Page 125 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

c

Retrenchment in Arabia

Du. Paul \V. Hakkison

T HE Board is short of funds and appropriations have been
cut. it means that some of the ministers and laymen of our
church are greatly concerned, and pray and give more
earnestly. Extra collections will be taken in some places.
But out in Arabia it means more than that. A desperate strang­
ling feeling will creep around the hearts of the men and women
that we have sent out there, when they hear the news. We have
never been able to do more than touch the edge of our task in
Arabia and even that little is to have the heart cut out of it
now. Our message has never been presented half as effectively as
we desire, and now even that which we have is to he taken away
from us.
For the very soul of the missionary enterprise, as of Christian
faith itself, is the spirit of confident advance. Why should we .
count the cost, or carefully appraise the difficulties when we work fur
Christ To Him there are no difficulties. The Cos pel that we carry j-s
aileipia e "or the needs of the Mohammedans just as it is adetjnale for
our own. Il is lo go mil and capline men's hearts aiiywhen*. r\cii men
who are lied hand and fool by sin and pride and self-indulgence; even
men who have been hardened by a false religion against every approach
of Christ. The Gospel is all that they need, anil now this boon
is to be denied to many. The confident advance of the enterprise
has received a check.
Maskat is manned now by two women and the whole province
of Oman of which Maskat is the capitol is crying to us for a
knowledge of Christ. They are the most receptive and hospitable
of any people in Arabia, but there is to be no Christian message
for them. The lovely hills and valleys of that mountainous dis-
trict are to remain the valley of the shadow of death, a thirsty
land where no water is. 'The doors are open, the people wain us tu
come. At last after years of prayer the necessary workers arc
in sight, but the cut says “No. Wc have nothing for them.”
The missionaries in Bahrein will read the news; men anil
women who bear in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus, the
marks of malaria and heat and overwork. They will get down mi
their knees to pray that God in His omnipotence and love will
care in some way for His work, that He will suffer nothing tu
stand in the way of His plans for Arabia. For Bahrein is the base
station of the whole campaign for the occupation of inland Arabia.
That campaign has its base of operations in Bahrein and in the
hearts of the men and women who pray for it, though many
thousands of miles removed, Wc have prayed with and fur the
missionaries of the Station and as a result of this prayer we have
seen doors opened and tours made and prejudices melted away, and

■ •A