Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

It maybe hoped therefore that this appeal will result not merely in an increase in the number of directly evangelistic workers, but will also serve to call attention to the need for the encouragement of the evangelistic spirit in all departments of missionary labour. In this matter it should truly be said of all mission workers: We are not divided; all one body we.' The newly formed Evangelistic Association of China has a great work to do in quickening and helping to sustain the evangelistic impulse.

The Anglican Cburch Congress.

*

THE account we publish of the meetings of the representatives of the Churches of the Anglican Communion recently held in Shanghai is especially interesting in view of the complete nature of the representation to these gatherings, including as it did among its members a fair proportion of Chinese clergy. It is to be hoped that this is another big step forward in the movement which must ere long become general throughout the churches at work in China, for giving an adequate place to Chinese representatives in councils called to consider matters of church government and administration. The Chinese are

capable and worthy of such a trust.

Moreover it is becoming certain that many denominational difficulties and the barriers contingent upon inherited sympathies and race antipathies (however small these may be) will largely disappear as our Chinese brethren, both lay and clerical, come to the front in matters concerning the welfare of the church. The non-essential prejudices inherited and revealed by the foreign missionary, which he sometimes is not sufficiently careful to avoid passing over to the Chinese pastorate, will the quicker vanish as the point of view of the Chinese Christian is brought to the forefront. The longer the delay in passing a share of responsibility on to the worthy and capable among the members of the church of China, the greater the difficulties are likely to become. All possible freedom should be left to the Chinese in the solution of the distressing problem of Christian unity, in the hope and faith that what has been among the most signal of the failures of the church of the West may be the crowning success of the far Eastern church. "A little child shall lead them."

THE royal road to conquest in the kingdom of God can be no other than that which was trod by the Divine Founder of that kingdom. It is a way of unwearied Service and the effort, unceasing diligence, self-abnegation, and Gift of the Spirit. persistent prayer. The forces which make for the conversion and renovation of a people are not in the hands of those who are continually tarrying for signs and wonders, for the day of the expected outpouring of grace, when it will be their part simply to put in the sickle and bind the sheaves, but with those servants of God who, from day to day, through good report and ill, success and failure, in devotion to the Divine command, work faithfully in the vineyard. as these are the conquering legion of the Cross.

Such

Days of spiritual revival and of the witnessed outpouring of the Holy Spirit are the things which are given, grace upon grace, for the encouragement of the church and for the Divine testimony to the faith. They can never take the place of the dutiful daily service called for by the command of Christ and by the needs of men. No man can claim the gift of the Spirit whose daily tasks are left undone while he turns aside to make testimony to his claim. Obedience is the first thing the Lord "Lift up the hands which hang

requires from His people.

down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for the feet." The missionary of the Cross must be diligent if he is

to be a devoted soldier of Christ Jesus.

[blocks in formation]

THE following statement upon Evolution and the Teaching of Scripture, coming as it does from one of the leading orthodox preachers of to-day, Dr. Campbell Morgan will, we believe, prove of interest to our readers :

I suppose no one to-day denies the fact that there is, as we have said, an evolutionary process in the activities of Nature. In the early days of the discovery there were not wanting those who imagined that this was the one and only process of natural activity. That view has been entirely abandoned.

When we approach human life, and Biblical Revelation concerning it, the questions confronting us are: Does Science claim that man is the result of an evolutionary process, and of that alone? And does the Bible teach that the evolutionary process had no part in the creation of man?

To these enquiries I should reply, as to the first, Science does teach that there are evidences of the evolutionary process in the creation of man, but it also recognises that there are facts in the being of man as he is to-day which cannot be accounted for as resulting from this process.

As to the second question, I should affirm that the Bible does not deny the evolutionary process in the Divine creation of man, but that it does affirm that ere he became a man, in our full sense of the word, another process of Divine activity-supernatural-was employed.

The Sanctuary

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."--St. James v, 16.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them "-St. Matthew xviii, 20.

"Nothing is a more sure and regular indication of the birth of true religion in the heart than the presence there of a desire to do good. Desire to do good is "the spot of God's children," the spot which the inward operation of His grace throws out upon the surface of the moral constitution. No devout man ever lacked altogether this uniform mark of a devout mind. For did not our Lord go about doing good? And is He not our great Exemplar? And must not Christian men seek in some way or other to do good if they would at all conform themselves to this Exemplar?"-Goulburn's "Personal

Religion."

PRAY

For all "Mission Philanthropies" in China that they may be carried on in the spirit of the Lord Christ and so be a convicting revelation of His mind to the heathen.

For the people of China, that an insight may be given them into the true joy and blessedness of helping 'those who are any ways afflicted, or distressed in mind, body, or estate."

That there may be immediate and lasting good results from the recent itinerary from the Chefoo School for the Deaf; that the desire to do may be roused in those who have the power and means, and that the information given as to method may stir to action. (Pp. 243, ff.)

For the blind, the deaf, and dumb, the insane, the lepers, and all who are afflicted, that means may be found whereby their afflictions may be tempered and used to their sanctification.

For all schools, hospitals leper colonies, and homes for the afflicted, and for those who work, as well as for those who come to dwell in them, that they may minister to the greater glory of God.

That those who endure the rigors of pioneering in these fields may receive such encouragement and support from their fellow-Christians as will effectually dispel all doubt as to the work being worth the struggle. (P. 247.)

For an increased number of such institutions until the heathen shall know the true meaning of the words Christian charity."

[ocr errors]

That the rebuke of dispensary and hospital opportunities not followed up may be removed by the appointment of such an increased number of evangelists, both foreign and Chinese, as will enable the church to go into every home where the medical work has revealed the love of Christ. (P. 260.)

That the Home churches will realize the need stated in the Evangelistic Appeal and meet fully the demand for more men and women to emphasize the importance and to do the work of the direct preaching of the Gospel to the heathen. (P. 274.)

For the Anglican Communion, that its provisional organization may be made permanent and that the church may have power from on high to carry on a great work to the glory of God. (P. 293.)

A PRAYER FOR GOD'S NEEDY ONES.

O Lord, whose sovereignty over all maketh Thee to be gracious unto all, relieve and comfort, we pray Thee, all the persecuted and afflicted; speak peace to troubled consciences; strengthen the weak; confirm the strong; instruct the ignorant; deliver the oppressed from him that spoileth him; relieve the needy that hath no helper; and bring us all, by the waters of comfort and in the ways of righteousness, to the kingdom of rest and glory. Through Jesus Christ our Saviour and our Lord. Amen.

GIVE THANKS

For the work being done in institutions for the blind, the deaf, and dumb, the sick, the insane, and all other philanthropies of the Christian church in China.

For the interest aroused and the movement begun amongst non-Christian Chinese as a result of the itinerary from the Chefoo School for Deaf. (Pp. 243, ff.)

For the pioneer work of the John G. Kerr Refuge for the Insane and the example it has set. (Pp. 262, ff.)

For the real help to Christianity in China that has been, is being, and we know surely shall be given by the work of medical missions.

For the examples of faithfulness, devotion, and strength found in the lives of Dr. Ament and Mr. Clinton.

[graphic]

NORTH CHINA UNION COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY, AND CHAPEL, PEKING.

« AnkstesnisTęsti »