403
August 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
generate families of men, then the prim itive man may easily have been in relig ious capacity their superior.” And this evidence, that the savages of today are degenerate families, or tribes, their lan guage has furnished us. It has been abundantly proved that monotheism preceded polytheism. The further back one searches in the poly theistic faiths the more one approaches to a common monotheistic source. For instance, the Santals of India have a tra dition that they were not always wor shipers of demons as now; that long ago their first parents were created by the living God; that they were seduced from their worship of Him by an evil spirit, Marang Buru, who persuaded them to drink' an intoxicating liquor made from the fruit of a certain tree. In conse quence, they came under the power of the evil spirit, and hence from that time until now they have had to worship him in stead of the one God of their fathers. The conclusion reached by Dr. Gaebe- lein is that all the ethnic religions are hu man corruptions of the truth which was first communicated to man by God Him self. The question now arises as to whether Christianity is to be classed in the same category with the religions of the world. The answer is, No! Christianity is super natural revelation. It is therefore final and never to be surpassed or superseded. Christianity rests upon seven facts. These a re : l . A Supernatural Foundation. 2. A Supernatural Person. 3. His Supernat ural Work of Redemption. 4. His Super natural Survival. 5. A Supernatural Message. 6. A Supernatural Power. 7. A Supernatural Future Manifestation and Consummation. The remainder of the book is given to the elaboration of the content of the Bib lical message and the contrast between this message and the human corruptions that have dominated all uninspired think ing. There is much that argues for the complete authenticity of the message and for the discrediting of all of the views that rest upon evolutionary hypotheses. This book does not close until it has dwelt upon the Blessed Hope of the re turn of the Messiah, when all the glow ing pictures painted by prophets and apos tles and by the Lord Himself will be ful filled according to a heavenly pattern upon a regenerated earth. Publication office, Our Hope, 4S6 Fourth Ave., New York City. $1.50. A Missionaries’ Appeal "We look for T h e K in g ’ s B u s in e s s every month." Unless contributions for this work are re ceived immediately they will look in vain, as our fund for the missionaries is com pletely exhausted. Remember one sub scription will supply one whole station. Five dollars will supply T h e K in g ’ s B u s in e s s to four missionary stations. S en d Y our C o n t r ib u t io n i n N o w . JPI Combination Offer C h r is t ia n it y or R e lig io n - Price $1.50 T h e K in g ’ s B u s in e s s - - U. S. $1.25 Both For $2.25 Foreign 25 cents extra
had a soul, because he could dream of dis tant things and awake in the same spot, where he had gone to sleep. So he imag ined that the objects about him had souls, and thus Animism came into existence. Similarly, by pure imagination, Rabbi Browne sketches the beginning of fetish ism, idol worship, and the practice of sac rifice. The general drift of the argument is familiar to all who have followed the “may bes” and “possiblys” of the “con structive” Evolutionist. The origin of language is a favorite subject for the play of the imagination. Elaborate experiments have been con ducted for the purpose of connecting the sounds uttered by animals with human speech. These experiments have been fruitless. . On the other hand, the languages of the most primitive peoples bear evidence of a high origin. The present degrada tion of the people does not mark a stage in the progress upward from the beast, but a stage in the progress of degeneracy from a higher civilization. The Rev. Mr. Comber, who is the au thor of a fine grammar and dictionary of the Congo language, says that in his study he met with “new surprises at every point and turn, as the richness, flexibility, ex actness, subtlety of idea and nicety of expression of the language revealed them selves.” He says that “this wealth in idea and form does not specially characterize Congo but is possessed by the whole fam ily of Bantu languages to a greater or less extent............ “The widespread pos session of these qualities points to their existence in the parent stem, which must have been of a high class.” S. H. Kellogg draws this logical conclu sion : “In the presence of such facts as those which have been mentioned, it is obviously of no force to argue that be cause many savage races now know of no worship except that of fetishes or va rious nature-spirits, therefore, that inas much as primitive man could not have stood higher than these, he could not have had any correct conception of God. If there is evidence that savages are de
Christianity or Religion A study of the Origin and Growth of Religion, and the Supernaturalism of Christianity. B y A rno C l e m e n s G a e b e le in , D.D. Reviewed by Rev. H. W. Kellogg Though it would seem an easy matter to define religion, we are nevertheless confronted by a great variety of defini tions, few of which are comprehensive enough to be satisfying. Among the best are those by Flint, Max Muller and S. H. Kellogg. Professor Flint says that Religion is “man’s belief in a Being or beings, mightier than himself, inacces sible to his senses, but not indifferent to his sentiments and actions, with the feel ings and practices which flow from such beliefs.” Max Muller says: “Religion consists in the perception of the Infinite under such manifestations as are able to influence the moral character of man.” S. H. Kellogg says: “Religion essen tially consists in man’s apprehension of his relation to an invisible Power or powers, able to influence his destiny, to which he is necessarily subject, together with the feelings, desires and actions which this apprehension calls forth.” Religion in some form has been found to be practically coextensive with the hu man race. While some have at times as serted that certain tribes were without any form of religion, more thorough in vestigation has proved that the exceptions did not exist. Such universality of religion must be accounted for. This task is easily and sat isfactorily accomplished when we admit the truth of a primal revelation made to the race as recorded in the Bible. The variations of religion are merely varia tions in the process of deterioration from that which was divine to that which is human. The effort of the rationalist is to ac count for all forms of religion and even of Christianity on the basis of Evolution. Rabbi Lewis Browne has written a book called “This Believing World.” This book is commended by the editorial staff of the Christian Century, a well-known liberal periodical published in Chicago. The first chapter of Rabbi Browne’s book is en titled, “How it All Began,” and the first sentence of the chapter is this: “In the beginning there was fear; and fear was in the heart of man, and fear controlled man.” E v e r y t h i n g around primitive man inspired him with fear. “And he, poor gibbering half-ape, nursing his wounds in some draughty cave, could only tremble with fear.” He did not know that much of the evil which befell him was accidental. He had the concep tion, poor half-ape, that all things in na ture bore him malice, for he had not yet discovered that some things were inani mate. He tried to placate the things about him. First with words and then with strange rites and the beating of tom toms. By and by he discovered that he
A -Missionary from India writes: “I am extremely pleased with the paper and always look out for it every month. I must say that it is one of the best Bible magazines in the world. The tone of the paper is simply su perb and just the kind needed in these days when there is so much of modernistic ideas prev alent in all countries and de plorable to find that so many people are disregarding the Holy Word of God and misin terpreting Scripture to such an extent that some are being mis led into incredulity and distrust of the Bible. The S u n d a y - School Lessons are also of great help to me. I am glad to say that I use them in my Sunday- school class here. I wish T h e K in g ’ s B u s in e s s every success and may it be the means of bringing many to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.”— W. H. B.
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