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January, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
if any one doubts this, let him just remem ber this Disciple of the Set Face standing calmly in some public place and quoting Colossians 2:16, 17: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in re spect of a holyday, or of the ne wmoon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [reality] is of Christ.” With haste and scant comment, I men tion some others: How to Lead Men to Christ; his unparalleled Soul Winning Ser mons, and Revival Addresses. You will get many feathers for your arrows from those two last books if you are a preacher. We must not omit How to Promote a Successful Revival, which has been a blessing to thou sands of ministers. As for his Why God Used D. L. Moody, I do not know another book in such short compass that has so blessed me. And of course there is his mag num opus, What the Bible Teaches. • • • I feel honored to bring this thumb-nail sketch of my impressions of Dr. Torrey, and grateful to Dr. Rood for giving me this privilege. Dr. Torrey mightily influ enced my own ministry. I have encoun tered over and over again men who did not like Dr. Torrey’s one-way passage through life. To them he seemed cold. Well, if he was “ cold,” it was merely the impression of men walking on lower levels looking at the unruffled and serene progress of the clouds above his head. Looking into the souls of men as I have accustomed myself to do, I have come to see that Dr. Torrey moved unperturbed and habitually in com pany with the highest truths and the holiest emotions of which the soul is capable. This curious elevation of thought and life may have made him uncomfortable to some be cause he apparently forgot the compromises whereby we meet men who spend much time on the lower levels. I thank God for Reuben Archer Torrey! Were it within the range of my humble privilege to suggest a sentence for engrav ing upon his memorial tablet, I can think of naught else save this: “ T h e n I Dm E a t T h y W o r d ; a n d I t W as in M y M o u t h as H o n e y for S w e e t ness .” of my life. It was the moment of conse cration at the close of a Bible reading hour with its searching message to the Christian. Dr. Torrey spoke with power and discern ment, and we were conscious of that pene trating presence and scrutiny of the Son of God into the innermost recesses of our hearts and lives. Dr. Torrey appealed for the surrender of all to Christ. Well do 1 recall his persuasive tones and the urgency of his voice. Mr. Alexander led the sing ing of the then famous and favorite hymn, “All to Jesus I suyender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.” I lifted my hand in acknowledgment of the fact that the surrender had been made. THE CONTINUING INFLUENCE OF TORREY’ S MINISTRY [Continued from page 7]
THE SET FACE [Continued, from page 7]
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form of. thinking and fashion of visage. There is a group of books setting forth Dr. Torrey’s peculiar flavor, the very sentences in them not to be thought of excepting as issuing from lips adamant and rock like in their convictions. Let me name some of them. Let the young student and the ma ture Christian take these books, reread them. May they be to you as they were to me in a time when I was fascinated with the phosphorescent glow of an irreverent learning, the Voice recalling me to the sweet assurances of faith. Here is one, The Bible and Its Christ. “ Verily,” I thought as a young clergyman coming from post-grad uate courses at Stanford University, “ it makes but little difference as to any clear- cut statement on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.” I really thought there was no use in quarreling about it. Just talk about it in vague words and the spiritual lessons would accrue to every one. It took Torrey’s book, The Bible and Its Christ, to show me how absurd that position was, to reveal to me how rational and demonstrable the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead really was! T o my confused heart it was proved that to fail to affirm Jesus bodily raised from the dead was to leave men to the mercy of their deepest deeds and darkest misgivings. I do not know how many times I read and re read The Bible and Its Christ (not to be confused with The Christ of the Bible, a later book which contains some of the ma terial). I shamelessly confess today that when I began to preach again, I committed piracy on the very words and phrases of Dr. Torrey; made them my own. My eyes then often filled with tears as I beheld peo ple who had lost loved ones, and heard them say, “ Oh my brother, your words have brought comfort to my soul.” O f course there came a day when I laid my own little mother’s body beside the foothills of the Santa Cruz, and under the Santa Clara skies. And a certain text gripped me with a new meaning because of R. A. Torrey, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Not a vapory disembodied spiritual existence! No I My own dear little mother I would see again, in a physical body, suited to her new existence, a wondrous eternity, of which the present life gave but scant light. • • • Let me mention a few other books worthy of reviewing for one’s own soul’s good. For a smashing, bold drive upon a question which agitates mature Christians, read Dr. Torrey’s little pamphlet, “ Ought Christians to Keep the Sabbath?” Let your soul find perpetual deliverance. You will see in his center-shot sentences that the Christian has no Sabbath whatever. Read that little book and you will never again be trapped into thinking that by some mysterious jug gling the sanctions of the old Jewish Sab bath were transferred to our wondrous Lord’s Day. They were never transferred! We have a new day, the Lord’s Day, the day of Christ. And the old Saturday Sab bath is gone forever for the believer. And
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