257
T h e
K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
June 1932
of his series of fifteen lectures delivered in many important centers in India from October, 1927, to February, 1928. 1. It is the largest Moslem country in the world. 2. It is the most active in the press. 3. It is a polyglot country, there being seventeen Mos
India, is a barren wilderness. In that mighty contrast stands the cross, “ Towering o’er the wrecks of time,” fool ishness to the Hindu, a stumbling block to the Moslem, but to him that believes, the mighty power of God unto salvation. One morning near the Wood Bazaar in Bangalore
lem-spoken languages in In dia. Arabic is the religious language, while Urdu and Bengali are the most widely spoken. In South India, be sides the general Hindu stani ( adapted Urdu), there is a special Moslem-Tamil (Tamil being the language spoken in the e x t r e m e south) and other combina tions, using Arabic charac ters and mixed with many Arabic and Persian words. 4. It has a d i a s p o r a (dispersion), being the only country which has sent out Moslem missionaries, there being converts in England, France, United States, Bra zil, Australia, and especial ly Africa. One S o c i e t y alone in Lahore gave over $485,000.00 in one year for missionary propaganda. 5. It allows a wonder ful liberty to preach the gos pel, owing to British rule. Although tremendous pres sure is brought to bear on a convert from Islam any where, Moslems can public ly confess Christ in India as nowhere else. When they do truly confess Him, they often become leaders of the Indian church. The heart of Islam in In dia is, nevertheless, hungry. There is a blend of desire and hope, ignorance and de sire for knowledge, accept ance and restlessness. The longing is old and is univer sal. In India it goes deep enough. A thousand years ago that longing spoke through an Indian poet. He sang, The sound o f a sob in the dark ness, A child crieth after his father— My spirit within me is burning, Consumed with a passionate yearning—
City, we collected a group of Moslems and b e g a n reading aloud f r o m the khutbah, “ Ayami Salasa” (death and resurrection) based on the Qu’ranic verse; 19:34: “ The peace of God was upon me the day I was born, and will be the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised to Life. This is Jesus, the Son of Mary.” The khutbah is the short sermon given at the Mosque every Friday noon. Soon we had a crowd, and all listened very atten tively without interrupting and afterward all who could read were given copies of Matthew’s Gospel. This is just a sample of the open- air work method of ap proach. It does not always end as peaceably, however. One day a great stir had been made by a fanatical Moslem student who kept loudly insisting that Jesus was a. sinner Himself, so how could He save others? However, patience finally won the day, and the major ity agreed that the testi mony of both Qu’ran and Injil (N ew Testam en t) was that Jesus was the “ sinless Prophet.” Khan, of Oadian, Punjab, claimed to fulfill in himself various Moslem prophecies pertaining to both the prom ised second coming of the Messiah and the expected Mahdi of the M o s l e m s in addition to the fulfill ment of all Christian and Jewish eschatological hopes. His party, while never nu merous, have been very ri gorous in their propaganda bout forty years ago Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
The Challenge of the Empty Chair Upon the Hills of Death By J. E. Mallis I SA T on the little veranda o f m y m ission station, Am - mapet, in India, and look ed off to the H ills of Death. Th e stations o f the Tam il area o f the C eylon and India General Mission, lying as they do at the foot o f a m oun tain range, constitute an ideal base from which the reserved jungle folk may be reached. A s I looked, I prayed: “ L ord Jesus, grant that some day I may b e able to g o there with the gosp el!” True, som e o f the forest peop le had com e down from the hills to attend the mar ket, and very often listened to the preaching o f the W ord as w e sought to interest in things eternal that m illing mul titude intent on buying and selling. But to take the gospel to them in their own villages— what a ch a llen ge! The opportunity finally came. I shall never forget that day. A ll through the early hours, in com pany with several Indians, I clim bed the slopes. V indictive cacti gave w ay to deep, moist jungle. Th e tracks which w e follow ed w ere mere dried-up watercourses, marked out b y rough, loose stones which made the goin g exceedingly slow and hard. Th e ox cart traveled at the rate of two miles an hour. I preferred to walk behind— and walked all night. W e reached the summit just b efore dawn and cast about for a camp. I went a little way ahead o f the party, and round ing a rock, cam e upon on e o f those unexpected mountain villages. There, on tiny hut verandas, men w ere still asleep, muffled in their white turban cloths— a weird sight in the half-light o f the early morning. O ne old man cam e out to greet m e and asked me to com e and sit on his veranda. H e disappeared into the hut to bring out, I thought, a mat fo r me to sit upon. But to m y surprise, he reappeared with a g o o d European chair. In his hand was a broken, dirty, p a p er-covered b ook . I was to sit down in this chair. I was to read from this b ook . “ Six years ago,** m y host began, “ a man spent a w eek, two weeks, three weeks with me. H e went away, and he gave m e this chair as a present. I have been praying ever since that another m issionary would com e and live am ong my p e o ple and teach us m ore about the Jesus o f these pages. “ Y ou are a m issionary— I kn ow it! Y ou have com e in answer to m y prayer. I am the head man here. Y ou have com e to teach m y p eop le about the Lord. W e have waited for six years, but you have com e. I will get a hut ready for you, fo r you have com e to stay, haven t y o u ? I had to tell him that that was an utter impossibility. I pointed to the plains 7,000 feet below . “ D own there,” I said, "is my w ork, the w ork o f two m en.” He cam e close to me, the tears running down his old cheeks. “ W h y,” he said, “ I may not be here when y o u com e again.” “ Yes, I know ,” 1 admitted, with a stab o f pain at m y heart. Then, solemnly, determ inedly, he took the foreign things. “ Pardon me,” he said, “ for seem ing rudeness, but no man shall sit on this chair until he can stay and tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ.” That was ten years ago, and no man has gone! Th e challenge o f the empty chair upon the Hills o f Death — where is the you n g man w ho will g o forth to accep t it?
and they have taken full advantage of every possible oppor tunity to discredit Christ and Christianity. They make much of the destructive criticism of the Old and New Tes taments, and the “ new theology, the divisions in the church, the worldliness of the bulk of professing Christians; the breaking down of the theory of the atonement for man kind.” The great importance of India for mission work among the Moslems has been summarized by Dr. Zwemer in one
O unknown, far away Father, No voice answers out o f the darkness!
“ No voice answers.” Yet a Voice has answered— is an swering. The Father has spoken in a Son. But Moslem India has barely heard of Him. The risen Lord is calling on this generation o f His people to go forward and claim the unpossessed territory. It is strikingly evident that the time is ripe, for a world wide spiritual crusade for the conquest of Islam.
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs