Brethren in Christ Church, Palmyra, Pa. This New Church Building Replaces the One Destroyed by Fire, New Year's Day, 1958
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Brethren in Christ Church, Palmyra, Pa. This new church building replaces the one destroyed by fire, New Year's day, 1958. Dedication took place the afternoon of June 7, 7959. GUEST EDITORIAL die if necessary for the cause of Christ. "Oh, Rock, Rock, When One Christian college student was forced to leave upper-class studies to Old-Time Church Finance Wilt Thou Open ... ?" become a common servant at his school. His testimony: "If my suf- S. L. Morgan, Sr., a retired Minister HONG KONG (EP Special)—This fering would hasten the coming of IT WAS in the "good old days" of lax tiny British Crown Colony, perched the Lord, I would gladly die." I church finance in rural churches. on the side of mammoth Red China, When a seminary in China was "Jack," as everybody called him af- is the world's best listening post for closed recently, its head dispatched fectionately, was a prominent, well- the news and rumors and cries of a message to Miss Willis with the to do citizen and perhaps the leading discontent and even anguish that plea: "Pray for me; the time of test- member of the rural church of 250, leak through the otherwise-impene- ing is coming." trable Bamboo Curtain. where I preached two Sunday after- Listening to these and numerous noons a month. For many years The 80,000 refugees pouring into similar accounts . looking from Jack had been deacon and chairman the more-than-crowded cities of Hong Kong's "New Territories" off of the finance committee. Kowloon and Hong Kong each year into the green hills of Red China . They paid me $300 a year for the via junks and sampans usually aren't seeing China as closed today as it two services. To raise it Jack met too quick to talk in specifics. There was those centuries in the past until the members as they arrived on the are too many spies, too many ears Robert Morrison and other early church grounds and asked them for that listen on behalf of the Com- pioneers penetrated its forbidden the small assessment placed on the munist mainland itself. But an alert fastness, one remembers the cry of members for "pastor's salary." Giv- observer, piecing together a word Xavier some four hundred years ago. here and a word there, soon is able ing to missions was almost nil. Yet it Looking with dying eyes on the was a prosperous membership above to weave a fabric that makes its own ugly portrait of life in China's com- hills of China, Xavier uttered a ques- the average of rural members. tion which today might well be Repeatedly I preached to the dea- munes today. And Christian refu- gees, when they sense that true rap- caught up and echoed by the Chris- cons and the church "stewardship tian church around the world: "Oh, and missions" and urged that the port that comes only when one be- liever communes heart-to-heart with rock, rock, ivhen wilt thou open to my church ought to do its business in Lord?" as businesslike a way as the biggest another, often open up and bare al- most unbelievable stories of heart- —Larry Ward, Editor, World Vision bank in the town nearby. And I Magazine urged that this would require that break and persecution. the members underwrite a church Recently Miss Helen Willis, who budget, each member offering so had operated the Christian Book much a week, and pay the amount Room in Shanghai for many years through a church envelope system until October, 1958, was expelled Evangelical Visitor week by week as an act of worship from Red China. In a talk before at the church services. the Missionary Prayer Fellowship of Volume 1XXII Number 15 Jack opposed it. He said, "I've Hong Kong, she told a heart-break- Official Organ of the Brethren in Christ Church, published bi-weekly by Evangel Press, been collecting the pastor's salary ing story of the suffering and per- Nappanee, Indiana. secution being experienced by main- PURPOSE: To publish the Gospel of God's for twenty years, and haven't I suc- grace—a complete salvation through the atone- ceeded ? Let well enough alone." The land Christians. ment of Jesus Christ the Son of God, made effectual by faith in Him; the walk in holiness other deacons agreed with me, but Highlights of her account, as re- by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit; hesitated to go against Jack. He was and the pre-millennial second coming of our ported by Dale McClain of the Lord. prominent and popular and con- Oriental Missionary Society here: J. N. Hostetter, Editor, Clarence Center, N. Y., to whom all material for publication should scientious. I advised them to be When she was brought to trial in be sent. sweet and patient with Jack, and mid-April, four main charges were Editorial Council: J. N. Hostetter, Editor, Ray Zercher, Office Editor, H. A. Ginder, he'd come around in time. For a leveled against her—chief of these C. W. Boyer, H. G. Brubaker, Roy Sider, while Jack blocked the way. Then Isaiah Harley the accusation that she had circu- Page Contributors: Jack did a magnanimous thing. I lated books by Wong Ming Tau, a Missions Abroad—Mary Kreider, Campbell- love to recall it. town, Penna. leading evangelical pastor. Describ- Missions in America—J. Wilmer Heisey, On Sunday morning before the ing this, she told how Wong Ming Bloomfield, New Mexico, c/o Blanco Trad- ing Post church he got up and said, "I've con- Tau himself had been arrested and Preachers—E. J. Swalm, Duntroon, Ont. Home—LeRoy Walters, Waynesboro, Penna. scientiously opposed the envelope mercilessly brainwashed until his "Today's Yesterday"— C. O. Wittlinger, system. But I've been wrong; I move mind gave way and he signed a con- Grantham, Penna. Brethren in Christ Publication Board, Inc., we all approve it and use it." It car- fession. When he first came out of H. G. Brubaker, C. N. Hostetter, Jr., Isaiah Harley, Joseph R. Aiken, J. Wilmer Heisey, ried the whole church. prison, he kept beating his breast Samuel F. Minter, E. Morris Sider We had members to divide their with the cry of "I am Judas." Later SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3.00 per year payable in advance; sample copies free. gifts, each putting part in the be- this changed to "I am Peter." Later, New Subscriptions $2.50 per year; Gift Sub- nevolent end of the envelope. The his mind restored, he saw the con- scriptions $2.50 per year. Canadian Subscriptions: no additional. envelopes came in at every service. fession he had signed, went at once Send all subscriptions to: Evangelical Visi- Complete success delighted all, and to officials to deny his guilt and tor, Evangel Press, Nappanee, Ind. THE MAILING LABEL INDICATES EX- none more than Jack. voluntarily returned to prison rather PIRATION SATE: All subscriptions three than to let the confession stand. months in arrears will be discontinued. Be patient and sweet with old- CHANGE OP ADDRESS: Be sure to give timers; yet sometimes it will be nec- Wong Ming Tau, according to Miss both the old and new addresses. Accepted for mailing at special rate of post- essary sweetly to go forward over Willis' account, is typical of many age in Sec, 1103, Act of October 3, 1917. them, trusting them to follow. behind the Bamboo Curtain today Entered as second-class matter, at the post office at Nappanee, Indiana, under Act of —The Church Advocate who have been willing to suffer and March 3, 1879. (2) Evangelical Visitor UR Lord warned about "tainted" O money. We do not mean the kind Gehazi, Judas, Simon Magus, and Ananias and Sapphira possessed. Unblessed Money We mean those funds out of which God's part has not been extracted E. M. Wadsworth and devoted to His cause as He de- sires. For this reason it is "tainted" and "unblessed." mon sin and it has with it a com- cious possessions, their latter end mon "taint." Believers, if they want shall be twice blessed; and mean- Jesus said, "Give alms of such their money blessed, must honor the while they know they have not rob- things as ye have; and, behold, all Lord first with their substance. "A bed God. They will not have a tor- things are clean unto you" (Luke cake for me first," demanded the menting conscience. 11:41). Through covetousness, the prophet Elijah of the widow of Zare- It is dangerous to appropriate the men to whom our Lord addressed phath, as an act of faith that God's Lord's portion to ourselves. Yet this these words had appropriated to Word about the meal and oil would is a common sin of Christians. They themselves tithes and offerings which not fail. She made him the cake and let money get power over them, in- belonged to God, just as many seem God gave the increase. stead of being rulers over their to be doing today. In doing this they riches. No Christian can afford to let were guilty of robbing God. Conse- So many Christians put their money rule his life. Increase of rich- quently their possessions lacked the money "into a bag with holes." The es cannot make us happier if it blessing of God. Lord "blows upon it" and makes it makes us slaves. Contentment is the It is sad when "prophets divine for fly away as if it had wings, or lets it companion of godliness. money," but it is just as bad when be a means of heartache to them.