THE picture in today’s “Messages of Love” is from a photograph that was taken in a heathen temple in the town of Puchu (pronounced “Puk-drew”), in the province of Kiangsu, China.
If you will look carefully at it you will see that there is a man, —a foreigner, —lying on the ground on his back quite helpless. Standing with one foot on his body is a huge, ugly idol; and in the idol’s hands you may see a book that he has taken from the man.
Can you guess the meaning of this? Some of you can, I am sure. That hideous idol represents our enemy, the devil.
How sad to think that in China, and many other countries, the poor people pray to, and worship these idols; and God tells us that then they really are worshiping devils.
The man in the picture represents a servant of the Lord Jesus who has come to China, to tell the poor people in that dark land about the Lord Jesus who can save them from the power of the devil.
The book in the hands of the idol is the Bible, —the Word of God, — and the devil has taken it away from the servant of God, and is going to destroy it.
The devil has made some of his servants carve out this idol, and this man and this book, so as to show what he would like to do with God’s servants, and with the Bible. He is not able to do this, because God is stronger than the devil, and takes care of His dear servants; and He says about His Word,
It is not often that the devil shows us so plainly how much he hates the Bible and the servants of God.
Several hundred years ago the devil tried to burn and destroy all the Bibles, and kill the servants of God who read it; but now he usually tries different ways to take the Word of God from us. In some lands he only allows the Bible to be read in a language that people do not understand. This suits his purpose just as well as burning it, because in this way the people do not learn about the Lord Jesus, the Saviour.
In our land the devil has tried a different way still, to take the Bible from us—but it is just as truly the devil, as it is in our picture today, or in the dark times and lands I have been telling you about. Today he comes to us, like he did to Eve, and asks us, “Yea, hath God said?” Or in other words, “Is the Bible really God’s Word?” or “Is the Bible all God’s Word?”
The devil tells us that science contradicts the Bible, but again it is the voice of the devil, and he is a liar and the father of lies. If science contradicts the Bible, then science has made a mistake, and soon will change its mind, as it has done often before.
But, dear children, what I want you to remember is that the picture on our front page today represents the true attitude of the devil. Can we not almost hear him cry, “Away with it,” as he grasps that Holy Book in his hands, and have we not heard that cry, raised by that same enemy of God, “Away with Him,
Away with Him,” when the Living Word, the Lord Jesus, stood on trial, about 1900 years ago.
Whenever you hear a doubt cast on that Word, you may always think of this picture taken in far off China, and remember that the same one who rules behind those idols in China, is one who raises the doubts about God’s Word.
May God help vote and me, dear children, not only to believe God’s Word always, but also to always obey it.
“The Word of God 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 discerner, (or critic), of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
ML 03/01/1925