August 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
481
You and I cannot ask any thing, obviously, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that He cannot ask in His own name. If any one gave me authority to draw upon his bank account, I could not draw out of that account any thing he had not put into it. I could only draw what he himself was authorized to draw, and you and I cannot draw any thing on the Bank of Heaven that our Lord Jesus Christ cannot draw. But it is a pretty big order, isn’t it? “ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Now when we come to study the context of that promise, we find that our Lord is speaking about work's. In the 10th verse and 12th verse He is talking about works— works that you and I may do because we love Him. We teach a Sunday School class, and try to lead the children of this class to know and love Christ, because we know and love Him our selves. In connection with our Christian work, whatever it may be, we get such promises as this, “ If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” You will expect me to illustrate these promises from the experiences of the China Inland Mission, and I intend to do so. You know, I expect, that there are more than twelve hundred missionaries in the China Inland Mission, and that they are supported by the unasked gifts of the people of God; for the China.Inland Mission never asks for a collection, never suggests a collection, and never makes any appeal in public or in private to the Lord’s people to give. We do ask them to pray, because we know that when the Lord’s people pray at home He gives the blessing out there among the heathen. Do you know that we need for the entire work of the China Inland Mission about two thousand dollars per day? And can it be that God inclines the hearts of His people all over the world to send in two thousand dollars every day of every year for the support of His people on the other side of the world? Well, it is simply the fact that He does— and let the doubters make the best they can of it. And those who are honest doubters, when they come to see a fact like that, will be inclined to “ doubt their doubts and believe their beliefs.” A few months ago I was taking part in a series of meet ings in St. Louis, in the Gospel Center, which I have no doubt some here in this Church this afternoon have visited. It was a Friday night, and I had been reminded in a letter that day that three of our mission stations in North China had been burned to the ground by brigands, and Mr. Hoste, our General Director, had mentioned that it would take $7,500.00 to rebuild these three stations. He said, “When you have a convenient opportunity, at a prayer meeting, or any other suitable occasion, invite those who are present to pray that the Lord in His own good time will enable us to rebuild these stations.” Because, as you can understand, with such a large number of missionaries there is always a first claim on any funds that are contributed to the China Inland Mission— personal needs, house rent, rent of chapels, traveling expenses, furloughs,— all thSse things have a claim upon the regular income of the mission, which usually prevents special needs of that kind being met save by special gifts. So that Friday night I mentioned in that Mission Hall that $7,500.00 was needed to rebuild those three stations in the Provinces of Honan and Anhwei. On the afternoon of the next day, a letter was put into my hands. It told me that a gift of $7,500.00 had been received to put up those buildings, given, unasked, by one child of God for the very need about which we were pray ing, and I had the privilege of telling those people on Sat urday afternoon, who had prayed on Friday night, that God had heard our united prayers— that the money was in hand and a cablegram had been sent, to Shanghai saying
that they could go ahead and build. Our covenant-keeping God had heard our prayer. “ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” And He will! A good deal more recently I received a letter from Shanghai, also from Mr. Hoste, in which he reminded us that he had been praying for two years, and that many others of us had been joining in that prayer, that the Lord would enable us to develop our schools in two of the great Provinces of China. As you are doubtless aware, the China Inland Mission is not an educational mission. We are there primarily for the conversion of the people, but we do find it necessary in many cases to have schools, as far as possible self-supporting in their current expenses, for the education of the children of the Christians. We find that if they go to heathen schools they imbibe heathenism day by day, just as if we send a boy to a school where they teach Darwinism— that exploded idea of the ascent of man from monkeys!— it tends to unsettle faith: so we do not like to send Christian boys and girls to heathen schools. And I may add that we do not like to send them to any mission school where there is any doubt about what they are teaching in them; it is not safe. As you may know, there are some missions which are not sound. Prayer had been made that we might be able to develop a High School in Honan for girls, and for boys in Kansu Chowkiakow. Mr. Hoste said, “ You will be happy to hear that I have just received a check to my personal order for forty-eight hun dred pounds, (about twenty-two thousand dollars) to build these two schools.” And now in Lanchow, capital of Kansu, and in the great city of Chowkiakow, they are build ing high schools for the boys and girls of Christian parents, to which a very few children of heathen parents will prob ably also be admitted, perhaps not more than twenty or twenty-five per cent, that they may be under Christian influence and also come to believe in the Christian’s God. Remember, friends, He is a hearer and answerer of prayer, and if you forget everything else I say this afternoon, remember these three words— GOD ANSWERS PRAYER, yours and ours, ours as well as yours, and we want you to rejoice with us before our Covenant-keeping God. Just one other illustration. I would not convey the impression that we are never in difficulties for want of money in the China Inland Mission.—we are from time to time. Real' faith is always tested sooner or later. But the difficulty has never gone to the point of our being in debt. My father used to love to say, “ God’s clocks keep perfect time.” He not only knows what His children have need of, but when we need it and He sends it right then. Last sum mer we were in difficulties. There were fourteen mis sionaries wanting to go out to China from Canada, some from the United States and some from the Northern coun try, about half of them returning and the rest newcomers, very welcome recruits to our ranks. Passages were reserved for them by a steamer sailing on October 5th, three months a;go, and when the time drew near we had to cancel those passages. Such a thing has very, very rarely happened in the experience of the China Inland Mission, and much prayer was made that the Lord would send the money. About that time we were in Winnipeg, and as we were going to the station a very devoted, sincere, child of God who was driving us in his car said, “ 1 want to give five hundred dollars to the China Inland Mission. Shall I hand you a check, or shall I send it direct to Toronto?” We said, “ We are just leaving; you may prefer to send it direct to Toronto.” He said, “ Very well, I will send it direct.” It happened that it was at a very busy time of the year when he was working very hard, and one thing after another (Continued on page 526)
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