truth and potency of ideas . . . The ideal of taking a college degree, get ting married and settled, rearing a family, having a dependable job, mak ing lots of money and having a solid and ever expanding bank account— this ideal conceived purely in these terms is not good enough. It is . . . a very timid ideal. It is not dangerous enough; it does not answer to man’s deepest hunger for truth and com munity, where going out of one’s self is a joy, and where it is more blessed to give than to receive. Confronted with this ideal alone, Asia—if I must be frank with you— is not impressed. In fact, despite all her darkness and misery, Asia can still do better.” However, there is something to be said in regard to the challenge that communism presents. Because of the pressure of this false system many people in the Western world will be roused from their lethargy and forced to return to the great prin ciples and ideals of Christianity. There will come, and it is here al ready, a turning back from the things which do not count to the deeper things of the spirit, and a re-exami- nation of the foundations upon which our Christian source h a s been founded. It is true, of course, that Mr. Malik is neither a dispensationalist nor a premillennialist. We believe the Scriptures teach that conditions are to become worse, with communism developing more and more until that day spoken of by the Prophet Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, when God Him self shall step into the picture and shall utterly blast to the ground the might of Russia in a great cataclys mic judgment from which commu nism will never rise again. Dr. H. A . Ironside O URELY a mighty man of God went ^ home to be with Christ in the pass ing of our beloved friend, Dr. Harry Allan Ironside, who slipped away home to Heaven in his sleep, January 13, from New Zealand. Dr. Ironside was a prince of Bible teachers with an ability to take great and transcend ent truths from the Scriptures and make them both plain and delightful to his listeners. Beginning with very little formal education, Dr. Ironside, through a splendid habit of careful reading, educated himself until he became one of the best informed men on spiritual matters our generation has ever known. However, Dr. Iron side is best known as the beloved
pastor of the Moody Memorial Church, a position which he held for a score of years. During that time some 50 or 60 books or pamphlets came from his pen. Nor was his ministry confined in any way to the city of Chicago, but churches, evangelistic meetings, Bible conferences and Bible schools through out the country came to know the forceful incisiveness of his preaching. It was only last year that Dr. Iron side was one of the speakers at the Bible Institute Torrey Memorial Bible Conference in Los Angeles and as for merly, his messages were Bible satu rated and a source of fruitful blessing to all who listened. In addition to all this, Dr. Ironside personally was a man whom you could not know without loving him. Always sincere, always humble, always giving glory to Christ, we feel our lives to be immeasurably richer because of contact with this devoted servant of our Lord. Your wonderful magazine has been such an inspiration to so many, and I assure you I read and reread the issues I get, and I try to share the best of it with some people here. Sometimes they’ll accept, and at other times they won’t. G a r y P . M u r p h e y Enid, Okla. Sunday or Saturday I have just finished the article by Dr. Oswald Smith on “ Sunday or Sat urday.” It is by far the clearest pre sentation of the truth about the Sab bath question I have ever seen. It is so needful these days. The King’s Business is a real help in many ways in my ministry. I love to deal with the children of our community, and find the object lessons by Mr. Wilder most practical and easy to use. G l e n n E . S m it h Sanford, Fla. Blessing The King’s Business is a great blessing to me and must be to all who receive it. May Christ bless you in all your good work. M r s . P au l K e e saw Oakland, Calif. READER REACTION (Continued from Page S) Inspiration
Character o f Communism W HILE it is true that practically everyone in our land expresses a stern dislike for communism, it is also true that very many of our peo ple have not the slightest idea what communism is nor what it stands for. In a recent article of the Christian Century, a speech from Charles Habib Malik, the delegate at the United Na tions from Lebanon, defines better than ordinarily the principles of this system and the tremendous spur which it involuntarily presents to the Western world. Far too* few people recognize that communism has its roots, not in military might nor com mercial power, but in spiritual things, or perhaps we should say anti spiritual things, for as Mr. Malik points out: “ Communism is predicated on the emphatic rejection of God . . . Com munist man . . . is pathetically de humanized . . . severed from his divine origin and divine destiny; de nied the spiritual principle which gives his reason access to the truth, which endows his conscience and will with the craving for the good, which empowers his heart to love; impris oned hopelessly in this world of strife and frustration, here to center all his hopes and here to erect his paradise . . . He is but a passing shadow of no duration, a fragment of no intrinsic or ultimate worth . . . ” The question naturally arises, Can there ever be real peace with com munism? Will it ever be possible for the Western democracies to live in the same world with communism? Mr. Malik’s answer is categorically in the negative. “ Obviously I cannot get along with one whose whole being not only con tradicts mine, but is bent on destroy ing mine. Therefore when anybody in the West says . . . ‘We can get along with.Communism,’ then one of four propositions is true: 1) either he is a Communist himself; 2) or he is an appeaser; 3) or he does not know what he is talking about; namely, he does not know the nature of the thing with which he says he can get along; 4) or—and this is the most grievous thing-—he does not know the supreme values of his own heritage, which Communism has radically rebelled against and desires to extirpate.” The Western world comes in for its share of blame as Malik points out the faults in our idealism. “ The Western world . . . trusts far more in gadgets and in the manipu lation of the emotions than in the
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