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TH E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
October 1925
Our Bible Institute in Hunan Province, China Dr. Frank A. Keller Superintendent
T h e H u n a n B ib le I n st it u t e (th e C h in a D e p a r tm e n t o f th e B illie i n s t i t u t e o f L o s A n g e le s ) is o rg a n iz e d a lo n g s im ila r lin e s to th e h o m e I n s titu te ,— tr a in in g n a tiv e C h in e se y o u n g m e n a n d w o m e n f o r C h r is tia n w o rk , a n d a t th e s a m e tim e c a r r y in g o n a n a c tiv e e v a n g e lis tic w o rk a m o n g th e u n s a v e d . T h e w o rk (w h ic h is re c o g n iz e d b y th e d iff e r e n t e v a n g e lic a l m is s io n s a s o n e o f th e b e s t in C h in a ) h a s th r e e d e p a r tm e n ts : (1) A B ib le In st it u t e a t C h a n g s h a (th e c a p ita l c ity o f H u n a n P r o v in c e ). . (2 ) Twe lve E v a n g e li s t ic B a n d s w ith th ir te e n m e n in e a c h b a n d , d e v o tin g th e m o rn in g s to B ib le S t'u d y , a n d th e a f te r n o o n s to g iv in g th e G o sp e l in th e . n a tiv e h o m e s. ' . . (3 ) T h e A u tu m n B ib le S c h o o l a n d C o n fe r e n c e a t N a n y o h (o n e o f C h in a ’s fiv e s a c re d m o u n ta in s ). H u n d re d s o f c o n v e rs io n s h a v e r e s u lte d fro m th e W o rk d o n e a m o n g th e th o u s a n d s o f p ilg rim s . A TRIBUTE TO MOTHER KELLER H ARX i Y on Thursday morning, July .16, 1925, God answered my mother’s prayers and took her from our lovely apartments in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles to be forever with Himself. at this crisis, after a silence of six months, Mr. Stewart wrote me a long letter urging a continuance and extension of the work. Within six weeks after the receipt of this letter Mother had sold her home, had cut the old home ties and we were on our way to China and so, very naturally, our 156 evangelists in the twelve Biola Evangelistic Bands feel that her coming to China had much to do with their being able to continue in their much loved and fruitful work.
Frequently during her last illness of about a month she said to us:— “Would it not be blessed if God would take me Home from the Bible Institute,” and perhaps even more frequently she prayed that this might be the case. When she had left us, the many loyal friends who gathered round all seemed to have this one t h o u g h t W h a t a fitting and glorious ending to the mortal part of a remarkable life.” The opening verses of Mother’s favorite Psalm, 103, seem to be especially appropriate;' Bless Jehovah, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless Jehovah, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy desire with good things. Mother was most happy during her stay of seven months in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. On our arrival from China a number of the Institute leaders, among them Mrs. Lyman Stewart, were at the station to welcome us and to escort us to the bright and attractive apartments in the Bible Institute which had been assigned to us. The beauti ful California flowers that stood in every available place filled the rooms with their rich fragrance and added reality to the radio message, “Welcome Home,” which we had received far out at sea from Mr. Welles, Business Manager of the Bible Institute. . . . Although Mother never learned the Chinese language, her life in China was truly fruitful and very definitely resulted in the conversion of many Chinese. At the death of my father she was left alone as I was her only child and it seemed to be my manifest duty to remain in the States and care for her. This would have meant the shutting down of our work in China which was then in its early stages and there were no leaders with sufficient experience to go on with it, but Mother, unwilling to have the work stop, con sented to go to China with us so that we might continue the supervision and development of the Biola Evangelistic Bands to the work of which God had already given such great blessing. From the human side the beginning and growth of this work was due to the wonderful vision, enthusiasm and con secrated generosity of the late Mr. Lyman Stewart, and just
The Chinese greatly reverence old age, and our evan gelists never tire of telling how Mother at eighty years of age came out to China so that they might go on with their work of preaching the Gospel in the far-away unevangelized parts of that great land. To the thoughtful and filial Chi nese this is a most convincing argument as to the real worth of the Gospel and many, among them some very influential Chinese, have been led by it to study the Gospel carefully and as a result have given their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. Mother was much interested in the 140 students who lived on the same compound with us and a year ago at the commencement exercises, the first school gathering in the fine auditorium of the new Milton Stewart Hall, she sat on the platform with us and personally handed to each grad uate a copy of Doctor Courtenay H. Fenn’s splendid new Concordance of the entire Bible which she had purchased for them. This year, as commencement time drew near, Mother said to me:— “The other students who knew me will soon be graduating and I want to give to each one of them a Concordance just as I did to those who graduated last year.” My heart rejoiced that though now eighty-nine years of age, and back here in the States, she had those students in Changsha so definitely on her heart and a cable gram was sent promptly to Changsha conveying her desire. Word has come back to us that Mrs. Chester Rutledge kindly acted as Mother’s representative and handed to each grad uate the book which will be of such great use to them in all their future service for the Master. The Rev. John M. Maclnnis, D. D., Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, was one of our bsteemed and beloved visitors who had come from the home Institute to help us temporarily in the work in China. Others were the Rev. R. A. Torrey, D. D., the Rev. John H. Hunter, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Welles and Miss Rouzee. The fact that Doctor Maclnnis had been a pastor for many years in Syracuse, N. Y., a city near to Fort Plain, our old home, was an introductory element in the warm friendship that sprang up between Mother and the Doctor, and as the end drew near Mother said:— “Oh, how I do wish that Dr. Mac- (Continued on page 461.)
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