========================================================================
  ABILENE1946 LECTURES
  by Abilene Christian College
========================================================================

The annual Abilene Christian College Lectureship for 1946, featuring a series of
sermons, lectures, and addresses by prominent preachers and teachers in the
Churches of Christ on themes of faith, doctrine, and Christian living.

  Chapters: 20

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. Introduction
    2. History of Abilene Christian College
    3. CHAPTER I — God Is  (1)
    4. CHAPTER II — God Is (2)
    5. CHAPTER III — Steadfastness
    6. CHAPTER IV — This Changing
    7. CHAPTER V — The Bible—God’s Revelation (1)
    8. CHAPTER VI — The Bible—God’s Revelation (2)
    9. CHAPTER VII — The Bible For All Peoples
   10. CHAPTER VIII — Jesus Christ, The Son of God
   11. CHAPTER IX — The Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken (1)
   12. CHAPTER X — The Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken (2)
   13. CHAPTER XI — Work in New Fields (The United States)
   14. CHAPTER XII — The Latin American Field
   15. CHAPTER XIII — The Congregation at Work
   16. CHAPTER XIV — Work of Elders
   17. CHAPTER XV — The Elders and Their Work
   18. CHAPTER XVI — The Preacher and His Work
   19. CHAPTER XVII — The Christian in Business
   20. CHAPTER XVIII — Beyond the Western Hemisphere

========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
========================================================================

Introduction

Introduction

It has been our purpose at Abilene Christian College down through the years to
provide in the Annual Bible Lectureship programs that which would be appropriate
for the time and most useful to the students and to the Lectureship visitors.
The general subject for the 1946 lectures is “Things That Cannot Be Shaken.”
This subject was selected because one of the battles, if not the battle, which
the church faces today is against those forces which would undermine the bases
of gospel truth. Many denominational leaders, in one way or another, are denying
even the fundamentals of fundamentals— God is, the Bible is God's Revelation,
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and The Kingdom Cannot Be Shaken.

Many others, some without knowing what they do, are accepting false teachings
and ideologies which, if allowed to run their course, will destroy all true
religion. It is believed that the 1946 lectures and this edition of the lectures
will help toward establishing in the hearts of men the truth of the important
theses discussed.

It was the purpose of those who arranged the program that the lectureship
should, also, hold up Christianity as a working, practical religion; hence, the
meetings on “Work in New Fields” and “The Church at Work.” The attendance of
this Lectureship was the largest in the history of these yearly meetings. On
Wednesday evening Brother Nichol spoke to a crowd of approximately 1700 persons.
Other evening lectures were attended by crowds almost as large. Visitors came
from more than a score of States and, also, from Canada and Mexico.

It is the hope of all of us at the College that the fellowship of the 1946
Lectureship and the instruction given by the various speakers will continue to
do good for years without end.

DON H. MORRIS.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE
========================================================================

History of Abilene Christian College HISTORY OF ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

“Realizing the importance of teaching God’s Word to the young people of their
time, David Lipscomb and J. A. Harding began a movement in Nashville, Tennessee,
in 1891, which resulted in the establishment of the Nashville Bible School,
which is now known as David Lipscomb College. Those who attended this school
were so taught and inspired with the importance of Christian education that many
of them sought to carry the idea to other parts of the world.” In the winter and
spring of 1906 A. B. Barrett, who had attended the Nashville Bible School, was
in Texas preaching the importance of Christian education. He enlisted the
interest and sympathy of a few, which resulted in the beginning of Abilene
Christian College. The school opened in September, 1906, in a small brick
building with only 25 pupils. During the year the enrollment reached 75. From
1908 to 1912 the school had a great deal of difficulty and many changes in
administration; from A. B. Barrett to H. L. Darden, then to R. L. Whiteside,
then to J. F. Cox, then to J. P. Sewell. The lack of finance and interest in
Christian education kept the school from making much progress until the fall of
1912.

Under the guidance and by the sacrifice of J. P. Sewell and his wife, Abilene
Christian College made steady progress until it became in 1919 a standard Class
A senior college, well equipped and functioning splendidly in teaching the
Bible. In 1924 Brother Sewell resigned and Batsell Baxter was elected president.
Under his administration the school made steady progress; new buildings and
equipment were provided and the enrollment was greatly increased. During the
summer of 1927 the Board of Trustees purchased a large tract of land one mile
northeast of the business section which is known as “Abilene Heights.” In
September, 1929, the school opened in this new addition on the campus of 34
acres with seven new modern fireproof buildings and new equipment. In 1932 James
F. Cox was elected to succeed Batsell Baxter as president of the school. During
the eight years of his administration the school enjoyed a significant growth
and advancement in many ways. The student body increased. The college was put on
a more solid financial basis and other improvements were made. In August, 1939,
President Cox resigned arid Don H Morris, vice-president, was elected to take
his place. Since 1940 the school has made steady growth; the student body has
increased; new equipment has been added; and new buildings have been
constructed. At the present time there are nine good brick buildings on the
campus with two others under construction. The student body is now the largest
to be found in any of our schools, with an enrollment expected to be between
twelve and fourteen hundred in the fall of 1946. In the spring of 1946 a
campaign got under way to raise $3,(XX),000.00 for expansion and endowment. (
Those who were instrumental in establishing Abilene Christian College felt the
need of giving their children an education under Christian environment and where
the Bible was taught regularly. The importance of their conception has been
demonstrated during the forty years of the school’s history. During this period
of time there has gone out from the halls of Abilene Christian College
approximately 15,000 voung men and young women. About 3,000 of these have been
gospel preachers. The other 12,000 have become teachers, farmers, ranchers,
doctors, merchants, housewives, or have filled other important stations in life.
Ninety per cent of this group of young people have gone into various sections of
the country as faithful workers in the New Testament Church. You can scarcely go
into any community of the Southwest without finding some ex-student of Abilene
Christian College taking a leading part in the work of the congregation of that
community. The fall session of 1946 will find 400 or more veterans of World War
II enrolled in A.C.C. Many of these young men returned from service in the armed
forces of the United States with the idea of going to school and preparing
themselves to preach the gospel. At the present time there are about twenty
departments in which major work may be done looking toward a Bachelor of Arts or
a Bachelor of Science Degree. The latest courses to be added to the curriculum
are those in agriculture and in religious education. In the fall of 1946 there
also is to be offered work in church music which is aimed at training and
inspiring young men to become leaders in the song services of the church. Also
since our congregations are rapidly increasing their efforts in missionary work,
courses will be offered for the purpose of preparing young men and young women
for the missionary field.

Every teacher on the faculty of Abilene Christian College is a member of the
Church of Christ and about 7S% of the trustees* of the college are elders in
various congregations of the church throughout Texas.

ROBERT M. ALEXANDER.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER I — GOD IS  (1)
========================================================================

CHAPTER I --- God Is (1) I. GOD IS (1)
By W. B. WEST, JR.

Introduction. In the midst of a changing world and of things that are being
shaken daily, I commend the selection of “The Things That Cannot Be Shaken” as
the theme for the 1946 Lectureship at Abilene Christian College. It is a genuine
pleasure for Mrs. West and me to be again on the campus of our dear Alma Mater.
A high and undeserved honor has been conferred for the third time upon me by the
request that I have part in this important and historic lectureship. I assure
you of my deep appreciation for the invitation that has brought me here tonight.

Foremost among “The Things That Cannot Be Shaken” is God, whom Aristotle called
the “unmoved mover.” The Bible assumes the existence of God. His reality and
eternity are accepted. Evidences of His existence are abundant upon the pages of
sacred Scripture, but not arguments for it. The man who says, “There is no God,”
is characterized as a “fool.” Although frequent reference in my two addresses
will be made to the Bible, it will not be the major source employed in my
arguments for the existence of God as the Bible assumes His reality. The idea of
Scripture as a revelation presupposes belief in a God who can make the
revelation. The fact is that belief in revelation is simply an expression of
belief in God. In my two addresses the approach made to a belief in the reality
of God will be chiefly that of history, intuition, philosophy, and character. My
text for this eve-ning is: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth” (Genesis 1:1).

I. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD The oldest and most universal
characteristic of man is his belief in the existence of a Power or Powers
superior to himself, whom he personalized early in his history. Whatever else
may be said of primitive, medieval, or modern man, that which is most
characteristic of him is his recognition of something or someone greater than he
to whom he pays homage in his own way. Moffatt, a great missionary to Africa
during the last century, claimed that he had found a tribe of people without any
conception of a god. Livingstone later corrected his claim. No fact of history
has been as well supported by the spade of the archaeologist, the studies of the
anthropologist and the researches of the psychologist, than the fact that from
times immemorial, wherever man has lived, he has had some conception of some
kind of a supernatural being. Cicero once said that: “There is no nation so
barbarous, no race so savage, as not to be firmly persuaded of the being of a
God.” This belief in God has been so universal that very few of the billions of
the race in all its ages have denied the existence of God. It has been
questioned whether these few have been deceived as to their real conviction, or
have been insincere in their avowal of atheism, for it has seemed to be
impossible for man not to believe in God. The unshaken conviction of mankind in
general is that this belief cannot be avoided by any man in his normal
condition. Some exceptions to the universal belief of man in some kind of a
supernatural being does not invalidate its universality. A universal conception
of the eye is that it is an organ of vision and can be trusted. This
trustworthiness is not invalidated because a man is intoxicated and may not see
at all or may see double. It is told that a man was cured of the habit of
drunkenness when he went home and saw two mothers-in-law.

GOD IS If time permitted, many illustrations could be given sup-porting the
claim tnat everywhere man has always had some conception of a supernatural
being. We could begin with the recognition of the voice of God by the first man,
Adam, and go to some of the modern youth who claim to be either agnostic or
atheistic, but express their homage in a great homecoming service to something
which they conceive as being beyond themselves, namely, their Alma Mater. Along
the way we would see men building their objects of worship to an unseen power,
even to the number of thirty thousand in one city. Voltaire could be heard
praying n an Alpine storm. A Russian girl, who had taken a government
examination under the Soviet regime, could be observed walking seven miles from
Leningrad to the Sarmian wall to see if she answered correctly the question,
“What is the inscription on the Sarmian wall?” She learned that she had given
the correct answer by saying: “Religion is the opiate of the people.” After this
she fell down and said: “Thank God.” We could have heard H. G. Wells, who is far
from being orthodox religiously, say a few years ago: “At times in the lonely
silence of the night and in rare lonely moments I come upon a sort of communion
of myself with something great that is not myself. It is perhaps poverty of mind
and of language that obligates me to say that the universal scheme takes on the
effect of a sympathetic person.” Above and beyond these foregoing experiences,
we could think of the inexpressibly great expeiiences of Jacob at Bethel, Isaiah
in the temple, Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, John on
Patmos Isle, and multitudes of saints through the ages, across the continents
and on the islands of the seas, who have known God in the great spiritual
experiences of life, all of which abundantly support the claim that the oldest
and most universal characteristic of man is his belief in the exist* nee of some
kind of a supernatural being.

What is the value of this historical evidence for the being of God ? The fact
that all people at a given time believed something to be true is not convincing
evidence that it is true, for at one time practically everyone believed that the
world was flat. But it does not appear reasonable to believe that from the
morning of time to the present practically all men everywhere under various
conditions and of different abilities have been deceived in their belief in the
existence of God. The observation of Lincoln is apropos here: “You may fool some
of the people all the time, and all the people some of. the time, but you cannot
fool all the people all the time.” So the voice of history in the belief and
experiences of men testifies to the reality of God.

II. THE EVIDENCE FROM INTUITION Whence this universal and age-long conception of
God? One source of it is the intuition or innate knowledge of man that there is
a God—a knowledge which is derived from the nature of man, his being a sentient,
rational, and moral being. Psychologists teach us today that the race felt
before it thought. Man has always felt that there must be a God. Nothing has
ever been able to take this faith from the universal heart. As John Calvin once
said: “The human mind by natural instinct has some sense of a Deity.” A mortally
wounded boy who was picked up on the battlefield in France during World War I
opened his eyes for a moment and said: “God! God here! God everywhere!” Then he
contentedly died.

Belief in the reality of God is indispensable to the life of the conscience.
Instinctively and innately there are great' moral principles of the mind and
heart like the distinction' between right and wrong and the consciousness of
accountability. Paul had innate moral principles in view when he wrote to the
Romans: “For when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the
law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that they show
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing 'witness
therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them;
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by
Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:14-16).

What is the value of this intuitive evidence for the existence of God? The
inward testimony of intuition that there is God can never be eliminated from the
human heart There is a feeling of dependence on a higher Power and a longing for
communion with Him, until, as Augustine said: “Our hearts find no rest until
they rest in Thee.” Someone has said that the response of the human soul to the
heart of God is comparable to the response of the needle to the pole. The needle
is thrown into a stir of activity by the pole. A circle of needles around the
earth pointing to one spot would show the presence of something in that spot
influencing the needles. A circle of souls around the earth and through the ages
pointing in one direction is evidence of the reality of the Eternal Pole. A boy
who was flying a kite so high that it was out of sight was asked: “What are you
doing?” The boy replied: “Sir, I am flying my kite.” The inquirer replied: “But
I do not see it.” The boy said: “Neither do I, but I know that it is there
because I can feel it pull.” So the men and women of the world have for all ages
felt the pull of the Unseen and have known the reality of God. A joy of inward
peace, or sense Of sorrow over sin, He is his own best evidence His witness is
within. And not for signs in heaven above Or earth below they look, Who know
with John his smile of love, With Peter his rebuke. O world, thou choosest not
the better part, It is not wisdom to be only wise And on the inward vision close
the eyes, But it is wisdom to believe the heart! Columbus found a world, but had
no chart Save one that faith deciphered in the skies To trust the Soul’s
invincible surmise Was all his science, and his only art.

Truly did Pascal write: “The heart has reasons that reason does not know.”

III. THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT We have considered the evidence of history and
intuition and their values for belief in the existence of God. We come now to
what is well known and old in philosophical circles, the ontological argument,
which is closely related to the intuitive but sufficiently distinct to merit
separate treatment. The word ontology is derived from two Greek words, ontos and
logos, which mean “the reason or ground of being.” Stated briefly, God exists
because we think He does. This is the argument from thought to Being. Human
thought is always a signpost pointing to something beyond itself; deny this
something and all human thought is denied. The very idea of God is possible to
us only because God is behind it; and by God, Anselm, the father of the
ontological argument, meant “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”
Anselm argued that the fool who denies the existence of God thereby proves only
that he is a fool, for he shows that he has the idea of God in his understanding
even though he does not go on to understand that such a being exists.

Descartes added to the conception of Anselm by saying that the idea of God, that
is, of a perfect being, could not originate in the human mind since it is finite
and imperfect. Consequently, it must be referred to a perfect cause or God;
therefore, God exists. The contingency of all finite things, since the reason
for their being does not lie within themselves, requires the assumption of a
being whose ground of existence is in himself alone: self-existence is a
necessary element of perfection, and therefore of God. Another way to express it
is that the idea of God includes necessary existence; therefore God necessarily
exists.

What is the value of the ontological argument for the existence of God ? It was
severely criticized in Anselm’s day and by Kant, who accepted it as regulative
of thinking, but not constitutive of knowledge. It is true that it has the
weakness of saying that every thought of the mind must have an objective
reality, but in all fairness to its most ardent supporters it must be said that
they “do not contend that every subjective conception must have an objective
reality, but only that certain ones must have,” such as are conceived by the
mind as demanding necessarily a corresponding objective reality, because of the
idea of God in the mind is an idea of him as necessarily existent; consequently,
the mind must believe in him as actually existent. Somehow the ontological
argument —always being shown out at the front door in a polite manner —enters
quietly again at the back door. It seems to be here to stay, a valuable argument
for the existence of God.

IV. THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT The word “cosmological” is from two Greek words,
kosmos and logos, the former meaning “world” and the latter “a reason for.” In
its usual acceptance, the cosmological argument deals with the principle of
causality as applied to the relation of God to the world. It is claimed that God
is the cause and the world the effect. A more exact statement would be that
everything begun is the result of a cause sufficient to produce it. In this
form, the argument might be called the aitiological, the Greek word, aitia,
meaning “cause” but for the purpose of generally accepted understanding, we
shall use the term cosmological. The most common response of the man on the
street to the challenge to prove that there is a God is a sweeping gesture of
the hand, and a rhetorical question: “Who, then, made all this?” Every honestly
thinking person knows that every effect has a cause and every cause an effect.
The world and all that is within it is here. What or who caused it? A beautiful
and ordered world is seen everywhere. On a clear night in Texas when the sky is
a blaze of brilliant diamonds against a deep blue curtain, with one star
differing from another star in glory, presenting a ceiling of unsurpassing
beauty, we overwhelmingly exclaim with David: “The heavens declare the glory of
God.” The gorgeous beauties of the sunrise are the glory of God’s trailing
robes, and the rainbow is the scarf which He throws about His shoulders. The
sun, the moon, and the stars send forth their light to guide by day and by
night. When we see these manifestations of a Divine Cause we say with the Hebrew
poet: “When I consider thy heavens, the moon, and the stars which Thou hast
ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou
visitest him.” During the French Revolution a revolutionist said to a peasant:
“I will have your steeples pulled down that you may no longer have any object by
which you may be reminded of your superstitions.” The peasant replied: “But you
cannot help leaving us the stars.” A man who never goes to church went with a
preacher one night to a planetarium. When he saw the unfoldment and the
enactment of the great drama of the sky, he said to the preacher, who was
sitting by his side: “There is no room in what we are seeing tonight for chance,
is there?” It is no marvel that, speaking of the heavens, Pascal once said: “The
eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me.”

One can go from an observation of the heavens to the beauties and wonders of the
world of nature and as obviously and convincingly see a Divine Cause. One makes
a visit to the Himalayas of that intriguing land of India, to the towering Alps
of picturesque Switzerland, to the vast rooms and corridors of Carlsbad Caverns
with their fascinating formations, or to the grandeurs of Grand Canyon and
unreservedly says with the Psalmist: “The firmament showeth His handiwork.” It
is said that an atheist living in New York went to Los Angeles by the way of
Grand Canyon. Leaving Grand Canyon, he said: “No longer do I disbelieve. I now
believe in God.” “God Is and God created” is the only answer when we look at the
cosmos or the world about us. Truly has God said: “In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1) and “By faith we understand that the
worlds have been framed by the word of God so that what is seen hath not been
made out of things which appear” (Hebrews 11:3).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER II — GOD IS (2)
========================================================================

CHAPTER II --- God Is (2) II. GOD IS (2)
By W. B. West, Jr.

Introduction. It a great pleasure to be met by this large audience. One of the
main joys of these annual lectureships is the opportunity to see preaching
brethren whom we know and about whom we have heard and read, and to visit with
old friends from many places. The board of trustees, the administration and the
faculty of Abilene Christian College are to be commended and thanked for this
privilege and for the opportunity of exchange of thoughts on the great themes of
the Christian faith. The teleological and anthropological arguments, the
character of God as seen in Jesus, and the meaning of God to those who have
believed in Him will be presented this morning as evidences for belief in the
existence of God. My text is found in the seventeenth chapter of Acts and the
twenty-eighth verse which reads: “For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain even of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring.’'

I. THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT The word teleological has its parentage in the
Greek language, being derived from telos which is defined as “end or purpose”
and logos as “the reason for.” The teleological argument is closely related to
cosmological—the original meaning of the noun kosmos being “order.” The verb is
kosmeo and means “to arrange,” and it is akin to the Sanskrit root, mand,
ornarc, meaning “adorned or ornamented.” A kosmos cannot be conceived without a
telos. The world and all that is in it must be for some end or purpose.

Evidences of a purposeful universe are so numerous and clear in all the realms
of nature and life that time will permit the naming and discussion of only a
small number. Let us mention the order and purpose in the heavenly bodies. The
mathematical astronomers say that the more carefully they investigate the
movements of the heavenly bodies, the more certainly do they know that they show
order and obey law. Sir James Jeans, the great physicist, said: “The Universe
begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.’' Centuries
before modern science, Socrates expatiated on the orderly movements of the
heavenly bodies, on the blessed gift of sunlight, and on the silence of the
nocturnal hours designed as if to invite repose. Concerning the reason for all
this, Samuel Rogers said: The very law which moulds a tear And bids it trickle
from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere And guides the planets in
their course. As revealed in the first chapter of Genesis, all creation shows
marks of design—light and darkness, day and night, the collecting of the waters
and dry land, seed time and harvest, the sun, moon, and stars, the animal
kingdom, and man. Everything in the universe is adapted to a purpose. Let us
think of the realm of the living, where design, end in view, aim to be had,
order, method, and system are clearly evident.

It is singularly characteristic of some animals that they are adapted for life
on dry land, others for life in the air, still others for salt water, brackish
water, and fresh water. Some fish never leave the unlighted abysses of the
ocean, others leap in the sunlit foam of tropical seas. A common animal like the
mole is adapted to the ground beneath the surface of the earth, where it lives
much of its life. Its barrel-like body, its pointed snout, its shovel-like
hands, its athletic breast muscles, its well-protected eyes, and its rapid
digestion attest the adaptation of the mole to life under the ground. The
chicken is well adapted for its purpose in the universe. More than two thousand
years ago Plato studied the development of the chick within the egg; and his
observations are good for today. A homely story is told of the visitor to
London, who could not be persuaded to leave the shop window in Regent Street
where chick incubators were for sale, with the young chicks often scrambling out
of the egg shells. He said to his companions: “That’s a thing to have seen,
after that there ain’t no use telling me that there is no God.”

I wish that there were time to tell of all the wonderful revelations of the
telescope and the microscope, to say nothing of the most obvious observations of
the eye, all of which would testify to their teleology. It is difficult not to
use Paley’s illustration of the watch, which is as good now as ever, to prove
that there must be a Designer for every design, but time forbids. In the twelfth
chapter of First Corinthians Paul says that members of the human body have
different functions. This will be the final illustration of the teleological
argument for the existence of God, using the human eye as an example of the
marvelous adjustment of means to ends.

There are many marvelous things that could be said about the eye, but only a few
will be mentioned. The eye is adapted to perceive objects at different
distances, varying from inches to miles. In telescopes this would be
accomplished either by putting in another lens, or by some focussing
arrangement. We do not know exactly how the eye can see objects at different
distances, but we do know that it can and does do it with amazing correctness. A
landscape of a number of miles is brought within the space of half an inch in
diameter. At least the larger ones of the multitude of objects it contains are
all preserved, and can each be distinguished in its shape, color, size, and
position. And what is even more amazing is that the same eye that can do this
can read a book at the distance of a few inches.

Again, the eye can see objects in different directions, for it is constructed to
turn right or left, up or down, without moving the head. To keep it moist and
clean, both of which are essential to its utility, a special fluid is supplied
constantly, the superfluous moisture passing through a hole in the bone to the
nose, where it is evaporated. This valuable instrument is in duplicate, the two
eyes being so arranged that while each one can see separately if the other
should get injured, they can usually see together with perfect harmony. Our
admiration for the eye is still further increased when we know that it was
formed before birth. It has been called a prospective organ being of no use at
the time that it was made. This shows design more plainly than anything else. In
view of all this and much more that could be said, the eye is an optical
instrument of ingenuity. The conclusion is that it must have been made by
someone and that someone must have known and designed its use.

Whence all the order and intelligent purpose in the universe which we have been
discussing? No one in this audience would agree with the atheist who says: The
world rolls round forever like a mill; It grinds out death and life and good and
ill; It has no purpose, heart, or mind, or will.

We would not say that intelligent order in the universe is here by chance. The
best thinkers of the ages have ascribed our teleological world to Supreme
Intelligence, to a loving Planner and Designer. The Greek philosopher ascribed
the movement and order of the world by analogy to nous or mind. Socrates not
only developed the proof for the purpose of the world but gave it a definite
theistic reference. The best scien- tists today as Jeans, Eddington, Compton,
and Millikan see God behind our world. The Bible, produced by the Holy Spirit,
through the greatest minds of the ages, abundantly testifies that all creation
has purpose and that behind this creation and purpose is the Great Creator and
Designer of the universe, who is none other than God.

II. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL OR MORAL ARGUMENT The older theologians and philosophers
called our next witness to the reality of God, “the anthropological,” and recent
thinkers have used the term “moral,” and with Immanuel Kant, they feel that it
is the strongest of all philosophical arguments for the being of God. I have
chosen to use both terms, that is, the anthropological or moral argument.
Anthropological is from two Greek words, anthropos, meaning man and logos
signifying the reason for. Moral is the word which indicates man’s basic
differentiation from all other creatures. It must also be recognized that man is
an intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical being.

Man is here in the universe and has been for thousands of years. From his
history we know that he is fundamentally moral, although at times he has been
immoral. The fact that he has ever acted immorally is an indication that he is a
free moral being—not agent. One of his chief assets and characteristics is that
he is a creature of choice. Although his history has not always been upward, but
rather up and down, he has made great progress through the centuries. Man has
always had what Immanuel Kant called “the categorical imperative.” He has had a
conscience which has either accused or excused him, as the Holy Spirit expressed
through Paul. Why is man here, why his conscience and urge to do right? In
Genesis 1:26; Genesis 2:7, we read:

“And God said, let us make man in our image, after our like-ness : and let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth." “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul.”

It is evident that such an intellectual, moral and emotional being as man is not
here by chance but by the creative work of an Intellectual, Moral, and Emotional
Being who is the Cause of the effect and that He is none other than God. There
is no other way to account for man and his attributes.

We come now to the fact that there is moral law and order in history. “Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). “Say ye of the righteous,
that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done
shall be done unto him” (Isaiah 3:10-11). The enduring qualities of the
civilizations of the past have been the moral ones. The peoples who have
survived have been those who have recognized the value of right. Again and again
the Hebrew prophets observed moral order in history and urged their people to do
right. The central message of the Book of Revelation is that the church of God
will triumph over the Roman Empire, because the people of God are observing the
moral law and order. Long ago a wise man said: “Righteousness exalteth a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Turn back the pages of
history with me and this moral law is verified on every page from the ancient
Hebrews to the twentieth century people of God and from the ancient Assyrians to
the Modern Germans and Japanese. On the pages of history no truth is more
evident. In this frame of reference the question is frequently asked: “Why is
there so much evil in the world if this is a moral universe?” The universe could
not be otherwise and be moral. It is in the freedom of choice between right and
wrong and the triumph of right that gives the universe moral character. It is
frequently stated that in the case of individuals and of nations the wicked
prosper and the righteous do not. In this evaluation we forget often that
prosperity is only in part material and the stern reality of terrible judgment
days here and of the final great assize when all accounts will be settled
equitably in the light of the inexorable fact that “righteousness exalts a
nation and sin is a reproach to any people.” An infidel once wrote Horace
Greeley that his crops were more fruitful than those of his Christian neighbor,
asking for an explanation, if it pays to be a Christian. Mr. Greeley replied in
one terse sentence: “God does not settle all his accounts in October.”

There is difference of opinion among students of history and current events and
even with students of the Bible as to whether the world is getting better. I am
not prepared to say, and I doubt that it is possible for us to judge adequately
and correctly from our small vantage point. It seems clear there is a definite
moral order and purpose working in history. Even wicked men and nations have
been used to these ends. The atheist claims that he cannot believe in a moral
order because there is so much to mar the good and beautiful in the world. To my
right on this campus is a beautiful science building in the process of
construction. Suppose someone should go into it today and say: “Well, I thought
that this is the beautiful new science building for Abilene Christian College. I
do not believe it, for it is rough and ugly and the building is not finished. It
seems to me that there should be an architect for this building.” We would say
that the observer has no wise sense of judgment. He foolishly forgets that the
building is in the process of construction. So in this world where man is the
intelligent and moral inhabitant, moral purposes are in the process,
constructing a Divine order that is designed to permeate the world.

Whence this moral nature in man? Whence this moral universe in which we live ?
They certainly did not come from man nor any material source. Something greater
than man has hold on mankind. This something is a unifying force of a moral
character in and beyond the world. He was here before the mountains were brought
forth and will be here when this passing world is done. Even from everlasting to
everlasting Thou art God—who has placed in man a moral nature and the universe a
moral purpose, assuring thy children of thy providential purpose that “all
things work together for good to those that love thee.”

III. JESUS CHRIST, THE REVELATION OF GOD Last night and thus far this morning we
have considered the historical and philosophical evidences for the reality of
God. Inasmuch as the Bible assumes the existence of God, it would be expected
that the major part of two addresses on the subject “God Is” would be given to
such approaches. We come now to the witness of Jesus, and Christian experience,
omitting a discussion of the fact that the character of the Bible is impeachable
evidence for the being of God inasmuch as three addresses are to be given during
this Lectureship on its character. Due to the fact that Brother Nichol is to
speak Wednesday evening on “Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” I shall discuss very
briefly the character of Jesus as indicating the fact of God, feeling certain
that I shall not transgress on the subject assigned Brother Nichol.

More than nineteen hundred years ago there lived in Palestine a man by the name
of Jesus who was only thirty- three years old when he died, and whose ministry
extended approximately three years. lie was unknown outside his small country
which was about the size of the state of Vermont, but he has made such a change
in the history of the world that all lines bend around His manger cradle. His
universality is of such a nature that He breaks the lines of all races, nations,
countries, and continents so that when men think of Him, they do not think of a
Caucasian or a Mongolian, an American or a Frenchman, but of One who belongs to
all races, nations, countries, and continents, for He is greater than all, a
part of and friend to all. He wrote no books, yet His teaching has set in motion
more pens, typewriters, and presses than all the philosophers and teachers of
the world combined. Renan said of Him: “He has marched down the centuries with
the tread of a conqueror.” Of all the men who have ever lived, none have had
such qualities of character as Jesus. He was the most unselfish person, spending
His life always in the service of others. His was the only life in absolute
accord with what He taught and He was the only person who ever lived whose life
was sinless. His question to his critics on one occasion: “Who can convict one
of sin?” has never been answered in the affirmative. The verdict of Pilate: “I
find no fault in him” has not been reversed through nineteen centuries of
history.

How do we understand such a character as Jesus? No other person has achieved
what He did. He is the unique character of all history with whom no man can
compare. We can understand Him only as the only person who came out of eternity
into time to show men how they ought to live and to die unselfishly and
sacrificially that they might be saved from sin and have the abundant life. It
has been said that God never sat for a photograph. Jesus stated that “No man
hath seen God at any time.” To Philip, who once asked him: “Show us the Father,”
He replied: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Speaking of Jesus, Paul
said, “In him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Jesus represented
Himself always as the revelation of God, His Father. “My Father and I are one”
and “I came in my Father’s name” “not to do mine own will but the will of Him
that sent me.” These statements of Jesus indicate consciousness that He and His
father were one, To the Colossians Paul wrote that Jesus was “the image of the
invisible God.” As children of God we are all sons of God, but Jesus was the
only begotten Son of God, who had all the characteristics of His Father, being
“the effulgence of his glory and the very image of his substance.” Thus and thus
only can we understand Jesus whose person, life and influence point
unquestionably to the existence of God. . Most clearly is the reality of the
character of God seen through Jesus in the statement of Paul in 2 Corinthians
5:19 “that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” The sinful
world had alienated itself from God. As the supreme expression of the great love
of God, Jesus went to the cross. There with nails through hands that had always
helped others, Jesus hung with all the weight of His body suspended upon the
nails with each move of his body tearing wider the wounds, and adding to the
torture. Cicero said that no death was so horrible as that of the cross and that
no Roman citizen should die upon one. One of the early church fathers informs us
that the crucifying mob turned up their noses at Jesus. He looked upon them out
of the great compassion of his soul and asked His father to forgive them.
Finally Jesus said: “It is finished” and commended his spirit into the hands of
his Father. What was finished? The last mile of the road of reconciliation and
atonement between God and man was completed. The cross through the centuries,
like a beacon light, has pointed men more than anything else to the reality and
character of God.

IV. THE TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE TO THE REALITY OF GOD One of the most
convincing assurances of the reality of God from the beginning of man’s
existence to the present has been his experience of God. Nothing is so valuable
for knowledge as Christian experience. The experiences of Abraham, Moses, David,
Peter, John, Paul, and countless Christians through the ages have led them to
say: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that day.” It is impossible to persuade
Christian men and women who have talked with God in prayer that there is no God.
To those who have had great spiritual experiences of worship, who have seen God
in the lives of others, who have felt His overshadowing Providence in their
lives and who have felt God near in the experiences of loved ones or themselves,
the existence of God is a reality. It is true that there are some whose hearts
are so hardened and whose lives are so sinful that they never come to know God.
Of them Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-23 :

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they know God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in the
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and birds, and fourfooted beasts, and
creeping things.”

Some are so egotistical that they never find God. An atheist said to a
Christian: “How do you know that there is a God ? Have you seen Him?” “No.”
“Have you felt or tasted Him?” “No.” Well, there is no God.” The Christian
replied: “Have you seen your brain?” “No.” “Have you felt or tasted your brain?”
“No.” “Well, then, you have no brain.” The dark cloud that hangs over every
atheist is that what he has not seen and not experienced may be God and that
where he is not God may be. The testimony of those who have thought correctly,
honestly, and nobly and who have lived most abundantly in the experiences of
life is:

“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou are there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall
hold me.” (Psalms 139:7-10.)

Even more dear to their hearts is the assurance “that in him we live, move, and
have our being and that He is not far from any one of us.” From Him we came, by
Him we live, and to Him we go in, and beyond the experience we call death.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: CHAPTER III — STEADFASTNESS
========================================================================

CHAPTER III --- Steadfastness III. STEADFASTNESS
By R. C. BELL A glance over history reveals mankind, on the whole, to be unstable and unsatisfied. Various races of men have struggled to dominion only to sink into oblivion. The book of time has myriads of wars and innumerable bloody pictures of many kinds to show. Human prosperity has been, for the most part, much like a huge merry-go-round, making no progress at all commensurate with its ceaseless activities. Even now, near the middle of the twentieth Christian century, there are in all lands a deep sense of present and impending evil, and an avid search for deliverance and security. “Men are fighting for fear and for expectation of the things which are coming on the earth.” A great dread clutches their hearts lest their own scientific enginery should turn Frankenstein and destroy them. What man can feel satisfaction, much less pride, in the record which the children of men have made thus far on the good earth that Jehovah their God has given them? And what of God’s feelings, as He has beheld the pitiful spectacle of sordid history, throughout the millenniums of man’s tenure of the earth? The Flood and the Cross tell His feelings better than words can. What could be the cause of this world-long frightful failure and whelming loss and ruin?

UNIQUE CONTRADICTION IN MAN The great disparity between man’s large abilities
and his small accomplishments affords high probability that some grave
misfortune has befallen him. Indeed, there is a vast gulf between what man is
and does and what he feels he is capable of being and doing. Certainly, man’s
reach far exceeds his grasp. He has never fulfilled himself and is not
fulfilling himself now. Much music remains in him unsung. This contradiction
between promise and fulfillment in man and his consciousness of it, neither of
which is found in any other creature of earth, has always challenged and puzzled
materialistic thinkers. But to students who believe in a realm of spirit, the
fact that no other creature of earth has a sense of having marred in the making
is ample evidence, not only of the existence and nobility of man’s moral being,
but also of the fact that man has lived and is living a defeated and dwarfed
life, far beneath his potentialities. Such a student is convinced that, as a
modern tourist viewing the fallen towers and crumbling walls of an ancient
castle, though he sees splendid ruins, can get but a faint idea of the splendor
of the former structure, so he, from historic man, can get but an unworthy
conception of the perfections of man as God made him in the beginning.

MAN’S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION What is man, if, after falling into ruin, he is
still impressive and capable of many marvelous achievements? What is his
constitution and nature? What his history?

Alexander Pope, some two centuries ago, characterized man:

Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet prey to
all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: The glory, jest, and riddle
of the world! Is not Pope’s characterization correct? Man by creation is a dual
being, composed of flesh and spirit. By his flesh he is allied to animals and by
his spirit to God. Mere animals, having no moral nature, can neither rise nor
fall morally. If on one hand, they are below any moral change, on the other
hand, God is above it, forever unchangeably the same. Neither animals nor God
can be tempted to evil or be put on moral probation. But man, partaking of both
animal and divine nature, therefore capable of gravitating toward either, was
left free to choose his own course. Browning’s line, “A brute I might have been,
but would not sink in the scale,” carries the same thought. Does not the fact
that Adam fell below his original state when he made the wrong choice imply
that, had he made the right choice, he would have risen above it? Furthermore,
does it seem morally reasonable that the life of a glorified saint, spent in
eternal communion with God, who is full-orbed light, life, and love, should be,
not progressive, but forever static? He who can declare what man, created in the
image and likeness of God, may not be when he is fully made needs must be
omniscient. Does this thought throw any light upon Paul's big, puzzling question
to the church in Corinth, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” Does the
Bible suggest that man’s capacity for development is unlimited and endless? What
incentive' and inspiration in the very thought for heroic, lofty striving! For
man to build beneath the.stars is for man to build too low.

God made man morally mobile, with freedom to choose within, the framework
fashioned by his Maker. He could choose either loyalty or rebellion to God, but
the result of this crucial first choice was fixed beyond his control. If he
chose to walk with .God, nothing could ever go wrong. If, on the other hand, he
chose to desert God, nothing could ever go right again. Thus it is that the
state and life of man is conditioned by his attitude toward and his relationship
to God. And herein is the key to the steadfastness and security of mankind. Man,
the creature, was so made that he could not live a self-centered life,
independent of God, the Creator. Divorced from God, the only changeless thing
about man is that he is erratic and undergoes constant change. Only by walking
with God and by cleaving to Christ; only by contacting these energizing persons
through vital faith can weak and unstable men ever be partakers of God’s
everlasting steadfastness. This is the way God made them to work, and they will
not work in any other way. Such is the eternal, immutable constitution of God’s
fixed moral government, which man violates to his frustration and destruction.
As when a great railway locomotive, designed to run only on steel rails, comes
to disaster if an attempt is made to run it some other way, so man comes to
disaster when he attempts to live some other way than in dependence upon God. “O
Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that
walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). That human beings live in
dependence upon the Divine Being is necessitated by the very constitution and
nature of things. They just simply will not work otherwise. Men must have moral
anchorage outside of themselves. They cannot break moral law without breaking
themselves. The world is irrevocably moral. God is not a luxury, but a
necessity.

MAN CHANGED KINGS Satan is only a creature, but he is no joke. Throughout the
Bible he is taken most seriously as a capable, powerful, dangerous adversary,
who fears not to challenge Deity and dares to cross swords with God and Christ.
The issue between him and God, insofar as man is concerned, is always the same,
namely, Which shall be King of men and “God of this world”? This was the
question when Eve was tempted in the Garden, and this was the question when
Christ was tempted thousands of years later in the Wilderness. In the first
battle of this long war, Satan by base falsehood, foul slander, skillful
strategy, and consummate understanding of human nature; by appealing to such
human traits as vanity, curiosity, and pride, persuaded Eve that, since God was
underestimating her capacity for self-direction and sup-pressing her
self-expression by telling her what she could not do and by frightening her with
a threat of death if she disobeyed, the only reasonable thing to do was declare
her independence, rebel against such an arbitrary Tyrant and take him, who
promised fearless freedom as her king. (Note the modernism of all this.) Satan,
“a liar and the father thereof,” first told the supreme, the world-old lie, that
man can disobey God and live. Thus reasoned the sly old Serpent, and poor Eve,
foolish Eve, flattered, beguiled, and recklessly fearless of sin, ventured to
exchange God for Satan as her King. Adam acquiesced in Eve’s transfer of her
allegiance to the daring Usurper, and Satan began his long wicked reign as
“Prince of this world,” which must continue until the Lord’s return. Satan’s
speech to Eve is already the worst and longest sermon that has ever been
preached, and the end is not yet.

EXCHANGE OF KINGS PERVERTED NATURE The world in transition from God’s to Satan’s
sovereignty passed from natural to unnatural; from normal to abnormal. This
deep, elemental, constitutional change left nothing the same. Penalties for
man’s high treason against his Maker were inflicted upon the ground, upon the
serpent, and upon man himself. Man’s threefold nature suffered, inasmuch as pain
and death for his body, error for his mind, and sin for his spirit invaded his
life. All these curses came because the original order was perverted; therefore
they were unnatural and abnormal. They never would have been had man maintained
his fellowship with God.

Satan, who must have been a proud, malicious rebel against God when he entered
human history, exploited his victory over man with great success. Fratricide
appeared in the second generation, and with the increase of men upon the earth
wickedness more and more abounded. About seven or eight centuries after the
death of Adam, God, unable to tolerate the all-but-universal evil of Satan’s
world longer, destroyed it, all except Noah and his family, by flood. Just a few
hundred years after the flood, men again became so sinful under the rule of
Satan that God called the Hebrews from among all other peoples of the earth for
His own possession. But because they, too, worshiped idols, who were Satan’s
representatives, and partook of the abominations of the heathen, God sent them
into captivity under heathen kings, who were Satan’s vicegerents, after some
fourteen centuries. When Christ came to the earth about four thousand years
after Adam, Jew and Gentile alike, having “exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator,” were in wretched misery and
hopeless despair. This all-too-brief summary of human history from Adam to
Christ is sufficient, however, to show from the suffering and defeat of Satan’s
subjects what kind of a world ruler he is; and to show, moreover, that man
without moral dependence upon God is unstable in all his ways, “boiling over as
water,” and utterly unable to achieve steadfastness and enduring prosperity. Can
we probe a little deeper into just what happened to man in this exchange of
kings? As God made him, he was “very good,” and some radical change must have
occurred in his irimost parts before he could become so very bad. The two major
elements in human nature are the intellectual and the emotional faculties,
commonly called the head and the heart, respectively. In a normal person, they,
being mutually supporting, merge into a balanced, united personality. Love and
feeling must increase as reason and intelligence do. If a man’s head dominate
him, he becomes hard and cruel. If his heart dominate him, he becomes
sentimental and effeminate. Jesus taught that a man must love God with all of
both his head and his heart; that is with a love that is both intellectual and
emotional. When either head or heart gets out of proportion to the other, the
balance of the personality is so upset that it cannot function naturally, just
as an engine out of mechanical balance cannot run properly. Satan destroyed this
deep, constitutional balance and unity in Adam by seducing him from the presence
of God, who is their source. After this seduction, Adam, living in fellowship
with Satan, who is the source of all disorder and confusion, fell into Satanic
disorder and confusion himself. Thus man’s natural, God-imbued state became an
unnatural, Satan-imbued one.

Note carefully Satan’s method of wrecking man’s perfectly made and adjusted
nature. The ancient post-mortem enquiry, recorded in the third chapter of
Genesis, sheds light on this matter. Satan told Eve that she, by eating of the
forbidden fruit, would acquire better food and education; that she would even
“be as God, knowing good and evil.” And when she believed that the fruit would
“make one wise;’ she ate. He convinced her that gratifying the flesh and
striving after intellectual attainments within themselves, without
correspondingly increasing emotional attainments, would bring her prosperity and
happiness. In short, he convinced her that loveless knowledge, godless wisdom,
and mere in- tellectualism were true wisdom and life. With this subtle,
bewitching falsehood, the old Traducer began his long, long career of sowing
tares among the wheat. This sin against God and man of making mere material and
intellectual achieve-ment the ultimate objective of human ambition and endeavor,
which Satan, who is himself the best example of such a wrecked personality, so
long ago committed against the federal head of mankind, though it so fatally
wrecks human beings for all good as they become Satan’s duplicates, is still at
work among men. Modern scientific humanism has nothing but disdain for feelings.
To it, emotional expression and enthusiasm are relics of an ignorant,
superstitious past, and are, therefore, not to be countenanced among educated,
cultured folk. It makes learning, unaccompanied by love, the key to the temple
of life. This one-sided development, though "admired of many,” is a monstrous
delusion and scourge. It never has made and it never can make, or even permit, a
good social order, for it makes men selfish, loveless, despotic, and unfit to
live with others. "Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.” Unsanctified
learning is Satan’s best tool to ruin God’s order. If the heart is savage, any
learning is dangerous; the more learning, the more danger, just as a B-29 is
more dangerous than a bow and arrow. Sin makes knowledge perilous. Knowledge is
important, but when not counterbalanced by love it is fatal. Verily, science has
proved to be a false messiah and has set up a god of its own making, whose name
is Man. Modern man does not worship the great goddess Diana of the Ephesians,
but the Great God Self. He does not need images in his idolatry. Although
Scientific Humanism is today fundamentally bankrupt as a builder of even a
tolerable world-order, still many men fail to see anything superhuman in the
universe. The fatal limitation and defect of science is that it cannot say
whether its marvelous enginery WILE bless or curse men.

Satan’s ingenious plot that blasted humanity in its cradle and initiated the
weary, running centuries of earth’s wrongs, sorrows, and horrors under his reign
is his masterpiece of sagacity and infamy. Who but a fallen, vengeful archangel
could have been wise and wicked enough at once to do such a heinous thing! With
the exception of man’s creation, the fatal wrecking of the unity, symmetry,
beauty, and perfection of his nature is the most momentous and far-reaching
event in human history. It is the fountain head of all the subsequent history of
earth. All the Bible, except its first two and last two chapters, deals with
God’s purpose and way of rescuing the broken, deflowered children of men from
Satan’s baneful, usurping rule and of restoring them to His own pristine,
gracious rule.

CRISIS BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN According to Genesis 3:15, God’s purpose to restore
human nature to its original perfection is coeval with Satan's distortion of it.
This verse contains the first dim picture of the God, who, in order to
counterwork Satan’s devastating deed and reign over men, would himself become
man. This picture becomes progressively more distinct as God continues to
develop it until, at last the Christ, the romantic Hero of the entire Bible,
stands life-like and life-size. After this finished portrait had stood some four
centuries on the pages of the Old Testament, its eternal Original, mystically
annexing humanity to His Deity by being born of a human mother, came bodily to
live a Man among men. As Christ appears in the Gospels, His complete fulfillment
of and likeness to the old prophetic portrait is the perfect intellectual
argument to prove that God’s ancient purpose to rescue mankind from Satan was
proceeding according to His program. The crisis in the long struggle between God
and Satan for control of the world was Christ’s coming to earth to “bruise”
Satan’s head, to retrieve humanity from his illegal dominion, and to restore all
things. As Christ neared the cross, He said, “Now is the judgment of this world:
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto myself” (John 12:31-32). Satan was under no
illusion about this matter, for he knew that God and he were mutual enemies from
of old. When Christ became a baby without human father, he, knowing that his
long sway over the earth was at last being aggressively challenged, made the
best defense he could. After Herod, his ready human tool, failed in his attempt
to murder the unique Baby, he himself, when Christ thirty years later began to
make definite preparations to recapture mankind, was forced into a personal duel
with Him. Failing- in his audacious venture to persuade Christ to acknowledge
his right to the earth, he had to retreat (Matthew 4:1-11). But, though he lost
that battle, he was not conquered and continued the war. He implemented the Jews
(John 8:44), entered into Judas (John 13:27), sifted Peter as wheat (Luke
22:31), and finally, though not till the divine clock struck the hour, succeeded
in getting Christ crucified. But his victory (?), since God overrules those whom
He cannot rule and makes the wrath of man praise Him, was turned into utter
defeat and confusion with Christ’s resurrection. Christ, refusing to die, became
man’s eternal contemporary and inaugurated, on Pentecost, His universal Kingdom
that cannot be shaken. Truly, Christ was living and more able than before He was
killed to rescue man and despoil Satan. The crisis was safely passed.

SATAN AND THE CHURCH Though Christ’s resurrection forever settled Satan’s doom
and brought him “to nought” (Hebrews 2:14), he was permitted to transfer his war
against Christ to war against Christ’s church, which was to continue the total
war, as Christ Himself had so steadfastly and successfully done. Peter’s, “Your
adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may
devour” shows some of Satan’s activities during the Christian dispensation. May
his condition not be described as that of a convicted criminal at large under a
suspended sentence, which must be executed, however, at the fixed divine time?
And since the church was not able, in its own strength, to cope with the skill
and might of its superhuman adversary, Christ proposed to dwell in its members,
through the Holy Spirit and their faith, to empower them for the otherwise
hopeless struggle. Their willingness and obedience with His wisdom and power,
without the written word, brought the church victory for some twenty years. But
with the next generation men needed the Gospel in literary form, in order that
they might continue to be fit soldiers for Christ in His warfare against Satan.
Hence, the New Testament was written. Instead of being a substitute for Christ,
this written word was to aid men in getting to Christ and appropriating Him
(John 5:39-40). Christians need to be on their guard perpetually lest “holding a
form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof,” they become
tradition-ridden, sense-bound legalists with blind spots for some great
spiritual truths. In his war against the church, Satan soon employed the same
Jews, whom he had used in crucifying Christ, to arrest, threaten, and beat the
leaders of the church in Jerusalem. Defeated in this attack from without, he
invaded the church, entered into the hearts of two members, and made lying
hypocrites of them. But, since that congregation was the embodiment of the
living, indwelling Christ, it continued to fight and to grow (Acts 5:1-14).
Later, when Christians left Jerusalem and began to carry the church to other
places, Satan by using willing, evil men and women executed “tactical delaying
actions” before the expanding kingdom, as attest Cypress (Acts 13:6-12),
Philippi (Acts 16:16-18), and Ephesus (Acts 19:13-20). Still later, Paul
reminded Christians that, since their warfare was essential against powerful
superhuman foes, “against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places”
(Ephesians 6:12), they would need all the armor of God. And everywhere, since
Satan knew that to the very extent God’s original, natural order was being
restored among men, to that same extent his own unnatural, doomed order was
being rooted up, he stubbornly contested every foot of ground.

LOVE RESTORED It is abundantly taught throughout the Bible that Christ is the
Mediator of the restoration that God promised from ancient time (Acts (3:21).
Now, since Satan destroyed Eve’s capacity for proper living by beguiling her
into thinking that she did not need her emotional faculties, the restoration
should counterwork this fatal error by restoring love to its original place,
thus renewing the primitive balance and perfection of the constitutional nature
of her posterity. And this is just exactly what Christ does. When a lawyer asked
Christ which commandment was greatest, the answer was: “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This
is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law
hangeth, and the prophets’’ (Matthew 22:37-40). This twofold love, love for God
and love for man, Christ makes the twin pillars of human society. His social
order does not make headway head first as does Satan’s. Truth intellectually
recognized must penetrate the feelings, if it advances beyond pious platitude
and dead dogma, and acquires mastery over conduct. Without a loving heart, the
head cannot think straight and be truly wise. Unimpassioned knowledge is Bacon’s
“Dry light.” What a man loves influences his life and destiny more than what he
thinks; what he feels more than what he knows. May it not be said that men think
with their emotions? In the Upper Room just before Christ went forth to
Gethsemane, He said to His disciples: “A new commandment I give unto you, that
you love one another; even as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35). Was not
Christ saying that His way of restoring love to its rightful place, inasmuch as
it assured better religious and ethical conduct than the negative decalogue
could assure, might be called another Decalogue, or “A New Commandment”? That
His Way, making law as law unnecessary, was to be a new covenant and a new
kingdom? Does not Paul teach just this? “Owe no man anything, save to love one
another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).
Thus, commandments become mere directives that show men how to practice love. It
is very significant that Paul, who had the best head among the apostles most
clearly of them all discerned the right of the heart. As a motive power to
produce Christian living, both Christ and Paul give the position of dominant
centrality to love and make it the distinguishing characteristic between
disciples of Christ and disciples of Satan. According to this, love separates
men into the dichotomy, Christian and non-Christian, and is, on the human side,
the ground swell that gives to Christianity its driving and lifting power.

Upon one of the occasions of Christ’s appearances after His resurrection in an
interview with Peter, He again showed how important He considered love. Three
times He asked Peter, “Lovest thou me,” and three times Peter replied, “I love
Thee.” Christ followed Peter’s avowals of love with “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my
sheep,” and “Feed my sheep,” respectively (John 21:15-17). Christ is licensing a
preacher, so to speak, and it all amounts to, “If you love me, Peter, go to
preaching.” As simple and natural as that. When it is remembered that not long
before this interview Peter had denied Christ three times, one might wonder why
Christ did not ask him how much he had fasted, prayed and wept since, how
sorrowful and penitent he was, and if he would promise never to do it again. But
all such was unnecessary and inadequate. Christ’s simple, “Peter, if you love
me, I can trust you to shepherd my flock” was best. For certain it is that one
cannot love without serving and giving. And equally certain it is that serving
and giving without love are worthless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). All else, without
love, leaves men “faultily faultless, icily regular, and splendidly null.” He
who loves not, lives not; and he who loves most, lives most. Put the emphasis
upon anything whatsoever other than love and Christianity is so distorted and
defaced that it is no longer Christianity.

MAN RENEWED Man is the only creature throughout the whole range of earthly
existence that has to struggle to be lawful. All other things fulfill themselves
by living according to the law of their respective natures. They can all be
lawful and righteous without trying to be so. An acorn makes a giant oak and a
mocking bird lives a songful life simply by each being true to itself. Man is
the only exception. He dare not administer his life on that principle and be
what is his impulse to be. Before his Fall in Eden, man was not an exception.
And from his fall, God began to work out His sublime, glorious Way of getting
him back whence he fell. The Way was to love him back. “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have eternal life.” Man’s redemption began, then, in God’s heart
rather than in His head. So to speak, God’s love was to cast a spell over man.
When a piano gets out of tune, no amount of pounding upon the keys can produce
harmony from its jangled wires. But after the instrument itself has been tuned
and made musical, it will discourse sweet music again. Man’s nature under
Satan’s long, loveless, wreckful rule had fallen into such discord that no
amount of his own moral striving could make him tuneful again. The best
description of the utter futility of such slavish labor is Paul’s magnificent,
but wretched, hero of the seventh chapter of Romans, who, though he strove with
all his human might, being “by nature a child of wrath even as the rest,” just
simply could not live right. Man cannot compose the dissonance within his ruined
nature and have his head and heart “according well, make one music as before.”
He needs to be taken out of the category of the exceptionable and become like
other things that can live lawfully without having to struggle to do so. And
because he cannot bear fruit out of harmony with his nature any more than a tree
can, if he is ever to live right again, his nature must be renewed. But only God
is wise, powerful, and good enough to counterwork Satan and do such a marvelous
thing. Therefore, He “so Loved” man as to rekindle his love, renew his lapsed
nature, and restore him to his original perfection. “But when the kindness of
God our Saviour, and his love toward man, appeared, not by works done in
righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and reneiving of the Holy Spirit, which he
poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior: that, being
justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life” (Titus 3:4-7).

Now here is a Gospel that is worth possessing and preaching the globe around.
Man desperately needs this religion that can renew him. Under it, men are “born
of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) again from above and become new creatures.
It creates a “clean heart” and renews a “right spirit” within them so that they
are no longer exceptional, but like all God's other creatures may live after
their renewed nature and be righteous without perspiring effort and moral
drudgery. It becomes natural again for men “through the renewing of the Holy
Spirit,” to be noble, generous, loving, and pure in all relationships for they
themselves are noble, generous, loving and pure. This is Paul’s “For freedom did
Christ set us free.” Christianity recreates men and impassions them, not merely
to do God’s will, but to love to do it. They may do as they please, for it is a
delight to please God. A gracious, loving God, seeking and pursuing men
relentlessly down the ages, who will not let them go, but becomes Fellowman and
dies for them; then lives in them and together with them works out their
problems and destiny makes men morally right as nothing else whatsoever could
do. Such love is redemptive and creative.

In the commerce of love, it captivates and wins love. It gives men ample
inducement to love God back with all their per-sonality and strength. It creates
“a soul under the ribs of death.” “We love him, because he first loved us.” The
Gospel does not abolish law, but gives, to willing men, adequate motive and aid
to practice law. Instead of taking man out of the reign of God’s eternal,
immutable, moral law it enables him to live and obey it. Moral principle is as
changeless as God Himself. It will not change until there is another God. The
Christian appeal to the heart of man as the means to make him lawful is the
great superiority of the New Covenant. It best reveals the love and “manifold
wisdom of God.” It does something superhuman to a man as sowing wheat produces a
mystically superhuman harvest, for man “knows not how. The earth beareth fruit
of herself.” Often Christ says His Kingdom is like nature (Mark 4:26-28).

GOD MARCHING ON Paul says, though the dominion which God designed for man at the
beginning was not evident when he wrote Hebrews, that man, through the mediation
of Christ, would finally be fully redeemed from his ruin and God’s original
design realized (Hebrews 2:5-10). Paul’s prophecy still awaits fulfillment.

Christ’s first church, which was in Jerusalem, may be called the parent call of
the organism, or world-order (Kingdom of God), that was to rescue man from
Satan’s rule. This church was adequate for all the needs, bodily, socially, and
religiously, of its members. It, being the only way human society will work, was
by its very nature mutually antagonistic and exclusive of every other way. With
its cooperative, rather than competitive, social order, it was so revolutionary
that the shrewd Jews soon called its leaders “These that have turned the world
upside down” (Acts 17:6). One, after making due allowance for the prejudice and
wickedness of the Jews, still may wonder what would happen to the world,
religiously, educationally, economically, and socially today, were Christianity
to become the Federal World Government; what would happen among men were the
prayer “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” answered; what kind of UNO
Christianity would make; and, finally, how many of the advocates of Christianity
understand its true nature and workings as well as its first foes did. Does not
Christ expect His “Holy nation, a peculiar people,” to be His willing, working
instruments as He roots up every plant which His Father has not planted? The
enemies of Christ’s Kingdom, Jews first and Gentiles later, seeing this
exclusive and imperial nature of the new world-order, decided to crush it rather
than be crushed by it. If in this inevitable, bitter clash between Christ and
Satan any weakness developed on Christ’s side, it would be not in Him, of
course, but in His followers, in the human, not the divine element of the
church. And the fact that the church under persistent, bloody persecution
wavered, modified its terms of unconditional surrender, compromised and made
negotiated peace with Satan, the very thing which Christ in His personal duel so
resolutely refused to do, is the tragedy of Christian history. “Howbeit the firm
foundation of God standeth,” and His “Kingdom that cannot be shaken . . . shall
break in pieces” all other kingdoms and “stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). The only
way for unsatisfied, unstable man, who is dependent upon his Creator by natural
constitution, ever to have steadfastness, happiness, and security is to become
articulate with his God, who changes not, and march on with Him in readiness for
“One far-off divine event, to which the whole creation moves” (Romans 8:8-25; 2
Peter 3:8-13; Revelation 21:1-8). In God’s own time and way, Paul’s prophecy in
the second chapter of Hebrews will yet come to pass. Give God time to work out
His sublime, glorious, eternal purposes. Faith can watch, work, and wait.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: CHAPTER IV — THIS CHANGING
========================================================================

CHAPTER IV --- This Changing IV. THIS CHANGING WORLD
By Paul Southern A casual glance at the family album will convince the most ardent exponent of perpetual youth that time changes everything. We live in a swiftly changing world, with transformations going on all around us.

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the
heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a
garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner.” (Isaiah 51:6).
The foundation of the earth was laid by Jehovah, and the heavens are the work of
His hands. But “all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt
thou change them, and they shall be changed.” (Psalms 102:25-26).

Change rather than fixity is now a measure of reality, for change is
omnipresent. Realizing with Tennyson that “The great world spins forever down
the ringing grooves of change,” we approach a timely subject when we come to
consider “This Changing World.”

Introducing this study we need some conception of the objectives that we have in
mind. According to the wording of our subject, we are concerned primarily with
the fact that the world is changing. It is not necessarily within the province
of this discussion to solve any problems or settle any difficulties. It is hoped
that some of the facts presented will help to unsettle our minds, and direct our
thinking in greater plans for God.

There are some who are so afraid of the perils of change that they blind
themselves to the absurdities of the established order. There are others who are
so impressed with the existing evils that they are blind to the greater evils
which their proposals may generate. Some will not listen to any change, while
others think that any change is necessarily good. It shall be our purpose in
this address to modify these views in the hope that the church of today may
arrive at a more constructive philosophy of change. The various parts of modern
culture are not changing at the same rate of speed. Since there is a correlation
and inter-dependence of the various parts, a rapid change in one part of our
culture requires adjustments in others. Any social trend in the world today will
ultimately affect the millions of earth’s population. Whether these changes
involve labor relations or a revision of the Bible, they immediately become the
concern of the church.

If Christians are to be the light of the world, they cannot ignore the problems
of the human family. In most cases we have confined our program to what some
describe as “sacred” things, neglecting almost entirely the “secular” things.
“Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line—Which is human, which divine?” The
material changes of the modern world present a sacred challenge to the church of
God. If Christian culture does not recognize these changes and adapt its
teaching to meet civilization’s needs, mal-adjustments in the social world will
continue to pile up. In the hope that we may meet the challenge of a changing
world, we now turn our thoughts to some epoch making transformations.

POLITICAL CHANGES Political changes going on in the world today will de-termine
largely the direction civilization will take. The war is over, but it is not
won, and it may never be won unless the leadership of creative forces carry the
banner high. The peace about which we have sung and talked is not the kind that
“passeth all understanding.” In fifty centuries of human experience mankind has
learned very little about how to live peacefully together. A little more than
twenty-five years ago we fought a war which they said would make the world safe
for Democracy. We have just emerged from another war which was fought to make
Democracy safe for the world. Before all the casualties of this horrible carnage
have been announced to war weary folk at home, the political cauldron of
international discord starts brewing again.

Political upheavals are going on m nearly every nation on earth. Traditional
England that xnade the knights of old famous is rapidly becoming a cherished
memory. Militant forces wiihin the British Empire are calling for a new deal,
writh Colonials everywhere demanding independence. The Russian bear is on the
prowl, and the Orient is seething with suspense and unrest. Traditional
Confucianism and modern confusion-ism seem to be having a hard tussle in China.

Whether it is for better or for worse, the America which my father knew is no
more. Within my brief experience, two entirely different national ideologies
have run their courses. More rapid social changes now take place in a single
decade than in whole centuries in the past, and the rate is being constantly
accelerated. Life twenty five years ago now seems quaint and almost
unbelievable. The rate of change is such that a person with ordinary life span
will be called upon to face novel situations which find no parallel in bis past.
THE ECONOMIC SITUATION During the past twenty five years we have been deluged
with propaganda regarding a planned economy. There are millions in our own land
who think that all the laws of God and the forces of nature will adjust
themselves to the crackpot ideologies of theoretical bureaucrats. It has been
estimated that if all public relations bureaus were laid end to end and left
there, newspaper waste baskets could be seventy per cent smaller. Anything like
a two-cent jump in the price of farm wagons will be over the dead body of the
O.P.A., which has become standard athletic equipment in the economic hurdles
event.

Banks of the nation are bulging with money, yet it is almost impossible to buy a
suit of clothes or a white shirt. In 1849 discovering gold was considered a
great adventure; in 1946 discovering a shirt or a pair of ladies’ hose is cause
for extreme jubilation. One of the best stories of the year describes the
American farmer with a list of unobtainable necessities that staggers the
imagination and with plenty of money to satisfy them. And because they cannot
secure the implements necessary to run their farms, many farmers are packing
their goods in a family trailer and moving to town.

Strikes have become so prevalent that Flapper Fanny says the iron must be hot
because everybody is striking. Brick layers have asked for $1.90 per hour, and
janitors are demanding transportation and overtime to and from work. Even some
preachers are striking against their parishioners. If members are not faithful
church attendants, they will not receive the benefit of the cloth for baptisms,
weddings, and funerals.

Some of the olders of this generation remember when frying chickens sold for
$2.00 a dozen and eggs for half a cent apiece. Choice turkeys were usually
seventy-five cents, and never more than a dollar. Within the memory of men now
living a family head who had $5.00 a day was fairly well-to-do. He might have a
good house, a good table, good clothing for his family, and even employ a
household servant. Today very few household servants will work for $5.00 per
day. Boneless hams used to hang in every smoke-house, but now it is difficult to
find a hamless bone.

MORAL ATTITUDES Attitudes toward moral questions are forever changing, but
unbiased observers declare that the modern age has brought forth the most
shocking developments. Drinking has been made so respectable that the average
person looks upon the total abstainer as a freak. Last year this country
consumed more than twenty-two times as much liquor as it did ten years ago.

Whether we like it or not, society is rapidly placing a premium on prostitution.
Marriage in many instances is little more than legalized adultery. More and more
children are being born out of wedlock, and test-tube babies have become
subjects of drawing room conversation in many circles. There is very little
debate regarding free love and companionate marriage in our changing society,
for many couples are already practicing these things.

Change has long been the motto among fashion experts, but modern tendencies
toward nudity are shocking in the extreme. Movie queens in Hollywood are now
discussing wearing evening gowns featuring exposed bosoms. This idea of milady’s
futuristic finery may be considered an oddity today, but it will have tremendous
influence on the morals of America tomorrow. When Hollywood and New York place
their approval on feminine fashions, the styles soon sweep every Main Street in
the nation.

It is difficult for Christian women of high ideals to feature the social and
moral changes going on today. According to leading educators and psychologists,
we have more family and social ills than ever before. During the recent world
war, delinquency among women increased 389 per cent. Many moral casualties
involved innocent girls who were turned loose on the streets by otherwise good
mothers unaware of our rapidly changing society. Immorality and corruption
precede the fall of any nation. Since womanhood casts the deciding vote in
determining these factors, it is up to the Christian women of our land to uphold
the highest ideals of morality and decency.

HOME LIFE Family life in the United States is also lapidly changing. The place
once revered as "Home Sweet Home” in many instances has been transformed into a
cheap night club. Now it is a dressing room, a filling station, and a beer
parlor. There is grave danger of complete disintegration of that type of home
life which has made America great. Witness how the status of women has changed
during the second World War. Until a few years ago, in many States a married
woman could not teach in the public schools. In the eyes of many school boards
marriage changed a woman into some kind of a varmint. Then came the war,
man-power shortages, and high wages. The result was that women were welcomed
into every kind of business and industry. Many forsook the home for ship yards
and army camPsa Children were left to shift for themselves in a jittery world,
and now the wild oats of juvenile delinquency are coming to a head. And all. the
while we continue to organize for cultural improvement and social progress.
Women’s clubs number into the scores, and new ones are being born ever)) month.
The Federation of Women’s Clubs is the most heterogeneous organization in the
world, except the Democratic Party. But American club women do very little to
stop disintegration of home life. The majority of them, just like the men, are
so interested in their organizations they forget why they are organized.

What these changes bode and where they will lead is not for me to decide. One
thing is certain: the home is the oldest d’vine institution, the center around
which all other institutions have been founded and with which they will either
stand or fall. In a recent letter to the 14th annual convention of the National
Catholic Conference on Family Life, President Truman said that several post-war
conditions are the equivalent of attacks on family life. He listed among these
such things as the housing situation, economic insecurity of so many people, and
the instability and turmoil that have been among the unfortunate fruits of the
war. The housing situation in the United States presents a definite problem to
the church of our Lord. There was a time when every city had hundreds of vacant
houses, apartments, and rooms. Today a rental vacancy is remarkable enough to
make Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not.” Christians cannot ignore this problem and
fulfill their mission to this generation. It is difficult to interest a church
member in foreign missions when his family has to find lodging in the union bus
terminal. Many babies are now being born in hospital space reserved eight months
in advance, but where they go from there is anybody’s guess. In many cities
maternity wards have quit accepting reservations. The time may come when, like
the present apartment house situation, they will quit accepting babies. No
nation is stronger than its homes, and the measure of a civilization is the
measure of its family life. It is normally the soil of the Christian home that
produces great leaders for the church and state. The family is the child’s first
educational group, and no other agency has equal power in its development. But
present conditions in our country are gnawing at the very roots of wholesome
family life.

“What is home without a mother?” is a question which used to melt the hardest
heart and bring a tear to the dryest eyes. When a sailor asked the question at a
recent U.S.O. party, his girl friend replied: “I am tomorrow night.” This is not
an isolated case; it is a reflection of what is taking place in our rapidly
changing society. In 1866 the girl was the apple of her suitor’s eye; in. 1926
she was his perfect peach; but in 1946 she is just his date. There was a time
when young men did most of .the proposing, but that plan has been altered
somewhat. During 1945, 312,000 young ladies bought engagement rings to slip on
the fingers of unwary males. Our rapidly changing home life is further reflected
in a youth forum held recently in a large city. Teen-age boys and girls, 13 to
16, discussed over one of the nation’s strongest radios what to do with their
parents. Here ar$ some of the subjects to which they addressed themselves:
“Borrowing Mother’s diamonds,” “Driving Dad’s car,” “Increased allowances,” and
“Staying out after midnight.” Most of the teenagers called for a hike in these
things, and insisted that parents quit treating them as children. All of this
before they have cut a wisdom tooth and before the boys have shaved twice!

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS Scientific discoveries of the modern world would stagger
the imagination of genius. From this viewpoint we conclude that the future is
now, Crossroads marks the spot where anything can happen, and change is the mood
of the moment. Although man cannot create anything, God gave him the wonderful
ability of changing things. In His first orders to the human family God said:
“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” (Genesis
1:28). If man is made in the image of God, he should be capable of any power
delegated to him. The ability to subdue the earth and explore the forces around
it is today reflected in scientific discoveries which make the masses tremble.

Man has tunneled under mountains and has bridged the deepest chasms. The bowels
of the earth have been explored, and the depths of the seas have been fathomed.
Man has not only built a temple of knowledge from the earth to the sky-, but he
is also now able to pierce the boundless space beyond.

There was a time when we laughed at that mythological line about the cow that
“jumped over the moon.” Today we are not so sure that such a Buck Rogers’ feat
is impossible. On January 10, 1946, the Army Signal Corps made the world’s first
scientific contact with the moon. A radar signal beamed at that celestial body
spanned 238,000 miles of outer space, and in 2.4 seconds the echo reflected by
the planet was received back on the earth. Applications almost beyond immediate
comprehension were foreseen as a result of that electronic achievement. It is
hoped by many that radar’s contact with the moon will solve the age-old question
of whether life exists on other planets. Others are discussing inter-planetary
excursions with no more excitement than a trip to market in Colonial days. And
some have predicted that the day will come when children will play in space as
they do now in backyards. This is truly an age of transportation marvels. With
the miracle of radar we also have rockets, jet planes, and space shiPsa In the
old days there was some meaning to the expression, “The sky is the limit,” but
those days are gone forever. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad proposed
carrying the mail at an over-all speed of fifteen miles an hour, men said it was
impossible, and that people travelling that fast for hours would soon die. When
the Postmaster General of the United States said mails could be transported at
180 miles an hour, people wondered if he was reckless in his utterance. Now a
jet plane crosses the continent in four hours and thirteen minutes at an average
speed of 582 miles an hour. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
predicts that mail planes may reach speeds of 1,000 miles an hour within the
next three years.

Right now no spot on earth is more than sixty hours from your local airport. The
Atlantic is conservatively only four hundred minutes wide. San Francisco and
Australia are a mere thirty-five hours flying time apart. These distances will
soon be greatly reduced, for the stratoliners of tomorrow will relegate our
present speed records to the realm of horse and buggy days. These are not
mythological musings of an impractical pulpiteer. They are scientific
predictions of men who know. According to aviation experts, the time will come
when business men will commute between New York and London as quickly as
strap-hangers now travel between Times Square and Long Island. It is also
entirely possible that the plane’s pilot will remain in his tower at home while
he steers the magic wonder through boundless space. Truly, the world is
changing! If planes can be run by push-buttons, can gliders with zippers be far
away? The scientific picture is changing so rapidly today that I shudder to
think what the next experiment may bring forth. Uranium is now obsolete in the
production of atomic bombs, for lead, it appears, works just as well. The atomic
bomb dropped on Hiroshima was equal to 20,000 tons of TNT, the greatest
explosive in the world. That bomb is already obsolete, and America is equipped
with atomic bombs equivalent to 20,000,000 tons of TNT, a thousand times more
powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. In discussing these rapid
developments, General MacArthur has said: “Warfare is no longer warfare—it is a
question of civilization. In view of the potential destruction now encased in
scientific capsules, the millions of earth’s population should be eye-witnesses
of the forthcoming historic test at Crossroads. Their view of the destruction
wrought by the atom bomb could tell them nothing of its technical nature, but it
would tell them in unforgettable form the story of its incomparable might.
Observation at close range might cause us to forget self long enough to ponder
the future of man and the course of social progress.

Civilization began with Adam and Eve, but if something is not done to stop the
onslaught of an uncivil civilization it is going to end with “atom and evil.”
The world’s greatest scientists split the atom. , If society is to survive,
similar intelligence and comparable sums must be used to explore the social
atom. It is already clear that the atomic bomb has sown suspicion and fear among
the major international powers. Until now human nature has been unable to
control its own evil impulses, and now it is called upon to control the atomic
bomb. We have split the atom for war and destruction; now we must re-unite the
world for peace. The only defense against atomic destruction is the creation of
a world in which no nation has the slightest desire to drop atomic bombs on
anyone else. Peoples of earth must choose between atomic order and chaos, and
the church of the Lord is heaven’s agency for setting the pace. Unless Christian
teaching and practice come to dominance in human affairs, there is no
possibility of using the recently discovered terrific forces for the creation of
a better world.

Speed is the order of the day in all phases of transportation, and may the Lord
help us to utilize it in spreading the gospel. Time forbids that we discuss the
potentialities of the atomic automobile. Suffice it to say that the car of
tomorrow will not be powered by flowing gold but by atomic energy. When
“horseless carriage” became too much of a mouthful, we changed it to
“automobile.” When atomic energy drives the family car, it may be changed to
“atomobile.”

Atomic energy is nothing new under the sun, but modern man has been slow in
exploring its powers. Archimedes, celebrated Greek philosopher and scientist,
was at home among the cosmic rays more than two hundred years before Christ.
Modern experiments, however, are making possible a considerably better
understanding of the whole subject of nuclear forces. We are living in an era of
unprecedented scientific achievement, and the church must prepare to grapple
with its multiple problems.- Thus far Christians have been slow to make use of
the marvels of science in bringing the gospel to the millions who are lost.

Young scientists today are at home in a world of atoms, radar, and infinite
space. The significance of this fact is not alone reflected in the destructive
powers of the atomic bomb. Unless we harness the genius which is now unfolding
God’s hidden mysteries, civilization is sunk. Every experiment in the field of
nuclear energy should cause Christians to feel that God “is not far from each
one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:27-28).
When I read scientific explanations of atomic potentialities, I am made to
exclaim with the Psalmist of old: “O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy
name in all the earth, Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens! . . . When I
consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of
man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God,
And crownedst him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over
the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Psalms
8:1-6).

RELIGIOUS CHANGES In a world of perpetual change it is only natural that
religion should be affected. Transformations now going on in this realm present
one of the greatest challenges to the church of God. Militant forces at work
among both Catholics and Protestants are definitely designed to silence the plea
of the New Testament church. The Federal Council of Churches with its emphasis
on tolerance and Modernism is seeking to restrain any controversial preaching
which might upset the doctrine of others. Catholicism, now as ever before, is
set to control the world. No superior genius is necessary to recognize the
designs of the Catholic church. The union of church and state is as much a part
of their plan today as it ever was. In every conceivable way Catholics are
trying to gain control of the United States. For several years the President has
had a special envoy at the Vatican. The appointment of an unprecedented number
of American cardinals is but another step toward Catholic domination of this
country. Another of their secret weapons is the Colored population of the United
States. Years ago they mapped their strategy for winning the Colored vote, and
today they are advancing according to schedule. In the field of labor the
Catholic voice is likewise one of the most militant. The church must either
oppose the Catholics or we may be forced to unite with them. Unless brethren
learn to cooperate better in the future than we have in the past, the really
Dark Ages for God’s people are still ahead.

Limitations of time and space will not permit us to discuss all the changes in
current religious thought. Suffice it to say that some of these movements in the
name of Christianity are attacking the very foundation of the primitive church.
Thousands of preachers now occupying denominational pulpits no longer believe in
the inspiration of the scriptures. Many of them have long since renounced their
faith in the God of the Bible. According to their Modernistic theories, God did
not make man but man makes God. Most seminaries and divinity schools are now
hot-beds of infidelity and liberal theology. These men and institutions are
moulding the faith and practice of thousands of leaders in modern society, and
are challenging the very life of the church.

During the last five years much has been said concerning the coming world
church. Sweet spirited tolerance which covers everything and touches nothing is
the central theme of all discussions. It aims at the union of Jews, Catholics,
and Protestants in a Christ-less church. These three groups recently
participated in a great union rally, and the name of Christ was not mentioned in
a single song, prayer, or talk.

These current religious trends are knocking at the door of the church, and in
some instances have already begun to make inroads among the saints. The perils
of the modern age demand that we acquaint ourselves with contemporary thought
and be prepared to meet the challenge of every apostacy. The time has come when
many religionists will not endure sound doctrine. Having itching ears they are
heaping to themselves teachers after their own lusts, and are turning aside unto
fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4). In spite of the grievous dangers imposed by this
changing world, “Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that
accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” (Hebrews 6:9). “Howbeit the firm
foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are
his.” (2 Timothy 2:19). The church is built upon the Rock of Ages, “and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18).

If the thesis of our discussion has been established, every one will agree that
we live in a changing world. And yel we live in the same old world with respect
to God’s eternal purpose. It must be saved and improved in the same old way: by
adhering to heaven’s eternal principles and guarding the fundamental
institutions which are milestones on the highway of progress. The gospel is
still “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans
1:16). Neither laws, nor science, nor education can change the human heart.
Nothing save the blood of Jesus can take away sin (I Jno. 1:7). We change our
souls “in obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” Therefore
let us “love one another from the heart fervently: having been begotten again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which
liveth and abideth” (1 Peter 1:22-23).

We have here no abiding habitation. The day of the Lord is coming when “the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved
with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned
up” (2 Peter 3:10). Death and decay are stamped on all earthly things, but we
look for “the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God”
(Hebrews 11:10). “Homeless here the soul may roam, but a mansion waits above for
the soul that’s redeemed.”

There is an air which does not contaminate the lungs; there is a roof which does
not leak; there is a circle which will not be broken; there is a home of many
mansions. “For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the
heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its
glories pass away; Change and decay in all around I see: O Thou who changest
not, abide with me.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: CHAPTER V — THE BIBLE—GOD’S REVELATION (1)
========================================================================

CHAPTER V --- The Bible—God’s Revelation (1) V. THE BIBLE—GOD’S REVELATION (1)
By Fanning Yater Tant

“And furthermore, my son, be admonished; of making books there is no end; and
much study is a weariness of the flesh.” These are the words of Solomon as found
in Ecclesiastes 12:12. In his day the books were made and written only by hand.
Hundreds of scribes would devote all of their time to copying the books that
were written, and Solomon said that of making many books there is no end. Since
the introduction of printing in the year 1453, the making of books has become
one of the world’s greatest industries. Every year literally millions of copies
of books are made, and each year several thousands of new books are printed. In
the great library of the Louvre in Paris, France, there are so many books that
if a person should begin rapidly reading them at the age of fifteen, and should
read only the introduction to each book, reading ten hours every day, taking out
no time for Sundays or holidays, he would die of old age before he had even gone
through the first alcove. In the Congres-sional Library at Washington there are
almost as many books. They are of every description and on every subject
imaginable. To this collection there are being added more at the rate of several
hundred a year. Of all the millions of books that have been printed, how-ever,
there is one book that has influenced the thought of mankind, and has shaped the
history of the world, more than all the other books combined. If you could stack
up in one pile every book that has ever been written on any subject by any man,
and could place over beside that this one book of which I speak, I mean the
Bible, you would find that the Bible has influenced the course of history more
than all the other books combined. It has caused more people to suffer
martyrdom; it has been the storm center of more disputes and even more wars; it
has been the cause of kingdoms and empires crumbling into dust. The tremendous
influence this book has had on the human race is beyond calculation. When
correctly used, it has brought the greatest blessings of earth to the children
of men; when misused and perverted by unscrupulous men, it has been the occasion
of more sorrow and bloodshed than any book ever written. In every age there have
been men who have not believed the Bible. The skeptics and infidels have always
been side by side with the most ardent and zealous believers. In our day we have
seen a strange phenomenon; we have seen the wave of infidelity reach the highest
crest in all history, and we are now witnessing an about face on the part of
thousands of those who have been a part of that great wave. Ordinarily,
movements of this kind are spread out over two or three hundred years, but the
tempo of our age has speeded things up, and within the last seventy-five or
eighty years—since the works of Charles Darwin gained prominence in I860— we
have seen infidelity sweep over land like a hurricane; within the last twenty
years that hurricane seems to have completely spent its force and to be receding
almost as rapidly as it arose. The greatest scientists of our day, and the men
who are the deepest thinkers, are more and more coming to recognize some great
creative power outside and above the universe which the scientists of a
generation ago would have described as rank superstition.

Tonight I want to tell you some of the reasons for our acceptance of the Bible
as an infallible, inerrant, inspired revelation from God himself. Its statements
are true and accurate altogether, completely reliable and dependable. Its
teachings are truth; its doctrine is holy. Our faith in this book has been
builded exactly as our faith in a human being is developed—by seeing it tested
in a thousand different ways, and meeting every test and every examination with
unim-peachable honesty and complete victory. In no single, instance has any test
revealed an error or an inaccuracy or a false statement of fact in the Biblical
record. The keenest minds of two millenniums have sought in vain for
contradictions and discrepancies. They are not there. In a thousand ways,
unknown and unknowable to the writers of these pages, their every word and every
syllable has been tested. The result has always been the same. There has always
been absolute triumph for the accuracy of the inspired writing.

I. ARCHAEOLOGY One of the fields in which the Biblical record has received its
most searching test and its most glorious corroboration has been the field of
archaeology. The spade of the scientist has made contact in a thousand different
places with the writing of the prophet. In every meeting place identical stories
have been revealed. What the prophet said, the archaeologist, working from a
different angle and for a different purpose, has found to be exact truth. May I
cite you to a few examples of this type of proof?

Around the southern end of the Dead Sea the pottery and the archaeological
evidence reveals a very well developed civilization dating back to the third
millennium before Christ. Suddenly, about 2000 years B.C., all civilization in
that area came to an abrupt halt. On this the word of the archaeologist is
unhesitating and unequivocal. The record of the ruins speaks with an
unmistakable voice. The pottery, vessels, implements, weapons, toys, household
articles all are clearly of a civilization prior to the year 2000, or
thereabout; then for a space of hundreds of years there are no remains of any
sort. The next articles the archaeologist can find are all of a period many
hundreds of years this side of the time of Abraham. The record is there; the
atheist cannot deny it. For what it is worth, that is exactly what the evidence
reveals.

What is the meaning of that evidence? Is there any explanation for this sudden
and obviously catastrophic end to a civilization? Has history any word? Has the
ethnologist any explanation? Has the unbeliever any solution to the puzzle? When
we turn to the Biblical record, the explanation is clear and simple. Both Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone being rained upon them from
the heavens in the time of Abraham, about 1900 B.C. Furthermore, this whole
region around the southern end of the Dead Sea is composed of a stratum of salt
about 150 feet thick, over which there is a layer of marl and free sulphur. The
earth stratum here shows a tremendous rupture, indicating that at some far time
in the distant past there was an earth disturbance of unprecedented fury. The
countryside for miles around shows an unbroken scene of desolation—a region of
burned out oil and asphalt. Had the writer of Genesis been an eye-witness to the
destruction of the Cities of the Plain, he could not have given a more accurate
description of what the archaeologist declares actually happened. His word is in
total agreement with the record of the rocks. Only a willful and perverted
intellect would seek to deny it or evade its implications.

There is a second particular to which I will refer (among hundreds which might
be cited) in this field of archaeological corroboration. That has to do with the
building of the treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses. These two cities were built
by the Pharaoh who had begun to oppress the Israelite slaves. His harsh and
cruel measures are too well known to need repetition. Suffice it to say that as
a punishment to Israel he denied them the straw with which ordinarily they were
wont to make bricks, compelling them to go out into the fields and countryside
and gather stubble and roots or whatever binding matter they could find. These
are statements of the scripture, straightforward and without reservation. The
writer of Exodus makes them without any hedging or any possibility of a double
meaning. He simply writes of these things as facts which actually happened
exactly as he describes them. Little could he dream that his word would ever be
analyzed and subjected to the most searching scrutiny of the critic. He was not
writing with any thought that his word would be tested.

When, however, the test is applied, what are the results? The ruins of Pithom
were excavated in 1883 by Naville of the University of Geneva. In his book,
Moses and the Monuments, Dr. Melvin Grove Kyle gives a graphic description of
the ruins of Pithom: “The bricks are laid in mortar, contrary to the usual
Egyptian custom, and contrary to the observations of explorers in Egypt previous
to the time of Naville’s discovery of Pithom. The lower courses in at least some
of the store chamber work are laid with brick filled with good chock straw; the
upper courses are made of brick having in them no binding material whatever, and
the middle courses are made of brick filled with stubble pulled up by the roots.
The impress of the roots is as plainly marked in the brick as though cut by an
engraver’s tool.” This is in full and perfect harmony with the record of the
inspired writer. There is no discrepancy in any single particular; there is no
departure in the archaeological record from the Biblical narrative. The two
witnesses are found in perfect agreement.

II. HISTORICAL It might be possible to explore that field almost indefinitely
and certainly in much greater detail than these two brief illustrations provide,
blit we want to catch a glimpse of two other types of corroborative testimony.
The second that wt shall note is recorded history. If the word of archaeology
recorded history. In every instance in which secular history and divine history
touch on the same events, there is found to be a complete harmony between the
two accounts. In certain items, at certain ages of the past, certain men have
claimed that the Biblical record was in error, that authentic history varied
from the narrative set forth in the Bible. But as the years have gone by, and as
more searching study has been made of the facts of history, it has been found
that in every instance in which there was a question raised as to the
reliability of the scriptural record, that record has been vindicated always,
and the formerly accepted ideas of history have been proven erroneous.

There is, however, a still more remarkable angle to this part of the test; there
is a phenomenon which has utterly stumped the skeptic, and left him in
dumbfounded bewilderment. Here it is: not only does the Bible agree with the
established facts of history, but in innumerable instances the Bible record of
that historical event was written and known hundreds of years before the event
came to pass! Historical facts were recorded which were totally outside the
realm of human knowledge at the time of their recording.

Let us take two examples: First, the prophecies concerning Babylon. In Isaiah
13, 14, and in Jeremiah 1, we are told that

(1) Babylon was to be overthrown as Sodom and Gomorrah, (2) it should never be
re-inhabited from,generation to generation, (3) the Arab should not pitch his
tent there, nor the shepherd make his folds there, ( 4) her walls and
foundations should be overthrown, (5) she should be plundered of all the
nations.

Babylon was built twenty-two hundred years before Christ. Her walls were three
hundred and fifty feet high and eighty-seven feet thick. There were 100 gates
with as many roads from all parts of the world leading into the city. At the
time this prophecy was spoken, Babylon was at the height of her power. She
showed no sign of decay, but is a full and total confirmation of the accuracy
and dependability of the inspired writing, no less so is the verdict of re- one
thousand years later every word of this prophecy was literally and completely
fulfilled. Now many centuries have looked down upon the ruins of Babylon, and
she stands there today in mouldering desolation—a mute yet powerful testimony to
the divinity of this book.

Look again at the prophecy concerning Israel spoken by Moses and recorded in
Deuteronomy 28. He said that

(1) God would bring against the Jews a nation from afar, whose language they
could not understand; (2) this nation should be fierce in countenance, and not
caring for the person of the aged, showing no mercy to the young; (3) that they
should besiege Jerusalem till all her walls should fall and the city be taken;
(4) that the Jews should suffer untold horrors, some of them even eating their
own children; (5) that great numbers of them should perish in the siege; (6)
that multitudes should be carried into Egypt and sold till no purchaser could be
found; (7) that the Jews should be plucked out of the land which God had given
them, and should be carried throughout the world; (8) that they should be
despoiled and oppressed of all nations. So complete was the destruction of
Jerusalem, and so well known is it, that I need hardly speak of it. It took
place 1500 years after Moses spoke this prophecy. 1,240,000 Jews were slain,
99,000 were carried into Egypt and sold till no purchaser could be found for
them. They suffered untold horrors, some of them even eating their own children.
They were taken by the Romans, a nation from afar whose language they could not
understand. The cruelty and merciless quality of the Roman soldier has become
proverbial. Thus every single item prophesied of them came to pass. Moses wrote
that which no mortal man could know; he revealed facts of history which were not
within the realm of human knowledge at the time he wrote.

III. PSYCHOLOGICAL There is a third area in which the statements of Bible
writers can be tested with considerable scientific precision. That is the area
of human nature—psychology. Our outward circumstances may change from age to
age, but our basic human nature remains the same. The temptations and hopes of
this generation, the griefs, joys, fears, aspirations, are about the same as
those of the generation of Adam, of Abraham, or Paul. Many a man today can
testify with Solomon that it is still better to dwell in the garret on a desert
than in a wide house with a brawling woman. Our problems today were their
problems yesterday, and will be our children’s problems tomorrow. This
unchanging pattern of human behavior, this constant and dependable structure of
our constitution, provides a method by which we can judge of the truthfulness
and inerrancy of the men of inspiration. For our modern psychiatrists have
discovered a vast store of information concerning the working of our intellect
and our emotions which past generations did not know, and could not know. If
such ideas and truths were uttered by Biblical writers it showed an insight, a
comprehension, and a knowledge utterly incredible in men of mere human stature.
When we carefully search the record, that is exactly what we find. The sum of
all human experiences as to the results of all human conduct, may be found
better expressed in many of the earliest portions of this book than we are able
to express them even now, after so many centuries of progress and observation.
Whoever wrote this book knew more than we know about human nature, and knew it
distinctly, whereas we know only dimly and obscurely.

Consider, for example, the present psychological phe-nomenon of a “split
personality,” or schizophrenia. It is a truth which has been recognized only
within the last few decades that a man may so completely lose contact with
reality that his whole life is divided into two antagonistic and irreconcilable
parts, the one warring against the other. He is one individual, but the
principle that unifies his life and holds him together has been lost. This type
of mental derangement is well recognized and is not uncommon in our mental
institutions.

Now turn to the words of Christ, “No man can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Or read again
that perfect description Paul gave of the inner struggle of which he was
conscious between his better self and his baser self. That seventh chapter of
Romans might well have come right out of the case history of a twentieth century
practicing psychiatrist. “For that which I do I know not; for not what I would,
that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do ... to will is present with me,
but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would do not; but the
evil which I would not, that I practice. . . .For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man: But I see a different law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is
in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of
this death?” (Romans 7:15-24). When modern medical science and ancient apostolic
preaching touch on the same subject, they are found to teach identical truth.
There is a harmony and a concord between them that can be accounted for in no
other way than that “men spake from God.” In an area where there can be little
room for equivocal or ambiguous phraseology, we have a definite statement from
an inspired man. Nearly two millenniums later we have this same truth
“discovered” by scientists working independently of the Bible, and often even in
ignorance of its contents. The verdict of the ages has not been mistaken.
Millions of men, learned and ignorant, have believed this record is a revelation
from God. The stamp of divinity is on its every page. Regardless of where the
test may be made, in archaeology, in history, in psychology, or in any one of a
score of other fields, the result is always the same—an overwhelming
corroboration of the statements of inspired men, an undeniable confirmation of
their pronouncement. Thus our faith, like the faith of the race, is established
and strengthened. In areas where they could never know the test would be made,
we have found these men speaking truth. Are we not justified then, in believing
that they spoke truth always—that in still further areas where it is impossible
for tests to be made, and where human limitations will make confirmation forever
impossible, absolute confidence can be placed in their words? They have never
been found in error; they have shown themselves reliable and dependable; in no
instance have they been found untrustworthy; truth, and only truth, has been the
substance of all they wrote. On this a man can build his life; on this a man can
venture his eternal destiny; here is solid ground, unshaken and unshakeable.
Heaven and earth may pass away; the word of God endures forever.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: CHAPTER VI — THE BIBLE—GOD’S REVELATION (2)
========================================================================

CHAPTER VI --- The Bible—God’s Revelation (2) VI. THE BIBLE—GOD’S REVELATION (2)
By Fanning Yatsr Tant To say that we live in a law-abiding universe is to utter a truism that has become trite. This fact has been impressed on us from childhood, not only in the text-books of the schoolroom, but in a thousand effective ways in our daily experience. We have seen the seasons come and go in orderly procession; we have watched the rising and setting of the sun; we have scanned the heavens at night and beheld the stars in stately parade, moving by inexorable and immutable law from the eastern horizon to the western. We know that ice is cold, that fire will burn, that water always seeks its level. Because of his confidence in the laws of nature, the farmer goes into his fields each spring and plants seed beneath the surface of the ground. Because of his trust in this as a law-abiding universe, the engineer does not hesitate to commit himself to the building of a great bridge, or a mighty dam, or a skyscraper, basing the whole structure on certain mathematical formulas which have been carefully worked out and tested. He knows that the stress of certain parts is always the same. He knows that if he builds a bridge to carry a load of fifteen tons, it will not collapse beneath the weight of a few hundred pounds. The Scriptures recognize this eternal truth concerning the natural world. David says, “He commanded and they were created. He hath also established them forever and ever.” (Psalms 148:5-6). And Hebrews 1:1-3 declares that Christ not only made the worlds, but that he “sustains all things through the word of his power.” The laws of nature are exact, dependable, and undeviating. There are no exceptions. A man may be a fugitive from the law of averages, but there are no fugitives from the law of nature.

If this natural physical world is governed and controlled by law, it is equally
true that the spiritual and moral world is of the same order. The consensus of
the race through all generations has been to this end. One by one we have worked
out aphorisms and wise sayings, things we call proverbial, which express these
great truths. We declare “There is no royal road to learning,” and mankind
generally and readily accepts that as truth. It is self evident. It is a
principle which everyone recognizes instantly. Education comes to all of us
alike—prince and pauper, aristocrat and commoner, man and woman, boy and girl.
There is another accepted truth which I want to emphasize this morning, however;
and that is that our world, our universe, is such that truth is always helpful;
error is always harmful to mankind. This is the case in every field into which
we may look. Consider medicine. How may millions of men and women must have died
needlessly in past generations because of false ideas in medical practice.
George Washington, for example, was almost certainly bled to death in the
doctors’ attempt to treat a common cold. It was the theory then that the body
might build up too much blood in the system, and that the proper treatment of
many diseases was to bleed the patient—or victim—as it often turned out. Or as a
cure for alcoholism, consider this statement from the accepted textbook on
medicine printed in the year 1700: “Eels, placed in wine or beer and suffered
therein to die and rot, he that drinketh that mixture will never touch that kind
of liquor again!” In medical science the slow progress of truth, and the gradual
elimination of error, has proved one of the most thrilling stories in all
civilization’s history. Truth, by the rational order of a moral world, has been
helpful; error has been hurtful. There are no deviations from this.

Accepting that statement as correct (and both atheists and believers have always
accepted it) we find ourselves possessed of a marvelous and infallible
criterion, or standard for determining the truthfulness of the Bible. We have
here an objective measure; an accepted and unquestioned rule of judgment. This
is one which has not only the sanction of thinking men of every age, it has also
the authority of Jesus Christ. He himself said, “By their fruits ye shall know
them. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:16-18). By this simple and obvious test we can
judge whether the Bible is a good tree or an evil tree, whether it is to be
accepted as divine truth or to be rejected as a fabrication of lies and
falsehoods. What are its fruits? What have been the effects it has produced
through all the ages? If we are to judge of its divinity by the effect it has
had on mankind, if we are to accept the axiom that truth is always beneficial
and error is always malevolent, what shall we say of the effects produced by the
use of the Bible?

I. MORAL EFFECTS For one thing consider the moral effects this book has had. It
is the known fact that men tend to become like the god or divinity which they
worship. Ancient Greeks who worshipped Bacchus became addicted to drunkenness;
those who bowed before the shrine of Aphrodite were likely to become lascivious
and licentious; the Phoenicians who worshipped Astarte the goddess of fertility
indulged in the lewdest and most obscene rites of religion. The worshippers of
cruel and . capricious divinities always tended to become like those objects of
their worship. The Bible holds forth to us a God who is perfection itself. He is
perfect in moral holiness, in love, in wisdom, in justice, and in every virtue
that commends itself to the mind of men. In him there is found no flaw, no
weakness, no error. This God was made flesh and dwelt among men in the person of
his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was such a one that men of every age have been
unstinted in their praise of his worth and excellence. Those who walked and
talked with him recognized him as being superior to anything this earth had ever
produced. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” Luke says, “He
went about doing good.”

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned Upon the Saviour’s brow; His head with radiant
glories crowned, His lips with grace O’er flow. No mortal can with him compare
Among the sons of men Fairer is he than all the fair That fill the heavenly
train. This is the God the Bible sets forth; this is the Savior the believers
worship. The effect of such worship reflects itself in elevating man and raising
him in all things to a higher and nobler plane of living. As the author and
originator of Christianity is a perfect being, so also is the law which he gave.
The Psalmist spoke truth when he said, “The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring
the soul.” No sin is known to mankind which that law does not forbid and
prohibit; no virtue is to be found which it does not inculcate and encourage.
Every relationship known to us, parents and children, husbands and wives, slaves
and masters, rulers and subjects, friends and neighbors—all of them are set
forth and the duties and obligations and responsibilities of each are fully
declared. Could the hearts of all men of the earth at this moment be brought
into conformity with the teachings of this book, ten thousand streams of joy and
happiness would be opened up to flood the earth.

You have but to look at the history of the earth since the days of Christ to
know how benign and how beatific have been the blessings brought to the children
of men by this book. Edward Gibbon, the great infidel historian, who made a
complete and thorough investigation into all the circumstances surrounding the
early years of Christianity, has been unstinted in his praise, and has been
astonished almost beyond expression at the benevolent effects the gospels had on
those whom it reached in the early days of the church. Surrounded by lewdness
and immorality, they retained their chastity; in the midst of violence and
bloodshed and cruelty, they were always willing to suffer pain, but never to
inflict it; when falsehood and dishonesty and theft were accepted by all as the
common practice, the Christians were scrupulously honest and truthful in all
things. Gibbon says, “It is a very honorable circumstance for the morals of
primitive Christians that even their faults, or rather errors, were derived from
an excess of virtue.” In his correspondence with the Emperor Trajan, Pliny,
governor of a province of Asia, had much to say concerning the sect of the
Christians whom he had been ordered to exterminate. He wrote to Trajan, “they
blind themselves with an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, not to
be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; never to falsify their word, nor to
deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it.” And Gibbon
quotes Tertullian as boasting with honest pride that “very few Christians had
suffered at the hand of the executioner except on account of their religion.”

Perhaps someone is likely to complain that this is not a true picture, that we
must also include all the moral depravity of the dark ages, that we must mention
the Catholic inquisitions, the burning of heretics, the evil and hypocrisy and
vicious practices that have come about as a result of religion. To which we
reply that this very circumstance adds weight to our contention. For it shows us
that the natural tendency of mankind is vicious and cruel, and when he rejects
the restraining influence of the Bible he will go to every kind of excess, for
it is not perfectly clear that the wickedness and immorality of the dark ages
and of the Catholic church in particular came about as a result of a departure
from the teachings of the Bible, rather than because of following those
teachings? I affirm without any hesitation that every good thing in Catholicism,
as in every Protestant religion, is the result of following in some degree the
teachings of the Bible; while every evil and wicked thing is the result of a
departure from the Bible. It is not fair to charge the Bible with the
perversions men make of it. We are saying that the influence of this book, when
followed, is wholly good and never evil. Its moral effects are such as to
demonstrate its truthfulness.

II. INTELLECTUAL EEEECTS In the second place, consider the intellectual effects
of the Bible. Is it not perfectly evident that this book, above all others ever
written encourages and stimulates intellectual growth and development? Does not
the Bible place supreme value on truth—the whole truth unmixed with error? Is it
not the word of inspired scripture which said, “Buy the truth and sell it not?”
Christ declared, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
Paul affirmed that the church is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” And every
inspired writer who has touched the subject has encouraged the search for truth.
The desire has always been to promote and cultivate intellectual growth, to
bring man to the very highest use possible of all his natural talents and
endowments.

Again, a look at history will confirm this statement. If you but look at the
most civilized and advanced nations of the earth, you will find without
exception they are places in which the Bible has for generations had its
greatest influence. Britain and America are cases in point. Why it is that
civilization came westward rather than eastward? The Bible originated in the
orient, but the trek of civilization was toward the West, not toward the East.
Is it not true that civilization followed the Bible? Missionaries went out and
won people to an acceptance, often crude and uninformed to be sure, but still
some sort of acceptance of this book. The result was a phenomenal stimulation of
all their mental powers. The orient, which rejected the book, stagnated and
remained unmoved; the West progressed and developed. If someone wants to argue
against this by citing us to Germany as an example of an undeveloped land where
the Bible had great influence, we have but to remind you that all the
foundations for Germany’s growth and marvelous scientific and intellectual
development were laid during the years when Germany above all other nations was
a Bible following nation. When Martin Luther began his great Reformation in
Germany, he gave impetus to the intellectual development of the nation which is
still felt. It was only within the last century, when the higher critics and
infidels began to undermine respect for the book, that Germany took a definite
turn toward a pagan way of life. Look how civilization has been retarded and
held back in the Latin nations and in South America, where, under the influence
of Catholicism, the Bible is relegated to a place of inferiority and disrespect.
In contrast see how the general culture has advanced in those nations who have a
different view of the Scripture. In America, how many of our colleges and
universities are in existence today because of the influence of the Bible! Even
our state supported schools are with us because our rulers and leaders have
felt, even though unaware of it, the influence from this book. They have
recognized the wisdom and the advantages to a nation of literate and educated
people; they have realized that ignorance and stupidity go hand in hand; that as
a people becomes literate they advance to a higher and nobler plane of living.

III. EMOTIONAL EFFECTS I have one other thing to mention concerning the effects
of this book. That is personal. I want to talk of the effect it has on each of
us in an emotional way. For we are living in a world that keeps us constantly in
a state of turmoil and distress. Everything about us is transient, fleeting,
evanescent. We are filled with vague, uneasy longings for a different life and a
different world. Conscious of the perpetual conflict within our own hearts, our
lives are disquieted and our hearts are fearful. I think it can be said pretty
truthfully of nearly all of us that in our natural state we are as “restless as
willows in a windstorm, as jumpy as puppets on a string.” And that is so even
when we don’t have spring fever. The inner conflict may burst forth in the
woeful lament of Paul, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death,” or it may come in the pessimistic cynicism of Solomon,
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and a striving after the wind, saith the
preacher,” or perhaps it will be felt in some other way. In one way or another
all of us feel the inadequacy and the incompleteness of this life. We recognize
that we are creatures of eternity, and here we have only time. We are infinite
in our capacity for growth, and here we have only finite opportunities. We are
the children of a king, but on this earth we have only the chances of a slave.
So our lives are disordered, distressed, and disturbed. When we open the pages
of this book, how beautifully the restless spirit is quieted, how perfectly the
anxious heart is eased, how completely the burdened mind is put at rest. For
here we learn that God is in his heaven; and all’s well with the world. We are
not mere creatures of blind chance, born for a day, to be swept into eternal
oblivion tomorrow; we are a creation of God, destined for eternal glory with
Him. Let the worlds continue in their courses for uncounted billions of years,
or let them cease to roll tomorrow, it is all the same to us. Death has lost its
terrors, the grave has lost its victory. Come weal or woe; we are the children
of God, and it is well with our souls. What perfect peace, what calm fortitude,
what complete acceptance this book brings us. Now we can forget the burden of
the world, now we can dispense with the problems of existence. We can live and
enjoy life as free and as loving and beloved children of God. The effects of
this book on the mental peace of mankind are indeed beyond calculation. It
soothes, and calms, and puts at rest all our troubled longing thoughts. Can we
credit for one minute the monstrous absurdity that the book which has had the
greatest moral effect, the most stimulating intellectual effect and the richest
emotional effect on all ages of the world is, at the same time, the most blatant
falsehood that has ever existed? Are we willing to say that falsehood and
fabrications and plain unadorned lies have proved the greatest boon to
civilization, have brought the greatest happiness to the race, have lifted lives
to the noblest pitch of living the earth has ever seen? My friends, men do not
gather such grapes from thorns, nor such figs from thistles. An evil tree does
not—cannot—bring forth such fruit!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: CHAPTER VII — THE BIBLE FOR ALL PEOPLES
========================================================================

CHAPTER VII --- The Bible For All Peoples VII. THE BIBLE FOR ALL PEOPLES
By CHARLES H. ROBERSON

More than nineteen centuries ago The Master said: “Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to the whole creation.” It is recorded “And they went forth
and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the
message by the signs that attended it” (Mark 16:15; Mark 16:20). Also, He said:
“And the gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10). (RSV)

RETROSPECTIVE The Old Covenant was written chiefly in the Hebrew language; the
New, in the Greek of the Koine Period. Translation began in the third century
before Christ. What is called the Septuagint, the source of so many quotations
of the New Covenant in Greek from the Old was the first. In the second century
A.D. the Syriac New Covenant was probably the first of the great translations
and stands second only to the Latin Vulgate and the English Bible in its
far-flung influence. Also in the second century Latin texts were made; and these
culminated in Jerome’s great “Vulgate” translation of the fourth and the fifth
centuries. In the twelfth century A.D. translations in modern languages or their
immediate ancestors began. Yet less than a score are recorded before 1450 A.D.
On the eve of the invention of printing, only thirty-three languages have had
any part of the Bible translated. However, *It is recognized that the
“Targums”—somewhat free translations from the classical Hebrew into Aramaic, may
have existed in written form before the first century A.D. (cf. T. Walker in
Hastings Die. of Bible, IV, 678). Some scholars maintain that Mt., Mk., Lk.,
were written in Aramaic and translated therefrom into Greek (C. C. Torrey, Our
Translated Gospels). But the evidence is not conclusive. the first hundred years
of printing saw great history-making versions of the whole Bible put into print.
But. even by 18C0 A.D. only seventy-one languages and dialects had some printed
portions of the Bible. The next thirty years saw an amazing expansion—eighty-six
languages received some part of the Bible—more than in all the eighteen
centuries preceding The British and Foreign Bible Society was founded in 1804,
and the American Bible Society in 1816. Through these, translators were aided
and the fruits of their labor in printed form sent forth for widespread
distribution. These thirty years were no flash in the pan. In the years between
them and the end of 1944 there have been added 911 languages. This then gives a
resume of an amazing achievement— some substantial part of the Bible translated
and published in 1068 languages and dialects. Let no one think that this has
been the adventure of putting a few verses of Scripture into as many languages
as possible as a tour de force8 (exhibition of skill). On the contrary there are
185 languages with whole Bibles; there are 234 more with whole New Covenant; 560
more with at least one whole book, and 89 more with selections. For those who
have minds to discern, this achievement outranks the whole gamut of modern
invention, at which we so often marvel! For implicit in it is a hope for the
human family which no amount of secular learning or scientific technique can
offer. THE ACHIEVERS Turning from the achievement to the achievers, it is most
obvious to al1 that a comparatively small group of people in the church are
whole-heartedly evangelistic. Alas, only a minority part! What might have been
won if that minority had been a great majority! It is this minority that has
held that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was not given to assure
respectability but to redeem a world from destruction and death. It is this
minority who appreciate the priceless value of the redemptive love of God in
Christ, and pour out prayers and treasures that the message of the Bible might
be given to all peoples.

Tribute must be given to the translators. Down through the centuries they by
faith subdued languages and so kingdoms, wrought righteousness, out of weakness
became strong, and endured trials of bonds and imprisonment. This is not the
time to call the roll of intrepid explorers who were destitute, afflicted and
tormented, nor of their wives who did endless copying and proof-reading, yet by
their faith put the Bible into a thousand and more languages. It is related that
one woman inserted in the manuscript of a translation made by her husband
120,000 commas. Let us trust that their number was matched by the wisdom with
which they were placed.

It is imperative that disciples of the Master be impelled by an unwavering
purpose that every man wdling to possess the Bible may have it in his own
tongue, and at a price within his reach, however much ifl may cost to produce
it. The Bible is God’s Book for the world. The making of it, the translating of
it, the distributing of it to all peoples, is a part of His plan, whereby men
are being redeemed. The Bible is for man not by the will of man but by the will
of God. It is His Providence that raised up the hosts of translators, imbued
people with missionary enthusiasm. And it is God who cads us to labor, that
they, with us, may be “made perfect.”

PROSPECTIVE Let no one think that translation of the Bible into nearly eleven
hundred tongues that nothing more needs to be done.

There is much to be done, and they who by faith have made translations and who
have, indeed obtained a glorious report wait for vdiat we, under God, have now
to do. Mark 13:10, —“the gospel must first be published among all nations”—is a
reminder of what God expects of us, particularly when one discerns that the word
nations here, does not signify what we mean by nations today—politically
organized national entities —but, in the sense of the Greek £v(\, tribes or
peoples. No one knows how many languages and dialects the world contains. Some
of those that have been studied are not extinct and a lot of those in current
use have not been studied. The French Academy says there are some 2,796 ;B this
estimate may serve our purpose. It is known that there are many peoples in Latin
America, who do not know either Spanish or Portuguese and for whom some part of
the Bible is yet to be translated. There are many peoples in parts of Atnca and
of south-eastern Asia in the same situation. For many ot these peoples, likely
it will not be necessary to translate the whole Bible, for as thfir Christian
education develops, they will be able to use a Bible, or at least parts of it,
in a related language. But it is necessary to provide at least a Gospel in a
language that each tribe or people can understand.

It was not until 1937 that a Gospel was translated in Kekch' (Guatemala) spoken
by some 120,000 people. In Mexico there are over 300,000 people who speak only
Mexi- cano, and over 100,000 speaking only Mixteco; perhaps several translations
will be required for each of these because of dialect differences. Some of these
are already being studied by the Wycliffe Translators and several translations
in new languages are on the press or nearly ready for it. It is quite probable
that there are now 1,000 more forms of speech in the world in which new
translations are needed. When it comes to religion, to the things of the home
and the heart, no speech is adequate save the home-speech. This is the deepest
reason why the Bible must be in the mother tongue of the people. Oliver .Wendell
Holmes in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table says: “Language is a solemn thing;
it grows out of life, out of its agonies and its ecstasies, its wants and its
weariness. Every language is a temple in which the soul of those who speak it is
enshrined.”

Wyclif wrote, “Crist and His apostlis taughten ye puple in yat tunge yat was
moost knowun to ye puple. Why shoulden not men nou do so ?” There are some
hundreds of languages in which there is need for at least the New Covenant where
only one or two of the Gospels exist. For example, there are 300,000 Sulu Moros
in the Philippines who have only one Gospel; likewise 280,000 Quiche Indians in
Guatemala; 295,000 Dioula on the Ivory Coast. There are two Gospels only for
1,300,000 Shilluk in the Sudan; for 1,800,000 Balinese in the Dutch East Indies.
To carry the Bible to these peoples and to millions of others in similar
situations is a challenge to professing Christians that can not be lightly
pushed aside. This involves labor, long and expensive, but full of reward in the
life of our world neighborhood.

Since languages in use are living, flowing things, there is the constant need
for revisions. Rarely does a version remain permanently what the people should
have. When native church workers in India began to use the new revised Tamil
version, they spoke of feeling as if they had a new sharp plow with which to
cultivate their fields. Even with the widespread use of the Authorized and
Revised versions in English, and the many translations of individual scholars,
three major revisions are available or in the making. The New York Times of
date, October 4, 1936, listed, The revision of the American Standard Revised
Version (set up by the International Council of Religious Education) ; the
British Westminster revision by the Roman Catholic Church; and a “modern”
translation projected by a group of American Roman Catholics.

Superb as many of the translations and revisions have been, the time will come
when men trained in Greek and Hebrew and masters of their own speech, who with
devotion equal to their predecessors will make the Bible even more vivid and
powerful in their mother tongue. Then indeed will new light break again out of
the Scriptures. THE GREAT URGENCY Printed translations may exist in some part in
the speech of nine-tenths of the world’s population. But it is a disastrous
mistake to think that the Bible is in the hands of nine-tenths of the people of
the world. On a “calculated guess” considerably less than one-fifth of them
actually possess the Bible. The total world population was given by A. M. Carr-
Saunders, in World Population, Oxford University Press, 1936, as 2,028,000,000;
Hubners Geographish-Statistische Tabe In Aller Lander Brde, 72 Edition, Leipsic,
1936, as 2,092,940,000. It is estimated that the annual increase is 15,000,000.8
Population under ten years of age in the United States as of 1931 was
24,051,999, January 1944 (estimated) 27,473,600,7 that is about twenty per
centum. This rate is high for the world as a whole. If one sets aside 20% of the
population who are supplied, and another 20% for those under ten years of age,
more than 1,200,000,000 are left without the Bible. Not considering replacement
copies, a generous estimate is 20,000,000 copies of the Bible or some part of it
are distributed annually. Yet, consideration must be taken of 'Encyclopedia of
the Social Sciences, art. “Population.” On January 1, 1944, the population was
estimated by the Bureau of the Census to be 137,368,379. 600,000,000 literate
persons without the Bible and as many more not yet literate, though of literate
age.8 The Bible Press, 1938) estimates about half of the world to be yet
illiterate, either whole or part is in the languages of all perhaps but a tenth
of these millions. The task is to see that they have the chance to have it. In
the parts of the world where the Bible is best known —United States, Canada,
Europe, Australia, New Zealand— population is estimated as 630,000,000 with an
estimated yearly increase of 6,000,000.° Even here the distribution of the Bible
or parts of it is not keeping pace with the growth of the population.

Turning to other parts of the world, the great populations of Asia, Africa,
Latin America and the Islands of the Pacific must be considered. In these areas
about 2,000,000 copies of the Bible and some 15,000,000 single gospels and other
single parts are distributed annually. And this over against a population of
some 1,400,000,000! The distribution is less than one-third the annual increase
in population. The circulation of Gospels and other single books might catch up,
statistically, with the population in 160 years without considering increase in
population.

Translations into nigh 1100 languages are a priceless resource, indispensable to
the world’s advance. But they are powerless until distributed. They are seed in
the granary; not until the seed is sown can there be any hope of harvest. The
major advance in giving the Bible to all peoples lies in distribution. For here
depends the hope of countless millions of humble despairing folk and the
possibility of saving the world from bitterness and destruction. In 1883 Dr. G.
F. Verbeck, a veteran missionary in Japan, quoted with approval the verdict that
if the choice were ever *F. C. Laubach (in Toward a Literate World, Columbia
University ’Summary of figures drawn from Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences,
to be between the Bible without the teacher or the teacher without the Bible he
would unhesitatingly choose the former. The Bible itself is the most powerful of
all vernacular preachers. It goes where the human preacher cannot go. It stays
when the human preacher must leave. It hides in the memory and soul and cannot
be expelled. Its message reaches men of every people and condition.

SELECTIVE Now shall consideration turn to the imperative responsibility of the
church. Not the place to account for lack of conviction, or why those loyal to
conviction hesitate to express it. It may be that multitudes, hearing the storm
of controversy and criticism about the Bible a generation and more ago, took
refuge in an indifference to which the present generation is heir. Or
over-enthusiasm about the scope of science and the possible achievements of man
“on his own” may be suggestive. There were many misconceived “defenses” of the
Bible; when such crumbled, many who could not see beyond them thought the Bible
had crumbled also. A deluge of new knowledge, surprisingly intricate
relationships of industry and commerce in an emergence of “one world,”
omnipresent new amusements—all have swiftly overwhelmed men and so displaced the
center of their thought. Religion is for many pushed to the margin or beyond it.
Whatever may be the cause, far too many regard the Bible with respect and a
vague loyalty, but without conviction and fervor. The many conflicting religions
could not have come into being had the imperative declarations of the Bible laid
hold upon the multitudes. It is those who grasp most firmly the primary meaning
of the Bible who resist most faithfully the falsehood on which so many of the
“isms” of the world rest. In the hesitation and perplexity of the church and the
overwhelming confusion of the world, the hope and the remedy lie in the Bible
itself. Out of the years of criticism, the Bible and the Christian faith have
emerged stronger than ever before—not stronger because anything has been added,
but because of having been freed from a vast weight of misconception, freed from
methods of interpretation false to their spirit, freed from confusion as to
historical basis, freed trom entanglement with philosophies never a part of
their genius. With all assurance men may be directed to the Bible as the primary
and unique witness to Almighty God. This assurance does not come upon men as a
reality because someone says so, no matter how authoritative. It comes from
knowing the Bible. If men are to find in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ the one Being worthy of unreserved loyalty, if they are to lean their
whole weight on Him for the salvation so urgently needed, the one place they can
find Him is in the Bible, and the one thing needed to do with the Bible is to
read it—and read it and read it. Courage to stand off other preoccupations,
faith that here is the supreme hope for man, patience with what one may not
understand, and willingness to do God’s will—this and reading God’s Word
constitute the imperative need. This is God’s way to bring men into His
Presence. If humankind, the world around, multitudes harassed by poverty,
ignorance, and war and the few who build in their vanity proud houses on wealth
and force and the sowing of hate—shall come to know that the God and Father of
Our Lord Jesus Christ is Sovereign of all—they must have the Bible.

CONCLUSION No one can deny that the Bible should be given to all peoples. More
than nineteen centuries have passed since the Master gave the command to take
the “Good News” “to every creature.” John wrote, “Thou didst purchase unto God
with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation”
(Revelation 5:9). On the birthday of the church men heard in the languages in
which they were horn the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:6; Acts 2:8; Acts 2:11).
How thankful we are that we have the Bible in English, and we express tribute to
those earnest men who through trials and tribulations gave to us in our own
language the Book that has meant more to England and the United States of
America and Canada than all the other books of the world combined.

What can you do of lasting value apart from the Bible? It is through the Word of
God that men are born again (1 Peter 1:23). We are nourished by the Word (1
Peter 2:2). It is through that precious Book that we are equipped for service (2
Timothy 3:16). THE BIBLE IS THE DOOR OF HOPE THAT MUST BE OPENED TO ALL PEOPLE.
The United States of America rests upon four cornerstones: the English Bible,
the English language, the common law, and the traditions of liberty. THE BIBLE
HAS MADE ALL THAT IS GREAT WHICH AMERICA POSSESSES. Without the Bible, America
could not have become what it has. Let us then be up and doing so that all
peoples of the earth may have the Bible. The Bible is a teacher of our best men,
a rebuke to our worst, and a noble companion to all.

“I am not an optimist; there is too much evil in the world and in me. “Nor am I
a pessimist; there is too much good in the world, and God. “I am rather, I
suppose, a meliorist, believing God wills to make the world better, trying to do
my bit to help, and wishing it were more.”—Henry Dyke. The BIBLE IS “THE LIVING
AND ABIDING WORD OF GOD.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: CHAPTER VIII — JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD
========================================================================

CHAPTER VIII --- Jesus Christ, The Son of God VIII. JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD
By C. R. NICHOL “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?” (Matthew 16:13). For centuries men have been interested in their “family tree”—to establish lineal connection with some honorable family. Our nation is interested in vital statistics; in keeping a record of the births, as well as the deaths, throughout the nation. In using human imagery the Bible speaks of God’s “book,” and the names of some who are recorded therein. The name of Moses is in God’s book (Exodus 32:32). Paul makes reference to some whose names are in the “book of life” (Php_4:3).

Two thousand years ago Rome on her seven hills, with power almost seven-fold,
held within her power most of the people on the known earth. In many ways she
was a most generous conqueror. Palestine was one of her provinces. Tiberus
Caesar, the second emperor of Rome, issued a decree demanding that all the world
be enrolled—to be taxed. The law of the Jews was that every man register in his
native town. Joseph, the husband of Mary, was a Bethlehemite and it was
mandatory that he go from Nazareth to that city to be enrolled. Many accompanied
him. On reaching that town, because of the crowded condition in the hotels,
there was no place found for them; hence the necessity of finding a place in
which to be lodged. In the place found, the beasts were cared for hard by. The
time was fulfilled, and there Mary gave birth to her first-born child. It was a
matter of prophecy that “the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem” (Micah 5:2).
The child’s name was, of course, recorded in Caesar’s book. His name was
inscribed along with others. Possibly the record read: “Born to Joseph and Mary,
a son, named Jesus.” That was the first book in which the name of Jesus was
written— Caesar’s book.

How little one knows what will be the life and influence of the new-born child
as it grows and fills a place in the earth. What hopes for the child are in the
mother’s breast, what resolutions to protect it from danger and shield it from
harm.

Wherever civilization is found, there the name of Jesus is revered, and
associated with the purest, the best; his very name is the synonym of the ideal
character. No man on earth has approached him.

Most likely the book of Caesar, which contained the name of Jesus, was destroyed
centuries ago. Your attention is called to the fact that there is another book,
“The Book of Life,” in which the names of God’s children are recorded. This book
will be thrown wide at the “last day.” Is your name recorded in that book? So
live that it will not be “blotted out” (Exodus 32:33; Revelation 20:15).

There are many thousands in other lands who long to come to the United States
and have their names in our records; but how many, oh! how many! seem to have no
manifest interest in having their names written in the “book of life.” The day
of the birth of Jesus marks the beginning of the influence on earth which has
changed its face. That day is evidenced in every letter you write, in most books
that are published, papers printed, as well as legal documents. At the birth of
Jesus angels were dispatched from heaven, and shepherds tending their flocks
near Bethlehem heard the heavenly chorus, and the announcement, “I bring you
good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people; for there is born to
you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord” (Luke
2:10-11). Heaven made known the birth of the King whose kingdom was advanced,
and continues to be advanced by the conquest of the hearts of men. From the East
came wise men, guided by a special star, to do homage to the one who was born to
become the universal sovereign. They brought the richest gifts of their land as
a tribute to the new born child. The whole world must have been filled with
expectancy. In Palestine lived the Jews, a people through whom God promised to
bless the world. They became a modified kingdom, but within that kingdom was the
leaven which ultimately brought about its complete and permanent demolition; yet
the Jews lookpd for what to them seems the long delayed promise of Jehovah to
establish a kingdom which could not be shaken. When the birth of Jesus was
announced, Herod was disturbed. Well did he know that it was through chicanery
he obtained his power, and retained it only through the grace of Rome. He
learned of the. visit of the wise men from the East, and his alarm was
increased. Because he was thwarted in his plans, he became infuriated and was
guilty of infanticide—having all the male children under two years of age in the
regions of Bethlehem killed.

Jesus was reared in Nazareth, a small town in Galilee, the northern province of
Palestine. It was a most fertile, prosperous, as well as populous section of the
land Nazareth nestled like a hollow amphitheatre in the mountains, overlooking
the great Esdraleon, the battlefield 61 Israel. Through Nazareth came the
travelers from Damascus to the Mediterranean seaports, as well as to Egypt;
hence Jesus was in touch with the outside wodd. Men from all countries contacted
Nazareth. In this village his mother taught him to lisp the name of Eloh'm; and
his education was further continued in the synagogues of the land. He grew,
waxed strong, and was in favor with the people. At the age of twelve he went
with his parents to the feast of the passover in Jerusalem. He had attained the
age when a lad became a “son of the law,” becoming legally responsible for his
actions. It was on this trip to Jerusalem that he uttered the first words we
have from his lips: “I must be about my Father’s business.” Returning to
Nazareth from his trip to Jerusalem he was taught a trade—he became a carpenter
(Mark 6:3). Among the Jews was the trite saying: “Teach your son a trade, else
you teach him to be a thief.” As a carpenter Jesus worked not only with wood,
but iron also.

Following his first trip to Jerusalem there comes a silence of some eighteen
years touching the boy Jesus. When he was about the age of thirty he went to the
river Jordan where John the Baptizer was baptizing, and demanded baptism at his
hands (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11). It was at the time of his baptism that he
was declared to be the “vSon of God,” by the Father himself. He was also the
“Son of man,” and often referred to himself as such. The Incarnation of the Lord
has been the bone for much contention. It is inquired : “How could he be ‘God’,
and at the same time ‘man’ ?” It is recorded that he is the “same yesterday,
today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), hence to speak of him as the “Son of man” is
incorrect. As touching his nature it remained un-changed, ever his nature was
the same as that of Jehovah the Father; but as touching his manhood, his nature
as embodied in the flesh was the same as that of man. The two natures were
distinct within him, the human inferior to the Divine. In no sense were the two
natures fused, though existing in the one person. As the “Son” he remained all
the time God; God did not become man—that is, a human person, but united to
himself for the period of his life on earth the human personality or human
nature. Does someone say that such is a mystery? Well, what of it? Is it not a
mystery how your spirit dwells in your body? Can you explain it? Possibly if you
knew more about the nature of God, as well as the nature of man, there would be
no apparent mystery. It is a mystery to us how God created man. It is contended
by some that if Jesus was man, and at the same time God, he was a compound
being—Divine and human. Why be astonished? Is not man a compound being, a human,
material body, and an immortal, immaterial spirit? Do not make yourself
ridiculous by opposing a thing because you do not understand it. Do not try to
be “smart.” As a man, Jesus was bound by human limitations as are we, for he
took on himself the nature of man; as God he knew the very thoughts of the
people before they were manifested by any act. No mere man could know such. He
was the Son of God.

Following his baptism came a period of forty days in his life during which he
abstained from food. He was not only hungry, but thirsty as well. His physical
strength was largely depleted when Satan came to him, tempting him. The
traditional place of this temptation is now a barren waste and the appearance is
that it has never been otherwise. The story of the temptation was made known by
Jesus himself, for not a man saw his conflict with Satan. All the land was
filled with limestone rocks. Satan proposed to the Lord that he command the
stones to become bread. Jesus made answer: “Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.” To have followed the
lead of Satan would have been to render obedience to him. The reply of Jesus
placed his eternal veto on the doctrine of materialism, for if man is wholly
mortal he can live by bread alone. Satan, finding Jesus invincible at the point
of attack he had made, seeks to find a vulnerable point in his defense, and
proposed that he cast himself from the high point of the temple and the angels
would bear him up, provided he was the Son of God, lest his foot be injured on
the stones. Jesus came to save man, to establish a kingdom “not of this world”
(Jno. 18:36). For him to have done as Satan suggested would have startled the
people, and they would, no doubt, have flocked about him, declaring him to be
the promised Messiah. Even they would have proclaimed him the promised King.
Jesus knew the designs of Satan, and answered: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God.”

It was the promise of Jehovah that a kingdom would be established. Satan was
conversant with the Scriptures, and knew that Jesus would set up a kingdom,
which had in view the filling of the whole earth. He proposed to Jesus that he
would deliver to him all the kingdoms of the earth, if only he would worship
him. If Satan could have fulfilled his promise, what a prospect. The Jews were
looking for a king who would be a temporal ruler. Satan held before him the
opportunity of ascending a temporal throne immediately and becoming the
undisputed ruler of “all the kingdoms” of the earth, which would have given him
wealth, the power of great men, and social prestige which would quickly have
brought all to his colors. Jesus knew Satan as the prince of liars; that he lied
when he made tne proposition. First the kingdoms were not Satan’s to deliver,
and he lied when he claimed, them. Satan is a usurper, and all he holds in his
power is solely by conquest; it is not his in his own right. “The earth is the
Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (1 Corinthians 10:26). “All souls are mine,”
declared Jehovah (Ezekiel 18:4). To me it is passingly strange that some affirm
that Satan has anything as his own—his by right. Three trials did Satan make in
this narrative to seduce Jesus; but each rime he was met with a sword thrust-r-a
quotation from the word of God. God’s word is powerful!

I do not subscribe to the view that Jesus felt the urge to follow the lead of
Satan. Though tempted in all points'as man,- his nature as a man had not been
perverted by the easy step into “respectable sins” at the first, then gradually
de parting into darker paths, till conscience was like the scar- tissues
following a severe burn. His was the uncorrupted nature when the .temptations
were presented. There was never with him , the urge to lie to advance his
interests, or the ends he sought to attain. He was never inclined to stoop to
the indecencies of life for any purpose; nor is any man, till he has been led by
easy stages into the depths of corruption. The fact that a man sins is not proof
that he has a bad nature! Adam was good, yes, God pronounced him “very good,”
but he sinned. However, that sin was not proof of a bad nature. Jesus abstained
from food for forty days, and there was the cry of his flesh for the necessary
food. In such longing for food there was no sin. Jesus was hungry. Though he
was, is, the bread of life, he became hungry; though he is the “water of life,”
he became thirsty, and asked for drink. He became tired by reason ot the long
trek over the dusty roads of Palestine; he gives rest to the weary soul that
comes to him. Though he paid tribute to the earthly king, he was the owner of
the universe. Though he was sold for thirty pieces of silver, the earth with all
its wealth belong to him. Though he died, he is “the resurrection and the life.”
It is true that he multiplied the loaves and fishes, yet he did not perform a
miracle to satisfy any earthly cravings within himself. Not for
self-gratification did he perform a single miracle. Whose Son was he? He was the
Son of Mary—she was his mother; but he was the Son of God, God was his father.
Never does he refer to Joseph as his father. With his mother and his disciples
he attended a marriage in Cana of Galilee, only some four or five miles from his
home, and contributed to the joys of the occasion, for when the wine was all
used he converted water into wine. Whose Son was he? When a lad he visited
Jerusalem at the time of the passover. Now with his disciples he again visits
the city at the same season and found the money-changers were polluting the holy
precincts of the temple by their practices. His righteous indignation was
stirred within him. With a whip he drove the cattle from the place, then
overturned the tables of the money-changers, scattering the coin, charging that
the operators were making God’s house a place of thieves. They offered no
resistance. Why? The Samaritans were disliked by the Jews, and they would have
no dealings with them. Jesus was not on earth to show favoritism, nor was he a
clannish character. He halted at the well of Jacob one day and sent his
disciples into the city to buy food. On their return they were astonished to
find him in conversation with a woman of Samaria. Though Jesus was reared by the
Jews, was of that extraction, and knew all the clannishness of the Jews and
their dislike for the Samaritans, he was himself a world character, and in his
life there was no place for the foolish prejudices of the Jews. He was the Son
of God.

Jesus in his life as well as in his teachings looked beyond the exterior, the
external act was not that which gave value to the deed. The question was: What
motivated the act ? It was left for Jesus to bring to the world the proper
standard by which to evaluate the actions of men. He taught that it was not
necessary to drive the dagger and spill the blood of your fellow-man to become a
murderer. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 Jno. 3:15). To look on
a woman to lust after her is to commit adultery—the man is guilty (Matthew
5:28).

Many of Christ’s friends have caused others to turn from him, by reason of their
failure to understand his teachings. Christ said: “Resist not evil” (Matthew
5:39). Some who are determined not to become Christians try to salve their
consciences by declaring that Christians do not try to translate into actions
that which Jesus taught. A man declares that the teachings of Christ forbid the
husband using any force to prevent some fiend from ravishing his wife; that if
some brute of a man should assault his daughter in the very presence of the
child’s father, the father would not be permitted to use any force to prevent
the carnal actions of the man; that if some man with no respect for man, nor
reverence for Jehovah should strike your cheek, you would do wrong to resist
him; but rather you should turn the other cheek, inviting him to further injure
your body. Was Jesus placid when Satan tempted him? Are we not commanded to
“resist the devil”? (James 4:7). The Devil is “evil” only—the very embodiment of
“evil,” and we are to “resist him”; and that in the face of the interpretation
some place on the words of Christ to “resist not evil.” Wherein is the harmony
of the statements: “Resist not evil,” and “resist the devil” ? It is that which
prompts the act which determines the character of the person. There is the
internal as well as the external of every overt act; and, too, the character of
one’s heart determines his thoughts. His thoughts reveal his heart condition.
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” It is not necessary to perform the
overt act, so far as the guilt of the one hating is concerned—the desire to
murder determines the guilt in the sight of God. Man looks on the actual act,
while God sees heart conditions and thoughts arising there. Jesus measures men
and their actions by their impulses. A man attempts to shoot his neighbor; but
his faulty aim, or some imperfection in the gun, caused him to shoot wild of the
man’s body—he missed the mark and though he did not kill the man, he is
none-the-less a murderer as God measures the motives of men. One may worship
Christ and at the same time sin. Jesus said: “In vain do they worship me” (Mark
7:7). The Pharisees prayed in the corners of the streets that they might be seen
from all directions—they were hypocrites. To ring a bell, or sound a trumpet to
attract attention to your acts of charity, if performed in the name of Christ,
is but to dig deeper the pit in which you flounder. Washing hands is a sanitary
act; but to perform such ablutions as an act of worship is a sin!

Christ used force in his work among men. Too many think of physical force only.
There is moral force, mental force, spiritual force, as well as physical force!
We encounter here all three forms of force, and fighting is carried on in each
of these realms. Surely no one thinks all fighting is wrong. When Jesus used his
tongue, a physical instrument, and with biting terms condemned the hypocrites,
he used force. Have you never been wounded by cruel words which left wounds on
the soul which have not healed and scars which time does not efface? Words are
weapons which cut like a rapier and pierce like a dagger. It is not the kind of
force Jesus teaches, but that which prompts the use of force—that's what Jesus
teaches! When you use force against your fellows, with hatred in your heart for
him, seeking revenge, then you sin! It matters not the form of force used.
That’s what Jesus taught. Whose Son is he?

Many place wrong values on human life. Human life is not the most precious thing
with which men have to deal. The value Jesus placed on human life, and the value
men place on human life is not the same. Clearly, Christ declares, if need be,
one is to sacrifice his temporal, physical life, rather than deny Him. Many in
the early days of Christianity died at the stake; others were torn limb from
limb by ravenous beasts when they were assured that if they would deny Christ
they would not be molested. They counted faithfulness to Christ of more
importance, of more value than physical life. Such was (is) the teaching of
Christ. Jesus is the Son of God!

There have been many on earth who have been so self- centered that they refused
to entertain in their thoughts any consideration for the rights of others when
obsessed with the determination to get and hold at any cost. They crushed every
righteous impulse until they suffered no compunction when doing that which is
wrong. They live by the “Iron Rule”—the rule of the jungle; with them “Might is
Right.” It is by that rule that every unholy conquest has been waged. It was
Jesus who gave the world the “Golden Rule.” “Whatsoever ye would that men should
do unto you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). It was left for Jesus, the
Son of God, to give to the world this rule. It requires you to take the
initiative. Other “rules” had been given, but they were negative, as: “What thou
hateth, do to none” (Tob_4:15). “What is hateful to thyself do not to thy
neighbor.” Christ called men to be workers, to be doers, to be forward in doing
good.

Since the days of Christ we have had mental giants in the earth—they have
brought forth many inventions and made great discoveries. Some of them have
given their lives to the study of social ethics; but no man has stepped forth
declaring that he has a better rule of action than that given by Christ—he was
the Son of God! He taught that which is right; no one can improve on that which
is right.

Jesus invited men to test his teaching by its fruit, when he said: “A tree is
known by its fruit” (Matthew 7:20). The teaching of Christ is not to be judged
by some wild fanatic professing to follow Christ, nor by moral perverts who
profess to have enlisted under his banner. The test is: Has the teaching of
Christ borne good fruit? Does it continue to do so? Recount the men you know who
have become Christians, and answer: Does the teaching of Christ when translated
into the actions of men make them better? If Christianity is not true, Christ
was the greatest deceiver ever among men. If he was not the Son of God, he was a
colossal fraud. He was not a “good man” if he was not what he claimed—the Son of
God. Liars are not good men. His claim to being the Son of God is true. The men
who wrote the New Testament were not men of letters. They were not trained in
the universities of their day. They were from the humble, unpretentious walks of
life, from among the “common people.” Can you persuade yourself that they
invented the character of Jesus and then depicted him as living the sinless
life? Though they were clannish, they present him as a universal character. They
were under the direct influence of the Son of God for three years and through
them he spoke. They thought of a temporal kingdom and dreamed of places in his
cabinet. When they saw him in the hands of the mob and then nailed to the cross,
their hopes were destroyed and they determined to return to their former work.
On Sunday morning the news of his resurrection was brought to them, but not
until they had seen him did they believe—they were begotten unto a living hope
by his resurrection (Luke 24). Though they had no earthly honor to gain by
remaining firm in their affirmation that he was raised, they did not falter,
they sealed their testimony by death in his service. He was the Son of God!

Jesus fought for human freedom. He hurled himself against false teachers,
hypocrites, corrupt priests, politicians, and the invisible powers of darkness
and ignorance.

He was free from selfishness. He had no personal ambitions—for his advancement.
Worldly pride had no place in his life. He did not seek for, nor try to obtain
that which was another’s. At no time did he show the spirit of revenge. He is
the Son of God. The wise man imposes faith in Him, and by His teachings forms
his life, shapes his character, and seals his destiny.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: CHAPTER IX — THE KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN (1)
========================================================================

CHAPTER IX --- The Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken (1) IX. THE KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN (1)
By E. W. MCMILLAN Theme: The Scope, Organization, and Ministrations of the Kingdom.

It would be profitable if we remind ourselves that the lectures this week are
but another group in the already more than 500 which have been delivered on
these annual lectureships, and that we are here again only through the kind
ordering of loving Providence. The scripture text upon which the week’s lectures
are based is in the 12th chapter of Hebrews. It says, “Wherefore, we receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service
well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe.” The preceding chapters of Hebrews
are given to a discussion of the fickle Hebrew people in being moved from simple
faith in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and King; all that follows in the books
is an appeal for steadfastness in that Christ. It is further illuminated by the
verses immediately preceding in the same chapter. They speak of Mt. Sinai and of
Israel’s stay about it. From the Old Testament record we remember that Israel,
under Moses, were on their way from Egypt to Canaan. More than 7,000 feet above
sea level this giant of red granite and pink gneiss stood, “The hill of
Jehovah.” For nameless centuries the rains had poured their torrents upon it and
the winds had beat upon its wall, yet it had stood with not the least quiver.
But when Moses stood upon its summit and the glory of the Lord crowned him,
every stone and every foot of earth trembled. The author of Hebrews in our text
points back to that trembling as proof that the sacred mountain some day will
yield to another strength and be removed forever. But this is not all. The law
which Moses that day received likewise has been removed. When our text was
written, the Old Testament kingdom of David, with that covenant, had joined the
long parade of kingdoms named for Egypt, Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece, in
the silent death- chambers of empires long dead. United in a new empire, called
the kingdom of Christ, the Hebrews would be, of natural consequence, uncertain
of its duration. To that fear our text was addressed. It says, “We have received
a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” This promise recalls one which Daniel made 600
years before. Looking through the crumbling empires of the Medes, the Persians,
the Greeks and the Romans, he said, “In the days of these kings the God of
heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. It shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and shall stand forever.” Isaiah,
foreseeing that kingdom, said, “Of the increase of his government and of peace
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from
henceforth even forever.” This conforms to the promise of our Lord when he said,
“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
“Stand forever”; “No end”; “Not prevail against it.” These are the guarantees
made by inspiration concerning the permanency of the kingdom in which our
citizenship is now enjoyed. . It is to that kingdom that we now direct our
study. Our lecture this morning will consist mainly in the external
manifestations of that kingdom—including the scope, organization, and the
ministrations of the kingdom. This evening’s lesson will consist entirely in the
inspiring study of the unshakable, imperishable qualities in that kingdom. That
system of Divine government called a kingdom in the scriptures had its beginning
during the lifetime of Saul, more than a thousand years before the birth of
Jesus the Christ. Introduced in Saul, it was glorified in David, tinged with
world renown, but desecrated in Solomon, divided in Rehoboam, and carried into
final captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, about 600 B.C. The period of
God’s rule, known in the New Testament as the church of Christ, church of God,
or kingdom of Christ, was established on the first pentecost after our Lord
arose from the dead and will remain in the earth to the end of this world. A
third sphere of God’s kingdom is called by Peter “the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Of that sphere as a kingdom we are told little,
but we do know it will be beyond the life we now live, and that those who are
blessed enough to enter there will be admitted because they did the will of God
in this present life. With this much understood, we shall confine the remaining
time this morning to a study of the reign of Christ on the earth.

Matthew, writing for the Jewish mind, presented the Christ as a King. John
called him. the “Son of God”; Luke called him a “Physician”; Mark called him a
“Saviour.” But Matthew consistently called him a “King.” By count,.Matthew names
more than a hundred laws of that King. He closed.by presenting, him as a
lawgiver, turned judge, of all men in the ages to come. Among the King’s last
utterances on earth, Matthew states that he said, “All authority hath been
granted unto me in heaven and on earth.”

Among those present at the ascension was Luke. He claims to have written an
accurate, chronological account of our Lord’s work from the first public act to
the day he ascended. In that pursuit, he went on recording what occurred for
"about fifty years, under the preaching of inspired men.

Chapter Two in the Acts records the greatest job any speaker ever had, and how
well he did. Peter was that man. Empowered by his King with the keys of
knowledge on the terms of citizenship, he addressed more than 3,000 men, some of
whom constituted the Jewish court which condemned our Lord, then forced the
Roman governor, Pilate, to confirm their decree of death upon Him. They gladly
would also have done the same with Peter. That he well knew. In the sermon which
the Holy Spirit was then moving his tongue to speak, his one task was to change
those doubting men and convince them that Jesus of Nazareth was not an imposter;
at that moment he was a King, in the fullest sense for which a Jew ever dreamed;
that he had met all the prophecies concerning him. No small job—that. If he
failed, his would be the former fate of his Lord. And this job could not be done
in some partial or indirect sense. He had to convince them that the man, Jesus
of Nazareth, was at that moment a ruling King. And to the Jewish mind, this had
to mean that he was then in the exercise of the power which Isaiah said he would
have upon David’s throne. So fully did he succeed that about 3,000 souls were
convinced, among them a large number of the priests. Of the many arguments which
can be made for the complete enthronement and power of the Christ as King now,
there is not another as strong to me as Peter here made. It is strong, first,
because it was the voice of Inspiration making the argument upon that specific
subject, and if it had been less than the strongest that could be made, it would
have been the fault of the Holy Spirit. It is the strongest that can be made, in
the second place, because its results prove the strength of the argument as no
other argument has ever proved its strength. I have always believed the
argument, because I believe all that God says. But if I had ever entertained the
disposition to reason toward another conclusion on the kingdom of Christ, I
would have felt lost in the first attempt, because it would have been clear to
my own mind that I was demanding more proof than the Jewish infidels of
Pentecost required. Others may endure that em-barrassment if they wish; but I
shall elect the course of faith, as I have always done. But this is to me a
solemn fact that my Lord and King is now a ruling King. It is infinitely far
more than a doctrine for controversy. It is an argument which involves
well-known “isms” and detrimental dissensions over them; but it has never been
to me, and is not now to me, a mere matter of discovering a doctrinal truth as
such. It is a question of conscientious acceptance of a Ruling King of heaven in
the personal life—in the largest, fullest sense involved in the undimmed
expressions of what he taught upon all subjects in the New Testament. It is
infinitely far more than just an argument over whether something called the
“Kingdom of Christ” actually started on Pentecost. It includes that, but it is
more than that. It is to me, and has always been, a question of whether we who
so contend do, in fact, allow him to indwell us as his subjects, directing our
worship, our ambitions, our motives, our daily thoughts, our humility, our
speech, and all that we are and all that we profess to be. Is He in fact that
King in us?

I am reminded here of an amusing incident in Chicago a few months ago. A taxi
was trying to make a train, but found itself in the midst of a traffic jam.
Nothing, simply nothing, could be done. The college president in the rear seat
was impatient, so was the taxi driver. At last, when the jam somewhat cleared,
it was revealed that the real obstruction was an elderly lady, looking over her
spectacles, probably seventy-five years of age, and riding in the first model of
a Ford sedan. Her car was plastered all over with streamers which said, “Youth
for Christ movement.” What a contradiction—no youth, nor much movement. It must
be under-stood, likewise, that when we say “Kingdom of Christ,” we are more than
merely giving the name of something. We are describing a quality of government
which has been left on earth for people now to accept. It is a government of
justice, mercy, and faith—not merely preached, but in fact lived by us; it is a
government of worship—not merely standing against what has no right in the
building of worship, but also standing for true worship in the spirit of those
who enter that building; not merely standing against promoting mission work
through the unwarranted agencies, called “societies/’ but also in fact doing the
mission work as the King requires. It is a government of kindness and
benevolence—no* merely required on my part of others toward me, but even more a
government under which I demand of myself this regard toward others. It is not a
democracy which votes a decision upon the group; it is a kingdom of ideals which
is accepted by each individual in his own conscience. It is not a dictatorship
which names the terms of unity for the citizens blindly to accept and follow; it
is a system of glorious ideals and standards in which all the citizens, with
equal rights, have the happy privilege of accepting and regarding the terms of
citi-zenship, each of them losing his own selfish interests in the larger
interests of group service. It is a government in which no group has the right
to impose its opinions upon others. It is a government of a King in heaven,
delivering his laws to every single citizen directly, and independently of all
other citizens. ‘

LOCAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT But having said this, I should go on to discuss the
further fact that our King also has arranged ah order of local church control,
which is as bmding as any of his other laws. Men called elders, or shepherds,
have been placed in charge of the congregation’s Spiritual welfare. Every
disciple is expected to hold, membership in one of these congregations. The
preachers, the Bible teachers, the deacons, the business men and professional
men—all of them as children of God— are under the shepherding care of those
elders. And they are not, in turn, policing dictators but are the directing
leaders of the spiritual welfare and the peacetul ongoing of the con gregation.
No man, or group of men, has the spiritual right to discredit, override, or
abuse their good name. They have no power in the sense of adding laws, or ruling
where God has not spoken; but as long as they remain within the will of God,
others are commanded to “obey them that have the rule over you.” In matters of
opinion, or policy, or procedure, their judgment is final. Being human, they
make mistakes; but these mistakes do not justify others in bringing discredit
upon God’s arrangement. Granting all the human in them, it does not exceed the
human in the rest of us. So it is that in the large sense, the government in all
religious matters is purely a matter of the King’s rule. There is no
ecclesiasticbm with the right to increase, or decrease, or modify God’s laws. If
a council votes to approve them, it is a group of religious simpletons; if it
votes to modify them, it is a group of presumptuous bigots; if it votes to
reject them, it is a group of fools. And in the local group, all the authority
is vested in the men called elders. They are limited by the New Testament law of
their King. But within the prescriptions of that law there is no man w'th the
right to discredit, or reject, or otherwise hinder the peaceful work of r.he
church under them. When their final decision has been prayerfully reached and
announced, unless it is entirely out of harmony with plain Bible teaching, the
other members of the congregation are commended to cooperate with that judgment.
An ecclesiastical hierarchy would be highly presumptuous if it should step in to
try those elders; a Southern or Northern Convention likewise would be fully as
presumptuous if it should step ;n; a preachers’ meeting, likewise, would be
fully as presumptuous if ’t should even presume the right to publicly discuss
it; and a lone preacher would be fully as presumptuous if he should step in.
These are the laws of our King. They must be respected in fact, as well as in
word.

LAWS CLASSIFIED For the citizens of the Old Covenant the King’s laws were
classified The first four of the Ten Commandments legislate a man in his direct
relations with his God. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “Thou
shall not make unto thee any graven image” require that God shall have the first
considerations in one’s devotions. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain” controls the speech. And “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy”
controlled the day of public, worship. The second sphere of control in the Ten
Commandments is the home. The Fifth Commandment says, “Honor thy father and
mother,” and this law is enlarged in Leviticus and Numbers, being broadened to
include all the duties of home —parents to children and children to parents;
husband to wife and wife to husband; brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and
aunts; the in-laws and the out laws. The last five of the Ten Commandments
legislate neighbor with neighbor. The physical life, the character, the property
possessions, and the reputation are all protected by law— “Thou shalt not
steal,” and “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and
“Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In the King’s
regulations of his New Covenant laws, these obligations are not systematized, as
they were in the Old; but they are scattered throughout the entire group of
writings and are clearly stated. The family life is ordered with strict
regulations. Father and mother must regard the proper rearing of their children
as part of their Christian duty; husband and wife are bound as church members
with Christian obligations, not as just two reproductive machines; children are
taught that disobedience to parents is disobedience to God. And the entire
family life is set in an atmosphere of spiritual guidance. Disobedience to these
laws is sin; it endangers the soul’s interests, as lying and stealing do. No
human government or Religious Congress can vote a modification of them without
being presumptuous sinners. In the second place, these Christian laws legislate
a citizen’s social and business life. Lying, stealing, murdering, slandering,
bearing false witness, tattling, backbiting, injustice, the lack of mercy,
unjust judgment, and even an unfair opinion of a man—all of these are sin. The
control of liquor is a moral and a religious principle. Church members who
revolt when the preacher delivers a sermon on whisky or speaks against the
promiscuous manufacture and sale of these beverages is either a willing sinner
himself or an ignorant church member. I know what the Bible says against them; I
know my responsibility to repeat what it says. Good government, just courts, a
moral society—all of these are a vital portion of my business. They are a part
of my moral and spiritual interest, therefore, and I can be counted on to speak
my mind on my own religious business. Preaching on such things is as much a part
of preaching the gospel as any other part of Bible teaching is. While living in
Abilene fifteen years ago, I delivered a series of sermons in another town on
the subjects of Love, God, Prayer, Worship, Justice and Mercy, and several other
such things. At the close, an elder said, “Sometime, give us a good old gospel
sermon.” Such ignorance is more than pathetic. The classroom teaching in
Christian schools should include an extended study in source-materials on all
these subjects; it should include Bible teaching against the evils in such
things; and it should include instruction on how these things can be included in
the local congregational work so as to give the members who can never see the
Christian college an opportunity of learning on these things. Preachers of the
local congregation and elders in them should get their under-standing and hearts
together in the forming of teaching programs which will educate all the members
to a conscience on all these matters. It is only the beginning, though an
indispensable beginning, when a preacher has taught people the truth on how to
become a Christian. “Teaching them to observe all the things which I have
commanded you” is also a second part of the King’s assignment to his kingdom.
“Go ye into all the world” is another. Leading the members, as Paul prayed, to
“grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,”
continuing that leadership until the members reach a “full measure of the
fullness of the stature in Christ Jesus,” is a portion of the Ring’s assignment
to us, and this can never be done with merely two sermons on the Lord’s day and
a mid-week prayer meeting. Members must be trained to be large-hearted,
sympathetic and understanding toward people who are in sorrow or otherwise
troubled. Young people need to be led, not lectured, in courtship, love,
marriage, home-making. Young men need training in the honors which will so
admirably and gracefully adorn their business and professional careers. There is
not one single right of the Lord’s church to correct a violation of Divine Law
among its members, in which life-experience that church did not previously have
the obligation rightly to train that member on how to act in that relationship
before he entered it. And if that church, or its minister, failed to train that
member iff the right thing, they share the guilt of ihat member when he has
sinned. And these laws of the King also control the worship. They control the
form, the day or meeting, and what goes on—to the extent even that no mechanical
instrumentation is allowed, no doctrinal error is permitted in the sermons, and
no substitutions or modifications in the acts of obedience will he accepted. But
merely standing at the front door saying to error, “You shall not get in” is not
enough.

People who pretend to worship God must do more than make sure of NOT doing- the
WRONG thing. They ALSO must make sure of DOING the RIGHT thing.

Worshipping God is a principle of heart. It is an experience of heart which
relates directly to God. It is the pious, reverent feeling of devotion m soul to
its God. It includes a profound sense of appreciation for salvation from God; it
contains the yearnmg of heart for closer communion with God; it carries a
homesick feeling of desire to feel the most tender touches of his love in the
heart. Lintil we have trained our members to experience these things they have
not been prepared for the best type of citizenship in the kingdom of God. The
lack of experience in the joy of the right things is one factor which, at times,
leads to the substitution of the wrong things. These substitutions cannot be
justified; but neither can the neglect in right things. If the kingdom of God is
to become through us a kingdom which cannot be moved aside from its original
standards, its program of training and experience for all its citizens must
enlarge until they comprehend and embody every duty and every rightful
experience of those citizens.

WHAT IS THS KINGDOM OF GOD? But who constitute the kingdom of God? There could
not be a more important consideration than the honest answer to this question.
That answer, in the nature of things, would consist in learning what it is NOT,
and what it IS. The kingdom of God is not just a system of high morals. It
cannot exist except as its citizens accept and observe high standards of morals,
but accepting and observing these alone can nev er constitute citizenship in the
kingdom of God. People are responsible to God for every thought, word or act of
life, but they do not receive salvation merely because they observed a fezv of
God’s precepts—such as the moral code. What the kingdom is will come later, but
let it be understood now that a mere high standard of morals observed with
utmost scruples does not constitute citizenship in the kingdom of God. In the
second place, the kingdom of God does not consist in merely following through on
a definite ground of honest religious convictions. People can be wrong and be
honest in that wrong. I most highly esteem many who will not agree with me this
morning. I honor their sincerity and would not in the least insult that
sincerity. Most respectfully, though, I do also regard my responsibility in
stating what to me are some indisputable facts on this subject. As it seems to
me, religious honesty among modern denominations has become clothed in a measure
of pride for being charitable and broadminded; and through this means it has
sacrificed the one single fundamental in the King’s teaching on Christian unity.
I admire a broad-minded man; I most highly esteem Christian charity, as such;
but these must never lead one to transcend the bounds of loyal adherence to
plain commands, lest they become a master and make of us sinners. This, I
sincerely believe, modern denominations have done. Here is my reason. There are
among denominations eleven distinct and contradicting views on the law of
induction into citizenship in the kingdom of God. On matters of church
government, worship, and missions, denominational differences are even more, and
these distinct differences constitute the basic reasons for denominations as
such. vSet over against these differences, the Bible requires that we “All be of
the same mind, the same judgment, all speaking the same thing,” and that there
be “No divisions among you.” Denominational differences are not opinions which
are held in charitable regard for others; they are the expressed convictions,
the results of which expressions is the formations of the denominations. Destroy
the differences and you destroy denominations as such. Denominations, therefore,
begin and live upon contradictory differences, conscientiously taught. However,
much charity may be rightly regarded as such, and whatever of merit there may be
in broad-mindedness, it would seem a most inexplicable inconsistency for anyone
to contend that these should ever lead us to the positive violation of any law
of God. But merely learning what the kingdom of God is not is only a half of
duty. What is the kingdom of God?

WIIAT THE KINGDOM OE GOD IS People become citizens in God’s kingdom through the
exercise of a personal faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord, through a devout and
genuine repentance of all their sins, through the acknowledgment of the Christ
as their Saviour, and through their baptism by immersion for the remission of
their sins. There is no other revealed way of God by which they can become
naturalized into God’s kingdom. No amount of assumed authority upon the part of
religious hierarchies, no amount of combined wisdom among men, and no amount of
well-intended charity by sincere individuals can change these laws. They are the
laws of Him Whose Kingdom was to dissolve and consume all the wisdoms of men.
All who everywhere have been thus joined unto God did thereby become citizens in
his kingdom. The votes of men for them or against them cannot alter their
standing before their King. The world’s religious creeds but add to the long
list of ignorance and confusion, and increase the high presumptions of men. Upon
their own understanding, faith and obedience they stand or fall.

CONTINUED GOOD CITIZENSHIP But through misguided judgments a citizen may go
astray in becoming united with an unauthorized institution; through weakness of
the flesh, one may become alienated through prodigality; or there may be one of
many other means by which one may lose good standing as a citizen in God’s
kingdom. This evening’s lecture will discuss in more details the
never-to-be-shaken principles and qualities of God’s kingdom, but this lecture
must not end until some general outlines of kingdom life are named. The first of
these is an active, energetic, constructive leadership in all that Christian
people may rightly do. Combined Catholics, combined Protestantism and the Jewish
people have earmarked one billion dollars to be spent the next five years in the
spread of what they conceive to be the will of God. This money will be spent on
buildings and equipment alone. Proportionate amounts will go in for teaching,
literature, and preaching. Already they had in these United States 289 schools,
which were members or accredited in the Association of American Universities,
scattered throughout 36 states. In addition, they had 606 lesser schools
scattered throughout 43 states. And what is more, the Roman Catholics, whose
religion we believe to be now the farthest of them all from the Newr Testament
pattern of God’s kingdom, own and operate the following schools in the United
States alone:

99 seminaries of major importance. 90 seminaries of lesser rank. 196 colleges
and universities. 7 diocesan colleges. 25 normal schools. 2,119 secondary
schools. 8,017 elementary schools. This makes a total of 10,553 such schools. In
all of the institutions named above, accelerated by the billion-dollar program
of expansion, things which we believe to be destructive of the real kingdom of
God in some fundamental respects, will be promoted. Those who claim themselves
to be THE church of God, THE kingdom of Christ, can not be insensible to their
obligations under these conditions. A second general characteristic of this
kingdom is that its good citizens make certain of being honorable at all times
and of retaining an humble heart. They will not bow at Baal’s altar of
self-exaltation; they will not stoop, or encourage others who have stooped, to
anything cheap; they will not use or be influenced by the cheap and vile
propaganda technique now everywhere; they are honest and truth-centered; they
blow no horns and they disdain all flattery; they recognize that all life is
sacred. To them, Christianity is not a Sunday coat to be worn to church, then
hung in a closet for the week. They know that the name "Church of Christ” above
a front door of worship can be a mere empty and false boast, as well as a
sublime truth. The third and last of the general qualities that we now name for
God’s kingdom is its broad, understanding, sympathetic wish to be of help to all
mankind. Society surely has lost a chord—a very melodious chord. We stand tall
and erect when we know that a radar beam has been sent to the moon and brought
back a response within less time than three seconds. We settle to a feeling of
better security when told that these contacts will much better assist us during
another war. And then the mind’s eye looks out across two thousand miles to an
airplane carrying fifty beloved lives to a sudden death because the pilot is
facing a heavy snow storm and cannot see the mountain just ahead. Three hundred
miles per hour his plane fast moves toward a crash and sure death for his fifty
trusting passengers. In the heart we grow faint and sick, but the plane suddenly
takes an upturn and soars above the mountain, and on to a safe destination. That
approximate miracle came from a radar message. A man in a tower two thousand
miles away knew how low the plane was flying and beamed the pilot a message to
rise in haste. No language can speak the joy in such contacts, especially if my
loved ones are in that plane. But there are contacts even more important than
these all around us. Society needs men as leaders who beam in on lives in gloom,
discouraged from the gripping vice of circumstances; men whose own souls resound
with understanding ; men whose unselfish wish sounds a melody of hope to these
discouraged lives. In politics, as in religion, we need leaders who can form and
keep contact with God and with men. In our national Capitol, on both the
Congress and our President, as in all State legislatures, there are pressure
groups, paid to remain always on the job to force a certain vote on bills before
those bodies. The president and our state governors likewise are hard pressed at
all times. It is no longer exactly a question of what is right. It is more a
question of who can put on the most pressure. Not alone in politics, but in
religion as well, the propaganda technique has taken advantage of the gullible
and unsuspecting public to propagandize them with misleading information. Some
preachers boast of their prowess in the field of propaganda, and their records
show that their boasts are justified. But in their propaganda they have not been
mindful of God’s will on the subjects of justice, mercy and faith.

What we greatly need is for all leaders, especially religious leaders, to form a
conscientious contact with God; men who are afraid to be unfair, or selfish, or
deceitful, or conceited, or proud and boastful; men whose own sympathies demand
that they be helpful, not hurtful, to others.

We also need men who can form contacts across conference tables; men who can
bury their pride in the dust, in whose souls can be found a warm glow of desire
for the betterment of all peoples—a light which all other men would be safe to
follow. O God, fill our world with such men, disperse them throughout the earth,
that all men, wherever they live, may be able to keep faith for better things
than the abundance of greed and selfishness, and deceit that they see all around
them. When these laws, and these standards, and these customs, and these
ministrations have been observed—AND ONLY THEN—we shall have in fact the kingdom
of God in this world.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: CHAPTER X — THE KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN (2)
========================================================================

CHAPTER X --- The Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken (2) X. THE KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN (2)
By E. W. McMILLAN Theme: The Indestructible and Immovable Qualities of That Kingdom. In our morning lesson we reflected upon the organization of the kingdom of God, the scope of that kingdom, the directing authority of the kingdom, the assignments of that kingdom, and the guarantees of God that those who conform to his will shall not fail. This evening our study shall conform more directly to the particular and distinct wording in the theme of this Lectureship:—“Things Which Cannot Be Shaken.” No study in the “Kingdom Which Cannot Be Shaken” is entirely complete until it has considered the Divine Powers which protect and direct this kingdom. This we shall do first, then consider those character qualities which, in us, invoke the great protecting powers of God—the two combined in us working out to be the indestructible and immovable qualities which consume all other kingdoms and stand forever.

There runs through all Divine revelation the assurance that God, Christ our
Lord, and the Holy Spirit, further supplied with angels as “ministering spirit,”
are on the side of children of God now, to secure them against all dangers which
would destroy their hopes of salvation. Each of these sources of help is more
than a long lecture within itself; but we must be. content with a few brief
observations on each for the present address. Had we all the tongues of men
combined, further enriched by the language of angels, these would not be enough
to voice the hope which comes when God guarantees his help to us. He it was
whose power spoke the world into existence, then through his Holy Spirit placed
the stars in space and ordered the harmony in the universe. It was his power
that lifted high the mountains, then opened the deep oceans and seas. The beauty
of the landscape and the fragrance in the flowers came from his own heart of
love.

Out of that same boundless power and goodness there flowed the urge to redeem
the world of men. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
These powers engaged the willing service of the Holy Spirit to reveal this love
and the pattern of life into which men should enter and live. As further
assurance, they have engaged the help of angels, who work “as ministering
spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit
salvation.” To all who conform unto His will, God has said, “I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee.” Of that promise we are enjoined to cry out in reply,
“The Lord is my helper, and I shall not fear what man shall do unto me.” Of
Christ, the Bible says, “We do not have an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities; but one who was tempted in all points like
as we are. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” It is said also that
the “Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.”

These powers, indwelling us through faith, become to us the guarantee that we
shall not fail. Nothing more could be wished. But all this is conditioned upon
our acceptance of his will and conforming to that will. As children of God we
must possess certain enduring virtues. Reverently they must live in us. The
first of these qualities is: A conscientious, well-balanced mind in the proper
evaluation of important things. Some things are true but are not worth being an
issue. A man once came to the preacher and accused him of a grave mistake in his
sermon, saying that preachers often make infidels by such mistakes. He said the
preacher had quoted a passage from Genesis as if it said Adam would make his
living by the sweat of his brow, whereas the passage said it was to be made by
the sweat of Adam’s face. The preacher told him, “My brow is a part of my face,
where is yours?” But what if the preacher did slightly get the wording
misplaced; since it did not alter the meaning of the principle, why make the
matter an issue?

Citizens in this kingdom do not always agree about recre-ation, reading
materials, and other uses of leisure time. It may be that a critic is correct in
his judgment of wisdom at times, but before making his criticism an issue he
would do well to weigh his publishing of it against the value of praying for the
man he is opposing. Habitual critics could learn, also, to feed their pride on
blaming others. And even when criticism is true, it sometimes does more good to
pray with people than it does to advertise them or make an issue of them.
Through each of us there should flow the warm glow of redeeming love. The
unselfish life which led to Golgotha’s height and died with honor even between
thieves, then went on loving enemies, silent in death, must flavor the words
which we speak. Always claiming that we have his spirit makes it appear that we
fear we do not. There is such a thing as being so much a certain way that it
makes the evidence less for us to claim it in words. Before making an issue,
then, of either ourselves or others, let us pray much.

It can be said further that even some important things are more important than
other important things. It is important to help others keep the little specks of
evil from their eyes of understanding; but it is more important for us not to
build mountains in our own eyes. Our King said so. It is important that we keep
all the indications of doctrinal departure out of church beliefs, but it is
fully as important, if not more important, that we keep our motives right in our
opposition to those departures. The outside of the cup is important, but the
inside is, too.

It is very important that we do good deeds to the poor; that we pray regularly;
that we give liberally of our money for good works; but it is more important
that we shall not be proud of our good deeds, or relish the praises of men after
we have prayed, and that we shall not be disappointed if people do not build a
monument to our gifts. The King Himself said that justice, and mercy, and faith
are more important than the Old Testament ceremonies, or the tithing itself.
Those were commanded, therefore, were important; but He would have us know that
we must even more prayerfully cultivate the conscience about being fair to
others, and about being merciful toward their unworthiness, and about living by
faith ourselves. The preached justice to others is important for them, but the
practiced justice is more important to ourselves; the preached mercy is
important to others, but the practiced mercy is more important to us; the
preached faith is important to those whom others might deceive, but the
practiced faith is more important to us, as we walk.

It is very important to watch against encroaching dangers from without, but even
more important to watch the heart of the watchman.

We have done a good job of standing at the door of worship and protecting the
members against incoming dangers of doctrinal departures; but we should examine
ourselves to see if we have done as well in the outgoing issues of love,
service, and true worship of heart to God.

It was important, very important, that we protect the innocent against the
introduction of mechanical instruments into the public worship, but it is even
as important to make sure that those who only sing shall not sing with mere
mechanics of voice; but, rather, that they “make melody in their hearts unto
God,” when they sing.

It has been very important that we guard the church against the dominance of
societies in the spread of mission work; but it is also most important that we
shall see to it that the mission work is really done. We must see that the work
is not done the wrong way, and that it is done the right way. After all, DOING
is what our King required.

It is important that citizens in the kingdom shall be guarded against indulgence
in harmful things; but it is also important—fully as important—that they shall
be led to engage in helpful things. After all, people do not grow healthy by
merely eating, neither do they grow strong in the Lord by merely being fed and
taught about spiritual things. The full-grown man physically and spiritually
becomes strong and healthful only by exercising in the things he has eaten or
has been taught.

There is yet a meaning which the best of us have not seen in the great virtue
called “COURAGE,.” Divine religion gives that meaning to it. The battlefields of
many continents have been honored by men of courage. These men have been
decorated and cited by their governments for that courage. The people back home
have thrilled, and some of them bowed in prayer, when the news of their courage
reached them. I would not for a dozen worlds decrease the honor due such noble
men and women, but the adventures which brought these honors do not show courage
at its best.

During the great Boston fire, when Teddy Roosevelt was president of these United
States, there was another great example of courage. A man, with his wife and
young child lived in a third-story apartment. In mid-morning one day, while the
husband was at work, the mother learned that she and her child were completely
cut off from both the stairway and the fire escape, by a fire on the floor
beneath. Seeing no other escape, she swung herself underneath a rope that was
used for a clothes line, extending from her window to the one across the alley,
and with the baby tied on her back, she climbed under that rope to safety. That
was courage, but not courage at its best.

There is an account of a man who never thought ill of anybody; who never spoke
ill of anyone; who never was unfair to anyone. He went about among men, opposing
all that was wrong and encouraging all that was good. He hid the faults of no
friends and honored even the virtues in his foes. He faced a religious trial
jury which had bargained with one of his friends to betray him, and he took the
verdict of that jury without a wince, knowing that it would mean his death. He
went on into the court of the land and let himself suffer the same gross
injustice without retaliation. Looking to the side and seeing revenge in the
face of a friend, he tenderly reminded that man that he must not become the
victim of such thoughts. Speaking to his inner circle of friends, he said, “Be
of good courage, I have overcome the world.” Courage in the shadow of a cross?
Victory in the gate of death? That wras what he said. He went on and bore his
cross, not scorning the men who whipped him on the way. He lay down with his
back upon the cross-beam with the same calm which he would have had if he had
been lying down to a night of pleasant dreams. He looked upon the soldier as he
lifted his hand and hammer to nail him there —but he looked with compassion, not
with revenge. Hanging high upon his cross he looked at a distance and saw his
mother watching; but there was no sentence of expressed pain. Surely, the blood
rushed from his heart, thundered in his ears, then returned to repeat its course
until he was dead; but the pains of that ordeal were not in what he said. Near
the end of three hours he cried, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they
do.” Even the men who went about his cross shouting, “Come down and we will
believe you,” when he at last bowed his head and died could not say, “He did not
love me.” That was courage.

Wherever there is today a young life who is strong enough to face the evils of
the world, refuse them, then take the scorns of more daring youth, believing
that it pays to be good, that is courage. When a business man declines for the
sake of gain to bend his heart to unworthy things and elects instead to live on
less and do right, while those about him ridicule his scruples—that is courage.
When a gospel preacher declines to go a certain way with others because he knows
their way is not right, though by his going he would become a hero with them,
but for not going he knows they will misrepresent and discredit him with
others—that is courage.

Kingdoms of men allow the sword in self-defense; and they approve an end to
endurance; but the kingdom of God goes on enduring, motivated by a pure love for
the right. That kingdom has reached its acme of ideal and has found its most
lasting joys when it has spent its last bit of strength for the highest good.
That is courage—victorious courage.

Another of the immovable and indestructible qualities in the kingdom of God is
this: The Conscious Indwelling of God in a Life Destroys All Sense of Fear in
That Life. Enemy Number One in all people is fear. We cannot see one moment of
the future; most of the people we have known have been defeated at times on
their most cherished dreams; we have seen some of the most worthy efforts fall
dead in defeat; most of us have suffered under the knowledge that we had failed.
No human strength is enough to survive all this without becoming changed inside.
That change with some takesN place overnight; they become cynical, or develop
complexes; death to their courage is written all over their faces. With others,
the change takes place gradually, but with absolute certainty. When some close
friend, long absent, has been with the person for a while, he dares to ask,
“John, what on earth has come over you? I have never seen anyone so changed as
you are.” Then he may go on pointing out the laughter he used to hear in John,
but John seldom laughs now; or, he may mention that there used to be light and
confidence in John’s eyes, but there is now dread and uncertainty. The sun never
shone more clearly than the changed heart of John is stamped on his face. What
has happened? Well, many things, maybe. But the main trouble is that he has
encountered a giant called FEAR. It can grow from a thousand roots. When people
enter upon any sort of adventure together— in business, in education, in
professional life, in marriage, or in mere friendly relationships— they know
that they are facing a life of uncertainty—strewn with the ruins of other
people’s efforts, who entered upon the same sort of adventure and failed. Life
has its own way of writing upon the immortal canvas of memory the records of
such happenings with others; and the wisdom of God keeps us reminded that
neither fate nor circumstances, nor our own wits can guarantee that we are
favorites in such matters. When we, therefore, lay aside all wistful thinking,
we are confronted automatically with the knowledge that where others before us
have met defeat, we also may meet it. In fact, Revelation just about declares
that when we live godly under all conditions there will be what human beings
call defeat. The ancient prophets met it; our Lord Jesus Christ endured it; his
apostles did likewise, and the history of the apostolic church covers nineteen
centuries of martyrs for the same faith. And then, for us who still live, as for
all who will ever live, come the words of our King, saying, “They that will live
godly in Christ Jesus” shall suffer such things.

Under such conditions it takes more than confidence in one’s own wits, or belief
in one’s own power, or reliance upon one’s own intelligence to live without
fear. And what is more, his Bible goes on reminding him of the fallen angels,
now reserved in everlasting chains of darkness for eternal vengeance, because
they did not live by holy means. “Take heed lest ye fall” and the sure tottering
of the man who thinks he is secure—these are high-perched warning beacons along
the journey of all men. The lurking enemies outside of him and the knowledge of
his own weakness keeps man in constant fear. Under these conditions, nations
learn to speak of permanent peace while madly preparing for the next war;
citizens talk of personal honor while trusting almost no man; preachers go along
preaching about being loyal and sound and courageous, but Hambone was right when
he said that they mean “Mos’ly like me.” And all of us have learned, or will
learn, that there is a hereafter on this earth for any man who does not wag when
Simon says “Wig-wag.” Under these conditions we live in a prison cell of fear at
times. And these fears greatly diminish the soul’s capacity for its largest
service, to overcome which there must come a strength from outside of men
themselves. The empires of men do not, and cannot, give it. That strength is
faith in the overruling power of God, and it is found only in the kingdom of
God. Our King has said, “Fear not them that can kill the body but have no more
that they can do.” And again, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
Confidence in this promise is what John felt when he said, “This is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith.” It enabled our King to behold his
own cross and still say, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

If ever there was one who, from the world’s view of things, faced utter defeat,
it was our Lord Jesus Christ at that moment. Public sentiment had turned from
him; the trial courts of the Jewish sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate were set to
condemn him; his trusted friend, Peter, was ready to swear and deny him; Judas
Iscariot, another friend, was ready to sell him for thirty pieces of silver; and
the soldiers already were assigned to crucify him. Did ever a man stand more in
the door of defeat than he? And yet he said, “Let good cheer flow through all
your hearts, for I have overcome the entire world.” Never did the halo of faith
shine with more colors upon the head of any than it shone that day upon the head
of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor did the feet of man ever stand upon higher ground
than his stood that da>. His years of pursuing and imbibing all that makes men
virtuous; his studied practice of being resigned unto all that the hand of
Providence provides—be it weal or woe; his heart-glow of love for all
men—friends and enemies alike; his complete faith in God, his Father, to see him
through all that he may experience; and his utter confidence in the triumph
ultimately of all that is right, was what he meant when he said he had overcome.
The dread of injustice from others he had entirely lost; the fears of pain he
had also lost; the dread of death—so universal to human lives—had ceased in his
mind; the coldness of the tomb had changed to a warm comfort, for entering that
grave was his final means of breaking down prison doors for those he loved; his
resurrection and glorification were to him pathways which he could strew with
fragrance for those who desired to travel after him. He had no fear. Could it be
that there is a life here now gripped by fear ? I would point you to Him. Look
and live. “We walk by faith, not by sight.” “The just shall live by faith.”
Climb high on the hill of faith and look. Behold yon far-off slope of Moab. See
that he who slowly climbs there is Moses, the saint of the years. See him pause
and look the land through across the Jordan. Can you not see the pain which he
feels that God will not let him enter? And can you not also see the resignation
in his eyes? Look! Moses is slowly lying down and the sod upon the ground is
laid aside. Now his form is silent in the earth and there bends over him a
spirit form. It is God. The Bible says, “God kissed his eyes in sleep.”

After Moses had been for 1,500 years in the spirit world hf was invited with
Elijah to join in the transfiguration of Christ, while angels and apostles
looked on. I wonder if Moses did not feel then, as he had felt oft before, that
when God withholds something which we want, he often has something much better
that he wants to give. For us now, as for Moses then, “God hath his mysteries of
grace; ways we cannot tell. lie hides them deep, like the secret sleep of him he
loved so well.” When the once trembling human heart believes and comes to live
under this light* its union with the spirits infinite is such that it loses all
sense of fear. And this faith is another of the immovable qualities in the
kingdom of God. The last of tne immovable and imperishable qualities in the
Kingdom of God is the system of human:

REFORM AND REHABILITATION IN THAT KINGDOM Nowhere else is there a system of
reform, purging through suffering, and. final rehabilitation comparable to tne
kingdom of God. Nowhere else is there, a will so strong, a judgment so just, a
revenge so severe, a love so tender, a compassion so deep, or a mercy so great.
Nowhere else is there a combination of all these so complete.

Human government will swear its witnesses to the truth but know when it does so
that prejudice is likely 1:o enter; it will swear its jurors to honesty but know
they can hardly be entirely honest; it will impose upon its judges the same
obligations, conscious that their weaknesses may betray justice, too. At best,
human governments at times will free the guilty and punish the innocent. These
governments, though Divinely ordered, are constantly filled with the human m
their administrations. They can free a prisoner but they have no laws that
require his rehabilitation. They can remove the stripes from his clothes, but
they cannot forbid that society shall maintain stripes in their memories of hun.
Isolated from the consolations which he needs and deserves, the prisoner not
infrequently finds escape through another crime.

It is not so in the kingdom of God. There runs through all Revelation, like the
cool waters in a dry land, the consoling theme: “Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as snow.”
When that call stirs in a wayward, or discouraged, life, it can rise to
greatness in the kingdom of God. What means the story of the prodigal son, if it
is not that? What means the command, “Receive him back, lest he be swallowed up
of overmuch sorrow,” if it is not that? God’s laws require that men be freed not
in word alone, but in fact as well; and that they be restored to the fellowship,
love and consolation of friends.

There is a further fact that this work of rehabilitation does not end with a
mere group. Governments of the world set up their own systems of spying on other
governments; they build their fortifications and guard their secrets against
other nations; they trade and bargain for the group’s gain at all times.
Treaties and charters are framed largely on the basis of advantage to particular
groups. But the kingdom of God requires that one group shall lay its own plans
always conscious of the rights of others. Service designed to be rendered
through this kingdom has no horizons. As long as there is one man, far or near,
who lacks an understanding of God’s will, it is the command of God that others
shall go and teach him that will; as long as one person already in the kingdom
is suffering—no matter the cause of that suffering—it is the will of God that
others shall help that person bear with patience and resignation under
suffering, enabling him to understand how suffering is, in the scheme of God, a
course of refinement, and that his willing endurance under suffering will cause
the Good Father to bring him forth “Refined as gold.” Even when hardships are
the stroke of Divine Justice, we are not to understand that this stroke is the
cold lash of harsh madness; but, rather, that it is the touch of Divine love,
with most benevolent designs. For, “Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

Members of the church, more developed in Christian ex-perience, have the
obligation to keep in action the constant understanding through service that
such is the Spirit of Chris-tianity. Let us understand that God’s kingdom today
is afflicted with the same weakness and danger which confront America as a
nation. Attack from without is always a danger; but decay from within is the
greater evil. Roman Catholicism developed not chiefly as a doctrinal departure.
These departures were definite and evil; but they grew from the forbidden roots
of pride, pomp, ambition and the lust for power. Men who defend the church from
these departures are much in the same position as a surgeon is beside his
patient. One foul germ on his knife or from his breath could defeat all his
skill. In the same way, an ill motive, or an evil desire can grow into mountains
of transgression through action or doctrine. The truth expressed by one is often
spurned by another because it was adjudged by the man who spoke it. Believing
what a speaker says is half believing him. Just as the white muslin is of less
value after passing through greasy hands, the sublime scheme of Divine Grace has
less appeal when it comes forth upon the foul breath of a corrupt man in heart.
Had we only the picture of the last fifty years before us there would be little
on which to build encouragement for the future. But right now there are many
encouraging things. Destructive criticism which twenty-five years ago rode high
upon its vaunted pride in the name of science, saying that much in the Christian
teachings is false and senseless, has become embarrassed by its own achievements
and forced to admit that the Bible is true. Its attacks upon what it called the
church then, furthermore, was not, in fact, an attack upon what we believe to be
the church. It was upon the far- reaching system of denominationalism with its
indefensible creeds and ecclesiasticisms. But these systems as we know them now
are slowly, but surely, coming to the admission that denominationalism is not
the church of God described in the Bible. Their present trend in this respect
will not reach its logical end until it comes to the conclusions for which we
have always stood. As a people, we do not have to face about; we need only to
become more militant, if not also more Godly in motive, and meet these religious
groups with honest intent toward truth and salvation. Surely, the hecklings we
sometimes meet are not the most important things of the kingdom.

We need men with large currents in their souls—currents which move deep and
wide, like the currents of great rivers; men who pray their ways through; men
who work through conscience, not conceit; men who are large, and true, and
genuine, and just, and merciful; and unselfish. God give us more such men that
the bewildered world may see in them our King in all his beauty, all his glory,
and aU his mercy. These are the immovable, unshakable, enduring qualities in His
kingdom. They set it apart from, make it superior to, and endow it with the
power to consume all other kingdoms. May it be that these qualities in us shall
go on in greater, and yet greater abundance until His kingdom “Dwelling in us”
brings it to pass that the kingdoms of this world have become the “kingdoms of
our God and his Christ.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: CHAPTER XI — WORK IN NEW FIELDS (THE UNITED STATES)
========================================================================

CHAPTER XI --- Work in New Fields (The United States) WORK IN NEW FIELDS
(The United States)
By Ruell Lemmons

Wnat would you consider God’s chief interest? Taking into consideration the fact
that He is Creator and Controller of the entire universe with its ten times ten
thousand wonders, and its myriad mysteries that human limitations have forbidden
man to explore—what would you think could concern God more than any other one
thing? By faith we can answer this question. God’s chief interest is the
salvation of souls.

It has been resolved in the Court of Heaven to offer release to the doomed
prisoners ot death through an organization called the church. That “growing
stone,” cut out of the mountain without hand, has gathered force in its travel
down the valley of time until now its power and influence can no more be denied
than can its existence. A community may dismiss an earthquake with but little
more than a shrug, but not the church. The church is a thing of divine
formation, designed especially for its impact against the strongholds of the
devil. No power on the earth, or under it, has ever been able to stem the tide
of the spreading gospel, so long as the church has considered itself to be “the
pillar and ground of the trurh.” The Roman empire spent its strength against the
church with less effect than the waves of the sea beating against a rock. The.
church goes on; while all that is left of Rome is a few broken columns sunken
along the muddy banks of the Tiber. The organized opposition of succeeding
centuries has been brought to bear in vain. The church moves on. Language
barriers have not hindered it. The shores of oceans have not stopped it. Local
or national persecution has not humbled it. Only a membership unwilling to tell
the good news to others can hinder it.

God has one method of enlarging the borders of the kingdom. Jesus said, “Except
a man be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The new birth is effected
by teaching. Untaught people are not born again. The teaching program of the
church is, therefore, of utmost importance.

We are discussing today, “Work in New Fields” with special attention in this
lecture to the United States. In an effort to make the lesson practical, we
shall attempt to narrow the discussion as much as possible. The general heading,
“Work in New Fields,” will forbid our discussing what I consider to be the
world’s ripest mission field—the section immediately about us. This field is
undoubtedly the ripest field for we have had a hundred years of pre-advertising
already done on it. In it are tens of thousands to whom the church has already
been indirectly, and favorably, presented. The field presents none of the major
barriers usually associated with mission work. There are no custom problems, no
language problems, no supervision problems. One of the outstanding problems of
the church today is that of reaching our own next door neighbors with the
gospel. Yet the word “NEW” in the subject will compel us to pass on to other
fields. By “New Fields” we usually mean those regions where preaching after the
New Testament pattern is either relatively new, or else entirely unknown. My
knowledge of specific “New Fields” is entirely too limited to allow me to give
attention to any particular locality. I would certainly slight many worthy local
fields. I shall attempt to make, therefore, some general observations on what
we—for want of a better term—call “Mission Work” in the United States. The
convictions herein stated have largely been formed from experiences I have had
during the past three years as evangelist for the Central Church in Cleburne,
Texas, under whose direction, in that time, has come the work of twenty-three
evangelists in “new fields,” twelve of whom are now at work supported wholly or
in part by this congregation. In addition to the work of these men, the
occasions in which the specific problems of individual fields have been
presented to the Cleburne eldership will run literally into the hundreds. To my
mind, there is before us, in the United States, a golden opportunity just
beginning to bloom. Denomination- alism has proven itself unworthy of spiritual
consideration. The great sin of denominationalism is that it gives to the church
no higher position than the governments and organizations of earth. No system of
religion can compel the respect, and adherence, of the people that offers no
more than can be had on the standard of common decency. Faith in denominational
institutions as such is already dead.

Today we have about us some nine mission men who have been recently faced with
the possibility of being projected into eternity unceremoniously. With war
raging about them and the prospect of instant death ever constant, men have been
re-examining the tenets of their faith, to see whether they were safe
springboards for the soul for its flight into eternity. Many have learned to
doubt whether faith alone is sufficient. Many have learned to question whether
some human being had the power to forgive sins. Many have been made to ask
themselves the question, “What if He was really the Christ?”

Men have gone to their Bibles as never before to get the truth. They are no
longer interested in searching for confirmation of their faith; they are looking
for something to believe with a faith that’s fit to die by. And while this was
taking place all over the world, mothers and fathers and relatives here at home
were also asking themselves questions about GI Joe’s faith. They were asking
themselves whether the things they taught him to believe were the things God
would have him believe as he entered eternity. They, too, were searching their
Bibles. This time the search differed from the usual search. Fhis time it was
not for the verses already marked, but for new truth—whatever that truth might
be. This country-wide return to the Bible as a lamp for human feet has already
resulted in a definite swing, throughout the entire religious world, back away
from modernism and toward the fundamentals of the Bible. We have t.he greatest
opportunity that we have ever had to teach the people of the United States that
our plea has always been that men take ihe whole Bible and nothing but the Bible
as a rule book in religious matters.

Denominational machinery is breaking down, and people are crying for freedom
from the entangling influences of church machines and ecclesiastic politics. We
have an opportunity we have never had to teach people ihe simplicity of New
Testament worship and of the New Testament church. In taking advantage of this
opportunity, the church must be brought forcibly and favorably to the attention
of the community in which it exists. The church must incorporate itself fully
into the life of the community. The members of the church must themselves become
indispensable elements in their neighborhoods. They must be loved by the masses.
They must prove themselves to be the “neighbors” of mankind. The more I have to
do with work in new fields, the more I am convinced that churches are not built
by people who do not live there. We make the mistake of sending a preacher into
a new community and expect him to do in two or three years what several hundred
of us put together have not done in many years down here in Texas—we expect him
to create a self-supporting congregation. Usually, the preacher is considered
transient by the community for the entire length of his stay there. It seems to
me that the people who build churches are the people who move into new fields
and fix the townspeople’s shoes and sell them groceries. If I were to point out
what I considered the key to successful work in a new field that would be it.
Transient people seldom produce lasting work; though naturally there are
exceptions.

It is a good thing for a family to plant its roots in a community and stay there
a long time. The very fact that it becomes an integral part of the. community is
a stabilising influence. That sort of family can gain the confidence of a
people, and can build a church. When church families move into new fields, as
tamilies, and determine to stay there for years, the church will grow. The
evangelist, or preacher, furnishes a much needed spark to such work, but it is
the famfly which the community accepts as part of itself that can build the
church. This conclusion leads me to another, which I realize is not shared by
the majority: It is better to begin in a small place and spread to the larger
cities. In beginning in large cities the worker must depend largely on the law
of averages to provide an audience and converts. In a small community a
Christian family soon becomes known by all for its work’s cake. Within a few
months friendships and acquaintances are formed that last through the years.
Those connections provide opportunity for teaching that cannot be provided
elsewhere. The Reformation Movement gave men the opportunity to lay hold on the
religious lives of their fellows. The divided religious world was the result.
The Restoration Movement gave men the opportunity to RIGHTLY lav hold on the
religious lives of their neighbors. The New Testament Church is the result. This
“laying hold” is more easily ac-complished in small communities. The church
cannot assume the habit of a sect and live to itself alone. The gospel is not
narrow, and we have no monopoly on it. Away with the idea that the church
represents a narrow position. Ours is the broadest position under heaven. The
Church of Christ is the only institution on earth today that is as broad as the
entire Bible. One doing work in new fields ought to strive especially hard to be
free from any partial or sectarian view of the Bible or the church. Some hobbies
are little ones, and some are big enough to be called denominations.

Work in new fields is often hampered by hobbies. Perhaps this condition exists
because brethren have not the advantage of mutual edification and correction.
Most of us would be warned some way if the brethren didn’t keep us straight. Men
in new fields are especially susceptible to hobbies because of the lack of
brotherly correction. Christians in new fields ought to be too busy converting
people to Christ to wrangle among themselves.

God spent four thousand years riveting the attention of the world on the church.
We ought to spend our time riveting attention on Christ the Savior. If we do men
will be saved. If we fix the attention of a community on the differences of
brethren, the church dies—and it ought to. It is much harder to revive a dead
church than to start a new one.

Many of the problems connected with mission work in the United States will
perhaps never be settled to the satisfaction of all. Ways and means of
multiplying thoughts and ideas and of scattering them to best advantage will
always be a problem. Our literature could be increased in attractiveness to
advantage. Well printed tracts are read. Shabby ones are cast aside. In some
localities radio preaching is effective. In others it is not. Some communities
are almost one-station communities. In these places one either listens to the
local station or none at all. In such localities radio preaching could be
expected to be most effective.

Much thought could well be given to increasing the use-fulness and the stability
of the convert. So far as I know no perfect formula for so-much-reason mixed
with so-much- persuasion has ever been found. Much work in new fields is all but
wasted because conversions (if one could call them that) are more on the basis
of conversion to the preacher than conversion to Christ. When the preacher is
gone his work vanishes. In recent years we have made giant strides in the
solution of the problems of congregational cooperation in mission work. We stand
as one man against the creation of a board or society for the promulgation of
mission work. Yet, there is a most definite need for some more coordinated plan
of congregational cooperation. This problem is being only partially solved by a
few congregations taking the “sponsorship” (whatever that is) of a particular
piece of work and inviting others to participate. This plan does not solve the
problem because it does not touch the vast majority of congregations, and leaves
a very few churches to carry practically the entire load of mission work. The
problems that relate to long-distance supervision of work in new fields are
many. We have found that really little or no supervision exists in reality. It
exists only in name. One great step forward will be made when elders of
supervising churches begin to make “missionary journeys” regularly to the
localities in which their work is being done. Such an elder, assuming that he is
a qualified man, could “set in order the things that are lacking” with far
greater ease, being on the field than by mail.

It is exceedingly hard for too many men to visit a single place in a new field
without some one of them meddling in the affairs of the congregation to a
hurtful degree. Yet our work in new fields could be safeguarded from hobbies and
apostasies by frequent visits of brethren. It might be a good work if men with
outstanding judgment and common sense, coupled with a soundness of faith and
complete circumspection, could be made familiar enough with the problems of new
fields and employed by the interested churches to visit the fields in much the
same manner as Paul seems to have used both Timothy and Titus among the churches
he left behind.

Time forbids our entering a discussion of other questions just as pressing, but
let it be said here that, in my opinion, the great fight before us in the next
generation in extending the borders of the kingdom into new fields is the fight
against Catholicism. The Catholic Church, having lost its hold upon Europe, is
turning its attention to the Western Hemisphere. From the border of Mexico to
the tip of Argentina the Catholic church now controls. The same can be said of
that densely populated section of the United States to our North and East—that
section that immediately surrounds our Government Headquarters. In the past few
days the announcement has been made of the appointment of four new Cardinals who
are citizens of the United States. The selection of a representative of the
President at the Vatican was not an insignificant incident. The Catholic Church
has publicly announced its intention of spending countless millions of
dollars—immediately—in the propagation of its doctrines in America. With the
inevitable development of tremendous unexploited resources in Central and South
America under Catholic influence, and the almost superhuman effort of that body
to take North America for itself—if it should succeed —religious liberty would
soon be gone for all of us. I can clearly see in the next few years the removal
of the seat of Catholic power from Rome to the United States. I sincerely
believe that our coming battle at home as well as in new fields is not against
the impoverished doctrines of denomi- nationalism, but against the falseness of
the Roman Catholic Church.

Jesus, standing at the door of the New Testament age, said 10 his disciples,
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold, I
say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields that they are white
already unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto
life eternal.”

Christ is dead in the hearts of men. He needs to be reborn and crowned Lord and
King. Mankind is in need of the comfort that only the Sc.iiptures can bring. Had
Jesus neglected the Father’s business, we would all have died in sin. If we
neglect it, countless millions may yet die in sin, as though Jesus had never
come to earth. Our Emancipation Proclamation was written in blood two thousand
years ago. Today it is our responsibility as ambassadors of God to an nounce the
fact to the slaves of Satan who perish in shackles because they have never heard
the gospel of their salvation. As a glorious army, inarching in the strength of
our God, let us break the pitchers of our own slothfulness that the light of the
glorious gospel may shine in a land that is still shrouded in night! Let us
raise a shout that can be heard around the world that life and immoitafity have
been brought to light by the gospel! Then, and then alone, can we expect the
hosts of evil to flee in consternation. Then men who all their lives have been
subject to bondage shall look heavenward, and their lips move with a prayer of
thanks giving for a new found freedom.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: CHAPTER XII — THE LATIN AMERICAN FIELD
========================================================================

CHAPTER XII --- The Latin American Field XII. THE LATIN AMERICAN FIELD
By Mack Kercheville

If we are to successfully evangelize Latin America we must understand and learn
how to overcome quite an array of obstacles. First of all, though, we need to
know the size of the job. There are 130 million people in Latin America. If in
over a hundred years of effort we have not completely evangelized the 137
million of our own country, we mustn’t think it will be a quick campaign for us
south of the border. But these 130 million people of Latin America are scattered
over an area of 8 million square miles, an area three times the size of the
United States, which makes the. job all the harder. In other words, just to know
the size and the population of this field is to know that it will require
stupendous effort to evangelize it. But the field is further complicated by the
fact that it is divided into 20 different nations. Every national boundary we
have to cross tends to slow down the work, because we have to adapt ourselves to
new laws and customs. Every one of these 20 nations has its own immigration
rules, its own laws governing religious activity, its own customs and
traditions. We have to learn how to deal with the peculiar situation in each
country in order to plant the Gospel there.

Theoretically most of the Latin American countries guar-antee the same liberties
of speech, press, and religion that our own Constitution allows, but actually
such is not the case. For example, in Mexico there are a number of laws which
curtail our freedom of action. It’s illegal in Mexico to preach on the street
corner or distribute literature on the streets. It’s illegal to rent a hall and
use it for religious services. In order for a man to have full rights and
liberty as an evangelist he must first get a license from the Government. He
can’t get that license unless he is a Mexican citizen, and until he has a church
house built according to Government standards and opened by Government
permission. That is merely a sample of the kind of restrictions we are likely to
meet in any nation of Latin America.

Then, of course, there is the language problem. In none of the republics to the
south of us will you find English spoken. They speak Spanish in 18 of them,
Portuguese in one of them, and French in one. That means that some of us will
have to learn a foreign tongue to reach them with the Gospel. It means that we
will have to go to some extra expense and trouble training young Latin Americans
so they can go to their own people with the Gospel. It means that we will have
to spend considerable money and time getting literature written in the languages
of those people. The language barrier is a real one, but it must be hurdled. Did
you ever stop to think that, in giving the Great Commission, Jesus required some
of us to learn a foreign tongue? If we can’t go to Heaven without fulfilling the
Great Commission, then we can’t go to Heaven without learning other languages.
In other words, our salvation depends in part on our willingness to learn
foreign tongues. I don’t mean that every individual must learn another language
to be saved. But I do mean that if a man has the ability and the opportunity to
preach the Gospel in some other tongue and doesn’t do it that he will have to
answer before God for his neglect. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it
not to him it is sin.” Americans are notoriously lazy about learning other
languages. But members of the Lord’s Body cannot conform to that custom and do
the Lord’s will.

However, the greatest of all obstacles to the success of the Gospel in Central
and South America is the Roman Catholic Church. Here at home we consider
Catholic communities the most difficult in which to work. But I can assure you
that there is no place in our country where the Catholics are so well intrenched
as they are almost everywhere to the south of us. The Catholic clergy has such a
strangle hold on the Latin Americans, not only religiously, but socially,
politically, and economically that only the most zealous and peisistenl effort
on oui part will accomplish anything. There are fanatics among the Catholic
people who will 3top at nothing to prevent the spread of non-Catholic faiths in
those countries. Did you know that Protestant missionaries were killed this last
year in Mexico, their homes burned, and church property damaged? One of our own
evangelists, Brother Gabriel Perez., was forced to appeal to the Governor of the
State because his life was in danger. In addition to these serious types of
persecution, there are many other kinds of opposition- Christian business men
are boycotted. Stores refuse to sell goods to non-Catholics. Church property is
subjected to vandalism. Even little children are beaten up on the school ground
because their parents have forsaken Catholicism. Homes are broken up, husbands
and wives separated, children disowned by their parents all because of Roman
Catholic fanaticism Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t intend to say chat ALL
Christians in Latin America suffer persecution like tins ALL the lime. But I do
want you to know that such things are so common as to constitute a real problem
for the Church in those countries.

Now, add to these problems and obstacles that I have just mentioned the
difficulties common to the preaching of the Gospel everywhere, and you will have
some idea of the task that is before us in this field. But I want to emphasize,
with all the. force I can that there isn’t a problem nor obstacle in this work
that can’t be overcome. I don’t want any of you to get the idea that it is
impossible to establish the true church in Latin America. In the first place, I
refuse to use the word impossible in connection with the Gospel anywhere any
time. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power
of God unto salvation.” There is power in the Gospel—dynamic power—God-given
power. Isaiah said that the word of the Lord would not return unto him void. I
believe that, and it doesn’t make any difference in what language nor in what
country it is preached. People have told me that it’s impossible to make
converts among the Catholics. But I don’t believe it, because I have had the
privilege of baptizing former Catholics with my own hands. Some say, when they
see the difficulties of evangelizing Latin America, that it can’t be done. But I
refuse to believe that the Lord would have told us to go into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature if that were an impossible assignment. It’s
our business to go ahead and preach the Gospel to the whole world. It’s God’s
business to give the increase, and He will do it just as He did in Corinth,
Athens, Rome, yes, even in Caesar’s household! If you can find a spot more
unlikely for the Gospel to succeed than there, I would like to know about it.

Many of the Protestant denominations have established themselves rather firmly
in Latin America. In practically all the major cities of Mexico you can find
prosperous Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. If they can overcome
all the obstacles, and plant their perverted gospels there, we can certainly
plant the truth in Latin America.

I believe the job can be done because of what our brethren have already done.
While some of us “practical minded folks” were sitting around counting up on our
fingers reasons why it would be a waste'of time to attempt the evangelization of
Latin America, a few men like Brother Howard L. Schug and Brother John F. Wolfe,
who were too “visionary and impractical” to know the task was impossible, went
to work and did it. In the 20 years they have been working in this field they
have succeeded in establishing a pretty firm beach head for the Gospel among the
Latin Americans. The result is that there are now about 1,500 to 2,000
Spanish-speaking Christians living in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. There
are approximately 30 small congregations meeting regularly, and almost that many
preachers giving all or most of their time to the preaching of the Gospel in
Spanish. Brothers H. L. Schug and J. W. Treat are co-editors of an eight-page
monthly paper printed in Spanish which serves to give us instructive and
inspirational articles and to keep us informed of the work being done in
different fields. Plans are now being made for the building of a Christian
school in Mexico, with perhaps a clinic too. In the meantime, the college here
is rendering the Latin American work a great service with their liberal
scholarships offered to young Spanish-speaking men and women. We have three boys
in school here this year from Mexico, who are planning to go back to their
country as Gospel preachers. The work is gathering momentum, and I’m confident
that in the next 20 years we will see astounding progress in Latin America. New
workers are coming into the field, new congregations are being established
constantly. A number of churches over the country, following the lead of the
College congregation here and the Montana and Raynor church in El Paso are
backing the Mexican work with their time, money, and talent. The Tampa, Florida,
church is backing the very successful Cuban work with the cooperation of other
congregations. The pessimist who says the job can’t be done is out of date. The
job not only can be done; it’s being done by the help of the Lord. But some,
instead of being pessimistic about the work, are extreme optimists. They expect
the Gospel to sweep Latin America like wild fire as soon as the first sermon is
preached in Spanish. Then when it doesn’t turn out that way they become
disappointed and lose respect for, the work and the workers. They expect too
much of the work too soon. Imagine, if you can, a congregation of less than 50
members in which not a member had heard of the church of Christ 10 years ago.
Imagine a congregation like that which has to increase its membership by
converting Catholics. Suppose that in that church the members are moving away at
the same rate that members move away from the average congregation, but no new
ones were moving in to place membership. You see, in the Mexican field,
congregations are so few that it’s very rare to have any additions by the
placing of membership. Now suppose this imaginary congregation has a preacher
who is a foreigner who speaks very imperfectly the language. Suppose this church
has no Bible school literature, very few tracts and pamphlets, and no books at
all to help teach them the doctrine. If you can imagine a church like that you
will know why some of the Spanish-speaking congregations grow rather slowly. We
don’t want either extreme optimists nor pessimists in the Spanish-American work.
We want and need the help of people who have plenty of faith in the power of the
Gospel and a real understanding of the difficulties of the field.

Now, I would like to take up the rest of the time naming some of the things you
and I can do immediately to speed up the campaign for the evangelization of
Latin America. The first thing that I’m going to suggest is the elimination of
racial prejudice. It is and always will be impossible for us to influence people
as long as we feel or act like we feel superior to them. If there were nothing
else wrong with our custom of racial discrimination but the fact that it hinders
our efforts to preach the Gospel to the whole world it would have enough to
condemn it. Jesus, by His example in John 4 talking to the woman of Samaria, and
by the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 condemns racial discrimination
in die clearest terms. The same lesson is confirmed by Peter’s experience on the
house top in Acts 10. Yet our own brethren today have allowed racial and
national egotism to creep into the Church to such an extent that they will not
and cannot fulfill the Great Commission. There are, as we all know, racial
differences which must be recognized. I certainly wouldn’t argue that all races
are the same, because they are not. But the idea that any race is inherently
superior to another is a myth based on an over supply of egotism and an
undersupply of information on the subject. If we go to the Latin American people
with a patronizing and condescending air of self righteousness, we not only will
fail miserably in our missionary effort, but we will damn our own souls besides.
Brethren, we are already failing to reach the Latin American people right here
in Texas because of our selfrighteous attitude toward them. Let’s pray fervently
that God will help us rid our hearts of such sinful pride!

I mentioned the elimination of racial prejudice first because it must come
before this second suggestion which is to increase our campaign among the
Spanish-American people right here in the Southwest. Many of these people speak
English, and you can teach them the truth without having to learn their
language. In the three years I have been in El Paso, I have converted more
Mexicans by teaching them in English than I have by teaching in Spanish. There
is no reason why many of the congregations here in the Southwest couldn’t have a
number of Spanish-American members in them except that we just haven’t paid
enough attention to these people to reach them with the Gospel. So I urge you to
invite them to the services and make them feel welcome when they attend. Give
them good literature to read. Provide them with Bibles. You are making a mistake
if you assume that all Latin American people in your community are devout
Catholics and wouldn’t listen to anything else. Many of these people are
hungering for the truth. I promise you that, even though you will find many
fanatical Catholics among them, you will also find a surprising number of them
ready to read any good literature you give them, ready to talk to you about the
question of religion, ready even to open up their homes and invite their
neighbors in to hear the truth as soon as you gain their confidence. Then after
we have converted Spanish-speaking people at home, we can send them to others of
their own race to preach to them much more effectively than we ever could. The
quickest way to evangelize Latin America is to evangelize the several million
Latin American people in the United States.

You already know the importance of suggestion three: the backing of the Latin
American work with your money. The brethren have been very generous in backing
this work in recent years. But the need for money continues because there are
some big jobs still to be done. We urgently need more and better literature
printed in Spanish. At present we have “El Camino” the monthly paper published
here in Abilene, and a few short tracts, and that’s all in the way of
literature. We need better facilities for training Spanishspeaking preachers,
teachers, and workers. Both of these jobs cost money. Then there is the eternal
need for church houses in both Mexico and Cuba. I explained to you earlier that
it is illegal to rent a hall and use it for religious services in Mexico. We can
have private services in a private home, but we have to go from there into a
church house built according to Government standards and opened by Government
permission. Obviously no church can become strong enough meeting in a private
home to build the kind of church house it needs. So our assistance in the
building of church houses is urgent. We are just finishing a much needed
building in Juarez, Mexico. The College congregation here is now sponsoring the
building of another house in Durango where Brother Francisco Avila preaches. If
you are in a position to cooperate with that or any other building program in
Mexico, please remember its importance. To make financial matters worse, Mexico
and most of Latin America is suffering seriously from inflation. A few years ago
the American dollar would buy twice or three times as much as it does now. Some
of our evangelists down there now need a raise in salary to meet increased
living costs. But we want more than your money in the Latin American work. We
want your prayers. Paul not only preached; he prayed for the salvation of souls,
saying, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is this: that they might
be saved.” He also asked for the prayers of others in his work. All evangelists
need your prayers; but especially those who are laboring in foreign fields under
special handicaps. You may not be able to go yourself, nor even send money, but
you can certainly pray for the work. And I can assure you that many times your
prayers will be more important than any gift you could make because there are
some problems that neither man nor his money can solve. We need God’s help to
solve them, and we need your prayers in our behalf.

Let me close this talk on a note of optimism by telling an experience Brother
Ramirez and I had in El Paso about a year ago. We were doing some house-to-house
work in East El Paso among the Mexican population. We knocked on a certain door
and explained to the senora who answered that we were Bible teachers offering a
home Bible study course free of charge as a public service. At first she was a
little hesitant, but we continued to explain that we had nothing to sell, no ism
to promote, just plain Bible teaching. Finally she smiled and said in Spanish,
“He estado orando que alguien viniera para ensenarme el evangelic).’’ (I have
been praying for someone to come and teach me the Gospel.) Before I had time to
answer Brother Ramirez replied, “The Lord sent us in answer to your prayer.” The
woman immediately opened the door and said, “Pasen astedes.” (Come right in.)
About two months later we baptized that woman and her daughter even though we
taught under a handicap. She explained to us the first day that her husband was
very prejudiced against “protestantes” and that we would have to come when he
wasn’t there. We agreed to do so, but the trouble was that he changed shifts
every two weeks, so we had to do the same to keep from arriving when he was
there. But this thought for your consideration. If there was one person praying
for somebody to come to her with the Gospel, doesn’t it stand to reason that
there are thousands of other Latin Americans with the same prayer on their lips?
Whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice we must find those people and satisfy
their hunger for the truth. I want the pleasure of telling others as Brother
Ramirez told this woman, "The Lord sent me in answer to your prayer.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: CHAPTER XIII — THE CONGREGATION AT WORK
========================================================================

CHAPTER XIII --- The Congregation at Work XIII. THE CONGREGATION AT WORK
By NorveI Young

"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult
and not tried,” said G. K. Chesterton. In like manner the divinely ordained unit
of the local church or congregation has not failed in doing God’s work. We have
simply found it difficult to achieve God’s great purposes through his authorized
channel and have often failed to try to the extent which great faith in Christ
and His Church would demand. We who live in the twentieth century breathe in an
atmosphere of denominational organizations which have superseded the local
church. We have been made conscious of all manner of religious organizations
which overshadow in scope and power the humble local congregation. Undoubtedly
we and our forefathers have been influenced by the tendency of the religious
peoples about us and to some extent have failed to magnify the local church
under its scriptural elders. When the first local congregation came into being
on the day of Pentecost it was impressive in power and in size and in amazing
influence upon the whole city. Soon there were five thousand men and to these
were added "multitudes both of men and women” and later Luke in Acts 6 reports
that "the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly; and a great
company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Surely this congregation was
wonderful to behold as it worked for the Lord. No school or paper or evangelist
could overshadow such a congregation at work. Let us magnify the Church in our
lives! To do this we must catch a greater vision of the church as it exists
seven days a week, as it works on Monday as well as worships on the Lord’s day.
Webster defines a congregation as “an organized body of believers in one
locality.” The New Testament specifies the conditions of membership and the plan
of organization under Christ as the head of the body1 with elders as bishops,
shepherds of the flock. Paul compares ihe church to the human body which has
“many members, and all the members of the bodv, being many are one body. . . .”
The only way in which the human body can function is through its members. Thus
ihe only way in which the body of Christ, the Church, can function is through
its members, Christians, working individually or collectively. Just as the
members of the human body are not expected to render the same service to the
head so each member of the body of Christ should render a service peculiar to
his or her abilities and opportunities. Paul clearly warns any member of the
fault of esteeming lightly the service of some less talented brother. The local
church is at work to the extent that each member is working for Christ. The
great work of the church of God is to preach the gospel of Christ to all men and
to care for those who have physical needs which they are not able to meet.
First, let us discuss the primary task of making known the “manifold wisdom of
God.”4 Christ’s commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature is a marching order to the. church. Of the first local
congregation Luke reports that “every day, in the temple and at home, they
ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus as the Christ.** When persecution raged
after Stephen’s death they “went about preaching the word”** as they were
scattered abroad.

Today the congregation is at work as its preachers or evangelists preach the
gospel publicly or privately at home or abroad supported by the church.7 The
congregation is at work as its members make money in honest toil and give it to
the Lord to be used for proclaiming the glad tidings. Most churches could easily
treble their work in this regard if each member worked at his trade or business
and saved his money to give to the Lord as he has been prospered. The Christian
business man who works diligently to make money to give to Christ is the church
at work through him just as the, preacher is the church at work through him in
proclaiming the unsearcnable riches of Christ. The congregation is at work
through both! Not only is the church at work in the public preaching of the
gospel, but also in the systematic teaching of God’s word in the Sunday morning
Bible School, or the Vacation Bible School, or the week day Bible Classes, or
through various Bible Classes in homes. Speaking primarily of the worship, Paul
told the Corinthians to “let all things be done decently and in order.”8 Surely
no one would deny that the same pnnciole would hold true for the work of the
congregation. A great amount of good can be done even with hap hazard teaching,
but the potentialities for good in orderly, systematic, teaching under the
elders have yet to be realized. I have visited two church plants in the last
week where more than two thousand students were taught on the preceding Sunday.
In each case the Bible School departments were being enlarged to accommodate
another thousand students. More than two hundred teachers and assistants were
working at this task. There is much truth in the proverb, “The church which
forgets its children today will be forgotten tomorrow.” God grant us a greater
vision of what can be done through systematic teaching of the Bible at home (and
that is the congregation at work there), at the church building, and wherever it
can be done effectively. As a practical suggestion for extending our work in
this field I would submit the plan of conducting Bible classes every day in the
week for one hour after school. In some communities the schools will release the
children for that time and, if the church can provide teachers with formal
education, credit will be allowed on the Bible courses offered. Other churches
are giving Bible classes and Bible drills on one afternoon a week. For example,
on Friday afternoon the Belmont church in Nashville, Tennessee, conducts a Bible
Story hour for the neighborhood children with good results. Some of the ladies
prepare cookies and a glass of milk for each child attending. These ladies are
the congregation at work and they are doing a service that is not to be despised
by the teacher of the class. Again another church offers classes on Saturday
morning. Not all of the children will attend, but consider the atomic power of
twenty-five children thoroughly taught in the scriptures and molded in the image
of Christ. When we are tempted to refuse a request by the elders to teach a
class or assist in the Bible School let us remember Jesus’ warning. “See that ye
despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their
angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” And again he
said: “And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me:
but whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it
is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck,
and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.”

Another suggestion as to a means of teaching comes from Cleburne, Texas, where
the church has been offered the opportunity to support a Bible teacher full time
to teach courses in the public high school to all the children who choose to
enroll. It may be that other communities will open such a door. If so, may God
help us to catch a vision of what may be done. On the college level the church
may work through teachers supported at state or private colleges who are allowed
to teach the Bible in accredited classes to all who enroll. Two examples of this
type of work are found at College Station, Texas, in the A. and M. College there
and at Norman, Oklahoma, with the University there. When our Christian colleges
are unable to take care of all those who wish college training and when hundreds
of Christians are attending other institutions each year, surely the church can
do a wonderful work in teaching the Bible in this manner. But the church is not
limited to orderly teaching in groups. In fact, there is a distinct
responsibility resting upon Christians to teach others. Jesus said: “Go ye into
all the world ...” and “they (the individual Christians) went about preaching
the word.” The responsibility to preach Christ is not confined to preachers or
evangelists or Bible School teachers. Individual Christians received this rebuke
in Hebrews, “For when by reason of time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need
that one teach you again the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of
God . . .” Thus the congregation is at work as a devoted mother teaches her
children at home or as the older women “train the young to love their husbands,
to love their children, to be soberminded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being
in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. . .
.” It has well been said of our age that there is something wrong with a
civilization in which a man who writes a dirt}* play or novel is called an
artist and a mother who rears a number of Christian men and women is classified
as an unemployed housewife! The church is at work as each Christian engages in
personal evangelism seeking to win his business companion, his employer or
employee, his neighbor and his friend to Christ. The pulpit is definitely
limited to a certain time for preaching, a certain place, and to certain people
who will come to that place. Christians can win souls i:o Christ by both the
spoken and the practiced Word any time, anywhere, and they can reach many who
have, never darkened a church door. Most Christians have been won to Christ by
someone’s personal interest m their soul. This work of the church goes on
wherever there are truly converted Christians. It is true that Christianity
begins with the individual, but if it ends wiih that individual, it ends.

Two men were riding in a sleigh in the far North. They were on their way home
during a bitterly cold blizzard. One of them noticed the form of a man by the
side of the road and they stopped. He found the man almost frozen to death and
badly in need of artificial respiration and stimulation. His companion in the
sleigh refused to wait for him to try to save the man’s life. He feared that
they might all die from the cold if they waited any longer so he drove on alone.
After working hard at the job the “Good Samaritan” succeeded in reviving the
stranger and forcing him to walk several miles mto town. As they came to their
destination they noticed the sleigh in front of the house. It took only a moment
to discover that the companion who had sought to save himself had relaxed into a
sleep from which there was no awakening in this life. The “Good Samaritan” had
saved his own life by exerting all his efforts to save another. So is the
Christian who loses himself in seeking to serve and save others. Personal work
will sharpen your interest in Bible Study, quicken your appetite for prayer and
worship, increase your appreciation for Christian friends, and kindle your zeal
for God’s work. “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Here are a few suggested channels of doing personal work. Each member can do one
or more of these things and the unleashed power in a community will be
astonishing. First, there is the systematic visiting of all visitors to the
services. Of course, it is good for the preacher to visit all who come to the
worship just as it is good for every Christian to do so, but the evangelist will
often have less opportunity than some good deacons or elders or other members.
Different individuals can assume this definite work under the elders for a
period of three to six months and then relinquish it to others. Others should be
appointed to keep a visitor’s register faithfully. A register is of little use
unless someone tends to it. Simple records should be kept of the calls made so
that the elders can evaluate the interest of different visitors from the
community. Again newcomers to the city or town offer an open invitation to
Christian visitors. Usually their names can be obtained from the utilities
company or from the Retail Merchants’ Association or the Chamber of Commerce.
Especially is it true today that a new resident appreciates a friendly call from
the church. The merchants are all too busy taking care of old customers to
welcome a new one, and the church is about the only institution which is
genuinely glad to welcome a new citizen into the town. Let us make the most of
it and visit every new resident of our community. Many of them will respond by
attending the services and others will send their children to the Bible School
while others may be reached for Christ immediately. Let us never forget that
there are honest people praying every day for guidance and truth. The Lord can
use us to answer their prayers.

Another means of putting the congregation to work is to take a religious census
of the city or an area of it if it is a large city. This will acquaint every
resident in that area with the church and it will furnish the basis for much
followup work. Following the census, those who are most interested can be
revisited, their children invited to the Bible School. Young ladies who can type
can donate time to write personal letters to these families for a number of
weeks, enclosing appropriate tracts. Copies of the church bulletin can be mailed
to them for a few months so that they will be informed about what the church is
doing. The preparation and distribution of a church bulletin for each Lord’s day
is another valuable channel of work for members.

One of the most practical means of doing personal work is through the visiting
of the sick. In rural communities one can usually find out who is sick by asking
the neighbors. In towns and cities one can get information through the clinics
and hospitals. In our city there are three hospitals and the secretary obtains
the names of those who are members of the church or who prefer the church, from
the hospital records. Some member takes one hospital for three months and visits
the sick at least once a week. She advises the preacher or the elders if it is
desirable for one of them to visit a particular person. Often weak members are
encouraged by Bible reading and prayer and sometimes those who have never made
the decision to obey the gospel are persuaded to do so while they have time to
think about it seriously. A letter is usually written by the minister to the
local congregation of those patients who live out of town so that someone there
can know that the visiting has been done and can visit the patient upon his
return to the community. Often this work will lead to visiting those who are in
the same ward or in neighboring rooms. Each time the visiting Christian can hear
as he leaves the sick room the word of His Lord, “I was sick and ye visited me.”
As strange as it may seem, Jesus said, “I was in prison and ye came unto me.”
Our state prisons, reformatories, and our city and county jails offer an
opportunity which is often neglected. In Abilene, Texas, the college students
have visited the jail each Sunday afternoon for years. I recall that my roommate
baptized one inmate in 1935. No doubt many others have been reached. The
Charlotte Avenue Church in Nashville, Tennessee, has carried on regular services
at the state penitentiary. In fact, the authorities provided a baptistry inside
the walls for the express purpose of baptizing those converted by Christians
visiting there during the last half century. Let us not neglect this open door.

Again, Christian hospitality is a wonderful means of reaching souls for Christ.
I know of a devoted family in Wichita, Kansas, that made it a point to include
in their circle of friends at least one couple out of the church. After enjoying
several evenings or Lord’s days association these Christians would begin to
discuss Christ and the Bible with their friends. If the response was favorable
they would bring them to several services and usually they would have the thrill
of seeing them baptized into Christ during a gospel meeting or before that time.
Just think what would happen to a church with five hundred active workers like
that bringing two persons each into the church each year. If each member did
that in such a congregation, by 1950 that church would rival the number reported
to have been in the church at Antioch at one time; it would have 121,500
members, provided none was lost in those five years.

Speaking of losing members brings up the subject of backsliders. In many
communities there are as many backsliders as there are active, faithful
Christians. They need attention. They need visiting in most cases and teaching.
“My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him, let him
know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.” Too often weak members
have backslidden simply because they have not been put to work for the Lord. Let
us seek to bring them back to the fold in a spirit of humility. It is surprising
to find out how many people are hungry and thirsty for spiritual food, and you
can pay a man no higher compliment than to address yourself to his soul.

Many congregations have found it practical to distribute good literature and
portions of the New Testament through tract racks in railroad and bus waiting
rooms, in barber and beauty shops, in hospital waiting rooms, and in hotel
lobbies. These racks should be well-built and attractive and they must be
serviced bv some faithful members regularly, once or twice a week, depending
upon how much they are used. The tracts should be simple and attractive in form
and content, designed to interest the reader in learning more about Christ and
His Will for them in the Bible. It is my observation that tracts seldom do the
whole job alone, but that they are a great help in making contact and in aiding
personal teaching. In addition to the work mentioned there are numerous tasks
around the worship and work of the church which will develop the individual
Christian and indirectly lead to the winning of souls. For instance there is the
keeping of records by secretaiies in the church office, the answering of the
phone, the calling on the phone of prospects, parents of children in Bible
School, those who are missed at the services, ushering at each service, seeing
that the building is properly heated and ventilated, waiting on the Lord’s
table, making strangers feel at home, and such like. The elders should see that
each member who is qualified is given a specific work to do. One minister has
written about a convert who had very little ability, but who was very wilbng to
serve. He finally found a work which he could do; he could attend ever} funeral
service and “weep with those who weep.” Often the elders can create
opportunities for work. For example, the church at Sicnel Street in Los Angeles
bought a small printing press and used young men and women to print tracts and
religious pamphlets for a number of years. When these boys and girls gave
several hours each week to that task they knew that they were a part of the
church at work. Of course, all of the work must be done under the supervision of
the elders. Probably a church that is working zealously will require the full
time of at least one of the elders to oversee the work. Paul said to Timoihv,
“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially
those who labor in word and in teaching. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not
muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, “The laborer is worthy of his
hire.” Why should not an elder, or more than one, give full time to seeixig that
the congregation is at work. In some communities the elders have found it wise
to divide the city or towm into sections, using a detailed map for that purpose.
On this the location of each member may be identified by a colored pin and a
geographical file of the members may be kept as well as an alphabetical hie. An
elder, or a deacon appointed by the elders, would be given a special
responsibility to see that those in his area, preferably his neighborhood,
attend the services regularly and that any need, physical or spiritual, is
brought to the attention of the elders. Prospects can be handled in a similar
fashion.

Such a systematic plan is suggested because we often fail to do our duty due to
the fact that we think someone else may do it for us. In other words, “passing
the buck” is a malady of the church as well as of the army. There is an old
story of an ancient king who suspected that his people were shirking their
responsibility. He placed a large stone in the midst of the main road of his
kingdom. A farmer saw it in the early dawn, but he slowly guided his cart to the
side of the road and passed by saying, “What careless people live in this
section.” A company of soldiers came along and broke ranks to avoid the stone,
although any one of them could have removed it with a little effort. They, too,
thought about how negligent other citizens were. And so the stone stayed in the
road for days. Each traveler went to some trouble to get around it, but no one
took the trouble to remove it. Finally the king called his people to that site
and removed the stone before them. Under the stone was a bag of valuable coins
with a note which read, “To the one who removes the stone.” Our King also has
placed rewards for those who will shoulder their Christian responsibility and
work for Christ.

Although the greatest work of the church is to preach the gospel to save men’s
souls, there is also the great work of doing good unto men’s physical nature.
The first congregation had to begin immediately to help take care of the
physical needs of some of its members and in order to do this some of them “sold
their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had
need.”18 Also we notice that this matter was handled in an orderly way and when
a disturbance arose concerning the Grecian widows the apostles appointed seven
men to give their attention to this one matter of benevolent work.

There is no lack of authority or example for the local church to do good on a
large scale and in a systematic manner. Let us get away from a small sectarian
conception of the work of the church and get back to the New Testament
conception. “So, then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good
toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the
faith.” When Agabus told the brethren at Antioch about the famine in Judea “the
disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto
the brethren that dwelt in Judea: which also they did, sending it to the elders
by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.” James also says, “Pure religion and undefiled
before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” We know that this
visiting meant more than going to see them, that it meant to render practical
assistance where it was needed. Of course, there is the first responsibility of
the Christian home to help those of the family, but when Christians care for
their own indigent relatives is it not the church working in that case through
the home? But there will always be many opportunities to help feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, buy medical care for the sick. If a church can buy medicine
for a sick man and pay a doctor’s bill for one who is not able, could not the
church do it on a larger scale through a clinic or hospital at home or abroad?

Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one ot these my brethren, even these
least, ye did it unto me.” James teaches us that “faith only” will not save the
Christian nor help his brother’s physical needs. “If a brother or sister be
naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be
ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body,
what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.” A
study of the budget of many congregations will reveal an amazing lack of concern
about the physical needs of those around about us. I once heard a deacon warn
the brethren about the danger of helping a brother with his hospital bill for he
said, “There will be no end to doing that kind of work.” No, there will be no
end to it for Jesus said, “The poor ye have always with you.” If we can’t find
the poor in our neighborhood we can find them elsewhere in the community. If we
can’t find them among our own people we can find them among those of other races
and nationalities. Shall the church turn over all benevolent work to the state
or to some community charity or some national agency? How shall the church be
magnified ? How shall Christ be honored ? “And whatsoever ye do, in word or in
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.” A real program of feeding the poor, clothing the naked, healing
the sick would challenge the wealth of many members who think that the work of
the church is done when the building is paid for and the running expenses of the
worship are taken care of. May God help us to see how much can be done through
the church. Under the elders an efficient organization can be had and the amount
of money spent and good done will depend upon the zeal and generosity of the
members. If we don’t do more for the needy, surely we run the risk of hearing
Jesus say in the judgment, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire
which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye did not
give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye
took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye
visited me not. . . . Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did
it not unto me.” Churches of our Lord must offer service as well as services to
the community! Of course, it should be said that the benevolent work of the
church is not limited to that which is done as a group in an organized manner.
Each Christian should be giving to the poor as the opportunities offer
themselves and should be helping the unfortunate as the Samaritan helped the
wayfarer who had been robbed and beaten. But there is a great work which the
church under its elders can do regularly and systematically. One church in
Nashville, Tennessee, is taking care of aged women in a home. Other homes could
be operated for the needy or the sick. Another church has trained its women in
practical nursing so that they can go out among the sick and give their service
to those who cannot afford it. What a wonderful and practical way of serving
Christ! Of course, too, the churches should support the orphan homes which are
equipped to train and care for children. Their work is great, but we have not
touched the hem of the garment in that field.

We need more of the spirit which a young lad in San Antonio manifested. A local
preacher was visiting in a very poor neighborhood. When he came out of a poor
home he noticed a youngster openly admiring his new Cadillac automobile. The boy
looked up and said, “Say, Mister, where did you get this car?” The preacher
replied, “It was a gift. My brother is quite wealthy and he gave it to me for a
present.” The boy spontaneously blurted out, “I sure wish . . .” The minister
naturally thought he would say, “I sure wish I had a brother like that.” But he
was wrong. The boy simply said, “I sure wish I could be a brother like that.” It
turned out that he was the fine, unselfish elder brother of a little fellow
stricken with infantile paralysis. Before the day was over that little brother
had a ride in that fine automobile. May the Lord help us to catch the spirit of
loving our brothers like that. The local churches in Asia are referred to as
seven candlesticks. A candlestick is to uphold a light. Jesus Christ is the
light of the world and the local congregation at work in preaching the gospel
and doing good to all men will hold that light up to a generation stumbling in
the darkness. If there was ever a time when the churches need to be at work it
is now! The Church is the bride of Christ. “Christ also loved the church and
gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the
washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish.”

O God, Our Holy Father, help us to be a working part of that body, the Church,
and to live in such a way that we will honor the head, Jesus Christ, and not be
a blemish upon the bride He loves and gave Himself for. As we see Him bear His
cross up Golgotha’s rugged side may we take up our cross daily and lift with all
our might!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER XIV — WORK OF ELDERS
========================================================================

CHAPTER XIV --- Work of Elders XIV. WORK OF ELDERS
By J. H. RICHARDS

Introduction. I like the subject because it expresses action. Concerning action,
James has said, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves” (James 1:22). Hence, every member of the church who fails to
work is guilty of self-deception. The office of a bishop is not an honorary
office, but is an office of work. This is clearly stated by the apostle Paul:
“This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a
good work” (1 Timothy 3:1). In Paul’s famous speech to the eiders of the church
at Ephesus he gave these instructions: first, take heed unto yourselves; second,
take heed unto all the flock; third, the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers;
fourth, feed the church of God; fifth, remember and watch, because grievous
wolves will enter in among you and men of your own selves will apostatize; and
sixth, support the weak (Acts 20:28-35). And Paul has further said, “Holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9). And in 1
Thessalonians 5:14 we read, “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are
unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”
Now, turn with me, please, to 1 Peter 5:2-3 and we shall read: “Feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords
over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” In Ileb. 13:17 Paul has
said to watch in behalf of the souls of the members. The aforementioned
scriptures which are so plain and specific relative to the work of elders surely
weigh heavily upon the hearts of all who attempt to perform this great service
in the church of God. The success of the Lord’s work rests greatly upon the
elders. If they succeed, the church will succeed. If they fail to perform their
duties, the work of the church is hindered. This is true because no business,
organization, or institution can rise above its leadership. This being true, it
is easy to understand why God has specified that the men who serve in this
capacity should have certain qualifications. Now, I am not unmindful of the
importance of the work of our local evangelists; but the success of the church
still rests largely upon the elders, because it is they who select the local
evangelist. An elder is an overseer. An overseer is one who gets the job done.
The word implies supervision. The duties of a supervisor are to lead and show
others how to perform the duties; to keep in close touch with the work; to have
a sufficient knowledge of it and see that it is done properly and efficiently.
The elder, as a pastor or shepherd of the flock, must lead the flock into
greater and more acceptable service. THE WORSHIP One of the duties of the elders
is to lead the congregation into the truest and most reverential worship
possible for men to render to Jehovah God. May I make a few suggestions with
reference to the items of worship without attempting to specify their order.

1. Singing. We are not to sing to get ourselves ready for worship, because
singing is a part of the worship. “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing
with the understanding also” (1 Corinthians 14:15). For a congregation to sing
in this manner, it is necessary for it to receive much teaching and instruction.
Too often this part of the worship is grossly neglected. A definite program
should be arranged and carried out to train and develop members of the
congregation that they might better engage in this item of worship. The
eldership should never be content to use inexperienced and untrained song
leaders when it is possible to secure a trained leader. I am glad to note that
our congregations are beginning to see the need of having more efficient song
leaders. The elders should insist that the song leader train and develop the
young people and all other groups within the congregation. When this is done, we
shall always in the future have men to lead God’s people in hymns of praise.

2. The Lord’s supper. Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper in memory of himself.
He said, "This do in remembrance of me.” Care should be given to every detail
connected with this solemn duty and sacred privilege. Orderly arrangement should
be made both for the one presiding and for those assisting. Too often the
observance of the Lord’s supper is handled in a slipshod manner, and the result
is that its purpose is defeated. Oftentimes men, without coats, approach the
table from various parts of the auditorium and the one presiding makes a
prolonged talk at an inopportune time. Also, the prayers at the Lord’s table
should be prayers in which we give thanks, rather than lengthy petitions unto
God.

3. The offering. Paul stated that it is more blessed to give than to receive
(Acts 20:35). This item of worship is surely a test of our faith. Paul stated
that the Macedonians gave liberally and scripturally because they had first of
all given themselves to the Lord (2 Corinthians 8:5). The elders should be good
examples in this respect. One of the qualifications is that they be not lovers
of money. They should look forward to this grace with as much pleasure as to any
other part of the worship. The congregation should be taught to give (1) weekly,
(2) willingly, (3) purposely, (4) proportionately, (5) liberally, and (6)
sacrificially. If we would enjoy this part of the service when the preacher is
preaching on stewardship and giving as much as we do when he is preaching on
faith, repentance, confession, and baptism, the church would have much larger
contributions with which to do the Lord’s work. It is gratifying to note the
progress that is being made in this phase of the work.

It is my sincere prayer that the elders may be living examples of sacrificial
giving that we may lead the entire congregation into a full and complete
realization of the need to lay by in store as it has prospered. Remember, true
conversion embraces the pocketbook along with the heart. An observation of the
manner in which members give should never lead us to suspect that they laid
aside their purses when they were

4. Preaching. I am not going to discuss the need of preaching every Lord’s day.
I think we understand the necessity of it. Congregations which do not have
regular preaching just do not grow. That alone proves the essentiality of it.

Great care should be exercised in selecting a man to fill the pulpit. The man in
the pulpit has the opportunity to wield the greatest influence in the
congregation. If the elders put up the wrong man, the accomplishments are sure
to fall short of their desires. Here is one rule which is especially good to
follow in selecting a preacher—I can state it in four words: get a successful
man. If a preacher has succeeded in one work, he is apt to succeed in another
work, and vice versa. When you are thinking of calling a minister, you usually
have quite a discussion of ages. But, I would suggest that you get a capable
preacher, whether young or old. I would not call a man because he did or did not
have some gray hair; but I would be sure that I called a man who had some grey
matter. Now, this is my idea about the ages. The elders should feel a
responsibility in counseling with the evangelist concerning the subject matter
to be discussed when they see the need for it. This would often save the
congregation from many perplexing problems. The best way to cure trouble is
never to let it happen. The elders should watch for the flock and should be
quick to detect any and all danger signals. There should be two great designs in
planning the subject matter: one, indoctrinate the congregation; two, instruct
the congregation in Christian living. We learn 1 Timothy 4:16 that all growth
not founded upon these two fundamental and basic principles is all in vain:
"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” We ourselves want
to be saved and we want the ones who hear us to be saved; therefore, we must
take heed unto ourselves and unto the doctrine or teaching.

I am thinking now of an instance in which a minister in a congregation preached
sermons of truth, but they missed the mark. During this time, jealousy, enmity,
malice, and strife developed. Also, long periods lapsed without the presentation
of doctrinal sermons. This also weakened the congregation. Sermons which hit the
mark could have prevented this weakening effect upon the church. I am sure you
could cite many similar examples.

There should be a warm and congenial feeling existing between the elders and the
evangelist. This makes for a more pleasant and a more successful work. The
elders are not to lord it over the church (1 Peter 5:3); this includes the
evangelist, too, because he is a part of the church. I feel that if the preacher
has sense enough to preach, he has sense enough to be worth something to the
church in the field of counseling and advising as well as in the field of
preaching and teaching.

Great care should be shown at the time a minister leaves a congregation,
especially if he is asked to move. Too often elderships have failed to exercise
good judgment in this matter, and both the congregation and the minister have
been hurt. It is my conviction that the elders should assist a good man in
locating in another work which is as good or better than the one he is leaving.
The reputation of both the con-gregation and the minister has often suffered
because the preacher was “railroaded” out. I am sure if statistics were
available, this statement would be substantiated.

5. Prayer. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”
(James 5:16). May I offer some suggestions with reference to selecting a man to
lead the congregation in prayer? Select a man whose character is unquestionable
and whose life is an inspiration. Choose a man who will speak distinctly and
loudly enough that all may hear and follow. Call on a man who will not pray
extremely long prayers. I do not mean by this that the prayer should be limited,
timed and stopped by a stop watch, but I think you will agree with me that there
is room for education and inw provement along this line. Next, select a man who
will use prayer to address God rather than the congregation, one who will humbly
talk to God rather than one who will use prayer to parade and display his
oratory before the congregation.

6. Congregational deportment. Jesus has said, “But the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for
the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). For worship to be
acceptable to God, it must come from the worshiper’s inner and unseen man and be
according to truth. For this to be done, there is no place for talking,
whispering, writing of notes, shuffling of feet, etc. Quietude should prevail.
All persons should be at the worship on time! those who are late should be
seated in such a manner as not to disrupt the worship. Song books should be
handled noiselessly. Parents with little children should be encouraged to come
and bring their children to the worship; but they should also be taught and
encouraged to keep them quiet rather than let them disturb the worship. THE
Teaching Program 1. The importance of it. It is impossible to overestimate the
importance of teaching in the Lord’s plan. The religion of Christ is a religion
of teaching. Jesus commanded the apostles to teach all nations and then teach
the. baptized to observe all things he had taught them (Matthew 28:19-20). Paul
said to Timothy, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach
others also” (1 Timothy 2:1). The elders should see to it that the church has an
adequate system of teaching.

2. Pulpit teaching. I have discussed this phase of the teaching, so it is not
necessary to go into this matter again.

3. Bible classes. I have read the statement that statistics reveal that
eighty-five per cent of Christendom has come through the Sunday morning Bible
classes. This alone shows that anything short of a well planned program in this
field of service [will result in a very ineffective work. Three things are
essential for a successful Bible school, and I shall briefly name them: First,
it must be administered efficiently. The elders must do this either directly or
indirectly ; at least, they must .see that it is done. Second, there must be
adequate equipment such as rooms that are. well lighted and ventilated,
blackboards, maps, commentaries, helps and courses of study. Third, we must have
capable and godly teachers to do the teaching. Prayerful care must be taken in
selecting the teachers. The teachers should have more qualifications than a
willingness to teach. It is better to have no class than to have a teacher who
does more harm than good. The teacher should be pure in character and sound in
the faith. To ihe hurt of the Cause in Fort Worth, we have learned the need of
teachers being sound in the faith. The first church ever established in Fort
Worth was the New Testament church. This congregation grew and prospered But
innovations worked their wa) in through the Bible classes. The result was that
the church apostatized. Eight members walked out and had to start all over
again. If elders had been faithful to the Lord and had done their duty, this
would not have happened. The church is strong in Fort Worth, and this fact is
recognized by brethren throughout the nation, but think how much stronger it
would be if this apostasy had not occurred. A. denominational friend of mine
stated the other day that his little daughter went to a store and found her
Sunday school teacher sitting in a car, smoking a cigarette and drinking a glass
of beer. I trust that this can never be said of our teachers. As I see it, it is
one of the works of the elders to keep it from happening. Our young people
should, be given much attention; because the mind of youth is plastic and is
easily influenced. H you will work with them, they will work with you. Some of
the most loyal members of the Polytechnic congregation are among our young
people. May I drop this hint to the preachers who wish to be diagnosticians of
churches—if a church has no young people, the chances are it is either dead or
is in the process of dying.

4. Personal evangelism. For the congregation to be apostolic, the members must
be personal workers. The members of the Jerusalem church went everywhere
preaching the word (Acts 8:4). We must have the same spirit today to win the
world to Christ. We should do personal work among tne aliens. Jesus associated
with sinners and publicans, but did so for the purpose of winning their souls.
As I see it, brethren, every non-member is a prospect and is worthy of our time
and attention; because he has a never- dying soul that will spend eternity
somewhere.

There is a dire need in all churches to encourage the weak and to convert the
fallen. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). “He which converteth the sinner from the error
of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”
(James 5:20). Many congregations are suffering today because the elders have
failed to comply with these scriptures. There will always be some poor sheep who
will falter and need the personal help of the shepherds. And blessed is the
congregation which has shep herds who will render this service.

It is the duty of the eldership to put the church to work. Organized personal
work is much more effective than the haphazard method. Records should be kept
and assignments should be made. You will find a willingness on the part of many
members to work, if somebody will tell them what to do. We have this system of
organized personal work in the Polytechnic church. A few weeks ago approximately
one hundred members signed up to do two hours of such work each week. You can
visualize what this will mean to the church.

5. Missions. A congregation without a missionary program is not, in my judgment,
worthy to wear the name of Christ. Brethren, is this putting it too strong? I do
not think so. Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature” (Mark 16:15). Jesus said it; so it is either “go” or “woe.” The
time is fast approaching in which a church which has the ability to do
missionary work and does not do it is going to be looked down upon by the
brethren. I think it is already looked down upon by the Lord. The elders should
create within the church a great missionary spirit.

CARING FOR THE PHYSICAL NEEDS 1. The sick. In the long ago the Holy Spirit said,
“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church” (James 5:14).
Hence, the elders have a responsibility to the sick. Is it difficult for you to
get members to sit up with, wait on and care for the sick? Do you say “yes”?
Well, it should not be the case. Jesus will say at the judgment to those on the
left hand, “I was sick and ye visited me not” and to those on the right hand, “I
was sick and ye visited me.” One of the differences between the two groups will
be: one group visited the sick while the other did not. The church should be
taught this.

2. The poor. “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Thus
we should be glad to help all men—both aliens and saints—as we have opportunity,
the members coming first. • 3. The orphans and widows. Both are mentioned in the
same passage: “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, To
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Administering to the needs of widows and
orphans is vital, because it is a part of pure religion. Our homes for orphans
should receive our financial support. The money invested in the lives of these
orphans is paying incalculable dividends. We have a splendid young man in the
Polytechnic congregation who was reared in one of our orphan homes. He is an
outstanding young man, takes an active part in the work of the church, and is
seriously thinking of entering Abilene Christian College to prepare himself to
publicly proclaim the saving word. OUR CHRISTIAN COLLEGES You may think I have
gotten away from my subject in briefly mentioning our Christian colleges, but I
do not think so. It is my belief that everything which influences the church for
good or for bad is something that needs the prayers and the attention of the men
who are the overseers of the church. That our schools are influencing the church
is a fact not to be disputed. In fact, the church is feeling more and more the
influence of our schools; because more and more students are attending them. It
is my opinion that the majority of the ministers in our pulpits are men who have
attended Christian colleges. So, I still maintain that the influence of the
schools s too great for the church to be indifferent toward them We have some
living examples in the Polytechnic con-gregation of the Christian influence and
efficient training afforded by Abilene Christian College.

We have as our local evangelist one of the most successful preachers in the
church. He is a graduate, of Abilene Christian College. When he entered this
school he did not plan to preach; but through the influence of the school he
decided to preach. His name is Leroy Browniow.

We have in the Polytechnic church a young lady who serves as the preacher’s
secretary, who is also a graduate of Abilene Christian College. She quit a
government job to work for the church at a reduced salary. Her name is Lottie
Beth Hobbs.

We also have another lady who is recognized as one of the best Bible teachers in
this section of the country. She is also a graduate of Abilene Christian
College. Her name is Epsa Wells. The elders should use their influence, to keep
the schools loyal to the Lord and his word. They should do this, because of
their influence upon the church. We should see to it that our schools continue
to pull the church up by educating our boys and girls, and we should never allow
them to pull the church down by encouraging loose living or by promoting false
doctrine. The very school founded by Alexander Campbell is today a means of
spreading evil. We must not allow such to happen to our present day colleges.
The Christian colleges should have the cooperation and the moral and financial
support of Christian people. I am not advocating that we take money from the
church treasury to support them, but they can be supported individually by
individual Christians. And we can also support them by en-couraging our boys and
girls to attend them. This will be a means of mutually helping each other. We
have also found that when our minister is away it is good to have some capable
preacher on the faculty to fill the pulpit in his absence. This works to the
advantage of both the church and the school, because it helps both.

Yes, the schools affect the church; so, we should encourage them and be for them
when they do right, and we should be against them when they do wrong.

CONCLUSION I have briefly called your attention to some of the works of elders.
You see that it is a mighty, mighty big job. In conclusion, permit me to say
that elders are not born; they are developed. Thus we should be more efficient
as we have more time to develop. May God bless us to the end that we may always
strive to be better servants of the Master.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER XV — THE ELDERS AND THEIR WORK
========================================================================

CHAPTER XV --- The Elders and Their Work XV. THE ELDERS AND THEIR WORK
By ELDON A. SANDERS

One of the most important problems of the church of Christ concerns the elders
and their work. The social nature of man is such that someone must lead. Lest
someone assume the role of a dictator, the proper man must be placed in a
position of authority according to established law. As leadership is essential
in every form of organized society, it is essential in the church of Christ.
Thus God has provided for the appointment of elders in this divine institution.
The success of each church is dependent upon leadership and the attitude of the
members as expressed in their cooperative spirit which should be manifested by
the members and the elders. As the destiny of many souls is involved, each
church should strive to accomplish the two fold mission of the church which
Jesus included in the commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. . . .
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew
20:19-20). In the teaching of the gospel to the lost and to the members of the
church, Paul included certain types of teachers including pastors or elders:
“And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come to the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be
no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, the cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in
wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15). As we are living in
an age in which the church must yield an influence for righteousness as the salt
of the earth and the light of the world, every church should strive for
efficiency in the worship and the various activities in which the members may
engage as a group and as individuals. As the efficiency of a congregation
depends upon the leadership, we must have leaders who are scripturally qualified
and who have a good understanding of the great work which they have assumed the
responsibility to do.

QUALIFICATIONS OF ELDERS The qualifications which an elder should possess are
important as problems will arise in the course of their admin-istration which
can be settled only by a wise, prudent, and judicious application of general
principles. Hence elders should be men of rare and superior qualifications,
which are the qualifications specified for leadership in the church of the Lord.
The qualifications which have been set forth by Paul may be classified as
positive and negative:

POSITIVE QUALIFICATIONS (1 Timothy 3:2-7) 1. Blameless, a man against whom no
evil charge can be sustained. 2. Husband of one wife, according to divine law.
3. Vigilant, watchful with regard both to himself and the congregation (Ezekiel
3:17-21). 4. Sober-minded, of sound and well balanced mind. 5. Of good
behaviour, of good manners, chaste, courteous and polite in his whole demeanor.
6. Given to hospitality, a lover of strangers. 7. Apt to teach, an accurate
understanding of God’s will to man and the ability to communicate to others:
“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by
sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain- sayers” (Titus 1:9). 8.
Patient, steadfast in righteousness. 9. One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity. 10. Good report of them who
are not Christians.

NEGATIVE QUALIFICATIONS 1. Not given to wine, should not indulge in drinking
wine or any intoxicating liquors. 2. No striker, not quarrelsome, but a
peaceable man. 3. Not greedy of filthy lucre, not a person who gains money by
base or dishonorable means. 4. Not a brawler, not given to strife, but quiet and
peaceable. 5. Not covetous, not a lover of money, “For the love of money is the
root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

DUTIES OF ELDERS The duties of elders have been implied by the titles which have
been given to them: 1. Elder, which refers to “a person occupying any office
appropriate to such as have experience and dignity which age confers; as, the
elders of Israel; the elders of the Apostolic church.” 2. Shepherd and pastor,
which have the meaning of one who tends or feeds. 3. Bishop and overseer, which
have the meaning of one who oversees, superintends or supervises. 4. Ruler, one
who exercises authority. 5. Steward, one who is in charge of and at once
responsible for things of value which belong to another. 6. Leader, one who has
the authority to precede and direct. 7. Ensample, one who serves as a pattern or
model to be imitated. As we study the history of the church in Jerusalem, we
find that the elders advised concerning the problem of circumcision: “And the
apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter” (Acts 15:6). “And
as they went through the city, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that
were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4).
Thus the elders should serve the church by considering the various problems of
the church as a whole or of the individual members thereof. The elders as
shepherds should tend and feed the flock. David described the work of the
shepherd: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the
still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness”
(Psalms 23:2-3). The bishops or overseers should oversee, superintend or
supervise the activities of the flock and all things which pertain to the
spiritual welfare of the members. Paul said unto the elders of the church at
Ephesus: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Unto his brethren Peter said: “Feed the flock of
God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” (1 Peter 5:2). Hence the
bishops should supervise the selection of deacons and their activities. They
should direct the worship in order that everything may be done decently and in
order. They should superintend the Bible school, select the teachers, organize
the Bible classes according to the interests and needs of the various groups of
members, decide upon the time for revival meetings, select the evangelist and
missionaries and outline their program of work. As rulers the elders should
exercise authority even as Paul said: “One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity: for if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” (1 Timothy
3:4-5). Paul admonished the brethren at Thessalonica to have the right attitude
toward them who had rule over them in the Lord: “And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish
you; ... Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the
fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all men” (1 Thessalonians
5:12-14). Also to Timothy he said: “Let the elders that rule well be counted
worthy of double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17). Unto the Hebrews: “Obey them that rule
over you, and submit yourselves” (Hebrews 13:17). The elders as stewards must be
responsible for the de-velopment and proper use of the talents of the membership
of the church. “For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God” (Titus
1:7). He must be faithful for “It is required in stewards that a man be found
faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). The elders should inspire the congregation to
give themselves unto the Lord and to be liberal in the contribution of their
means for the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth. The church needs
leaders who lead and show the way of righteousness by their deeds rather than
merely tell of the way. Perhaps too many who serve as bishops are like the
parent who commands his child to do as he says and not as he does. The elders
must be ensamples to the flock: “Not as being lords over God’s heritage, but
ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). As Paul admonished the brethren at
Philippi to imitate him, so should an elder be able to exhort his brethren:
“Brethren, be imitators together of me, and observe carefully those thus
walking, as ye have us for an ensample” (Php_3:17) Paul gave an admonition which
may be applied by elders today: “But be thou an example of the believers in
word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy
4:12). Therefore elders should be examples to the flock in manner of life,
attendance of services, loyalty and devotion to truth, and in manifesting a
cooperative spirit for the advancement of the cause of Christ.

ATTITUDE OF MEMBERS The importance of the work of the elders has been
em-phasized by the Holy Spirit in the teaching of the members to have the proper
attitude toward the leaders of the church: “Obey them that rule over you, and
submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give
account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief, for that is
unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17). “And we beseech you, brethren, to know
them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And
to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Thessalonians
5:12-13). “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in word and doctrine” (1 Timothy 5:17). A capable
elder is indeed a ruler who serveth: “For whosoever will be great among you, let
him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your
servant” (Matthew 20:26-27).

CONCLUSION Surely, “This is a true saying, If a man desireth the office of a
bishop, he desireth a good work” (1 Timothy 3:1). As the office of a bishop
indicates a position in which men may serve as an elder, shepherd, ruler,
steward, leader, and en- sample, they who serve should heed the admonition of
Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to
all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). For
“When the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away” (1 Peter 5:4).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER XVI — THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK
========================================================================

CHAPTER XVI --- The Preacher and His Work XVI. THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK
By F. B. SHEPHERD

Good afternoon, brethren. My assignment for today is a part of the general
theme, “The Church at Work.” The speakers on this theme who have preceded me
presented their thoughts on the phases, “The Congregation at Work” and “The
Elders and Their Work” It is nry responsibility to address myself to the
question, “The Preacher and His Work.” I believe I am justified in supposing
that our good president, Don Morris, had in mind for me a discussion of the
preacher and his work from the standpoint of what we have learned to call the
“Local Preacher,” “The Minister” or the “Local Evangelist.” This is no time or
place to discuss the way or wherefores, or the scripturalness of the phraseology
used in these titles. We have these gentlemen in our brotherhood. I am known as
one of them. I have been one for thirty years. If I did not believe I have been
carrying on and can continue to carry on in a way that does no violence to the
spirit or letter of the New Testament, I would have changed my course and
conduct long ago. Regardless of the theory of anyone about whether we should or
should not, we are called upon today to discuss the. fact. Like the poor, we
have them always with us. Or, if not already with us almost every church in the
brotherhood today would have one if she could.

I propose to elaborate upon this question along two lines. One, what the
scriptures teach. Two, “One man’s opinion.” This opinion of this one man,
however, has become practically a conviction A conviction, I persuade myself,
that has been arrived at from a study of the word of God. Knowing brother Morris
as I think I do, I am persuaded his greatest concern vTith respect to the effect
of my speech is that I say something of practical benefit to you younger men in
the audience. I cannot expect to say anything that will benefit the men as old
or older than myself. If they do not already know and believe the things I shall
say, it is too late now for me to teach them or impart any information or
inspiration to them that will be of lasting value.

Facts and Theories Personally, I fear, I shun, and I pray, I may never become a
“Pastor” in the present day denominational sense of the word. I avoid the title
“Minister” written with the capital letter. Still I am a pastor and I am a
minister. One of the things I have to guard against constantly is keeping the
brethren from forcing me to become THE pastor. I am an evangelist. I am
primarily an evangelist. I believe every preacher should be primarily an
evangelist. One does not have to preach in a different locality every two weeks
to be an evangelist. He is a teller of good news. The word is used but three
times in the New Testament. Acts 21:8; Ephesians 4:11 and 2 Timothy 4:5.
Certainly, as used in the New Testament, it refers to the proclamation of the
good tidings concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, unto the remission of man’s sins (Acts 21:8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
In this sense Christ and the Apostles were evangelists and everyone who would
now be faithful to the Great Commission is an evangelist. When we become
Christians we simultaneously have the responsibility placed upon us, so far as
individual opportunity and possibility are concerned, to make the Gospel of
Christ and his sacrifice for men known to the whole world. But! every child of
God evidently is not an evangelist in the sense of Acts 21:8; Ephesians 4:11; 2
Timothy 4:5. These passages evidently indicate an “Official” meaning of the
word, and involve a specific use thereof. Second Timothy four and five implies
one whose chief business is to tell Good Tidings unto men’s conversion. Most
likely the first incumbents of the evangelistic office were divinely inspired
and miraculously qualified to reveal the truth of God ro the world. Hut the
office does not now depend upon a continuation of such circumstances and
miraculous gifts. Inspiration was necessary only until the New Testament was
written and hence ALL truth delivered to men (John 16:13).

Today the evangelist must “Study—Give Diligence” to present himself approved
unto God. The First Official Use of the Title, so far as the record is
concerned, was regarding Philip, one of the Se^en, Acts 21:8. Afterwards it was
applied to Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:5. Examination of the many records of the
activity of Philip and Timothy clearly reveal the work of those who would fulfil
the office today. Acts 8; Acts 19:22; 1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 16:10;
Acts 20:4. Study of the labors of such companions of Paul, as Mark, Luke, Titus,
Silas, and others further informs regarding what the Spirit requires. The
qualifications of an evangelist are set forth at length in the two letters to
Timothy and the one to Titus. In brief they are: 1. The ability to make known to
others in a clear, forcible, becoming, and convincing manner the whole, counsel
of God. 2. Fidelity in the discharge of all duties and obligations of the
office. The evangelist must necessarily seek the fullest knowledge,
understanding, and discernment of the Gospel plan of salvation possible. 1
Timothy 4:7-16. He must maintain a high type of moral and spiritual charactei
that there be no reproach brought upon the church through his conduct. He must
also be willing and ready to sacrifice and suffer for the Cause. 1 Timothy 6:20;
2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Timothy 2:10. The work of the evangelist
today and throughout all time is an absolute prerequisite to the establishment
of churches, and the perpetuation, power, and efficiency of the churches thus
established. Romans 10:13-15; 2 Timothy 2:2. It involves convicting and
baptizing men; collecting converts into congregations; watching over and
instructing them until they are capable of edifying themselves effectively; and
appointing bishops according to the qualifications required by the Spirit. I
said appointing bishops, I did not say deposing bishops. With these thoughts
expressed by way of introduction shall we address ourselves directly to the
subject of our assignment? THE PREACHER AND HIS WORK Suppose we take a look at
the MAN first. Both theoretically and practically, the preacher becomes the
representative or the misrepresentative of the congregation of which he becomes
a member and which he is supposed to serve. There is no time during which he
resides in the community when his life and conduct is thought of by the public,
or the brethren, as separate and apart from the congregation itself. His every
act reflects to help or hurt the congregation itself and its standing with men.
He may seek to have “mental reservations” and do some things “merely as a man,”
but he fools no one but himself. If he fools himself. What he is every day and
everywhere, the public accepts as the standard of the congregation. That the
congregation supports and retains him is presumptive evidence he is what they
are and what they want. He is their representative. What is more, if he stays a
few years, he will mold the congregation largely to his manner of thinking and
mode of life. The person who wrote “like priest, like people” didn’t make it so
by recording it. He recorded it because it IS so. The what and the way of the
preacher’s preaching speedily becomes the what and the way of the faith and
practice of the congregation. As time goes on, his standards of life, his
everyday conduct, soon permeates the entire local body and become its standard
and its general life. A tobacco using, forty-two playing, theatre going, “hail
fellow well met,” “man about town” preacher soon develops that style church if
they let him stay long enough. And, vice versa, the thoughtful, studious,
prayerful, dignified, lover of God and the souls of men, lifts the group up to
standards that exemplify the Christ, whose name, they wear and wdiose Body they
are. Young man, what shall it be with you? THE WORK Primarily the work of the
preacher is to “Preach the Word” in season, out of season. “Teach all nations,”
“Preach the gospel to every creature.” Make clear to every man the conditions
upon w'hich God in righteousness can pardon his sins. Under modern conditions we
are confronted with the almost insurmountable difficulty ot unteaching men; of
ridding men’s minds of sectarian error. No field can be made to bring forth a
w'orth while crop until it is cleansed of noxious weeds. It is not enough to
teach the truih positively. You must also teach the truth negatively. Error must
be uprooted. It must be exposed. It must be combated. The Great Evangelist was
just as decidedly negative as he was positive. Paul was an educated, refined,
Christian gentleman, but inspired by the Spirit he talked about false teachers,
he talked to false teachers, probably privately; but we do know he taught
publicly, for his words have been spread on the pages of God’s book for the eyes
and ears of saint and sinner, believer and infidel, for lo, these nineteen
hundred years. If you would be ethical according to ihe etiquette of Jesus and
Paul, I suggest you study the IIolv Spirit wiitten textbook rather than those of
sister Emily and brother Dale. Be pleased to rernemner that die prcaehmg, in
subject for discussion and method of delivery, of both Christ and Paul was Holy
Spirit dictated.

These preachers did not have to be inspired to know the falsehoods of life and
practices. Their inspiration was to direct them into the infallible method of
dealing with falsehoods and falsifiers. A teaching or practice is right or
wrong, truth or lie, not because he who speaks or practices ’s good or bad
morally, but because it originated either with God 01 the Devil. The gospel
preacher today, who does not as vigorously combat error as he seeks to proclaim
truth, has studied the wrong text on “Method of Approach.” Among men there are
“ways,” “good ways” and “better ways,” but God alone offers the infallible zvay.
The only right way. Bo long as error exists, so long as men can be deceived, so
long as men are prone to make mistakes, warning signs must be hung at pitfalls,
warning signals must be sounded at danger points. False teaching must be plainly
pointed out, or so-called gospel preachers will be found at the judgment with
the blood of fellow mortals on their hands. Ezekiel 33:7-9. “Reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long suffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). So much for the
preaching end of the work of the preacher. As MUCH AS IN ME; IS Any man who is
supported by his fellow Christians so he does not have to engage in secular
employment to secure a living for himself and family, should be honest enough,
honorable enough, and conscieniious enough to put his full tune to the WORK of a
preacher. He must ever love the truth to the extent he .will give his life for
the preservation of its purity and integrity. 2 Timothy 2:23; 2 Timothy 3:16.
The work, then, of the preacher, is to evangelize. May I place the emphasis
where I believe it rightfully belongs? The WORK. Young men, who perhaps are
expecting to be preachers in the sense of my theme, jou can choose your own
course. Every harvest demands its own planting. A preacher can work himself to
death, almost, in obscurity. Or he can loaf his life away in the limelight. The
life of a preacher can be as indolent a life, almost, as can be imagined by
anyone who pretends to work at all. On the other hand, it can be the most
strenuous. Choose you this day. But! if you really want to have a hope of
heaven, I urge that you choose the path of vigorous, aggressive, almost day and
night application to the WORK of the preacher. Jesus the Christ satd: \\ e must
work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no
man can work. I would analyze that for you. We must WORK. We MUST work. We MUST
WORK the work of HIM that sent Jesus. We MUST WORK the work OF HIM that sent me
WHILE it is DAY. The clock watcher, the idler, the sitdowner in the factory is
no more dishonest than the preacher who spends less than forty-eight hours a
week in diligent application to doing the “WORK of the preacher.” He who does
not give a good days work for a good days pay -s a thief of time. What about a
preacher? We should be honest, even in religion. The average preacher today
receives from $7.00 to $35.00 a day. More or less. Few less than $7.00. Some
more than $35.00. The average preacher has only about as much stock in trade
equipment as will qualify him to teach m an elementary school or hold down a
factory job. Few of us could demand as large, a salary elsewhere. Few could make
any more actual “take, home” cash at anything else. Just look around, please.
Preachers—very, very few, make any sacrifice NOW. “Mission work,” so called, and
often misnamed, is about as lucrative as “Evangelistic work” of the regular
order of a few years ago. In every congregation there are lambs that must be
carried; lost sheep to find; sick to be visited; weary toilers to be encouraged;
mourners to be comforted; dead to be buried; and lovers to be married. It is the
will of God this work be done. In the theory of some, most of this should be
done by the elders. In practice it is idle to expect constant and efficient work
of men who are burdened daily with the responsibility of business, office,
store, or factory. However, since these men sow unto you their carnal things,
should they not reap your spiritual things? (See 1 Corinthians 9:11, Romans
15:27).

There are not a few ideas affirmed of the work, obligations, and
responsibilities of the bishops that are more fanciful than they are fact. The
brother who told the congregation in his first sermon he did not propose to
become a “Wet nurse” to that church showed no more smartness in intellect than
he did elegance in speech. But, that is not our subject at this time. If the
“Preacher” doesn’t make calls who should and can? If he doesn’t spend much time
visiting, how is he to know how to rightly divide the word among the brethren to
their good? How is he to know where and when milk or meat is needed? Paul was an
evangelist but he “fed the flock” according to its needs. How did he learn its
needs? At Ephesus he declared “anything that was profitable” to the elders. He
taught the Christians at Ephesus “publicly” and “from house to house.” For three
years he “ceased not to admonish everyone night and day.” Pie must have been
almost the “local evangelist,” the “minister” there. During that time all they
that dwrelt in Asia heard the word (Acts 19:10), and the whole counsel of God
was declared (Acts 20:27). He.pointed out that the baptism of some of the
members was invalid. He imparted to them the Holy Spirit when they corrected
their error. He spoke boldly in the Jewish synagogue. He taught a school for the
disciples two years. He worked with his hands and supported himself and his
helpers financially. He furnished the Christians an example in ALL things. He
must have done the “Work of the Preacher.” What more can be expected of the
preacher today? What less dare we attempt, than that which was done by the
greatest preacher of the Christian dispensation? The apostle Paul himself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 19: CHAPTER XVII — THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS
========================================================================

CHAPTER XVII --- The Christian in Business XVII. THE CHRISTIAN IN BUSINESS
By Orvai FIlbeck The greatest and only genuine movement the world has ever known to remedy sin is that of Christianity. Christ per- foimed his great mission in a world abounding in sin. He walked and talked with his disciples, associated with publicans and sinners and directed them to a higher life. Jesus could see the evil practices of sin and witnessed the wreckage that inexorably visited greed, deception, hypocrisy and all manner of sin. -'he Son of God commissioned his apostles to lead people from the paths of error. They were to take his message to sinful men, for “they that are whole need not a physician.” No other person had seen the way of dealing with soul-sick men. As early as the third century of the Christian era, it is said that people, and possibly many genuine Christians, began to leave society and live as hermits to escape the association with sinful people. These hermits practiced severe austerities and often engaged in self-torture, believing that such represented discipline conducive to spiritual perfection. This eremitical life developed into the monasticism of the fourth and subsequent centuries. The early inhabitants of the monasteries thought they were living in a realm far removed from sin. But they lost sight of the means that Jesus used in healing men of their pernicious disease. No one can hide and lead others. He must walk purely and courageously through the sin-infested field to lead others to the realm of light. The misconception of God’s plan, characteristic, of mon-asticism, should be observed thoughtfully. As long as man remains on this earth he must of necessity associate with sinners, though the Christian refrains from sin itself. In 1 Cor-inthians 5 :9, 10, Paul said: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators; yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.” Jesus said: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15). Thus we will of necessity have certain contacts with sinful men as we endeavor to teach them, though we must not engage in their evil operations. The problem of engaging in business in the commercial world is of paramount importance to God’s people. There is a multitude of Christians engaged in as many professions— such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, merchants, farmers, journalists, salesmen, executives, and a number of other enterprises. The great question is: Can a Christian conduct a business enterprise or be employed and remain a faithful child of God ? This question involves more factors than some have been led to believe. In a complex world there are so many things that tend to detract one from right. Constant vigilance is imperative in maintaining a purity of life when one encounters so many obstacles that would deter him from righteous action.

Reinhold Neibuhr says that "the field of politics and economics is particularly
strategic testing-ground of the adequacy and relevance of a religio-moral world
view.” The solution to this vital problem must be found in the Christian way of
life if we expect people to follow Jesus. Yes, we must live, work and be a
Christian.

One writer has said that "the harm done to the public welfare by selfish
politics is a minor matter compared with the harm done by selfish business.” A
former federal judge has described the sinister influence of graft: "Corruption
’Reinhold Neibuhr, Anx Interpretation of Christian Ethics, p. 139. “Durant
Drake, The New Morality, p. 163. "does more than filch your tax money. ... It
imperils health, wrecks families, steals homes, paralyses governments, and costs
the lives of hundreds of people.” These observations must not be accepted
lightly, for they are related to powerful forces molding and shaping the world
in the present and future. The Christian finds himself in a commercial world
filled with evil forces. He may question as to his duty in being honest and his
chances of remaining in business. Doubtless those in business can assist in the
solution of the complex problem. A company president said: “Without competition,
business would quickly degenerate into a system of guilds and monopolies. The
level of prices would soon get out of line with national purchasing power, and
the State would have to take business over to make it function effectively as a
service to society.”'1 Another business man speaks of the need for honesty in
the commercial world: “After selling many kinds of merchandise, from books to
vehicles, a prominent direct-mail advertising man tells me that a selling letter
which admits a defect in the goods will always outpull a letter which claims
perfection.” If the “salt of the, earth” and the “light of the wrorld” are not
courageous enough to be honest in business and are not willing to subordinate
self-interest to the good of other people, the church will suffer. The blunt
truth is that wre as members of the church must be fair, honest, and considerate
in our business relations. The Word of God is replete with principles that
direct Christians in business life. Jesus said: “Therefore all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). No
just criticism has ever been directed at this teaching. It can and should be
taken as a universal principle of action. For example, if an individual should
will to tell a lie, he could not wish that others lie to him, for such would be
a contradiction. This principle holds true in regard to stealing, cheating, and
deceptive practices of every description. The truth of this great teaching
(Matthew 7:12) will not be demonstrated to be vitalizing and dynamic by hiding
within walls of seclusion, but by energetically facing the trials of life. This
eternal principle of Jesus precludes the using of another individual for a means
to an end, such as the gaining of a sum of money in an unjust way. We must be
conscious of the thought of “duty” as it is found in Jesus’ teaching. This means
a recognition of responsibility as one deals with his brethren and other people.
The real problem comes when one actually deals in a business world,
characterized by the profit-system, and has resolved to be a consistent child of
God. “Can a successful salesman be a brother? If so, to whom? To the manager who
expects him to get results? Or to the people whom he persuades to buy?”0 Is not
the answer to be found when one is loyal to the principles of Christ? People in
this country expect the price they pay for merchandise to include profit for
others. But if the profit is exorbitant in abnormal times, such as when there
are extreme shortages of products, the practice is highly questionable. When we
are governed by Christian ideals extreme inequalities are removed. Profit and
the accumulation of wealth must not govern life. Jesus said: “For a man’s life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
What then is the measure of life, especially in the commercial world? It must be
measured by such attributes as honesty, truth, love, service, and other
qualities. Just as we expect social services from a public officer, even so, the
Christian should expect to be a servant to his fellow-men. Not a slave, but one
who places the value of life above material things. When service to others
becomes a guiding principle, other factors in life tend to settle to their
proper level. Selfishness, greed, and deceptive devices are removed. This was
the life of Jesus, for “the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). When one
hears a Christian charge that a brother has dealt unjustly in a business
transaction, the only conclusion to reach is that one, or both, has dealt in an
evil way. This very often happens in the church. Abraham’s historic statement,
“for we are brethren,” should remain in the mind of him who is consummating a
business transaction with his brethren. The Christian will elevate in his life
the spirit of good-will toward men, even under discouraging circumstances. Paul
rebuked the Corinthians for engaging in litigation with God’s people before
pagan tribunals (1 Corinthians 6:1). Would he not rebuke one who exacts an
exorbitant profit from his brethren? Would he not reprehend one for falsely
representing a product, such as an automobile, a horse, or a cow? The followers
of Christ cannot become more like their Master through misrepresentation, evil
desire, and other evil machinations.

Some one may feel that we are living in opportune times to make a high profit on
merchandise. Says he, “Others are making all the money possible, why not
myself?” It might be valuable to suggest that the Sophists of Greece, the fifth
century B. C., propounded a relativity of morals. Protagoras said, “Man is the
measure of all things.” But such would make truth and right purely relative.
There would be no way of comparing your truth and mine. Each man’s mind is the
jury that determines truth. It further means that there is no way of
establishing a principle as true and necessarily valid. But Jesus viewed man and
the world and consciously presented principles that are universal in nature. He
did not use the power to gain great financial returns as the criterion for
determining a successful life. When such great principles as truth, justice, and
honesty are dealt with lightly and relatively, the actions of the individual
tend to become questionable.

Attitudes toward the gaining and possessing of wealth constitute a powerful
factor in the making of one’s life. Paul said: “For the love of money is the
root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the
faith.” An inordinate craving for the increase in wealth is a constant danger to
the Christian’s life. It is a well demonstrated fact that increase in material
possessions does not usually allay the yearning for them. Solomon said: “He that
loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance
with increase” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). The truth of this statement is axiomatic. At
the present time the world contains too many people who are craftily devising
means of appeasing their insatiable craving for more wealth. But Jesus gave
himself, not for self-gain, but for the redemption of man and the alleviation of
physical distresses.

One may well consider as to the kind of an attitude a Christian should have
toward the gaining of money. It must certainly be tempered with a profound
respect for the rights and welfare of other people. A salutary view is portrayed
in the following: “Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty
nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee,
and say, who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my
God in vain” (Proverbs 30:8-9). The commendable spirit of desiring to live and
see others live can well be applied in business life. For example, a Christian
cannot reprimand an employer for paying poor wages if he insists on buying the
product at the cost of production or below. To live decently and fairly
necessitates one’s allowing the other individual to live similarly.

Let us ever remember that Christians are representatives of the Son of God. We
cannot glorify him by hiding from the world, but by faithfully and confidently
walking down the path of time. Only by upholding and practicing his righteous
principles, applicable to all life, can we deliver ourselves with clean hands to
God. Only by such can we portray our appre-ciation for the gift of Christ to the
world. May the Lord help us to be faithful and bless us in our practices that
are right.

Bibliography (as to Orval Filbeck’s lecture only.) The Bible Aspley, J. C., “Be
Thankful for Your Competitors,” The Rotarian. Dec. 1941. Drake, Durant, The Nezv
Morality, New York: The Macmillan Company. 1928. Giles, Ray, “Good Sportsmanship
Makes Good Business,” The Rotarian. Sept. 1941. Johnson, George E. Q., “How
Graft Hurts You,” The Rotarian. Dec. 1941. Neibuhr, Reinhold, An Interpretation
of Christian Ethics. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1935. Smith, Gerald B.,
Principles of Christian Living. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1924.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER XVIII — BEYOND THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
========================================================================

CHAPTER XVIII --- Beyond the Western Hemisphere XVIII. BEYOND THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
BY OLAN L. HICKS

I am happy to be present on this occasion, as I feel that we are here today
witnessing an event of great historic sig¬nificance. Perhaps none of us here
realizes the extent of influence and the changes which may result in the world
as a result of the inspiration and encouragement which are being aroused during
these lectures.

“Beyond the Western Hemisphere” is the title of the subject I am to speak,
about. But I want it clearly understood that I am not here as the special
exponent or advocate of either foreign missions or home missions exclusively. I
am here as an advocate of going “into all the world and preaching the gospel to
every creature.” I cannot say that one type of missionary work is more important
than another—whether it is more important to preach in Judea or Samaria or in
the uttermost parts of the earth. This much I know: Our job is to preach it in
all of them.

Christians are under an obligation to cultivate a large horizon, and to cherish
large views. Lord Salisbury, the great English Prime Minister, when seeking to
persuade certain of his associates to adopt the world-wide policies which he
advocated, said to them, “Gentlemen, you should study larger maps.” My brethren,
;n the past we have studied too small maps.

We have heard much in recent months about the unity of the world. Wendell
Willkie.’s One World became a best seller. Men no longer think in terms of
isolated little com¬munities; they no longer pass their years in little pastoral
neighborhoods, quiet and unaware of the. rest of the world, undisturbed by the
rush and hurry of civilization. Our world is so closely knit and linked up that
what men in any section of it do and think vitally effects the affairs of men in
every other section of the world. The bushmen of Australia, the. junglemen of
Africa, the hilimen of India, the remote peasants of China, the Indian peons of
Mexico and South America— they are all a part of the world’s confusion and
hysteria. Great plantations, mass production, regimentation, world policies and
politics, race prejudice, and world trade have become factors in the lives of
all people, and thereby have made us “one world.”

Even more significant, the people of all the world are victims if propaganda
from all over the world. The spread of isms throughout the world is a serious
lesson to the church that preaching the gospel, if it is ever to be done
effectively, is a world-wide job. This means that if Christianity is to become a
dominating force it must be planted on a world scale. Christianity is a
world-religion.

Now we as a people have been glib at quoting the great commission. We have used
it perhaps more than any other religious group; but our use of it has been
faulty. We quoted it all, but we saw only that part of it dea'ing with baptism.
This we used powerfully to discomfit the gainsayer. But while we were lampooning
him for ignoring the command regarding Baptism, we were laying ourselves open to
even sterner condemnation by ignoring the part which commands us to preach the
gospel to the whole world. It comes with poor grace to claim that we have the
only true teaching, and then to sit idly with it and not urge it upon the hearts
of all the world. In the heaits of thinking men there must be some doubt of our
complete sincerity. Others whom we pity and hold to be in error pur us to shame
and condemn us by¬proclaiming all over the world what they believe to be the
gospel. But we are waking up. The greatly increased amount of evangelistic work
that is being done is a gratifying thing to contemplate. The ideal of going into
all the world to preach the gospel is really beginning to take fire with
hundreds of our congregations. It is cause for rejoicing when we think of the
remarkable contrast between conditions along that line now and fifteen years
ago. But we must remember that we have not arrived—but only started. The world’s
multiplied millions still stand untouched by the gospel. But let us consider
some of the fields beyond the western hemisphere. In the Hawaiian Islands where
over 500,000 people live we have only one small congregation of about seventy
members, most of whom are service personnel. At the present time we face
brighter prospects in this great “crossroads of the Pacific” area than we have
ever had before. Our work in the Isles, though nothing to boast of, dates back
to 1920. It has been largely due to the faith and loyalty of service personnel
stationed there from time to time that the church has gained the footing it has.
We now have a commodious house of worship in one of the older sections of the
city of Honolulu, thanks to the leadership of the Ferris, Texas, church who also
sent the evangelist, Osby Weaver, there for two years’ work.

He was followed in the work by Homer Hailey, who is to be assisted by Haskell
Chesshir and Bill Patterson. Hailey reports that, with all we have done in the
past, the church is not yet firmly established in the Islands. There are only
about twelve or fifteen permanent residents among the membership of the
congregation. The church is placing special stress upon teaching the local
inhabitants of the city. Vacation Bible schools for the children, house to house
teaching, more advanced Bible school work for those accept¬ing it, as well as
the beginning of a Bible training school to be conducted by Hailey for young men
who are to assist in the work in the Islands in the future. Some of these men
will attend the University of Hawaii part time also and will receive aid under
the GI Bill of Rights.

Among the hundreds of thousands of the isles where the Catholics, the
Protestants and Oriental religions have great followings, and where the Mormons
have erected a temple second only to the one in Salt Lake City, certainly our
efforts to date must seem small. But there is no need for dismay. Here is one of
our great opportunities. The ground is broken and recent results show the
natives are open to teaching. What we need is scores of trained, earnest workers
to go into “the isles of enchantment.”

Still farther away in the Pacific lie Australia and New Zealand. Both of these
countries are new in spirit much as our own country. They still have the flavor
and spirit of the frontier and much of their heritage is identical with our own.
We have a common background in a love for liberty, in fundamental laws, and in
our mother tongue. In fact, a person from either of these countries would get
along well in your community or mine. Many of our young men who were stationed
among them during the war learned that we could live in their country without
too many or too great adjustments. At one time the Restoration Movement had a
strong hold in each of these countries, but as the division of instrumental
music in the worship and the use of the Missionary Society as an agency for
preaching the gospel arose, our position in these countries grew more and more
precarious. Workers sent out by the Missionary Society carried the church along
with them on the wave of popular enthusiasm and by telling them that all the
brethren in the States were of the same mind on these matters.

Only a very few remained loyal to the old paths and they were left to shift for
themselves, as we did not supply them with preachers or other encouragement. Now
we have only handfuls in each of these countries and so far as I know, only one
full time preacher is being supported to work among them. This is brother Colin
B. Smith and according to reports he is finding the task anything but easy.

There are a number of reasons why his task is hard. There is the dominant
strength of the Catholic Church, whose members occupy high places of state and
whose officials wield a very great influence on national policies and
prac¬tices. It is clearly evident that the Catholic clergy has for¬gotten the
resolution passed by their church in Port Phillip in 1839. Their present day
intolerance may be seen by an experience told by one of the servicemen who was
recently stationed at Gilford. While a meeting in Auborn was in progress, with
preaching being held two nights each week, the talents of the young men were
being used as much as possible. This young serviceman was a speaker one night
After the service he stepped outside the building and was surprised to see a man
and a priest conversing in low tones, just beyond the hall. He called this to
the attention of one of the young men, who told him that he was late in getting
to the meeting and when he arrived these two men were standing outside the
doorway in the hall “listening in”-on what was taking place. Not a great deal
more was thought about the incident until a few weeks later, when Brother Smith
called on the caretaker of the hall to pay the rent. Then he was questioned
sharply concerning “the tall American chap who has been preaching here” and
whether he “sanctioned the things the American said.” He then stated that there
were complaints registered against holding meetings in the hall.

Besides the problem of Catholic opposition there is also a general decline in
religious interest among these people during the last generation, which
particularly coincides with the growing revolution in political conditions
toward intol¬erance and regimentation. The labor party is at present in power,
with a strong Communistic element involved. Con¬fusion and turmoil are
characteristic of governmental admin¬istration. Many of the high officials are
of Catholic faith and some reports indicate that as high as 90% of public
service personnel are Catholics.

Importation of literature and books is closely censored. “The most harmless
books are peremptorily banned by the Minister of Customs—whoever he may be at
the time.” H. G. Wells, after having visited Australia commented, “A barrier of
illiterate policemen and officials stands between the tender Australian mind and
what they imagine to be subversive literature.” Realizing that loyal Catholic
men in practically all cases constitute the “policemen and officials” it becomes
understandable that they feel particularly inclined to protect the tender minds
of their own faith. As a result, persons of “other persuasions” find it more and
more difficult to obtain books or literature except such as approved by the
censor or customs officials. During this emergency the printing business is
closely regimented and printing of non-essential publications is restricted.
Comparatively little religious material is published (and that which is
available exhorbi- tantly high priced). The people depend to a large extent on
imported Bibles and religious material to supply their needs and this
importation is gradually being more and more restricted by customs regulations.

Added to this is the strong negative influence exercised by the group there
which nearly corresponds to the Christian Church in the United States. In fact,
the ties between them are rather strong. Their prejudices against us are extreme
and wherever Brother Smith and his helpers make an effort to plant the gospel,
these men are busy with every means at their disposal to counteract it.

I believe it is safe to say that we have no braver or more courageous soul among
us today than Colin B. Smith, who has dared to face all of the problems,
prejudices, and oppo¬sition in Australia almost single-handed. In the area of
Aus¬tralia, New Zealand, and New Guinea there are between twelve to fourteen
millions of people. Certainly young men could find no greater challenge than
this to go into the new land where the gospel is needed to spend their lives to
establish the church in strength. As we look in the opposite direction from our
home land we see Europe with its more than four hundred millions of people. Due
to the war millions of these people have been displaced. Germany, Holland,
Belgium, France, Euro¬pean Russia, Poland, Italy, Greece, Austria, Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Spain, and other countries all call for
our help in preaching the gospel. Men in the service who were stationed in these
countries can testify to the fact that people in all these countries have the
same kind of hearts as we—the same needs, the same yearnings, the same joys, and
the same need for the hope of the gospel. In various places our men found
families or even small groups of people intelligently seeking for the truth and
in many instances these groups occupied a position nearly akin to our own. They
are seeking for simple New Testa¬ment Christianity without hindrance of Pope,
prelate, or denominationalism. In Marseille, France, our men succeeded in
baptizing five fine persons. Perhaps there were others in isolated instances. In
Germany there were found to be thousands of people who occupy a religious
position very closely resem¬bling our own. Even England is a strong challenge to
our efforts in preaching the gospel, for there the cause is not too strong in
spite of the fact that the church has been in exist¬ence there for over one
hundred years.

AFRICA WITH ITS ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT MILLIONS In South Africa there is a
field of labor among English speaking white people as rich as is to be found for
gospel labors in almost any other country. We have only a few churches there,
among, I believe, its six million English speaking white inhabitants. We have
had several families to spend much of their lives in labors among the natives of
Rhodesia and their labors have been very fruitful, but even so we have not begun
to touch the great task of evangelizing the dark depths of the dark continent.
Too long we have dreaded the problem and have felt that missionary work was a
thing for somebody else but never for ourselves. We have even discouraged our
children from the tasks (and the joys) of becoming evangelists to far away
people. We were too selfish and loved the cause too little. But if we are ever
to reach the many nations of the earth with the gospel we shall have to sell our
children on the idea as denominations do, to encourage our children to go into
the dark lands and heavy tasks and look with pride upon a son or a daughter who
is far away in such labors. In Asia alone there are one billion and one hundred
and fifty-four million inhabitants, exclusive of 175 million in the Russian
section, according to the 1943 International Yearbook. When Ave think of the
vast lands of China, Japan, Korea and India, the imagination is staggered. In
China alone there are four hundred and sixty-five million inhab¬itants and in
India there are more than three hundred and twenty millions, or six times as
many people in these two countries as in the entire United States. We have begun
work in some of these lands only to fold up a few years later and practically
surrender the field when usual circum-stances arose.

Closer allied to our own country by ties of protection and common interests are
the Philippine Islands, with their seventeen million people. In the past we have
done consid¬erable work on these Isles and our present prospects are very
encouraging. What we need to do is to catch the tide while it is at the crest,
while both opportunity in the lands away and an attitude to preach the gospel on
the part of the brethren at home are in evidence. In conclusion, I should like
to suggest that our congre-gations seek out methods of closer cooperation for
the carry¬ing on of missionary work both at home and abroad and that our schools
inaugurate intense courses of training marked out carefully to equip students
for entering both the various foreign fields as well as fields at home. We must
either start acting upon our preaching or in consistency quit talking about the
“great commission.”

We need to learn the urgency of preaching the gospel. Chaplain Shirley Morgan,
who was only recently separated from the service, told me of an incident which
occurred in the far away Pacific Isles. He was talking with a group of other
chaplains from numerous religious bodies, Catholics, Pentecostal, Baptist, and
others. Having placed his position firmly and clearly before the group, one of
them in all sincerity interrupted, “Chaplain Morgan, do you really believe what
you have just said?” To which Chaplain Morgan replied of course that he did.
Then the other chaplain answered, “Why, if I believed as you say that you do I
could not rest day or night until I had pressed my belief upon the attention of
every responsible person I could reach.” We need that sense of the value of the
gospel.

WHY MUST THE CHURCH BE MISSIONARY? The church must be missionary because its
message is the only message of salvation for a lost world. All the new knowledge
of even the atomic age has disclosed nothing that is at variance with or can
supersede this awful fact. Those who claim to be Christian and are not concerned
about bringing others to Christ tacitly admit their hypocrisy.

Any church which is not dreaming and planning its work in terms of preaching the
gospel to all men is tacitly admitting that it has no message for any man. The
church must be missionary because the gospel is for all men—not just for a few
fortunate who by no merit of their own chanced to be the ones who have thus far
received it. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature.” It is not a message for caste, class or clime, but for all men. Its
validity knows no limita¬tions either of geography or time. It has survived the
end of more than one age and the collapse of many political and economic
dynasties. It is timeless in its appeal and power. The church must be missionary
from the purely selfish reason of self-defense. The church which is not
missionary is a dying church. Those congregations which are most concerned about
and doing the most in evangelistic work are the healthiest and strongest from
every point of consid¬eration. It is through the medium of such missionary
activity that the church keeps its pulse quickened and its life blood pure.
Otherwise, we shall become ingrown and wither. The church must preach the gospel
to all men if we hope for peace on earth. The experiences and tragedies of the
past fifty or one hundred years should teach us that no valid faith can be put
in the unilateral treaties of men and nations. We must put our trust in God’s
way. If one-ten- thousand ih part as much had been spent to preach the gospel to
the whole world during the last fifty years as has been spent as the result of
war during the past ten, there would have been no such horrible war. The church
must pleach the gospel because, it has the only weapon which can successfully
combat the collective evils of our complex and sinful age. It is the leaven
which can leaven the whole lump.

Christians must preach the gospel of salvation to all men everywhere in order to
be saved themselves. It is useless ico depend on the Lord to save us if we do
not try to save others as we make the Christian journey.

“The field is white unto gleaning; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that He send forth reapers.”


========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/abilene1946-lectures/
========================================================================