T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S June. 1935 'Revival in Surope __ ’The ISleedfor lL> [ Continued, from page 207]
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people. Instead, he kept running to the king with evil reports. He said that Amos was talking against the king and was saying that the king would die by the sword and that the nation of Israel would be led away captive out o f their own land. Amaziah, the priest, said to thé king that the people couldn’t bear to hear Amos say these things. Then he ran back to Amos and told him to go away, to go back to his own country and prophesy to his own people. He didn’t seem to understand that Amos was God’s messenger who had come to tell them God’s word for them. Amos tried to explain. “ I was no prophet,” he said, ■“neither was I a prophet’s son ; but I was a herdman . . . And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said nnto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word o f the Lord.” • And m spite of everything, Amos con tinued to do what God had given him to do.
It will put the need of Spain in ah even more striking way if we make some com parisons. In China there is one missionary to every 200,000 persons. In Spain there is one missionary to every 400,000. In India there is one communicant to every 207 in habitants—in Spain, one to every 4,000. Does not this contrast give us a picture of the need of Spain today ?_ As to the opportunity, it is indeed great. In 1931 there was practically no religious liberty. Now meefings can be held in pub lic squares and even in the bull rings. Under the old regime, twenty-three peo ple at one time were imprisoned for hold ing a meeting. But recently a meeting of 3.000 people was held in a bull ring and was presided over by the mayor of the city. There is great spiritual hunger in Spain. The Spanish Gospel Mission, to gether with some o f the other societies, has sent out tracts. Recently at a fair 10.000 Gospels were sold in one day. Let us pray that God will keep this door open until there is an opportunity to get the message of the full salvation in Christ throughout the length and breadth of that country. P ag an ism in F rance Let us. turn now, to France. What do you know about France? There are 40,- 000,000 people in France, five or six mil lion of whom are Roman Catholic; and two or three per cent o f that number go to church. There are estimated to be 800,000 Protestants. Who are the rest ? What are they? They are pagan. France is'pagan. There is just as dark paganism in France today as in Africa or in any other mission field o f the world. I have not felt the dark ness of China more than I feel the dark ness o f France. Thousands of Roman Catholics are devoid of any knowledge of real salvation, and the vast majority are indifferent as well as ignorant. There are very few men in France that have any thing to do with the church. In some of the cities of France, you cannot find a sin gle Protestant witness today. Since the war, there have sprung up around Paris something like thirty-nine cities. You can tell that they are new. The houses indi cate it; the towns themselves indicate it. W e were driving through two or three of those cities—20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people, and not a Christian witness! Not even a Roman Catholic church in cities o f 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, just outside of Paris! Can you believe it ? It seems incredible. There are in those thirty-nine cities a little more than 800,000 inhabitants. There are nine Protestant churches, six gospel halls, three meetings held in private houses, fif teen pastors and evangelists, one pastor for every 54,600 people. Does that not sound like China or India or Africa? And that is France—just across the ocean from us. T ragedies in F rench P rotestantism Now let us see a little about the Protes tants o f France. There are 1,200 Protes tant pastors. I was told on very good au thority that there were only about 120 that were sound and true in their teaching and preaching. Not only is that the case, but among those that are orthodox and true in southern France where the blood of so many Huguenots was shed during the Reformation, many seem to be depending upon the blood of their ancestors to save
largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world. There was a magnificent shrine to Christ. But there was a still more mag nificent shrine for the Virgin Mary. She sat upon a throne like a queen. That throne was bedecked with most precious jewels, costing thousands upon thousands o f dollars. She sat with a tiny babe on her lap, with little sandals on His feet and a little scepter in His hand. In the Virgin’s hand there was a scepter three times as long. That is Spain in a picture for you. The priests teach that the Virgin Mary is more powerful than Christ. She does not have to ask favors of God, but she com mands God to do her will. One woman said, “W e cast out the Son because of love for the mother.” And that is Spain. Second, the Bible is rejected. In a tract o f the Roman Catholic Church, there are seven reasons why one should not study the Bible. Communicants are not given even a Roman Catholic Bible to read, but priests destroy every copy they can get into their hands. They have public burn ings of the Bible. And at one of those public burnings, a priest offered free par don for all sins o f the past and future to all those who would join in persecuting the Protestants. Third, superstition and idolatry are en couraged. There are .images of the Vir gin and of the saints everywhere, and they are worshiped as idols. If one of them does not answer a prayer, he is punished by having his face turned to the wall, or by being put down into a well for a duck ing. Images are made to appear in a seem- —ingly supernatural way in lonely places, and their eyes and limbs are made to move in a. "‘miraculous” manner to in crease faith on the part o f the people, and indirectly, if not directly, to increase gifts. Fourth, evangelical Christians are perse cuted. The priest states that one is doing God’s service in persecuting the “here tics,” the Protestants. One evangelist was almost beaten to death, his back one mass o f blood, because he was preaching the gospel. One woman was imprisoned for two years because she said that the Virgin Mary had other sons than Jesus. I was in Seville on Corpus Christi Day. I went to the great cathedral to see the procession. I have been in China for twenty years and have been in many tem ples, but I never saw more awful idolatry than in Seville that day. We were told that twenty thousand people stood in the ca thedral that day to worship that wafer rep resenting the body of the Saviour, carried in a golden bowl by a priest. It passed the place where we were. One of the priests gave a signal that people were to kneel in adoration, but scarcely more than a third of the spectators knelt. Spain is turning away from the deadness of the Roman Church. U nevangelized S pain There is widespread indifference to re ligion because of the hypocrisy and im morality of the majority o f the priests. Ninety per cent o f the Roman Catholics of Spain do not regularly attend church, ac cording to the statement o f Mr. Buffard o f the Spanish Gospel Mission. In some cities, the proportion would go as high as ninety-nine per cent. Godless influences are rapidly spreading.
Objects: A baby’s building block, an •empty ice cream cone, and a rubber ball. Lesson: W e have some interesting things here this morning. There is a rubber ball for some boy, an ice cream cone for a girl, and a block for a baby. The only trouble with the ice cream cone is that it is empty. Did1you ever stop to think that these familiar objects are like people? Notice this ball. It goes any way you want it to. I f you blow against it, it is easily moved. It is like those people o f whom Paul spoke in the book of Ephesians, people who are “ carried about with every wind o f doc trine.” This ball reminds us of people who travel with the crowd, no matter which direction it is going. This cone is like some other people. (Set it up, resting on the large end.) It is all right as long as it is not upset. It cannot be blown over very easily. While it looks -quite steady, when once it is upset, it goes •around and around in a circle. Now you can blow it easily. Some people are like this—when once they are upset or both ered, you can no longer depend on them. The people whom God has been pleased -to use all down through the years have been like this block. You cannot blow it over. I f you turn it over, it is just as steady as before. I think that Amos was this kind o f a man. He was true to God and gave his message faithfully to men who did not like to hear it. It would have been much easier to have traveled with the crowd, but he took the hard way, remain ing true to God. God does not use the person who, like this ball, is easily moved in any direction. He does not use the one who is easily upset like this cone. But He does use the - person who can be trusted under all cir cumstances. Any one can be like the ball. Most people can be like the cone. It takes real strength of character to be like the ; block.
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