Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 107:428 (Oct 1950)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 107:428 (Oct 50) p. 497

Book Reviews

God of the Valleys. Edited by Anne Hazelton, China Inland Mission, Philadelphia. 87 pp., paper. 30¢.

Here is the 1949 “Story of the Year” for the largest missionary group in China, the China Inland Mission. Its title is taken from 1 Kings 20:28. Here are not dry statistical tables; rather the reader finds essays presenting a frank appraisal of the bountiful blessing of the Lord against a background of a new ruler and ominous days.

The Mission’s General Director, Bishop Frank Houghton, in Shanghai headquarters points out that the new ruler—the People’s Government—is the creature of the United Front, the strongest force of which is the Communist Party. “And there is no serious challenge to its authority…. Since this party still believes that religion is the opiate of the people, we cannot expect it to sympathize with our objective.” Director Houghton further indicates that the decision not to withdraw as the new authority has spread found the close of 1949 with 737 missionaries on the field, representing better than eighty percent of the full members of the mission. Each successive essay in the report radiates the guidance and power of the Spirit in genuinely miraculous missionary activity and Providential protection. Highlights include reference to student work (cooperating with China Inter-Varsity), various tribes activities and expansions as well as last-minute reenforcements. These reenforcements were the “forty-nine ‘49ers” who were flown into Chungking just before the city changed hands.

A Mission’s report? Nay, rather, a 1949 missionary epic! The present time, just one century from the date of Founder Hudson Taylor’s call and dedication to China, finds the Mission and its significant work at a most crucial point in that history. Anti-foreign feeling and persecution of native Christians make the picture even more ominous, but for the God of the Valleys.

Professor Rudolf A. Renfer

BSac 107:428 (Oct 50) p. 498

The Light in Dark Ages. By V. Raymond Edman. Vah Kampen Press, Wheaton, Ill. 435 pp. $4.00.

In this volume, aided by a grant from the Alumni Association of Wheaton College of which he is President, Dr. Edman has brought to a high point his life-long interest and study of Christian missions. A former missionary in the Andes, the author is deeply concerned about missionary motivation. He says convincingly, “The Second Coming of Christ is as much a motivation for foreign missions as it is for personal holiness of life and for comfort to the sorrowing earth.” The three divisions of the book bring the narrative of Christian missions up to the modern per...

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