THE Word of God may fitly be termed The Peaceful Conqueror, for it has conquered men of all times, religions, and countries, and has brought them in the subjection of love to honor God as their Father, the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and the Holy Spirit as their Instructor. Many a human heart has held out for years like a fortress against the gentle entreaties and strong assaults of the Scripture, but only to yield at last and to rejoice in the longsuffering and the grace of God.
It cannot be too strongly pressed upon the mind in our own day that the Bible is in itself the perfect missionary. We do not detract from men missionaries; the Scriptures themselves exhort us to mission work, and they pattern to us true mission work in the records of the great missionaries of the early Church; but still the Bible is in itself the divine and perfect missioner to men. We hear the contrary largely advocated in our own land, even under the plea of supporting the Christian faith; indeed, some go so far as to affirm that unless the Church send out its appointed missioners, the Book of God—though circulated by barrow-loads—must be useless! Let us, then, cull a few instances from multitudes, to prove that God not only can but does speak to man to the saving of the soul, and the change of life, by His written Word, and apart from any human missioner, save such as send out the Bible to their fellow men.
Our incidents shall be selected from the huge pagan area, and from the areas of the Russian and Roman Churches. It may be convenient to begin with the lowest and most debased of the heathen. We cannot get much lower than cannibals I Speaking of the Fijian Christians, the Rev. J. Horsely, a missionary to them, says: "Many of these men were wild, degraded cannibals, but they have been transformed by the power of God attending the quiet perusal of His Word; and where in the wide world can there be found a more astonishing transformation? Here is not only a miracle, but a miracle of power to prove the divinity of the Scriptures; these once bloodthirsty cannibals are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Again, the same witness declares that in 1865, when examining twenty-eight young men, who were recommended by the native ministers as candidates for the office of local preachers, he was much struck with the oft-repeated mention of the New Testament as having been the only means used by the Holy Spirit to convince them of their danger, and lead them to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Let us now turn to the refined and the cultivated heathen. There are in the pagan area minds as well proportioned and as keen as there are in Christendom. Quite true, the human mind does not work in exactly the same way in the East as it does in the Anglo-Saxon race. The mind of a cultivated heathen Chinese offers an unpromising soil for the seed of God's Word. Such a heathen looks upon sin and the future state in a way absolutely different from that which any man trained in Christian knowledge would do. Therefore it is all the more remarkable that the Scriptures alone—without human instrumentality— will so work in such a mind that the heathen is turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. Instances are before us where, by the means of reading a small portion of the Scriptures, Chinese, who had never seen a foreigner, gave up their system of religion in order to follow the teaching of the wonderful Book which had fallen into their hands. Let us imagine one solitary Chinaman, with a small portion of the Word of God in his hands, and all around him for many, many miles, millions of his countrymen who have never so much as heard of the Living God, and this man devoutly and humbly obeying the teaching of the wonderful Book of God! And as we do so we see that the Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."
In like manner the Scriptures alone have led Japanese to God.
“A Testament came into the hands of a gentleman who lives among the mountains of Shinshū. He began to read, and the Lord opened his heart. As there was no Christian in that region, he would put little pieces of red paper over against the passages he could not understand and took them to God in prayer, and one after another the red inquiry marks disappeared. He went to a town some distance away, found a Christian minister, and received baptism. He returned to his village and built a house of worship, and announced to his neighbors that the building for the worship of God was ready for use. Any might join him who wished to do so, but to himself it would make no difference whether any came or not, as he would henceforth at stated seasons offer worship there.”
The few words in reference to the Bible in Russia, which we now lay before the reader, are substantially those of a well-known Russian gentleman, as he recounted the power of the Word of God to us the other day. Some thirty years ago a young Russian was employed in Germany, and during his term of service he was greatly struck by the behavior of some German workmen in the place where he himself was engaged. Upon seeking to discover the secret of their godliness, a Bible was placed in his hands as the key. Shortly after he returned to Russia and read the Book carefully.
By it he was brought to God. He was brought to God by the Word of God. Unable to keep the joyful realities of salvation to himself, he invited his neighbors to hear the word of the Book, and many of them were "born again": “of incorruptible" seed. The priest of the village where these things took place, was a drunken man, and the Bible believers were I constrained to absent themselves from the services he conducted. Because of this they were reported to head-quarters—hundreds of miles distant—and the order came for their punishment, and the young man who brought the Bible to the village was banished many miles from his home.
At the village to which he was banished he began again reading the Bible, with similar results, and also with fresh persecutions and a fresh banishment. However, he maintained his course, and again and again with the same results.
This Bible reading and Bible following has gone on in Russia for some thirty years, and it progresses to this day; and thirty years of persecution has rather increased than diminished the number of these Bible believers, whom we know as Stundists.
We have to remember that the Russian Church does not prohibit the reading of the Word of God as does the Roman Church, but rather favors it; but none the less does the Russian Church, or its authorities, persecute such as obey the Scriptures.
From the huge area of Russia we come to that part of Christendom where, so far as she can do so, Rome rules. For centuries Rome has used her power to keep the Word of God from the people; but in our days the people have wrested much of Rome's power from her—at least, in most countries she cannot imprison for reading the Bible. She denounces, she tries to prevent Bible reading by the people, but she cannot slay those who do so.
In vast districts of Europe—we will not look to the States of South America—millions of human beings, called Christians, have not so much as had a Bible in their hands; and their teacher is "The Church," as Rome designates herself. Now, competent evangelical workers tell us it is their conviction that to such millions it is far preferable to send Bibles, or Testaments, or parts of Scripture, than missionaries. About Rome—say, in a space of twenty miles around the city—there are wild districts filled with unruly people. When, some five years ago, the colporteur first made his appearance in one of these districts he was stoned and driven away, but not without first having left a few copies of God's Word behind him. Now what is the case? Hundreds of people—and chiefly men—listen eagerly to the word of life, and they cry out for a teacher! We have before us many instances of this nature, in which the Word of God, speaking from God to men, has entirely turned them from the superstition of Rome, and has brought unruly and lawless men to meekly pray and read the Book of God together. The order of battle there in the war against superstition is, first the Bible, then the teacher; not, first the teacher, then the Bible.
We have selected only a few instances of the mighty power of the Word of God alone over men. And we can engage in no greater service to our fellow men, and no purer service for our God, than Bible circulation. The great need of Roman Catholic countries is the Bible. And the Romish hierarchy well knows that Bible reading and Bible believing must occasion its downfall. In the districts around Rome referred to, the priests employ little boys to collect what Bibles they can find, so that they may burn them. A bishop, not long ago, sent no less than ten shillings to a poor Italian peasant—a very large sum to him—if he would only yield up his Bible, but the man made answer that he loved it too well to part with it. Indeed, every effort is made to keep the people from the Bible, which may now by law be circulated in Italy. Also tracts with mutilated texts are issued in order to disparage pure Bible truth, the evident antidote to which is the Bible itself.
The manner in which the Word of God has been spread over the world in late years thrills the heart, and inspires it with hope. Prior to the Queen's reign, Spain, Portugal, and Italy were to a great extent closed against the Bible, while in Austria no Bible distribution was possible. In these countries today there is very considerable Bible distribution, and if there were more funds, millions of copies of the Book might be spread amongst the people. In India the Bible has greatly won its way since the Queen's accession, and a few millions of copies, in about sixty languages or dialects, have been given to India's millions of souls. In China the Word of God is also being circulated,' and in many parts of Africa the Bible is now tenderly loved and devoutly reverenced.
The Bible Society alone—to whom we are indebted for some of our information—issues the Scriptures in over three hundred languages and dialects, "an increase of one hundred and ninety-seven in fifty-nine years!" And it offers the sacred volume to the blind in several languages.
Very, very much more remains to be done; yet we can all rejoice in what has been accomplished during the time covered by the Queen's reign. There can be no nobler way of offering our gift of thanks to God for His mercies to us during the sixty years celebrated this month, than by presenting before Him our mite to assist the great work of Bible distribution.