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The Parthenon, Athens photo byAdeibert Bartlett
“ The heathen are sun\ . . . that the nations may \now themselves to be but m en "
G ran d Canyon
R I G H T TO THE V E R Y R I M
^ ■ T ^ en thousand pens have “ described
at” this indescribable in vain. It is
alone in the world. See it and you will know
why. To see it on the Santa Fe is easy— stop
over Pullmans carry you to the very rim and
on to your destination without change. If you
would stay longer than one day, metropolitan
accommodations are available at El Tovar,
Fred Harvey hotel on the CanyonRim. •Visit
America’ s oldest and oddest antiquities by
motor on the Indian-detours. •See Rainbow
Petrified Forest without change o f trains or
loss o f time.
91 2
s a n t a
s u m m e r e x c u r s i o n s e a s t a n d w e s t F R E E D E S C R I P T I V E B O O K L E T S . *
a r e l o w e r . » M A I L T H I S C O U P O N F O R
• JAS. B. DUFFY, Assistant Passenger Traffic Manager, 543 Kerckhofl Building, 560 South Main Street, Los Angeles, California Please send me free booklets: Grand Canyon Outings, Indian-detours, Summer Excursions to California □ , Summer Excursions “ Back East.” NAME__________ ._______________ ______________________________________________________________________ __ ADDRESS CITY _________ _____ STATE □ K.B.
The Scroll of the Law
W il l ia m P. W h it e , D.D., E ditor
Published Monthly by and Represent* ing the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
© h e S i f c l e T a m i l s Motto: “ Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”— R ev . 1 :5.
Number 9
September, 1932
Volume XXIII
TABLE OF CONTENTS Crumbs from the King’s Table—The Editor............. |.....................383 Is Life Worth Living?—Melvin E. Trotter......................................385 The Alphabet of Science and the Inspiration of the Bible —Harry Rimmer............... |................. 8 ....................................... 387 The Bible and the University Student—Milo F. Jamison............... 389 Limiting the Holy One— Newton Wray............................................391 The Staff—Peter Plotkin..................................................................... 393 Present-Day Fulfillment of Prophecy—Louis S. Bauman..............395 Heart to Heart with our Young Readers «^ F lo r e n c e Nye Whitwell...........................................................397 Bible Institute Family Circle—Cutler B. Whitwell...........................400 Homiletical Helps .......... |........................................................ -...........401 Our Literature Table.............. ....................... :........•-............................ 402 Junior King’s Business—Martha S. Hooker....................................403 Notes on Christian Endeavor—Mary G. Goodner............. .............. 405 International Sunday School Lesson Commentary..........................408 Daily Devotional Readings.... .................... 416
Miniature Scroll A Beautiful Jewish Antiquity
The Scroll is the most Sacred thing in the Jewish Synagogue. Christ read His in tr o d u c to r y message from the scroll in the Synagogue. Every Bible Student ought to have one of these miniature scrolls. Our Offer We want you to read The Chosen People, edited by Ex-Rab bi Leopold Cohn and considered by many Bible students the most helpful paper on_prophecy and the Jew published in America. It gives you inspiring reports o f the world wide activities o f the American Board of Missions to the Jews, Inc. Also, we want you to read the life story of Mr. Cohn, written by himself in a sixty-page booklet— one o f the most thrilling stories you have ever read. Jews are real ly accepting the Lord Jesus Christ The price of the Scroll is 50 cents, and The Chosen People is 50c a year. Mr. Cohn’s autobiog raphy is 30c. Send us $1 and we will mail you ALL and enter your name for a year’s subscription for The Chosen People; if not satis fied we’ll return your money with out a question. And may we remind you also of the continuous need o f our Mis sionary undertakings? Our work merits your every confidence. It is a program of world wide Gospel testimony to the Jews. Your fel lowship in prayer and gift is always welcomed and appreciated. The Chosen People is of course sent to all contributors. Am er ican Board of Missions to the Jews Inc. 31 Throop Ave. Brooklyn, N. Y.
SUBSCRIBERS’ INFORMAT ION
ADVERTISING: For information with reference to ad vertising in THE KING’S BUSINESS address the Re ligious Press Assn., 325 North 13th St., Philadelphia, Pa., or North American Bldg., Chicago, 111. Entered as Second Class Matter November 17, 1910, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage pro vided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized October 1, 1918. 15c Annual Subscription ...................................................$ 1.50 Two-year subscription or two annual subscriptions 2.50 T E R M S: Single Copies.............................................
Five annual subscriptions..........................................$ 5.00 Eleven annual subscriptions.........................................10.00 Subscriptions in countries outside of U. S. require 25c extra. English and Canadian exchange accepted at par. R E M IT T A N C E : Should be made by Bank Draft, Ex press or P. O. Money Order, payable to "Bible Institute of Los Angeles." Receipts will not be sent for reg ular subscriptions, but date of expiration will show plainly, each month, on outside wrapper or cover of magazine. M A N U SC R IP T S: THE KING'S BUSINESS cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to manuscripts sent to it for consideration. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please send both old and new address at least one month previous to date of desired change.
POLICY AS DEFINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES (a) To stand for the infallible Word of God and its great fundamental truths, (b) To strengthen the faith of all believers, (c) To stir young men and women to fit themselves for and engage in definite Christian work, (d) To make the Bible Institute of Los Angeles known, (e) To magnify God our Father and the person, work and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and to teach the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our present practical life, (f) To emphasize in strong, constructive messages the great foundations of Christian faith. 536-558 S. Hope St., BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Los Angeles, Calif.
W f
- n e J ^ ^ ^ g i o
B y A lice E. S herwood
C ^ i f ] fter His years in glory,
Seated at God’s right hand, Knowing the adoration Of every angel band, Does the dear Lord remember Aught o f His life on earth? Does H e recall the manger, Scene o f His lowly birth? What of the throngs that followed, Miracle works to see? What of the few who loved Him, There by Lake Galilee? What of His lonely heartaches? Nights that were spent in pray’r? What of His toilsome hours Filled with unending care? What o f His fierce temptations, Sorrow, and agony? What of His dark betrayal? What of Mount Calvary? What of the ones who followed, Only their Lord to please? Up in the heav’nly glory, Does H e remember these? Ah, yes, our Christ remembers, Every fatiguing day, A ll o f the bitter sorrow, Over His weary way, Tempted in all as we are, Each circumstance can share, Knowing our every weakness, H e will our burdens bear.
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(¿!rum L fro m THE KING ’S TABLE . . . By T he E ditor
ing upon us from all points of the compass; the sea is very rough, and the vessel is all but unmanageable, and we faint. What does it mean ? Our fainting means that we have lost somewhat of our old confidence in God. We can at least sit down and say, “ It will be all right yet—the sea is God’s, the boat is mine. I myself am His. He has redeemed me by the precious blood of His Son. He will not cast me away, or if He casts me away, it will be that He may find me again. He will be sowing me as a farmer sows his seed, that I may bring forth fruit to His honor and to His glory.” We can not triumph perhaps in our desolation, in our friendless ness, and poverty. We cannot utter the paean of victory, but we can say, though it be with a sob and a terrible spasm of grief, “ Thy will be done.” A man who says that with his heart, when the wolf is at the door, when there is no fire in the grate, no bread in the cupboard, no money in the bank, no friends about him, has spoken all the lessons that the cross of Christ can teach the heart of man. Will you faint in the day of adversity ? Then you will be unlike the men who have made history glorious by their much-enduring, uncomplaining heroism. Job is one. He said when things were breaking to pieces before him, when the earth was being dried up, when the very footprints of his children were blown out by the cold, cruel wind, when all the earth was to him a gigantic graveyard, “ The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” He did not faint in the day of adversity. Habakkuk came up afterward, and said, “ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” He was prepared for the day of adversity. He was qualified with a deeply religious preparation. Nothing can break through the dark ness of such days, but the light of divine truth. Nothing can heal such wounds, but the balm of the grace of the cross of Christ. Have there been no Christian heroes ? Job and Habak kuk were Old Testament men. Are there not men in the New Testament who hold an equally high tone and an * * * The pictures on this and the following two pages, together with that of the Vice-President, found on the inside back cover, repre sent the faculty of the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles for the ensu ing year. They are all popular teachers and have the added ad vantage of knowing what will be expected o f their students when they shall have entered upon their life service.
Days (or Great Testimony
X
.HESE ARE DAYS when we, as Christian men, can show what Christianity has done for us. But if we be as peevish, as restless, as -excitable, as men who have no Ch ristian faith, what is our faith worth? If we be loud in our reproaches and complaints, in o u r weakness and moan- ings, and if we be hardly articulate in our praises and suppli cations and utterances of loyalty, what is our faith worth? It is not easy to leave one’s house and go out into the cold street, to give
W illiam P. W hite , President
up everything. It is not easy, I say. I do not expect a Chris tian believer to do all this as if it cost him nothing. There will be a wrench, a time of pain, a crisis almost intolerable, and yet under the pressure of all these contrary and difficult events, there will be a spirit of sweet submission, of deep religious confidence that where right has been done, if it has ended in failure, joy will surely come after a nighttime of weeping. Things have gone wrong with many of you, who are the friends of the Bible Institute. Though you have risen early, sat up late, and schemed and planned and racked your brain, so as to do that which was right toward both God and men, things have gone contrary with you, and the day of adversity has set in with all its cloudiness and coldness upon your .life. It is now that you are to show the value of your faith, the value of your prayerfulness. It is now that you are to glorify God. This is the day of your martyrdom. Men are watching you, and if, out of the darkness of your present obscurity and the pain of your present adversity, they hear a soft, sweet voice of resig nation and prayer and praise, they will be constrained to say, “ Truly this man is living near to God.” Think what it is to faint as a Christian. It is to distrust God. Circumstances are contrary. Winds seem to be beat-
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M rs . E dith G. W allace M rs . E dith P. Y oungken Sup’t of Women Registrar
C utler B. W hitwell Sup’t of Men
M rs . J. B. N ield
I one L owman
R obert E vans
equally noble attitude? Yes, Paul represents them. When they told Paul that the day of adversity was at hand, that bonds and imprisonment awaited him in every city, that every step that he took was a step into danger, he said, “ None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” That was his tone in the day of adversity. When he was plagued with a thorn in the flesh, when his nights and days were but experiences of pain, and he cried mightily unto God for the removal of his torment, and God said unto him, “ My grace is sufficient for thee,” he was quieted like a child in his father’s arms. He spoke no more about the day of adversity, but about the day of prayer and of renewed consecration. As for the grand old men that come up from olden times, behold them! “ They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being desti tute, afflicted, -tormented; . . . they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” ..See how they deported themselves in the day of adversity. We are in this great succession. They are no medium men who are in front. It is over no common dust that our pathway lies. We set our feet in the footprints o f the giants, and we are to follow them as they followed Christ. Yes, it was the Saviour who showed us how to act in the day of adversity in Gethsemane’s pain, in Gethsemane’s darkness. It was He who taught us that all-inclusive prayer, “ Thy will be done.” That was the Lord’s prayer. That other prayer of His was a prayer that children may learn, but this was a prayer that consecrates Gethsemane forever. This should be the first prayer that a man learns, and when he learns it thoroughly, he will not need to learn to sing—he will sing like Paul and Silas at midnight in the Philippian jail, with their feet in the stocks, and an earthquake will follow, and some Philippian jailer will find the Lord Jesus Christ. G One Way, One Purpose, One Service hristianity has only one way—belief. To believe is to give the soul over to the keeping o f the way of God. It is the eternal that holds the temporal, the divine that en
folds the human. The word “ believe” occurs in the first instance in connection with Abram in the divine revela tion; The Lord took him but to show him all the lights of the night in a land where they can be seen as they cannot be seen anywhere else, and as they were all gleaming like diamonds in the sky, host on host, infinite, endless, the Lord spake certain great promises to Abram, utterly stunned his reason, and overwhelmed his imagination. The man took a little time, and then, according to the divine historian, Abram believed God. What a crisis in human history ¡ And the Hebrew word means so much that is ten der. It means that Abram embosomed and nestled him self in God. Abram, like a little babe, went to the bosom of God and lay there. Abram believed God—how his face shone, how his voice changed, how the whole heaven be came spiritual to him because of his changed kinship with thfrEternal Himself! Belief is not assenting to something, saying, “ That is true. I see no reason against it. In the meantime, your proposition seems to be wholly impreg nable, your position' is invincible, on the whole, I accede and consent.” That is not faith, that is mere intellectual action. To believe is to nestle the soul in God. Where is your soul? We do not want your intellectual assent to dis putable propositions, we want you to say, “ I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. I will go over to the side of God.” Christianity has only one purpose—holiness. Chris tianity ends in conduct. Christianity begins in motive, but it ends in character, in manhood. We are here to represent Jesus Christ. We are here to be as He was on earth. We are to breathe His Spirit, repeat His deeds, follow His footsteps, represent Him to mankind; so that they, look ing at us, will know what Christ Himself is. I f the world does not see Jesus Christ in us, where can it see Him? Christianity has only one test—service. To die for Christ, to work for Christ, to be always repeating Christ’s great mission to the world— one way, belief; one purpose, conduct; one grand test, service. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do—watch a door, light a lamp, preach Thy Word? Wouldst Thou make me a great thunder voice to the age? Wouldst Thou have me teach what little I know of Thy kingdom by patient suffering, by heroic patience? Not my will, but Thine, be done. Only dismiss me not from Thy service, Lord.
Lours T. T albot
F. J amison
RossA. H arris , M.D.
M ilo
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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i k e s s
C V s c JH ife WORTH LIVING?
B y MELVIN E. TRO TTER “ Who will shozv us any good?” (Psa. 4 :6 ).
istory is repeating itself. Humanity is the same in all ages. Men look back and are dissatisfied; they look around and are cynical; they look ahead and are pessi mistic. Gloom seems-to mark all classes—-the poor and the rich; the successful and the unsuccessful; the well and the sick; the old and the young. Everywhere, men are saying, “ Who will show us any good ?” A splendid young fellow said to me the other day, “ It is not worth the fight; life is not worth living.” He then made the broad statement that every one felt the same way as he did about it. I informed him that I did not, and I told him why. About three years ago, the Christian Century sent me a questionnaire on the same subject. I answered the editor very much as I answered this young man. I said, “ Had you approached me on this matter thirty- five years ago, I would have told you that life was not worth living, because, at that time, I was bound by habit, I was a victim o f sin, and I had absolutely no control of my life. I had nothing to say about it. I was completely ruled by passion. But when I came to Jesus Christ, He set me free from sin. He became the Lord of my life. Because I am altogether free in Him, life is very much worth living.” It is a wonderful and far-reaching 'question. I have always looked for the long end of it. Naturally, like every one else, I want the best there is, and I have tried things that looked good, regardless of what they cost. As I have grown older, I have found that the cost of most of such things is prohibitive, and to indulge in them is to pave the way to a life that is decidedly not worth living. For instance, if a man indulges in the pleasures of the world, he must neglect his education and must spend money freely. If he does not have the money, he must get it, either by straight or crooked means. Naturally, follow ing such a course, his health cracks. These habit-forming indulgences soon make a slave of him. Their power
to attract and thrill quickly dies, and he can only say, “ I have not found life worth living.” No life is worth living that is lived for self. Selfishness ruins, paralyzes, and kills. If we are to find life worth while, we must live for others. But why go on? You want me to give you my “why” for declaring that life is worth living. As you would expect me to say, my “why” is God. Feed a man, and he will get hungry again. Clothe him, and he will wear out the clothes. Give him money, and he will spend it. Give him the gold cure, and if it works, you have a sober sinner. But get him to God, and he will stand hitched, and life will be worth living from every outlook. I found that out thirty-five years ago, on the nineteenth of January. D arker D ays T han T hese Those were dark days— the days of the saloon, which many o f our citizens are trying so hard to put back in this country. The saloons made the slums, and the slums were more than a word; they were a condition. In fact, they constituted a life in themselves. Missions in those days were situated in the slums, with saloons on every hand, barrell houses, bawdy houses, dope joints. The police of Chicago say that during the winter of ’96 and ’97, when I was converted, there were 30,000 men sleeping on the floors of saloons, police stations, or wherever else they could get in. The majority of them were drunkards. Re ports say that, in the first ward alone, there were more than 2,300 people who took their lives that winter. They had not found life worth living. The missions were filled with drunken men. The Pa cific Garden Mission had a little corner where sober and well-dressed people could sit, because the rest of the house was not fit for them. I have seen more than sixty drunken men in one meeting, all trying to talk at once. No one knows the suffering of the saloon days unless he
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ilies and men out of work. Our Mission seats 2,100, and it is filled on Sunday nights, with a somewhat smaller at tendance every night in the week. Our crowd is well dressed and as orderly as any church congregation. We preach the same gospel to these thinking men and women that we preached in the saloon days when we were com pelled to work more or less upon emotion, and we find it now, as always, “ the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” T he W ay to B etter T hings It must not be overlooked that in the old saloon days, Christians did much to help the poor drunkards. Many were converted to Christ. Gold cures were numerous. I myself passed through the hands of most of the better ment movements. But one day I “ accidentally” (humanly speaking) ran into a fellow on the sidewalk in front of the Pacific Garden Mission on Van Buren Street in Chicago, and he did more than invite me inside; he helped me in, and what I saw and heard there I have never forgotten. Drunkards were sober; thieves were honest; old compan ions of barrel houses were well dressed and had monfey in their pockets. Old topers did not want it, and were free from it. Girls from the streets were clothed and in their right minds. I took a chance when they told me that Jesus Christ had saved them and that they did not want drink any longer. They talked about sudden conversion. I had not been raised that way, but everything else had failed, and I was desperate. Well, that is the story. God worked, and He is still working. He made life worth living. I found, first of all. that “ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and second, that “ no good thing will he withhold” from me. Believing that, I did not need lodging houses, or shelters, or reformations. I could walk the streets as a free man and know the thrill of living. I was so enthusiastic about it that I began to put God to the test and went to work immedi- [Continued on page 394]
has been through it. In those days, men could find food on the free lunch counters, but the suffering of women and children was beyond description. Little pinched faces would look in through the screened doors, and beg their fathers to come home. They would have no food for days. Bushnell’s Government Report stated that there were 109,554 death certificates signed in the United States, in one year, giving the direct cause of death as “ alcoholism.” Every large city had its slums, and the price it cost to~ care for them and keep them under control was enormous. Every city that neglected the slum was run by the slum. Men and women would go down into these districts to lose themselves. It is an unwritten rule of. the slum never to ask a man his name. He is given some other name, like Red, Sandy, Shorty, Fatty, Baldy, or Whity. My, how those men despised their slavery and bondage! One day the opportunity came for them to be free from the horrible saloon, and believe me, they arose en masse! Have you ever stopped to think who carried the country dry? It was not the Anti-Saloon League, or the W. C. T. U., or the ministers. Thank God, they all did fine work, but the thing that put through the Eighteenth Amendment was the men who were suffering because of the liquor traffic. Our first ward here (Grand Rapids, Mich.) went dry, and it will go dry again. Today there is not a city in the United States that has even a semblance of a slum. If there is one exception, it is the city that has completely ignored the laws of the land and has allowed the saloons to open. I have in mind one great city that has done that. Men are trying to tell us that this country would return to prosperity if we had the liquor back. Nothing in the world would give our country a greater jolt than that. We have a sober nation now, comparatively speaking. We fed 30,000 in a few weeks in Grand Rapids last winter, and in all that time, we saw only three men who were drinking. Much of our work is now on behalf of children and fam
C it y M is s io n , G r a n d R a p id s , M i c h . H ere food fo r bo d y a n d so u l is r e g u l a r l y d is p e n s e d to t h e m a n y t h a t NEED IT. I t is a l ig h t h o u s e t h a t p o in t s t h e w a y to t h e l if e w o r t h l iv in g .
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m e ALPHABET o f SCIENCE U-u ^ C—
a n d ¿L iN gP IRAT ION o f ike BIBLE By H ARRY RIMMER, Los Angeles, Calif. Copyright by’Îfcesearch Science Bureau, Inc.
roll of sciences by their alphabetical order, to see what may be deduced and demonstrated by the method. U nearthing A ncient R ecords “ A ” is for Archaeology, the science that studies relics of ancient peoples and orders, to learn their histories from this original source. The simplest definition of archaeology would perhaps be in these words: The science of dead races and forgotten civilizations. The science of dead races! How that thrills the imagination of the philosophical stu dent! To go back over the musty years, until they have numbered in their processions thousands, then to call forth from the dust of those ages the mouldering bones and the lasting relics formed by those bones in the days when they were covered by flesh, is one of the most thrilling adven tures of the age in which we live. This “ scientific resur rection” is going on all over the earth today, and we are now in possession of the very secrets of those days, that the original possessors guarded until they were presumably safe in the keeping of the tomb. This safety, however, was only apparent, and not real. The science of archaeology has been busy for a century. In that time, we have uncovered the relics of kings and slaves, potentates and servants, men, women, children, and even animals, that have testified to the amazing marvel of the infallible Word of God. Certainly, if there is a science today that is established sufficiently to claim the reverent attention of man, it is this one with which we introduce our subject. Written words, engraved upon eternal stone, languages that have been forgotten for three thousand years, records that in all reason should never again have seen the light of day—all these testimonies, and many more, have been assembled by archaeology to establish the truth of the Bible. In this science, perhaps more than any other, the Bible stands vindicated and championed by un answerable fact. C ritics of the O ld S chool As an instance of this, we will remind the reader that, in the generation just passed, it was the popular opinion of the critic, loudly announced as historical fact, that the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch was an exploded fable. This school of thought was so widely established, that even today we meet a surprising number of men who still hold to its theory, not knowing that the scholarly world has moved ahead in the past forty years, leaving them hope lessly marooned on the little island of ignorance that they so peacefully occupy in their infidelity and error! Such a man as this we recently met in Grand Rapids. While there, I was asked to speak to the members of the finest civic club in the city. They desired to hear some things about the science of archaeology. When the meeting ended, however, another minister who was present came to me and took exception to the statements I had made about Moses writing the Book o f Genesis. He said,
ou r e m e m b e r , do you not, the Primer of our child hood days? Years ago, before education got scientific, spe cific, and phonetic, we all began our studies of the English language with the once-venerated, but now somewhat des pised alphabet. The Primers of the days gone by are memories now, but it has been a source of amusement and enjoyment to many to collect these old souvenirs of a by gone day, and to renew the scenes that memory dimly re tains, by reviewing their yellowing pages. Generally speaking, the Primers of our childhood fol lowed the same rule—they sought to instruct by the use of verse. We still have one that had the entire alphabet in rhyme, and as this is a record of a past generation, the verses all managed to couple the thoughts of the juvenile student with well-known incidents in the Bible. This par ticular book began, “A. In Adam’s Fall, We sinned, all,” and ended on the same strain with, “ Z. Zacchaeus, he, This sounds more than quaint to our modern ears, and we suppose that if the Primer were in fashion today, it would be a so-called “ scientific” volume, starting, perhaps, with, “ A is for Ape, the parent of man,” and probably ending thus, “ Z is for Zoology; the only true religion for modern man.” Be this as it may, there is an alphabet of science. By that we mean there is a science, practically, for every letter in the English alphabet. Indeed, for some of these letters, there are many and varying fields of special correlated bodies of accurate observations, each constituting a differ ent and separate science. Each science in the alphabetical list somewhere touches and accredits the inspiration of the Bible. How can this be possible? Ages before these sciences were dreamed of by modern man, the Bible was a completed volume, and its writers all mingled with the dust of the earch. Centuries of research and a matchless machine technology have since added to the body of knowledge possessed by man; how could the ancient ones have known these recently discovered facts? The answer is obvious; they could not have so anticipated our current wisdom by their own devises and intelligence, therefore the conclusion is inescapable: One who knows the end from the begin ning must have inspired the writers. Well did this One write of Himself, “Who, as I, can foretell coming things ? Behold, before they come to pass, I tell you of them.” If then, the Bible can be proved to be in harmony with the sciences of this age, its claims to inspiration are all proved by that one amazing fact. So we will proceed to assemble our Primer of Science and Scripture, and call the Did climb a Tree, Our Lord to See.”
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September 1932
“What authority have you for the dogmatic statement that Moses wrote the books of the Pentateuch? How can you prove that he wrote those five books, or any part of them ?” We simply replied, “ Sir, the burden of proof is not on us. We merely hold to what has been accepted as historic fact for thousands of years. When the entire Hebrew na tion, the great church of Christ, and all reliable historians agree on the truth of a matter for two thousand years, the man who denies the fact under discussion is under the necessity of proving his point. How can you prove that Moses did not write the books that are ascribed to him in the Bible ?” “ That’s easy,” our scholarly critic said. “ Since writing was not invented until five hundred years after Moses was born, how could he have written anything at all ?” With great weariness of spirit, having met this ancient but thoroughly exploded objection many times in the past twenty years, we proceeded to show the mentally anti quated brother the basis of his error. P roofs of M osaic A uthorship If we may digress from the issue for a moment, we will briefly summarize this evidence for the sake of the reader who may not be familiar with all the facts, so that when some other ignorant critic advances this argument in his hearing, he will be able to refute it and educate the critic of God’s W o rd ! The simple fact of the matter is that writ ing is perhaps the most ancient of all the arts, and was hoary with antiquity when Moses lived, and for at least two thousand years before Moses was born! Indeed, as far back of Moses as he precedes Christ, the art of writing had reached a high stage of perfection. Treaties of peace, letters of commendation, poems containing hundreds of verses, contracts, bills of sale, and other business records are now in the museums of the world, all taken from the buried heaps of civilizations that flourished some two and three thousand years before Moses. From the mound known as the Tell el Amarna alone, the science of archaeol ogy has gathered enough evidence to upset every conclu sion of the critic who disputes the historical value of the writings of Moses. These are facts that are at the disposal of every scholar in the world, and when a man today dis putes the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, or criti cizes its historical value, he instantly brands himself «as fundamentally ignorant of a vast body of knowledge that is essential to an opinion on this subject. We have listened too long to the ignorant, as they parade in the guise of scholarship; it is time we allowed true and sane scholarship to announce once more the old fact of the accuracy and worth of the writings of Moses. When I called the attention of the noted minister to this great body of information of which he apparently was peacefully ignorant, he retracted his statement to this ex tent, by remarking, “ Well, maybe Moses could write, but I know he didn’t !” (And they call that kind of mentality a “ liberal” !) Highly amused, I retorted, “ Then, Doctor, since you cannot prove that Moses did not write, the case seems to be up to me. I will accept the burden of proof, and show conclusively that Moses did write the five books of the Bible ascribed to him. “ In the four Gospels, the Lord Jesus Christ makes, ninety-one quotations from the five books o f the Penta teuch. In these .references to the contents of those books, he says o f each of the five, and says it repeatedly, ‘As Moses wrote, saying,’ or ‘The words of Moses,’ or ‘In vain did Moses write, saying,’ and many other such expres sions. I do not believe that the Saviour lied ninety-one
times; so I will base my case on the testimony of Jesus; He said Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.” To this, the great liberal ( ? ) answered, “ I don’t care what Jesus said; I graduated from Harvard, and I know better!” Archaeology has left the critic no single ground for in fidelity except the individual critic’s own exalted ego and ignorant conceit. This is so eminently true, that some of the greatest critics of the nineteenth century have been converted into the staunchest defenders of the Bible in the twentieth century, and the records of their conversions are the romance of the vindication of the Scripture records by the science we now discuss. God has at last unlocked the archives of antiquity, and for our day He has released priceless treasures of ancient knowledge, all of them forming a perfect defense of the science of the Scripture. But while we are saying, “ A is for Archaeology,” we are not forgetting the fact that the marvel of the inspired Book is enhanced by the manner in which this demon-, stration can be enlarged. We might just as well say, “ A is for Astronomy,” and be equally accurate in the evidence of God’s revelation of the contents of this Book. The eminent Jeans, who is so much in the public eye at present, has written two magnificent books on the struc ture of the universe; in the first one, he stated, “ The num ber of the stars is so far beyond the mind of man to grasp, that we can only liken them for multitude to the sands of the sea.” Does not that have a familiar sound ? Multiplied centuries before astronomy was born as a science, Moses wrote, saying that God had promised Abraham that his seed should be as numberless as the sands o f the sea, and as countless as the stars in the heavens! How did Moses know this fact that astronomy today announces with amazement and wonder? He did not, but the Spirit of God did, and when Moses wrote, he inscribed just what the Spirit inspired him to utter. [To be continued ] New Ways to Spend Tithes Some church officials were complaining lately that, although they had a good number of tithers, they seemed to get little more income into the church as a result. The church treasurer remarked that the trouble was with the people’s understanding of what tithing means. He said: “ They spend their tithe for anything and everything, and very little of it goes into the coffers of the church. I find a great many people using it to help dependent rela tives or to pay for church suppers; one family helped a poor family by giving them the children’s old clothes and then taking the tithe money to buy new ones for their own. Another took the tithe money to buy a half-bushel of wal nuts, because the boy selling them was from a poor family they thought was worthy of help. Another took the tithe money for vacation expenses. He argued that, if a poor neighbor’s wife needed a vacation, it would be all right to use tithe money to help her. If it was right to help his neighbor’s wife, it surely was all right to help his own, and so they took the vacation at the Lord’s expense. A girl could not go to church one Sunday, because she had no silk stockings. The next Sunday she was there wearing silk stockings. She had bought them out of her tithe, as it was for the church.” Such cases are strange, yet a man in Kansas took his family to the Grand Canyon, using tithe money because they were good Christians and needed a vacation. — S elected .
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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
R e g is t r a t io n d a y a t t h e c a m p u s of t h e U n iv e r s it y of C a l if o r n ia a t L os A n g e l e s .
I S L M U e an d ilie UNIVERSITY STUDENT
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By MILO F. JAM ISON Los Angeles, Calif.
It’s called the Devotional Bible Course and is open to students in universities and colleges everywhere. There are several hundred of us scattered throughout the country, who are taking this course of study. Here’s a sample of the lesson sheets which are sent out to each student by mail from the Bible Club headquarters. You’ll notice that this first week takes up the question of the approach to and claims of the Bible for itself. This course is built on scien tific methods of approach. You’re supposed to go at it like you would a laboratory experiment. That means, of course, that there are certain definite requirements for the study, which will make the results more accurate and positive. After all, you can’t expect to get results in any experiment in chemistry, in physics, or any place else unless you defi nitely follow certain principles of investigation. You be lieve in a God, don’t you, Paul ?” “ Why yes, I guess I do, but I never thought very much about it.” “ Well, that’s the very point; most folks don’t think very much about it, and yet, if there is a God, and if He has given any sort of communication to mankind, that certainly is the most important thing in all the world—to find out just exactly what He has revealed concerning our origin, our present life, and our future destiny. The Bible claims to answer all of these questions, and in this course of study, you take up the reasons why the Bible claims are justified in the light of the evidence which you find in this remarkable Book.” “ It sounds interesting. How do you start ?” “Why you sign this declaration, which states the condi tions under which you take up the study. The main require ment is that you spend at least twenty-five minutes every day in this investigation.” “ Doesn’t that add quite a burden on top of all the studies you take here at the University?”
e l l o t h e r e ! You’re new on the campus, aren’t you?” “ Yes, this is my first year at the University.” “ I ’m a Junior. My name is Harold Williamson. I won der if there is anything I can do to help you. Where are you from?” “ My name is Paul Johnson. I ’m from San Diego. There are a few things I’m a bit puzzled about concerning my course.” “ Welcome to the campus, Paul! Are you taking any work in Bible?” “ Why, I didn’t know the University offered any courses in Bible.” “ It doesn’t, but there are quite a 'number of students who are taking special, work in Bible in addition to their regular classes in the University. I ’m one of them. We feel that a university education isn’t worth very much after all if you don’t study the greatest Book the world has ever produced.” “ Frankly, I don’t know very much about the Bible. I attended Sunday-school a little bit when I was a youngster, but my folks don’t believe in that sort of a thing, and— well, I suppose I haven’t looked at a copy of the Bible in the last ten years.” “Well, you’ve missed half of your life then. Really, Paul, it gives you more help for meeting the problems on the campus than any book I know. It has made a tremen dous difference to me in my school life since I took up the study of the Bible in a really definite way. If you’ve got a few moments, I would like to show you how we go about it.” “ Sure, I guess you can tell me about it anyhow. How much does it cost ?” “ Oh, there’s no catch in it. It is perfectly open and aboveboard. It doesn’t cost the student a cent to take up this study. It is sent out by the University Bible Clubs.
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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
whom he has persuaded to take the course. They meet together for a half hour each week for a personal confer ence in which they discuss the various questions brought up by the study. The advisor is thus given an opportunity each week to deal with the student, making possible the gradual approach to the principle question, which is taken up in the fourth week, as to a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord of the life. The University Bible Clubs is a thoroughly evangelical, independent, non-denominational organization, which was founded on the Vermont Avenue campus of the University of California at Los Angeles in November, 1927. For four years, a careful scientific investigation was made of the conditions on the modern university campus. Experi ments were conducted in the endeavor to discover thè best means of presenting a sane, strong, Christian testimony to the young people on our campuses. Last year, the move ment was expanded to twelve university and college cen ters throughout Southern California. Literally scores of plans of student approach have been tried in the endeavor to work out a comprehensive solution for the problem of presenting Christianity on the campus. Much time has been expended in perfecting a plan whereby a constructive, evangelical Christian work can be conducted on a campus by the students themselves, thus eliminating the need for numerous paid secretaries or an expensive staff of denominational advisors in each school center. Results which already have been obtained through the University Bible Club plan of campus work have dem onstrated that this organization has an effective, workable plan of operation. This year will see the work carried into university centers clear across the continent. The support of many outstanding, evangelical Christian ministers and laymen has been secured, and Christian people everywhere are invited to join in promoting this work in one of the most needy missionary fields in all the world^-the univer sity campus. How C hristians M ay H elp There are several ways in which Christian people can aid materially in the advancement of this work in the uni versity centers of our country. First : The Bible Club work has been built on a founda tion of prayer. Over fifteen hundred Christian people have signed prayer covenants, promising to remember this work regularly in their petitions at the Throne of Grace. We believe that much of the blessing that has come to us through this work is a direct result of the intercessory work of the loyal friends of this movement. Second : It costs approximately twenty-five cents a month to supply each student with his lesson material and keep him actively engaged in his Bible study work. Since there is no other source of income for this work aside from the freewill gifts and investments of Christian people, it can be seen that the number of 'students reached depends entirely upon the response on the part of those who are vitally interested in presenting a definite gospel testimony to our young people. Since its inception, the. University Bible Clubs have been a faith work, with every effort made to accomplish the utmost possible with every dollar in vested. Third : Those who are especially interested in this work and are not students in any university or college may affili ate with the movement as Adult Members. Adult Members promise to pray for -this work regularly and to support it to the extent of at least one dollar per month. The initial twenty-five cents o f this dollar is used in sending to the Adult Member the Devotional Bible Course and other [Continued on page 394]
A G r o u p of S t u d e n t s L o u n g in g o n t h e L ib r a r y S t e p s “ You’d be surprised, Paul, how quickly that twenty- five minutes goes, and how it helps you in doing the rest of your day’s work in much less time. Some of the fellows that are taking this course don’t stop at twenty-five minutes but spend as much as an hour a day. Believe me, after you’ve worked on it a little while, you realize that you dare not neglect this sort of thing. After all, our spiritual na tures are far more important than even the development of our intellects, and the University provides no way whatso ever to build up the spiritual life of the individual. You have to get that for yourself. Students who neglect this side soon turn into skeptics or agnostics; they are unhappy and cynical; they leave school with a warped complex that tends to cloud their whole life. I’m telling you that a fel low can’t afford to take a chance on that sort of thing. But here’s what I would like to suggest: You try the course for a month, and if it doesn’t work out, and if you don’t think it’s worth-while, you can drop it then. But make an honest trial of the thing. As I said before, it doesn’t take so very much time, but it will transform your whole outlook on things here at the University. I can give you my own testi mony that it has meant a tremendous lot to me, and I want to pass on the aid that I’ve received to the other fellows who are coming in this year.” “ Well, I guess I can try it for a month. It wouldn’t hurt anything, anyhow. I’m certainly glad I met you, Wil liamson. Can I sign up now?” “ That’s the spirit! Here’s the declaration; let me go over it with you.” How the W ork is C arried O n Conversation such as the above will be repeated on many a campus during the first part of this coming school semester. There are several hundred enthusiastic Chris tian young people who are engaged in seeking to interest other students in the study of the matchless Book of all the ages-—the Bible. They use a method of approach which has been worked out over five years of careful experimentation on the university campus itself. An entirely new plan of Bible study, which is especially adapted to the university student, has been prepared. The first four weeks of this course present in a clear, definite manner the reasons why the Bible should be the subject of special investigation on the part of every student. The claims of and evidence for the Bible as being the Word of God are dealt with in a positive, sane, constructive manner. Each day additional proof is given, and the effort is made to build up the con fidence of the individual in the integrity of this Book. After the first approach, suggested in the conversation given above, the Bible Club member, who has been study ing these lessons, serves as an advisor to some new student
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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
September 1932
LIM ITING
Ponder th ese words of Jesus, “ Only believe.” As long as we are able to trust in God, holding fast in heart that He is able and willing to help those who rest on the Lord Jesus for salvation, in all matters that are for His glory and their good, the heart remains calm and peaceful.-G eorge M uller .
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By NEWTON W RAY * Upland, Indiana
scribed as a lack of purpose to follow the Lord at all costs. Absolute surrender to Him will set faith free and streng then its hold upon the unseen. Nothing else will reduce to insignificance the difficulties that beset the path of every one “ called to be a saint.” Moses “ endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” The real trouble with many is that they are living in the seen and temporal. The place of victory is “ the heavenlies,” and faith seats us there. Andrew Murray, in a chapter entitled “ The Secret of Effectual Prayer,” remarks, If the unseen is to get full possession o f us, and heart and life and prayer are to be full of faith, there must be a withdrawal from, a denial of, the visible. The spirit that seeks to enjoy as much as possible of what is innocent or legitimate, that gives the first place to the calls and duties of daily life, is inconsistent with a strong faith and close intercourse with the spiritual world. And this absorption in the seen and temporal, this re fusal to put aside things that are insistent for the first place in order that the demands of the divine and spiritual may become regnant in life, is the explanation for so many baffled prayers. As the British Weekly has expressed it : W e would have health and yet Still use our bodies ill; Bafflers of our own prayers We must not only give God first place but a large place in thought and life. The measure of power and blessing is the outcome of what we make of God. Doubt resolves God into a minus quantity. Faith makes Him the winning factor. The reason why all things are possible to him that believeth is because Omnipotence becomes his servant. “ Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me o f things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work o f my hands command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host I com manded” (Isa. 45:11, 12). A great religious thinker has said that with Christ God was everything and the world nothing. Just in the measure that men have caught that vision and entered into its mean ing have they been mighty in faith and work. It can be seen, for example, why George Muller, through prayer, without soliciting the help of a single human being, secured the erection and maintenance of large or- From earth to life’s last scenes. W e would have inward peace Yet will not look within; W e would have misery cease Yet will not cease from sin ; W e want all pleasant ends But will use no harsh means. G od ’ s P lace F irst and S upreme . .... ...
T he most serious charge that can be brought against a Christian or a church is that which the Psalmist makes against Israel on the way to Canaan. The nation had been emancipated from the bondage of Egypt and was passing through a desert region to the land predestined for its na tional home. We read in one place that “ the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” Visible supplies ceased, dreadful obstacles loomed up ahead, and the gaunt specters o f hunger and war menaced them. They began to murmur; murmuring led to panic and revolt; and the whole expedition was threatened with disaster. Impa tient of trial, they sought present gratification at the ex pense of future good, and thinking they could never reach their destination, wished to go back to the scenes of servitude. “ Yea,” says the Psalmist, “ they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” T he S in of U nbelief “ N ow ,” declares the apostle, “ all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our ad monition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” The sin of limiting God is as common now as when Israel pro voked the Lord ; and it is far more reprehensible, seeing we are admonished by the lessons of past dispensations, and are living when the fullness of the Spirit may be enjoyed. The Scriptures teach that God is limited by only one thing — unbelief. Two sayings of our Lord indicate the relation of this to failure and show the inexcusableness of weak ness in His service: “With God all things are possible” and “ All things are possible to him that believeth.” In the life of the believer and in the work of the church, these sayings cannot be considered apart from each other, since divine power is operative through human instrumentalities. The latter saying is true because that power is available through faith. It then simply becomes a question of whether unbe lief is ever justifiable. This admits of but one answer: “ He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.” Who will dare take this responsibility? With the God-given fac ulty of faith and with the most solemn and weighty reasons that can be drawn from heaven, earth, and hell, for be lieving God, no man can justify his want of faith and plead his inability to live a holy life. Defeat is culpable, because faith guarantees victory, and faith is a duty. This is the inevitable conclusion from the revealed truth that “ the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” and that unbelief is a sin. But with people now, as with Israel then, a fatal hin drance to faith lies back of the unbelief. It may be de- *Professor at Taylor University.
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