CHINA'S CALL REV. HOWARD L PHILLIPS Of the China Missionary and Evangelistic Association
and multiply by hundreds the number of souls reached with the message of life. It is not the end of the battle when a soul accepts Christ. These new believ ers must be instructed in the Word, en couraged in their testimony, and warned against backsliding. We must remember that most of the converts have no Chris tian background and they need help at every turn. From Kangting, Sikang, up on the border of Tibet, Mrs. Pearl Kraft writes of a schoolgirl who came to her in tears. The girl had accepted the Lord a few months before, but sin had crept into her life. “ I have sinned,” she sobbed, “ what shall I do?” Mrs. Kraft pointed her to I John 1:9: “ I f we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “ Is that for me?” the girl asked. When Mrs. Kraft assured her it was, she con fessed her sin, accepted the Lord’s blood- bought forgiveness, and went on her way rejoicing. 1 Rubbed Out j 2 A little lad was told by his 1 J mother not to play near a certain 1 j pond. One day, the temptation was j j too much and, venturing too close. ! t he fell into the water. Met at the j J door by his nurse, he was told that i j his mother was ill. This made him j J very conscious of his wrong-doing i i and most uncomfortable. So he j I wrote on his school slate: “ Dear \ Mother: I am sorry I have been | bad. If you forgive me, please rub j it out.” Back came the slate, per- | | fectly clean, with all the writing j I I erased! How like the love of God, ! who said: “ I have blotted out as a j thick cloud thy transgressions, and ! as a cloud thy sins: return unto j me, .for I have redeemed thee” j (Isa. 44:22). Establishing Churches This means more than organizing the believers into a group and leading them into self-support, self-government, and self-propagation. It means working with them until God raises up in their midst men who are capable of leadership. It means teaching the Christians to read the Word of God for themselves, for many o f them are illiterate. It means teaching them the basic facts of the gos pel. It means -encouraging the more likely ones to go on in their Bible study, with the prospect o f their becoming full time gospel workers. It means co-oper ating with sound theological seminaries and Bible schools operated by the Chi nese—the China Inland Mission has a part in no less than sixteen of these. All this is going on, and the place of the foreign missionary in world evange lism is more and more found to be in this phase of the work—though hand-in- hand with the ministry of teaching go pioneer evangelism and soul-winning. Things are happening in China! F E B R U A R Y , I 9 4 8
B UFFETED by both internal con flict and international criticism, China has reached a crisis time un paralleled in all her history. Everywhere observers are awake to the existing po litical and military conditions, but to a large extent the spiritual situation has been disregarded. In this indifference to the fundamental problem of sound per sonal or national life lies the greatest obstacle to successful reconstruction. China is a nation of tremendous in dustrial potentiality. Her resources of man power are unequaled, her mineral wealth inestimable, her initiative un tried. She is like a ship adrift upon the currents of the earth. There is no stabil izing force for the individual, consequent ly no stability for the community. China’s spiritual sterility, past, present, and prospective, may be described by the w o rd s , “ Confucius, Confusion, and Christ.” Confucius The famous name of Confucius not only refers to China’s great ethical lead er, but it symbolizes the complex relig ious life of China of the past. To say of a Chinaman, “ He is a Buddhist,” or a “ Taoist,” or a follower of any other historical religion of China is practical ly impossible, for the vast majority of the Chinese people have had a combina tion of religious beliefs. Almost all have believed in good and evil spirits. They worshiped the evil spirits to placate them; they said of the good spirits, “they won’t harm us anyway.” Ancestral reverence and worship have been so long inbred that the Chinese have been in clined to look favorably upon spiritual ism. Their idolatry has been virtually a polytheistic fetishism, integrated in the religio-social structure. All Chinese placed great value upon the teachings of Confucius; and, whether or. not they worshiped him, their reverence for his writings paralleled the Christian doc trine o f scriptural inspiration. Over such a spiritual house as this many raised the superstructure of Mohammedanism, Taoism, or Buddhism. The truth of this remark is attested over and over again in Chinese writings as well as in the lives of the people. In his autobiography, General Feng Yu- Hsiang, popularly known as “ China’s Christian warlord,” states: “ Father be lieved in Buddhism and in his later years he became more devout than ever . . . The whole family lived year in and year out in an atmosphere of many gods.” Confusion The havoc wrought by World War II shook the Confucianist edifice off its foundation. Multiplied millions of Chi nese have seen the inadequacy of their
gods in the face of mere human might. This whole structure was so bound up in material things that the bursting blasts of temple-striking bombs shattered the chains of superstition and false re ligious security. Despite their templed gods, whole vil lages were reduced to rubble. When the cemeteries, once bases for buzzing war planes, lay destroyed beneath the dirt- packed runways, the spirits of the ances tors could no longer be worshiped. Mil lions of Chinese forsook their ancestor- gods, and all they once revered, to trek westward before the invader, with the hope in their hearts that somewhere security could be achieved. The religious leaders acknowledge their bewilderment. In one place, Buddhist priests have re quested a missionary to come to their monastery to teach them the Bible. Ruin rules in religion, but, as ever, “ It is the tenor of the highest hearts to strive most upward when they are most burdened,” and, “ Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” Christ It is in the spirit of optimism that the prospect for China is viewed as “ Christ,” and not, “ Communism.” Be assured the forces of the enemy of Christ are al ready at work amidst the chaos of the cults prepared to oppose God with every possible snare and delusion. Communism survived, and even thrived upon the war; this atheistic ideology sees neither need nor niche for God. Not “ religion,” but “ relation”—person al relation to Christ—will meet China’s need. Relief organizations and institu tional work will help these in the recon struction o f China, but without Christ nothing permanent will be accomplished. Wide doors o f opportunity are open. The people hear with hungering hearts, silenced lips and listening ears; mission aries are welcomed by the government; students at the universities—China’s fu ture leaders—are studying English in missionary-taught Bible classes. Some are already turning to Christ through these contacts. Only an immediate, aggressive gospel preaching program can fully help China in her desperate need. China is ready to lay a new foundation, but there can be no surety for a nation which fails to heed God’s warning. “ Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” China spiritually sound, will be China politically, educationally, socially, and militarily safe, sane, and secure. Across the Pacific comes China’s chal lenge to the church of Jesus Christ in America, “ Come over and help us.” What will our answer be? - Page Seven
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