February 1929
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influence, the following lines beautifully picture his hum ble spirit: “I am weaker than a child,
thought the great poet pointed to the flowers at his feet and said, “What the sun is to these flowers, Jesus Christ is to my soul. He is the ‘Sun of my Soul.’ ” John Keble said the same thing in his hymn-prayer, and his hymns re flect his singularly devout nature. Our poet was a man greatly beloved, one whose life was “hid with Christ in God” ; and with all his learning and the wide sweep of his
And Thou art more than mother dear, Without Thee heaven were but a wild; How can I live without Thee here?”
US US US
A Continent-Wide Bible Crusade B y G eorge T. B. D avis
In telling the story of his trip, in the Sunday School Times, Mr. Legters gave the explanation of his remark able discovery. He said: “We were the first missionaries who had ever visited the town. How did it come, then, that this large group of believers were gathered here? .Nine years before an old Indian had heard the Gospel while away from home. Someone had given him a Spanish Gospel. When he re turned home, a nephew had learned a little Spanish, so the old uncle impressed him into service. As he read the Good News, he would hurry with the lad to a neighbor to share it with him. As a result of this kind of work there were nearly three hundred believers in this Indian town—more than half of the village were real Christians when we visited there.” The reports' of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society contain striking examples of the power of the Word of God to transform and trans figure lives in Latin-America. An experienced missionary told a Secretary of the British and Foreign Society in Brazil that he felt led to offer a copy of the Scriptures to anyone who was desirous of reading the book. Then the missionary made this striking statement: “In every case the person who received the book had been led to Christ.” A colporteur, laboring in Venezuela, sent this striking testimony of the power of the Word to the British and Foreign Bible Society: “Some two years ago we were allowed to place six Bibles and twelve New Testaments in the Leper Asylum at La Guaira. Early last year Colpor teur Rivera was permitted to visit this Leper Asylum with his Books and to speak to the inmates. He found forty of them were professing Christians.” The British and Foreign Bible Society reports the striking words of the President of Chile when he was pre sented with a copy of the Bible several years ago by the Evangelical churches of Chile and the Bible Society. In accepting the gift he said: “I am a Christian. I believe in the doctrine of Christ. I drink the waters of the crystal fountain, but not the turbid waters of the swamps. I re ceive the health-giving doctrines of the Bible. This Book which you have presented to me will ever be with me. It will be my guide, and will be appreciated at its full value.” A colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society laboring in Argentine wrote: “I entered a barber’s shop and offered him a Bible; but he replied, ‘Thanks be to God, I have one.’ When I asked how he obtained the Book, he told me the following story: ‘In the review called El Mundo Argentino I read an announcement recommend ing readers to obtain the Gospels or the New Testament
HE blessing of God rested upon the nation-wide distribution of New Testaments in China in such a signal manner, that a campaign has now been started for the careful and prayerful circulation of a million copies of the New Testament in the Latin-American lands of Central and South America, Mexico and the West Indies. The plan is not merely the circulation of a million Testaments; but to water the Word with such a great volume of prevailing prayer that a great spiritual awakening will sweep over the I^atin-American Republics. The darkness of the past centuries in Latin-America is due to their being deprived of the Word of God. Four hundred years ago Spanish and Portuguese adventurers went to South America seeking for GOLD. Three hun dred years ago British and Dutch pilgrims went to North America seeking for GOD. The results that have followed from the Spanish and Portuguese lusting for gold, and the British and Dutch seeking first the Kingdom of God, have been without a parallel in the world’s history. In South America—dark ness and superstition and ignorance. In North America— unparalleled prosperity, and all the multiplied blessings that come from an open Bible. Now is the hour of opportunity to inaugurate a great Bible campaign for the enlightenment of the Latin-Amer ican nations. After four hundred years of darkness the dawn is breaking. One after another of the Republics have proclaimed religious liberty. But the political release is only the first step. Now they need spiritual freedom. Most of the 90,000,000 inhabitants of Latin-America are still in darkness. They are groping about in superstition without the lamp of the Word to guide their footsteps. Their souls are starving for the Bread of Life. A missionary in South America who is a British Professor of philosophy, and who gave up all to preach Christ, recently declared that there is scarcely an anti- Christian book published in Europe, that is not reprinted at once in Spanish in South America; but he said that in spite of all the difficulties of the work there is a great hunger after higher things in those lands. It is only the Word of God that can dispel the darkness and bring blessing and true prosperity to the peoples of Latin-America. A year or two ago an American traveler, Mr. L. L. Legters, was making a tour of exploration in Mexico to seek to discover how to bring the Gospel to Indian tribes that had never been reached by a missionary. Away in the interior he came to an Indian town and, was amazed to find a church of nearly three hundred believers.
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