Page 284 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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NEQLECTED ARABIA

Missionary News and Letters
Published Quarterly
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF
THE ARABIAN MISSION

Sowing the Seed
Brethren, Pray for us, that the Word of the Lord May Hare Prce Course
and be Glorified ”
Dr. Paul W. Harrison
« FS, Sahib, we will be delighted to have you read to us out of the j
book, and explain it, too. Are we not all seeking the mercy of God ?”
The speaker was a line old man with a long white beard. Abraham
must have looked like him. One of the members of the Bahama
community of Kuwait was in the hospital and his friends came in large
numbers to visit him. That night we sat in a big circle in the sand while
the cool desert air dissolved away all the day's fever and heat and the stars
i overhead silenced the tongue even of the irreverent and irrepressible.
\Ve listened to Christ saying, “Ye are from beneath. I am from above
! . . . except ye believe that I am He ye shall die in your sins.” “But,
Sahib,” protested an objector, “faith is not for the purpose of getting rid
j of our sins. Faith is to get us to Heaven.” “Faith is doubtless for the
purpose of getting us to Heaven,” replied the missionary, "but how does
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« it do this? Christ said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
7 God.' God rejoices to let us enter Heaven if only we are pure in heart.
There is only one thing that will accomplish this, and that is faith in Christ.
Faith is like soap. It washes the heart clean. It would be easy to buy a
piece of wood painted and perfumed to look like soap, but it would do no
good for it would not wash our hands clean from anything. There are
lots of beliefs in the world, but only those that wash the heart clean are
valuable.”
“But no,” said the father of the lieard when this <|uesliou was referred
to him. “Mohammed did not teach that. Faith is simply the reception
of the great creed, 'There is no God but God, and Mohammed is God’s
.(jKJdiie.’ That i$ the faith that gets us to Heaven. Doubtless Christ gave
to the Christians a different teaching.” “Yes,” replied the missionary, “It •?
i» siirelv a different teaching, and may God guide us all into the way of f
truth.”*
It is not often that Christ’s message meets such a sincere company and I
liecause it found its way into their souls to an unusual degree we organized
the evening’s dialogue into a formal discourse and on a day of the days,
Mr. Van Peursem invited us to take the morning service in Muscat.
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