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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
March, 1934
men 'were greatly interested in the service and tarried after . the close o f the meeting. Mr. Lin and a colleague, Mr. Hu, seeing the interest o f the men, gave them special attention and sought to lead them to a definite acceptance o f Jesus Christ. Later, the two inquirers attended the evening service regularly every evening, and finally came to a position of definite faith in Jesus Christ. They then asked our evangelists to go to their homes and preach the gospel to their families and neighbors. Mr. Lin and Mr. Hu were very glad to go. The seventy-year-old gentleman invited many of his neighbors to come into his home, and the room was quite filled when the evangelists arrived. They report that the meeting in that home seemed to them like the experience Peter must have had in the home of Cornelius I Another very touching experience was that o f a Mrs. T ’an, a woman sixty years of age, who was working as a servant in one of the homes in which Mr. Lin and Mr. . Hu visited. As the evangelists were telling the gospel story to the members o f the family, Mrs. T ’an also heard and seemed especially impressed. When the evangelists had completed their message, she exclaimed: “I truly realize that I am a great sinner, but today I have heard from you o f the saving grace of Jesus, that all who believe in Him will, be saved from sin and from its bitter results and will obtain eternal life. From this moment, I put my trust in Him.” She stood with the evangelists, confessing her sins, declaring her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and joining with them in prayer. When the evangelists made subsequent visits to this home to help the inquirers in their new life, the employer of Mrs. T ’an testified to the fact o f her earnestness in prayer and of her growth in grace. Not long after her conversion, she went to be with the Lord. What a joy it is to Mr. Lin and Mr. Hu to have been used of God as His messengers to bring this precious news of salvation with convincing power to Mrs. T ’an, when she was so near to the end o f her earthly pilgrimage. Having received at the Hunan Bible Institute a thor ough training in the Word o f God and in practical methods o f personal work, the members o f the Biola Evangelistic Bands are being used o f God in a remarkable way to the salvation o f many o f their countrymen. This work "in China should have the prayer support o f every missionary- hearted Christian.— L. T . T. The Church in Germany AVSTT hat is to be the future of the churph of Christ in L \ \ Germany, since she is face to face with the regime that,has come in with Hitler? What is the estimate that is to be placed upon this strange figure that has arisen in that land ? In the first place, it is clearly evident that Germany was faced with Bolshevism. In a recent article on Ger many, Ernest Gordon says: The church was slated for martyrdom; lists of the victims were drawn up. In the impact between the two conflicting parties, there was crashing and grinding and much suffering therefrom, and one cannot wonder at the gratitude of those who escaped a worse fate at the hands , of the Reds. Hitler is to be commended for preventing an orgy of bloodshed and destruction, the object o f which would have _ a great degree o f liberty throughout all these centuries? Here is found a great difference of opinion. There are multitudes o f the German people who believe that Hitler is their saviour, and well they may look at it from this standpoint when they recall that they were slated for -martyrdom. On the other hand, grave fears have been created that Dr. Muller, who is the chosen bishop o f the Nazi govern ment, is seeking to make the church absolutely subservient to the state. There is also the fear that Dr. Muller’s ex pressed purpose indicates that he might so limit the free dom o f the church that it will scarcely be given the liberty
which is necessary to preach the gospel o f Christ un hindered. There are some two thousand clergy who have formally protested against the seemingly tyrannical and revolution ary revision o f the church’s constitution, and it is evident that there are also multitudes o f German Christians who have a like mind. There are in Germany today, stalwart souls who are willing to pay any price that may be de manded o f them in order to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. They have openly and persist ently declared that they will not be subjected to the de crees o f the Hitler government as outlined by Dr. Muller, and that it is their purpose to stand for religious liberty at whatever cost. Among these is Dr. Karl Barth, who, while his theology is not fully evangelical in its outlook, is yet so opposed to this new order that he hurls.his defi ance at the present government in the following words: My rejoinder is an absolute NO without reserve to both the spirit and the letter of this teaching. It has no abiding place in the evangelical church. I f it prevails, it will end the Christian church. Better that the church be reduced to a little group and go back to the catacombs. With this conviction o f the necessity for freedom for the church, I most thoroughly agree.-isfRALPH C. N orton . The Time Is Short T he greatest revival o f the twentieth century took place on the Ivory Coast in Africa, when God raised up William Harris, a colored man, to be a prophet. He had only one message: “ Repent and believe the gospel.” In a period o f only three months, 100,000 lost souls accepted Christ and were born into the kingdom o f God. William Harris told the converts to build churches, to place a Bible on the pulpit, and to wait for the coming o f the white men, who would teach them the way o f God more perfectly. Harris disappeared, feeling that his ministry had been rendered. A delegation from England came to the Ivory Coast to investigate conditions. The men arrived in a village at midnight, they were escorted to the church, and they found it filled with people who listened patiently, while the white man, with the aid o f a candle, expounded the Word through an interpreter. The delegation searched for W il liam Harris, and at last found him in a hut, possessing only a robe, a staff, arid a Bible. They asked questions, but William Harris had only one statement to make, and this was the declaration: “ But this I say, brethren, the time is short” (1 Cor. 7 :29). ELhe time is short, and Satan is busy. He is the god of this age, the prince o f this world, and “ the whole world lieth in the. evil one.” He comes as an angel p f light to shed abroad false light. He blinds the minds o f the un believing. Xh^tatem pnt accounts for the phenomena of modernismjfSOTan w am /fo Keep men away from the cross. The time is short, and Christ is coming. “ This hope is on almost every page o f the New Testament,” said Shaffer New Testament, every ten minutes as we read we would hear our Lord saying, ‘I ’ll be back some day!’ ’’ ¡Jhe signs o f His coming are multiplying. Surely every scripturally instructed and spiritually minded believer realizes that Christ is coming soon. The time is short, and the night is coining when no man can w o r k .-W ia t we are going to do for God should be done soon j Tms paganTnation o f ours must be evan gelized immediately, and we must bring the gospeLspeedily to the twelve hundred million in the regions beyond who have not heard the good news o f salvation through Christ. —P aul W . R ood .
^ ______J j B ___________ ___ __ been the annihilation o f the people o f God in that lancQ^gMatthews, and, m°this instance we quote with approval However, the question arises: What is to be the future f, this recognized authority among modernists. Some one status o f the church in that land o f Luther, where the T-1*has said: “ I f the teaching on the second Coming were church has been so powerful and where she has had such equally distributed throughout the Old Testament and the
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