Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

committee"
offerings"
sured, for they believe that we have something spe
cial to give their sons in character training which
other schools do not give them. The measure of spe
cial support which can be obtained from American
sources is also a factor which may have a vital influ
ence on the future of the college. Can we hope that
another "Pittsburgh
will be formed, not
to secure more property and buildings, but to build
up
an assured income which will be adequate to meet
the financial needs of the day in which we live and
serve Are there not many consecrated individuals
who are willing to make provision in their wills for
the continuation of their interest in this type of
Christian witness We have the equipment ; we have
loyal and able Christian teachers ; we have abundant
opportunity to serve. We thank God that his re
sources are abundant and unfailing, and we believe
that he still has a great place in his plans to use
Assiut college in building up the Kingdom of God in
the valley of the Nile. We face the future in faith
that He will provide for our needs beyond all that
can ask or think.
Thailand Welcomes Missionaries
From China
By Isobel S. Kuhn and Ivan Allbutt
Thailand is a new field, entered during the past
three years by a task force of more than eighty
China Inland Mission missionaries forced out of
Communist China. In spite of the difficulties of
learning new languages and customs, contacts have
been made among the Yao, Lahu, Miao, Shan and
Kachin, as well as the Lisu tribes.
some of these languages to
The work of reducing
writing is well in hand, gospel primers and cate
chisms have been produced, literacy classes are the
order of the day, small church groups have been
formed in several places and chapels have been built
by the believers.
One woman worker has been widely used in help
ing opium addicts break their habit of taking that
awful drug, introducing them to the God of deliver
ance. A Lisu magazine, mimeographed and mailed
over the border into Burma, may also be reaching
under the Iron Curtain. The marvel of all this is that
it has been done in the short span of three years. God
is doing a new thing in Thailand.
To the south, in the plains of the central prov
inces among the Thai (pronounced tie) race, seven
key cities now have resident missionaries, and an
eighth city will probably be occupied before this item
appears in print. These are carrying the Word of Life
to the world-conscious, gracious and genteel Thai
who are Buddhist in social life and politics as well
as in religion.
A barrage of gospel literature is being released
to meet the challenge of 20,000 monasteries and
170,000 yellow-robed Buddhist priests and novices.
The gospel launch, Maranatha, plies the canals and
streams that make a network of waterways, the only
routes of communication to many towns,
villages and
farmsteads. Evangelistic and medical workers climb
ing the banks of the rivers find an immediate in
terest in their message. The gospel is new to these
people.
It is a new thing, too, for the Moslems of south
Thailand to have Christian witnesses living in their
January 5, 1955
towns. Proud of their tradition and boastful of their
Koran, they will nevertheless listen to the missionary
who shows them the authenticity of the Gospel rec
ord.
Becoming all things to all men, sitting
people sit, diligently proclaiming the gospel in season
and out of season
where the
there is nothing startlingly new
about that for the CIM, but doing it in new ways in
new fields is putting new life into an old mission.
Tither's Corner
By J. Merrill Robb
We believe in and practice the tithe for the fol
lowing reason :
1. It belongs to God anyway.
"And all the tithe of the land,
whether of the
seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the
Lord's : it is holy unto the Lord" (Leviticus 27 :30)
.
"Will a man rob God Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee In tithes
and
(Malachi 3:8).
2. God Blesses the tither.
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open
you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a bless
ing, that there shall not be room enough to receive
it"
(Malachi 3:10).
Surely God has "leaned over backward" when
He blesses us for merely giving Him the tithe which
belongs to Him anyway.
3. It solves the tither's financial problems.
We fare better on nine-tenths of our income
with God's blessing than on ten-tenths of it without
God's blessing. Can any
one of us say how many
times God has spared us a costly accident, sickness
or other unfortunate happening !
4. It WOULD solve the church's financial problems.
We have no way to know how many earners of
income there are in our church. And likewise we have
no way to know how much they earn in total. How
ever, let us suppose that the number of earners and
what they earn might be as shown in the figures be
low. Then the total earnings of the church would be
what the example shows.
E'ach of
Suppose whom earns That would
there are annually total
25 $20,000 $ 500,000
75 10,000 750,000
150 7,000 1,050,000
200 5,000 1,000,000
300 4,000 1,200,000
400 3,000 1,200,000
200 2,000 400,000
1350 TOTAL $6,100,000
Then the total earnings of the church would be
$6,100,000 and the tithe on that amount would be
$610,000 a year. And last year we contributed only
$430,243 (1954 Minutes of Synod). So, wouldn't the
tithe solve the church's financial problems, too
Geneva