February 1929
73
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Every indication points to a revival of interest in it. The church simply cannot thrive without it. The office of the evangelist is by divine appointment and the church will neglect it at her peril. This kind of evangelism has always been more or less crude, although not a little of it has been remarkably sane and thorough and efficient, and with all that might be said adversely it is still true that it has brought to the church, as any candid investigator will cheerfully admit, a goodly proportion of her numerical increase across the years that have gone. There is absolutely no excuse for the unreasonable prejudice of some pastors who will work to death a hun dred good women at all sorts of questionable entertain ments to raise enough money to buy a pipe-organ to the accompaniment of which a godless choir will sing heathen music in an unknown tongue and call that worship, but will not allow a man to stand in their pulpit who is notedly successful for winning men and women to Christ, because, forsooth, he is an evangelist. The value of this work cannot be overestimated. It is simply tremendous. If I had a child of my own I would want that it should always love its Father in heaven more than its earthlv parent; I would want that no sin should ever stain its life, but could I, in view of what human nature has become, reasonably hope for such a thing? And when by the grace of God the regenerating and trans forming work of the Holy Spirit was to take place in that child’s life I would earnestly pray that he, or any other one dear to me, might experience that change in the midst of a mighty spiritual revival when the church and the whole IER E is probably no name more familiar to us than this name, Palestine. Wherever we live, whether in palace or hut, in city or country, this name is known. Small villages within it of less than one hundred souls are the bywords of every Christian home. Vast audiences, throughout the centuries, have stood spellbound as the words which were first uttered here fell from the lips of evangelists and preachers. Teachings which had their origin here, have rocked, have destroyed, and have rebuilt nations. Yes, and the very world itself has been revolutionized by them. Wrecked lives, floundering about like some rudder less ship, have found harbor and salvation; and others, self-cast upon the refuse heaps of mankind, have shaken off their filth and stench and have lived anew, by the call of One whose feet knew no other land. With these great facts before us, we naturally, in think ing of Palestine, picture to ourselves our own mental inter pretation of that statement, “the land flowing with milk and honey.” We see a land rich and beautiful; we think of the Sea of Galilee as a vast expanse of water, and of the Jordan as a great and beautiful river; we think of Mag- dala as a city of riotous living. But in reality this is by no means the case. Palestine, the land of promise, as it was populated by the twelve ite
community was at an intense spiritual heat, and when out of a broken and a contrite heart, with deep and conscious guilt oppressed, he would come crying, “Just as I am without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me; O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” For then I know that God could stamp the image of Christ upon his soul in such a way that it never could be effaced. Brethren, pastors and evangelists, the hour is struck. Let us give ourselves together to the mighty task before us. Let us covet, each one for himself, any gift that will make us wise in winning souls, and let us thank God for that gift in every other man’s experience, and thus as we go out into the field the harvest shall come when he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together and the Lord will come and rain righteousness upon us. Above all let us not forget that methods are secondary; results are primary. A youhg minister said to an evangelist one night at the close of a successful meeting: “I was glad to see souls saved tonight, but I don’t just like the way you ask them to rise and come forward.” “I don’t either,” replied the evangelist, “how do you do it?” ■ “Well,” said the young minister, “I—I—don’t do it at all.” “Well, then,” said the evangelist, “I like the way I do it better than the way you do it.” tribes after the conquest under Joshua, is in reality, scarcely one hundred and fifty miles long by sixty miles wide; its total area is but nine thousand square miles. Economically, it barely supports itself. Imports, in the past seven years, have exceeded exports, by many million dollars. Palestine today is supported for the most part by pilgrims, tourists, and philanthropists. A great many writers of late, basing their text on that simple statement, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” have taken upon themselves the task of apologizing for Palestine’s present economic poverty. They have fran tically attempted to show that in Biblical times Palestine was a country of great wealth. They have pointed out that Palestine was between the two great nations Egypt and Babylon, and that vast armies and great caravans mov ing between these two nations, must go through Pales tine. In short* that Palestine was selected because of the great natural wealth it at one time had, and because it was a sort of “Panama Canal” between Egypt and Babylon. In searching the Scriptures for statements about Pales tine we find this one simple statement, “the land flowing with milk and honey.” In analyzing the background of this statement, we find that it came out of the wilderness, and that it was the utterance of a people who had in all
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P a l e s t in e B y S. H. C u ff
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