Sunset on Lake Tahoe, California It is the common property of the com mon people. Today *every crossroads center in the States has its expert on foreign affairs. A million veteran G.I.s, with all the arrogance of first hand knowledge, are telling America about the Arabs, the Hindus, the Fiji Island ers, the Chinese and the Japanese. And in the midst of profane distor tion, ribald incident, and humorous fantasy, a.thousand facts never known before are becoming common knowl edge. The world with its need has come among us and will not depart. From this composite telling, two convictions, germane to the problem of world evangelism, emerge. Every G.I. in his heart is persuaded, from personal experience and observation, that whatever of religion and philoso phy has conditioned the life and shaped the morals of those peoples, it is not enough to combat human depravity and make a decent world. The communal life that finds its cen ter in the little country church, and all for which it stands, is heavenly by comparison with the living results of Hindu philosophy, Moslem fanaticism, or Confucian ethics. This in great and appalling detail the G.I. kn ows . Whether he will admit it or not, the G.I. knows the world’s need of the Gospel. His ideas have changed too about missionaries and their work. He has seen missionaries living under appall ing conditions, speaking languages whose complexity baffles him com
pletely, masters of situations in which he found himself lost, and in general people who were doing things and getting things done. In many instances they have gone out of their way to help him and the mere sight of a friendly smiling face and a hurried “God bless you” has been a touch of home and church. And everywhere, whenever he has found honesty and decency among strange peoples and in far off places, he has found that missions and the results of missionary work are the sources from which that decency flowed. Kachin tribesmen in Burma, woolly-headed Papuans in New Guinea, or Chinese villagers per formed, deeds fof mercy because they were Christians. The lessons to be learned from mod ern war have their bearing on mis sionary methods in the solemn point of time we call now. Nothing was too new or too old but that it could be used; over-all planning and meticu lous preparation Were essential, obedi ence was absolute, and though every thing was done to guard and supply the soldier, yet when objectives re quired it, he was expendable. The task is of greater importance than the welfare of those engaged. “Counting not the cost” or, if counting it in deep sadness, paying it nevertheless. So we must fulfill our orders, “Go ye into all the world . . .” Used by permission of The Tabernacle Bulletin, Omaha, Nebraska. T HE K I N G ' S - BUS I NESS
T he TIME is now. In a general sense the time has always been now: the now of a segment of opportunity be tween two eternities, but today now is narrow and immediate. It is a breathing space won and tenuously held between conflict and the un known. If we do anything about ful filling our commission and obeying our orders, we must do i t .in great haste: now. Maybe there is so little time. The scope is world-wide. Newly as a nation we have been forced into the position of world leadership in world politics. All peoples wait, wondering what the United States will do and the fate of millions depends as never before on our decisions as to food stuffs, policies and the principles of world association. So in relation to missions we are challenged to plan and work as. though the evangeliza tion of the world depended on Amer ica alone—at least our leadership, and the responsibilities we assume, should be proportionate to our posi tion of leadership in world affairs. The need is newly and starkly clear. Never before has mankind revealed itself so completely bankrupt. Never before have men’s hearts so failed them for fear. Lost, sold to lies, doomed to a thousand deaths, never- before have men so needed the Way of the Truth and the Life. Knowledge of all this—knowledge of the world need is not confined to editors, commentators and statesmen. 10
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