Page 263 - Neglected Arabia (1911-1915) Vol II

30
t
fortunes of the Arabs. It was the day of Pentecost. God was ful­
filling the prophecy of Joel and was pouring out His spirit upon ail
flesh. The benefits of Christ’s atoning work were being proclaimed in
a new manner and offered with new force. What an audience it was
that met Peter's gaze as he fixed his eyes on the multitude. What a
mixture of faces and costumes that must have been where Medes and
Mesopotamians jostled the Romans and the Cretans, and where, scat­
tered among that cosmopolitan audience, he also discerned the hard
faces and the flowing garments of men from Arabia. But what is
more interesting and more important is the fact that God in his provi­
dence had arranged that the descendants of Ishmael, the heirs of an
immortal promise, should be present at that blessed occasion to partake
of the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh. They went back to their
black tents richer than they came, and undoubtedly assisted in build­ >
ing up that wonderful Christian church that flourished in Arabia dur­
ing the first century of our era.
Yet one more passage and we must conclude our study of the place
of the Arabs in the Bible. As Ishmael’s hand was to be against every
man it is not strange that often his hand and his heart were against
God and his service. So Nehemiah found it many centuries ago. This
faithful man was striving hard to rebuild the walls and the temple of
Jerusalem and to restore the worship of Jehovah. But when the Ara­
bians and others heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt
"‘they were very wroth, and they conspired all of them together to
come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause contusion therein.”
And as in the days of Nehemiah so ever since has the Arab in hjs
blindness fought against the very God that he feign would serve. Of
Christ and His cross he will have nothing, and as he cannot vent his
wrath visibly against Christ himself, he attacks those who bear His
name. Thousands of Arabs have been taught to believe, and have
acted on this belief, that they could render God no greater service than
to exterminate as many Christians as possible. Hear their weekly
prayer on Friday noon. “O God. look in wrath on the Christians.
Make their wives widows, their children orphans, and their possessions
a booty to the Moslems.” So while his heart and his habits may be
vicious because of long training, yet our weapons of defence and of­
fence should be directed not so much against the Arab as against his
religion. And in building the walls of Zion in Arabia we may well
follow the plan of Nehemiah. which is summed up in the words: “But
we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day
and night.” First and foremost is prayer, and secondly watching and
waiting, in an attitude not of war but of compassion. And our spirit­
ual victory is assured, for as then so also now, “Our God will fight
for us.”
Admittedly the Moslem is a most discouraging object of missionary
effort. His growth in his religion is like the growth of a fruit that at
the time of its setting was forced down the neck of a bottle. The
larger it grows the less possibility is there of its ever getting out of
its unyielding prison, and at the time of its maturity it is physically
impossible that it should ever be liberated. So it is also physically
impossible for the Moslem to break out of the religion in which he