Northwestern Bible School - Scroll Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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- ' 1 wk Tshe Shipwreck of Traith % Dr. W. B. Riley C 1[ 1TQW do you sail?” Dr. Griffis, in his Young People’s History of Holland, tells us I Jl that when, in the early morning off the Netherlands, one Hollander meets another, he does not greet him by saying, “How do you do?” hut rather, How do you sail?” The morning paper daily reports the channel currents in the canals over which the men are to move in their daily occupation. Hence their common greeting, “How do you sail?” Another way of saying, “Which way are you going?” How suggestive the question. More than the direction one is taking, is involved: Ivis preparation for the journey, his expectation of a safe voyage, and his hope of escaping all disaster. Our concern is, How do you sail? Paul, writing to Timothy, charged him against making shipwreck, saying, “Hold faith, and a good conscience; which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck:” I Tim, 1:13-19. There are certain plain inferences from this sentence. Creed and good Conscience are Complementary. This is a day when creeds are often condemned. Modernism has strenuously endeavored to destroy every oreedal statement. The so-called Re-thinking of Missions” hy certain loose- thinking laymen, devotes four chapters to an onslaught of the vital creeds of Christendom. It is almost as usual to hear “dogma” denounced, as is the sound of liberalism on the air. There seems to he something about the word dogma” that renders it susceptible to slur, and yet, let it not be forgotten that a dogma is “a doctrine concerning the religious truth as maintained by the Christian Church,” “a statement of faith,” and that it is essen tially the same as creed—“That which is believed.” Any attempt to retain conscience apart from conviction is foredoomed. “As a man thinketh m his heart so is he.” Creed is as fundamental to conscience as con¬ science is essential to character. The attempt to separate them is one with the endeavor to part soul and body; any attempt to divide them asunder is one with the employment of the surgeon ' s knife on Siamese twins! Together they live; severed they both perish. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed, and when Creed and Conscience do not speak the same shibboleth, both are set for discard. To tamper with one of these is to destroy the other I landed in London the day the Titanic started on her initial crip to America. She was supposed to be seaworthy and danger-proof—immune against any conceivable disaster. Her system of sub-divisions was elaborate and minute The scientists boasted that the utmost that even an iceberg could do would be to disable her, when by her perfect wireless she could speedily and certainly call adequate assistance. But, alas for the calculations of men! It transpired that the very strength of her construction became her deadly weakness. Her rigidity was such that when the bows did not yield, the whole structure of the ship was dislo¬ cated by the tremendous shock, and the system of sub-divisions was thereby nullified. Rivets parted and plates gaped, and the water poured in at a hundred points, sending her to an untimely and terrible grave. When Creed and Conscience are not so related that they move together, both are set for destruction. Just as the sub divisions failed when the rigidity of the Titanic was broken, so the consciences of man go to pieces when their Christ-given Creed crashes. A!! across the country people ask, “What has happened to the church? Why is it that worldliness has come into it like a flood; that dancing, card-playing, theatre and movie-going Page Thirtccn

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J . . . and he plays Page Twelve A tribute to Our Captain Dr. tD. ‘B. ‘Riley T IME is the test of men. By his failures or successes man is judged. If these statements be true, Dr. W. B. Riley need not fear the verdict of the years to come. In every field which lie has entered, there stand institutions and records which give abundant testimony to his genius and ability. The church which he has builded and served for thirty-six: years stands today as one of the greatest on the American continent. Its organization is a tribute to his executive powers; He works . , , its people, an evidence of his faithful¬ ness to God and to His Word. As an author, he has contributed half a hundred volumes containing expositions of the Word, and the ablest defense of the Faith that this generation has seen. Wherever liberalism is rampant, Dr. Riley’s name is known, and it commonly brings a sneer or jest to the lips of the Atheist or Modernist. Oh! What a confession that they have experienced the keenness of his stinging rebuke! 1 he Northwestern Bible School, which he has founded and conducted, is unique in many of its features, and is unsurpassed in many respects by any other institution operating in the same field. Though these facts seem great in magnitude, marvelling ceases when he, the man, is known, do see him—tall, white-haired commander that he is—creates admiration. To hear him speak in his own inimitable manner brings profound respect. To learn through sweet experience the kindly warmth of his truly pastor ' s heart, and to know the father-like affection that he entertains for each student, forges a bond of love, and makes for that relationship whose presence is powerfully felt, but for which there is no adequate expression in words. But the greatest of all tributes is paid when his accomplishments, his character, his all become enfolded in his testimony that through every moment of a blessedly spent life it has been “God which workech, both to will and to do of His good pleasure 1

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1 K are almost as common with die church members as with the world? What has happened to break the ecclesiastical morale?” Multitudinous answers are being given. Some say it was the late war that loosened all established foundations- others believe that invention of machinery has undermined all morals, but the truth is that these are minor factors when compared with that curse of the centuries—- the rejection of Christian creeds. When those were thrown away, the ecclesiastical pilots consented to attempt to steer the craft of Church Life without chart or compass, and to run the narrows and shoals without sounding plummet. The result cannot be other than moral chaos, fogs and confusion for the ecclesiastical craft. Shipwreck is the certain and only possible result . Within the year marvelous things have transpired in marine mechanics. The U, S. Steam¬ ship ' Stoddcrf’ was sent to sea without a man on hoard. Under radio control it ran at the rate of 26 knots, and made a 160-degree turn at the will of a seaman who stood before a box with eight typewriter keys, through which he expressed his ethereal command. The newspapers reported that both the commanders and sailors were amazed as they studied the procedure of seeing the ‘Stoddert” put through her paces, slowing, speeding, turning 10 degrees right and then 90 degrees left, and finally putting clear about in a circle within a quarter-mile radius. But on her way to San Clemente Island, something snapped in the radio equipment and instantly the ship came to a stop, turned off her steam, and whistled loudly for help- her crew- had to go out to her and bring her into port. What that something was to the movements of the ship, the combination of Creed and Conscience is to the life and conduct of die soul. Break their vital contact, and intelligent progress ends, and the soul itself is left a helpless bark on the sea of time, destined to drive before the winds of skepticism and lay the waves of unbelief to temporal and eternal wreck. What a ship is without the power of personality to direct it, life, is without Christ as Pilot. H. L. Hastings tells the story of a Sailor Mission address which he had delivered one night, at the close of which Captain Nickerson rose and told a personal experience, to this effect: 16 In the year 1861 I was a sailor on board the ‘Heroine of Darien, Georgia, bound for Montevideo, South America. On board the ship was a young sailor who ridiculed my faith and laughed at my piety, but when the eight bells rang and the watch was changed, George the sailor took a bucket to get some water to fetch to the pump. As he flung it over the side of the vessel, it filled so instantly that the rapid motion of the ship jerked him overboard. A boat was launched, and we searched through the darkness until by the sound of his voice we reached him, hauled him into the boat, and took him back to the ship; and, after giving him correct treatment, made him as comfortable in his bunk as possible. The next morning I said to him, ‘George, did you think you were lost?’ “ T certainly did? “ Now, be honest; what did you do? u 1 prayed he answered. ' But I thought last night that you did not believe there was a God 3 “ That’s different’ A man sitting up on deck in perfect comfort can get on without a Creed, but when he is floundering in the deep and fighting against darkness, and conscious that any moment may be his last, infidelity and blasphemy take wings, and faith in God as one’s only help finds natural expression. “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus ' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus 3 Name Page Fourierfi