeavoring to rule out water baptism as of no importance to the church. Extreme Fundamentalists now come to their aid by saying that water baptism (in any form) is a mistake, being connected only with the Jewish “kingdom assembly.” Says a writer in Separation Truth'. “As long as God is dealing with Israel, water baptism is to continue, but when it is no more to Israel, then it is no more baptizing with water.” Paul’s statement that he was sent to preach rather than baptize (1 Cor. 1 :14) is said to be the truth for this age. A change of dispensation took place at Acts 28 :28, and water baptism should have ceased then. The commission of Mt. 28:19-20 is strictly Jewish and of no application to the church. A remarkable thing is that the writer of this article, only a short time ago, was just as vigorously teaching another extreme idea. In his evangelistic campaigns, he hustled converts to the nearest swimming pool for immer sion, lest they might be cut off before having the tran
And do the work that each hour brings, And help your next door neighbor.”
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