Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tiding!" Isaiah 52: 7.
A Christian layman, and a man of considerable ability, was the speaker, and the writer was a listener. "I do not believe in foreign missions," he said with manifest emphasis. "Every nation has its own religion, suited to its particular disposition and traditions, it is folly to try and convert foreigners to our faith. Confucianism is the religion of China, sprung out of Chinese soil and suited to the Chinese people. Christianity is the religion of the Anglo-Saxon and agreeable to our type of mind. Let us keep our religion and let other people keep theirs." Many another person who has not been so outspoken has persuaded himself that the Christian faith is our peculiar possession and that we are under no obligation to give it to the rest of the world.
But really, is Christianity an Anglo-Saxon religion? It did not begin with us, for Christ was neither an American nor an Englishman nor a European. He was born on the other side of the world, the son of a woman of alien blood. He lived amid scenes that are foreign to us and spoke a language that is unintelligible to us. He died for our sins on a hill many thousands of miles from American shores. Christianity is not an Anglo-Saxon religion: speaking after the manner of the flesh, it is an Asiatic religion. Our fathers were foreigners to Christ and his disciples, and they would never have heard the gospel of the Nazarene had not the missionaries of the Church crossed mountains and sea and brought to them the glad tidings of salvation.
When Christ lived in Galilee the Angles and Saxons and Britons-our fathers-were veriest heathen and among the most backward people on the earth. The first volume of Hume's history of England should prove an effective antidote to our racial pride. He says, "No idolatrous worship ever attained such ascendence over mankind as that practiced by the Gauls and Britons." Our Fathers worshiped Woden, the god of victory, and Thor the god of thunder. All the days of the week are named for heathen gods whom our fathers worshiped and should be a daily reminder of our heathen ancestry. With all our mania for family trees, no intelligent person finds any satisfaction in running his family tree back of the time when Christian missionaries came to our fathers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Portraits of those half-naked, painted savages would be no adornment to our handsomely appointed living rooms and no matter of pride to us their children.
Things have been different with the Anglo-Saxon since the advent of missionaries. In the sixth century Augustine came to England, a foreign missionary to our fathers. He started a mission at Canterbury, which was the beginning of the Canterbury Cathedral. After a life of sacrificing toil, he was buried there, and over his tomb in the cathedral one may read to this day his epitaph, "Here lies the Lord Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, who reduced this nation from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ." Boniface went to Germany, Columbia to Scotland, and Patrick to Ireland. The light of the gospel shone in the darkness of Britain and Germany, and we emerged. We have been out of heathenism for about forty generations only, and "a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it passed and as a watch in the night."
"From depths of night to plains of light, O praise His name, he lifted us."
In so far as we are saved people, we are sinners and barbarians saved by grace. The greatest apologetic for Christian missions on earth is the Anglo-Saxon people. What Christ has done for us he can do for all men. It was a long and weary way from Jerusalem to Canterbury, and the foreign missionary was the connecting link between our ancestral home and the cross outside Jerusalem's gate. Not only for love of man and in response to our Lord's commission should we be a missionary people, but out of sheer gratitude and in recognition of our dept to missions.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Purity Is Dearer Than Life
Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell (1928)
“Keep thyself pure.” 1 Timothy 5: 22.
In the forests of northern Europe and Asia a little animal called the ermine lives. He is mostly known among us by his snow-white fur, a thing than which there is nothing more beautiful on the fur markets of the world. In some countries the state robes of judges are lined with it, the white being emblematic of purity and honor. The ermine has a peculiar pride in his white fur coat. At all hazards he protects it against anything that would spoil it.
It is said that the fur hunters take cruel advantage of the ermine’s care to keep his coat clean. They do not set a snare to catch him at some unwary moment, but instead find his home, a cleft in the rock or the hollow of a decaying tree, and daub the entrance and interior with filth. Then their dogs start the chase. Frightened, the ermine flees toward his home, his only place of refuge. He finds it daubed with uncleanness, and he will not soil his pure white coat. Rather than go into the unclean place, he faces the yelping dogs and preserves the purity of his fur at the cost of his life¹. It is better that he be stained by blood than spoiled by uncleanness.
Little beast of the forest, what a lesson you teach! Purity is dearer than life. If the judges who wear the ermine and the women who decorate themselves with your pure white coat knew your story, would they not be touched to the heart with pity, and would they not be moved to love purity as you? Your example condemns us all, for we have not been half so careful as you to keep clean that which God has entrusted to us. He has given you only a white coat and you give your life to keep it so. He has given us minds and immortal spirits, and we let every vile and unworthy thing to spoil them. Far from surrendering our lives to preserve our purity, we sacrifice character for unseemly pleasures, and dishonest gain, and selfish ambitions. We are not so careful where we go as you. We expose our souls to the stains of evil to get the thing we want.
The ermine is right – purity is dearer than life. It is dearer than aught else, because it is the soul of character. When it is lost, all is lost. Deeds so pure that we have nothing to hide, thoughts so pure that they may be spoken aloud, motives so pure that the world can see through them – when we live by these standards we have an ermine-white character. One must not besmirch it for any consideration. At all hazards “keep thyself pure.” “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” If disaster threatens life, come what may. Purity overcomes at last and shines as the stars forever.
¹For this fact concerning the habits of the ermine the author is indebted to his old teacher, Dr. W.F. Tillett, of Vanderbilt University.
“Keep thyself pure.” 1 Timothy 5: 22.
In the forests of northern Europe and Asia a little animal called the ermine lives. He is mostly known among us by his snow-white fur, a thing than which there is nothing more beautiful on the fur markets of the world. In some countries the state robes of judges are lined with it, the white being emblematic of purity and honor. The ermine has a peculiar pride in his white fur coat. At all hazards he protects it against anything that would spoil it.
It is said that the fur hunters take cruel advantage of the ermine’s care to keep his coat clean. They do not set a snare to catch him at some unwary moment, but instead find his home, a cleft in the rock or the hollow of a decaying tree, and daub the entrance and interior with filth. Then their dogs start the chase. Frightened, the ermine flees toward his home, his only place of refuge. He finds it daubed with uncleanness, and he will not soil his pure white coat. Rather than go into the unclean place, he faces the yelping dogs and preserves the purity of his fur at the cost of his life¹. It is better that he be stained by blood than spoiled by uncleanness.
Little beast of the forest, what a lesson you teach! Purity is dearer than life. If the judges who wear the ermine and the women who decorate themselves with your pure white coat knew your story, would they not be touched to the heart with pity, and would they not be moved to love purity as you? Your example condemns us all, for we have not been half so careful as you to keep clean that which God has entrusted to us. He has given you only a white coat and you give your life to keep it so. He has given us minds and immortal spirits, and we let every vile and unworthy thing to spoil them. Far from surrendering our lives to preserve our purity, we sacrifice character for unseemly pleasures, and dishonest gain, and selfish ambitions. We are not so careful where we go as you. We expose our souls to the stains of evil to get the thing we want.
The ermine is right – purity is dearer than life. It is dearer than aught else, because it is the soul of character. When it is lost, all is lost. Deeds so pure that we have nothing to hide, thoughts so pure that they may be spoken aloud, motives so pure that the world can see through them – when we live by these standards we have an ermine-white character. One must not besmirch it for any consideration. At all hazards “keep thyself pure.” “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” If disaster threatens life, come what may. Purity overcomes at last and shines as the stars forever.
¹For this fact concerning the habits of the ermine the author is indebted to his old teacher, Dr. W.F. Tillett, of Vanderbilt University.
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