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ou* AND HOW, BY GOD ’S GR
“ The things thou hast heard o f me . . . the same commit thou to f a i t h f u l men, who shall he able to teach others also.”
purpose to allow God’s work to be interfered with by a mere human business depression. History proves he was not defeated, but that his needs, the needs o f his school, were met by the Lord Himself through His faithful stewards. The Bible Institute o f Los Angeles faces an almost iden tical situation today. Some four hundred young men and women will apply for
D . L - M oody , the converted shoe clerk who shook two conti nents in the mighty power of God, is stiff without a peer as an impassioned, S p ir it - filled evangelist and far-visioned educator. He may have lacked something o f the cul ture and finish o f the
training here between the date o f this issue and September 21 B—the day scheduled for the opening o f the faff semester. Such Young People Are Worth Helping What kind o f young peo ple are these ? Many are com ing to the Institute for the first time, as new students. Most of those who attended the In stitute last year, and who will be returning, have spent the summer in active Christian work. One group of young women, for instance, spent several weeks in a county in Idaho where, the year around, there is no regularly appointed preacher, no Sunday-school, and no physician. They con ducted Daily Vacation Bible Schools in four different cen
Just two among look at such str consecration and for the Lord in inactive! It req educational cost students for one this privilege, investment imm
schools, but he wanted nothing of flaming, undying, enthusi asm for Christ, or workable, common sense methods o f admin istration. A glimpse, a cry, a plan, and quick as a flash, he built schools for the training in Bible evangelism o f a needed army o f Christian young men and women; and when economic conditions threatened the breakdown of his purpose, he built confidence —and triumphed. It is not difficult to see the dominant, unbending, God honoring spirit o f the man in such letters as the following, sent to a number o f friends in New York in the gray days of 1891, and it is not surprising that the contagion of his zeal spread instantly from man to man and from heart to heart and thus the need was met. This is what he wrote: Can or will you and your wife fake one student each in our schools out here in 1891? It will only cost $ 150 each, and they can report to you every thirty days how they are doing. I have found a good many who have gone through .college or seminary, especially ladies, who have no money — for they have spent all at school and have nothing to come here; but $150 will keep them hard at work for three hundred and sixty-five days, and they will do much good, and be learning all the time. My wife and I are each going to take one, and I am going to see if I cannot get two hun dred others to do the same, and then it will not come heavy on any of us.
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ters. Not only did the children attend— dozens o f them, whole families o f them— but hungry-hearted mothers came, too. Another group had the town dance hall as their head quarters. The whole community came out for a dance on Saturday night, and on Monday, when the Bible Institute students arrived to begin their work, the pleasure-seeking crowd came again, and repeatedly in the two weeks that fol lowed, not to dance and carouse, but to find the only source of true pleasure, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This extract from Moody’s letter, written forty-two years ago, has a very special meaning for the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles today. Let us pause to reconstruct the picture. In 1891, the shadows o f the great business de pression o f the nineties were lengthening across the land. Employment was slackening. Other sources of revenue were decreasing. Mr. Moody, ever alert to the needs o f his students, quickly realized this difficulty, and with characteristic en ergy, acted at once to forestall its effects. First, he contributed, himself. Then he called upon his friends to lend their aid. He did not
*Business Manager and Treasurer o f the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
The most recent student body picture. A group similar to this will be kno
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