The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], November 08, 1922, Page 3, Image 3

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
ity ever received in any election in our coun
try! The very suggestion to make this a part
of what was involved in Dr. Jowett's audible
sacramentum woidd instantly stir up partisan
rancor throughout our country. I think I see
the United States and England kneeling side
by side to give the League of Nations "the
needful dynamic," and "to clothe the League
with requisite authority and power." It real
ly looks as if this great manifesto wound up
with a reductio ad absurdum.
Washington, D. C.
TEN MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
By Rev. J. Woodrow Ilassell, Missionary to
Japan.
The statement is made that there are thirty
volunteers under appointment, and near sev
enty more volunteers for foreign mission work
ready to go, and no money with which to
send them.
One of the most encouraging signs that the
writer has seen since his return from the
foreign field is the willingness of so many
young people to go as foreign missionaries,
and of their parents to let them go. Recently
I was talking to a mother about the great need
of Japan, and she pointed to a young lady
standing near and said, "There is my daugh
ter; take her for your field."
With these one hundred volunteers, and no
money to send them, we think we have one
of the greatest problems our Church has faced.
But if the foreign mission spirit continues to
grow at the rate it has been growing for the
past fifteen years, a few years hence instead
of having one hundred it will be one thousand.
But it is a question whether the spirit will
grow unless we send out those now offering
themselves. "Will these young people, in this
case, give up their ambition to go out, or will
they seek appointment through other mission
agencies?
Inquiries of other foreign mission boards
reveal the fact that they do hot have so many
applicants for foreign mission work as does the
Southern Church. Add to this the fact that of
the sixty-two missionary societies working in
a certain country, it is doubtful if there are
more than two that are solid to a man on the
fundamental teachings of the Bible. One of
these is the Mission of the Southern Presbyte
rian Church. And everybody in that country,
missionaries and native church, is aware of the
fact. Is there not a strong reason in these
facts why the Southern Church should send out
every man and woman who offers and is ap
pointed? Is there any valid reason by which
we can justify ourselves in not doing so? How
can we escape such a tremendous responsibil
ity and honour?
The remark was made the other day by one
of the wealthy and consecrated officers of the
church to the effect that if the officers, elders
and deacons of the Southern Presbyterian
Church would tithe their bare income, we
would have TEN MILLION DOLLARS A
YEAR.
Men and women of the Southern Church,
let me plead with yon in the name of the
Saviour, and in the name of the home field
and the heathen world. These Christless mil
lions await your decision concerning the tithe.
Shall we pay and thus meet this responsibil
ity? If not, how shall we escape it?
f
The Christless millions wait the Light,
"Whose coming maketh all things new.
Christ also waits, but men are slow and late.
Have we done what we could? Have I?
Have you?
Petersburg, Va.
THE BIBLE UNION OF CHINA.
By Nelson Bell, M. D.
(Kev. Dr. W. R. Dobyns, of Birmingham,
Ala., has written this introduction to Dr. Bell's
article:)
"The following article by Dr. Nelson Bell, of
China, deserves the sincerest consideration, and
heartiest approval, of all who love the Bible. Re
member, it is not some "narrow preacher," who is
soundin gthe alarm, but an "M. D," a sure-nough
doctor.
"To oppose the Bible Union of China, or of
America, on the ground of division, is really to
justify its existence. How can it divide those
who are unqualified believers in the Book? And
if, among us, either in China or America, there
are those who are not unqualified believers in the
Bible, then there ought to be a division! And
that at once.
"Every person, who hasn't his head in the sand,
has seen that the issue now, in the church, is the
integrity, or the dis-integrity, of the Holy Scrip
tures. The prominent pulpiteer, quoted below,
throws down the gauntlet of open infidelity. Shall
those who believe the Bible to be inerrant, keep
quiet for fear of creating division? Who is doing
the dividing?
"Paul said, of Peter, 'I withstood him to his
face, because he was to be blamed!' He seemed
to think it imperative to create a division.
"May God bless this 'beloved phvsician' and his
comrades in their courageous championship of the
infallible Book. Rev. iii:10."
Since coming home on furlough I have been
distressed to find much misunderstanding and
misapprehension as to the scope and aim of the
Bible Union of China.
Reasons For Its Formation.
Although I am sure the great mass of the
missionaries of all denominations iu China are
loyal to the Scriptures and to the Atonement,
nevertheless Modernism is invidiously and
openly being propagated in China. This is a
known fact. There are a few who would deny
some of those things that we hold to be the
fundamental teachings, viz: the virgin birth,
the blood atonement, the trustworthiness of
the Scriptures, and who substitute for this Gos
pel the social gospel, a gospel^ without power,
because it denies the Lord who bought us.
In addition to the above group who so radi
cally deny the fundamental teachings of God's
Word, there is another group who do not go so
far in their belief, or lack of belief, but whose
departure from orthodoxy manifests itself in
a failure to accept all of the Bible, and who
would throw suspicion or discredit on parts
of it, accepting some, and rejecting others, but
still claiming to accept all of the fundamental
teachings, though often qualifying some of
them with their own phraseology.
Then there are those who claim to believe all
of the fundamental teachings of God's Word
themselves, but who, with a false liberality,
feel that those who do not so believe should
be accepted by the Foreign Mission Boards and
not be molested, even when upsetting the faith
of others.
Had those who held these beliefs been con
tent to keep them to themselves, a protest
would not have come so soon, but the faith
of some of the Chinese students was being up
set by them. The books translated for use in
the grammar and high sehools were often per
meated with the most advanced and modern
istic teachings of the West, and in addition,
a message was at times being preached, not of
salvation through Christ's atoning blood, but
salvation through works as a part of and the
result of social service.
It is a hard path many of the boys and girls
travel before they come out of heathenism
and accept Christ as their Saviour, and what
could be more discouraging and dishearten
ing aud also more damnable than to have the
faith of these same boys and girls upset by
this radical teaching and preaching?
Need.
It was, therefore, felt that a definite stand
must be taken to conserve the fundamental
teachings of God's Word.
Beginning
Therefore, during the summer of 1920, dur
ing the Missionary Conference at Kuling, a
small group ? 18 in number ? met and decided
that the time had come for making an open
stand in defense of the faith once for all de
livered to the Saints. Of this number fifteen
or sixteen were Southern Presbyterians. A
few days later a general meeting was called
to discuss the advisability of such a move. This
was attended by several hundred. At a fol
lowing meeting attended by about five hun
dred, the Bible Union of China was formed.
Today it has a membership of about two thou
sand missionaries of all Evangelical denomina
tions and of many nationalities.
What It Is.
A Union to witness to and conserve the fun
damental teachings of the Bible, without de
nominational limitations and international in
its membership.
What It is Not.
It is not divisive. The objection has been
made that it is dividing the mission bodj% This
is not true. The mission body is being divided
by those who insist on preaching and teaching
things contrary to God's Word and to the
confessions of all evangelical Christendom.
They would destroy the great uniting bonds.
It is not against union ? it is union, and on
the only basis we can accept. Union on any
other basis must be a union of iron and clay,
It cannot stick.
It is not condemnatory of those who do not
join. There are some who feel that they can
do more for the same cause by not joining, ana
we hope and pray that they may be used to
this end.
It is not a premillennial organization (as has
been freely circulated in this country). Pre
or postmillennialism has no more to do with
it than the subject of baptism. Some of its
leading members are post-millenarians.
It is not a group of Christians sitting in
judgment on their fellow workers. But it is
a protest against infidelity to God's Word, the
departure from the most precious beliefs of all
the evangelical churches, the preaching of an
other gospel, which is not a gospel.
And now let me illustrate by quoting from
those for and against the Union.
Against the Bible Union.
From the Bulletin of the Union Theological
Seminary of New York, Vol. VI, No. 1, Open
ing address, 1921, by Prof. G. A. Johnston
Ross, D. D., page 17, beginning with the last
sentence, ? "the havoc which is being made of
history (as patient research is unfolding it)
by stupid theorists on the one hand and by
proud and disdainful illiterates on the other.
I have in mind ? Christian Science and New
Thought ? I have in mind monstrous illiteracies
like Mormanism and Bibliolatrous supersti
tions of the Sunday-school Times. ? * * A
frank study of history would for example drive
from the mission field the monstrous menace
of the Bible Union League, and from the
Church vast masses of Bibliolatrous supersti
tions and quack philosophy." Tn other words,
the wisdom of man is greater than tha wisdom
of God, as unerringly revealed in His Book.
How truly Paul spoke when he said, "O Tim
othy, keep that which is committed to thy
trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and