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T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
June 1932
F A W ord A bout the A uthor I or more than_ th irty years, John Alexan der Clarke has been associated with the Garenganse Evan gelical M i s s i o n , which is the Belgian Congo b r a n c h of Christian Mi s s i ons in Many Lands. He
JUNGLE
was a fellow laborer with such stalwarts as Frederick Stanley Arnot, Walter Fisher, and Dan Crawford. It was Mr. Clarke’s privilege to meet the present King of the Belgians when the latter visited the Belgian Congo as Prince Albert, before he came to the throne. Subsequently, Mr. Clarke helped the Government of. that colony in many o f its attempts to stamp out the dreadful scourge o f sleeping sickness. For this and other humanitarian work on behalf o f the natives of the Congo, King Albert made him a Chevalier o f the Royal Order of the Lion and on the mis sionary’s return to Europe greatly hon ored him by receiving him in person at the Royal Palace in Brussels. This Was an honor indeed, coming from a Catholic monarch and conferred upon an ambas sador o f the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Clarke’s recent ministry in Los Angeles was marked by great blessing. The accompanying . article is a steno graphic report of a message which he gave over the radio, from the studio of the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles.
B y JOHN ALEXANDER CLARKE Chevalier De L’ordre Royale Du Lion
i f t is A quite common sight in the early morning, when the missionary leaves his house and steps out on his ver anda, to be confronted with anything from five to fifty men and women. The scene looks much like an open air market. Here is one woman with a basket of sweet potatoes. She puts her basket down and says, “ I want God’s Book.” A little farther along is a man with three or four chick ens. Presenting them, he says, “ My son wants God’s Book.” A chief has sent with a messenger a wretched goat, and it is tied to the side of the house. The messenger comes forward and says, “ Our chief wants ten of God’s Books.” And so it goes on. The British and Foreign Bible So ciety in London has sent us 20,000 copies of the Scriptures. They are going like hot cakes. As far as advanced education is concerned, we, as a mission, do not encourage it. We attempt only to give these people the Word of God in their own tongue, and give it to them at a price within their purchasing power. We believe, as do all the great Bible societies, that that for which a man has to pay, that which costs him something, is usually of much more value to him than that which he receives free. T heology in the J ungle It has been of great and intense interest to me in my study of the people to find that the Africans all believe in God. No African denies the existence o f God. They have many names for God— forty names in one language! Each name indicates some characteristic of God, because names in Africa, as in the Bible, always denote character. So when a man gives you his name, he feels he is giving himself away. That is why the Africans have so many names, because they do not want to give themselves away, except to a friend. When a boy hears of some strange word, such as “ soap,” he thinks that would be a wonder ful name. He uses it for a few months, saying, “ My name is Soapy.” Or one will hear, “ I am Knifey,” or “ I am Forkey.” One of the favorite names is “ Spooney.” The real name is only discovered as you come to know the man, and he opens his heart to you. So it is in these tribes when they speak of God. They say “ the Father of creation— the One who creates and the One who recreates.” The thought is, after we have spoiled the job, He is perfectly able to recreate us. Surely there is the great fundamental truth of regeneration. If we have rebelled and utterly spoiled our lives, we do not need to
be downheart ed. We may cast ourselves u p o n t h e mercy and the grace o f God, and says the A fr ica n , He will create us over a g a i n . This is what o u r L o r d meant w h e n H e s a i d , “ Marvel n o t that I say un
to you, Ye must be born again”—-that is, made over again. It is a very wonderful thing to find this truth in the midst of the African forest. Our African is always projecting himself into the un seen world. He is much more a spiritual being than we, are in this materialistic age. We will scarcely believe anything we do not see or feel. Our African is not so. He is a spiritual being. He projects himself into the great un known world. That intangible, invisible something is a great reality in his life. And yet he is in the dark. He tells us that God gives us food, and He gives us meat, and He gives us our children and our sunshine—and yet, the A f rican has not the full revelation of God that you and I, as Christian people, possess—the revelation that we have in the face of God’s Anointed, when the Word was made flesh and pitched its tent among us and we beheld the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so we find these people, every new moon, draw ing near to the little altar, sprinkling the blood, calling out to the great unknown God. Unable themselves to find God, they seek to devise means whereby they may draw near. They become spiritists. It is quite common to hear some one say, “ O spirit of my mother, think of me. Try to get before God and tell Him all about the boy you left down here on earth. Speak to Him on my behalf, and ask that He give me success. I am going out to shoot elephants. Put in a good word for me.” Here at once the missionary has a point of contact. He says there is no mediator between God and man except the Man Christ Jesus. He tells of One who died and lives again, who is now our Advocate in the presence of God.
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