VOL. VIII
JANUARY, 1917
No. 1
The King’s Business
Published once a month by the BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.
O N E D O L L A R A Y E A R
cTJt? ICiwj s Immura MOTTO : “I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”—Isa, 27:3. R. A. TORREY, D. D., E ditor T. C. HORTON, J. H. HUNTER, WILLIAM EVANS, D. D., Associate Editors A. M. ROW, Managing Editor Published by the BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Inc. Los Angeles, California, U. S. A. Entered as Second-Class M atter November 17, 1910, a t the postoffice at Los Angeles, Cal., under the A ct of March 3, 1879. Copyright by R. A. Torrey, D. D., and Bible In stitu te of Los Angeles, for the year 1916.
DIRECTORS
Lyman Stew art, president. William T horn, secretary. T. C. H orton, superintendent.
R. A. T orrey, vice-president Leon V. Shaw, treasu rer.
W illiam Evans.
H. A. Getz.
J. M. Irvine.
N athan Newby
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT We hold to the H istoric Faith of th e C hurch as expressed in the Common C reed of Evangelical C hristendom and including: T h e T rinity of th e Godhead. T he Deity of th e Christ.
The M aintenance of Good Works.- The Second Com ing of Christ. The Immortality of th e Spirit. The R esurrection of the Body. T he Life Everlasting of Believers. T he Endless Punishm ent of th e Im penitent. T he R eality'and Personality of Satan. (7 ) Bible Women. House-to-house visitation and neighborhood classes. (8 ) Oil Fields. A mission to men on th e oil fields. (9 ) Books and T racts. Sale and dis tribution of selected books and tracts. (1 0 ) H arb o r W ork. F o r seam en a t Los Angeles harbor. ( 11) Yokefellows' Hall. Thoroughly manned. O u r Mission fo r men w ith S treet Meetings, and Bootblacks and Newsboys Sunday School. (1 2 ) P rin t Shop. F o r printing T esta ments, books, tracts, etc. A complete establishment, profits going to free dis tribution of religious literatu re.1
T h e Personality of th e Holy Ghost. T he Sup ern atu ral and P lenary a u tho rity of th e Holy Scriptures. T he Unity in D iversity of the Chnrch, the Body and Bride of Christ. T he Substitutionary A tonem ent. The Necessity of the New Birth. P tlYTiO SCOPE OF THE WORK THE KING’S BUSINESS TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial: New S tarts in Life— A H appy New Year— Is Man Godlike or B rutelike?— The Honest Search A fter T ru th— “Judge Not”— This Magazine in the Foreign F ield— A re the Results of Evangelistic W ork P erm anen t?— Do Early Childhood Conversions P rove S tead fa st?— The Bible in Times! of C risis................................................... ......................... 1 A n H und red Fold. (P oem .) By Mrs. J. I. McClelland....... 8 Not a W o rd of Christ’s Shall Ever Fail. By Dr. R. A. Torrey 9 A Visit from Ralph N o rton................................................................. 14 Our F o lk s .................. ............................................................................... 15 The Pocket Testament League.................................................. 18 Enthusiasm for the W o rd of God. By JEdgar Whitaker W o rk , D. D ................................................................................... 19 The F ar Horizon..................................................................................... 23 The Mission a t V an— A n A rm enian Tragedy. By Elizabeth H. Ussher ...... 25 S tudent Volunteer Band...................................................................... 32 Evangelistic D epartm ent. By Bible Institute W orkers.............. 33 Puzzling Passages and P roblem s....................................................... 39 Through the Bible with Dr. Evans.................................................... 41 The Institute Fam ily.................................................—.......,................. 47 Hom iletical Helps.. By William Evans............................................. 49 International Sunday School Lessons. By R. A. Torrey and T. C. H o rto n ................................................................................... 52 Daily Devotional Studies in the New Testam ent for Individual Meditation and Fam ily Worship. By R. A. T o rrey ......... 74 Bruce Kinney in Wyom ing................................................................. 90 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE he United States and its Possessions, Mexico, C anada and points in C entral Am erican Postal Union, $ I p er year. In all o th er foreign countries, $1.24 (5s. 2 d .). Single copies, 10 cents. Receipts sent on request. See date on address tag. “Sept. 16** means Expires Sept. 1916, etc. PUBLISHED BY THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES 536-558 SOUTH HOPE STREET LOS ANGELES, CAL. 2 THE KING’S BUSINESS Start the New Year with Security A Security savings account will save many a Worry during the coming year. If you can’t start with a dollar get one of our pocket dime banks and start with a dime. Compound interest coupled with yours will soon make a real “worry saver.” E C U R I T Y T R U S T U s A y n r e s H A i y K ! SAVINGS COMMERCIAL TRUST The oldest and largest savings bank in the Southwest S SECURITY CORNER Fifth and Spring EQUITABLE BRANCH First and Spring imiiiiiiiiiimimimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiimiiiiiimiiiiiiiimimimmimmiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiimi£ I HAVE YOU BEEN PLEASED WITH I I M P THEN TELL OTHERS! - T T iESE people tell what they think about it, though they were never requested to do so: Bishop Sanford C. Yoder, Kalona, Iowa: “I especially appreciate your helpful mag azine and rejoice because of the stand you take to promulgate and defend the whole Gospel. May you have abundant grace to continue in the work.” i Be t t e r Than Eve r in 1917 I 511111111111111miiiimmiiiimiii umilili h ninni iiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiMiiimiiiifimimiiiiiiiiiiimjfi THE KING’S BUSINESS [§ ~ I Vol. 8 JANUARY, 1917 No. 1 H m 0 E D I T O R I A L This is the time of the year when many men will make New Starts a “fresh start” in life. Such action is commendable, ¡n Life. There is an exhilaration in a new start. While life is one great continued whole, it nevertheless is made up of many “new beginnings” and “fresh starts.” The advantage of such “fresh starts” is that each recalls and freshens the fundamental principles and motives under which the life-work is to be done, and keeps one from degenerating into mechanical routine. Among such new beginnings may be mentioned that of youth, or the new start in the physical life; that of the choice of an occupation, or the deliberate selection of one’s work; and the new start in religious conse cration, or the entrance of the soul into its deeper life with God. It was Phillips Brooks who said that no man lives completely who does not at least start in each of these- three roads. Surely no man can lead a complete life who does not make a new start in the elerhent of his religious experience. Make a new start by all means, but whatever else you do, do not forget to make that new start in the name of God and with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ. All efforts of the flesh will fail; the power of the Spirit will bring success. year has ever opened with so much of uncertainty as this. But God reigns. Sometimes during the past year it has looked--as if the devil reigned in our own land as well as in-lands across the sea. Suspicion, hatred, falsehood, cruelty, murder, impurity, have been holding such a carnival as has not been witnessed for centuries. - But God is over all, and back of the jar and the jangle of the conflicting ambitions and passions of men He is guiding the world on toward the destiny that He has purposed from all eternity. Whether this most unneces sary and appalling war of all history will come to an end during the current year no one can tell. What catastrophies in commercial and political life in our own and other lands may come, none of us can predict, but whatever does come it can be a joyous year, a year free from all anxiety and worry, to each of us, if we put our trust in God and in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and put the entire control and government of our life into His hands, with the calm assurance “that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Doubtless many of the readers of T h e K ing ’ s B usiness will be called, during the present year, to places of peril and hardship, either in missionary work or in the service of their country, or in other ways, but if our joy is in the Lord We begin today a. new year. We have never entered upon a year so big with peril on the one hand, and so big with opportunity on the other, as this. As far as man, and what man can do, is concerned, no other A Happy New Year. 4 THE KING’S BUSINESS and not in our environment, or our possessions, we can rejoice always (Phil. 4:4). We can have, too, the fullness of joy that comes from untiring service and fruit-bearing (John 15:11). We wish all our readers, not merely “A Happy New Year,” but far better, a Jdyous New Year, and the wish need not be an empty one. It remains with each of us to say whether it shall be a year full of joy or a year full of misery and failure. Certainly it will be a year of opportunity—larger opportunity than we have ever known before. A prominent Christian worker, who has just-returned Is Man Godlike from a work of eighteen months in the trenches with or Brutelike? one of the contending armies, bears witness to the fact that the men at the front load their guns and fix their bayonets with the hardest bitterness and fury in their hearts, and express the same in words, towards the men they are attacking. They even gloat over the death of their fellowmen. Have not the doctrine of the idealization of man, the teaching concerning the divinity in man and the worship of culture, received a death blow in the sights, sounds, and glaring brutal facts of the present war? Is not the scriptural doctrine of natural depravity fully born out by the facts in the case ? Surely nothing but a new birth can change these conditions. The president of a theological seminary asked the The Honest Search writer a few .summers ago: “Can you suggest to me After Truth. some good books dealing with the premillennial view of Christ’s second coming? I believe that this doctrine is coming into greater prominence in the thought of the church. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that we are nearing a point of cleavage in the Christian church, and that point of cleavage will hover around the postmillennial and premillennial view of Christ’s coming. I want to be ready for it when it comes. I must confess I have not studied this doctrine from the premillennial point of view. I know I ought to, and I am determined to do so.” Was not this presi dent an honest seeker after truth? Was not his attitude commendable? Did he express the attitude and position of many others in this day towards this doctrine ? It is granted that there are great and good men, equally scholarly and consecrated, maintaining divers views on this doctrine. But no man, on either side, is an honest seeker after truth who is entirely ignorant of the other side of the question. A friend told me a few weeks ago that his teacher had warned him against two pernicious heresies which he should shrink from as he would from a deadly poison. One of these heresies had to do with some gnostic view of Christ prevalent in the early church; the other was the premillennial view of our Lord’s coming. We ask, candidly, is this an unprejudiced and fair attitude to take towards any phase of truth? Is this the kind of instruction that young men preparing for the ministry should receive? Of course, there are some Christians who run wild on the doctrine of the premillennial view of our Lord’s coming, and preach and speak as though there were nothing else in the Bible but that. That may be one extreme. But is it to be condemned as much as, or more than, that spirit which refuses to look into this view of the Lord’s coming at all? Let us be honest and sincere in our seeking after truth. Let not the postmillennialist despise the premillennialist, nor the premillennialist set at naught the postmillennialist, for they both belong to the same Lord and are looking for the coming of the same Christ. THE KING’S BUSINESS 5 The words of Jesus in this connection are significant: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what “Judge Not.” measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7 :1, 2). These words do not prohibit judicial judgment. Nor do they mean that we are not allowed to pass an opinion on the lives of others, for Jesus Himself permits such an opinion in the statement, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” We are not bound to believe that an infidel or a profligate is a Christian. Nor do these words forbid the exercise of discipline. What is condemned is a self- righteous, self-sufficient, censorious, fault-finding spirit. No man can sow such seed and not reap its results. There is considerable feeling among the friends of the Republican party, that one reason why Hughes was not elected was because of the critical, censorious spirit manifested in his speeches as reported in the papers. No man can indulge in that kind of tirade and not receive back full measure. Are the presidential campaign results another illustration of the truth of these words of Jesus? Among the most interesting and cheering letters that This Magazine we receive are those from foreign missionaries in in the Foreign Field, various parts of the world. As an illustration of how God is blessing T h e K ing ’ s B usiness in the foreign field, we insert here a letter recently received. This letter is not only interesting as showing how God is using the magazine, but also as illustrating how mis sionaries in one field are deeply interested in the work in other fields. This missionary writes: “I’ll introduce myself as a Presbyterian missionary here in Chairyung, Korea. My other home across the seas in America is in Los Angeles. I am a member of the Boyle Heights Presbyterian church, though during the last year my family has moved to another part of the city. I graduated from Occidental College, where I was a member of the Student Volunteer Band. I have now had seven joyous years of service out in Korea, for which I would exchange nothing on earth, and which have been unsatisfactory only from the standpoint that the service I have rendered my Lord seems so meagre, and to fall so far short of what I would have it. I am taking the privilege to write you this note in order to express my gratitude over continually receiving T he K ing ’ s B usiness . It has been coming to me now for over a year—almost two years, I think. I do not know who was so thoughtful as to begin sending it, but I have always felt I ought to thank some one, and so I am writing you. It helps me in so many ways that I look forward to its coming each month. I find so much that is valuable assistance in the preparation of Bible lessons for the teaching of the Korean women. The evangelistic work of the Bible Institute in all its various departments I find very inspiring and an incentive to press out more earnestly in the glorious,service of soul-seeking right here in my little corner of the great world field. The accounts of the work of the Institute—the Bible Women’s work, the work for Jews, the work for the sailors, shop men, etc.—often is a call to pray for the Institute that it may be even yet a greater evangelistic agency. Next year when I take my furlough I am eagerly looking forward to spending much of the time in the Bible Institute. I am so hungry to study. I have been interested for some time in the African Inland Mission, especially since I know some of the young people who have gone out from 6 THE KING’S BUSINESS Los Angeles to that field. I feel called upon to make an offering, small though it may be, and as I do not know to whom to ,send it, I am forwarding. it to you by postal money order. I hope it may be of some help some place. Perhaps that school for orphan girls in charge of Miss Zimmerman, of which Mrs. Allen speaks in her letter in the June number of T h e K ing ’ s B usiness . I hope my few words convey some idea of the gratitude I feel in being in touch with the Bible Institute, through being on the list of those fortunate ones who receive your magazine.” Permanent? “Many of the Australians I have found are Chris- tians. They tell me it is the fruits of the Torrey- Alexander Mission, and they are as vigorous in their Christianity as one would expect.” • ' - The Torrey-Alexander Mission in Australia was held in 1902, so fourteen years have elapsed since these men were converted, and the reality of their conversion has stood the stress and strain of twelve years'in Australia and two years in the war. It is evident then that a great many of those who come to Christ during special evangelistic services prove'faithful. The Life of Faith, in the same issue, contains an editorial on this letter, in which it says: “One of the most frequent of the many complaints brought against evangelistic effort is that its fruits are ‘Like the snowfall in the fiver, . . A moment white, then melts forever.’ Again and again we hear it asserted by those who ought to be better acquainted with the facts that missions leave behind them only broken pledges and disappointed hopes . . . Under the title of ‘Battlefield Evangelism,’ a short article dealing with Christian effort amongst our troops in France appears on an earlier page. In that article an extract is given from the letter of a lady serving at the front, and this is the testimony which she- gives: Many of the Australians I have found are Christians. They tell me it is the fruits of the Torrey-Alexander Mission, and they are as vigorous in their Christianity as one would expect.’ Now, fifteen years have passed since Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander visited Australia, so that the men who on the fields of France are giving as vigorous a demonstration of their Christianity as of their heroism, must have been brought to the Lord at an early age. This proves two things—first of all, that early conversion lasts, and secondly, that the results of evangelistic enterprise are more abiding than is generally supposed. Which reminds us of the man who, coming out of an evangelistic meeting where nothing new or modern had been given, remarked: ‘Well, it is the same old story.’ ‘Yes,’ said another man, ‘and with the same old results.’” In the quotation from the Life of Faith found in the Do Early Childhood preceding editorial, the editor of that publication calls Conversions Prove attention to the fact that many of the soldiers from Steadfast? Australia who are vigorous Christians attribute their conversion to the Torrey-Alexander Mission in Aus tralia in the early part of 1902, which fact proves that early Conversion lasts. This is proven by many similar experiences. The great majority of the members of most of our' evangelical churches today were brought to Christ before they were 20 years of age. Most of the best workers in our churches were converted in childhood. The overwhelming majority of ministers-of the gospel accepted Christ when children. If we should take out of our churches those who were A lady, who has been working among the Australian soldiers in France, thus writes concerning them in the Life of Faith for September 13, 1916: Are the Results of Evangelistic Work THE KING’S BUSINESS 7 converted in childhood, we would hardly have enough members left to carry on the work of the churches. Mr. Spurgeon bore testimony to the fact that he had received large numbers of children into the membership of the church, and that while he had had occasion to regret the receiving of many into the church in adult years, he never knew one whom he' had received in early child hood whose reception he had afterwards regretted. About a year ago one of the students in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, preparing for missionary work, came to the Dean of thè Institute and told him that she accepted Christ when a child during his special meetings in Sydney, Australia. A few days ago a young man, who is now studying at the Bible Institute, came to the Dean and told him that he had, been converted as-a little boy during his meetings in Dunedin, New Zealand. Many years ago one of the prominent officers of Newman Hall’s church in London said to the writer that a very large sharè of the active workers in the church had been brought to Christ fifteen years before as children, under E. P. Hammond, the evangelist. It certainly pays for many reasons to bring the children to a definite and intelligent acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, and a definite surrender to Him as their Lord and Master. Are we doing as much as we ought in that direction? Such emphasis has been laid, in the last few years, upon efforts to reach the men, that there is reason to think that the children have been neglected in many places/ “It gives me the greatest possible pleasure to preside over this meeting. I shall not take up your time with many opening remarks. I understand the great object of the League is that the reverence of many in our nation and Empire for- the Holy Scripture may be deepened and intensified to the advancement of the nation’s well-being in these days of solemn crisis. If that object is in any way attained, I feel sure that the Mansion House can never have been used for a better purpose, or the official arid personal support of the Lord Mayor more beneficently employed. There probably never was, a time in the history of the world when reverence for arid study of the Holy Word was more called for than at this supreme moment in the destiny of the nation. We see the world in mortal conflict, and with, I think, only one exception, the antagonists are so-called Christians, to whom the Word of God, as revealed in the Scriptures, has hitherto been the charter of their faith. That strikes me as a very curious fact which wants a deal of explanation. I think we have been too prone in the past to allow modern criticism, particularly by eminent German scholars and theologians, to whittle away our belief inj and therefore our reverence for, the great leading tenets of the Christian faith, with the Result that we have become lax and indifferent, and we now tolerate and condone specious doubts and the putting forward of plausible difficulties with regard to the Scriptures, which in our childhood would have been treated as mortal sin. Let us hope that when the war is over we may return to a greater reverence for the Word of God than has of late been prevalent, and that in a humbler and more chastened and contrite spirit the revival of studious interest in the Holy Scriptures may tend to soften all the asperities which the war has raised, and that by a deeper appreciation of the truths of the Divine message, war among Christians may never again be possible.” These words of the Lord Mayor are worthy of the most serious considera tion. The truth is that war never is possible among real Christians. But.the trouble is so many of our rulers who are professed Christians, and so many of the people also, are Christians only in name and not in fact. And there is a still deeper trouble, and that is that many who call themselves Christians and Sir Charles Wakefield, the Lord Mayor of London, in taking the chair at the Annual Meeting of the F ible League at the Mansion House, over which he presided, on May 9, 1916, said: The Bible in Times of Crisis. 8 THE KING’S BUSINESS who profess to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, do not in reality believe it to be such. Probably they would say that they do believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but their belief is merely a matter of opinion and not a real faith that takes possession of the heart and governs the life. Furthermore, there has been a tendency of late years, even among ministers of the gospel, to give a very loose meaning to, the statement that the Bible is the Word of God. They do not believe in its absolute authority, and we have gotten so in the habit of explaining away the things that we do not like to believe, that the Bible has little real power in our lives when we come to actual obedience to its commandments, A godless philosophy and an irreverent Criticism lies back of the whole war. AN HUNDRED FOLD By m r s . j. i. M c C lelland “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year fold.” — Gen. 26 : 12 . “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye hear much fruit."—Jno. an hundred- I5 :8 - A STALK of wheat was bending low, JL j L Beneath her weight of grain-, While one with head uptilted so, Looked down with real disdain. “Are you content to stay down there, / When I can see-'so far? Why not come up to sun and air Where stately, wheat-folk are? “We wave as billows of the sea When winds across us play; And all the wheat stalks will agree T hat you are hid away!” “I have not thought of climbing high,” Her sister softly said, “And shall I tell the reason why I’m aiming high instead? “When we were planted in the ground So many months ago, I thought I heard a sighing sound Ju st like the breezes blow. And then I heard the farm er say: ‘We m ust-be growing old. I wonder if this seed will pay, And yield an hundred-fold?* “So when he put me in the earth, To sleep, and wake, and grow, The thing th at seemed of greatest worth, The thing th at gripped me so, Was th at the life God gave to me Should bring forth grains of gold. . W hat m atter if I do not see, If He see hundred-fold?” NOT A WORD OF CHRIST’S SHALL 1 = 1 EVER FAIL By Dr. R. A. Torrey DEAN O F TH E BIBLE INSTITUTE O F LOS ANG ELES of His shall ever fail has been substantiated. That th.e words of Jesus Christ shall never pass away is proven by the tests that they have already stood. 1. First of all the words of Jesus have stood the test of bitterest opposition. No sooner had these words fallen from His lips than they were hated. They have been hated through the nearly nineteen centuries that have elapsed since they were spoken. This hatred of the words of Jesus has been most bitter, most relentless, most energetic, most skillful, most wily, most powerful, but it has been utterly ineffective. This hatred manifests itself in literary attacks upon the words of Jesus, like that of Lucian, the greatest master of satire in his day; in philosophical attacks like that of the great philosopher Porphyry; in learned attacks like that of the great scholar Celsus; in physical attacks like that of the great Roman Emperor Diocletian, in which he summoned all the political and military powers of the empire, with torch and stake and prison and wild beasts, to obliterate from the pages of history the memory of Jesus Christ and His words. From those early days until this, this opposition has gone on, more than eighteen centuries of it. All the artillery of science, literature, philosophy, political intrigue, sarcasm, ridi cule, worldly ambition, force, all the artil lery of earth and hell, have been trained upon the words of Christ, and for centuries N Matt. 23:35 Jesus Christ is recorded as saying, “Heaven an{i earth shall pass away, but h/z my words shall not pass J ||§ f f | away.” The Lord Jesus here- asserts that His words are more stable and enduring than heaven or earth: that while heaven and earth shall pass away, His words shall not pass away. When we stop to consider the position that Jesus occupied when He made this extraordinary claim, it appears absurd in the extreme. He was an uneducated artisan of an obscure and despised people. Furthermore, it was only a few days before His crucifixion. The man who uttered these astounding words in less than a week was to be the butt of the scorn and ridicule of the jeering mobs as He ended His life on a gibbet only a ,short walk from where He was now speak ing. If these words spoken by such a man at such a time prove true, then He must be more than appears at fir$t sight; indeed, He must be, as He claimed to be, Divine. Heaven and earth are God’s own handi work, and if Christ’s words prove more stable than they, then He Himself must be Divine. I. C hrist’s words are sure. But these remarkable words of Christ, after the elapse of more than eighteen centuries, are proven to be true. This stupendous claim of Jesus that not a word 10 THE KING’S BUSINESS at a time an almost incessant cannonade has been kept up. Sometimes weak hearts have been shaken by the roar of battle, but the words of Christ have remained abso lutely unshaken. There has not been one single stone dislodged from these fortifi cations. Words that can come out of eighteen centuries of such experience as that unscathed, unscarred, unmarred, will stand forever. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of Christ shall not pass away. 2. But the words of Christ have not only stood the test of bitterest opposition; they have also stood the test of time. The test of time is a severe test of men’s utterances. What seemed like wisdom when uttered a few years ago is seen today to -be con summate folly. Ptolemy was by far the greatest astronomer of his time, and his Utterances were considered the sum of all wisdom, but they have not stood the test of time, and his theories are. today the laughing stock of the school room. What is true of the words of Ptolemy is true also of all other books of the past but One; they are outgrown, but the utterances of Jesus Christ are not outgrown; they" are as precious today as in that* long ago time -When they were first spoken. They, are as-perfectly applicable to present day needs as to the needs of that day. They contain the solution of all modern indi vidual and social problems: they have per petual youth. There is not one single point at which the teachings of Jesus have been outgrown or become antiquated. Beyond a doubt the human mind has been expand ing for more than eighteen centuries since Jesus Christ spoke here on earth, but it has not outgrown Him. Words that can endure eighteen centuries of growth and still prove as thoroughly adequate to meet the needs of the race, and each member of the race, as when first given, will stand forever. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but” the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away. Let us say in passing that in the light of history it is nothing short of preposterous, and even ludicrous, to hear men put for ward the claims of the newly-hatched philosophers of a day against the utter ances of Jesus Christ that have stood the test of more than eighteen centuries, espe cially in view of the well known fact that just such philosopher?;' full of self-confi dence, have appeared by the thousands in the past and after a brief day of notoriety have flashed out again into the darkness from which they had so recently emerged. The history of eighteen centuries of human thought is largely a history of men who counted themselves wiser than Christ, but whom it took only a few years to prove utter fools. But the words of Jesus, Christ have not only stood the test of bitterest opposi tion and the test of time, they have also stood the test of rigid scrutiny. No other words have been so examined, scrutinized, analyzed, pulled to pieces, subjected to the most microscopic examination as the words of Jesus Christ. They have undergone eighteen centuries of scrutiny, and whaf is the result? (1) The first re su lts that not one single flaw has been discovered. What would not men give to find one real flaw ip the words of Jesus? AAfhat Would not Col. Ingersoll have given in his day? What would not some of our liberal preachers of the present day,.who would like to set them selves up by putting 'Jesus Christ down, give? What would not some of our pro fessedly orthodox preachers, who care far more for a petty reputation for originality and advanced scholarship than they do for the untarnished splendor of the word of God, give? They have searched for a. flaw—generation after generation of the enemies of Christ. One generation failing to find such a flaw, has bequeathed the search to another, and this search has'gone on for more than eighteen centuries with the best microscopes that could be devised, and that search has failed, utterly failed. No man, after all these centuries of search for it, can point to one single flaw in the 11 THE KING’S BUSINESS be left upon another, and that for long periods of time to come Jerusalem would be trodden under foot of the Gentiles. History tells us that these strange and improbable predictions have come to pass to the letter. They are being fulfilled even in our day. Jesus furthermore foretold that the Jew, though crushed, scattered throughout the earth, subjected to unparal leled tyranny, would preserve his race- identity until Christ should come again. Centuries have rolled on; nations have risen, fallen, been obliterated and forgotten, the Jew has not had a foothold for cen turies, yet the Jew retains his race identity to this day as perfectly as he possessed it in the first century. It is the miracle of history, and the words of Christ stand. Jesus Christ predicted, furthermore, that the little church He had founded of obscure men in that obscure corner of the earth, would -spread throughout the earth until the nations of the earth took shelter under the branches thereof. This prediction seemed utterly wild and preposterous, but we all know that it has come true. The words of Christ have stood the test of history. He predicted, furthermore, that His church having spread thus outwardly, corruption would begin inwardly, and that this corruption would spread until “all was leavened.” It was a gassing strange pre diction to make about one’s own kingdom, but it has been fulfilled to the letter. The apparently preposterous and impossible words of Christ have stood the test of more than eighteen centuries of history. The words of prophecy that can stand the rigid test of eighteen centuries ,of history will stand forever. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but” Christ’s words shall not pass away. S. But the words of Christ have not only stood the test of bitterest opposition, and the test of time, and the test of rigid scrutiny, and the tést, of history confirming the accuracy of His phophecies, they have also stood the test of more than eighteen centuries of practical application. Through these more than eighteen centuries men and words of Jesus. The words of Jesus stand out absolutely flawless. The words that have stood eighteen centuries of such scrutiny will stand forever. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but” the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away. (2) But there is a second result in this scrutiny. The words of Christ have not only/proven themselves flawless, they have also proven themselves inexhaustible. These more than eighteen centuries have not only been centuries of scrutiny, they have also been centuries of profound, earn est, and honest study as well. Men have dug and dug for eighteen centuries into this mine of precious metal that they have found in the words of Christ; thousands and tens of thousands have dug, arid the mine' has proven absolutely inexhaustible. There is more for the new miner that comes today than there was for the first digger. Eighteen centuries of digging and discovery and no hint of touching the bot tom of the mine, the bottom further off than ever. The mine that has endured eighteen centuries of such digging and not given out never will give out. With the confidence born of eighteen centuries of experience we can shout, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away.” 4. The words of Jesus Christ have not only stood the test of bitterest opposition, and the test of time, and the test of rigid Scrutiny, they have also stood another test, the test of history, measuring the accuracy of His prophecies. Jesus Christ was a Prophet who undertook to tell the things that were to be for centuries after Him. History is the touchstone of prophecy. The prophet who is not of God always falls before the test of history, but Jesus Christ stands. Jesus Christ, while Jerusalem and the temple were still standing in their pride, magnificent, and seeming security, foretold that the armies of Rome would come and besiege the city, that there would be a siege of such horror as was unparal leled in history, that not one stone should 12 THE KING’S BUSINESS women have had these words of Christ before them to live by if they would, and thousands and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, have decided that they would. Men and women by the mil lions have tested the words of Christ, His promises, His moral precepts, His warnings, in all the relations of life. They have tested His promises and His precepts in the home, they have tested them in the church life, in the place of business; they have tested them in sickness and in health; they have tested them in the joys of peace and in the horrors of war; they have tested them in life and when face to face with death; they Jiave tested them in the sweet fullness of the unbroken family circle, and in the utter desolation when every earthly friend has been taken away. For eighteen centuries men have tested these words of Christ from the cradle to the gave, and the words of Christ have stood the test, they have never failed—they never will fail. In all, these words of Christ have stood millions upon millions of tests and not one single case of failure. What may we say then without the shadow of the shade of a doubt? Not one word of Christ’s shall ever fail. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away. If there is anything absolutely sure it is the words of Jesus Christ. Heaven and earth may pass away; they are material and subject to the changes and decay that are always going on in matter; they have stood for ages, but they will not always stand in their present form. There was a time, as both the Bible and science tell us, when the heavens and earth did not exist, and there will be a time when they do not continue to exist in their present form, but Christ’s words are spiritual, not material, unchangeable, not changing, eternal, not temporal, and while the endless ages of eternity roll on they will endure. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away. II. Some o th er things th a t are sure also. We have seen that Christ’s words are absolutely sure, that not one word of His shall ever fail, but if Jesus Christ’s words are sure some other things are sure also. 1. It is sure that there is a future eternal heaven and eternal hell. This, Jesus Christ plainly declares. The doctrines of an eternal heaven and an eternal hell are not speculations of the theologians, but procla-1 mations of the Son of God. Jesus Christ said that at His coming again, all nations then living on the earth shall be gathered before Him for judgment, and that He shall separate them one from the other as a shepherd separateth his sheep from the goats,, and that He shall set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left, and of those on the left hand He says, “These shall go away into eternal punish ment: but the righteous unto eternal life” (Matt. 25:31-34, 41, 46). Remember that these are not the words of some, “antiquated, mediaeval, bigoted theologian;” they are the words of the Son of God, the words of Him not' one word of whose shall ever fail. 2. It is sure again . that any one who. believes in Jesus Christ shall receive for giveness of sins and eternal life, no matter how greatly nor how long he may have sinned. Jesus says that He “has power on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10). He says again, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:14). These words seem incredible; they seem too good to be true, but Jesus Christ is the speaker, and not one word of His shall ever fail. The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but His words shall not pass away. This statement that there is pardon and eternal life for any one and every one who will believe in Jesus Christ is absolutely sure. Is there any one who reads these words who is heartily sick of sin and heartily tired of death? Come, believe on Jesus Christ and 13 THE KING’S BUSINESS John 3:5, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” It becomes a matter of tremen dous importance then to each one of us that we know whether we have been born again or not. Heaven and earth shall pass' away, but Christ’s words shall not pass away, and Jesus Christ says that no one who has not been born again shall enter His kingdom. Oh man, oh woman, have you been born again ? 5. Still another thing is sure. It is sure that if one seeks to be a Christian without letting the world know it, seeks to be a Christian in the privacy of his own heart, it is sure that Jesus Christ will not acknowl edge such a disciple when He comes. His words on this point are very plain and unmistakable. He says in Mark 8 :38, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels.” And He says again in Matt. 10:32, 33, “Whosoever therefore shall con fess me before men, him shall I also con fess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in .heaven.” There can be no mistaking the meaning of these words. Ypur own deceitful heart may seek to make you think you can be a Christian and not tell it; false friends may try to persuade you of the same thing, but He, not one word of whose shall ever fail, says, “Who soever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of His' Father, with the holy angels.” Your opinion will pass away, your friends’ false arguments shall pass away, heaven and earth shall pass away, but Christ’s words ,shall not pass away. , be saved and get pardon and eternal life in an instant. 3. It is sure again that no one who rejects Jesus Christ shall see life, hut that the wrath of God abideth upon him. Many do not like that doctrine ; they like to think that they can reject Jesus Christ and yet be saved by their imagined morality, or in some other way. There is absolutely no foundation for such a hope. It is not thè doctrine of “fierce old John Calvin,” nor of “bigoted old Jonathan Edwards;” it is the declaration of Jesus Christ, who says in John 3 :18, 19, “He that believeth in Him is not condemned : but he that believeth hot is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begot ten Son of God. And this is the con demnation, that light is come into the' world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” He says again in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the same chapter, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness : even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The unmis takable implication of these words is that the one who does f not believe shall perish no matter what else he may do, and John sums up the teaching o,f the Lord Jesus on this point by saying, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life : but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Before you dare question this statement to your own eternal ruin, remember who makes it, viz., the One not one of whose words shall ever fail. 4. There is still another thing that is absolutely sure. It is absolutely sure that if a .man is not born again he shall not enter into the kingdom of God. This is the word of Jesus Christ, who says in John 3:3, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And He says again in 14 THE KING’S BUSINESS NEWS FROM THE TRENCHES A VISIT FROM RALPH NORTON T ARGE Los Angeles audiences in the Bible Institute Auditorium were enter tained last month with the thrilling story of the European war trenches, by Ralph Norton. For nearly two years he and his wife labored among the soldiers, mainly among the Belgians on the French front, roads, bearing on his back the heavy pack which for so many weary months of war he has carried, for so many hundreds of times, to the same trenches of misery and death ?i- And when he has entered that self-same trench, on the bright Christmas morning which you in America will be so and they are now at home engaged in gath ering funds to further carry on the work of distributing the : Gospel and carrying good cheer to the boys in the trenches. Mrs. Norton makes this appeal: “Christ- mastide for the Belgian soldier: what will -it bring? To the children and grown-ups of America, it will mean happy family re unions around a well-laden Christmas tree; it will mean comfort, well-being, good cheer, in the shelter of happy homes. To thg little Belgian soldier this third Christ mas of the war will mean weariness of soul and body, heart-breaking loneliness, an ache of heart hardly to be borne as he thinks of his family separated from him by an impassable barrier, those loved ones from whom he has heard no word since the outbreak of the war. Can you not see him, sturdily marching away to the frozen mud of the trenches, on Christmas morning, over shell-pitted joyously celebrating, he will accept and eat his same rations.of sour French bread and potatoes and weak coffee—if indeed he is able to swallow anything for the lump in his throat. For how differently they used to celebrate in the old days in Belgium! And then he will think and wonder for the millionth time if they are alive, his loved ones, if they are suffering—if perchance they think him dead. “And then -he will take out of his pocket the Gospel or Testamant sent him by American friends, and as he reads that the Lord Jesus too suffered and had no place to lay his head, he will do as many have done—write us, ‘Oh, I must have lost my reason but for the precious Book you have sent me.” ’ Persons desiring to make contributions to the fund, though Christmas will be near when they read this, may send them to the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. The money will be promptly forwarded to Mr. Norton. © ï ï im r o o m " o f THINE OW N HAVE WE GIVEN T H E E " m house, but the cook was 'given divine wis dom in answering, and saved it by telling them if they did burn it, the foreigners would only put up another and finer: one; they did not leave, however,, until every thing that could not be carried away was destroyed, including the furniture and every window in the house. To me the most miraculous thing about it all is that the baby only cried once, and that was just a whimper after waking up, and while the robbers were still in the house making such a noise they could not possibly hear her; she seemed to know there was danger near.” Mrs. Pike writes from Chi Kung Shan (pronounced “Chickenshan”), on top of “Chicken Head Mountain,” and gives some interesting details of her journey from Hankow: “From the end of the railroad (a day’s journey from Hankow) we were carried up the mountain On chairs, on the. shoulders of four Chinese, taking one hour. Sometimes thé way was quite steep. They carried our trunks on poles over their shoulders, In Hankow one man carried our two steamer trunks, one on each end of his pole—they are really beasts of burden. The Î scenery around here is certainly beautiful. We are very high, and the liftle church is at the foot of the hill from our house. A Chinese conference is being held there this week, and i wish you could hear them sing ; some high, some low, some medium—no music in it whatever. The houses here are all built of brick and cement, a porch surrounding each house. , Bessie brought her Chinese woman with her to do thé house work, and what do you think she pays her—$1.30 a month, in our money. ' She hap tiny little bound-feet, about the size of a four-year-old child. We have four rooms, and kitchen with the oddest built-in cement range, in which we burn charcoal. Outside the kitchen door is ISS ELORENCE PIKE °f Pasadena, a graduate of the P'hle Institute and now a m'ss'onary in China, under the Presbyterian Board, has been assigned to the station at Yeung Kong, about 100 miles from Canton, one of the finest missionary compounds in South China. She is to be congratulated upon her , good fortune. Her sister Bessie is a mis sionary at Pi Yang, where She has been several years. Their mother has been visiting them since early last summer, which they all spent together at Chi Kung. Shan, Bessie having made a three-day jour ney from Pi Yang. Both the young ladies are probably now at their stations, and Mrs. Pike will be back in her Pasadena home the first part of the present month. Alden Pratt and wife have been assigned to the mission station at Lein Chow. Among the interesting things Florence has written is this: “I want to tell you about the miraculous escape which a Mr. and Mrs. Thorson and their two-year-old baby had from robbers. They are our neighbors at Chi Kung Shan, arriving here just a week ago. When the robbers attacked the house they all fled to the cellar, concealing themselves in a dark hole, which was dug at one side for the purpose of airing the cellar. From their hiding place they heard the robbers demanding of the Chinese; cook where the foreigners had escaped to, but the cook told them they fled over the city wall the night before; this did not satisfy them, however, and they began a search of the house, saying if they found the family they would kill them. It was only a few moments until some of the robbers came into the cellar, and one man, with a large knife in his hand, felt all around, but missed them; it was so dark they could not be seen. Failing to find anyone, the robbers wanted to burn the
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