Northwestern Bible School - Scroll Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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DR. WILLIAM B. RILEY

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ADMINISTRATOR - PASTOR - TEACHER DR, WILLIAM B, RILEY 1361 —- DR, RILEY J S life has had so many sides that it is difficult to bring them all within the compass of a short sketch. The ruling motive of all his enormous activity and success has been to know and to do the will of God. Once he is confident that a certain course is God ' s will for him, nothing can stop him. This trait has rendered him impervious to the criticism of men, and has helped him to keep his heart fastened firmly on the Word of truth. Staunch champion and defender of the faith as he is, he has been the lodestar of other men less certain and determined, fn fundamental circles his word is lav . Always, even his enemies admit, Dr, Riley can be depended upon to hold fast the faith; never to compromise where the Truth is concerned. He has been enabled to build a school, found a seminary, publish 75 books, and be pastor of a great church for 40 years because he humbly depends upon God for the supply of every need. Prayer before aclion is his motto. Hard work and study enter into his success. His definition of success as he gives it to the students is— one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration. His personal life is characterized by gentleness. His southern blood makes him love the hunt and his dogs, but he seldom finds opportunity for relaxation in the out of doors. His time is the Lord s and he uses it for Him. Because his own youth was rigorous, he is ever sympathetic with the young man or woman who is fighting for an education against great odds. He has won the hearts of the students, and their devotion to him is as great as their admiration. His consecration to the work of the Lord has led him to put everything else second; that singleness of eye has made him what he is—a man whom the Lord has trusted with great tasks.

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MISSIONARY ADONIRAM JUDSON 1783—1850 FOR DEVOTION to a cause against overwhelming odds, the name of Adoni- ram Judson shines like a star in the firmament of Christianity. Against the advice of friends and in the face of extreme opposition, he went to India as the first American missionary. He met conditions that would have discour¬ aged a less consecrated man. His own ill health and that of his beautiful wife, Ann, added terrific discouragement to the well-nigh insupportable burden of life in Burma, Converts were won with the utmost difficulty. Governmental persecution finally cast the gentle, aesthetic Judson into a filthy heathen prison. The unmentionable torture and anguish of those two years was brightened by an unbounded faith and trust in the Lord of Glory. Neither Ann nor Adoniram doubted His goodness in permitting them to be missionaries of the Cross. Judson ' s knowledge of the language and the con¬ fidence of the Burmese in his integrity led to a short release from prison, that he might assist in effecting a peace treaty between the Burmese and English governments. This altruistic act was the means whereby he gained permission to establish more missionary stations. The manuscript of the translation of the Bible over which Judson had spent many months was threatened with destruction, To preserve it, Ann sewed it into a pillow, so hard that even the jailer scorned it, Upon this Judson was permitted to lay his sore and weary head in that wretched jail. Small wonder that his greatest accomplishment was this translation of the Bible into the Burmese language, although he also completed the very difficult compila¬ tion of the Burmese dictionary. He had such a passion for souls that had there been another man qualified for these great tasks of translation he would gladly have relinquished them. He was driven to take a sea voyage because of his illness, but the ocean breezes failed to cure him. Instead, he went to be with the Lord, and his body was buried in the unquiet sepulchre. He could not have had a more fitting monument than the blue waves which visit every coast, for his warm sym¬ pathies went forth to the ends of the earth. God used this humble vessel to shine in a dark place and to light thousands of benighted souls to Christ, because he counted all things but loss that he might win Christ '