June 1929
272
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s .
across the sea. Can you not hear the despairing cry of mil lions without the Gospel? We have heard the cry of the man of Japan, the man of China, the man of Annam, the man of Cambodia, the man of Laos, the man of Siam. Now, shall we hear the cry of the man of Borneo, the man of the countless Islés of the South Seas, the wild man of the interior? T h e C ry of t h e M a n of B orneo The man of Borneo, the man of the city of Samarinda, is like the man of Macedonia, and like the man on the other side of the Sea of Galilee whom the Lord Jesus went to save. The Dyak of the interior is a wild man, but naturally endowed with mental and physical qualities beyond other races of these parts. His life is in the jungle, whither he has been driven by the progress of civilization on the coast of his island. He knows not a God of Love, or a Saviour from sin. His religion is one of fear. He fears the devil who possesses him, and so he worships the devil. As I write this message, it is exactly a year ago today since I first landed at Samarinda. Today, thank God, we are on the way with the young Chinese missionaries who have heard the call and are going to preach Jesus to these people. They are settling at Samarinda, and will learn the language there. A Gospel Chapel will soon be opened at Samarinda where all may hear the way of Life. As this poor bound soul “saw Jesus afar off, ran and worshiped Him” (Luke 8 :28) j so souls will be saved here to His dear name’s glory and honor. But there was terrific opposition on the part of the devil. He saw Jesus crossing the sea to deliver this soul, and he hastened to hinder Him. The fight was on. When that little ship, containing Jesus and His disciples, was in the midst of the Sea of Galilee that night, there “came down” from “the prince, of the power of the air” a mighty storm of wind on the lake (Luke 8:23). “There arose a great tempest in the sea, and the boat was covered zvith waves” (Matt. 8:24). “The waves beat into the boat, inso much that the boat was now filling” (Mark 4 :37). “They were filling zvith water, and were in jeopardy” (Luke 8: 23). Through all this the Lord Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat. The fury of the storm did not awake Him, but the first cry of His struggling disciples at once awoke Him. They were not the kind of men easily to be scared by a storm. They were fishermen-—sailors, who had spent their lives on the Sea of Galilee and knew their busi ness well. The Sea of Galilee is 600 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, like a great hole in the surface of the earth. This is the cause of the sudden terrific storms that arise. These men had confidence in themselves and their ship to take the Lord Jesus safely to the other side (Mark 4:36). They had been through terrible weather, but they had never seen a storm like this one before. They had never feared, but now they were full of alarm. They awoke Him crying, “Màster, Master, we perish! Carest Thou not that we perish! Save, Lord, we perish!” All three Gospels record that the Lord awoke and rebuked the winds and the raging of the sea, and that there was a great calm. Here is clear proof that the great tempest of wind and sea was from the devil. If it had been His Father’s wind, He would not have rebuked it. He re buked demons, and He rebuked fever, and now at His word the hosts of the demons of the air, that were try ing while He slept to raise wind and waves enough to sink His ship, scattered and fled as the darkness before the rising sun, and there was a great calm. Satan, seeing the Saviour of the world asleep in a little boat in the midst
This is perhaps the most desperate case the Lord met in all His ministry. The victim did not seek the Lord. The Lord Jesus sought him. He went across the sea on purpose for him. What compassion! What love! Be of good cheer, poor soul! He who alone can save and deliver you has come. He has heard your feeble mute cry away across the sea. You are the very man He came to save. Who is this poor wretched soul? It is I ! I t is you! We used to sing, “All the way to Calvary, He came for me, He came for me. And now He sets me free!” That is it. He came all the way across the sea on purpose to save me. Blessed be His gracious name for ever! If the Lord Jesus came to our town or city, who would be first attracted to Him? To whom would He first be attracted ? The first day would find the sick, the weary, the lame, the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the poor, the beg; gars, the forsaken, the hopeless, the rejected, the misun derstood, the demented, the demon-possessed, the dis tressed, all seeking Him for help. His heart goes out to such. He is full of compassion. He is charged with power to deliver the oppressed. Only touch the hem of His gar ment, and “virtue” will go out from Him and heal and save you. But let us return. The Lord Jesus hears a cry of dis tress from across the sea. He immediately leaves His work on the west coast, leaves the crowds, the opportunity of doing good to many, and sets sail across the sea to deliver one man from the bondage of the devil. S h a l l W e N ot H ea r T h e C ry T oday ? >: Is there anything here for us? Do we ever hear such a cry ? Is there no such need across the sea today ? Or are we deaf? Are our ears full of other sounds,—sounds of the world and pleasures, so that we never hear the cry from the other shore? What about the lands across the sea, where Satan for many, many years has bound not one man’s soul, or two, but millions? What about these lands of darkness, where Satan’s seat is? As dark as mid night darkness, because the only Light of the world has never shone on that other shore. Souls for whom He died await the missionary, await the Light, and await release from their chains. Can you spare time from your, busy work on the west shore of Galilee—ministering to multitudes, to be sure, but multitudes who have often heard before-—to come with the Gospel, the power of salvation, to deliver those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and who have never yet heard His name? Philip was having a wonderful time in Samaria. Mir acles of healing on every side, and many were believing. “There zvas great joy in that city.” “But the Angel o f the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Arise and go.” The Lord took him from the multitudes to one man in the desert, whose heart was ready to hear and believe the Gospel (Acts 8). Paul, on one of his missionary journeys, came to Troas on the coast of Mysia. He planned to go further north east into Bithynia, “but the Spirit suffered him not” (Acts 16:7). Then that night a vision appeared to Paul. “There stood a man of Macedonia,” on the other side of the sea, “and prayed him saying, Come over into Macedonia and help US.” Thus Paul, “assuredly gathering” that the Lord had called him to preach the Gospel there, immediately set sail for Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia. There they found Lydia, a woman “whose heart the Lord opened,” and many others who believed the Word and were saved. If we had ears to hear, and eyes to see, we, too, would hear the cry from the other shore, and see visions of needs
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