Wilson-Apostle To Islam.pdf - Radical Truth

32 Apostle to Islam
the arrangements having been made without faculty permission. However,
Robert P. 'Wilder and other speakers and the delegates arrIved. The secretary
met them at the train, was up early in the morning and hung maps and
charts for the meeting. The conference Vias a great success .and the young
student had been responsible for the first of many such meetmgs he was to
organize the wide world over. ..
Vacation periods ''''ere noW giyen over largely to speakmg on Foreign
Missions and work for the Student Volunteer Movement. He attended the
meeting of the General .Synod of the Reformed Church a: .Peekskill,. New
York. The communities at Albany and Rochester were VISIted and m the
latter place he preached in Dutch.
Durincr the summer the theological student canvassed in Michigan for
The Christian IntelTigencer and spoke many times on missions in that state,
the region of Chicago, and in Iowa. At v\lh:aton College thirte.en new names
were added to Student Yolunteer declaratlOn cards after hIS address on
Septe.'!1ber 11, 1888.
Throughout the Se:ninary course, though he was a g?od student and a1 ~
ways put his academic work in first place, he yet found tlme for a great deal
of missionary activity and continued the medical studIes.
As a student he continued to write articles in Dutch for the weekly magazine
aDe Hope/' most of them on missionary subjects. The pr?je~ of the
self-supporting mission in Arabia gradually took shape and hIS hfe was
dedicated to that call.
We find that he continued the hour of prayer and Bible reading from noon
to one o'clock which had been established the first year in Seminary. Before
a major ~ddress for the Student Volunteer Movement he records, "Felt
very weak spiritually but prayer was strengthening." Again and again he
notes that he was greatly helped in speaking, as an answer to prayer.
Finally the day arrived for graduation from the Seminary at New Brunswick.
There were seven in the class; one of them was Frank Scudder who
became a missionary to the Far East and Hawaii. Another was George E.
Talmage who was subsequently to be the pastor of Theodore Roosevelt at
Oyster Bay, Long Island. Two members of the class later entered the ministry
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. .
The Arabian Mission had been launched. James Cantme graduated a
year beiore Zwemer and was to precede him to the Near East to begin the
study of Arabic. Philip T. Phelps, the other "spoke" of the w!,eel.which
was the symbol of the new MiSSIOn, because ~f heal.th a,;d family CIrCumstances
went into a pastorate at home and continued m this country to support
the project. The prayer of Abraham, "Oh that Ishmael might live before
thee," was adopted as the motto of the Mission, since the people of
Arabia were largely descended from that son of Abraham and "Ishmael"
was taken to represent the Moslem world in general. Following the graduation,
Samnel M. Zwemer was ordained as a missionary by the Classis of
Iowa on May 29, 1890.
Girding on His Armour 33
Professor John C. Lansing, D.D., and the three students laid their plan
before the Board of Foreign Missions and the General Synod of the RefO.m:
ed Churcll. '!"he Board was havi,:,g difficulty in supporting its existing
mlSS10ns and was In debt. Zwemer saI.d later, "We took the matter up with
the Board step by step (or was it stop by stop), but we remained fully
persuaded that God wanted us in Arabia."
Before sailing for the field Zwemer had made a tour of churches in the
"INest to secure support for the new mission venture. Of churches and
friends interested at the time he said fifty years later, "One marvels at their
faith in continually sowing On such desert soil when all evidence of a visible
harvest was absent." Dr. ]. G. Lansing was also active so that his follower
as treasu~er of the Mission could state, "He secured money and pledges of
annu~I gIfts to such an extent that when the 1vfission was incorporated,
Cantine had been sent to Beirut and maintained there and the money for
Zwemer's support was in hand."