YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

Copyright, 1906, by C. B. Titus

NOTICE.

The two volumes of this work having been
issued at different times and places, the chapters
are iu non-consecutive order. The reader, there
fore, must be guided by the Table of Contents
through this " tentative edition."

The Greatest Work in the World;
 OR 
The Mission of Christ's Disciples

CHARLES B. TITUS, lit
FOR SEVEN YEARS A MISSIONARY IN CHINA
Appointed by the Foreign Christian Missionary
Society

JESUS SAYS:
The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.— Luke 19: 10.
As my Father hath sent me, so send I you.— John 20:21.
The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, I will send unto you from the
Father. He will guide you.— John 15:26.
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations. — Matt. 38:19.
Father, I pray also for them which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me.— John 17:20, 21.

CONTENTS

Preface: "The Greatest Work" defined.
PART I
How God Has Spoken to Man ; Or, How, Through Whom and to
Whom, His Word Was Given.
Chapter 1. Introduction. God spoke to man and left not Him
self without witness.
" 2. Men ignore God, become corrupt, and are destroyed.
Righteous Noah and family saved. The earth
re-peopled.
" 3. Men worship the creature more than the Creator.
All nations that forget God perish. God's chosen
people spared upon repentance.
" 4. The three classes — God-fearing, God-disobeying and
God-forgetting.
" 5. God has spoken to the heathen:
In the old dispensation, through the prophets,
In the new dispensation, by His Son.
PART II
How God Has Not Spoken to Man; Or, a Rebuttal of the Claims
of Natural Theology.
Chapter 1. The Source of Natural Theology.
2; Thi Fruit of Evolution.

CONTENTS. (Continued)

Chapter 3. Was Socrates a Christian before Christ?
" 4. Was Confucius as much inspired as Moses?
" 5. Does Nature Reveal God?
" 6. The Gentiles also may be saved. Rom. 2:14, 15.
PART III
How God's Word is Now Made Manifest Through Preaching; Or,
the World-Field Mission of Witnesses for Christ.
Chapter 1. The Greatest Reason for Preaching the Gospel to
the Heathen.
" 2. A Man of Ethiopia.— Acts 8 : 26-40.
3. The Gift of the Holy Spirit.
" 4. The Pro and Con of "Heathen Missions."
Appendix : Sorme Friendly Criticisms Considered.
Chapter 1. By a Professor of Bible.
" 2. By a Unitarian.
" 3. By an ex-missionary.
" 4. The one god some Greeks thought out.

For full book, as per Table of Contents, write the author
at Barper, Kansas Chao flSiefl

PREFACE

What is the greatest work in the world? To believe on Him
whom God sent (John 6:29), and to observe all things whatsoever
He has commanded (Matt. 28:20).
What is Jesus' greatest command to His disciples? To
preach the gospel to every person in the world (Mark 16:15), and
make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19).
What, therefore, is the greatest mission, and who are the
greatest missionaries in the world? The world-field mission
(Acts 1:8; Luke 24:47,48), of the witnesses for Christ (Matt.
16:19; Acts 4:20; 8:4; 22:15; 26:16-18; II Cor. 5:20; II Tim. 2:2).
What was Jesus' greatest purpose in coming into the world?
To seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
What was the greatest cause assigned for man's lost con
dition? Sin, or yielding to the temptation of Satan (Matt. 1:21 :
Acts 13:38), for the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
What is the greatest power of Satan? The power of death
(Heb. 2:14).
The fear of death keeps men in what greatest bondage? The
bondage to Satan (Heb. 2:15).
In whom had God purposed the greatest salvation for lost
man, before the world began? In our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel (II Tim. 1:10).
Why is Jesus the greatest authority on the question of man's
salvation? Because God hath appointed Him to judge the world
according to His gospel (Acts 11:31 ; Rom. 2:16).
Who was the greatest preacher to the Gentiles commissioned
by Jesus? Paul (Acts 26 : 16-18 ; Gal. 2:2).
What are Paul's greatest declarations as to who are lost?
All have sinned (both Jews and Gentiles) and come short of the
glory of God (Rom. 3:9, 23). The Scripture hath concluded all
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be
given to them that believe (Gal. 3:22). God hath concluded

them all in unbelief that he might have mercv upon all (Rom.
11:32). What is the greatest power of God for the salvation of any,
or all the lost, whether Jew or Gentile, civilized or heathen?
The gospel of His Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16).
In obedience to Christ's command, what then is the greatest
reason for preaching the gospel to the heathen? Because they
are lost — lost from the only name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Why is hearing the gospel a condition of greatest necessity
in God's plan of salvation? "For how shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard?" — Rom. 10:14.
Why is failure to preach the gospel to the heathen the
greatest sin of omission with which Christians are chargeable
before the bar of God? "For how shall they hear without a
preacher?" — Rom. 10:14.
Why is the use of God-given talents ("as God hath pros
pered") for all purposes other than sending preachers of the gos
pel to the heathen the greatest sin committed by Christ's dis
ciples today? "For how shall they preach except they be sent?"
—Rom. 10:15.
What is God's greatest gift to the lost world? His Son, to
be their Savior (John 3:16).
What is the Son's greatest gift to the saved world? The
Holy Spirit, to be their Comforter (Acts 2:38).
What is the Holy Spirit's greatest weapon in the Christian's
armor? The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph.
6:17). What, then, is the greatest office of the Holy Spirit when
sent by Christ to abide in His disciples? To convict the world
(of Jews and Gentiles, civilized and heathen— all worldly-minded)
of sin, of rightousness, of judgment (John 16:8-11).
Which class comprises the greatest number to be thus con
victed of sin? The heathen Gentiles, for all are breaking the
very first commandment of Jehovah, namely, "Thou shalt have
no other Gods before me" (Ex. 20:3); hence are not saved, nei
ther indeed can be except through faith in Christ, the Son, in
whom God is now reconciling the world unto himself (Rev. 14:
12; II Cor. 5:19).

— 6—
Why are the heathen Gentiles in the greatest peril? Be
cause in darkness and the power of Satan (Acts 26:18).
Why is the word of God the greatest weapon in the conver
sion of sinners? Because it is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis-
cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Of
His own will begat he us with the word of truth (James 1 : 18). In
Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel (I Cor. 4 : 15).
What are some of the greatest inventions man has sought
out (Eccl. 7:29) to prove that the heathen will be saved as they
are? (1) Want of opportunity to hear and believe. (2) Ignor
ance. (3) Sufficient truth in their own religions. (4) Living up
to the light God has given them through nature. (5) "All men
after all worship the one God."
What is the greatest reason for suspicioning the validity of
all these inventions? Because all are of man, human— of the
earth, earthy (I Cor. 15:48 ; John 3:31).
Shall we ask then, as a final greatest question, Whence com
eth the light of truth? Every good and every perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of lights (James
1:17). A man can receive nothing except it be given him from
heaven (John 3:27). If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. But let
him ask in faith, nothing wavering (James 1:5, 6). God's word
is truth (John 17:17). The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us (John 1 : 14) and Jesus says : I am the truth. —John 14 : 16.

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INTRODUCTION

This work was written in a foreign field by a missionary
worker. It is an argument to show that God can be made
known to men only through Christ.
Nature supplements the teaching of revelation, and the
Christian student can continually learn of God through his handi
work. But nature has no distinct message to the soul of man ;
and until her silence is broken by the manifestation of a life
above and beyond her, she is essentially voiceless. The soul of
man cries out for God, but it is a task beyond reason out of the
longings of the soul to construct God. Even if it were possible,
He would remain an abstraction, unreal and intangible. The
normal soul cries out for God, the living God, who takes us into
companionship, who makes us know that he is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, who — as far as we can bear it — com
munes with us, and vitalizes us with his own life.
Nothing short of this will regenerate our race. Men may
fashion wise philosophies ; they may make the highest possible
deductions from nature and the soul of man, but they will fall
immeasurably short of what humanity demands. There must
come a message from "the other side." And that message has
come in Jesus ; it comes no other where. When one verily ac
cepts him there comes the growing consciousness that in Him
every need of the soul is met. He is his own best evidence. And
truly no man cometh to the Father but by Him. In every sense
the saving of the world depends upon the acceptance of this
truth. Blessed are they who press it to the hearts of men.
Since the author of this work was a worthy student and
graduate of Hiram College, we have followed his brave and use
ful work in a foreign land with an especial interest. We trust
that this book, which is born of a burden upon his heart, may
prove a means of increasing his usefulness and power.
E. B. Wakefield,
Professor of Christian Evidences
Hiram College, Ohio.

PART II
How God Has Not Spoken to Man ; Or, A Rebuttal of
the Claims of Natural Theology

CHAPTER I
The Source of Natural Theology
When, in 1812, the youthful Alexander Campbell resolved to
preach and practice the gospel, as taught by Jesus the Christ
and His Apostles, immediately the clergy of all denominations,
and even infidel speakers of note, felt called upon to oppose him ;
and later, in 1842, when he founded a College upon the Bible,
those in charge of theological schools everywhere began to cast
hostile and Pharisaical glances at him. The first attacking
party rallied to the defense of their man-made creeds ; the sec
ond treated with self-righteous scorn the thought that their
voluminous works on theology in many departments of this
science so-called had no other foundation than the ideas of
learned pagans who flourished before the dawn of Christianity.
It is needless to state how ingloriously the first party were beat
en back. Everywhere human creeds are crumbling today. The
other party, the rationalistic Gibeonites still dwell in the land,
rightfully the promised land of the children of God, because of a
league made by cunning and deception on their part.
Let us, then, direct our attention more particularly to this
latter part— the theologians. Quoting from the Encyclopedia
Britannica, we learn that "the word theology" comes from a
heathen source — from the Greek classics. It occurs in the Re
public of Plato and the Metaphysics of Aristotle. The exten
sion given to the signification of the term theology was for a
very lengthened period almost universally restricted to the knowl
edge derivable from the Scriptures, the systematic exhibition of
revealed truth, the science of Christian faith and life. Later,
however, there was the rise and development of a theology not
based on revelation— the rise and development of what is called
natural theology.

—9—
We note, then, first, that natural theology is not based on
revelation, on revealed truth, or derived from the Scriptures.
Certainly, then it can be no part of the gospel which is the pow
er of God unto salvation, and therefore it is no essential part of
the Christian's armor, the sword of the Spirit. But let us ex
pose it more fully to the light. The Biblical Theological and Ec
clesiastical Cyclopedia by McClintock & Strong, under the head
of Natural Theology, says: "Since the time of Paley (1743-1805),
whose name is best known of all those who have entered this
field, writers in large numbers have appeared who have written
treatises professedly on this subject, or have treated it indirect
ly in connection with scientific discussions. Some of the ablest
arguments have been made in this way, and of late years great
additions have been made, directly and indirectly to such writ
ings. See literature Xenophon's Memorabilia ; Plato's Laws,
Book X ; Cicero's De Natura Deorum, etc."
We may now inquire, Whence did William Paley get his
ideas on Natural Theology? Mackintosh's Progress of Ethical
Philosophy says: "It cannot be denied that Paley was some
times a lax moralist." Lippincott's Pronouncing Biographical
Dictionary says: "We do not attach any very great importance
to the charge of stupendous plagiarism brought against Paley
for what he has borrowd from Dr. Nieuwentyt. Macaulay well
remarks in an article on Ranke's History of the Popes, that the
reasoning by which Socrates, in Xenophon's hearing, confuted
the little Atheist Aristodemus, is exactly the reasoning of Palev's
natural theology. If, then, Paley's line of argument is exactly
like that of Socrates and also the same as that employed by
Dr. Nieuwentyt, it is at least possible that Dr. Nieuwentyt may
have derived some of his ideas and arguments, if not his partic
ular illustrations, from Socrates. The chief mterit of Paley, who
does not appear to have made any special pretention to origin
ality as respects the individual ideas or illustrations of his sub
ject, consists in the admirable skill and ability with which he
combines and presents the whole argument.
Reader, does it not begin to look as though the pagan Greeks
furnished the basis of Natural Theology? Let us quote again
from the Encyclopedia Britannica: "The appearance of Natural
Theology as a distinct science may be dated from the publication

—10—
of Raymond de Sebonde's Theoligia Naturalis in 1436, although
portions of it had been admirably presented by ancient philoso
phers, e. g., Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. It flourished
with extraordinary vigor in the latter half of the seventeenth
and throughout the eighteenth century."
"Raymond de Sebonde was a Spanish physician and taught
theology in the university of Toulouse during the earlier part of
the fifteenth century. His work was perhaps the first in which,
proceeding on the principle that God has given us two books,
the book of nature and the book of Scripture, confined itself to
the interpretation of the former, merely indicating the mutual
relations of natural and revealed religion. McClintock & Strong
say of him: "He wrote besides several manuscript works,
Theologia Naturalis, in which he sets forth the doctrine of
Aquinas." Now, as Thomas Aquinas lived in the thirteenth century,
we are slowly but surely threading our way back to the pagan
Greeks as the source of Natural Theology. Quoting again from
McClintock & Strong, "Thomas Aquinas, the most conspicuous
of the theological philosophers of the Middle Age, was born at
Aquino, in the kingdom of Naples, in 1224 or 1226, of a noble
family. The scholastic philosophy reached its culmination in
Aquinas. He rendered real service to the Aristotelian philos
ophy by the pains he took to effect a translation of the works in
which it was contained, and by his commentaries on them. He
was a Realist, inasmuch as he maintained that the ideas of
things, after the pattern of which the world was made, pre
existed eternally in the divine mind (although not independent
of God) and regarded them as the proper objects of knowledge, and
as the forms which determine the nature and properties of all
things. This system he endeavored to place on a firmer basis by
extending the theory of thought expounded by Aristotle, to
which he superadded some ideas of the system of Plato and of
the Alexandrians. With this is connected his explanation of
the conceptions of matter and force as elements of compound
substances, as also his explanation of the principle of individu
ation. The rational soul, the nature of which he discusses after
Aristotle's system, is the substantial form of man, immaterial
and indestructible. Philosophy consists, according to him, in

—11—
science searching for truth with the instrument of human rea
son, but he maintains necessary for salvation of man that Divine
revelation should disclose to him certain things transcending
the grasp of human reason.
Having now traced Natural Theology back to the Greeks as
the originators, there remains the pertinent and too-long over
looked question, After all the Greek manuscripts have been
examined, do they teach, or even think of teaching, all the
Christian thought and content afterwards put into their words
and called Natural Theology?
From the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, Book X, chap
ter 8, we read: "Our conception of the gods is that they are
pre-eminently happy and fortunate. But what kind of actions
do we properly attribute to them? Are they just actions? But
it would make the gods ridiculous to suppose that they form
contracts, restore deposits, and so on. Are they the courageous
actions? Do the Gods endure dangers and alarms for the sake
of honor? Or liberal actions? But to whom should they give
money? It would be absurd to suppose that they have a cur
rency or anything of the kind. Again, What will be the nature
of their temperate actions? Surely, to praise the gods for tem
perance is to degrade them ; they are exempt from low desires.
We may go through the whole category of virtues, and it will
appear that whatever relates to moral action, is petty and
unworthy of the gods."
Friends, shall we reject the creeds written by men of our
own time, and accept and teach students who contemplate going
forth to preach the gospel of Christ such pagan ideas as Aris
totle expresses of the gods, as one of the two books God has
given us — the book of nature?
But before forming our final judgment, let us hear what
Plato has to say. Perhaps he will do better than his pupil,
Aristotle. From Plato's Laws, Book X, we read: "How would
you prove the existence of the gods? asks Athenian. And the
answer is, In the first place, the earth and the sun and the stars
and the universe, and the fair order of the seasons, and the
division of them into years and months, furnish proof of their
existence ; and also there is the fact that all Hellenes and bar
barians believe in them." Cicero in "De Natura Deorum" third

—12—
book, says: "I believe in the gods," says Cotta, the Pontifex
Maximus, "on the authority and tradition of our ancestors ; but
if we reason, I shall reason against their existence. " "Of course,
I believe in divination as I have always been taught to do. But
who knows whence it comes as to the voice of the Fauns, I never
heard it ; and I do not know what a Faun is. You say that the
regular course of nature proves the existence of some ordering
power. But what more regular than a tertian or quartan fever?
The world subsists by the power of nature."
"Like the soul which carries us about every way, this soul of
the sun, which is therefore better than the sun, whether taking
the sun about in a chariot to give light to men, or acting from
without or in whatever way, ought by every man to be deemed a
god. And of the stars, too, and of the moon, and of the years
and months and seasons, must we not say in like manner, that
since a soul or souls having every sort of excellence are the
causes of all of them, those souls are gods, whether they are liv
ing beings and reside in bodies and in this way order the whole
heaven, or whatever be the place and mode of their existence :
and will any one who admits all this venture to deny that all
things are full of gods?"
Over six centuries after this, Paul met the students of the
works of this same Plato and this same Aristotle and this same
Socrates on Mars Hill and said to them: "Ye men of Athens,
in all things I perceive that ye are too superstitious. For as I
passed along, and observed the objects of your devotion, I found
also an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown God.'
What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this set I forth unto
you. The God that made the world and all things therein, he
being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands ; neither is he served by men's hands, as though he
needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life and breath
and all things ; and he made of one every nation of men for to
dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their ap
pointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation ; that they
should seek God, if happily they might feel after him and find
him, though he is not far from each one of us: for in him we
live and move and have our being, as certain even of your own
poets have said— 'For we are also his offspring.' Being then the

—13—
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the godhead is like
unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and device of men.
The times of this ignorance, therefore, God overlooked, but now
commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: in
asmuch as he hath appointed a day, in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath or
dained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that
he hath raised him from the dead."
Note that these men to whom Paul thus preached had the
writings of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle. Yet Paul, com
missioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to go unto the Gentiles, to
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God, calls upon these very disciples of Socrates, these men of
Athens, to repent. And who will say but that Paul was right
and that these men of Athens were wrong. And so are the men
of today wrong who teach the natural theology of those pagan
Greeks as the second book given to us by God. And in the name
of God's Son, whom Paul served, we call upon them to repent —
to repent before it is everlastingly too late.
But may we not be mistaken in stating that the theological
professors and their text-books today teach these pagan proofs
of the existence of the gods as Natural Theology? Let us
see. Samuel Harris, D. D. LL. D., sometime Professor of Syste
matic Theology in the Theological Department of Yale College,
says in his work on Theism, "Nature is the seeming obstacle,
impact on which strikes out all aglow the hitherto hidden spark
of reason and kindles the divine light within the man, which at
once reveals his reason to himself, reveals nature to his reason,
and discloses both in the natural and the moral systems, the
steps up to God."— Page 385.
Here we have Natural Theology in a nutshell, and well
might we heed Paul's advice to the Corinthians, "Take heed
lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his
philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (2:8.) Where did
Professor Harris get his ideas? Hear him again, page 1, "The
knowledge of God begins in experience" ; and on page 153, he
says: "When we grasp the fact that in intutition we have pos
itive knowledge of self and external being and of universal

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principles of reason, we necessarily come to the Platonic posi
tion that the necessary forms of thought are the forms of
things," we grasp in its true significance the principle which
has given to Platonism its perennial life, that the truths of rea
son are at once the laws of thought and the archetypal forms of
all existence. Again he says: "We may well agree with Aris
totle that they who forsake the nature of things or self-evident
principles, will not find any surer basis on which to build."—
ibid p. 122. Again he says: "The truths of reason have to
us objective reality as principles and laws of things, because
they are, as already set forth, constituent elements of rationali
ty eternal in the absolute and supreme Reason. This accords
with the Platonic philosophy, modified as it necessarily must be
by Christian Theism."— ibid p. 182.
Think of it, reader, the philosophy of Plato, a polytheist,
who lived 600 years before Christ, modified of necessity by the
Christian Theism of Dr. Harris, is the refined theology that
students once received at Yale College.
Again, Prof. Harris says, p. 183, "Plato recognizes the prin
ciple of reason as the remembrance of what the soul saw in
some former state of existence when in company with God—
Phaedrus 249." "So in speaking of Anaxagoras, Aristotle said
that 'the men who first announced that Reason was the cause
of the world and of all orderly arrangement in nature no less
than in living bodies, appeared like a man in his sober senses in
comparison with those who before had been speaking at random
and in the dark (ibid p. 184).' The doctrine that law is the
Reason and is not the creation of will is as old in philosophy as
Plato and Aristotle, who, however they differed in other respects,
agree in recognizing the supremacy of reason and the depend
ence of- moral distinctions on it. In the Euthyphro, Socrates
says that a quality or act 'is loved by the gods because it is holy,
it is not holy because it is loved by the Gods (ibid p. 196).'
'The only philosophy consistent alike with reason, with theism
and with Christianity is that of Augustine, following Plato
which recognizes truth and law as eternal in God, the supreme
and absolute reason (ibid p. 197).' "
It may be, I may add in passing, that the only philosophy
consistent with reason, theism and Christianity is that of Au-

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gustine, following Plato, since Augustine never dreamed of Dr.
Harris' Theism, nor Plato of either theism, Augustine or Chris
tianity. In an address delivered by J. A. Garfield before the literary
societies of Hiram College, June, 1867, he says: "The Christian
minister's principal text-book is a divine and perfect revelation.
There is no department of his duties in which he does not need
the fullest and the latest knowledge. He is pledged to the de
fense of revelation and religion ; but it will not avail him to be
able to answer the objections of Hume and Voltaire. The argu
ments of Paley were not written to answer the skepticisms of to
day. His Natural Theology is now less valuable than Hugh
Miller's Footprints of the Creator, or Guyot's lectures on 'Earth
and Man.' "
Note by J. W. McGarvey: "On the point of universal in
spiration, I maintain that there have been men in ages and of
all races especially endowed with spiritual vision, so that they
have discerned the truth." (He specifies Socrates, Plato, Rob
ertson, Martineau and Phillips Brooks, saying of the latter
three that they have been prophets in their own day.)
This is no improvement on his first utterance respecting uni
versal inspiration ; for one of these inspired men, Socrates, of
fered a chicken cock to Esculapius in his dying hour ; Robert
son's teaching bordered closely on rationalism ; Martineau was a
Unitarian ; and Phillips Brooks was a sprinkler of babies. A
pretty kettle of fish to be held up as inspired prophets ! And
then, these men represent only two races of men ; where are the
inspired men of the Hottentots, the Patagonians, the Fiji
Islanders, and the other races?
In the Memoirs of A. Campbell, vol. 2, p. 229, it is recorded:
"He had received, in July, 1826, a letter from a young man who
had been a Methodist, but failing to realize after a long travail,
the spiritual change he had been taught to expect, became at
length doubtful as to the truth of revealed religion. This letter
Mr. Campbell published, and went on in a series of admirable
replication designed for the benefit of skeptics in general to
meet and remove the supposed obstacles to belief suggested by
his correspondent. Mr. Campbell had long been convinced that
in schools of theology of every kind, the Bible had been syste-

—16—
matically deprived of its true glory and authority, and human
reason under the guise of natural theology substituted in its
place. The popular notion that nature revealed the idea of God,
he thought originated in men's beginning to reason with the
idea already in their minds, and finally imagining that they had
acquired it by reasoning. All that the Book of Nature teach
es is that every animal and vegetable is dependent on its own
kind for its production. The whole volume does not afford a
model or archetype for an idea of any animal or plant being de
pendent on any other of a different nature and kind for its pro
duction. You leap over the distance from earth to heaven in
your reasoning ; or rather you fledge yourself with the wings of
faith and find in the Bible the idea of all things being depend
ent on a Being unlike any other, who produces no being like him
self, contrary to your analogy from the Book of Nature, and who
produces all beings both unlike himself and one another. You
flew so nimbly and so easily over this mighty gulf that you were
not conscious that you had got out of the region of earth-born
ideas altogether, and were farther than all space from the vol
ume of Nature which you sat down to read  All the deaf
and dumb who have been made to hear and speak, or who have
been taught to communicate their ideas, have uniformly and
universally declared that an idea of a God, or anything under
that name, never entered their minds. This is decisive proof
that the knowledge of God enters the human mind by the ear,
or by communication, verbal or written. Finally, I contend
that no man, by all senses and powers of reason which he posses-
es, with all the data before him which the material universe
affords, can originate or beget in his own mind, the idea of a
God in the true sense of that word. But as soon as the idea of
Diety is suggested to the mind, everything within us and with
out us, attests, bears testimony to and demonstrates the exist
ence and attributes of such a Being."

—17—
CHAPTER II
Was Socrates a Christian Before Christ?
(Socrates' divine monitor was the Spirit of Christ speaking to his soul.—
Biblical World.)
A book entitled "The Gospel in Pagan Religions," written
after the World's Congress of Religions at Chicago, says: "Paul
declared the unknown God whom the Athenians ignorantly
worshipped to be the true God." — p. 72, 73 ; (see also Ten Great
Religions, p. 10, 11.)
But let us examine this text (Acts 17:23) more closely, and
the context less superficially. It is a remarkable coincidence
that Paul here repeats, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship,
him declare I unto you," the same idea our Lord expressed to
the Samaritan woman, "Ye worship ye know not what ; we know
whom we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." Now the Samar
itans taught their people the Mosaic ritual, had a rival temple
on Mount Gerizim, claimed descent from the patriarchs and a
share in the promises ; in fact, had adopted the Pentateuch and
the books of Joshua and Judges as their sacred books, and ex
pected the Messiah. If, then, it could be said of any people oth
er than the Jews that they worshipped the true God, we would
naturally expect this to be said of the Samaritans ; but Jesus
himself declares unto them, "Ye worship ye know not what."
On the other hand, all true Greeks had worshipful regard for
the twelve great gods of the Olympic pantheon, the three graces,
the nine muses, the three fates, the furies, and an endless varie
ty of nymphs, the local and lesser deities of sea and forest,
fountain and stream. They loved their favorite gods with all
the fervor bestowed on earthly friends. If, then, it could be
said of any people, Gentiles in the flesh, that they knew not God
but did service unto them which by nature are not gods, that
people were the Greeks, but the writer mentioned above asserts
that "their worship was the real worship of the true God,
though they were ignorant of His name."
Paul begins his address by challenging his audience with
two serious charges— superstition and ignorance. Rev. Ernst
Faber, in writing "A Guide to our Mission Work in Asia", says:
"They were superstitious because their religious service was not

—18—
to God (theos), but to the demons (daimonion). Compare I Cor.
10:20, where Paul says, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils and not to God." Though the word de
mon has in Greek not always a bad meaning, it is never used in a
good sense in the New Testament. Fearing the demons was cer
tainly nothing but superstition in the eyes of both Paul and the
writer of the Acts. And from my own observation, I may add
that worship in China seems to be prompted more by fear of
devils than by the soul's love of devotion. Superstition indi
cates false religious practice ; ignorance signifies absence of high
er religious truth. One is as culpable as the other. Religious
ignorance (agnoia, agnosticism) is as much the root as the fruit
of superstition. It is sin, for it is chronic estrangement from
God, who is hidden even from the higher mental faculties.
As to their worshipping in ignorance, Paul in effect says:
"As I passed along your streets, I beheld an altar with the in
scription, 'to an unknown god'. You are certainly not want
ing in known objects of devotion, but to have this unknown one
is indeed worshipping in ignorance. By its very inscription you
confess that you do not know who or where or what it is. Now
there is a God, unknown to you, whom I wish to declare. He is
Lord of heaven and earth ; He made all things, and He gives us
life and breath. He made of one blood all nations of men, and
you and I are thus His offspring. Alas you do not know Him !
If you did, you would not think He is like a piece of gold or sil
ver or stone graven by man, nor would your hands try to make
temples for His indwelling. You would know that He needs
nothing from you, but that you need everything from Him.
The times of your ignorance he has overlooked, but now com-
mandeth men everywhere to repent. For He has appointed a
day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by his
Son Jesus, whom he raised from the dead." But Paul got no
farther. Unlike the Samaritan woman, these learned men
mocked, or, anxious to get away, politely said, "We will hear
you again." Whom Therefore Ye Ignorantly Worship. Religious worship is
here seen to be of two kinds: (1) the true; (2) the false. The
former we know is the worship of God in spirit and in truth ;
the latter, then, must be any departure therefrom. The source

—19—
of all true worship is the revelation of God's will to man ; the
temptation of Satan is the starting-point of all the false. Man
changed the truth of God into a lie, but back of man was Satan,
the father of liars. True worshippers conform to God's will in
acts of devotion as well as of service ; the false worship they
know not what. True religion is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither
shadow of turning. False religions are man's counterfeits of the
true. That which is true came first ; after this, the counterfeit
of the true, "gods of the foreigner. "—Josh. 24:14, 15. God
made man upright, but he has sought out many inventions.
The writer of Ten Great Religions asserts that "all the re
ligions of the earth are providential, and all tend to benefit man
kind," (p. 6) ; that "each one is a step in the religious progress of
the races, and a schoomaster to bring men to Christ," (p. 3) ; and
again, that "Greek science and Greek philosophy were a prepara
tion for Christianity" (p. 490.) But Rev. D. Z. Sheffield, for
many years a missionary in China, testifies that "other religions
have nothing to add to Christianity. Christianity is not indebt
ed to Pantheism for its doctrine of the Divine immanence, but
has taught this doctrine from the beginning, safeguarding the
related truth of the personality of God by teaching also His
transcendence above the universe of His creation. Neither is
Christianity indebted to polytheism for the doctrine of the near
ness of God to His creatures and His desire to come into a living
fellowship with them. This doctrine is the very heart of the
Christian system, and the end of the Divine activity is to make
this truth real in every human heart. Polytheism, so far from
creating these religious cravings, has given to them only a dis
torted and deranged ministry. The Confucian scholar in accept
ing Christianity leaves behind him the worship of nature, of an
cestors, of sages, in which he has been trained, and turns with a
new heart to offer an undivided worship to the Author of nature,
the Giver of life, and the Director of life's destinies." — (Chinese
Recorder, March, 1903.)
"Paul showed himself able and willing at other places," says
Rev. Ernst Faber, "to acknowledge what is good among heathen,
but in addressing the Athenian philosophers, he did not even al
lude to any excellence on their part, much less take the similari-

—20—
ties between them as his basis. He did not enter into any provi
dential preparation of the Greek nation for the gospel, though
he might have done so. The sublime truth of their metaphysics
in the teachings of Socrates and writings of Plato, the logical
exactness of Aristotle and his schools, the mathematical acumen
of Euclid and Pythagaros, the inimitable beauty of their fine
arts— all these and many others could have been said in favor of
and to please the audience. Paul, however, remained strictly
on religious ground, and his line of argumentation was as direct
and striking as possible. He ignored altogether Epicureans and
Stoics and spoke to men, to men that showed religious wants."
— "Paul in Europe."
To understand more clearly the position of the Greeks
in the heathen world, let us divide the counterfeit religions into
two classes :
1. Those perversions of the true invented by the prodigals
who purposely strayed, yet knew the way back, — see Mohammed
anism. Mohammed derived his knowledge of God from Jewish
and Christian sources, but the conception of the character of
God is seriously mutiliated in his teachings.
2. The religions of those who failing to find their way back,
became lost, and so continued the counterfeit worship to which
they were accustomed, adding from time to time whatever their
fears or caprices prompted or their conquerors compelled. In
this way, have arisen all the so-called natural or ethnic religions.
Though lost, these people still inherited the knowledge from
and about God in their folk-lore, customs and literature, but
which each year became more obscure and corrupted by admix
tures of their own. Some of their philosophers, like Socrates,
groping in the dark mass of this accumulated rubbish, find now
and then some of these empty word fragments of truth, but
they are utterly unable to trace them back to their source or re
fill them with their original content and power.
It might be profitable just here to devote a little time to the
famous philosopher, Socrates, inasmuch as he has been so mis
represented by his present-day rationalistic admirers. It may
also lead to the correction of many sentimental effusions put
forth in books on Comparative Religion, Natural Theology, The
Light of Asia, and other kindred works.

—21—
There are two ways of determining the meaning of Socrates ;
one is to take his words at their value when expressed, and the
other as interpreted in the lives and writings of his disciples.
Using both of these methods, that Socrates' theogony is Polythe
istic and not monotheistic, is seen:
1. From his words in prayer. He closes a discourse with
Phaedrus at the fountain of the nymphs as follows: "Ought
we not to go after we have prayed to the gods? O beloved Pan !
and all ye other gods of this place ! grant me to become beautiful
in the inner man, and that whatever outward things I have, may
be at peace with those within. May 1 deem the wise man rich,
and may I have such a portion of gold as none but a prudent
man can either bear or employ. Do we need anything else,
Phaedrus? For myself, I have prayed enough."
Here Socrates prays to many gods (see also Phaedo, 153.)
And if it is true that as a man prays so he believes, then that to
which he prays may fairly be taken as the object of his faith.
Passing by "all his other gods" for the moment, let us inquire,
Who is this god Pan to whom he prays? McClintock & Strong's
Encyclopedia says:
"Pan is the name of the chief god of pastures, forests and
flocks among the ancient Greeks. The later rationalizing myth-
ologists, misconceiving the meaning of the name, which they
confounded with 'the whole' or 'the universe,' represented him
as a personification of the universe, but there is absolutely noth
ing in the myth to warrant such a notion. He was a son of
Hermes (Mercury) by the daughter of Dryops. He is represented
with horns and goat's beard and crooked nose, pointed ears and
tail and goat's feet." Was it prayer to this god that led the writ
er in Biblical World to call Socrates a Christian before Christ?
2. From his expressed belief in the gods. When accused by
Melitus for not believing in the gods, Socrates replied : "This
is far from being the case, for I believe, O Athenians, as none of
my accusers do." And in the Apology of Socrates, 15, he says:
"Since then I allow that there are demons, as you admit,
if demons are a kind of gods— children of gods, spurious ones,
either from nymps or any others, — what man can think that
there are sons of gods, and yet that there are not gods?"
From the above citations, we see that Socrates believed not

—22—
only in gods but in demons also, and prayed to Pan and all the
other gods. How, then, can any writer, historian or theologian,
say that Socrates was a Christian before Christ? Christ himself
says: "The Lord our God is one Lord."
3. From his account of the life of the gods. In Gorgias 166,
Socrates says: "What I am about to tell you, I tell you as being
true. As Homer says (Iliad XV, 187) then, Jupiter, Neptune
and Pluto divided the government among themselves, after they
had received it from their father." And in Phaedrus 55: "The
mighty chief in heaven, Jupiter, goes first, driving a winged
chariot, ordering and taking care of all things ; and there follows
him a host of gods and demons, distributed into eleven divisions,
for Vesta remains alone in the dwelling of the gods ; but of the
others, all that have been assigned a station as chief gods in
the number of the twelve, lead in the order to which they have
been severally appointed. (59) And on its return, the charioteer,
having taken his horses to the manger, sets ambrosia before
them, and afterwards gives them nectar to drink. And this is
the life of the gods."
4. From the source whence his knowledge came. In Phae
drus 133, Socrates says: "I can tell you a story I have heard of
the ancients— that at Naucratis in Egypt, there was one of the
ancient gods of that country to whom was consecrated the bird
which they call Ibis . . when Thamus was king of all Egypt,
and dwelt in the great city of the upper region, which the
Greeks call Egyptian Thebes, but the god they call Ammon."
McClintock & Strong say that the worship to the different func
tions of Pan is derived from the mythology of the ancient Egyp
tians. All this suggests Egypt as the origin. Socrates himself says
he got it through the ancient sages, Homer and others. Like
Confucius, he does not claim to be an originator but a transmit
ter. What he tells about Homer, he tells as being true (Gorgias
166), but says there is an ancient purification for those who of
fend in matters relating to mythology, which Homer was not
acquainted with, but Stesichorus was . . . recantation."— Phae
drus 44.
In Protagaras 20-22, he says: "That I am a sophist, I con
fess rather than deny. The art of a sophist is ancient, but the

—23—
men who professed it in ancient times, fearing the odium at
tached to it, sought to conceal it and veiled it over ; some under
the garb of poetry as Homer, Hesiod and Simonides ; and others
under that of mysteries and prophecies, such as Orpheus and
Musaeus, and their followers ; and some, I perceive, have veiled it
under the gymnastic art, as locus of Tarentum, but your own
Agathocles concealed it under the garb of music, as did Pytho-
clides of Ceos, and many others."
Knowing the source of Socrates' knowledge, we are now pre
pared to read and appreciate at their full value some fragmentary
forms of former truth transmitted by him. He makes himself
stand forth in the light by saying that "the generality of men
appear to be fumbling, as it were, in the dark." He believes in
life hereafter rather than annihilation (Phaedo 68) ; that our soul
is immortal (Phaedo 145) ; that to offer violence to one's mother
or father is not holy (Crito 12) ; that temperance consists in not
being carried away by the passions, (Phaedo 35); that the
committal of murder Is unrighteous (Phaedo 131) ; that temper
ance, justice, fortitude, freedom and truth are the proper orna
ments to adorn the soul (Phaedo 146) ; that intemperate desires
cause a man to live like a robber (Gorgias 135) ; and that death is
the separation of the soul and body (Gorgias 168.)" The saddest
thought of all is that these "nuggets of truth" were, in his time
and country, like the dynamo disconnected from its power house
—lifeless, dead.
5. From his definition of "god" and use of the word. Soc
rates, concept of "god," as expressed in Phaedrus 55 is: "As we
neither see nor sufficiently understand god, we represent him as
an immortal animal posssessed of soul and possessed of body,
and these united throughout all time." This definition shows
us the first use, viz:
(a) To express characteristics common to all gods. When
Socrates, then, uses the word "god" in the singular form, he
simply has in mind an imaginary animal possessed of soul and
body forever united. In other words, he means that a god, any
god, every god has these common characteristics ; that the god
Apollo is possessed of soul and body throughout all time ; so is
Pan ; so are all the gods. In Phaedo 16, Socrates says: "The
gods take care of us, and we men are one of their possessions,"

—24—
and Cebes replies, "It is god who takes care of us, and we are his
property." It is evident that the word "god" is here used in a
collective sense interchangeably with "the gods," the same as
when we say "Man is mortal" meaning that "all men are mor
tal" ; or when Socrates himself says: "God is an immortal ani
mal", he distinctly specifies that immortality is a characteristic
of all gods, — that every god is immortal as every man is mortal.
An impartial historian should not, then, lead a present-day
student to believe that Socrates had in mind the same idea or
ideas that our word "God" immediately suggests to our mind.
Already too much of the stale religions of the past has been
translated into present-day language by present-day dictionaries.
Socrates' dialogues should be interpreted by aid of dictionaries
accessible to students in Socrates' time.
Although Socrates speaks of no greater good ever befalling
the city of Athens than his zeal for the service of the god ; that
he composed a hymn to the god whose festival was present
(Phaedo 10), and that he is moved by a certain divine and spirit
ual influence which began with him from childhood as a kind of
voice (Apol. of Soc. 19), yet further on he discloses how the deity
enjoined on him this duty — by oracles, by dreams, and by every
mode by which any other divine decree ever enjoined anything
to men to do ; and finally in Crito 6, reveals the real arbiter of
his life and actions thus: "For I not only now, but always, am
a person who will obey nothing within me but reason, according
as it appears to me, on mature deliberation, to be best." Not so
with Peter who could not but speak the things which he had
seen and heard of another — of Jesus.
"I laying down the reason," says Socrates, "which I deem to
be the strongest, whatever things appear to me to accord with
this I regard as true." Phaedo 111. ¦ 'Come, then, ye muses, as
sist me in the tale. My dear Phaedrus, do I appear to you, as I
do to myself, to be moved by some divine influence? Listen to
me, then, in silence, for the place appears to be divine. If,
therefore, in the progress of my speech, I should be frequently
entranced by the genius of the spot, you must not be surprised.
But hear the rest, for perhaps the attack of the trance may be
averted, though this will be the care of the deity. Do you not
know that I shall be thrown into an ecstasy by the nymphs?

—25—
When I was about to cross the river, the divine and wonted sig
nal was given me, and I seemed to hear a voice from this very
spot. Somehow, I was cast down (as Ibycus says), for fear I
should offend the gods, and gain honor from men in exchange.
But now the greatest blessings we have, spring from madness,
when granted by divine bounty. For the prophetess at Delphi
and the Priestesses at Dodona have, when mad, done many and
noble services for Greece, both privately and publicly, but in
their sober senses little or nothing."— Phaedrus 29, 32, 41 and 47.
The divine influence moving Socrates, then, which in Theae-
tetus 21 he calls a demon, ("the demon that attends me prevents
me from associating with some, but with others it allows me," —
Theaetetus 21; "Socrates' divine monitor was the Spirit of
Christ speaking to his soul,"— The Biblical World), is but his
own reason, merely this and nothing more, and agrees with his
tory when it says: "The religion of the Greeks allowed them to
think what they would, and to do what they chose. They made
their gods to suit themselves, and regarded them as companions
rather than as objects of reverence." Heraclitus says: "Men
are mortal gods and the gods immortal men." So that whether
in the singular or plural form Socrates used the word "theos"
(god), it is plain that he was ignorant alike of the God whom
Paul preached, Socrates himself being judge, for he says in
Theaetetus 140, "He who is not able to give and receive an ex
planation of a thing must be ignorant of that thing," and furth
er states (ibid 121) how it is possible to know false gods and never
think of the true God, as follows: "I know one of you, and not
knowing the other, and perceiving neither, should never think
that he whom I know is the person whom I do not know."
(b) Said of his favorite god, or a certan deity. Socrates
nowhere limits the number of gods. He has his favorite, as did
most of the Greeks. Swans belonging to Apollo, are prophetic
.... but I, too, consider myself to be a fellow-servant of the
swans, and sacred to the same god." (Phaedo 77.) Socrates is
not so selfish as to think that he alone is favored and that his
friend Phaedrus has no favorite god. Phaedrus 72— And by en
deavoring to discover of themselves the nature of their own
deity, they succeed by being compelled to look steadfastly on
their god ; and when they grasp him with their memory, being

—26—
inspired by him, they receive from him their manners and pur
suits, so far as it is possible for man to participate of deity. 73 —
And such as attend Apollo, and each of the other gods, follow
ing the example of their several deities, desire that their favor
ite may have a corresponding character; and when they have
gained such a one, both by imitation on their own part, and by
pursuading and alluring their favorite, they lead him to the pe
culiar pursuit and character of that god. 78 — Since then he is
worshipped with all observance as if he were a god, not by a
lover, who feigns the passion, but who really feels it, and since
he is by nature inclined to friendship, he directs his affection to
accord with that of his worshipper.
6. From his last words. In Phaedo 153, Socrates' last
words are thus recorded : "But it is certainly both lawful and
right to pray to the gods, that my departure hence may be hap
py ; which, therefore, I pray, and so may it be." And as he said
this, he drank it off readily and calmly.
7. The meaning of Socrates' theogony as interpreted by the
lives and writings of his disciples.
The philosophy of Plato was the scientific completion of
that of Socrates. Aristotle was a scholar of Plato. The Stoics
and Epicureans represent the two opposite schools of practical
philosophy which survived the fall of higher speculation in
Greece. One of the great events in the history of man, as well as one
of the most picturesque situations, was when Paul stood on the
Areopagus at Athens, carrying Christianity into Europe. He
stood where Socrates had stood four hundred years before. And
what did Paul's eyes behold as the grand fruition of this great
philosopher's wisdom, as exemplified in his disciples? A bewil
dering multiplicity of temples and numberless "idols." Athens
was the city of statues. There were statues of Phidias, and
Myron and Lysicles ; statues of antiquity and statues of yester
day ; statues colossal and statues diminutive ; statutes of wood
and earthenware and stone and marble and bronze and ivory and
gold, in every attitude and in all possible combinations ; statues
starting from every cave and standing like lines of sentinels in
every street. There were more statues in Athens, says Pausa-
nias, than in all the rest of Greece put together, and the number

—27-
of these idols would be all the more startling and even shocking
to Paul, because during the long youthful years of his study at
Jerusalem, he had never seen so much as one representation of
the human form, and had been trained to regard it as apostasy
to give the faintest sanction to such violations of God's express
command."— Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul, p. 526.
No wonder Paul's spirit was painfully stirred ! Profane his
tory tells us that there were 30,000 gods of different names in
Athens alone ; or, as Petronius facetiously expressed it, it was
easier to find a god than a man. Athens had twice as many
sacred feasts as others had. To the Greeks, earth and air were
filled with invisible spirits, and the sky was crowded with trans
lated heroes — their own half-divine ancestors. Such was the
state into which the disciples of Socrates were found by Paul—
wholly given up to idolatry, blinded by the god Wisdom of this
world, lost in the ignorance of polytheism, in bondage to the
prince and power of the air.
Him declare I unto you. Paul preached unto them Jesus and
the resurrection. At the time of his visit, A. D. 54, the Stoics
and Epicureans,— in fact, all the Athenians and strangers,— spent
their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new
thing. Long years before, Demosthenes had rebuked his coun
trymen for their love of constantly going about in the market,
and asking one another, What news? Paul now brought strange
things to their ears — new teaching, of which they did not know
the meaning. They understood very well when he pointed out
that they were "very reverent to demons (superstitious) ; or, as
we would say in China, much given to the worship of devils.
But when he would make known that which their altar inscrip
tion said was unknown, they would hear him at another time.
We may well pause and ask, Why was this one an unknown
god? They had names for 30,000 others, why had this one no
name? It is sad to think, says Matthew Henry, that at Athens,
a place which was supposed to have the monopoly of wisdom, the
true God was an unknown God, the only God that was unknown.
They knew all about the god of war, the god of lightning, and
the god of disease ; why was the particular function of this god
unknown to them? Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about 210 A.
D., says that it originated with Epimenides, nearly 600 B. C,

—28—
who was invited to Athens to deliver the city from a pestilence,
and took sheep of different colors to the summit of Mars' Hill,
and gave instructions to sacrifice them to the deities at the base
of whose statues they should lie down, but one or more lay down
where there was no statue, hence they erected an altar to the
unknown god on that spot. "And you may still see at Athens,"
the author continues, "altars without any inscription to a par
ticular deity, as memorials of the propitiation then made."—
Fenelon's Lives of the Ancient Philosophers, p. 102.
We thus see that though the Greeks had altars erected to
every known power of nature, yet all the gods worshipped at
these altars could not account for some observed phenomena,
and hence this altar to an unknown god. They evidently con
cluded that there must be some other spirit, and they would be
safer in thus sacrificing at a venture. As they took advantage
of every portent that might bring good luck, so in this case,
they had nothing to lose and all to gain by trying to obtain the
favor of this unknown god in the usual way of beseeching deities.
The author of the dialogue Philopatris, by many supposed
to have been written by Lucian about the year 170 A. D., has
the following words: "But let us find the unknown god of
Athens, and stretching our hands to heaven, offer to him our
praises and thanksgiving," — Lucian in Philopatris, p. 767.
Heathen writers thus attest the fact that there was such an altar
at Athens, and there is no evidence that there was any such any
where else, — Handbook of Christian Evidence by Scott, p 225.
Mark you, then, that this is a local god — the unknown god of
Athens. (See also Philestratus, Vit. Apollon VI, 3.)
Pausanias, who wrote before the end of the second century,
in describing Athens, mentions an altar of Jupiter Olympus,
and adds: "And nigh unto it is an altar of unknown gods" — B.
5, p. 412. Here again a heathen writer testifies that the worship
at this "unknown-god's" altar was polytheistic, since it was to
many gods. From the Greek view-point, at least, they never
thought their worship at this altar (whether ignorantly or oth
erwise) was with any more sincerity or greater desire to arrive at
something higher and better than did those who worshipped at
other altars. In fact, they worshipped at this altar primarily
with a sort of forlorn hope that something might come of it. It

—29—
was the expectation of a fortune wheel, the alluring luck of
blind chance. I have seen people in China who worshipped the
god of smallpox, and not getting relief, went to San Lao Tai Yie,
a god of recent creation — only 15 years standing— because it had
become popular. Heathen gods get their local reputation like
quack doctors, by the number of cases they cure. If a certain
one had a run of luck in that a number of devotees get well, it
gets an increased patronage ; if it loses a number of cases in suc
cession it may almost cease to be worshipped.
Greek worship consisted of songs and dances, processions, li
bations, festivals, dramatic and athletic contests, and various
sacrifices and purifications. We have no information that the
worship at the "unknown-god altar" differed in any wise from
this. One part of their worship was the sacrifices ; but Paul in
his letter to the Corinthians, the next door neighbors of the
Athenians, as it were, says that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. How futile,
then, for any writer to try to prove their worship the real wor
ship of the true God, and polytheistic Socrates a Christian be
fore Christ !
Paul's Epicurean auditors believed from Socrates that the
universe had resulted from a chance combination of atoms, he
tells them that it was created by the God unknown to them.
They believed that their many gods sat far away beside their
thunder, careless of mankind, he told them that there is but one
God and we are his children.
The Platonists, who are never mentioned in the New Testa
ment, afterwards attempted a fusion of Christian and heathen
ideas in Neo-Platonism, which was but a revival of heathenism
refined by Christian elements. And the mistake of present-day
writers on Natural Theology, Ethnic Worship, and Comparative
Religions lies in their premises. Instead of going back to those
ancient peoples and accompanying them along the current of
history through v the centuries, giving their actual views and
practices, they pick up fragments of their writings and give the
words used a meaning such as they would have at the present
time. This is hard to avoid, it is true, for it is admittedly diffi
cult to divest oneself of preconceived ideas and daily-used mean
ings of words, but it certainly is not to give a fair and unvar-

—30—
nished record of events to fill words of one age with the content
they have attained in a much later period of the world's history.
What idolaters intend to effect by their multifarious forms
of worship is to gain favors from the gods. The worship is thus
a sort of Oritental bribery ; prayer is flattery and statement of
wishes ; all is done to move the feelings of the god and thereby
gain the fulfillment of any desire, good or evil. Now idolatry is
the root of the deep degradation of all nations devoted to it.
Those who write gratuitous puffs such as that Socrates was a
Christian before Christ, having never lived among idolaters, can
not realize the depravity of manners and moral sentiment pre
vailing, and the darkness hanging over their intellects. The
sentimental idea of discovering even in idolatry something true,
which should be acknowledged and taken as a basis from which
to develop higher truths, may be pleasing to these professors in
their study, but it is useless in practical work among idolatrous
people. The word of God, both in the Old and New Testament,
has no other view of idolatry but that it is sin against God. We
cannot succeed in convincing idolaters of this, if we ourselves
feel not the strongest conviction of its sin. We keep in the
apostolic line by feeling provoked in spirit whenever we meet
with idolatrous practices. Idolatry is sin, not a sin among sins,
but THE sin ; it is rebellion, open enmity against God the Most
High, and as such the climax of estrangement from God. Those
who collect grains of truth from heathen authors to develop
them into revealed truth are like those men that build on sand
— fools, our Lord calls them. Put all the grains together, and
you only heap up sand. We need a solid rock for our founda
tion, which is Christ Jesus, and He alone the God-man. — Rev.
Ernst Faber.
God is our loving Father, ever seeking His wayward chil
dren, even to the sending of His only begotten Son for their res
cue. And His Son has sent forth his disciples into all the
world, ever bearing witness to their genuineness by His Spirit,
His word, His miracles, His works of creation, and His provi
dence. And the on-going of God's universe ever bears witness
to His revealed word, whether this word is read from the print
ed page or heard from the preacher's lips. God is not willing
any should perish, but that all should come unto Him and live.

—31—
CHAPTER ill
Was Confucius Inspired by God?
Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a mind void of judgment. — Rom. 1 : 28.
We have, in this first chapter of Romans, a summary of the
sins of the Gentile world. The apostle Paul gives, in the text,
an epitome of their treatment of God from the beginning of his
tory down to the present time.
There was a time when the Gentiles knew God, when they
were not yet unthankful nor their imaginations vain, when their
foolish heart had not yet become darkened. Paul dates this, in
the 20th verse, from the creation of the world, i. e., from the day
that man was created. This agrees with Genesis, the oldest au
thentic record, in which it is stated that "God created man in
his own image, male and female created he them, and they
heard His voice, understood and made answer (Gen. 1:27; 2:8);
and, after the flood, God said to Noah, "This (bow in the cloud)
is the token of the covenant which I have established between
me and all flesh that is upon the earth." (Gen. 9:17).
If, now, we look up the earliest record of each great nation
of antiquity, we invariably find that, at the beginning, they
knew God. At the present day, we have several distinct sources
from which may be obtained corroborative testimony to the Bib
lical account. There is profane history, there are the monu
ments, and there is comparative philology.
The latter takes us back to the time when our own fore
fathers were of one speech and in one place. This primitive race
dwelt somewhere on the plains of Central Asia. And from
thence, these great Aryans went forth to the west, dividing and
sub-dividing in succeeding ages into the Armenians, Circassians,
Georgians, the Celts, the Italians, the Greeks, the Teutonic peo
ples, and the Slavonic tribes ; and to the south passing into the
various peoples called Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Afghans,
Beluchis, and the Hindus. As distance separated them, and
generation after generation increased their number in almost
arithmetical progression, we can readily understand how that

—32—
their language would so change that a given name or word might
become quite unrecognizable in its latest form, or its original
meaning become so finely attenuated as to retain but the faint
est allusion to its former self.
By some such process as this, we imagine, the knowledge of
God, first pure, then corrupted, would in -the very nature of the
case, in no inconceivably distant generation, become so dissipate
ed as to arrive at the vanishing point. Suppose, for example, a
Gentile tribe of the ten families migrating to a distant region.
An individual of the twentieth generation, counting but an aver
age of four to a family, would be possessed of only one five-mil
lionth part of his first ancestor's knowledge of God, mathemati
cally speaking, while his own religious ideas and practices would
analyze fully 4,999,999 parts transmitted and invented error and
superstitution. Now this is peculiarly true of that branch of the Turanian
race called the Chinese. They are included in "those who did
not like to retain God in their knowledge." After their east
ward migration, mountain barriers and distance rendered speedy
communication with their former home impossible, and the
knowledge of God carried with them in their literature, customs
and folk-lore not only became very finely attenuated in the many
generations that have succeeded, but all the more quickly, per
haps, because it was so seldom possible to renew or correct it
from the ancestral source.
But one legendary milestone helps us to follow that early mi
gratory course across the continent. Before they reached the
bend of the Yellow river to occupy the territory which formed
the nucleus of the present-day China, the "Yellow Emperor's"
palace is said to have been located on the Kun-lun mountain
(2697-2598 B. C), a thousand miles to the westward. Fifteen
centuries later, Emperor Mu (1001-947 B. C.) is decribedas taking
a pilgrimage to this mountain to view the palace of the "Yellow
Emperor," (see a work "probably of the second or third century
B. C.," (Wylie), entitled Mu Tien Tsz Chuan.)
The first reference to Shang Ti (the old Chinese term for
God,— literally, Upper or Highest Ruler), or indeed to any relig
ion whatever in the early history in China, is found in the words:

—33—
"The Yellow Emperor sacrificed to Shang Ti, gathered the
whole populace together and diffused among them (the princi
ples of) government and religion," (see Easy Edition of History,
Kan Chien I Chih Luh, published in 1711.)
"It will be agreed," says Wm. Arthur Cornaby, "that how
ever attenuated the term Shang Ti may have become in the
minds of Chinese scholars during the ages of godlessness, or of
substitution of imaginary deities for God, the term itself, being.
equivalent to 'Sovereign on High', is probably the nearest
equivalent we could wish to find in the Chinese language for our
phrase, 'The Supreme.' " (Chinese Recorder, January, 1904).
The next historical reference is in the reign of the Emperor
K'u (2436-2366 B. C), father of the Emperor Yao. His consort,
"Chiang Yuan, together with the Emperor, sacrificed to Shang
Ti and bore Ch'i."
After this, we find the almost total disappearance of the
term "Shang Ti" (from the very condensed and many times re-
edited records of later centuries), and the substituion of the
term "Tien", (Heaven). E. g., the "flood regulator" Yu (2205-
2198 B. C), on assuming the throne, said: "I have received the
decree of heaven, and will devote my whole energies to comfort
the myriad populace in their labors." Thus when they knew
God, i. e., at least had not yet lost the name, they glorified Him
not as God, but as "heaven."
And the chief actor in perpetuating this change was their
now universally revered and worshipped sage, Confucius.
It may be well, therefore, at this point, to bring out more
fully before our minds what is really known about the life,
words, and writings of this greatest of Chinese philosophers,—
the one man whose teachings have engrossed the minds of the
millions of Chinese scholors for upwards of twenty-five centuries.
I do this the more earnestly for the reason that writers on
Natural Theology, Comparative Religion, The Gospel in Pagan
Lands, and other rationalistic books of the so-called Higher
Critics have made such misrepresentations as the following:
"Confucius sought to implant the purest principles of religion
and morals in the character of the whole people, and succeeded
in doing it (Ten Great Religions, p. 45.)"

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A tree is known by its fruit. That Confucius did not like to
retain even the name of God in his knowledge is seen from:
I. HIS SILENCE ON THEOLOGY
When we come to inquire into the theology of Confucius we
find a most barren field indeed. We find no statement in Chinese
literature that Confucius worshipped Shang Ti. He himself did
not set the example nor did he teach his disciples to do so. He
has everything to say about man's duty to man — between sover
eign and minister, father and son, husband and wife, elder
brother and younger, and the intercourse of friends — but noth
ing about man's duty to God. Filial piety he enjoins with the
greatest emphasis, viz: "The services of love and reverence to
parents when alive, and those of grief and sorrow for them when
dead, — these completely discharge the fundamental duty of liv
ing men." "A personal God was unknown to him," says the author of
Ten Great Religions above quoted, "so that his worship was di
rected not to God, but to antiquity, to ancestors, to propriety
and usage, to the state as father and mother of its subjects, to
the ruler as in the place of authority." And yet this same writ
er says that "God has caused some people to be born in China,
where they can know Him only through Buddah and Confucius;
that modern missions have not converted whole nations, but
only individuals here and there ; and that when Christian mis
sionaries shall go and say: 'You are already on your way to
God,— your religion came from Him, and was inspired by His
Spirit now he sends you something more and higher by his Son,
who does not come to destroy but to fulfill, not to take away
any good thing you have, but to add to it something better,—
then we shall see the process of conversion, checked in the ninth
and tenth centuries, re-inaugurated." p. 19.
To all such, it is sufficient to reply, It is written, "faith
without works is dead. Show me your faith without your works,
and I will show you my faith by my works." James 2:20, 18.
How many converts, now, or since the ninth and tenth centuries,
have these "Utopian" writers to report? As a result of Chris
tian missionaries, yet not of themselves, but of Christ who
worketh in them, over 125,000 Chinese are now rejoicing in their.

—35—
Christian conversion. And let us remember the words of the
Lord Jesus how he upbraided the scribes and Pharisees. Though
they undoubtedly had the pure letter of the law, and were un
swervingly punctilious in its formal observance, yet Jesus de
nounces them as hypocrites. Why? "For they compass sea
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, they make
him twofold more the child of hell than themselves." Matt.
23:15. Now if these proselytes could not find God, but only hell,
through these formal teachers of the law of God, how can the
Chinese find God through Confucius, who only claimed to trans
mit the wisdom of the ancients, and who excluded even their
one-time name for God from all his own teachings?
H. HIS SUBSTITUTION OF HEAVENOLOGY FOR THEOLOGY
Confucius handed down the doctrines of Yao and Shun as if
they had been his ancestors, but while those ancient worthies of
ten speak of Shang Ti, Confucius mentions the name only, it would
seem, where it was unavoidable in editing history, and but once
in the Four Books, Doct. of the Mean, 30:1, and then while
"elegantly displaying the regulations" of former kings, Wan and
Wu to state that "they served Shang Ti." (D. M. 19.) But of
"heaven" he says: It is only heaven that is grand, and only
soverign Yao corresponded to it. An. 8:19.
It is heaven that, in the production of things, is sure to be
bountiful to such rulers as filial Shun. D. M. 17. At 50, Con
fucius knew the degrees of heaven. An. 4:4. He calls on heav
en to reject him wherein he has done improperly. An. 6:26.
Heaven produced the virtue in him, An. 7:22 ; heaven knows him,
An. 14:37 ; heaven protects him, An. 9:5.
Now what is this "heaven" of Confucius that issues decrees;
that knows, that protects, that produces, that destroys? An.
11:8. Does heaven speak? Confucius himself raises the ques
tion, and adds, "The four seasons pursue their courses, and all
things are continually being produced, but does heaven say any
thing?" An. 17:19. Mencius expands the meaning thus: "Wen
Chang asked, Who gave Shun the empire? Heaven gave it to
him, was Mencius' answer. Did heaven confer its appointment
on him with specific instructions? Mencius replied, No. Heav-

—36—
en does not speak. It simply showed its will by his personal con
duct and his conduct of affairs. Yao presented Shun to heaven,
and heaven accepted him ; and that he exhibited him to the peo
ple, and the people accepted him. Wen Chang asked, How?
Mencius said, He caused him to preside over the sacrifices, and
all the spirits were well pleased with them ; — thus heaven accept
ed him. He caused him to preside over the conduct of affairs,
and affairs were well administered, so that the people reposed
under him ;— thus the people accepted him. Heaven gave the
empire to him. The people gave it to him. This sentiment is
expressed in the words of the Great Declaration, 'Heaven sees
according as my people see ; Heaven hears according as my people
hear.' (Menicus, B. V. Part 1, ch. 5.)"
Dr. Ernst Faber, in a paper before the World's Parliament
of Religions, Chicago, sums it up in these words: "The
invisible world corresponds to every Chinese institution, even in
its smallest details. There is one highest ruler in heaven, cor
responding to the emperor on earth ; under him are innumerable
gods of all degrees, rulers of states or large provinces, down to
invisible constables and kitchen gods. The emperor, as the only
son of heaven, holds as such, power and dominion over all the
earth as his indisputable right." "To no one but the son of
heaven," says Confucius, "does it belong to order the ceremo
nies." (Doctrine of the Mean, 28:2). Modern Confucianism
went consistently into the extreme, that the deceased have the
same needs in the other world as on earth, which needs have to
be supplied by their descendants. Ancestral worship with its
offerings thus became the characteristic feature of the Confucian
religion. There are also the same punishments; the torments
in hell are counterfeits of the tortures in Chinese courts of law,
in prisons, and on the execution ground. The gods are just as
accessible to bribes as the mandarins on earth. We see that
three of the highly extolled Consucian social rules (father and
son — ancestral worship — husband and wife, ruler and subject),
are not fit for moral standards ; their practice has been of disas
trous consequences, a fruitful source of disorder in the history
of China. Heaven, then, is the metonymical name of the Celestial
Court in the Confucian spirit-world, used interchangeably for

—37—
the Monarch himself, on the principle that "The Court" stands
for "The Emperor," and for the collective mind and will of the
Monarch and his advisers. This strikingly shown in the History
Classic (v- 23): "Thus did they (Wen and Wu Wang) receive the
true appointment of Shang Ti ; thus did Imperial Heaven ap
prove of their ways, and give them the four quarters of the em
pire." So when Confucius says, "When good government pre
vails in the empire, ceremonies, music, and punitive military ex
peditions proceed from the son of heaven (the emperor)," (An.
16:2), he implies that there is a father-monarch in heaven of the
son-monarch on earth. And again, when he says, "The superior
man stands in awe of the ordinances of heaven," (An. 16:8), his
disciples are to understand these ordinances proceed from the
monarch on the throne of heaven analagous to the issuance of the
decrees of their own emperor. And as if to complete the simi
larity of the heavenly to the earthly kingdom, he adds, "The
mean man (literally, small or common man) does not know the
ordinances of heaven, and consequently does not stand in awe of
them," (An. 16:8); which is amplified by Mencius' quotation
from the book of History, "Heaven having produced the inferior
people, appointed for them rulers and teachers with the purpose
that they should be assisting to Shang Ti (Mencius, Book I,
Part 11:3).
Thus the Confucian "heaven" is simply what his disciples,
following their master, imagine it to be. Not only has their
foolish heart substituted the term "heaven" for what was form
erly their name for God, but the primitive revelation has become
so far lost in their darkened mind that their vain imagination
now reverses it, and projects back, as by a stereopticon, the pic
ture of an earthly kingdom on the canvass of heaven. In other
words, as the Greek philosophers made their gods to suit them
selves, so the Chinese sages, in the freedom of their imagination,
have deified the Chinese empire, and have called it "Heav
en." Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so
they have not retained Him, and God has given them over, as
His word in the 28th verse says, unto a reprobate mind— a mind
void of judgment. And in this sad condition we still find them
at the present day.

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m. HIS WORSHIP OF SPIRITS

(a.) In precept. Confucius said: Respect the spirits
(kwei shen) but keep aloof from them, (An. 6:20.) (Dr. Legge
the learned translator of the Chinese Classics says that "kwei"
was the name for the spirit of departed men, and "shen" the
name for spirits generally, and specially for spirits of heaven.)
For a man to sacrifice to a spirit (of departed man) that does not
belong to him is flattery. (An. 2:24.) He who understands the
ceremonies of the sacrifices to heaven and earth, and the mean
ing of the several sacrifices to ancestors, would find the govern
ment of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm. (D. M. 19:6 ;
An. 3:9.)
(b.) In definition. His nearest approach to a description of
these "spirits" is found in the 16th chapter of the Doctrine of
the Mean, viz: "How abundantly do the spirits (kwei shen) dis
play the powers that belong to them ! We look for them, but do
not see them ; we listen to, but do not hear them ; yet they enter
into all things, and there is nothing without them. They cause
all the people in the kidgdom to fast and purify themselves, and
array themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at
their sacrifices. Then like overflowing water, they seem to be
over their heads, and on the right and left of their worshippers."
(c.) In practice. Confucius sacrificed to the spirits (shen) as
if the spirits were present. (An. 3:12.) When the prince sent
him a gift of undressed meat, he would have it cooked, and offer
it to the spirits of his ancestors. (An. 10:13). Although his
food might be coarse rice and vegetable soup, he would offer a
little of it in sacrifice with a grave respectful air. (An. 10:8.)
When the villagers were going through their ceremonies to drive
away pestilential influences, he put on his court robes and stood
on the eastern steps. (An. 10:10). Speaking of Chung-kung, he
said, "If the calf of the brindle cow be red and horned, although
man may not wish to use it, would the spirits of the mountains
and rivers put it aside?" (An. 6:4.) When sick, Tsze-lu asked
leave to pray for him. He said, may such a thing be done? Tsze-
lu found a precedent for so doing in the Eulogies where it is said,
'Prayer has been made for thee to the spirits of the upper and
lower worlds.' The master said, 'My praying has been for a long

—39—
time. An. 7:34.'" This shows that Confucius was a polytheist in
practice, since he worshipped the spirits of mountains, rivers,
ancestors and heaven, and offered sacrifice to them all. Now
Paul says that the things which the Gentiles sacrfice, they sac
rifice to demons and not to God, (I Cor. 10:20) while the writer
on comparative religion already quoted says that "Confucius
was the last of these holy men, (p. 53), a Star in the East to lead
his people to Christ." (p. 58.) Which is right?
IV. HIS FATALISM
The appointments of heaven are fixed. There was Yen
Yuan— his appointed time was short, and he died. (An. 6:2.)
From of old, death has been the lot of all men. (An. 12 : 7). The
decrees of heaven are inalterable. If my principles are to ad
vance, it is so ordered ; if they are to fall to the ground, it is so
ordered. (An. 14:38).
Confucius is thus seen to be a blind fatalist, an autocrat of
custom, a strict ritualist, a lover of ceremonies, a stickler for
forms, holding to the letter even to the sacrifice of the spirit.
Tsze-kung wished to do away with the offering of a sheep con
nected with the inauguration of the first day of each month.
(An. 3:17). The master said, Tsze, you love the sheep; I love
the ceremony. (An. 3:17). With him example was omnipotent.
The decrees of heaven were the end of wisdom, and only he and
the sages knew them. How dare puny man even think of chang
ing them? When Yen Yuan died, he said, Heaven is destroying
me. (An. 11:8). Everything in the course of nature, as sickness
and death, is ordered. Whatever is, is decreed. Without God
in the world, he shrank from the mention of death, and refused
to talk about spirits. Without hope, with no anchor of the soul,
he changed countenance at a clap of thunder or heavy gust of
wind. Confucius knew the past, the present, but no future. He
enforced the duties of the present by the inexorable precedents
of the past'; he refused to look into the future. To live in ob
scurity, he said, and yet practice wonders, in order to be men
tioned with honor in future ages— this is what I do not do. (D.
M. 11:1.) There were spirits of heaven and men in the past,

—40—
and their number is ever increased by the death of yesterday.
These are to be worshipped today ; tomorrow will take care of
itself. V. HIS PRACTICE VS. HIS PRECEPTS
But let us give honor where honor is due. Confucius, in
editing the works of the ancient sages, has preserved some so-
called "Apples of gold in pictures of silver," viz: According to
Coufucius. The Golden Rule reads: "What you do not want done to
yourself, do not do to others." (An. 15:23.)
The Fifth Commandment: Filial Piety is this ;— That par
ents when alive, should be served according to propriety; that
when dead, they should be buried according to propriety ; and
that they should be sacrificed to according to propriety. (An. 2:5).
The Seventh Commandment: The superior man in youth,
guards against lust. (An. 16:7.)
The Tenth Commandment: The superior man, when he is
old, guards against covetousness. (An. 16:7).
It may have been the contemplation of just such beautiful
sayings as these that led the author of Ten Great Religions to
rapturously exclaim, "We cannot doubt, therefore, that God has
given this teacher to the swarming millions of China to lead
them on till they are ready for a higher light." (pp. 58, 59).
Now this naturally provokes the inquiry, Whence came
these so-called "apples of gold?" And here we are at once upon
sure ground, for Confucius himself is very explicit in answering.
He says: "I am not one born in the possession of knowledge ; I
am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.
(An. 7:19). I am a transmitter and not a maker, believing in
and loving the ancients. (An 7:1). In ceremonies and music, I
follow the men of former times. (An. 11:1). I have learned the
ceremonies of Chow which are now used, and I follow Chow. (D.
M. 28:5. After the death of king Wan, was not the cause of
truth lodged here in me? (An. 9:5.) And Mencius adds, From
Yao and Shun down to Tang were 500 years and more. Tang
heard their doctrines as transmitted, and so knew them. From
Tang down to king Wan were 500 years and more. King Wan
heard his doctrines, as transmitted, and so knew them. From
King Wan down to Confucius were 500 years and more. Con-

^1—
fucius heard his doctrines as transmitted, and so knew them.
The distance in time from the sage, 100 years and more, is far
from being remote. (Mencius, B. 7, Part 2:38).
Thus we trace these so-called sayings of Confucius back
through king Wan and emperors Tang, Yao, and Shun on to
their only origin, the one source of all truth. In Confucius' day
they may be likened unto little dynamos disconnected from the
power house. When we come to inspect them thus discon
nected, we may expect to find them lifeless, dead. And even so
we find them. Now let us look at the interpretation of these
old sayings as exhibited in the life of Confucius himself.
Precept: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do
to others. (An. 15:23).
Practice: Yang Ho watched when Confucius was out, and
sent him a roasted pig. Confucius in his turn watched when
Yang Ho was out, and went to pay his respect to him. (Men
cius, B. 3, Part 2:7.) Some one said, What do you say concerning
the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?
Confucius said, With what then will you recompense kindness?
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with
kindness. (An. 14:36.) (For comment, see Luke 6:33, If ye do
good to them which do good to you, what reward have ye? for
sinners also do even the same). Nothing about man's duty to
God. Precept: Enjoining filial piety, the services of love and rev
erence to parents. (The Hsias King, ch. 18). "Man is born for
uprightness." (An. 6:17).
Practice: Confucius said, Among us, in our part of the
country, the father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the
son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be
found in this. (An. 13:18).
Precept: I do not know how a man without truthfulness is
to get on. (An. 2:22).
Practice: Juh Pei wished to see Confucius, but Confucius de
clined on the ground of being sick, to see him. When the bearer
of this message went out at the door, he took his harpsichord,
and sang to it, in order that Pei might hear him. (An. 17:20).
Dr. Legge comments as follows: "Confucius taught 'truthful
ness', yet he was not altogether the truthful and true man to

—42—
whom we accord our highest approbation." There was the case
of Mang-Chih-fan, who boldly brought up the rear of the defeat
ed troops of Lu, and attributed his occupying the place of honor
to the backwardness of his horse. The action was gallant, but
the apology for it was weak and unnecessary. And yet Confu
cius saw nothing in the whole, but matter for praise. (An. 6:13. )
Truthfulness was one of the subjects that Confucius often
insisted on with his disciples, but the "Spring and Autumn"
has led his countrymen to conceal the truth from themselves
and others, wherever they think it would injuriously affect the
reputation of the empire, or of its sages. I would only further
remark that there is no valid authority for a saying often attrib
uted to him that "in the west the true saint must be looked for
and found." (ibid, pp. 143-146).
Precept: Sincerity: — In a hamlet of ten families, there may
be found one honorable and sincere as I am, but not so fond of
learning. (An. 5:27).
Practice: Insincerity: — On the road, once, he was seized
and obliged to take an oath, he would proceed no further. He
deliberately proceeded thither, however, explaining, "It was a
forced oath. The spirits do not hear such." Sze Ma chiens
Kungnz Shih Kia, (p. 7 ;) also Kia-Yii. "But was not the insin
cerity a natural result of the un-religion of Confucius", com
ments Dr. Legge. "Natural affection, the feeling of loyality, an
enlightened policy, may do much to build up and preserve a fam
ily and a State, but it requires more to maintain the love of
truth, and make a lie, spoken or acted, to be shrunk from with
shame. It requires, in fact, the living recognition of a God of
truth, and all the sanctions of revealed religion. Unfortunate
ly, the Chinese have not had these, and the example of him to
whom they bow down as the best and wisest of men, does not
set them against dissimulation." (Ibid, pp. 143-146).
VI. HIS LAST DAYS AND WORDS
"Early one morning, we are told, he got up, and with his
hands behind his back, dragging his staff, he moved about by his
door, crooning over, —
'The great mountain must crnmble ;
The strong beam must break ;
And the wise man wither away like a plant.'

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After a little, he entered the house and sat down by the
door. Tsze kung had heard his words, and said to himself, 'If
the great mountain crumble, to what shall I look up? If the
strong beam break, and the wise man wither away, on whom
shall I lean: The master, I fear is going to be ill.' With this
he hastened into the house. Confucius said to him, 'Tsze, what
makes you so late?' According to the statutes of Hsia, the corpse
was dressed and coffined at the top of the eastern steps, treating
the dead as if he were still the host. Under the Yin, the cere
mony was performed between the two pillars, comma, as if the
dead were both host and guest. The rule of Chow is to perform
it at the top of the western steps, treating the dead as if he
were a guest. I am a man of Yin, and last night I dreamt that
I was sitting with offerings before me between the two pillars.
No intelligent monarch arises ; there is not one in the kingdom
that will make me his master. My time has come to die." So
it was. He went to his couch, and after seven days expired.
(See the lu Chuan, Ai Kung Shih Luh Nien, and Chiang Yung's
life of Confucius in loco. See the Li Chi II, Sec. 1, 2:20).
Such is the account which we have of the last hours of the
great philosopher of China. His end was unimpressive, but it
was melancholy. He sank behind a cloud. Disappointed hopes
made his soul bitter. The great ones of the kingdom had not
received his teachings. No wife nor child was by to do the kind
ly offices of affection for him. Nor were the expectations of an
other life present with him as he passed through the dark valley.
Thinking only of earthly ceremony to the last, he dreamed that
he himself was dressed and coffined in accordance with the stat
utes of Yin, and placed between the two pillars of the temple
with the sacrificial offerings before him. "The mountain falling
came to naught, and the rock was removed ont of his place. So
death prevailed against him, and he passed ; and his countenance
was changed, and he was sent away." (The Chinese Classics by
Dr. Legge, p. 87).
Thus the personification of the Chinese wisdom of this
world came to naught.
Our text says: Even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a mind void of judg
ment and their foolish heart was darkened. The point had been

—44—
reached where "the Confucian world, by its wisdom knew not
God." In this condition no matter how many fragmentary
forms of truth lay imbedded in their customs, folk-lore
and literature, their foolish heart did not give God the glory.
"And when salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted."
The wisdom of this world makes gods of its own, and ways of
worship suited thereto. And he passes away, hence it is not of
God, for God's word abideth ever. Paul says he came to such
not with excellency of speech — not like a Demosthenes with his
persuasive eloquence, nor a Plato with his stylistic beauty, nor
an Aristotle with his sublime metaphysics. He had a message
to deliver, and he would call men's attention to the message,
not the messenger. He would stir their souls not by his style of
language, but by proclaiming the gospel of Christ, which is the
power, the dynamo, of God for the salvation of every one who
believes it.
After Socrates, perhaps the best exponent of this world's
wisdom is Confucius. In fact, men still rolling his worldly mor
sels of truth under their tongues, extol Confucius as a greater
than Socrates. But Confucius' wisdom, culled from the ancients,
as he says, is to us, as most things Chinese, upside down, that is,
it does not bring the Heavenly Jerusalem as a bride adorned,
down to earth, but projects back, as with a huge stereopticon,
his own earthly kingdom on the sky above, to the complete ob
scuration and delusion of his disciples' eyes for 2500 years. In
the case of Socrates, the fragmentary forms of the perverted
knowledge of God had come down through many generations of
those who did not like to retain him in their knowledge. In
like manner, some empty shells of former truth are found in
Confucianism, floating like meteoric dust in a worldly space, or
to change the figure, filling like husks of the prodigals who
strayed far into the great Sahara of man's invention and super
stition, — their true origin even unknown until a man sent from
God discovers and restores the connection. So far as influencing
their lives is concerned, they have about as much effect as do the
priests' beating of the gongs, or clanging of cymbals by the
priests on the mud-made gods used in their temple worship or
idol processions.
Confucianism as exhibited in the lives of his disciples at the

—45—
present day is thus illustrated in "In China Millions," of Feb
ruary, 1903: "The following Imperial decree concerning the son
of Ts'en Ch'un Hsued is a sad commentary on the darkness of
the best of human philosophies: We have received a joint mem
orial from Chang Chih Tung, viceroy of Hu-kuang, and Tuna-
fang, governor of Hupeh, stating that when the late wife of
Ts'un Ch'un Hsuen, viceroy of Sze-chuan, died at Hankow last
autumn, the said viceroy's eldest son, Ts'en Te-ku, M. A., an ex
pectant prefect of Hunan, who waited upon his mother during
her illness, was so grief-stricken at his inability to take care of
her, through lack of knowledge of medicine and drugs, that he
immolated himself before her coffin. This is an instance of rare
devotion and filial piety, and a matter for Imperial commenda
tion. We hereby grant the memorialist's request, that a monu
ment be erected eulogizing the filial piety of the deceased Ts'en
Te-ku, and that his deed be recorded in the dynastic history."
Such is the demoralizing effect of the distorted and perverted
doctrine of "filial piety", as taught and commended by the high
est authorities in China. Here we have two of China's highest
and most enlightened officials commending, and the Imperial
throne eulogizing suicide. And yet there are those who will
rank the moral teachings of Confucius with those of Jesus
Christ. We have already found, so far as we have authentic history,
that when God speaks to heathen it is always through His mes
senger. The knowledge of God and of the Son of God comes to
them, at the first, in one and the same way. We must hence
conclude that Socrates, Confucius and others of this class have
not received their teachings from God, for no evidence appears
that a God's messenger interpreted it to them. They themselves
do not claim this ; in fact, Socrates makes his own reason his god,
while Confucius has not even retained the name of God. No
one in all profane history claims that Socrates' theology was
given him by revelation from God ; Socrates himself says he got
it from the ancients— Homer and the Egyptians. It is left
to present-day professors of natural theology and writers on
comparative religion to blandly assert that Socrates was a Chris
tian writer before Christ and that Confucius was as much in
spired by God as Moses and Isaiah. These men themselves liv-

-46—
ing in remote heathenism were totally unaware that people,
centuries afterwards would so pervert their record. They some
times, like Li Hung Chang our some time fellow townsman in
China, may have allured themselves with the proud thought
that after departure, posterity would worship them at an altar
as a god. Even so did Confucius soliloquize on his death bed.
But certainly it was farthest from any of their expressed
thoughts that people of an after age would attempt to prove
that they, while living, worshipped God who made heaven and
earth and that their writings were revelations from Him. Had
they known of the true God, they must have realized how im
possible it was for themselves ever to become gods. And, even
in their day, to have worshipped the spirits of their ancestors,
of earth and of heaven, was to preclude any thought of God's
using them as a medium for communicating his revelations to
men. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually dis
cerned. And any one worshipping the spirits of the dead, crea
tions of their own fancy, of idols the works of their own hands,
certainly is not a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
whom, says Jesus, the world cannot receive. But this gift of
God, His Spirit, is for every one who will believe in His Son and
do His holy will. For God willeth not that any should perish,
but that all should come unio Him and live.
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heard. And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how
shall they preach except they be sent? The harvest truly is
plenteous but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord
of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his vine
yard. Moreover, we see how that these so-called "apples of gold in
pictures of silver", these "nuggets of wisdom," these "grains of
truth", in Confucius' mouth and heart were mere forms of god
liness without the power thereof,— 2 Tim. 3:5. As practiced by
him and his disciples, they were only sounding brass or tinkling
cymbals. They were to them as impotent for true spiritual ed
ification and reformation as would be the Ten Commandments
or the gospel preached to you in Chinese. When I talk in this

-47—
(to you) unknown tongue, I give you a form of the truth but deny
to you the power thereof.
Now this point is reached in any nation or people when they
have gone so far astray in idolatrous rebellion against God that
there is no longer a prophet or teacher sent from God among
them. A teacher cannot teach more than he himself knows.
A fonntain cannot rise higher than its source without outside
aid. Men cannot hear of God without a preacher. Hence the
possibility that Confucianists could ever be reciting the empty
word-forms of former truth becoming emptier still with the
passing of the years and yet not be able to come to a knowledge
of the truth, until messengers of God appeared. They were simp
ly keeping on their dusty book shelves, for outward appearance
only, the empty chrysalides from which the real life weavers had
taken their flight.
Let us beware lest professors and writers of theology in
Christian lands, making use of these empty heathen forms of
truth, spoil us by their philosophy and vain deceit. No matter
how many or scholarly these authors and professors, nor how
often they repeat these ancient forms, they will avail nothing
and their repetition will only be in vain. Like the Buddhist
prayer mills grindiug out the forms and sounds thereof, they
may think, says Christ, they shall be heard for their much
speaking. But these old word forms, — clouds they are without water,
carried about of winds, — may be refilled and become new creat
ures of usefulness. But this, not of themselves or by any ingen
ious device originating from their pagan environment, but alone
by the quickening power of the Spirit of the living God. When
the messengers of God shall come with the wire of living truth
and touch these dead, rusty dynamos of former truth, then there
will follow another such a vision as Ezekiel saw in the valley of
dry bones. You remember those bones were very many and they were
very dry. Can these bones live? was the question which hung
tremblingly unanswered on the prophet's lips. Yes, came the
Divine assurance. There was a power from without, able to
give life to them within. Left to themselves, they would ever
have remained bones, dry bones, or worse still, bones moulder-

-48—
ing into their original dust. "Hear ye the word of the Lord,"
proclaims the prophet to these dead symbols of former life. And
the Spirit of the Lord God blew upon them, and they came to
gether, and their former sinews and flesh and skin came upon
them, but as yet there was no life in them. Then the prophet
prophesied as the Spirit of the Lord again commanded him, and
breath came into them, and they lived, and there stood upon
their feet an exceeding great army.
So, today the Spirit of the living God is blowing upon China,
and her dry bones are coming together, each in its place, and
the sinews and flesh and skin are coming upon them, and finally
as new creatures in Christ Jesus, they shall stand upon their
feet, an exceeding great army of souls alive forever more.
Praise the Lord for his wonderful goodness to these lost children
of men, for His wonderful power in the resurrection of their dry
bones, for the wonderful commission to His messengers, the
missionaries of the cross, to go into all the lost world of heath-.
endom and, in His name, work these miracles of life from the
dead, for the wonderful privilege vouchsafed to those at home
of sending forth these laborers into the Lord's world-wide mis
sion field, keeping in loving sympathy and telegraphic touch
with their every need and supplying their every comfort.

CHAPTER IV
Does Nature Reveal God?
It is not unusual, in these days of Higher Criticism, so-
called, to hear discourses on the "natural revelation of God."
Berean-like, it becomes our duty as well as our privilege, to
search the records to find out if these things are so.
In trying to answer the question, "Does nature reveal God
to man?", we will consider —
1. Man without any knowledge of God.
2. Man whose ancestors did not like to retain God in their
knowledge.
3. Man who knows God, or rather, is known of God.
But let us first ascertain the meaning of the terms used by
the natural theologist. He seeks to establish the fact that the
revelation by nature harmonizes with the revelation contained

—49—
In the scriptures ; hence that the same God gave both revelations
to man. God in nature is, then, the God of the Bible.
He further seeks to show that man's knowledge of God
through nature is a revelation separate and apart from Holy
Writ. It comes to man's mind through the medium of God's
creative works, and not by the agency of His Holy Spirit.
Hence, it is a "natural" as contra-distinguished from a "super-
natuaal" revelation. I. MAN WITHOUT ANY KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
We will let the man to whom God was once unknown first
give testimony. But can we summon such a witness? It may
be true that we have no well authenticated instance of a man
who grew up from infancy away from the society of his fellows,
as children reported lost in the woods and suckled by wolves,
(See Footprints of Jesus in the Holy Land by Rev. W. B. Godbey,
p. 28), and any experimenting along this line would be heartless
and cruel. But living among us today are thousands of persons
whose only school has been the school of nature. Their testi
mony will be all the more impartial because unbiased by their
fellow men.
. M. Berthier, himself an educated deaf man and for years a
professor in the Paris institution, says: "A deaf and dumb per
son without instruction, will never have a notion, even vague
and confused, of a superior Existence whom it is his duty to
love, revere and obey, and to whom he must give an account of
his thoughts and actions."
The author of "Children of Silence," Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.,
LLD., Director of the Penn Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,
says that "the deaf, equally with the hearing, mostly have or
gans ample for the use of words. Their dumbness is not so
much a lack of nature as a lack of education. No one is born
with the power of speech, or else, left to themselves, all children
would speak one and the same language, and the deaf would
have it as well as the hearing,"
Dr. Isaac L. Peet says: "A highly educated deaf and dumb
gentleman, in reply to the question whether, previous to his ad
mission into the institute where he received his education, he
had any idea of God, or the origin of the world, and the beings

—50—
and things it contains, used this language: 'I had none at all,
nor had I any of my own soul, for it never occurred to me to
seek to know what was that within me which thought and
willed. Dr. Thomas H. Gallendet, the father of deaf mute instruc
tion in this country, says; "I do not think it possible to pro
duce an instance of a deaf mute from birth, who, without in
struction on the subject from some friend, or at some institu
tion for his benefit, has originated the idea of a Creator and
Moral Governor of the world."
A writer in Encyclopedia American says: "After extensive
observation and inquiry, we cannot hear or find a single instance
in which persons born deaf have conceived of a First Cause from
a view of the works of nature, without education."
The Memoirs of the Academy of Science at Paris cite the
case of the son of a tradesman, deaf and dumb from birth, who,
at the age of 24, suddenly began to speak. Many divines imme
diately questioned him concerning God and the soul, but of
these they found him ignorant, although he had been a regular
attendant at mass and used to making the sign of the cross,
looking upward, kneeling and using gestures of penitence and
prayer. Dr. Harvey P. Peet, Principal of New York Institution,
says: "We feel authorized by the evidence before us to deny
that any deaf mute has given evidence of having any innate or
self originating ideas of a Supreme Being, of a Creator or of spirit
ual existences or of a future state of rewards and punishments."
From all these data, the general conclusion may be safely de
duced that the idea of God is not innate in the human mind, and
that the nature of man does not even prompt him to seek this
knowledge. Rev. Collins Stone of the Ohio Institution, says:
"The light of divine truth never shines upon the pathway of the
deaf mute. Even in the midst of Christian society, he must
grope his way in darkness and gloom to the unknown scenes of
the future, unless some kind hand penetrates his solitude and
breaks the spell that holds him from communion with the
thought and feeling of the world." Happily, however, in the
institutions for their instruction which Christian philanthropy
has been instrumental in establishing, we have means provided
by which God brings them to a knowledge of himself.

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Joseph A. Seiss says that at least one in every fifteen hun
dred, on an average, is either born without hearing, or loses hear
ing totally or virtually, before reaching the age of maturity.
At this rate, there are now on earth about one million of this
unfortunate class. December 20, 1896 the twenty-fourth anni
versary of church mission to deaf mutes was celebrated at
Church of Incarnation (Episcopal) Madison Ave. and 35th St.,
New York. Rev. Austin W. Mann, of the Mid- Western Mission
was the first deaf mute ordained west of the Alleghanies and
has aided the deaf mute missions in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas
City, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Cleveland, Colum
bus, Dayton, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg. He has also preached
in sign language in England, Ireland and Canada. There are
some thirty thousand or more of this widely scattered people,
with about ten missionaries to look after them. Facts are
certainly worth more than theories. Here are a million human
beings to whom nature does not reveal God, — a million living
witnesses that man is not, by nature at least, a religious being.
And with them agree the words of scripture : "Faith comes by
hearing," and "how shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard," and "how shall they hear without a preacher?"
In the light of these facts, how transparent becomes the
proof of the natural theologist that God exists because "the be
lief in the existence of God has characterized man in all coun
tries, times and stages of civilization." Imagine a learned D. D.
rationalistic higher critic of today answering a Christian deaf
mute professor in the language of his text-book ; You did know
God before you was educated, but was too ignorant to realize it.
These men who have educated you have sinned in failing to im
press this on your mind. And then we may hear the deaf pro
fessor reply, as did the man who was born blind to the Pharisees
of Christ's time ; Whether my educators be sinners I know not ;
one thing I do know, that whereas I once knew not God, now I
know Him, and rejoice in the liberty of the gospel wherein
Christ has set me free.
Man's religion is acquired, not born with him. If the latter
were true, all men would worship alike. But what are the
facts? One-fourth of the earth's population today worship God
the Father and Jesus Christ his Son, with hymns and spiritual

—52—
songs. A larger number, called pagans, have as objects of wor
ship the sun, moon and stars, angels and demons, and spirts of
the departed, living men and women, all kinds of animals, birds,
reptiles and insects, trees and plants, rivers and mountains and
stones, fire and air, and besides these, images without number,
made of all kinds of material and in all conceivable forms. Idols
of worship, at the present time, are made a lucrative branch of
merchandise by a class of manufacturers and trades in Christian
as well as in heathen lands. Only a short time ago, (1903), I read
of a firm in Philadelphia which makes and ships idols to India.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and
all that is therein, and throughout this whole creation there is
no speech nor language ; their voice is not heard. To man alone
God gave a living soul with power to receive knowledge and to
teach it to others.
Man thus endowed and educated has been able even to open
the understanding of his unfortunate fellows — the deaf mutes;
but never since the world began has it been known that the
dumb and speechless handiwork of God, in its natural course,
ever opened its mouth and spoke forth the thoughts of its Maker.
God, as revealed to us in Holy Writ, of old times spake unto the
fathers by the prophets, and in these last days unto us by his
Son; but He has not revealed His will unto our fathers or unto
us through the medium of nature, so far as we have any authen
tic record.
II. MAN WHOSE ANCESTORS DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN
THEIR KNOWLEDGE. GALATTANS 4:8
But to go a step farther: Does nature reveal God to men
who lack the truth once possessed by their ancestors? Again
from authenticated evidence, not speculative philosophy, we
seek explanation of the various stages of degradation in which
we find the pagan world today.
The Bible is the oldest reliable history extant. Geology and
archaeology written by men are slowly but surely adjusting
themselves to the facts recorded by Moses, and the monuments
are corroborating the incidental references to persons, places
and events in the inspired record.
From the Bible, we learn that God created man in his own

—53—
image and pronounced him very good ; but that man disobeyed
his Maker and became so wicked and corrupt that, by the time
of Noah, the Lord said, "I will destroy man from the face of
the earth." Again, when the descendants of Noah forgot God
and began to build a tower unto heaven, God confounded their
language and scattered them abroad upon the face of all the
earth. Thence, Paul testifies although ' 'knowing God, they glori
fied him not as God, but became vain in their reasonings and
their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to
be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the Incor
ruptible God for the likeness of corruptible man and birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And even as they
refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up
unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting."
And eight hundred million pagans today are witnesses to the
truth of Paul's statement.
God had made a covenant with Noah and his sons and with
their seed after them. How this knowledge was transmitted from
generation to generation may be gathered from the writings of
Moses, unto whom the Lord spoke face to face, as a friend speak-
eth to a friend. "The Lord commanded us," says Moses, "to do
all these statutes for our good always. And ye shall teach them
unto your children and your children's children, speaking of
them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest
by the way, when thou liestdown and when thou risest up-"
Thus were men to be taught of God in times past, and thus
in these last days the fuller revelation through his Son. God
has not, nor is not, teaching those who sit in pagan darkness to
do as they are doing, even through the dim light of nature, else
their worship would be acceptable to him. Paul assures us that
the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons
and not to God ; and also, "after that, in the wisdom of God, the
world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the fool
ishness of preaching to save them that believe." I Cor. 1:21.
Paul also writes to the Ephesian converts that in time past
they were Gentiles in the flesh, having no hope and without God
in the world ; and to the Galatians that when they knew not
God they did service unto them which by nature are not gods.

—54—
And this is what we find in China today where the gospel has
not been preached, that they know not God.
Dr. Griffith John, for fifty years a missionary in China, says
that he has never met a heathen who knew the true God, nor
one that was seeking or feeling after the true God. The gospel
not only did not find, but had to create, a desire for the truth.
Rev. Wm. Cornaby, in China more than twenty years, says
there are those in everj place who are spoken of as good— more
worthy than others ; some who have no evil purpose to rob or
kill ; but he has never yet found one, even among such men, in
a religion where the gospel has never been preached, to whom
he did not feel it his bounden duty to exhort to repent of his
former ways of worship and turn to the true God.
Rev. John Darroch, a member of the China Inland Mission
some fifteen years, says that a coolie who was carrying his bag
gage told him that Yu Hwang Ta Ti (an ancient Chinese
worthy born in his own district) was the Heavenly Official
(Tien Lao Yie).
I myself have heard various expressions srom the unconvert
ed Chinese, — from the learned and unlearned, the rich and the
poor. A clerk from the boat office opposite our street chapel
said that heaven (Tien) was the true God ; that his eyes were
the stars and his ears were Yu Hwang Ta Ti (a sage of the Han
dynasty named Chang I) ; that Tien Lao Yie (the heavenly offi
cial) was another name for the same, and that he ruled over the
god of wealth and all the other gods. A teacher had heard that
Shang Ti (the name used by missionaries) was the true God, but
knew nothing further— the subject was too deep for him. An
other teacher had heard that Tien Chu (the Catholic term,
meaning "Heavenly Lord") was the true God, but knew no more.
Chang Ren Fu, a Chinese evangelist for several years at our
station, Luchowfu, thus relates his pre-Christian experience:
"My ancestors for four generations were teachers. Every morn
ing as I entered the school room, I made obeisance to the tablet
of Confucius on the wall. Shang Ti, the term which Protest
ants use for God, I read in the classics, but grew up with the
idea that it meant the Gem Emperor, a man named Chang I,
born in the Han dynasty. I supposed that he ruled as the high
est in heaven. It did not enter my mind that any of the idols

—55—
were false. At home, all worshipped the "heaven-and-earth"
tablet, our ancestors and the Emperor. No religious instruct
ion was given except by these object lessons. On new year's
day and other special occasions, incense and tapers were burned
before the tablet, and paper money and fireworks in the open
court or before the door. The family kotowed before the tablet,
the children to their parents, and the younger brothers and sis
ters to their elders." He learned from occasional contact with
Buddhist and Taoist priests at the temples that eating the flesh
of the cow, horse, goose or pidgeon was sin, and he must ask the
idol to remit it, or in the next world he would be changed into
that animal. In worshipping the god of literature or the Con
fucian tablet, he secretly hoped the idol would help him pass
the government examination. Perhaps the god of wealth would
specially favor him with good luck at gambling — to him a happy
thought. But neither priests nor idols could give him any
assurance of sins remitted, or of positive good luck, and he went
on in that uncertain state of mind, fearing eventually the tor
ture of the devils in Buddhist hell. He was thirteen years old
when he first heard the gospel of salvation proclaimed by a mis
sionary. He did not like to hear it at first, because his father
spoke disparagingly of it. He was baptized at the age of 28.
He has since gone to his reward.
From all this testimony, the conclusion is irresistible that
nature does not reveal God to the Chinese whose ancestors re
fused to have Him in their knowledge. And China will compare
favorably with any other country in natural scenery, wealth and
production. We have not in all history an instance of a people
sunken in idolatry ever of themselves rising to the worship of
the one true God. This cannot be from lack of nature's teach
ing, for nature is ever with them and always the same. The
conversion of a pagan to Christianity is not an advance from a
dim and partial light of God to the full revelation of Him in
Christ, but a complete turning round from the worship of a
false to the worship of the true and living God. And this
accords with the action of the people of Lystra in Paul's time.
When they saw the crippled healed, they cried out, "The gods
have come down to us in the likeness of men." And they called
Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury, and would have done sac-

—56—
rifice, but Paul and Barnabas exhorted them to turn from these
vain things to the living God.
But perhaps some admirer of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
is eager to ask, Whence came their term for god, ('o Theos), and
what did it mean? Let their own writings give answer. They
contended that every common term, as man, tree, mountain,
was the name of something really existing. For example, in
addition to this, that and the other particular mountain,
visible to the sense, there is really existing mountain in the
abstract. This collective term was made up of the properties
common to all the particular mountains classified. Hence, the
common term "theos" was to them a name comprehending the
real or imaginary properties common to some or all of their gods,
as they chose to make it local or universal. Some have attempt
ed to read into their word "god" all that the word means to us
today, but certainly no scholar would define Plato's use of it by
any knowledge other than that known to Plato. Imagination
can only re-combine such ideas as association, phantasy and mem
ory furnish. What remains of classic Greek literature shows
that all their association of god-ideas was idolatrous. Is it not
high time, then, that writers of Christian evidence stop trying
to prove the existence of God by the same argument the heath
en philosopher Plato used in Laws, Book X, to prove the exist
ence of the gods, viz: "the fact that all Hellenes and barbarians
believe in them?" The natural man receiveth not the things of
the spirit of God, neither can he know them, for God is Spirit
and must be spiritually discerned. Hence, not even the nature
of man can reveal God, for it can no more reveal that which it
does not possess than nature outside of man can reveal other
than the things of nature.
Ought we not then to scrutinize very carefully the creden
tials of any man who claims to give us a revelation of God from
nature? But Natural Theology is here ; we have large treatises
on the subject, and students are required to study it in text
books on Christian evidences. It must be satisfactorily account
ed for. Whence came it? Here we are on the sure ground of
history. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that, as a distinct
science, it may be dated from the publication of Raymond de
Sebonde's Thelogia Naturalis in 1436, although portions of it

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had been admirably presented by ancient philosophers, as Socra
tes, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. But what authority had Ray
mond de Sebonde, a Spanish monk, to give us a revelation of
Ood, natural or otherwise? He presented no credentials that he
was either prophet or the son of a prophet. He asserted that
God had given us two books, the book of nature and the book of
scripture. Now we know that the book of scripture was given
by men of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, but what
spirit moved Sebonde to write his book of natural revelation?
The Britannica well suggests that it was the spirit of the ancient
Greeks and Romans. But will Christian students be better fit
ted to preach the gospel of Christ by being taught the wise (?)
sayings of heathen philosophers as the natural revelation of God?
Yet in a book written by a late professor of Bangor Theologi
cal Seminary is this remarkable statement: "Christian theo
logy finds a place in its system for all the doctrines of natural
theology." But is it not strange that some one of the numerous authors
on this subject has not ventured to put in type a chapter or a
paragraph of this natural revelation in the exact words God gave
it to him? Joseph Smith, the Mormon, was more consistent at
least. He not only claimed to have a revelation from God, but
he produced the book, false as it was afterward proved to be.
I once asked the Bible professor in a Christian College to
give one paragraph of the natural revelation, — one which he
could set off by quotation marks and say, "These are God's words
to man through nature." His answer was: "Oh, that's easy
enough ; there are numerous sayings — I do not recall any just
now — yes, I think of one, — Plato said, "Do unto men as you
would have them do unto you." But the same Plato says: "The
soul of the sun is a god, because it carries the sun about in a
chariot to give light to man." Will any one claim that this last
saying was a revelation from God? I think not, but Plato him
self goes farther, for he does not claim to have received either
saying from God. Can it be that Plato was more honest than
this Christian professor? And Plato a pagan I
On another occasion, this same professor was asked, Do you
know enough revelation from nature, apart from the Bible, that
you would dare to preach to a man who asked you, What must I

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do to be saved? The answer was, "Yes sir, plenty of it," but
suffice it to say that such revelation has never materialized up
on paper. Christian students, slowly but surely is this barnacle of nat
ural theology gathering about the- gospel of Christ, as did the
sayings of the scribes and traditions of the elders about the Old
Testament law. If we do not cast it off, Christ may say of us,
as of the Pharisees of old, "In vain do ye worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men."
Some professors talk learnedly of primitive man in na
ture worship gradually rising by the law of evolution to the
knowledge and civilization of God's people. This can no more
occur than evolution in Christianity. For instance, if one
Christian commenced where another left off, there might be
some excuse for such theology, but we know that each individu
al must begin as a babe in Christ and go on toward perfection.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master ; he can
never surpass the perfection of God. Jesus was the sinless Man.
None of the millions who have since lived has attained unto the
full stature of man in Christ Jesus. History shows the tendency
of human nature to be retrogression (devolution instead of evo
lution) from a perfect orignal. The connecting link of evolu
tion in righteousness from one generation to another has yet to
be found. Paul speaks of himself as the chief of sinners, and of
Peter that he withstood him to the face because he was to be
blamed. Martin Luther had his faults ; John Wesley repented
oft, and Alexander Campell was far from perfect. Therefore, if
the Christian man cannot attain perfection in this world with
all the help of the divine spirit, we can readily see how impossi
ble it is for the natural man to rise higher than his natural en
vironment without outside aid.
in. MAN WHO HAS KNOWN GOD, OR RATHER IS KNOWN
OF GOD.— GALATTAN8 4:9
A learned friend, wrote me in this wise: "I read your essay
with interest, but cannot understand just what your object is in
attempting to prove that nature does not reveal God. A house
reveals something that the architect has or had in mind; of
course, it does not reveal the whole architect. If it is, for in
stance, an orphan asylum, and you know that the builder used

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only his own means, you conclude that he was benevolent and
humane. We may thus reason out some of the qualities and
powers of the Maker of the universe ; our conclusions would
probably be right in some respect, and wrong in some respects.
"Natural laws" are only God's ways of working, and if the crea
tion reveals to some extent the Creator, this ought not to be a
cause of alarm to the believer in God."
Here we see the need of strict definition of words. The pro
fessor evidently uses the word "reveal" in its general sense of
"divulge, discloses, show, etc." Whereas he should have seen
from the very title of the essay, "Does nature reveal God?" that I
used the word in its specific sense, meaning "to communicate
that which could not be known or discovered without divine or
supernatural instruction." The house, in his illustration, gives
no hint that there is anything supernatural in the method or
subject-matter of its communication. Had it communicated
the name of the architect, as to Isaiah was given in advance the
name of Cyrus, it would have been a case in point. In the or
phan asylum illustration, the conclusion of "benevolence" is de
duced from the fact already known that the builder used only
his own means ; in other words, the premises of a syllogism were
given, and it only remained to draw the logical conclusion. No
supernatural instruction was revealed. And it is by use of this
illustration (which we see does not illustrate) that the professor
proves (that which needed no proof) that the creation "shows"
to some extent the Creator "to the believer in God" ; for he says,
"We (who believe in God) may thus reason out some of the
qualities and powers of the Maker of the universe." Why, we
who believe in God need not, in the first place, to reason out the
Creator from the things created ; we had that fact communicat
ed to us by supernatural instruction — the word of God— before
we became believers. For how could we have believed in Him
of whom we had not heard? And how could we have heard
without a preacher or teacher?
The professor makes the mistake of some others in failing to
distinguish the two classes who observe God's universe, viz:
those who know and those who do not know God. To the former
class, the bounty of providenee and works of creation witness to
God's goodness and spoken truth, declare his glory, and show

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forth His power and divinity ; to the other class, the creation of
things and course of nature are variously accredited to Osiris,
Ormazd, "laws", blind chance, a great egg, and a whole lot of
other absurd things.
Let us give a concrete illustration of each class. The nine
teenth Psalm shows us how men who have known God observe
His works, as follows: "The heavens declare the glory of God
and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language ; their voice is not heard. Their
line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and re-
joiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from
the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it ; and there
is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Note:
1. That the speaker is the "sweet singer of Israel", David,
a man after God's own heart.
2. That he speaks to God.
3. That his object in speaking is to praise God, to whom he
prays that his words and meditations may be acceptable.
4. That his language is paradoxical. While he apparently
makes "the heaven declare, the day utter speech, and the night
show knowledge", he is quick to explain that this is only done
by way of poetic license (a figure of speech called personification) :
that, in fact, the heavens, firmanent, day and night do not pos
sess articulate speech, for "their voice is not heard ; there is no
speech nor language." Just as, for example, another poet has
said: "When Music, heavenly maid, was young;
While yet in early Greece she sung."
It was perhaps farthest from David's thought that centuries
afterwards, notwithstanding his cautionary explanation to the
contrary, his words would be taken literally to mean that God
does actually give the heavens, firmament, day and night intel
ligible voice, so that not only is the man of God edified thereby,
but that all those who have forgotten God (who, in ignorance of
Him, are walking in their own rebellious, unrighteous ways) are
also daily, nightly listening understandingly to this speech.

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Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Psalms, says:
"All people may hear these natural, immortal preachers speak
to them in their own tongue the wonderful works of God." If
those people of the world who have forgotten God are thus hear
ing these natural preachers, they must be the ones mentioned by
Paul to Timothy who are ever learning and never able to come
to a knowledge of the truth. 2 Tim. 3:7. For in China, people
ignorant of the cause of an eclipse of the sun, collect in excitable
crowds, beat gongs, explode firecrackers, beseech idols, and
make great outcries to frighten away the dog monster that is
trying to swallow the sun.
But Paul does not so understand this passage, as may be seen
from his use of words in Romans 10:18, viz: "But I say,
Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the
earth, and their words into the ends of the world." Referring
this to the Gentiles, says Meyer's commentary, is quite foreign
to the connection. The subject is those who remained unbeliev
ing (of verse 16), by whom Paul certainly means the Jews, al
though without expressing it directly and exclusively. Paul
clothes in these sacred words the expression of the going forth
everywhere of the preaching of the gospel. "Their sound"
means the sound which the preachers send forth when they
preach." This, although Meyer is not free from the general er
ror of natural theologist when he says the subject of Psalm 19:4
is the universally diffused natural revelation of God. Paul, on
the other hand, writing to the Colossians (1:23) says: "Be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven ;
whereof I Paul am made a minister. ' ' Here the preaching is by a
mode of speaking quite natural, and the hearing is likewise by a
very natural phenomenon of every day life. There is no mention
of an unnatural preacher, as the stars, or of an unnatural pro
cess of hearing by having to interpret inarticulate speech or un
intelligible language. Paul brings the meaning down out of the
airy heights of figurative speech, and gives the words their
usual force and effect.
Now it is to this very passage of Scripture, the nineteenth
Psalm, that the natural theologist turns with the most compla
cent assurance when he would prove to the Christian (for I trow

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he would be among the last to go as a missionary to prove it to
the heathen) that God has given us two books — the book of
nature and the book of revelation. His, he blandly asserts, is a
theology not based on revelation. But he continues to the man
who professes to believe the Bible, this Psalm is the ultima
thule of demonstration that all men have a religious instinct,—
a tendency of mind to worship something higher than them
selves. It is proof positive that the works of creation do reveal
God to man, and thus all nations, especially those lowest in the
scale of knowledge, are taught of God. Through nature, though
dimly perhaps, they all are thus enabled to look up to their
Creator, the Ruler and Giver of all things.
But unfortunately for the natural theologist's theory, not
one of these lowest tribes cited asserts that "the heavens declare
the glory of God", or that "the firmament showeth His handi
work." This fact is so significant, the wonder is that men,
apparently sincere, have so long overlooked it. Even so ration
alistic a student as Max Muller caught a glimpse of the truth
when he asked: "Can it be said that a monotheistic instinct
could have been implanted in all those nations which adored
Elohim, Jehovah, Moloch, Dagon, Baal, Ashtoroth, the sun, the
moon, the planets, and all the hosts of heaven?" "Yet", com
ments Geikie, "all these divinities were worshipped by Semitic
peoples." Why is it that all others except the men who have known
God, — all those groping in the darkness of their own benighted
minds, if they speak at all on the subject, say that the heavens
declare the glory of this, that or another god, according as their
philosophy or superstition teaches? This question should at
least make us pause for investigation. Note the comparison
between the words of a man of God and of those absorbed in the
wisdom of this world, or in heathen darkness dwelling:
David, a man after God's own heart, says: "The heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handi
work." On the contrary, the Brahman, see the Sama- Veda, says:
"Brahma, the father of all creatures, came into existence from
a great egg, which shone with golden splendor. The generation
of Brahma was before all ages unfolding himself evermore in a
beautiful glory."

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The Buddhist, see the Pali sacred books, says: "The world
consists of two orders of existence— an infinite multitude of
souls (insects, animals, men), and the inflexible laws of nature.
The hermit of Sayka, only a man, was deified after death and
called Buddha. He became an infinite being by entering Nir
vana, which is neither in the sky above nor in the earth below,
yet it exists."
The Zoroastrian, see the oldest part of the Avesta, the
Gathas, says: "Zerana-Akerana, in order to destroy the evil
which Ahriman had caused, determined to create the visible
world by Ormazd. And Ormazd created for his aid the whole
shining host of heaven." T. G. R. 195.
The Egyptian, as gleaned from his theology, says that Osiris,
the sun, brought forth the seven great planetary gods, and then
the twelve humbler gods of the signs of the zodiac ; they, in
their turn, producing the twenty-eight gods presiding over the
stations of the moon, the sevency-two divine companions of the
sun, and other deities."
The Grecian, see ancient history, says: "Zeus, god of
storms, ruler of the atmosphere, wielder of the lightning, the
favorite divinity of the Aryan race, became Indra when he
reached India, and Jupiter when he arrived in Italy."
The Roman, see history of Rome, says: "Jupiter carries
the lightning, and is the supreme god of the skies. The Juno
of the Capitol is Queen of Heaven."
The Scandinavian, describing the universe before the great
Ymir lived, says: "The sons of Bors lifted the dome of heaven
and created the vast Midgard (earth) below. The sun of the
south, companion of the moon, held the horses." T- G. R. 365.
The Chinese Taoist says: "The Tao was before the gods,
and is the origin of heaven and earth. As that which can be
named, it is the mother of all things."
The Confucianist, see Chinese philosophy, says: "The
Grand Extreme is the one highest ultimate principle of all
existence. It operates by ceaseless active and passive pulsa
tions, which originate all material and mortal existences."
The Shintoist, see religions of Japan, acknowledges a
Supreme Being who inhabits highest heaven (but who is too

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great to require any worship), and a multitude of lesser divin
ities who govern earth, air, water and the human race."
The Deist claims that nature and reason are, and should be,
his only and true guide in moral and religious matters."
The Atheist denies the existence of a Creator and Supreme
Ruler of the universe, and believes that all things exist and oc
cur simply by chance — without law, design or cause.
The fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God."
We see from the above that those who did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, and so forgot Him, make statements
none of which are true and all of which are mutually contradic
tory. Their foolish hearts have become thus darkened, because
that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, but
turned the truth of God into a lie. And so to them, the heav
ens declare the glory of they know not what. But evermore
still, to the men who know God,
"The spangled heavens, a starry frame,
Their Great Oriental proclaim ;
*******
Forever singing as they shine,
The Hand that made us is divine."
To these Davids, the invisible things of God from the crea
tion of the world, even His wondrous power and Godhead, are
clearly seen. Not with the natural eyes, of course, for the nat
ural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned, I Cor. 2:14.
It is by the eye of faith that the things invisible are seen, being
understood by the things that are made. For faith is the evi
dence of things not seen. Philip said, "Show us the Father and
it sufflcieth us." Jesus said unto Philip, "Have I been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? he that hath
seen me, hath seen the Father." John 14:9. Through faith,
then, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. Heb. 11:3. We look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:18. And this agrees with Rom.

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10:17, which says: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. So that only those who, by tradition, folklore,
literature, God's messenger, or in some other way, have heard
the word of God can, through faith, see the invisible things of
Him, and so teach them to others. It is all plain, then, why
the heathen in their blindness, falling down to wood and stone,
never say, "The heavens declare the glory of God,,' for they have
long since forgotten God and God's word. And how shall they
again hear without a preacher?
Now all men at the beginning knew that God is the Creator
and Giver of every good and perfect gift, for God told them so.
And His works of creation and bounty of providence are perpet
ual witnesses to His spoken truth. The man, then, who first so
far allowed himself to forget God that the on-going universe and
never-ceasing providences no longer reminded him of his duty,
to his Maker and Preserver, has no excuse or cloak for his un
faithfulness and unrighteousness. Ah, just here is the starting
point of all man's idolatrous rebellion against his Maker, — his
awful sin of unfilialness and unthankf ulness. For God left not
himself without witness. Man need never have lost God's spok
en truth, for there were daily, nightly reminders of it. The
rainbow and the rains, the sunshine and the stars, the seasons
and the harvests are perpetual witnesses of God's covenant with
goodness to mankind.
Now the mere mention of witnesses implies a plaintiff. For
without a plaintiff, there can be no action brought into court,
and consequently, no need of witnesses. Now God is the Great
Plaintiff in this case. He has appeard in the court of earth,
and said: "I created heaven and earth and all things. Man I
made in mine own image, and gave him life and food and do
minion. When he strayed into the by-ways of sin, I sent mine
only Son to seek and to save him. I AM that I AM ; these are
my witnesses." Now witnesses may be either mute or personal. A mute
witness may be dumb, as a star, or without intelligible speech,
as an ourangoutang.— e. g., "There is no speech nor language;
their voice is not heard." Personal witnesses are those who
testify for themselves, or by proxy. A proxy may be an inter-

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prefer, or other duly authorized agent. — e. g., "Though I bear
record of myself, yet my record is true ; for I know whence I came
and whither I go.— John 8:14. As my Father hath sent me, so
send I you. — John 20:21. Mute witnesses cannot of them
selves testify, but may be adduced in support of or to corrobor
ate the evidence of personal witnesses. — e. g., "Laban said to
Jacob, This heap of stones be witness betwixt me and thee."
Gen. 31:52. The Psalmist said: "The heavens declare the
glory of God.— Ps. 19:1.
Thus, from the brightness of the heavens, we, who have not
forgotten God may understand how it is that the Creator is
light ; their vastness of extent bespeak to us His immensity ;
their height His transcendance and sovereignty ; their influence
upon this earth His dominion and providence and universal ben
eficence ; and all declare His almighty power, by which they
were first made, and continue to this day according to the ordi
nances that were then established." "Day unto day . . . and
night unto night" is the established order according to His cove
nant with Noah (Gen. 8:22), that while the earth remaineth, day
and night shall not cease. — M. Henry.
God's providence and creation (excluding man) are the mute
witnesses to His spoken truth. God chose holy men of old to be
His personal witnesses on earth, duly authorizing and accredit
ing them by the gift of His Spirit ; and in these latter days, God's
Son chose the apostles and after them the faithful disciples, seal
ing them with the Holy Spirit of promise, saying "Ye shall be
my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. — Acts 1:8.
We have now seen that nature does not reveal God to men
who have no knowledge of Him, nor to men whose ancestors re
fused to have God in their knowledge, but we may all, welcome
the glad tidings that, under the efforts of Christ's witnesses, the
wildernesses and waste places of the earth are beginning to re
joice and blossom with the rose of Sharon. The missionaries at
home and abroad are nobly striving to carry our Christ's march
ing orders. This is God's method of teaching all men, and
man cannot improve upon it. God has spoken directly to His
chosen servants, and through them to the people ; thenceforth

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holy men are to be teachers of men. It is interesting to hear
from these missionaries of the cross, as they send back reports
of trials and triumphs from the forefront of battle, as it were.
Dr. Griffith John tells of two cases of conversion on first
hearing the gospel. In one place, a Mr. Shan, a strictly moral
man, was devoutly worshipping idols, with no idea of the true
God. On hearing the gospel, he immediately said, That is the
true doctrine. Within a week he was a convert to our perfect
satisfaction, a believer in the true God. From that time, he has
been growing in brightness day by day, and is now a prominent
preacher of the Word. The other case was a man whose busi
ness it was to explain the sacred edict. He was also a great
gambler. He came one day and listened to the gospel, and
believed it at once. He then came regularly to the services.
Within the first year of his baptism, he brought in eleven peo
ple from his own village. The second year he was taken on as
assistant evangelist."
Rev. Wm. Cornaby relates a singular conversion in David
Hill's work. One night Mr. Hill prayed that at the next night's
meeting some man would repent and become a follower of Jesus.
This actually occurred, for the man who came forward the next
night said, as he did so, I want to repent of my sins and follow
Jesus. He soon became a preacher, and has continued until to
day, one of the most prominent. But the strange thing about
the case, and which perhaps Mr. Hill never knew, was what
this man told me afterwards. "Do you know why I came out
that night?" he queried. "No", I replied. Well, said he, "I
had been in business, and got into financial straits worse and
worse until one day I went up on the pagoda, and it was a
question in my mind whether I would throw myself off or not. I
heard of this preaching in some way, and I went to the hall that
night. I listened to the speaker and said to myself, Why can't
I, with a little application, in a short time outdo that man as a
preacher? I will join his society. Something within said, No,
you don't want to join yourself to the hated foreigner — all my
former prejudice was against doing so. But my financial trou
bles outweighed these suggestions, and I went up and told the
preacher, I wanted to repent and be a Jesus' man. I was taken
in, and sure enough, by strict application, I soon had the script-

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ures so that I could tell them off in glowing language, as I had
supposed." He thus became a preacher, and after preaching to
others for a long time, and getting more light himself, he finally
came to real repentance and faith in Jesus as his Savior.
Rev. George Nichol, for many years a member of the China
Inland Mission, says: "When laboring in Chungking, West
China, I met a Confucian scholar whom the literati of that city
called the "small sage" on account of his literal adherance in
his daily life to the teachings of the great sage. It was through
being asked to visit his sick father, an old man of 94, that I got
to know him personally. The attention he paid me, especially
on arriving at or departing from his home, was such as I have
never met with elsewhere in China. He showed loving rever
ence and tender care towards his aged father. The common
people looked up to him with respect, and owned him the most
upright and honorable man in the whole of that populous dis
trict. As a scholar, he had taken the second degree at the gov
ernment examinations, his younger brother being a graduate of
the first degree. From the time of our first meeting a friend
ship was formed between us which lasted till his death. He had
never heard the gospel, and it became my privilege, through
conversation and by Christian literature, to make known to him
the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. After I had
known him about four years, he was taken seriously ill, and his
brother came for me to visit him. I went to his home, and on
entering the room in which he lay, I found him repeating some
what vehemently, "The idols cannot save me, the idols cannot
save me", after saying which he spat again and again to show
his utter contempt for the idols, then added in the same intense
tone, "The goddess of mercy cannot save me, ohe goddess of mer
cy cannot save me." And then in a quiet, gentle voice, and a
ring of faith in his words, he said, "Jesus can save me, Jesus
can save me." He took no notice of my entering, and his broth
er foolishly said, "Jesus has come to see you", but to this the
sick man paid no heed. I chided the brother for what he said,
and then he told him that Li Shin Tien (my Chinese name) has
come to see you. The sick man paused for a moment, and then
slowly said, Li Shin Tien is my good friend. But at this time
he was drawing near the gates of death, and his mind was taken

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up with but one thought, so on he went repeating, "The idols
cannot save me (spitting as formerly), the goddess of mercy can
not save me (more spitting) ; Jesus can save me, Jesus can save
me." In his last moments he had nothing but contempt for the
false gods of his country ; he made no mention of the great sage
of China ; he claimed no merit whereby he might gain a good
reward for his life of imitation of Confucius. No, this exem
plary Confucian needed saving and a Savior, and the only words
that found an echo in his heart as he passed away, were, "Jesus
can save me, Jesus can save me."

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PART III
How God's Word Is Now made Manifest Through Preaching,
Titus 1:3; II Timothy 1 : 10. Or, The World-
Field Mission of Witnesses for Christ,
John 6 : 29

CHAPTER IV
The Pro and Con of Heathen Missions
Years ago, the indolent shepherds of the church threw all
the responsibility for the conversion of the heathen upon God.
When Carey announced his purpose to go to India, the aged
elders with solemn mien said, "Young man, sit down; When
God wants the heathen converted, He can do it without your
help." But Carey went to India, and others, following his
example, went into other heathen fields ; until the conscience of
lazy Christendom began to grow uneasy. Then some specious
apologist for the heathen invented the famous soothing syrup
formula — mission heart's ease, — that the heathen are better off
without the gospel ; for if they never hear it, they will be saved
in their ignorance, (God is not so unjust as to punish those who
didn't know any better), but if you take them the gospel, you
place them in the greatest possible danger, for if they reject it,
they shall be condemned. The most humane thing to do, there
fore, is to let them alone in their safe and happy innocence.
But still the consciences of the more earnest Christians
would become disquieted and burn within them, and many were
the forms and varieties of this soothing syrup compounded to
meet and quiet these new cases. But all to no avail. There
were an ever increasing number of sincere and devoted disciples
of Christ who would be satisfied with nothing short of conscien
tiously obeying their Lord's last commission— "Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature." And this
they persisted in doing despite all opposition— thus showing
their faith by their works, — and the result has been only good
(and not evil) continually. Then the opposition, finding their

—71—
remedies useless on their hands, ostensibly admitted a wrong
diagnosis of the case, and changed from allopathic to homepathic
treatment and doses. They put forth in their bulletins that the
heathen were not really so bad as they had been represented ; in
fact, if they were examined without prejudice in their customs,
literature and religion, they would be found not seriously dis
eased, but on the other hand to be possessed of sufficient grains
of truth to enable them to seek the Lord and find him in their
hour of need ; that they have been living in the full blaze of the
light of nature, declaring to them the glory of God ; that men
among them in all ages had been inspired by God, as were Moses
and Isaiah.
Then the Christian world, even some of those who were the
most persistent in urging missionaries to go forth into heathen
lands — seemed to yield the floor wholly to their opponents, and
to seriously doubt, whether, after all, the heathen were really
lost in the state they are ; and to justify themselves in going at
all, they, in desperation, as it were, threw once more the whole
responsibility back upon the Lord. They tacitly said, "We can
not account for the Lord's command, "Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, but ours not to reason
why, ours not to make reply, ours but to do and die." So that
now you may hear some of our most enthusiastic young mission
aries even apologetically declaring, "It is not with me so much a
question as to whether or not the heathen can be saved without
the gospel, but the question is 'Can I be saved if I do not take it
to them?'" Now my friends, when Peter says, Be ready always to give
an answer to every man a reason for the hope that is in you, I
take it that he does not mean to give your own reason but God's
reason on which to base that hope. Now look at that reason
again, "Can I be saved if I do not take it to them?" and see if it
is not man's poor excuse of a reason. Does not that young man
virtually say, "I do not know whether or not I will be of any
help in God's plan of saving the heathen, but 1 do want to save
myself. Isn't that a selfish reason, pure and simple? Isn't it
almost selfishness personified? He don't know that he will be of
any help to others, but he will help himself. Now the motive
prompting the earliest Christian missionaries was an unselfish

—72—
love for others— a willingness to sacrifice their own lives, if need
be, for the salvation of others. To go to the mission field with
no higher or clearer motive than a dogged determination to save
one's self,— how is this imitating or obeying the Christ at all?
Christ saved others,— himself he gave as a sacrifice for them.
No my friends once more let us go back to Christ and learn of
him. Let us thus shake off this drowsiness caused by the
opiates, even though homepathically administered by those
who would apologists for the heathen be, lay aside the
weight which doth so easily beset us and run anew the mission
race that is set before us. We have forgotten, for the moment,
Jesus' declared purpose in coming into the world — to seek and to
save that which was lost. As my Father hath sent me, He says,
so send I you. Ge ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. When He issues the command, therefore, it is
for the express purpose of seeking and saving the lost, whether
Jew or Gentile, civilized or heathen. It is not primarily to save
his already made disciples. For he came not to call the right
eous the already called — but sinners to repentance.
But to be fair and impartial, let us hear the reasons given
why the heathen will be saved as they are:
1. Because of want of opportunity to hear and believe. All
who hear the gospel and reject it, of course, will be condemned,
but people cannot be condemned for rejecting that which they
have not heard. This argument is put forward mostly by those
who believe in a probation after death, as the Catholics with
their purgatory, or the soul sleepers with their intermediate
state. They do not say the heathen are all right as they now
are, but that they will be given another chance ; or at least an
equal chance, with those who hear the gospel on earth. They
quote such passages as, "Today shalt thou be with me in para
dise, (Luke 23:43) ; and "He went and preached to the spirits in
prison, (I Peter 3:19).
It may be remarked, however, that the man whom Jesus
promised would be with him that day in paradise did not need a
second probation ; and, as to the second citation, Prof. McGarvey
thus explains the passage: Christ in the Spirit and previous to
his appearance in the flesh, strove with the antediluviansagainst
their increasing wickedness. Peter styles Noah (2 Pet. 2:5) a

—73—
preacher of righteousness; and the method by which God's
Spirit has always striven against sin is through the voice of
living preachers of righteousness. All the Christian Jews were
familiar with the pre-existence of Christ, as taught by Paul,
John and Christ himself, and they knew that whatever God did
by his spirit, it was proper to say that Christ did. Historical
criticism rightly understood and applied, never disregards the
historical allusions made by a writer, in seeking to understand
what he says. Christ in the Spirit preached to that generation
(of Noah) and they were spirits in the prison at the time of
Peter's writing. I myself have preached to people long since
dead. Peter does not say when or where this preaching was
done, i. e., whether done in the prison or before the imprison
ment. The very mention of the disobedience in the days of
Noah could not fail to remind of both time and place. It was
then that God said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with
man." But as to a general statement sufficient to explain the finali
ty of earthly opportunity, we are told in 2 Cor, 5:10 that we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,that every one
may receive the things done in the body, according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad, — see also Rom. 14:12. We
are to be judged according to men in the flesh, says I Pet. 4:6.
2. They already have enough gospel in their religions to
save those who sincerely practice or live it. It matters not,
therefore, whether they ever hear of the historical Christ. Ac
cording to Max Mull er, "There is hardly one religion that does
not contain truth sufficient to enable those who seek the Lord to
find him in their hour of need.
But, again falling back upon the word of God, let us ask,
How can they seek Him of whom they do not know? Or, how
can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
There is a popular delusion abroad in Christian lands that
the heathen are standing with outstretched arms and open
mouth to receive the gospel— a companion picture, as it were, to
that of young birds in the nest when they see the mother bird
returning with a worm. On my recent trip home from China, I
heard how this delusion probably originated. Dr. Corbett, of
Chefoo, related the story of an early missionary (more than 50

—74—
years ago), a very zealous young man, but wholly inexperienced
in the ways of heathen people ; who after a brief study of the
Chinese language, took some gospel tracts and started out to
sow the good seed. He did not sell the tracts— he was too good-
hearted to let money bar a single soul from receiving the pre
cious word. He gave them away, and the natives, filled with
wonder and curiosity at sight of the strange foreigner, and his still
stranger manner of distribution — without money and without
price — made a run, as it were, on his bank of such unlimited
credit, with the result that the young man fled for a tree, up
which he climbed and from whose overhanging boughs he let
fall his tracts, like leaves, into the upstretched hands of the
hungry crowd below, who seemed to fairly jump to snatch every
tract in the air before it had time to reach the ground. The in
experienced young missionary wrote at once to his home board,
the wonderful truth that the heathen Chinese were so hunger
ing for the word of God that they were standing with uplifted
hands ready to receive whatever the missionary had printed and
time to give them. This wonderful experience was faithfully
reproduced on the pages of many religious papers and magazines,
and scatrered broadcast over the country. That missionay grew
older and wiser, and never after committed the same folly, for
it made him both sad and serious when he learned the truth
that not one of that motley crowd that day knew, or even sus
pected, that he was giving them the word of God, — but all were
wonderingly enjoying the curious antics of the, to them, strange
foreign devil. The good man's body now lies mouldering in the
grave, but his phantom story still goes marching on.
But there is a way — a scriptural way— in which the heathen,
the same as others— receive the word of truth. There, as here,
the seed is first sown in faith, watered with tears, cultivated
with patience ; then appears the blade, then the ear, and then
the full corn in the ear. Brethren, be not tossed to and fro, and
carried about by every wind that blows. The work of sowing
the good seed in heathen lands is going grandly on. It is falling,
as in the parable, on all kinds of soil; but in due time, God's
word for it, that which falls into the good ground will bring
forth some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. There
are, at present 125,000 professing Christians.

—75—
3. God is teaching them through nature. If they liye up to
this light, God requires no more. Universal inspiration teaches
that there have been men in all ages and of all races especially
endowed with a spiritual vision, so that they have discovered
the truth.The best answer to this kind of soft philosophy is to say
that it isn't so, and to challenge the man who affrms it to pro
duce his proof. Let him bring forth one actual case supporting
his affirmation, and it will be time for us to examine into the
matter. Dr. Griffith John, who has been 50 years a missionary
in China, and Dr. Corbett, 42 years each say that he has never
yet met an untaught native, who knew God. I myself have
never met any of these so-called "taught-by-God-through-na-
ture" men, nor have I been able, by careful enquiry, to find any
one who had met such an one. No, my friends, there are not
two plans of salvation, but just the one, the same that we have
heard from the beginning— "The gospel is the power of God un
to salvation to every one that beleveth ; to the Jew first, and also
to the Greeks, — Rom. 1:16. And how shall they believe on him
of whom they have not heard?
Dr. Corbett told me of two cases which illustrate this. I
will give them in his own words:
"Five or six years ago, we received an old man, now in his
89th year, into the church. He said that about 30 years previ
ous to that time, a Christian tract that some one had received
at a market town from one of the preachers, had fallen into his
hands. The reading of that tract convinced him of the folly of
idolatry so that from that day on he never went to the temple
nor took part in idolatrous ceremonies. It also convinced him
that this doctrine was a good thing. And if he heard anybody
speak disparagingly of it, he would say, Now don't do that. I
don't understand it fully, but I know it is good, and it would be
well for us if we did thoroughly understand it. During all those
30 years, he never met any one who could teach him more. Fin
ally his son-in-law who lived ten miles away, heard the truth,
became a Christian, and went at once to see his old father-in-law
and tell him the good news. The old man began at once to
pray. He was blind by this time, but asked to have the Bible
read to him, and his heart was able to accept the truth. Since

—76—
then, his wife, his son and two of his grand-children have be
come Christians, and they form the center of a little group away
out there in the country far from any church."
The other case was as follows: Seven or eight years ago, a
man applied for baptism. I asked him if he could pray. Yes,
he said, he thought he could. He had been praying for many
years. I asked him how he prayed. He then gave the Lord's
prayer but in a different version from any I had known. Con
tinuing his examination, I asked him where he had learned that
prayer. He said his uncle 40 years before got a book at the port
of Kinchow in Shantung province which had come on a junk from
Shanghai. Later this copy fell into his hands and he read it
over and over again. He was a native doctor and he just longed
for the power that Jesus had to heal all manner of sickness and
diseases, but it never dawned upon him that Jesus was divine.
He was one of those vegetarians and seekers after truth, and
coming across the Lord's prayer, he felt that this was a more
appropriate prayer than any he had ever learned, so he memor
ized and prayed it several times a day for a number of years.
Finally, one of our Christians visited his village and met him.
They began talking about the Christian religion, and he preached
Jesus unto him, telling of His power to work miracles. Why, he
said, I had been reading all about that man, but I didn't know
he was a Savior nor why he died. The more they talked, the
more anxious he was to know the true explanation of what he
had been groping over in darkness. The Lord opened his heart to
see the truth, and he became a faithful, devout Christian. I
saw him a few weeks ago. His entire family has come into the
church. His neighbors and all say that he is a good man, one
whom you can trust, — who won't deceive you. He is now an
elder in one of our country churches."
4. "All men after all are worshipping the one God. Their
ideas of that God, and their names for Him, may be different,
but still they are trying to reverence the best they know. They
may worship under heathen names, and yet be true worshippers
of God." This is quoted from an editorial in the H. John's Col
lege Echo (Shanghai, China) written by President F. L. Hawks
Pott, who is supported by missionary money from America.
In a private letter, I asked President Pott if he meant that

—77—
when the Hindoo mother threw her child to the crocodile of the
Gangese river, she was worshippiug the "one God" that he was,
but he made no direct answer, simply enclosing his editorial
with the remark that he didn't see anything alarming in what
he had written. If all men after all are worshipping the one
God, no matter under what names, what about the priests of
Baal, whom Elijah proved false? Methinks it would not take
Elijah long to prove F. L. Hawks Pott a false prophet. And
how about the gods of the Amorites and Hittites and Perizzites
and Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites which God forbade
the Israelites worshipping,— (Ex. 23:23, 24.) And what did
Joshua mean when he said (24:15), "And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord ; choose you this day whom you will serve ;
whether the gods which your fathers served which were on the
other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
ye dwell ; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
5. Because of their ignorance. The times of this ignorance
God overlooked (Acts 17:30). Shall not the judge of all the earth
do right? (Gen. 18:25).
Yes, this is just whatscripture says the Judge of alltheearth
will do. He will do right, for He hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31), righteous
ly,— rightly,— right. And how? According to the gospel of His
Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 2:16). Jesus says he came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). And not to
leave his disciples in doubt as to whom he meant by "sinners,"
he says: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
he that believeth not shall be condemned (Mk. 16:16.)
The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now com-
mandeth men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). In other
words, God does not hold the sins of past generations against
those of the present, but commands the present generation to
repent of their sins and have faith in his Son for salvation. Yes,
the Judge of all the earth will do right. He is long-suffering,
merciful, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance (II Pet. 3:9). They themselves have strayed
away from God and light and become lost in the power of Satan
and the darkness of this world. God is long-suffering— in times

—78—
past, he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways (Acts
14:16), nevertheless he left not himself without witness. But
men changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator. Wherefore God
gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts. And even as they did not like to acknowledge God, God
gave them over to a mind void of judgment. So that they are
without excuse, (Rom. 1:24; 5:8,20.) But God, rich in mercy
(Eph. 2:4) had planned a way of salvation from the foundation
of the world. This is repentance toward God and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:26). Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us (Titus 3:5).
It is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Oh, let us praise the Lord for
his wonderful goodness to the children of men. (Ps.)
No, my friends, it is not the judge of all the earth who will
not do right. God is good; God is love, and with Him is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning (James). It is man who
will not do right. The hymnist truly sings of the place where
prospect pleases and only man is vile. There are men, who
know the truth, and yet deliberately turn it into a lie. They
know that the Word says — God in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, and they teach that the heathen world do not need
to be reconciled because of their ignorance. They know that
God's Son has commanded to go into all the world and preach
the gospel, and yet they not only will not go themselves but
keep others from going by their "already-saved-in-their-ignor-
ance" falsity.
Such willful disobedience on their part and such pernicious
teaching given to others can be called by no other term than
high treason to our Great Commander. Oh, that these words
might burn into the souls and consciences of all such ! God will
do right; but should you, with such treason in your heart and
such perjury on your lips, compass sea and land and make one
proselyte to your hypocritical faith, he would be two-fold more
the child of hell than yourselves.
Now we have arrived at the point where we may see the
utmost necessity for the preaching of the gospel to the heathen.
The greatest reason in the world for so doing is because they are

—79-
lost. To show this, let scripture be submitted to your candid
scrutiny. 1. All men have sinned, whether Jews or Gentiles, and
come short of the glory of God. Rom. 3:23. As many as have
sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.— Rom. 2:12. This
"all men" includes the heathen. Repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what Paul testified to both
Jews and Greeks. — Acts 20:21.
2. There is none other name given under heaven among
men whereby we must be saved. — Acts 4:12. Those who call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? — Rom. 10:13, 14. God speaks to the heath
en, as to all others who are lost, through his own appointed
messengers. 3. God sends His Holy Spirit only to those who believe in
His Son. People of the world, as the heathen, cannot receive
the Holy Spirit, because they see Him not, neither know Him.—
John 14:17. The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God ; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned.— I Cor. 2:14. He has no part nor lot in them. He
is as nature made him — of the flesh. That which is born of flesh
is flesh, and doth mind the things of the flesh. This is the
carnal mind, which is enmity against God. These natural or
worldly men receive not the things of the Spirit of God ; no reve
lation of His will comes direct to them. They are dead in tres
passes and sin. They have not been born of the Spirit. Nicode-
mus could not understand, because he had not yet been born
again. He could not even understand earthly things, how then
could he understand the heavenly? Paul says to Christians,
But we have the mind of Christ. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit and doth mind the things of the Spirit. Now we have
received the Spirit of God, that we might know the things which
are freely given us of God.— I Cor. 2:12.
Here, then, are two great divisions of men— those of the
world and those of the Spirit. The world receiveth not— the
natural man receiveth not— they are of the earth, earthy. Je-

—80—
sus' disciples are not of the world, even as Jesus is not of the
world.— John 17:14. Therefore the world hateth them.— John
15:19. Jesus does not mean that his disciples cannot engage in
the business concerns of this world, but only to regard them as
incidental to the great purpose of life — to prepare oneself and
others for life eternal. Thus rich men, instead of hoarding their
fortunes as formerly, now spend them during their lifetime — in
most cases for worthier objects than they themselves teach by
example. They found libraries, build asylums and endow theo
logical colleges and universities — all because of the Christian in
fluence exerted by the country and people in and among which
they dwell. They begin to realize as never before that riches
are ephemeral and soon fly away, and that men ought to prepare
for the higher and weightier interests of the soul.
It follows, therefore, that if Christians do not fulfill their
God-given duty, they are choking the only channel by which the
Holy Spirit gains admittance into the hearts of the heathen
world. They become hinderers and not helpers. They have not
yet risen to the highest destiny to which God calls them in his
providence and mercy. We often hear the motto: Go or send.
There is no such scripture. God's command and example, pre
cept and practice, is Go and send. He first went to man and then
sent his Son. Jesus himself first came to earth, and then sent
forth his disciples. And the Apostles in every case first went
themselves and then sent forth others. And we do well to keep
in the apostolic line. Paul went to Corinth and afterward sent
Timothy. Every really great general always goes with his army
to the place of campaign and then sends them forth to victory.
It is the "go" of the great power house that sends the electricity
to the motor car ; and the moment the power house ceases to go,
that moment it ceases to send. So it is in Christian mission ac
tivity—Go and send, not "go or send." We want a conjunctive,
not a disjunctive term. We want the old-reliable scriptural self-
coupler on our mission trains that will save men's lives, and not
the man-made rationalistic, higher-critical non-coupler that en
dangers men's lives at both ends of the line. Christ says, Go
and preach. One cannot go everywhere but he can go some
where.

-81-

If you cannot cross the ocean,
And the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer,
You can help them at your door.
If you cannot speak like angels,
If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say He died for all.
If you cannot give your thousands,
You can give your widow's mite;
And the leastyou do for Jesus,
Wili be precious in His sight.
With your prayers and with your bounties
You can do what heaven demands ;
You can be like faithful Aaron
Holding up the prophet's hands.
If among the older people,
You may not be apt to teach;
"Feed my lambs" said Christ our Shepherd,
"Place the food within their reach."
And it may be that the children
You have led with trembling hand,
Will be found among your jewels
When you reach the better land.
Hark ! the voice of Jesus crying,—
Who will go and work today?
Fields are white and harvest waiting:
Who will bear the sheaves away?
Loud and strong the Master calleth
Rich reward he offers thee ;
Who will answer, gladly saying:
"Here am I, send me, send me."
Let none hear you idly saying,
There is nothing I can do,
While the souls of men are dying,
And the Master calls for you.
Take the task he gives you gladly ;
Let his work your pleasure be,
Answer quickly when he calleth,
Here am I, send me, send me."

—82—
And now to put into action what we have expressed in words
and what we doubt is the earnest desire of our hearts, let us
carefully read and prayerfully sign
Tlie Soul Seeker's Pledge.
I hereby enroll myself as one who believes that every Chris
tian should stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit within him, to the
end that others may receive the promise of Acts 2:38, 39.
Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength and guidance,
I promise him that I will go, and so far as I can, help to send
others, into the sin-lost of this world, and preach the Gospel to
them. (Signed) 

Copyright, J906, by C. B. Titos

The Greatest Work in the World

OR

The Mission of Christ's Disciples

BY
CHARLES B. TITUS,
FOR SEVEN YEARS A MISSIONARY IN CHINA
Appointed by the Foreign Christian Missionary
Society

JESUS SAYS:
The Sou of man is come to seek and to save that which was
lost.— Luke 19:10.
As my Father hath sent me, so send I you. — John 20:21.
The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, I will send unto you
from the Father. He will guide you.— John 15:26.
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations. — Matt.
28:19. Father, I pray also for them which shall believe on me through
their word, that they all may be one in us, that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me.— John 17: 20, 21,

To My Faithful and Devoted
Wife
This Volume Is Affectionately Dedicated

INTRODUCTION.

<~£LYR. C. B. Titus has written a little work entitled,
C^*' "The Greatest Work in the World, or the Mis
sion of Christ's Disciples." In this little book
he answers the arguments put forth by the advocates of
what is called Natural Theology. Having had large
experience in heathen lands, where systems of Natural
Theology have dominated for centuries, he is able to
speak out of the abundance of his own observation. He
speaks clearly and forcibly, and the little book is calculat
ed to do much good. The authority of the sacred Scrip
tures is magnified, and the elevating tendency of revealed
religion is forcibly set forth. We commend this little
book, both as to its purpose and as to the manner in
which it is executed. It will amply repay careful reading.
Very respectfully,
E. V. Zollars,
President Texas Christian Uuioersity.
North Waco, Texas, May 35th, 1906.

PART I.
How God Has Spoken to Man ; or, How, Through Whom,
and to Whom God's Word was Given.

INTRODUCTION.
J. W. McGarvey, in his introduction to " Evidences
of Christianity," says: "Many persons, in studying the
claims of Christianity, take up the objections that are
urged against it before they learn what it is, or examine
the evidence in its favor. . . . This is a reversal of the
order established in all courts of justice, in all well-
conducted discussions, in all scientific investigations."
He then proceeds to show (1) the integrity of the
New Testament books, (2) their genuineness, (3) their
authenticity, and (4) the inspiration of their writers.
The " evidences " given have never been successfully
refuted. Natural Theology claims to interpret the voice of
God as He speaks through nature.* But since God has
spoken directly — in divers manners in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, and in these last days unto
us by His Son — let us first thoroughly examine this
direct message. If we find therein promise that Scrip
ture or Gospel came in time past in any other way than
through holy men of God speaking as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit, or in these last days by the Son of
God, we can then profitably proceed to the investigation
of such promise.
* " Natural Theology is the systematic arrangement of that
knowledge as to God and man and their mutual relations which can
be gnined from the study of nature to the exclusion of revelation." —
The New International Encyclopedia, p. 283.

" Upbearing, as the ark of old,
The Bible in our van,
We go to lest the truth of God
Against the fraud of man." — Whittier.
We begin with admitted facts. About one-third
of the human race to-day would testify in open court
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He "lived
in the flesh" some nineteen hundred years ago. Most
of the other two-thirds are too innocent of historical
knowledge to give evidence at all. The remainder are
avowed agnostics, infidels or atheists.
Even these latter admit Jesus to be historical, e.g.,
The polished infidel writer, Ernest Renan, has
written a " Life of Jesus."
Colonel Robert Ingersoll, although disbelieving in
the God of the Bible, says that Jesus was a "model
man." John Stuart Mill, that elegant but skeptical philo
sopher, says : " It is of no use to say that Christ, as ex
hibited in the Gospel, is not historical."
Sir Edward Gibbon, the most accomplished and ihe
most skeptical historian, says: "The authentic Jiistories
of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek
language" — Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
p. 574. Dr. Isaac M. Wise, a learned Jewish Rabbi, says
that "the Talmud often mentions the name of Jesus . . .
Had those rabbis considered Jesus ;in ignoramus, or a
mere impostor, they must have said so somewhere, but
they did not " — Origin of Christianity, p. 8.
James Freeman Clarke, the author of " Ten Great
Religions," says: "Wherever the apostles of Christ
went, they found that Judaism had prepared the way" —
p. 447. But the evidence these men have of a person called
Jesus is the common heritage of the world. It was

— 3 —
given by those who companied with Jesus when He dwelt
among men, — by eye-witnesses.
Now the testimony of an eye-witness is taken by
judge and jury as the best evidence. Therefore in the
language of Simon Greenleaf, the leading authority on
legal evidence, "it is time that the Four Evangelists
should be admitted in corroboration of each other, as
readily as Josephus and Tacitus, or Polybius and Livy "
Matthew testifies that " Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the king," and that a voice
came from heaven saying, " This is my beloved Son."
Mark testifies that "Jesus came from Nazareth of
Galilee," and Mark afterwards wrote " the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
Luke says that " Jesus increased in wisdom and
stature and in favor with God and man," and records
that the angel said unto Mary : '¦' The Holy Spirit shall
come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over
shadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
John writes of "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph," and declares that " these things are written that
ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God ; and that believing ye might have life through His
name." Jesus Himself, before the scribes and elders and
Caiaphas the high priest, claimed to be the Christ, the
Son of God. After His resurrection and before His
ascension, He said to His disciples: "Ye shall be wit
nesses of me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
These witnesses all testified " that Christ died for our
sins; that, He was buried, and that He rose again the
third day, according to the Scriptures;" and Paul, a con
temporary, also avers " that Jesus, after His resurrection,
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that, He

— 4 —
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom
the greater part remain unto this present,' but some are
fallen asleep And last of all He was seen of me also."
If, therefore, Jesus is not the Son of God, then are
these witnesses false, and we are still in darkness and
doubt and know not that the man Jesus ever lived.
But the witnesses are believed when they testify that
the man Jesus lived ; hence it follows, as the day the
night, that their whole testimony must be received, and
that "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by
His Son."* The recorded words of Jesus, then, are true. " Never
man spake like this man." He says: "The Father hath
committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. The
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the
Father do. As the Father hath taught me, I speak
these things."

* Testimony from the lips of credible witnesses is the best evidence
that Jesus lived on earth. This established, Jesus' own words and
works, related by ear and eye witnesses, prove Him to be the Son of
God, and therefore the authority on Scripture iuteipretatiou. This
being so, Jesus' citations and statements not only make the Old Testa
ment genuine aud authentic history, but also a prophetical testimony
of Himself. It is pitiable, at times, to see men, otherwise zealous for Chris
tianity, agree with their adversary lo ignore the Bible, and then
attempt to prove the existence of God (and this logically includes the
Son of God) from nature, design, etc. All such attempts are puerile,
futile. Paley, for instance, could never reach the absolute proof,
even though he himself started with all the knowledge of revelation,
because he cast aside this direct testimony, than which no better is
needed or can be adduced. Other conclusive evidence of the first
fact we have none. But every one possessing this knowledge, can
boldly testify, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firma
ment showeth his handiwork." The finest acumen of the best of
human inellects, refusing the testimonial aid of God's own chosen
witnesses, will and must utterly fail to convince doubters and
skeptics. " For if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded if one rose from the dead." — Luke xvi. 31.

Jesus knew all that was written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms (Luke xxiv. 44).
To the Pharisees, tempting Him, He answered, " Have ye
not read that he which made them at the beginning,
made them male and female and said : ' For this cause
shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleav.- to his
wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.'" '1 his passage is
found in the very first chapter of the first book of the
Jewish Scriptures; and thus did the Son of God set the
seal of historicity upon that most ancient record known
to man. The law was given through Moses, but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. Let us then examine this
direct message to find oat just how —

God made Himself known unto Men.
CHAPTER I.
God breathed into man, at his creation, the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord
God made a helpmeet for him ; and gave commandment
unto them, and they returned answer.
Such is the simple record of the origin of man's
knowledge of God. God had so made man that he could
hear, understand and respond intelligently." God holding
converse with man is not the greater wonder; the
creation of such a being is a far transcendent miracle.
Given the creature man, and the fact that his Creator
communicated knowledge to him beromes infinitely easy
of comprehension. The use of the telephone is a com
monplace compared to the invention itself.
We stand on the threshold of man's creation and
wonder in vain as to how it all came about ; we step
within and puzzle over the process by which the Creator
communicated with the created. Neither has He clearly
declared unto us. "The secret things belong unto God;
but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and
to our children forever" — Deut. x.\ix. 29. We accept
the one as a stupendous fact; the other is but its logical
sequence. In this spirit let us diligently examine what has
been revealed unto us that we may ascertain
HOW THIS REVELATION HAS BEEN GIVEN.
1. By Direct Declaration.
God commanded Adam, and Adam heard His voice. —
Gen. ii. 16 ; iii. 8 ; iv. 9-13 ; vi. 22 ; ix. 1. The Lord spake
unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his
friend. — Ex. xxxiii. 11 ; Josh. i. 1.

2. By Direct Declaration and Manifestation.
The Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee
in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak
unto thee, and believe thee forever. — Ex. xix. 9; Gen.
xii. 7; xv. 18; xvii. 3; Num. xii. 8.
3. By Dream.
And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by
night, and said unto him. — Gen. xxxi. 24; xxviii. 1^-
13; xii. 25; I Sam. iii. 15; I Kings ix. 2; Dan. i. 17;
Matt. ii. 22.
4. By Vision.
The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. —
Gen. xv. ]; xlvi. 2; Num xii. 6-8; I Chron. xvii. 3;
Isa. i. 1-2; Dan. ii. 19; Ezek. xi. 24; Obad. i. 1; Acts
x. 19 ; xvi. 9 ; II Cor. xii. 1.
5. By Lot.
The Lord spake unto Moses. The land shall be
divided by lot. — Num. xxvi 55; Josh, xviii. 10; Acts
i. 26; Josh. vii. 14-18; I Sam. x. 20-21; Lev. xvi. 8;
I Chron. xxiv. 19.
6. By Angel.
The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham. — Gen.
xxii. 15; xvi. 9 ; Ex. xxiii. 2U-22 ; Num xxii. 35 ; Judg.
ii. 4; vi. 12; xiii. 13; IK. xix. 5-7 ; Zech. i 19 : Matt.
xxviii. 5 ; i. 20; Luke i. 13 ; Acts viii. 26; Rev. i. 1;
Heb. ii. 2; Gal. iii. 19.
7. By putting Words in the Mouth of a Prophet.
The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said. —
Num. xxiii. 5 ; Deut. xviii. 18 ; Isa. Ii 16 ; lix. 21 ;
Jer. i. 9.

— 8 —
8. By Voice from some Visible Object.
To Moses out of the burning bush. — Ex. iii. 4 ; to
Balaam out of the mouth of the animal he was riding. —
Num. xxii 28 ; to the children of Israel out of the midst
of the fire. — Deut. iv. 12 ; to Job out of the whirlwind. —
Job. xxxviii. 1 ; to Peter, James and John out of the
cloud. — Matt. xvii. 5.
9 By Signs that the Hearers might Believe.
At Sinai the people saw the thunderings, and the
lightnings, and the mountain smoking. And the Lord
said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud
that the people may believe when I speak unto thee, and
believe thee forever.— Ex. xix. 9 ; iv. 30-1; Deut. xviii.
21-2: I K. xvii. 24; II K xx. 8-11; John. x. 38; xi.
42 ; xii. 30 ; xx. 30-1 ; Num. ix. 16-18.
10. By His Spirit.
The Spirit of God came upon Balaam. And he took
up his parable and said — Num. xxiv. 23; xi. 25; Ex.
xxxi. 3; I Sam. x. 10; Judg. vi. 34; xi. 29; I Sam.
xix. 20; II Chron. xv. 1; Zech. vii. 12; Ezek. xi. 5;
II Sam. xxiii. 2 ; Matt. x. 20 ; Acts ii. 4 ; viii. 29 ;
xxi. 4 ; Rev. ii. 7.
11. By Prophet.
The Lord spake by Ahijah unto Jeroboam. — I K. xii.
15 ; xii. 22 : xvi. 1 ; II K. xx 1 ; xxi. 10. Thus saith the
Lord to Cyrus. — Isa. xlv. 1 ; to Tyrus. — Ezek. xxvi. 15 ;
to Nineveh. — Jonah i. 1-2.
12. By His Son.
All things that I have heard of my Father, I have
made known unto you. — John xv. 15.

— 9 —

GOD HAS ANSWERED MAN'S ENQUIRIES.
1. By Urim and Thummim (something in the high
priest's breast-plate that gave an oracular response).
And when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord
answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor
by prophets, till there stood up a priest with Urim and
Thummim. — Ezra ii. 63 ; Neh. vii. 65. (According to
the rabbis, the Urim and Thummim lasted until the
temple, the Spirit of Prophecy until Malachi; the Bath Kol
downwards.) Bath Kol — Gen. xxiv. 14 ; I Sam. xiv. 9.
2. By prophet.
When the children of Israel cried unto the Lord
because of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet unto
them who said : Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. —
Judges vi. 7, 8; I Sam. ix. 9 ; I K. xx. 13 ; xx. 35; II
K. viii. 7-9 ; Ezek. xx. 1 ; Jer. xxi. 1, 2.
3. By prophetess.
Josiah enquired of the Lord through Huldah the
prophetess, II K. xxii. 14, concerning the book of the law.
4. By a sign proposed by the enquirer.
Abraham's servant in selecting a wife for Isaac. — Gen.
xxiv. 14; Gideon by dew on the fleece of wool learns that
God will save Israel by his hand. — Judges vi. 37 ; I Sam.
vi. 1-12 ; xiv. 9, 10 ; I K. xviii. 21-3,
5. By a minstrel.
But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass
when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord
came upon him (Elisha) and he said: Thus saith the
Lord.— II K. iii. 15, 16.

— 10 —
6. By ephod.
And David said to Abiathar: Bring hither the ephod.
Then said David, 0 Lord God, I beseech thee. — I Sam.
xxiii. 9-11 ; xxx. 7, 8.
7. By brazen altar.
And king Ahaz said : The brazen altar shall be for
me to enquire by. — II K. xvi. 15.
8. By lot.
The lot is cast into the lap : but the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. — Prov. xvi. 33. Matthias to replace
Judas among the twelve. — Acts i. 24, 25.
9. By His Son.
Simeon, waiting for the consolation of Israel, took
the child Jesus in his arms and said : Mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. — Luke ii. .25-30. Philip saith: Shew
us the Father. Jesus said : Have I been so long time
with you, and yet hast thou not known me ? — John xiv,
8, 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
GOD HAS LEFT PERPETUAL WITNESS TO HIS SPOKEN
TRUTH (Acts xiv. 17).
1. In creation.
The invisible things of Him since the creation of the
world (even His everlasting power and divinity) are
clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are
made. That which may be known of God is manifest
to them, for God manifested it unto them. — Rom. i. 19, 20 ;
Ps. xix. 1-3.*

* In every acquirement of knowledge, there are two essential
factors — the teacher and the taught. Each individual in each suceeed-
iug generation comes into the world without knowledge, but with a

— 11 —
2. In the course of nature.
While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night
shall not cease.— Gen. viii. 22. I do set my bow in
the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant be
tween me and the earth, that the waters shall no more
become a flood to destroy all flesh. — Gen. ix. 13-15; Matt.
v. 45 ; Acts xiv. 17 ; Job xxv. 3 ; Acts xvii. 25 ; James
i. 17.
3. In His Son.
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. — John
i. 14: 18 ; I John iv. 9 ; John iii. 18.
4. In His Word.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words
shall not pass away. — Mt. xxiv. 35. Thy word is truth. —
John xvii 17 ; Hosea iv. 6.
5. In miracles.
The works which the Father hath given me to do,
the same works that I do. bear witness of me, that the
Father hath sent me. — John v. 36 ; iii. 2; x. 25.

great blank capacity for being taught. God first taught man of Him-
self ; then God's meu or prophets, and lastly God's Son. The taught
were to commit the same to faithful men " who shall be able to teach
others also."— II Tim. ii. 2 ; Deut. vi. 7. David, taught from his earliest
years that God created the heaven and the earth, while watching his
flocks by night on the hills of Palestine, could lift his wondering eyes
to the starry skies, and rapturously exclaim: "The heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork." But the
Chaldean youth, barren of such knowledge, only hearing from his father
or neighbors of the moon god and the sun god, would as naturally
exclaim : The heavens declare the glory of the moon and sun gods.
There could be no natural theology to him who knew not God. His
oould only be a natural " luuology," or a natural " heliology."

— 12 —
CHAPTER II.
How men by disobedience lose communication with God
and are destroyed — all save eight.
In the first chapter we learn how, from the beginning,
God made Himself known to men. Let us also learn how
men, through disobedience, became vain in their imagi
nations, and God gave them up to uncleanness through
the lusts of their own hearts. — Rom. i. 24.
God created man in His own image, and blessed
them, saying: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish
the earth."* God said unto Adam in the garden of Eden : " Of
every tree thou mayest freely eat, except the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil." But the helpmeet of Adam,

* "As made in God's likeness, he is able to know Him and to have
communication with Him, and this in ever enlarging degree. But
however great the spiritual capacity of man, we are to remember that
the relation hetween God and man is a personal one, and that to be
known, He must make Himself known. It is not enough that man
has a religious nature — a faculty to apprehend the infinite — or even an
intuitive belief in His existence as Creator and Supreme Moral
Governor; God must by His own acts enter into personal intercourse
with men, must reveal Himself to them ere they can truly know Him.
The possibility of intercourse is not actual intercourse. Likeness to his
Creator is the basis and condition of God's personal revelation of Himself
to man, but not the revelation itself. This knowledge cannot come from
any study of God's natural workn around him, nor from any study of
his own nature. Knowledge of Him and His will amidst all historic
progress must be the result of God's continued personal self revelation
to man, such revelation as shall not only prove His existence and
Divine nature, but be also an expression of His will as the law of
human action. This is God's voluntary act. He comes to man, He
speaks and acts, and man both knows that he meets God and learns
what are his relations to Him and his duties. In what manner God
will reveal Himself to men and make known His will lies wholly within
His own pleasure," — God's Revelations of Himself to Men. pp. 2, 8.

— 13 —
Eve, allowed the (old) serpent (called the devil and
Satan) to deceive her and her husband also. When they
heard the voice of God, they hid themselves. And because
of their disobedience, God said to the woman : '' In sorrow
slialt thou bring forth children ; " and to the man : " In
the sweet of thy face shalt thou eat bread ; " and God
drove them out of the garden.*
Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was
the mother of all living. Two sons were born unto
them — Cain and Abel. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Cain was angry
and slew his brother. God said unto Cain : " The
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the
ground ; " "a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in
the earth." AVhen men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, the sons of God (gotten from the Lord. Gen. vi. 1)
saw the daughters of men (taken out of man, Gen. ii. 23)
that they were fair, and they took them wives of all
which they chose. And God said : " My spirit shalt not
always strive with man, for that he is also flesh." '¦ For the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh, and these are contrary one to the other." — Gal. v.

* " Under what sensible forms God may have manifested Himself to
Adam during this period, or in what manner made known His will, we
are not told — Gen. iii. 8. It is thought by some to be inconsistent
with the spirituality of God, that He should manifest Himself to men
under any sensible forms. But when we remember that the great end
of all His actings is the revelation of his Son, God manifest in the flesh,
in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we see that
His early manifestation of Himself to men through visible symbols —
the pillar of fire, the glory — as recorded in the Old Testament, is in
perfect harmony with His purpose to reveal Himself in His Son. The
local and sensible miinifestations of Himself in Eden, at Sinai and in
Jerusalem, were not unworthy of Him whom the heaven and heaven
of heavens cannot contain, for they had their ground in the constitution
of man as both material and spiritual ; and all pointed forward to Him
who is the visible image of the invisible God, and to the time when the
earth shall shine with His glory."— God's Revelations, pp. 10, 11.

— 14 —
17. " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions heresies, envyings. murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."' — Gal.
v. 19-21. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth and that every imagination of the heart was only
evil continually. All flesh had corrupted His way, and
the earth was filled with violence through them. So God
destroyed them by a flood ; every man in whose nostrils
was the breath of life died, save Noah only (himself a
righteous man and perfect amongst his contemporaries,
to whom he was a preacher of righteousness) and they
that were with him in the ark.*
When the waters assuaged, Noah and his wife and
his three sons and their wives went forth out of the ark,
and Noah builded an altar and offered sacrifice unto the
Lord. And (iod blessed Noah and his sons, saying:
"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth."
THE EARTH AGAIN PEOPLED. THE BOUNDS OF THEIR
HABITATION. ALL OF ONE BLOOD.
The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth ;
" and of them was the whole earth overspread."
By the sons of Japheth " were the isles of the Gentiles
divided in their lands ; every one after his tongue, after
their families, in their nations."

* " The sin of the antediluvians was not, so far as we know, the
worship of false gods, but the indulgence of fleshly lusts, the ignoring
of His authority and rejection of His witnesses ending in the general
dissolution of all moral and social bonds. — Gen. vi. 11-13." — God's
Revelations, pp. 15, 16.

— 15 —
The beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod. Ham's son,
was Babylon, in the land of Shinar, and out of that land
went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh. Canaan's
descendants were spread abroad " from Sidon as thou
con,3st to Gerar, unto Gaza, as thou goest into Sodom
and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim, even unto
Lashish." Egypt was afterwards called the land of Ham.
In the days of Peleg, the son of Eber. Shem's son,
was the earth divided. The descendants of Joktan, Eber's
son, had " their dwelling from Mesha as thou goest
unto Sephar, a mount of the east."
By these families of the sons of Noah were the na
tions divided in the earth after the flood. They journeyed
eastward to a plain in the land of Shinar. and commenced
to build a city and a tower whose top should reach unto
heaven, to make themselves a name ; but God, to restrain
them from doing that which they had imagined to do,
confounded their language and scattered them abroad
from thence upon the face of all the earth. Thus were
the sons of Adam separated, Deut. xxxii : 8; thus God
made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and determined the bounds of their
habitations. — Acts xvii. 26.

-*—•?•—« 

— 16 —

CHAPTER III.
Men begin to worship other gods. God's condemnation
of idolatry.
Let us now ascertain how man gradually lost the
knowledge of God and became hopelessly entangled in
the idolatrous meanderings of his own imagination and
invention. Nowithstanding all this knowledge and restraining
hand of God the people in a few generations changed
the glory of the Incorruptible into an image. Terah, the
father of Abraham (called the friend of God), the seventh
descendant in direct line from Shem, already worshipped
" other gods " in his native place, Ur of the Chaldees.*
The Chaldeans were descendants of Cush, the son of
Ham. (This is proved by the remains of their language,
which closely resembles the Galla or ancient language of
Ethiopia. — Smith's Bible Dictionary.)
* " Idolatry taking different forms in different lands, but essentially
nature worship, early became very prevalent. A considerable time
anterior to Abraham, we find proof that polytheism prevailed in
Egypt. A multitude of deities of different orders were objects of
worship, and polytheism became general in all the region of Chaldea
and Mesopotamia. God was indeed not left without witnesses to His
unity and supremacy. Such a witness was Melchizedek, who is called
a priest of the Most High God, and who in his name as the " possessor
of heaven and earth" blesses Abraham. — Gen. xiv. 18, 19. And such
a witness was Abraham. But scattered individuals or families could
not effectually resist the strong tendencies to idolatry everywhere
prevailing. The time had come for a new step in the work of redemp
tion, a new manifestation of God to men, an assertion of Himself
before all the world as the one supreme God in opposition to all idols.
There is a "fullness of time" in all His actings; and we can see here
two elements of this fullness — the spread of idolatry and the existence
of distinct nations. The first step taken by God in this new form of
His actings was the call of Abraham to be the founder of a nation." —
God's Revelations, pp, 16, 17.

— ¦ 17 —
"They were renowned for the study of the heavens
and the worship of the stars." — Ten Great Religions,
p. 406 "With a tendency toward monotheism, in the dim
perception of the one supreme ruler of the universe, the
practical polytheism of the country had its gods and
goddesses, each great city having its favorite deity. Thus
(Jr reverenced the moon-god; Ellasar paid special homage
to the sun." — Sanderson's History of the World, p 18.
Thus when they knew God, they glorified Him not
as God, but changed His truth into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator. So that
they are without excuse, because that which may be
known of God is manifest to them, for God hath showed
it unto them.
"God has ever forbidden the worship of other gods." —
Et. xx. 3 — -whether the sun, moon, or any of the host
of heaven. — Deut. xvii. 3 — visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children of them that hate him, and
showing mercy unto those who love him. Repentance
has ever been the way of return to God.
Chaldea did not repent, wherefore it became a
spoil. — Jer. 1. 10, a desolation; Jer. 1. 45; for it is the
land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
— Jer. 1. 38. Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish, says Jesus. — Luke xiii. 3. Suppose ye that these
Chaldeans were sinners above all worshippers of other
gods, because they suffered such things ? I tell you, nay.
— Luke xiii. 2, 3.
GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE LED ASTRAY BY THE GODS OF
EGYPT.
From out of the midst of a people thus sunken in
idolatry (Josh. xxiv. 2) God called Abrarn, saying: "I
know him, that he will command his children and his

— 18 —
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the
Lord, to do justice and judgment ; and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him."
And the Lord appeared unto Abram in Canaan and
said : " Unto thy seed will I give this land." Famine
arose, and Abram went down into Egypt. He returned
with Lot, his nephew, and dwelt in Canaan, where God
said unto him : " Know that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, but in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet full."
And Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. The men
of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord
exceedingly. Abraham prayed that Sodom might be
spared if ten righteous persons were found in it, but
there were only Lot and his wife and two daughters, and
they were bidden by the angel to flee. The Lord
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin was
very great. *
Some four hundred years afterwards, as God had
promised, Abraham's descendants were brought out of
the land of Egypt by the hand of Moses, and at Sinai
were commanded by God : " Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them nor serve them."*
Yet how prone is the natural heart to turn away
from its God ! After having seen the mighty power of
God displayed in bringing them out of Egypt, even while
* " His will was mude known, sometimes by an audible voice, as on
Mount Sinai, or by the High priest through the Urim and Thummim,
or through His word spoken by Moses, and later by the prophets.
Ex. iii. 4. — 41 ; xv. 18 ; xix. 19 ; Num. x. 35 ; xxiii. 21 ; Deut. xxxiii.
5; iv. 12; Ex. xxviii. 30; Num. xxvii. 21 ; Deut. xviii. 18."— God's
Revelations, p. 20.

- 19 —
the ten commandments were being written on tables of
stone by the finger of God Himself, they said to Aaron :
" XJp, make us gods which shall go before us. And
Aaron took the ear-rings of their wives and their sons
and their daughters and made a molten calf, fashioning
it with a graven tool. And they worshipped it. sacrific
ing thereunto, saying: 'These be thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' " For
this God punished them, and there fell of the people
that day three thousand men. —Ex. xxxii. 28.
If these, the chosen people of God, thus quickly
forgot His love and care, little wonder that the descend
ants of Ham, who colonized Egypt (Gen. x. 6 ; Ps. cv. 23),
should by this time be so far lost from truth, and so
steeped in idolatry. It is stated that Pharaoh, the king,
•'gave Joseph to wife Asenath, the daughter of Pot-
ipherah, priest of On." Now the chief object of worship
at On was the sun. Jeremiah speaks of On under the
name Bethshemesh, the house of the sun Jer. xlviii.
13. Perhaps it was on account of the many false gods
of Heliopolis that in Ezekiel (xxx. 17). " On " is written
" Aven," by a change in the punctuation, and so made to
signify "vanity," and especially the vanity of idolatry.
Through Moses, the Lord commanded the people:
" After the doings of the land of Egypt shall ye not do
(Lev. xviii. 3); ye shall no more offer sacrifices unto
devils (Lev. xvii. 7); through Joshua: "Put away the
gods which your fathers served in Egypt"; and through
Ezekiel: "Defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt"
(xx. 7). " Their religion consisted in the worship of personi
fied forces of nature — the rising sun, the overflow of the
Nile, Isis the earth, wife of Osiris the creative power,
Amnion the god of heaven, and of many other members
of a pantheon largely made up of deities derived from
local cults." — -Sanderson's H. of the W.. p. 15.

— 20 —
" The central idea of Egyptian theology so completely
incarnates God as to make every type of animal
existence divine. Wilkinson gives a list of over fifty
sacred animals. Isis was represented in the form of a
cow. The worship of Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis,
was very important." — Ten Great Religions, p. 226.
Thus they forgot God and changed His glory into
the similitude of an ox that eateth grass (Ps. cvi. 20) —
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. — Rom. i. 23.
Wherefore God gave them up (Rom. i. 24) and pro
nounced woe against Egypt thus : " I will punish the
multitude of No and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods
(Jer. xlvi. 25); I will destroy their idols and I will
cause their images to cease out of Noph fEzek. xxx. 13);
the houses of the gods of Egypt shall burn with fire "
(Jer. xliii. 13).
THE IDOLATROUS CANAANITES TO BE UTTERLY
DESTROYED.
The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaketh unto his friend (Ex. xxxiii. 11), saying: "I
have talked with you from heaven '". — Ex. xx. 22. " Mine
angel shall go before thee and bring thee unto the
Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the
Canaan ites, and the Girgashites, and the Gideonites, the
Hivites and the Jebusites". — Ex. xxiii. 23. "Thou shalt
not bow down to their gods, but utterly overthrow them,
and quite break down their images." Ex. xxiii. 24. "For
they committed all these things— adultery, incest, so
domy, beastiality, uncleanness, cursing parents, going to
wizards and giving seed to Molech — and therefore I
abhored them. Because of the wickedness of the nations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee
(Deut. xviii. 12); that they teach you not to do after all

— 21 —
their abominations, which they have done unto their
gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God". —
Deut. xx. 18.
And Moses said nnto Israel : "Ye know how we
came through the nations which ye passed by — the
Amalekites, the Midianites, the Anakims. the Edomites,
the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Moabites, the Am
monites, Geshurites, the Machithites, and the people of
Bashan — and ye have seen their abominations, and their
dungy gods, wood and stone, silver and gold. 'Pake heed
that thou be not snared by following them, and that thou
enquire not after their gods, saying : How did these
nations serve their gods ? even so will I do likewise.
Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God, for every
abomination to the Lord which he hateth, have they
done unto their gods; for even their sons and their
daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods —
Deut. xii. 30. The remembrance of Amelek will be
utterly put out from under heaven, because his hand is
against the Lord. — Ex. xvii. 14-6.
Thus again we see that even as these nations did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient: being filled with all unrighteous
ness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malicious
ness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity;
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant breakers, without
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful". — Rom. i.
28-31. "For the wicked shall return to sheol, even all
the nations that forget God, saith the Lord." — Ps.
ix. 17. The history of all ancient heathen nations
gives abundant confirmation of the fulfillment of this
prophecy, e. g.,

22

PHILISTINES.
Let us first notice, in order, the Philistines, who, as early as the
time of Isaac, had stopped all the wells which the servants of Abraham,
his father, had digged. — Gen. xxvi. 15. The prophets describe tliem
as from Caphtoriuis, who expelled the Avini (Deut. ii. 23); and that
these again were descendants of Mizraim (Gen. a. 14). — Smith's Bible
Dictionary, The Philistines were probably an Aryan people, a body of Pelasgi
from the Island of Crete. — Ten Great. Religions, p. 421.
They appear to have been deeply imbued with superstition;
they carried their idols with them ou their campaigns (II Sam. v, 21)
and proclaimed their victories in their presence (I Sam. xxxi. 9). The
gods whom they chiefly worshipped were Dagon (Judg. xvi. 23 ; I
Sam. v. 3-5; I Chr. x. 10) ; Ashtaroth (I Sam. xxxi. 10) and Baal-zebub
(II K. i. 2-6). Priests, diviners and soothsayers (I Sam. vi. 2 ; Isa.
ii. 6) were attached to the various seats of worship.
Philistia was one of the nations the Israelites were commanded
to destroy iu taking possession of Canaan. — Josh, xiii 2.
In the days of Hophni and Phineas, when they had taken the ark
of God, and Pau'on their god had been thrown down and broken in the
presence of the ark, the lords of the Philistines ordered their priests
and diviners to make " Images of your emerods and of your mice for a
trespass offering, aud ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel and
return the ark of the Lord. " — I Sam. vi. 5-8.
When Goliath, the Philistine, cursed David by his gods, David
replied : " I come to thee iu the name of the Lord of Hosts, the
God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied," and David
prevailed. The Philistines cut off the head of Stiul and published the event
in the house of their idols, putting Saul's armor in the house of
Ashtaroth. — I Sam. xxxi 9, 10.
In the time of trouble various "judges" rescued their countrymen
from the hands of the Philistines and other heathen peoples. — Sander
son's H. W , p. 29.
The remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord (Am.
i. 8), because they carried (the Jews) away to deliver tliem to Edom.
Because they hfive taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, I will
execute great vengeance upou them with furious rebukes, and they shall
know that 1 am the Lord. — Ezek, xxv. 15-17. I will spoil them (Jer.
xlvii. 4) ; 1 will cut, off their pride (Zech. ix. 61 ; I will destroy their
laud tha'. there shall be no inhabitant (Zeph. ii. 5)
Briefly, their history, as that of other heathen nations, may be
summarized as follows : They knew God, fell away, worshipped
falsely, became an abomination, were warned, punished, yet promised
mercy upon repentance (see Nineveh [aud China, we trust]), otherwise
utter destruction.

— 23 —

ASSYRIANS.
Assyria was a country lying along the Tigris (Gen. ii. 14),
the capital of which was Nineveh (Gen. x. 11). Apparently it
derived its name from Asshnr, the son of Shem (Gen. A. 22), who in
later times was worshipped by the Assyrians as their chief god. —
Smith's, B. 1).
The sun-god was a great object of worship, as was also Merodach ;
while to Nebo, the god of learning, all the libraries were dedicated. —
Sanderson's H. W., p. IS.
In Isaiah's time, the king of Assyria boasted that his band had
founded the kingdom of the idols, and that his graven images
excelled those of Jerusalem and of Samaria; "Wherefore," says
the prophet, "the Lord will punish the fruit of the stout heart of
Assyria and the glory of his high looks,"— Isa. x. 12. Woe' is also
pronounced through Nahum (iii. i8) : "0 king of Assyria, thy nobles
Bhall dwell iu the dust, thy people is scattered upon the mountains,
and no man gathereth them."
The final overthrow came 683 B.C. by the Medes and Babylonians.
See Kzekiel's description (xxxi. 13;: "Upon his ruin shall all the
fowls of the heaven remain and all the beasts of the field shall be upon
his branches." MEDES.
The Medes are mentioned by Moses among the races descendant
from Japheth (Gen. x. ii.)
Their original religion was dualism, or the two opposite principles
of good and evil. They worshipped the sun and moon, and believed in
numerous genii. They later became fire-worshippers also. — Smith's
Bible Diet.
Through Jeremiah (xxv. 25) the Lord pronounced woe against
them : "All the kings of the Medes shall drink and be drunken, and
spue and fall, aud rise no more. For lo 1 I begin to bring evil on the
city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished ?
The Lord hath a controversy with the nations ; he will plead with all
flesh ; he will give those who are wicked to the sword."
Darius the Median decreed that whosoever shall ask a petition of
any god or man for thirty days, save the king himself, shall be cast
into the den of lions. Although the king, after Daniel's deliverance,
issued a decree enjoining throughout his dominions reverence for
the God of Daniel, his kingdom had been weighed and found wanting.
"At the time appointed (Dan. viii. 19) the end shall be. The ram
which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media aud
Persia." Of all the ancient Oriental monarchies, the Median was the shortest
in duration, 625 to 558 B.C.— Smith's Bible Diet.

— 24 —

PERSIANS.
Perhaps of the same race as the Medes. They worshipped
Oromasdes, the chief of the gods, aud later took on Magianism, the
worship of the elemeuts, more especially of the subtlest of all — fire.
Cyrus came in contact with the Jews on the overthrow of the
Medes. The Lord stirred up his spirit to restore this race to their own
country, and his decree, permitting the rebuilding of the temple at
Jerusalem, was carried out under Darius aud Artaxerxes.
The downfall of Persia by Greece is predicted in Daniel xi. 1-4- :
" His kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four
winds of heaven ; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion
which he ruled ; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for 01 hers
beside those."
The empire collapsed under the attack of Alexander, 330 B. C.
BABYLONIANS.
The " beginning of the kingdom" belongs to the time of Nimrod,
the grandson of Ham. — Gen. x 6-10. The country waB called Shinar
aud the people the Akkadim, — Gen. x. 10.
Babylon, meaning iu its Semitic name Babilu, " the Gate of God,"
was at first without a special deity, but afterwards worshipped its own
chosen protector Meridug, the mediator, or Mararluk (in Hebrew
Merodach), god of the planet Jupiter. — Sanderson's H. W.
After the Jews weie deported thither in 605 B.C., king Nebu
chadnezzar made a decree that all should honor the King of heaven,
whose works are truth, but the people continued the worship of idols.
Again and again did God jrive warning through the prophets
Jeremiah, Isa;ah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, saying: "Babylon hath made all
the earth drunken (Jer. Ii, 7) ;" [ will visit judgment upon the graven
images of Babylon (Jer. Ii. 47). "I will punish Bel in Babylon
(Jer. Ii. 44);" We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed
(Jer. Ii. 9).
All warning went unheeded, and " Babylon became heaps, a dwell
ing place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, (Jer, li. 37). Her
cities are a desolatiou, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no
man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby 'Jer. li. 43);
for by her sorceries were all nations deceived, and in her was found the
blood of prophets and of saints, aud of all that were slain upon the earth"
(Rev. xviii. 23).

— 25 —
GOD'S CHOSEN ISRAEL NOT TO BE SPAEED IF THEY
TURN TO OTHER GODS. THE REMNANT DELIVERED
FROM HEATHEN CAPTIVITY UPON RETURNING
TO THE LORD.
Moses again (Deut. v. 9) reminds the people of
Israel that the Lord is a jealous God, who will have no
other gods before Him ; and adds a wise admonition as to
how His commandments are to be perpetuated : "Take
heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest
they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life : but
teach them thy sons, and thy son's sons."
He also forewarns them as to the causes that would
lead them into forgetfulness : " Beware that thou forget
not the Lord thy God, lest when thoiv hast eaten and
art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein,
and when thy herds and thy flocks shall multiply and
thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou
hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and
thou forget the Lord thy God (Deut. viii. 11-4), and thou
say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand
hath gotten me this wealth (Deut. viii. 17)." "They
were rilled and their heart was exalted ; therefore have
they forgotten me" (Hosea xiii. 6). And we find that,
after Joshua, " there arose another generation which
knew not Jehovah, nor yet the works which he had done
for Israel (Judge ii. 10); and they were given over into
the hands of the enemies whose gods they served."
He further forewarns them as to the danger of for
getting God that " when they shall beget children and
children's children, and shall have remained long in the
land, and shall corrupt themselves and make a graven
image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in
the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger, the

— 26 —
Lord will scatter them among the nations, and they shall
be left few in number among the heathen. And there
they shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and
stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell
(Deut. iv. 25) " But Moses also foresees the mercy of the
Lord and promises, as to the possibility of returning to
God, "If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God,
thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart
and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation,
and all these things are come upon thee, even in the
latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt
be obedient unto His voice (for the Lord thy God is a
merciful God), He will not forsake thee, neither destroy
thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He
sware unto them" (Deut. iv. 29-31).
All of which came true, for we find the Israelites
soon falling into the worship of Baalim and Ashtoreth
and other idols of the country. Their history is a series
of oppressions by heathen conquerors and of deliverances
by judges raised up by God, followed, later, by the
reigns of kings Saul, David, and Solomon, after which the
kingdom is divided. Jeroboam, king of Israel, set up a
golden figure of Mnevis. the sacred calf of Heliopolis, at
the northern and southern sanctuaries, Dan and Bethel,
of his dominions, with the address. "Behold the God
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The
succeeding kings of Israel walked " in the way of, or did
more than, Jeroboam" until 721 B. C, when the ten
tribes were carried captive by Sargon into Assyria and
placed in the cities of the Medes.*
Israel thus became outcast, and her record is wiped
out of the Book of Life, just as is that of the family of
* " God's dealings with them, whether in acts of blessing or punish
ment, would be so wonderful that they would draw to them the
attention of the world, and so serve to make known to all His purpose
in them, and iu the end to exalt and glorify HiB name " (Jer. xxii. 8-9 ;
Ezek. v. 8; Mai. iii. 12).

— 27 —
Cain and the apostate descendants of Noah and of Abra
ham. The history of Judah is a conflict between the
worship of Jehovah (the Supreme Eternal Source of
Life) and Baal (the personification of natural causes).
Judah is stayed by a few faithful kings, as Asa, Hezekiah,
and Josiah. but is at last, 586 B. C. (like Israel), carried
captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar ; where, however,
she repents of her unfaithfulness, and is restored from
exile. Thus the Father, in his wonderful love, accepts the
returning prodigal, who, when he came to himself, said :
"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
and am no more worthy to be called thy son : make me
as one of thy hired servants. But when he was yet a
great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion,
and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." — Luke xv.
17-20. We have thus seen how even the chosen people
continually fell away from God, and went out after the
strange gods of their heatheti neighbors. What, then,
should we expect to be the record of those who from the
first turned the truth of God into a lie and worshipped
and served the creature more than the (Veator, and
whom Gnd therefore gave up to their own lusts? Is it
any wonder that they sank so deep into the mire of
ignorance and superstition that they sacrificed some of
their sons and daughters unto devils ? (Ps. cvi 37), and
that the others became all their lifetime in bondage to
Satan ? (Heb. ii. 15). If for a long season the people
of Israel were without the true God to teach them (II
Chron. xv. 3), do we wonder that the heathen Ephesians,
to whom Paul came preaching, were without God in
the world? (Eph. ii. 12). "There is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." — Hosea
iv. 1.

— 28 —
With no one to call them back from their pleasure
in wickedness and sin, would they not finally forget the
true God altogether ? Even so we find it stated many
times in Scripture, e.g. Jer. x. 25 ; Ps. Ixxix. 6 ; Isa.
Iv. 5 ; I Thess. iv. 5 ; LJ Thess. i. 8 : I Cor. xv. 34 ; Gal.
iv. 8 ; Eph. ii. 12. Take, for example, the interesting
case of the GRKEKS.
PmuI, in writing to the Thessalouians, speaks of " the Gentiles who
know not God " (I Thess. iv. 5).
Moses mentions the descendants of Javan (Gen. x. 2-5) as peopling
the isles of the Gentiles. The Old Testament word, which is Grecia,
iu A. V. Greece, Greeks etc., is in Hebrew Javan (Joel iii. 6 ; Dun. viii.
21) About 800 B. C, Joel speaks of the Tyriang as selliug the children
of Judah to the Grecians (Joel iii, 6). Prophetical notice of Greece
occurs in Daniel viii. 21, and also in Daniel ii 39-43, where, m the
interpretation of the king's dream of the image representing the four
great, empires, the brazen belly and thighs — the Griteco. Macedonian
kingdoms — are superseded by the legs of iron, the power of Rome.
Isaiah looks forward to the conversion of the Greeks through the
instrumentality of Jewish missionaries (Isa. Ixvi. 19).
All Greeks worshipped the twelve great gods of the Olympic
pantheon, developed from the ea.rlier worship of natural powers Zeus
was ruler of all the gods as well as of men. His wife Hera w;is goddess
of maternity. Hades, god of the lower world, was represented as
brother of Zeus and Posseidon, all three being children of two deities
in the older pantheon, Cronos and Rhea. The three graces, the nine
muses, the three fates, the furies, and an endless variety of nymphs,
the local and lesser deities of sea and forest, fountain and stream, — all
had their share of regard with all true Greeks. Their religious beliefs
included auguries, or observation of the flight and song of birds, aud the
inspection of the disordered or healthy state of the entrails of animttls
slain in sacrifice, as the means of attaining knowledge concerning the
will aud purpose of the gods. — Sanderson's H. W., pp. 75-6.
Paul, on visiting Athens, found the city wholly given to idolatry.
S"me said, "He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods," and they
wauted to hear the new doctrine, Paul said, "I perceive that in all
things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld the
pods that ye worship, I found an altar with this inscription, To The
Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. We ought not to think that God, who made the world and
all things, is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art or man's
device. The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now command-
eth men everywhere to repent." — Acts xvii. 18-30.

— 29 —
And Paul exhorted the Corinthians to flee from idolatry (t Cor, x.
14.1, for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat, meat as a
tiling offered unto an idol, and their conscience being we;ik is defiled, —
I Cor, viii 7. The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils and not to God, aud I would not that ye should have fellowship
with devils, — I Cor. x. 20. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried
awny unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led, — I Cor. xii. 2. What
agreement hath the temple of God with idols P — II Cor. vi. l(i.
Paul wrote to the Fhilippiaus, Te are in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world — Phil. ii.
15 ; and to the Thessalonians, flow ye turned to God from idols to serve
the living and true God (i. 9), and walk not iu the lust of concupiscence,
even as the Gentiles which know not God, — I Thess. iv. 5; the Lord
Jesus takes vengeance on them that know not God. — II Thess. i. S
Athens in her best days became the chief college or university of
the vvhftle civilized world. To Athens, the most promising youths
flocked to hear the discussion of high themes, the discourses of philoso
phers iu the four great schools — the Academic founded by Plato, the
Epicurean founded by Epicurus, the Stoic founded by Zeno, and the
Peripatetic founded by Aristotle. In groves of olives aud plane trees,
Piatt) discoursed of the one eternal deity ; of peifect goodness and
wisdom. His illustrious master, Socrates, believed in the immoi tulity
of the soul, and sought to tetich men how to attain moral and intellectual
truth iu ridding themselves of self-delusion and self-deceit — Sanderson's
H. W.
But they bad forgotten from whence cometh wisdom, — Job xxviii:
28. Paul writes unto the Corinthians : ''We speak not the wisdom of this
world nor of the princes of this world, which come to naught (I Cor
ii. 6) ; for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. For the Jews reqniie a sign, and the Greeks seek
after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews n. stumb-
lingblock, mid unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are
called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God.— I Cor. i. 21-4.
The complete subjugation of the Greeks by the Romans and their
absorption into the Roman empire occurred 146 B. C.
So far as we have now examined ancient history, we find literally
fulfilled the truth of the prophecy : "The nation or kingdom that will
not serve God shall per.sh ; yea. shall be utterly wasted." — Isa. Ix. 12.
One more illustrutiou uiust suffice : —
ROMANS.
The "seven hills" (Rev. xvii. 9) formed the nucleus of ancient
Rome, The Aryan immigration, in course of time, spread iuto the peninsula
of Italy, The early Romans, sprung from shepherds and husbandmen,

— 30 —
worshipped the gods of nature, of field and forest, the bounteous
protectors of flocks, or donors of harvests, like Faunus, Vertutnnus,
Saturn Ops, and the gods who shielded the house and its inmates,
gods of the family (Lares and Penates); also, state deities, like her
founder Jupiter, her defender Mars, and Quirinus the deified Romulus ;
also, abstract moral entities, as Virtus, Fides, and Pietas. — Sanderson's
H. W., pp. 69, 130.
Paul in his epistle to the saints at Rome, says: " The wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unright
eousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness ; so that they
are without excuse ; because that, when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing them
selves to be wise, they became fools; changed the truth of God into
a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more thau the Creator,
who is blessed forever. For this cause God gave them up unto vile
affections ; for even their women did change the natural use into that
which is against nature : and likewise also the men ; being filled with
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malicious
ness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful — Rom. i.
18-31. Ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to
'iniquity unto iniquity whereof ye are now ashamed, — Rom, vi. 19, 21.
Ye. in times past, have not obeyed God, — Rom. ii. 30. What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make known his power, endured
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction :
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" — Rom. ix :
22-4. It may be that, some of those Romans " both Jews and proselytes"
present on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 10) carried back the earliest
tidings of the gospel, or it may have first reached there through those
who were scattered abroad to escape the petsecution which followed
on the death of Stephen, — Acts viii, 4 ; xi. 19. At length the apostle
Paul himself came to Rome, — Acts xxviii. 17. He made it known unto
them that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles (Acts xxviii.
28) ; that the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, now is made
manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, is made known to all nations for
the obedience of faith, — Rom. xvi. 25-6,
Christianity was made the state religion under Constantine, A.D.
323, but his successors apostatized aud became utterlv corrupt.
The downfall of Rome predicted in Daniel ii 41-5; Rev. xvii. 9;
xix. 20, came to pass iu A D., 476.

— 31 —

CHAPTER IV.
How men, in process of time, divide into three classes, viz.,
God-fearing, God=dlsobeying, and God=fcrgetting ;
or, the righteous, rebellious and pagan.
We have now seen that all men at THE t.eginning
KNEW god (Rom. i. 21; Gen. ii. 16; ix. 8). But notwith
standing all God's spoken truth and His witness lo it,
they very soon divided themselves into two classes (Rom.
ii. 7, 8), viz.,
I. Those who believed God's Word and taught it to
others, as Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, the children of Israel, God-fearing proselytes, and
Christians. II. Those who did not like to retain God in their
knowledge (Rom. i. 28). These latter are those
1. Who changed the truth of God into a lie. — ¦
Rom. i. 25.
(a). Worshipping and serving the creature more than the
Creator. — Rom. i. 25.
(b). This is thy lot, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten
me and trusted in falsehood. — Jer. xiii. 25.
(c). Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge;
every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image ; for his molten
ima^e is falsehood, and thete is no breath in them. — Jer. x. 14 ; I
Cor.°xii. 2.
(d). God told things from the beginning, lest man say, idol did
this. — Isa. xlviii. 3-8.
(e). A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot de
liver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? — Isa,
xliv. 20.
(f). God made man upright, but he has sought out many inven
tions. --Eccle. vii. 29.
2. Who hold down the truth in unrighteousness. —
Rom. i. 18.

— 32 —
(a). Kvery man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own
lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it btingeth forth
sin. — J. tines i, 14, 15.
(b). Aud God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart waa
only evil continually. — Gen, vi. 5 ; viii. 21.
(c). They are filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wicked
ness, etc. — Rom. i. 29-32.
fd), Who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past
ye walked and were children of wrath. — Eph. ii. 1-3.
3. Whose foolish heart becomes darkened. — Rom.
i. 21. (a). Vain in their imaginations, — Rom. i. 21.
(b). Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart. — Eph iv. 18.
(c). Being past feeling, having given themselves over unto
lasciviousness, etc. — Eph. iv. 19.
(d). For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye li^ht in
the Lord.— Eph. » 8.
(e). To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness unto
light, and from the power of Satan unto God. — Acts xxvi. IS.
Resulting, finally, in a third class, viz.,
III. Those who know not God. — -I Thess iv. 5.
(a). Howbeit, then, when ye knew not God, ye did sen ice unto
them which by nature are not gods. — Gal. iv. 8
(h). Wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles
in the flesh, that at that time ye were without God iu the world —
Eph. ii. 11-2.
(c). The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven taking venge
ance on them that know not God. — II Thess. i. 8.
(d). The natural mau receiveth not things of the Spirit of God,
for th ey are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, for they
are spiritually discerned. — I Cor. ii, 14.
(e), For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by its
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,
to save them that believe. — I Cor. i. 21,
After Greece, perhaps our most striking illustration is
CHINA (Sinim).
"Behold, these shall come from far : and lo, these from the north
and from the west; and these from the land of Siniin." — Isa.
xlix. 12.

— 33 —
The name Siniin is identified by Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel and
others with the classical Sinoe, the inhabitants of the southern part
of China. It is certain that an inland commercial route connected the
extreme east with the west at a very early period. The tSinae
attained an independent position in Western China as early as the
eighth century B. C.» and in the third century B. C. established their
sway under the dynasty of Tsin over the whole of the empire.—
Smith's Bible Diet., p. 907.
Sanderson's History of the World, page 644, says that "the
people were known to the ancients as the Seres, the Serica of the
geographer Ptolemy, in the second century A. D., meaning north-west
China and adjacent parts of Thibet and Chinese Tartary."
"Purcelain vessels with Chinese mottoes have been found in the
ancient tombs of Egyptian kings, in shape, material and appearance
precisely like those which are made in China to-day ; and Rosellini
believes them to have been imported from China by kings con
temporary with Moses, or before him." — Ten Great Religions, p. 33.
"The most essential peculiarity of this nation (China) is the
high value which they attribute to knowledge. The public service
examinations form the basis of the whole system of government. All
of the hundreds of thousands who prepare to compete are obliged to
know the whole system of Confucius, to commit to memory all his
moral doctrines, and to become familiar with all the traditionaL
wisdom of the land." — (Ibid, pp. 40-41.)
As to Wisdom, Confucius himself taught: "To give one's self
earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual
beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom." — Ana. vi. 20.
"In matters of ceremony and music, he followed the men of former
times." — Ana. xi. 1. " He handed down the doctrines of Yao and Shun
as if they had been his ancestors." — D. of the Mean xxx. 1.
Here, then, we have a nation practising "the wisdom of this
world" since the eailiest dawn of authentic history, and what is the
fruitage thereof ?
Schmuoker's History of all Religions, pp. 259-64, says : " The
existing worship in China is a confused mixture of superstitions. The
most ancient is Taoism, founded by philosopher Tao about 600 B. C,
who is worshipped along with a host of tutelary divinities, while
emperors, warriors and illustrious men are considered demi-gods. All
these are embodied in. idols of various shapes. Buddhism was
introduced about A. D. 69. It teaches to pray to the god Fu and to
provide for his worship iu sustaining priests and temples. Punish
ment for breaking the commandments is transmigration of the soul
into the bodies of rats, dogs, horses, serpents, etc. As a consequence
multitudes of idols in the form of birds, beasts and reptiles are
worshipped. Alohammedanism also prevails, somewhat modified by
the various superstitions of the other creeds. But the great over
shadowing system of worship — it can hardly be called a religion —
which pervades every grade of society in the empire is that of Con-

— 34 —
fucius, a philosopher who flourished 660 B. C. He taught that our
ancestors were permitted to revisit their ancient homes and confer
benefits upon their relatives — hence the worship of ancestors is
inculcated as an indispensable duty — and the sacred rites performed
in memory of the departed are the most conspicuous ceremonies of all
classes. The natural result of the belief of visiting spirits is the
introduction of the worship of genii, or good and bad spirits. Sacri
fices and sacred rites are now performed in honor of Confucius. Besides
these, there are semi-religious festivals at various seasons which the
common people observe as sacred duties. The government upholds by
its patronage nearly every form of idolatry that can be imagined."
"It has been observed that the most refined nations that made the
greatest show of wisdom were the arrantest fools in religion. The
barbarians adored the sun and moon, which of all others was the most
specious idolatry, while the learned Egyptians worshipped an ox aud
an onion. The Grecians, who excelled them in wisdom, adored
diseases and human passions. The Romans, the wisest of all,
worshipped the furies. And at this day the poor Americans worship
the thunder, while the ingenious Chinese adore the devil. Li Hung-
chang worshipped a lizard-like worm of the Yellow River, which he
carried with him in a bottle. Thus the world by its wisdom knew
not God (I Cor. i. 21). Hence we read of few philosophers who were
converted to Christianity, and Paul's preaching was nowhere so
laughed at and ridiculed as among the learned Athenians. — Acts xvii.
18-32 "—Matthew Henry.
Stanley Smith in his book, "China From Within," p. 172, shows
that the ancient Chinese already hud lost the true knowledge of God.
He says : "In the very first passage where Shang Ti (the present-day
term for God) occurs in the classics, we read of Emperor Shun (2255
B. C): He 'sacrificed specially tu Shang Ti, sacrificed reverently to
the six honored ones, offered appropriate sacrifices to he hills and
rivers, and extended his worship to the host of spirits.' Dr. Legge,
the learned translator, says: 'The truth concerning Shang Ti and
His worship — the primitive monotheism of the race — had been per
verted even in this early time, as appears from the other clauses in
the paragraph.' The ' knowledge' of the heathen nations of God
was necessarily faulty and relative. It consisted of such an approxima
tion of the knowledge of the true God as could be gained from the
ideas expressed by the highest objects of worship in their various
pantheons. " The one saying of Confucius in which he uses the (old as well as
the) present-day term for God, 'Shang Ti,' is not his, but a state
ment ' elegantly displaying the regulations' of two ancient worthies,
kings Wan and Wu, viz., ' By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to
heaven and earth they served Shang Ti, and by the ceremonies of the
ancestral temple they sacrificed to their ancestors.' Christians would
call this idolatry, with Paul, who says : ' The things which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God.' — I Cor

— 35 —
x. 20. Further, if we hunt up the Book of History to find whom
they did worship, we find the following sentences by king Wu him
self : 'Heaven and earth are the father and mother of all creatures ;
and, of all creatures, man is the most highly endowed.' Lower down
king Wu speaks of the tyrannies of Shoo (li, C. 1154). and uses this
language : 'He sits squatting on his heels, not serving Shang Ti nor
the spirits of heaveu aud earth.' Lastly, king Wu says: 'I have
received from my deceased father, Wen ; I have offered special
sacrifice to Shang Ti ; I have performed the due services to the great
earth,' All of whioh substantiates other history that the ancient
Chinese worshipped the spirits of heaven, earth and men.
"The worship of ' heaven and earth ' is absolutely universal in
China. The God we read of in Genesis i. 1, who is both antecedent
to, and independent of, heaven aud earth will, we believe, not be
found in the classics. It is one thing to quote passages about
' heaven' to the Chinese, and quite another thing to do as Dr. Legge
did, to go to the temple of Heaven in Peking and there sing the
doxology in honor of the true God who had been worshipped by the
Emperors of China for four milleuiums. He did it no doubt out of
the fulness of his generous heart, but we fancy in doing so, his feelings
ran away with his judgment." — Stanley Smith.
"China's Millions" for January, 1903, gives as an illustration of the
stronghold that idolatry has even in the highest and most enlightened
quarters in China, the following extract from an imperial decree
issued October 29, 1902: "Decree acknowledging receipt of
memorial from Hsi Liang, governor of Honan, reporting the peaceful
condition this summer of that section of the Yellow River draining
Honan province, due in a great measure to the watchful energy of the
officials connected with the conservation of the river and of the kind
interposition of the dragon god. In response to this, the Empress-
Dowager commands that ten large stick.* of Thibetan incense be sent
to the Honan provincial capital and handed to the said governor, who
is to offer them as a sacrifice at the temple of the river god on behalf
of the Empress-Dowager and Emperor, as a mark of the Imperial
gratitude for the protection of the said god." On which the editor
comments as follows: "0 Lord God, holy and true: How long?
How long will rational beings affront thy Godhead? How long will
men, lost, contemn their Creator aud adore His creatures? Earth
and heaven answer, How can they call on Him of whom they have
not heard ? And how can they hear without a preacher 7"
Rev. C. W. Mateer, now many years a missionary in China, says :
" It should first be noted, however, that since the dawn of Chinese
history, when Shun upon ascending the throne offered sacrifice to the
Supreme Ruler ; to the powers of nature, and to the hundred ' Shen '
the Chinese have heen polytheists; hence it is vain to expect that their
word ' god ' should answer to the Christian and monotheistic word
God ; aud, in point of fact, no one has ever maintained this concerning
the word Shen. We are therefore quite justified in taking, not the

— 36 —
definition of the Christian word God, but rather the ground idea of
divinity as it exists in the minds of polytheists, and which is common
to all heathen nations. Shen is
1. It is used in a personal sense of the numerous invisible beings
worshipped by the Chinese.
2. It is used in an* impersonal sense of the divine soul or mind of
the universe. 3. It is used in a semi-personal sense of the souls of men and
beasts. Of these three, the first is the original or primary sense ; the other
two are derivative and secondary. Besides these, there are a number
of metaphorical and figurative senses, all of which are based upon,
and derive their siguificatiou from, one or other of these."
IT PLEASED GOD BY THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING
TO SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE.
As early as A. D. 505 Christianity in its Nestorian form appears
to have penetrated China from the West. In 1280 the Nestorians
flourished in North China. The latin form of Christianity was first
introduced by John of Corvino in 1292, who traveled overland from
India in a caravan. Towards the close of the 14th century the
Mohammedans drove the Christians from Eastern Asia. Next comes
Xavier on the scene, from India, nearly two centuries later following
the Portuguese who came via Cape of Good Hope. In 1582 Matteo
Ricci, the real founder of Roman Catholic missions in China, began his
work. In 1706 and 1720, by edicts of the Emperor, it was determined
that "as the papal decrees were contrary to the usages of the
empire, the Christian religion could not subsist there.'' After twelve
centuries of Nestorian and Roman Catholic vain endeavor to couvert
China, a mighty stirring of the missionary spirit in Protestant
countries took place. Carey went to India and Robert Morrison to
China (1S07). Since theu, what?
To-day (1903) there are 2,930 Protestant missionaries in China,
viz., 1,233 men, 868 wives of missionaries, and 849 unmarried women ;
or, 1,483 British, 1,117 American, and 350 Continental (principally
Scandinavians and Germans). There are three Bible Societies (Amer
ican, British and Scotch), three tract societies, a mission for the
blind, a refuge for the insane, the Young Men's Christian Association,
and the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge
among the Chinese. During the sixteen months ending with the year
1902 no less than 373 new missionaries arrived in China. There are
now over 100,000 Chinese Christians, and thousands more interested in
Christianity. The various missionary societies report large increase
* Perhaps " collective " would be a better term than "impersonal;" the latter
meaning " wanting personality," the former comprehending in its signification more
than one person or spirit, but having the form of the singular number.

— 37 —
of converts, enquirers and baptisms ; the ' Chinese Christian Union '
has revealed a robust health and anxious solicitude for their
unenlightened brethren's highest interests on the part of the native
Christians ; the establishment of the Chinese Christian Endeavor
Union is a cheering fact, while the independent and self-denying
labors of many friends of China and the number of Chinese students
learning abroad, all contain elements of hope. — Chinese Recorder,
January, 1904.
And all this by "the foolishness of preaching," for verily God
hath spoken : " My word shall not return unto Me void."

— 38 —
CHAPTER V.
God has spoken unto the Heathen.
But always through a Man of God as Interpreter.
Let us now notice how God has ever sought to save
these lost ones, not willing that any should perish.
I. In the old Dispensation, through the Prophets.
No prophecy of Scripture ever came by the will of man;
but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy
Spirit. — II Pet. i. 21. Every Scripture is inspired of
God.— II Tim. iii. 16.
1. By Dream and Interpreter.
God showed Pharaoh in a dream what He was about
to do (through Joseph, interpreter). — Gen. xii. 25.
God told Nebuchadnezzar by dream that his king
dom should depart from him (through Daniel, inter
preter). — Dan. iv. 24.
[See " Nebuchadnezzar," Part II, Chap. VI.]
2. By writing on the wall, and Interpreter.
God said to Belshazzar (through Daniel, interpreter):
"Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting." —
Dan. v. 27.
3. By Jewish Maid.
She told the king of Syria of the man of God. — II
K. v. 4. NAAMAN.
He was commander-in-chief of the Syrian army under Benhadad
II, the king whom he accompanied officially, and supported when he
went to worship in the temple of Rimmon. But he was a leper. A
little captive maid out of the land of Israel waited on Naaman's wife.
She brings into that Syrian household the fame of the name and skill
of Eltslia. Naaman, with a letter from king Benhadad to the king

— 39 —
of Israel, and with a present and a full retinue of attendants, proceeds
to Samaria to the house of Elisha. Elisha sends out woid for
Naaman to bathe seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman is angry,
but finally does as commanded, and his flesh came again like unto the
flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he and all his company
came and stood before Elisha, and he said, Behold now J know that
there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Thy servant will
henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there,
and he leaneth ou my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rim
mon ; the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. Naaman thus
recognizes Jehovah as his God, yet does not bind himself to any
rigorous observance of the law.
Here is a very plain case of how the knowledge of the true God
is brought to those lost in idolatry. The little captive Israelite girl,
kidnapped by the marauders of Syria, in one of thejr forays over the
border, brings the news. Naaman knew before that there were gods
iu the earth, but it remained for this little maid to tell him of the
one true God and Lord of heaven and earth, unto whom only he
henceforth promises to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices. He had
heard, aud when afterwards out of a good and honest heart, by
nature, as he could not by commandment (without law, as he was not
under the law), he did the things contained in the law of God, he
would he a law unto himself. He would thus show that thewoik
of the law was written in his heart, his conscience also bearing witness,
and his thoughts would accuse him if he did any wrong, or excuse
him if he did it in word or form but not in heart or purpose. Naaman
had many years before recognized Jehovah as God.
4. By Prophet.
Benhadad, king of Syria, sent Hazael to enquire of
the Lord by Elisha. — II K. viii. 7-9. Thus saith the
Lord God to Tyrus (through Ezekiel). — Ezek. xxvi. 1 5.
The word of the Lord came unto Jonah saying, Cry unto
Nineveh. — Jon. i. 1-2. The word of the Lord which came
to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles. —
Jer. xlvi. 1 ; the Philistines.— Jer. xlvii. 1 ; the Chal
deans. — Jer. 1. 1. Thus saith the Lord against Moab (by
Amos). — Amos ii. 1 ; saith the Lord of Hosts against the
Ethiopians (by Zephaniah). — Zeph. ii. 12.
Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus (through Isaiah). —
Isa. xiv. 1.

— 40 —
CYRUS.
He was the founder of the Persian empire, B. C. 559-529. The
edict of Cyrus for the rebuilding of the temple was, in fact, the begin
ning of Judaism. So mightily was king Nebuchadnezzar impressed
that twenty-three years after, when Cyrus the Great, a Persian noble,
conquered Babylon and began his reign there in B. C. 538, he issued
a proclamation for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem,
This, notwithstanding the idolatrous and evil kings intervening be-
tween Nebuchadnezzar and himself, and the fact of his Persian origin,
which gave him Zoroastrian dualaism, Oromasdes, the chief of the gods,
Mit.hra the sun, and Arimanius the Evil spirit; and added to this,
Magianism or the worship of the elements, especially the most subtle
of all — fire. Daniel is still active in Babylon, and such great Jewish
leaders as Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah and Ezra are
there. Traces of their advice, perhaps that of Daniel, appear in the
language of Cyrus' decree for the return. Thus God stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus, and be made a proclamation : " Now in the first year of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that the Word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of
Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom, and put it also in writing saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of
Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given
me ; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which
is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people ? The Lord his
God he with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah,
and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God) which
is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he so-
journeth, let the men of his place where he sojourneth help him with
silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts beside the
freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Let the
house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the
foundations thereof be strongly laid, the height thereof threescore
cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits ; with three rows
of great stones and a row of new timber ; and let the expenses be
given out of the king's house : And also let the golden and silver
vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out
of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be
restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem,
ever}' one to his place, and place them in the house of God." — Ezra
1 aud 6 That (the Lord) saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and
shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt
be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid, — Isa. xliv.
28. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
hand I have holden to subdue nations before him ; and I will loose
the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates ; and
the gates shall not be shut ; I will g» before thee, and make the
crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass

— 41 —
and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And I will give the treasures
of darkness and hidden tidies of secret places, that thou mayest know
that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of
Israel. — Isa. xiv. 1-3
Hitherto the great kings, with whom the Jews had been brought
into contact, bad been open oppressors or seductive allies ; but Cyrus
was a generous liberator, and a. just guardian of their rights.
Daniel convinced Darius, the Median, of the living
God.— vi. 26. DARIUS THE MEDE.
He succeeded to the Babylonian kingdom on the death of Bel-
shazzar, being then sixty-two years old. Only one year of his reign is
mentioned ; hut that was of great importance to the Jews. He is
known in history as Astyages, the last kiug of Media. He was
dethroned by Cyrus, but probably allowed the whole royal authority
at Babylon during the last two years of his life (538-536) while Cyrus
was completing his new conquest. We know that Cyrus treated his
dethroned predecessor with the greatest honor ; while the close rela
tions of Darius with the captive Jews account for their speaking of
him as the king, and dating the year of his death as the first year of
Cyrns. The testimony of Herodotus, and indeed of his own fate, to
the weak character of Astyages, agrees entirely with the impulsive
and vacillating conduct of Darius toward Daniel.
Darius lived in a land of many gods, and upon the request of the
presidents, governors, princes, counsellors, and captains of his kingdom,
he signed a decree that whosoever should ask a petition of auy god or
man for thirty days, save of the king, he should be cast into the den of
lions. But when he found that their purpose was only to entrap
Daniel, who continued to pray to God three times a day as beforetime,
Darius was sore displeased with himself, and tried to deliver Daniel,
but according to the law of the Medes aud Persians, a decree once
signed by the king could not be changed. This king, like Pilate, was
too weak to do what he knew to be right, and so had Daniel cast into
the lion's den, saying, Thy God whom thou servest will deliver thee.
He himself could not sleep that night, and rose very early and went
in haste to the den of lions, and called with a lamentable voice;
"O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God able to deliver thee
from the lions ? " Daniel answered that God had shut the lions' mouths,
because of his innocency. Then the king was glad, and ordered all
Daniel's accusers to be cast into the den of lions, and they were
destroyed. Then king Darius wrote unto all peoples, nations and
languages that dwell in all the earth. I make a decree, That in
every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of
Daniel, for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be unto the

— 42 —
end. He delivereth and rescueth, anil he worketh signs and wonders
in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power
of the lions.
5. By Record of former King's Decree.
Darius finding the edicb of Cyrus decrees that the
building of the house of God at Jerusalem be not hinder
ed. — Ezra 6'. DARIUS THE PERSIAN.
He was the son of Hystaspis, the founder of the Perso-Arian
dynasty (521-486 B. C). He pursued the same policy as Cyrus with
regard to the Jews, and restored to them the privileges which they
had lost. " Then Darius made a decree : Let the work of this house
of God alone ; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews
build this house of God in this place. Moreover, I make a. decree
what ye shall do to the eldets of these Jews for the building of this
house of God : that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond
the river, forthwith expenses be given uuto these men, that they may
not be hindered. And that which they have need of, both youn"
bullocks and rams and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of
heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of
the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day
without fail, that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savors unto the
God of heaven, aud pray for the lite of the king aud his sons. Also
I make a decree that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be
pulled down from his home, and being set up, let him be hain'ed
thereon ; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. And the God
that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people,
that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God
which is at Jerusalem,"
This Darius was not only one of Versia's greatest sovereigns, but
one of the most distinguished mouarchs of all time.
II. In the New Dispensation, By His Son.
God hath manifested His Word through preaching. 
Titus i. 3.
There is an interesting little pamphlet by W. P.
Bentley entitled "Christ Triumphant Through the
Years," which should be read in this connection. It
gives succinctly the spread of Christianity from the
begininug of the first century A. D. down to the close of
the nineteenth. This dissemination of the knowledge

— 43 —
of Christ differs from that of the knowledge of God from
Noah down in this : The knowledge of God at the first
was taken by Noah's descendants wherever they went
settling the then uninhabited world, whereas the knowl
edge of Christ had to permeate countries already peo
pled. In the first case, God chose out a people to keep
His name and worship pure, while those who persisted
in going after strange gods were " suffered to walk in their
own ways" perverting and forgetting what knowledge
they first possessed, with few (as Jonah and other pro
phets) to call them back. In the latter case, Jesus sends
His disciples into all the inhabited world to preach the
Gospel and make disciples. In the former, what few
idolatrous people turned to the true God were called
proselytes ; in the latter, all converts, Jews and Gentiles
alike, are called brethren (for one is their Master even
Christ) and these in turn are commissioned to teach
others. — II Tim. ii. 2. All who hear and obey the Gospel
call may become disciples of (.'hrist. Whosoever will,
may come. Thus we see that the knowledge of God and
of t e Son of God, comes to man at the first in one and
the same way — by direct revelation and messenger.
Jesus says : No man knoweth the Father but the Son
and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.
We have, as yet, found no record of men hearing of
God. without God's messenger, preacher or prophet; but
we will now give two New Testament instances of Gen
tiles hearing the Word of the Lord in this way and
believing to the salvation of their souls. For belief
cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. —
Rom. x. 17. 1. CORNELIUS.
This was a Roman officer who had lived among
the Jews to his own good. The headquarters of the
Roman force in Judea were at Caesarea. Among the

— 44 —
force stationed there was an independent cohort of
volunteers serving under the Roman standards named
the Italian " band," as consisting of volunteers from
Italy. This man had command of one of the six com
panies composing the Italian cohort, from 50 to 100
men. Judea had been under Roman sway since the
capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 B. C. Caesarea
was built by Herod the Great. It was the official resid
ence of the Herodian kings and of Festus, Felix and the
other Roman procurators of Judea.
Here is an interesting case of a Gentile conversion.
At the time he is first mentioned he is a God-fearing
man, so devout that he has impressed his whole house
hold. He gives much alms to the people and prays to
the true God always and becomes a preacher of the new
faith to the soldiers under him. The prayers of such
men, whether Jews or Gentiles, God hears. God sends
an angel to tell Cornelius that his prayers and alms are
a memorial before Him. "And now send for one Simon,
whose surname is Peter ; he shall tell thee what thou
oughtest to do." The Jews had a ceremonial law that
Gentiles were unclean, and to eat with them would be
like eating unclean animals. Peter, moved by the Holy
Spirit, went and said: " Ye know how that it is an unlaw
ful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or
come unto one, of another nation; but God hath showed
me that I should not call any man common or unclean."
When Peter arrived Cornelius said: "We are all here
present before God to hear all things that are com
manded thee of Gorl." And Peter said: "God is no
respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth
Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him."
And he commanded us to preach unto the people and
to testify that it is Jesus Christ which was ordained of
God to be the judge of quick and dead. Whosoever be
lieveth in Him shall receive remission of sins. On the

— 45 —
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name
of the Lord. With his household he was baptized, and
thus Cornelius became the first fruits of the Gentile
world to Christ.
If it be said that Cornelius was spoken to by God
by means of an angel in a vision and not by means of man,
it is replied that at the time God spoke to Cornelius in a
vision by an angel, Cornelius was already a just man and
one that feared God and of good report among all the
nation of the Jews. The question is, How did he first
hear of the true God? Who taught him to fear the God
of the Jews ? And thus obtain a good report among
them all ? He was a native of Italy, where people
worshipped gods many and lords many, but where few,
if any, worshipped after the manner of the Jews. How
long Cornelius had been at Caesarea we are not told.
But long enough to have a good report among all the
nation of the Jews. This good report would naturally
arise by his adopting the religion of the Jews, and
thus conforming to their customs and ceremonies in
worship. He also increased his good name, no doubt,
by his much alms to the people. Nothing would so
quickly give him a good report among the Jews as to
fear the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to enter
devoutly into His worship, as taught by the Jews. For
unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God, and
there is salvation in no other. Here then we have the
most probable source of Cornelius' first knowledge of
God and of His worship taught to him (by word or
observation) by the Jews among whom he had come to
live. We have nothing here, or elsewhere, to warrant
the supposition that any Gentile heathen was ever called
out of his idolatrous darkness into the light of God's
eternal truth, except by God's own appointed messengers
or preacher. We have no miraculous interventions by

— 46 —
God calling heathen to believe on Him, or influencing
them to return to Him; but always the one way of
human agency, whether prophets, apostles or preachers
to exhort and warn them. To those who listen to the
exhortation and warning, to these he gives the Holy
Spirit to influence their hearts and guide them into all
truth. Peter himself tells how Cornelius obtained knowl
edge and faith : " Brethren, ye know how that a good
while ago God made choice among you that by my
mouth the Gentiles shotld hear the word of the Gospel
and believe. — Acts xv. 7.

2. SYROPIIOENICtAN WOMAN.
Here is another splendid instance of a Gentile who
was without the law, yet who did the things contained
in the law. Her great faith was not in idols, but in the
Lord God. She worshipped Jesus as, her Lord. She
could not do this bj* commandment, for the command
ments were given to the children of Israel. She wor
shipped by nature out of her own loving heart, — she who
was created in the image of God. Jesus told her plainly
that He was sent unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. She was of a mixed race — half Phoenician and
half Syrian, and therefore not of the house of Israel.
She knows this perfectly well, for she addresses Jesus as
the son of David. But she believes that Jesus has power
to heal her daughter, and has faith that he can overlook
the fact of her being a Gentile, so she cries. Lord help
me. Jesus reminds her that this would be taking what
was intended for the children of the Master's house and
giving it to the dogs. "Truth, Lord," she replies, fully
realizing the position of the Gentiles before the law given
to the chosen people of God, "but the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from the Master's table." The crumbs
from your table will suffice me Your crumbs will be far

— 47 —
more efficacious than all the riches of the Gentile world.
I believe, as Lord, you have power over devils. Jesus
answered, " O woman, great is thy faith ;" and her daughter
was made whole from that very hour. " In every nation,
he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accept
ed with him."
Now the interesting question arises, Whence had
this Gentile woman all this knowledge? She knew
there were people called Israelites; that they had an
ancient king called David; that in some way an heir of
this king would come wdio would be Lord of all — of Gentiles
as well as of Jews. She knew how to worship Jesus as
Lord. She believed Jesus to be this son of David and
Lord of all. She knew the current opinion held by many
Jews as to outside people or Gentiles. She humbly
accepts this position, and asks only for the crumbs.
Jesus sees her great faith and rewards it by granting
her prayer. Whence came this woman's faith ? Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. And how
could she have heard without a preacher? Who taught
her the Word of God, and that the Messiah, our common
Lord, would come of the seed of David after the flesh ?
We are not told. Certainly, her close proximity to the
Jews would make it quite possible for the knowledge to
have been communicated through them. When she, as
a Gentile, did by nature (because she could not by com
mandment) the things contained in the law of Moses,
she showed the work of that law written in her heart.
Her nature spontaneously burst forth in worship, as she
humbly fell at the Master's feet. She, as a doer of the
law, was justified while many a Jew who heard but did
not, remain unjustified before God.
Especially are we not told that she evolved this
knowledge out of her inner consciousness, nor that the
dim light of nature around her communicated to her

— 48 —
these particular facts, nor that she in common with all
God's creatures so partook of a religious nature that
made her at once recognize in Jesus the son of David,
the promised Lord, David's son after the flesh, who
had power over devils, such as the one that was
grievously tormenting her daughter. She intimates that
the blessing of this precious knowledge came to her
through the Jews, when she humbly accepts the crumbs
that fell from their table, as they were the custodians of
the oracles of God. As she is meekly willing to accept
the crumbs of healing from this source, we may infer that
the crumbs of the Gospel she had heard and so believed,
came through the Word of God preached by those unto
whom it was committed, or by proselytes such as she
herself became.

— 49 —
PART II.
How God Has Not Spoken to Man; Or, A
Rebuttal of the Claims of Natural Theology.

chapter v.
The Fruit of Evolution.
After Joshua had led the children of Israel into the
land of Canaan and taken the cities of Jericho and Ai,
the people of Gibeon (Josh, ix 3-27) by trickery and
deceit secured a league of peace with him and the
princes of the congregation ; and thus it came to pass
that the Gibeonites were permitted to remain in the
promised land, where they debased and corrupted even
the Israelites themselves.
So to-day, under Christ's command to go and make
disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever He has commanded, when the two great
English-speaking nations of the world, and some others,
are called Christian, and their missionaries are carrying
the Gospel into the uttermost recesses of the heathen world,
a people called evolutionists and their professors seem
to have made a league or truce with them by much the
same method of procedure as that of the Gibeonites.
The Gibeonites, it will be remembered, by showing dry
and moldy bread, old wine skins and old shoes, sought
to prove that they had come not from Canaan but from
a far-off country. So the evolutionists, by unearthing
the fossil bones of past ages, mummies of ancient Egypt,
the clay-cylinders of long-lost Babylon, and the musty
tomes of ancient Greece and Rome, likewise attempt to

— 50 —
show from what remote region and venerable ancestry
they have come.
Joshua faithfully kept the league which he made
with the Gibeonites, while they in return enticed the
Israelites into the worship of strange gods, which after
Joshua's death, brought ihem to disunion and almost
total destruction. Shall we not profit by the warning of
their terrible punishment? Shall we not drive from
our theological institutions and text-books the flattering
inducements offered to follow after the strange gods of
evolution ?
Listen to how our text-books are becoming inoculat
ed with this infection. Prof. Lewis French Stearns,
author of Present Day Theology, says on page 10:
"There are many not so wise as Thomas Huxley, who
think that evolution does away with the necessity of a
Creator. Yet what is evolution? It is only a law, not
a cause; it shows us the method, but not the power which
has brought about the present forms of the inorganic
and organic worlds." And on page 9, the same author
says : " There was a time, not long since, when the
theory of organic and inorganic evolution seemed to
have shattered the argument from design. But closer
acquaintance with this wonderful hypothesis, which,
although yet unproved and doubtless greatly to be modi
fied, carries with it so great a weight of probability, has
shown that it is a friend rather than an enemy of the
argument from evidences of design."
Notice that Prof. Stearns first calls evolution a
" law," next " the method," and then " this wonderful
hypothesis"; finally ending with the bland assurance
that " it is a friend rather than an enemy." Does not all
this forcibly remind one of the craftiness with which the
Gibeonites showed themselves friendly to Joshua ?
But let us hear what these modern Gibeonite am-
bassadors have to say: In an article on the Reception

— 51 —
of Origin of Species, published as an appendix to the
Life and Letters of < 'harles Darwin, Prof. Huxley says:
"Evolution was bound hand and foot during the
millenium of theological scholasticism. But Darwin
poured new life blood into the ancient frame, the bonds
burst and the revivified thought of ancient Greece has
proved itself to be a more adequate expression of the
universal order of things than any of the schemes which
have been accepted by the credulity and welcomed by
the superstitions of seventy later generations of men . . .
Outside of the ranks of biologists in 1851-8, the only
person known to me whose knowledge and capacity com
pelled respect, and who was at the same time a thorough
going evolutionist, was Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose
acquaintance I made, I think, in 1852, and then entered
into the bonds of friendship, which, I am happy to think,
has known no interruption. But even my friends' rare
dialectic skill and copiousness of apt illustration could
not drive me from my agnostic position."
It thus readily appears that this first ambassador
interviewed, Prof. Thotnas Huxley, who asserts that
evolution is the revivified thought of ancient Greece, is
a confirmed agnostic by his own confession. And this
is the man, you will take note, whom Prof. Stearns says
is wiser than certain other men.
Let us next interview the Gibeonite ambassador
Spencer, the firm friend of the agnostic Huxley.
We learn that Herbert Spencer was born in 1820
at Derby, England, where his father was teacher of
mathematics. From his father and his uncle, a Con
gregational minister, most of his early education was
received. As Herbert Spencer is now said to be the
father of the doctrine of evolution, let us hear what he
has to say on the subject. After a wordy discussion in
his book entitled " First Principles," he arrives at the
following conclusion : —

— 52 —
"As we now understand it, evolution is definable as
a change from an incoherent homogeneity to a coherent
heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion
and integration of matter, during which the matter passes
from the indefinite to the definite and during which the
retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."
How plain and simple is all this! And how much
more we know now than we did before ! How full is
such a definition !
Prof. Tait translates it into plain English as follows:
" Evolution is a change from a nohowish untalkabout-
able, allalikeness to a somehowish and in-general-talk-
aboutable not-all-alikeness by continuous something
elseifications and sticktogetherations."
This, certainly, ought to make it plain. But serious
ly, what kind of a man would we naturally expect Mr.
Spencer to be after hearing him give such a lucid defini
tion of evolution ? Should we now be at all surprised
to hear him say, on page 143 of the same book: "All
things known to us are manifestations of the unknow
able"? Does not this retmnd one of that inscription
written by those learned men Paul found at Athens some
1900 years before, — "To an unknown god"? And yet
this is the same Mr. Spencer of whom Prof. Stearns in
Present Day Theology, page 4, says: "When Herbert
Spencer says that the existence of God is a necessary
datum of consciousness, he concedes all that the theist
needs as the starting point of his argument." Think of
mankind, created in the image of God and walking and
talking with Him in the garden of Eden, having to wait
through six thousand years of posterity for Mr. Spencer
to concede all that is necessary to believe in the existence
of God ! Then think, friends, what consolation there
would be in observing, as yon pass into the evening of
life, Mr. Spencer's last inscriptiou on the altar of evolu
tion 'To the great unknowable.'

— 53 —
Another Gibeonite ambassador, the one who used
the evolution hypothesis to eliminate God from the plan
of creation altogether, was Ernest Haeckel. professor of
Jena Universit}', Germany. In his History of Creation,
page 6, he says: "In consequence of Darwin's reformed
' Theory of Descent' we are now in a position to establish
scientifically the ground-work of a non-miraculous history
of the development of the human race. . . It is true that
Darwin himself did not at first express thi* most import
ant of all the inferences from his theory. In his work
'On the Origin of Species' not a word is found about
the animal descent of man. . . It was not till twelve
years later, in his work on the Descent of Man, that
Darwin openly acknowledged that far-reaching con
clusion, and expressly declared his entire agreement with
those naturalists who had in the meantime themselves
formed that conclusion." Darwin in concluding his work
says: " I imagine that probably all organic beings which
ever lived on this earth descended from some primitive
form which was first called into life by the Creator."
Take notice that all the ground work for this
wonderful hypothesis of evolution is Darwin's imagina
tion, for he says : " I imagine, etc.," and you will not
then wonder at the marvelous result obtained by Dar
win's disciple. Prof. Haeckel, when he carries it to its
logical conclusion as follows: "The fundamental idea,
which must necessarily lie at the bottom of all natural
theories of development, is that of a gradual development
of all (even the most perfect) organisms out of •¦> single,
or out of a very few quite simple and quite imperfect
original beings, which came into existence not by su
pernatural creation but by spontaneous generation out
of inorganic matter." Reductio absurdum !
Thus has evolution gone to seed, and, though the
seed are worthless and have been disowned by the
cultivators of the plant, yet. the mass of these tillers in

— 54 —
the field of evolution still make themselves believe it is
a goodly plant, and will bear better seed if a fertilizer
of more ancient mould is used. They say with Prof.
Haeckel :
" In no nation have these preliminary conditions for
the origin of a natural theory of development ever
existed in so high a degree as among the Greeks of
classic antiquity. . . One man only must be mentioned
here by way of exception — Aristotle — the greatest and
the only truly great naturalist of antiquity and the
Middle Ages, one of the grandest geniuses of all time.
In what degree he stands there alone during a period
of more than 2,000 years in the region of empirico-
philosophical knowledge of nature, and especially in his
knowledge of organic nature, is proved to us by the
precious remains of his but partially surviving works.
In them many traces are found of a theory of natural
development. Aristotle assumes, as a matter of certainty,
that spontaneous generation was the natural maimer in
which the lower organic creatures came into existence.
He describes animals and plants as originating from
matter itself, through its own original force ; as, for
example, moths from wool, fleas from offal, wood lice from
damp wood, etc."
And this same ancient Greek Aristotle, whom Prof.
Haeckel says was one of the grandest geniuses of all time,
as shown by his description of how moths originate from
wool and wood lice from damp wood, Prof. Stearns, in
Present Day Theology, quotes in attempting to prove
from nature the existence of a First Cause. On page
12, he says: "But what has an end must have had a
beginning. Thus we are brought back to the necessity of
a First Cause, or what Aristotle called a Primum Movens,
a power which initiated the motions of the universe."
But now let us hear from the modern Gibeonite who
appears to be the leader of the evolution ambassadors,

— 55 —
Charles Darwin. We are anxious to know what the
chief of evolution has to say. In his autobiography
published by his son Frank, Mr. Charles Darwin gives
the following very interesting account of himself:
" After having spent two sessions in Edinburgh, my
father perceived or heard from my sisters that I did not
like the thought of being a physician, so he proposed
that I should be a clergyman. He was very properly
vehement against my turning into an idle sporting man,
which then seemed my probable destination. I asked
for some time to consider, as from what little I had
heard or thought on the subject, I had scruples about
declaring my belief in all the dogmas of the Church of
England, though otherwise I liked the thought of being
a country clergyman. Accordingly I read with care
Pearson on the Creed, and a few other books on divinity,
and as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and
literal truth of every word in the Bible. I soon persuaded
myself that our creed must be fully accepted.
" Considering how fiercely I have been attacked by
the orthodox, it seems ludicrous that I once intended to
be a clergyman. My father's wish was never formally
given up, but died a natural death when, on leaving
Cambridge, I joined the ship Beagle as naturalist.
While on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and
I remember being heartily laughed at by several of
the officers (though themselves orthodox) for quoting
the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point
of morality. But I had gradually come by this time —
1836 to 1839 — to see that the Old Testament was no
more to be trusted than the sacred book of the Hin
doos. By further reflecting that the clearest evidence
would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the
miracles by which Christianity is supported, and that
the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more
incredible do miracles become, I gradually came to

— 56 —
disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation. Thus
disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at
last complete. " Formerly I was led by feelings to the firm convic
tion of the existence of God and of the immortality of
the soul. I well remember the conviction that there
was more in man than the mere breath of his body. But
now the grandest scenes of nature could not cause any
such convictions and feelings to rise in my mind.
"In my extreme fluctuations I have never been an
atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.
I think that generally (and more and more as I grow
older) but not always, that an Agnostic would be the
more correct description of my state of mind."
Here, friends, is the chief of evolution, a theory that
teaches all things progress from a lower to a higher state,
that nature has gone on from the first few simple forms
called into life by the Creator to highly developed and
intelligent man, and this chief of evolution, in his own
autobiography, shows how he went from a firm belief in
God and the strict and literal truth of every word of the
Bible to the belief that the Old Testament was no more
to be trusted than the sacred book of the Hindoos, and
then gradually to disbelief in Christianity as a divine
revelation, and finally, by his own confession, ended as
an agnostic! Is not this evolution turned backward?
Was not Darwin himself a conspicuous example of the
falsity of his own theory? Did the teaching of God
ever lead a man to disbelieve the Bible and Christianity
and to finally become an agnostic? If not, then Charles
Darwin was led by this ignis fatuus "evolution" from
the firm solid rock of ages, out upon the uncertain
teacherous quicksands of doubt and unbelief. And Prof.
Stearns, by receiving this evolution as " a law," " the
method," and this " wonderful hypothesis," as ''a friend
and not an enemy," has sworn to a league with these

— 57 —
modern Gibeonites that must as inevitably lead astray
the young students of to-day as did the Gibeonites of
Canaan by enticing the Israelites to follow their strange
gods, allure them to certain destruction.
Christ says : " A tree is known by its fruit ; a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. By their fruit ye shall know
them." Tested by this standard what has evolution
brought forth in the lives of its ablest champions ?
Agnosticism. What did it make of Charles Darwin, who
spent a lifetime in its service ? Listen to his startling
confession, about three years before his death, in answer
to a German student, to whom he wrote : —
" I am very busy and an old man in delicate
health, and have not time to answer your questions fully,
even assuming that they are capable of being answered
at all. Science and Christ have nothing to do with each
other, except in so far as the habit of a scientific investi
gation makes a man cautious about accepting any proofs.
As far as I am concerned, I do not believe that any
revelation has been made. With regard to a future life,
every one must draw his own conclusions from vague and
contradictory probabilities."
Contrast this uncertainty of mind with the con
fident assurance of another man at the end of life, the
apostle Paul. Writing to the young evangelist Timothy,
he says: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; hence
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day; and not to me only (there wasn't a selfish
fibre in Paul's make-up), but unto all those who love
His appearing." Friends, at the end of life, would you not rather have
the confident assurance that Paul felt than the confessed

— 0» —
uncertainty of Charles Darwin ? If so, then worship not
at the shrine of evolution where Charles Darwin sits as
high priest, but believe and serve the only true God and
His Son Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, by whom Paul
was commissioned a minister and a witness unto the
Gentiles (of whom you and I are members), to open their
eyes, to turn them darkness unto light and from the
power of Satan unto God.

— 59 —
CHAPTER VI.
The Gentiles also may be saved.
For when (he Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law, area law unto
themselves, which show the work of the law writteu iu their hearts,
their conscience uIsm bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing one another." — Rom. ii. 1-1, 15.
I may say, bj' way of preface, that this text does
away with the doctrine of total depravity, for it is evident
that the Gentiles could not have done by nature the
things contained in the law, if that nature had been
totally depraved.
There was a Gentile world and a Jewish world.
Unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God (Rom.
iii. 2), to whom pertained the giving of the law (Rom.
ix. 4), which law, says Paul-, was the school-master to
bring them unto Christ (Gal. iii. 24). The Gentiles,
though they have not this law, yet can do by nature the
things contained therein and be justified; for God is
long-suffering, merciful and willeth not that any should
perish, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Take, for example, the case of Naaman the Syrian,
who learned of God through the little captive Jewish
maid and afterwards worshipped the true God. Or,
perhaps, a more striking case is that of
NEBUCHADNEZZAR.
He was the son of the founder of the Babylonian
empire, and reigned from 604 to 561 B. C. Among his
first acts at home was the rebuilding of the great temple
with the golden image of Bel. This Bel is identical with
Baal, the supreme male divinity of the Phoenicians and
Canaanitish nations. Its worship was performed by the
burning of incense (Jer. vii. 9) and the offering of burnt

— 60 —
sacrifices, which occasionally consisted of human victims
(Jer. xix. 5). The officiating priests danced with frantic
shouts around the altar and cut themselves with knives
to excite the attention and compassion of the god (I K.
xviii. 26-8).
Nebo was Nebuchadnezzar's tutelar god, a prominent
deity from an early time. When the king of Assyria
placed men of different nations in Samaria (II K. xvii.
29), every nation made gods of their own, and the men
of Babylon made small tabernacles, in which were con
tained images of female deities, whose worship led to
unmentionable practices. Certain it is that Babylon
became known as the land of graven images and mad
with her idols (Jer. 1. 38); the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth (Rev. xvii. 5).
Such was its religious condition when Nebuchad
nezzar first took Jerusalem, 605 B. C, and carried the
Jews thither, among whom was Daniel. The king was
greatly troubled about a dream, and called for the wise
magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to in
terpret it. Notwithstanding all their extravagant
pretensions, they impotently feigned reply. Not so with
Daniel, who boldly faced the king and said: "There is
a God in heaven who revealeth secrets. He hath made
known to thee what shall come to pass hereafter. Thou
art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given
thee a k ngdom, power and strength and glory." When
the interpretation was finished, the king, with true
oriental politeness and heathen ceremony, fell down and
worshipped Daniel and said : " Of a truth it is that your
God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and a revealer
of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret."
But the words of the king were as sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. Not long afterwards he had
made a golden image of colossal size, which he set up on
the plain of Dura and commanded that " whoso falleth

— 61 —
not down and worshippeth it, shall be cast into a burning
fiery furnace." But when he saw that the three Hebrew
children cast therein were unharmed by the fire, he went
so far as to praise their God, who had sent His angel to
deliver them, and made a decree that there is no other
God that can deliver after this sort.
Ten years more passed, and Daniel again interpreted
the king's dream, which the Chaldean soothsayers were
unable to do, in which Nebuchadnezzar was warned that
his reason should depart and he should be driven from
among men to herd with the beasts of the field till
"seven times" had passed over his head. The judgment
came upon him at the expiration of a year. His enemies
had been subdued on every side, his great works of art
and power had been completed, and as he surveyed them
from the roof of his palace, he forgot God, of whose might
he had had such proofs, and exclaimed : " Is not this
great Babylon that I have built for the house of the king
dom by the might of my power and for the honor of my
majesty?" The words had scarcely mounted toward
the vault of heaven, when a voice replied, " O king
Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken ; the kingdom is
departed from thee." The details of his exile were given,
and a space of seven years marked their fulfillment.
" Then," says the king in a decree to •' all people and
nations and languages that dwell on all the earth : " ' My
understanding returned, and I blessed the Most High
and I praised and honored Him that, liveth forever, whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is
from generation to generation. All His works are truth
and His ways judgment, and those that walk in pride
He is able to abase. I thought it good to show the signs
and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me."
Thus, at length, he had learned to bow in submission
to the true God Jehovah, and the appointed teacher was
Daniel.

— 62 —
God is no respecter of persons, and therefore the
doer of the law. whether Jew or Gentile, is justified.
The Gentiles who thus do the things contained in the
law are likened unto branches cut out of the olive tree,
which is wild by nature, and graft into a good olive tree.
The Jews who keep the law by commandment are likened
unto the natural branches of the good tree. Since the
Gentiles did not have the law by commandment, they
must of necessity do by nature its requirements to
obtain justification. Wherefore Paul asks: "Shall not
uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law,
judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost
transgress the law ? "
The Jews are the natural branches selected in faith
ful Abraham. The Gentiles, though the wild branches,
are yet capable of receiving and assimilating the nourish
ment from the good olive tree. The Jews are God's chosen
people; but the Gentiles are also created in God's image,
and therefore capable of hearing the law, and by nature
doing it. When graft into the good olive tree they receive
the same kind of nutriment as the natural branches, and
their growth gives evidence of being supplied from the
same life fountain.
The same God over all is rich toward all that call
upon His name. The Gentiles who do the law show
that they have received the knowledge thereof into their
hearts; their conduct and actions bearing witness to such
a law-enlightened conscience, while their thoughts, ex
pressed or unexpressed, show that they have learned to
distinguish what is and what is not according to God's
law, the conscience accusing, or excusing, as the case
may be.
But who are Gentiles ? I have selected this subject
for unfoldment to-day, because I feel that we ourselves
are on the side of those most deeply concerned. We are
Gentiles, as well as the Chinese, for example. Our

— 63 —
justification, as well as theirs, lies in doing the law [will]
of God. The only reason we are the preachers and they
are the hearers in China to-day. is that, in God's provid
ence, the Gospel came to us first. Not many centuries
ago our forefathers were more uncivilized than the
Chinese. They wore skins when the Chinese wore silks.
They roamed the forests of Germany and Britain, worship
ping the god Thor, sacred trees and fair}' sprites. Paul
brought the Gospel to Europe, the Puritans to America,
Carey to India; aud later missionaries to Africa, Japan,
China and the islands of the sea. J\'ot by works of
righteousness that we have done, but by his mercy we
are being saved. It is the gift of God. Let us praise
Him for his wonderful goodness to the children of men.
" Let us tell it out among the nations
That the Lord is king ;
Tell it out among the heathen,
Bid them break their chains ;
Tell it out among the people,
That the Savior reigns."
We notice, next, that the justified Gentiles do the
things contained in the law. We know that this is the
law given by God through Moses to the people of Israel.
It is a certain definite number of commandments, well-
known, and so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool,
need not err therein. There are some things which this
law is not —
1. It is not some uncertain, indefinite something
man may find out from the dim light of nature. For
that would be as variable as the number of men who
claimed to be able to read nature's dim pages. One man
says nature tenches him to do this, and another says
nature teaches him to do that. But when Paul speaks of
the Gentiles doing the things contained in the law, there
is no uncertainty as to what, is meant, no option of two or
more things he may do. but only the one LAWful thing
to do, to become justified before God.

— 64 —
Neither is it doing the things man's own reason
evolves, for here again we have one man arrayed against
another, and no two exactlj' agreeing. Canst thou by
searching find out God? How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out. Seeing a
flaming bush and reading a poem therefrom is one thing.
It is an entirely different thing to hear words from out
the midst of that same bush that never man spake.
I once supposed, from hearing this text expounded,
that it referred alone to the poor heathen, in our case,
the '' heathen Chinee,' just struggling up through sweet
communion with nature and loyal allegiance to his idol
into the radiant light of God's presence. 1 was taught that
this poor man was thus showing his love for God in the
only way he knew how, and that that is all God asks.
In other words, that nature's God was doing his best to
teach him, and that he was doing his best, under the
circumstances, to understand.
But God is a perfect teacher; man is imperfect.
We have been tanght from the pages of holy writ by
man ; they are said to be taught from nature's pages
direct by God. Ought they not therefore to recognize
and know God better than those who come to instruct
them ? But what is the fact ? What missionary ever yet
met one of these so-called God-through-nature-taught-
men on any mission field, who, on hearing of God as
revealed by His Son, had a clearer idea of God than the
missionary who taught him ? Dr. Griffith John, over
fifty years a missionary in China, affirms that he has
never met a heathen who knew the true God. nor one
that was seeking or feeling after the true God. The
Gospel not only did not find, but had to create a desire
for the truth.
A lady missionary once said to me in discussing this
subject, that she believed if a man in the heart of Thibet
was sincerely worshipping God through his idols, he

— 65 —
would be all right. But it puzzles me to know how he
can worship God at all through an idol. So far from
doing the things contained in the law, he seems to me
to be doing the very things prohibited by that law, viz.,
" Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
Tylor relates that certain African savages were asked how
their divinities could partake of their offerings, since the
meats which they had set forth for them at night were
found unconsumed in the morning. They replied that the
spirits licked them with their tongues. Now Paul says
that the things the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils and not to God. And from my seven years'
observation iu that land of idol worship — China — I must
agree with Paul; for I have found it more a servile fear of
offending demons and a cringeing supplication to obtain
their favor than the outpouring of hearts overflowing
with love to God.
Some say that those who are devoutly worshipping,
no matter what, are really worshipping God according to
the best light they have ; that God has given them a
religious instinct and will not punish them for carrying
out the longing He Himself has planted in the human
heart ; that they are feeling after Cod, if haply they may
find him. Now the best answer to all this sort of soft
doctrine is to say that it isn't so. It is a slander on the
character of God as revealed to us in His holy Word, to
say that He has ever taught or ever implanted in man's
heart the desire to worship Him through idols. God
tempteth jio man, but every man is tempted when he is
drawn away of his own lust and enticed — James i. 13, 14.
Dr. Samuel Harris, in his book on natural theology,
" The Self Revelation of God," says : "The lowest savage

— 66 —
lives in the presence and amid the activities of the every
where energizing God. It was the true God who was
always revealing Himself, and so we may properly say it
is He who by His touch awakens the slumbering spirit
to consciousness and knowledge, as a mother by her
loving touch awakens her sleeping child." These are, alas !
very smooth words, but we are told to beware, lest any man
spoil you with philosophy and vain deceit. I heard a dis
course one Lord's Day evening, presenting that beautiful
scene of the angel touchiug Elijah under the juniper tree
and awaking him to the realization that the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom He stood. But whose touch
awakens a man to sincere devotion to an idol ? I cannot
believe that it is God's touch, or the touch of God's angel.
Fellow Christians, I do not know what you may
think on this subject, nor do I speak for you, but as for
me, I do not believe that God ever yet taught a human
being, through nature or otherwise, to worship an idol.
" It was the greatest honor God did to man to make him
in the image of God, but it is the greatest dishonor man
has done to God that he has made God in the image of
man." — -Matthew Heury. If two-thirds of the world are
to-day bowing down to wood and stone, the fault must
be man's, not God's. I for one cannot charge it against
God. I believe with Paul that there was a time when
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and
God gave them over to do those things which are not
convenient. I believe with Ecclesiastes, that God made
man upright, but he has sought out many inventions.
God sent not His Son to condemn the world ; it was
condemned already. Men had rebelled, had sinned, had
apostatized. For when they knew God they worshipped
Him not as God, but changed the truth of God into a
lie and worshipped and served the creature more than
the Creator. Wherefore God gave them up unto un
cleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.

— 67 —
I heard another lady missionary say that those who
are the most devoted idol worshippers become the most
sincere worshippers of God. On the contrary, I found
it true that people become more and more like the object
or being that they worship. Little Wonder, then, that the
Chinese must continue to live in mnd-and-straw-made
houses so long as they contiuue to worship mud-aud-
straw-made gods.
To say that the heathen worship God in their
weak way through the idols as symbols, is to charge
them with knowing the true God but willfully choosing
to worship through the false one. It seems more plau
sible that they worship their idols in utter ignorance of
anything else to worship ; for when missionaries tell
them of the true God, it is a revelation to them.
The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but
now commandeth all meu everywhere to repent. And
Peter says that the long-suffering of our Lord is salva
tion. For God so loved the world that He gave His only
Son to save it, and His Sou sent forth His disciples
saying : "As my Father hath sent, me, so send I yon. Go
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature." Aud one of these disciples, Paul, writes unto
Timothy: "The things which thou hast heard of me,
the same commit thou to faithful meu, who shall be
able to teach others also." God's plan for getting the
knowledge to them is certain and definite ; in times
past by the prophets, in these last days by and through
His Son. 2. The second it is not. Doing the things contained
in the law is noL doing the things contained in Taoism,
Buddhism or Confucianism. These isms may have
empty word-fragments of the law clinging to them from
the remote ages, but it is the doing of the law God-
given, and not man-perverted, that will make men just
before God.

— 68 —
There is danger, dear friends, that China, the land
to which we have consecrated our lives, may soon have
to pass through the same mist of agnosticism, rational
ism, and science falsely so-called as did Japan a few years
ago. Already some promineut leaders, like the Pharisees
of old, are teaching for doctrines of God the commaud-
ments of meu. Iu a pamphlet eutitled "How to make
a Million Converts," the General Secretary of the Society
for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge
says: "To make it evident to the Chinese that our
ideal is from God, it is necessary (1) to study the best
religions books the Chinese have, such as the Confucian,
Buddhist and Taoist classics, the modern Chinese
religions books, e. g., King Shin Lnh, Mien Kie Lull, etc.
(2) After the study of these sacred books, reconstruct
your own theology direct from the Bible." He then
recommends the study of comparative religion from snch
books as Freeman Clarke's Ten Great Religious. Aud
Clarke says: "As all living iu heathen lands are
heathen, if they find God at all, they must find Him
through heathenism. God has caused some to be born
in China, where they can know Him only through
Buddha and Confucius." May I ask, in passing, did the
150,000 Chinese Christians now rejoicing in the knowl
edge of God find Him through heathenism ? Perhaps
with some men this is impossible to be understood other
wise, but with God all things are possible. Paul
declared that if a man preach any other Gospel than
that he had preached uuto them, let him be accursed.
And there are those of us who believe that what the
Chinese want is more of Christ and less of Bnddha;
more of Christ's Gospel and less of Confucian ethics;
more of God's revealed word and less of agnostic
rationalism. There was a tract printed for the Chinese in 1896
entitled "Christianity the Completion of Confucianism,"

— 69 —
in which it was asserted that Christianity necessarily
wishes to complete Coufuciauism, to preserve its good
doctrines, to correct its mistakes, aud to supplement its
insufficiencies. The writer infers this from Christ's
saying that He came not to destroy but to fulfill the law.
" Christ swished to make perfect the old religion of His
native land; that is, to preserve all the good doctrines,
correct all the mistakes, and supplement all the in
sufficiencies." Now we kuow that the law of the Jews
was all right ; it was the traditions of meu that Jesus
denounced. True, Christ came not to destroy but to
fulfill the law, but the law Christ came to fulfill was
the law of God, and not the law laid down by Confucius,
Buddha, Laotsz, Darwin, Haeckel, Huxley or Spencer.
Christ came to ring out the false, to ring iu the true.
Christ came to show us the way back to the Father.
" No man cometh unto the Father but by Me," says
Jesns. Christ is the door to the sheepfold. He that
eotereth not in by the door, but climbet.h up some other
way (by way of Confucianism, for example), the same is
a thief and a robber.
The author of the above-named tract again says :
"Before Jesus there were iu Judea the prophets ; China
had CoDfncins, who corresponded to the prophets of that
time, who (preparing) prophesied of the doctrine of the
world's salvation." Thus, with Freeman Clarke and
others, he teaches that Coufuciauism was a preparation
for Christianity. But let ns ask, Whose preparation ?
Who was preparing the way for Christianity through
Confucius? Was God? No, for the man sent by God
was named John, while Confucius himself testifies : "I
am a transmitter and not a maker, believing in and
loving the ancients." It might as well be said that
Buddhism in India was a preparation for Christianity,
simply because Buddhism is there. What else could
Buddhists know than Buddhism when Christianity found

— 70 —
them ? What else could a Chinese scholar know than
Confucianism when Christ's ambassadors came to China?
And simply because he happened to know the doctriues
of Confucius instead of Buddha, they say Coufuciauism
was a preparation for Christianity aud for no other
reason. For had he lived in India, he would know
nothiug of Coufuciauism, aud then these same writers
would no doubt, tell us that Buddhism was his prepara
tion for Christianity. A very elastic philosophy this !
He could come out of nothiug else, hence the irresistible
logic that what he did come out of was a preparation
fur Christianity. But Christ calls men out of darkness
into His marvellous light. Now this course through
darkness is whose preparation ? Paul answers, Satan's,
plainly testifying that Jesus sent him unto the Gentiles
to turn them from darkuess to light and from the power
of Satan unto God.
The author of Ten Great Religions says that Con
fucius was the schoolmaster to bring his people to
Christ. My frieuds, let us not be deceived here either.
Christ says : "Every man that hath learned of the Father,
cometh to me." Confucius was undoubtedly the great
teacher of the Chinese ; but we are plainly told by Paul
that the law was the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
And what law ? The law given by God to Moses.
There is no dodgiug here. It was not the law given by
Confucius or Socrates or Cicero. According to these
writers who would laud the good old Confucianism and
denounce the present-day savorless kind, Confucius came
before Christ; so did Homer, so did Plato. All these,
then, are thieves and robbers, if they claim to be "the
door of the sheepfold " — the door by which the people
should enter into Christianity. But pause a moment.
I do not desire to slander these men iu that way. They
themselves never claimed to be "prophets preparing
the doctrine of the world's salvation." As an impartial

— 71 —
historian, let us record Confucius with that worldly
respect and honor due to him. But what must we sav
of his preseut-day rationalistic admirers, who would so
pervert the record as to make Confucius appear inspired
aud sent of God, as were Isaiah aud Moses. We are not
greatly surprised, then, when we read of them joining iu
siugiug the Chinese doxolojry, as did Dr. Legge before
the tablet of heaven iu the Emperor's Peking temple:
" Confucius, Confucius, how great is Confucius !
Before him, never was such an one.
After him, never such another,
Confucius, Confucius, how great is Confucius ! "
Again, these writers say that, as God through Cou-
fncins was speaking to the Chinese millions, so God
through Bnddha was giving the people of India that
"light of Asia" that has kept them through all the
centuries. Here, again, they would slander God by
making Him the author of all manner of philosophies
aud systems of religion. Is God the author of confusion ?
All these religious teach contrary to the very first and
second commandments of God. Confucius taught aud
practiced the worship of the spirits of heaven and earth
and of men. Buddhism has gone mad upon its idols.
Did God teach them this? Did God give commaudmeut
to worship no one but Himstlf aud then iuspire them
to teach the contrary ? No, they have changed the
truth of God iuto a lie. But God is long-suffering,
merciful aud willeth not that any should perish. For
when the world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who
believe. The President of St. John's College, American
Episcopal, says editorially in his college paper: "We
believe that all meu, after all, are worshipping the one
God. Their ideas of that God and their names for Him
may be different, but still they are trying to reverence the

— 72 —
best that they know. . . . But the Christian student
cannot participate iu the nou-Christian worship of Con
fucius." But why not, we ask, if after all, all men are
worshipping the one God ? The first, sentence was given
as the reason why all students should attend his religions
services, while the second senteuce, but a few para
graphs farther ou, was given with this explanation :
"If he does so (worships Confucius' tablet), it means
that, he consents to the raisin sr of a man to a position
which amounts to idolatry. The honors offered to Con
fucius may be compared to those offered to the ancient
Roman Emperors. For a Christian to attend aud say
that all it meant was merely showing respect to the
memory of a very good man would be a very dangerous
trifling with conscience." — St. John's Echo, Shanghai,
October, 1902.
Here, then, are some Confucianists of this college
president's "all meu" who are not worshipping the one
God, but are worshipping a man instead, iu such a way
that it amounts to idolatry; aud this the president con
demns as a very dangerous trifling with conscience.
This is a rationalistic higher critic against himself, sure
enough, and exemplifies the trite saying : Give a false
theory rope enough and it will hang itself. Iu an
opening sentence he declares that all men after all
worship the one God, and before he closes his editorial
declares that some men, after all, worship the man Cou-
fucins as a god !
If the Coufucianist only needs to study the supple
ment called the Gospel to finish his religious education,
would it not be an insult to him to call upon him to
repent? Suppose he should reply: What should I
repent of? Yon say Confucianism is all right so far as
it goes; that I only need Christ's teachings to complete
what Confucius has so well begun in me. Your tracts
prove that Confucius taught the knowledge of the true

— 73 —
God, and I have been following Confucius devotedly.
Where is my error, of which I must repeut? Ami why
exhort me to turn to God? According to your owu
writings, I have been turned toward the true God nil
the time. I once asked a veteran missionary, Have yon ever
met a man iu an unevangelized region, whether official,
elder or oue of the common people, nuto whom you did
not feel it your boundeu duty to preach Got!, Christ aud
repentance unto salvation ? And lie said, No. Of what
use is it then to scatter broadcast tracts teaching that
the Coufnciauist is all right so far as he has gone, when
you must needs follow up such publications by personal
solicitation for him to repent of his past sins and become
reconciled to God ? Iu other words, why should we first
teach him that he only needs a lit lie adding to, and
then immediately want to subtract, a great deal — in fact,
all, from his former manner of life, before he can even
begin to add anything to himself? Is it not high time
that we stop publishing doctrines which we do not aud
cannot carry out in practice ? Ought we not to cease,
once and for all, teaching for doctrines of God the com
mandments of meu ? Tracts on "God teaching the
heathen through nature," " Christianity the completion
of Confucianism," " How to make a milliou converts,"
aud such other rationalistic literature can ouly benumb
the feelings and delude the senses. They are opiates, and
as such can only leave the patient worse off than they
found him. The Gospel is the power, the "Dynamos"
of God unto salvation to every one who believes it.
If the Gentiles ouly by doing the things contained iu the
law can be justified before God, God forbid that I
shonld teach them anything not, contained iu that law.
God help me to offer unto these little ones to drink of no
other than the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding forth from the throne of God and of the lamb.

— 74 —
Again, it, is the doers, not the hearers, who are
justified; faith without works is dead. This implies
that all must first, have heard that law. Some Jews
heard aud did uot; some Gentiles heard and did the
things of the law. Iu the parable of the two sous, it
was the oue who afterward repented aud went into the
vineyard, who was commended for doing the will of his
father. By doers of the law it is evident that Paul
meaut those Gentiles who loved the Lord with the whole
heart and mind and soul aud their ueighbor as them
selves, for none others do the things contained in the
law. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.
Hence Paul points out those Gentile doers of the law
among the saints at Rome to whom he is writing. He
no doubt desires to show the Jews, who were iusisting
ou first Judaizing converts by circumcisiou, that they
should rather judge disciples worthy for church fellow
ship by the doiug of the law rather than by fulfilling
the letter, or outward formality, aud sacrificing the
spirit. The interesting qnestiou now arises, How do Gen
tiles hear the law ? Have all men a reliirious nature,
aud thus the knowledge within themselves without
hearing? Paul writes iu his letter to the Ephesians
that they were by nature children of wrath, even as
others. Or, is it possible, as some of our learned theol
ogians affirm, that nature speaks to men ? But can
rocks and trees aud rivers aud stars speak without
tongues or voice ? Aud have they told to the heathen
the law of God ? If so, the natural theologians who
profess to be interpreters thereof, have certainly mis
taken their calling, for no two of them agree iu their
rendering, and, they make the so-called natural religion
to be very various aud exceedingly like man-made.
If it were true that man can know God from nature
alone, it follows that there never has been, from Adam

— 75 —
to the present time, a man who did not know God ; for
all have come iu contact with uature, and God is uo
respecter of persons. The natural theologist answers
that all men do have an idea of God, but some so faulty
that they are unconscious of it. This reminds me of Pa-
rick's explanation why the turtle kicked so long after
his head was cut off. "Surely," said he, "he's entirely
dead; ouly he isn't, conscious of it." But Paul speaks
of those who knew not God, and Paul is still excel leut
authority. The author of Self-Revelation ®f God, Dr. Harris,
says: "God exists aud reveals Himself in man's con
sciousness, and man is constituted with spiritual sensi
tiveness to the diviue action and influence, aud with
capacity to know God in the revelation which He makes."
This is au illustration of the natural theologian's labored
attempt to elucidate what might better be stated in the
terse language of Scripture, "God made man in His own
image, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living soul. " In Adam's day there were
no nations to find out God from nature. Adam did not
have to pursue this tortuous, circuitous route. God
spoke directly to him, and Adam heard and understood.
How long it would have taken for Adam to have found
out through his own nature, or, " his spiritual environment
which constantly acted on him and presented itself in his
consciousness", before he would have known God and
the prohibition not to eat of the forbidden fruit, we have
no means of knowing. We only know that God did not
leave him thousands of cycles meandering through the
lowest forms of savage life, worshipping snakes, trees,
cows, crows and crocodiles, to gradually work up through
fire worship, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Confucianism
to Christianity; for Adam had only lived 130 years when
his son Seth was born. And as Seth was given instead
of Abel, who was killed, and as the record says that Cain

— 76 —
had been a tiller of the ground and Abel a keeper of
sheep, and all this after Adam was driven out of the
garden of Eden, it follows that Adam's years of experience
in natural theology were less than one hundred ; and as
in the meantime, he had to eat bread in the sweat of his
face, the ground bringing forth thorns and thistles, he
could not possibly have had sufficient leisure to try all
kinds of absurd religions in the hope of finally hitting
upon the right one.
But how does God say men are to hear, and thus to
believe, the truth ?. The inspired apostle writes to the
Romans, " Faith comes by hearing, aud hearing by the
Word of God. There is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek. The same Lord is rich unto all that call
upon His name. How shall they call on Him in whom,
they have not believed ? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent ?"' But in every nation he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with
Him. But how shall they fear Him of whom they have
not heard ? Or how shall they work the righteousness of
an unheard of law ? But some have heard, and others
are hearing, and the glad word is coming from a thou
sand mission fields that there are those who from among
the Gentiles are believing and doing the will of God.
Oh, that China would desire these messengers of
salvation to hasten ! How beautiful upon the mountain

built the synagogue, and Cornelius, returning Jesus in
closing His sermon on the mount, says: "Whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will
liken unto a wise man. Whosoever heareth and doeth
them not, unto a foolish man who built on the saud."

Both classes were hearers — the first were also doers.
Jesus did not say, Those who never hear these sayings of
mine, but yet do them; for how should they be able to
do that of which they had not heard ? But his great
commission to His disciples reads : Go ye and preach
the Gospel and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-
Spirit : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you."
Again, after the Gentiles do the things contained
in the law, the work of the law is shown to be written in
their hearts. Just the same as after the wild olive
branch is grafted into the good olive tree, it shows the
work of the good tree's nutriment within by -the foliage
and fruit it puts forth without, the one bearing witness
to the other. The law has been active and not dead.
The conscience has been enlightened until it is an inward
monitor zealous for the law. In fact, the whole mind of
the man has been so wrought upon that his conscience
knows intuitively whether to accuse or excuse the words
and actions of himself or of. his lei low-men. Instances
are not wanting of Gentiles who thus did the things
contained in the law.
Take the interesting case of the Roman centurion.
Here was a friendly proselyte who built a synagogue at
Capernaum for the Jews, because he loved the Jewish
nation. The Romans at this time worshipped lords
many and gods many Iheir generals consulted auguries
and omens before starting on a campaign. Army dis
cipline was very strict. Unquestioning obedience was
demanded When this centurion besought Jesus to heal
his palsied servant, he believed Jesus had power to do so
by a simple command. Jesus said He would come to his
house, but the centurion sent immediate reply that he
did not deem himself worthy to be thus honored, and
for this very reason had sent the elders o( the Jews in

— 78 —
His stead. What! the lord of heaven come under his
humble roof! ' No ; he, as an officer, had power to order
a soldier to go and he went, to come and he came.
How much more power has the Lord of heaven and earth,
¦ — if He will but only speak the word, his servant will
be healed Even Jesus marveled at the great faith of
this Gentile, and said to those who followed : " I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel ". Such
undoubting, implicit, all-confident faith, no, not among
God's own chosen people. Jesus replied that according
to his abundant faith, it would be done unto him ; and
his servant was healed from that self-same hour. And
then Jesus went on to say that many other Gentile3
from the east and from the west would yet come and sit
down with Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven ; but many who prided themselves on their an
cestors, would be cast out because of their unbelief. We
infer from Jesus' wonderful promise that the "many " who
will yet sit down in his Father's kingdom are those of
like sublime faith with this Gentile.
The dispersion of the Jews in foreign countries had
enabled' them to make many converts to their faith.
These joined with varying strictness in the worship of
Jehovah. After the beginning of the Christian era, the
dispersion was divided into three great sections — the
Babylonian, the Syrian and the Egyptian. The Jews of
the Syrian provinces gradually formed a closer connection
with their new home, and together with the Greek
languages, adopted in many respects Greek ideas. Out
wardly and inwardly, by its effects both on the Gentiles
and on the people of Israel, the Dispersion appears to
have been the clearest providential preparation for the
spread of Christianity. — Smith's Bible Dictionary.
This Roman centurion had come among the Jews,
had entered into their synagogues, and there heard the
law of Moses and the will of God. His heart had respond-

— 79 —
ed; he loved the Lord, and the nation whose God is the
Lord. We do not find that this Roman first read out of
his own inner consciousness, the green earth, or the
starry skies, that the Lord is all powerful to heal, and
can but speak the word and it is done. Not every Roman
officer loved the Jewish nation, or built them a house in
which to worship the true God. Not even all who heard
of God from the Jews did so, much less have we any
record of any who never heard of the Jews' God so doing ;
but, on the contrary, that they continued to consult their
oracles and sacrifice to their idols.
And so it is to-day. We know that some, at least,
have never heard; that they cannot hear without a
preacher, and furthermore that this preacher must be a
man with a mind and heart and soul consecrated to God.
He must be called by God and sent by God. The
king's business demands haste. Millions yet in China
and elsewhere have never heard. They cannot call on
him of whom they have not heard, and there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby
they must be saved. It is said that 30,000 persons die
in China every day, without hope and without God in the
world. Can we estimate the value of one soul saved ?
The whole world gained, profiteth nothing, if the soul is
lost. Oh, for men like Paul ! Oh, to emulate one who deter
mined not to know anything among the Corinthians
save Christ and Him crucified ! One who could say at the
close of life, "I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness and not for me
only (for there wasn't a selfish fibre in Paul's make-up)
but for all those who love the Lord's appearing." Paul
had told many others. Many in " heathen darkness
dwelling" had heard from the lips of Paul for the first
time the glad tidings of salvation. Many "out on the
mountains bleak and bare, far away from the tender

— 80 —
Shepherd's care " had reason to bless the grand old
apostle to the Gentiles who bro'ght to their benighted
souls the first ray of eternal hope.
Talk about the joy at the relief of Lucknow. Can
it be compared to the joy in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth ? We read of the thrill of emotion that
overcame the besieged in the legation at Peking when
those stalwart dusky' sons of India, the first of the relief
force, made their appearance on that memorable 14th
day of August, 1900. > They hastened to save the body;
let us hasten to save their souls. " From India's coral
plain, they call us to deliver i heir land from errors
chain". We may not live to see China all converted.
We may be taken suddenly, and our last glance may
behold the proud and stiff-necked still in rebellion
against their Maker. But we have this consolation, that
though absent from the world we shall be ushered into
the joy th it shall be in the presence of the angels of God
over every sinner that repenteth from the land of Sinim.
Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory' through our
Lord Jesus Christ.

— 81 —
PART III.
How God's Word is Now Made Manifest Through
Preaching.— Titus i. 3; II. Tim. i. 10. Or,
The World=FieId Mission of Witnesses
for Christ, — Ju. vi. 29.

The Greatest Reason in the World for preaching the Gospel
to the Heathen is because they are lost.
To the Christian man or woman, this would seem
to be a self-evident fact. But there are those who profess
to believe and teach otherwise. Some of these, because
of their scholarship in ancient languages, their authorship
of text-books, and their leadership in colleges and univer
sities, more or less direct and mold the theological
thought of the day. Thus, almost imperceptibly, it has
come to pass that the scholastic conscience of Chris
tendom in regard to the importance of the conversion of
the heathen, has passed into somnambulanb desuetude.
Prof. McGarvey, ever on the alert, gives timely
warning from his Biblical watch-tower. He says :
" There are a few men yet alive who are opposed,
on grounds of humanity and mercy, to heathen missions.
They say that if the heathen die without a knowledge of
the Gospel, they will be saved on the ground of their
want of opportunity to know and do better. But if we
send the Gospel to them, while some will be saved by it,
a larger number will reject it and be lost. All who are
thus lost would have been saved if we had let them
alone. The fallacy of the reasoning is the assumption
that the heathen will be saved if they die as they are.

— 82 —
It is said in the Old Testament, 'The wicked shall be
turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God ; '
and the words of the apostle Paul on this subject are
unambiguous: 'For as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law; and as many as have
sinned under the law shall be judged by law '. (Rom.
ii. 12). Let us not forget that the responsibility for
preaching the Gospel to the heathen does not depend on
us, leaving us some option in regard to it; but that it
has been assumed absolutely by Christ Himself in
commanding us to do the preaching. We are not to
stand still in disobedience to Him because we are afraid
that He will injure His own cause by what He commands.
We are to go forward, not using our own eyes, but His,
knowing that He sees all the way and knows the wisdom
of His own commands. Can't the heathen be saved
without the Gospel ? The reply was, " That is not the
question; but the question is, can we be saved if we do
not send it to them ? " Herein lies the greatest sin of
omission with which modern Christians are charged en
masse before the bar of God". — Christian Standard,
March 28, 1903.
To show that Prof. McGarvey, as usual, knows. what
he is talking about, we need only quote from the printed
works of some of these modern rationalistic scholars.
Max Muller, the greatest authority of the 19th century on this
subject, in his lecture on the Vedas, the antiquity of which is about
the same as the Yih King of Confucius, concludes as follows : "There
is hardly one religion that does not contain some truth, some important
truth ; truth sufficient to enable those who seek the Lord and feel after
Him to find Him in their hour of need ".
A book entitled "The Gospel in Pagan Religions," written after
the World's Congt ess of Religions at Chicago, attempts to show that
the heathen, even though they never hear of the historical Christ, have
iu their religious books enough Gospel to save them.
C. L. Bruce, author of ''The Unknown God, or Inspiration among
The Pre-Chiistiau Races," says : "The apostles did not the less exalt
Christ aud His Gospel that they acknowledged those who worshipped
under heathen names as true believers in God. Paul at Athens, adroit-

— 83 —
ly mentions among their innumerable altars the one to the unknown
God, built, we may suppose, by pious Greeks to gain the protection of
some foreign god, or by some genuine worshipper of the "God of All.'
Some of his audience had no doubt worshipped the spiritual Zeus, the
God of their poets, the Being adored in the secret Mysteries, and to
whom noble praise had been rendered by the Stoics. The great
apostle does not denounce this worship or deride the idea of Zeus."
The Biblical World, organ of Chicago University, says: Socrates'
divine monitor was the spirit of Christ speaking to his soul,
James Freeman Clarke, in a work on Comparative Theology,
entitled "Ten Great Religions," says: The pagan religions are the
effort of man to feel after God.
And we hear sentiments like these expressed even by some who
were sent as missionaries to China Rev. F. L. Hawks Polt, President
St. John's College, says : We believe that all men after all are wor
shipping the one God. Their ideas of that God, and their names for
Him, may be different, but still they are trying to reverence the best
they know. We proceed on the basis of St. Paul, whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you — "The St. John's Echo,
October, 1902, Dr. Gilbert Reid in an article in the October Chinese
Recorder, remarked that formerly " the missionary body " "suspected
one who discussed religion iu a conciliatory spirit with the literati as
pandering to evil, or of becoming a Confuciauiet."
I thus wrote in reply : —
Now let us not obscure the issue. What is wanted
is the best plan to get the Gospel into the minds and
hearts of the Chinese. For nineteen centuries most
followers of the lowly Nazarene have simply preached
Christ, as most missionaries have tried to do in China.
Another method of procedure is now advocated by
the authors of tracts entitled, " How to Make a Million
Converts'V'Christianity the Completion of Confucianism ",
and some others, which may be called the "conciliatory"
plan. They say that as the Chinese are imbued with
the sayings of Confucius, do not oppose or try to over
throw these, but make friends with them. (This sounds
very much like the league Joshua made with the
Gibeonites). They would gain the attention and con
fidence for the introduction of the Gospel by praising the
good in Confucianism. They would teach that Confucius
was all right so far as he went, but he did not go far

— 84 —
enough. They therefore desire to supplement his
deficiencies, correct his errors and retain all the good.
Thus they would introduce Christ through the medium
of Confucius' good sayings.
Now those who still hold that the Gospel is the all-
sufficient power of God unto salvation to every one who
believes it, whether Chinese or foreigner, not only think
this a very circuitous and dangerous procedure, but they
object to the use, or rather misuse, of Scripture and the
time of the missionaries in promulgating it, and for the
following reasons : —
1. To have to teach the Gospel through Con
fucianism, it is necessary first to teach what is good
in Confucius' doctrine, so as to make true Confucianists.
For it is admitted that very few officials or other literati,
if any, at the present day, are true to the best in
Confucius' teachings; that even the highest Confucian
scholars in the empire give and receive bribes ; that all
worship Confucius' tablet, and that all officials bow
before idols in praying for rain. Further, all history
points to the fact that fewer and fewer true Confucianists
are being made by and of and among themselves. These
things being so, it follows that to adopt this plan we
must first seek to convert the Chinese to true Con
fucianism, and then try to persuade them to go a step
farther and accept Christianity.
Now there are several in China who have been
pursuing this policy for years. Dr. Reid anticipates, but
does not answer the question, How many converts have
they made ? How many Chinese officials to-day are
believers in the Christ and earnestly proclaiming the
Gospel ? It is intimated that those who do not use the
conciliatory plan rail against Confucius, make the Chinese
mad, and so do not get a hearing, and that this is the
reason why "the church has not made more marked
impression on the literati of China."

— 85 —
The fallacy lies in their premises. I have talked
with veteran missionaries who do not use this, the so-
called "conciliation" plan, nor agree with it, but who
preach Christ and His salvation directly to one and all.
They meet the Chinese pleasantly, take a kindly interest
in their welfare, and enter into sympathy with their trials
and difficulties. They converse with officials, attend their
feasts, and invite them in return. I undertake to say
that the missionaries who do not first preach Confucius
and complete it with the mention of Christianity, are not
all rash, uncivil and impolite. I have not heard any of
these revile Confucius, or hatefully kick the Chinese
servant.* But I do know that they respect the record of
Confucius enough not to pervert it by flattering deceit.
They are faithfully bearing witness for the Christ by
loving the Chinese even when persecuted by them. The
love of Christ constrains them to do good unto those
who despitefully use them. Seeing that previous
teaching has led the Chinese into the slough of deceit,
idolatrous degradation, and political corruption, these
missionaries are wise and kind enough not to harm them
further by elaborating on the cause of their downfall, but
begin to turn their minds at once to the only remedy for
them in this present world, and the only plan to reach
the happiness in that world which is to come.
2. This conciliatory plan is necessarily local to each
nation and tribe. It is not in line, therefore, with
Christ's command to go into all the world and preach

* The author of " Christianity the Completion of Confucianism ",
says: "I suppose that about 500 years after Confucius' death, he
must in Hades have heard the doctrine of Jesus (I. Pet. iv. 6) and
have recognized Jesus as the Savior of the world." How unwittingly
his theology makes him overreach himself, and send good (?) Con
fucius out of the world unsaved (in Hades') for 500 years at least.
This, surely, is not u very inspiring tocsin to rally men around the
standard of Confucius.

— 86 —
the Gospel. To be really a competent teacher under this
new plan, as urged by the author of "How to Make a
Million Converts ", one must nei-essarily plod laboriously
through the hieroglyphic labyrinth of Chinese literature
to select what he thinks is all right, before he can hope
to teach it successfully. Then, if he passes on into
India, he must go all over again the same endless process
of sifting the more attenuated mass of Buddhistic lore.
In contrast with this, we have the simple plan of
directly preaching Christ's Gospel to every creature.
This any one can do so soon as he reaches China, India,
or Africa — it has a world-wide application. It succeeds,
too, and has for over nineteen centuries. From 140
believers on the day of Pentecost, there are at present
5U0 millions in all the world, or one out of every three
persons now living. And most of these, all except
possibly 100, 0U0, never heard of the conciliatory plan
whereby Confucius and Christ are proven to be friends
and not enemies. And a few, at least, of these 100,000
in China were not reconciled because God was in
Confucius preparing the way for Christianity, but because
God was in Christ reconciling the worldly Taoist and
Buddhist and Conlucianist unto Himself.
The conciliaiory policy further proclaims that Con
fucianism haS been the salt of China. Now the one
great virtue of salt is to preserve — to save. Has Con
fucianism saved its people ? Not unless it may be
said to be a savor of death unto death. And Christ says
that when salt has lost its savor, it is thenceforth good
for nothing. But, they may say, we speak of true
Confucianism. Of course it has lost its savor to-day.
What we hear about Chang Chih-tung and Tuan Fang,
two of China's highest and most enlightened officials,
commending the suicide of the Szechuan viceroy's eldest
son before his mother's coffin, and the imperial Throne
eulogizing this filial piety, and that other decree in which

— 87 —
the Throne ordered the governor of Honan to burn sticks
of Thibetan incense in worship to the dragon god of the
Yellow River, is true enough, but that is false Con
fucianism, and true Confucianism ought not to be blamed
for all the falseness of the present rulers or literati.
But as we have to do with the Chinese of to-day, and
not with what they might have been as good Confucianists,
the task before us, according to the conciliators, is first
to make them good Confucianists and after that
Christians. And here we have presented the same old
question that was decided at Jerusalem many, many years
ago. The Jewish Christians wanted all converts first
to become good Jews and then Christians. The conci
liators would have the Chinese prune off the excrescent
branches of Taoism, Buddhism and even Mohammedanism
from the good tree Confucianism, and then graft on
Christianity. We would rather hold with the council at
Jerusalem that Christ has given no such commandment,
and that we do not thus trouble those who from among
the Gentiles are turning to God.
"Confucianism the Completion of Christianity"
would perhaps more nearly express the truth of the so-
called conciliatory plan than does the phrase reversed.
For to approach the present-day Chinese, and it is
with them and not with their ancestors we have to deal,
in a conciliatory manner by telling them if they would
only live up to the good doctrines of their holy sage,
they would be proper subjects to examine and adopt the
Gospel of Christ — a sixth reader to the Confucian classics,
as it were — it follows that it is necessary to go through
true Confucianism to reach Christianity ; and, therefore,
to the Chinese at least, Confucianism is necessary to
completion in Christianity.
Now some of us do not believe a word of this. We
believe that a man can hear, understand and obey the
Gospel of Christ, if he has never heard of the good doc-

trines of Confucius, or of those of Laotsz, or of Zoroaster.
In conversation with perhaps the most successful veteran
mis-ionary of China, he said :
" My advice to young missionaries is, Let Confucius
alone; preach Christ. When I first came to China, I
thought it would be just the thing to imitate the Chinese
in everything — to dress like tliem, to eat like them, aud
to talk false politeness like them. But a native visitor
in Shanghai — a thorough gentleman and a highly
cultivated scholar — gave me some advice which I have
never forgotten. ' You are a foreigner', he said, ' be a
foreigner, and we the Chinese will respect you. But if
you ape the Chinese, we will despise you.' Such were
bis words, as I yet remember, and I have never ceased
to feel grateful for them. And, later, my Nanking
teacher advised me not to use Confucius' sayings in my
preaching, as it would do no good whatever and might do
harm. For either the scholar says to himself: 'Yes, that
is just what our Confucius says ; their doctrine is like
ours', and he is not moved to repentance or acceptance;
or, if you quote Confucius to condemn him, you imme
diately close the ear of your would-be listener, and
further preaching to him is useless. So that now I
rarely quote Confucius in my public preaching. I go
right at my theme — the message of salvation Christ sent
me to deliver — and leave the result with the Holy Spirit.
Of course, in my guest room, or other place of conversation
aud discussion, I never miss the opportunity to explain
and enlighten the benighted or prejudiced mind of the
literati concerning God and Christ. And here we must
be tactful, patient, wise as serpents, apt to teach. Your
best guide is Paul's advice to Timothy : ' The servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth ; and that they may recover

— 89 —
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken
captive by him at his will ". — II. Tim. ii. 24-6.
Here is a specimen of the friendly, well-meant advice
of one of those (in the homeland) who " would apologists-
for- the- heathen- be ":
" I scarcely approve of your going to China. The Chinese are very
full of prejudice, even more than Americans. They don't seem to
continue Christian. Several centuries ago, I understand, Catholic
missionaries made many thousand converts in the interior, who were
massacred. The Chinese are more of a puzzle than any other race.
The gates of progress are closed against them, because of their blind
worship of their ancestors. If Christianity is to do anything for
them, it must be presented clearly in their own language and shown
not to be antagonistic to the teaching of Confucius —for it is not — but
an improvement on it. The old way of making converts is not good
at present, it seems to me, mere assertion. It does not convince
even Chinese. While in China, keep your eyes open and your sym
pathies active. Don't try to see things in the light they have been
presented to us from childhood, but seek to learn whether the idolater
really worships the image, or whether he seeks to impersonate the
Deity by giving Him a tangible form. The idea that the images and
paintings in Catholic churches are worshipped, prevails very generally,
I believe, throughout the non-Catholic community in this country.
[t does no good to bring up generation after generation of children
with these erroneous ideas, nor does it pay to misrepresent foreign
peoples, their customs and religion."
Leaving aside the references to Catholics (for my
friend is a Catholic) let me say, first of all, that, evident
ly there must have been something radically wrong
about the Chinese ; else why all his ado and cry in
raising money and sending missionaries to them ? And
after going and seeing for myself, I may state that the
half of their degradation and superstition (idolatrous re
bellion against God) has not been told. My Catholic
friend admits that they are blindly worshipping their
ancestors. And he contradicts himself when he says
that " Christianity is not antagonistic to the teaching
of Confucius", for Confucius' teaching is permeated
throughout with the worship of ancestors, and Christ
says : " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him
only shalt thou serve."

— 90 —
Again, my friend is against himself when he says :
" Seek to learn whether the idolater really worships the
image, or whether he seeks to impersonate the Deity by
giving Him a tangible form." Now God plainly com
mands not to make any image or likeness of any kind
and bow down in worship to it. Therefore, if an idolater,
whether Catholic or heathen, says he is worshipping
God through his idol, he is deceiving himself; he is not
deceiving God. If my friend had but reflected a moment
he would have seen that if the idolater really knew God,
he would know that God is not pleased with men who
think that the Godhead is like unto any tangible form
graven by art or man's device. We do not have to
go to a foreign land to learn this, but when we do go to
those who "impersonate the Deity by giving Him a
tangible form ", we find them not producing the fruit of
the Spirit of God, but doing the works of the flesh —
uncleanness, envyings, hatred, idolatry, strife, revellings,
and such like. And they which do such things, says
the inspired writer, shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.— Gal. v 19-22.
Rev. Dr. Dean says that he gave an intelligent
Chinaman a copy of our sacred books, assuring him that
they were very old. Soon after the man came back, and
with a look of triumphant accusation exclaimed, " You
told me your book was very ancient, but that chapter —
pointing to the first of Romans— you have written your
self since you came here and learned all about Chinese "
Similar incidents are reported from India, Burmah, and
other heathen countries.
" Such teachers as Confucius, Sakyamuni, and the
authors of the most ancient Vedas", says Dr. Chambers,
writing for the American Tract Sotiety, are frequently
spoken of as guides who had a divine appointment, so
much so that the difference between them and the human
authors of the Bible is one of degree, not of kind. Here

— 91 —
is a case in which to apply the maxim, 'The tree is
known by its fruit '. What are we to think of the notions
of God and of truth and of right which have led to such
fearful depravity ? Very various opinions exist as to the
origin of the ethnic faiths in the world, but there can
be no dispute as to their actual character and influence.
They do nob restrain human depravity. The "intellec
tual illumination, the high moral precepts, the flashes of
spiritual insight '' sometimes ascribed to them have
never moulded the habits or transformed the natures of
those who received them. On the contrary, there has
been a continual progress of degradation. Idolatry
abounds in its most debased forms. Superstition pre
vails everywhere. Some of the worst customs (suttee,
caste, child-murder) have the sanction of religion. The
vices which seem inseparable from polytheism are care
fully reproduced and cherished. Nor does there exist in
any one of the ethnic faiths a spark of recuperative
power. If the tone of morals is "to be elevated and
society regulated, it must be by an influence from
without. The only force adequate to this great end is the
Gospel. Its spiritual weapons can cast down strongholds
and bring every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ. How urgent, therefore, the need of Christian
missions. What we most of all need to-day is a great awaken
ing—a Christian awakening. We need to fully realize
that the still unconverted Chinese are lost ; yea, lost.
Then with reawakened conscience and burning zeal we
will shake off this lethargy, this inertia, this innocuous
desuetude, caused by the too-long embrace of that huge
rationalistic octupus. higher criticism falsely so-called.
To do this most effectually we must needs go back to
Christ and hear Him anew. We must learn of Jesus
again why He came from the Father in heaven to seek
and to save the lost of earth.

— 92 —
His great commission to His disciples, one and all,
is, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every creature ". No exceptions are mentioned. The
sent are to preach to Jew and Gentile, to rich and poor,
to learned and unlearned, to ruler and ruled; yes, even
to the heathen in their blindness — preach to them.
For God so loved the world — the whole world — that He
sent His only begotten Son that the world through Him
might be saved, that is, that they might not perish.
They were ready to perish ; they were so hopelessly lost
that only an Almighty Savior cotdd rescue them. All
had sinned — both Jews and Gentiles Those who had
sinned without law, would perish without law; those
who had sinned under the law, would be condemned by
that law.
If the heathen are not lost, then Jesus did not come
to save them, for He specifically says He came to seek
and to save that which was lost; not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. If the heathen are saved
because of their ignorance or want of opportunity to
hear the Gospel, then they are saved in their sins and
not from their sins; for Jesus came to save His people
from their sins. If the heathen we have met are saved
as they are, heaven will be a far different place from
that described in the 20th chapter of the Revelation.
There idolaters are distinctly enumerated among the
classes of evil-doers that will not be admitted in through
the gates into the city. What one of those we call
heathen does not worship an idol of one kind or another ?
Even the most proud, godless Confucianist worships his
ancestors, the emperors, and Confucius' tablet. Another
class that will be left without the pearly gates is liars.
Show me one unconverted heathen Chinese who is not a
liar and I will confess to you he is the first one I have
seen during nearly eight years' residence among them.
And this is not intended as a commendation of those not

— 93 —
called Chinese either. And so we might go on through
all the list of those who will be left out.
But who is it that says the heathen are saved in
their idolatrous ignorance ? Not Paul, for in the epistle to
the Romans he proves that all men have sinned and come
short of the glory of God Not the converted ( 'hinese,
for he freely repents of the sins committed in the times
of his ignorance. No one ever hears a Chinese Christian
say to bis brother: Why, Ave were worshipping all right
before, but we didn't know it. We were foolish to get
out of that saved state into this place of danger of falling
from grace. But we do hear the stiff-necked, unconvert
ed Confucianist say, after getting from the missionary
the first true knowledge he ever had of God, " Yes, your
doctrine is just the same as ours; we too worship Shang
Ti(God)." We may say of them as Christ of the Samari
tans. "' They worship they know not what."
Jesus' specific instructions to Paul were: " I send
you unto the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God." It is
here plainly implied that the Gentiles were already in
darkness ; else how could they be turned away from it to
the light? This was spiritual darkness, which men love
because their deeds are evil and hate to come to the
light lest their deeds be discovered. It is further implied
that the Gentiles were already in the power of Satan ;
else the command to turn them to God would be
meaningless. Now the power of Satan is death. And
those in Satan's power, through fear of death, are held
all their lifetime in bondage.
This adversary, as a roaring lion, walketh about seek
ing whom he may devour (1 Pet. v. 8). He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When be speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father
of it.— John viii. 44. If it were possible, he would deceive

— 94 —
the very elect. — Mt. xxiv. 24. The things which the
Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils. They do service
unto them which by nature are not gods, but dumb idols.
How can such idolaters keep themselves unspotted from
the world ? Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit?
Does rebellion against God produce the fruit of the Spirit
— peace, gentleness, temperance? Will the violation
of God's first commandment make men loyal citizens of
His kingdom ? No, a thousand times, No ; and let no
man say, when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God.
Let God be true if every man a liar. Paul plainly
states (1 Cor. vi. 9) that idolaters shall not inherit the
kingdom of God (Gal. v. 21); and John writes that
idolaters enter not in through the gates into the city of
the New Jerusalem (Rev. xxii. 15), but that they shall
have their part in the lake which burnetii with fire
and brimstone, which is the second death (Rev. xxi. 8).
Jews and Gentiles alike are by nature children of
wrath (Eph. ii. 3). The one proselyte whom the scribes
and Pharisees compassed sea and land to make, was made
two-fold more a child of hell than themselves. Proselytes
were people from outside the Jewish nation, that is,
Gentiles; or, to speak more plainly in twentieth century
English, heathen. Heathen, then, are in a perilously lost
condition. They worship they know not what. Their
prayer repetitions are in vain; they will nob be heard
for their much speaking. Even though ignorant of the
Master's will, if bhey conbinue to do things worthy of
stripes, they shall be beaten. They must burn from their
vanities, these gods of their own creation, the unknown
gods whom they ignorantly worship, to the living God
who made heaven and earth and all things. As the
Ningvites repented, so they must repent at the preaching
of Christ, because a greater than Jonah is here, and He
says : '' He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ;
he that believeth not, shall be condemned."

— 95 —
But, says some one, Christ did not say that he that
does not hear and does not believe, shall be condemned.
No, of course not. For if a person cannot believe that of
which he has not heard, neither can he " not believe "
that of which he has not heard. It is an impossible
dilemma. It reminds me of the story of the lawyer who
could give nineteen reasons why the witness was not
present, and the first one was that he was dead; where
upon the judge exclaimed. Stop, that one is sufficient;
you need not give the other eighteen So if a man says
he has nineteen good reasons why the heathen should
not be condemned, and the first is that he has not heard
the Gospel, I say, stop, that's enough. 'There's a man
out there still in the dark tempest of sin, lost, drowning.
You and I must go to the rescue. Out with the lifeline ;
that soul must be saved. One stormy night, on the coast
of Scotland, a cry was heard from among the breakers.
A young man started for his boat, but his mother caught
him and said. My son, you must not go out in this storm ;
you may be drowned; remember your brother John has
never yet returned. But his strong arms tenderly removed
those of his mother from about his neck, as he said :
"Mother, there's a man out there drowning, and I must
go." And when, after long and weary waiting, she saw
him returning,- and exclaimed, " Did you save the man ? "
he replied, "Yes. and it is my own brother John, too."
Christian friends, the perishing heathen are your
brothers and mine, because they are created in God's
image, and God's Son wants you and me to go to their
rescue. Whoso hath this world's good and seeth his
brother in need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? Greater
love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for
his friends. Hereby perceive we the greater love of (?6d'-S
Son, because he laid down his life for us while we were
yet enemies.

— 96 —
THE GREATEST SIN OF OMISSION IS NOT TO GO AND SEND.
Jesus says: "Other sheep I have which are not of
this fold ; them also 1 must bring." Does He wish to
bring them through you f He has prayed the Father
not only for you, but for them also who shall believe on
Him through your preaching. Will you be one of those
through whom the Father will answer that prayer ?
Will you be one to give a cup of cold water in the name
of Christ ? There is joy in the presence of the angels
over one sinner that repenteth ; will you be one of the
humble laborers together with God in making that joy
come to pass ? Peter testifies that God made choice of
him that by his mouth the Gentiles should first hear
the word of the Gospel. Will you be one of those after
Peter who will witness for Christ unto the uttermost
parts of the earth ? You may be stoned at Lystra, but
out of that stony place may come a Timothy. You may
have to endure all the hardships of a good missionary
soldier of Jesus < hrist, but blessed are you if when in
the prison house of old age you have a Titus whom you
may entrust with setting the churches in order. Are
you willing to be one of the lowly messengers of the
cross to call the many who shall come from the east and
from the west, to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of God ? Will you be one of the
Gospel light-bearers to lighten those lost in heathendom ?
the dark land of the Gentiles? Are you willing to
be one of the unnamed servants of the Master to go
into the byways and hedges and compel them to come
unto the great supper ? t
Will you not use the riches God has entrusted to
you, if you cannot go all the way. in sending other light
bearers into the dark corners of the earth? Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus how He said, if therefore
you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,

— 97 —
who will commit to your trust the true riches? After
these worldly things do the Gentile millionaires seek.
Think ye that the rich young man was a sinner above all
who have wealth ? 1 tell you nay ; but except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. Render unto < 'sesar the things
that are Oassar's, but unto God the things that are God's.
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Unto him
that hath this missionary spirit of the Master, shall
be given ; but from him that hath not, shall be taken,
even that he seemeth to have. How can the Gospel be
preached for a witness unto all if you do not go and send ?
Oh, for more Pauls to cry out, Woe is me if I
preach not the Gospel of Christ ? Lord, lay not this sin
of omission to my charge, is a prayer that can only be
answered by myself. For how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they believe in Him of whom
they have not heard ? God is not willing that any
should perish ; are you ? Jesus came not to destroy, but
to save men's lives. Are you willing to be one wholly
given up to Christ and His cause — the salvation of the
whole lost world? Is your meat to do the Father's
will? Jesus says : " The same is my brother and sister
and my mother." Preach the Gospel. The Scriptures
testify of Me, says Jesus. And I, if I be lifted up,
will draw all men unto Me. Ye are My witnesses. Do
the work of evangelists. Are there few that be saved?
was asked. There may be fewer still if you do not
arouse to action. For the serious question to you at the
present moment is not, Can the heathen be saved with
out the Gospel ? But the question is, Can you be saved
if you do not go and send it to them ?
Be assured, my friends, that all the unconverted
heathen are still lost ; not like the lost prodigals in
Christian lands, but they are the most blindly lost
people in all the world. And they of themselves can
never grope their way out of such Egyptian dark-

— 98 —
ness. They must be earnestly and lovingly sought
after like sheep that have gone astray. If 1 did not
believe that the unconverted Chinese are hopelessly lost
in their idolatrous rebellion against God, there are not
locomotives enough in the United States to propel me
one step in returning to that land again.
Lost. Let me repeat that word with emphasis — lost.
Do we realize the full import of that word's meaning ?
Do we actually believe the sad, the awful statement,
L-O-S-T ? Imagine some one suddenly breaking into
this rc'om and telling you that your child is lost and
cannot be found. You know he cannot find his way
back of himself. The darkness of night is coming on.
'* Oh, my darling, my precious boy is lost", you exclaim.
And you do not wait for an explanation of the word
"lost". The news has aroused you to immediate action.
You go. and you go at once. You send others, and you
send still others. You search and search and search
until yon save that which is lost.
Millions of children, some one else's boys, are lost
out there in the dark woods of heathendom to-day. ft
is estimated that in China alone 30,000 die every day
without hope and without God in the world. If you
should start at once to their rescue, the opportunity to
>uave to-day's 30,000 is already gone and gone forever.
But to carry out the figure, the morrow's 30,000 have
not yet passed beyond your reach and aid. Oh, let us
hasten; the King's business requires haste. While
there's life there's hope. Who will be the first to go ?
Who will be the first to say, Lord, here am I; send me;
1 will go,

— 99 —
CHAPTER II.
A Man of Ethiopia. — Acts viii. 26=40.
Of the cases of Gentile conversions mentioned iu
the New Testament perhaps none are so complete in
details as this oue. It is giveu step by step from the
time when the man first heard of Jesus until he event
uates in a believing, obedient soul, rejoicing in Christ
his Savior. This man of Ethiopia was a Gentile convert to
Judaism, who had been to Jerusalem to worship. Being
a euuucb, he could not have been a full member of the
Jewish community (see Deut. xxiii. 1), but only a "pro
selyte of the gate." He appears as an earnest-minded wor*
shipper. Race, rank and wealth all had been overcome
iu making the long journey from his Ethiopian home,
far away to the south of Egypt. The needful outlay ot
money for the trip was not small. Doubtless he was a
busy mau, for he was head treasurer under the queen, a
position of great authority. The name Candace was
that of the royal line, being borne by successive queens;
for the kingdom was governed by queens as late as the
time of Eusebius of Caesarea, who died about the year
A.D. 340.
He was sitting in his chariot reading the prophet
Isaiah at the 7th and 8th verses of the 53rd chapter.
Orientals are accustomed to read aloud, and it was usual
for Jews or Jewish proselytes to read from the Scriptures
when traveling, to beguile the way, for all other books
were proscribed as the work of heathen.
The angel of the Lord brings word to a particular
man, Philip, to go south at, noon and meet a particular
man on the desert road that goeth down from Jerusalem
to Guza, aud Philip obeys just as told. His not to
reason why, his not to make reply. The angel was a

— 100 —
messenger of the Lord sent to convey His message.
Commnuications by angels and those from "the
Spirit" are distinguished throughout the Acts. From
neither can we eliminate the supernatural. All this
painstaking is to lead the soul of this Ethiopian into
the greater light. The reason why there are not more
snch cases is because there are not more such seekers
after the light. To every such seeker, there is a mes
senger of the Lord sent to enlighten him.
Why didn't the angel go himself? Because iu the
Lord's plan of salvation there is a place for redeemed
sinners as witnesses for Christ. It is not for us to say
that God conld have had any better plau than this. As
the plan stands, the man is needed for its prosecution.
The result was that the truth penetrated into a country
far away in the persou of a man of high position, aud
there we have reason to believe that it bore much fruit.
The command to join the chariot, which would be
permitted by the good fellowship of the road and easy
from its slow pace, was given by "the Spirit ", which
obviously means something different and still more
unmistakably divine than that received through an
angel. Angels come and go as God's messengers to
believers. The Holy Spirit abides with believers, goes
with them, aud guides them into every truthful step.
Christ wauts a witness to go near and join himself to a
needy sinner, in order that the sinner may believe,
repent, obey ; that the promise of the gift of the Spirit
may be his. That is the Gospel way of working for
unbelievers. The Holy Spirit's temple is not an angel's
form, but it is a believer's heart. The Holy Spirit
speaks from that temple to the sinner through the lips
of the loving and faithful disciple of Jesus. And
until the disciple has come near to the unbeliever and
has joined himself to him, be has not doue all in his
power to bring the promise of the Holy Spirit to that

— 101 —
unbeliever. If you are auxions for the spiritual welfare
of an unbeliever in China, don't, stand in the homeland
and pray that the Holy Spirit will go and reach him,
but go to that laud and join yourself to him, praying
God by His Spirit to speak through you to the winning
of that soul io Jesus. For bow can I hey believe in Him
of whom they luive not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? Aud how shall they preach
except they be sent, ?
But one says, an angel told Philip to go; the Lord
has sent, no angel to tell me. Ah, my Christian
brother, He has sent oue greater than an angel to you ;
He has more highly honored you iu sending yon a
commission by His ouly Sou. For Jesus says to his
disciples : "As the Father hath seut ine, so send I you."
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. You must, go,
therefore, and do likewise. Wherever in all the world
there is a lost sonl, there in the name of the Muster yon
must go. If yon have goue anywhere alter a lost sonl,
you are in the path of duty. There are hundreds,
thousands, yea millions lost in Cbiua; you may help to
send some one there. 'Thus yon may go, aud thus you
may send. For " Go and send ", not " Go or send ", is
the Christ command. You yourself must go if only to
the next person yon meet. Aud you must seud, for
"how shall they preach except they be sent"? Go and
seud, then, is the disciple's commission, now and hence
forth, one and inseparable.
In this 8th chapter of the Acts we read that when
the apostles :it Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the Word of God, they seut uuto them Peter
and John. They were not couteut to stay in Jerusalem
and pray. They sent men who were filled with the
Holv Spirit to be a means of imparting this Pentecostal
power to others. Paul hoped to go to the saints at
Rome that he might impart unto them some spiritual

— 102 —
gift (Rom. i. 11). The Holy Spirit speaks to aud
through believers in Jesus. His blessings are imparted
to aud through those who trust themselves to the
Savior of sinners. So now if we would have others
share in the gilt of the Holy Spirit, it is for us, who
have received the gilt, to go and make known the Gospel
to those iu behalf of whom Christ has commissioned us.
Philip ran. That is the way a man goes at the
Lord's work when he is full of the Holy Spirit and
wisdom. He doesn't shuffle along in a ball-hearted way
as if he were not sure whether to go or to bold back, or
as if he thought that to-morrow or an hour hence would
be as well as now for duty-doing. He just runs as if
everything depended on his not losing a minute. Aud
if the man whom he is sent to is iu a chariot, and has a
fair start of him, he has need to run. A great many
opportunities of doing the Lord's work are lost because
of delay. There are times when resting and waiting are
in order, but when we know of a sonl in need, aud when
we have a prompting from the Holy Spirit to go to that
soul, the one thing for us to do is — to run.
This black official, from far away in the depth of
heathendom, was reading aloud lrom Isaiah. That
meant something. Philip's question, " nuderstandest
thou what thou readest. ?" is abrupt, not like the ordinary
long-winded Oriental courtesies; for what is to penetrate
must have a point. The preacher has not to deal with
great meu who happen to be sinners, but with sinners
who may happen to be great men ; and he has to shape
his words accordingly.
The answer of the great man to the stranger was
modest, " How can I except some one shall gnide me ?"'
Three good qualities were his — earnest attention to
Scripture; persistent study of it, even if obscure; and
willingness to learn from auy one who can teach. Many
susceptible souls were then being drawu to Judaism, and

— 103 —
Jews were in many instances taken as guides in religion,
in accordance with the widely diffused expectation of
some great religions teacher arising from their midst.
Where there are such characteristics, God will uot leave
man nuguided.
A tinman helper has his place in Bible study. The
Holy Spirit guides Philip iu explaining the Word of God.
So long as the plan of salvation is as it is, meu are
needed to warn aud iuvit.e anil instruct their fellow-tuen.
Praying for the Holy Spirit to reach unbelievers can
never take the place of goiug at the call of the Holy
Spirit aud putting ourselves alongside of those who are
unconverted, in order that we may witness to them of
Christ aud be their guide toward Christ.
Philip began from this Scripture. Any one who is
wise to the winuing of souls will be ready to begin any
where in the Bible aud preach Jesns from that starting-
point. The Bible is one from beginning to end. Man
lost through his own siu ; God's proffer of salvation bv
the one Savior ; these two truths, or these two sides of
oue great truth are shown everywhere iu the book of
God. We note, however, that the particular place where
the eunuch was reading was the very center of prophecy,
the clearest and most undeniable prediction of a suffering
personal servant, to which the whole story of the cross,
resurrection and glory -could be attached as fulfillment.
It is a Gospel before the Gospel. To expound it is to
" preach Jesns."
What facts Philip preached concerning Jesns the
narrative does not state, but from the eunuch's question
we know that he made clear to him the duty of obeying
Jesns in baptism. And in this we see that Philip was
following out Christ's commission to all preachers of
the Gospel, viz., "Go ye into all the world aud preach
the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth aud is
baptized, shall be saved." Aud again, "Go ye aud

104

disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
thern to observe whatsoever things I have commanded
you." In like manner, Peter exhorted on the day of
Pentecost: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of the Lord Jesns Christ for the remission
of sins, aud ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Paul also preached the same Gospel to the Philippian
jailer, and on his confession of faith in Jesns, baptized
him. It is not necessary to state in every instance of
conversion all that the preacher said. When the terms
of salvation are once made plain by the writer, he ouly
needs to note thereafter the peculiar circumstances, if
any, in any individual case. When any of the apostles
or New Testament preachers were asked, " What must
I do to be saved ?" we may be sure they faith fully
returned auswer in the terms of their Lord's commission,
whether the details are given us or not. And so in the
record of the Acts of the Apostles, we never find them
omitting or adding any other conditions to those of the
Gospel. For, says Paul, if even an angel should do this,
let him be accursed.
Since this man had now learned that baptism in
water was part of the Lord's plan, obedience to which
would disciple him to Christ, he wanted to know if there
was any hindrance to his immediate reception of the
rite, seeing they had arrived at water ready for the
purpose. This was the right question to ask, for if there
is any hindrance it is sure to be ou the sinner's side,
not ou the Lord's side. In the niargiu of the revised
version it is stated that Philip asked the one, all-important
question, "Dost thou believe with all thine heart?" aud
the assuring auswer was, "I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God." Philip is the Christ-sent teacher,
and is but following the example of his Master when he
propounded to Peter the question, "Whom do you say

— 105 —
that I, the son of man, am ?" and Peter nttered that
church-foundation truth, "Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God." And it is also like uuto the question
Jesus asked of Martha, after declaring " I am the
resurrection and the life . . .; believest thou this ?" And
she replied, "Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the
Christ, the Son of God." — John xi. 25-27.
Nothiug is stiid about repentauce, as the writer had
gtveu that along with Peter's preaching in earlier chapters.
Luke takes for granted that the reader will understand
this. What he puts stress on is the quickuess with
which faith spraug up in the "good soil." This was
no case of "forthwith receiving" because of shallow
ness of nature or impressions. Swiftly springing faith
is not to be always suspected or put on its probation.
There are cases iu which uo lapse of time could increase
the proofs of genuineness; aud, in such, delay in the
full recognition of a brother is a wroug to him and to
the church. Ou the other baud, the eunuch teaches
converts their duty and wisdom — immediate avowal of
their faith aud implicit obedieuce to Christ's require
ments. Philip must then have indicated assent, for the
eunuch himself gave the order to stop the chariot. The
sceue was strange— the solitary wilderness stretching
rouud, the little group, the wondering attendants, the
motionless chariot with the gaziug charioteer, the great
mau following the way-side met stranger down iuto the
vvuter, the rite of immersion, which must have seemed
so peculiar to the spectators. And when they came up
out of the water, aud the Spirit caught away Philip,
so that the enuuch saw him no more, we can ouly
imagine the thoughts of those who looked on that scene
that day.
But Philip was not to sit iu the chariot any 'more.
His task there was done. His sudden iniraenlous dis-

— 106 —
appearance fitly sets the token of God's command and
approval on the eunuch's reception of baptism. It says
to the Christian preacher everywhere: "Do your work,
lead men into Christ, aud then do not linger to get
praise or reward, but turn to other needy souls and
tell them of Jesns."
The eunuch was more solitary now than ever before,
as he set his face towards his distant home with the
certainty that he would fiud few, if any, there to help,
teach, or sympathize with him. But he had Jesus in
his heart, and to this louely servant the promise applied,
"Lo, I am with yon alway." So he plunged into his
solitude aud disappeared from our sight in heathen
darkness, aud yet " he weut on his way rejoicing ", for
his new faith made him richer than all Oandace's
treasures and more glad than ever before, and gave
him a companion in his loneliness, whose presence
brought " pleasures for evermore ". Au hour or two
ago be had said that he could not understand without
a man to guide him. The word he uses is the same
as Christ employs in His promise of a Spirit who
shall gnide into all truth. With that guide, "be needed
not that any man should teach him," aud could he
joyful even when his eyes no more beheld his earthly
teacher. We do not enough trust the Spirit of God to guide
converts from heathenism. The experience of the
persecuted church of Madagascar, deprived of missionary
guides and left to face martyrdom with its Bible and
God's Spirit, aud growing in spite of all ; or those
converts in North China during the Boxer trouble, who
were left aloue when the foreign missionaries fled to the
coast, aud who, though some were nearly killed and
others recanted, endured the suffering aud grew stronger
than before, teaches us that the same Spirit which was
enough for this man in his solitude, is enough for all

— 107 —
who will yield themselves wholly to Him and faithfully
carry out His teaching.
As to the pre-Christian history of the ennnch,
he had been led to believe in the God of Israel perhaps
from the teaching of some far-wandered Jew in his
home at Napata, the capital of the Ethiopian kingdom
of Meroe. This kingdom may be said to have been in
the district of Khartoum, though its capital stood some
where about the site of the present Dongola; the two
places thus marking the beginning and end of the great
bend of the Nile, on which Berber stands — about half
way. At his home, also, he may, from this instructor,
have obtained a roll of the great prophet Isaiah's
wonderful words. " It must," says Geikie, "have been
written in Greek which, as the current language of the
ruling class of Egypt, would have made its way up the
Nile. The Greek version of the Old Testament had
been made in Egypt, so that the sacred books could
easily have been spread from it in every direction."
But from whatever source he obtained his knowledge of
God. we are quite sure that he was not left to the chance
of nature's dim pages, his own conscieuce, nor any other
rationalistic conjectures of the higher critical school.
For the natural theologist says that his book of nature
is not based on revelation. Blessed are they whose hook
is the book of revelation, given by God and witnessed by
His creation, His bounty, and His Spirit-filled men.
And twice blessed are those who know God's Words
and do them. And thrice blessed are they who show
their love for Christ in keeping His commandments,
" Go and preach the Gospel to every creatnre ", " Go
seek and save the lost; ye are my witnesses." Finally
blessed is he whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall
find so doing.
The natural result of being filled with God's Spirit
is utterance of the great truths of Christ's Gospel, with

— ] 08- —
tongnes as of fire. A tongue — the only instrnment of
the grandest war ever waged, man's speech to his fellow-
man ; a message in human words to human faculties;
from the understanding to the understanding, from the
heart to the heart. A tongue of fire — man's voice,
God's truth ; man's speech, the Holy Spirit's inspiration;
a human organ, a superhuman power. Do yon see your
calling as a Christian, my brother, my sister ? Yon are
to consecrate your speech to Christ; yon are not to be a
silent Christian ; yon are to go, and you are to send.

— 109 —
CHAPTER III.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit.
This is a practical age. Belief is founded on testi
mony. Man's mind is nicely balanced when he is not
unduly excited nor somnambnlantlv inactive. In the
former case, the emotions are not allowed lo run aw»v
with the jndgment ; in the latter, the mind does uot
aronse sufficiently to properly investigate and weigh the
evidence so as to form a correct judgment.
Take this subject, for instance — the gift of the
Holy Spirit. What assnrance have we that the Spirit
will come to us and abide? How can we know
definitely ?
We believe in Jesns, we must believe also in His
Word. He says : " If a man love me, he will keep my
Words; aud my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him and make onr abode with him."— John
xiv. 23. By keeping the Words of Jesus, then, we know
that He and the Father will come aud abide with us.
This is plain. It avoids all stumbling blocks of ecstacy,
illumination, or other probable delusions.
" By keeping the words of Jesus " — now what are
Jesus' Words? He says: "Go ye into all the world
and preach the Gospel. He that believeth and is baptized,
shall be saved." — Mark xvi. 15-6. "Teach them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you." — Matt.
xxviii. 20. And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, the first
to preach in the new dispensation, said: "Repent and
be baptized every one of yon in the name of Jesns Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." — Acts ii. 38. The man who thus keeps
the Words of Jesus shall receive the gift promised by
God. He does not have to wait, or further beseech, hut
has God's own promise that he shall receive. Of course

— 110 —
if a man is not sincere, he does not receive the gift, bnt
a pnrpose of heart formed while calm and self-possessed
is more likely to be steadfast than when formed under
excitement of any kiud.
EVIDENCES THAT WHAT SOME SAY THEY ARE DOING BY
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
1. When a man preaches the Holy Spirit, he is
not gnided by the Spirit so to do.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples to guide
them into all truth. — John xvi. 13. Now God's Word is
truth. — Johu xvii. 17. In the beginning was the word and
the word was with God and the word was God. — John i. 1.
This word was made flesh and dwelt among us. — John
i. 14. His name is Jesns. Aud Jesns Himself says : "I
am the truth." — John xiv. 6. Now looking iuto God's
truth, the Bible, we read : " Howbeit, when He, the Spirit,
is come, He shall not speak of Himself." — John xvi. 13.
So that when yon hear auy one preaching the Holy Spirit,
yon may know it is not the Holy Spirit speaking, for He
will not, speak of Himself.
A Rev. Stalker went around the world preaching
the Holy Ghost. He upbraided Christians, because they
did not honor the Holy Ghost enough. Now Jesns says
that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
Father. — John v. 23, but says nothing about honoring
the Holy Spirit. If man, according to his own will,
seeks to honor the Son by houoriug the Holy Spirit, he
is like the Confuciauist, who thiuks to honor Confucius
by worshipping his tablet, for Coufucius nowhere com
mands or requests his disciple so to do.
A Rev. Nichols, speaking at a mission conference
until in an ecstatic state, exclaimed, "When the Holy
Ghost gets into a man, He can't help but shout!" He
further said that in a certain district where he preached

— Ill —
he had made visits to 120 Chinese families, and every
one was represented in his church. The chairman
quietly asked him if he meant that out of every family
he visited there was one representative in his church ;
and Rev. Nichols replied, "Yes." Aud he would have
all understand that, during his discourse, he was bnt the
mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost.
2. WTheu a man prays to the Holy Spirit, he is not
guided by the Spirit so to do.
Jesus Himself prayed to the Father. — Matt. xxvi. 42.
He taught His disciples to pray to the Father.. — Matt.
vi. 9. The Spirit itself maketh intercession to God for
ns. — Rom. viii. 26. Christians are to pray to the Father
iu the name of Jesns. — John xvi. 26. Thus such hymns
as Come, Holy Spirit, Heaveuly Dove, with all thy quick
ening power, may be petitions in which we ask aud
receive not, becanse we ask amiss. — James iv. 3. Zech.
vii. 12-3. We ask according to God's will when we keep
His commandments. — I John iii. 22. Aud one command-
meut is, "Thon, when thou prayest, pray to the Father,
and the Father shall reward thee." — Matt. vi. 6. Another,
"Use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. After
this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father who art in
heaven." — Matt. vi. 7, 9. Why pray to the Holy Spirit
when it is God who hears and answers prayer ? John
xi. 42. Jews and Gentiles both have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. — Eph. ii. 18.
3. When a man denies the divinity of Christ, he is
not guided by the Spirit so to do.
I John iv. 2 says : "Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that coufesseth that Jesns Christ
is come iu the flesh is of God. Now some men say that
Jesns is the Sou of God just as every raau is the son
of God ; but Jesus was the model man iu that, he did
no siu. But God's Word says: "Every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh

— 112 —
is not of God, and this is that spirit of anti-Christ." —
I John iv. 3.
4. When a man prays for the Holy Spirit to convert
a man, be is not guided by the Spirit so to do.
Jesus says He will seud the Holy Spirit to His
disciples. — John xv. 27, aud adds, "Whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth
Him." — John xiv. 17. If a worldly man cannot, see,
know or receive the Holy Spirit, bow cau the Holy
Spirit*couvert him ? We must distinguish between the
converted aud the unconverted man iu this promise of
the Holy Spirit.. Paul writes to the Corinthian Chris
tians : "The natural man receiveth not the thiugs of the
Spirit of God," aud as if this was not plain enough, be
adds, "Neither cau he know them, for they arc spiritual
ly discerned." — I Cor. ii. 14. And Paul also says that
the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth. — Rom. i. 16. Aud again, that- the
sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. — Eph. vi. 17.
Further, that the Word of God is quick aud powerful
aud sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of sonl aud spirit and of the
joints and marrow, aud is a disceruer of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. — -Heb. iv. 12. James i. IS
says: The Father of His own will begat us with the
word of truth. Aud Jesns prays the Father for them
also who shall believe ou Him through the word preached
by His disciples. — John xvii. 20. It is only uuto these
believers that the gift of the Spirit is promised. See
Acts ii. 38, 39*

* An ex-missionary, commenting on Romans ii. 14, said that he
believed that' a good many Gentiles, iu heathen lauds, would be saved
without ever hearing the Gospel. When asked to cite some instances
in support of his belief, he named Abraham and Job, adding that God
could to-day speak to people as He spoke to those of old. The heathen,
lie said, did not necessarily have to hi- ax some one preach the Gospel or
read it from the printed page ; but God could teach them directly as iu
former timed. God's power its not limited.

— 113 —
SOME EVIDENCES THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS
IN A MAN.
1. When he bears the fruit of the Spirit.
Jesus says: "A tree is known by its fruit. A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither cau u
corrupt tree hriu<j forth good fruit. — Matt. vii. 18. Now
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
geutleuess, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. — G*il.
v. 22. If we see a man's life bearing these kinds of fruit,
we may be assured that he has the Spirit of God. The
fruit of the Spirit is Love. But if iustead of love, a mau
bus hatred toward any one, bow then ? I. John iv. 20
says : " If a man say, I love God and hateth his
brother, he is a liar ; for he that loveth not his brother,
whom he bath seen, how can he love God whom he
bath not seen? "
2. When he testifies of Jesns. John xv. 26 says:
" When the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is come, He
shall testify of me."
The disciple of Jesus is commanded to preach the
Gospel. — Mark xvi. 15; to preach the word. — II. Tim.
iv. 2 ; to preach Christ. — Acts viii. 5. Now no man can
Leavins; a.-ide the puzzle as to how a, missionary student of the
Bible could cite Abraham, the grandfather of the Jews, as a Gentile who
did by iitii ure the things contained in the law not yet given from Sinai,
let us proceed at. once to find out from Scripture how God has spoken to
men. Hebrews i. 1 declares that God in former times spoke by the
prophets, and the in these last days by His Sou. Aud HiB Sou sent forth
His disciples into all the world, praying the Father also for those who
shall believe on Him through their word. To guide them into all truth
and bring all things to their remembrance which He had said and done,
He sent them the Holy .-pirit, whom the world cannot, receive, but His
disciples only. It follows, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is limited in
voicin" the words of Jesus to the used voices of the whole number of
Jesus' disciples at any one time on the earth.
This, then, is the greatest reason in the world why Christians should
watch and pray lest they enter by sleep into the temptation of Satan to
choke the channel by which the Holy Spirit gains admittance into the
hearts of other meu.

— 114 —
say that Jesns is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. — I.
Cor. xii. 3. Jesus Himself told Peter when He confessed
Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, ''flesh nnd
blood bath not revealed it unto yon, but my Father
which is in heaven". — Matt. xvi. 17. It is God that
worketh in yon, Christians. — Phil. ii. 13. These sayings
have reference to Christians only and not to men of
the world, who cannot receive the Comforter, which is
the Holy Spirit. — John xiv. 17.
3. When He shows things to come. — John xvi. 18.
Jesus says the Spirit of truth will show yon tbiugs to
come. And we know that no prophecy ever came by
the will of roan, bnt holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. — II. Peter i. 21.
4. When He glorifies Jesns. — John xvi. 14. Jesns
says the Spirit of truth will glorify Me ; for He shall
receive of mine and shall show it uuto you. The fault
of the Pharisee when he prayed was that he glorified
self. — Luke xviii. 10-14. He said he was better than the
Publican, aud according to law perfect, fruitless. On
the other hand, John the Baptist's testimony was : Jesus
must increase, I must decrease. — John iii. 30.
5. When He reproves the world of sin and of
righteousness aud of judgment. — John xvi. 8. He is
then speaking by the Holy Spirit, for thereunto was
the Holy Spirit seut. Johu xvi. 8 reads : ''Aud when
He, the Comforter, is come, He will reprove the world of
sin, aud of righteousness, and of jndgment." Now how
the Holy Spirit will do this is made plain enough if we
will examiue the record of the Acts of the Apostles.
How did the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost
convict the Jews that they had taken and with wicked
hauds crucified that same Jesus whom God had made
both Lord and < hrist. By the month of Peter ; for
when they heard, they were pricked in their henrt. —
Acts ii. 37. Peter also testifies: "Jesus, having re-

— 115 —
ceived of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear" —
Acts ii. 33.
When, therefore, you hear a man reproving the
world of sin, aud this by his life and example, as well
•as by his words, yon may know that it is tlte Spirit of
God abiding iu him. Yon may know t«hat he is not of
the world. — John xv. 19^ that He is no longer a worldly
man. — John xvii. 16. Jesus prayed the Father not that
His disciples should be taken out of the world, but that
they be kept from the evil.' — John xvii. 15. Jesus prom
ises to send the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, to His
disciples. — John xv. 26. This promise -is not to men of the
world. — John xiv. 17. It is to true lieHeversonly. Jesua
sends them the Spirit of truth to guide them into all
truth and to bring all things to their remembrance.—
John xiv. 2(3. Paul says-; We have received the Spirit
which is of God that we might know the things that are
freely giveu to ns of God. Which things also we speak,
not iu the words which mail's wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Spirit teacheth. — I. Cor. ii, 13.
Now how does the Holy Spirit reach those iu
whom He does not dwell ? The Holy Spirit has no
voice iu the world except as He uses the human lips aud
the human tongnes of Jesns' disciples. Jesns does not
seud the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of His
enemies — the unconverted. Paul says to the -Corinthian
Christians : " Know ye not that jour bodies are the
temples of the Holy Spirit which is in yon".. — I. Cor. vi.
19. Since Christians then are the channel through which
God's Spirit is to reach the world — the whole world —
how careful should they be not to choke this channel of
the world's salvation. For worldly meu mnst be born
jio-aiu of w.iter and of the Spirit. And we see here the
imperative importance of mission sermons, literature,
and societies volunteer studeut «ioveimeaits, and any

— 116 —
and all agencies that will arouse the facnlties and stir
the spirit of Christians fo their noblest endeavor. Peter
fully realised this when he said : I think it meet, as
long as 1 am in this tabernacle, to stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. — II. Pet. i. 13; iii. 1. For even
Christians may grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. iv. 30), so
that be no more speaks through them. For it is
impossible for those who once tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, if they
shall fall away, to renew them again. — Heb. vi. 4, 6.
Bnl has the Holy Spirit, then, no direct office in the
conversion of unbelievers ? A trood Presbyterian mission
ary said to me on o.tr voyage home : " Do yon mean to
say, sir, that the Holy Spirit did not move upon the
hearts of those 3,000 on the day of Pentecost to convict
them of sin aud cause them to repent ? I believe, sir, " he
continued with emphasis," that there can be no saving
conversion nutil the Holy Spirit first works on the heart
of the nncouverted. Have yon not read, sir, in John that
the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin ?"
I replied that the full text, when read aright, would
explain itself. Jesns says to His disciples (John xiv. 16,
17): "I will give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seetb
him not, neither knoweth him." Instead, therefore, of
promising that the Holy Spirit Himself will enter into the
hearts of His enemies, such us were those 3,000 wicked-
handed, blood-guilty, unpardoned Jews, He distinctly
states that the world — such worldly men — cannot receive,
see nor know the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, God's
Word teaches that the Holy Spirit as a holy personality
dwells only in holy temples. Paul, writing to the
Corinthian Christians, says : "For the temple of God is
holy, which temple ye are". — I. Cor. iii. 17. And again,
" Know ye not that your body is the temple, of the Holy
Spirit, which is in you which ye have of God. — I. Cor.

— 117 —
vi. 19. The Holy Spirit is not, then, some mysterious
illumination hovering iu the air, nobody knows where,
keepiug would-be repentant sinners iu mortal dread aud
suspense until a sufficient amount of meanings aud
groanings have been exacted. For Jesns says: "The
Comforter whom I will seud uuto you proceedetb from
the Father iu my name. I will seud Him unto you,
aud He shall be iu you. And when He is come, He will
convict the world of sin."
Now how did the Holy Spirit, when Ho came on
Pentecost 1900 odd years ago, convict that Jewish world
of 3,000 souls of siu, of righteousness, and of judgment ?
Well, the Acts of the Apostles gives no uncertain record,
no strange, unaccountably mysterions meanin»:. The
Holy Spirit, as Jesns had promised, came to His own,
His chosen, those whom He loved and who showed they
loved Him by keeping His words. And they all be^nn to
speak the wonderful works of God. No tronblons fears
possessed their souls. It. was otherwise with the 3,000. By
this we know that the Holy Spirit had not yet entered
iuto them, for instead of gladness and singleness of heart,
as afterward, they cried out, " Meu and brethren, what
shall we do?"
What the record says is that previously Peter, filled
with the Holy Spirit, began to speak. In other words,
he began to use the Christian armor that day bestowed
upou him, viz., the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. And when they heard this they were pricked
in their hearts. For the Word of God is quick aud
powerful aud sharper than any two-edged sword, pierc
ing even to the dividing asnuder of soul and spirit stud
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thought's and intents of the heart. — Heb. iv. 12. When,
then, they had heard the Word of God by the mouth of
Spirit-filled Peter, they were convinced that till things
they had done to Jesus were naked and opened uuto the

— 118 —
eves of him with whom they had to do, hence their
repentant cry, What shall we do?
Now the Gospel, the sword of the Spirit, is the
power of God uuto salvation to every one who believes it.
Accordingly we bear truth-guided Peter responding in
the terms of Christ's great commission, Repent and be
baptized every oue of yon iu the name of Jesns Christ,
(that, name you have so persistently despised and that
person you so recently put to an ignominious death ou
the cross) — in that very name (for there is uoue other
under heaven given amoug men whereby you must, be
saved) — iu that uame you must repent and be baptized
for the remission of sins and then ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Up to the point of that
inserted "then" they did not have even the promise of
the gift of the Holy Spirit, much less His already mys
terious working in them for their conversion. For how
could the Holy Spirit come iuto them while they were
yet unholy temples, men of the world, enemies to
Christ? They had not yet opened the door of their
hearts to welcome that Jesus whom they had so wicked I v
crucified as an impostor of the Son of God. For the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God, neither cau be know them, for they are spiritual I v
discerned. They had not yet beeu born of water auil
the Spirit. But when they gladly received the word and were
baptized, the same day the Lord added to the church
snob as were beiug saved.
When Jesns said to His disciples, Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel, aud lo, I am with yon
alway, He meant He would be with them iu the person
of the Holy Spirit. This promise is then not to others.
Then how are the unconverted, all unbelievers and
heathen to receive the Holy Spirit? Even as His
word teaches : When a man confesses with his month the

— 119 —
Lord Jesns, believes in his heart, that God has raised
him from the detid, repents and is baptized iu order to
the remission of sins, be hits God's promise that he
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. — Rom. x. 9, 10;
Acts ii. 38. The same order is given in Ephesians i. 13 :
" In whom (Christ) ye also trusted, after that, ye heard
the wor I of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom
also lifter that ye believed, ye were sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise"; that is, the Holy Spirit uses
the lips and tongne of the Apostle Paul to preach the
Gospel of salvation, aud thereby the unconverted Ephe-
sian hears, believes and obeys Christ, and is sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit.
Then, baviug the Holy Spirit as his guide, his voice
is the voice of the Spirit so long as he yields himself
freely and fully to do God's will, which is the will of
Christ by whom he is seut. Not my will hut thine he
done, is the trne position for each child of God to take.
Then, as he adds to his faith virtue, and to virtue know
ledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love
(II. Pet. i. 5-7), then can he hope to be filled with the
Spirit. — Eph. v. 18. Then can he grow iu grace and in
the kuowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesns Christ. —
II. Pet. iii. 18. Theu may he go on uuto perfection (Heb.
vi:l), reaching towards the stature of the full man in
Christ Jesns our Lord.— Eph. iv. 13. Theu, holding out
faithful unto the eud (Rev. ii. 10 ; Matt. xxiv. 13). may he
at. last, fully know the only true God and Jesus Christ
his Sou, whom to know aright is life eternal. — John xvii. 3.

— 120 —
APPENDIX.
Some Friendly Criticisms Considered. Present=day Rational
ists and Higher Critics Against Themselves.
I submitted the essay, "Does Nature Reveal God ?"
to my f'rieud, the Professor of Bible in a prominent,
college. He wrote iu reply: "I need not tell you
that, it is impossible for me to agree with it. It sliould
at least make you suspect that there is something
radically wrong iu your view of the case to know that
all the greatest students of history, and especially of
Comparative Religion, decidedly differ from you." Bnt
before he has gone ten lines farther, he opposes himself
in this manner : " Most of your essay seems to be
iuteuded to refute opinions that were never held by any
competent thinker, so far as I kuow. "
Thus, iu one breath, he declares that all the great
students of history, and especially those of comparative
religion, differ from me, and in the next breath, that I
am refuting views never held by any competent thinker.
But let us be charitable. Perhaps the professor is right
in dubbing writers on comparative religion as incompe
tent thinkers ; bnt he has unwittingly included himself
iu the same category since he caunot agree with me.
Continuing, the professor writes: "To say, as
Paul does, that some men without the aid of supernatu
ral revelation have been able, from nature, history, aud
conscience to learn something about God, aud to teach
these things to others, is uot to say that all men can
thus learn till things about God. It is not even to say
that any man can thus learn to know God in his
character aud work as Jehovah, or as our Father and
the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All
that has beeu or cau be learned of God through nature,

— 121 —
etc., does not make any the less necessary or important
the supernatural redemptive revelation of God."
The fallacy of the professor's reasoning lies in his
premises, in what chapter and verse has Paul said that
"some men, without the aid of supernatural revelation,
have been able to learn some things about God ? " (And,
of course, they would hardly be competent to teach
others that which they themselves have not learned).
Paul does say that '• when the Gentiles do (or practice )
by nature the things of the law, they show the work of
the law written in their hearts " ; but the law he speaks
of was a supernatural revelation. This class of Gentiles,
then, are not among the professor's •' some men '' who,
without supernatural revelation, have learned some
things about God. Paul told the Athenians that him of
whom they were ignorant and whom, by their altar
inscription, they confessed was unknown, he would
declare unto them, an I immediately declared unto them
God who ma le heaven and earth. Those Athenians,
then, are not among the professor's " some men who had
learned some things about (iod ". Paul also says of
those who held down the truth in unrighteousness, that
against them the wrath of God is revealed from heaven,
because that which may be known of God, God showed
unto them. These again cannot be the professor's "some
men who, without a supernatural revelation, learned
some things about God," since <iod Himself reve led it
from heaven unto them
Thus is taken away from the sinking professor the
last straw at which he caught, and we are sorry for
him, of course. But, friends, ought it not to be a
warning to us not to use the language of the text-books
where the Scripture is better? All this talk about
" learning of God through nature, wdthout the aid of a
supernatural revelation", about "the light of nature",
" the law of nature ", " the God of nature ", " the natural

— 122 —
law '", " the natural revelation of God", etc., is language
wholly foreign to the Bible. Inspired men do not write
in this style. Nature does not reveal God ; nature gives
no revelation. Holy men moved by the Holy Spirit,
and God's Son have spoken God's Word. No Scripture
ever came by will of man, much less by chance of nature.
The works of creation ami the bounty of providence are
God's witnesses to His spoken Word, and God s Word is
truth. The man of God sees all God's glory in nature;
but the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are
spiritually discerned — I. Cor ii. 14. The things which
are revealed, belong unto us and to our children lorever,
but the secret things belong unto God. — Deut. xxix. 29.
Matthew Henry's Commentary says: "The Gen
tiles have the light of nature, and by this they shall be
judged. The light of nature taught obedience to parents,
forbade murder, stealing, lying etc." On the contrary,
I think it will be found that the heathen are in all stages
of forgetfulness of these, God's commands. Some steal
without appatently realizing that it is wrong. — only if
caught. Cannibals seem to have no conscientious scruples
against murder. Lying is practiced naturally alike by
the uncivilized Cretan and the most highly civilized
Confucianist, for neither has any idea of the truth as it
is in Christ Jesus.
It is doubtful if all the obedience they render to
God's law in honoring parents will avail them anything,
because it is not done in the fear of the Lord. The
great sage, Confucius, teaches " that parents when alive,
should be served according to propriety : and that when
dead, they should be sacrificed to according to propriety "
Now this sacrifice consists in burning incense before the
tablet in the ancestral hall, spreading on a table before
the altar viands for the departed and making prostra
tions and kotows to the ancestral tablet. But God

— 123 —
commands men not to bow down in worship to any
image or likeness of any kind. His commandment is,
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only
shalt thou serve." How can Confucianists serve God in
keeping the fifth commandment, while at the same time
violating the first and second ? Can they honor father
ami mother and dishonor God at one and the same time ?
Has long life on the earth been promised to those who
obey parents and disobey God ?
No ; we are to obey our parents in the Lord. If we
obey them in lying aud stealing, we are not honoring
them in God's sight. If we keep the law of God, we
must keep the whole law. For whosoever offends in one
point, is guilty of all. For He that said, " Honor thy
father and thy mother, also said, Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them," Now if
thou honor thy parents, yet if thou make a tablet of thy
ancestors and bow down in worship to it, thou art be
come a transgressor of the law. And you are not one of
those Gentiles who do by nature the things contained
in the law, for you are doing the very opposite of what
the law contains.
There are some men, however, even some who origin
ally went to China as missionaries, as Dr. Gilbert Reid,
who say that the Chinese do not worship their ances
tors. Although he knows that they do all the things
stated above before the ancestral tablet at a time when
all the family or clan are assembled, yet he excuses
them by saying that it is simply their way of showing
respect for the dead. But, honestly, I must confess
to you that when 1 read such statements as his, I am
forcibly reminded of the man who read an account of
his own death in the newspaper and remarked that

— 124 —
he knew it was a 1 — prodigious misstatement as soon
as he saw it.
Paul does not say that the Gentiles will be judged
by the light of nature or the law of nature ; but he does
explicitly teach that "as many as have sinned without
law, shall perish without law ; and as many as have sinned
in the law, shall be judged by the law." When they are
without law. they are not even a law unto themselves.
All Gentiles were without the law of Moses for unto the
Jews Were committed the oracles of God ; salvation is of
the Jews. Salvation is not a thing to be reached by
any one who might vaguely desire it of a God of mercy,
but something that had been revealed, prepared,
deposited with a particular people, and must be sought
in connection with, and as issuing from, them; and that
people the Jews. For not the hearers of the law are
just before God, but the doers of the law shall be
justified : in the day when God shall judge the secrets of
men by Jesus Christ according to His Gospel. For we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and
every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. — Bom.
xiv. 10-11. That every man may receive the things done
in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad — II. Cor v. 10. And John in his vision
on Patmos says : " And I saw the dead, small and great,
which were written in the books. And the sea gave up
the dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them; and they were judged
every man according to their works. — Rev. xx. 13.
A UNITARIAN CRITIC.
This friend, by birth a Quaker, has now become a
liberal thinker. He attended a session of the Congress
of Religions, which is a child of the Parliament of Reli
gions held at Chicaga in 1893, He says they call it the

— 125 —
religion of humanity. He is a great admirer of Dr.
Barrows, who was President of the Parliament of Reli
gious ; so he went to hear him lecture on the result of his
investigations as a representative of the chair of theology
in Chicago University, of a several months' trip in the
Far East — in India, China and Japan.
Dr. Barrows thought that " missionaries were erring
in part, in going to the old mother religions of the world,
that hold and have held as old among them before Chris
tianity was born, many of the most inspiring teachings
which have come to us through Christianity and address
ing ourselves to them as though they were all wrong, and
we had the keys to heaven and happiness : that they
must abandon, as absurdly untrue, their religion that has
been a stay and buckler to myriads of millions during
the hoary years of the past.'' Dr. Barrows spoke of the
" unity of all religion under the one universal fact ol God
and humanity ; that we all come in a more or less
spiritual way in search of the truth ; that it is absurd for
Christianity to claim that God suddenly revealed himself
to a chosen handful, and that he has not been in all ages
leading the race to a higher and more spiritual conception
of himself." Dr. Barrows said we should " teach them that
our religious views are a fulfillment of a higher ideal and
not a displacement of a totally worthless one; that the
message of the missionary should not include occidental
peculiarities and minor dogmas, but should be a message
of love and life, remolding, purifying, and elevating their
more traditional worship."
When I finished reading these sayings, I had a vision.
I saw in my vision that one country in all the wide, wide
world that has not yet permitted the missionary of Christ
to set foot within its boundaries. Oh, thou mountain
encased Thibet ! Thou that waylayest and killest those
that are sent unto thee, how often would Christ have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth

— 126 —
her chickens under her wings; and ye would not. — Matt,
xxiii. 37 . But hope dawns again on thy snow-capped hills.
I see the great professor, Dr. Barrows, starting for the
Orient ; his great heart overflowing with love and life for
you. He will give you a message that will remold, purify
and elevate your more traditional worship. See, he has
reached the shores of Sinim ; he is going up to you. No,
he passes by. He is on his way to India ; he will go up
by a shorter route. No, he again passes by on the other
side. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Oh, that
vision ! How it comes to me again and again.
In all his travels in the Far East, the learned doctor
did not once go up to fellowship with the Dalai Llama
and the other good priests of the Buddhists " who hold
and have held as old among them before Christianity was
born, many of the most inspiring teachings which have
come to us through Christianity." He did not once set
foot on those uplands where God has been in all ages
leading the race to a higher and more spiritual concep
tion of Himself. In all his painstaking investigations,
Dr. Barrows did not so much as pass one friendly word
with them about the religion which has been a stay and
buckler to myriads of millions during the hoary years of
the past. He confined himself and his investigations for
the benefit of the chair of theology in the Chicago
University strictly, and shall I say, selfishly, to the places
and peoples whom the missionaries of the cross of Christ
had, through long years of toil and suffering, prepared
for his coming in peace. It was further his good fortune
to go at a time when every engine which propelled him
over the seas was the invention of a Christian land; and
at a time when, whether on sea or land, he never got out
side the protection of the flag of that country whose laws
are based on the law of God and the Gospel of Christ.
It is true that from the coast it is a long way up to
Thibet, but spending so many months as the learned

doctor did in his investigations, it is a little wee bit
surprising that he did not write even a letter of greeting
to those people who are so closely united to him under
the one universa-l fact of God and humanity, nor make of
them a single inquiry in regard to their mother religion
of the world. He with the keenest of insight, supplied
by an abundance of worldly wisdom, carefully observed
the proprieties and did not rashly rush into that sacred
country without an invitation. The husband of Dr.
Susie •) Kijnhart had tried that plan, and never returned
to tell the tale.
It is very becoming and appropriate in Dr. Barrows,
therefore, after having enjoyed the privilege of extended
investigations made possible by the missionaries, to
reward them with a plentiful supply of advice, as 'Do
not teach them occidental peculiarities and minor
dogmas; do not address them as though they were all
wrong; do not tell them that they mnst abandon their
religion as absurdly untrue; do not claim that God
suddenly revealed Himself to a chosen handful "; and
many other like helpful words of encouragement to his
pioneers and benefactors. It perhaps did not occur to
Dr. Barrow's mind, so absorbed with higher ideals and
much higher criticism, that the most obscure missionary
in Japan. China or India might possess more real knowl
edge of those people — their customs, literature, and
religion — than the learned professor even after all his
globe-trotting. How could it, when he went with his
mind already prejudiced i unconsciously, of course) with
the higher critical theory of the unity of all religion;
and he could, at best, only make a superficial exami
nation of the people and their ways as compared to the
missionaries who have lived years among them, learned
their language and come to know them in their daily
walk and life ? To leisurely read at a safe distance
some wise sayings culled from the ancient sages of those

— 128 —
people, and then write glowing accounts of their virtue,
sincere devotion to their gods, worshipful veneration for
their ancestors, etc., is one thing; but it is quite another
thing to have to deal with them in -their every-day
deceit, wiiness their superstitious worship of imaginary
devils, heartless killing of girl babies, and licentious
life with concubines, all the while patiently exhorting
them to turn from these vain and vile things to the
living God.
iiut in the end of the vision, I saw the good
Samaritan, as he journeyed, come to these brigand-
plundered, priest-ridden, Satan-bound, sin-sick Buddhists
lost in the mountains of Thibet ; and when he saw them
stripped of the Word of God, wounded and left half-
dead by those who turned the truth of God into a lie, he
had compassion on them, and went to them, and bound
up their Buddhistic wounds, pouring in the oil of God's
kindness and wine of His love, and set them in his own
carriage, and brought them to a Christian home, and
cared for them by the Christian church. Which now,
thinkest thou, was neighbor unto the lost Thibetans
that fell among Buddhistic thieves ? He that showed
mercy on them ? Jesus says : Go ye and do likewise. —
Luke x. 37. A MISSIONAEY CRITIC.
A friend in the China Inland Mission, to whom I
submitted the essay, Does Nature Reveal God ? wrote
in reply: "The information you give about the deaf
mutes is quite new to me. Supposing that they had
a knowledge of right and wrong (see Romans ii. J 5), was
there any fear or dread to them in the doing of wrong?
If so, dread of what? Again, there is what is called
the 'religious instinct', common to our race which
many authorities who are true to the Word of God now
hold as a fact beyond dispute. Dr. John G. Paton in

— 129 —
his autobiography, tells us that the cannibals in the
New Hebrides had a belief in something higher than
themselves to which they rendered worship. He also
found the same thing (the worship of a stone) among
the natives of Australia, who are even a degree lower
than the islanders. If this religious instinct be granted,
it must have been implanted (along with the conscience)
by our all-good and all-wise Creator."
In reply to my friend, 1 gave some more instances
of deaf mutes and said: These cases fully answer
your question as to uninstructed deaf mutes having any
fear or dread in the doing of wrong. They have none.
And so the bottom falls out of the "religious instinct"
hypothesis. One of the cases cited in the essay 1 sent
you proves that the idea of God is not innate in the
human mind, and that the nature of man does not even
prompt him to seek this knowledge. Thus far, you see,
we are on the solid ground of fact. Therefore, Berean-
like, we ought to search the Scriptures to see if these
things which " the many authorities" you speak of affirm
are so. Referring to Romans ii. 14-15, let us inquire who are
these Gentiles who do by nature the things contained in
the law. Are all Gentiles included, or only a part? If
only a part, can we ascertain what part ? You cite Dr.
John G. Paton 's autobiography, which mentions the
natives of Australia as worshipping a stone. (And let
me add by way of parenthesis, how, in adoring a stone,
they are worshipping something higher than themselves,
is not yet quite clear to me). But you see at once that
these do the very things not contained in the law. See
first and second commandments. Is it not evident that
by this " religious instinct " theory, our text-books have
been (perhaps innocently) misleading us?
Notice that the Apostle Paul refers alone to the
Gentiles who do by nature the things of the law. " These,"

— 130 —
he emphatically states so as not to be misunderstood,
" show the work of the law written iu their hearts." As
to the other Gentiles, he does not speak. He throws
over them the mantle of oblivion.
Unfortunately for most writers on natural theology,
they prove their hypothesis by citing the very Gentiles —
cannibals, savages, and others even lower in degradation
and superstitious rebellion against God which Paul
distinctly excludes from Romans ii. 14. Is it not a
slander on the character of God to say that he has im
planted in man a " religious instinct " to worship a stone ?
Or something higher than himself, no matter what ?
When He plainly commands, Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me ? Does God command man not to make
an image or likeness of any kind and bow down in
worship to it, and then endow him with a nature that
makes him do the direct opposite and the man cannot
help himself? No; let God be true if every man a liar.
God made man upright, but he has sought out many
inventions. Let no man say, when he is tempted to do
wrong, that he is tempted of God (James i. 14), for God
tempteth no man. But every man is tempted when he
is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. But God is
faithful, who will with the temptation make a way of
escape. — I. Cor. x. 1 3. I, for one, cannot charge upon
God that He is teaching, even dimly through nature,
any man to violate His own commandments, especially
the very first one. If two-thirds of the human race are
to-day bowing down to wood and stone, the fault must
be man's, not God's.
Romans ii. 14 implies that the Gentiles, as a class,
were not doing the things of the law. As they did not,
in times past, like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them up and suffered them to walk in their own
ways. One would not naturally look among them,
therefore, to find the doers of the law. And if a Gentile

— 131 —
should do by nature the things of the law. he would be
a marked exception to the rule. In other words, if one
of the uncircumcision which is by nature, should fulfill
the law, he would be such a noted example of faith in
God as to surpass even the most devout Israelite, —
greater even than the most faithful of the circumcision.
Such cases Jesus Himself found in the Roman centurion
and Syro- Phoenician woman, and Peter in Cornelius.
But none like these have ever been found among
the heathen, pagan, savage or other Gentiles who had
long since forgotten the truth of God once possessed by
their ancestors. Paul, in all his travels, makes mention
of no Gentile who was doing the things of the law when
he found him. He told the people of Lystra to turn from
their vanities unto the living God. He called upon the
Athenians to repent. He wrote to the Corinthians that
they were formerly Gentiles carried away unto dumb
idols; and to the Thessalonians that they had turned
from idols to serve the true God. — I. Thess. i. 9. He
reminded the Ephesians that, in times past, they were
Gentiles in the flesh, having no hope and without God in
the world; that they then walked according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh iu
the children of disobedience; and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. — Eph. ii. 2, 3.
- And the early missionaries into Gaul, Britain, Ger
many and Scandinavia mention no case among those
peoples who were doing the things of the law before the
word of the Gospel reached them. And the history of
the last century movement for the evangelization of the
whole world records no Patagonian, no Hottentot, no
Indian, no bushman, no cannibal or other heathen Gentile
who, before hearing the Gospel by their preaching or
other ao-ency, was doing the things contained in the law.
Not only did the Gospel not find, but it had to create
a desire for the truth and the doing of these things.

— 132 —
And so it is to-day. Wherever the missionary of
the cross goes to a heathen people, he finds them not
doing the things of the law of God. It is true none have
been found (so history) without some form of worship;
but that worship, without exception, has been the not-
doing the very first thing the law commands to be done,
viz., Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Now it is only said of those Gentiles who do the
things of the law that they show the work of the law
written in their hearts. Just ao the sin of Judah (see
Jer xvii. 1), written with a pen of iron and the point of
a diamond, is graven upon the table of their hearts so
the doing of the things of the law by the Gentiles is
shown to be written in their hearts. Contrarywise, it
follows that the Gentiles who do not do the things
contained in the law do not show the work of the law
written in their hearts. All the things the Gentiles did,
whether of the law or not of the law, were done by
nature and not by commandment, for the commandments
were given unto the Jews. But by nature a Gentile
might do good as well as evil. His nature might prompt
him to do what he heard was right, as it had before
prompted him to do the wrong. And if he should thus
do the things of the law, he would but be doing his duty,
and must say to the Lord, I am an unprofitable servant.
For by the works of the law shall no man be justified.
For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. — Eph. ii. 7-9. Not by works of right
eousness which we have done, but by his mercy we are
being saved.
In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh
righteousness is acceptable to God. But when the Gen
tiles do not fear God, what then ? When the people
of Lystra made preparations of sacrifice to Paul and
Barnabas, were they fearing God and working righteous-

— 133 —
ness or provoking God to wrath? Fear God and keep
His commandments, says the Preacher, for this is the
whole duty of man.— Eccle xii. 13. And by the fear of
the Lord, men depart from evil. — Prov. xvi. 6. One of
God's commandments is, Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me. The people of Lystra, then, who would
sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, had not the fear of the
Lord before their eyes. These, then, are not the kind of
Gentiles who do by nature the things of tin- law; and
hence are not the ones acceptable to God. For had they
known God. they would have known that such sacrifice
was highly displeasing to Him; more than that, they
would have known that it was what God. in the law had
commanded men not to do. The Athenians who wor
shipped at the unknown-god altar, had they feared God,
would have been afraid to give to this altar the honor and
worship due to God only.
The lives that the heathen are living under the
teaching of their ancient sages, if men would go and see
for themselves, or carefully read the statements of those
who have gone, should at least make them pause and
reflect. Are those heathen really doing the things of
God's law, whether by nature or in any other way ?
Writers on comparative religion, and those who love the
beautiful sayings of heathen philosophers, have superfi
cially examined the subject and too hastily drawn their
conclusion. Jesus says : If ye love them that love you,
what reward have ye? If the heathen honor their
parents and dishonor God, what reward have they ? Men
must honor God more than they honor parents. He that
loveth not the Heavenly Father more than the earthly
parent, cannot be the disciple of God's Son. Whosoever
shall give you a cup of cold water in Christ's name,
because you belong to Christ, shall not lose his reward.
But if he give a cup of water in some one else's name,
what then ? In God's sight, what reward has he ? If a

— 134 —
thousand cups were given to a thousand soldiers dying
with thirst in the name of Jupiter, or Zeus, or Baal, or
JVloloch, or Buddha, would it have any reward from God
whom it dishonored ?
Doing by nature does not necessarily mean "doing
by ignorance " A Gentile must needs exercise his highest
faculties in turning from his former environment to do
the things of the law. His reason must come into play.
Here, then, we see a Gentile reasoning whether he will
do the things of the law, and finally deciding to do them.
In this way the work of the law is written in his heart,
The fact that he does the law by his own reasoning and
not by commandment of another, shows that the law
upon which he reasons has first been presented to his
consciousness. If he were an untaught heathen, or in
any other way a Gentile ignorant of the law, could he
reason thereon and decide to do it? How could he
reason on that of which he was ignorant ?
Men do a great many things by nature intelligently.
The uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfilled the
law, judged the Jews who violated the law. This implies
that these particular Gentiles fulfilled the law intelli
gently. The first and great commandment is, Thou
shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind. This means to serve the
Lord with the man's utmost zeal and highest intelligence.
And the man v, ho does that, knows what he is doing, and
would willingly lay down his life for the object of his
devotion.

^~*c .f^e^Li*—

— 135

The one God some Greeks thought out.

My friend, the learned Professor, writes in a second
letter thus: "A lew Greeks came to the conclusion
that there was one God who ruled the world. When
such persons speak of gods, they use the word about as
we should " angels ' or ' spirits.' The inferior gods (angels),
as well as men and nature, are all under the one
Supreme God, whether He be called Zeus or left name
less. So Aeschylus, Plato and some others thought."
The professor must have been hard pressed, or he
would never have retreated to this last ditch. But, this
"one God", or "one Supreme God, whether Zeus or
nameless", will not help him out.
Who was this "one God"? One which the Greeks
came to the conclusion of, of course. Now God who
made heaven and earth and rules the universe, is one
Being; what the Greeks came to the conclusion of may
be something quite different.
This ostrich attempt to hide the head under the
sand of a general term will not avail. We propose to
examine what these some Greeks have said about their
one Supreme God. Cleanthes, the Stoic (B. C. 260),
says : "Greatest of the gods, with many names, ever-ruling
and ruling all things! Zeus, origin of nature governing
the universe by law, all hail ! . . . . For nothing can be
better for gods or men than to adore with perpetual
hymns the law common to all." T. G. R. 285.
In what way does this Zeus differ from the other
gods mentioned ? Ts greater power his only distinction ?
Does he but rule among the gods as an emperor (often a
weaker man than one of his subjects) rules over his

— 136 —
empire? If so this is not God who created man and
said: "I am the Lord thy God. and beside me there is
none other. I am that 1 am, and not what some Greeks
may, in their foolish wisdom conclude that I am. When
they in their wisdom knew me not, I was pleased by the
foolishness of Paul's preaching to have mercy on those
who believed. "
Manipulating this general term "The Supreme", so
that a present-day meaning which an audience may have
in mind, is taken advantage of to cover up the meaning
the same general term had to the ancients, will be
allowed to deceive no longer, for we propose to remove
the mask. Is this one God of Cleanthes Jehovah '. Is
the one Supreme God of Plato the God of Genesis?
Christians have but one God. Paul says: There is none
other God but one. One God made all; in Him all
consist; He is all in all.
The point to be settled is : Is Zens God or a
counterfeit ? As Elijah said, in proposing a sign to
determine the true God: If the Lord be God," follow Him;
but if Baal, then follow him. This covering up the issue
in a o-eneral term that may mean anything, as different
men in different ages put different contents into it, shall
not obscure any longer. Like Elijah, we propose the test,
Who is this Zeus? this one "Supreme God?" What
are His attributes and actions, His own worshippers being
historians ?
They tell us that his father was Kronos and his mother
Rhea, sister of Kronos. And who was Kronos ? The
offispring of Gaia, his mother, from her inter-marriage
with her own son Uranos.
Then this is the kind of god that my learned friend
confidently assures us that a few Greeks came to the
conclusion was the one God who ruled the world. But
we are not yet through with the description of him wrifcter
by themselves.

— 137 —
Zeus was one of a family of six, five of whom are
included in the twelve gods of the Olympic pantheon,
along with their cousins, the six children of Zeus himself,
and Aphrodite, the daughter of Uranos by his own
daughter Ocean.
As a family, these twelve gods live together on
Olympus, feasting, talking, making love, making war,
deceiving each other, angry and then reconciled. In the
Iliad we see them at their feast, with Vulcan handing
each the cup, pouring out nectar for them all. But when
the sun sets, they retire each one to his own house,
which renowned Vulcan, lame of both legs, built.
Olympian Zeus goes to his couch and lays down to rest
beside white-armed Here. Sometimes they fight toge
ther, or fight with mortals. Thus purely human were
these gods ; spending the summer day in feasting beneath
the open sky, going home at sundown to sleep like a
parcel of great boys and girls. Jupiter complains to
Thetis that Juno is scolding him always. He hung his
wife up in mid-heaven with anvils tied to her heels, and
when Vulcan untied them, he was pitched from Olympus
down into the island of Lemnos, whence came his lame
ness. Thus a rude and brutal head of a household was
the poetic Zeus. Eminently human is the picture of the
sleep of Jupiter and Juno imparadised in each other's
arms, while the divine earth produced beneath them a
bed of flowers, softly lifting them from the ground.
And this is the one Supreme God called Zeus or
nameless which Aeschylus, Plato and some others thought
out. Verily the mountain hath labored and brought
forth a mole ! In what way does this Zeus differ from
the eleven other gods of the Olympian pantheon ? Are
not the characteristics common to any two or more of
them, common to all ? Are not all of them equally gods ?
Are not all of these gods alike imaginary higher beings ?
And what is this, if not polytheism ? Is Zeus a god and

— 138 —
the other eleven only angels, as the professor in despera
tion asserts ? Do these eleven angels make war ? So
does Zeus. Do they deceive ? So does Zeus. Do they
get angry and fight one another or mortals ? So does
Zeus. In what way do these, the professor's angels, differ
from the one Supreme God when they all go home to
sleep, Zeus included, like a parcel of great boys and
girls ?
No, it looks as if this, the last apology of the
professor for the heathen, was worse than the first. It
does actually appear ridiculous, but we must not laugh.
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. He
that sitteth in the heavens, shall laugh. The Lord shall
have them in derision. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Be wise now, therefore, oh ye
kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth. Ask of me
and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possessions.

KIND WORDS.
" I have received from Charles B. Titus, of Harper,
Kan., a pamphlet of eighty-two pages, bearing the title,
' The Greatest Work in the World ; or, The Mission of
Christ 's Disciples '. The subject is treated in three parts :
Part First, 'How God Has Spoken to Man'; Part
Second, 'How God Has Not Spoken to Man', or 'A
Rebuttal of the Claims of Natural Theology '; Part Third,
' How God's Word is Made Manifest Through Preach
ing.' To myself, and I think to the majority of those who
will read this booklet, Part Second appears the most
striking and original. It is especially instructive in
regard to Confucianism, the prevalent religion of China.
The author was for seven years a missionary in China,
and is now about to return thither after a vacation in this
country. He has knowledge at first hand of this boasted
cult as it is understood and practiced by its devotees.
He writes of it, therefore, not as an apologist, who knows
it theoretically and at a distance, but as one who has
been in the closest contact with it, and understands it
practically. This part of the pamphlet would alone make
it worthy of extensive reading; but it contains many
other forcible discussions of topics that are now the
subjects of thought and discussion. Such teaching as it
contains is badly needed in China, where young men who
have been educated in European universities, and in some
universities of America, are propagating among their
countrymen all the skeptical teachings which they have
imbibed from Western professors. Skepticism in all of its
modern forms is leavening the educated minds of China,
Japan and India, as it is in Europe and America ; and its
sources in all are the same. It is comforting to know
that in Bro. Titus our Foreign Society has a man able

and willing to combat this destrnctive tendency whereve
he meets it. To send as missionaries to heathen Ian
men favorable to this neology would be to work into
hands of men already there whose influence is more d1?10"
to overcome than open idolatry. It is to be hoped that
our C. W. B. M. will adhere to the good example in ttns
respect set them by the Foreign Society."— J- " ¦
McGarvev, Pres. College of the Bible, Lexington, Ky., in
Biblical Criticism Department of the Christian Standard,
Sept. 8, 1906.
" The Greatest Work In The World ". Price in»«
vvzexr^hm-; cloth, $100. Order of the author Wuhu,
China; or Presbyterian Mission Press. {Jkx^yXx>^-.