THE PRESENT CRISIS AHD THE WILL OP GOD Rev. Samuel M. Zwemer, D. L Z>Hl /• Broadway Tabernacle, Bew York, Oct. 3, 1915 In the Gospel according to Matthew, the 6th chapter and the 10th verse, we read these words: "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"; and in the 4th chapter of St. John's Gospel we read these words: "Jesus saith unto them, .y meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." The pres- ent crisis and the will of God. That there is a crisis at present in the world at large, and more particularly in what we are pleased to call the -wiohammedan world, no one can deny. I believe when the deeper causes of this great international struggle shall be historically investigated in the years that are to follow, there Y«dll not be the least doubt that the very centre and fulcrum that stirred up this great inter- national strife was in the iioslem world. More than twelve years ago, a German traveler, Karl Peters, remarked in the "Fortnightly Review," speaking of the struggle between the nations for the great highway, the Bagdad railway, and the commerce of the near East and the far East: "If German policy is only bold enough, they will be able through Pan-Islamism to fashion the dynamite that shall blow up British and French rule from Morocco to Cal- cutta. " Whether he was a prophet or not I will not say, but the fact remains that this dynamite has been touched, and tonight as we sit here in comfort and quiet, singing our hymns and worship- . _ • ; < . - . J*. ’ *. r *«■ ( { ■ ■ *■ ■ . * 1 • • — «v t " '\ • ••■ - ■— . * •' \ . J r. « ' >*. - , «.» — . ' -• jr » -■* *■' .j : . " 1 ^ ;;.r - ,£■ .» '» . -W _ . '• * t - ‘ ’ - ' - • ! - . .. . -• j. ■- • - ' • ' - : . ■ *“ • • • - - - • * / - - ; . . • ' . • - ,• - r r * v ! ■ . - ' * . * ■ • - fK > V -i V r - 2 ing in freedom, the Lord's portion of the Churoh of Jesus Christ is being exterminated, and we watch with horror the Armenian atroo ities. We oan almost hear the thunder of the guns of the Allies against the other armies, as inch by inch they are forcing their way into the Dardanelles. We are all of us, whatever our sympathies, wondering what is to be the future of the Wear East, and asking ourselves, is this the beginning of the end or is this the beginning of the dawn? Are those uprisings, like the Boxer uprisings, to usher in a new day for all the Ido hammed an Wear East, as they did in China, or are we looking upon the breaking up of all that which we hold near in our Christian civilization, and will the *johammedan nations point the finger of scorn at Christianity after the war? The present orisis and the will of God. The I-loslem problem is the one on which I desire to speak tonight. I will not touch on the present orisis in Europe, westward or eastward, Poland or Belgium or Russia or Germany. I speak to students on the one theme which I have made the study of my life, and which I study not only with qy mind, but with my heart. The will of God. Ho?; can wie know it in regard to those great nations which we call Idohamned&n? How can you and I study with the word of God in our hands the will of God in promise save as we go back to those great fundamental principles that l^y bare to us the will of Him whom we call our Heavenly Father? First of all, we knov; the will of God, even in the present crisis, regarding the Johammedan world, from His clear command. Lips that never uttered a cowardly word and never breathed any- thing but truth have told us again and again in the Gospels, 3 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation"; and if any of us through cowardice or fear or negleot omits the Mohammedan world from the universal problem of evange- lization we are not doing the will of God. We are to regard Christ's command as our commission; and aside from all other argu- ments, a clear sense of duty, a sense of being Christian soldiers, should lead us in view of the present crisis to say, Whatever else God wants us to do. He wants us now to preach to Turkey and Arabia and Persia the gospel of His love at any cost. That is what the soldiers are doing. "Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why. Theirs but to do and die." But there is a stronger reason by which we may know the will of God than His command. I dare say that very few of your mis- sionaries tonight who are in Turkey went out there driven by a com- mand. 77 e are not the bond-servants of Jesus Crist in that sense. God has made us His freemen. father and brother. Dr. Herrick, never stood to his task and bent his back to the harden for fifty years in the Turkish Empire merely from the motive of obedience to the will of God. We know the will of God for our Mohammedan brothers and sisters from God's own character, because He is God; and when we say He is God, He is the only true God, we must carry His gospel to every Mohammedan home and heart. He is a holy God, and therefore He must hate iniquity and violence and robbery and sensuality and darkness and sin; and unless you and I are willing to wipe out the stain of human sin because we love the character of the just God, we have never looked into the face of Jesus Christ, whose character is white as the driven snow. 4 What must it be to Jesus tonight to think of two hundred million souls that at their best, and if they all were doing their best, would be trying to measure up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the oamel driver of Meooa? God is love, and God must love the Mohanmedan world more than you and I love it. He loves them for their sterling faith, sye, it is something in an age of doubt to stand face to face with Mohamne- dan multitudes who to the very death will shriek and mutter their oreed,- "La-ilaha-illa- ’ llahu: Muhammadu-Rasula ’allah.” "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is God's apostle." Stronger than the thunder of their cavalry ?;as the echo of that cry as they swept the old Christianity away from Eorth .Africa. It was the deep conviction of a new found truth that gave the Mohammedans their power. It is not a luke warm religion. It is a religion that has always had the backbond of conviction. Your Mohammedan man, woman or child is not afraid to pr^r in public. In the Philippine Islands were Mohammedan women who so loved their re- ligion and its x:rivileges that they flung their very babes against the American bayonets before the Moros surrendered to their con- querors. Ask Kitchener's troops at Omdurman and Khartum what sort of religious fervor there was in the hearts of those poor deluded followers of the prophet. If God tolls us by the mouth of our Lord Jesus Crist that He spews out those that are luke- warm, God must love even the non-christian world when it is hot in the service of v.’hat they think is the truth. And I believe God loves them with a great love because Ee secs them struggling towards the light. The will of God for the prodigal son was not the will of the elder brother. The elder . .. -D: • . ' . brother, I suppose, was quite satisfied to take unto himself all there was left of the father's fortune and to look forward to the day when the whole estate should be his. But the father was restless. The father waited, the father looked out. The attitude of the Church of Je3us Christ for thirteen long cen- turies toward the Mohammedan world has been that of the elder brother. The Oriental churches and the Western churches, with few exceptions, have not longed to bring him home; "But when he was yet a great way off hi 3 father saw him and ran out to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him." I sometimes think that even if Christians cannot go to Mecca, perhaps the angels hover there; and as they see 200,000 people year after year, the biggest religious convention held in the name of the one true God, they must wonder; when they see all the sacrifices in the valley of Mina and up against the heights of Safa, they must wonder that so many centuries have gone by, when John the faithful, fearless apostle said, "Be- hold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”; they must wonder at churches in Christendom singing in their pews at ease, "Hot all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain Can give the guilty conscience peace And wash away the stain," and yet not a single one of us bold enough or brave enough to burst through the barriers of thirty-five miles of desert from Jiddah on the Red Sea coast to enter Mecca. If Mecca were an island in the South Seas, long ere this 3 ome Chalmers, Williams or Baton would have gone there and broken in for the sake of . . ft *. - . Jesus Christ our Lord. The character of God gives us at least some idea of what God’s will is for the Mohammedan world. It is not the will of God that manhood and womanhood and childhood never know higher ideas and ideals than the religion of Mohammed. I saw a great vision tonight as we were singing that beautiful verse from the German put into the English, "ITow thank we all our God." Mark the words, "VTio from our mother's arms Hath blessed us on our way ^ith countless gifts of love. And still is ours today." Of such is not the kingdom of Mohammed. Mohammed was a great warrior, a great poet, a great statesman, a great reformer; but Mohammed’s heaven and Mohaimned's book and Mohammed's heart was an unfitting place for any child. The curse of this religion rests on every Moslem cradle. Eugenics, why, you dare not spell the word when you read of the conditions of Mohammedan home life. I tell you tonight it is not the will of our Heavenly Father that these little ones should come into the world with naked souls as well as naked bodies scarred by the heredity of thirteen centuries of wickedness and licentiousness. It is not the will of God. And then we know the will of God from His promises. The promises in God's word are His promissory notes. The promises in God’s word are His plan to perfect His temple; and just as a faithful workman hewing stone, or laying the timbers, or rearing the edifice, turns back again and again to the plans of the architect, so you and I may know the will of God for 7 this great, weary, sinful world by reading His promises. Think of the general promise that the knowledge of the glory of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; that at the name of Jesus - not at the name of Mohammed - every knee shall bow. Think of the definite promises for Arabia and Persia and Egypt and the Hear East in this word of God. Listen. "He shall rei^i from sea to sea and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth." "All the flooks of Kedar shall be gathered unto him, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto him." And so I might go on and unfold the Old and Hew Testament promises and prophecies, and show you that if God has a plan, if God has ever promised anything. He has promised through Jesus Christ our Saviour and our Lord that He shall reign over the Hear East, even as He is now beginning to reign in the Par East in Korea and Japan and India, over the non-ohristian faiths. The will of God is also known by the present crisis, be- cause the present crisis is the will of God. Nothing happens by chance. We believe in God the Father Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords. We believe that though "Careless seems the great Avenger; history* s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness * twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne, - Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God." Do you believe that? If you believe that, you can put it in the words of the old Psalmist,- That He makes the wrath of men to praise Him, and with the remainder of their wrath He girds Himself for a new battle. . L '■ ' - C * - . • - r f • f * . , . . . • I tell you tonight that it is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning in Turkey and Arabia and Persia and the Near East, "The morning light is breaking. The darkness disappears, The sons of earth are waking To penitential tears. Each breeze that sweeps the ocean Brings tidings from afar Of nations in commotion Prepared for Zion*s war." After the war of kings, with all its desolation and h rror and injustice and lying diplomacy, will como tho war of the King of righteousness in the hearts of men for the triumph of Eis grace, not with tho sword that slays, but with that sword proceeding out of Eis mouth which wounds to heal, which lifts all nation..;, which eliminates vice and wrong and error and all the horrors of shame, and emancipates society and womanhood and childhood, and gives manhood higher ideals. And that is the present crisis. The present crisis in the Moslem world is threefold. It is political, it is social, and, finally, it is spiritual; and if w$ pause for a moment before these three facts we will see the will of God 3tand out clearly even to those who cannot read Eis promises, who have never been quiet long enough to hear His command, and who never have partaken of Eis character. I mean exactly what I say. To those that are not Christians here tonight, to those who reject the Word of God, to thifrse who deny the deity of Jesu3 Christ, my Lord and my Saviour, you can still make out a clear case and a clear call for the needs of tho Hoslera world from the present crisis itself,- ♦ < 9 from the political oonditions, and the social needs and the spiritual hunger of these hearts. What is the ix>litical crisis? In the first place, the death of Pan-Islamism. VTiat some people feared and many droaded is dead. Uever again will any nation or any group of men be able to frighten governments and communities by saying that the whole Mohammedan world will rise and butcher Christ- ians. The opportunity was unique. The plans were all laid, but the dynamite did not go off. Thanks be unto God that, ex- cept in Turkey and northern Persia, the Mohammedan worldremained loyal, -to France in Algiers, to Italy in Tripoli, loyal al- though they were suffering serious grievances and injustices; loyal in Egypt in spite of their program of a free Egypt for the young Egyptian; and, most marvelous of all, 67,000,000 Mohnmmerlans in India loyal to King George the Smperor, 67,000,000 people, stirred to their deepest feelings by the cannon thunder away at the city of the Caliphate, lo-yal to Great Britain, al- though 9 6 : /o of them were illiterate; loyal in Java and Sumatra, 35,000,000 Mohammedans. Surely you and I need no longer talk n of Pan-Islamism and a world wide jahad, when the holy war made in Germany turned out after all to be a fiasco, save, alas, in the Turkish Empire and among the Armenians. May God pity them tonight • In the second place, the present crisis puts us face to face with a new national responsibility. I wonder how many of you here tonight know that the biggest home missionary problem we have is Mohammedanism. Point out if you can on the map of our American states and territories and possessions a single - ' . .• » . 10 unevangeliz^d unit ns big, as baffling, as needy, as neglected, as the Mohammedans in the Moro group of the Sulu Islands of the Philippines 276,000 untouched, untaught, neglected, degraded Mohammedan savages* If anyone again brings up the matter of home missions over against foreign missions, you ask them where under the American flag slavory and polygamy are allowed save in the Philippine Islands. A new national responsibility for Great Britain. Ninety millions before the war, possibly over a hundred million Mo- hammedans after the war, look to Great Britain as their governing power; and none of us here tonight, whatever our religious con- victions, whatever our ideas of socialism or government, would deny that a Christian government like Great Britain, on en- lightened government, is responsible before God and before humanity for the economic development of the lands where these Moslems live, for th ir intellectual instruction, for their moral and spiritual welfare,- ninety-five million Mohammedans, five millions more than the total number of Christians, under the Union Jack. Thirty-five millions under Holland, twenty millions belonging to Prance, twenty million Mohammedans who call themselves Russian subjects. And so I might go on and show Italy’s responsibilities, and the responsibility of Germany, and the responsibility of all the powers of Europe to grapple with this problem before and after the war is ended. And the present crisis puts us face to face, especially we students, to open doors. TT Txatevsr the war may have done in Europe of devastation and destruction and the utter wiping out of resources and life, the war has already nailed open doors , . , 11 that have b^en shut for centuries. The battle of Busrah and 7 the battle of Nasariyeh, of which the papers said very lit- tle, were two great struggles which have finally and forever driven’ the Turk3 out of all Hast Arabia and Mesopotamia; and when you hear tomorrow or the next day of the fall of Bagdad, you may thank God with all the missionaries that now at last freedom to confess Christ, freedom to develop natural resour- ces, freedom and education and liberty, have come to the old land of Mesopotamia. Not only is East Arabia open, but after this war, with the breaking up of the Turkish ISnpiro, whoever may inherit it, ? the sacred cities may become as accessible as Luxor or 3enares are today. And then think of Afghanistan and Persia. Have you read Shuster’s remarkable book on the strangling of Persia? You can put in the appendix to that volume now and see how God's hand was in that great piece of international brigandage, and after all, Russia and Great Britain by strang- ling Persia have only awakened her to a new life. Ask all your missionaries of the 3ritish churches or the American churches, and they will tell you they stand face to face in Persia with a new opportunity in every way for the good of the people in Persia. And since Russia and England are no longer rivals in Central Asia, I believe it is clearly on the program of God that the last great closed land, Afghanistan, will open its gates, as will Central Asia. Bokhara and Samarkand, Khiva and Chinese and Russian Turkestan, and that dark heart Asia, will knov7 something of the living heart of Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 "Uplifted axe the gates of brass. The bars of iron yield To let the King of Glory pass. The oro33 is in the field.” And does that not tell us what the will of God is? Can you and I look at the map of Asia and not see the unoccupied fields face to faoe with our unoccupied livos? We know the will of God also from the social crisis. After all, the political call is only a call of opportunity, and the last word in missions is not opportunity. I believo tho challenge of a closed door is over so more urgent and more irresistible than tho challenge of the open door. The open door beckons, but the closed door challenges. ”3 oho Id, I stand at tho closed door and knock.” When wo ]nock at the closed Aooie in tho name of Jesus Christ, we have His own promise that those doors shall opon. I say the last word is not opportunity . Tho last word in missions is need. The social noed, the ethical need, tho utter degradation of Moslem life apart from the life of Jesus Christ, that i3 the call of God to every one of us. r^e condi- tion of Moslem womanhood. We need no longer believe the words of our missionaries, if we hesitate. If we believe that those who have spent their lives, who have spilled their tears and their blood to rescue Moslem womanhood, exaggerate the story, then lot us turn to tho French novelist, Pierro loti, and read his book "Disenchantment," or open the pages of the book of ? Bey, a Moslem judge, or if you will, that brilliant book of essays by an educated Mohammedan in India, entitled "Essays Indian and Islanic and in all those three books the picture of Mohammedan homo life is painted far blacker and with greater despair than any missionary's pen ever painted - < . - irif < H’ • *' • r* •: 't 13 it. The Mohammedan world is si ok unto death. The Mohammedan world is socially rotten to the core. The Mohammedan world has no remedy for its social evil save the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. I have sometimes been accused by superficial thinkers of painting the picture of Mohammedanism too dark, and because I knew I was speaking tonight to an audience of students, I brought with me first sources. I quote £*om a book of Mohammed- an law, the last page. This book of Mohammedan law has been current for nearly eight hundred years among Mohammedans. It is the chief manual of jurisprudence. It has been translated into Turkish, into French, and last year into English for the guidance of British diplomats and British statesmen. I have torn out the last page of that book. The whole book is a vivid illustration of what Ion Zeith Falconer, who was not anything if not a University man, described as the "horrors of Islam," when he threw down the challenge in Edinburgh University and said, "The burden of proof rests upon you, when vast regions of thc^world are suffering the horrors of Ilohamme danism, to prove that the place where God has put you was meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign field." I trust you will forgive me if I read this last page of the Mohammedan law book; that is, portions of it. I could not read the whole page, even although it closes with a prayer to God. Here is the heading, "Book 71 of Moslem Law." The title of the book is Code of Law." "FRHEPGM OH ACCOUNT OF MATERNITY. When a master has cohabited with one of his female slaves. . , . . . and she gives birth to a child, she becomes free upon her master* s death, whether the ohild to which she gives birth is living or dead* • • • • Freedom on account of maternity, however, leaves intact the master* s right to cohabit with the 3lave during his life- time by reason of his ownership; he may even omploy her in his service, or hire out her services to another; 3he may be seized for the indemnity if she commits a crime; and the master may even give her in marriage without her consent. Her sale, pledg- ing, or gift are the only things forbidden him* The master also remains the owner of any child born of the slave, either in consequence of marriage with another person, or of the crime of fornication. Children that the woman in question gave birth to before her enfranchisement on account of maternity remain slaves and do not become free upon the master* s death* Conse- quently the master may sell these children as he pleases. Finally, upon the master’s death, the consequences of enfran- be chisement on account of maternity must ^defrayed out of the whole estate, and not out of the third of intoich he can dispose* Glory to God, the lord of all created things* God grant His grace to our master Muhammad* God grant him His grace and His blessing; to him and his family and his com anions* May He grant them all His grace and His blessing. God sufficeth for us. He is the supreme mediator. There is no force nor power but in God Most High.” And I submit that there is no force nor power in the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord if you and I say that that is a code of law for 200,000,000 people whom we oall our brothers and our T i ’ •' • V . • ■ * . . v. t - - . sistera. If there wore no Bible, if there were no great com- mission, you oould read any book of Mohammedan law, or visit any Uohamnedan home, or stand face to face with these Moslem sisters and children, and you could "stir a fever in the blood of age, and make the infant sinews strong as steol" for a cry like that of Peter the Hermit to rescue these lives from infamy and degradation. And we know the will of God in regard to Mohammedan man- hood, Here you are, young men, ray brothers. Every on* of us has red blood in our veins, and battles with our temptations. But you and I, at Harvard or Yale or Columbia, or in this great city, when we are assailed by the tempter, what have we got? We have got the Word of God and the voice of Jesus Christ, His character pure as crystal; and we have the heaven where our fathers and mothers and loved ones are, where even the streets are pure gold. What has your Mohammedan brother got? He lias got the Koran - may God have mercy on him*. He turns to the life of Mohammed; and may the angels pity him*. And he looks 7 up to Mohammed 1 s paradise, and L. Stanley Poole in his book, "Studies in a Mosque," characterizes Mohammed’s paradise as an eternal brothel prepared for true believers. How can you and I sit in our pews and sing "Thou, 0 Christ, art all I want. Hangs my helpless soul on Thee."? And we mean it. Environment never saved you nor me. Heredity never saved you nor me. We need Christ. And then we allow these brother men, without our environment, without all these artificial props that keep us clean, and without the blood of ancestors holy coursing in their veins, to struggle with these . ; ■*'* v . . • • • • * . temptations. I care not to raise the question here tonight whether the Mohammedan young man needs Jesus Christ to die easily or to inherit heaven, I tell you, men, our "brother men need Jesus Christ to live. "ithout Him their lives are death. And wo know the will of God not only with regard to the social side of this crisis, "but the spiritual crisis. It is all nonsense for us to say that missionaries are upsetting the ancient religions. They do not need to be upset. They have been upset by the impact of our civilization. Automatically the terrific impact of our civilization had disintegrated Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hohamme danism. You cannot rationalize the Koran. You might as well rationalize Mother Goose's melodies. You cannot introduce science and philosophy and education in Bagdad and Bushrah and Beirut and Cairo and Constantinople and expect these religions to remain intact. Ask Hr. Herrick hov the work of education has disintegrated the whole fabric of Mohammedanism in Turkey, until all the thinking men and women no longer believe the traditions, and are be- ginning to doubt the Koran. The young Turks are practically without religion. The young Egyptian party is adrift. I shall never forget - and Hr. Jefferson will appreciate this illustra- tion - I shall never forget hov after preaching a sermon in the church in Cairo to the English speaking Mohammedan and Coptic students on this theme, "Are the gospels trustworthy ?" I re- ceived two letters, one from a Coptic law student, and one from a Mohammedan law student, both with the same request, the same evening. They said: "Ee enjoyed your sermon on the subject of the trustworthiness of the gospels, but our difficulties are more fundamental.” Mark the words. And this Mohammedan said, "Will you not preach some Sunday evening on the question. Is there a God?" And his own father was oailing out five times a day, "There is no God but Sod," and his son said, "Is there a God?" The spiritual ory of these lands is like the cry of those ho have lost anchorage, who are adrift; and unless we give them the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are literally without Christ, without hope, without God in the world. The spiritual cry of the Moslem world is real. The spiritual cry of the Moslem world should here and now find response among those who have found Jesus Christ a real saviour*. And, in conclusion, how can you and I know the will of God for our lives faoo to faoe with this issue? There is a crisis. And the present political crisis does not make its appeal in vain. 80$ of the students in Cambridge and Oxford have gone to the front. Over 80$ of the students and professors of Germany, - of Leipsio and Tubingen and alL the great universities, are in > the trenches. The political crisis for national aggrandizement , for national honor, or any other great political issue, has always found response. Shall we call ourselves tie soldiers of Jesus Christ and wear the white feather when He calls us to bat- tle? "Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb; And shall I fear to own His cause. Or blush to speak His name?" And the appeal comes to us with the sweet reasonableness of the whole proposition. Wo stand before the problem of knowing the will of God for our individual lives. It is the only laLent you and I have. The average college and university student has 18 no millions to invest, has no property to sell, as did Barnabas on Cyprus, and became a great missionary leader. The only thing you and I have is that which God has given us,- an education. We are a privileged class, the only aristooracy that America possesses; and with n oblesse oblige , every one of us is in duty bound to hold that talent clearly before him and ask our Lord and our Master where to invest it. You are going to be a phy- sician and exercise the ministry of healing. I ask you on the simple ground of ordinary common sense, are you going to hang out your shingle on some street in a great city where there are ten other signs, "Physician and Surgeon, Physician and Surgeon", or are you going to be on the Avenue where there is a drug store at every corner - and Christian Science to fall back on - or are you going out to the great unoccupied fields, - Aghanistan, Turkestan, the Great Sudan, the heart of Arabia, - a peninsula with a million square miles of area, and only this afternoon I made a plea in one of our churches for the first hospital to be established there. If they furnish the hospital, won’t you furnish the men and women to heal the bullet wounds and all the diseases of the great population of Arabia? You are going to teach, are you? Is there a place where teachers are called for more than £feypt, for example, where three women out of a thousand can read and write their own names, and all the others have their souls, like their dwellings, without windows. You are going to teach. How about darkest Ao^occo and new Tripoli and the open doors in Algiers and the Turkish Smpire, and the higher education demanded in Persia, and the new university, the Christian University, at Cairo? 19 Have you ambitions to teach in a university? Then oozae and Join our forces and regenerate old E&ypt, and in the land of the Pharaohs teaoh these people that God whom Moses loved, and that Saviour who onoe found refuge by the Kile. Or you are going to preach. Yon are going to win men. You are going to fish for souls. Are you going to angle by the little stream where all sorts of bait and all sorts of fishermen oongre- gate, and where there is one preacher to every seven hundred souls; or will you launch out into the deep, throw your nets on the other side # ana. I tell you in God's name that even in Turkey the days are ooming when we shall oall to our companions in the other ship because we will not be able to pull in the net. I believe as surely as the law of conservation of forces in mechanics, so surely is the law of the conservation of forces in the kingdom of God. I cannot help speaking a single word for Turkey. Do you remember that mission field? The tears, the blood of martyrs, the prayers of the veteran saints, the long record of faithful service, their work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope,- was it all flung away, or shall we rest our hands on God’s promise and say, "As the rain descendeth, and the sun from heaven, and watereth the earth and returneth not without fruitage, 30 shall my word be in Turkey." It is ny conviction that after the war there will be mass movements toward Christ, not only in Turkey but in Egypt, among the poorer Mohammedans, where the mass movement always begins, even as in India. The Mohanmedans are beginning to lose faith in their re- ligion. I have preached Jesus Christ in our university, a place where formerly no missionary was allowed to enter. I have been ■ . f n ■ - — : . . - •• ' . , - - - ‘ - • =. ' • ? s . ■■■■ • - - ' ‘ ' ■■ ,r- ■ . r- - . * ' - ‘ ‘ , - .. .. ■ ' ■ * ■ * ■ ; ■ .0 . . . , , - ' ' ■ . . - 1 . , • . ' - - * - • 1 . , * , • . . £ 4 - • J , • . * 20 to Jiddah, the seaport of Meooa, and a I.'o haiome dan said to me, "Do you vdsh to go to Hecoa?" I said, "I do •" I said, "Can I go as a Christian?" He said, "Why not? You pay me the money, and I will take you." "Will you bring me back?" He said, "I will." When Ltohanmedans are beginning to bargain the very gates of the holy city and are willing to surrender the keys to the parapet of the -loslem world for backsheesh, we can no longer say the doors are closed. The responsibility tonight rests upon you. And Jesus said, "Ny meat - wy delight - is to do the will of God." What is the will of God for you tonight? I beseech you therefore, breth- ren, by the mercies of God, which you enjoy and the others have never tasted, that you present your bodies now, here, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, on the altar of foreign missions, that ye may know - that you may know, and you, and you, and you - what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I have never met a missionary who regretted the choice of his profession. I have met physicians who wished that they had been farmers, and farmers who longed to be preachers, and men in every profession who would barter their talent for a change of office; but I have never met a missionary who desired to leave his post. ill you join that great company of martyrs and prophets and apostles who find life worth living? I be- seech of you to know the will of God, by surrender, by sobrie- ty of judgment, not thinking of yourselves mcr e highly than you ought to think, and by an absolute turning of your baok on the precepts and policies of the worldling; and then we shall know what is that good will of God, what is the acceptable will of 21 God that is worth, what is the perfect will of God at the end. And Jesus saith unto them, Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel or under a bod, but on a candlestick.” You have lit your candle at the torch of science and at the light of God. Will you put it under a bushel or under a bed? What is a boishel? A bushel is the symbol of gain. From Shanghai to Chicago the bushel spells gain. What is the bed? The bed is a symbol of ease, from Patagonia to Alaska. The bed says. Sleep, seek your ease, take it easy. What is the candlestick? A symbol of service. "And they came unto him and said. Master, we would." And Jesus said unto them, "Are ye able to drink the cup and be baptized with the baptism? And they said. We are." "Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth’s smoothness rough, Bach sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go 1 . 3e our joys three -parts pain*. Strive, and hold cheap the strain; . . . . dare, never grudge the throe." Will you go? Will you go tonight? Will the present crisis at least awaken some of you to know the will of God? Let us pray.