p. 12 | HOW GOD CAN OVERRULE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 26, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 42.

HOW GOD CAN OVERRULE.

THE Koran teaches that Christ was a prophet, but it does not recognize Him as the Son of God, or as the Saviour of men. But God can overrule the errors of men and make them to praise Him. The truth that Christ was a prophet, as stated in the Koran, was utilized for the conversion of a young man in Bokhara. A contributor to The Life of Faith tells us of this Mohammedan's conviction that he was a sinner, and of his searching the Koran for relief. There he saw the statement that Jesus was a great prophet, and it was impressed upon his mind that perhaps this prophet could save him from his sins. For a time he longed for assurance that his sins were forgiven, when at last a young Nestorian missionary came to Bokhara with New Testaments, and left some on sale at a shop.

In course of a few days the young mollah came to the shop to purchase some article, and noticed the books. Being told it was a Christian book, he bought one. The man in the shop told him he could only understand it if he began at the beginning and read it straight through.

The young mollah read it night and day, and when he had finished it, he came to the shop to thank the man for the wonderful Book. "If you do not understand it all, I know a young man who could explain it to you," said the shopman, and gave him the address of the Nestorian. Many conversations ensued, and the mollah was finally led to believe in Jesus. He then wished to win his wife to the same faith. She noticed he no longer prayed five times a day, and that he ate on the fast days, and threatened to denounce him to the government. Her husband was specially kind to her, and

asked if he was better or worse since his new belief. She could not but admit he was kinder and better. Then he read to her the pages where a man is commanded to have one wife. As the object of every Mohammedan wife is to keep her husband from taking another wife, she was intensely interested. He went on to read that a man should love his wife as himself. This, so contrary to oriental practise, struck her forcibly. Slowly her mind began to open to the truths of Christianity, and now they are both desiring to be baptized.

In Bokhara, tho a convert is hated, he is not persecuted. There seems an open door, yet there is but one Christian missionary there, the young Nestorian already spoken of, who labors there alone, earning his own living.