Editorial August 13, 1910 Issue

"SHALL HE FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH?"

John B. Willis

"Is the Christianity they teach adequate? Will it be able to stand against the onslaughts of Christ's foes in their modern garb?" Such was the clearly defined doubt awakened in the heart of a very intelligent Englishwoman after having listened to the many addresses delivered before the recent World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh. She was deeply impressed, as she tells us, with the earnestness and ability of the representative men who had come together for mutual counsel and inspiration, and yet this question of the adequacy of their apprehension and presentation of spiritual truth to meet "the world's great need" forced itself upon her attention, even as it is stirring the thought of unnumbered people in all the Christian world.

This skepticism is asserting itself at a time when missionary enthusiasm is registering one of its highest tides,—when, as this great conference has evidenced, earnest longing for the advance of the cause of Christ is moving all Christian believers in an unusual way,—and this seeming paradox cannot be explained apart from two very discernible facts, viz., the contrast between the prevailing concept of Christian truth and that of the Master and his early disciples, and the unsatisfactoriness of the results which are attending the preaching of the Word today.

Christ Jesus declared and demonstrated that the truth which he voiced was adequate and immediately available for the solution of every earthly problem. To those who heard him gladly he not only gave assurance of ultimate salvation, but he proved the power of his gospel to annul material law and to overcome sickness and death; whereas, though the pall of pain still rests upon all the nations, most missionary workers today not only do not undertake to demonstrate the healing significance of the Master's teaching, but they practically deny that such results normally attend its acceptance! To perceive this radical departure from the concept and course of Christ Jesus and his disciples certainly authorizes wonderment, and when, furthermore, we place in comparison with the marvelous achievements of the early disciples the relatively meager returns which are attending the labors of a vast army of Christian workers in foreign lands today, the skepticism referred to is increased an hundredfold.

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