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institution, or the government may withhold its permission and thus compel the school to remain open: and not only must religious courses and religious exercises not be required, but there must be no religious propaganda in the class room. “All these requirefnents might conceivably be acceded to without destroying the Christian aims of the schools, were the government strong and friendly. But unfortunately for our cause the government of Hunan is for the moment in a precar ious condition and decidedly unfriendly to us because of their drive against all forms of foreign control, including especially what they call our “invasion through culture.” The former anti- Christian movement here has been recently merged into a greater organization called the ‘Association For Resisting The Invasion by Culture,’ and-this organization has just secured a subsidy from the government, of three hundred dollars a month. It is this association that has conducted the Christmas campaign against the churches from which many missions suffered on Christmas day. They were of course aided by the various unions which have sprung up like mushrooms among the students, workers, shop- hands and farmers. S t u d e n t U n io n C o n t r o l l in g S c h o o l s ' “We are all familiar with the objectives of the National Association of Student Unions as they have outlined them. They desire to get control of the schools everywhere, and they desire to assist in the recovery of educational rights by destroying the Christian schools entirely. The Hunan Provincial Unions in their meetings in November voted in this manner, and a similar vote was passed by the Teachers’ Union somewhat later. The Kuomingtang purpose is expressed by General Chiang as desiring merely to bring church schools under government control.” We call upon the friends of the Bible Institute to join earn estly in prayer with us, that Dr. Keller and his workers may be sustained in these days of stress and that in every way the work may be protected and prospered to the glory of God and the furthering of the Christian testimony among the Chinese in God’s own time. i N our last article we saw that the philosophy of religion in the very nature of things involves a philosophy of our world. In other words, the final explanation of religion is impossible apart from a very definite world view. Th is 1 being the . case, we now turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews as one of the first explanations of the Christian fact that involves a comprehensive philosophy of the world and history. It is an epistle concerning the finality of the Christian religion and when we say the finality of the Christian religion that means the final interpretation of our world. First, a word about the Epistle itself. It is one of the most interesting and important books in all of the New Testament. We do not know definitely who wrote it and there is some question as to whom it was first written. Whoever wrote it was one who knew the nature and sig nificance of the Hebrew religion and must also have been familiar with Greek and Gnostic thought. Clement of Rome, in an Epistle which he wrote to Corinth in the year 95 A. D., says it was written by Paul in Hebrew and then translated most carefully by Dr. Luke into Greek. While this idea is not without difficulties, yet it is quite possible.
MRS. FRANK A. KELLER -THE FAITHFUL COMPANION OF THE MAN WHOSE PICTURE ADORNS TH E COVER OF TH IS ISSUE
More About the Christian Philosopher B y T he E ditor - in -C h ief
There are those who say it was originally written in Greek by someone who was very near to Paul. Some suggest Barnabas and some Luke and many others are also men tioned. We do not find it at all difficult to believe that it was written by Luke and contains the thought of the Apostle Paul. The Greek used is more like the Greek of Luke than any other Greek in the New Testament. Per haps the most we can say is that it may be the thought of Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the lan guage of Luke. Those written to were a people who had experienced Christianity and who, through some subtlety, were in danger of falling away from that which they had confessed, or to use the term of the writer himself, “fall ing away from the living God.” They were in danger of accepting a false conception of life and religion. They evidently had tasted of the unseen things and had borne a good witness and had suffered much because of this witness. The primary purpose of the hook, therefore, is to show that God, who has been speaking to man from the beginning in divers portions and in divers manners, has now spoken to us in His Son who, by reason of what He is and what He has- done, is the consummation of all revelation. He is God manifest and as such He answers
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