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 The Real Heart 
 of the Missionary 
 Problem 
 
 By Dr. R. H. Glover 
 
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 a am 
 
 O80 
 
 Christian and Missionary Alliance 
 ~ 690 Eighth Ave. New York City 
 
THE REAL HEART of the 
 MISSIONARY PROBLEM 
 
 An Address by Dr. Robert H. Glover at the 
 New York Convention of the Christian 
 and Missionary Alliance, Oct., IgIt. 
 
 We have been listening to missionary addresses 
 daily for a whole week. We have been given new 
 visions of lands beyond the seas, with their dark- 
 ness and suffering and despair. We have faced the ~ 
 stupendous problem of a thousand millions still 
 unevangelized. We have passed in review many 
 phases of missionary work. The question before 
 us tonight is, “What is the real heart of the mis- 
 sionary problem?” Is it a problem of men? Or 
 one of money? Or of method? It includes all 
 these, but it is more. When we have pressed past 
 all secondary considerations right home to the 
 heart of the matter, I believe that in its last analy- 
 sis we shall find it a problem of LOVE—+ersonal 
 love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And why? Sim- 
 ply because the very soul of Missions is SACRI- 
 FICE, and LOVE is the supreme and only motive 
 that can impel to the sacrifice involved. 
 
 The spirit of Missions is just the spirit of Jesus 
 Christ, and His was essentially a spirit of supreme 
 self-sacrifice. Those words, “He saved others, 
 Himself He cannot save,” flung derisively at Jesus 
 as He hung upon the Cross, were after all the ex- 
 pression of a profound truth. Had the Lamb of 
 God in retaliation to that mocking cry come down 
 from the cruel tree, our salvation would never 
 
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have become an accomplished fact. He has saved 
 us, but it cost Him His own life to do it. 
 
 Nor was this spirit of self-sacrifice confined to 
 His death. It entered into His whole life from 
 the manger to the tomb. “For we know the grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was 
 rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye 
 through His poverty might be rich.” Jesus was 
 poor, literally poor. He chose to be so. He was 
 born in a stable. He wore coarse clothes. He ate 
 common food. His home, while He had one, was 
 that of a peasant, and many a time later He had 
 not where to lay His head. Finally, He was bur- 
 ied in a borrowed tomb. And this literal poverty 
 was part of the price He paid for the spiritual 
 riches He has purchased for us. 
 
 His personal ministry involved physical weak- 
 ness, weariness, hunger and privation, and still 
 greater suffering of mind and heart. As He in- 
 cessantly “went about doing good,” ministering 
 physical and spiritual healing to thousands, it 
 meant the pouring out, little by little, of His own 
 life and strength, His spending and being spent 
 for others. In life, in death, He saved men at 
 the cost of Himself. “He saved others, Himself 
 He cannot save.” 
 
 Listen to His own words, “Except a corn of 
 ‘wheat fall into the ground: and die, it abideth 
 alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. 
 He that saveth his life shall lose it; he that loseth 
 his life the same shall find it.” Such is the law of 
 the*kingdom of God. Such is the law of mis- 
 sionary life and labor. Well did the old Baptist 
 “missionary society adopt as its symbol an ox 
 standing between a plough and an altar and un- 
 
 3 
 
derneath the words, “Ready for either or for 
 both.” And when we quote the expression, “The 
 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” 
 let us regard it as no mere sentiment, but as act- 
 ual fact. We praise God for the missionary 
 graves as well as the missionary stations, knowing 
 that each of those precious lives laid down has 
 contributed to the coming of the Kingdom of 
 Christ. 
 
 I believe there is need today to re-emphasize 
 this principle of SACRIFICE in missions, as one 
 that is fundamental, essential, vital. 
 
 We live in an age in which self-sacrifice is by 
 no means popular. The aim and effort are to 
 eliminate sacrifice and to indulge ease and selfish ° 
 comfort. This same tendency is creeping into 
 Christian churches and homes, and producing a 
 spirit of complacency insetad of concern with re- 
 gard to missions. If individuals are not seriously 
 disturbed or inconvenienced, can wear as good 
 clothes, live in as comfortable homes and spend 
 as much for pleasure or the whims of fashion; 
 if home churches can still be as imposing and as 
 luxuriously furnished, and as well equipped with 
 musical talent; and if denominationalism can still 
 be everywhere maintained, and every small town 
 and many a mere village can have its three or 
 four churches, each with a mere handful of wor- . 
 shipers—if, I say, all these interests can be as- 
 sured, and the pittance that is over, of men and 
 money, will suffice to break the Bread of Life to 
 a thousand millions for whom nothing is pre- 
 pared, then the missionary project will receive a 
 unanimous vote of approval. In a word, if we 
 could save the heathen by the mere passing of a 
 
 4 
 
resolution, without any appreciable sacrifice, with- 
 out its costing us, we would. But the hard fact 
 which we have to face is that WE CANNOT. 
 Not merely is this clearly. demonstrated by the 
 actual facts of the missionary enterprise today— 
 its insufficient forces, its embarrassed treasuries, 
 its inability to overtake the needs and opportuni- 
 ties abroad—but it is equally plain for the reason 
 that such easy accomplishment of the task is con- 
 trary to the very Divine law of missions—the law 
 of SACRIFICE. “He saved others, Himself He 
 cannot save.” No more can we. God never in- 
 tended we should. It would be to leave out of 
 the missionary enterprise that which is its very 
 essence and glory. God laid the foundation of 
 this work of world redemption in sacrifice when 
 it cost Him His only begotten Son, and He will 
 finish it by no less worthy a spirit or costly a 
 means. 
 
 Yet thousands of individuals and churches, pro- 
 fessing allegiance to Jesus Christ, are practically 
 denying to millions of their fellow men the only 
 opportunity of salvation through Christ, simply 
 because they refuse or fail to meet this question 
 squarely on tts only true and adequate basis of 
 self-sacrifice. In the light of the world’s unsup- 
 plied need and the Church’s unproffered resources 
 it has still to be said, in plain honesty, that the 
 Church as a whole is only playing at Missions as 
 a sort of diversion instead of making the enter- 
 prise its supreme business. 
 
 I want to bring this question to bear upon, those 
 who are gathered here. Have we the missionary 
 spirit? Are we in this enterprise to the extent of 
 any real sacrifice? Men are constantly asking, 
 
 5 
 
“Do missions pay?” The question we would do 
 better to ask is, “Do missions cost?” There is a 
 standpoint, of course, from which the question as 
 to whether missions pay may legitimately be asked 
 and answered. But our concern at this moment 
 - is not with the returns but with the Sacrifice of 
 missions, and from this viewpoint missionary en- 
 terprise is not meant to pay, it is meant to COST. 
 
 I ask reverently, did missions pay Jesus Christ? 
 No, they cost Him His life-blood. How much 
 have they cost us for love of Him? I wonder if 
 some of us under grace are not falling short of 
 David under the law, in seeking to offer unto 
 the Lord of “that which doth cost us nothing,” or 
 very little. 
 
 Now, there are three great outlets of missionary 
 energy generally spoken of, namely, by PRAY- 
 ING, by GOING, by GIVING. Let us think for 
 a little of this feature of sacrifice in relation to 
 each of these in turn. 
 
 1. THE FIRST OUTLET OF MISSIONARY 
 ENERGY IS BY PRAYING. 
 
 I place prayer first because it belongs first. Mis- 
 sions are not primarily a matter of men or money 
 or method, but of the unhindered outworking of 
 God Himself, and such outworking is always called 
 forth pre-eminently through prayer. Prayer is the 
 greatest power in the kingdom of God. The ap- 
 peal for intercession should therefore be placed 
 before even the appeal for men and money. But 
 notice that an essential element of true missionary 
 intercession is the sacrifice which it costs. . 
 
 Our Lord has furnished us with a model for 
 such prayer in His parable of THE FRIEND AT 
 
 6 
 
MIDNIGHT. It tells of one who so took upon 
 him another’s need that he rose from his bed and 
 went forth through the darkness, at an unseason- 
 able hour, to the house of his friend, there to 
 knock and knock again, at the risk of incurring to 
 himself the criticism and displeasure of others— 
 all for the sake of imploring and securing aid 
 for another want. 
 
 What was it that won for that man’s request a 
 full and satisfactory response? “I say unto you, 
 enough he will not rise and give him because he 
 is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will 
 rise and give him as many as he needeth.” It was 
 the element of self-sacrifice which made that 
 prayer effectual. It was the thought of the lengths 
 to which the man outside had gone in his concern 
 for another that made it impossible for the man 
 inside to refuse his request, however reluctant he 
 at first was to rise from his bed. That man stirred 
 his friend by bestirring himself. Just so’ shall we 
 stir God when we bestir ourselves unto prayer. 
 God’s complaint is that “there is none that stirreth 
 up himself to take hold of Him.” We cannot 
 blame God for seeming to be apathetic while we 
 are apathetic. God waits to see in you and me 
 His own concern and solicitude for the heathen, 
 like the man abed in the parable. He wants to 
 provoke us to earnestness, to sacrifice, to impor- 
 tunity in prayer for souls who are starving for 
 the Bread of Life, and then He will rise and give 
 us for them as many loaves as we need. 
 
 Beloved, have we prayed? Have we “prayed 
 earnestly?” Have we “labored fervently in prayer?” 
 -How much has prayer for the souls yonder in the 
 darkness COST us—in time, in strength, in self- 
 
 7 
 
denial? Any hours of deep concern? Any sleep- 
 less nights of wrestling? If our prayers have 
 cost us little they have availed correspondingly 
 little. God is seeking intercessors. Oh, let us 
 enter the honored list! 
 
 2. THE SECOND OUTLET OF MISSION- 
 ARY ENERGY IS BY GOING. 
 
 We may sit back and comfortably sing, 
 
 “Waft, waft ye winds His story, and you, ye 
 waters, roll, 
 
 Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to 
 pole,” 
 
 but that doesn’t solve the problem. The only way 
 that the wind and waters can carry the Story’ the 
 world around is by carrying forward men and 
 women who go to tell it. We can’t stay at home 
 and save the heathen. 
 
 Here again does our Lord furnish us with an 
 inspired model, in His parable of the GOOD 
 SHEPHERD, so indelibly impressed upon our 
 memories by Sankey’s immortal hymn, “The Nine- 
 ty and Nine.” You remember how one of those 
 verses runs: 
 
 “Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the ‘way, 
 That mark out the mountain’s track? 
 
 They were shed for one who had gone astray, 
 Ere the Shepherd could bring him back. 
 
 Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn? 
 
 They’re pierced tonight by many a thorn.” 
 
 Such was the path the Master trod; must not 
 His servants tread it still? Missionary life and 
 labor demand sacrifice. 
 
 8 
 
Some must go—cheerfully leaving homeland 
 and loved ones and fond associations, and surren- 
 dering bright prospects and cherished plans—go to 
 face uncongenial climes, and difficult languages, 
 and strange peoples, to live and toil patiently and 
 perseveringly, amidst hardship and dangers, if 
 these “other sheep” are to be brought in. 
 
 I will not lower my appeal by making the mis- 
 - sionary life appear to be an easy one. True, it 
 has its decided compensations, and even pleasant 
 features, at times. Yet the true missionary life 
 calls for self-sacrifice. It ought to be so. But 
 shall this fact deter you? It is said that Napo- 
 leon’s appeal for recruits for his army was in the 
 words “Come and suffer!” Ought missionary ap- 
 peal to assume in the followers of Christ a spirit 
 less noble, less worthy than that of the common 
 soldier? 
 
 Young man, young woman! May not you be 
 among those whom the Lord wants to go? Have 
 you asked Him? Have you offered yourself? 
 Is the sacrifice too great, the cost too dear, for 
 His sake who has done so much for you? 
 
 Some must let go. Parents are called upon to 
 lay their children upon the altar for this blessed 
 work. They are not to be denied their part in the 
 precious sacrifice. I tell you that it is the fathers 
 and mothers whose boys and girls are out on the 
 fighting line who know best how to hold the ropes 
 by prayer and sympathy, and sacrificial gift. If 
 God is asking you, dear father, dear mother, for 
 your son or daughter as a witness for’ Him in 
 _some foreign field, I pray you refuse Him not, but 
 willingly make the sacrifice, and you shall share 
 the resultant joy and reward. 
 
 9 
 
Some must help go. Churches, as well as par- 
 ents, have their definite part to play, by sending 
 forth workers, if the ranks on the mission field 
 are to be filled up. Who shall be sent? The no- 
 goods and cast-offs? Those who can easily be 
 spared because of inferior gifts and abilities, and 
 who never would make their mark at home? That 
 is not the way it appealed to the church at Anti- 
 och. They sent forth Barnabas and Saul, their 
 very brightest and best, the ones most essential, 
 as it seemed, to the church at home. And God 
 blessed and multiplied that church in consequence, 
 and let it displace the more selfish and narrow- 
 minded church at Jerusalem as the great home- 
 base of the missionary movement. “There is that 
 scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that 
 withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to 
 poverty.” Would that many a modern church 
 would take a page out of the book of Antioch’s 
 experience ! 
 
 3. THE THIRD OUTLET OF MISSIONARY 
 ENERGY IS BY GIVING. . 
 
 But we need, like those of old, to have our of- 
 ferings of gold and silver weighed in the scales 
 of the sanctuary, in order to estimate them at their 
 true value. Jesus still sits over against the treas- 
 ury, watching the offerings of His people. How 
 different His estimate of them from that of man! 
 “Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow 
 hath cast in more than they all; for all these have 
 of their abundance cast in—but she of her penury 
 hath cast in all the living that she had.” Here is 
 the very same principle again, this time applied to 
 giving—the principle of SACRIFICE. With Christ 
 
 Io 
 
the question was not “How much has each one 
 given?” but “How much has each one reserved?” 
 Hor only this latter question brought out the point 
 of importance, namely, as to what each offering 
 really costs its offerer. It is not giving any two 
 mites, but giving the last two, that puts us in that 
 widow’s class. 
 
 Men and women! How much have we really 
 given? Have we cast in “out of our abundance,” 
 or “out of our penury?” Are we trying to serve 
 God, satisfy our conscience and Save the heathen 
 with our spare cash or pin money, or are we 
 measuring up to the New Testament, “Freely ye 
 have recewed, FREELY GIVE?” 
 
 If we look for our Lord’s model for this third 
 outlet of missionary energy, as in the former two, 
 I think we have it in His parable of THE GOOD 
 SAMARITAN. That poor victim of the thieves 
 lies before us again in the picture of fallen, suf- 
 fering, doomed humanity in India, Africa, China 
 and every other heathen land. What are we going 
 to do about it? Some of us, with the Scribe and 
 Pharisee of old, are going to pause for a mere 
 passing glance and then “pass by on the other 
 side.” We are going to forget this vision of sor- 
 row and despair, as we pass out into the rush of 
 business and the swim of pleasure in this mighty 
 metropolis, because we shrink from the COST of 
 doing our duty. But others, thank God! will be 
 found alongside of that Good Samaritan, whose 
 heart was moved with compassion, who with eyes 
 and feet and hands hastened to the rescue, who 
 freely gave his time, his strength, his skill, his 
 money, yea, his very self, and who saved a lost 
 soul by the SACRIFICE OF GIVING. 
 
 II 
 
And now, beloved, if you have followed me 
 through this theme, and with me have seen that 
 missions have a soul, and that that soul is SACRI- 
 FICE, and that every output of missionary effort, 
 be it by prayer, by going, by giving, involves and 
 demands self-sacrifice, then I believe you will 
 agree with me that the real heart of the mission- 
 ary problem is LOVE, since Love alone is equal 
 to the sacrifice that is called for. 
 
 Listen to the familiar Word of.God. “God so 
 LOVED the world that He gave His only begot- 
 ten Son.” “God commendeth His LOVE toward 
 us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died 
 for us.” “Christ LOVED the church and gave 
 Himself for it.’ What church did Christ love? 
 Was it the church already saved, and cleansed, 
 and sanctified, and radiant in His beauty? No, 
 but it was the poor, vile, sunken sinners who 
 through His sacrifice, His outpoured life, were to 
 be lifted and transformed into such a church. 
 And remember that some members of that church 
 yet lie undiscovered amidst the gloom and vice of 
 heathenism. Christ loves them. He gave Himself 
 for them. He longs for them. But only as the 
 LOVE of Christ constrains us to the SACRIFICE 
 involved in seeking and finding them shall He see 
 of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. 
 
 LOVE IS THE SUPREME MOTIVE TO 
 ALL TRUE SACRIFICE. It was LOVE that 
 moved the Friend at midnight, the Good Shep- 
 herd, the Good Samaritan. “LOVE never faileth.” 
 Nothing less will avail. And if you are lacking 
 the missionary spirit you are lacking LOVE. 
 
 Conversely, SACRIFICE IS THE SUPREME 
 TEST OF LOVE. “Hereby perceive we the love 
 
 I2 
 
of God, because He laid down His life for Us ; 
 and we ought to lay down our lives for the breth- 
 ren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth 
 his brother have need, and shutteth up his heart 
 of compassion from him, how dwelleth the LOVE 
 of God in him?” 
 
 Paul’s explanation to the Corinthians for send- 
 ing messengers to receive their missionary offer- 
 ings was that he might “prove the sincerity of 
 their LOVE.” Wave you noticed that? Those 
 Christians’ profession of love was tested and con- 
 firmed not by any quantity of verbal assurances, 
 but by the practical matter of their money offer- 
 ings. If that may be the way Christ adjudges our 
 professed love today, how does each of us stand 
 before Him? “If ye love Me,” says He, “keep My 
 commandments.” To Peter He said, “Lovest thou 
 Mer” ‘Then, in proof of it, “Feed My sheep!” 
 And the same Master looks down tonight upon 
 those myriads of “other sheep,” wandering still 
 without a shepherd, and cries, “O ye, who profess 
 your LOVEto Me! GIVE YE THEM TO EAT?’ 
 
 A ship was returning from distant gold-fields 
 when, on nearing port, she suddenly struck a rock 
 and began to sink. The passengers were forced 
 to strike out for themselves and try to reach the 
 shore. One strong man was preparing for the 
 plunge when a friendless little girl stood before 
 him. “Oh, sir,’ she cried, “will you save me?” A 
 struggle was on in that man’s heart. Around his 
 waist was strapped a belt filled with gold. It 
 represented hard toil behind and pleasures and 
 comforts before him. But there stood the little 
 girl, helpless, pleading. One thing was sure—he 
 could not save both. Which should it be? A mo- 
 
 13 
 
ment of hesitation, and then with a resolute will 
 he loosened the belt and flung it down. “Come, 
 little one,” he responded, “hold fast around my 
 neck!”—and with his living burden he plunged 
 into the waves and finally reached the shore. He 
 lay for a while unconscious after his exhausting 
 effort, but when consciousness returned and he 
 beheld that little maid bending tenderly over him 
 and looking with loving gratitude into his face, 
 he thanked God that he had played the man and 
 had had the courage to save a precious life even 
 at the COST of his gold. 
 
 Beloved, that man’s decision is thrust upon more 
 than one here tonight, with whom the choice is 
 between the selfish use and enjoyment of gift, of 
 gold, of life, and the rescue of precious souls 
 through the SACRIFICE of these. Oh, when you 
 reach the other shore, saved by His grace from 
 the rolling billows, and shall see by your side 
 radiant souls saved out of heathenism by your 
 sacrificing gift and effort, how it will deepen hea- 
 ven’s joy to you, and you will never cease to 
 thank God for the grace and courage given you 
 to make the right choice tonight! For “they 
 that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament, and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars for ever and ever.” 
 
 “Oh, what joy it will be, when His face I behold, 
 Living gems at His feet to lay down! 
 
 It would sweeten my bliss in the city of gold, 
 Should there be any stars in my crown.” 
 
 May that joy be yours, not for our sakes alone, 
 but for theirs, and HIS! 
 
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Copies of this tract, as well as of others dealing 
 with the various foreign fields of the Christian 
 and Missionary Alliance and the missionary enter- 
 prise in general, may be secured FREE by ad- 
 dressing Free Literature Department, 
 
 CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUB. CO. 
 692 EIGHTH AVENUE, 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an un- 
 sectarian Society, carrying on misstonary work in 
 nearly all the great heathen lands of the world. 
 The work has included much pioneering and is 
 strongly evangelistic in character. Nearly 300 
 American and British missionaries are supported 
 under this Society by the freewill offerings of 
 Christian people, on a very moderate scale of re- 
 muneration. 
 
 Contributions may be sent to Mr. David Crear, 
 Treasurer, and any inquiries, requests for mission- 
 ary speakers, etc., to the Deputation Secretary, 
 both at 690 Eighth Avenue, New York City. 
 
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