July 1929
319
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wish it were possible for us to see more of the Oriental Mission’s fine work. Someone has said that the Christian home on the mission field is one of the greatest forces for Christ. Its far-reaching influence cannot be overestimated. Much of a missionary’s testimony and work in any field depends upon his personal contact with Christ in the home. We wish that we might share with all our friends the blessing and inspiration which is ours in the home of MR. and MRS. HARRY H ILL (HARRY HILL, T2; MARY ROSS HILL, T4). Here prayer is truly “the Christian’s vital breath,” and the reality of Christ’s companionship ie felt in all the everyday experiences of life. The children are keenly interested in the Bible readings at family wor ship, for the Scripture narratives are explained in simple language; often we hear their childish voices lifted in spontaneous prayer in expressions such as, “God bless daddy as he travels in the ox-cart up in Manchuria to tell the people of Jesus,” and “Help the Korean boys that mother talked with at the door yesterday to give their hearts to Jesus.” We soon realize that even the children bear the needs of the work on their hearts and are His light-bearers. Mr. Hill’s “parish” of some sixty or more Korean churches and his work as Principal of the Men’s Bible Institute in Pyeng Yang keep him ever diligent in the Master’s service. Let us go now to visit a little Korean church which Mr. and Mrs. Hill started only a few years ago. Situated just outside the Pyeng Yang city wall in a village of very poor people who were driven out of the city by a Japanese restriction against thatched roofs, we find that this congregation of new Christians has out grown two buildings. Sunday school is ifi session and the little church auditorium, as well as a building near by, is filled with Korean women studying the Bible. The chil dren have already had their session and the men have also met earlier in the morning; there is not room to assemble men, women and children together. This arrangement for
Sunday school is customary in most of the Korean churches, owing to the numbers attending. One evening we shall attend a prayer-meeting in one of the large city churches of Pyeng Yang. Inside there are no pews or aisles; clean matting covers the floor of the auditorium and every one must take off their shoes upon entering. Seated Oriental fashion on the floor, the men on one side of the church and the women on the other, all in their fresh white garments, they call to our minds a large flock of lovely white birds. Several hundred have gathered here for three evenings in the week to pray for revival in Korea, and though we cannot understand their language our hearts are touched by the earnestness of their petitions. No wonder we read in recent magazines of thousands turning to Christ in Korea. Mrs. Hill has been greatly blessed in her teaching of the Bible in the Korean Bible Institute gatherings for women and girls, one group, numbering more than eight hundred, assembling for a ten- day period. It was the author’s privilege to study conditions in many different countries and renew numerous friendships, as well as to observe various phases of missionary work. One of the greatest joys experienced was that of seeing these former students of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles in their distant fields of service, to share with them some of the problems and perplexing situations each was facing, and to rejoice with them in the abounding and enabling grace of the Lord. These we have men tioned are but a small part of the number whose lives are counting on the mission fields. We wish we might have visited more of them. Now that we are at home the question is often asked, “What do you consider the greatest need on the mission field today ?” This question is difficult to answer, but we are convinced of one great outstanding need the world around—evangelists constrained by the love of Christ. It has been truly said, “Evangelism is always and every where the primary task of missions.” ■
The “Christian Hope” Considered From the Viewpoint of the Advanced Modernism B y J o h n H o r sc h (Scottdale, Pa.)
HE more advanced type of Modernism, as is J r& r perhaps generally known, denies supernatural Nglfegiy revelation. It has therefore no adequate foun- ‘“frfSrrHl dation for the religious truths which cannot be established by modern science. Belief in per sonal immortality and in future bliss for the Christian believer, is on the wane in Modernistic circles. The Christian hope, as held forth in the Word of God, has been largely replaced by a dismal picture of doubt and despair. Advanced Modernists, it is true, show as a rule an inclination to be reticent on the subject; yet there are those among them who candidly admit the dismalness of the outlook. And belief in God and responsibility to Him have little meaning to those who give place to doubt regarding the reality of the future life. A striking admission of the baneful effects of Mod ernism by one of its noted representatives is found in the book, “The Function of Religion in Man’s Struggle for
Existence,” by the late Professor George Burman Foster, of the University of Chicago. Professor Foster says in the preface that he could wish his book to fall into the hands of such young people as do no longer hold the doc trines of the orthodox Christian faith. Nevertheless he admits that he cannot offer these young people “the full and solid comfort and hope which warmed the hearts and illumined the faces of the fathers, theirs and mine.” Con cerning the contents of his book he says fu rther: “1 have tried to do no more than to cleave to the sunnier side of doubt. And may there be light and warmth enough to keep us from freezing in the dark.” (Type emphasis mine.) Professor Foster furthermore expresses the desire that his book be not read by those who still hold conservative theological views. “I could wish with all my heart,” he adds, “that our fathers and mothers might enjoy the blessed calm of the evening of life free from the spiritual bewilderment of those who have to wander in the regions
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