January, 1934
II
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
the stoning of Stephen, there came the imprisonment of Peter and the martyrdom of James and the bondage of Paul and the banishment of John. And when the terrible record was completed, all but one of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ had died a violent death like that of their Lord. In Acts 13:46-50 and Acts 14:19, 20, we have an insight into the fierce battle which raged wherever the messengers of the cross lifted the cross and called upon men to repent. In Acts 19 :28, 29, we read of the awful hatred and enmity that stirred the devotees of the false gods when there came the crash of the thunder of God’s judgment upon hypocrisy and fraud. Our Lord Himself, in that memorable prayer recorded in John 17, showed clearly the attitude of the world toward the true followers of Christ: “I have given them my word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” R eception of C hrist ’ s M essage T hrough the A ges Just recently, I finished reading a book, the title of which was Old-Time Revivals, published by the Million Testaments Campaign and written by John Shearer, M.A. As I read the chapters which outlined Something of the circumstances surrounding the beginnings of the great revivals that have transformed nations, I was ama?i d— and yet I was not amazed—that these great movements of grace were often bitterly opposed by the church itself, and that the men whom God was so mightily using were some times actually driven from the church in which they had been reared! The early days of Methodism were marked with blood shed ; the early days of the Salvation Army were marked with bloodshed. “I am come,” said Christ, “to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled ? But I have a baptism to be baptized with! and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” T he M istaken M ission of th e C hurch ^ o you not see, friends, that The declaration of the church and the attempt of the church to create in this age a world brotherhood and a League of Nations, out of which there is to come a lasting peace accomplished by the efforts of the church, is wholly out of harmony with everything that Christ taught us to expect, and wh:h the ideals toward which Christ taught us to worl^Everywhere* today, multitudes of church workers, like parrots, are re peating the phrase, “the program of Jesus! the program of Jesus!” when as a matter of fact—a heart-breaking fact —many of them are as blind as bats concerning the plainly written Word of God, and are absolutely dead to the message which Christ left for the church to preach. No wonder millions of young people today are skeptics! They have been led to believe that Christ came to usher in a golden age of brotherhood and to bring peace to the troubled nations of the world. These young people know that for nineteen centuries the Christ of peace and the Christ of brotherhood has been preached by the church; they know that staggering sums of money have been raised and world programs have been launched to bring in the golden age. So it is that, after nineteen centuries, our young life says, “If the tragedy and the hatred and the injustice and the immorality of today are all that the church has to offer from a Christ who came into the world nine teen centuries ago to inaugurate a world program of right eousness and peace, then your Christ is a failure.” God pity u s ! After twenty centuries of crying, “Peace, peace,” there is no peace—except as it has come to individual hearts
as a result of unconditional surrender to the Prince of Peace. T he M essage of the H our O pastors, evangelists, Bible teachers, Sunday-school teachers, will you not see it ? Will you not preach it ? Will you not show our young people that this is the age of the cross, of individual redemption, and of a sign to be spoken against? Will you not show our young people that the Word of God is being fulfilled to the letter, and that today the world, the church, and the home are finding no place for a Christ who demands self-sacrifice and unselfish ser vice ? Why do we not face the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that this dispensation—the dispensation of grace —is to end in human failure and divine judgment? Not until the facts of Luke 21 :25, 26 are realized, “And upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth”—not until these things transpire does there come the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ found in the twenty-eighth verse, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” ¿The day of peace will dawn, when the Prince of Peace will rule, but by no man-made methods may that day be ushered injj i - n /99 /V « Mr. Tung set to work at once to win his neighbors and friends to the Lord. As new believers came in, they were organized into bands for testimony. Rain or shine, these bands, led by the two evangelists, went to every home into which they could gain an entrance. Mr. Tung’s motto came to be : “We should at least show as much zeal in the Lord’s service as in the carrying out of our own affairs.” In that center, there are now over forty families that have taken down their idols and have turned to serve the living God. One Sunday, my husband and I spent the day at Fan- chia-tun. We shall never forget the joy of that day. Twenty-four were baptized, and over fifty were received as probationers. Among those received by baptism were four of the town doctors, an official in the tax office, two of Mr. Tung’s sons, and his wife. The warmth of these new believers was exceedingly cheering. Through the last two or more years, sowing and reaping of the gospel seed have had to be carried on with storm clouds lowering and sometimes storms bursting about us, but we have learned the wisdom of heeding those words in Ecclesiastes 11:4: “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” We are “looking unto Jesus,” not at the surrounding discour agements, and sowing and reaping in His name are the joys of all our days. An Unusual Opportunity On page 39 will be found an advertisement of a vacant level lot, about one-quarter of an acre in extent, situated in the beautiful hill country of Tujunga, Calif. This local ity is noted for its clear, pure air, found highly beneficial to sufferers with bronchial troubles. The lot has been deeded to the Bibje Institute of Los Angeles by generous friends who wish the money realized from the sale of it to be used in student training. Some one, seeing this announcement, may need just such an eco nomical homestead as this provides. The person who pur chases it will have the added satisfaction of bringing imme diate and substantial help to the Bible Institute. REAPING AMID MANCHURIAN STORMS [Continued from page 8]
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