Victory and Missions

Lthough God had greatly blessed the

Dallas pastor in his own life, and was blessing his studies in the Word to himself and to others, he had not yet entered into the New Testament teaching of the life of power and victory. There were times when he was anxious; he knew this was unnecessary and wrong, and he longed to step out fully into the normal New Testament Christian experience. It was in harmony with his method of patient thoroughness in all his studies that he finally apprehended the truth as related to the new life in Christ Jesus.

The Southwest, in the years of Scofield’s first ministry in Dallas, seethed with so-called holiness testimony. Probably no phase of the various teachings on the holy life was unrepresented. To all of it in those beginning-days of his Christian life and service he lent an eager ear — eager because of an intense desire to realize in his own

experience the highest Christian life. But of necessity he must bring those methods, to the results of which he was hearing rapturous testimonies, to the test of Scripture. Again and again he was compelled to turn from the theories which he was hearing. Not so spoke the Word.

The light broke in through a study of the threefold experience of the Apostle Paul. Beginning as a self-satisfied, self-righteous legalist, Paul met Jesus on the Damascus road and became a justified man; but still a man under the defeats recorded in the seventh of Romans. Passing then into the marvellous victories of the eighth of Romans, it was plain that Paul ascribed these victories (Romans 8:2) to the new life in Christ Jesus as energized and made effectual through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The eager seeker found that great triumph chapter athrill with the Spirit. Passing over the parenthetic ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters to the twelfth — the true continuation of the eighth — he found the disclosure of the step into victory — and not victory over the Adamic self merely, but into the whole life of fruitful service and fulness of joy. The new act of faith demanded the presentation (or yielding) of the body, demanded not only the cessation of conscious resistance to Christ, but also the acceptance of the Christ life plan as one of sacrifice. A life no longer to serve self, but Christ. The thing demanded was an act as definite as the act of faith in which the new life began.

When this was perceived, the answer in Scofield’s soul was obedience. From that moment a new experience of fruitful service and of inner blessing began.

And now, when he had entered into the whole blessing, he found to his delight that he had long before been getting blessed glimpses of this New Testament truth through his study of the Old Testament types. He saw that the Jehovah Jesus foretold and foreshadowed throughout the entire Law and the Prophets had provided for him not only salvation from the penalty of sin, but also salvation from its power and all-suffciency for peace and joy and the ninefold fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23).

At the Niagara Bible Conference Pastor Scofield met, for several successive years, Hudson Taylor, the founder and director of the China Inland Mission. Through Mr. Taylor he began to have an interest in foreign missions. This set him to studying the Bible to get God’s direct word on that subject. He saw that the China Inland Mission was wonderfully apostolic in its spirit, plan, and purposes, and he had the rare privilege of many talks with Mr. Taylor.

About this time he came across a book by the brilliant journalist - traveler, William Eleroy Curtis, who had been sent by the United States Government, before the opening of the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, to South and Central America in order to stir up an interest there in the coming exposition. Scofield read with deepest interest what Mr. Curtis had to say about the great lands to our south. He had an opportunity of hearing Mr. Curtis speak, and he was impressed when the speaker told of the religious destitution of Central America, containing nearly three million souls, yet with only dissolute priests making a mockery of ministering to them spiritually. The only Protestant missionary in Central America apparently was at Guatemala, while the Moravian brethren had a mission on the coast.

Now Scofield made a careful study of the Bible plan of evangelizing the world — which he still believes to be the only true plan. He found there that the early Christians, acting under the direct instruction of our Lord Jesus Himself, began their evangelizing in Jerusalem, went on into all Judea, then to Samaria, and then on progressively “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Evidently it was God’s purpose that Christians should evangelize as they go, not overleaping great sections of the earth in telling mankind the good news of Jesus.

So, “beginning at Dallas,” the question arose: What is the nearest unevangelized section to me? The answer seemed to be Mexico. But upon investigation Scofield found that there were seven strong denominations working in Mexico. That could not be said to be wholly neglected. Pushing on still farther, what was the next possible section? Central America. He believed that the Lord had called his attention to Central America through the writing and speaking of Curtis. But before entering upon any missionary enterprise there, Scofield wrote to different denominational mission boards and asked whether they would be willing to undertake the evangelizing of Central America. Without exception these boards answered that they were already staggering under heavy burdens in their missionary work and obligations, and could not conscientiously enter a new field. It was only then that he felt clear that God was calling him to this unoccupied region.

The mission-aroused pastor now called to-Victory and Missions v2

gether for special prayer three of the consecrated men of his church, men who knew how to pray, and who had given their lives utterly to the Lord — E. M. Powell, Luther Rees, and W. A. Nason. The little group of pastor and laymen earnestly asked the Lord to use them to evangelize Central America.

After they had prayed about the matter, the subject was brought before the entire church, and there it was taken up with prayers and literally with tears. Missionary volunteers began to offer for the field. And from that time the Dallas church began to spend more money on missions than on home expenses, and has kept this up ever since.

That was the beginning of the now wellestablished and greatly blessed Central American Mission. It was formed at the home of the pastor, in Dallas, on November 14, 1890. Dr. Scofield was made secretary, Mr. Powell the treasurer, and Mr. Rees the chairman, of the Council. - In 1893 the Hon: D.-H. Scott, of Paris, Texas, was added to the Council, and in 1894 he became Treasurer of the Mission, continuing in that office ever since. From the start it has been a faith mission, depending upon God and not upon men or organizations. The services of the Council are wholly gratuitous — no re. The Life Story of C. I. Scofield

rent — the only items of expense being postage and printing, and these largely met by the subscriptions to the Bulletin, which is now issued bi-monthly.

The statement of belief of the Central American Mission is interesting and significant: “We believe in one God, revealed as existing in three equal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; in the death of Jesus Christ for our sins as a true substitute; in salvation by faith alone without works; in good works as the fruit of salvation; in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired in the original writings; and in a future state of unending blessedness for the saved and unending conscious suffering for the lost.”

As to other details, the Mission is conducted on the following basis: “The Mission is znterdenominational. It does not seek to reproduce on mission grounds the divisions of Protestantism: Evangelical — it holds to the faith once for all delivered to the. saints. Evangelistic — it believes that the evangelization of the world, not its civilization, is the true work of the church. Two other principles are fundamental: The Mission does not personally solicit either missionaries or money, and no salaries are paid to any one.”

During the thirty years since its beginning, the needs of the Mission and its missionaries have always been met. Never once has there been a failure. There are now ninety-two churches in the field of Central America, with about five thousand five hundred members, as the result of this work. From the Dallas church alone some nine missionaries have gone to Central America, and a number from the same church to other foreign fields.

The bi-monthly Bulletin of the Central American Mission is interesting reading to-day. (It is published at Paris, Texas, at the very nominal subscription price of twenty-five cents a year; those who would have fellowship in the work of this Mission will do well to secure its regular visits in their homes.)

Perhaps readers of this Life Story would like to put in their prayer-lists the names of the missionaries of this Mission that was born in faith and prayer, and ask God to go on in ever-increasing blessing through them to the needy field so near home. The missionaries are as follows:

A. E. Bishop, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Mrs. A. E. Bishop, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Mrs. Caspar Wistar, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Miss A. F. Houser, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Miss B. E. Zimmerman, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Dr. H. A. Becker, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Mrs. H. A. Becker, Box 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

A. B. Treichler, Solola, Guatemala.

Mrs. A. B. Treichler, Solola, Guatemala.

F. G. Toms, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Mrs. F. G. Toms, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

H. W. Toms, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Mrs. H. W. Toms, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Mrs. Rosemma V. B. Hunter, Escuintla, Guatemala.

J. T. Butler, Zacapa, Guatemala.

Mrs. J. T. Butler, Zacapa, Guatemala.

W. C. Townsend, Antigua, Guatemala.

Mrs. W. C. Townsend, Antigua, Guatemala.

Mrs. F. W. Boyle, Box 289, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Miss A. G. McLean, Box 289, San Jose, Costa Rica.

W. H. Hooper, Box 36, Managua, Nicaragua.

Mrs. W. H. Hooper, Box 36, Managua, Nicaragua.

Miss Annie E. Thomas, Box 36, Managua, Nicaragua.

Karl D. Hummel, Box 36, Managua, Nicaragua.

Mrs. Karl D. Hummel, Box 36, Managua, Nicaragua.

L. W. McConnell, Box 149, San Salvador, Salvador.

Mrs. L. W. McConnell, Box 149, San Salvador, Salvador.

Mrs. Gertrude Bell, Box 149, San Salvador, Salvador.

I. S. Smith, Cojutepeque, Salvador.

Mrs. I. S. Smith, Cojutepeque, Salvador.

Miss Laura Nelson, Dulce Nombre de Copan, Honduras.

W. F. Aberle, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras.

Mrs. W. F. Aberle, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras.

Miss Beatrice Newman, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras.

C. F. Lincoln, Comayaguela, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Mrs. C. F. Lincoln, Comayaguela, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Misa Steinbach, Comayaguela, Tegucigalpa, Honuras. Herbert R. Peaslee, Choluteca, Honduras. Miss A. J. Gohrman, Colinas, Santa Barbara, Honduras.