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bidden, in some districts even idols thrown aside and temples renovated and con verted into schools or lecture halls, and their grounds into public recreation parks. “The conviction, then, that burned itself deeper than ever into our soul during this visit to a changed and changing China was that of the imperative need of re storing evangelism to its rightful place at the center of all missionary effort. “As we viewed the situation in a fairly extensive tour of visitation, we were strongly convinced that the truest cri terion of a missionary’s success is the degree in which his efforts have been the means of planting the seed of living truth in Chinese hearts, with the result that in dividuals have been truly regenerated, and united together into indigenous churches that will propagate their faith, win others to Christ, and exert a vital and ever-growing spiritual and moral in fluence in the community. Such results will abide and increase long after the mis sionary has passed off the scene.” * * * S ide -L ights “Don’t Let Go" During the speech made by King George at the opening of the recent Dis armament Conference, some one tripped over the generator wires of the Columbia Broadcasting Company, breaking elec trical contact and interrupting the ser vice. The chief operator quickly grasped the loose wires in his bare hands and held them together. For twenty minutes the current passed through his twitching flesh while repairs were being made. His hands were slightly burned, but the elec trical current which passed through his body was the means of conveying the message of the King to millions of lis teners who distinctly heard it. Had he not displayed courage and endurance the King’s message would not have reached its destination. The King of heaven has chosen to send His message to a lost world through hu man wires. Every faithful missionary, and every Christian who gives to the support of missions, is a human channel by means of which the King’s voice is reaching the lost with a message of peace vastly more important than the message from London. ♦ * * Inspiring Words From Master Missionaries The spirit of missions is the spirit of Christ—the very essence of true religion. —David Livingstone. Prayer and pains through faith in Jesus Christ will do anything.— John Elliott. Some can go, most can give, all can pray. If America fail, the world will fail. — Park. I tell you, fellow Christians, your love has a broken wing if it can not fly across the ocean.— Maltbie Babcock. It is my deep conviction, and I say it again, that if the Church of Christ were what she ought to be, twenty years would not pass until the story of the Cross would be uttered in the ears of every liv ing man.— Simeon H. Calhoun. Every church should support two pas tors—one for the thousands at home, the other for the millions abroad.— Jacob Chamberlain.
! ¿Daily ¿Devotional ¿Readings ! A Message for Every D ay of fhe Month go—— 'O— O— -H
June 8— “A door opened in heaven” (Rev. 4:1). You must remember that John was in the Isle of Patmos, a lone, rocky, inhos pitable prison, for the Word of God and the testimony-of Jesus. And yet to him, under such circumstances, separated from all the loved ones of Ephesus, debarred from the worship of the Church, con demned to the companionship of uncon genial fellow captives, were vouchsafed these visions. For him, also, a door was opened. We are reminded of Jacob, ex iled from his father’s house, who laid himself down in a desert place to sleep, and in his dreams beheld a ladder which united heaven with earth, and at the top stood God. Not to these only, but to many more, doors have been opened into heaven, when, so far as the world was concerned, it seemed as though their cir cumstances were altogether unlikely for such revelations. To prisoners and cap tives, to constant sufferers, bound by iron chains of pain to sick couches, to lonely pilgrims and wanderers; to women de tained from the Lord’s house by the de mands of home, how often has the door been opened to heaven. But there are conditions. You must know what it is to be in fhe Spirit; you must lie pure in heart and obedient in life; you must be willing to count all things but loss for the excellency of Jesus Christ; then, when God is all in all to us, when we live, move and have our being in His favor, to us also will the door be opened.— Daily Devotional Commentary. —o— June 9— “The thick darkness where God was" (Exod. 20:21). • God has still His hidden secrets, hidden from the wise and prudent. Do not fear them; be content to accept things that you cannot understand; wait patiently. Presently He will reveal to you the trea sures of darkness, the riches of the glory of the mystery. Mastery is only the veil of God’s face. Do not be afraid to enter the cloud that is settling down on your life. God is in it. The other side is radiant with His glory. “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” When you seem loneliest and most for saken, God is nigh. He is in the dark cloud. Plunge into the blackness of its darkness without flinching; under the shrouding curtain of His pavilion you will find God awaiting you. —Sel. —o— June 10— “I will make all my mountains a way" (Isa. 49:11). God will make obstacles serve His pur pose. We all have mountains in our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our progress in the divine life.
Those heavy claims, that uncongenial oc cupation, that thorn in the flesh, that daily cross—we think that if only these were removed we might live purer, ten derer, holier lives; and often we pray for their removal. “O fools, and slow of heart!” These are the very conditions of achievement. . . . Thou hast prayed for patience through long years, but there is something that tries thee beyond en durance; thou hast fled from it, evaded it, accounted it an insurmountable ob stacle to the desired attainment, and sup posed that its removal would secure thy immediate deliverance and victory. Not so! Thou wouldest gain only the cessa tion of temptations to impatience. But this would not be patience. Patience can be acquired only through just such trials as now seem unbearable. Go back; sub mit thyself. Claim to be a partaker in the patience of Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. There is nothing in life which harasses and annoys that may not become subservient to the highest ends. They are His mountains. . . . “God understandeth the way thereof, and knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven” ; and when we come to the foot of the mountains, we shall find the way. —Christ in Isaiah. June 11— “I f it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will de liver us out of thitie hand, 0 king!" (Dan. 3:17). Of course God is able! He is able to deliver us from the thorn in the flesh, able to free us from the fire of persecu tion, able to give us a path in which there are neither pebbles nor thorns. Other lives are immune from these adversities, and ours might be. But He does not do so. What then? Let us believe that there is a reason deeply hidden in God’s heart why these things are allowed. — Selected. God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain. — o — June 12— “The hill country shall be thine” (Josh. 17:18, R. V.). There is always room higher up. When the valleys are full of Canaanites, whose iron chariots withstand your progress, get up into the hills, occupy the upper spaces. If you can no longer work for God, pray for those who can. If you cannot move earth by your speech, you may move heaven. If the development of life on the_ lower slopes is impossible, through limitations of others, and such-like re strictions, let it break out toward the un seen, the eternal, the divine. Faith can Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain ;
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