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June, 1945
THE GREATEST POWER ( Continued from Page 205)
souls.” Here, again, the time to begin Is now. As Hud« son Taylor wrote, “A voyage across the ocean will not make anyone a missionary or a soul winner.” Educational Requirements “How much education does a missionary need?” young people frequently ask. That depends upon the require ments. of the mission board under which you hope to serve, and upon your age. The older you are, the more difficult it is to adapt yourself to new circumstances and to learn a language. Generally speaking, it is best to get all the education you can, within reasonable limits. Avoid “Snap” courses. Take those which demand hard work and real thinking. Keep away from the mission field if you are content to loaf through school or if you don’t like to study! In college the selection of courses will depend on your own interests, but you should in clude such subjects as anthropology, ethnology, lan guages, and the history and culture of the field in whieh you expect to work. - Greek will be helpful for a min istry in which translation will be prominent. And don’t forget English, for if you cannot handle your mother tongue well, you cannot expect to speak good Urdu or Swahili. A course in scientific methods of language study, such as is offered by the Summer Institute of * Linguistics, will prove valuable, especially in work among people with an unwritten language. Theological training may be obtained at a Bible in stitute or seminary. Each type of school has its advan tages. The Seminary educational standards aré, as a rule, higher than those of the Bible institute, while the Bible institute usually places more stress upon the Eng- lish Bible than does the average seminary, and also upon aggressive evangelism and the winning of souls. The ideal would be to secure both types of training, but time and other considerations may not permit this. Remem ber, however, that the best theological school can never teach you all there is to know about the Bible. Practical Experience Of equal importance with academic studies is prac tical experience. The missionary’s objective is not only to preach the Gospel, but also to establish and help churches. A Chinese pastor who was asked what type of missionary recruit would be needed for China after the war immediately replied: “Those with some experi ence in church work at home. Church experience is more valuable than fluency in the language.” Such experi ence may be gained by serving as assistant to some well- qualified minister during your student days, and thus learning about the organization of the local church, and of such inter-church organizations as the presbytery and convention. Business and industrial experience are of great practical value in adding a knowledge of men to a knowledge of books. The missionary must be able to enter deeply into the lives of those he hopes to win to Christ. In many fields farming experience will be an asset, for you may need to build your own house, plant your own garden, and repair your own truck. One more question remains to be answered: “How may I know to what field I am called?” If you are con vinced that God would have you in His service, do not let this question delay you in starting your training. But pray constantly for guidance, and absorb all the infor mation you can about the various mission fields, through reading and through conversations with missionaries. In due time God will narrow your interest down to one field, to the exclusion of all others, and the conviction will grow that He wants you to work for Him there. Wait for this definite guidance, however, for there will come times when only the deep sense of being in the place of God’s appointing will keep you on the field.
Picture the deathbed of a heathen Chinese woman: Many times she had heard the Gospel, but preferred to worship the gods of her ancestors. She had made her choice, and in her spiritual blindness “ bowed down to wood and stone.” Suddenly the quiet of the Oriental was unceremoniously broken by a screech of pain from her trembling lips: “They’re coming after me; I can hear the chains; burn incense, burn incense !” s Sympathetic relatives ran to do her bidding. They rushed off to the nearest incense dealer, and buying bun dles of it, returned and burned it to the demons which were making her deathbed a scene of terror. Only tem porary relief was gained. Eventually she passed out into a dark eternity to the sound of clanking chains and ter rifying voices. What does this indicate? It proves conclusively that there is a power of darkness, a power of evil, a power of Satan that operates in the lives of benighted men who have never been enlightened by the Gospel. ^ ' Is there no greater power to conquer this power of evil? Yes, thank God, there is! When Jesus said: “It is finished,” He sealed the fate of this power of evil. In Mark’s Gospel we have a vivid illustration of what happens when a “movable evil object” comes in contact with a “spiritual irresistible force.” -/!> '%É fl “There was in their synagogue a man with an un clean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him” (Mk. 1:23-28). The unclean power, that possessed the unfortunate man recognized and paid tribute to a greater power, and was subject to Him to the extent that when commanded to leave the lesser power had no recourse except to com ply with His demands. Praise God that in Christ is in vested the combined power of the Godhead! Through Him we have access to a dynamic greater than all of the powers of evil combined. The Power of God In defending himself before King Agrippa (Acts 26), Paul recounts his call to the ministry, and during the course of his testimony he says: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Paul was commissioned to go forth to turn men and Women from the power of Satan unto the power of God, with the result that those who came in contact with the almighty power of God would receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among the household of faith. They would be free from the power of Satan. In presenting the Gospel to the needy Chinese, evan« gelists frequently use a large poster published by the Religious Tract Society of Hankow. On this poster is de picted a man wrapped in the coils of a huge serpent. From head to foot, including his arms, the poor unfor tunate victim is gripped in the power of the reptile, which is gradually but surely contracting its muscles until it appears the man will be crushed to a pulp. Help less, with his dying breath he cries for help. Finally assistance is given him by a powerful friend. The message unfolds and the application is made. The audience is made to realize that they, like the poor man, are wrapped in the toils of sin, and that they too are utterly helpless to extricate themselves. Their only hope
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