590
September 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Yes - The C. I. M. Is Orthodox 1 E VEN The China Inland Mission has not escaped vig orous attacks with reference to its orthodoxy and policy. Some of its directors have been charged through certain Fundamentalist publications with having let down the bars to liberalism. Scarcely anyone can open his mouth in these days that someone does not distort his statements, read into them assumptions never in the speaker’s mind, and then rush into print. With reference to these attacks, Dr. Stuart Holden, at the annual meeting of the China Inland Mission, gave out the following, statement: “I may say that the mission knows those who are re sponsible for these attacks well enough to put a fitting value upon their distortions, assumptions, and mis-state ments. It is, however, right that I should give the com- pletest assurance to you, our friends, and to that larger body of the mission’s valued fellowship which this great meeting represents, in regard to the C. I. M.’s continued and unchanged faithfulness to all the great truths of the Christian faith, to—the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to His full and final revelation of God our Father; the sufficiency of His atoning death, and the reality of His victorious resurrection; the presence of His sanctifying, teaching, guiding Spirit in the lives of His followers; the certainty of His promised return; the necessity of faith in Him, and in Him alone, for salvation from sin and unto holiness, without which no.man shall see the Lord; the unqualified divine inspiration of the Scriptures of truth, as being the record of God’s revelation of. Himself to mankind from the beginning, and as constituting the final authority in all matters both of faith and life.” To that statement Dr. Holden added the further assur ance that what is true of the mission generally is true of each individual missionary and officer, both on the field and at home. Furthermore, “it is an obligation of honor on the part of each member to communicate any change or modification of conviction in regard to any of these vital points, to the general director, and to withdraw from the work.” In a closing word, Dr. Holden remarked: “Whilst we realize the impossibility of satisfying cavil lers, and pray with St. Paul to be ‘delivered from unrea sonable men,’ we are thankful to enjoy the sympathy and confidence of the large number of the Lord’s servants to whose prayers and gifts we are sO much indebted. And I make this authoritative statement for their reassurance, in so far as any of them may have been made anxious by this campaign of calumny. If it serves to help us close our ranks, to bear one another’s burdens, by love to' serve one another, to resist the devil in Christ’s Name and to carry out more effectively, in true unity of heart* our commis sion to proclaim the Gospel to every creature in all the world, then the cause of the Kingdom of God in China, and not in China alone, will be furthered. And this is our one aim.” Musings on Mussolini “ H P HERE are many features of the description of Anti- 1 Christ given in the Word of God which are entirely lacking in Mussolini,” says Grace and Truth Magazine. “So far as information is available, Mussolini has not yet espoused the cause of Israel, nor pretended to be her friend. As yet there has been no suggestion of a cov enant with God’s people, and indeed he is not yet in a
position to make such a covenant, for the Holy Land is under British mandate. Mussolini’s power is not yet uni versal among the nations: not yet has he attained to world wide dominion. Though he has had many wonderful escapes from death, still Mussolini has not yet been super- naturally healed of a fatal wound. And, while we must admit that his Fascist creed is blasphemous in character, yet there is no indication that Mussolini has any serious thought of self-deification; though of course this char acteristic of Antichrist will not be manifest until three and one-half years after his covenant with Israel. And many 'other particular details of the picture of Antichrist por trayed in the Scripture are missing in Mussolini. “In view of these facts it is very foolish for anyone to say that Mussolini is Antichrist. He most assuredly is not—at least not yet! Certainly things move with light ning-like rapidity these days, and none, save the Lord, knows what a day may bring forth. But to say now that Mussolini is Antichrist is to risk doing a grave injustice to one who deserves the respect of all right-thinking men and women for the most efficient way in which he has tackled the exceedingly difficult but much-needed task of Italy’s reconstruction, and for the indefatigable and self-sacrificing zeal which he has shown in the service of his country. “At the same time it can do no harm to recognize that in his pe'rson and in his position in relation to the Roman Empire, Mussolini presents a startlingly clear foreshad owing of that world emperor called ‘Antichrist.’ ” .AW Ciphers—What Do They Matter? B y F. C. W in ch e ster I HAVE before me the “Specimen Book” of the new 13th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which is described as “the long-awaited New Edition, 1926.”:! , «’Under “The Story of Life” there are a few para graphs headed “THE LAST WORD ON EVOLU TION .” • We are told that “Sir Arthur Keith tells of the evolu tion of man, and builds up from fragments of skulls found in the caves of the Dordogne and the mines of Rhodesia, a wonderful picture of the first men, TWENTY THOU SAND, FORTY THOUSAND, PERHAPS A MIL LION YEARS AGO.” What would people say of a contractor who sent out estimates in this manner—■ : ,?> “In reply to your specification, I wish to point out that I am absolutely the ‘last word’ in this business of so- and-so contracting.” “I estimate that the job will cost $20,000, $40,000, perhaps $1,000,000.” Since writing the above remarks, the Journal has ar rived and I find that one professor says that one fossil is “certainly over 30,000,000 years or it may be 75,000,000.” A tooth in China carries the human race back 2,000,- 000 years. But within the last twelve months there has been a sensational revolution in the evolutionist camp. The leading Evolutionists are now agreed that man is relatively a very late arrival. For instance, man only learned to ride horses about five thousand years ago. There seems to be a panic in the camp. Professor Wes- tenhoefer, at a Congress of anthropologists, in September last, said:— “Man, not monkey, is the oldest mammal existing.” “The popular idea that man is descended from a monkey may be reversed, for monkeys are descended from men.”
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