The Message of the Christian and Missionary Alliance*
Introduction
Were it possible to compress the Alliance Message into a single word, that word would be “Himself.” This sentiment has been crystallized and immortalized in one of Dr. Simpson’s hymns which has sung itself into the hearts of thousands of God’s children.
Once it was the blessing,
Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling,
Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted,
Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing,
Now Himself alone.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance has always sought, as a sane and spiritual movement, to closely follow Scriptural standards, having as its ideal a life of prayer, faith, simplicity and sacrifice. The whole Society has partaken of the spirit of its founder — Rev. A.B. Simpson.
The Alliance accepts without question the great Fundamentals, specifically as follows:
The Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures.
The Trinity of the Godhead.
The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Personality of the Holy Ghost.
The Sanctifying Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
The Universal Depravity of the Human Race.
The Atonement by the Blood of Christ.
The Salvation of the Lost by Grace.
The Healing of the Body.
The Resurrection of the Dead.
The Eternity of Punishments and Rewards.
The Reality and Personality of Satan.
The Pre-millennial Coming of the Lord.
But the Alliance has a Distinctive Testimony which from the beginning of its organization has been called the Fourfold Gospel–Jesus our Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming Lord. Nearly forty years ago the venerable George Mueller of Bristol Orphanage fame told Dr. Simpson that his arrangement of truth was most evidently “of the Lord” and suggested that he never change its mold. Since this time other organizations have either adopted or adapted the phraseology, and so we thank God and take courage.
Jesus our Saviour
In this connection it is a pleasure to quote from the trenchant pen of Woodrow Wilson as follows: “Christianity is not character, Christianity is Christ.”
We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his high and holy estate by eating the forbidden fruit, and as the consequence of his disobedience the threatened penalty of death was then and there inflicted, so that his moral nature was not only grievously injured by the fall, but he totally lost all spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and subject to the power of the devil. Gen. 1:26; 2:17; John 5:40; 6:53; Eph. 2:1-3; 1 Tim. 5:6; 1 John 3:8.
We believe that this spiritual death, or total corruption of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bent towards evil, being enmity against God, and incapable by any educational process whatever of subjection to His law. Gen. 6:5 Psa. 14:1-3; 51:5; Jer. 17:9; John 3:6; Rom. 5:12-19; 8:6, 7.
We believe that, owing to this universal depravity and death in sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainment in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no humanitarian and philanthropic schemes and societies however useful, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Ghost through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation. Isa. 64:6; John 3:5, 18; Gal. 6:15; Phil. 3:4-9; Tit. 3:5; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet.1:23.
We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin, and made a curse, for us, dying in our room and stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, or of all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles, can add in the very least to the value of that precious blood, or to the merit of that finished work, wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper divinity with perfect and sinless humanity. Lev. 17:11; Matt. 26:28; Rom. 5:6-9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.
We believe that Eternal Life, being a gift, must be accepted as such, and can never be purchased or earned by deeds of human merit; that Christ and Christ alone can save; and that no works however good, no Church or Church membership, no lodge, no righteousness of our own, no moral attainment, no religion, Christian or otherwise, no Pope, priest or minister, no penance, confessional or christening, no repentance, praying or Bible reading, can in any way save us from hell, impart Eternal Life, or get us into heaven. “By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Rom. 6:23; 1 John 5: 11; Eph. 2:8; Acts 4:12; Rom. 4:5; Titus 3:5.
We believe that Christ, in the fullness of the blessings He has secured by His obedience unto death, is received by faith alone, and that the moment we trust in Him as our Saviour we pass out of death into everlasting life, being justified from all things, accepted before the Father according to the measure of His acceptance, loved as He is loved, and having His place and portion, as linked to Him and one with Him forever. John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; Eph, 2:4-6, 13; 1 John 4: 17; 5:11,12.
Christ Our Sanctifier
Sanctification, or holiness, is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who will enter in, the great attainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is divine holiness, not human self-improvement, nor perfection. It is the inflow into man’s being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal and holy One, bringing His own perfection and working out in us His own will.
Sanctification or holiness results from contact with God. This contact has both a divine and a human side. On the divine side contact is formed by the cross of Christ and the work of the Spirit, and on the human side by entire surrender and appropriating faith. The first point of divine contact is the cross. The Christian who is struggling with sin and helpless in defeat must come to see that in the thought of God he is identified with Christ in His crucifixion and in His resurrection. The cross has a separating power. Through the blood of the cross our hearts are cleansed. The cross separates us from the world, from our sins, and from self. By our death with Christ we are released from “the carnal mind”; we are separated from “the flesh”; we are detached from the self-life. By our resurrection with Christ we are “renewed in the spirit of our minds,” we “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”; and, highest of all, we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” who is thus “made unto us . . . . sanctification.” Eph. 4:23, 24; Rom. 13:14; 1 Cor. 1:30.
“The second point of divine contact whereby sanctification is received is the work of the Spirit. The identification of the believer with Christ in death and resurrection is the historical side of holiness; the transformation of the believer in character and conduct through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the experimental side of holiness. The one is apprehension, the other is appropriation. After the vision of victory comes the realization of victory. Now it is through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that the vision of victory is transformed into its realization. It is through the incoming of the Holy Spirit that the revelation of the indwelling Christ breaks with comforting cheer upon our despairing hearts, and it is through the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to die unto sin and live unto God.
“On the human side there are two points of contact with God whereby we become partakers of the holiness of Christ; namely, a step of entire surrender and an act of appropriating faith. This means a covenant made with God, a definite transaction at a definite time when by full consecration and living faith we boldly enter in and possess our inheritance. The step of surrender must be voluntary, complete and final; the act of faith must be definite, living and aggressive. Such a step of surrender and such an act of faith means a new Christian experience–a crisis as radical and revolutionary as the crisis of conversion. In nature it is not a gradual development, but a sudden change. In regeneration we pass out of death into life; in sanctification we pass out of self into the Christ-life. In regeneration we receive “a new spirit”; in sanctification Christ comes and takes up His abode within the “new spirit.” When such a revolution occurs in our lives, we shall certainly know it; and we may expect the Holy Ghost to witness as definitely and distinctly to His work of sanctification as He did to His work of regeneration.”
Paul specifies the threefold division of our human nature–the spirit, the soul and the body–as respectively the subjects of this work of sanctifying grace. The spirit is that which is cognizant of God. It is the moral element in man, which trusts, loves and glorifies God. The spirit must first be quickened by regeneration, since naturally it is dead. A sanctified spirit is one separated from all known evil and dedicated unto God, so that all its powers are at His disposal. A sanctified spirit is also a spirit filled with the presence and the Spirit of the Lord.
The soul is endowed with understanding, tastes, affections, passions and appetites. All these can be separated, dedicated and filled with the Spirit and life of God. There is a distinct baptism of the Holy Ghost for mind as well as for spirit.
The human body was designed in the beginning as the pattern and type of the sublimest form of being which ever should exist. The body, therefore, should be separated in all its functions, dedicated to God, to become “the habitation of God through the Spirit.” “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?”
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is simultaneous with our union with the Lord Jesus. The Spirit does not act apart from Christ. The Holy Spirit is pure Spirit, and has not been incarnated in human flesh as the Son of God was in His birth and early life. Instead of this, He has been so united to Jesus Christ that he partakes of the incarnation of the Son of God, and comes to us clothed in the humanity of Jesus.
In receiving Him we receive the Lord Jesus Himself. He comes to us to impart the very life of Jesus Christ. He takes the qualities that were in Him, and makes them ours. He transfers to us the love, the purity, the gentleness, the faith of Jesus Christ, and so imparts to us His very nature as to reproduce in us His life, and we live, in a very literal and real way, the Christ-life as our own experience.
This is a very attractive conception of the Christian life. It is not our holiness, but the life of our Lord. It is not our struggle with the old nature, but it is the imparting of a new nature, and the indwelling of a new life. Hence it follows that when the Holy Spirit comes into our life and consciousness it is Jesus that is made real to us, rather than the Spirit, who never speaks of Himself.
Every disciple of Christ ought to have some special manifestation of the Holy Ghost and some gift for Christian service. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
These gifts are conferred by the Holy Ghost Himself in His sovereign will according to individual fitness and for the completeness and profit of the whole body of Christ. He knows the gift that will best enable us to glorify Him and help others. No disciple can expect to receive all these gifts. It is unscriptural and unreasonable to say that any one gift is the criterion of having received the Holy Ghost. God adjusts our equipment to the special work which He has called us to do. As in the body the different members have different offices, so it is in the body of Christ.
Above all gifts, above all ministries, is the grace of love, that love that uses every gift and ministry, not to exploit its own greatness, but to glorify God and bless men. Not only is love here described as an end, but as a means. He says, “I show unto you a more excellent way,” which is the way to reach the highest gifts of the Spirit. God will entrust to us His most sacred ministry and most glorious manifestations in proportion as He sees that we will use them in the spirit of love and for the help of the souls that are so dear to the Shepherd’s heart.
Let us covet earnestly the best gifts, but chiefly the gifts of useful and effectual spiritual ministry.
Let us pray for love, let us cultivate love, let us take the Lord Jesus Himself to be our love, and let our deepest cry be
“Give me a heart like Thine.”
The crisis of sanctification, while it brings entire holiness in every part of our being, is only the infancy of holiness. All the parts and organs and functions are there, but there must be growth into maturity and manhood to “the fullness of the stature or a perfect man in Christ Jesus.” Growth is not a matter of parts, but of degree in the various parts, and maturity in their combination and complete development. It is this process of Christian nurture that occupies so large a place in the New Testament epistles. It was for this that the Comforter was promised to guide us into all truth.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that holiness is retained only while vital contact with Christ is maintained. To abide in Christ means two things; namely, obedience and fellowship. In 1 John 3:24 we read “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth [abideth] in me and I in him.” Again, our Lord Himself said, “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth [abideth] in me and I in him” (John 6: 56). If we would be like Christ, we must keep His commandments and abide in His love, even as He kept His Father’s commandment and abode in His love.
Christ Our Healer
That healing is in the Atonement for us has always been the contention of the Alliance. It is difficult to understand how anyone could object to healing being placed on this reverent plane, which exalts our Lord more than it exalts any human agency.
Dr. Scofield, in his explanatory notes printed in the Bible that bears his name, has called attention to the seven compound names of Jehovah, declaring that they set forth God’s redemptive relation to man. He says that these names reveal God “as meeting every need of man from his lost state to the end.” One of these redemptive names is Jehovah Rapha or Rophi (Ex. 15:26), meaning “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Concerning this Dr. Scofield writes as follows: “That this refers to physical healing the context shows, but the deeper healing of soul malady is implied.” If these names of Jehovah reveal His redemptiverelationship to man do they not clearly point to Calvary?
Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie says that Dr. Simpson was probably the first man to define healing as provided in the atonement. Since this time a mighty host have followed him in this postulate. Since the conflict of opinion in reference to the subject of healing at the present time seems to center around this mooted problem it would be helpful to examine two cardinal Bible passages, Isaiah 53:4, 5 and Matthew 8:17.
“Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.”
The first reason for applying this passage to healing is the use of the word “griefs,” “He hath borne our griefs.” The original word is found about a hundred times in the Old Testament, and every time but this it is translated “sickness.” This is the only instance where it is translated “griefs” and this must be because the translator could not quite understand the sense of using “sickness” here. The Hebrew word really means “disease.” This verse covers the atonement for our bodies, the provision of His redemption for these mortal attacks.
The next reason for applying these verses to healing is the word “borne.” “He hath borne our sicknesses.” This word has a theological meaning which is most clearly defined in many of the passages in which we find it. It is applied to the scape-goat that bore away the sins of the people. It is used in this chapter where we are told that He bore the sins of many. It is found in John where we are told that the Lamb of God “beareth away the sins of the world.” So it does not mean mere sympathy or relief, but substitution, one bearing another’s death penalty. Christ literally substituted His body for our body. That is the meaning of the words, “Surely he hath borne our sicknesses.” He took them upon Himself and relieved us of the load by His atonement.
And it seems that Matthew himself applies this passage to healing in the eighth chapter of his Gospel, verses sixteen and seventeen. “When the evening was come He healed all that were sick . . . that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness.'” The words “infirmity” and sickness denote physical difficulty and disability. The one may be a lack of strength and the other may be a condition of physical disease. And it is certain that Matthew was referring to the body alone, for he quotes the passage in direct connection with Christ’s miracles of healing. The reason he healed the people was because Isaiah said He would. Now if Isaiah did not mean healing this verse would be irrelevant. Isaiah must have meant healing or Matthew would not have quoted it.
But verse five of this fifty-third chapter of Isaiah lends the strongest support to our argument that healing is in the atonement. There are four things mentioned. “He was wounded for our transgressions.” These are actual sins. “He was bruised for our iniquities.” This is different from transgressions. This has reference to something within us, showing that Christ died for what we are as well as for what we do. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” That means our spiritual blessing, our peace and rest, our union with Christ in the Holy Ghost. “With his stripes we are healed.” That makes the inventory complete. Without that it is only a partial list. With that it is fourfold and entire. But to say that “by his stripes we are healed” simply means spiritual healing is a tautology. He has covered spiritual in the former statements. This must mean something else–physical redemption through His agony as our substitute. Taking these four points together no unprejudiced mind can doubt for a moment that this passage covers the healing of our bodies through the Atonement of Christ.
But again we want to notice the force of the word “surely” in the text. “Surely he had borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows [pains].” Why did He say “surely”? Why did He say it here? Well, to say the least, it is an underlining of the passage intended to make it as very important. It makes it not only important but absolutely true. In the beginning of the chapter Isaiah stepped out with diffidence and hesitation, and said, “Lord who hath believed our report? Lord they won’t believe what I am going to say, and especially when I say anything about the power of the Lord, they will be sure to doubt it. If I talk about historical facts they may believe it, but if I go and tell them of a divine arm that can take hold of man’s weaknesses, if I reveal a power that can do great things, they will doubt my testimony.” “Lord, who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Therefore, the Lord just says, “Isaiah, tell them that it is true and put my oath behind it, and say, ‘Surely, this particular part of the Gospel is true, because it does reveal the arm of the Lord, it does show the power of God.'” In this passage, “Surely he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows,” the same Hebrew verbs for borne and carried are used in verses eleven and twelve for the substitutionary bearing of sin. Do they not all and in each have the same substitutionary and expiatory character?
Arguments against Divine Healing are frequently drawn from its failures. If this method were employed against justification, regeneration and sanctification, would not the attack be almost overwhelming?
Christ Our Coming King
Is there positive proof that we may look for the Pre-millennial Coming of the Lord?
The Lord has been here already, the Lord Jesus lived on this globe of ours literally, actually treading its material surface with His holy feet, and saturating its soil with His precious blood. He has been a citizen of this earth; why should it be thought a thing incredible that He should come back again to His old home? If He actually lived here once, why should He not actually come here again?
How simple that is! Here once He initiated His work. Why should He not come back and finish it? Here once He fought the battle. Why should He not come back and wear the crown of victory and see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied? Here once He paid the fearful price. Why should He not come back to win the great reward? That is what He Himself says. He is “like a nobleman going to a far country to receive for Himself a kingdom, and return.” There is nothing transcendent or novel about the Glorious Son of God becoming a citizen of earth. He is a citizen of earth forevermore and has already lived among us here like other men.
He did not merely in a transitory way touch the human family, but He became forever identified with the race of Adam, and He never can get away from His humanity. All that concerns our race concerns Him. He is a man today and He will be a man forever and wherever man is to be, the Son of man will be also. So that Christ’s relation to this old earth is a permanent relation and His kingdom is to be consummated here where it was first begun.
Let us note that the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament have not been satisfied and fulfilled. There is a double thread running through the texture of ancient prophecy. There is the crimson line of the cross, and there is also the Golden thread of the coming Glory. The Jews saw only the prophecies of the glory, and therefore when He appeared among them they were not prepared to recognize the lowly Nazarene, that rejected Man, as the fulfillment of the splendid ideal. They had good cause for it, to a certain extent, at least. The only trouble with them was that they were out of date. They had mixed the chronology. He was the King, but He was not yet enthroned. It was first the cross and then the crown; the Lamb of Calvary first and then the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Unless He comes again part of the prophetic scriptures will be unrealized. It was necessary that He should fulfill the vision of the cross and it is just as necessary that He shall fulfill the vision of the King.
The Lord Jesus Himself when He was on earth always left the impression that He was coming back again, actually, visibly, personally to His people. He repeatedly told them also that when the Son of man should come He should sit on the throne of His glory and they should sit on thrones and receive rewards for their earthly sacrifice and sufferings. One particular event in the very middle of His career, the Transfiguration on the Mount, was an object lesson, a demonstration of this very thing, foreshadowing the fact that He who seemed so obscure was really to be unveiled some day in the great Apocalypse of the Advent and appear in glory. The risen dead were represented by Moses and the transfigured living by Elias. In Matthew 24 we have a detailed prophecy of the Lord’s return. We have also the parables of the Talents, the Pounds, the Marriage of the King’s Son, the Ten Virgins, the Sheep and the Goats. These have no meaning unless the Lord is coming back again. All His teachings crystallized around two focal points, His cross and His advent.
In the next place, His very last message was on this specific subject. As He hovered in midair between earth and heaven, His parting word was sent back by two messengers, perhaps two glorified men, who stood by them and said, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen him go up into heaven.” Put these three S’s together–same, so, seen–and you have a trinity of infallible proof. “This same Jesus shall so come as ye have seen him go.” He is the same and He will be the same then, and you will see Him and you will know He is the same. That is Christ’s farewell message, and we know He means what He says.
The apostolic testimony was always the same. Peter said at the very beginning of the Acts, “Whom the heavens must receive till the times of the restitution of all things.” Therefore, when that is accomplished the heavens will not hold Him any more.
Paul proclaimed Him as the One who would be “the Judge of the living and the dead.” In Romans He gives three chapters to the dispensational questions leading up to the day when a Deliverer shall come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The First Epistle to the Corinthians reaches its climax in the magnificent fifteenth chapter, and the realities of that glorious appearing. Second Corinthians tells us how “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Colossians tells us that “when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory.” Thessalonians crystallizes around the doctrine of the Lord’s Coming. Every chapter and every important paragraph finds its keynote in this Blessed Hope. In Timothy Paul declares that this is his own personal hope, that he shall receive “the crown of righteousness” which the Lord is keeping not only for him but “for all that love his appearing.” James bids us “Be patient . . . unto the coming of the Lord.” Peter tells us it was the very meaning of the Transfiguration when they “were with Him in the holy mount.” John in his epistles and the Apocalypse repeats the message of His glorious Advent and the importance of our constant preparation for it.
But the supreme and crowning evidence of the Lord’s pre-millennial coming is the glorious book of Revelation. Two generations after Christ had ascended, after thousands of saints had been gathered home, after hundreds of churches had been established on earth, after the spiritual facts and experiences of Christianity had been illustrated to the fullest extent, the Lord Himself came down as the last Messenger of inspired truth, and to John on Patmos He gave the glorious message of which the keynote and finale is this– “I am coming again.” The first announcement in that Apocalypse is “Behold, he cometh with clouds,” and the last farewell is, “Behold, I come quickly.”
Shall we answer, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” come quickly?
The Alliance Missionary Enterprise
God has given to the Christian and missionary Alliance a missionary movement unique in its polity, worldwide in its scope, lofty in its aims, and inspiring in its motives; and it seems fitting that at this time we should be fully baptized into the very heart of this movement until we ourselves shall go forth as living epistles and apostles for the evangelization of the world.
First and best, it is an evangelical movement, and in these days of doubt and sometimes denial of the Bible and the Blood it has ever stood for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints, and steadfastly believed that if we cannot give the world a divine message, we had better give it no message at all.
Second, it is an evangelistic movement, not aiming to build up elaborate institutions, but to preach the Gospel immediately to every creature and give one chance for eternal life to every member of our fallen race.
Third, it is a spiritual movement, seeking and sending only missionaries that have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and are fitted to develop the highest type of Christian life among the people to whom they minister.
Fourth, it is an interdenominationa1 movement, not building up sectarianism, but bearing only on its banner the name of Jesus, and welcoming the cooperation of Christians and missionaries of every evangelical denomination without requiring the sacrifice of their convictions and denominational relationships.
Fifth, it is an international movement, attracting by the greatness of its scope, and interesting by the magnificence of its field, men and women who are concerned for the welfare of every race and tongue.
Sixth, it is a pioneer movement, not duplicating existing agencies, but reaching out to the regions beyond, and seeking to send the Gospel to the most destitute corners of this benighted world. In China it was among the first to enter the province of Hunan, and the pioneer of Kuang Si; in Palestine it built the first American chapel in Jerusalem; in Annam it has planted the first native church; in Venezuela and Ecuador it has dedicated the first Protestant chapels; beyond the great wall of China it has thirty-three martyr graves, and the tomb of one of its pioneers is a mile-stone marking the lonely way to the borders of Arabia.
Seventh, it is an economical movement, avoiding expensive establishments, aiming to make every dollar go as far as possible, and sending only such missionaries as are glad to give their lives and services for their bare expenses.
Eighth, it is a pre-millennial movement, not attempting to convert the world, but rather to gather out of the nations a people for His name; thus looking for and hastening the day of the coming of the Lord.
Ninth, it is a lay movement, utilizing agencies for which otherwise the doors had perhaps been closed, and encouraging the consecrated layman, the earnest business man, the humble farmer boy, the Spirit-filled maiden whom the Master has called and fitted to follow in the footsteps of the lowly fishermen of Galilee and create a new battalion in the army of the Lord, the volunteers and irregulars of whom we have no cause to be ashamed, and who but for this movement might never accomplish their glorious work.
Tenth, its divinest seal is the spirit of sacrifice. While we do not claim a monopoly of self-denial, yet we thank God with deepest gratitude and humility for the men and women in the homeland whose noble gifts for missions are not unworthy of having a place with Mary’s anointing and the widow’s mite. Still more we thank Him for the glorious army of missionaries abroad, of whom over one hundred and fifty, counting not their lives dear unto themselves, have rendered the supreme offering of devotion. Over four hundred more are still engaged in the work and, surrendering all prospects of human ambition and interests and asking nothing but the bare necessities of life, represent us today under the burning sun of India, in the malarial swamps of Africa, in the unsavory cities of China, in the sweltering humidity of the Philippines, or amid the snow-covered heights of Quito or far Thibet, only asking of us that we will make it possible for them to spend and be spent till Jesus comes for the salvation of men, the glory of God, and the hastening of the coming of our Lord and King.
With such principles, such precedents, such opportunities, such a work, such a Leader, such a hope, and such a cloud of witnesses, O beloved, is it not worthwhile?
Source of Information: W.M. Turnbull and C.H. Chrisman, The Message of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, 1927