The King’s Business “Unto him that loved washed our hes tx his oun Wood Ren 1 &) Archaeology in Criticism Vancouver Evangelism Thou Scarlet Sin Music in the Home What Think Ye of Christ? : et * : Pubied ence month ty be ie BIBLE INSTITUTE OF EOS: ELPA: CALIFORNIA,THE KING'S BUSINESS VOL. VUE. NOVEMBER, 1917 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial: © Another Lincoln Needed—How Can God Answer Prayer?—Why Does Not God Give Decisive Victory?—The Demoralizing Effects of War—The Folly of War—lIs the World Growing Better? —Booze Triumphant—Sane Dietetics—Mystery of Life Paplained at Last—The Pope's Peace Proposal—The President and the Pope—Sit Close and Look Up—Sin !s Broken Fellowship—Satisfied With the Average— Resist Not the Holy. S| Consciousness ef Sin—'Behold How Great a Matter a Little Fire Kindleth” Archaeological Facts with Which to Test Critical Theories. By M. G. Kyle, D.D., L.L.D.. en “Thou Scarlet Sin." By Rev. John Maclnnis New Members of Faculty . See Puzzling Passages and -Problems. co 985 Music in the Home. By Charles Howard Marsh... 987 Balboa Chapel Dedicated s : 990 What Think Ye of Christ? By Dwight L. Moody. 991 Bible Institute of Los Angeles. By Dr. Mark Matthews...... 996 angelistic Department. By Bible Institute Workers... 999 Zvangelism at Vancouver. By Rev. S. P. Miller ween 1006 Homiletical Helps —.. seating weuencovsnet OOK. Through the Bible with Dr. [ s 2a, vou NOTE Far Horizon cee LOLS International Sunday Schoo! Lessons. By R. A. Torrey and C. Horton segenes TOUT Daily Devotional Studies in the Old and New Testament for Individual Meditation and Family Warehp) By R. A Torrey 0. 1035 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. In the United States and its Possessions and Mexico, and points in the Central American Postal Union, $1 per year. In all other foreign countries, $1.24 (5s. 2d.). Single copies, 10 cents. Receipts sent on request. See date on address tag. “Sept. 17" means Expires Sept. [917, etc. PUBLISHED BY THE: BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES 536. 558 SOUTH HOPE STREET - LOS ANGELES, CAL,‘LIFE IN THE CUP B MALCOLM C. FENWICK Dr. Fenwick's new book is one of the best of the year. Told in story form, it nevertheless upholds the Gospel in its entirety and drives home the truth without fear or favor. It is just the thing for your non-Christian friend, for once begun it will never be put down until finished, and the great truths skilfully blended with its fascinating plot have taken root. Every Christian home should have a copy of this great book. Beautifully bound in cloth. Price $1.25, postpaid. STUDY WITH DR. TORREY Using his unique and valuable work “Studies in the Life and Teachings of Our Lord” Ass a suggestive commentary on the four Gospels it has never been equalled. It covers in a most thorough manner the entire life of Christ and for Sunday school teachers and leaders of meetings it is well nigh indespensable. To the pastor it will suggest many sermon outlines and prayer meeting talks. Just the thing for use with-the International Sunday School lessons. Cloth bound, 71/3x9 inches, indexes for both topics and Scripture passages, making any portion of Gospels immediately accessible. Price $1.50, postpaid. BIOLA BOOK ROOM Bible Institute of Los Angeles 536-558 South Hope St. Los Angeles, California ggTHE KING’S BUSINESS Vol. 8 NOVEMBER, 1917 No. 11 | EDITORIAL The Fleming H. Revell Publishing Company, 158 Fifth Another Lincoln enue, New York City, has the following proclama- Needed. tion of Abraham Lincoln, made on the 30th day of March, A. D, 1863, pasted in its main show window on Fifth Avenue, with a comment to this effect: “Could any ruler today make a proclamation like this? If not, why not?” BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA— A PROCLAMATION WHEREAS, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the alfairs of men and nations, has by a. resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and WHEREAS, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and Hransgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy. fures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law mations, like individuals, are. subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly jear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but 2 punishment inflicted upon. us for, our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have heen the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as mo other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and entiched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that alls these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redecming and. preserving grace, too proud to pray to the Gad that made us, It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to coniess our national sins, and to pray for clemency. and forgiveness. . . Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I'do by this my pr tion designate and’ set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 3863, a5 a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And Ido hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary seewlar pursuits, and to unite at their several. places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious dutics proper to that. sole! m. All this being done in sincerity and truth, Tet us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the. restoraiton of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and pe: , pat, witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed 6 eo Atte city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A, D., 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Those who object to the Bible doctrine that God How Can God answers prayer have been very fond of bringing up Answer Prayer? the objection that in times of war Christian people on opposite sides are both praying for victory, and of course God cannot possibly answer both. They seem to think that this is a knockout argument against the doctrine that God answers prayer. But those who bring forward this objection show their utter ignorance of the Bible doctrine of prayer. The Bible does not teach that God answers everybody's Prayers: it teaches that He answers the prayers of those who are abiding in Christ (John 15:7). Furthermore, the Bible does not teach that God grants964 THE KING'S BUSINESS every request even of the believer. It does teach that God grants to the true believer in Jesus Christ, whatever he asks when he asks according to God's will (1 John 5:14, 15). Of course it is not the will of God to give victory to both sides in any war or in any battle. Sometimes in His infinite wisdom it is not His will to give victory to either side. So, of course, it is impossible for a German believer to pray according to the will of God for victory for the German forces, and at the same time an English believer to pray according to the will of God for victory for the English forces. If the English believer is really abiding in Christ and the German believer is really abiding in Christ, they will not both pray unconditionally for victory in the same battle. This constantly recurring objection to the Bible doctrine of prayer is singularly shallow and unintelligent, Why does not God give decisive victory, either to the Why Does Entente Allies or Central Powers, and Thus End the Not God Give War? There are many who are either openly or cov- Decisive Victory? — ertly blaming God for the continuance of this awful war. They think that either one side or the other must be right, and, therefore, that God is under obligation to immediately give decisive victory to the side that is in the right, and thus end the war. But the truth is that there is no nation on earth today that is right with God; there is no nation on earth today, the majority of whose people acknowledge God, not merely with the lips, but by their conduct. It is true that the British people have not been guilty of the appalling atrocities and outrages of which the Germans and their allies have been, beyond a question, guilty. Nevertheless, the British as a people, as truly as the Germans, and the Americans as truly as the English, are rebels against God. The vast majority in all nations today have rejected Jesus Christ, they have not accepted Him as their Saviour and surrendered absolutely to Him as their Lord and Master, and the one thing that God demands of men is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:28, 29; Heb. 11:16; 1 John 3:23), As a nation the English and Scotch are rebels against God; the Americans are rebels against God; the French are rebels against God; the Germans are rebels against God; and so is every other nation on earth a rebellious nation. Why should God come to our help? God’s holy book, the Bible, they either reject, ignore or disobey, God’s holy day they keep for their own pleasure. God’s Holy Son, Jesus, they trample under foot. On the Lord’s Day, the house of God is deserted, while the parks, beaches, and mountains, and movies are crowded. The god the mass of the people are wor- shipping is not the one true God, the God of the Bible, but the god of pleasure, and the god of money getting, and the god of lust. How can God hear our prayers as a nation? When we repent of our sins and confess them humbly before God, and turn unto God with humiliation and fasting and confession of sin and real renunciation of sin, then we can expect God to hear our prayers and not until then, God in His gracious unmerited mercy may see fit to give us victory and peace before we do this; but we have no right to expect it, much less demand it.. The great need of America, England and France, and every other nation today is not more money or larger preparedness, but genuine repentance before God. The only use the average man has for God, is not to worship Him and obey Him, but to make a convenience of Him, to look toTHE KING'S BUSINESS 965 Him to help him out of his-troubles and to fight his battles for him, to cry “God mit uns” and then violate every law of God and canon of decency. We would do well to lay to heart the inspired words of the Psalmist “The wicked shall be turned into Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.” (Ps. 9:17). This is exactly what we see occurring in Europe today. By the millions the members of the nations of the earth that have forgotten God are going down into Sheol, the land of the dead, and it is what we will see in America sooner. or later, no matter how the present war terminates, unless we repent. A certain class of preachers are trying hard to make The Demoralizing us believe that war develops the better side of man’s Effects of War. nature, but as a matter of experience, war develops all that is vile and_worst in man. In a recent number of the London Christian we read: “Some of the chaplains who are returning from the Front have anything but a pleasant story to tell of the moral condi- tion of some of the troops. So far from the war having made them serious, it has had precisely the opposite effect. Life has become cheapened and many moral values have been completely changed in the estimation of the men. Saddest of all is the story of lust. What this must mean in the after-war days we can only dimly imagine; but of one thing we may be assured at once, that a large number of men will return to their homes with their purity vanished. War always has this effect unhappily, and the scale of the present war renders the problem today one of profoundest seriousness. Donald Hankey’s diagnosis is proving to be correct: the chief hindrance to the acceptance of the Gospel is not intellectual, but sensual. A chaplain who holds the respect of all the Churches declares that the lads who have successfully weathered the moral tempest which has beaten upon them are nearly all drawn from our Churches and Sunday Schools. It is a great testimony to the value of religious teaching, as the looseness of morals is the greatest condemnation of Paganism in Britain.” A recent issue of the Berliner Tageblatte sums up the The Folly of War. __restilts of the war to date (August 25) as follows: “War loans, $87,000,000,000; loss in dead and wounded, 24,000,000 men; killed, 7,600,000 men; crippled for life, 5,000,000 men; loss through decrease of birth rate in ail belligerent’ countries, 9,000,000 men, “The gold production of the world during the last $00 years, amounted to $15,000,000000, or less than one-fifth of the cost of the world war,” the paper continues. “In $8 gold pieces ‘the {$57,000,000,000 raised in war loans would form a belt that could be wound around the earth nine fimes, ‘The funeral cortege of the 7,000,000 men killed would reach from Paris to Viadivostock, if one hearse followed the other, ° “When the war began the combined public debt of all European States was a little over $25,000,000,000, and “now it is over $112,000,00,00, The British merchant fleet in 1914 represented = value of ‘about $950,000.00. That is lees than the annual interest England now has to pay for her war debt, Before the war Germany exported goods to the amount of $113,000,000 per year to the British colonies, By cutting off this export England can eventually reimburse herself for her losses, but this will take more than 200 years. “Germany, with the amount spent by her for the war, could have bought all the cotton ficlds, the copper mines and the whole petroleum industry of the United States and still would have ‘had several billion dollars left over. . ; . ‘Russia, with her war expenses, might have covered her immense territories with a net of railways as close as that of Belgium, and France, whose losses in men are larger than the entire male population of Alsace-Lorraine, could have bought all the Portugese and Dutch colonies with the money she sacrificed for the war. : z "With®the enormous ‘wealth destroyed by, the war Europe might have een mads a paradise on earth instead of a howling’ wilderness. There is no doubt that the awful struggle would have been ‘avoided if the nations had any idea of its enormity when it started.”966 THE KING’S BUSINESS This is a startling statement, but does it not understate the facts rather than overstate them? We prate about man’s wonderful progress in knowledge and humanity, but this statement shows that man is essentially as great a fool as he ever was; that all his vaunted progress in philosophy and science has not made him essentially a wiser man. Outside of the wisdom given of God, man is always a fool and a failure. There are many blind optimists who insist in still Is the World preaching, even in the face of the collapse of civiliza- Growing Better? tion in connection with the present war, that the world is making rapid progress. The following report of the morals committee of the convention of the American Confederation of Catholic Societies, presented at Kansas City, August 27th, may help them to do a little thinking? Society, the report reads, shows a startling decline. Justice no longer rules. The fantily life of the ation is endangered, virtue, public and private, is decadent, “A largely contributing factor in this paganizing of the nati "It has been recently estimated that up to the present more than a million divorces have been granted in this country and the estimated number for the current year will be greatly in excess of 100,000. It should be wholly useless to devote any consideration to the viciousness of this evil and what it means morally to the nation.” To combat this the committee hecommends: . “Enactment of state laws requiring notices of impending marriage to be posted several days before issuance of license; abolition of common law marriage wherever recognized, and finally, in states where only absolute divorces are granted, provisions for legal separation be made.” Modern pictorial reviews and the movies also come in for their share of condemnat “One of the most serious assaults upon morality of the country today is manifested lustrations in some publications and filthy stories in gebauching magazines,” says 1 is divorce,” says the report. cent report. "Then there is the established fact a high percentage of photoplay, production, deals with c, There isthe fact that 25,000,000 daily attendance at picture shows, fom 28 to 80 per cent. of this attendance is composed of children. There is the fact that juvenile court records show 3 linking of offenders with screen productions. the photoplay is today a corrupter of juvenile morals. Yet the makers of our laws are busy with Tmaterialities and personalities that time cam not be found to provide greater moral protection for the young from this morally corroding source of evil We are optimists, but our optimism is not of the blind sort that closes aur eyes to the clear facts of modern life. We are optimists because we believe what the Bible teaches about the Coming again to this world of our Lord Jesus, and the darker the night grows the nearer at hand. we feel. that glorious day is. ‘The Christian people of England are waking up to the Booze Still fact of how completely their government is under the Triumphant. domination of the beer interests. In the July 19th issue of the London Christian the following editorial appears: “The Government has quickly shown the kind of stuff it is made of by yielding to the clamour for more beer during the summer months. We are assured that this additional output will not entail any inroad on our food supply or our stocks of sugar. Nor will further sugar be rationed to the brewers. The statement is too thin even for a politician to be able to cover up. Beer will not be brewed without sugar, and the only conclusion to be drawn, there- fore, is that the brewers have been allowed to have in advance sufficient sugar to meet the new order. It is nonsense to talk about there being no further inroads upon our supply of sugar as the result of the new order. The inroads have been already made, to the public disadvantage. The poor are still unable to get what they need for their infants. The reason given by Mr. Bonar LawTHE KING’S BUSINESS 967 for the increase of the output of beer was that munition workers and harvest- ers demand more beer in the hot weather. Had he cared to inquire into the matter, he could easily have learned that in many places harvesters thrive on a non-intoxicating drink which quenches thirst and feeds, while it requires little sugar in its production. We are well aware that harvesters need to drink freely in hot weather. But we are at war, and the country needs food, and there are better ways of quenching thirst than by drinking beer. None of these considerations, however, move a Government which is afraid of the Trade.” If America would take the ground that she would not send food stuffs to England until they ceased wasting their own food stuffs in the manufacture of Booze, it might bring the British Government to its senses. But if we were to do that we ought also to prohibit in the United States the waste of food stuffs in the manufacture of beer, as we have already prohibited it in the matter of the manufacture of distilled liquors. Pretty much all our magazines are full of articles on Sane Dietetics. the question of how to eat and how to feed one’s fam- ily in the present time of stringency of food stuffs. The Journal of the American Medical Association of July 14, justly commends the rule for getting the best results from food selection brought forth by the Bureau of Home Economics of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. These rules as given by the Journal of the American Medical Association are as follows: “1, Spend from one-fourth to one-third of your food-money for bread, cereals, macaroni, and rice. 2. Buy at least from a third to half a quart of milk a day for each mem- ber of the family Spend as much for vegetables and fruits together as you do for milk. If you use half a quart of milk for each member of the family, this may not always be possible. Then spend as much for vegetables and fruit as a third of a quart of milk a day would amount to. 4, Spend not more for meat and eggs than for vegetables and fruits. Meat and eggs may be decreased with less harm than any of the other foods mentioned. The amount spent for meat may decrease as the amount spent for milk increases.” For many years Life has been a mystery that has per- Mystery of Life plexed the men of Science and defeated all their at- Explained at Last. tempts at analysis and explanation; but at last, Dr. Leonard Thompson Troland of Harvard University has solved the mystery, or thinks he has. We will let our readers judge for themselves. In an article in the American Naturalist he puts forward what he calls a “Catalytic Theory of Life.” He writes “In this conception I believe we can find a single, synthetic answer to many, if not all, of the broad, outstanding problems of theoretical biology. It is an answer, moreover, which links these great biological phenomena directly with molecular physies, and perfects the unity not alone of biology, but of the whole system of physical science, by sug-968 THE KING'S BUSINESS gesting that what we call life is fundamentally a product of catalytic laws act- ing in colloidal systems of matter throughout the long periods of geologic time.” Further on he says, “Catalysis is essentially a determinative relationship, and the enzyme theory of life as a general biological hypothesis, would claim that all intravital or ‘hereditary’ determination is, in the last analysis, catalytic.” We trust this will be as plain as A. B. C. to our readers. Nothing that has occurred in connection with the The Pope’s awful war has awakened more wide and deep interest Peace Proposal. than the Pope’s Peace Proposal. The editor of THE Kine’s Business was in Montrose, Pa., when_ the Pope’s message was published. The editor of the Christian Herald of New York telegraphed him asking him to telegraph his opinion of this proposal, and he replied as follows: “T long for peace even though we do not obtain all that we desire or that is clearly just, but I suspect all proposals concerning the present war or con- cerning peace emanating from the Papal court. From almost the beginning of the war the Pope has been the catspaw, if not the ally of the Kaiser and the Central Powers. He has permitted the most infamous atrocities by the min- ions of the Kaiser to pass without effective protest, even when the outraged victims were his own faithful Roman Catholic subjects. There is good reason to believe that he has an understanding with the Kaiser. His present move is for the purpose of weakening the hands of America, England, France and Belgium, by making the Roman Catholics restless. Thank God, however, our Roman Catholics, for the most part, are patriotic in spite of the Pope.” _ The Christian Herald did not publish this opinion in full, omitting all after words “Papal Court.” It has since come to light, as all know, that the Pope did have some understanding with the Kaiser. It was felt by many that the subtle cunning of the The President Pope’s Peace Proposal would embarrass the President and The Pope. of the United States, but all fears on this point were set at rest by the President's reply to the Pope, made on August 27th. His reply reads as follows: To His Holiness Benedict XV, Pope: In acknowledgment of the communication of your holiness to the belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the president of the United States requests me to transmit the following reply: Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible war must be touched by this moving appeal of his holiness, the pope: must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives which prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take the path of perce he so persuasively points out. “But it would be folly to take it if it docs not infact lead to the goal he proposes. Our response must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else, It is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace, This agon must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of very sober jadgment what will August 27, 1917, against it, His holiness, in substance, proposes that we return to the status quo ante bellum, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament and a concert of nations based upon an. accept: ance of the principle of arbitration; that by similar concert freedom of the seas be established. and that the territorial claims of France and Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan states and the restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible in the, new temper of such a peacc, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes, and affiliations’ will be involved. _ It is manifest that no part of this program cat tution of the status quo ante furnishes a hrm and sucessfully carried out unless the re isfactory basis for it.THE KING'S BUSINESS =) The object of this war is to deliver, the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the ‘sacred. obligations of treaty or the long established practices and long cherished Principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the wary delivered 1 low fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole cont nent within the tide of blood not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children: also of the helpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four-fiths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours how that great people came under its control or submitted with temporary zest to the domination of its purpose, but it is our business to see to it that tne history of the rest of the world is no longer left to its handling. ‘To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by his holiness the pope Teds 20 i as, we cam fee involve a recuperation of its strength and 2 renewal of ca polier: would’ make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the Cerman People, who are ite instruments, and would result ia abandoning the newborn Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle interference and the certain counter revolution which would be attempted by all the malign influences to which the German government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon a restitution of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and accommodation ? Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never saw before, that mo peace can rest securely upon political or economic restrictions meant to benefit some nations and chipple or embarrass others, upon vindictive action of any sort of any kind of revenge or deliberate injury, ‘The American people have suffercd intolerable wrongs at the hands of the imperial German gov: ernment, but they desire no reprisal upon the German people, who have themselves suffered all things in this war which they did not choose. They believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the rights of governments—the rights of peoples great or small, weak or powerful their equal right to freedom and. security and self-government and to a participation ‘upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of the world—the German people, of course, included, if they will accept equality and not seek domination. The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Js it based upon the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing government, om the one hand, and of a group of free peoples on the other? This is a test whieh qoce to. the root ‘of the matter, and ft is the test which must be applied, The purposes of the United States in this war are Known to the whole world—to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to be stated again We seck no material advantage of any. kind, We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by the furious and. brutal power of the imperial German government. ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of any people—rather a vindication of the sovercignty both of those that are weak and of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the dis: femberment of empires, the establishment, of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, ‘we deera inexpedient and in the end worse than futile, mo proper basis for a peace of any’ kind, least ot aifior an enduring peace. That must be basca upon justice and fairness and the common Fights We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly ‘supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified im accepting, Without such guarantees, treaties of settlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants ta, set Up arbitration in the place of foree, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small mations: if made with the German government, no man, no nation could now depend on, We must await some new evidence of the purposes’ of the great peoples of the central powers. God grant it may. be Biven soon and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of navions and the possibility of a covenanted peace ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State of the United States of America. 4 President Wilson has written many wise state papers, but we question whether he has ever shown himself to be such a wise and courageous statesman as in this letter to the Pope. There is a great sculptural representation of the Cruci- Sit Close hxion in marble by one of the masters. Its peculiarity and Look Up. is that if you stand and view it from a distance it is all out of proportion. But there is a stool close by, almost underneath it, on which you are required to kneel, and from this lowly place you may look up and see the Christ and the Cross in all their glory, beauty and proportion. Have you seen the Cross yet in its true light and meaning? If you stoop you will be able to see it.970 THE KING’S BUSINESS It is estrangement from God. Salvation is nearness Sin Is Broken to God, communion with God. Salvation is not insur- Fellowship. ance against some future impending wrath merely, cer- tainly not primarily; it is fellowship with God. We need to have concern for sin if we would ourselves enjoy or bring others into fellowship with God. Our sin is that we are satisfied with the average. We Satisfied with are too content with low aim—that is our sin. “To the Average. him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Our greatest battle is nat between good and bad, but between good and the best. We are to “covet earnestly the best gifts.” We should be careful in our treatment of the Holy Resist Not the Spirit. We may possess the Spirit, as every true Holy Spirit. believer does, and yet oppose the Spirit. The Spirit that indwells us may have to fight the spirit as well as the flesh that is within us. The incoming Spirit does not destroy our person- ality: we'still remain body, soul and spirit.. Our spirit may grieve, quench and resist the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God in Paul was greater than the spirit of Paul which urged him to go into Bithynia while the Spirit suffered him not. It was the purpose of the Spirit that both Asia and Bithynia should have the gospel, but by others such as Peter (1 Peter 1:1), and Lydia (Acts 16:14). Let us permit God's Spirit to bear witness with our spirit. Does God punish nations nationally for their sins, now, Nations and in this life? Is God permitting these great nations to the War. learn that righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people? What nation, think you, will count most in achieving victory in this war? Will it not be that nation which first learns the deepest lesson that faith in and loyalty to God is worth more than arms and weapons? Does not history teach us this? Victor Hugo said, "Waterloo was God.” The victorious battle of the Marne was not due to the superiority of the allied forces or arms. It “just happened by accident” the unbeliever would say. When the news of that victory was brought to Kitchner and Roberts—the men who had about given up all hope of being able any longer to defend Paris, being more aware than any one else of the gravity of the situation and the inability of the Allies to hold out—one said, “My God, that’s a miracle.” The other said, “Some one has been praying.” The nation that will count most in this war will be the nation that leans hardest on God. Many people in England are calling for a day of prayer. So far, we under- stand, it has not been approved by the Prime Minister. What a pity, if true. Blind to the secret of power! Will the United States do better? We wonder. We read recently that the state of Connecticut, which for 300 years has strictly observed the Sunday laws, has now allowed a state wide-open Sunday. Is this the way to win the war—by dishonoring God and His holy day? How can we ask His blessing upon our arms? God still rules among the nations, Let not America forget. David 4:28-37.THE KING'S BUSINESS 971 It was Sir Oliver Lodge, who is quite old enough to Consciousness have known better, who said what may be called a very of Sin. foolish thing: “The higher kind of man does not bother his head about his sins today, still less about their punishment. His mission, if he is good for anything, is to be up and doing.” The Bible strictly contradicts such a statement. It is the man who is most conscious of his own sin in relation to God’s holiness who has promise of greatest usefulness. Saul of Tarsus was not bothered much about his sins, consequently he did nothing that counted for much. But Paul, the Apostle, deeply conscious of his sinfulness, turned the world upside down for God. While satisfied to be called the chief of the Pharisees, Paul did nothing worthy of recording, but when self-styled the “chief of sinners,” he made a record worthy of the attention of Heaven. The fact is that the nearer a man gets to God the more he realizes his own sinfulness and the more useful he becomes. The assassination of one man is claimed to have been “Behold How Great the cause of thiS great world war. If this single event a Matter a Little was not the underlying cause, it acted as the match Fire Kindleth.” thrown among the nations already greatly susceptible to the combustion of racial jealousy and commercial hate. The murder of one man was an insignificant thing to bring about such dire havoc, But have not big doors been made to swing on small hinges before this? Was not the Thirty Years War caused by the throwing out of a window of a royal palace of two men? Was not the Seven Years War brought about by the shooting of a few soldiers? So this great world war, which now involves about twenty-five nations and peoples; that has.caused the sinking of almost 2000-merchant- and 150-man-of-war-ships; that has -devastated great areas in Belgium, Servia and Poland; that has made a wilderness of once flourishing parts of France, Austria, Germany and Turkey; that has laid upon the shoulders of the present generation, yea, and many generations to come, vast financial burdens; that has resulted in the slaughter of millions of men, women and children; that holds in captivity some two or more millions of men, and incapacitated by brutal wounds over four millions more; a war that covers practically the whole world—Belgium, France, Russia; in African jungles, in the mountain passes of Caucasia, among the highest’ peaks of the Alps, in Karpathian defiles, in the traditional cradle of the human race, even on the site of the Garden of Eden, and where the Tigris and Euphrates mingle their waters before entering the Persian Gulf—all this fire of destruction started by so small a matter! So is it with sin. All the tears shed by the race since Eden, and which have since then been flowing down the ages like one great and ever increasing river; all the groans uttered since the heart pang of Eve over the death of her son which have been gathering throughout the centuries like some monstrous thunder clap; all the broken hearts which since the first sin have been piling up like some great Alpine or Himalayan range of mountains—all this, and more too—yes, much more to follow, is the result of that seemingly small sin of dis- obedience in the Garden of Eden. Yet, how strange, tragic, unbelievable— men still love sin. Romans 5:12; James 3:6.TJs Tess Dl talst ess| i i es | ARCHAEOLOGICAL FACTS a i with which to Test Critical Theories i By MELVIN GROVE KYLE, D. D., LL. D. fnrntssnoeniunammmsn smnvesatenaseereimmven eeeecacent Note—The following address by Dr. Kyle was delivered at the recent Ministerial Institute, held at Montrose, Pa., under the auspices of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles,’ and is a continu: ‘of the subject, “Archaeology in Criticism,” which appeared in this magazine for October. ep the historical setting and the guidance of methods, have been discussed in preceding lectures, we ‘come now to the third and last, and in all respects the most important part, which is to prove facts with which to test critical theories. Archaeology supplies facts with which ‘to test the theories of criticism, The simple statement of this part of the function of archaeology in criticism makes instantly apparent its far-reaching importance. The other parts of the function of archaeology in criticism which have already been men- tioned, the furnishing of the true histori- cal setting, and the guidance of methods concerning presuppositions, canons, literary form, and interpretation, are but prelimi- nary and contributory, the function of ser- vice: but the supplying of facts with which to test theories is final and dominant, the function of control. Wherever archacol- ogy has something definite to say, it claims the right to the last word. If it, as yet, only “bids fair to control criticism,” it boldly claims its right to control it now. Here is heard the deciding voice of the monuments in Biblical criticism. Let us see upon how good ground archae- ology makes this claim. It will be admit- ted—it is admitted—that there can be no real antagonism between the facts of archaeology and a correct criticism of trust- worthy documents. This is not to say that there can be no antagonism between facts and truth in its broadest sense, There may be many things done, i.e., facts, which are against truth, All the existence of evil in the world attests that. But there can be no antagonism between facts and truth in the same field of thought, between the facts and the truth concerning the facts. There may be the most positive antago- nism between moral truth and human con- duct, but there can be no antagonism between the truth about the conduct of a certain person and the facts of his con- duct ; or between the truth about many per- sons, i.e, history, and the facts of history; or between the truth about many statements of human thought and all the circumstances of those statements, ic, literary criticism, and the material facts concerning the rec- ords, ie, archaeology. Critics and archae- ologists seem to agree perfectly in the statement that there can be no antagonism between a correct literary criticism of trust- worthy documents and the facts of archae- ology. But it is, after all, a very ambigu- ous agreement, for archaeologists mean, “you are certain in the end to come around to our way of thinking,” and the critics mean “You are certain in the end, when you get all the pieces put together, to reach the same conclusions that we have antici- pated.” Who or where is the umpire? Who or what is to determine when the criticism is “a correct criticism?” When there is a conflict between the facts of archacology and the conclusions of eriti- cism, which is to give way?974 THE KING'S BUSINESS FACTS ARE FINAL. To ask this question is to answer it. Theory must always give way to fact. In the settlement of disputes facts are final. Even so staunch a defender of the rights and functions of criticism as Dr. Driver, recognizes this principle, at least in theory. For he says: “Where the testimony of archaeology is direct, it is of the highest possible value, and, as a rule, determines the questions decisively: even where it is indirect, if it is sufficiently circumstantial and precise, it makes a settlement highly probable.” This prerogative of archaeological facts in the testing of critical theories, is evi- dently far reaching in its powers and must of necessity be given wide and positive rec- ognition. It is now to be scrutinized with the utmost care, ‘The several rules, or canons, of this crit- icism of criticism are inseparably linked together. I. No theory to be accepted until tested by facts No theory is to be finally accepted and made applicable to one’s faith and life until it is tested and attested by facts. If it is in the field of experience, by facts of exper- ience. If in the field of history, by the facts of history. And the Master com- mends even revelation to this test when He says: “If any man willcth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God or whether I speak from myself.” Anything in the Bible may be discredited by theory. Everything in heaven and earth may be, indeed has been, discredited by theory. More, there can be no accepted realities in all the universe of existence, phenomena, and experience, if theory is allowed to stand unsupported by fact, per- mitted, undisputed, to dominate the intel- lect and faith of a man and so ultimately to. ct his life. One might as safely abandon the beaten track for the most alluring but unconfirmed appearance upon the horizon of the Eastern desert, as turn one’s life aside to a theory unattested by facts: however perfect the appearance, it may after all be only the mirage and the disappointed pilgrim may never again get back to the safe road. Let theory first be confirmed by fact, then it may be received into the life. Il. No theory correct simply because it works, But a theory which meets all the known conditions of the case in hand is not by that fact proved to be true, and therefore to be received into the life. And the most alluring danger to which criticism is sub- ject is the assumption of the contrary opin- ion, namely, that a theory which meets all the known conditions of the case in hand is by that fact proved to be true. This is not the case. Such a theory must, in addi- tion, be corroborated by independent evi- dence, either the bringing to light of the expected facts or demonstration of the power of the theory to unlock mysteries. And even if mysteries be unlocked, the theory is not necessarily an entirely cor- rect theory. The key that turns the lock must be something like the key that belongs to it, but may, after all, be a false key. There must be, in any case, whether of mysteries unlocked or of facts brought to light, independent, genuine evidence in addi- tion to the adaptability of the theory to all the known conditions of the case in hand. Furthermore, a theory must not only be able to meet the test of some additional facts but the test of all the conditions imposed by any additional facts brought to light, and be able, also, to incorporate these new facts as naturally as those upon which the theory was originally constructed. This is the final and conclusive test, without meeting which no theory is to be received into the life. That a theory which meets all the con- ditions of the case in hand is by that fact proved to be true is a mathematical dictum. Mathematics belongs to the domain of pure, absolute, and universal truth and there this dictum holds good. A theory which meets all the conditions of the case there fur-THE KING'S BUSINESS 975 nishes one solution of the problem in hand, of which there may be other, sometimes several, correct solutions. But mathemat- ical dicta are not always true in life and literature and especially not in history, which in its unwritten form is but the com- plex of life and in its written form the union of life and literature. Life, litera- ture, and history do not lie within the domain of universal truth, the domain of all possibilities, but in the realm of actual- ities, and all possibilities have not become actualities. Indeed, most things have never been done. For in life, literature, and history there enters a new and most potent element, human volition, which chooses among all the possibilities one only in each case to become the actuality in the event. So that here there are not several possible solu- tions of the problem of the event, but one only, and that the right one. All other pro posed solutions are false, however well they provide for the event, and even if they pro- vide for it better than the real solution of the problem, for people do not always do things in the best or even the easiest way. The problem, indeed, in life, literature, and history is not to determine possibilities, but an actuality, not one or several of the ways in which an event might have taken place, nor even the way in which it might best have taken place, but the way in which it did take place. A theory which meets all the conditions of the case in hand may be one of the sev- eral ways in which the event might have taken place, and yet it may be that it did not take place in that way at all; and only by independent, genuine corroborative evi- dence is any theory to be attestea as the way in which the event actually did take place. 1. That this statement of the case is cor- rect in the experiences of life, we have abundant evidence in the proceedings of courts of law. Here judge and jury are not interested in discovering the many ways in which an event may have taken place or the many persons who may have done a deed, but only the one way in which it was done and the person who did it. It is the many possibilities that never became actualities that constitute the whole field for detective work, and occasion most of the labors of judge and jury. If there were only one way for an event to take place; ie. if every theory which meets the con- ditions of the case in hand were the cor- rect theory, there would be nothing for detectives to do and the function of courts would be declarative, whereas in reality the chief function of the courts is to determine that one possibility which became the actu- ality in the casé. But the most painstaking procedure does not wholly prevent false convictions. The prosecutor presents a the- ory of the commission of a crime, which meets all the conditions of the case, as made out by the evidence in his possession, convinces twelve jurymen, and secures a conviction, Yet sometimes afterward it is found out that another person committed the crime in an entirely different way. A recent case, which interested two continents, is that of Andrew Toth, who has been released from the Western Penitentiary, of Pennsylvania, after serving twenty years on a life sentence for murder; his release being brought about by the death-bed con- fession of a man in Austri 2. That the mathematical dictum under consideration is inapplicable to literature is equally well established. Sir Peter le Page Renouf argued with great acuteness and force that it is possible to assign sig- nifications to an unknown script, give meanings to the words thus formed, con- struct a grammer, and translate inscrip- tions as historical statements and make good sense, though not a single sign or word or construction or thought be cor- rect. He says, indeed: “It is not difficult to make out the Ten Commandments, the Psalms of David, the Homeric poems, or the Irish melodies, on any ancient or mod- ern monument whatever, and in any lan- guage you please.” Not that it is not pos- sible to avoid this, but that it is possible toif the proper precautions are not It is easy to see the truth of this conten- tion in the case of unknown numerals. A dozen persons may each assign values to such numerals and, with such assigned val- ues, may add, subtract, multiply, ‘and ide correctly in method, though not a single assignment of value be correct and the assignments of not two of the dozen be alike. This danger, so apparent in the case of numerals, which are, in fact, word signs, is always present and to be reckoned with in the decipherment and interpretation of hieroglyphic writings. Actual examples of the fulfillment of Renouf's warning thesis are not wanting in the history of the decipherment of unknown tongues. The grotesque, yet confident, efforts at the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics before the discovery of the Rosetta stone which supplied the true key, are not for- gotten. Indeed, it is to be hoped that they will always be remembered to stimulate caution in future decipherers of unknown tongues. Budge says: “In more modern times, the first writer, at any length, on hiero- glyphs was Athanasius Kircher, the author of some ponderous works in which he pre- tended to have found the key to the hiero- glyphic inscriptions and to translate them. Though a man of great Icarning, it must be said that, judged by scholars of today, he would be considered an imposter.” Joseph de Guines (1770) maintained that China was settled by Egyptians and the Chinese characters only degenerate hiero- glyphs. Similar failures in the attempt to deci- pher the Hittite hieroglyphs and translate the Hittite inscriptions must form painful recollections to some distinguished scholars yet living, whose efforts, extending in some cases not only to lists of signs, but to syl- labaries, vocabularies, grammers, and trans lations, are now, in part, and in some cases, in toto, rejected by the whole learned world. However successful present or future efforts of these distinguished scholars may THE KING’S BUSINESS prove to be, they have, in part at least, themselves repudiated their former work. It must be admitted, of course, that a hieroglyphic literature presents the most and the greatest difficulties of interpreta- tion, and most surely presents them and there these dangers of fatal mistake are greatest. But another fact is not easily recognized, is, indeed, too often overlooked altogether; this, namely, that a language not hieroglyphic and a literature in a known tongue presents difficulties which differ from these mentioned only in degree and in the form of embodiment and not at all in the essential quality of the danger involved. Since a literature means only what it was intended to mean by those from whom it comes, whatever it may be that in any degree obscures that intention, whether method of writing, peculiarities of expression, or references to topography, history and manners and customs, it always presents that one and the same problem which the element of human colition inter- jects, the problem of determining which of all possible meaning was chosen as the intention of the author. So that, in any case, the historical method, and only the historical method, can speak the last word in criticism, But the historical method in all ancient literature, whether sacred or profane, becomes the method. archaeological The most plausible theory of a literature, though it seem to embrace every detail and meet every condition imposed, even though it actually does so, may after all be found to be, as in one or two attempts at the decipherment of the Hittite inscriptions, wholly false when tested by facts of con- temporary history and by the principles of comparative philology, which are them- selves but some of the universal facts of human experience. 3. Now the dangers of unconfirmed the- ory in life and literature are added together in history, which, in its final form, is but life written down, human experience given over to all the infinitely varied convention- alities of literature. Here it is doublyTHE KING’S BUSINESS important that no theory be given final acceptance and made a part of one’s mental furniture and allowed to influence ones atti- tude and conduct in life, until it is tested and attested by facts. Surely the warnings of the study of Egyptian and classical his- tory and literature are not to be disre- garded. Menes and other early kings of Egypt were declared by criticism to be mere mythological characters; Minos of Crete was relegated to the same limbo; and the stories of Troy and her heroes were said to belong to “cloudland.” How recently was all this included in the universal opin- ion of criticism. And what generations, even centuries of learned critical scrutiny lay back of this opinion in justification of it! Has the label, “Myth,” which criticism has fastened to anything in sacred or class- ical story, more or better critical argument to support it than had the opinion that these kings and heroes were only the creatures of a romancing fancy? Yet the spade of Petrie at Abydos, of Evans at Knossos, and of Schlieman at Troy has revealed the “cloudland” as solid earth and shown the ghostly heroes to have been substantial men of flesh and blood. If we are to learn anything from expe- rience, if reason has anything to do with human guidance, then certainly no theory of either sacred or profane history of ancient times is tobe finally accepted as correct until tested and attested by facts, If human intellect is not to hold the pilot wheel at the passing of these little known and dangerous straits, then we may well ask, When is it ever to guide thought and investigation? Il. Only archaeology is bringing forth any new facts on the quesions raised by criticism. But whence are to come the facts with which to test critical theories? Only archaeology is bringing forth any new facts on the questions raised by Biblical cr: cism, the very raising of which is a kind of dissent from the authority or the suf- ficiency of the known or seeming facts. Criticism produces only theories; it com- 977 bines ‘facts, but produces none. Theories are only thoughts. The mind in its think- ing produces no facts except for the one subject of psychology. Even so patent a truth needs to be stated at the present time and. the present temper and attitude of criticism. One might even be pardoned for sometimes fancying that some critics some- times think that in their thinking they think facts. Then the exegetes and commentators rarely, if ever now, bring to light new facts, any more than present-day philosophers give to the world new thoughts or our pocts-laureat drape their muse in new imagery. A flood of light is, indeed, pour- ing across the page of the exegete and the commentator and the critic in these latter days which makes their work inestimably more helpful for interpretation, but the source of that light is neither criticism nor exegesis nor comment, but archaeology. Archaeology it is that sets around Bible his- tory the facts of its environment, which illustrate Bible literature and literary meth- ods by the literature of the times and the methods of its own literati, which make the purity and the sanctity and the divinity of all the things of revelation stand out in their own glorious light by putting back of them the shadows of contemporary ritual and morality and superstition and which thus put to the test of actual observation the teachings of exegesis, comment, and criticism. These, then, are the facts with which to test critical theories and they have no other source. Hence no critical theory concern- ing the Bible is to be finally accepted and admitted into the faith and life until tested and attested by archaeological facts. ‘The function of archaeology in criticism as thus brought out has been glimpsed here and there by Bible students in various departments of investigation far back in the history of modern learning and all along to the present time without being permit- ted to exert permanent or serious influence upon its course or methods. Even Well- hausen, than whom no one has made more978 use of the unsupported critical method or relied more upon it, yet lays down as fun- damental the authority of some portions of archaeology in criticism in the famous pas- sage already quoted from the beginning of his History of Israel in which he remands the final determination of the whole critical discussion to the “domain of religious antiq- uities and dominant religious ideas.” And the distinguished Scottish professor of this generation, George Adam Smith, also quotes with approval these words from Napoleon: “When camping upon the ruins of ancient cities, some one read the Bible aloud every evening in the tent of the Gen- eral in Chief. The veri-similitude and truthfulness of the descriptions were strik- ing. They are still suited to the land after so many ages and vicissitudes.” But Pro- fessor Smith in a depreciatory way adds: “This is not more than true, yet it does not carry us very far.” “All that geography can do is to show whether or not the situa- tions were possible at the time to which they are assigned, and even this is a task often beyond her resources.” In this com- ment he strangely minimizes all three of the essential marks of trustworthy evidence * =the time, the place and the circumstances, For the “time” he distinctly mentions in his criticism, the place is required for the “situation” “possible.” It is strange, indeed, that these necessary and usually sufficient marks of trustworthy evidence should thus be so lightly cast aside in cri though of little importance. These two utterances of distinguished critics represent very well the attitude of criticism toward the function of archaeol- ogy in critical discussions. While critics here and there acknowledged its proper function, they have not heretofore allowed it much scope for the exercise of that func- tion. m, as —— Married in Mississippi Herman A. Hunderup, who received evangelistic training at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and who is now engaged THE KING’S BUSINESS in home mission work, was married, Aug- ust 22, to Miss Josephine Thorn Ireland, at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. John O. Ireland, Washington, Miss. ‘The ceremony was performed in the Meth- odist church, an hour behind time, having been interrupted by a violent thunderstorm, during which the officiating minister’s auto- mobile was ditched, and on account of which many of the guests were unable to reach the church. Mrs. Hunderup, who has been a teacher for a number of years, has entered the Institute to take the course of Bible training and better fit herself to be her husband’s helper. eg Active in Evangelism E Bible Institute of Los Angeles, through its superintendent, evangelistic department. students, and others affiliated with the institution. took a prominent place ampng the workers in the Billy Sunday campaign. which was held in the city dur- ing September and October. The Institute contributed more than its quota to the personal workers, ushers and singers. A room for women, with competent attendants, was maintained near the great tabernacle, as well as a branch of the Biola Book Room. The first Men's Bible Class to be organized in connection with these meetings was that of the Bible Institute, under the leadership of Superintendent T. © Horton, it having reached a member- ship of 150. The picture here shown was taken several weeks before the class had reached its full enrollment. an, ene rest A Good Investment A party wanting money for Christian work, will consider any offer made to him for a lot in Pasadena. Situated on the east side of North Fairoaks avenue, south of Washington street, 49 by 198 fect, to a 20-foot alley ; water piped and street paved. Expected to go as a missionary to Africa. Particulars can be had at this office., 1 | i “Thou Scarlet Sin” A Study of Ambition By Rev. John MacInnis Pastor of South Presbyterian Charch, Syracuse, M. Note. — Sermon preached at Montrose, Pa., on August 26, 1917, from the text: “Be Ambitious.""—i Thessalonians 4:11, Revised Version Margin. N 1 Thessalonians 4:11, Paul admonished the men of his BD Stay to “be ambitious,” but hl Jaxethe translators of the Eng- GS h Bible have never had the courage to literally translate that great word. So far as I know the word “ambi- tion,” or its cognate, does not appear in the English text of the Bible. It appears at least three times in the margin of the American Revised Version: In Romans 15:20; 2 Cor. 5:9, and in this admonition to the Thessalonians, The Greek word used in these three instances, and so far as I know these are the only places in which it is used in the Scriptures, is com- posed of two words: “Philos,” which erally means “friendly;” and “Timeo, which means to set a price upon, or to evaluate. “Therefore the word literally means to set a value upon a thing and be friendly towards it, and is the word used by the Greeks for ambition. Our word ambition is a Latin word and means “to g0 about.” The politicians went about to get votes. That is they were ambitious to get votes. It is very interesting to ask why this word has not been used to translate the Greek word “Philotimeisthai,” used in the text. The Revisors admit in the margin that it means to “be ambitious.” If that is the Greek, why did they not put it in the text? They were apparently afraid of it, for it is a word with a bad reputa- tion. Words as well as men and, women sometimes get a bad reputation and are usually injured by it. The English of the. King James Version was influenced by Shakespeare more than by any other man of that time. He gave this word “ambi- tion” a setting and reputation which was wholly unjust and from which it has never recovered. He took the thing represented by it as illustrated in one of the outstand- ing characters of his day, and through a very grave misinterpretation called it “Thou Scarlet Sin.” Ever since that day the word has been looked upon with more or less suspicion.THE KING'S BUSINESS WENT WRONG Now let us see where Shakespeare went wrong. The character that he took to warn men against this “Scarlet Sin” was Cardi- nat Wolsey. He was a strong character and a man of wonderful powers and pos- sibilities. He was the son of a Suffolk butcher, who gave him the advantages of the best education of his day. He gradu- ated a “B. A.” from Oxford when only 16 years of age. He had great aspirations and a great ambition. He wanted to be at the top in whatever he took up. Hence he soon secured recognition and filled the highest positi@ns in the educational world of his day. When he gave himself to the church he immediately sought her richest gifts. He aspired to be Pope. While he did not realize his ambition along this par- ticular line, he did come within a step of it—he was made Cardinal. In all this he was extremely selfish. He sought these honors not because of the service he could render in them and through them to his fellow men, but for the sake of what he could get out of them. So successful was he in this particular that his income came to be equal to that of the crown. When King Henry VIII found this out he saw to it that it was immediately curtailed. This was the begin- ning of his rapid downfall. At last, stripped of his glory and forsaken, Shakespeare makes him ery out: “O Cromwell, Cromwell, had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.” As a matter of fact he had not served the King in the truest sense, He served the King only because he felt that was the best way to serve his own selfish interests. Shakespeare appreciated this fact. When he came to the final interpretation of the Cardinal's fall, and would show Cromwell a way in which to rise out of his wreck, he says, “Love thyself last". He appreci- ated that the Cardinal loved himself first, and sought his own ends in everything he touched. But it is at this point that the 981 great bard went wrong in his use of the word ambition. Still addressing Cromwell, he says, “I charge thee fling away ambi- tion, by that sin fell the angels.” The trou- ble was not with his ambition but with the use that he made of it. His ambition was the power by which he could set a value upon right things and be driven towards the realization of right ends. He harnessed this magnificent power of his personality to wrong ends, and wrongly centered, it became his ruin. Shakespeare appreciated this fact and therefore says: “Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, thy God's and truth’s; Then if thou fallest, O Cromwell, thou fallest a blessed martyr.” THE END SOUGHT What he wanted Cromwell to do was to set a real value upon these things and make them the aim and end of his ambi- tion. The Scarlet Sin was not the ambi- tion, but the use that Wolsey made of that sublime power of his personality. If he had harnessed that power to: the ser- vice of his country, his God and truth, he would have been a different man and in all probability the history of the church of his time would have been a different story from what it now is. In the light of these facts, there is no reason why we should hesitate to accept Paul's admonition to “be ambitious.” It is very interesting to note that the three times Paul uses this word he associated it with the very things the “Bard of Avon” asked Cromwell to make the aim of life. In 1 Thess. 4:11, he admonished the peo- ple to be ambitious, to be themselves at their best, in order that they might serve their fellows in the best possible way. In the other two passages he tells us what his own ambition was, and in this way revealed the way in which: men may best serve this day, In 2 Cor. 5:9 he tells us that he was ambitious to please Christ. From the day he met Christ on the way to Damascus to the day he laid down his life an offering unto God, the dominating passion of life was to please his great Master. To982 THE KING'S put it in his own words “That I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” THE MISSIONARY IDEA ‘This involved the thing he speaks of in Romans 15:20. He was ambitious “to preach the Gospel,” and especially to preach it where Christ had not already been named, In other words he was ambitious to be a preacher and a foreign missionary. There was no other way in which he could serve his day and generation so well. By abandoning himself to God to be poured out as an interpretation of the truth that he so magnificently experienced in his own life, he realized his own life at its best and rendered the greatest possible service to the church and the world for all time. That ambition was infinitely worth while and worthy of the greatest of men. It is a question in my mind as to whether Paul would have been heard of beyond his gen- eration had he not made God, truth, and his fellows the aim of his life. In abandon- ing his life to God for others he found himself in a sublime influence that has gripped the heart of the generations. Yet we fear that the aim of his ambi- tion is not a popular one in our day. The most of people are not particularly ambi- tious to be preachers and especially for- eign missionaries. The majority of Chris- tian fathers and mothers, when they dream great dreams concerning the future of their boys, do not class the calling of the min- istry as one of the great challenges of our day to a great life. There may be a good reason for this. The calling has been degraded into a mere profession and fre- quently sought for its social advantages. Parents cannot be particularly blamed for not being ambitious to have their boys mere ecclesiastical flunkeys, performing the little formal duties of a church that is lit- tle more than a social club, Of all the drudgery in life there is none more humiliating and galling than the drudgery of a mere professional minister whose whole aim in life is to be popular with his people—the man who is more BUSINESS anxious to know what the people like, than he is to know what God would have him say. But that is not the kind of thing Paul had in mind when he said that he was ambitious to preach the Gospel. He was ambitious to make known to men the real- ities of God that he experienced in his own life. They were so real to him and their power in his life was so great that he lit- erally burned to tell others about them, He felt the throbbing life and freedom that came to him when he was made free from the law of sin and death hy the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and he felt that the only thing that was infinitely worth while was the making of that expe- rience real in the life of the world. Preach- ing. to him. was not mere talki smooth, eloquent words, and cleverly- turned phrases, but the living and experi- encing of Christ in his own life, and mak- ing Him real to the men of his day—that is an ambition worthy of the greatest man- hood and womanhood. There is nothing that is more necded in this acute crisis in the life of the church and the world than this very thing—men and women who have a living experience of Jesus Christ and can make the deep realities for which He stands, real to the men with whom they come in contact. Nothing in human experience gives a ‘greater opportunity for truly great living, It is a challenge that is worthy of the biggest and the truest men and women of our age, and it is the solemn duty of Chris- tian fathers and mothers to make this clear to their children. They ought to so live and teach as to make their children con- stantly feel that the istry, instead of being a calling for weak and second-rate men, is by far the first and greatest chal- lenge to great manhood and womanhood. It is not a call to make a lot of money, but it is a challenge to great living and to the most sublime service possible in this life. This is a very much worth-while ambition. We opened this study with a picture ofTHE KING’S BUSINESS. an ecclesiastic who was ruined by a wrong use of ambition—a man who made self the center and aim of his life. Let us close with a glimpse of another kind of an ecclesiastic—a man who made his fellow- men, God, and the truth the passion of his life. Qne of the most touching and inspir- ing scenes in history is that picture of David Livingstone, as he stands by the side of Stanley, who found him in the heart of Africa after years. of silence, and told him of how his loved ones, and indeed whole nations were anxious for his safety and his return home, and pled with him to leave Africa with its sufferings, toils and sacrifices, and go back to Great Britain where he would be received with open arms and given the. highest honors of the Jand. He was human, and in the very nature of things these words made a mighty appeal to his great heart and life. But above the sweet, wooing songs and the promised ease, honor and glory, there came to him another plea—the cry of the broken, wounded and bleeding heart of Africa— and forgetting himself and his own com- forts and glories he abandoned himself to God and turned his back on the glories of this world and flung his wonderful per- sonality into the gulf of Africa's erying need, laying down his life that her great running sore might be healed. In harness- ing his ambition to that sublime sacrificial service he found himself, and became a blessing to a whole continent, and one of the best loved and most honored men of all times. ‘The thing that cursed Cardinal Wolsey, made David Livingstone one of the greatest men of his day. They were both ambitious —the one ambitious for himself and he lost his life; the other ambitious to please God and to serve his fellowmen, and he found his life. Ambition controlled by sel- fishness is a curse. Ambition abandoned 983 to God in the service of men, makes glor- ious and worth while even the most com- monplace tasks. Be ambitious, but beware lest you have an unworthy aim and it becomes your ruin. ag Graduated Together Rev. J. O. Booce of Port Angeles, Wash., where he is convention pastor and evange- list of the Baptist church, writes us to call attention to the fact that he and his wife, Marian Booce, completed the term together as husband and wife, and hold diplomas awarded them in June, 1914, by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and are members of Biola Alumni Association. They, therefore, are entitled to be known as the first husband and wife to complete the course together, the three couples of last June being the first since 1914. — Si School Opens The Fall term of the Institute opened on September 26,-with an inereased en- rollment over any preceding term. The opening address was delivered by Dr. William Evans, associate dean, at 11 o'clock a.m. oh Mr. and Mrs. Fred Abbott, former stu- dents of the Institute, but now residing in Oakland, announce the arrival of a boy baby at their home. —»6—_ All the way from Templeton, Wis., comes a contribution of $2.50 for the Seamen's Fund, almost entirely contributed by a poor woman of Menomonee Falls.984 KING'S New Facwlt HE Institute is indeed fortunate in curing as one of the extra teachers on its faculty this year, so able an instruc- tor as Rev, Wm. H. Pike, of Binghamton, N.Y. teen years dean of the P tical | Vr: School. Pike well known in the East not only through the students of the has been the dean, for f of which he gh Bible con- Institute Dut th ference work which he has conducted in many cities, and through his writings on Biblical subjects. Mr. Pike with his fam- ily, journeyed across the continent by auto- mobile, conducting several short evangel- tic campaigns along the open-air crowds in nearly every town and distributing thousands of Gospel tracts. By means of their Gospel singing and brass cor way; addressing KEITH L. BROOKS REV. WM, H, PIKE instruments, interested throngs were quickly assembled and splendid opportu ties ¢ Gospel were utilized Mr. the Moody tabernacle in Chicago. Another addition to the Institute staff this year is that of Mr. Keith L. Brooks, who comes to take charge of the Corres- pondence School, which has recently taken on very promising future prospects. Mr. Brooks is qualified for the work by his business experience and training in Chris- to spread Pike spoke several evenings in tian work, For the past four years he has been the editor and manager of “Echoes,” a Christian periodical, which, under his direction, became widely recognized because of its excellent Bible material. Mrs. Brooks, who comes with him, of the has been the matron Bible school at Binghamton,LIGHT ON PUZZLING PASSAGES and PROBLEMS By R. A. TORREY al T have for some time been exercised in my mind and heart over a certain doctrine. which I come across occasionally in almost all the expositions on Sunday School Les- son helps, which I respectfully bring before you for explanation. To me it is vital. I must confess I have been unable thus far in my Christian experience to believe the popular doctrine “once in grace always in grace.” Will you kindly give me some light on this important subject? First, I believe salvation is obtained by faith; second, I believe salvation is maintained in like man- ner by faith (Rom. 1:47); third, I believe faith is accompanied by good works in both instances. If it were not possible to be lost, why should Paul fear he “should be @ castaway"? (1 Cor. 9:27), What would likely be the nature of the “shipwreck” Paul speaks of in 1 Tim. 1:19? According to John 8:31, is not discipleship conditioned on “continuing” in the course as it began? How can Heb. 6:4-6 be harmonized with above doctrine? Evidently the church at Ephesus was in a backslidden state and in great danger of losing spiritual life alto- gether (Rev. 2:45). Would not the parable of the Ten Virgins lose its force in face of said doctrine? Is Prof. Drummond not considered orthodox in teaching in “Natural Law’—fo maintain spiritual life requires perfect correspondence to a perfect environ- ment, separation between these conditions means death, First of all let me say that the doctrine of “once in grace always in grace” as some- times stated by those who hold it, is unseriptural, and may be dangerous. But the Bible certainly does teach that if a man is really born again he will stay born again’ and cannot be unborn (1 John 2:19; 3:9), and that if one is really one of Christ's sheep he is eternally secure (John 10 :27-29) ; but this does not mean that if a man lies down in sin after he has been saved he will stay saved. What it means is, that if a man has been truly bora again he will not lie down in sin, he may fall into sin, but he will not continue in st, Conver- sion is not regeneration, and many a man is outwardly converted who will go back into sin. The truth is he never was truly one of Christ's sheep, he was simply a washed sow and returns to his wallowing in the mire (2 Peter 2:22). You are right in thinking that salvation is obtained by faith, but if a man really has saving faith he will continue in the faith (Heb. 10:39, see Ri V.). This whole passage draws a clear dis- tinction between those who have faith and therefore continue in the faith, and those who have something they consider faith, and yet shrink back and thus prove they did not have real faith. You say, “I believe faith is accompanied by good works in both instances." Yes, but the good works are the outcome of the faith and not the source of it; and if a man has faith ke will show it by good works, and show it con- tinuously to the end, You say, “If it were not possible to be lost, why should Paul fear he ‘should be a castaway,’ and refer to 1 Cor. 9:27. In answer to this would say Paul does not express any fear that he should be a castaway; on the other hand he tells what he does that will surely keep him from becoming a castaway; that is, he buffets his body, and keeps it under, and thus keeps from becoming a castaway. He does not express the fear of becoming a castaway, but merely tells the means which he took by grace to keep from becoming a castaway, and he tells us distinctly that he did this. He had not the slightest fear of becoming a castaway, because he tells us, distinctly in 2 Tim. 1:12, “I know whom I| 986 THE KING'S BUSIN have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Furthermore, Jet me say “castaway” does not mean lost, the word means “disapproved.” Many a man is set aside after being greatly used, but he is not thereby lost. Believers may be judged of God because of their mistakes and sins, even unto death, but still they are not condemned with the world (1 Cor, 11:30-32). In regard to 1 Tim. 1:19, those who had made “shipwreck” were not regen- erate men, they were not believers in the full sense. The very context tells us they did not hold faith and a good conscience, but thrust these things away from them and thus beeame “shipwrecked.” You ask if “according to John 8:31 discipleship is not conditioned on ‘continuing’ in the course it began?” It certainly is, but the one who is born again will continue. You ask how Heb. '6:4-6 can be harmonized with above doctrine. Without any difficulty whatever. In the first place, it is very evident from the context that the writer did not state this as a case that would actually occur, but states what would be the result if it did occur in order to keep it from occurring. In other words, lhe led the readers up to an awiul gulf to show them what was there that they might not walk into it. He says distinctly in the ninth verse, “Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” In other words he tells them that this is not going to occur, and warning them of it is the means that God used to keep it from occurring. And, furthermore, there is such a thing asa work of the Holy Spirit short of regeneration. A man may taste of the heavenly gift and be made a partaker of the Holy Spirit to a certain extent without being born again. In regard to the church in Ephesus, it does not say that they were “in danger of losing spiritual life altogether.” Read the passage care- fully. All that is said is, that the church, as @ church, was in danger of being moved S$ out of its place, being set aside as a wit- ness for God. There is not a hint that indi- viduals in the church who really believed and had been born again would be lost for- As to the parable of the ten virgins I cannot see that it has any bearing on the ever. question at all. The five foolish virgins were those who had their lamps, the out- ward profession, but did not have abiding supplies of oil together with their lamps. It does not picture a regenerate person at all. As to Prof. Drummond, I am not at all concerned about whether he was con- sidered orthodox or otherwise. It is the Bible I am studying, not Prof. Drummond's “Natural Law.” I do not think any thor- oughly-posted scientist of today would accept some of the things he said, from a scientific standpoint; and I am sure that any thorough student of the Bible today would take exception to some things that Drummond said. Prof. Drummond was not inspired. Neither this book nor any other book he ever wrote was a revelation from God. The Bible is. Let me say in clos- ing that I thoroughly disagree with those teachers of the doctrine to which you refer who scem to teach that if a man has once been saved he may lie down in sin, die in sin, and yet be saved eternally. That is a Most pefnicious belief. Yet I do believe in the security of the believer, because it is plainly taught in the Word of God. I do not so much believe in the perseverance of the saints.as in the perseverance of the Saviour, and as He has said He would keep His own sheep to the end, I am sure He will, I do not think my eternal salvation will be any more secure when I haye been in heaven ten million years than it is today, but this docs not make me Presumptuous ; on the contrary, it makes me walk more humbly before lim, and makes me more devoted to Him. I am not serving Him in order to be saved, but in glad gratitude toward Him because He has already saved me for all eternity.HEN we remember the thousands of musical instruments and the ever-in- creasing millions of copies of music that are sold each year, this subject is more vital and important than at first seems patent. There is scarcely a home that is not influenced in a greater or less degree by music, and but few of us realize the extent of that influence, because music is extremely subtle; its appeal is not tangibly concrete, and, in the case of musie of infe- rior worth, its vagaries and undesirable qualities may be under the surface. For Tike almost everything else in the world, there is good and bad in music, and too often the home is thrown open to the bad —perhaps because there seems to be such a preponderance of it. Music, so-called, of the most trivial and worthless character. finds its way into countless homes where a book or maga- zine of like calibre would not be tolerated. The people of these homes pride themselves on their good taste and refinement and cul- ture, and very likely in the matter of select- ing the books which are to occupy their library shelves, ot of choosing the pictures which are to adorn the walls of their houses, they would give every evidence of good taste. But when it comes to music, they scem not to realize that one of the -most flagrant sins against good taste and -refinement is bringing into the home music of the so-called “popular” or “rag-time” type. Our modern “popular” songs, aside from their inane and silly words, are musically and morally unfit to be found in any Chris- tian home; and yet how many pianos in Christian homes are covered with their glaringly gaudy covers! And their idiotic titles are flaunted forth as if something of TA a MUSIC IN THE HOME By CHARLES HOWARD MARSE “What have they seen in thy house?” kinsszoas eA cs HN 0 Ea en aE which to be proud. Furthermore, to our shame be it said, we laugh and wink at subtle innuendoes and even immoral sug- gestiveness in their jingling verse that we would not for a moment-tolerate in con- versation. Even in the best of them, there is nothing in the cheap sentiment and cheaper music to commend their entrance™ to a refined home, People little realize the wide sphere of influence exerted by one of our commonly called “ragtime hits.” A song that makes an instant appeal to the masses nets the publisher anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000 profit. This from a song or piano piece of the most trivial and worthless character, and almost invariably written by a person with no musical knowledge or training! It is absolutely the prostitution of the art of music to the greed for money. Let us follow the course of a modern “popular” song. Every publisher of this class of music keeps a more or less elab- orate staff of men to “arrange” the material that is afterward published. This material usually consists of the barest melody (more than likely incorrectly notated) and a sug- gestion of an idea—comic, suggestive or sentimental—in execrable verse. Provid- ing he sees possibilities in this material, the publisher accepts it and pays the composer (save the mark!) five dollars or so, seldom more and deserving less. The “arranger” then supplies a piano accompaniment of invariable harmony (the same three or four chords and cadences are used in all cases.) The verse is “doctored” up and the song is printed and launched through the the- aters, dance-halls and cabarets. If it is a “hit” this same song will adorn (?) the piano in thousands of Christian homes throughout the country; fortunately how-988 THE ever for a few months only, because even the greatest hits of one season are dis- carded in the next but alas! there are always more to replace them, Is it the publisher's fault that worthless music is published? ine the so much Does he refine- deliberately seck to under ment and musical taste of the people? No, the fault lies with the people, Let the demand of the people be for clean, whole- some, worthy music, and the publisher will not be slow to discard the worthless; he is in the business for the money and not for the sake of art or raising the standard of musical appreciation. In the eastern publishers told me his motto was, “Supply what the people want and let the other publishers educate the masses.” And the people spend millions of dollars for music that is not only trivial but is abso- lutely pernicious, while composers of wor thy music with one or two exceptions in this country, do not receive recompense enough to keep body Verily our boasted civilization is not yet ideal in its treatment of our most universal art. The influence of this does not stop with the home; it is found even in the hymnology of some of our churches. There we find hymns, supposedly with fact one of and soul together. “popular” music meant for the praise of Jehovah, meaningless jingles for words and with music equally inappropriate and often of the mest profane character. I believe Satan gloats when he hears the trifling. if not evil songs sung in many a Christian home and more so when a congregation praise of Almighty God in ike character. Is it any wonder that some churches forbid music in public When I hear a congregation raising to Jehovah a hymn with music of a character that would place it more fitly in the dance- hall than in His holy temple, I marvel at His long-suffering patience with the chil- dren of men who make so poor an offering to the Creator of music, the One who made the morning stars to sing together. In some of our churches I have frequently voices its music of a worship? KING'S BUS INESS PROP. C. H. MARSH come in contact with a most unreasonable custom, i.e. of judging the musical worth of a hymn by the words, I have heard hymns of matchless sacred worth sung to music absolutely profane, So many people think because the words are music could not be otherwise, common fallacy. To return to the music of the home: What is there in worthy music to replace the “popular” type? The trained musician as well as the person with keen musical appreciation (though untrained technically) enjoys the intellectually beautiful in music; in the virile polyphonic writing of Bach, in the complex counterpoint of Reger, in the mystic charm of Debussy, and even in the clashing dissonances of Stravinsky and Schoenberg does he take delight and find inspiration. But what is there for the man sacred the This is aTHE of the masses, the untrained music? layman in Can he be expected to receive a Bach fugue with unalloyed joy? Certainly not, for music is a language and he is still in the “cat-is-on-the-mat” stage of musical development; unless he understands, natur- ally he cannot enjoy it. But between the intellectual heights of Bach, of Beethoven, of Brahms, and the worthless sham of the modern “popular” music lies an immense field of worthy music containing the noblest sentiment and the most spiritual uplift— much of it sublime in its simplicity and within the mental grasp of the masses. The one who listens to good music only, uncon- sciously grows in his musical appreciation and taste. Isn’t it strange that in these days of pianolas and talking machines and sym- phony orchestras, when so much of the best music is within easy reach of even the musically untrained, that we do not choose the worthy? We are careful in training our children in literature; we say they must not read the trashy stories, that their minds are peculiarly sensitive and receptive in youth, and that they should read only the best; but we allow them to hear the worst in music, nay we encourage them in. this perversion of their musical taste and then wonder why they prefer the music of the dance-hall to that of the symphony orches- tra and the oratorio chorus. Why should the professed Christian allow the vulgar and sometimes evil influence of modern “popular” music to be fostered in his home? Will not God demand a_ strict accountability for the things we allow in our homes? Next to the grace of God, what is so unfathomable as the art of music? Almost universal in its appeal, acceptable to babe and to sage, intangible and indefinite yet beautiful and uplifting, this God-given KING'S BUSINESS 989 blessing should be kept undefiled; we should strive to know and understand the beauty of it, to appreciate its nobility, to respond to its gayety and to grasp its pathos. Do you recall what John G. Paton said about the effect of music on the can- nibals of the New Hebrides? After attending a convention of ministers in Ire- land, where the question of music in the church service was being discussed pro and con, he said: “No one was once more opposed to music in the worship of God, especially instru- mental music, than I had been, but the Lord who made us and knows the nature He has given us had long before shown me otherwise. A trip to the South Sea Islands and a revelation of how God used the music of harmonium and hymn, as wings on which the Gospel was borne into the hearts of cannibals, would have opened the eyes of these dear brethren as it has opened mine.” How many, many times this testimony could be duplicated, and under innumerable varieties of circumstances! Battles have been won, faint hearts buoyed up, and sor- row itself alleviated, all through the agency of music. Shall we then co-operate with the spirit of the times, “despising that which is good,” and desecrate this noble art, this marvel- lous blessing of God to men? Or shall we as Christians carefully guard our homes and lives from the wiles of the evil one by sharply defining the line of demarcation between the good and the bad, the noble and the trivial, the merely entertaining and the spiritually uplifting? Then, and then only can we grow in appreciation and understanding of the wonders of music and as we learn to value it at its true worth we shall understand why God has given it a place throughout eternity in Heaven.090 PIE KENGS BUSINESS being provided for those who desire p.» About 100 men and women through cach of these services, and hundreds hav rd the gospel cy woman; her gift of a lot im the center of | P*°" the beach town. to the Bible Institute, rom the 22nd to the 26th of Aug a condition that a chapel be built and work prophetic «conference was held ie begun immediately This picture testitics Chapel every morning and evening. ery to the concrete result, but ¢ als session wa attended and on di how much the chapel will mean for the sal- morning all the chairs were t vation of souls in the stood during whole sery In the V. V. Morgan of ot even the extra chairs available ment at San Pedro, was p and still people stood. God w the work in June. A St answered prayer and blessed th been held in a theater building for about ference and brought people from inland a year and ten scholars met Mr. Morgan towns to the beach, amid the mad rush for that first Sunday in June. On the 201 pleasure. to study His wonderful Word. August there were 137 scholars We ask the prayers of our readers for he attendance at the morning services the work this winter, when comparatively held in The Chapel has averaged about few | at Balboa. Most of these are Every Sunday evening a service has been unsaved. indifferent people. Pray for con- held out on the pier, chairs and song books viction of sin ‘ d salvation of souls.What Think Ye or Christ? “What think ye of Christ?” —Matt. 22:42 SUPPOSE there is no one here who has not thought more or less about Christ. You have heard about Him, and read about Him, and heard men preach about Him. For eighteen. hundred years men have been talking about Him, and thinking about Him; and some have their minds made up about who He is, and doubtless some have not. And. although all these years have rolled away, this question comes up, addressed to each of us, today. “What think ye of Christ?” 1 do not know why it should not be thought a proper question for one man to put to another. If I were to ask you what you think of any of your prominent men, you would already have your mind mare up about him. If I were to ask you what you thought of your noble queen, you would speak right out and tell me your opinion in a minute. If I were to ask you about your prime minister, you would tell me freely what you had for or against him. And why should not people make up their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ, and take their stand for or against Him? If you think well of Him, why not speak well of Him and range your- selves on His side? And if you think ill of Him and believe Him to be an impostor, By Dwight L. Moody and that He did not die to save the world, why not lift up your voice and say you are against Him? Tt would be a happy day for Christianity if men would just take sides—if we could know positively who is really for Him and who is against Him, EVERY SOUL INTERESTED It is of very little importance what the world thinks of any one else. The queen and the statesman, the peers and the princes, must soon he gone. Yes; it matters little, comparatively, what we think of them. Their lives can only interest a few; but every living soul on the face of the earth is concerned with this Man. The question for the world is, “What think ye of Christ?” T do not ask you what you think of the Established Church, or of the Presbyte- rians, or the Baptists. or the Roman Catho- lics; I do not ask you what you think of this minister or that, of this doctrine or that; but I want to ask you what you think of the living person of Christ? I should like to ask, Was He really the Son of God—the great God-Man? Did He leave heaven and come down to this world for a purpose? Was it really to seek and to save? I should like to begin with the manger, and to follow Him up992 “Lord, if thow wilt, thou canst make me clean,” he cried. “I will,” says the Great Physician, and in an instant the leprosy is gone. The world has hospitals for incurable diseases; but there were no incurable diseases with Him. Now, see Him in the little home at Bethany, binding up the wounded hearts of Martha and Mary, and tell me what you think of Him as a comforter. He is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. The weary may find a rest- ing-place upon that breast, and the friend- less may reckon Him their friend. He never varies, He never fails, He never dies. His sympathy is ever fresh, His love is ever free. Oh, widow and orphans, oh, sorrow and mourning, will you not thank God for Christ the Comforter? IMPORTANT TESTIMONY But these are not the points I wish to take up. Let us go to those who knew Christ, and ask what they thought of Him. If you want to find out what a man is now= adays, you inquire about him from those who know him best. I do not wish to be partial; we will go to His enemies, and to His friends. We will ask them, What think ye of Christ? We will ask His friends and His enemies. If we only went to those who liked Him, you would say: “Oh, he is so blind; he thinks so much of the man that he can’t see His faults. You can’t get anything out of him unless it be in His favor; it is a one-sided affair altogether.” So we shall go in the first place to His enemies, to those who hated Him, perse- cuted Him, cursed and slew Him. I shall put you in the jury-box, and call upon them to tell us what they think of Him. First among the witnesses, let us call upon the Pharisees. We know how they hated Him. Let us put a few questions to them. “Come, Pharisees, tell us what you have against the Son of God, What do you think of Christ?” Hear what they say! “This man receiveth sinners.” What an argument to bring against Him! Why, THE KING'S BUSINESS through the thirty-three years He was here upon earth. I should ask you what you think of His coming into this world and being born in a manger when it might have been a palace; why He left the gran- deur and the glory of heaven, and the royal retinue of angels; why He passed by pal- aces and crowns and dominion and came down here alone. I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a teacher. He spake as never man spake. I should like to take Him up as a preacher. I should like to bring you to that mountain-side, that we might listen to the words as they fall from His gentle lips. Talk about the preachers of the present day! I would rather a thousand times be five minutes at the feet of Christ than to listen a lifetime to all the wise men in the world, He used just to hang truth upon anything. Yonder is a sower, a fox, a bird, and He just gathers the truth around them, so that you cannot see a fox, a sower, or a bird, without thinking what Jesus said. Yonder is a lily of the valley; you cannot see it without thinking of His words, “They toil not, neither do they spin.” THE BIRDS PREACH He makes the little, sparrow chirping in the air preach to us. How fresh those wonderful sermons are, how they live today! How we love to tell them to our children, how the children love to hear! “Tell me a story about Jesus,” how often we hear it; how the little ones love His sermons! No story-book in the world will ever interest them like the stories that He told. And yet how profound He was; how He puzzled the wise men; how the scribes and the Pharisees would never fathom Him! Gh, do you not think He was a wonderful preacher? I should like to ask you what you think of Him as a physician. A man would soon have a reputation as a doctor if he could cure as Christ did. No case was ever brought to Him but what He was a match for. He had but to speak the word and disease fled before Him, Here comes a man covered with leprosy.THE KING'S BUSINESS 993 it is the very thing that makes us love Him. Jewish mob, there comes along a man It is the glory of the gospel. He receives sinners, If He had not, what would have become of us? Have you nothing more to bring against Him than this? Why, it is one of the greatest compliments that was ever paid Him. Once more: when he was hanging on the tree, you had this to say to Him, “He saved others, but He could not save Himself and save us too.” So He laid down His own life for yours and mine. Yes, Pharisees, you have told the truth for once in your lives! He saved others. He died for others. He was a ransom for many; so it is quite true what you think of Him—He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Now, let us call upon Caiaphas. Let him stand up here in his flowing robes; let us ask him for his evidence. “Caiaphas, you were chief priest when Chirst was tried; you were president of the Sanhedrin; you were in the council-chamber when they found Him guilty; you yourself condemned Him. Tell us; what did the witnesses say? On what grounds did you judge Him? What testimony was brought against Him?” “He hath spoken blasphemy,” says Caiaphas. “He said, ‘Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.’ When I heard that I found Him guilty of blasphemy; I rent my mantle and condemned Him to death.” Yes, all that they had against Him was that He was the Son of God; and they slew Him for the promise of His coming for His bride! INNOCENT, SAY ALL Now let us summon Pilate. Let him enter the witness-box. Pilate, this man was brought before you; you examined, you talked with Him face to face; what think you of Christ? “I find no fault in Him,” says Pilate. “He said He was the King of the Jews just as He wrote it over the cross; but I find no fault in Him.” Such is the testi- mony of the man who examined Him! And, as He stands there, the center of a elbowing his way in haste. He rushes up to Pilate, and, thrusting out his hand, gives him a message. He tears it open; his face turns pale as he reads—“Have thou noth- ing to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” It is from Pilate’s wife —her testimony to Christ. You want to know what His enemies thought of Him? You want to know what a heathen thought? Well, here it is, “no fault in him;” and the wife of a heathen, “this just man.” And now, look—in comes Judas, He ought to make a good witness. Let us address him. “Come, tell us, Judas, what think ye of Christ? You knew the Master well; you sold Him for thirty picces of silver; you betrayed Him with a kiss; you saw Him perform those miracles; you were with Him in Jerusalem. In Bethany, when He summoned up Lazarus, you were there. What think you of Him?” I can see Him as he comes into the presence of the chief priests: I can hear the money ring as he dashes it upon the table: “I have betrayed innocent blood!” Here is the man who betrayed Him, and this is what he thinks of Him! Yes, those who were guilty of His death put their testimony on record that He was an innocent man. Let us take the centurion who was pres- ent at the execution, He had charge of the Roman soldiers. He told them to make Him carry His cross; he had given orders for the nails to be driven into His feet and hands, for the spear to be thrust in His side. Let the centurion come forward. “Centurion, you had charge of the execu- tioners; you saw ‘that the order for His death was carried out; you saw Him die; you heard Him speak upon the cross. Tell us, what think you of Christ?” Hark! Look at him; he is smiting his breast as he cries, “Truly, this was the son of God!” I might go to the thief upon the cross, and ask what he thought of Him. At first he railed upon Him and reviled Him. But then he thought better of it: “This man hath done nothing amiss,” he says.994 THE DEVIL, TOO I might go further. I might summon the very devils themselves and ask them for their testimony. Have they anything to say of Him? Why, the very devils called Him the Son of God! In Mark we have the unclean spirit erying, “Jesus, thou Son of the most high God.” Men say, “Oh, I believe Christ to be the Son of God, and because I believe it intellectually, I shal] be saved.” I tell you the devils did that. And they did more than that: they trem- bled. Let us bring in His friends. you to hear their evidence. Let us call that prince of preachers, Let us hear the forerunner; none ever preached like this man—this man who drew all Jerusalem and all Judea into the wilderness to hear him; this man who burst upon the nations like the flash of a meteor. Let John the Bap- tist come with his leathern girdle and his hairy coat, and let him tell t@\ what he thinks of Christ. His words, théugh they were echoed in the wilderness of Palestine, are written in the Book forever, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!” This is what John the Baptist thought of him. “I bear record that He is the Son of God." No wonder he drew alt Jerusalem and Judea to him, because he preached Christ. And whenever men preach Christ, they are sure to have plenty of followers We want Let us bring in Peter, who was with Him on the mount of transfiguration, who was with Him the night He was betrayed. Come, Peter, tell us what you think of Christ. Stand in this witness-box and testify of Him. You denied Him once. You said, with a curse, you did not know Him. Was it truc, Peter? Don’t you know Him? “Know Him!” I can imagine Peter say- ing: “It was a lie I told then. I did know Him.” Afterward I can hear him charging home their guilt upon these Jeru- salem sinners. He calls Him “both Lord and Christ.” Such was the testimony on the day of Pentecost. “God had made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ.” THE KING'S BUSIN SS And tradition tells us that when they came to execute Peter he felt he was not worthy to die in the way his Master died, and he requested to be crucified with the head downward, So much did Peter think of Him! BELOVED DISCIPLE Now let us hear from the beloved dis- ciple, John. He knew more about Christ than any other man. He had laid his head on his Saviour's bosom. He had heard the throbbing of that loving heart. Look into his Gospel if you wish to know what he thought of Him. Matthew writes of Him as the royal king come from His throne. Mark writes of Him as the servant, and Luke of the Son of Man. John takes up his pen, and, with one stroke, forever settles the que: tion of Unitarianism. He goes right back before the time of Adam. “In the begin- ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Look into Revelation. He calls Him “the bright and the morning star.” So John thought well of Him—because He knew Him well. We might bring in Thomas, the doubt- ing disciple. You doubted Him, Thomas. You would not believe He had risen, and you put your fingers into the wound in His side. What do you think of Him? “My Lord and my God!” says Thomas. Then go over to Decapolis and you will find Christ has been there casting out dev= ils. Let us call the men of that country and ask what they think of Him. “He hath done all things well,” they say. But we have other witnesses to bring in. Take the perseeuting Saul. once one of the worst of His enemies. Breathing out threatenings, he meets Him. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” says Christ. He might have added, “What have I done to you? Have I injured you in any way? Did I not come to bless you? Why do you treat Me thus, Saul?” And then Saul asks, “Who art thou, Lord?” “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.” You see, He was not ashamed of His name, although He had been in heaven; “I am Jesus of Nazareth.” WhatTHE KING'S BUSINESS a change did that one interview make to Saul! A few years afterward we hear him: say, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dross that I may win Christ.” Such a testimony to the Saviour! ANGELS SUMMONED But I shall go still further. T shall go -away from earth into the other world. T shall summon the angels and ask what they think of Christ. They saw Him in the bosom of the Father before the world was, Before the dawn of creation, before the morning stars sang together, He was there. They saw Him leave the throne and come down to the manger, What a scene for them to witness! Ask these heavenly beings what they thought of Him then. For once they are permitted to speak; for once the silence of heaven is broken. Listen to their song on the plains of Bethlehem, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city.of David. a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” He leaves the throne to save the world. Is it a wonder the angels thought well of Him? Then there are the redeemed saints— they that see Him face to face. Here on earth He was never known, no one seemed really to he acquainted with Him; but He was known in that world where He had heen from the foundation. What do they think of Him there? If we could hear from heaven we should hear a shout which would glorify and magnify His name. We are told that when John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. and being caught up, he heard a shout around him, ten thousand times ten thousand. and thousands and thousands of voices, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches. and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!” Yes, He is worthy of all this. . Heaven cannot speak too well of Him, Oh, that earth would take up the echo and. join with heaven in singing, “Worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!” 995 A VOICE FROM HEAVEN But there is still another witness, a higher still. Some think thay‘the God of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. But when Jesus came out'e Jordan, baptized by John, there came a vice from heaven. God the. Father spoke. It was His testi- mony to Christ: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Ah, yes! God the Father thinks well of the Son. And if God is well pleased with Him, so ought we to be, If the sinner and God are well pleased with Christ, then the sinner and God can meet. The moment you say, as the Father said. “I am well pleased with Him,” and accept Him, you are wedded to God. Will you not believe the-testi- mony? Will you not believe this witness, this last of all, the Lord of hosts, the King of kings himself? Once more he repeats it, so that all may know it. With Peter and James and John, on the mount of transfiguration, He cries again, “This is my beloved Son; hear him.” And that voice went echoing and re-echoing through Palestine, through all the earth from sea to sea; yes, that voice is echoing still, Hear Him! Hear Him! My friend, will you hear Him today? Hark! what is He saying to you? “Come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy; and my burden is light.” Will you not think well of such a Saviour? Will you not believe in Him? Will you not trust in Him with all your heart and mind? Will you not live for Him? If He laid down His life for us, is it not the least we can > do to lay down ours for Him? If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not to be willing to take it up for Him? Oh, have we not reason to think well of Him, Do you think it is right and noble to lift up your voice against such a Sav- iour? Do you think it is just to ery, “Cru- cify Him! Crucify Him!” Ob, may God help all of us to glorify the Father by thinking well of His only-begotten Son.THE KING'S BUSINESS Bible Inst tute of Los Angeles Dr, Mark Matthews, ex-Moderator of the Presby- terian General Assembly. to i Extract from Church Bulle s Seattle congr in of August 19, 1917. The Los Augeles Bible Institute. We have from time to time issued an appec even more urgent than the call “Come over into churches to organize Bible classes; we have plead with pastors to organize district Bible 1 which was lonia and help us.” We have urged classes in their respective cities and communi- ties, We now appeal to pastors, church offi- cers, church members-and Christians who be- lieve the infallible Word of God, to send their young people to the Los Angeles Bible Insti-THE KING'S BUSINESS tute for a thorough training. There is no bet- ter equipped institute in the land, magnificent buildings, delightful dormitory quarters, some of the best teachers to be found, and every- thing conducive to the spiritual, as well as the intellectual development of the pupils. Cer- tainly the people living in this western district or anywhere west of the Rocky Mountains ought to send their boys and girls to the Los Angeles Bible Institute. We need a trained faculty for the Sunday School; we need a trained force for the prayer mecting, young people’s societies, and local missionary work; we need trained young peo- ple in all of our churches. There is no better place to train them than in this Bible Institute. Why do you read WATCHWORD and TRUTH, OUR HOPE, THE KING’S BUSI- NESS and such magazines, if you do not read them with the view of making your personal contribution toward the development of the work we are trying to do? Just to sit, read, be fed and made fat spiritually is not the sum total of Christian duty. Christians of today ought to be doers of the Word, not hearers only. We can say also with equal force that you ought to be doers of the Word not readers only. No doubt thousands read these maga- zines and are regaled, made happy, fed spirit- ually and are developed, who never contribute one cent, never try to secure a pupil for the 997q i i 998 THE KING'S BUSINESS — a Bible Institute, nor do anything else along practical lines. . These are strenuous times. If you cannot go to the foreign ficld yourself, give your money to send some one. If you cannot go to a Bible Institute, give your money to send some worthy boy or girl. Now is the time to prepare people, now is the time to ground them in the faith, now is the time to educate them in the infallible Word of God. There- fore, | appeal to our church ; yea, make it an object of prayer, ask God to help find students, urge them to go to the Bible Institute, pay their expenses. We are interested in teaching the Bible; we are interested in securing people who will teach it; we are interested in securing pupils who will stud) you to canvass y it; and we are interested in securing Christians who will give their money to make possible the teaching of the Word, and who will give their money to send worthy boys and girls to such schools for thorough training. Your money doesn't belong to you. You are God's steward. It was given you to be used for the preaching of the Gospel. Give it to us in order that we may send pupils to such schools. We urge you to do some practical work along the lines above suggested, and be a real missionary. The lack of the missionary spirit is a curse to you and to us.REVIEW OF THE MONTH'S ACTIVITIES | [] By Bible Institute Workers Things That Grip. PRACTICAL PERSONAL WORK and SOUL SAVING cose = i spastic WORK IN PACIFIC COAST HARBORS Oscar Zimmermann, Supt. URING the last month a little vacation has given rest and fellowship, as well as quiet to plan out the work for the fall and winter in our ports. Upon return to the field a full harbor greeted the worker at San Francisco, and also a good reception on a number of ves- sels since visited, In recent days there have been many arrivals and departures of ves- sels, as many as twenty-five entering in a single day and the same number departing. The Lord is sending a large number of ves- sels with crews to our coast, which would nat come were it not for the war, Whilst before the war two or three Japanese ves- sels arrived during a month, the records now show fifty or more monthly. Before the war no Dutch vessel traded here, now we have from five to eight in a week. Truly the field is white unto harvest. We are praying now for a Japanese helper to give all his time to preaching and teaching on the vessels here. some with as many as 200 in the crew, and none of these men are allowed to leave the ships under the immi- gration exclusion laws. Some vessels remain in port a week or two at a time, and definite work can be done. The expense for the upkeep of a Japanese worker would be small. Will you not pray with us? God is wonderfully opening doors, The news of another large vessel sunk in a storm was brought home to us. Some of the men were rescued after being cast on a dreary island; others, including the cap- tain, have not been found, and perhaps will not be until the time when “the sea shall give up its dead’ It was only a few days before that the worker boarded that vessel and gave out the Word to every one on board, including the captain's cabin, not knowing that after a few days this same captain with his vessel and men should meet such a terrible fate. Forty or more vessels have been lost in the same way, all of which had been boarded and reached with the gospel by the workers of the Insti- tute, before or on their latest voyage. Two Alaska packers’ vessels were lost after a service was held on board, during which one man said: “When one gets on the rocks he does a lot of thinking.” On the same voyage that vessel came to grief on the rocks, On another one, an English boat which was sunk in the war zone, one man aceepted Christ. Again, an Australian pas- senger liner, cabin boy under deep convic- tion. The fate of the ship was never learned, except that it left an American port and never entered another. After hav- ing seven interviews with the crew, another Yiner was lost on the high seas by fire; another driven on the rocks by a gale; the C. of P. sunk by torpedo, the worker hav- ing left the vessel only a few hours before that boat sailed. Dealing with a Quarter- master on another boat the man said, “Not today.” It was the last and only time that freighter was boarded by the worker. The M. was lost at sea. On board were left fif-1000 teen books, fifteen Gospels, 200 tracts and the worker having had four interviews. A vessel leaving Honolulu caught fire and for hours the crew fought the flames; no help came, and after all hope was gone the life boats were entered and they were picked up by a passing vessel, The engineer was an A. P. (almost persuaded). Does not God perhaps let men come to their extrem- ity to make them think? Does He not work mysteriously, and may we not expect to find many men in glory who once were only A. P's? An English sailing vessel reached by the Institute worker, received in that way the last message. An American freighter on its first and only trip to the Pacific Coast was lost. An armored cruiser, on which the Lord gave us a soul, after- wards was lost. A Mexican’ vessel destroyed by fire, was always remembered by how gladly two families having four little girls, received the gospel. Another “loss” was a passenger liner often visited which was lost ina fog. A freighter, once a visitor on this THE KING’S BUSINESS coast, lies in European waters. A passen- ger boat, tipping over at sea, took wi it a score of lives. Another passenger boat, after many opportunities, and where the workers had almost always found an antag- onistic crew, was lost with many lives. A time never to be forgotten was a service held among the crew of an English trader, when ten men accepted Christ, and another vessel of the same line where two men came out for the Lord, both vessels being sunk in the war zone. These are only a few of the forty vessels we know of, which will never again be seen. Can we not rejoice that we had the oppor- tunity in each case to lift Him up, leaving all to Him? Will you not pray much for the work, for the workers, and for the printed page? Also if you can hear God's call to you to send for a light-house bank, of which you know, which will enable us to serve many more, if He permits, let us know immediately Ste pees WORK AMONG THE JEWS James A, Vaus, Supt. NCOURAGING reports come to us from time to time from Jews and Jewesses whom we have been privileged to lead out of the darkness of Judaism into the light of Christianity. A few days ago we received a letter from one of our converts, a young Jewess, who, with her husband, has gone out into the that since her conversion (her husband having been a Christian for some time past), their home has been SO different. Happiness, peace and quiet reign now where unhappiness, discord and unrest held sway before. She further adds that they have organized a much-needed Sunday school out in that neglected field,.and the meet- ings, which are held in their home, are being well attended both by young and old, many of the people driving for miles in order to attend the services. Another little incident that shows how God works in the heart of the believer “both to will and to do his great pleasure.” The conversion occurred after the man had been talked with and prayed over for a period of six years. Though he had repeatedly given his testimony before Gen- tile and Jewish Christians, he frankly con- fessed he feared to acknowledge his faith in Jesus Christ to his immediate relatives and acquaintances who were not Christians. ‘The test confronting him was especially hard, as the Jews in whose neighborhood he lived were strictly orthodox and could be depended upon to make things highly interesting for a young Hebrew-Christian convert. We pointed. out to him the fact that the path of obedience, though strewn with many obstacles’ and difficulties, was also the path of blessing. Prayer wasTHE KING'S. BUSINESS offered for him, and when last seen his encouraging answer was: “Yes, I am con- fessing Christ now regardless of conse- quences, and I believe it will not be long before my mother (who has been espe- cially bitter against the missionaries) will also be converted. As we sow beside all waters, not knowing “whether this shall prosper or that, or whether they both shall be alike good,” we often sow seed that years afterward we find has borne fruit. Such was the case with a young Jewess who, when first approached concerning her relation to God, very much resented what she thought was impertinence on the part of the missionary. She had a religion that was good enough for her and she had absolutely no inten- tion of changing it, and furthermore and finally, she didn’t want to be bothered by any missionaries. Her father was exceed- ingly bitter against Christianity and vented his spite in a torrent of abuse on their visitor. The worker did the best possible ——o—— 1001 under the circumstances to overcome their prejudices and to present the true teach- ing of Moses and the Prophets concerning the promised Messiah, sin and atonement, and left the home after what was an unsat- isfactory and seemingly unprofitable inter- view. Soon afterward the girl disappeared and was not seen again for a period of four years. A call for one of our workers to visit a Jewess who was staying in the home of some Christian people resulted in the worker being once more put in touch with her. But she was a changed girl, truly. God had brought influences into her life which had softened her hard heart, removed her prejudices, and awakened in her a desire to know the truth about spirit- itual things. She had been present at fam- ily worship in the Christian home where she was staying, and had attended a num- ber of Christian meetings, so when the worker again approached her concerning her relation to God, she found it an easy matter to lead her to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour. WORK AT BIOLA CLUB Marion H. Reynolds, Supt. é¢ OLLOW me and I will make you fishers of men,” .our Mastef said. That is why the Biola Club has been placed here on this downtown street, where .. we can reach the most men for Him. When a fisherman goes fishing, if he wishes to eatch anything, he goes to the place where they are, going prepared to bring home the fish. So as we follow the Master in the way He leads us, we must go prepared to catch the fish, and how grateful we are to the men and women, boys and girls, who each month remember us in prayer and in other ways stand behind us in this work. Fishing for men in the heart of the city may seem an easy task, but ask those who are doing the fishing, and they will tell you that it is the hardest work one ever tried to do; and so, as with hearts full of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, we engage in this difficult work, we ask you to remember us as we tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love, The noonday meetings are proving a Bteat blessing to many of the business men of this city, and you will rejoice to know that men are being saved here daily. We are keeping a lighthouse here for men who are wrecked on the troubled sea of life. Pray as you have never prayed before for God to awaken these men and bring them to Himself.1002 Just one instance from the work of last month: While we were conductipg an evening meeting at the Club one Aight, a young man came in and sat down. At the close of the message, we asked him about his soul. It was found that he wasn’t happy and that, like the weary prodigal, he was tired of the old life and was willing to do something to help. himself, but as that was impossible, he was in despair. He had no earthly friends that he knew of. He had at one time been in business for himself, but now through a life of dissipa- tion and sin, he was down and out. His face was drawn, his clothes were shabby. and he was badly in need of help. We told Him about the Saviour who came all the way from glory just to save him, a sinner, and that all he had to do was to receive Him as his personal Saviour and he could have a new life. Eager to end the old one, THE KING'S BUSINESS he drank in the message. and is now today a saved young man. And what changes God does make in a man! He came in the next day and we hardly believed our eyes, he was so changed. In 2 testimony on the street, before a crowd of well-to-do people. he said: “I am not a good speaker, but I have something to say to you. I have something in my life today that you could not buy with a million dollars: Jesus Christ came into my life, and I am today a new creature in Christ Jesus. When Jesus comes in there is bound to be a change.” He is now working at a good: job, and writes to us. He said in his last letter: “My. it sure does mean something to live a life with Christ.” Do you think it pays? You will surely all want a share in this work, and if you haven't been praying for it. will you add it to your prayer list? THE SPANISH WORK ‘ R. H, Bender, Supt. E have heen greatly encouraged the past month by the evidences mani- fested that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, and believe we shall yet reap an abundant harvest. We rejoice in the Lord for the bright prospects, for does He not promise that “he that cometh to God must believe that He is; and that He is a rewarder of them’ that diligently seck Him?” And again, “Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward.” Praise God for His word that is forever settled in Heaven. One of one notes of praise and encourage- ment is the realization of the truth of the declaration found in Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." While reading the word of God in one of the Pacific Electric camps to a group of men, one man cried out and said, “Oh I am so vile and wicked, and am not worthy to be the recipient of that word or of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then we explained to him the way of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus ist. but he said he was not ready to accept the Saviour then, but would first read the tracts and gospels we left him. A few days later we received a letter from him in which he confessed his miserable condition and requested us to bring a New Testament In a day or two, we again visited the camp, and after talking with him, we both got down on out knees, and he called upon the Lord to save him from his s- Qn our next visit he testified to the power of the Gospel, rejoicing in his new- found friend and was happy and contented.THE KING'S BUSINESS Another note of praise, is the faithful- ness of the several families who were con- verted some months ago—all testifying to the blessing of God upon their lives, and saying that it is better every day. During the past month we have found a large, settlement of about three hundred a» familiés*for whom nothing was being done, and they were so grateful for our visits and talks to them. Having so many places to visit, we are unable to visit them as fre- quently as we would like, and have been encouraged when after an absence of two 1003 or three weeks from some of the camps, the people have asked why we had not visited them more frequently, thus evidencing their appreciation of our visits and their hunger for the truth. This, indeed, is a healthful sign, for the Word of God says, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Therefore we have great reason to praise God for the tokens above mentioned. At the same time it is a call to more prayer on the part of all praying friends for the stranger within our gates. { —_—+—_—_. WORK IN THE SHOPS David Cant, Supt. HEN we were invited to take charge of the neighborhood prayer meetings, in connection with the Sunday Campaign, although much pressed with many calls, we could not well refuse, especially as no one else responded. We were very fortunate in being thrown among those who knew how to take hold of Gad in believing prayer, and God was pleased to place His seat at the very beginning upon these special meet- ings by giving us a soul—a fine young man. just on the eve of leaving for the front. At our last and largest meeting, we were constrained to give the invitation, No one, however, responded, although throughout the evening our interest and prayers were largely’ centered in the fine, manly son of our Christian host, who was on the eve of leaving home with our liberty boys. As the guests filed out, we managed to be left alone with this strapping young lad. The opportunity so earnestly prayed for had come, and with the spirit’s help, we pressed upon him the great importance of an immediate heart-belief and of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Say- i There was a little of the usual side- jour, fencing, but one by one his objections were lovingly met with the Word of God. Finally nothing seemed in the way, but an unwil- lingness to yield then and there. We asked if he were willing to be made willing and assenting to this we then knelt, inviting him to join us in prayer to God to be made willing. Then the wonderful thing occurred; just as soon as the will consented to bend the knee, all the unwillingness was instantly swept away, and the willingness asserted itself. We couldn't refrain from asking him how he felt, as a “thrilling experience,” before faith was even in operation, had been one of his main objections. “I feel as if I would like to go right out this very minute and preach a sermon,” was the reply, and as father and son embraced each other, tears of joy were in the father's eyes and were not very far from the surface in Billy’s strong, manly face, struggling for control. How much easier for those loved parents to bid him goodbye and God speed! Now they had the blessed assurance of all meeting again when the din and strife of life's last battle would vanish away in God's long day of peace; when, face to face, tlieyf 1004 would all stand before Him who loved and gave Himself for us. So our meetings began with a soldier boy enlisting under the banner of Him who never lost a battle, and finally ended with another won for Him. We have been much refreshed on return- ing from our vacation, in visiting the boys in the -shops, carbarns and’ fire-engine houses, and seeing so many going on hap- pily growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, and many'pleasant surprises have greeted us as we have seen the wideness of THE KINGS BUSINESS the working of His Holy Spirit during our absence. One, writing from Arizona, says: “I met a man here who was well acquainted you; in fact, spoke of you as a pal, said you had helped him more than anyone in his life. He used to work at one of the large shops in Los Angeles.” These incidents, we believe, encourage faith and constrain those, who like Epaphras “labor with us in prayer,” to take fresh hold on God for greater things still in the near future et. WORK OF THE BIBLE WOMEN Mrs. T. C. Horton, Supt. ESIDES having the refreshing and blessed experience of leading souls to a personal Saviour, the Bible women are frequently privileged to see evidences of real Christian development and growth in the lives of those with whom they have been dealing. 3 The other day, a babe in Christ, some five months old, came telling the story of a marvellously-answered prayer. Her hus- band, with several others, had received a telegram to be in readiness to report to the Army headquarters at San Francisco. The wife went to her knees for a long season of prayer that he might be sent nearer, as there were reasons which made this seem wiser, She then met her hus- band down town and was told of the tele- gram he had just received ordering him to Arcadia (fifteen miles away) while every other member of the party was sent to San Francisco. Upon investigation, it was found that the telegram was dictated at the very time the wife rose from her knees! The worker was called from her room, being told that there was a lady in great spiritual distress waiting to sec her. Her story was quickly told. The oldest of two manly, sturdy boys had been suddenly taken by disease and died a few days after- ward. Both her husband and herself were nearly wild with grief and were earnestly seeking consolation, Her spiritualist friends told her they would bring the boy's spirit back to her; and the Christian Scientists said that her child had never died, but she looked into the worker's face with an expression not to be forgotten, as she said, “I have stood at his grave, and I know he is dead.” She was shown that the only place to find comfort was at the dear Lord’s feet, and upon being asked if she would accept Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour, she dropped to her knees and cried out, without further invitation, “Oh, T will, I will!” It will seem strange to many that right among us are people who do not under- stand Bible language when they hear it, and still are not ignorant people. A worker had been urged to call on a certain young woman and if possible speak to her of her need of salvation. After several calls we found her and she was easily led to speak of her need. As we turned to the Word together, she said, “Do you know, I never read in the Bible before, and I can- not seem to understnd what these words even mean.” She knew nothing aboutTHE KING’S BUSINESS prayer and seemed eager to know about both, so we went to work as if with a little child to explain the way. She came to Bible class and soon gave marked evi- dence of receiving the Word in great power and faith, so simple that her presence was a real inspiration to both teacher and class. Soon she was bringing in requests for prayer, believing we had only to ask in Jesus’ name to receive. We wish we could picture her face when she brought word of her first answer to prayer. It brought great joy to every heart. A strange young woman came into one of the Bible classes one day and when invited to come again, replied, “I certainly will, for I want to know all I can about the Bible” and then she told her story. Recently married, things not going at all right in the home; a promise made to 1005 someone by her husband to hear Dr. Tor- rey, and only kept because it was a promise. Then, that evening, an invitation to the Fishermen’s Club, and not dreaming what it would be like, but thinking it a club for a general good time, the husband accepted and went. He met the Lord there and went home a saved man, The wife was wakened to hear all about it, “and now,” she continued, “the home is so different, but we do not know much about the Bible.” She was sure of being saved, a long time ago, but knew nothing about surrender of fellowship. Surely this is a home needing much prayer. A lady who travels much writes: “The vision I got in Ephesians at Bible class, last winter, is still with me, and I am tell- ing it out at every opportunity, as we go from place to place.” oe WORK IN THE OIL FIELDS By Frank J, Shelley _ OST of this month, our labors have taken us through the Midway-Sunset Ids. Part of the time we spent in Oil Center. Everywhere souls seem interested in the truth of the Lord’s coming. We have caught a few souls for God. One lady who was led to the Lord through a visit to her door over a year ago, is now dying. She was then a Catholic and in very great dark- ness, but the light of the knowledge of the glory of God has shone in her heart. and as we read to her the 23rd Psalm and the fourteenth chapter of John, she exclaimed: “How beautiful! How precious these things are to me now.” She does not need any earthly priest, for the great High Priest is at God’s right hand in Heaven and she exclaimed the other day: “What would I do if it were not for the precious blood !” Ab, dear soul, but for that we might well despair, but it has washed us from our sins and perfected us forever, and when we know just a little of the infinite value of the blood of Jesus, it makes the heart flow out in worship. Tuberculosis is doing its slow and deadly work, but she is saved. As one thinks of the goodness of God in leading us to repentance, we can well exclaim, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!”0 eA EVER, in the British Columbia. and history of probably not in the Dominion of Canada, has there been a religious revival of such power, along strictly biblical lines, as has just recently shaken the City of Vancouver to its very center. More than 2500 names were recorded of those who professed to accept Christ, as a result of the evangelistic move- ment conducted hy Dr. French E. Oliver and his patty. consisting of the Rev. Geo W. Hunter an(Miss Marie Carter of the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles; Rev. Ifrank AL Miller, Mrs. Neth, and others, with J. Raymond Hemminger, as leader of the singing, and A. Kath as pianist. The Lord's hand has been seen guiding in a remarkable way. guarding and arranging at every step. Many persons doubted that such a cam ign could he brought to a fruitful con Pacific Coast port, but the side so it succeeded into D clusion in a Lord Many was on our Is threw themselves ardent si the work for the Master's sake and paused thought of not at trouble or cost, but only the souls to he won, Let us go years in the history of this te At that time there were several groups of earnest Christians, quite unknown to each other, holding weekly gatherings for great revival might come to the city, amongst these a group of consecrated women in the Mount Pleasant district, and a group of conscerated men meeting in the Y, M,C. A. building. Suddenly, like a lightning flash, came the answer; for events leading up to the revival followed each other in rapid succession, The Y. M. C. A. group made it.a firm delinite blessing, “praying that a NA a EVANGELISM AT VANCOUVER By REY. S. BP. MILLER Pastor of the leading Baplst Chuveh of ‘Vancouver 8 A we oS nis a for anything fat it might, and when Dr. Oliver, of Los Ange- les, was in the city conducting a two weeks’ conference in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Chureh, ication pointed to him as the man splendidly qualified and equipped to carry on a city-wide: campaign on evan- gelistic lines. rule that it would not pray it could not work for, he the cost w every DR. OLIVER On March 20th of the present year a dozen business men meeting at a noon-time luncheon, issued a call for men and women to join an interdenominational conference on the subject of aggressive evangelism. The mecting was called in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, and Dr. Oliver was asked to address the 400 people present. The result was the nomination of fifteen Christian men. with power to add to their number, and instructions to proceed in a large way, if they came to the conelusion that the way was open. The committee met and selected a list of other devout men who were known to be thoroughly evan- gelical. About fifty responded to this call, =THE KING'S BUSINESS and a very significant and solemn meeting was held, at which, on the basis of the incident recorded in Acts 6, seven men were appointed to select other committees and to arrange for the erection of a tab- ernacle, an edifice that would hold some- thing like 5,000 people, They called Dr. Oliver to conduct the campaign and he readily responded. ‘This committee was composed of W. R. Sharpe, chairman; H.C. Hunt, secretary-treasurer; Dr, Ty Atkinson, J. Pillar, A. F. Brown, Rev. Nurse, B. A.. Rev. S. P. Miller. Tt was a significant fact that in a great measure the interest was confined to those who possessed very little of this world’s goods. A sum of $1000 was promised at a meeting held in the carly part of May. the promises being followed by the actual cash a few days later. The City Councit was persuaded to grant a permit for the old court house site, right in the heart of the business district, on the same spot where Mr. Moody held meetings thirty years ago. There was plenty of volunteer labor, and while the building was going up the Rev. Geo. W. Hunter was starting prayer cir- cles and holding Bible classes. Not once all through the campaign, so far as is known, was a single person individually solicited to contribute, ut to the glory of God moncy eame in. No plate offerings were taken for the running expenses, but there were boxes placed at points of van- tage. The opening night was May 20th, A vast concourse of earnest people assemhled 1007 in that plain but sanctified edifice, and after that followed a long series of triumphs for the Lord. How the angels must have rejoiced, for scarcely a night passed but there were converts, led to Christ by the preaching of the evangelist. He simply taught the Bible as the Word of God, but he backed up his statements by psychologi- cal, philosophical and scientifie facts in abundance. Fearlessly, in face of con= stantly growing opposition, he preached the Word, and the power of his great elo- quence. his clear array of proof after proof, his calm reasoning and keen deductive faculties brought conviction to many souls and led them out into the liberty of the Gospel. . The campaign is now over, but there is a glorious testimony and record of souls snatched from the burning, and Vancouver is all the better for the coming of Dr. Oliver and, his party of genial, earnest, devout helpers. There was a mighty har- vest to be garnered, and many sheaves are safely housed. Like all of God’s harvests, it was a hounteous one. est Ordained to Ministry James Chung. a graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, class of June, ‘17, was ordained to the ministry at the Church of the Open Door on August 27. The Council ordaining him was composed of Dr. Gachelein, Dr. Erdman and Rev. T. C. Horton, Mr, Chung left for Korea soon after to take up active work in his native land.1p) FOR THE SERMON, BIBLE READING, GOSPEL ADDRESS Homiletical Helps By WILLIAM EVANS SERMON OUTLINES Theme: Jesus as a Soul Winner. Text: John 4. Inrropverion. This narrative affords a splendid lesson in personal soul winning, I. Christ the sout winner. 1. His zeal, Seen in seeking opportunity at the expense of personal comfort and in overcoming the caste idea. 2. His tact. Seen in introducing the subject, in avoiding discussion, in turning earthly things into heavenly topics, and in rais- ing the commonplace to the highest level. 3. His. spirituality, Seen in giving everything a spiritual turn and meaning. 4. His method. He aroused interest (vers. 9-11) ; cre- ated desire (ver. 15) and a sense of sin (vers, 16-18); showed the remedy (vers. 21-24, 26); emphasized the sal- vation of the individual. I, The sinner. 1. Sought by Christ. The Saviour did not wait for the woman to come to Him. 2. Ignorant of her need, condition, and possibilities, 3. Sought to argue the point and change the subject. UT. The salvation found. 1. God's gift. 2. Absolutely sufficient and soul-satisfy- ing. * 3. Self-propagating. ConcLusion. Thus a drink became a fountain, a stream fountain; a a stream, rivers. Theme: The Impotent Man. Text: John 5.! Intropuction. splendid picture lesson of the conver- ion of a sinner. {. The sinner before conversion. 1. Helpless. 2. Discased. 3. Waiting for some phenomenal sign. il, The sinner in the process of salvation. 1. Desire aroused, 2. Hope kindled. 3. Fhe soul appealed to. 4, Faith demanded. u. 1 2 iI, The sinner after conversion. |. Confessed Christ (ver. 15). . Acknowledged Jesus as Lord (vers. 11-15). 3. Made possible victor: over sin (ver. 14) Conctuston. ' eu Theme: Nearness to the Kingdom. Text: Mark 12;28-34, IntRopUction, All men are not equally distant from the Kingdom of God, even though not enrolled in it, There are circumstances which make ‘one man's condition more hopeful and his conversion less surprising than others. I. Some characteristics of the man who is near to but not im the kingdom. - 1. He may possess a considerable knowl- edge of the Scriptures.THE KING’S BUSINESS 2. He may be candid and orthodox. 3, He may have blameless morals. 4, He may have strong regarding sin. 5. He may manifest an interest in relig- ious things, IL conviction What did this man who was so near to but not in the kingdom, lack? 1. The surrender of heart and life to Jesus Christ. 2. A willingness to publicly take his place among Christ's disciples, II, Why did this young man stay on the border line? 1. Was it because of the lack of firm decision of mind? 2 Did he love the bad better than the good; sin better than Christ? 3. Did a middle course offer a better possible advantage? 4. Did he want to put it off until some other time? Conctusiow. This border state is a position of awful danger. Nearness is not possession. One can be almost saved, and yet lost. Theme: Probation and Destiny. Text: Revelation 22:10-12; Ecclesiastes 11:9. Invrropuction. These texts teach that human life is a probation, that by the condition in which death finds us our eternal state is deter- mined. I. This earthly life is a probation, 1. Hence the importance of set attitude towards Jesus Christ. 2. The importance of the wise use of it. 3. OF the care of our thoughts. 4. The necessity of working before the night comes. 5. The effect of our conduct on our future destiny. II, No probation after death, 1. No second chance. 2. No likelihood of repentance in next world with the accumulation of the sins of years. 3. If we do not repent now, how can ing our 1009 we then when the Holy Spirit is with- drawn? 4. A second probation would not be a safe doctrine to teach in this life. 5. Why should we get another chance when we have refused so many here? Conciusion, “Now is the accepted time: now is the day of salvation.” Theme: The Healing of the Man Born Blind. Text: John 9. Txtropuction, Here we have a miracle and a sermon following it, which is characteristic of John’s Gospel. I. The man and his condition. 1. As concerns himself. (a) Blind. . (b) Bort blind, G ews seth (c) The discussion about his bina / ness. 2. As a type of moral, mental, and spir- itual blindness (vers. 39-41). This is the heart of the lesson, Men are born blind; sin blinds; and there is judicial blindness. If. Jesus and the cure. 1, Jesus Himself. Note His own testimony to Himself and His work. 2. His method. (a) He calls for faith. (b) He uses means. (c) He demands obedience, 3. The cure. (a) Was instantaneous. (b) Was complete. lil, The effect of the cure. 1. On the crowd, Doubted the identity of the man; tried to prove him a falsifier, to. argue him out of his cure, and to’ shut their eyes to the cure. 2. On the man. He confessed that he was the recipient of healing. His explanation was simple. He argued from facts. He confessed Christ as Saviour.1010 THE KING'S BUSINESS i BIBLE STUDIES For What to Render Thanks For Christ—Luke 2:27, 28. For forgiving iniquity—Psalm 103:3. ictory over sin, death and the grave, and for a glorious resurrection—1 Corinthians 12:57; John 11:25, For answering prayer—John 11:41. For tevelation—Matthew 11:25. Who Can Render Acceptable Thanks The redeemed of the Lord—Psalm 107 Those who know the truth—l Timothy 4 3. Praise—Rejoice Is good and comely—Psalm 33:1; 147:1. With the whole soul—Psalm_103:1, 2. Continually—Psalm 35:28; 1 Mressalonians 5:16, More and more—Psalm 71:14; 145. Invite others to—Psalm 34:1, 3; For present salvation—Isaiah 12; Luke 1:68, 69. For all spiritual good—Ephesians 1:3. For all temporal good—Psalm 13:6; 104. But above all, keep your heart (Proverbs 4:23), for out of it are the issues of life.” ‘Broken Things “The broken roof—Faith (Mark 2:4), The broken box of alabaster—Worship (Mark 14:3). The broken pitchers—Testimony 7 :20).” (Judges Look Bick, and see Jesus hanging on the cross for you and me (Matthew 27:35- 30). Louk Up, and sce Him now interceding at the right hand of God for you and me (Romans 8:34). Look Forward, and see Him coming to receive you and me unto Himself (John 14:3).” A Triplet in Philippians 4:6 “Careful for Nothing—No Burdens. Prayerful for Everything—No Reserves. Thankful for Anyth ‘0 Murmurs.” ng— In_afflction—Acts $:41; 16:25; Romans * 5 8:35-39, Objects to Consider “Consider the Apostle and High Priest Keep Thy Heart (Hebrews 3:1). eep your eyes (Job 31:1). Consider Him who endured (Hebrews p your longue (Psalm 34:13) 12:3), Keep your fect (Ecclesiastes 5:1). sider one another (Hebrews 10:24). ILLUSTRATIVE Praising God his head, while the tears streamed down A touching story is told of an old Meth- the poor fellow's face and he trembled con- odist, a singer of no mean order, who was vulsively. The sick man then appealed to afflicted with cancer on his tongue. He went to a hospital for an operation, and there this incident occurred. Holding up his hand, he said, “Wait a bit, doctor, I have something to say to you.” The doctor waited, and the patient continued: “When this is over, shall I ever sing again?” The doctor could not speak; there was a big lump in his own throat. He simply shook the doctor to lift him up, with which request the doctor complied. He said, “I have had many a good time singing praises, and you tell me, doctor, I can never sing any more after this. I have one song to sing which will be the last. It will be a song of gratitude and praise to God ag well.” Then from the operator's table the poor man sang one of Dr, Watt's hymns soTHE KING’S BUSINESS familiar to many: “I'll praise my Maker while I’ve breath.” To the very last he praised God, and even when His tongue ceased to praise Him, his heart made mel- sody to the Lord. Reward of Diligence Edison does not invent anything by acci- dent or without hard work, “Are yourdis- coveries often brilliant intuitions?” he was asked. “I never did anything worth doing by accident,” he replied; “nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through acci- dent, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go ahead on it and make trial ater trial until it comes.” Joy in Service St. Francis, who died bending over his crucifix on the naked shore of China, amid intense physical pain, left as his dying tes« timony: “If there be such a thing in this life as true and solid enjoyment, it is the joy of those who have toiled in the ser «i the Lord” Praising the Lord arts of the Alps it is not unusual for the shepherds to use their famous horns for a purpose other than that of making the ordinary calls. When the sun,is set- ting, a shepherd on a peak may put the horn to his mouth and shout, “Praise God the Lord.” The message rings through the mountains, and is re-echoed from the neigh- boring heights. Another shepherd will respond with the same words, and the shout of triumph “Praise God the Lord” may pass from mountain to mountain for perhaps a quarter of an hour during the period of In some 1011 sunset. “Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness unto the children of men.” The Steady Light What should we think of a lighthouse keeper who kept his lamp burning only dur- ing certain hours of the night? It is the steady gleam of Minot's Ledge Light that cheers through all the long hours of. the night the sailor battling with wind and wave. So, at times wheen we little realize it. the shining forth of our faith may bring hope to “some forlorn and ship-wrecked brother.” The Ship That Is Waiting for Me As I stand by the Cross on the lone mountain's crest Looking over the ultimate sea, In the gloom of the mountain, a ship lies at rest; And one sails away from the lea. One spreads its white wings on a far-reach- ing track With pennant and sheet flowing free; One hides in the shadow with sails laid aback— The ship that is waiting for me. But, lo, in the distance the clouds break away! The gate’s glowing portals I see; «And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee; So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'ér dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore To the ship that is waiting for me. —Bret Harte.| E N E W TES TAMEN T COPYRIGHT BY WILLIAM EVANS FIRST CORINTHIANS Continued N our previous studies of Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians we have taken up the Introduction (i, 1-9); Party Fac- tions (i. 10-iv. 21); Social Purity—Failure to Exercise Discipline in Moral Affairs (chaps. v. and vi.). We now proceed to the third main division: I. MARITAL PROBLEMS (Chapter vii.) This chapter contains the answer to one of a number of questions propounded to the apostle by the Corinthian church (cf. vil, 25; viii 1; xii. 1; xvi. 1), and deals with matters pertaining to the subject of marriage in general. It is reasonable to suppose that the discussion of this question had some relation to the sin of fornica- tion dealt with in chapters five and six (cf. vii. 2). In the consideration of this chapter one must remember the reaction towards asceti- cism on the part of Christians from the gross immorality of paganism. The of Corinth in particular was noted for its licensed immoral indulgences. The Chris- tian’s attitude is that of a sanctified and separated person, yet maintaining freedom in Christ and bound by no law of philos- ‘ophy or asceticism. We must remember, too, that fornication was a part of heathen worship, and hence was looked upon as consecrated (see page 909). The apostle doubtless has this in mind when he insists that each man must have his own wife and each wife her own husband. Marital con- sideration must characterize the marital state (vii. 1, 2) 1, The Unmarried and Married State Con- trasted (vii. 1-17). The argument of the apostle, briefly stated, is as follows: Celibacy is good, beautiful, and honorable for those who can assume it. Particularly is sucha state to be desired because of the peculiar dis- tressing circumstances existing at the time the apostle wrote, at which time the Chris- tians were suffering extreme persecution under the Roman Empire, when it was all that a man could do to take care of him- self, much less a wife and children. Verse twenty-eight shows that Paul is dealing with the question from a certain stand- point; “trouble in the flesh” (cf. Luke x 23). The disadvantages of celibacy, however, may be greater than the disadvantages of marriage. Many servants of God have found their cares lightened by marriage and found themselves able to do better work for God when married. It was the peculiar stress of that particular time that led Paul to speak as he did. Consequently this (vii. 1) may not be of unqualified uni- versal application. It is not referred to again in any of Paul’s epistles. Celibacy was “better” (vii. 38) because of the then present necessity. It is possible for a man, by grace, to live above what is even lawful and honor-THE KING’S BUSINESS able, for the Lord's sake, and when certain existing conditions may call for such action (vii. 26; cf. Matthew xix. 10-12). But good as celibacy is for some people under certain circumstances, for the majority mar- riage is more natural and, indeed, may be a positive duty. As a general rule, mar- tiage, more than celibacy, tends to morality. We are not to understand from these verses that Paul by any means disparages the marriage relationship. He is here speaking in the relative not the absolute sense, as we can see from ix. 15 (cf, Mat- thew xv. 26; Romans xiv. 21), where such limitations are mentioned as almost reverse it. How could Paul speak disparagingly of the marriage relationship when in other of his epistles he enforces its glory, beauty, and divine ordination (cf. Ephesians v. 24, 31, 32; 1 Timothy ii. 11) and looks upon “forbidding to marry” as a sign of apos- tasy (1 Timothy iv. 3; Hebrews xiii. 4; cf. Daniel xi. 37). Paul's teaching here is “by permission, and not of commandment” (vii. 6). It is for the “good by reason of the present dis- tress.” “that it is good for a man to be as he is” (vii. 26; cf. Luke xxi. 23). Paul recognizes marriage to be a divine insti- tution and of God's ordaining and the divine means for the propagation of the race (cf. Genesis i. 28; ii, 18, 24). Our Lord Himself graced the marriage at Cana of Galilee by His presence (John ii. 1, 2). Paul here recognizes the influence of local conditions as created by the asceti- cism and antinomianism of Gnosticism and heathenism. Verse five seems particularly aimed at the asceticism practiced in the Corinthian church, and the very fact that Paul urges mutual consideration and tem- poral separation between husband and wife (vii. 3-5) indicates that marriage is more natural and in accordance with the divine purpose. Paul’s expressions “Yet I would that all men were even as I myself” and “It is good for them that they abide even as I” (vii 7, 8) may indicate that Paul was married, ‘or a widower, or master of his own body: 1013 celibate, widower, content, or master. It is doubtful if the question whether Paul was a widower or a bachelor can ever be settled conclusively. There is much to say on both sides of the question. Verse nine, however, throws some light on the subject. (a) Paul's Reference to Our Lord's Teaching Regarding the Marriage Estate (vii. 10-17, 39; ef. Romans vii. 1-7); also Our Lord’s Teaching (Matthew v. 31, 32; xix, 3-12; Mark x. 2-12; Luke xvi. 18). Separation between husband and wife may ‘be permitted only as a last resort. It would seem that the apostle forbids remarriage during the lifetime of either partner, death alone dissolving the bond (vii. 11, 39). Separation must not take place, however, unless every effort at peace has failed. Doubtless the apostle has in mind the case of a wife who had been converted to Christianity whose husband still remained a heathen, or of a husband who had been thus converted and whose. wife still remained a heathen, Incompatibility would, of course, naturally follow. If the uncon- verted husband, for example, should deter- mine to leave the Christian wife, she must not unnecessarily worry over that matter as long as she has done her best to maintain peace and to win him to Christ. The same would be true in case the heathen wife left the Christian husband. Verse sixteen is difficult of interpretation: “For how know- est thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O husband. whether thou shalt save thy wife? Some commentators take it as a reason for separation, thereby implying that it is folly for the Christian to remain with the heathen in the hope of converting such. Other commentators look upon this verse a8 a reason for no separation, implying the probability of the,heathen wife or hus- band being won by the conduct of the Christian wife or husband. 3 Of course, we must remember the pecu- liar conditions existing at that time in the church of Corinth, conditions which do not exist today; and our application of the teaching of this verse to the present time1014 THE KING’S BUSINESS must be governed accordingly. This prob- of the Christian, no matter in how humble lem would be more acute in heathen lands, where a wife or husband is converted from heathenism and his or her partner remains still in heathen unbelief, than in a civilized country such as ours, where such a con- trast in religious belief and superstition can hardly be said to exist, The advent of Christianity into the heart of the heathen Corinthian man or woman had wrought such a revolution in thought. feeling. and action that whatever was contrary to that change was immediately cast off. Doubt- less some of the Corinthians were applying this principle to the marriage estate, which, of course, could not thus easily be set aside. No unholy marriage alliance should be entered into; but if it has been entered into, it should not be dissolved. Each Should Abide in His or Her Own Calling (vii. 18-24). The thought of the preceding section, dealing as it does with contentment in one’s estate, leads naturally to fuller discussion of the subject (vii. 18:24). Some of the Corinthian believers doubtless felt that since the advent of Christianity into their lives, revolutionizing as it had done their entire view and aspect of things, there ought, therefore, to be a change in matters social, domestic, and economic as well as in matters pertaining to the spiritual realm. The apostle gives instructions regarding this matter in these verses. The slave, for example, must remain a slave until properly and legitimately freed. The same principle is then applied to the various relationships of life. Of course, if freedom could right- fully be gained, so much the better. What the apostle insists on is that unless the cir- cumstances in which one finds himself when Christianity enters into his life be sinful, he must not force or seek by undue or unchristian means to separate himself from such circumstances. We are to glorify, God in whatever state of life conversion may find us until in His providence a change is brought about. No restless spirit of discontent must characterize the life a sphere that life may be expected to show itself. All legitimate labor is honorable in the sight of God, and the Christian slave is Christ's free man. The gospel is not intended to disturb the natural and normal relations of life (wii 24; Ephesians vi 5-9). 3. Advice Concerning and Widows (vii. 25-40). What the apostle means by the statement of verse twenty-fi ow concerning vir- gins T have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful” —is that he does not know of any specific direction given by Christ regarding the mat- ter with which he is now dealing, His words, heing qualified as they are by the expression of verse twenty-six—“Because of the present ress"—show that what he had to say was but a temporary necessity and not an absolute rule (vii. 27). This is further corroboratad by verse twenty-eight, which shows that Paul is dealing with the question from a certain standpoint, namely, saving “trouble in the flesh” (cf. Luke xxi. 23). It was better then, af that time, for a young woman to remain unmarried because of the existing distres: circumstances (cf. vii, 29-35: yet compare Paul’s exhor- tation in 1 Timothy iv. 3; v. 14 and Titus fi. 4), We repeat. however. that the disad- vantages of celibacy may be greater than the disadvantages of marriage (vii. 33), and that many servants of God have found their cares lightened by marriage and found themselves able to do better work for God when married. It was the peculiar stress of the then present time that led Paul to speak as he did. Consequently this is not of universal application. It is not referred to again in any of Paul's epistles Paul's expression in the fortieth verse is best understood when we remember that he is contrasting himeslf with some other teachers who claimed to have the Spirit irgins - of God. Therefore he says, “I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” The word “think” does not imply doubt, but absolute certainty.SPRATT eC Re Tn aT Te a The aur A Glance at the Field at Home and Abroad Hlorizom EA SR (3) PORTO RICO The people of Porto Rieo have by a majority of about 100,000 to 61,000 carried the measure of prohibition. Thus the lit- tle island sets an example for the United States and leads the way. to our national prohibition. Rum of a poor quality has been the special curse of the Porto Ricans. In the campaign for prohibition the mis- sionaries took a prominent and most effect- ive part, and the mission churches presented a solid front for the reform. The mis- sionaries are given credit for having done preparatory work to this end ever since American occupation began. It is a remark- able achievement and the majority will make it possible to enforce the laws. MORMON ACTIVITY An illustration of the insidiousness of Mormon propaganda is to be found in the fact that the Oxford University Press has been publishing some Mormon literature bound up with the King James version of the Bible. The plates have now been returned to the Mormons. The representa~ tive of the Oxford Press excuses the action by saying that up to this time no protest against stich method of putting out Mor- mon literature has been received, although they had been putting it out in this way for several years. CHINESE MISSIONARY ‘A Chinese graduate of Yale, who volun- teered for two months’ service among the troops on the American frontier, is unques- tionably the first Chinese missionary among American troops. SOUTH AMERICA So much has been said and written of the progress of Argentina that I fear for these people. If you could see Argentina as it a ec a TT is, you would join in earnest prayer for these people. It is literally true that even the children gamble,.and boys of twelve years are already living immoral lives. Then pray for the women. Frankness, loyalty and modesty are almost unknown in Argen- tine women. What kind of mothers will they make? Would you like to send your children to such teachers? Surely:such con- ditions call to prayer, especially when we think that Argentina is the strategic Span- ish-speaking country of America and leading all the rest. In Uruguay and Brazil, as well asin Argentina, the Italians lead in the number of immigrants, with Spaniards and Portu- gese following as seconds. The great trend of immigration from Europe has been, so far to these countries, and all the immi- grants who have a religion at all are mostly Roman Catholics. But the Argentine year- book records 19,800 Mohemmedan Turks. One-half its Syrian population is also. reckoned as Mohammedan. There are two mosques in the Brazilian city of San Paulo, and the Arabic papers are published there and in Argentina. Into the rice fields of Brazil Japanese colonization societies are pouring immigrants by thousands and we may well remember that Count Okuma recommended the coasts of Chile, Mexico and Pert: as a field of influence for Japan, and an asylum for the excess of her popu- lation. Peru has large and prosperous Chi- nese and Japanese elements; the Chinese are rapidly becoming the merchants of Pan- ama; and in Jamaica, after two hundred years of English control, eighty per cent of the stores are operated by Chinese. According to a report there were in 1913 in British Guiana one hundred and’ thirty thousand East Indians and the number was said to be rapidly increasing.1016 HOME MISSIONS Somewhere along the Southern Pacific Railway, in the desert lands close to the Mexican border, you will find a train that looks like a freight, but is not. It is a passenger train. The car on the end flies the American flag to show that it is an American school house. The travelling school house is not on Uncle Sam’s books. It is built and maintained by the railway company, and the idea originated in the heart and brain of Supt. W. H. Whelan, who says: “Wages are not all we owe in this world.” This railroad stretches over a vast territory, a great part of which is prairie primeval, with never a town or ham- let to which the crews of its construction trains can go at ht for food or shelt The men and th families must live in the box cars, and be shifted as the con- struction work demands. All but the fore- man and timekeeper are Mexicans—2200 of them, and they came straggling across the border in little bands seeking work, and brought absolutely nothing with them but their wives and children and dogs. All were so hungry they had to be fed for several days before the men were able to go to work. After all the kindness shown them it is no wonder they clamor to “speak Americana” and be Americans. A white painted hospital car is installed, with its physician in charge, equipped with cots for the sick, baths for everybody, and medical advice as free to them as the winds of the desert. The people respond to this kind- ness, for in the real Mexican—where the strain of the Yaqui Indian is missing—is always a vague out-reaching for better things than he has known. The experiment of the school car is working so well that they now have three more school cars ready for the road. The new invention, the tele- graphone, has been installed along this rail- have way and the construction crews THE KING'S BUSINESS learned that by connecting them up they can haye music all along the line. So at night, when the toil of the day is done, the tired people lounge outside their box- car homes and listen to the music that comes from miles and miles away. It quiets their quarreling, silences their swearing, and makes the whole world seem good and kind. AFRICA As far as known, the first steamboat ever built in Arica is one bujlt at Muhlenberg Mission, about two years ago, When it arrived at Monrovia, on the trial trip, the sensation was intense. It was made of an old native dug-out, ‘ripped lengthwise through the middle, filling in with plank until they had a flat bottomed boat 40 ft. long 8 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep. An old oil mill furnished round iron for shaftMg, and a little farm engine, a three horse power Ajax, was placed amidship. Over all we built a light cabin, and the “Sarah Ann” the first steamer of the Dark Continent, was pronounced finished. When you take into consideration that the whole arrange- ment was built out of material none of which was intended for the purpose, and dressed down with the rudest of tools, you may form some idea of what a nonde- script thing it is. It moves along better than you would think, making at least five miles an hour, It groans, and screeches, and wheezes dreadfully all at one time, but that in the eyes of the natives, is a virtue. Therefore she is pronounced by all hands a most decided success. With all these disadvantages, it is a good deal better than riding in a canoe on the rough and treacherous St. Paul River, This home- made boat will not last long, but by the time it breaks’ down I have no doubt the new one promised some time ago will come. As longvas this one can be used to carry the Gospel, it answers the purpose.Taternational S, ‘S. Lessons Exposition and Practical Application By R. A. Torrey Outlines and Suggestive Points [co] cn ns nL ma a Ee By T.C. Horton Sf SF Defeat Through Drunkenness NOVEMBER 4, 1917, LE Gotven TEXT: so? it off."—1 Kings 20:11. (World's Temperance Lesson.) ’. 1 Kings 20:1-21 “Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth (Memorize vs. 10. 11.) DAILY BIBLE READINGS Mon., Oct. 29—1 Kings 20;1-10. Tues., Oct. 30—1 Kings 20:11-21. Oct. 31—Isaiah 2:5-17, Nov. 1—Luke 15:11-16. Wed., Thurs., (The Lesson). (The Lesson). Fri, Nov. 2—Luke 15 :17-32. Sat., Nov. Sun., Nov. 3—Isaiah $:11-17, 22-24. 4—Psalm 1. EXPOSITION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS vs. 1-9. “And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, (omit ,) and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred (fought) against it, And he sent messen- gers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, 1 am (it is according to thy saying, my lord, O king; I am) thine, and all that I have. And the messenger came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although I have sent (I send indeed) unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver nd thy gold, and thy wives, and. thy children; Yet (but) I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in, thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away. Then the king of Israet called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man secketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not, And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor (thou not, neither) consent. Where- fore he said unto the messengers of Ben- hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that thow didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do, And the messengers departed, and brought him word again.” This lesson has for its title “Defeat Through Drunkenness" and is chosen at this time primarily as a Temperance Les- son, but Ben-hadad’s defeat was not so much through drunkenness as through something far more fundamental and se- rious than drunkenness, it was through con- tempt for Jehovah (vs. 13, 23). Ben-hadad treated King Ahab with utter contempt, He seemed to have ground for his contempt;1018 THE KING'S for his forces were apparently overwhelm- ing (vs. 1, 10), while the forces at Ahab's disposal were apparently, as far as the eye could sce, the most insignificant (v. 15) ; but there was one on Ahab's side who far more than outweighed all the forces of Ben-hadad. That one was Jehovah (v. 13, cf. Rom. 1). One with God is always in the majority. Ahab himself was at first disposed to play the coward’s part and yield to the demands of Ben-hadad. Though Ben-hadad demanded not only his. silver and his gold, but his wives and his chil- dren, or at least the most attractive of them, Ahah answered, “It is according to thy saying, my lord, O king; I am thine and all that I have.” It is likely that Ahab did not expect that Ben-hadad would take all that he demanded and was pursuing the policy of conciliation; hut. instead of being appeased by Ahab's concessions. Ben- hadad was encouraged to make even greater and more insulting demands. He proposed to send his servants and search the entire palace of Ahah and the houses of his ser- vants. and everything that was pleasant to look upon, Ben-hadad’s servants were to take away. Ben-hadad’s presumption proved his own ruin, He had gone too far and it led to the conflict that resulted in his own utter overthrow and destruction. There is a lesson here for modern kings and coun- tries in regard to Peace Negotiations today. It is a foolish policy to demand too much. The result usually will he that we get nothing, and simply bring about our own downfall. Ahab saw that so much was demanded that matters could not he worse if he went to war and was completely defeated. The elders and all the penple saw that nothing was to be gained for th by concessions to the extravagant demands of Ben-hadad. So Ahab sent to Ben-hadad, still offering to concede what was first demanded, but no more. ys. 10, 1. “And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said, The gads do so unta me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall sufice for handfuls for all the people that follow me. And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him BUSINESS that girdeth on his harness (armour) boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Ben-hadad lost his temper, and like all men that lose their temper, he made a fool of himself. He indulged in ridiculous exaggeration. and the king of Israel driven into a corner, put on a bold front and told Ben-hadad “Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off.” Though Ahah was not an inspired man, he gave yoice to a wise thought What kings and peoples expect and boast that they are going to’ do at the beginning of a war is usually far different from what is actually accomplished when the war is If the Kaiser could have forseen at the beginning of the present war what its course and outcome were to be. he would not have undertaken a war so boastingly or undertaken it at all, And even with America it is doubtiul whether our achieve- ments will be as great at the end of the war as are our hoastings and expectations at the beginning of it. It is time enough to tell what we are going to do when we have done it,’ We are just putting on our armour now. What will be the out- over. come when we put it off? God alone knows. v.12. “And it came to pass, when Ben- hadad heard this message, as he was drink- ing, he and the kings in the pavifions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city.” Ben-hadad seems to have been a habit- val drunkard (cf. y. 16). Every drunkard is doomed to defeat sooner or later (cf, ch. 16:9; 1 Sam. 25:36; 2 Sam. 13:28; Dan. , 30). You can always trust a drunkard to make a fool of himself at the critical moment (ef. Prov. 31:4, 5; Luke 21:34; Eph. 5:18). A good many of the soldiers and officers in various armies today are drinking when they would far better be keeping sober as a preparation to clear thinking and efficient fighting. Ineidentally Ben-hadad's defeat came through drunk- enness and undoubtedly England would have been far further forward in her pres- ent campaign if there: had not been soTHE KING'S much waste and inefficiency through beer and other forms of alcoholic drink, and America would have no need to propose such stringency, if it were not for the enormous amounts of food stuffs that she has been wasting in the manufacture of alcohol and the enormous amounts that have been wasted in England, so that she is now clamouring for our food stuffs, and we are in extreme necessity through the consumption of possible food stuffs through the worse than’ useless waste in the man- ufacture of alcoholic liquors. * ys. 13-15. “And, behold, there came, (omit, there came) @ prophet (add, came near) unto Ahab Ring of Israel, saying (and said); Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, T will deliver it into thine hand this day, and thou shalt know that Il am the LORD. And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the LORD. Even (omit, even) by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order (begin) this battle? And ho’ answered, Thou. Then he numbered (mustered) the young-men of the princes of the provinces, and they were tevo hundred and thirly-two : and after them he numbered (mustered) all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. Tt looked dark: indeed for Ahab and Israel until the prophet of God came upan the scene, Even then all that Ahab had to depend upon was the “Thus saith the LORD.” but that was enough to depend upon. One promise of God is sufficient to build upon in any emergency, “Hast thou seen all this great multitude?” God asks Ahab. Yes, Ahab had seen the multitude, indeed, that was. about all he had scen; but now he was to see one far more impor- tant and potent than all the multitude, he was to see Jehovah. Ben-hadad’s vast mul-, titude had seemed very great indeed com- paring them with his own little seven thousand, but the multitude dwindled into nothingness in comparison. with omnipo- tent Jehovah, The one question that per- turbed Ahab was. “What shall I do against this great multitude?” God answered the BUSINESS 1019 question in one brief sentence, “I will deliver it into thine hand this day.” Our enemies are more than a match for us, but they are no match at all for Jehovah. God had a great purpose in delivering Ben- hadad and all his host into the hand of Ahab. That purpose was that Ahab might know that He was Jehovah, ic., the self existent One, the God of redemption, the covenant God of Israel. It is by going to the deliverance of His people that Jehovah proves that he is the self-existent One, the God of redemption, the God of Israel. In the great day that is coming He will prove this again to Israel, Ahab appears at his best in this lesson. He does not seem to have doubted for one moment Jehovah's promise that he would deliver. He simply asked directions as to his own procedure (v. 14). He inquires “By whom?" i. ¢, what was the agency through whom Jehovah would work his great deliverance. To Ahab's question, “By whom?” Jehovah gave an apparently strange answer, “By the young men of the princes of the prov- inces.” Of these there were only. two hun- dred and thirty-two, to go out against the vast hosts of Ben-hadad, but two hundred and thirty-two with God were sufficient against the countless hosts (cf. Judges 7:7; 16-22; 1 Sam. 14:6; 2 Chron. 14:11-13; Rom. 8:31). God always delights to work through “the young men” (cf. 1 John 2:13, 14). Alas, that there are so few young men today to put themselves at God's disposal for Him to work through. And God delights to give victory through few against many. Ahab now asks another question, “Who shall begin the battle?” He receives a stirring answer in just one word, “Thou.” The servant of God should not wait until he is attacked, he should begin the assault on the enemy. The man or the army that takes the offensive is far more likely to win than the man or the army that is simply on the defensive, Too many of us today are simply on the defensive against Satan, we should carry the war into the enemies country. v. 16. “And they went out at noon. But Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in t