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10. He is in the class with Ira D. San- key and Charles M. Alexander as gospel singers known th e world around. He was the owner of the largest hymn-book publishing house in America, selling an nu ally 'w ell over a million books. It is all well enough fo r. Lyman Ab bott, himself a liberal, retaining posi tion in th e camp of conservatism, to seek to allay suspicions by saying, “There is as little danger of undermining religion by new definitions of theology as there is of blotting out the stars of Heaven by new astronomy.” But the fact remains, as A. J. Gordon once suggested, the same people who fail to blot out the stars or sun from the heavens “may prick th e eye with a pin” and thereby be as effectually blinded to light as though the sun ceased to shine. A generous donor is building a church in Pennsylvania which is to be a “Church of All Christians.” It is to con tain three movable altars, one for the Roman Catholics, one for the Episco palians and one for the other denomina tions.” Many a pastor would like to have a church of “all Christians” but th ere is something about the above com bination th a t suggests th a t the name is a misnomer. A Kansas City paper reports a ser mon by Dr. C. F. Aked, th e liberalist Congregational preacher, who was a member of Henry Ford’s peace expedi tion. The following, taken from his ser mon, may throw some light on the Ford anti-Jewish propaganda: “The influence behind the ‘peace ship’ th a t brought ridicule and humiliation on Ford and the reputable persons in his party, was a Hungarian Jewess, Madame Rosika Schwimmer. I venture the guess th a t the memory of this Jewess rankling in his h eart is behind Ford’s ludicrous at tack on the Jewish people. She de ceived Ford into believing th a t she had secret documentary assurances from prime m inisters th a t they welcomed the Ford expedition as a means to peace. She had no such assurances. Henry Ford found out he had been deceived. He left th e expedition and went home sick.” ' A veteran missionary in Korea was re cently asked th e reason why th e vast ma jority of Korean Christians are looking for the Lord’s coming, prem illennial and
imminent, and who is responsible for their indoctrination. He promptly re plied th a t it must have been the Spirit of God using the Word, which, after all, is the usual way the “blessed hope” is kindled. “So great were the demands upon our tim e and strength during those days of God’s visitation, th a t churches would spring into existence almost over night. A delegation would come asking J?or the missionary to come and organize a church.” He had to refuse many such appeals, but in lieu of his own going would box up a lot of Testaments and send them to the newly converted Chris tians, “which,”' said he, “they almost literally devoured.” When later the mis sionary paid them th e deferred visit he found them quite naturally and eagerly expecting their Lord’s return. And so will any one who, as did the Christians at Thessalonica, receive the Word of God, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh in them th a t believe. It is lamentable to see the great Christian Endeavor movement abandon ing its soul-winning program and going over to the “elean-up-the world” idea th a t has been preached to them a t many of their gatherings by modern theolo gians. At a recent sta te convention in California a certain speaker was given two evenings to exploit his theories about “licking the devil and pitching him out of the world by main force.” Pro hibition in the United States was de clared to be the greatest event since the birth of Christ. The world convention held a t New York decided to have a “warless world by 1923,” and outlined a program for enforcing blue laws in the various states. Such aims, which in themselves are good, are contrary to the teachings of the Bible. The work of soul winning, which is the one essential th in g ,. suffers in proportion to the amount of energy given to the mistaken idea th a t the young people of this coun try can annihilate the devil. Thank God, there are many C. E. conventions th at loyally stand by th e Old Book, and its program, and this is notably true in Los Angeles county.
Some men use th e ir religion as they use a life preserver— only during a wreck.
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