September, 1934
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
299
In a news letter written by the General Secretary o f the League, Arie Kok, the plan to hold a five-day gathering “ in the nature o f a national Bible testimony or fundamen talist convention” is explained. The meetings are scheduled fo r the second week in May, 1935, to convene at Kaifeng, Honan. The announcement is made many months in ad vance o f the date o f the meetings, so that Christian people in all parts o f the world may have ample opportunity to pray for this important gathering. In stating the purpose o f the proposed convention, Mr. Kok makes known also the principles for which the League stands: Chinese Christian' leaders from different provinces, and connected with many churches and missions, will as semble to assert their unwavering belief in the Bible as the WORD OF GOD and to add their testimony that the simple preaching o f the gospel o f “JESUS CHRIST and H IM CRUCIFIED” is still triumphant in the conversion of sinners, despite the relentless opposition alike o f East ern superstitions and Western popular isms. Throughout the China mission field, the last few years have witnessed not merely a drifting tendency to ward liberal views in theological teaching, but also the working o f able exponents o f the popular rationalistic and Unitarian schools, who have made use o f well organ ized nominally Christian institutions to broadcast their doubts and disbelief o f the historic faith. In view o f this widespread pretentious humanism us urping the place o f the message of salvation through the blood o f Christ, the affiliated pastors, evangelists, and workers in this League stand, as it were, naked amidst armed warriors, lifting high the gospel banner regardless of the surrounding heresies and schisms. And their faith is justified. From all places where Christ is lifted up, there is testimony of blessing. News o f conversions, revivals, interest in the gospel message, and demand for Christian literature are giving cause for joyful praise_ in very many districts. And even where the sower’s lot is cast in seemingly barren soil, there is a witness of the Spirit that the labor is not in vain in the LORD. The reading o f Mr. Kok’s courageous words reminds one o f a familiar Old Testament incident. Once, long ago, a discouraged prophet, “ very jealous for the Lord God of hosts,” cried out in g r ie f: “ I, even I only, am left.” And many a believer in modern times echoes the prophet’s dis tressed complaint. But to the praise o f His grace, the Lord is still saying— o f Israel, o f China, and o f other lands — “ Yet I have left me [there] seven thousand . . . all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal.” And to make the encouragement tenfold greater, in China there are 70,000—and many m ore! A Forward Movement in Teacher Training T h e Evangelical Teacher Training Association came into existence as a protest against the modernistic control o f the International Council of Religious Educa tion. Under the leadership o f such Bible exponents as Robert C. McQuilkin, President, and Clarence H. Benson, Secretary, perhaps no modern movement has grown more rapidly and shown greater promise o f revolutionizing the standards o f the Sunday-school than has the Evangelical Teacher Training Association. Less than three years ago, five Bible Institutes, wishing to certify to the public their deep interest in and concern for Christian education, agreed to provide and promote a common course which would train the teacher for the Sunday-school as adequately and sys tematically as the instructor is trained for the secular school. They proposed to have for its major subjects Bible, Personal Evangelism, and Missions; and to recognize and encourage the use o f textbooks o f approved orthodoxy. Fifty-four Bible Institutes, colleges, and seminaries in the United States and Canada— o f which the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles is one— now constitute this organization.
The standard Training Course o f the Evangelical Teacher Training Association meets the collegiate recom mendation o f twenty-four hours (432 Bible Institute hours) for a Christian Education course, which, together with its resident requirement, affords the highest academic standards in training that have ever been offered a Sunday- school teacher. Graduates o f the Standard Training Course are ap proved as instructors for the Preliminary Training Course. A t the last meeting o f the Association, it was voted to offer the Preliminary Training Course by correspondence to students and teachers who would be unable to enroll in any o f the cooperating schools or attend church or community classes. Further particulars will gladly be furnished by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles, California. “ In addition to better qualifying our present teaching force, it will be necessary this year to recruit from the ranks o f our young people no less than 400,000 students, if the church is to.make any effort to provide for 36,000,000 American children and adolescents who are not now in Sunday-school.” Mr. Benson’s statement is a challenge. Dare we, who believe in the absolute authority o f the Word o f God, who recognize the shameful trend o f modern teaching concern ing that Book, who know that the only hope o f America or o f any other land lies in its youth’s acceptance o f the divine standard— dare we ignore the challenge and refuse “ to make any effort” to teach effectively to the leaders o f tomorrow the truths o f the eternal God ? The Menace of the Modern Saloon O ld Chicago Saloon Plus Women Equals New Chicago Tavern” was the title o f an extended state ment recently prepared by F. Scott McBride, general super intendent o f the Anti-Saloon League o f America. Senator Morris Sheppard o f Texas secured consent to have this data printed in the Congressional Record (May 28, 1934). Early in the discussion o f the question, Dr. McBride made this observation: Chicago, where the big drive for repeal started, and where both major political parties pledged that the saloon must not come back, should present the nation’s most con spicuous example o f a successful solution o f the liquor problem. But what do we find? Despite all promises, the saloon is back in Chicago, worse, more vile, more degrading, more dangerous than ever before in the history of that city. It is Dr. McBride’s opinion that excerpts from various Chicago newspapers “ show not only that the saloon is back, but also that its evils under modern social conditions are infinitely worse than those against which the people re belled when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted.” Quoting from the Chicago Herald and Examiner (March 6, 1934), the representative o f the Anti-Saloon League added: Shocking evidence o f how Chicago’s high school girls and boys—children ranging between thirteen and eighteen years of age—are being lured into depravity by saloon keepers, who flagrantly violate the law by plying child patrons with liquor, has been . . . discovered during a fortnight’s survey o f the city’s unregulated saloons . . . Drunkenness and laxity o f morals are common in the dimly lit back rooms o f these saloons, many o f which carry on their vicious trade in the very shadows o f the city’s schools. Perhaps there are in the whole paper no more astound ing and disturbing sentences thafi these: Mayor Kelly, o f Chicago, was reported in the Chi cago Tribune o f December 19, 1933, as saying: “In my [Continued on page 310]
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