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editor ft desk Our Unfinished Task
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i 'j ometimes we are asked: “Why do you feel so strongly that B io l a ’ s ktask is unfinished? The school has had nearly 50 years of profitable ” ministry in training young men and women for Christian work and its influence reaches to many lands. Why such furor now about progress?” Has it occurred to these inquirers that since B io l a was founded two great world wars have intervened and the world’s thinking has turned upside down with the advent of the atom bomb and jet plane? The Latins had a common saying: “ The times are changed and we are changed with them.” Outwardly the young people of today do not resemble the young people of 50 years ago. Yet no one would say that their potential for God was less than in those days. Rather, it is more. These conditions shake the foundations of character, and stronger faith in God and clearer understanding of spiritual things are required to stand up to the challenge of such a world as this. The equipment for Christian service must keep abreast of the times. Of course, the message of the gospel is unchanged; B io l a ’ s teaching of the Word of God is not altered. But though there are so many outward changes,’ we are well aware that the inner needs of the hearts and lives of young men and women are exactly the same as those of 50 and 25 years ago. So the first thing that impresses one about this “ unfinished business” is that young lives themselves are unfinished. Many young people who have given their hearts to Christ and are truly saved are wondering what to do with their lives. But whether they go abroad preaching the Word or stay at home to minister in a local church, they, like their predecessors, need to give themselves to an intensive study of the Word of God and related subjects. They too must have the experience referred to in 1 Pet. 5:10: “ But the God of all grace . . . make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” Then the task is unfinished because the reaping is not finished. There is an unharvested, over-ripe field of grain awaiting the harvester in every land of the earth. It was so in Christ’s day, and He Himself pointed it out to His disciples as they beheld the literal grain fields of Palestine. As long as the man in the shop next to me, and the woman in the house next to you, has never had the claims of Christ presented to him or her, our task is unfinished. But, above all, our task is unfinished because our King has not returned. If He were here, our work and responsibility would be over and we should enter the joy of our Lord. We are to “ occupy,” to be carrying on His work up to the very end. He said plainly: “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). B io l a has been going in obedience to this command since its first graduation and by God’s grace will continue to go until its last, until the last soul is won and the last tribe is reached, and the Bride of Christ is complete. We long for His return. But, since we do not know when He will return we must not sit down with folded hands. Our task is by no means finished. We await an “ oncoming tidal wave of students,” some of the finest Christian young people of our land and lands across the seas, who will be coming here to train for Christian service. This issue is devoted to our vision and venture. But these plans are to be henceforth and forever always related to our calling and our unfin ished task: To fit young men and women to “ . . . preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (2 Cor. 10:16, 17).
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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