archipelago between Java and the Philippines, Hudson Taylor was heavi ly burdened for its brown-skinned in habitants, and wrote these words: “Shall we think ourselves free from the responsibility to obey the plain com mand, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’ ? —Oh that I could get to them! Oh that I had a thousand tongues to pro claim in every land the riches of God’s grace!” Here is the answer: the strong conviction that the Great Commission was to be obeyed, regardless of world conditions. And think of the conse quences to China and to the world if he had held back. That commission has in it implications of agressive ad vance, of a war of attack, and if our spiritual armies are temporarily re pulsed in one sector of the battle field let us shift the weight of our attack to another, and get on with the war. This was done outstandingly by missions expelled from China, which are now witnessing in other needy areas of Asia. In the third place an attitude of pessimism and defeatism shows that we are unaware of the remarkable missionary opportunities in the world today. We may have been so con cerned with the closed doors that we have been blind to the many open ones. Take some of the countries of Asia, for example, a continent where there is much upheaval and unrest. Thailand, with its 20 million people, is pro-American and anti-communist, and missionaries have been able to enter freely. And what spiritual needs there are! One province of 700,000 people has only five missionaries, all of them women, while others, with populations of hundreds of thousands, have none. In the north are eight ma jor tribal groups, deeply involved in the opium traffic, and held captive by demon worship or Buddhism. From them only three tiny churches have emerged, and pioneers with linguistic gifts are urgently needed. Formosa is also pro-American and anti-commu nist, and welcomes the missionary. But the adult communicant church members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Seventh-day Adventist churches combined number only about 140,000 in a population of ten million. For 800,000 Chinese speaking the Hakka dialect there are about ten Protestant missionaries, while over a hundred Catholic missionaries are determined to win this group to their faith. The 93 million people of Japan arc still accessible to Christ’s ambassadors, but some 2300 missionaries are utterly inadequate to reach them. I visited a coal-mining town of 56,000, where the first two missionaries had settled just a year before. Close by was another
town of 35,000, and another of 70,000, completely neglected. This is typical of the dearth of witnesses in the smaller towns. The doors of Indonesia are not opened as widely as we would wish, yet in answer to prayer some 35 entrance visas have been secured for members of the China Inland Mission alone. These have been warm ly welcomed by Indonesian and Chinese church groups to work with them in the task of evangelizing 84 million people, over 90 per cent of them Moslems. These examples are drawn from one continent alone. Mis sionaries from other continents could multiply instances of other racial and linguistic groups which are not be hind the Iron Curtain, but which can be reached by messengers of the cross. In a world of uneasy peace, dis quieting rumors, and paralyzing fears, God’s word to Israel in a time of peril has relevance for His people today. With high mountains to the south and west, with Pharaoh’s army advancing from the north, and with the Red Sea, to the east, a disastrous situation is made worse by the seemingly impos sible command to Moses, “ Speak unto the children of Israel that they go for ward.” But they believe and obey where they cannot understand, and soon are marching across the sea bed the waters which had barred their way heaped in mighty ramparts on either side. In obedience to our God let us also go forward, and we, too, shall find that formidable obstacles, real and imagined, will miraculously disappear. Let God’s stewards go forward in their missionary giving, not thinking in terms of investments which are safe from this world’s standpoint, but rather in terms of heaven’s values, where one soul is worth the whole world. What does it matter if a mis sion station or hospital is lost five years after its erection if it has been the means of bringing the lost to Christ? Let young people not draw back from missionary service on the plea of the uncertain duration of such service. If we judge the value of serv ice to God in terms of the number of years spent in it, then the earthly ministry of Christ might be reckoned a failure, since it ended after three and a half years. Rather let young men and women offer themselves without reserve to their Lord, asking, “How does thy last command apply to me? Show me, Lord, and by thy grace I’ll obey, and leave the future and the consequences with thee.” In the words of the apostle Paul, let us “ Awake the righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”
The Cambridge Bible bound in lovely SPAN ISH MOROCCO has these outstanding features: 1- Most readable print in any medium-size Bible 2. Most valuable ‘Helps* in any Bible (Dictionary, easy-read ing Concordance, center refer- . ences, maps, gazetteer) 3. Self-pronouncing 4. India paper, gold edges, only Vs" thick 5. Best value in its price range- only $10.50. Ask for style 30X at your bookstore. King James Version CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The W orld’s Oldest Bible Publisher
I6MM SOUND - COLOR FILM WITH DR. JACK MacARTHUR
• D Y N A M I C • I N S P I R I N G • E V A N G E L I S T I C
In TELEO yod vfjl see the Holy Landtis it is TodayAYou will to llo vP ^ fW ® PBWSffeps of™ C h rist as y B (ea r Dr. Jack MacArthur'sSpiceful and in spiring evanB lStic message. TELEO was Bcfiuced for the purpose of bHd|ng a message of hope andBotto a world on the verge ofBeltruction. Running T i H || 25 Minutes Renl I 2’50 J m WRITE FOR f j iM CATALOGUE FILM THE BIBLE INSTITUTfO* LOS?ANM IC S, INC. P. O. BOX 9 C A U F C m N tA PHONtWfr*m ******* \
APRIL, 1960
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