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THE LIFE LINE ”For now we live, if ye stand fast In God.” The missionary penned A principle by heaven decreed, By which we must for life contend. ”For now we live if ye stadfast” In faith, the faith of Jesus Christ. No faith of ours is strong enough To thwart the enemies’ device. ”For now we live if ye stand fast” In love. God’s love and His alone Spans seas, and time, and changing years, And makes us one though oft unknown,, “For now we live if ye stand fast” In prayer-prayer in the Holy Ghost, That reaches out in faith and love And saves men to the uttermost. They live if we stand fast in God! Forgive us, Fathey, for the past. Perrhaps some graves on yonder soil Are there because we stood not fast. They live if we stand fast in God ! There’s more to living, Lord, than - life. _.-, -s They may exist by weakness bound ; e= s They should be strong to face tne 5- strife. s They life if WP stand fast in God! s Oh, help us then a vigil Xeep, 5 Iz Since as Thy children sow at home z Accordingly out there they reap. 7 5 Impart Thy faith, shed forth Thy love, 5- - Yearn in our hearts, 0 heavenly s .z Dove. , ’ 7 .zz Their faces on our minds inscribe. s5 May they through us His life imbibe. s5 ivlrs. C. J, Mason. niiiiiiiiiiii~iiui~iii~miiiii~iiiiuiiiiiii~iiuiiiiiiiiiiii~iiiiiiiii~iiniiiiiiiiii~iiinuiiniiiiiiniii~iiliiiinilii~iiiuu~~iiiiiiii~ii~iiiiii~iiiiiiii~~iiiiiiiilii~i~~iii 2 A guest editorial . THE LIFE LINE Mrs. C. J. Mason >'Farnow WE, live, d ye stand fast in the Lord" (1 Thes. 38). Have you ever quotcd this verse in prayer with reference to the mis- sionaries? Have you ~verconsiderad the -=text to- discovrr if you were scriptural in 50 doing? Careful study would reveal that this verse is definite!? zpplieable in that respect, and that between the missionaries on the fie15 and the churches at home there exists a relationship so close that life is actually affected therrqby. The missionary, in writing thsee words to a churoh, implies that 3 princi,ple or spiritual law is in operation which links us together and makes his or her life momentarily dependent upon us. It represents a life line hy which we must 'help maintain and sustain life. If we fail, the missionary fails! If we sucewd, the missionary succeeds! Consider the effect on the Apostle Paul of the aggregate spiritual life of the church at Thessalonica. At the, time of writing he had been separated from them for a year and was in the midst of severe persecution and affliction. His burden for that little flo& became so intolerable that he sent Timothem to them. When Timotheus returned with a glowing report of their "faith" and .'love" adtheir "good rfmembrance of w always, desiring greatly to see us" (prayer with desire), Paul's spirit revived. In the midzt of all his affliction and distress he receiv'Pa -comfort, rendered thanks, and experienced joy. During the war that was called "morale building." Paul revealed it as "life building." . Wi hrnrd the term "the life line" so often during the war. It repre- zented %at flow cd food, clothing, ammunition, reinforcements, and propa- 3 ~ ~~~ ~ ~ consequently, we were constantly reminded of the necessity of an all-out war engaging the energies of the man on the fann, the wife in the home, the children in school, and the workers in the war plant, until all of life was regimented. Our young men were fighting ow war. We could .not go, but they could and did. It was our responsdbility as well as theirs. Getting ahem to the front lines was just the (beginning. The important thing 'was to keep them there and enable them to advance. Mhions is the divine commission of the Church. The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, bhe mre intensely misio- nary we Ibecome. The church age is drawing to a close. We are writing the &sing chapters of church history. Will it close as it Qpned, in a biaze If glory? The answer depends on us. We are not aeatures of circumstances but creators of them. IndWrence, indolence, inadequacy are everywhere apparent and are coakftions of our own making. Apostasy here is reflected over there. The Church of Jesus Christ must amusw herself, marshaU her forces. and regiment all of her life in a total war. We must stand fast in the faith that works, in love that labors, and in prayer that agonizes. Ws must by mans of this life line cause His I& to flaw as "rivers of living water" to the missionaries In a spiritual and physical uplift so energizing that in reality one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand ta flight. Unless we meet God in a new upsurge of spiritual Me and power, we are doomed to failure at home aria bad. SPECIAL NOTICE On Thursday, April 6. Mrs. Herman Dixon was called into the presence of the Lord she lwed sc. well and served 50 faithEully. The Indonesia Mission feels,this loss keenly, and extends to Mr. Dixon and to the bther datives sincere sympathy wibh the earnest prayer that 'God will comfort and sustain them. The next ime of the Pioneer will carry a more detailed account of Mrs. Dixon's ministry in Indonesia. 4 It was on the 17th of Decemher, 1952 that we set sail from Oakland, California on the S.S. Steel Artisan, blissfully unaware of what lay in store for us with ti.* advent of of the New Year. We had watched with interear that evening as the last of the 16 ton Navy trucks and 12 tqn tanks of asphalt were loaded and lashed to the deck In preparation for the usual 16 day 2 hour run to Manila. The barges and cranes had hardly ldt the ship's side, before we were heading out thrmgh the Golden Gate to the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The weather was beautiful during the following two weeks, and we felt that ir was good 10 be alive. We watched the activities on the ship wit4 interest and questioned the ,officers at every opprtundy. Each morninq we noticed the deck crew slowly w.orking their way between !he deck cargo as they tightened the lashings and made sure everything was securz. Everything was going so smoothly it seemed that this was only routineto ,,put in time", so to speak. Christmas came and went, with a fairly well attended carol service id our cabin on Christmas Eve, and a groaning table sprend on Christmas Day. The next week passed much as the first had done. The other missionary couple on board, Ralph and Aha Romine who were going to Manila, joined us for a watch night senice New Year's Eve, and we sought the face of the Lord for His blessing in the coming yea?. New Year's Day dawned the same as any other day, and yet not the Tame. It seemed the same in every respect, and ye1 we knew it was diffkrent.. Therq was just "some,thing" in the atmosphere that was distinctly odd. We remembered something lata that we had noticed but not consi- dered that morning The sea all around us was firzim: just like soda water. Since the ship had slowed down until it was barely making any headway. , the sound of the fizzing was distinctly audible. We learned later that this was caused by the extrfmely low barometric pressure, which was 50 low that the air dissolved in the water was released and came tp the surface. The strange sensations we experienced that day were also^ probably zttrihutable to the low pres;ure. During the late morning the sea began "making" for no apparent leason. After the waves had imredsed in size considerably, the wind began to come up with real force. During the remainder of that day and night 5 the wind increased in veleeity while the seas mse. The typhodn.'€O~''su&'it was, continued to, wren through the following day. During the afternmn the waves reached at least thirty feet or mare, and the ship rolled from side to side more than thirty degrees from perpendicular. It was aye-inspirinp to stand in a doorway and look high up to see the top^ of a wave, and then suddenly be able to look forty feet or more to the dep:h of the hollow. We plunged and reared, staggered and rolled, until the simplest nwessities of living were a nighhlie'. The Romines joined us in our cabin about 6: 30 that night and we called on the Lord fmgrotection and His "Peace, be still." We went to bed and tried to sleep, hut that was impossible-we would have been thrown out of bed had we relaxed enough to sleep. The wind reached 200 m.p.h. and a wave ffty or more feet high went right over the bridge. We went through the "eye" of the typhoon about midnight. It was a dead calm without a breath of air or a rocking wave. We thought for an hour that the stom was ever, but it exploded on us once more with all its fierce intensity. About eight hours later we were out on the hinges once more, thankful no lives were lost, and only a few slight injuries sustained by one officer.