The Missionary Review of the World — December 1938
1938
"What a Time to Be in China 1"
Courtenay H. Penn The Call of the Dyacks of Borneo R. A. Jaf/ray Christian Sadhus and Ashrams w. Q. Lash What Is the Koran?
E. E. Elder The Privilege of Preaching to Moslems -Stephen Khoobyar Presenting the Gospel in Brazil E. M. Do Amaral The Prime Needs of a City Church G. H. Bechtold 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to. Remember LET CHRISTMAS COME T:O
December 6-9-Biennial meeting of The chUdren of war.torn China. orphaned. abandoned. hopeless. lift appealing the Federal Council of Churches, hands. Your prayers and aid wUlllive them a Christian Christmas. Buffalo, N. Y. HOME OF OMESIPHORUI December 13-30 – International Mis- sionary Council, Madras, India. TAIAN. SHANTUNG. CHINA December 30-31 – All-India Confer- Thill faith work. one of the largest Christian institutions in the Orient. has saved ence of Indian Christians, Madras, thousands. Founded more than two decades ago by the Rev. and Mrs. Anglin. India. Thousands of earnest Christians have been blessed by sharin. their means in this ministry. Your help now will make Christmas a time of joy for hopeless chUdren January 8-10, 1939 – Home Missions and a time of reaping a great harvest of souls for the Kingdom. Council, Baltimore, Md. Write today for FREE picture and story of Chinese girl shown in this ad; January 21-25 – Cause and Cure of also receive "Helping China's Helpless." If God speaks to your heart, War Conference, Washington, D. C. enclose cheCk or money order or indicate willingness to join in prayer for God'. blessing on this work. Addres.: January 23-February IS-Iowa School for Missionaries. Iowa State College, HOME OF ONESIPHORUS American Office Ames, Iowa. 2811 North Racine Avenue Drawer 36 Chicago, Illinois February 6-l4-International Council of Religious Education, Chicago, Ill. Hughes was born in Atlanta, Ga., sev- Amoy, China, under the Reformed enty-two years ago. Church in America, died at Hemp- FLORIDA CHAIN OF MISSION- stead, L. I., on November 12th at the ARY ASSEMBLIES *** age of 85. She was born in China, the daughter of the Rev. John Van January 24-26-Jacksonville. Miss Annabel Galt, retired mission- Nest Talmadge, a missionary, and January 25-27-Daytona Beach. ary of the Presbyterian Board, died in after being educated in America re- January 28-February I-Miami. Orlando, Fla., October 3. Miss Galt turned for her long service in Amoy January 29-31-Ft. Lauderdale. went to Siam in. 1891, and was sta- and came to America only last year, February l-3-Palm Beaches. tioned at Petchaburi for eight years. suffering from the effects of a frac- February 4-8-0rlando. From 1900, she was connected with tured hip. February 5-7-DeLand. Bangkok Christian College as teacher February 9-l0-Sarasota. of English. In addition to this work *** February 8-l0-Ft. Myers. she taught Bible classes, prepared and February 11-I6-St. Petersburg. edited several textbooks in Siamese, Mrs. A,no Liza Gulick, the widow February l2-15-Clearwater. aided in planning and developing the of the Rev. O. H. Gulick, formerly a February 17-18-Southern College. women's organizations in the local and missionary to Japan under the Amer- February 19-21-Tampa. National church, and worked in the ican Board of Commissioners for For- February 19-21-Winter Haven. Sunday school and community. eign Missions, died in Honolulu on February 22-23-Quincy. October 9th at the age of 105. She February 23-24-Tallahassee. *** was born in the Hawaiian Islands and February 24-26-All College. later attended Mt. Holyoke College, The Rev. John B. Dunlap, D.D., an Massachusetts. She was married to Obituary Notes honorably retired missionary from Mr. Gulick in 1855 and went to Japan Siam of the Presbyterian Church, where they remained until 1892 when Dr. Murdoch MacKenzie, of the U. S. A., died in Los Gatos, California they returned to Hawaii to work United Church of Canada, widely on September 22nd. He was born in among the Japanese. known by reason of nearly fifty years' New Alexandria, Pa., on Sept. 12, service for missions in Honan, China, 1860, and after being graduated from THf PRfSBYTfRIAn died recently. Dr. Murdoch was born Washington and Jefferson College and eighty years ago in Scotland. In Western Theological Seminary, he (0 The only weekly in the 1883, he went to Canada, was educated sailed for Siam in 1888 and remained Presbyterian Church. in McGill University, and the Presby- there for forty years, teaching and terian Seminary in Montreal; in 1889, doing extensive evangelistic work. He (. Its message is based upon he was sent to Honan, and with Dr. also prepared a Siamese hymnal and the Revealed Word of God. Jonathan Goforth had many perilous directed the work of the Mission Press experiences. Dr. MacKenzie was a in Bangkok. (0 Goes into every state in man of profound and devout scholar- the Union, U. S. possessions ship, upon which he drew with untir- *** and many foreign countries. ing energy in the training of a native ministry. The Rev. Masue Kawazoe, veteran Subscription rate – $2.50 pastor of the Church of Christ in J a- Ministerial rate . . $2.00 Shortly before his death, he realized pan (the Presbyterian and Reformed a long-cherished desire to visit the Church) died July 11th at his home SOc. extra..Canadian postage Holy Land, and a farewell visit to his in Tokyo. Mr. Kawazoe. was born in $1.50 extra.. Foreign postage native Scotland. Kochi sixty-nine years ago, was bap'- tized at seventeen, educated at MeJji THE PRESBYTERIHn *** Gakuin, Tokyo, and Auburn Semi- nary, New York. After being or- 121 7 Market Street Samuel Bryant, Treasurer of the dained in 1898, he was pastor of Philaclelphia, Pa. American Baptist Home Mission So- churches in Nagasaki, Osaka and ciety since 1919, died at his home in Tokyo. He was a member of the Palisades Park, N. Y., September 21. Committee on the Revision of the He had devoted eight of the nineteen New Testament, on the editorial staff years of service without salary. of the Christian Literature Society of Japan, formerly dean of the Theo- *** logical Department of Meiji Gakuin. president emeritus of the Japan Theo- Mrs. Isabel Hughes, wife of Bishop logical Seminary, former president of Edwin H. Hughes of the Methodist the Synod of the Church of Christ in Episcopal Church, died in Washing- Japan, pastor emeritus of the Aoyama ton, D. C., September 16, after an ill- Church, Tokyo. and one of the foreness of more than two years. Mrs. most Japanese scholars of New Testa- ment Greek.
*** Miss Katharine M. Talmadge. for sixty-four years a missionary in
Malwa-the Great Temple THE
REVIEW OF THE WORLD When Ihe good wOl'k calls you Easl … sail DBLAVAN L. PIBBBON, BeUtor p&O VOL. LXI DEC., 1938 No. 12 Publication and Buslnesa Ollie&– Third and Reily Ste., Harrlsburl, Pa.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS ROBBRT E. SPBBR, President A. L. WABNBlIUIB, V'CtI-Prerilknt W ALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer DELAVAN L. PIBBSON, Secretaf'1/ PAUL J. BRAISTED SAKUBL MCCREA CAVERT D. J. FANT MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD WK. B. LIPPllABD ERIC M. NORTH SAMUBL M. ZWEKER 1938 marks the second century of P & 0 Editorial Chat The great white Empresses hold service to the lands beyond Suez! When- every speed record to and from ever you are called to the other side of Here endeth our sixty-first volume the Orient. 10 days direct to the world, choose this traditional route. of THE REVIEW. But another volume Yokohama by Empress of Asia Cross to England by Cunard White Star begins with the January number. or Empress of Russia. Or only . . • and then embark in a great liner of This coming year is one that you will three days more via Hawaii by the P & 0 and British India fleets, led not wish to miss. Never were there Empress of Japan, largest and by the new 23,SOO-ton Stratheden and greater problems that face the Church fastest on the Pacific, or Empress Strathallan, featuring air-conditioned of Christ in China, Korea, Japan, In- of Canada. Connect at Honolulu dining saloons in first-class, hot and cold dia, Europe, and America. Never was from California ports. running water throughout, built-in out- there greater need for Christ and His From Vancouver and Victoria of-door swimming pools, children's play- Gospel; never were there larger op- to Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, rooms! Regular service to Egypt, Sudan, portunities or greater encouragements. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila. Iranian Gulf, India, Burma, Ceylon, THE REVIEW will keep you informed Details from YOUR TRAVEL Straits Settlements, China, Japan, Aus- on these points and on progress all AGENT or Canadian Pacific,: tralia, East and South Africa, Mauritius. over the world. 41 offices in U. S. and Canada. Special reductions and generous baggage allowance for missionaries. *** Convenient through bookings can be ar- In 1939 we plan to take up the most important topics discussed at the rangedby your travel agent or any office of Madras Conference, together with rad- ical changes proposed in missionary CUNARD WHITE STAR LINE policies and methods. Mrs. Howard Taylor is to tell in our January issue General Agents the inspiring story of how God guided the program of the China Inland Mis- 25 Broadway and 638 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. sion in North America. It is a story that all should read.
A number of pastors and mission- ary executives will tell "How to In- terest Men in Missions." The answers they give are illuminating for they come from experience.
Here is the c*om*men*t of one reader as to the value of THE REVIEW: "We have been delighted with THE REVIEW. Please enter our subscrip- tion sufficiently in advance so that we will not miss any of the issues. We do not care to be without the mag- azine. It is a source of spiritual power and inspiration to us."
MRS. HOWARD THOMAS, American Presbyterian Mission, Kiulung- kiang, Yunnan, China.
[561 ]
~ C!Cbristian C!Cbristmas :!fMessage
FROM JAPAN TO CHINA* DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS: I ask your pardon for my nation. Because of what. we are doing, I cannot preach in the Name of Christ. … I ask your attention to this fact; however, that even in Japan the majority of the Japanese people were against sending any troops to China. We Christians were bit- terly opposed to it. Therefore pardon us, pardon me especially, because our Christian forces were not strong enough to get the victory over the militarists. But the day will come when we shall be strong enough to do so, and when both nations will be harmonious and peaceful in the Name of Christ. . . . We Japanese love China. Where the city of Kyoto stands today there was in former times a colony of Chinese farmers. Because they had the highest culture then known, the Japanese Imperial Household moved to that district. As the city of Kyoto grew up, eighty per cent of its noble families came to be of Chinese descent. Among the immigrant strains in Japan, from the Southern Seas, from Korea, from Siberia, from Mongolia, the one which has contributed the dominant factor to Japanese civilization is from China. Therefore we who know the facts love China. But unless we, in both Japan and China, become more Christian, we shall never have per- manent peace. . . . Sometimes we are very selfish and even some Christians do not see the need of praying. . . . When you are contented, and have no holy ambition to build up the nation, you may have no desire to pray. . . . Oppressed by wars, oppressed by capitalism, op- pressed by the injustice of the present economic social system-can we ignore the needs of men? If we are contented with the sort of world we have at present, there is no use of praying to God. But if we want real peace, and real humanity, real Godliness, there are many problems for the solution of which we must pray. We must pray for each of the nations, for Africa, for India, and for China and Japan. We must pray for world peace, for the uplifting of the poor, for the desert to be made green, for the New Age, for the New Society. We must pray for science to be controlled by conscience. . . .
If you pray, world peace will be realized; the poor will be emancipated. Abraham Lin- coln prayed through the night before he wrote his Emancipation Proclamation. I believe it was because he prayed that the four millions of poor slaves were emancipated.
Unless Christ is glorified in the Orient, the fate of our continent will be very dismal. Un- less we believe in Christ, and deepen our spiritual life with Christian idealism, peace will never come…. Stanley Jones, in his small pamphlet entitled "Christ on the Andes Road,"
tells of how war had long prevailed between Argentine and Chile. After many years a reconcili- ation was suggested, and they came to the conclusion that they must have peace through Christ.
On the top of the mountain range between the two countries a great statue was erected of the Saviour, Christ, stretching out His arms, on the one side blessing Argentine, and on the other side blessing Chile. May the Prince of Peace come thus in the Orient, and bless China on the one hand and Japan on the other! TOYOHIKO KAGAWA.
• From Friends oj Jesus (December. 1931) .
.. IIl~~!IJI!IJI!i!i~~!IJI!i!lJl!i!i!i!i!i:IIl!i»a!i!i~!i!lJl!i!lJli; [562 ] REVIB ORLD VOLUME LXI AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 12 DECEMBER, 1938 Topics of the Times REAL CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR 1938 moting international peace and a cessation from the building of a great army and air force. The widespread spirit of Christmas giving throughout the world is evidenced by the general Suppose that in Spain, Loyalists and Revoluobservance of Christmas even among the non- tionists should extend to each other the right hand Christians-in music, festivals, cards and the too- of brotherhood and should give themselves to the often formal exchange of gifts. How much of this work of promoting righteousness, brotherly love, activity is truly motivated and directed by the and the rebuilding of their national life on a firm Spirit of Christ? Christians acknowledge that basis. Italy might celebrate their Christmas by giving Ethiopia her freedom and her own people every good gift comes from God – our physical a release from fear. Mexico's gift might be not and mental powers, spiritual things – and are only a square deal for the peons and for the available even though we neglect, reject, despise Church but the right to teach Christianity and a or misuse them. The best gifts are those that no just settlement of questions involved in the conmoney can buy, and that enrich the recipient while fiscation of property.
they do not impoverish the giver. What about England and America? Could not With Himself, Jesus Christ gave the world His Great Britain make a better Christmas gift than love, peace and joy, the forgiveness of sin and 5,000 new bombing airplanes? How would the Life Eternal. Spirit of Christ best be shown in the settlement of Was there ever a time in history when these the Irish question, the problem of Palestine, Homegifts were more needed than today? How much rule in India and in the matter of German colit would mean if they were everywhere received onies? In America the Christmas spirit is not and shared? How infinitely better these would be shown in the increase of armaments and of taxes. than the gift of greater material prosperity for There is abundant opportunity to celebrate in a which men are striving so eagerly – better even settlement of labor difficulties and by giving unthan new laws, than new labor-saving inventions, selfish, efficient government to the nation, states higher wages. or shorter hours of work! and cities. Christ-like Christmas gifts would in- What a difference it would make in the world clude the general observance of laws and customs today if the true Spirit of Christ were manifested that promote purity in the home and personal life ; this year among all nations in the observance of sincerity in the worship of God; brotherly treat- Christmas. Imagine the effect if Japan, moved ment of Negroes, Mexicans and Orientals. Amer- by this Spirit, should give peace to China and true ica might celebrate in a Christ-like way by using religious liberty to the Koreans.. Suppose that her wealth to meet the crying needs of others Soviet Russia should celebrate Christmas by giv- around the world. Would not this be a different world if the love of Christ and a knowledge of ing the right to teach youth to know and worship His Way of Life should direct the Christmas cele- God, freedom to political prisoners and freedom bration of all nations in 1938 and in the years to of the press and speech! What if Germany gave civil rights and freedom from persecution to her come?
Jewish population, freedom from religious and We may not be able to control the giving of the political oppression to pastor Niemoller and other nations, but what about ourselves? As individuals Christians, friendly cooperation to Europe in pro- how can we best show our sense of indebtedness [563 ]
to Christ; how can we truly reveal His Spirit and thousands of Chinese find food, protection and make this a joyful Christmas, effectively carrying loving sympathy.
forward the work that He came to do-in our own Z. Should missionaries leave their stations to lives, in our home circle, in our nation and in the follow the fleeing Chinese so as to continue or world, to make this a truly joyful Christmas? establish work among them in new centers where little has been done? This course has been fol- MISSIONARY PROBLEMS IN CHINA lowed in the case of faculties of many schools and With the Japanese war-machine pressing on- colleges which have been closed by the Japanese ward in the west and south of China, the Christian advance. The Nanking University work has been missionaries as well as the Chinese find themselves moved to Chengtu in Szechuan; the faculties of in a difficult position. Driving onward up the Soochow College and Schools have been moved to Yangtse River the Japanese have captured Han- Shanghai and elsewhere ; much of the Bethel Miskow, Wuchang and Hanyang where over one hun"- sion of Shanghai has been transferred to Hongdred and fifty American and British missionaries kong or Kowloon, since their property has been have been working under the London Missionary occupied by the Japanese. Foochow College stu- Society, China Inland Mission and the American dents have been moved to a less dangerous. location Protestant Episcopal Church and twenty other further inland, since the Japanese seem to plan missions. In this Wu-Han district are located hos- the destruction of educated Chinese. Thus the pitals, colleges and schools and churches that Christians have sought to conserve their resources mean much for the development of China. Al- and to carryon their work with as· little loss of ready many of the institutions have been moved life and with as much efficiency as possible. westward to Chentu and southward to Hongkong but, with the modern airplane in the hands of a 3. In cases of Japanese occupation and dominaruthless but skilful enemy, no people or place, tion in larger or smaller areas in China, should however remote or peaceful, is exempt from the missionaries remain at their posts as neutrals and devastation wrought by these engines of destruc- serve all within reach-whether Chinese or J aption. The Chinese armies, in spite of intense suf- anese-even cooperating with Japanese for confering and against heavy odds, are still fighting structive work? This view is held by some who courageously to defend themselves and their coun- believe that missionaries are supra-national. Most try from this invasion but the immediate outcome of the missionaries, however, believe that, while is impossibl~ to predict. The Christian mission- they are ready to minister in the Spirit of Christ aries are proving their sacrificial courage, their to all within reach, their first responsibility is to real love for the Chinese and their resourcefulness the Chinese to whom they have gone as ambassain this time of danger. Without their help the dors of Christ. They believe that the Chinese are situation of the Chinese in the war areas would the victims of an unprovoked attack, and realize be infinitely worse; more and more the Chinese that there are still many millions of the people realize this. But the problems of the missionaries who have never yet even heard the Gospel and are many and do not decrease as the war advances. there are many thousands of towns and villages Questions are raised: still without any representative of Christ. They have seen the nobility and faithfulness of Chinese 1. When war threatens their ve'ry existence Christians and believe that this time of fellowship should missionaries close their work and move with them in suffering is opening many Chinese elsewhere to carry on? Some few "neutrals" ad- hearts to Christ and His message of life as never vise this in order to avoid international complica- before. tions. But the missionaries as a whole reject this suggestion as desertion of their posts. and their Christians and the Christian Church have never flocks. While women with children, who could not been exempt from suffering; but history has be of help under war conditions, have been evac- proved, times without number, that the very uated from many stations, the vast number of "gates of hell shall not prevail" against those who missionaries remain at their posts and risk their are loyal to Christ and His program. Victory and deliverance is assured since Christ is the Victor.
lives to serve the Chinese. In one mission seventy THE DILEMMA OF KOREAN CHRISTIANS out of seventy-one stations are still kept open and missionaries continue to serve as ambassadors of Reports from Chosen show the determination Christ and helpers in time of need. Many schools of Japanese officials to compel Korean attendance and colleges are necessarily closed, or have moved at Shinto shrines. At first this order was enforced elsewhere, because of danger to pupils and the only in certain centers and in government schools.
occupation of property by the Japanese soldiers; It was then extended to all Christian colleges and but the hospitals and churches are kept open and schools and now is being enforced for theological mission compounds are used as refuges where seminaries and Bible school students(and teachers.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
Churches and other institutions are included in gods or to follow the superstitious rites propithe order to set up shrines or to bow before the tiating spirits in Africa and the islands of the sea. Emperor's picture. A refusal on conscientious grounds means rough treatment, imprisonment The situation in Korea is serious. In Formosa and other forms of persecution. the Shinto shrine rule has already been enforced. Apparently "Cresar" has won for the time being The Japanese officials are evidently determined and Christian schools that did not comply have to break down all opposition and are endeavoring been closed. There is danger that the Japanese to create a totalitarian Japanese Empire with ab- will endeavor to enforce the same regulations in solute and unquestioning obedience to every order Manchukuo and in occupied territory in China. of the Government. They recognize no God or Harmony is possible between national loyalty and law of God as of greater authority than the laws loyalty to God but there can be no truce between of the Empire, represented by their "divine" Em- the Japanese conception of Emperor worship and peror. While some officials declare that obeisance the Christian obligation to put God first in every at the shrines of the "Sun Goddess" is merely a phase of life. patriotic observance, they have refused to make any compromise in the ceremony such as will con- WILL MADRAS MEET THE OPPORTUNITY? vince Korean Christians that they can take part in the observance without disloyalty to God as the There is unquestionably a crisis in missions toonly object of worship. day. The conference at Madras, composed of selected delegates from mission churches 'and A crisis came in Chosen at the time of the meet- from American and European missionary leading of the Korean Presbyterian General Assembly ers, will be called upon to face that crisis. They on September 10th. The Japanese police ordered will consider, not so much the lack of missionary every delegate not to oppose going to Shinto candidates and missionary support from the shrines and many who refused were prevented sending churches, as the problems on the fieldfrom attending the Assembly. Missionaries were the promotion of self-support; their independence; asked to sign a statement that they would comply their union or inter-church cooperation in each with the order to advise their people to attend the area; the adequate training of native Christian shrines. They refused; if they attempted to speak leaders; the development of spiritual life in the on the subject at the General Assembly they were churches and homes; the place of education in forcibly prevented by the police who crowded the missions today; but, most of all, there must be an meeting place and sat on the platform. When the earnest study of the promotion of spiritual life, question was put-advising all to attend the of faith and Christlike service in each church and shrines-very few of the delegates responded; the group. Madras must look earnestly and fearlessly negative was not put to vote and some protested. at these problems and must prayerfully and hon- As a result several missionaries have felt it neces- estly seek God's guidance and power for their sary for them to withdraw from the General As- solution. Some present-day problems that form sembly and a committee has been appointed to the crisis seem to us to be as follows: appeal to Tokyo. Should secular education under mission con- The Japanese have also ordered that steps be trol be curtailed in many fields so as to release taken to alter the character and powers of the workers and money for direct evangelistic work. General Assembly, making the Moderator a "legal The church leaders must face this matter couraperson" with authority to act for the whole geously or they may be forced out of this field Church; there are signs that the Korean Church by governments that wish to control education. may be compelled to unite in one organization with the Church in Japan. Some new plan should be formulated whereby churches and institutions in the field will ex- Loyal Korean Christians are suffering in many ercise a greater degree of self-government, and at ways-in prison and out. They offer no objection the same time receive substantial support from to showing loyalty to the Japanese Emperor, to abroad, when they show that they will use it efthe Government and obedience to all righteous fectively. That problem of support must be faced laws; but multitudes take the stand that they and solved. choose persecution and death rather than be disloyal to God. It is' practically the old question More attention must be given to the developraised in Israel by the worship of Baal, in the ment of spirit-filled and intelligent Bible-trained Roman Empire by the order to worship Roman Christian workers in every church and in each gods and in every mission field in recent years field. The means must be found for the increase where Christians have faced persecution because and improvement in such training by schools, they have determined to worship God as revealed institutes and conferences. in Christ rather than acknowledge the prior claims of Mohammec or Buddha, the Hindu or Chinese Union mission enterprises are facing a crisis. If they are to continue they need to be placed on
a firmer spiritual basis, with clearer agreement FIFTY YEARS IN ARABIA as to aims and teachings, and as to the spiritual power, personnel and methods on which their Arabia, the great western Asia peninsula, is abiding success depends. about one third the size of the United States, and with a scattered population of possibly 10,000,000 A new study should be made as to the type of -chiefly nomadic tribes of Arabs, most of them missionary that is needed in order to cooperate hunters, traders and fishermen. There was no harmoniously with the leaders of the native Christian work among them, until in 1886 a churches, to help train spiritual workers, and to young man, Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, went out do abiding, effective Christlike service. from England and settled in the small British out- post of Aden in southern Arabia. The Arabians How can the churches, and Christian groups in were scarcely touched by the Gospel Message. each field, conserve the essentials of the Christian Then two young Americans had a vision of the message? This includes the eternal, spiritual Neglected Peninsula. James Cantine and Samuel character of God, the Father; the revelation and M. Zwemer – college and seminary graduates, salvation provided in Christ, the Son of God; the connected with the Reformed Church-heard the guidance and power of the Spirit of God; the in- call of God and volunteered to go out as mission- tegrity and authority of the Bible as the Word of aries to these fanatical Moslems, without any God; the essential unity of Christians and their guarantee of Mission Board support. Peter work as witnesses of the redemption brought Zwemer joined them two years later but died in through Christ and His manifestation of the love 1898; the" other two continued the work. They established mission stations on the Persian Gulf, of God. traveled widely over the peninSUla and faced and How, at the same time, can the churches and survived opposition and many dangers. They are now "honorably retired" but still are active in Christians in each field contribute most to the America in behalf of Moslems the world over. promotion of God's control over human life– national, physical, economical, social, mental and After some years the Reformed Church in spiritual; and how can each country be free to America adopted the mission and has since spon- develop its own type of Christlike life and service sored its activities'. Their plans for the jubilee under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, without celebration includes an interesting history of the imitating American and European institutions? fifty years ("The Golden Milestone") prepared by Drs. Cantine and Zwemer; a tour has already But most of all, and affecting all, is the problem been taken among the churches; one secretary, of how the spiritual life of churches, families and Dr. F. M. Potter, has gone out to visit the field; individuals can be promoted most effectively so all Reformed Church congregations are to hold as to carry out the teachings and spirit of Jesus anniversary services on February 26, 1939; a Christ. thanksgiving offering is to be taken and used to strengthen the work; a church-wide study of Here is a large program for the four hundred Arabia is to be undertaken to inform Christians delegates during their two weeks' conference at at home as to the needs and progress of the Madras. The problems are different in Africa, Arabian enterprise. Here is a notable jubilee, Turkey, Iran, Latin America, China, India and worthy of joyful and sacrificial celebration. Japan. But the same principles underly them all and the same Spirit of God must show their solu- God's guiding and governing hand has been tion. China is sending a strong delegation to the clearly evident in the lives of the missionaries and conference but Japan can send very few; India in the development of the work. The evidences of will be well represented but many other fields this are clearly set forth in the history of the Mis- must depend on a small number of native leaders. sion prepared by the founders. Closed doors have America is sending about fifty and Europe (in- been opened, hostile sheikhs have become friendly; cluding Great Britain) as many more. One weak- invitations to visit new districts have been ex- ness will be in the absence of representatives of tended, even by the king, Ibn Saud himself; the independent, nondenominational missions like the interior and the coast have been explored; schools China Inland Mission, Christian and Missionary and hospitals have been established; tons of Alliance, Sudan Interior Mission and other "Faith Bibles and other Christian literature have been Missions." They represent a type of work and distributed; men, women and children have been . missionary ideal that should not be overlooked. won to Christ. Many of the stories of "Arabian Days Evangelism" are as thrilling as those of the It is a time for 'Christians at home to pray for "Arabian Nights Entertainment"; in addition the delegates at Madras and to prepare for the these missionary stories are true and stimUlating messages and the messengers who will be com- to Christian faith. ing back to report and to stir spiritual fires in America and Europe. Was there ever a greater need for a world-wide revival under the banner of Christ?
"What a Time to Be in China!"
By the REV. COURTENAY H. FENN, D.D. I ~. – I For Thirty-four Years a Missionary in China ,~==========================~ T HIS caption, from a missionary's letter* gives prehension has caused this experience to become graphic expression to the diametrically op- the time of unprecedented opportunity for the posite attitudes of two groups of people-an missionary and the time of unparalleled success attitude of repulsion and an attitude of exultation. for the Gospel.
In these days the most frequent salutation of a In view of this fact, what are the perils of war furloughed or retired China missionary from his and the hardships of seeing and ministering to acquaintances in America is: "Aren't you glad limitless suffering? Not only does the missionyou're not in China now?" With the current ary ask for no exemption from the sorrows of the newspaper and radio pictures of "bombs bursting people, but from the beginning has refused to in air" and in much more deadly proximity to accept such exemption when offered him. In so human lives and habitations, and with the maga- doing he has not merely won the hearts of the zines venturing at last to print eye-witness ac- suffering people, but also such grateful acclaim counts of the frightfully barbarous massacres and from the Chinese leaders that hitherto closed burnings and rapings perpetrated by a scientifi- doors have been thrown open to him and the limically equipped and demon-inspired invading horde, tations of liberty to give religious instruction in there are millions of our people, in the Church as the schools have been removed. The thanks of well as out of it, who cannot conceive of any the nation have been proclaimed by those highest other rational answer to the question than, "In- in authority and there has been a spontaneous outdeed I am glad!" Yet, mirabile dictu, the reply burst of appreciation of the sacrificial love, like from the missionary is, "No; I am distinctly that of the Saviour, of whose commission these sorry to be compelled to be out of China at this friends from the West have not been ashamed.
time, and only wish I might go back." And many Those who have kept closely in touch with the are going back, most of them invigorated for a events in China since JUly of 1937 have been better service at the end of a regular furlough, deeply impressed with the facts and the implicabut not a few volunteering to abbreviate the nor- tions of a widespread movement, which has been mal furlough in order to rejoin their mission asso- the inevitable consequence of the way in which ciates in the most strenuous, yet most interesting the war has been carried on. Its significance may and rewarding, ministry that China missionaries extend far beyond anything in the thought of have ever seen. Though God, in His wisdom, has either belligerent, and may achieve as beneficent not yet seen fit to "restrain the excess of wrath" a divine purpose as did the dispersion of the first (except in a marvelous preservation of missionary century Christians by the persecutions in Judea. lives), He has, to an almost unbelievable degree, Preceded by terror, accompanied by death .and "caused the wrath of men to praise Him." destruction, and followed by sanguinary "mop- ping-up," the invading armies have scattered the The first impressions of the savagery of the surviving Chinese civilian population in precipi- "undeclared war" were of frightfully wasting de- tate flight, carrying what little was left to them struction and of imminent peril to all missionary in a desperate trek over hundreds of miles of as well as humane interests. There has been no roads and rivers and wastes, as far as possible decrease in the savagery in spite of the protests from the devastating s.courge which had destroyed of a horrified and outraged world, no lessening of their property and taken the lives of countless the destruction and the threats; but, as the relatives, friends and neighbors. months have gone by, "the Form of the Fourth,"
like unto the Son of Man, has appeared in the There has been no respect of persons in this midst of the fire, with the Chinese Church, the hounding of the masses in flight. Men of wealth home Church and the mission, walking triumphant have been reduced to beggary; men of native and through the flames. A Power beyond human com- foreign education have been compelled to straggle • In the September number of The Ohinese Recorder, reprinted in a along the roads with the most ignorant and unlet- AFwmrerEicaas.tern Bulletin of the Foreign Missions Conference of North tered·, all alike have been kept from starving only [567 ]
by the kindness of those as yet undisturbed in a city and town and village to which the invading their homes by the oncoming storm, or through troops may never come. In cities like Shanghai the merciful provision by the Government or by and Nanking, laid waste from the air, the water the Christian Church, of refuges for the desolate. and the land, the hundreds of thousands of home- Entire schools and colleges, whose administration less, hopeless, wounded and sick, have made diffi- has been rendered impossible, or whose buildings cult the task of ministering even to the most acute have been bombed or occupied by the invaders, needs and this work has taxed the strength and have moved to distant provinces in the far in- the resources of Chinese and foreigners alike. In terior, or have combined with others in interna- the northern cities, now for months behind the tional settlements. Much of the culture of the lines of the invaders, tens of thousands have lost coastal provinces and of the great cities has thus all their possessions and must be helped; even in been transplanted to regions formerly considered Peking, which, through early surrender, suffered backward or unenlightened. It has been estimated less destruction than any other captured city, that at least thirty million people have been ren- refugees flee from the rural districts where dered homeless, unsettled from former founda- brigands prowl, as the invader controls little be- tions. And it is a most interesting fact that, from yond the city and the railroads, and soldiers work the beginning of the consequent migration, wise their nefarious wills on the peasantry.
men in the Government and in education foresaw Christians in the Crisis something of its extent and potential meaning and made far-reaching plans for turning the agony So practically throughout China there is des- and the evil to good purpose. Not only has the perate need of material help; and the loving min- Government opened many refuges for the mi- istration to that need, by missionaries and Chris- grants, but it has opened schools in many of these tian Chinese, has aroused hundreds of thousands places and has assisted the homeless wanderers of the suffering people to ask, "Why do these with food and clothing and means of transporta- Christians devote themselves to our relief, wash tion. In the remote west and southwest, where our sores, heal our wounds, feed our bodies and there have been few roads and no railways, mil- instruct our minds? They must surely have some- lions of men have been set to work to construct thing in their hearts which we do not have: what modern roads, while millions more are being is it? They say that they have learned it from trained for various industries, the machinery for Jesus Christ whose followers they are; from the which was early transported from Central and merciful Saviour who, they say, laid down His East China cities. The population of these west- life for us as well as for them." Thus the Gospel ern provinces having been greatly increased, in has found an entrance into many sorely burdened some cases doubled, by the migration from other and bewildered hearts; facilities have been pro- parts of the country, every effort is made to train vided, in Mission compounds. and elsewhere, for the newcomers for self-support through the de- study of the Christian truth and life, and multi- velopment of provincial resources and in the large tudes are being brought into the Kingdom of our variety of new construction called for by their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
presence and by national rehabilitation schemes. As one looks back a little more than a year to Model counties are being organized; model towns, the discussion by the Mission Boards as to the villages and farms are laid out and operated. Mu- reply which should be made to the urgent advice tual helpfulness is being cultivated as an essentiftl of their Governments, and the general, popular concomitant of the new patriotism which has been clamor that the missionaries should all escape the so greatly stimulated by the foreign invasion. peril and simplify the international situation by Spiritual Influences leaving China at once, one does not like to think what vastly different conditions would now exist What is true of educational and industrial cul- in China if those counsels had prevailed and if ture is also emphatically true of spiritual develop- China and her Christians had been left to them- ment. As the Christians of the more fully evan- selves. An unequalled opportunity would have gelized provinces, driven from their homes, have been lost irrevocably to show the love of God in migrated to Kwangsi, Kweichow, Yunnan and Christ to that people, and to win their hearts to Szechuan, where new centers of evangelization Him. So thrilling has been the success of the .
and education are opening, people who had "sat policy of withdrawing only the physically feeble in darkness" are seeing for the first time "a great and of reinforcing the strong, that, from the light." The vast migration of refugees has nat- Chinese Church, from officials, and from the mis- urally necessitated the opening of refuges, tem- sions on the field, has come not only a chorus of porary or permanent, far from the actual war thanksgiving but also a united and importunate areas, for the indiscriminate bombing of civilian call for more missionaries to meet the need and populations has precipitated the flight from many capture the present opportunity. How else could
the Church and the nation hope to minister to have risen most sympathetically to the need and thirty million refugees, among whom are hun- met the opportunity most effectively. Not only dreds of thousands of war orphans? Never be- have many buildings been made available as fore were Chinese hearts and minds so sensitive refuges, but camps. have been set up in many to the redeeming touch of self-denying love, mani- places as "resting places for weary wanderers" in fested in the sharing of suffering and the planning their almost endless treks in search of new, homes.
for better days. It is the general testimony that, Wherever possible, industries have been started in through this deliberately and prayerfully chosen these refuges, both to prevent demoralizing idle- glad sharing, "the prestige of the Church and hos- ness and to fit the migrants for self-support in pital has never stood so high as it stands today" ; their new abodes. Incidentally and Providen- the infinite love of God for mankind has shone tially, among the refugees are hundreds of skilled radiant as the one glorious hope of the world, and artisans. teachers, evangelists, homeless wander- is no longer thought of merely as an item in a ers like the rest. They are drifting to Hunan, and doctrinal system from the West. The loyalty and other regions, "for such a time as this," a time courage of the missionaries, who have "stood by" when the harvest is so unusually great and ripe the people of a strange land through the most and the laborers are so pitifully few, that they acute and devastating sufferings ever inflicted by have found fullest use for their talents and ener- one nation upon another, will never be forgotten. gies. Again, in strangest wise, God has "thrust Civilians and Soldiers forth laborers into His harvest." Most appro- priately has the Hunan Presbyterian Mission en- Christian ministry to civilians in or near their titled its Annual Report, "The War-cloud's Silver own homes has been but a part of the great work Lining," as it sets forth "the calibre of these of deliverance, protection and supply; an exten- guests" from war-torn regions, "trained workers,"
sive organization has been created to help the pen- "whole schools," "hospitals with equipment, niless migrants along the way to their remote des- nurses and doctors," "scientists, engineers, busi- tinations, and none have so inspired confidence ness men, rural experts," undaunted by misfor- and shared burdens as have the Christians. And tune and peril, responsive to need, ready to start great has been the change which has taken place afresh and eager to be useful. The courage of in the mutual relations of Chinese Civilians and many of these migrants is magnificent. A thou- their own soldiery. A few years ago the civilian sand students from three North China colleges, felt no greater dread than that for the Chinese having located temporarily at Changsha, a little soldier, who seemed ready to do almost anything later started out, men and women, to walk the but protect him. Now soldier and civilian are eight hundred miles to Kunming, capital of Yun- united for the defense of the nation, and the nan, to locate their University there.
civilian, realizing that the soldier is ready to suffer Cooperating Agencies wounds and to lay down his life for his country, is responding by doing all in his power to relieve The International Red Cross has furnished the wounded soldier on the field and in transit. much equipment and supplies, with expert direc- And so, by the combined activity of Chinese and tion, to the relief measures, as has also the Inter- foreigners, an elaborate organization for first-aid, national Famine Relief Commission. The League transportation and hospitalization has been cre- of Nations Epidemic Prevention Commission, ated, very inadequate of course in view of the with its groups. of health officers and specialists, limited number of doctors and nurses and the in- in three sections of China, is fighting to prevent sufficiency of supplies and funds, yet saving thou- smallpox, cholera, typhoid and malaria. Young sands of lives and relieving untold suffering. Mis- people are being trained to give first-aid and gen- sion hospitals have been crowded to the doors, and eral medical assistance. Many church services to the floors, as these torn remnants of brave and are crowded with interested newcomers. Chris- patriotic humanity have been carried in from the tian Fellowships are being organized. Student fields and the roads of that horror-filled land, skil- Centers are being opened, for entertainment, for fully patched-up for life, or eased for inevitable varied instruction, and for travelers' aid. Mr.
death with the Gospel message of eternal life in Stanton Lautenschlager, of Cheeloo University, Christ. Many university students have also lent has spent some months in presenting a challenging a hand in humble service in the laundries and message, personal and social, to the students of dressing-stations. Hunan, hundreds of whom have responded with a Few if any of the other provinces have seen as determination to follow Christ. He reports un- much of the migrants as Hunan, as through that precedented student interest in the things of the province pass. many of the natural ways from the Spirit.
east to the west, from the north to the south; and As the writer of the Hunan Report says, "One the Christians of Hunan, Chinese and foreign, of the most beautiful flashes of silver in this
struggle is the attitude of the Christians toward pressure of disinterested kindness, the barriers their enemies." Though more whole-heartedly of racial and national fear and dislike completely patriotic and resolved to win than ever before, thrown down by the courageous, self-forgetful "there is no bitterness or hatred against the in- ministry of a Godlike love, bestowed in the name vaders." Even the missionaries "have marvelled of Christ by men and women come from the other at the Chinese Christians' lack of resentment and side of the world, to live, and if need be to die, freedom from hatred. To listen to their prayers for China. And a multitude of the like-minded for China and for Japan is like standing on holy in the home lands, to whom is denied this privilege ground." This witness regarding Hunan is of personal ministry to such a need, are exulting echoed from all parts of bruised and bleeding in being there in spirit as they avail themselves China. Has the world ever seen its equal in any of one or another of the agencies, which have other land? sprung into life or added this function to others- the International Red Cross, the Committee on the "What a time to be in China!" Truly it is no Far East of the Foreign Missions Conference of time to be there for those whose chief delight is North America, the Church Committee for China in personal ease and comfort, whose slogan is Relief, the China Information Service, China "Safety First"; who cannot bear the sight of Famine Relief, or any of the Mission Boards blood or the smell of sweat, who think the lives of working in China – to give out of their relative a hundred Chinese of less value than the life of abundance for the maintenance of the missionone American; who have no sympathy with the aries and their manifold ministries to China's apspirit which impelled the Son of God to become palling need. "What a time to be in China" inflesh and dwell among us that He might redeem deed, in person or by the proxy of self-denying the world, or with the spirit of the Apostle Paul gifts loyally continued as long as the need of that whose joy was to "become all things to all men fearfully harassed and patiently enduring people that he might by all means save some." But the continues. Is it not, for every Christian and every able-bodied missionaries who are there exult in the unselfish humanitarian, a God-given privilege, as privilege which has been given them of minister- well as a duty, "to be in China" at this time? ing to the world's greatest need, and of watching the shell of indifference break under the steady A LETTER FROM OHINA By DONALD FRASER OF CHANGTE, HONAN: Following complete breakdown of negotiations with the former bitter persecutors of the Church, should have been the active force that liberated our people. It is a marked bandits after their request for $100,000.00 for ransom, contrast to other forces around us. No ransom was given and no conditions asked. things began to happen elsewhere. Kuo Ch'ing, the bandit The fortitude and spirit of the captive young women leader, crossed the Chang River; was surrounded by the under the most trying circumstances is a thrilling story. One of them, a young teacher, said: "I was born in a 8th Route Army, wounded, defeated, his home burned and Christian home but before the raid I cared little for Christianity. This time I have had a wonderful experience many of his followers scattered. He was rescued by of God. Now I want to work for Jesus."
bandit chief supreme, Wang Chih Ch'uan, and fled south. There was joy and thrill in her voice, a changed young woman. There is a glow in the witness of many of them. The 8th Route Army declared that all banditry must cease. When carrying them away the bandits sneered: "So you thought your church could protect you. See, we will look Kou Ch'ing was cornered but slipped through the net. after you."
Wild rumors said that he was going west to Shansi with One seventeen-year-old lassie they tortured cruelly, ask- ing, "Do you still believe?" twenty-three of our Christian people. No ransom, they Gradually she became semi-unconscious but always with would sell the girls! That blackest night our minds were the reply~ "I believe" and the prayer, "Father help me."
filled with unnamed fears. All next day passed and still In sending them back some of the bandit remnants said, "Your prayers have moved Heaven." no word. At 5 p. m. a breathless messenger arrived. Others .said: "You're different; could we come and "Freed," he shouted; "nineteen girls and four men are learn your doctrine?"
coming home." Fly wheels, fly! Our bikes tore up the dust Surely a mighty triumph of good over evil. We are more one with our Chinese friends here than ever before. as we raced out to meet them. Tired and dirty, after Adversity has schooled us all. God has sent the 8th Route Army to check this dastardly scourge that has terrorized three weeks with no washing facilities and only the scanty and bled the country to death for the last ten months. There is great rejoicing over wide areas in the order, reclothes on their backs grabbed out of sleep when they were spect for life and security that is following in the wake of this cleansing, restoring force. After ten months of hell carried away, they were home, alive and smiling and all the relief is tremendous.
well, except for three with malaria and others with blisters from enforced marches. .
The other fourteen had disappeared. The whole country was chaotic. Travel was very dangerous but our men, especially Liu Ch'eng Chang, were tireless in their search.
Monday five came in. But nine young women were still missing. Tuesday 2 a. m., loud knocking on the front gate.
All were back. "Rejoice; a,gain I say rejoice."
The venture was a dead loss financially to the bandits.
Not only that, they were scattered and broken and would have been completely eliminated but for timely aid. It seems strange indeed that the sometimes called reds,
Call of the Dyacks of
By the REV. R. A. JAFFRAY, Dutch East Indies Missionary of the Christian and Missionary Alliance A MONG the Dyacks of Borneo, Buddha is them by way of the Barito River, with Banker- .r. named, Mohammed is named, but Christ is masin as a base. Some effort was also commenced on the west coast, entering by way of the Kapoeas not named. He is almost unknown. What River, but the Methodist Episcopal Mission has a great need for Gospel witness, especially in the now entirely withdrawn from Borneo.
interior of these islands.* On the north coast there are, beside the River Burito which empties into the sea at Banjermasin, The three main ports of British North Borneo five or six other rivers which are gateways to the are Sandakan, Kudat, and J esselton. The mis- interior. At none of these points has missionary sionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the work been attempted. Gospel are laboring here; the Basil Mission has independent self-supporting Chinese churches, Balik-papan is a city of about 21,500 people. and also the Roman Catholics. Work has been The district, of which it is one of the centers, has commenced among the Dyacks, the aboriginal tribes of the interior of British North Borneo. a population of about 200,000.t The city contains The Chinese are largely of the Hakka race and three-fourths of the Chinese inhabitants of Kudat a great mixture of races: Malay, Javanese, Boe- gis, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and also a sprinkling are church members. of Dyacks from the interior. As I walked the In Dutch Borneo there is no Christian mission- streets of this city, I asked: "Is there anyone here who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ?" After ary work carried on on the east coast. The inte- many replies in the negative, I was directed to a rior may be reached from many ports by river. Chinese carpenter's store, and found a Chinese On only one river is there a regular steamship who acknowledged the name of Christian. His line, at Samarinda, but by native craft the mis- face did not look like that of a Christian for his sionary can penetrate the interior and reach "the face was flushed with wine. As ·D. L. Moody once wild men of Borneo." said, "He may have been a Christian but he did not smell like one!" There he was-a lone Chris- The Dyacks, no doubt, originally occupied the tian-in the midst of the darkness of heathendom. entire island but the coming of the Malays, the He had a Bible and prayed sometimes, but could Javanese, Chinese, Indians and Arabs has gradu- not be considered a true witness for the Lord ally pushed the wild men to the interior. The Jesus. Later I met another Chinese who seemed Malays have inter-married somewhat with the to love the Lord but who dared not be baptized aborigines with the result that the Dyacks to this for fear of offending his parents. So far as I extent have been absorbed. It is said that the orig- know, no messenger of Christ has ever lifted up inal pure Dyacks of the interior are decreasing in his voice to preach the Gospel in this place. What population. The Dyacks were originally head- utter darkness! hunters and cannibals, and in some cases may still be such, but the influence of other races has I was anxious to visit Samarinda because it is had the effe~t of subduing and semi.,civilizing at the mouth of the Kutai or Samarinda River and them. On~ qf the original customs '¥f1s that a the main entrance to the interior of Borneo from young man proposing to his bride must have the th~ast coast. Here again 'is another city of darkskull of one whom he himself had slain ere he ness and the same mixture of races. There is a could hope to be accepted. This custom, I am Mohammedan mosque and Chinese temple in told, has nearly died out. Samarinda. There are houses of prostitution and gambling halls on all sides, in full swing. But no There are many different language groups Gospel chapel. I met some Chinese Christians who had been baptized in China, but who seemed among the Dyacks and most of them have Xlever been reached with the Gospel message. From the south coast some effort is being made to reach • I visited Sandakan, on the northeast coast of British BOI:neo; t Balik-papan is the great oil field of the Dutch Indies. The Ballk-papan on the east coast of Dutch Borneo; Samarinda ; Donggala ; Pare-pare and Makassar, the capital of the Celebes; installation of the Batavia Petroleum Company, the Royal Dutch Siagaradja, a port on the Island of Bali; SurabaYa on the northern Shell Petroleum Company, a branch of the Asiatic Petroleum Co., coast of Java, the largest commercial center of the Dutch Indies; is the largest oil Installation in the Far East. All the all con- sumed throughout the Far East comes from the Balik-papan wells. Bangdang and Batavia, the capital of the Dutch Indies, [571 ]
to have backslidden. In one store where I was tion is located in the port cities. The entire east telling the people about the Lord Jesus Christ, coast is without missionary work, and the Methone said in a loud voice, "God only blows the wind odist Episcopal Mission has evacuated the west on us to make us catch a cold." coast. The entire south coast is also unoccupied with the exception of Banjermasin and the work Four other rivers farther north are also gate- done by the Basil Mission and the Dutch State ways to the interior. The Kutai is navigable by Church up the Barito River. small steamer for ten days as far as Long-Iram, and by native craft for many days farther up. Dr. Slotemaker de Bruine, the missionary con- The Roman Catholic Church has a mission three sul of the Dutch missions encouraged us to occudays inland from Long-Iram at Lahan, where py some of the unoccupied areas of the Dutch priests and nuns are teaching the people farm- East Indies. We recommend the following fields ing, trades, and so forth. All the other rivers where no work is being done: from the east coast, save the Kutai, are, I fear, only navigable by native craft. A Dutch official 1. The entire east coast of Borneo, with Samarinda and traveled up one of these rivers, ascending terrible other places as centers. and dangerous rapids for seventy-five days, and came down the river, covering the same distance, 2. The west coast, with Pontianak and other places as in ten days. While I was trying to tell them of centers. The object would be to reach "the wild men of His love and of the sacrifice for our sins on the Borneo," the Dyack race of the interior. cross, and feeling the opposition very strong, an elderly Chinese lady came from the rear of the 3. The Boegis people on the coast of the Celebes, and store and said: "I once neard of Jesus when I the wild races of the interior, with Makassar as a center. was in China. I don't know much about it, but I know this-Jesus is good, Jesus is good." She 4. The whole southwestern coast of Sumatra. repeated this several times. I left Gospel tracts 5. A large number of smaller islands in the East Indies at many stores in Samarinda. where no Gospel witness has yet been given.
The population of Dutch Bornea is about 1,800,- If the Gospel does not soon enter these fields, 000. Perhaps one half or more of this popula- the influence of Mohammedanism~ which is spread- ing rapidly, will soon be such as to form a most effective barrier to the progress of Christianity. The fact that Mohammedanism is rapidly displac- ing paganism makes the evangelization of these fields urgent.
A Missionary Is Converted By EDITH FUESS HENRY, Shanghai American School, Shanghai, China I T IS homecoming for a missionary! She pauses of overwhelming facts around which sat commit- outside the compound wall to pound the door; tees, numb and dumb-nor power, nor wisdom, in the wait she turns to look back. The road nor means to cope with such; the paralyzing tales by which she has come has been a long, long road; of sorrow, pain, loss, destruction, poured from the it stretches back over eleven months in life's lips of arrivals fresh from battlefields; the feldeepest depths. In those few moments of time a lowship groups where gripping testimonies from panoramic view of never-to-be-forgotten days tear-stained eyes, quivering lips, and crushed passes before her eyes: days on days, and weeks hearts, yet dauntless spirits, could say, "I am on weeks of the ceasless roar of cannon, the pierc- bent, but not broken." . . . ing whistle of bullets, the deafening whirr of planes, the violent bursting of bombs; the heart- The gate opened! Can this be home! The shatsickening sight of scattered, mangled, bleeding, tered roof; the battered walls; the broken doors; human flesh, shrieking and groaning its prayers the empty rooms; the wild weeds; can this be to heaven; the endless lines of terrorized men, home? The home that twenty years ago in a women, and children madly fighting their way to spirit of love and dedication was built in this land safety zones; the great concentration camps of of China that He might have an abiding place hungry, filthy, frightened human beings waiting from which to reach out arms of loving ministry for the ministry of human hearts and hands; the to needy ones around? Can this be home? scurry, hurry, worry of channeling bean milk to the thousands of starving little ones; the fright- "We must begin and build again; build again ful days and nights in losing battle with epidemics the things that are gone." that stalked with relentless step among the masses, taking their fearful toll of life; the tables A house? Can one live again in the shelter of four walls, when so many thousands know only God's earth for a floor, and His sky for a roof?
A piano? Dare one make melody in his own
DR. IMAD-UD-DIN-A CONVERT FROM ISLAM
chamber when the teeming millions of this land Rugs? Can one with pleasure walk the path of hear only the rhythm of guns and bursting cushioned ways, when he sees the tracks where bombs? bruised feet have trod on rugged stones? . . .
Beds? Were it not better to companion those A stir: the neighbors, the friends, the Oriental who like the Master have not where to lay their crowds are standing by in silent commiseration. heads? "I can not see; I do not know; yet deep within Refrigerator? Why preserve food, unless one the silence of my soul there is peace. Old things can find a way to preserve for mankind love, have passed away; all things are become new. kindness, brotherliness, and peace? And I; am I not new?"
Dr. Imad–ud–din-A Convert from Islam* "BY REVEALING the Word of God I have found enjoyment in life. I rejoice greatly there was no peace in his heart. "Whatever af- in my Lord, and my soul is always making flictions or pain it is in the power of man to enprogress in his grace."-Imad-ud-din. dure, I submitted to them all, and suffered them to the last degree; but nothing became manifest The Moslem community, well organized and to me after all, except that it was all deceit." disciplined, with memories of centuries of conquest and domination, has been very stern in its At this time he was appointed to preach the resistance to foreign influences. And yet there Koran in the large Mosque at Agra with a view to were a number of important conversions among opposing the Christian missionaries and for three them in the first half of the nineteenth century as years he exponded the Moslem commentaries and a result of the earnest and vigorous work carried traditions. It was there he was perplexed most in on by Christian missions in Northern India. Even his faith and the thought of utterly renouncing the men of high social standing gave their hearts to world came into his mind with so much power that Jesus. he could not resist. He became a wandering fakir, going from village to village without plan or bag- Maulvi Imad-ud-din was a lineal descendent of gage. He was honored as a very pious soul but a famous Moslem saint, Gutale Jamal, and a de- none could know the uneasiness in his mind when scendent of the Royal House of Persia, famous as he thought of the Judgment Day.
champions of Islam. He was born in 1822 at Pani- He heard of the conversion of Maulvi Safdar pet, India, the youngest of four brothers. Much Ali at Jubbulpore and this put into his heart a care was bestowed upon him in imparting a thor- new hope so that he began an earnest study of the ough knowledge of Islamic law and religion. He New Testament. As he went on studying, a new studied at the Government College at Agra. This unspeakable joy came into his mind and he found education stirred in him a thirst after the knowl- solace in Jesus Christ. Afterwards he went to edge of the unseen. He visited fakirs and pious Amritsar and received baptism at the age of sixty- Moslems, frequented mosques and homes of maul- four, from Rev. Robert Clark of the Church Misvies, and carried on a vigorous study of many sionary Society. books on Islam. He wrote: "Since my entrance into the grace But he was assailed with doubts and perplex- of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have had great peace ities and his contact with Christians led him to in my soul. The agitation of m~,mind and restdoubt the Islamic injunctions and accepted prac;!- lessness have entirely left me. ETen my health is tices. He had some discussion with Maulvi Abd,ul improved, for my mind is never perplexed now." Hakim who could not convince him so that he once for all gave up the idea of disputation. He He became a zealous preacher of the Gospel began to acquire knowledge by reading night and and wrote many books, vindiCating the way of day, with the idea that time spent in its pursuit Christ to his Islamic brethren. One of these was given to the worship of God. books, called the Tahquiq-ul Iman (the Investiga- tion of the True Faith), was written for the He submitted his body to severe tests, by living maulvies who could not see their way to follow the apart from men, keeping awake at nights and by Crucified Christ. He was ordained in 1866 and various penances. He sat on the graves of holy the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred on him men with the hope that he might receive some the degree of D.D. in 1884. He died at Amritsar revelations from the tombs. But he says that on August 2'8, 1900, at the age of seventy-:eight after seeing his father and brother confess Christ. • Adopted from The National Missionary IntelZigencer of India.
Christian Sadhus and
By W. Q. LASH, Acharya in the Christa Prima Seva Sangha, Poona, India D ECEMBER 18th, 1904, is the date of the from place to place, on foot or by more rapid conversion of Sundar Singh, whose name means of locomotion, and are given opportunities has made the Western Hemisphere famil- in each place according to their reputations. iar with the idea of the Christian sadhu. In his Sadhus of this kind are in the minority. The life own country also he turned the thoughts of In- is full of temptations. It requires. a man of deep dians and others to the possibility of revealing humility and rare spiritual qualities to sustain Christ in ways well suited to the setting of East- them unscathed. Too many lack sufficient selfern life. Sundar Singh was neither the first nor discipline, and do not easily accept discipline from the only one to attempt such a method. He helped without. to bring to light the Secret Sannyassi Mission, which for generations. had hiddenly followed a The lack of any kind of discipline is the greatsimilar path. Dr. Pennell of Bannu and Tucker est weakness and danger of the solitary Sadhu's Booth of the Salvation Army had· made independ- life. In the Panjab, Sundar Singh's own province, ent experiments, and Sundar Singh himself came the problem is especially acute. The executors of into touch with the American follower of St. his will have made some attempt both to organize Francis, Samuel Stokes. Centuries before, in the sadhus already practicing, and to use the South India, Robert Nobile had proved the ef- funds he has left to give some training to those ficacy of presenting Christ and His message in an who feel a calling to this way of life. It was the Eastern garment. ambition of the late Canon Chandu Lal to form an Ashram at Sundar Singh's home in Sabathu, It is, however, a unique place that Sadhu to be a rallying place for the wanderers, and to Sundar Singh holds towards the methods of the help give them spiritual and mental nourishment Christian Sadhu and the Christian Ashram. His and discipline. To do so has not proved easy. influence on both has been indirect rather than Sadhu life tends to exaggerate individualism. Exdirect. In his lifetime he refused to allow a group cept in rare cases, we come to the conclusion that of disciples to gather round him and to train them the sadhu, who is unwilling to be linked with othin the way which he followed so successfully. ers under some kind of control, loses more and Disciples he has had, and even now has, nine more control over himself. In spite of the many years after his disappearance; but they are not attractions of this method of presenting the Gosall 'Sundar Singhs." They create problems for pel this way of life may prove more a liability themselves and for the Church at large, which than an asset to the Church. might have been less, if he had handed on his tradition to a company, trained by himself, and set- The Indian Ashram* is a means through which ting a standard for others. Yet his plea that his- the same inspiration may find expression. During tory has shown that organizations tend to decay the last twenty years or so many experiments after the death of their founders cannot be ig- have taken to themselves the name of "ashram." nored, and perhaps he was wise to found nothing. It is not always easy to discover what they have in common. Each is an attempt to come closer to Sadhu Sundar Singh's life is well known. It is the life of the country and to break down barnow nine years since he vanished into the Tibetan tiers, which have become increasingly serious in hills for the last time. A crop of Christian Sadhus 6ays of growing nationalism. Each has aimed has resulted, amongst them men of high mental also at a greater simplification of modes of living, and spiritual qualities, who have to their credit and a greater emphasis on the importance of much fine work as prophets of the Church. Such prayer in relation to the active side of Christian men are accorded great respect among Indians, ministry. Beyond this it is difficult to select the both Christian and non-Christian. They travel common features. Some Ashrams are only sea- sonal, being hardly other than summer schools of Footnote: The term Ashram denotes both the four normal stages asosmpeecrinaal ktyepme.arArimedonmgetmhebepresrmthaenneunct lseeutstl;emotehnetrss, of a Hindu's life, and the forest or mountain retreat to which the insist on single men or women; others have no Hindu went when the calling came to a life of meditation. In ancient days boys were sent to Ashram for spiritual training. In modern ~:y:h:a~r::::dlr:t~g:.1 and Tagore have added the Ideal of service [574 ] clear policy on this point. Equally diverse are the completed a few years ago what must be the finest environments which have been chosen; some are place of Christian worship in an Indian style of in remote jungles; others in country districts; architecture. It is a magnificent Jebalyam (chapothers in towns. el), with a walled garden surrounding it which is also used for prayer. Its architecture is that of a Three of the earliest Ashrams were permanent Hindu temple of South India. Increasingly, in settlements. In Travancore members of the this Ashram, the vocation to prayer and worship has claimed precedence over all other forms of CHRISTAKULA TIRUPATTUR ASHRAM HALL OF WORSHIP service. From time to time young men and others use the Ashram for periods of retreat or for Orthodox Syrian Church, the oldest Christian courses of training in service. Its influence is Church in India, formed an Ashram under the wide in South India; the membership is undeleadership of their energetic bishop. Two Ash- nominational, but the members adhere strictly to rams in reality were formed, one for men and one the principle of brahmacharya, or celibacy. for women. This was an Indian enterprise, as this Church is entirely Indian. It was an attempt A third experiment was made at about the to bring the ideal of community life into the same time, as the Bethany Ashram in Travancore, Syrian Church, which had already been for cen- when the Christakula Ashram at Tirupattur came turies familiar with the rampan, or solitary monk, into existence. This was the foundation of the but. had not developed the practice of a life of Christa Seva Sangha in the village area of Ahprayer among those living together. The location mednagar, in Mahar~shtra. During its early of the Ashrams was a beautiful wooded and hilly years its membership consisted of one Englishdistrict' in the interior of the State of Travancore. man and several Indian village Christians. There For several years these Ashrams brought great were married and unmarried within its fellowinspiration to their Church, and beyond it. Then ship. The members lived entirely in Indian style, its founder seceded to Rome, taking the sisters and sought to find natural Indian expressions in with him. A number of the men continued faith- Christian worship. As the Christakula has been fully under Fr. Alexios in spite of great difficul- helped by the rich store of Christian Tamil lyrics, ties. After resisting pressure for ten years he so the Christa Seva Sangha was fortunate in the was consecrated bishop this year, but continues to fact that the leader of the modern school of live in the Ashram and to give as much time to Marathi poetry, N. V. Tilak, was a Christian. it as he can. A number of other Ashrams have The idea was to form a nucleus of married memcome into existence in the Syrian Church, both bers with a band of sanyassis, who would go out for men and women. – . – _ . .-.. . .. About the same time two doctors, one an Indian and the other a Scotchman, felt a call to found an Copyrright by (Jh(JIrZes Petrasoh Ashram. This they did at Tirupattur in South India. The way of life is entirely Indian, and a INTERIOR OF THE ASHRAM CHAPEL number of young men have joined from time to time as volunteers. Until recently they were the in the manner of sadhus and return to the center only two permanent members. As was natural, for fresh inspiration. After about five years a with two men of their profession, the ideal of group of young men came out from England, service took a great place in the life. A hospital whose ideal was to be members of a community is attached to it. Other activities in the form of after the manner of St. Francis of Assisi. An schools and agricultural experiments. also serve the rural population. In this Ashram there was
Ashram was established in the intellectual center of workers from the jungle districts and carry of Poona, but the attempt to combine the idea of out devoted service to the simple peoples of the the original group with that of this later recruit- forest. The books of the founder, Verrier Elwin, ment led to difficulties. Hence in 1934, when the have done much to bring them to the notice of an original founder left the society it was divided unheeding world. into two groups. Maharashtran village Christians The Christa Sishya Ashram was open,ed a few POOL AND THE "CLOISTER" WHERE THE BROTHERS LIVE years ago in a village area, not far from the in- dustrial town of Coimbatore, South India. Its now continue a life akin to the earlier idea at a members are Syrian and Anglican. It is remarkvillage four miles from Poona, under the old able as one, if not the only, piece of work for othname. Meanwhile the Poona Ashram has become ers carried on by members of the Orthodox secthe headquarters of a community of Indians and tion of the Syrian Church, outside Travancore. Englishmen on the lines of a community. The impact of Christians, who are not the prod- uct of Western missions but can trace their own The Poona Ashram has now the name of history as Christians into remote days of our era, Christa Prema Seva Sangha. The buildings are on non-Christians is most interesting. The Ashsimple, and are arranged to concentrate the life ram regards the married state as normal for its inward. There is a chapel built in Hindu style, members. and,adorned by pictures painted by an Indian art;. ist, trained in the Bengal school. The emphasis Among the seasonal Ashrams the first to be is laid on the life of prayer; the evening and ear- founded, and the best 'known, is that of Sat Tal, ly morning are kept in strict silence to create an founded by Dr. E. Stanley Jones in North India. atmosphere of quiet. Time is devoted also to study To this beautiful spot, year by year in the hot and to active service. One of the chief tasks of weather, groups of Westerners and Indians come the Ashram is to build up a natural Christian life together for periods of spiritual and intellectual in an Indian setting, into· which others may also refreshment. Non-Christians sometimes attend. be brought whether Christian or non-Christians. Of late years, in Lucknow, the nucleus of the Sat Educated converts are frequently sent here from Tal Ashram has attempted to form a more permadifferent parts of India. There is a hostel on the nent Ashram life. It is too early yet to discern the same compound, and lectures' are given in a hall exact shape this group will finally assume. attached to the Ashram. Various works of social service, or Christian ministry, are carried out by An Ashram similar to the Sat Tal has come inmembers in the town and the Presidency, Bom- to existence at Kadoaikanal and does for South bay. Recently a branch has been founded in a India what the former does for the North. Such rural area about 150 miles north of Poona. seasonal meetings playa great part in drawing Among other permanent Ashram settlements CHRISTAKULA AT TIRUPATTUR STRUCTURE OF two of the most interesting are the Bhumjan Seva THE JEBALYAM MandaI and the Christa Sishya. The former has been founded by two former members of the Poona Ashram, among the aboriginal tribes of the jungles of the Central provinces. These Christians have gathered around them a varied group
INDIAN CHRISTIAN SADHUS AND ASHRAMS
together Westerne:rs and Indians, and help to demand for equal partnership to one of full conbreak down barriers which all too easily tend to trol. The Ashram movement has clearly an imform in ordinary mission work. They also make portant task in meeting this present situation. It their contribution in discovering and disseminat- must be Temembered that it has influence far being Indian ways of approach to the Christian yond the Ashram walls. The Christakula has faith and practice, and bring into fellowship "friends" out in the world. The Christa Prema Seva Sangha has a Third Order after the manner ASHRAM SCHOOL, VILLAGE CHILDREN AND TEACHER of the Franciscans, whose members in the several parts of India are full members of the society Christians from various backgrounds and schools with the brothers and share in its government. of thought. Similarly each Ashram has a circle more or less closely attached. Thus the ideals can penetrate It would be impossible to speak of all the Ash- the Church, and this movement is further helped rams which have come into existence, and are be- by such periodicals as The Ashram Review. ing added to year by year. Enough has been said to indicate different types of experiment, of which Yet there may be an even more important part several other examples could be quoted. There for the movement to play in the future. Chrisremains to consider the importance of this move- tianity is a supra-national religion. Great harm ment in India, for the present and the future. The will be done if Indian Christians attempt in their Ashrams have come into existence largely owing reaction to become isolated from the rest of their to a sense that India may rightly expect that a fellows. In the future the ideal of equality of religion, which was born in Asia, should reveal Easterner with Westerner, which has inspired the Eastern characteristics, and in answer to the pioneers, may turn to that of equality of Westtaunt that it is a foreign religion from the West. erner with Easterner. Thus the Ashrams will be- Every day it becomes of increasing importance come the channel of the riches of all Christendom that Christianity in India should be Indian. The being mediated to the Indian Church in a form Indian Government not only makes non-Chris- in which it can assimilate them. Some hope the tians contemptuous of anything not of the coun- Ashrams may become the much-needed homes of try, but affects the Christians themselves. They Indian scholarship and theology. resent any sign of dominance on the part of Western missionaries, and will swiftly :pass from a Finally, the discerning expect that, in spite of the present continuance of Mass Movements in some parts of India, a Dark Age awaits the Church in India in the not distant future. During such a period, institutions, whose primary task is to lay stress on the priority of prayer and worship over activity, will form valuable rallying points for the preservation and building up of the inner life of the Church, even as monasteries did in the Dark Ages of Europe. Their true worth will be proved when the day dawns for renewed expansion of God's Kingdom through Christ's Church.
THE PRIEST'S SON'S TESTIMONY Nungan, an outcaste boy of India, whose father baptized? Are you willing? It will mean that he is a village priest, has always been eager to hear must give up his idol worship and have nothing Bible stories. For years Nungan went with his to do with the heathen ceremonies or with idols." father to the temple and watched him perform the rites, offering to the idols many a buffalo, The father replied, "He has given that up long goat and chicken. Never for a moment did he ago. He won't come near the temple, and refuses think it wrong until he heard the Gospel of to eat or partake of anything offered to the idols. Christ. One morning Nungan came to the mis- He says he is not going to worship demons but only sionary and said: "Ammal, I want my name the Jesus God. You can baptize him if you wish." changed," (meaning he wanted to become a Christian). Weeks later he asked me again. While the father was standing there I asked Nungan what the Lord Jesus had done for him. Not long after this he came again up to me, Without waiting he said, "The Lord Jesus died and pathetically said: "Ammal, won't you let me for me on the Cross. I believe that and He is come?" now in my heart." He was entered upon the list of candidates for baptism. A few weeks ago At that moment his father came along and I Nungan had his heart's desire fulfilled and he took asked: "Do you know your boy wants to be the name David."-Darkness and Light.
is the Koran?
By REV. E. E. ELDER, Meshed, Iran Missionary oj the Presbyterian Church, U. s. A.
To UNDERSTAND the religious life of the nated "The Heifer" because it gives the command millions who follow the M.oslem faith one of M.oses to sacrifice a red heifer (Deut. 22: 1-9). must kn.ow something of their sacred book. The fifth sura is called "The Table" from a ref- Although the K.oran is not mentioned in their brief erence made to a festival table sent down to Jesus statement of belief: "There is no god but Allah from heaven. This is only one of the many sub- and Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah," Mos- jects discussed in that chapter which, before it is lems recognize the Koran as the Message of that a third through, has listed lawful foods and meats, Messenger. prescribed regulations for ablutions before prayer, No tW.o sacred books in the world have S.o much recalled Allah's covenant with Israel, warned in common as the Bible and the Koran. Both Christians of infidelity and retold the story of mention the creation of Adam and Eve and their Cain and Abel's offerings.
expulsion from the Garden, the flood, the faithful M.ost of the earliest suras are short and appear witness .of Noah and the promise to Abraham that at the close of the Koran. They were delivered he should have a son in his old age. The chapter by Mohammed at Mecca. The style is rhythmic, in the Koran entitled "Joseph" gives over three- but the staccato sentences are not strictly in score facts about his life which agree with the metre. These set forth such subjects as the unity story told in Genesis. From different chapters of Allah, the signs of his greatness and the cer- one may glean many details as to the life of Moses, tainty of judgment .on the unrighteous. Later in his sojourn in Midian, his mission to Phara.oh and Mohammed's career an appeal was made to his- the exodus of Israel from Egypt. The Koran also tory and many of the sections at the beginning contains a record of the tables of the Law, the and middle of the Koran tell and retell the stories episode of the calf, the manna, the quails and .of the prophets to illustrate Allah's guidance. At water from a rock. Space does not permit a Medina when the prophet became the head of a record .of all that is told .of David and Solomon, warring community the revelations took the form Aaron and Miriam, Cain and Abel, Lot and Zech- of legislation f.or peace and war, inheritance laws ariah. From scattered verses in the Koran one and regulations of religious ceremony. The sen- may learn that Jesus was the son of Mary, the tences now become involved; the rhythm is .often Word of Allah, the Spirit from Allah and the Mes- stilted and artificial. siah, and that he healed the blind and the lepers Each sura is made up of verses or ayas (signs and brought back the dead to life. But with all or miracles). This term suggests the fundamental this material in common, the Bible and the Koran conception of the book as a collection of wonderare in sharp contrast as to message, arrangement ful phra'ses and sentences. Another division of and theory of authorship. the Koran into parts cuts right across the chapter The K.oran speaks little of the "lostness" of arrangement. There are thirty equal portions man; there is great emphasis on the saying of which facilitate the recitation of the whole book prayers and the payment of alms by believers. during the month of Ramadan – the month of The red thread of sacrifice which runs through fasting by day and feasting by night.
the Bible is lacking in the Koran. Protestants, in their contacts with Moslems, The Koran, although almost as large as the New often assume that their scriptures are for them Testament, is not divided into integrated sections "the only rule of faith and practice." Alongside dealing with history, doctrine or prophecy. There the Koran there are other foundations UP.on which is little logical or chronological sequence in its religion is built; there is Tradition, what the arrangement. It consists of 114 suras (or chap- Prophet taught, practised and approved; there is ters) which vary in length from one almost as the Agreement of the Moslem community; and long as the epistle to the R.omans to some which, there is the use of reason in Analogy. All these in the Arabic text, take but three or four lines. have their place in the commentaries; all of them Each chapter has a special name referring to some have been resorted to in the making of canon law.
subject menti.oned therein. The longest is desig- Yet for the pious Moslem the Koran is the [578 ] source of all science and every kind of knowledge. forgery. Instead of simple narrative about Jesus Does it not say that it is, "a detailed account of he expects. to find God's words to Jesus. The Sereverything" (12: 111) and that in it "nothing is mon on the Mount appears to most followers of neglected" (6: 38)? When in Egypt Napoleon Mohammed to be like some of his sayings reasked the learned sheikhs whether this included corded in the traditions. the formula for making gunpowder. They replied that it did, but admitted that not every reader Another thing about the Koran that strikes the would know how to find it. Only a few years ago the representative of Egypt at the Oriental Con- non-Moslem reader is its constant reference to gress at Oxford said that those who pursue a deep study of the Koran do not fail to find there some itself. Mohammed believed that he had a message reference to the latest inventions or an explana- to deliver and that this message was contained in tion of some scientific points which have been ob- a book. Other peoples had their holy books in scure. He then proceeded to quote verses that for their own tongues. Through him the Arabs were him showed that the earth had been flung off from to receive a book in their own language. "Verily the sun and prophesied that man had the power we have revealed it: an Arabic Koran that ye to fly. may understand." The Koran is self-conscious. One dominant note repeated throughout relate to Authors of the Bible and Koran the book itself; yet during the life time of the Prophet no attempt was made to gather the "rev- There is a sharp contrast between the Bible and elations" into a volume. It did not receive its the Koran in the time occupied in their composi- present form until one of the Khalifas, or succestion. One represents less than a generation, the sors of the prophet as head of the state, realized other over fifteen hundred years. At least thirty that the oral record, treasured in the hearts of individuals contributed to the text of our Bible, men and in the few scattered written fragments, whereas Islam holds that Mohammed was the sole were futile to survive the ravages of war and human medium for the Koran. Christians believe time. An authorized edition was finally made by that the writers of the Bible interpreted God Zaid ibn Thabit who had been one of the Prophet's through their personalities as they wrote. Dif- principal scribes. All other editions were supferent times and different environments called for posed to be .destroyed. Some years ago Dr. men with different gifts. In Islam revelation and Mingana, of the Rylands Library in England, inspiration tend to merge into one another. To aroused considerable interest when he brought the Moslem's way of thinking the Koran is in no back from the east a manuscript which contained way connected with the genius of Mohammed. a version considerably different from the present text. Moslem critical works on the Koran give Some years ago a prominent Christian was ad- various readings that run into the thousands. Aldressing an audience in Cairo, and thinking to though the book is of comparatively recent date, clinch his argument he quoted from the Koran. when contrasted with other holy books, perhaps He prefixed his statement with the words, "Your no other has more variant readings. Are there prophet says." When the Moslem hearers real- verses left out that should have been included? ized that he referred to the Koran, there was a The Shiahs of Iran, who hold the preeminence of storm of protest, not only because the words were Ali among Mohammed's companions, hold that not given verbatim, but also because the foreigner some verses substantiating their claim have been had ascribed the words of the book to Mohammed. suppressed. Sura thirty today contains only sev- enty-odd verses; there is a tradition that it once In spite of this mechanical theory of inspira- contained two hundred. There is little wonder tion, native stories are given in the "Traditions" then that Umar advised, "Say not I possess the which reveal something of the process by which whole Koran, but of it what is extant." the Koran developed. One day Mohammed was dictating to his amanuensis, Abdallah ibn Saad, In spite ,of the references to the Torah and Injil something regarding the creation of man. When (Gospel) as being authoritative for their peoples, he paused Abdallah said in wonder, "Blessed Moslems today usually hold that the Koran has therefore be Allah, the best of Creators." The superseded the Law and the Gospels of the Bible. prophet was so taken with the words that he said, This is not surprising when certain verses in the "Write that down, for so it has descended." The Koran itself have been abrogated by other verses. story continues that the scribe wondered whether The text remains but a later saying has taken revelation from Allah had not also descended on away its force. The Koran provides for this by him. But such tales do not destroy the dictation saying: "Whatever verse we may annul or cause theory of the Koran. It is held to be wholly a thee to forget, we will bring a better one than it, collection of sayings coming to Mohammed from or one like it; dost thou not know that Allah is the Angel Gabriel, so that the Moslem, when he mighty over all?" first reads the Christian Gospels, rejects them as a At the same time I,slam holds that the Koran
is the replica of a Heavenly Book, written on a ers on the Arabic professional stage. The measpreserved or well-guarded tablet, sent down on uredcadences of the book have so woven themthe Night of Destiny and dictated to Mohammed selves into the life and worship and literature of piecemeal by the Angel Gabriel. In spite of the Moslem peoples that they are the expression of historical evidence for a great variety of readings their deepest emotions, sorrow and joy, anger and and the great part played by scribes in collating love, prayer and praise. the material, together with the possible omission of what was originally from Mohammed and the The percentage of literacy is low in many Mosinclusion of portions suggested by others, never- lem lands and that has increased the use of the theless orthodox Islam holds that the Koran is the Koran as a magical force. A minute edition is uncreated speech of Allah. Westerners may fail sometimes used as an amulet and worn about the to see the soundness of such arguments, but the neck or on the arm. The recitation of certain Moslem theologian, with his use of dialectic, an- verses is believed to make evil spirits flee in terswers that all the varied readings are given in the ror. Quotations are used as a means of divina- Preserved Tablet. He can even argue that, far tion. In lands where Arabic is not understood from detracting from the glory of the Koran, they the power of the Koran must often be thought of add to its glory. as magic. To the learned Mullahs any translation of the Koran from the sacred Arabic has seemed Although commentators admit that the perspic- a sacrilege. Turkey has now, however, issued an uous book contains obscure ambiguous passages, edition in Turkish in Latin characters. The reliit is held to be the miracle of the ages.. To millions gious leaders of Egypt finally admitted the possi~ who follow the religion.of Is'lam its claim is in- bility of an interlinear translation which would be violate. "Verily if men and jinns were assembled in their eyes a commentary on the sacred text. together with a purpose of producing this (book) they could not do it, even though they helped one With the invasion of Western civilization and another." Christian teaching into the world of Islam a chal- lenge has come to the power of the Koran. Even Influence of the Koran in the desert one finds that in practical life there are more real forces in a Moslem's life than the Few Christians appreciate the .hold that the sacred book Jarvis, in "Yesterday and Today in Koran has on adherents of the Moslem faith. In Sinai," tells us that the Arab will cheerfully give Arabic-speaking lands it is still the golden treas- false evidence on the Koran, and that in the Libury for examples of grammatical constructions, yan Desert if you want the truth you must get rhetoric and literature. Throughout Egypt stu- your man to make his oath at some sheikh's tomb; dents in elementary, primary and secondary in Sinai you must resort to trial by ordeal, which schools are required to memorize selected por- consists in licking a white-hot iron. Yet the edutions. Illuminated texts, in elaborate styles of cated classes among Moslems, who admit they penmanship, take the place of pictures and wall know little of the contents of their sacred book, decorations. Over the radio professional readers reverence it and say with one of the modern daily recite portions from it. The poverty- writers, "from the point of style alone, it is nothstricken beggars who ask for alms chant passages ing less than a miracle, as great a miracle as ever from the sacred volume. Rarely does a Christian was wrought." Time alone will show whether it ,preacher receive a fifth of the salary obtained by can stand translation, whether it will go down befavorites of the theatre or Hollywood studios, but fore changing ethics, and with what resistance it I have been told that the best professional reciters may confront the Living Word of God. of the Koran are as well paid as the best perform- NOW WHAT SHALL I DO?
We held our communion service at the soldier's camp, in two languages and I could not understand all of the dialects. We had put Itola's baptism off until the next communion for she had been "following afar off." She tried to speak to me several times, but the Buluba- speaking Christians crowded her out. We had not been able to check the communicants at this soldier's camp, as we usually check our outstation Christians before communion and not until after the service did Itola get a chance to speak with me. In great distress she cried out, through an interpreter: "I took the bread and wine before I was baptized and now they say I shall die. Now what shall I do?" I told the interpreter to explain to her that God would not hold her accountable if her heart was right. "Be punctual at the Inquirer's Class," I said, "and when I return, you shall be baptized." PLUMER SMITH, Mutoto, Congo Belge.
Privilege of Preaching to
-<tEf I By STEPHEN KHOOBYAR, Tabriz, Iran 115–·- THERE is probably no harder task in the of sin against God and our fellowmen and against efforts to advance the Kingdom of Christ oneself; on the other hand the teachings of Islam than the winning of Mohammedans, but these look upon sin in a very light way and even excuse difficulties are well known. The disappointments or condone the things which separate man from experienced are sometimes such that only the God in this world and the next. hope of Christ can keep one from pessimism. It is a great sorrow to see those who have confessed Christ not only shows sin in its true light but Christ fall away, but at the same time there is offers the one and only remedy for sin. In Islam real joy in preaching Christ to Moslems, when the fundamental idea concerning sin seems to be a man has been called of God. When we see Mos- that a man may make up for evil deeds by doing lems believe on Christ so that they are born into something that is good, like prayers or pilgrimage the Kingdom we are as certain to have joy in our or the giving of alms. In the faith of Christ the hearts as a rose is to have perfume. remedy for sin is supplied by God Himself; in Islam the only remedies offered are man-made It is a great privilege to be called to serve Christ works. and to share in the work that is dearest to the heart of God. David Livingstone is said to have Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has revealed the remarked that in all his toils and dangers there truth that God is our Father. Through Christ we was one thing which gave him greater comfort may approach God. To Islam the title of Father, than all else; it was the word of Christ, "I am as applied to God, is blasphemy and is almost withwith you always." In preaching to Mohamme-. out exception understood by Moslems in a carnal dans we should never feel lonely with such a way. Though the Koran says that God is as near Presence to sustain us. as the jugular vein, yet in actual practice the whole system of Islam makes Him appear like a power- It is also a joy to explain the Word of God to ful tyrant who cannot be approached. What a those who have no true message from their Cre- blessing to come to our heavenly Father through Christ, our Elder Brother! ator. It is wonderful to go from shop to shop, from house to house, from city to city as the In Christ we have a personality that is unique. bearer of Glad Tidings, an apostle of the Word of How far from anything that Islam has to offer God. If we do not preach to Moslems we are like are the love, forgiveness, mercy, service and selfthe brothers of Joseph who sat down to eat bread sacrifice of our Master. What a marvelous joy while their brother lay bound and in the pit. How to be able to point to such an example. But can we be happy while we leave our brothers Christ is far more than an example – He is the bound and in darkness? Christ is the only One One who atones for sin, the Mediator of the New who can fulfill every longing of the deepest spirit Covenant that reconciles those who were at enof Islam. mity with God, making peace through His Cross.
Our souls are also happy because in preaching a In these great offices Christ is unique; Islam has to Mohammedans we are fulfilling the command nothing like it. What a joy to present such of Christ. When He sent out the twelve and the Saviour to a Moslem and to proclaim His words, seventy they went on their errand with joy in "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "Come their hearts. The Apostle Paul could not remain silent after he had seen Christ, but found his joy unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
where we find ours in helping to carry the Gospel Christians have also the matchless blessing of to every nation and tribe. the help of the Holy Spirit to guide and empower them and to cleanse from sin. Islam teaches how The Wonderful Message ceremonially to clean hands and feet before prayers, but only Christ shows how to purify the There is joy in the Christian mes'Sage that can- heart. A few years ago, I was speaking in the not be found in Islam. It is a mess.age that per- waiting room of a mission dispensary on the verse, fectly meets the deepest need of our Moslem brothers. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see The New Testament sets forth the true nature God." There were nine mullahs present. When [581 ]
I had finished one of them said, "It is impossible have presented the Christian message directly, in to be pure in heart." All the other eight agreed most cases without any reference to Islam, and with him. Without the Holy Spirit true purity many hundreds of Moslems have attended and is impossible. have shown the keenest interest.
Islam has its holy shrines, like Mecca and In one of the smaller cities of Iran we held serv- Medina, the graves of the prophet and the Imams, ices on several successive Sundays. Though there is no established Christian <church in that city we but it has nothing to compare with the Christian had a w.onderfulattendance of Moslems. The last sacred places that have a deep meaning fQr us. Sunday, though a heavy rain was faIling, there were more than three hundred Moslems in attend- Bethlehem-Place of the Incarnation. ance. N.o room at our disPQsal was large enough The Wilderness – The place of overcoming to hold such a congregati.on so I stood in a d.oor- way opposite to be sheltered from the rain and temptation. listeners filled the porches on the first and second Gethsemane-The place of agony for sin. stories of the long h.ouse where we were staying. Golgotha-The place .of atonement on the Cross. One could hardly believe that such an .opportunity The Empty Tomb-The place of victory through could be presented-that so many would be ready to hear the straight evangelistic message in a city resurrection. The Mount of Ascension-Place of power and the Great Commission.
It would be hard to imagine anything that eQuId that is noted :for its fanaticism. M.ost Christian evangelists in Iran have a room bring more jQy than the pr.oclamation of such or office where peQple may come to see them for great truths. If any Christian has, lost his joy in conversation .or to secure Christian literature. In preaching it must be because he has lost contact our .own evangelistic rQom we have a Bible class with these great and fundamental truths. If any each Sunday morning for Moslem men. Though worker for Moslems has lost the j.oy of such service let him return to his God-given Message and the attendance is somewhat irregular because most of the young men are from the upper classes of he will find there what he has lost. the g.overnment schools, we very often have thirty Islam has no real vital message. In a large or forty or even more of these intelligent young town of our province a number .of mullahs came men; they must often cut their classes to come. to our rQom. We asked them to choose a man to What a joy to have such hearers; their attendspeak for thirty minutes on the message .of Islam ance is entirely vQluntary, yet they leave their and we would speak for a similar time on the own school work to come and listen! That should Christian message. They chose the leading m.uj- bring joy to the heart of any Christian preacher. tahid who spoke for .only five minutes. We took the other twenty-five minutes of his time and the Opportunities to present the Christian message half-hour allotted to us to present the Christian are not confined to large congregations but come message. This has happened over and .over again from personal contacts in our every day WQrk. In in our experience. Great should be our JQY for a certain city I was invited, with a mission doctor, we have a wonderful message, which Islam has to the home of the head of the tax department.
not. He had also asked the Governor of the district, The Moslem Hearers the head .of the education department, several vil- lage landowners, and others to come to his home We not only have a message but we find in Mos- for conversation with us. We were able to prelem lands many who are ready to listen to it. sent tQ these officials the straight Christian mes- Though there are great .obstacles to be .overcome, sage and they seemed glad t.o listen. Recently yet we thank God for the great oPPQrtunities. that after Easter I stood in a school for girls with the lie around us. The fanaticism and bigotry which whole student body before me. The large room fQrmerly refused to listen to the message .of Christ was darkened and at the front .of the rQQm there have largely passed away. The tremendous social was a cross illumined by electric lights, covered changes and the m.odern outlook, together with by white cloth and lilies. By the light of the cross the new nationalistic spirit, sometimes make for I read the resurrection story. The great majority more freedom in preaching, and at other times of the girls were from Moslem families, yet there they .offer hindrances; yet in all we rejoice that was respectful silence and strict attention. Whose the general flow of the tide is toward a more ready heart would nQt overflow with joy at such an ophearing and more people willing to consider the portunity to preach Christ? claims of the Gospel. Last year, returning across the lake from visit- In the large cities all over Iran we have recently ing the churches in the Urumia region, I started been holding special evangelistic meetings. Some- a religious conversation with an army doctor soon times for a week these services have continued after the boat had left the pier. Others gathered each day and s.ometimes for longer periods. They around and through the whole day the conversa-
THE PRIVILEGE OF PREACHING TO MOSLEMS
tion went on, with all listening who were free to a mob of men. Some entered the room and began gather around. It was one more joyful chance for beating converts who were with us. They threw personal work. us out of the room; as they pushed us out of the yard, one man said, "If you ever come in this yard As a subject of a Moslem country, I live under again, or even in this street your blood will be a constitution which establishes Islam as the State spilled on these cobblestones." After we left a religion, yet there is an open door for the Gospel man who had lately professed Christ was shamewhich no one can shut. I have the joy of diffi- fully beaten by the rabble. culties to be overcome and the daily joy of seeing non-Christians willing to hear the message Christ Some time ago, as I was leaving the church, a has sent me to give. young Moslem put a sealed letter into my hand. I did not open it until I got home and then found it The Joys of Tribulation contained a threat that if I tried to convert Mos- lems to Christianity, either by preaching in the There is another sort of joy that comes from church or personal work, my blood would be shed suffering and persecution for Christ. The joy of in the street. It was signed "The Group of those the day of Pentecost was one sort of happiness for who Shed Blood." the Apostle Peter, but when some time later he was beaten he found joy in that experience also. We must expect at any time to be put out of We read in the Acts that "they departed from the places where we go to preach. Our books will be presence of the council rejoicing that they were seized and we may have trouble but, like the Hecounted worthy to suffer shame for his name." brews to whom the apostle wrote, most of us "have The Apostle Paul must have rejoiced to see not yet resisted unto blood." Even should it be churches spring up through his efforts but his our privilege to share the martyr's crown, we will heart broke forth in joy at the thought that his still say with the prophet Nehemiah, "For the joy apostleship was sealed by fellowship with Christ of the Lord is your strength." in His sufferings.. Just as we fail to match the apostles in power, so we fail to attain to a fellow- The Joy of the Harvest ship in suffering such as they enjoyed. The trials we are called upon to bear are trivial in compari- There is the joy in gathering fruit. We do not son to their sufferings, yet our own may be enough see great numbers of Moslems accepting Christ, to bring that deep joy which comes only through or mass movements such as are reported in India, sharing with Christ in pain and distress. Korea and Africa. We must work and pray for one convert from Islam, but in the large centers, Some years ago I was touring with one of the where churches are established, there quite a missionaries. We reached a district in the moun- group join the church each year. In the villages,· tains where so far as I know Christian evangelists on the other hand, there may be a single convert had never been. Some sixteen years before one here and there but we struggle toward the stage Christian had passed through the district. We where we may witness groups. of Christian became into a village just before nightfall, in a storm lievers in villages and small cities. The main reaof rain and wind. We asked for a place to stay sons why we do not see large numbers of converts but there was not one family in the place that are: would receive Christians – especially in our wet condition. They thought that we would contam- The lack of religious freedom; Religious or national fanaticism; a inate their houses in that condition. They showed Loss of economic and social standing; Actual persecution of converts. us the ruins of barn but we decided it would be beUer to stay in the streets than among the ver- One time, touring with a new missionary who min there. Another man took us to an old chicken had come from America a short time before, we house, one of the most filthy places I have ever stopped at a druggist's shop in the bazaar and a seen. At last one man suggested that there was crowd started to gather when they saw we were a shelter in an orchard some way from the village. speaking about Christ and the Injil (Gospel). I We made our way out there and found some sort moved to a wide part of the bazaar and at least of a room upstairs; we put our saddlebags over a hundred people gathered and gave me a wonderthe places where windows should have been and ful opportunity to preach the Gospel. They lisat last made our beds with the wind and rain tened with fine attention and were evidently imwhistling through our abode~ I have never in my pressed by the message. As we returned to our life enjoyed a sweeter sleep than that night. room my heart was singing, but I noticed that the young missionary seemed sad. When I asked the At one time I was invited with a missionary to reason, he replied, "I am filled with sorrow bethe home of a prominent man who had recently cause not one man stood up before the crowd and been converted from Islam. As we were talking confessed Christ. In such a meeting in America, a high Moslem ecclesiastic entered the room and we saw that the yard was filled with mullahs and
with people listening with that sort of attention, connection with our church, confessions had been at least fifteen or twenty would have arisen to few. One morning a young man, who had been confess their faith." Those of us who have spent attending services for some time, came into my many years in work for Moslems hope for that offic·e and made a clear confession of his faith in day but we have not yet seen it. Men and women Christ. He was from a good family and now has are born into the Kingdom one by one and great a good position as a clerk in the military service. is our joy over one soul that steps out into the How glad our hearts are made after a season of sunlight of Christ. little apparent fruit when we see the Spirit work- ing to turn men to Christ! One day as I was passin.g a vineyard, a boy came running and asked us into the garden where In one village I passed a mullah sitting in a an old man was sitting.. I read to him the story shop. Something made me turn back and I found of the Prodigal Son, and before I was through the he had never read the Injil, so I gave him a copy. old gentleman was crying like a child. He under- After that there was not a day when we did not stood the meaning of the story before I had ex- converse; he was certainly near the Kingdom and plained a word and I am satisfied he found Christ came to a full understanding of the love of Christ. in that single interview. In one village I had a conversation in a Bahai house that lasted until One of the fondest memories of my work for midnight. The owner was not converted but one Moslems was the conversion of a leading mullah, man who was present was deeply affected. He a descendant of the prophet Mohammed, who had came to see us later and before we had left the charge of several mosques. His was a wonderful village he confessed Christ and has remained true conversion and he not only believed but preached to. this day. his faith with utter disregard of consequences. He was called upon to suffer persecution which I recall three young men with whom I came in almost made him despair of life itself. But noth- .contact through the young people's society of our ing has been able to shake his faith. The last time church. One of them later confessed that he had I saw him he had a book in his hand and showed been drinking the first time he attended a meeting me two pictures,as others on the street stopped and had gone there as a lark. They all later con- to look and listen. One was the picture of a lion fessed Christ and though they have separated to and the other of a lamb. He said to me, "In the places that are far apart each has done much for end this one will triumph," pointing to the lamb. Christ in this land. It is not necessary to mention many other cases In one large city I had been working alone for which come to mind. As the angels in Heaven several weeks with very small show of results. I are filled with joy when one sinner repents, so we had given a Bible to a young man of a very prom- are happy beyond measure to see one soul from inent family. One evening as I sat in my room Islam born anew in Christ. If we carry the real almost discouraged as to the work, the young man message, in prayer and the power of the Holy came in. He had been reading the Bible, and be- Spirit, the fruit will come whether we or others fore he left, he confessed faith in Christ. My are to harvest it. I can conceive of no greater joy pessimism was· changed to joy. Shortly after this than that of seeing souls come out of Islam to take another man, who was a tailor and had been read- their place beside others who were formerly Zoro- ing much of our literature, confessed Christ and astrians or Jews, Armenians or Assyrians, and began to witness for Him. The poor man never all these together building the Church of Christ in reached the point where he could quite give up Iran. We praise God for our opportunities. "He his old custom of smoking opium but he professed that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious his faith before all up to the time of his death. seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." During some months of evangelistic work in A church that divides the Christian community is impotent to transform or redeem it.- Rev. Ross Sanderson.
*** We have sometimes covered over the ugly and dangerous weaknesses of our civilization and have given them the appearance of strength.-Rev. A. E. Keigwin.
FOR LEPER COUPLES IN A LEPER COLONY, NORTHERN
Obeying Christ's Forgotten Command Dona Eunice and the Lepers of Brazil _.o~ ~o._ r By EULA KENNEDY LONG, formerly of Brazil I A MONG those present at the fourth Interna- eradication of this dread disease in one generar-. tional Conference on Leprosy, which met in tion."
Cairo last March, was Dona Eunice Gabbi About a decade ago, under the capable and un- Weaver, a native Brazilian who married an selfish leadership of Dona Eunice, a small group American Methodist missionary in Brazil. She of Christian women began the work which is now came as official delegate and was the only woman carried on by seventy-two societies, associated in to read a paper before the conference. Dona a Federation of which she is the national presi- Eunice is a product of Christian missions, for she dent. They have erected prevention homes for received her early education in the mission the care of children whose parents have been in- schools of Argentina and Brazil. Later, she took terned in Government "colonies," and for un- a nursing course; and in 1929, toured the world tainted babies taken from leprous mothers at on one of our "Floating Universities." For some birth.
years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Weaver Since the disease is not inherited, a child's superintended the Methodist Settlement House in safety depends on immediate removal from a dis- Rio de Janeiro. eased mother. Tragic as this separation is to the About eight years ago Dona Eunice became in- mother, it is less terrible than that of seeing her terested in the lepers of her country and took up child doomed to hopeless suffering.
the work as a life investment. Up to that time, A very important phase of this work is keep- efforts in their behalf had been sporadic and ing up the morale of the patients. Dr. Muir, of In- localized. According to Dr. H. C. Tucker (for al- dia, has said that 85 per cent of the cure of lep- most fifty years Secretary of the American Bible rosy consists of moral and spiritual help, and Society in Brazil), "no one in Brazil is doing so only 15 per cent is due to medical care. Societies, great a work in dealing with this gigantic 'prob- therefore, have provided work-shops, libraries, lem as is Dona Eunice Weaver. Dr. Victor Heiser recreation centers and Christian chapels for the states that "Brazil may lead the world in the pres- patients, and organize entertainments for Christ- o ervation of the children of lepers and in the mas and other special days.
[585 ]
This work is in cooperation with the Federal and other influential men and women, receiving Government, which has built some twenty colo- cooperation from the humblest widow, as well as nies (in which about twelve thousand lepers are from the first lady of the land, Dona Darcy Varnow interned) and has fourteen more under con- gas. struction. Getulio Vargas is the first president of the country to attack this problem in a vigorous One of the most interesting and heartening and statesmanlike way. But government alone features is that Dona Eunice, although a Protescannot carryon all phases of this stupendous un- tant, has secured the cooperation of Roman Cathdertaking. It must have the assistance of private olics, Spiritualists, and Positivists. Her success beneficent organizations. in carrying out Christ's oft-forgotten command to cleanse the lepers, proves that Christian love, in From the pampas of the South to the waters of actual practice, can transcend barriers of class and the Amazon, Dona Eunice travels by train, ship, creed, and be a living force in .the service of sufauto and military plane, enlisting the sympathy fering fellow-men. and active support of state governors, Rotarians, Presenting the Good News in Brazil By E. M. do AMARAL, Rio de Janeiro Secretary of the Evangelical Federation of Brazil W HENEVER the message of the New Tes- The Christian conscience of the people of the tament reaches men, no matter how di- so-called "Younger Churches" reacts immediately, verse the interpretations may be, it will awakened by the responsibility for evangelizing always speak vigorously to the consciences, ap- the world in accomplishing the missionary task. pealing to the sacred missionary responsibility. They cooperate in the great labors initiated in Christians everywhere receive, as a command, the their country. duty of propagating the Good News of salvation; to present to men the unique Personality of Jesus But it is just to mention that, at the touch of Christ-the incarnation of the highest ethics, and the international or ecumenical spirit of Chrissupreme giver of energies for conduct. It is a tianity quite evident in the work of the Missions, duty to spread among the masses the noble in- the Christians of the evangelized countries awake, fluences of the Gospel. both in their duty to do missionary work and in their national feelings. For the love of their coun- The peoples who had already experienced try they wish to propagate the light of Christ; Christianity for centuries-and especially the or- and because Christianity awakens the conscience ganization which followed the principles of the of personality, and on account of the fact that the Great Reformation of the sixteenth century-felt national feelings do not die, there is born the dein its full power this heavy responsibility to prop- sire that the work, started by self-denying pioagate the teachings and the spirit of Jesus, to con- neers of other lands, may be carried on by those vey His influences among the people who did not who have received the fruits of the missionary know Christ, or who were in unfavorable circum- labors. stances on account of wrong interpretations and practice of Christianity. They have felt this duty, It is needless to call attention to the struggles and have sought to perform it with earnestness which have been fought, in these circumstances, and tenacity. many times due to lack of understanding from both sides as to their respective functions. Thanks In the exercise of this duty by the missionary to God, that there is already a new spirit predomcountries, there developes a true internationalism, inating and a better comprehension of duties will which exists in the religion of Jesus Christ, and bring greater blessings to the missionary enterwhich, in order to bestow benefits and accomplish prise in all the world. There is a reasonable its spiritual mission, is beyond racial and political expectation that this will come to pass. barriers. Again, this international spirit meets and often awakens the national spirit of the peo- Br.azil has already been the host to French ples who receive the blessings of the missionary missionaries in the colonial period (sixteenth cenenterprise. tury); and has had a movement of the Reforma- tion to a certain extent, during the Dutch control;
PRESENTING THE GOOD NEWS IN BRAZIL
also, in colonial times (seventeenth century) ; and God, and it is fair to mention that they are en- was educated in the principles and loose practices gaged in it with enthusiasm and a burning sense of Roman Catholicism. Not speaking about visits, of responsibility.
now and then, already received in the nineteenth In the capitals and in the larger cities, but espe- century, she began to receive the evangelical mis- cially on the coast, we have already strong sionary influence only in the last quarter of the churches-many of them self-supporting and help- last century, less than 80 years ago, implanting ing smaller churches as well as the general work, the regular work of the various Missions, which and maintaining regular missionary work within brought us their great blessings and, let us say their areas. Whosoever will examine rapidly the also, transported to the new land the sectarian evangelical enterprise in some capitals, will note struggles of Europe and America. the churches maintaining various preaching sta- Already, within a half century, the feeling of tions and congregations, within a short time will ecclesiastical autonomy has been greatly awak- develop into new churches and all of them dedicate ened, which means the privilege of self-govern- themselves to propaganda.
ment, responsibility for self-support, but still the A considerable part of the evangelistic field is in sacred duty to propagate the Good News by our the rural zone, and even there, in spite of the lack own efforts. A great progress has already been of resources, the National Church does the same achieved. There are denominations entirely auton- work of evangelism. It is a perplexing problem omous; others, which are autonomous, even in Brazil, but the Christian workers and the Counthough they receive some support from the Mis- cils face the situation with courage and energy. sions; and others upon which the missions have The rapid development of the churches comes yet preponderant influence. We have gone quite a way in the direction of about in such a way, that within a short time, the field of labor of one worker multiplies itself, the rethis equilibrium, which generates a healthy, mu- sponsibilities increase, new centers come up, new tual respect between the missionary and the native churches are organized in much larger proporforces; and also we affirm that there is not, in a tion than the regular growth of the number of general sense, the sad "nationalism" which dead- workers. A distinguished Brazilian preacher who ens the work. We meap to say this: the collab- occupies an important pastorate in one of the oration of missionaries and Brazilians is of such largest churches in Brazil, and who is working a nature that these can develop, with liberty and very efficiently, was the initiator of the work of satisfaction, the promotion of the Christian cause. evangelization in a vast rural zone, in which there We are thankful to report the fact that the are today, instead of the small church then organ- Brazilian Churches, all of them, felt the impera- ized, not less than three Presbyteries.
tive missionary duty, and all of them, continually, Completely occupied with the common labors, with some enthusiasm, by their own initiative and and with this work in which the cure of souls and expenses, and employing their own methods, do the propagation of the Gospel extend together, the the best work of propaganda that they can. Brazilian workers have not always had sufficient The Christian schools of Brazil are yet in a funds for spreading out and planting new marks great part under the direction of missionaries, in far-away places in the outlying districts.
affiliated with various Missions in the United But all this is done, while the sons of the States. In the Theological Schools there are also "younger churches," feeling the weight and glory some missionaries, even though nearly all the of their mission, are face to face with the hard Schools of Theology are under the Brazilian lead- task of giving guidance to the general work. The ership. In the regular pastorate there are several Evangelical press, the training of ministers, the missionaries, but in considerably less proportIon, general work of Christian cooperation,· although and variable according to the denominations with helped by missionary experience quite often, is which they are connected. In the work of evan- on the shoulders of the nationals. Along these gelization, in zones in which the Brazilian lines, the Fifth Evangelical Congress, which met churches cannot have much influence, and espe- in S. Paulo, in 1936, had an important task; with cially in the hard task to evangelize territories far the help of missionaries who were there they made away from the civilized centers, there is a fine a careful study of questions. regarding evan- number of self-denying missionaries, including gelization, education, literature, social action, missionary ladies worthy of all respect, who are ecumenism, unity, held the attention of the Con- doing splendid educational work and nursing, far gress and very important conclusions and recom- away from the resources of civilization. mendations were made, in which there is a cou- Excluding these and other works, which the rageous acknowledgment of past mistakes and Brazilian evangelicals receive with gratitude, the shortcomings, and the presentation of desirable national leaders, naturally, have an ample and steps. and initiatives to follow in behalf of the heavy task in the propagation of the Kingdom of future kingdom of Christ in Brazil.
Adventure in Panjab
By HELEN A. DUFF Missionary of the American Presbyterian Church at Moga, Pan;ab AN AMERICAN woman, beginning mission- brought encouragement. But in many villages she r-. ary work with her husband a few years ago found none but tottering and toothless old women in the Bible classes. "Why do not the young ones in the villages of southeastern Panjab, was come?" she asked. astonished to find that almost none of the Christian women in that district knew anything about "They haven't time. They are busy with their the new religion which they professed. In each children and their husbands, with their grinding village there was usually a man or two who could and spinning, and all the business of living. What tell a few Bible stories from the mission course time have they to think of God? But with us, who then in vogue, but scarcely a woman knew so have finished with living, our children are dead, much as the name of Christ. There was no dis- or grown and it is well now for us to give a cernible difference between their mode of life and thought to God and to death and the Judgment bethat of their outcaste neighbors. The homes and fore it is too late." children of the Christians were as dirty as others in the village; many charms were to be seen about Young mothers, wrestling with the problem of their necks; and much quarreling and filthy lan- how to find enough bread for their children, how guage was heard; they showed as little interest to save them from cholera and blindness and the "evil eye," and all the rampant vice of village life in school. were not concerned with God. He could be of no "Perhaps the evangelists take no interest in service to weary and despairing souls who groaned under the degradation of an outcaste teaching the women," thought the missionary woman's lot. Why should they give much time to wife. "They teach only the men." She decided to think of Him, when as yet their day for dying explain to the evangelists that the women also was still far off? should be taught. The evangelists listened politely. Some took the trouble to explain why such a The old women's answer marked the turning thing was not to be expected. There were a num- point in that district. We decided to undertake ber of reasons-time-honored sex taboos and to do something more creative. In many villages women's brainlessness. The headstrong young the old women still sit, passively content to listen foreigners must find out for themselves the utter to Bible stories, but twice a year now, increasing unreasonableness of their expectations. numbers of young women and girls flock eagerly into the mission station for a sort of girls' camp, The missionary changed her tactics. She de- for two weeks of dynamic study. cided to inspire the evangelists' wives to take up the service, each in her own home village. But The experiment was launched with misgiving. there were many practical difficulties. In that "Parents will never send their daughters," said district there was no precedent for such a pro- the wise and experienced evangelists. In the becedure. The women were not used to sitting in ginning few did. But in that first critical two classes. All their lives they had been told that weeks' session, the few girls who came had such they had brains like the buffal'Q.cf.The evangelists' a rich experience that their drab lives were wives dften reminded them of the fact. Besides, changed and the news spread. As a result many these wives had to care for their own homes and a girl has prevailed upon fearful old parents or children and could not take on more work, for a jealous or stingy young husband, to allow her which they were not paid. to attend camp once, if not twice, in the year. But gradually, by persistent prayer, with ex- A group of little two-room native houses was ample and precept, the work was begun. From found where the girls might live for two weeks. scattered villages came reports of women learn- All the activities of the camp are used to convert ing Bible stories. No radical change of life these drab mud houses into. what a Christian vilseemed to follow ammediately, but that would lage home should be! The girls pasted the houses take time. The missionary began making visits neatly with thin mud plaster, built tidy fireplaces, to the villages where women were listening; her decorated their walls with designs of their own praise of those teachers who were most faithful in white clay, or color. Pictures cut from maga- [588 ] zines have added splashes of color. Simple little There is at times tension or lack of cooperation, hand-made pottery have a place in the scheme. but as each situation arises, it gives opportunity Beds neatly spread and clean floors gradually for the girls themselves to evaluate it in the light become the standard. Personal charm has been of the standards which they themselves have ac- enhanced by daily washings and combing of hair, knowledged. Behavior is measured by the motto weekly washing of clothes, and getting rid of lice they have chosen, "In love serve one another."
once-for-all! Girls take turns in cooking, learn- The babies who are sure to attend also learn ing from a woman who is a mistress of the art. much, for these are made the subjects of all the There are also lessons in soap making, cutting experiments in baby bathing and weighing, in and sewing of garments, knitting, baby care, and feeding and discipline! They learn to take their sometimes in simple gardening and chicken rais- food once every four hours, instead of every time ing. they whimper. They learn to sleep, cool and com- The twice-a-day lessons in reading are attacked fortable, in their little cots, while their mothers with more zest than anything else and we find attend school. They like this better than being that there is nothing which so much enhances· constantly jiggled and smothered in mother's self-respect as an ability to read. warm lap. Mothers like it better too. Finally, Lessons in Bible are not cut-and-dried, but free they return to their village homes, bedecked in discussion is encouraged, to find answers to ques- the gaudy new shirts which their young mothers tions about daily living. have made for them. Two- and three-year-olds "What shall I do when my child gets fever? learn to detach themselves from mothers' skirts, My mother-in-law tells me that the blood of a and have a good time independently in an attrac- black goat smeared on the bed posts would be tive little nursery school.
helpful." Each morning and evening during the camp the "What is the harm in child marriage?" girls gather, sometimes together and sometimes "How should my husband treat me?" in separate house groups, for Christian worship.
"Why should I not slap my child when he an- On the last days, when the girls must return to noys me? How else can I control him?" their villages, their expressions of regret and To these and other daily problems the girls and their wistful yearnings to stay longer, are di- teachers try to find the Christian answer, in the verted into the more positive attitude of service light of Christ's teaching. There is gratifying for others. What are they taking back to their evidence of the effectiveness of this more realistic villages? Will they find some other girls to teach?
method, despite its many flaws. Staff meetings to Here and there a village girl can be found who prepare for class discussions have helped. has learned to read a little, or to knit, or to keep There is also much fun in these schools. There her children cleaner and to quarrel less with her are trips to thE! ice factory (as good as a trip to mother-in-law, because a friend who has been to Europe), picnics on the canal bank, games and camp has shown her that Christ teaches her to songs, and village folk dances. do those things if she wishes to follow Him.
TEN RULES FOR OHRISTIAN LIVING By THE LATE GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH 1. Consider your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and treat it with reverence and care. 2. Keep your mind active. Stimulate it with thoughts of others that lead to doing something. 3. Take time to be holy with daily Bible reading and prayer. 4. Support the church of your faith. Mingle with others. 5. Cultivate the presence of God. He wants to enter your life and will,-as far as you let Him. 6. Take God into the details of your life. You naturally call upon Him in trouble and for the bigger things. 7. Pray for this troubled, war-threatened world and the leaders who hold the destinies of the various nations. 8. Have a thankful spirit for the blessings of God – country, home, friends and numerous "
other blessings. 9. Work as if everything depended upon work, and pray as if everything depended upon prayer. 10. Think of death not as something to be dreaded, but as a great and new experience where loved ones are met and ambitions realized.-Selected.
Lift Up Christ in
Two Methods of Introducing Jesus to Non-Christians _o·<tH{1.:;11====B;;;;Y;;;;A;;;;M=IS;;;;SI;;;;O;;;;N;;;;AR=Y=IN=IND=I;;;;A====!III.- My FIRST year of evangelistic work in the Maddened by his prowess, the Mohammedans Panjab was spent in a proud and big- grew acrimonious in their attacks, saying abusive oted Mohammedan city, where for fifty things of Christ, and making personal attacks on years Christian work had been carried on with the evangelist. The Christian maintained his good almost no visible results. A spirit of defeatism humor, but his tongue grew more adroit in trip- and indifference, and even of antagonism to the ping up his less skilful rivals, demolishing their non-Christians, characterized the local church. arguments with his brilliant irony.
The Christians, having come from the Depressed Long before the evening was over, it was evi- Classes, were scorned by their proud Moham- dent that the Moslem opponents were routed. The medan neighbors, and it is not easy to love peo- discussion ended with shrill and furious invective ple by whom one is scorned! on one side, and cries of victory on the other. On But the Indian pastor and the missionaries had their way home, some of the Christians were plans for stirring the city into new life. A short seized and beaten by enraged Mohammedans, but time before the Panjab had been startled by the they gloried in their sufferings for Christ.
news that a brilliant and zealous Mohammedan Some of us who were new to the work were dis- maulvi (theologian) had been converted to Christ. turbed by the unfriendly spirit shown and there- As in the case of Paul, the talents which former- after dissociated ourselves from such debates.
ly had been skilfully used to refute the claims of Our Christian associates were patient, pointing Christ were now even more vigorously employed out that more Gospels had been sold during that in defense of the Christian faith. In the hope of week than in the whole preceding year. God could stirring lethargic Christians to fresh zeal, and of "make even the wrath of man to praise Him,"
converting hardened Mohammedans, the church whereas indifference was more difficult to over- leaders invited this man to come and give a series come. Some Moslems came to ask questions, while of evangelistic addresses before his former co- others sought to quarrel with the pastor and the religionists-the Moslems. missionaries. We were amazed w~en three young He had accepted the invitation and the news Mohammedan men asked for baptism at the close was soon spread, through every alley of our city of the campaign. They had become convinced, and into surrounding villages. It was rumored they said, by the logic of the evangelist, that to among the Christians that the local maulvies, follow the way of Mohammed would surely lead fearful lest their learning might not prove ade- them to hell. The baptisms aroused such bitter quate to the challenge of so illustrious an oppo- antagonism in the city that the young men seemed nent, had sent to Amritsar and to Lahore for two to be in peril of their lives and were obliged to of their most scholarly and most eloquent maul- make their escape into another part of the counvies to uphold the Prophet's honor. Excitement try. For a time every home in the city was closed ran high. Christian evangelists, as they went to us. about in house to house visiting, were sharply *** questioned about the coming addresses, and some- When the Christian Students' Council of a times were taunted in the streets. Christian college planned to show stereopticon On the night of the first debate, crowds filled slides of the "King of Kings" (Life of Christ) in the arena. Men and women with babies, attended the college chapel, where attendance was volun- from the Christian compound. For the first time tary, a group of Mohammedan students, prej- in the history of our city, Christianity was head- udiced against Christianity, determined to cause line news. The debate began in dignified and a disturbance.
scholarly manner, as the maulvies matched their As the lights went out, and the picture was learning against that of their Christian rival. It shown, the mischief makers began to chatter, soon became apparent that the maulvies were far shuffle their feet, snap their fingers, hoot in de- out-classed in their knowledge of the subject. rision, and throw paper wads at the figure of Again and again the convert scored, tearing to Christ on the screen. The president of the college pieces with ease the arguments of his opponents. felt that he could not allow such insults to his [590 ] Master, and sprang to his feet to shut off the pic- ly the audience watched that broken body taken ture. Just then there came before him the mental picture of Jesus and His disciples, weary and from the Cross and laid sorrowfully in its resting footsore at the end of a day's journey, refused place by His brokenhearted friends. The crowd shelter in a village of Samaria. While the dis- was deeply impressed as that invincibly friendly, ciples, in anger at this indignity to their Master, virile, gallant Spirit went down to seeming dedesired to call down fire from Heaven on the in- feat, so unmerited and ignominious. But with the hospitable village, "Jesus turned and rebuked dawning of Easter morning, when the noble figthem; and they went to another village." The ure of Christ rose from his grave, living and vicpresident decided to ignore the disturbance, and torious, the whole student body was on its feet let the picture go on. and the oppressive stillness was broken with cheer after wild cheer, exultantly ringing through Little by little, as Jesus walked before them on the chapel: "He has conquered!" the screen, healing the sick, comforting the sorrowful, playing with little children, gradually the The next day a sober-faced committee of Moshuffling of feet, and the derisive "cat calls" les- hammedan students called at the president's office. sened. Later, when the scenes of Christ's suffer- "We came to beg forgiveness," they said, "for our ing on the Cross were thrown on the screen, a shameful rudeness of yesterday. We would never tense and breathless stillness filled the room. Quiet- have acted as we did, if we had supposed that Jesus was like that!"
CHURCH GIVING HAS INCREASED The statistics of the United Stewardship Council (Harry S. Myers, Sec.) are for the church years ending between December 31, 1937, and September 1, 1938. These figures show an increase in giving to benevolences and to congregational expenses; membership also shows an increase.
The new depression that started in the fall of 1937 caused a severe slowing up in contributions in many churches, but the total for the year is larger than the total for the preceding report. In per capita giving the United Presbyterians stand at the head with $5.47 per capita for general benevolences and $7.09 for denominational work.
The increase in giving by the listed twenty-five church bodies is $2,313,425.00, or is .007 per cent over the preceding year.
All groups except five show a growth in membership; the Southern Baptists stand first with 4,595,602. The total membership, exclusive of infants, reported by these twenty-five church bodies in the United States and Canada, is 25,143,316, an increase of 133,766, over the statement made last January.
RELIGIOUS BODY 1 – -P-ER- -OA,P-IT-A-G-IF-TS- – – – 1 – – – – -T-O,T-AL-G-IF-T-S – – – – – – 1 Membership Denomina· oongrega. Denomina· Oongrega- Excluding tlonal Be· tiona! All tiona! tiona! AIl Purposes Infants nevo!ences Expenses Purposes Benove!ences Expenses 1——1——–1———-1——–1—— I Baptist, Northern ………………. .. $1.76 $10.19 $II.95 $2,590,305 $14,957,043 $17,547,348 1,468,043 2 Baptist, Southern ..•……………… 1.24 5.78 7.02 5,702,150 26,563,537 32,265,687 4,595,602 3 Baptist, Seventh Day ……………. .. 3.79 10.45 14.24 25,736 70,968 96,704 6,793 4 Brethren, Church of ……………… . 2.23 7.89 10.12 368,269 1,300,000 1,668,269 164,784 5 Brethren in Christ, United ………..• 1.92 10.02 II.94 790,793 4,125,218 4,916,011 411,674 6 Congregational and Christian …….. . 1.57 14.10 15.66 1,613,817 14,534,449 16,148,266 1,030,914 7 Disciples of Christ ………………. .. 1.33 6.08 7.40 2,130,988 9,768,528 ll,899,516 1,607,716 8 Episcopal, Protestant ……………. . 2.53 20.26 22.79 3,437,559 27,500,570 30,938,129 1,357,496 9 Evangelical Church ………………. . .69 19.07 19.76 162,820 4,498,461 4,661,281 235,868 10 Evangelical and Reformed ………… . 2.24 II.95 14.19 1,464,002 7,796,393 9,260,395 652,668 II Lutheran Church, United …………. . 2.32 12.26 14.59 2,612,550 13,802,994 16,415,544 1,125,399 12 Lutheran Conference, American …… . 2.62 11.31 13.93 2,699,066 11,658,225 14,357,291 1,030,861 13 Lutheran Conference, Synodical …… . 2.65 10.81 13.46 2,921,804 ll,894,245 14,816,049 1,100,572 14 Lutheran, Other Synods ………….. . 1.49 7.58 9.07 123,660 627,393 751,053 82,789 15 Methodist Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 98 14.11 16.09 7,285,917 51,788,184 59,074,101 3,671,ll5 16 Methodist Episcopal, South , ……… . 2.53 7.43 9.96 7,149,726 21,040,770 28,190,496 2,830,258 17 Muravian, North ………… , …….. . 4.86 17.38 22.24 84,603 302,234 386,837 17,392 18 Nazarene, Church of ……………… . 4.54 26.35 30.89 650,892 3,777,210 4,428,102 143,330 19 Presbyterian, United ., …………… . 7.09 16.80 23.89 1,276,683 3,025,969 4,302,652 180,065 20 Presbyterian, U. S, (So,) ………….. . 5.18 16.40 21.58 2,579,108 I 8,162,139 10,741,247 497,816 21 Presbyterian, U. S. A………. , ….. .. 3.58 17.64 21.23 6,823,443 33,584,4II 40,407,854 1,903,747 22 Reformed in America …….. , ……… . 3.76 19.66 23.41 598,440 3,132,064 3,730,504 159,343 23 Baptist, Ontario and Quebec …….. ,. 3.63 14.61 18.24 205,652 1 828,556 1,034,208 56,700 24 Presbyterian in Canada ………….. . 3.11 14.03 17.15 547,6331 2,467,362 3,014,995 175,824 25 United Church of Canada …………. . 3.62 14.13 17.75 2,306,259 8,995,562 11,301,821 636,547 1-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-. Average or total, 1938 … , …….. ,. $2.23 $11.38 $13.62 ……….. '1-.-.-.-..-.-.-..-.-1–.-.-..-.-.-..- ____A_v_e_r_a_g_e_o_r_t_o_t_a_I,_19_3_7_._._.._._._.._._'_'_"_"1__$_2_._16_ __$_1_0._9_6_ __$_1_3_,2_5_ _,_,_'_"_'_'_"_'_' _1_'_'_'_"_'_'_'_"_'_1__"_'_'_"_'_'_"_'_1__"_'_'_"_._._._. 1 1 1 _ _ _G_r_a_n_d_t_o_t_a_I,__19_3_8._._.._._._.._._.._._._._.'-'-'1-'._._.'_'_'_1_'_'_'_••_._._1_'_'_'._,_._'1 $56,151,875 _1$286,202,485 $342,354,360 25,143,316 Grand total, 1937 ….. …………. ……. .. ….. . …… $53,793,095 $272,964,745 $330,040,935 21,909,550
and the World's Crisis*
By INABELLE GRAVES COLEMAN, Richmond, Va.
Editorial Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention THOUSANDS, even millions of Christians When the first mISSIOnaries came to Yintak, around the world are celebrating milestones the present young people's leader was a tiny lad. of victory for Christ. Numerous reports of The American children attracted him and soon prevailing privations, persecutions, perseverances he was joining them in their story hour time and personalizations of both missionaries and na- about their mother's knees. Theile stories always tional Christians evidence manifold fulfillments included Jesus and the love of God. of the petitions of the pioneers of yesteryears. The Chinese lad was held spellbound by these No missionary has claimed that he or she has stories for they were like none he had ever heard made a sacrifice or complained because of priva- before. He retold them at home. None of his tions. There are some less surrendered souls who family had ever heard of Jesus but believed that may do so, but the missionaries dwell on life's there are many gods whom one must worship sweetest moments of fellowship with the spirit of in order to be prosperous. When the boy repeated God. Many of the by-products of the privations the stories of Jesus, his family did not like the however, would not be necessary if we at home idea of adding a "foreign god" to their list. would keep closer to missionaries in prayer and in knowledge of their needs. The climax came when this eldest son came home one evening declaring that this God of the One quiet evening in far interior China a for- foreigners is the only true God. Fear filled the eign missionary and an American on a missionary family. To fail to worship the spirit of one's anjourney sat sharing with the Chinese evangelists cestors and the gods of wel:tlth, health, the kitchen, their heart yearnings for God's Kingdom. After and the cradle or the gods. of thunder and disease, a little while the group knelt to pray. In Chinese, would bring great calamity upon the family. The in English, they joined their hearts in praises and lad's grandparents forbade his ever again seeing petitions to the Father of all. When they arose the foreigners. He must forget all that the twilight had given way to darkness, and only by strangers had taught him. But the child could not the glow of a flashlight could they find the door forget. The still small voice of God's Holy Spirit leading into the night. Without apology the had found entrance to his understanding. Alhostess said "Perhaps you wonder why I have not though he had never heard what Jesus said about given you light. There is a little group of Chris- loving father or mother more than God the lad tians not far from us who had no pastor. We chose to obey God. Today, as he counsels with were giving all we could to God's work, but some- Chinese youth, he understands what persecuone happened to remember that if all of us in our tion means to some who become Christian. little church would give our oil money, there would be enough to supply food for a pastor for this little *** flock. For two months we have had no oil for our lamps. We go to bed early and get up by God's Rumania's State Church is a branch of the Rosunlight. It is a good reminder to know that we man Catholic church, and when one of that church are in physical darkness that these babes-in- comes in vital fellowship with God's Spirit and Christ may have spiritual light. We remember Christ becomes his Mediator, he no longer goes to to pray more for them as we sit in the twilight's confession. Instead of paying fees to the priests, dimming glow, and have no oil for our lamps." his free-will, love-offerings are directed toward opening for others this true way of salvation In the two-thirds of the world where paganism through Christ Jesus and naturally the priests obreigns unrelieved by the Christian message, it is ject. Asa result the Evangelical is boycotted, exnot easy for one to turn from the ancestral to iled, persecuted. follow what seems to be a foreign religion. For many that would mean exile from home, family, Far in the north of Rumania is a little missionfriends and loss of means of support. ary society that included five young girls. One sunny April morning, when the beauty of spring- Ch:i~o~~e:i~~l~~~m 1~3~.isslonary Message given during the Florida time filled their hearts with melody, softly they sang a hymn. Before the chorus was completed, a [592 ] rough knock at the door filled them with fear. An The sorrow and suffering, and death in warofficer entered and marched them off to prison torn China today cannot be described. The picfor being "a public nuisance." Locked in a room, ture of death, hunger, and distress are too terrible whose ceiling and walls were dotted with many for words. knotholes, they were commanded to count these knotholes until they collapsed. It is not easy to In spite of war, imprisonment, boycott, and subbe a Protestant in dominantly papal lands. tle persecutions, the Christians of war-torn lands, totalitarian states, and other unenlightened na- The world's youth are on the march today, but tions are loyally persevering, faithfully witnesstheir bands are not playing "Onward Christian ing to Christ their Lord and Saviour. Soldier." These youth, in many parts of Europe, are marching to the commands of dictators like Recently one hundred and fifty young people Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. For disobedience of enlisted in special training for service under orders, they. suffer imprisonment. the leadership of Enrico Paschetto of Turin, Italy. More people were baptized into the Protestant In the prisons of Chosen there are today thou- churches of Rumania last year than during any sands of political prisoners. In Germany's con- previous year. centration camps there are said to be 100,000 men, of whom 10,000 are ministers of Christ. No one For the first time in China's history a corps of knows how many prisoners there are in Italy. In Christian medical students recently offered the Russia, imprisonment and exile have not been government their services and asked to be sent to sufficient to satisfy the dictators; many Christians the front to alleviate the suffering of their fellow have faced the firing squad. men. They are willing to risk their lives for others. One of the three hundred refugee camps Surely it matters to us that thousands of Chris- of Shanghai is located in Old North Gate Baptist tians in the world are persecuted for their loyalty Church. The day after the shelling of Natao, one to Christ. of the many missionaries who has chosen to re- main in China, braved the danger of flying shrap- Nazism that exalts a man above God; Fascism nels and stray bullets, and went over to this old that places. the State above God; Communism that church. The quietness when he entered the vesexiles God; Imperialism that claims divinity for tibule made him wonder what could create such a its emperor-all these attempt to fetter the souls silence among a multitude crowded into these of men. over-flowing quarters. He saw Pastor Y. C. Ching standing in the midst of this homeless, hun- Because Martin Niemoller preached from the gry crowd of crushed sorrowing humanity, readtext, "We ought to obey God rather than man," ing the 23rd Psalm. How could these people deshe was tried for treason and today he suffers in a titute, desperate, wounded, snatched from death "concentration camp prison." If he had said, that claimed their loved ones, understand those "We ought to obey Hitler instead of God," his fate words about the Lord as a Shepherd, from the would have been reversed. Over the beautiful psalmist? gates of one of Germany's oldest universities once was the challenge to youth: "To the living Spirit Then he remembered the words: "Surely He of the Eternal God." Now the word "God" has shall not fail nor be discouraged until He hath set been chiselled out, and "Germany" has been mor- his justice in all the earth, and the isles shall wait ticed in its place. for His law?"
Christians cannot be unaware of these facts. Calmly the missionary wove his way through The cause of Christ must be promoted with knowl- the mass of humanity until he stood by the calm edge of the conditions that affect missions and Christian pastor. Putting his arm about Mr. hinder or help the progress of the Kingdom. Ching's shoulders, the West and East, the white and the yellow races, brothers in Christ, testified "The Beauties of War" is the title of a recent to the fact that "The Lord is my shepherd." book from the pen of Mussolini's son, who has barely reached his majority. He depicts a spring- Faithfulness to Christ prevails in these lands time airplane flight through the heaven's blue of persecution and trial around the world. skies of Ethiopia. In the morning sunshine he spies a village of peasants-only women and chil- The Chinese ideograph for America is composed dren for all of the men and boys have gone to of a combination of characters meaning literally fight the intruding army. The young aviator "Beautiful Country to the West." Most of the drops a bomb on the peasants and with a laugh world thinks of the United States as a land synsoars above the dust and death he has created. onymous with beautiful freedom and delightful liberty. The eyes of the world are upon "Chris- Such hellish delight is incomprehensible to a tian America," as the United States is frequently Christian. Those thus destroyed lived in the land called by Christians of other lands where America of Abyssinia, the oldest nation to claim the name and her sins are not well known. "Christian."
At the Nanking home of Dr. Sun F'o in 1936, At a university luncheon in Nanking the Ameriwhen he was the head of the legislative depart: can guest sat next to a Chinese leader in Nanment of the National Government of China, a king's civic and social service work. Recalling group of Americans found their host in his office. their college days in America, they remembered Dr. Sun still wore his shaded reading glasses. that both of them had met at the Y. W. C. A. Before him were two opened books: a Bible, Camp at Blue Ridge a decade ago. (opened to the Proverbs of Solomon), and the Constitution of the United States of North "How did you come to give up the missionary America. With these pages before him, this Chi- call that burned so radiantly in your life then?" nese scholar and statesman was drafting the new ventured the American. constitution for the Republic of China. With national courtesy the Chinese woman hesi- A passenger on the Atlantic was coming to one tated, but the American urged her to forget Oriof the largest cities of the United States to teach ental politeness and to be Americanly-frank, for his native tongue. By calling, and in fifteen years she was asking the question for reasons deeper of service, he was a Christian minister and he had than curiosity. never taught school before. "Then, for Christ's sake, I shall tell you. As a "I would not have left my people-they need college girl in China I was very happy with the me now more than ever, but the churches are thought of going to America to be with and study closed; scores of preachers, who have dared to with people who love God. The night before our preach in spite of the government's repression, ship touched the United States, I did not even have landed in jail. But there is much we can do take off my clothes. I prayed all night. My heart without preaching in a pulpit. We can go from was full to bursting. I prayed three things: I h.ouse to house breaking the Bread of Life. Quiet- praised God over and over for such a privilege to ly we can shepherd our flocks. But my lad's come to Christian America; I prayed to be worthy mother died last summer. She was training him to set my feet upon America's soil-I felt so unto worship and encouraging him to be a Christian worthy; and I prayed for an open heart and mind in spite of Naziism. I was afraid to have the boy to receive the blessings of learning that I might grow up in a land that has exiled God. It is also be like the missionaries who come from this for the lad that I am coming to America. I want beautiful country to which I was now privileged him to have the blessings of growing up in Chris- to come. Then, but-" and her voice broke. tian America." Humiliated by the world's personalization of an Christian America? One trembles and prays! America unworthy of such admiration and es- May those who personalize and idealize America teem, Christians are moved by a renewed zeal to and call her people Christian, not be disillusioned! respond more faithfully to the aching heart of humanity.
The Prime Needs of a City Church By REV. G. H. BECHTOLD, D.D., Philadelphia -otil Executive Secretary, Board of Inner Missions, Evangelical Lutheran Church M OST Protestant congregations begin in supported by the congregation, usually support promising neighborhoods, in a growing themselves and are a source of support for the community of new homes and new fam- congregation. While the congregation grows and ilies. The folks have brought with them some prospers, it never outgrows its early manner of tradition of church attendance and join their new living. With the rapid changes in our modern friends and neighbors in erecting a new church urban life it suddenly finds itself panic stricken. building. For a longer or shorter period of time People are leaving the neighborhood and a differtheir chief occupation is paying the debt and rais- ent class of persons is coming in. Raising money ing the pastor's salary. Some city congregations for local expense and getting new members has not never get beyond that stage. In one communion. succeeded in permeating the community with the Gospel. Money raising devices may have made the over 80 % of the entire income was used for local congregation a nuisance to the small business man. Finally the congregation prepares to move to a expenses, interest, and liquidating debts. The Bible schpol and youth activities, instead of being
THE PRIME NEEDS OF A CITY CHURCH
"more promising" neighborhood. This is a drab tion. People have more leisure and more forms picture, but we need to examine ourselves before of amusement than ever. Amusement resorts proceeding to the building of a constructive pro- cater to capacity crowds but so do our hospitals for gram for action. mental diseases. The Church has a legitimate field in providing the plan and the opportunity for A change of attitude is a prime necessity in a clean pastimes. Music, dramatics and sports are truly Christian program. We read "My house health outlets for pent-up spirits. Folks learn to shall be called a house of prayer for all people." know one another better and are more ready to As a matter of fact, the average Protestant church work together in the serious work of Kingdom is chiefly a "house for the respectable middle building. In one large city church the older men class." We reach neither the very rich nor the were organized into twenty quoit teams. They very poor, although they are there among us. At played every night during the summer, becoming times, groups of congregations make a survey of better acquainted with each other, and in an in- their neighborhoods, but often that gives the indi- formal way, with the program of the church. vidual congregation no accurate picture of its field. Surveys must be made, in order that we may know For nineteen centuries the Christian Church who the people are who live in our parish. has been the St. Elizabeth of the needy. The vast State relief programs have overshadowed the work In every neighborhood there are static as well of the Church. Nevertheless only her persistent as moving elements in the population. Among benevolence has made it possible for the State to those who are static we find the conservative well- carryon on such a colossal scale. What the Church to-do, who were once active in the local church. lacks in funds she possesses in the miraculous Another group could not keep up the pace; they power of multiplying the loaves and the fishes. stayed in the neighborhood, but out of the church. Unemployment has had a devastating effect on In every community there are hidden treasures the life of all classes in the community. Lack of waiting to be turned up. There is a glaring illus- jobs causes lack of funds. Pride has kept many tration in the case of the aged widow in Philadel- former members out of the church. While it is phia for whose millions hundreds of hungry heirs laudable to say "Come whether you have money are squabbling, but for whose soul no church or not," what many really need is a job. Here we seemed to have any concern. have fallen down. Congregational employment committees cooperating with a community Free Having learned the possibilities of a field, the Employment Bureau conducted by the denomina- congregation must look at itself. Having gath- tion have sometimes been the means of finding ered the facts, the congregation must adopt a new work for hundreds in private and public positions. attitude of determination and optimism. First of all, its equipment must not look run down at the Social and economic changes afford the city heel. Many city churches were erected in the days church an opportunity to provide an outlet for the when folks had large families and when every exchange of ideas. In many cases, discussion one went to church. groups have taken the place of old debating clubs. People like to talk about present-day problems. People are conscious of a building that is clean In most congregations, there are one or more col- and well lighted and warm on cold days. lege graduates capable of conducting such a group. One danger is that the pastor may monop- Adequate and decent housing is one of the sta- bilizing factors in a city church. When the newly- oJize the time. Give the people a chance to answer weds can find a modern home close to the old home back. Our Lord had a deep concern for the physi- they will stay. If the family which has risen from cal welfare of the people; Christians may have poverty (are there any such today?) can find a no less. But what of the Gospel? Many sermons more comfortable dwelling among the old neigh- are only husks. The text often provides a peg on . bors they will remain. The church should have a which the preacher hangs his personal views. live interest in the enforcement of housing and What most people want is an authoritative presen- zoning laws, in order that she as well as her neigh- tation of the Scriptures in simple Anglo-Saxon. bors can live happily. It is more constructive to In many cases we have secularized the Church have some unsanitary condition corrected than to with such themes as "Patriotic Grandfathers' pay for the burial expenses of an innocent child Day," "Rocking Chair Sunday," and other cheap victim. tricks to draw a crowd. Worth-while services and messages send folks home with the conviction that People also need to be taught how to live in a they have been with God. home. Despite all the new fangled devices to lighten the "drudgery of housekeeping," nothing A church open every day, ministering to its has yet been invented to take the place of intel- neighbors all the day, is an answer to the prob- ligence. lem. True leadership involves surrounding one- self with an efficient force of workers. Instead of In most parishes in a city, nickelodeons, gramo- phones and player pianos started the process of drying up the wells of wholesome family recrea-
one pastor in a large city church there should be source of lay activity we could turn the ebbing three or four. Experience has shown that not tide in the city churches.
only the unchurched but many of our best work- We also need to cultivate the lost art of singing.
ers are in need of intense pastoral care. Mean- One small city church that we know, with a mem- while the solitary pastor is shackled by a multi-' bership of only 200 had three excellent choirs, an- tude of details that call for trained workers. other larger congregation has fifteen. Not only While every city church has audiences and or- have they served to hold together the group, ganizations, what it needs is worshipers who also spread the appreciation of good music, stimulated are workers, evangelists or deacons in the sense the singing of the congregation, but also they have of Acts 6: 3. City church societies should repre- sung the Gospel into hearts of many.
sent the spirit of Christian fellowship and be the In a community where there are people the training school for volunteer workers. In Ger- prime necessity of the city church is to believe in many the Protestant Church societies have had its mission to permeate and dominate the commu- more than three million volunteers ready at a nity with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, moment's notice for any service. With such a preached, lived and practiced.
Evangelistic Work in Ludhiana Hospital By D. M. PAYNE, Evangelist Memorial Hospital, Ludhiana, Pan;ab CHRISTIAN medical work brings us into been educated in a mission school, and would like touch with all classes of non-Christians- to read the Gospel story over again very carefully. Hindus, Mohammedans and Sikhs. Our ap- He bought a Gospel, and asked her to pray that proach to these people through our medical and as he reads Christ will reveal His full light to him health work is a very effective means of reaching so that he may find salvation and peace of heart. them with the Gospel message. In the hospital, where patients stay for a shorter or longer period, We also found this same earnest seeking after we have a unique opportunity of seeing their re- the truth as revealed in Christ, on the part of a action to the message and of finding out their atti- Hindu whose wife was admitted to the hospital for tude to Christ. Not only the patients, but their several weeks. He bought a Bible saying that he relatives, too, both men and women, have an op- had read it while in a mission school as a boy, but portunity of hearing the message day by day. had paid no attention to its teachings then. Now, however, he was anxious to read it over again very Many these days are buying copies of the Scrip- carefully from beginning to end. Another edutures and seem genuinely anxious to find out about cated Hindu, a master in a high school, whose wife these things for themselves. I think it is not an was in the hospital for some time, said that he exaggeration to say that there is a real spirit of had a Bible at home which he was in the habit of enquiry abroad in India just now on the part of reading to his wife and children. A text hanging many, who are dissatisfied with what their own on the wall of the ward, "The wages of sin is religion has to offer them, and this is causing them death, but the gift of God is eternal life through, to study: the Scriptures and listen with eagerness Jesus Christ our Lord" attracted his attention, and to the message of salvation through Christ. I one day he said, "Will you explain the meaning have, personally, met very few non-Christians of it to me? I have been pondering over it for the during my twelve years of service in this country last two days.'" who are really satisfied with their own religion, and can testify to having found the truth. On the The Hindu doctrine of Karma (salvation by contrary, I have met many who are ready to con- works) is a hopeless one, and it seems that some fess that they are in search of truth. of the thoughtful Hindus are wistfully looking to Christ for salvation that does not depend on the A short time ago the father of one of our Mo- self-effort of weak humanity. Our experienced hammedan patients was listenfng to the Gospel Bible worker, who visits among the "zenana" message while on a visit to his daughter. As the women in the city, reports that among the Hindus Biblewoman was preaching about the death and a number have given up the worship of idols and resurrection of Christ, he exclaimed, "Quite true! long pilgrimages to bathe in the Ganges to remove Quite true!" Afterwards he told her that he had the stain of sin. To some of these she has been
EVANGELIST WORK IN LUDHIANA HOSPITAL
preaching Christ for years. In some instances Him as a prophet, but since I have learnt more of their husbands have joined the Arya Somaj Com- Him during my stay here, I now know that He munity-an advanced sect of Hindus-who, in is the Son of God, and my Saviour from sin." Her spite of having given up idol worship and other eldest son, whose right it is to take the important old customs and superstitions, have still not set- position occupied by his father, refuses to do so tled the sin problem. Many are looking and long- because he says their religious teachers are false, ing for a manifestation of God in the flesh, the and rob the people whom they are supposed to coming of a Divine Being who is perfectly pure teach and shepherd. He says that his "two eyes and holy. Some of the women whom she has been have become four" since reading the Bible. teaching, have accepted Christ. One very significant fact in regard to the atti- The Mohammedans look upon Christ as one of tude of non-Christians towards Christianity, is their prophets, and reverence Him as such, but that they expect a higher standard of love and of do not believe that He died on the Cross to save life from Christians. sinners and think it is blasphemous to speak of Him as the Son of God. However we have come EIGHT CHRISTIAN COLLEGES FOR across a number whose hearing or reading of the WOMEN IN ASIA Word has had considerable effect on them, so that their ideas of Christ as taught them by their own There are eight Union Christian Colleges for religious teachers are changing, and one comes Women in the Far East. St. Christopher'S across many who have come to realize that He is Training College at Madras, India, opened in indeed the Son of God and Saviour of the World, 1923, has now an enrolment of 93 young women although only one here and there has actually with a practice school of 454 pupils. Its gradutaken the step of baptism, while there are a large ates are scattered all over India, teaching in number who are searching the Scriptures and are schools and colleges, in Christian, Hindu and gradually coming into the Light. A Mohammedan, Government institutions. a Police Officer, said to me the other day, Between three and four hundred Japanese "Since I have realized that Christ ..alone of our young women are studying at the Woman's prophets was born of the Holy Spirit, I have felt Christian College of Tokyo. Scholastic training compelled to make a study of His life and claims." is accompanied by practical Christian service.
A Mohammedan student who was in training in Ginling College recently at Nanking, China is our hospital for three and one-half years, recently having a desperate struggle and is operating in came to visit us, and said that the things she three units-one at St. John's College in Shanglearnt of Christ while here she has been passing hai, one at Hwa Chung College and a third at on to others. She said she was working in a part West China University, Chengtu. of the Panjab where many people have not heard the Gospel message, and invited us to go there Yenching College (co-educational) is operatand preach. This we did and found some who are ing within the Japanese lines at Peiping, China. really searching for the truth, and who took The enrolment is smaller than for some years. copies of the Scriptures to read. Others, to whom she had passed on what she had learnt of Christ Cheeloo University (Shantung) has had to as Saviour, are ready to come out on His side, abandon its buildings at Tsinan, but its doctors, and to acknowledge their faith before others in nurses and students are still serving the sufferbaptism. After we returned to Ludhiana a letter ing Chinese. came from a Mohammedan convert, whose home is in that area, begging us to come again, because, Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow, India, has he said "The harvest is really ripe." He also enrolled 214 students; these include girls who added, "I explain about Christ, my Redeemer, to have never been out of p1;trdah before coming to the people of my blood, who are really very fond college and girls who haie never been in school of hearing the message," and then goes on to say, before. Its graduates ~re scattered all over "Most of this country is populated by Moham- India. medans, who regard the Lord as prophet. The only thing that is to be done is to get them to The Woman's Christian College at Madras, realize his Omnipotence." India, prepares for medicine and the higher branches of learning. Many of its students take Another hospital patient, the widow of a big graduate work in America or England. religious leader a m 0 n g the Mohammedans through hearing the Christian message daily, de- Missionary Medical College for Women at Velclared that she has given her allegiance to Christ lore, South India, is . .veIl known through the since hearing about these things. To quote her work of Dr. Ida Scudder. Here seventy young own words, she said, "Before coming here I knew women are in training for a life of service in a country where women doctors are especially needed. The roadside clinic run by this medical school serves a large community.
-The Church Woman.
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.~ ij Effective Ways of Working 'rested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MISS GRACE 'vY. McGAvRAN, 5718 OAK AVE., INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA ~'==I===========~='IJi OHRISTMAS GIFTS materials to use; for ways of tions. Use the books that are on working are prepared by the your shelves in a conscious ef- "There is so little we can real- various peace organizations of fort to preserve the will to peace. ly do for peace," mourned a the country. Choose one organrather short-sighted member of ization and keep in touch with it. Oooperate With the Ohildren a women's missionary society. Use as many of its ideas as you can profitably put into effect. in Study "There are, on the contrary," s u g g e s te d another, "several How Many Books on Peace We often fail to have a vital things." relationship between agencies Has Your Library? in the same church, doing the "Such as?" same thing. The following in- "Object to the sale of war toys Public libraries, missionary li- teresting report from a church for children in our neighborhood braries, libraries of the church in Oklahoma shows how a really stores; give some thought to buy- school departments, private li- valuable connection may be ing for your own children books braries, all these should have made. The Primary children which will aid world friendship, some good recent materials on were given the feeling that what and toys that emphasize con- Peace. A very practical thing they themselves were doing was structive enterprises; and think you can do is to have someone of real concern to grown-ups. out a definite way of helping really interested in peace educa- Their study must have gained them to decide to lay aside war tion make a classified list of what added dignity. The adults were toys which may come to them is available and where, and for made familiar with what chilfrom thoughtless relatives and what age groups. The young peo- dren can do in a field quite unfriends." ple might cooperate in this. known to themselves in their The first member had the Late winter is a good time for a own childhood. grace to blush. "Just to do those special reading campaign on the three things would: take more subject. Books may vary from "The Primary children recentthinking and a bit more courage the short but emphatic, "War is ly completed a study of World than I've given the cause of a Racket," by General Smedley Peace based on the course prepeace yet," she admitted frank- D. Butler, to the interesting but pared by Mrs. Elizabeth Loly. "I'm glad you called my rather difficult, "Power of Non- bingier-'Ship East-Ship West' bluff. I'll get busy at it, I prom- Violence," by Richard Gregg. and the accompanying teacher's ise you." Or it may include, "Ship East- guide. This project was carried Ship West," a book for 1st, 2nd on during the departmental ses- What specific task for world and 3rd grade children by Eliza- sions of the Sunday church peace are you laying before your beth Lobingier, which has facts school and a regular weekly group? Is it something each one and stories qui t e interesting meeting of the children of this can do if she has a mind to? Is enough for use with adults to department. Stories, dramatizait something the value of which whom they are unfamiliar. It tions, e x p lor at ion of Bible she will see? Is it something will do mothers and fathers a verses, investigations of facts whose cumulative effect will be real amount of good to read relative to the cost of war, the noticeable? Is it something that some of these new children's creation of peace bridges and demands a bit of courage or de- books on peace. "Broken Guns," other memorials erected between termination? There is something by Eleanor Brainard is another. f r i end I y nations, discussions every person can do. Find it, It is for Junior children. centering around methods of livput it before the group, follow ing together in peaceful relait up and report if possible on In this period when the world tions, were among the activities results. hangs on the edge of general con- of work carried on during this flict it is essential, if we are at study. Make Use of Peace all interested in ultimate peace, Organizations that we use the written word to "At the close of their work keep people's minds turned to together, the chi 1d r en had Many excellent and detailed the possible ways of cooperative charge of the peace program of suggestions for programs on dealing with each other as na- the Women's Missionary Society peace; for lines of action; for of their church. At that time the [598 ]
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
things which they had learned Peace in an exhibit being sponsored by and done during their study to- the group. gether were shared with the Peace in our time, 0 Lord, older members of their church To all the peoples-Peace! (3) Some young people, wantin a most effective way. Peace surely based upon Thy Will And built in righteousness. ing to make quoted material viv- "As a concrete expression of id, memorized a paragraph each their interest in world peace, the Thy power alone can break and gave it, in proper sequence boys and girls are packing two The fetters that enchain with all the dignity, emphasis suitcases to be sent to the Com- The sorely-stricken soul of life, mittee on World Friendship And make it live again. and effectiveness they could com- Among Children – one for a mand. Voices which contrasted Spanish girl, and the other for a Too long mistrust and fear and personal characteristics Spanish boy. While this study Have held our souls in thrall; which differed gave emphasis to as such has been completed, the Sweep through the earth, keen breath it and helped prevent any feelleaders of this group feel that ing of monotony. much more can be discovered of heaven, about this subject, and will con- And sound a nobler call! (4) One group wanting to tinue to carry the peace emphasis in their church program."- Come, as Thou didst of old, reach the larger church body, In love so great that men with the cooperation of the pas- Mrs. Grant Truman, Supt. of the Shall cast aside all other gods tor printed a paragraph in the And turn to Thee again! church bulletin e a c h week. Primary Department. Church members were urged to 0, shall we never learn Are your adults familiar with The truth all time has taught,- save the bulletins and reread as the mission study being carried That without God as architect a whole the entire message thus out by younger groups in the Our building comes to naught? given them. church? Are they helping the children and young people to feel Lord, help us, and inspire (5) Another group sends out that these things they are study- Our hearts and lives, that we ing are more than just matters May build, with all Thy wondrous an occasional valuable piece of of childhood interest? Why not material by mail to every memplan various occasions when the gifts, ber on the roll. It is mimeochildren's leader can say to the A Kingdom meet for Thee! graphed, as is the short accomchildren, "The· women of the panying letter, and goes for very missionary society (or the men Peace in our time, 0 Lord, little postage. of the Bible class) are interested To all the peoples-Peace! in this, too. They are working Peace that shall build a glad new You might use the paragraphs at it. Would you like to go to their next meeting and tell them world, below in one of these ways. And some of the interesting and And make for life's increase. keep on the lookout for vivid and worth-while things. we have dis- helpful and forceful quotations covered?" The sense of oneness o Living Christ, who still from other sources for similar in the great world-wide task of use. To stimulate thinking is the Church which results from Dost all our burdens share, among the most important of the such interchange is valuable in itself. It also strengthens each COofmaellnmowenanedvedrwywelhl ewreit!h*in the hearts tasks of missionary education. group participating. How Use Quotations "War is not born in a field or be- Sing Hymns of Peace hind a wall, or in a drafting room. Below you will find some very It is born in the mind of a man, or in We have had few hymns in our pertinent paragraphs on the the minds of many men. It is later on actual worship which are def- causes of war and the creation that it becomes bombs and cannon and initely related to a desire for of attitudes toward peace. They the tread of men on the march. peace. It is time we were using are part of an article by W. W. some of them. Reid. "While ideas that give rise to war are allowed to germinate in the human A comparatively new hymn One wishes that all the mem- mind-and are carefully incubated by by John Oxenham, sung to the bers of one's missionary group popular ignorance, by a jingo press, tune so familiar to us all, "Dia- or of the church might have by all the proponents of greed, hate, demata" or "Crown Him with them. There are several ways fear and jealousy, by a warped mili- in which different Qrganizations tarism and 'patriotism,' and, also, too Many Crowns" is given here.* have secured general reading of often in the schoolroom and in the such paragraphs. pulpit-we may fully anticipate the • Printed copies of it may be obtained only known fruit of such germination: from A. Weekes and Co., Ltd., 13-14, Han- (1) Mimeographed copies of wars, more wars, and worse wars. over St., London, W. 1. gngland. Send an similar material was prepared international postal money order for 2 sbil- for one meeting. Its unison "Treaties, solemn pledges, high relings and 6 pence (about sixty cents) for 250 reading was planned as part of solves and reason are powerless before copies. Or for 500 copies send 3 shillings the program. Each member was the causes of war found in the human and 6 pence. The notation says post free. asked to take it home and medi- mind. Until the mind of a whole But you might suggest in YOUI' letter that tate further upon it. world-wide generation is changed, we if postage to foreign countries is extra, they cannot hope for lasting peace. An deduct it from the amount and spnd fewer (2) A member of one group 'embargo' is but war with newer copies. made a series of posters each weapons! Increased armaments pro- carrying in vivid lettering a voke added hate and fear-new causes short paragraph. She used these of conflict! Physical disarmament- in presenting a short talk on the without disarmament of mind and theme. The posters were later spirit-leaves us like our ancestors used, placed in consecutive order who yet warred without the tools of modern combat! • Copyright by The Ohristian Centwry In 1,000 Quotable Poems. Used by permission. "To keep any generation out of war, we must teach it a new philosophy. The whole strength of school, home,
church and the channels of public very familiar one "Uncle Sam box of hanging-tinsel was pro- OpInIOn must be geared together in Needs You," (The picture of vided but by common consent, this educational task-as they now Uncle Sam pointing straight at not used. Some of the mothers gear together when war is to be pro- you). Find a contrast such as and fathers had bought a couple moted. The new teaching emphasis the Poster of the Emergency of strings of electric lights. must be a p p 1i e d simultaneously Peace Campaign of 1937-1938, throughout the world: for peace can- "For What?" (A young man What was the point? They not reign anywhere while the roots of were preparing their gift to a conflict grow in any land. tied to the mouth of the cannon.) near-by city mission, so that the Arrange these against s 0 m e children there might have a tree "One remembers the technique of to enjoy, which was just the fitting the American mind into a war background the size, shape and same tree as they had enj oyed. program in 1917. . . . The success color of an army blanket, with If you could have heard the joy- of that propaganda is now history…. 1917 in large letters over one, ful, "I think they'll like this But if these same instruments of ornament!" and "We'll let them propaganda are used to promote peace, and 1937-38 over another. Be- put on the tinsel-hanging be- they can just as readily-perhaps tween them run the legend. cause we might lose some if we more readily-insure understanding "War is futile. Help us find the used it now," or "It's the nicest and appreciation and cooperation, and Christian way." tree we ever had!" Personal? war will be impossible. Their pride and happiness in it N ow for the display of your had no bounds. It was some- "Suppose we have a misunderstand- contrasts.1 Mounted on beaver thing far more than a gesture of ing, or difference of opinion, or an eco- board, they may be slid one at a giving. Every thing on it had nomic or territorial dispute with some time across an opening in your been selected with the idea of foreign power. Suppose our news- s tag e curtains-dramatically giving delight. papers have their best journalists pre- Rent equally well both sides of the dif- lighted-with the audience in All cannot have children give ference. Suppose the cartoonists, the the dark-as part of a program decorated Christmas trees. But movie men, the radio announcers, the on peace. you can arrange for whatever teachers in their classes, the preachers personal gift they are making at in their pulpits, and the orators of 2. Hire an empty store and set Christmas to have in its prep- all parties extol the virtues of the up the display for Friday and aration, and completion, the .. people with whom we differ; picture same thoughtfulness, and delight the good of their civilization, their Saturday. Hang curtains over in sharing. artistic contribution to mankind, the the windows till you are ready reasonableness of their point of view- to display. In this event you A Look at Future Plans perhaps their very needs for new will want to have an easily-read lands to feed increasing- populations. statement on your group's atti- Pages such as these must be Suppose dolls representing the chil- tude toward war where the win- planned months ahead. There dren of that land replaced guns and dow gazers can read it after are so many lines along which tin soldiers as toys; its pictures and looking at the posters. Someone we might search for effective songs and stories were used from kin- might smash the window, so be methods of working! dergarten to college; the theatres and prepared to pay damages. schools gave plays and displays re- You will find a wealth of in- countin~ that land's history and cus- A Very Personal Gift teresting and helpful suggestion toms' and aspirations. In fact, sup- among the following themes to nose every agency thought and worked Feeling that the children's giv- which we hope to be able to give for peace and understanding. prominence in the months men- ing at Christmas was not very tioned. "In such an atmosphere, commis- sions representing both countries could personal, a Junior Superintend- January-General Plans. easily reach a conclusion of the diffi- February-How to Make Effective culty that would be satisfactory to all. ent planned a bit of Christmas Recourse to arms would be un- Contacts with Missionaries, Mis- dreamed of. sharing in a new way. They sion Leaders and Nationals. March-The Local Church and Its "This is not a small task. Rather themselves always had a Christ- Missionary Program. it is the greatest task of the human April-Various Matters of Interest. race, the task of all governments and mas tree at their Christmas May-Plans for Summer Effective- of all peoples thinking and working ness. cooperatively. It is not to be attained party. Thig year they saved June-Helps for the Home Missions without cost. Into its cost govern- Study. ments will have to transfer many of money to buy an extra big one. July-Visual Education in Missions. the millions now spent in war-produc- Septembm'-Effective Publicity for ing armaments. It was left without a decoration Missionary Events. October-Helps for Our Foreign Mis- "What if one generation today on it. sions Study. 'sacrifices' all its pomps and vanities N ovember-Stewardship. that a thousand coming generations As the boys. and girls arrived December-The Enrichment of the may live!" Devotional Life. for the party, each carried some Twenty Years After Have you used effective meth- Christmas tree ornament or dec- ods along these lines? If so, kind- Rolled away in somebody's at- ly let the Department Editor tic in your town are some of oration. It was either a new one hear of them. those wonderful war posters of 1917-1918. They were superb in chosen and bought by the child their appeal. Emotionally they did just what they were intended especially for this occasion, or it to do. was one in good condition from Why not use them now for peace education? Here's how! his own home tree. .
Choose a poster such as the What fun they had decorating that tree. Some time was spent making extra decorations. A 1 Various posters against war may be bought from The National Council for Pre- vent:on of "-ar. 532 Seventeenth St.. N. W .. Washington. D. C. Write for descriptions and prices.
BULLETIN
Council of Women for Home Missions EDITED BY MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, 297 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
~'================~ij THE STRANGER IN OUR MIDST-THE MIGRANT!
"Away in the Manger, finds in some instances sixteen They Starve That We No crib for his bed . persons living in a one-room May Eat t shack; the only drinking water TTamp-Tramp-Tramp available that which is sold from Shall this continue to be true a filling station at five cents a or will you, and you, and you, Can you hear the Migrants as quart; a destitute mother and who eat fresh and canned vegethey move across the country in baby shipped as freight half-way tables and fruits gathered for search of shelter, employment, across the country to join a hus- you by the Migrants become schools for their children, hospi- band in an endless trek of six- their champion! It is imperative talization for the ill members of week jobs and twelve-week peri- that we as Christians and as their families; for sanitation, ods of looking for it! citizens see that the more than simple justice from individuals two million Migrants in America like you and me who eat the veg- For generations this condition have the right to work and live etables they gather. On foot, in has existed-ever since railroads as human beings. old cars, in and under freight and refrigerators made it postrains many come great dis- sible for neighborhood markets SIX A. M. AT THE NURSERY tances in expectation of short- to obtain tropical fruits in Jantime jobs gathering peas, beans, uary and vegetables the year Does Your Church Know? tomatoes, lettuce, cranberries, around. asparagus, cotton, sugar beets, How the Council of Women apricots, hops, and other vege- Recent years have added for Home Missions, representing tables, small fruits, and fisheries greatly to the number of Mi- twenty-three national women's here and elsewhere. grants due to floods, droughts, denominational Boards is at- share-cropper eviction, and most tempting to meet this problem? Through the pressure of pub- recently the tractor. Where the If not, make it your business to lic opinion the families of the tractors are appearing the rural secure for your pastor, your city slums can turn to the clinic, landscape is strewn with abanthe visiting nurse, the relief doned houses. Residents in west- • Quoted from an artiCle on Migrants by agencies, the school, or the ern Texas explain as they point: Paul ·S. Taylor, of the University of Calichurch and receive help because "There used to be two families fornia, entitled "What Shall We Do with they are members of an organ- out there. The tractor got both Them ?" April, 1938. ized community. But not so with the Migrant families – always SUPPER FOR THE FAMILY OF ELEVEN t "They Starve that We May Eat" is the "strangers in our midst." Un- These meals must be prepared in the early protected by law he is barely in title of a valuable booklet on Migrant work the consciousness of the public. morning before going to the fields compiled by Edith E. Lowry, and published Public opinion is not aroused to by the Missionary Education Movement and the :plight of this segment of of them. . . . That farm has the Councll of Women for Home Missions, Amedcan life. As a result one made a living for a family ever price 35 cents. since the land was broke. . . . The tractors are keeping our families from making a living." * [ 601 ]
Barbara Green make out someway until tomorrow al- would like to read something. He said though Dorothy had cried all night; he would and picked out Peter Rabbit. STORY HOUR FOLLOWS WORSHIP and they had no money. . . . Worker It was a sight to see him sitting there, AT TEN O'CLOCK saw the county doctor in —. He absorbed, mouthing his way through is not too vitally interested, but told a book he should have been able to Missionary Society President, her to use bread and milk poultice and read with ease seven or eight years your Sunday School Superin- bring Dorothy to him tomorrow and ago. But at least he can read it now tendent, and your young people's he would make no charge. Worker and that is something." leader full information by writ- told Father this on way back. If he ing to the Council of Women for does not see to it, perhaps worker will "A large majority of the children Home Missions, 297 Fourth take her." in these camps do not attend school. Avenue, New York, N. Y. What Of course they do not want to attend a force for public opinion we "We had a rummage sale. Many and, as a superintendent of one of the could be if every church made of the parents came. It gave them a schools said, 'If they did all come I the story of the Migrant a con- chance to see the Center as well as don't know where we would put them.' cern of that entire church! get clothing for the family. Most But they do not all come and never articles were sold for 5 cents, a few will unless local communities make a The following excerpts are things were 10 cents. Some of the point of seeing that they come by enfrom reports of the fifty-three parents said, looking around, 'No won- forcing compulsory school attendance." projects in thirteen states where der the kids like to come here so the Council of Women for Home well!' " "We were all ready for our trip to Missions with the aid of trained the Museum. The group of ten was volunteers has been a construc- Barbara Green just a good number. First we went to tive force in the life of the CLEAN-UP COMES JUST BEFORE LUNCH! the Park, and for awhile the boys kept Migrant: busy at the playground. We had "Today I had an extensive talk with lunch near the pond. The one diffi- Christmas Eve in a Cotton Claire on religion, I, a Baptist and she culty was that the boys wanted to Camp a Catholic. Her interest and knowl- catch the goldfish in the pond. They edge were astounding. The conversa- roamed around and looked at the vari- "We came to play Santa Claus in a tion was not one of proselyting, but ous things in the park, and then we small way-in a small way of neces- rather one of sharing. Religious con- all walked down to the Children's sity because of the almost insurmount- versation is not in any degree so taboo Museum. We saw colored slides of able task that is presented. Proper here as on the college campus. . . . the West first, and then movies of the clothing, nourishing food, warm As young as they are we get into good desert, South America, and the Far shelter. The cabins are built on the discussions on religion. They told me West. The boys were really interested ground and with rough boards covered today that they thought I would go to and enjoyed the exhibits. They seemed with dirt for the floor. An old garbage heaven even though I didn't tell my to be quite enthusiastic about the can turned upside down serves for a sins to a priest." whole trip. . . . At eight o'clock the stove, and a pile of cotton with a piece children's choir sang one of their new of canvas thrown over it is known as "Our men were forced to strike this songs for devotion and did very well. the bed. This is the winter home of morning When 'thousands' of cars … The dance later in the evening four children and their parents who came tearing in to drive them out of was a huge success, though there was pick cotton when the weather permits. the fields. They are striking for a some tension when the orchestra did . . . From churches, Missionary So- fifty-cent raise for the pickers. We not arrive on time. Someone esticieties and other organizations have stuck around until the tobacco in the mated that there were four hundred come toys, clothing and food which is shed was all used up then went home. people there as dancers or spectators." distributed to every household. . . . If . . . Back to work this morning. The those who have contributed could have boys only got a twenty-five-cent raise. "Workers were putting the rest of heard the cries of joy and glee, and . . . They didn't want the strike in the children to sleep, while B, M, and seen how tickled these children were the first place. These people certainly J were doing dishes. When they went as we handed the gifts to them from ought to be organ'zed that they may out they found a note on the, refrigour trucks they would, I am sure, feel better understand their needs. But erator, 'Dear teachers, we have moped fully repaid and realize that their sac- first of all must come education. Four every bit of the kitchen flour. It is rifices were not in vain." boys accused of leading our strike real clean. B-M-J.''' were fired." "Dorothy has a badly infected "We fold our hands and softly say finger. Worker stopped to see her "Jack is a bright looking lad of fif- Mother and urged her to take Dor- teen. The worker asked him if he Thanksgiving for our food this day." othy to the doctor. The mother said she had been told she would have to Don't have your concert first, and then tune your instrument; begin the day with the Word of God, and get into harmony with Him.-J. Hudson Taylor.
Christmas Story for
A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN never had opportunity to talk it White ought to tell it, since he BETHLEHEM with some one his own age. is a real teacher," said Micah's mother. By VIOLET WOOD, NEW YORK Although he felt very shy, he approached the man and "N0," said Dr. White. "You Micah had anxiously watched asked timidly, "Please, may I come from people with a rich the sky all afternoon. An air- help carry your bags?" tradition in poetry and beauty. plane had sailed by, but even It will be wonderful to hear you that failed to shake his gloom. "You speak English!" cried tell the Christmas story." The clouds remained and he the little girl. "Do you live was very much disappointed. here ?" So, after they had eaten a Tonight was the night of light meal at the inn, they went nights! For weeks now he had "Yes, I do. My mother, fa- to the roof. The air was melprayed that his father's busi- ther and I will be here for one low and the wind gentle alness would continue in the little or two weeks more," responded though it was December;, but town of Bethlehem until Christ- Micah. there were no stars to be seen mas Day. The prayer had been in the clouded sky. granted, for it was Christmas "Well," said the fat her, Eve and he was still in Bethle- "that's fine. We'll be here for "In America," said Joan, hem. a few days. This is Mrs. White, "perhaps there is snow on the this is Joan and I'm Dr. White." ground now. The Christmas "Oh," he sighed, "if only the trees will be lighted and the stars would shine tonight, so "My name is Micah," replied shop windows gaily decorated that I can watch the sky and the boy with a low bow. in red and green. And, oh, it look for the Star of Bethlehem. will be very cold in many parts How happy I should be!" His Just then his mother came of America. Just think, next mother had promised to take out and met his new acquaint- Christmas I shall be there! How him to the roof of the inn where ances. Mrs. White had just much I will love to tell my they were staying. There she come from a visit to the school friends there about this Christwould tell him the ancient story in Baghdad w her e Micah's mas in Bethlehem. I can't beof many generations ago when mother had once been a pupil; lieve this is really Bethlehem her forefathers had been shep- so they chatted together like old and that it is Christmas Eve. herds in the hills. It would be friends, speaking of teachers It seems like a dream." She wonderful to hear the Christ- and places they both knew. laughed. "These s t ran g e mas story in the town of Beth- mosques and minarets and low lehem itself. But none of this When rooms for the White houses look just like the picwould be possible if it rained, family were found and their tures on Christmas cards at or if the clouds hid the stars. luggage arranged, Joan said: home." Dusk was rapidly falling and the "We are going to walk through clouds remained. the streets of Bethlehem, even "Tomorrow," ask e d Micah, Micah gazed sadly down the if it rains. Coming to Bethle- "will you tell me about Christroad. The sight and sound of mas in America? Mother has an approaching automobile in- hem is my Christmas present terested him, although since his from mother and father. Won't told me about Santa Claus, father was a traveling mer- you come with us?" Christmas trees and the hangchant, he had seen more cars and ing up of stockings. I want to had journeyed more than most Micah's mother looked very hear more about them." Arabian boys. The automobile thoughtful. "I am ashamed to stopped at the inn and Micah have to say this, for it is partly "All right," answered Joan, watched an American lady, a the fault of my people, the man and a little girl about his Arabs; but it is not safe to "but I want to hear about own age get out, laughing mer- walk in the streets of Bethle- Bethlehem now." rily and talking English. This hem when it is dark, even on was very exciting to Micah, be- Christmas night. There are "It is a very simple story," cause his mother, who had been many street fights. Please do began Micah's mother, "one educated at a Christian school not go. It is already dark." that you have heard over and in Baghdad had taught him English. He often talked that "Mother, couldn't they come over, but I will tell it to you as language with her and with the up to the roof over our rooms? it has been told in my family British soldiers, but he had We could watch the sky while from the beginning many, many you tell us the story of the shep- generations ago. I come from herds," pleaded Micah. a long line of Bedouins, or wan- dering shepherds. They lived "Oh, yes," cried Joan, "that would be lovely." in tents made of dark woolen cloth which they threw over "I don't think that I should be the one to tell the story. Dr.
[603 ]
long frames, leaving a flap of afraid and covered their heads ing others there of the birth of cloth tied to a pole which they Jesus. used as a door. Like all shep- with their long tunics. But the herds they spent very little time "King Herod heard the report angel of the Lord appeared and and wondered what it meant. in their tents; they preferred to Later some Wise Men came from lie on the hillside day and night told them of the birth of a baby the East and said tbey had seen watching their sheep and look- a wonderful star. They asked: ing at the stars, and thinking that was wrapped in swaddling 'Where is the newborn king of about the God who made them. the Jews, for we have seen his clothes and was lying in a man- star in the East and are come to "Hundreds of years ago to- worship him?' Herod was frightnight a little group of Jewish ger where cattle were usually ened when he heard of this and shepherds were lying on the sent for the Jewish priests and hills near here. It had been an fed. Then the whole chorus of .unusual day and it was a teachers to ask them about the strange night. The sheep were heavenly angels sang as with old prophecy that told of the restive. The camel trails had one great voice of praise: 'Glory coming of a Jewish Messiah. been much used by strangers all Then he told the Wise Men to go morning and afternoon. for the to God in the highest and on to Bethlehem to look for the decre~ of the Roman Emperor, child. Cresar Augustus, was that all earth peace, good will toward the descendents of King David "As they traveled on, the star should bring their tribute to men.' appeared again and the Wise Bethlehem. So, many travelers Men were filled with great joy. came from as far away as Leb- "As suddenly as they came, They followed where it seemed anon and Jericho and Nazareth to point until they came to a to the ancient City of David. the angels went away again; the house in Bethlehem where they found the young child with Mary "The shepherds knew of the sky became as before, and a old prophecy that a Messiah his mother and they, too, wor- great silence surrounded them. shipped him." would someday be born in Bethlehem who would deliver his The shepherds were no longer *** people. They thought of it as they lay silently watching the afraid. They talked with one Here Micah's mother stopped sky. As tonight, clouds rolled speaking and looked up into the over it. Suddenly strange mu- another of their vision and de- sky. All the others looked up, sic was heard in the distance. cided that certain of them would too. The clouds had passed and The shepherds looked at one a lovely, bright star was shining another shaking their heads. go to Bethlehem and see if they Something wonderful was about over them. to happen, of that they were could find the wonderful child. "Oh," cried Micah in joy, "the sure. "Some of the shepherds went star! See the star!" "All at once, just after dark- "Just think," whispered Joan, ness had grown soft and black down the hills and made inquiras velvet, the heavens became "this might have been the very very bright around them with ies until they found the baby in spot." a strangely brilliant light. The shepherds were very m u c h the stable of the inn at Bethle- "Yes," said Micah. Doesn't hem. He was wrapped in swad- that star seem to be pointing here?" dling clothes, with Mary his "That is because the Star of mother beside him and her hus- Christ is shining in our hearts," murmured Dr. White. band Joseph seated near by. The humble shepherds bowed down and worshipped this child, who was called Jesus, of whom the messengers from heaven had told them. .
"Then the shepherds returned to their flocks, full of wonder at what they had seen. For many days they told the story of their vision, and their finding of the Christ child to travelers who stopped in the hills to refresh themselves and to fill the i r waterjugs. Some of these trav- elers went on,to Jerusalem, tell~
World–wide
A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO NORTH AMERICA try area all the churches have were removed, the bottles care- been slowly dying, with only one fully washed, then a tract or "A Reaching Mission" left that has a pastor who comes Gospel penny portion placed in every second week for a serv- within, after which the bottles Protestant pastors in Philadel- ice. It has been years since any were sealed and consigned to the phia, having had a preaching thorough pastoral work has been sea. This is no small-town enmission and a teaching mission, done there. The result is that terprise. Sometimes as many as have now embarked upon a there is not one person under 2,500 bottles go into Chesapeake "reaching" mission. Ministers thirty years of age in the area Bay at a single launching. of 22 denominations have adopt- that has made a Christian coned a program of pastoral and fession and united with any Thus, the bottles once containcongregational evangelism, and church. This is true of another ing evil spirits, now are filled by unanimous resolution declare community in the western part with the spirit of the Gospel. that "the supreme task of the of the state. church is bringing men, women, -Bible Society Record. boys and girls into personal fel- The Gospel in Bottles lowship with the living Christ. Crusade Against Liquor There is no solution of problems Near the waterfront in Balti- Advertising other than the Christ way of more, Md., is a small lunchroom life." bearing the sign "Mike's Place." The National Temperance and This might suggest the under- Prohibition Council is urging all President Walter Greenway, world, but the presiding genius temperance forces to unite for of Beaver College, who proposed is a devoted Christian Italian the suppression of liquor adverthe plan, originally developed who has hit upon a unique meth- tising in newspapers, magazines, this program in a rural church od to spread the GospeL Mi- over the radio and by all other of 100 members, enlarged and chael Coscia was born over a means. An undertaking of this found it effective in a town saloon kept by his father. His magnitude will require concerted church of 500, and finally tested associates as he grew up were effort, hence the Council, comit thoroughly in two Philadelphia the type who loaf in barrooms. posed of 27 organizations seems churches, each of which as a re- When he was past thirty there the logical force to carry forsult grew from few members to came a day when life took on a ward the project. Protesting to over 2,000. The program sug- new meaning for Mike, and he the owners and managers of gests preparation for the pastor felt an urge to preach the Gos- radio stations, to the editors and and the entire congregation, out- pel, but realizing his handicaps, publishers of newspapers and lines methods of publicity and he looked for another method to magazines advertising intoxicatthrough it all stresses the su- proclaim the message than from ing liquors, and laboring for the preme preparation by the Holy a pulpit. After he had estab- enactment of legislation to stop Spirit. Its flexibility permits it lished his lunchroom, he placed liquor advertising are the lines to be used successfully in any de- a Bible verse on the roof, where along which the Council will dinomination or congregation. The it could be seen by thousands rect its efforts.-S. S. Times. ministers of the city have been who transact business in the tall asked to spend from 9 to 9: 15 buildings near by. Irreligion in Films each morning in intercession for one another and for the churches Mike's next inspiration came Rt. Rev. John T. McNicholas, in this outreaching enterprise. from finding every morning Catholic Archbishop of Cincin- scores of empty whiskey, gin nati, spokesman for the "Legion -The Christian Century. and wine bottles scattered of Decency," says that effort is around Market Place. Of course, being made in recent pictures to Godless Spots they were gathered by the white spread ideas antagonistic not wings, so that for most of the only to Christian morality, but Harold C. Loughhead has sur- day the streets were clean. But to all religion. He warns film veyed a number of areas in rural Mike saw in these empty bottles producers that they have an in- Pennsylvania, and has discov- a great opportunity. He and his escapable responsibility to safeered some amazing facts about family began to gather the bot- guard the moral welfare of the this supposed stronghold of tles daily, like the manna. Labels public by putting before them Christianity. In one open coun- right patterns of thought and [605 ] conduct.
It was the American Cath- vestigation has discovered that aries was that of transportation. olic's Legion of Decency that Chinese percentage of delin- During the summer travel becompelled a radical change in quency is the lowest of any racial tween villages is more difficult the tone of motion pictures by or sectional group, the ratio be- than in the winter. The only a boycott, launched in 1934. ing almost negligible. Chinese means of transportation in many Now the Legion is viewing with teachers, questioned by the in- places. is by dog team and sledge grave apprehension the various vestigators, said that the reason over the frozen ~round. Small subtle attempts to employ the for this remarkable showing is a boats can ply the rivers and the film to project irreligious points precept of Confucius: "The mis- sea coast, but they are inadeof view-films that portray, ap- conduct of the child is the fault quate, very inconvenient, slow, provingly, concepts rooted in of the parent." Every Chinese irregular and costly. Only the philosophies attacking the Chris- child is made to understand that villages along water routes can tian faith. his misdemeanor in public brings be contacted thus in summer disgrace not only on himself but while the regions beyond are -Dayton Daily News. on his family, and the severest neglected. punishment is to "lose face." Iowa School for Missionaries Traveling by dog teams has United Church of Canada also its hazards. Many "mush- The first Iowa School for Mis- Crusade ers" have been caught out on the sionaries will be held January 23 tundra, many miles from the to February 18, 1939, at the Iowa The United Church of Canada nearest cabin in a blizzard and State College, Ames, Iowa. The is conducting a quarter-million then he will have to make a camp courses offered are Sociology and fellowship crusade during the and dig himself and his dogs into Rural Organization, Family Life last ten weeks of 1938, including a snow drift until the storm and Health, Agricultural and a recall to worship of all its abates. Another danger is from Rural Education, Foods and Nu- membership and a campaign for the packs of hungry wolves rovtrition and Agriculture. There a quarter of a million new sup- ing the tundra. Even if the will be afternoon conferences porters. This Church stands "musher" is armed he and his and field trips to near-by com- fourth in per capita giving dogs are an easy prey for the munities, schools and parishes. among the 2'5 leading denomina- hungry wolves. A special two-day conference on tions of North America. Rural Missions Work will be The airplane is a fast and a held over one of the week-ends In the last Canadian census convenient way to travel in during the school session. The the people listing themselves as Alaska. The plane can land on school is in charge of a commit- of the United Church numbered the water, when equipped with tee from the faculties of Agri- more than two million, or one in pontoons, on the snow-covered culture and Home Economics of five of the dominion population. tundra, when equipped with skiis which Professor R. H. Porter is Of these, the members in com- or on one of the many airfields chairman. Dr. Porter was for a munion are less than 700,000; kept in good condition by the number of years a member of of these the regular supporters Government. the faculty of the College of by envelope amount to 235,000; Agriculture and Forestry of the and those who also contribute to This mission has purchased a University of Nanking, China. missionary and benevolent en- Fairchild plane with a Warner- The only expenses to students terprises amount to only 110,000. Scarab 145 horsepower engine, will be for board and room. Mis- seating three persons besides the sionaries who expect to attend -The Christian Century. pilot. It has a cruising range of the school are requested to send 500 miles with a speed of 125 in their names as soon as pos- A Missionary Airplane for miles an hour and can climb sible to Professor R. M. Vif- Alaska 16,000 feet, crossing anyone of quain, Room 122 N, Agricultural the Alaska mountain ranges. It Hall, Iowa State College, Ames, The natives of Alaska will be is equipped with all the neces- Iowa.* visited during this winter by an sary instruments for blind fly- airplane which the Evangelical ing, including a radio, all in- How Chinese Check Mission Covenant Church of spected by the U. S. Government. Delinquency Chicago has recently sent to The trip from Chicago to Seattle Nome. When the old "sour- (Z300 miles) was made in 21 There are about 3,000 Chinese doughs" used to call preachers hours, at 12,000 feet altitude. boys. and girls in the New York "sky pilots" they did not realize From Seattle it was shipped to area. During the past eight that in the future the preacher Nome as the fog was too thick years there have been among would come dropping down from on the coast to fly all the way. them only two cases of juvenile the clouds with a message from delinquency. A recent court in- above. The plane will be stationed at Bandle, a village on the Arctic • A descriptive folder of the school may In the summer of 1937, the Circle, where a new work was be had on request, either to Professor Vlf- Covenant Mission sent its secre- opened last summer. The Misquain or to the Rural Missions Cooperating tary to the Alaska missions and sion Covenant has work in sev- Committee, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, he found that one of the prob- enteen larger villages and beside New York. lems confronting the mission- the six missionaries employ a
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
number of native evangelists. THE' ALASKA Scriptures, and where members During the last three years, five MISSIONARY of evangelical churches had been new churches have been built arrested on charges of subverand one parsonage. When the AIRPLANE sive activities. It was definitely plane becomes a weekly visitor known that this was due to presto the unevangelized regions the Put in service at sure on the part of the bishops work should quickly expand. Nome, September 27, of the Catholic Church. 1938. Will1>e piloted THE REV. G. E. JOHNSON. by Rev. Paul Ben- Representatives of the Amer- jamin Franklin Carl- ican Bible Society and the Brit- LATIN AMERICA son. On picture to ish and Foreign Bible Society right is the Secretary sought and secured a personal Human Salvage in Mexico of Missions of the interview with the proper gov- Covenant-Rev. Gust. ernment authority. This official Although the Salvation Army assured the Bible Society agents has work in some 80 countries, E. Johnson that the sale of Scriptures could political conditions in Mexico not be prohibited, since the Conmade it seem practically impos- he~dquarters, and the office cre- stitution of the republic granted sible for the Army to enter. But ated for the purpose has been in liberty both of worship and of a young Mexican, a former gov- contact with young people's commerce, but that the Governernment official and communist groups in every Latin American ment would not tolerate political leader, was converted, and with- country, trying to find out their propaganda. Assurance was givout knowing anything of the Sal- viewpoints and other prelim- en him that absolute abstention vation Army or its methods, inaries. The Congress will be from all political activity was began to work in the slums of held in 1940, probably in Lima, required of their colporteurs by Mexico City among drunkards Peru. Political conditions might both Bible Societies, and that and other human wreckage, on require the selection of another any breach of this rule led to inlines similar to those used by the city for the meeting. stant dismissal. The Minister, Army. who asked for a copy of the Bi- -World Dominion Press. ble for his own use, then ordered Street meetings were held in that a circular be sent to every defiance of the law, and when How to Handle Crime Problem Prefect in the republic. arrested this young man and his helpers continued to preach in Federal and State govern- – World Dominion Press. jail. The transformed lives that ments might make a note of the resulted convinced the govern- way the present government of An Evangelistic Odyssey ment of the value of this work, Guatemala handles its vice proband it was allowed to continue lems. Too often there is neglect A house on wheels is a novelty unmolested. This spontaneous in permitting marijuana cigar- in Colombia. The Gospel bus, movement has now been in- ette peddlers to hang around provided by Sunday School tegrated with the world organi- our high schools, but Guatemala Easter offerings and other gifts, zation of the Salvation Army. authorities hound down these was greeted along the road with ghouls and make their business this exclamation, Ave Maria -World Dominion Press. one of high crime. With the ex- purissima! Que es eso? (Hail, cellent police system, the crim- Mary, most pure! What's that?) Young People's Congress inal is most likely to be caught The bus accommodates about promptly, and alas for him if twelve people, seated on benches For several years evangelical convicted. and boxes, but on occasion more leaders of young people in Latin than twenty have crowded in America have been hoping for a Some years ago a German and listened to the Gospel story. Congress for young evangelicals merchant undertook to introduce from all the republics. The need the opium vice into Guatemala. Rev. Pryor T. Smith tells in of stronger ties among young He dropped with a thud into Colombia Clippings of some of Christians; interchange of ex- public contempt as a result, and periences; a united attitude to- his application for an importawards moral, spiritual and social tion permit was promptly turned problems; the creation of a down. Reform in Guatemala is strong force which may impress not a mere vaporous election by its idealism; and an effort to slogan for political purposes save Latin America from insta- only, but is handled calmly and bility are some of the reasons vigorously. which make the Congress a vital need. -Guatemala News.
The first River Plate Congress Scripture Distribution in Peru of young people met last year in Rosario, Argentina, and from it Early this year a number of came the formal decision to or- cases were reported where colganize the Latin American Con- porteurs had been prohibited by gress. Rosario was chosen as local officials from selling the
the difficulties encountered. Upon found anywhere. It is interest- Ethiopia when the Italian conarriving in a town, the bus is ing to recall a stanza from John quest was completed were asked parked in the plaza. Soon a Oxenham's famous poem of trib- to depart at once, and no foreign crowd of the curious is assem- ute to Livingstone: Jews have been allowed to settle bled, and often some burly ruf- there since May, 1936. The Jews fian will order the bus out of He passed like light across the dark- in Italy are roughly estimated at town, while others cheer him on. ened land, 44,000, and among them are a Sometimes the tires are punc- number who have recently fled tured, or a fictitious tax is im- And dying, left behind him this com- from Austria. posed for selling literature. But mand, in Yarumal business men filled -Alliance Weekly. the bus and bristled with ques- "The door is open! So let it ever tions about Protestant beliefs. stand!" Calvinism in Hungary As soon as one group left another took their place, and then Full mightily wrought he. Reformed Churches in eastern a third group kept the mission- Forth to the fight he fared, Hungary are among the oldest aries busy until far into the High things and great he dared, Protestant institutions in the night. Here and there, barriers In His Master's might to spread the world; some are said to have are coming down. been founded even before the Light death of Calvin. Most of Hun- EUROPE Right faithfully wrought he. gary became Protestant then, He greatly loved- and much of it remains so. A "Order of Christian He greatly lived- writer in The Christian Century Citizenship" And died right mightily. describes a walking trip through northeastern Hungary with a In Great Britain, 25,000 -United Church Record. Y. M. C. A. group, wandering young Methodists have instituted from village to village and visitthe "Order of Christian Citizen- Reich Church in Bonds ing pastors and churches. The ship," which requires the appli- boys marched behind a banner, cation of the Christian Gospel to A pamphlet has been privately singing folk songs, religious social problems. The movement printed and circulated in Ger- hymns and national songs. The is directed by a standing com- many which concludes with the banner consisted of a special mittee of the Temperance and question: "How does Pastor Y. M. C. A. flag and many rib- Social Welfare Departments of Niemoller's continued imprison- bons of various colors, which the Methodist Church, but steps ment affect us?" and the answer: they had received from places have been taken to put the young previously visited. On them people actually in control. Its It demands that we should recognize were such slogans as "For God program includes the fostering that Martin Niemoller is not in the and Hungary," "Onward with of international peace, the com- Sachsenhausen concentration camp as Christ," "Jesus Conquers," and bating of the drink, gambling a private individual, but that in him short Bible verses. Fourteen and other social evils, and the the entire Confessional Church and all days were thus spent. Each making of social surveys for the men who are fighting for the freedom church spire is crowned with a information of the young. of the Gospel in Germany have been cock and star, emblems of Cal- thrown into prison. It demands that vinism. The star is supposed to -United Presbyterian. wherever we are we do not keep our guide the people and the cock to mouths shut like dumb dogs, but speak keep them awake. Just how Livingstone Shrine out what God has ordered us to speak. much awake they are one cannot and that we fight for the freedom of say. Certainly there is much for "The most frequented person- His Church and for the authority of them to do. al shrine in Scotland," is said of the Gospel in Germany. As long as the Scottish National Memorial Martin Niemoller is in the concentra- Dictatorship in Greece to David Livingstone, at his tion camp, there is set up in our midst birthplace, Blantyre, near Glas- a signal. visible from afar, that the No sooner had Eastern Orthogow. In one year alone the at- Church of Jesus Christ in Germany dox Churches seemed to have actendance exceeded 73,000. It is is in bonds. quired the "ecumenical mind" already the greatest children's than the dictator of Greece took center in Scotland. Since the Pastor Niem611er is said to be steps to give the Greek Orthodox Memorial was opened by the in failing health. He is allowed Church an ironclad monopoly in Duchess of York, in October, one visit a month from his wife that country. Under new edicts, 1929, 406,208 visitors have and one child~ (He has seven.) persons trying to make converts passed through the turnstile. to any other church will be sub- Italy's Jews ject to fine and imprisonment; Dr. John R. Mott calls it one if foreigners, they will be exof the most wonderful things he Nearly twenty-five per cent of pelled. The police power is to be has seen in all his numerous Italy's Jews are affected by the invoked to compel school chilworld journeys, and perhaps the decree that all Jews who have dren to attend church on Sunday. finest shrine to any person to be established themselves in Italy and her colonies (excepting pos- sibly Eritrea and East Somali- land) since the World War must leave within six months, or be expelled "following application of penalties fixed by law." Under present laws they will be able to take little of their property with them, save a small amount of money for traveling expenses.
Foreign Jews in business in
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Literature expressing opInIOns the continent, yet if one mission by my own power that I am preserved not acceptable to the Holy Synod is banned. No doubt the purpose station a day could be visited, it till now and given the news of the behind these decrees is to check Roman Catholic activity, though would take eight years to see everlasting Gospel of Christ, but only an American Protestant missionary has been refused permission them all. -Pageant. by the power of the one great Cause to enter Greece, for the apparent reason that he was a Protestant of causes, the Almighty. minister. Dictatorship knows no curb. -Christian Century. White Hearts Lifted Up . -So S. Times.
AFRICA Mrs. Julia Lake Kellersberger, Memorial in Madagascar in the Presbyterian Survey, de- He Was "From Missouri" scribes a missionary meeting in World Dominion Press records the Congo: that native churches have given Mr. C. J. Mellis, sixty-year- 250,000 francs for the erection old realtor from St. Louis, after The Doxology rings out through the of a church in memory of David contributing generously to mis- opened windows and echoes in the J ones and Thomas Bevan, Welsh sions in Africa for nearly 20 mango grove. It takes no amplifier of pioneers to the island of the years, decided to take a look for man to make it resound. White hearts London Missionary Society, who himself, and see what it "was are then lifted up in prayer, though landed at Tamatave in 1818. In all about." In company with a the lips that utter them are black. 1907, the work was transferred Presbyterian minister, Rev. H. One after another these women rise to the Paris Evangelical Mis- J. Heinecke, of Greely, Colorado, and give their testimony. The first is sionary Society, whose missionhe sailed from Liverpool to the leader herself. Her testimony aries have erected the memorial Nigeria. Ten months later, after rings true, for there is a life back of church, which is the largest of traveling 15,000 miles across it to emphasize the words. the 3,500 Protestant places of Africa, these two returned to worship in the island. About New York. Said Mr. Mellis: A perfect "carbon copy" of an old- 4,000 natives were present at "The job missions is doing out fashioned Southern black mammy the opening. there is so big it beggars de- rises and with cracked voice tells of scription." The men brought her joy in being able to care for sev- Progress in Kabylia back 200 reels of movie film eral little orphan children and to cook which Mr. Mellis is showing the daily manioc for those at the hos- One encouraging feature of throughout his own state and pital too sick to care for themselves. missionary work in Kabylia is those adjoining, with a series of It has been strongly suspected that that in many places converts 12 lectures. she spends some of her hard-earned from Islam are taking the initia- pittance on delicate tidbits, such as tive in this work. Natives played Seventy-five mission stations caterpillars, or juicy ants, for the a large part in a recent Chriswere visited; to every mission- especially weak ones. A converted tian Conference. Under the ary visited they put this ques- witch doctor, sister of an African chairmanship of a gifted Kabyle tion: "How many natives in chief, reveals the fact that she had Christian, who translated the adyour particular field have never burned her former heathen medicine dresses into Arabic, French and heard a single sermon, never lis- and was made well, not by incanta- his own language, men of differtened to a single Gospel mes- tions and sorcery, but by an opera- ent tongues, from numerous dissage ?" The answer was some- tion at the Christian hospital. tricts met and told of their extimes 350,000, and never less periences in the Christian life than 100,000. Another question The climax of this wonderful meet- and their efforts to "let their was: "What special problems ing comes when a woman leper arises. light shine." do Africa missionaries have to She is a woman of unusual force of face?"; the reply was that the character. Like the one leper who re- A lack of conviction seems to greatest difficulty was to make turned to give thanks to Christ, she characterize man y Mohammebuildings and equipment keep tells of His gift of healing. Then the dans of today. In a shop in pace with the growth of the final hymn, "There shall be showers Oran, a man was heard to say: work. Another problem concerns of blessings," sung as only African "If I knew the truth I would fol- Mohammedanism. Entering a women can sing. low it. I would leave Islam and native village with a pack on his Mohammed tomorrow if I were head, the Mohammedan trader, A Strange Prayer convinced that the truth lay elsebefore untying his wares, pre- where." Those who heard the sents an invitation. "Come," he In some reminiscences of a remark showed no resentment. says, "be a Mohammedan. We'll missionary at Lovedale, South teach you to lie, steal and cheat Africa, mention is made of an -Life of Faith. the Christian infidels." African boy, pupil of a Chris- tian school, who had kept a Christ in Uganda Mr. Mellis said that while journal of his experiences. The they saw a good cross section of following is an extract: The C. M. S. Outlook says that Christianity has taken root in Before I go further I must tell you Uganda, and that the Church is about my prayers when I was a little becoming increasingly indige- boy. I could not believe that God nous. Uganda Christians have could hear prayer in Kaffir, and of served as missionaries in the English I knew too little. In fact, I Southern Sudan, in the Belgian knew but two words, "Friday" and "Amen." So I prayed, "Friday, Fri- day, Friday, Friday" four times and then, "Amen." But although this was my prayer yet the Almighty God did not cease to send down his influence upon me.
My parents became Christians, not by my power, though I often prayed for them by the same two words "Fri- day" and "Amen." Nor has it been
Congo and the Pygmy Forest, in gelized territory, covering a And what a privilege to look Ruan9a and Urundi. They have thousand miles from east to after such a family!" carried the Gospel to all parts of west, and three hundred from the Uganda Protectorate, from north to south, and suggested -The Chronicle. the great northern plain to the that the S. A. G. M. adopt it. Ruwenzori Mountains. Recently The challenge was accepted in EASTERN ASIA some men walked 300 miles to 1910, and A. W. Bailey was com- Kampala from a distant State to missioned to set a line of sta- Aleppo Beggars ask for African missionaries to tions across Rhodesia and Portutheir fellow-Africans 300 miles guese West Africa, to be known The beggars of Aleppo are an away. as the Andrew Murray Memo- interesting study. It would re- rial Field. Now, 28 years later, quire detailed research to find From Tanganyika comes the that goal has been reached and out to what extent they are orreport of steady growth in the a new challenge is presented in ganized, how their "beats" are number of African ministers, re- the recently granted permission divided and what are their musulting in more adequate pas- to occupy further Portuguese tual understandings. The Aleptoral care of Christian commu- territory. In southern Angola po visitor has the impression nities. there are from nine to sixteen that their business is on a sound large tribes representing three basis, and that there is no un- Islanders Have New Chapel language groups whose dialects employment. A number of the have never yet been reduced to beggars are quite well-dressed. The first Presbyterian mission writing. This area is totally un- The Maronite Church is the cento West Africa was on the island touched by Christian influence. ter around which they mill conof Corisco, off the coast of the tinually, but especially on Sun- French Cameroun, but the work- Undoubtedly, future work of day mornings. Old, old women ers soon moved to the mainland the mission will lie in Central sit along the walls, never moving and the island was left without Africa rather than in the south, about but waiting for alms to a resident or visiting missionary. where the natives have been en- drop into their laps. On cold African Christians on the island couraged to take responsibility, mornings, they have little brahave recently dedicated a beauti- and are becoming indigenous. ziers at which they warm their ful new chapel, planned, built hands and sometimes two or and paid for by the islanders -The Christian. three beggars will share this themselves, of material trans- comfort. Sometimes they sit and ported from the mainland in sail Tiger Kloof Family argue, instead of attending boats; the concrete was made on strictly to business; but one asthe island. The work at Tiger Kloof, siduous fellow may be seen beg- South Africa, is not standing ging even while he eats, mum- The dedicatory service was still, but widening its influence. bling touching petitions with his held in three languages: the Miss Janet Bryson has been mouth full. Benga of the island, the Bulu of Principal of Tiger Kloof Native the Cameroun mainland, and the Institution since 1923. She re- Aleppo is considered a rich Spanish of Spanish Guinea. ports that applications for ad- city, and with the prosperous are Each was translated for the ben- mission must be refused, as no also large numbers of desperefit of those who did not under- more can possibly be accommo- ately poor. Between the two, stand the others. dated. "School life," she says, this beggar class battens on the "is difficult to report, since it is philanthropically disposed. -Monday Morning. just the ordinary story of daily life among African girls-trying H. G. DORMAN, JR. More Open Doors to show them the things that really matter, trying to get them Situation in Palestine The South Africa General to grow in the things that are Mission began with work among worth while and to shake off The situation in Palestine, the white population of South those that hinder. Girls who dark though it is, has a few en- Africa, chiefly Jews and Mos- care-and those who don't; girls couraging features. lems, soldiers and sailors, rail- who know very little and those way and postoffice workers, but who know too much! Girls who 1. The Jews, driven by presthis proved to be the stepping have never known tribal life, but ent difficulties, are thinking and stone to that which followed. only the so-called civilized life of questioning about religious mat- The vast expanse of heathen a city like Johannesburg-girls ters as never before. They are darkness was a challenge, and who have never travelled beyond realizing that materialism and after claiming Swaziland, other their native village; girls who religious indifference are not a centers opened, and the work speak one language – girls who sufficient foundation on which to extended into the Cape Prov- speak three or four; girls whose stand amid the present storms, ince, Natal and the Indian set- fathers are paramount chiefs- and they are increasingly asking tlements. The next epoch began girls whose mothers earn their what Christianity has to say. when Frederick Arnot, mission- fees by hard work in a European ary pioneer, reported that he home in one city or another. 2. There is a change of outhad discovered a great unevan- look on the part of young Jews in the agricultural settlements. Formerly they were completely
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
indifferent, and often actively Education in Iran Bible and "no eyes," meaning hostile, to religion. This is no longer the case. The Old Testa- Several years ago, as a move there was none among them who ment is frequently read and to unite the nation more closely, could read. "Do you pray?" he often also the New Testament, the government of Iran pro- asked. No, they didn't pray. and Jews are ready and in many "Do you sing?" No, the young cases eager to discuss religious hibited Iranian students from man had told them their songs questions. attending any schools under for- were bad, and they must not sing eign direction. Thereupon, Pres- them any more. "What do you 3. It is evident there is a byterian mission schools discon- do when you meet in the dawning realization on the part tinued primary classes; though church ?" And the sad reply of both Jews and Arabs that in Hamadan and Teheran, Iran- came, "We just sit and wait." Christ does offer the one hope of ian Christians kept up this work. peace and reconciliation. The number of young people de- -Alliance Weekly.
-International Council of manding an education is now so A Year's Changes Christian Approach to great that the Ministry of Edu- the Jews. cation has asked the mission to Dr. and Mrs. C. Herbert Rice, reopen its lower schools. Under of Allahabad, have returned to In Armenia present staff limitations this is India, after furlough, and find not possible, but upper classes many changes; among them, the The Secretary of "Friends of Armenia" has recently visited are more and more crowded. It national Congress party had Syria to study the probable future needs and condition of the should also be noted that these taken up the constitutional meth- Armenians, and to recommend schools are in the front rank, as od of advancing the cause of some line of action. Stopping at evidenced by the percentage of self-government. Seven of the Geneva, he found that the Refugee Commission of the League of successful students taking the eleven provinces are now work- Nations was not only dead, but ing under a Congress party minwas calling in the loans made to government examinations. refugees. The whole refugee istry, many of the "stormy problem is greatly accentuated Adult education is making since Germany's seizure of Aus- great strides in the country. petrels" of agitation days now tria, and the increasing number Students in Teheran University occupying seats of authority. fleeing from areas under Nazi last year numbered 1,549, of High British officials are coopdomination. Germany is bring- erating with these ministries in ing pressure to bear upon small whom 86 were women. There countries to refuse help to ref- are 18,354 enrolled Boy Scouts. a genuine effort to make selfugees, and prevent their giving Dr. Sadiq, of the University, in government in the autonomous them asylum. a recently delivered lecture in provinces real and effective. Teheran stated that brotherhood, Measures of social, educational In Syria, Armenians have and agrarian reform are already made tremendous effort to make the sacredness of family ties and demonstrating that the new gova new start; most of them now the doctrine of the resurrection ernments are fully conscious of have SOme sort of a home. Ex- are the center of the Christian treme cleanliness and neatness religion. their responsibilities, and also was found in every shack; ter- that they have a large measure rible poverty and rags, to be sure, but self-respect and no beg- INDIA AND SIAM of popular support. The air is ging. However, everywhere full of proposals for the improvethroughout Syria, with the exception of the coastal province of Waiting for Light ment of the condition of the Lebanon, there is a feeling of rural population, for the proimminent danger, a constant The story is told of a mission- vision of specialized schools and looking over the shoulder for ary who visited a spot in India the bringing of educational what may be coming. where no missionary had ever methods into touch with the life been, yet the villagers had dis- of the people; with plans to pro- Armenians still need all the carded their idols and met each mote the mass education of illithelp that can be given them, week in a church which they had erate adults. especially in the spiritual realm, built. Inquiring into this, the lest with these long continued missionary found that a young . Says Dr. Rice: troubles they may fail to maintain their high Christian tradi- man, traveling for some foreign We are convinced that Christian tion, and their young people, business concern, had been de- institutions will in many ways receive particularly, lapse from the a greater welcome than ever before. splendid .standards of their fa- tained in their village several High-minded national leaders will thers.-Evangelical Christian. days by a flood. While there, he surely accept with gratitude all the told the villagers that they help that we can give in the solution of pressing national and human prob- should not worship idols; that lems. It is true that in the present there was a true God whom they atmosphere of religious rivalry and should worship, and that they tense communalism we may expect in- should build a house and meet in creasing opposition to the conversion it once every seven days. They of Hindus and Mohammedans to Christianity. On the other hand there had followed these instructions. is growing up a constantly increasing The missionary asked if they resentment against ancient authority and ancient forms of social and reli- had a Bible, and who read it to gious restraint. Inroads are being them. They said they had no made upon the caste system. This
growing spirit of freedom will itself that he wished a Christian mar- "Some bought gladly, others penetrate the realm of conscience and riage, before he could change his were so much confused by the religious belief. We need not fear for noise and crowds they were not mind again. This also put a re- interested. Some railed at us the future of the Gospel and the straint on the opposition. The Church, whatever the immediate difficulties connected with the political affair having come before the au- for bothering them so much. situation may be. thorities, they dared not resort Sometimes we talked until our Heathen Marriage the to violence. mouths were dry, but were- Stumblingblock MRS. A. B. GOULD, vived when anyone came to buy. Thus we worked for four days; Presbyterian missionary 3700 portions had been sold." The time – honored heathen at Ambala.
marriage ceremony is the last Ten in One Church Builds a School thing to be renounced by Indian Christians; and nothing so The Baptist Mission in Burma A church in a remote part of is in reality ten missions, owing Siam was having a hard time. arouses non-Christians as a de- to the great diversity of races The staff was small, the district parture from these rites. For and languages in this field. The large, the responsibilities many. one thing, a Christian loses Gospel must be preached to each A young Siamese minister was money by the renunciation, since one in his own tongue; and even called to this field, and soon put each guest is expected to bring a so, there are many tribes as yet his finger upon the difficulty. unreached in the hill section of· "N0 Christian education for the rupee to the bride's father. A Burma, and the border areas. So older boys," he said. "The little hundred guests would quite ma- when we read .of Bur man ones can go to the girls' school; terially help to defray expenses c h u r c h e s, Burmese-speaking but the big ones have to go to for the feast. But this is not all. churches are meant, not every government schools where they A while ago a Christian couple have to take part in Buddhist wished to marry their daughter church in Burma. to a Christian young man from celebrations, and are seldom able In addition to work among the to go to church or Sunday school. another district. The bride- many races in Burma, the Gospel They drift away from Christiangroom's party arrived the eve- is preached to Indian immi- ity. That means, too, that the ning before, reenforced by three grants. Most of the 15,000,000 Christian girls have to marry Christian preachers, whose pres- inhabitants of Burma live in vil- non-Christian .or only half-Chrisence, it was thought, would dis- lages of from ten to three hun- tian men. Some day our people courage active hostilities. The dred houses, and most .of the invited guests, Christians from will be so well trained and edu- missionary work centers in the cated themselves that they can other villages, had also arrived. towns. R u r a I reconstruction The dinner was cooked and committees are being organized. instruct their children at home in Christian faith and practice; ready to serve. But the enemy had mustered his forces. Chu- Footprint of Buddha but now we need a school." hras (Sweepers), the class from So he put it up to the church, which these Christians came, One cannot help being im- and the members agreed to start had gathered from a number of villages, and swore that not a pressed with the religious fervor a boys' school as one .of their bite of that dinner should be of the crowds, old and young, projects. It is still an experieaten until the parents consented who visit the footprint of Bud- ment, but is well under way. to a Chuhra wedding. dha at Prabat, Siam, every year. Church members contribute a The men stood by with walk- A Siamese colporteur tells in part of the expenses, some help ing sticks, to intimidate the the Siam Outlook of the oppor- comes from the mission and guests. The Mohammedans of tunities this festival offers for some from churches in other vilthe village sided with the presenting the Gospel. "We lages from which pupils come. Chuhras, and threatened to turn sang as we rode along by launch The Siamese pastor hopes to the family out of their village if to Lopburi. A man asleep was have the school self-supporting they persisted in their purpose. disturbed, and asked us what in four years.
All night the dinner lay un- we were doing. This gave us a touched. The guests drowned chance to bear witness. Great CHINA their hunger in sleep, so far as crowds were going happily Hope in the Long View the noise of battle would permit! along, some selling flowers to The discussion went on most of offer at the shrine. After we Dr. W. W. Yen, former Chi- the night, with the result that had found a place to stay in nese ambassador to Moscow and the father, never much of a force the market, we went into every Minister to Washington, believes in the family, was won over, and by-lane where we might make a that "out of the ashes .of death gave his consent to a Chuhra sale. So we continued until two and devastation, there will arise marriage. Here was defeat. The in the morning, for people were a new China, modern, sanitary, next step was for the preachers enjoying the festival all night. scientific and beautiful, testify- to get the father to the nearest Some of our Gospel portions ing to the indomitable spirit and police post four miles away, and were stolen: we pray they were indefatigable industry of the there make him sign a statement read! people." Dr. Yen thinks there
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
is no warrant for pessimism, be- upheld the cause of justice. Through sincere, often tearful confession cause throughout the ages the His words and works, He manifested of national and personal sin. Chinese have been able to the reality of His love and sacrificial Mr. Lewis says that in the many weather the storm. Out of the prayer-meetings he has attended spirit. I have come to the conviction that, if we wish to revive the Chinese present struggle, the greatest people and reform society, we must during the past year he has not gain will be national unity; an- heard one word of recrimination other is the lesson of self-help, adopt as our own the universal love against the invaders. On the the gain in moral values and in- and sacrificial spirit of Jesus. There- contrary, they often make earn- fore, I take it that in whatever sphere of life, whether in social relationships, ternational understanding. civil administrations, military com- est prayer both for the Chris- -The China Colleges. mand or other service, we must make tians of Japan and the people in charity and peace the basic principles general, and entreat God to dis- Victorious Christian Youth of action. To this end all revolution- pose their hearts toward peace. ists must accept, struggle and sacrifice A number of missionaries in Evidence multiplies as to the as a daily duty. This was the spirit widely separated areas of China victory of Christian over nation- of Jesus. This is what I meant when testify to their belief that this is alist feeling in this time of crisis. I had occasion to say before, "We the attitude of the whole Chris- shall not give up the hope of peace until peace is absolutely hopeless, but Hunan University Christian As- we will not shrink from any sacrifice tian Church in China. sociation addressed an open let- when the hour demands it."
ter to Japanese Christian stu- Snap Shots from Siangtan Time for Advance in Tibet dents, and after expressing dismay over the invasion of their Interesting things have been In China's Millions, Dr. J. H. happening in Siangtan, Hunan. Jeffrey lists the following reacountry, which they characterize One was the opening of the sons for a missionary advance as "wanton and unwarranted," Kwangtao Girls' School building among non-Chinese in Tibet: they express the hope that "our as a refuge for Christian Chinese flooding into the city. A commu- A more favorable political situation. common belief in God and our nity kitchen was set up and the love of personality will not dis- classrooms divided into cubicles A priesthood largely discredited, in appear in this time of crisis; and to accommodate 70 at a time. some parts at least. that the spirit of our common Morning worship is conducted, fellowship may be kept alive and one baptism has resulted. The destruction of many important Three refugees are tutoring as a lamaseries and the slaughtering of . . . so as to sow the seeds for means of support; others hold hundreds of lamas, thereby depriving future building for the service night classes. the non-Chinese people of their spirof God." The Hunan students itual guides. then urge the Japanese to join Another outstanding feature with them in a period of prayer was the organization of a Chris- High cost of training priests. at stated hours, saying, "Let us tian Fellowship group, that pray that this war will soon end, Christian refugees might get ac- Friendliness of the people towards the foreigner. let us devote ourselves to preparing for Christian fellowship be- Many regions formerly regarded as being closed to the missionary now tween our countries in the fu- are open.
Readiness to believe the mission- ary's message.
ture. . . . We pray for tolerance quainted with one another and JAPAN-CHOSEN and love and faith in God." The with the Christians of the city. letter is concluded by a quotation Two large gatherings have al- Delegates to Madras ready been held with over a hunfrom the prayer of our Lord as dred in attendance each time. After a good deal of hesita- tion, Japanese Christians have recorded in John 17: 20-23 and Bible study groups and a lit- decided to participate in the eracy class have been held espethe final sentence is, "God bless cially for the refugees, and the Madras Conference, and about literacy class for children has 15 Japanese delegates and seven you all!" -Advance. been reopened. missionaries are now on their way. Several full meetings of Chiang Kai-Shek on the Radio Continued Prayer for Japan the delegation have been held, and sectional and group studies In a recent radio address, the Rev. A. B. Lewis, member of are now going on. Dr. Kagawa Generalissimo referred to Jesus the Field Council of the China plans to go, and to spend some Christ as the leader of a national revolution, and also of a reli- weeks in evangelistic effort in gious revolution. He said: I have long sought to know the real Inland Mission, writes in the India. source of the revolutionary spirit of Life of Faith of the effects of Within the Christian move- Jesus. From whence did it spring? ment in Japan, there is a tend- Entirely from His spirit of love. war on the Chinese Church. ency toward a more unified con- Chinese Christians have been trol. The smaller denominations Through the spirit of love He would driven to their knees as never drive from the minds of men all evil thinking and break up systems of before. Heartfelt earnestness is and the many one-church units inequality that all men might exercise to be expected, but the outstand- are on the way to federating and the heaven-given right to enjoy liberty ing thing about their prayers then affiliating with the National and equality. has been the complete absence of Christian Council. Conferences All through His life Jesus opposed bitterness toward Japan, and the are also being held to discuss orthe use of might without right, but
ganic church union, and a spirit mise was correct, and he still has were baptized. Today there are of urgency is noted. his copy. -Monday Morning. 400,000 baptized Christians of the Batuk tribe. Their churches, ~The Christian Century. MALAYA AND THE large and small, dot the land. ISLANDS Making the Dead Give -Missionary Educator. Moslems of Malaya Japan has decided that the Chinese Conference in dead also must contribute to the Christian missions among Mo- Singapore conquest of China. A group of hammedans in Malaya have asdentists recently told the govern- sumed several forms. The first There have been Religious ment that about $2,900,000 in thing to be done is to gain the gold goes each year into graves confidence of the people, and Education Conferences in Singaor cremation urns, so it has been medical aid is one of the most suggested that a dentist be as- effective ways. Christian litera- pore in English, but recently one signed to each crematorium to ture is another. So far, only one remove gold fillings, plates, experiment has been made in in- was held in Chinese for the Chicrowns and teeth from the stitutional work; this is the bodies. boarding school in Malacca, nese Church in Singapore, in started with the idea that work, Here are some of the features to be effective, must be carried which entire responsibility for of a vast program of retrench- on outside the village environment: chemists in the Ministry ment, where Christian influence the program was assumed by of Agriculture are tanning rat has a better chance to operate. skins in their search for a leather One of the most recent experi- Chinese pastors and lay workers. substitute, and match makers are ments in establishing good-will asked to reduce the length of the contacts with the Malays has It continued for four days, June match by .029 inches. Shorten- been teaching the Malay women ing of the match stick, it is esti- to read. This has been made 28-July 1, at the new. Foochow mated, would save enough in a possible through the application year to keep the army going in of the system by Dr. Laubach, of Methodist Church. ,There were China, at the present rate of ex- the Philippine Islands, to the penditure, for about one hour Malay language. It has proved delegations from every Methodand five minutes. to be very successful, and thus another door has been opened. ist and Presbyterian Chinese -Alliance Weekly. -Christian Advocate. church of Singapore, Johore and Miserliness Saves a Bible! The Gospel in Sumatra Malacca districts, as well as While Syenchun, one of the largest Christian centers in One hundred and four years from Seremban and Sitiawan. Chosen, has active church groups ago, two American missionaries, and a living spirit of evangelism, Lyman and Munson, made the The men and women were it is a different story in a village first attempt to carry the Gospel barely three miles from there. to the pagan race of one-time about equal in number; the Voluntary Christian workers cannibals in Sumatra, called who went out from Syenchun to Batuks. Twice some of the Ba- women made their contribution conduct services and w 0 r k tuks had been killed by Mohama m 0 n g non – Christians were medans because they would not to the program equal to that of pelted with rocks; the Christian embrace the faith of Islam. villagers had even worse experi- Thinking these two white mis- the men, and were particularly ences, some were beaten and all sionaries were Mohammedans, were abused in one way or an- come to kill them, they promptly prominent in the demonstration other. Finally, local police took put them to death, and feasted a hand and jailed the most vio- on their flesh. For 25 years, ,no classes and in the smaller discuslent persecutors for one day. one dared go again. When the sion groups. Opposition was checked, but not Batuks at last realized that the ill feeling. missionaries were their friends, One day was devoted to each the way was opened for others to One young man had bought go with the Gospel message, and of four themes: children's work; five copies of the New Testament almost at once the Batuk people and his grandfather burned embraced Christianity. This re- young people's work; work them all. Then, hoping that the markable fact has no parallel in old man's penurious disposition the history of the Church today. with adults and work in the would keep him from destroying Thousands of these once cannisomething that cost a great deal, bals accepted the Gospel and community. 0 the r features he bought a very expensive copy of the New Testament. His sur- were: Church music and Sing- ing, Chinese Literacy work and methods of teaching illiterates Romanized Hokkien, and recrea- tional programs for young peo- ple. -Malaysia Message.
Filipino Christian Projects Dr. William H. Crothers, now beginning his second year of vol- untary service as member of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary, Manila, tellS' what he saw on a tour of missionary projects in the Philippines: "We saw self – supporting churches at their worship; met enough evangelical Christians in places of responsibility to know how far out of proportion to their numbers is their influence; saw three of our mission hospi- tals actually enlarging or plan- ning expansion; we saw, in fact, church history in the making- the love of Christ animating men
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
and women and children, mold- one who cannot use his brains they may be used for religious ining their lives and motivating for such purpose. They came to struction if it is so requested. institutions. If the thousands of realize that education is essenmen and women who, for the tial to progress. -Manila Daily Bulletin. love of that same Lord, have given offerings that have made Today, teachers are trained MISCELLANEOUS this work possible could have at Davuilevu, which has in addiseen what we have seen, they tion to the Normal School a pri- The Problem of the Jew would, in this dark day in the mary school, technical school Orient, thank God and take some and theological seminary. From There are evidences of incourage." -Monday Morning. this center come some of Fiji's creasing anti-Jewish feeling in best men. As a still further America and Great Britain. This An Old Timer Returns equipment for life, agricultural situation moved a group of training is provided at Navuso. Christians last spring to suggest A soldier who had served in Nor has the education of girls special days of prayer for Israel the. Philippines from 1898 to been neglected. Several schools on the first Sundays of July and 1902 recently revisited the teach them the principles of October, 1938, and January and I s I and s. Astonished at the hygiene and the art of cooking, April, 1939. Five suggestions changes he saw, he asked a needlework and home-building. for prayer have been made: friend how it was that the na- T hat anti-Semitism may be tives had made such unparalleled -The Missionary Review averted in the United States, progress. The friend promptly (Australia) . that Christians everywhere may named as factors in the prog- share something of Christ's love ress, the Filipinos' disposition to Quezon Rebukes Catholic for His brethren, that Israel will advice, the spirit of the Taft Church look to God for help and not to Commission, American teachers nations, that American nations and American missionaries. On the eve of his departure will have a share in the care of Noting an incredulous expres- for Japan, President Quezon of Jewish refugees, and that the sion at the mention of mission- the Philippines, issued a strong present issues in Palestine may aries, he added : "Yes, mission- rebuke to the Catholic Church in be settled as God would have aries. In proportion to their the Philippines. This was in re- them settled. number, no group did more to ply to an ecclesiastical letter, interpret to the Filipinos the urging a boycott of schools "Hadassah," the Women's Zispirit of America, and to assist where religion is not taught. onist Organization of America, them to assimilate its civil, edu- The President accused the has to date raised sufficient cational and religious freedom. Church of trying to meddle in funds to transfer and provide They discussed the personal and for 2,200 German and Polish community problems of the peo- affairs of State, and warned that Jewish children, and to settle ple on the plane of sympathy and this will not be tolerated. Among them in Palestine. Up to the friendship, and visited the hum- other things, Quezon, himself a present, 1500 Austrian Jewish blest of them as good Samari- boys and girls have applied to a tans."-Madras News Service. Catholic, said: Palestine Bureau in Vienna for similar transfer to Palestine. Education for Fijians It should be unnecessary to remind A Jewish rabbi of Lexington, A former student of the Meth- the ecclesiastical authorities in the Ky., VIsited Germany with a odist Boys' School in Suva gives Sherwood Eddy group last June, the Fijian point of view regard- Philippines that the separation of relying upon his United States ing education. Early Methodist passport to protect him from asmissionaries were the first to Church and State in this country is sault. He says that the situation build schools to teach Fijian in Nazi Germany has not been youngsters what they needed to a reality and not a mere theory; and overdrawn, and that all Jews know. The results were wonder- there are facing starvation by ful. Those early schools were that as far as our people are con- 1940. He calls attention to the held in the village church, if fact that cutting off these people there was one; otherwise, out cerned, it is forever settled that this from purchasing power will of doors. Lessons were mostly have its effect on economic consums and the vernacular; how- separation shall be maintained as one ditions, and the closing of Jewever, to know something is bet- ish stores will be reflected in all ter than to know nothing, and of the cardinal tenets of our govern- the industries. In his opinion, this paved the way for Fijian the faith of the Jew is not failparents to wish their children to ment. . . . . ing him. By hundreds, they are have an education, for they saw worshipping in their synathe contrast between the child If I were inclined to interfere in gogues.-I. C. C. A. J. N ew.'l who has learned to read and the Sheet, Dayton, Ohio, News. the affairs of the Church, as the School Curricula Revised Catholic bishops are attempting to do Some idea of what follows with the affairs of the State, I would when a conquering army enters tell the Archbishop and the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Cebu that it is their lack of Sunday schools and catechists to teach the Catholic religion that is mainly responsible for the deplorable ignorance of their own religion that is found among Catholic youth.
Moreover, if the desire is to have hours exclusively devoted to religious instruction in the public schools, so that the regular school activities may not interfere with said instruction, I am placing Saturdays and Sundays at the disposal of all the ministers of all the religions existing in the Phil- ippines. On Saturdays and Sundays, the public schools are not being used for school purposes and, therefore,
a country may be had from in- The first task of the Council attention to the remarkable genformation sent by Dr. S. C. Ziegler, United Brethren missionary will be to aid in keeping up the erosity of Jews toward Chrisin North China. In regard to education he says: standards, professional and spir- tians. Christian refugees from The Japanese acquired control of a itual, of the medical and nursing Germany and Austria have delarge area so rapidly that it was impossible for them to handle immedi- appointees of the various mis- pended in large measure upon ately all the problems that arose. Revision of the curriculum was dealt sion boards. A second task will Jewish help. with in only the sketchiest fashion. Military training, Boy Scouting and be the study of environments in The lot of Christians of Jewish civics, which had been a part of the political training imposed on the many countries with a view to origin is even more unfortunate schools by the nationalist party, were suggesting to the societies ways than that of the Jews. They immediately abolished. A Codex Expurgatus for the textbooks used in in which their medical work were doubly outcasts. They were the other subjects was issued, and whole pages that offended them had may become better related to the not Jews, because their parents to be torn out, while separate para- churches, to government health or grandparents had embraced graphs and sentences had to be deleted programs, and to developing sys- Christianity, and they were not under the teachers' direction. For the tems of national medical prac- recognized as German citizens coming semester primary schools are tice. forbidden to use any of the textbooks because they had some tincture formerly issued in China. New ones now being printed in Japan are prom- of Jewish blood. It is underised in a month. In the meantime, we How Much Is a Man Worth? stood that the Council will enhave to mimeograph lesson sheets to use. Japanese as a foreign language An exchange comments on the deavor to assist Christian and has been added as a required subject damages allowed in accident other non-Jewish people who are from the fifth grade through the cases, and asks what is the true' fleeing from Germany, Austria twelfth. The general trend is toward value of a human being. A boy and Sudetenland. the elimination of Western ideas and -Life of Faith. influences, and bringing in classical lost his hand and the courts al- Chinese and pro-Japanese ideas. Recently all teachers were required to lowed him $1,700 damages, but attend a three-day institute conducted later, when he lost his other Christian Youth Conference by Chinese and Japanese officials, at which the invincibility of Japan and arm, he was allowed $2,000 dam- In the list of encouraging the desirability of a Japan-Manchu- age. An eighteen months old kuo-China alliance against the West child toddled out into the alley trends of today must be classed and the white race were loudly pro- where rubbish had been burned, the increasing number of youth cla.imed. and three toes were injured. conferences, and camps. One Damage, $750. A young wom- was held at Bievres, France, in -Dayton Daily News. an, injured in an auto wreck in August, when 60 leaders from 23 Omaha, was given $9,500 by the Christian Medical Council court. A girl going abroad to countries formulated plans for a buy perfume had her nose in- World Conference of Christian The Christian Medical Coun- Youth, to be held in Amsterdam, cil for Overseas Work was es- sured for $50,000. Because of Holland, July 24-August 2, 1939. tablished in New York on June her back being broken in an ac- The delegates represented the 3, 1938, by twelve missionary you t h organizations of the societies of North Arne ric a cident a girl was allowed $38,- churches, the Y. M. C. A.~ the which have long sought a way 000. A Kansas City lad injured Y. W. C. A., the World's Student by which their medical work by a live wire so that he could Christian Federation, the Ecumight become better correlated never smile was allowed by the menical Youth Commission of at home and more effectively in- courts $20,000. A boy's ability the World Alliance for Internategrated with the needs of the to smile is quite worth while. A tional ~riendship through the environment abroad. They have motorcycle officer in Omaha was already created an office for su- allowed $30,000 damage for loss Churches and the Provisional pervision of the health of their of a leg while on duty. Ian Ku- Committee of the proposed workers abroad. This agency belik had the fingers of his left World Council of Churches. has been at work in New York hand insured for $250,000 while City for over five years and is a Paderewski carries $10,000,000 The program is to have four conspicuous example of comity insurance on his fingers. The basic emphases. The first is to among missionary societies. It question is, if parts of the body is the stated purpose of the are so valuable, what is the stress solidarity by setting forth Council, "to discover what, un- value of a soul? the essential content of their der changing conditions, should common Christian faith; the be the unique contribution of second is an approach to the Christianity through medicine; problems of the day through inand, as an advisory body, to aid the societies in making that con- Aid for Christian Refugees tensive, daily study of the Bible; tribution effective." the third discussion of actual In the Jerusalem Chamber of next steps to be undertaken by Westminster Abbey, in October, Christian young people; and there was inaugurated a Central fourth, an effort to place all of Council for Christian Refugees. these elements of the program in It is estimated that the migra- a setting of ecumenical worship tion from Sudetenland will in- in which the theme of the day volve 100,000 Germans, 30,000 and the aspirations of the dele- Jews and 400,000 Czechs. Sir gates are brought together be- John Simpson, who was elected fore God in prayer. Chairman of the Council, calls -Federal Council Bulletin.
Missionary
Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information Devotees of Christ. By D. S. Batley, study books and will prove in- Himself. The Autobiography of a Illus. 12 mo. 147 pp. 28. Church Hindu Lady. By Ramabai Ranada. of England Zenana Missionary So- teresting reading for mission ciety. London. 1938. study circles. Translated from the Marathi by Mrs. Katherine VanAkin Gates.
If anyone still has a doubt Dr. Ida, India. By Mary Pauline Jef- 8 vo. 253 pp. $2.00. Longmans Green & Co. New York. 1938. about the conversion of Indian fery. Introduction by Mrs. Henry women to Christ and the value W. Peabody. Illus. 212 pp. $2.00. This is a very delightful of such "new birth," this book Fleming H. Revell Co. New York. by Miss Batley of the C. E. Z. 1938. autobiography of a Hindu wom- M. S. will supply uncontestable an, married to an educated Hinevidence. They not only became Anyone in America at all in- du reformer whom she refers to Christians but efficient workers formed about mISSIOns, and as "Himself." They never befor Christ. As the Right Hon. many in India not so informed, came Christians but continued to Viscount Halifax, former British will know that this book tells observe many Hindu rites and Viceroy of India says in his in- the thrilling story of Dr. Ida S. customs. The interesting story troduction, "These women, by Scudder, President of the Medi- reveals the highest kind of famtheir noble work, accomplished cal College for Women at Vel- ily, public and religious life much in their time." The stories lore, South India. And it is a among educated Indians. The of some twenty-three of these truly wonderful story – fuB of wife, married at the age of women are told here and told ef- stirring incidents and inspira- eleven, was later the founder of fectively. Almost all of them tion. the Seva Sedan Society, to uplift were connected with the Church Indian womanhood. The picture of England missions, but many It is an indication of the place is not typical of India any more others equally remarkable came Dr. Ida holds in India that a let- than are the sordid pictures in out through the work of Bap- ter from America, addressed "Mother India," but Mrs. Ratists, Presbyterians, Methodists with only the three English nade shows the brighter side of and others. words that form the title of this the picture and uses language book, should reach Dr. Scudder that might refer to the Jewish The biographies are very brief in a land of over 350,000,000 or Moslem religion. There is no but enough facts are given to people living in over 740,000 Christ in their thought or expemake them interesting reading. cities and villages and speaking rience so that the Christian view over thirty languages! of sin, salvation, God and eternal Some names are well known like life is not mentioned. Chandra Lela, Pandita Ramabai, The life story tells of Dr. Ida's famous grandfather, John Scud- Ellen Lakshinie Goreh and Susie der, and his call to India; of the It Began in Galilee. A Study in Sorabji. Others are known only father John who followed to the Revolutionary Christianity. By to a few outside of their immedi- same field; then .of Ida's mis- Reginald J. Barker, Director of the ate circles-but they are worth chievous girlhood and the "three Methodist Central Mission in Tonyknowing-women like Shuruth calls in the night" that led her to pandy (Wales). 317 pages. $2.50. Mohini Datta and Marmarna devote her life to the neglected Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Tenn.
Bose. Most of them have gone women of India. Most criticisms of Christian- to their reward but some are still Dr. Ida of India has built up ity are directed against some excarrying on their devoted serv- the large Christian hospital, isting form of it. But the critics ice. They came from many walks nurses' training school and Med- of the revolutionary Christianity of life and all had tasted the un- ical College in South India. To here proposed will have to direct satisfying fruits of Hinduism or the advantages of good birth, their shafts against the theory, other Indian religions before thorough education, beauty and not the practice, for the precise they found peace and satisfac- unusual ability are added, in Dr. gravamen of Mr. Barker's tion in Christ. They entered into Scudder, co u rag e, Christian charge (so far as he is critical) Christ's service as preachers, character and a vital fellowship is that unless Christianity is revteachers, mothers, doc tor s , with Christ. olutionary it is not real, and that nurses, matrons and Bible wom- The book gives much valuable therefore most actual types of en. Here is an excellent sup- information on India-caste, dis- this religion, as now exemplified, plementary volume to this year's ease, women and children. are not genuine. What Mr.
Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
[617 ]
Barker proposes, however, is not Barker sees only failure for any upon Christ's head, if he has not set forth as something newly in- revolutionary movement, how- first crowned Him King and ever much he may sympathize Lord of his own life." vented and therefore untried. During the making of this book with their aims, which does not An Epilogue offers an answer he has re-read the New Testa- include re-making of men by the to the question any reader would ment many times-and with vig- power of Jesus Christ. Individ- ask: If the present state of ualistic (traditional) Christian- things is so diametrically unorous results. He goes straight ity fails because it is essentially Christian, and if not only the to the New Testament for the State but the Church opposes al- selfish and other-worldly, and most every attempt to right the bases of his contentions: that therefore is false to Christ and world, how can genuine Christi- Christianity is in essence revolu- to the Word of God; secular so- anity get a start? The author sees no mass-movement, but a tionary, not simply for the indi- cialism and revolutionary anti- few outstanding personalities, an vidual but for society; that per- Christian com m u n ism are "order" cutting across all fron- doomed also to fail because they tiers, perhaps forced out of orsonal and social Christianity are ganized Christianity and cominseparable. The light of the do not aim at inner transforma- pelled to found a church-life of Gospel upon this world, and our tion. The revolutionary appeal its own; filled with power, swinging open the gates of civilization in it, has never been "must be evangelical to be effec- prayer again, knowing God not turned more unsparingly and tive. . . . The Christian ethic only in limited interior ways but in the whole gamut of human exvividly than in this book. The as an ethic is impossible; as a perience. author re-examines carefully the religion it is gloriously possible." KENNETH J. FOREMAN. records and the ideal in Gospels Unlike some who have been and Epistles, surveys the present strongly moved by the social China Marches Toward the Cross. By Earl H. Cressey, Executive Secstate of the world, and concludes challenge of the Gospel, the au- retary of the China Christian Eduthat if the true Gospel of Christ thor does not ignore theology. cational Assn. Pamphlet. 25 cents. were really preached and prac- On the contrary, his social pro- Friendship Press. New York. 1938. ticed it would mean a revolution. gram is entwined with his re- Here is a timely pamphlet on Mr. Barker means just what ligious beliefs. He is no Calvin- the Japanese invasion of China he says. Many persons assent and its effect on the land, the lazily to the proposition that ist, but his brilliant excoriation people and Christian missions. of Calvinism is less an indication First the author, an American Christianity would make a dif- of that system as it is preached Baptist missionary for 28 years ference, if practiced. Where Mr. and now on the China Christian Barker differs is in proposing today than a reflection of the ef- Council staff, gives a brief statethat we do something about it; fect that a high Barthianism has ment as to the Marco Polo and in envisaging the revolution on a sensitive and social-minded Bridge incident in July, 1937, in concrete economic-social that was used as an excuse for Christian. the Japanese military advance. terms. Capitalism is flatly de- Even those who cannot go all The result has been increasing solidarity, resistance and announced; absolute pacifism is the way with the author can tagonism to Japanese on the part held up as the only really Chris- profit from reading such a book. of Chinese sufferers. tian position; repeatedly the No one can read it with compla- In the midst of this suffering saying is quoted, that "the bias cency. A gift at pointed phrase- and cruelty the story of the sacof the disciple who has the mind making makes truth stick. Al- rificial service of Christian mis- sionaries stands out as an epic of Christ, will always be towards most at random one may note: of heroism. They have defied communism." The truly radical "They were pricked to the threats, danger, suffering and nature of Christ's religion is so death. Men and single women heart-by the sharp point of the have stuck to their posts in order plain, we are told, that only those that they might minister to the can miss it who are comfortably Cross which had been driven Chinese refugees and wounded. cushioned in their own security. into the heart of God." "His The story quoted from various centers is thrilling and might be A Christian who speaks thus death was necessary for the greatly enlarged. should have earned the right to hard-hearted whose ve r y re- spectability obscured the i r Chapter three describes some do so; and Mr. Barker, as head need." of the work of relief, the exodus of a Methodist mission in the from invaded areas and the refamous (or infamous) Welsh "The Cross is no historic trick sults of air-raids. Christian to appease an angry God; it is work in "occupied" areas is the coal-mining district, has not only the eternal truth of God and His seen the end-results of capital- way with man in all his history." ism in a "Christian" country but has given his own life to bring a "The Kingdom (of God) is Christian solution. our world seen under the aspect The distinctive feature of this of the universal sovereignty of author's viewpoint is the God." "The significance of Jesus can warmth of his evangelical fervor, his high reverence for never be taught as a doctrine; Christ, and his deep-rooted it is born of that knowledge Christian faith. In no irritable which comes from love of him." or sarcastic spirit, but in love, "It remains true, however, that no man can lift a hand to place moves the entire argument. Mr. the crowns of earth's kingdoms
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
subject of chapter four. Mis- only once and then merely to re- Church and the Oxford Group," sionaries and Chinese Christians fer to an incident, his theological and that the Church should not have carried on with increasing viewpoint is apparently the same be "guilty of the insensate folly vigor, in spite of heavy losses. as that of the first four chapters of rejecting unity with any force Most of the mission stations re- of that formerly much discussed that can help in the winning of main open and active and thir- but now half forgotten volume. the spiritual world war." Critics teen of the great Christian edu- He holds that "the answer to of the "Groups" may not relish cational institutions are still in present world turmoil is a new such a characterization. The operation but eight of them have Christianity freed from the dog- book as a whole is excellent, a moved to new locations. Their matic metaphysics of the Catho- fervent summons to Christians enrolment is 4,305 compared lic Church, and from both the to get in pe'rsonal touch with God with 7,098 for the previous year. irresponsible otherworldliness of and unite in a spiritual mass The great Chinese trek to the Lutheranism and the legalistic movement which God can mobil- "new West" is briefly described conception of Calvinism." He ize for the salvation of the world. as the greatest mass movement strongly urges a "liberal Prot- ARTHUR J. BROWN.
of population in modern history. estantism" w h i c h "recognizes Factories, public buildings, rail- the will of God as supreme over Toward a Literate World. By Rev. roads and bridges have been de- all life, individual and national," FTank C. Laubach, Ph.D. Foreword stroyed in the path of the in- a Christianity the heart of which by Prof. Edward L. Thorndike of vaders. The last chapter (Nine) is the revelation of God in Columbia University. 8vo. 175 pp. describes the present missionary Christ, and the goal of which is $1.50. Columbia University Press. New York. 1938.
"opportunity." The prestige of the Kingdom of God as Jesus Dr. Laubach's short cut meth- Christianity was never so high described it. Those who do not od of teaching illiterates to read and people everywhere are ready as well as those who do agree and write has created quite a to listen to the Gospel proclaimed with some of Dr. White's state- stir not only among the Moros by men and women who are giv- ments and theological presuppo- of the Philippines where it was ing their lives for China and are sitions will find much in this revealing Christ by their acts as thoughtful and remarkably in- originally tried, but in India, well as by their words. teresting book in which they will Africa, and other lands. Dr. heartily concur. This book furnishes material Laubach has been called "an for many missionary addresses. ARTHUR J. BROWN. evangelist of literacy" who carries on his campaign success- A Working Faith for the World. By The Church Can Save the World. By fully among all classes of people. Hugh Vernon White. 213 pp. Samuel M. Shoemaker. 162 pp. He estimates the illiterates of $2.00. Harper & Bros. New York. $1.5!J. Harper & Brothers, New 1938. York. 1938. the world at 62 % of the popula- Although Dr. White became The rector of Calvary Protest- tion and in some countries it is sec ret a r y of the American ant Episcopal Church, New Board of Commissioners for York, has earned the right to be as high as 90 %. The progress Foreign Missions only seven heard and read. At the age of thirty-two, he took an old down- toward literacy has been steady during the past thirty years but it has been slow. By Dr. Lau- bach's method illiterates have years ago, he has already won a town Protestant E pis cop a I learned to read their native recognized place a m 0 n g the church (Calvary), with a large tongue in a few weeks. This scholarly thinkers and writers plant and a small congregation; will be of immense advantage in on missionary problems. The his flaming zeal has made it an general education and in openthesis of his present volume is evangelistic powerhouse in that ingavenues of Christian truth. well expressed in its title. He part of the city. . The present What has been accomplished and presses for a "faith" that volume, like its predecessors, the method, form a fascinating "works." In Part I, "Christian- shows that he has something to story. Missionaries and educaity a World Faith," he discusses say and that he knows how to tors in backward countries will the world's need of a unifying say it in straight-forward fash- be especially interested in Dr. faith, the different kinds of reli- ion. He believes that the situa- Laubach's story and many will gion, the role of religion in hu- tion at home and abroad is omi- be eager to apply his principles man life, and the effect of reli- nous with peril, but that the to their own people. The achievegion on civilization. In Part II, Church can yet be used to save ments among the Moros and the "Christianity at Work," he dis- the world if its members will influence on their whole life and cusses the religious character of dedicate themselves to the task thought constitute a miracle of the world mission, "sharing and in full surrender to the guidance progress.
beyond," and the two poles of of God. His viewpoint is that of the Christian movement. Part the "Oxford Group," of which he Directory of World Missions. Edited III describes the "Objectives of is the recognized leader in the by Joseph 1. Parker. 8 vo. 255 pp. Christianity" as Christian truth, United States. His zeal leads International Missionary Council. Christian personality, and Chris- him to declare that "antichrist New York. 1938. tian community. While he men- has been busy attempting to This companion volume to the tions "Re-Thinking Missions," wedge apart the organized "Statistical Survey" gives the
main facts-names, addresses, subsistence by hard work. The do not believe, in the hope of officers, periodicals and fields of reward 'Of toil, outside of char- winning their assent but we the mission boards, societies, col- acter and personality building, meet with disappointment. Why leges and councils connected is kept before the reader in the with Protestant foreign mis- form of wage'S or returns for is this? Such books are good sions. Merely this brief direc- service. The change of wages and useful, but· is there some tory impresses one with the mag- in various economies is carefully other approach to which Chrisnitude of the enterprise. Over considered as related to China. tianity must turn? Canon 1,100 organizations are listed Barry's restatement is firm and (without duplications abo u t The 3,000 years of feudalism persuasive-a genuine and hon- 1,000) ; these are related to nine- in China repeated many condi- est service to the Christian teen denominational families and tions found in the world tQday, cause. He himself, no doubt, independent groups. The Pres- showing the way to organic CQ- feels the perplexity. Our Chrisbyterians and the Reformed rep- operation among variQus ecoresent the largest number of so- nomic groups. The study of tian case is clear. Why then do cieties, (83); the Lutherans wages is fruitful for the scholar, men not believe? That is our come next (60); the Methodists the agriculturalist, the me- problem. The Gospel of John is next (43); and the Baptists chanic, the tradesman and 'Other full of answers to it. (42) . Independent and "Faith" workers but nQt to the militarist missions are not separately whose life is built on the philoso- R. E. SPEER. listed, but they number over 175, phy of force. union enterprises. 275 and indig- Steps Toward the World Council. enous societies over 100. The This book traces the primal By Charles S. McFarland. 8 vo. independent "Faith" missions cell of China in society toances- 128 pp. $1.25. Fleming H. Revell have had an especially large tral relations and then thrQugh Co., New York. 1938. growth in the past twenty-five property holding, bartering and years. This reference volume is the problems of industrial diffi- The recent Conference at particularly valuable for mission- culties. Facts as to' incQme, the Utrecht, Holland, draws attenary executives. cost 'Of living and the means of tion to the movement for church subsistence are carefully CQm- unity. The next step seems to Adventures of Service. Stories of piled. In an estimated popula- bet h e "World Council 'Of Modern Pioneers. By D. M. Gill and tion of 474,569,181 or 80% are Churches," proposed at the Ox- A. M. Pullen. 127 pp. $1.00; paper, active in agriculture. The me- ford and Edinburgh Conferen- 50 cents. Friendship Press. New chanical trades are growing in ces. Dr. McFarland, who was York. 1938. number and their products are the first Secretary of the Fed- becoming diversified. These eral Council of Churches of Here are eight stories of facts help the missionary to Christ in America, presents a pioneers who worked against gauge, not only the condition but brief history of the Movement, heavy odds to help their fellow the possible support to be ex- showing the need, progress and men and women. Some are well pected fQr the Church and its some of the suggested plans; known -like Jane Addams and institutiQns. Booker T. Washington. Others Victory Through Youth. By Luther are comparatively unknown- While there is nO' direct ref- J. Holcomb. Booklet. 83 pp. 25 like John Flynn of Central Aus- erence to the Christian mission- cents. Boardman Press, Nashville, tralia, Edward Wilson of the ary enterprise as such, every- Tenn. 1938. Antarctic Scott Expedition and thing in the book bears some re- Sophia Jex-Blake of Scotland lation to missions and to all life It is estimated that over 15,- who opened the medical profes- as related to sound economic sion to women. They a'"8 read- principles. JOHN M. G. DARMS. 000,000 young people under the able stories told fQr young people. Additional facts, a few What Has Christianity to Say? By age of thirty are connected with dates and names of places are F. R. Barry. 192 pp. $2.00. Haradded in the notes in the ap- pers. New York. Protestant churches in America. pendix. Canon Barry deals in this At least 10,000,000 are Roman Der Arbeitslohn in China. By Prof. fresh and refreshing book with Dr. Paul Arndt, Dr. Djini-Schen the modern world in its sickness Catholics and 40,000,000 are and Dr. Chii-Fen-Lo. R. M. 9. and with the Gospel worded to Hans Buske, Leipzig. the mind and speech of the mod- outside any church. One-half 'Of ern world a'S the one remedy for Every missionary to China its disease. To us who believe these are between twelve and will find great prQfit from read- it seems that such a statement, ingthis illuminating and inform- meeting the modern mind in its thirty years of age. Mr. Holative book. Evidently it was own habitat, ought to be conwritten after years of research, vincing. Of many present-day comb, a young man, writes of and from first-hand knQwledge statements of the Christian view of the field, by men who gained we have this feeling. And often the need of these youth for a we give these books to men who spiritual revival. The first sec- tion deals with planning a re- vival, suggesting committees and their work. The second part is a series of ten very short mes- sages from such men as Dr.
George W. Truett, J. H. Pace and Norman W. Cox. While the general tenor is Baptist, the whole book relates to youth and their spiritual revival. It has a definite message and practical value. •
Missionary BookshelF Prisoner of War 31,163-Bedros M. Dr. William Pierson Merrill
Sharian. Ernest Pye. 202 pp. recently resigned from the pastorate $1.50. Revell. New York. (Concludea from page 620.) of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, has been elected A Year of Children's Sermons. By Soudan's Second Sunup. Desmond W. President of the International Com- Joseph A. Schofield, Jr. 192 pp. Bittinger. 254 pp. $2.00. Elgin mittee of the World Alliance for In- $1.50. Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Press. Elgin, Ill. ternational Friendship through the Tenn. 1938. Churches. Dr. Merrill is also Presi- Studies in Church Unity. Angus Dun. 48 pp. World Conference on Faith The pastor of the First Pres- and Order. New York. dent of the Church Peace Union. byterian Church of Gouverneur, Urban Scene. Margueritte Harmon New York, has acquired the art Bro. Illus. 61 pp. 25 cents. Friend- … … * of preaching also to adults ship Press. New York. through his talks to children, Vivid Experiences in Korea. William Rev. J. Quinter Miller, Ph.D., has without seeming to do so. All H. Chisholm. 136 pp. $1.00. Bible succeeded Dr. Roy B. Guild as Executhe stories in this volume of Institute Colportage Assn. Chicago. tive Secretary of the Federal Counfifty-two sermons-and they are The Spirit of the Shepherd. M. P. cil's Field Department. Dr. Miller real sermons, each based upon a Krikorian. 125 pp. $1.00. Zon- will continue to carry part-time re- Scripture te~an be adapted dervan Pub. Co. Grand Rapids. sponsibility in the work of the Con- necticut Council of Churches.
… … * Rev. Eleazar Guerra has been elected Bishop of the Methodist Church of Mexico. He is a graduate to local audiences. In some of Studies in Hymnology. Mrs. Crosby of the Southern Methodist University them, simple objects are used as Adams. 96 p:p,. $1.00. Cokesbury of Dallas, Texas. Press. NashvIlle. illustrations. H. H. F. .. * .. The Star in the East. C. Darby Ful- Sclrsi.ptu6are. Calendars for 1939. lB. and ton. 264 pp. Presbyterial). Com- Kemal Ataturk, President and each. Pickering & Inglis. mittee on Publication. founder of modern Turkey, died on November 10th at 58 years of age. The Victory Life. John Wilmot Ma- He is succeeded in the presidency by London and Glasgow. General Ismet Inonu, former Premier and sometimes called "the conscience These daily calendars combine hood. 120 pp. 35 cents. Zonder- of Ataturk." The late president was dates, Scripture texts, and com- van Pub. Co. Grand Rapids. regarded as a military genius who ments from well known Bible seized the reigns of power at the end teachers. The larger calendars What Has Christianity to Say? F. of the World War in 1918 and built a (with the comments from men R. Barry. $21.00. 190 pp. Harper dictatorship (nominally a republic) on like D. L. Moody, Horatius Bo- Bros. New York. the ruins of the Caliphate of Constan- tinople. The new president is expected The Way of Partnership in India. P. L. Garlick. Is. 86 pp. C. M. S. nar, F. B. Meyer, Arthur T. Pier- London. son, Campbell Morgan, Graham to continue constructive work in Tur- Scroggie, Hudson Taylor and Youth in the Toils. Leonard V. Har- key and to preserve friendship with others) are one shilling six pence rison and Pryor McNeill Grant. Great Britain and the Soviet Union. each; the others are one shilling. 167 pp. $1.50. Macmillan. New He is looked upon as an able soldier, York. a talented diplomat and a stern ruler.
There are also almanacs and di- Personal Items He was said to be responsible for aries that make very useful gifts abolishing the Moslem Caliphate, –especially to missionaries. closing religious schools and monas- teries, and forcing Turks to discard Dr. Hu Shih, the new Chinese am- the fez and wear hats. bassador at Washington, is the highest type of Chinese practical philosopher New Boole. and sage, with an American education. J)pmn~ He is not a professing Christian like. Central Africa Revisited. D. M. Mil- his predecessor Dr. C. T. Wang, but ler. 120 pp. 2s. Africa Inland is sympathetic with Christian ethics of tbe and ideals. Dr. Hu Shih is anti-mili- Mission. London. taristic and has been working for peace and unity in China, based on Cruickshank of Calabar. 6aA. lePxiacnkdeerr- literacy unity with a common national €btf~tfan Gammie. 110 pp. 2s. tongue, general education and agreeing & Inglis. London.
Five Times Ten. A Child's Story of ment in ideals. He uses politics to 1fft the Woman's Missionary Union. promote education, unity and liberty ell BOOK of worship in song, com- Myrtle Anderson Love. 64 pp. 25 based on it general recognition of the bining a hymnal for general cents. Broadman Press. Nashville. rights of man. He wrote in The Forum in 1927: church use, and a Song book for evan- Interpretative Statistical Survey of ~elistic purposes. Oilly songs sound the World Mission of the Chris- "The part played by the mission- tian Church. Edited by Joseph I. aries in the modernization of China In the faith and inspirational in char- Parker. 324 pp. $5.00. Interna- will long be remembered by the Chi- acter included—emphasizing Evan~e1- tional Missionary Council. New nese, even though no Christian church ism, Missions, and the Deeper Life. York. be left there. They were the pioneers of the new China. . . . They agitated against foot binding, which eight cen- Japanese Terror in China. H. J. Tim- turies of esoteric philosophizing in na- Many of the new—the best of the old. perley. 220 pp. 75 cents. Modern tive China had failed to recognize as Age Books. New York. an inhuman institution." 504 Songs Responsive Readings The Man by the Side of the Road. … … * Topical Index Gold Embossed Willard W. Bartlett. 62 pp. 50 cents. Albert Pub. Co. Westerville, George H. Theuer, a graduate of Published in round notes and Roxite cloth Ohio. Yale University Sheffield Scientific edition only at $65.00 per 100–an especially School and a member of the Evan- low price. Single copy, 8Sc postpaid.
Write toda, for returnable sample cop, Patches-Missionary Life in India as gelical Church, has been called to be CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, Inc. Seen by a Dog. Loretta P. Root. associate secretary of the Student Illus. 98 pp. $1.00. Women's Mis- Volunteer Movement, 254 Fourth 1502 NORTH THIRD STREET sionary Society, Winona Lake, Ind. Avenue, New York. HARRISBUR.G, PA.
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