11
THE
K I N G ' S
BUS I NE S S
January, 1936
fishness, his absolute devotion to the task with which he ; was instrusted by God and his Christian brethren, and by ; his clear dealing in everything pertaining to the financial ; side of his work. ■ His loyalty to the Bible as the Word o f God, his up lifting o f Christ as the only Saviour from sin, and his emphasis on the power and ministry of thé, Holy Spirit, bulwarked the faith o f thousands of ministers of the gospel, and led many thousands of souls across the line of decision for Christ. His almost merciless appeal to conscience led some to think of his preaching as stern or even harsh, but it was often said that if Dr. Torrey was at no pains to attract people to himself, he certainly knew how to attract them to Christ. His masterly conduct o f the after-meetings, almost mechanical to some in the constant repetition of methods that he found to be spiritually effective, made them an unforgettable training school to thé personal workers who served under him, and no one ever took a stand in response to his appeal with any uncertainty as to what it involved, namely, an intelligent acceptance of the Son o f " God as Saviour, surrender to Him as Lord and Master,- and the open confession of Him as such before the world. - ' His dislike o f adulation, and the necessity of saving^ his strength and his voice under the constant demand of his j Arduous task, kept Dr. Torrey back from much of the j ’ personal contact with the people which devolved upon h iy colleague, Charles M. Alexander. Those who knew him intimately in his inner circle of family and friends foundN a man overflowing with an affection and kindliness fre quently hidden from public view by the seriousness o f his_ calling as a prophet of the Most High. The results of his work are deep and permanent. As the leading workers in the Torrey-Alexander Campaigns were largely made up of those who had accepted Christ under D. L. Moody’s preaching, so were the converts to Christ through Dr. Torrey’s preaching ready to take their places as leaders and workers in the churches and missions o f each country that he visited and in subsequent evangel istic campaigns,' , The Christian people of the British Empire owe much to R. A. Torrey, and are under a debt o f gratitude to God for sending him as an ambassador into their midst. Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Roberts (Grace Pike) are associated with the Hunan Bible Institute, the China Department o f the Bible Institute of Lo,s Angeles, of which Mr. Roberts is the treasurer. At home on furlough at the present time, the Roberts family is stopping in'Glendale, California. M V first trip across the Pacific Ocean to the continent of Asia was in company with Dr. Torrey. A t that time I had one particular interest in the visit to China—a desire to meet my two sisters who were engaged in missionary work, and to enjoy myself. But the impressions I received from that trip, and also the influences of the years that followed as I studied at Biola under Dr. Torrey, were used of the Lord to bring me to the point o f willingness to serve Christ in China. It was Dr. Torrey who first pro posed, upon my graduation, that I join the staff of the Hunan Bible Institute. China, together with “ the Bible Institute of Los Angeles in. China,” as he so often spoke of the Hunan Bible Insti tute, was a great love o f his. '''His last visit to China was DR. TORREY, China, and the HUNAN BIBLE INSTITUTE B y GRACE PIKE ROBERTS
in a temple in Nanyoh, China, Dr. Torrey (left) is seen with Prince Feng, of the Yao Tribe, and F. C. H. Dreyer, a missionary of the China Inland Mission. Mr. Dreyer acted as interpreter for Dr. Torrey during the visit of the evangelist to China in 1922. in 1921. That year he made a special trip to Changsha and Nanyoh, Hunan, to take part in the autumn conference being held at Nanyoh, one of the sacred mountains of China. The trip was a hazardous one, for civil war was being waged in the province, and the small river steamer on which Dr,: Torrey was traveling from Hankow to Changsha was fired upon several times. But although he knew o f the dangers of travel at that period, not for one moment would he be deterred from his object of visiting Dr. Keller and of participating in the scheduled conference. ’ Of the conditions .in China and o f China’s need, Dr. Torrey had a keen insight.; Upon his return to Los Angeles from this tour, Dr. Torrey addressed a gathering of three thousand people on the subject o f “ China, the Land »of Promise and Peril.” Rereading the full report of this message—published in the K ing ’ s B usiness for Feb ruary, 1922,1 was startled and stirred as I read his analysis o f the state o f affairs as it existed then, and I became keenly conscious that that which he wrote many years ago is factually true o f the present situation. Today, could any one write anything more accurate than the following lines ? “ China today is a land o f marvelous promise, but also a land of mystifying problems,” Torrey declared. “ There are tremendous possibilities . . . , but there are also terrifying ob stacles. . . . When I was in China two years ago, the ques tion was asked in a gathering o f educated and progressive [Continued on page 16]
• “ The death of Christ is sufficient for the whole world; it is efficient only for believers.”— Torrey. •
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