The Day of Opportunity by Arthur G. Daniels

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, Nos. 39, 40, Harvest Ingathering Number

The Day of Opportunity

By Arthur G. Daniels

The Oriental Mind Stirred and Receptive—Will We Seize the Opportune Moment?

By ARTHUR G. DANIELS

President of the General Conference

THIS is the day of opportunity for the Christian church in its foreign missionary effort. The doors in nearly all non-Christian lands are wide open for the church to enter and do a mighty work.

This statement, which we have heard so many times, means far more than an open way into the lands. It means favorable conditions for the evangelization of the people. More important than all else, it means an open mind and a receptive attitude on the part of the Oriental masses.

This is especially true of the nations of eastern Asia—India, Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and China. Marvelous changes and developments have recently taken place among these people. They have experienced a great awakening in every phase of life. The contact with Western ideas has given them a new vision of life. The impact of this new civilization has thrown them out of their beaten tracks of thirty centuries or more, and now they are endeavoring to build on a new foundation. The present, therefore, is a period of reconstruction. These people are changing their forms of government, their systems of education, their economic and industrial policies, their social relations, and their religion. In rebuilding, they are rejecting much of the old for the new.

Awakening and New Vision

An Hour of Opportunity

It is this that makes the present the hour of opportunity for the Christian church. The most important part of this reconstruction work is the religious—the turning away from idolatry, with its debasing superstition, to the elevating, uplifting worship of the living God and the Saviour of men. It is the knowledge and worship of the true God that gave to Western civilization its excellence. These non-Christian people understand this to a greater or less degree; and in adopting Western ideals and standards for a new national life, they understand, in some measure at least, that it means the rejection of their old religions for the new. Ample proof of this claim is found in the changes they have already made and are still making in this respect. They have shown as great readiness to destroy their idols and abandon their temples for the Christian religion, as they have to reject absolutism in government for a democracy, and in turning away from their old, obsolete, lifeless systems of education for the new, practical, up-to-date system of the West.

CLASS IN GIRLS’ SCHOOL,
CANTON, CHINA

This group of bright young faces from our girls’ school in Canton shows the intelligent training the Christian educa-
tion has put upon the countenances of those who so re-
cently were bowing before idols. It is an inspiration to work where such results are possible. — CLASS IN GIRLS’ SCHOOL, CANTON, CHINA This group of bright young faces from our girls’ school in Canton shows the intelligent training the Christian educa- tion has put upon the countenances of those who so re- cently were bowing before idols. It is an inspiration to work where such results are possible.

“India’s Desire”

A talented Christian Indian has written a book on “India’s Desire,” in which he says that “India offers to-day great opportunities of gathering into the church thousands who are desirous of entering it. It cannot be too often reiterated that there are literally thousands among the depressed classes who are claiming from the Christian church the opportunity of developing body, mind, and spirit. Apart from Christianity there is no hope for them.” He adds: “It is only at the peril of irretrievable damage to the cause of Christ that the church can refrain from undertaking the teaching of these multitudes. . . . The redemption of India, the satisfaction of her desires, and the enlistment of her spiritual capacities on behalf of the kingdom of God, are the duty and privilege of the church of Christ.”

Every word of this statement may truly be said, and is said, of all these other non-Christian peoples. The vision of the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell

in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

Truly this is the hour of opportunity for the Christian church to do great things for Christ and for the millions of lost souls for whom He died. Will the church embrace the opportunity with all the devotion, earnestness, and resources within her reach? Will you, dear reader, do this? O, what tremendous issues hang upon the course that will now be taken! May the divine Spirit give clear vision of duty, and lead to the consecration of all the resources at the command of the church.