PAM. 
 
 MISC. 
 
 / 
 
 It is, indeed, a very great privilege to have a part in this meet¬ 
 ing, which, I am sure, marks an era in the history of our Church. 
 This assembly of picked men is an index of a strong sentiment 
 for the cause of missions already prevalent among us, and it is 
 the promise and prophecy of still greater things to come. It is 
 the beginning of a movement which looks to the enlisting of the 
 men of the Church in the great work of foreign missions, and it 
 has not come too soon. 
 
 When I have visited Roman Catholic Churches in Latin Amer¬ 
 ica, the services of which are attended for the most part bv 
 women and children only, I have often asked myself the question ; 
 “May not our Protestant Churches in the United States fall some 
 day into the same conditioa of neglect by the men of our coun¬ 
 try?’' Two-thirds of the membership of our Churches are women 
 and girls. A very large per cent of these female members are 
 interested in missions, while a very small per cent of the men, 
 a minority of a minority, cares for this great interest. If we are 
 to meet the “Day of Our Opportunity,” something more must 
 be done than can be accomplished by the women and girls and 
 this small minority of the men of the Church. What we have 
 done hitherto in the matter of foreign missions has been through 
 the appeals of the preachers reenforced by the missionary soci¬ 
 eties of the women and the juvenile societies. I would not de¬ 
 preciate what has been thus accomplished. Vast and blessed 
 results have already been achieved. But no merely clerical Chris¬ 
 tianity nor juvenile Christianity nor effeminate Christianity can 
 meet the opportunity which confronts the Church in these mo¬ 
 mentous times. Our “Day of Opportunity” calls loudly for a 
 vigorous, virile, manful Christianity. In considering the “Day 
 
 ♦Delivered at the Laymen’s Missionary Conference, Knoxville. Tenn., 
 October i8, 1907. 
 
 # 
 
2 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 of Our Opportunity,” it will be well to remind ourselves of 
 what is the scriptural conception of an opportunity. According' 
 to the Scriptures, an opportunity for Christian service is not 
 measured by the number of people to whom one is called to speak. 
 Our Lord found very great opportunities in dealing with indi¬ 
 vidual souls, as in the case of Nicodemus and the woman of 
 Samaria. If an opportunity is measured by mere numbers, Paul 
 lost a very great opportunity when, by the call of the Holy Spirit, 
 he left Asia, where multitudes waited to hear him, and went to 
 Europe, where, at Philippi, he preached only to Lydia and a few 
 women by the riverside and the jailer and his household in the 
 jail, and then departed. His auditors at Philippi were few, but 
 his opportunity was great. The conversion of Lydia and the 
 jailer was the beginning of Christianity in Europe, and Paul’s 
 visit there meant more to civilization in Europe and to the whole 
 human race than did the battle between the Imperialists and Re¬ 
 publicans of Rome, which was fought near to the city of Philippi, 
 and which Creasy reckons as one of the decisive battles of his¬ 
 tory. 
 
 Again, an opportunity is not measured or determined by the 
 fact that a given situation is apparently free of all difficulties. 
 The apostle to the Gentiles, writing of one place, said: “A great 
 and effectual door is open to us, but there are many adversaries.” 
 The adversaries were there because the door was open. If there 
 had been no open door, but only a solid wall, before the apostle 
 and his comrades, the spiritual forces of evil would not have 
 needed to oppose them as adversaries. We may be sure, when 
 a good man or a faithful Church rises up to do a great work for 
 God, the devil will not leave them without adversaries to with¬ 
 stand their efforts. 
 
 Whether the company to which we speak be great or small, 
 or the difficulties be many or few, an opportunity is at hand when 
 one is where God wants him at the time he ought to be there, 
 and is doing the work God wants him to do. In the light of this 
 definition a very great “Day of Opportunity” confronts evan¬ 
 gelical Christianity just now. This opportunity, as I conceive it, 
 is indicated and measured by two great facts. The first of these 
 facts is, that every form of religion among men, except evan¬ 
 gelical Christianity, has proved inadequate to meet the religious 
 needs of mankind; and the second fact is, that evangelical Chris¬ 
 tianity has the resources, material and spiritual, to meet these 
 needs. 
 
 Let us glance at the religious conditions existing now in the 
 
The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 3 
 
 various countries of the earth, and see how every form of reli¬ 
 gion, except evangelical Christianity, has failed, or is failing, to 
 meet the needs of the people. Let us begin with the continent 
 of Europe. In the British Isles the forces of evangelical Chris¬ 
 tianity, whether within the Established Church or among the 
 dissenting bodies, are the only forces which are speaking with 
 authority and power to the British nation. On the Continent the 
 countries of Northern Europe are dominated largely by a ra¬ 
 tionalistic Christianity, broken into all sorts of parties, cold as 
 to zeal and impotent as to missionary effort and enterprise. In 
 Russia and adjacent states the Christianity of the Greek Church 
 is corroded and corrupted by all manner of superstitions and 
 oppressions. In Southern Europe, where Romanism has hith¬ 
 erto prevailed, the people are breaking away from the Church 
 in very large bodies. Even as far north as Austria, there is 
 an extensive and energetic rebellion against the authority of the 
 Church of Rome. In the old papal States Romanism is a waning 
 force. The pope counts himself a prisoner in the Vatican, and 
 popular sentiment in Italy shows an increasing indifference, not 
 to say a bitter hostilit)% to the religion for which the Vatican 
 stands. Even Spain and Portugal, cut off from the direct in¬ 
 fluence of the Lutheran Reformation by reason of their geograph¬ 
 ical position and other causes, are beginning to show opf)Osition 
 to Romanism. In the city of Barcelona, particularly, and in the 
 region of Spain influenced by that city, the people are more and 
 more assuming a Protestant, if not an evangelical, attitude. 
 
 What of conditions in the Western world, the two Americas? 
 
 In those lands of America where Romanism has hitherto pre¬ 
 vailed, from the northernmost point of Mexico to Tierra del 
 Fuego, there is religious ferment, agitation, and disintegration. 
 Romanism can nevermore be the established religion of those 
 countries. 
 
 In Canada and the United States evangelical Christianity is 
 the prevailing type of religion. Indeed, in these lands both the 
 Reformation of Luther and the Wesleyan Revival are being car¬ 
 ried to their perfection. Those mighty movements of former 
 centuries are still going on among us under the providence of 
 God. The Reformation of Luther and his contemporaries had 
 but small effect on Southern Europe, but now a vast body of 
 immigrants are coming from Southern Europe to America and 
 meeting here the saving influences of the Lutheran Reformation, 
 raised to their highest power by the added force of the Wesleyan 
 Revival. The Wesleyan Revival found it easier to leap across 
 
4 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 the Atlantic Ocean to the American continent than to pass over 
 the English Channel or the German Ocean to the continent of 
 Europe; and just because the Lutheran Reformation in Northern 
 Europe never reached the height of spirituality and powpr at¬ 
 tained by the English-speaking people through the Wesleyan 
 Revival, the Christianity of Northern and Central Europe has 
 sunk into a soulless and sinewless rationalism. Immigrants to 
 America from these lands of Northern and Central Europe find 
 in the Western world the evangelical Christianity which rescues 
 them from rationalism and enrolls them among those evangelical 
 forces which propose the conquest of the world for Christ. 
 
 Thus we see from this hasty review of Europe and America 
 that the evangelical Christianity of Great Britain and the United 
 States is the only really vital, buoyant, and conquering force in 
 Christendom. It was a very significant fact that in the great 
 Missionary Conference which met in the city of New York in 
 the spring of the year 1900 an overwhelming majority of the 
 membership was from the possessions of Great Britain and the 
 United States. It is also significant that of the twenty-one mil¬ 
 lions of dollars which were contributed last year to the cause 
 of foreign missions more than eighteen millions came from 
 Great Britain and our own country. 
 
 Let us now pass beyond the limits of what is commonly called 
 Christendom. What hope for the race does Mohammedanism hold 
 forth? The religion of the false prophet of Arabia is no longer 
 progressive. Strongly organized by its fatalistic tendencies and 
 its union with a political despotism, it might be expected to have 
 some power, and it does have power; but it makes no progress, 
 and it is not holding its own in the lands which it claims. The 
 government of Turkey is the stronghold of Mohammedanism, 
 and we call the “Unspeakable Turk’’ the “Sick Man of the 
 East.” He is the sick man of the East because his heart is dis¬ 
 eased and his circulation is bad, which is another way of saying 
 that the spiritual forces at the center of his system are defiled 
 and enfevered. 
 
 If we pass on to India, we observe the ancient faiths there 
 weary, wasted, and ready to die. 
 
 When we come to China, somewhat similar conditions meet us. 
 The Chinese are a proud and intellectual people, and they have 
 reason to be proud, if achievements in mere philosophy mark the 
 highest height to which human nature can rise. In the matter 
 of philosophy, Confucius and those who have come after him 
 have done as well as the human intellect can ever be expected 
 
The Day of Our Opportunity. 5 
 
 to do. But the China which Confucianism, Buddhism, and Tao¬ 
 ism have made has been weighed in the balances by its own 
 people and found wanting. First the war with Japan and then 
 the war between Japan and Russia forced the Chinese people to 
 see that their ancient civilization cannot stand the stress of modern 
 times. And for this cause the whole nation is now crying out 
 for what they call the “Western Learning.” There is not a mis¬ 
 sion school nor any other school in all China which can give any 
 sort of show of ability to impart the “Western Learning” that is 
 not crowded with pupils. When I was there, a year ago, the 
 Buddhist temples in many places were being converted into school- 
 houses. The teacher, and not the Taoist priest, has now the ear 
 of China. Their venerable sage, Confucius, no longer commands 
 the esteem which his teachings enjoyed in former times. China 
 stretches out her hand to Great Britain and the United States, 
 calling for the “Western Learning,” and she cannot get that 
 learning without taking with it the Christianity which gave it 
 birth, and without which it cannot live in any land. What a 
 Day of Opportunity” for evangelical Christianity has thus 
 dawned in the Celestial Empire! 
 
 In Japan the situation is somewhat different. Religious con¬ 
 ditions there as to their ancient faiths and the Christianity which 
 is come into the land are about the same as prevailed in the 
 Roman Empire during the years preceding the reign of Con¬ 
 stantine. Heathenism is there, of course. The temples of Bud¬ 
 dhism are still standing, and shrines of Shintoism are found in 
 every part of the Japanese Empire. But the intellectual classes 
 of the Japanese have lost all faith in these superstitious systems, 
 and observe their rites as social conveniences or political ex¬ 
 pedients, knowing them to be without divine authority and with¬ 
 out moral efficacy. The ancient faiths of Japan are dying, if 
 not dead, and nothing can restore them to the confidence of the 
 people. At the same time the Japanese people, from highest 
 to lowest, are eager for admission to the family of nations on 
 terms of equality with the most enlightened governments of 
 Christendom. The nation is, therefore, very sensitive to the 
 public opinion of Christendom. Let me give you an example: 
 When I was returning from China our ship came into the port 
 of Yokohama one afternoon early in the month of November. 
 The authorities of the vessel announced that we would remain 
 m port about thirty hours, and so we went ashore. Among the 
 passengers was a Japanese youth who attached himself to our 
 circle on the ship mostly because he was learning English and 
 
6 
 
 The Day of Oiir Opportunity. 
 
 wanted an opportunity to practice on us, I think. While we were 
 in port the Crown Prince paid a visit to the city, and our party 
 went to the railway station to get a sight of him. He was a 
 very good-looking )oung man, dressed about as any gentleman 
 in our country would be attired under similar circumstances, 
 wearing a black Prince Albert suit and a silk hat. We got a 
 good view of him and returned to the ship. The Japanese youth 
 soon showed great eagerness to discover our opinions concerning 
 the Prince. He maneuvered a great deal to elicit an expression 
 from me, and my reticence was as fixed as his curiosity was in¬ 
 terrogative. Finally he said to me flatlyWhat do you think 
 of the Prince?” ” 0 ,” I said, “he is a very nice-looking young 
 man. But,” I inquired, “is he the son of the Empress?” With 
 my question his countenance fell; and he answered, rather hum¬ 
 bly : “No, I am sorry to say he is not. The Emperor has several 
 wives besides the Empress. The Empress is childless, and the 
 Crown Prince is the son of another.” “Then,” I said, “has the 
 Crown Prince more than one wife?” Instantly his Japanese 
 pride returned, and he replied with great emphasis: O no, the 
 last Emperor with more than one wife is now on the throne of 
 Japan, and there will never be another.” The boy was not a 
 Christian, but he reflected the enlightened sentiment of his people, 
 which is penetrated by so much Christian influence that polygamy 
 is doomed in Japan. When it becomes bad form at the court, it 
 will be abandoned by the common people. And so also many 
 other things of an unchristian sort are doomed in Japan. The 
 Japanese are drawn toward the moral and religious standards of 
 Christendom by that national pride so characteristic of them, 
 and which is at once both a curse and a blessing to thern. _ With 
 all their vanity, the Japanese were never so open to Christian in¬ 
 fluence ; and here again is another door of vast opportunity. 
 
 The case of Korea is different from that of either China or 
 Japan There is nothing like it in any nation on the earth, and 
 there never was anything like it. It is the case of a broken¬ 
 hearted nation, with all its hopes blasted, turning to Christ as 
 
 its last friend. v r* 
 
 (a) The nation is hopeless as to material prosperity. It has 
 
 been crushed in all of its industries. About the time Columbus 
 was discovering the Western world, Hideyoshi, who is called 
 the Napoleon o"f Jvipan, invaded Korea and carried away captive 
 nearlv all of its artisans. From these artisans Japan acquired 
 her profitable arts of pottery, sword-making, and the like; while 
 by the loss of them Korea was greatly impoverished. This Na- 
 
7 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 poleon of Japan not only carried the artisans into captivity, but 
 he slew with cruel hand many of his Korean captives. In Kioto, 
 the old capital of Japan, there is a granite shaft called the “Ear 
 Monument,” under which the ears of thousands of Hideyoshi s 
 Korean captives are buried, the bodies having been cast away 
 elsewhere. The cruel hand of Hideyoshi was scarcely more 
 heavy in its blows upon Japanese industry than were the hands of 
 Korea’s own ruling classes. There is a process in the Orient 
 called “squeezing,” by which the official classes enrich them¬ 
 selves at the cost of the industrial classes. This “squeezing” 
 process has prevailed so long in Korea that no laborer is sure of 
 the fruits of his toil, and unrewarded labor sooner or later ends 
 in listless indolence and ambitionless indifference. 
 
 {h) Korea is politically hopeless. The nation desired first of 
 all independence; if it might not have that, then it preferred the 
 suzerainty of China, because it was light and nominal; if that 
 might not be, next in order of preference it desired the suzerainty 
 of Russia, because it operated at great distance. The last thing 
 in the world the Koreans desired was the protectorate of Japan, 
 and that has now been imposed upon them. By consequence 
 the people feel that the last ray of hope in their political sky has 
 gone out. They yielded themselves to a painful despair. 
 
 (c) Korea is also without religious hope. In olden times 
 Buddhism was the religion of the Koreans. That was when 
 the capital of the country was the city of Songdo. But the 
 Buddhist priests began meddling with politics, and an insurrec¬ 
 tion arose. The King was dethroned and the Prime Minister 
 was made king in his stead. The capital was moved to Seoul, 
 and it was ordained that no Buddhist priest should ever put his 
 feet into that city as long as the sun, moon, and stars endured. 
 Buddhism, thus exposed to popular hatred and outlawed at the 
 court, almost perished from the land. And no other religion took 
 its place. The Buddhism of Korea for several centuries has 
 been mainly confined to monasteries in the mountains and small 
 temples at other points remote from the great populous centers 
 of the country. To some of these mountain monasteries tired 
 missionaries go for rest in summer, and for a small price they 
 are permitted to preach as much as they will in the temples at¬ 
 tached to the monasteries. So we see Korea is a land “without 
 God and without hope in the world.” Industrially, politically, 
 and religiously the Koreans are a despairing and broken-hearted 
 people. 
 
 This is the impression one gathers on sight of a Korean con- 
 
8 
 
 The Day of Oiir Opportunity. 
 
 gregation. I shall never forget my first experience in preaching 
 in Korea. Our party reached the city of Seoul on a Saturday 
 afternoon during the last days of September, 1906. I agreed to 
 preach at a chapel in the eastern part of the city on the next 
 morning. I asked my old friend and former pupil, Mr. Yun, to 
 meet me at the chapel on Sunday morning and act as my inter¬ 
 preter. I had been for a month in Japan, observing Japanese 
 vanity and con'ceit, and doing what I could to cure that evil 
 spirit and to establish in its place the more beautiful spirit of 
 Christian humility. I supposed I would find the same sort of 
 pride in the Koreans; but when I came into the chapel and looked 
 upon the crowded congregation there assembled, there came over 
 me the impression that there was no vanity there, that a broken¬ 
 hearted company sat before me. I had gone prepared to preach 
 a sermon designed to rebuke intellectual pride and to induce pov¬ 
 erty of spirit upon the part of any who sought to enter the king¬ 
 dom of heaven; but I felt constrained to change my theme. My 
 mind turned to a text about which I had had an experience in 
 my early ministry. In the summer of 1875 I preached in the 
 presence of my mother, who held a sort of Confucian view of 
 parenthood to"the effect that the authority of a parent never 
 ended while life lasted. The text which I used was the words 
 of the Saviour: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- 
 laden, and I will give you rest.” After the service my mother 
 and I were alone together, and she said to me in rather man¬ 
 datory tones: “Never again preach on that text until you can 
 preach from it more tenderly.” More than thirty years had 
 passed since that night in the old village church when I preached 
 before my mother and the day when I looked into the faces of 
 the Koreans in the chapel at Seoul, and in all that time I had 
 not preached on the text quoted, because I felt I could not preach 
 it as tenderly as my mother’s command required. But as I saw 
 those broken-hearted people the thought came to me: “Now 
 surely I can discuss that text with tenderness, for what else 
 than this tender invitation of Jesus is suitable to soothe the sor¬ 
 row of this broken-hearted people?” My friend Yun inter¬ 
 preted for me the sermon T undertook to preach, and as the dis¬ 
 course proceeded his heart was melted and he began to weep, so 
 that he had to desist from interpreting. Our brother. Rev. W. 
 G. Cram, took Yun’s place as interpreter, for Cram is one of 
 those men who can cry and talk at the same time. With tearful 
 tenderness he told the Koreans in their own tongue the gracious 
 truths of the gospel, which I could only speak to them in English. 
 
The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 9 
 
 The whole congregation was moved to tears. I never saw any¬ 
 where manifestations of deeper emotion; and when the sermon 
 ceased, spontaneously they fell to singing the Korean version of 
 the beautiful hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus!” After 
 that service I preached to them at several points, in both the 
 cities of Songdo and Seoul, but I was never able while preaching 
 in Korea to get away from the solacing subjects contained in 
 the gospel of Christ. Most of my texts were taken from the 
 fourteenth chapter of John, such as: “Let not your heart be 
 troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me,” etc. 
 
 From what I have said you will gather the truth that this 
 broken-hearted people look to Christianity as to the last hope left 
 them. How can we disappoint such a pathetic longing for Christ 
 and his salvation? Where is there a wider opportunity in all 
 the earth, or one which calls to us with such constraining pathos? 
 
 Not since the days of the apostles, if then, has Christianity won 
 such rapid and extensive victories as its recent triumphs in 
 Korea. During the year 1906 the comparatively small missionary 
 forces which the evangelical Churches have stationed in that 
 land of the Morning Calm have won nearly, or quite, fifty thou¬ 
 sand converts. 
 
 We have now run rapidly over religious conditions and needs 
 in most of the lands of the earth, and wherever we have looked 
 we have found all faiths failing except evangelical Christianity. 
 If this great force is not equal to the needs of mankind, there is 
 no religious hope for the race. If it shall falter and fail in its 
 efforts to redeem the world, the world’s redemption must be 
 given up as a vain hope and a futile plan. But the world’s re¬ 
 demption cannot be given up. Evangelical Christianity is equal 
 to the needs of the world’s woe. 
 
 In the first place, the nations in which evangelical Christianity 
 is the prevalent faith have the wealth of the world in their pos¬ 
 session. They have the material resources required for the re- 
 ligious_ conquest of the earth. Last year the American people 
 by their tax returns claimed to possess more than one hundred 
 billions of taxable property, and we may be sure they did not 
 overestimate the value of their possessions when they made re¬ 
 turns of what they owned to the taxing officers of the country. 
 
 Great Britain, that other nation in which evangelical Chris¬ 
 tianity is the prevailing faith, has scarcely less of this world’s 
 goods than we have. Together the two nations are able to buy 
 all the rest of the property in this earth. 
 
 Is it an accident that these vast accumulations, this enormous 
 
10 
 
 The Day of Oiir Opportunity. 
 
 stored power, have been given by Providence to these nations in 
 which evangelical Christianity most prevails? Has not this un¬ 
 paralleled wealth been given to these mighty peoples to equip 
 them to meet an unprecedented opportunity ? Have they not been 
 enriched in purse that they may have the resources by which to 
 enrich all mankind in piety? Are they not two great armies 
 which the Captain of our salvation has victualed for a world¬ 
 wide campaign to rescue from death an imperiled race ? 
 
 But money is not all that is needed for the work of missions. 
 Evangelical Christianity has something more and better than 
 money to qualify it for this work. It is a glad and songful faith, 
 and no songless or sad faith can ever make a conquest of the 
 world. Only a cheerful and buoyant faith, that hopeth all things, 
 will have patience and courage enough for so mighty a task. 
 
 Furthermore, the doctrines of evangelical Christianity, capa¬ 
 ble as they are of being known in a saving experience of grace, 
 are the only truths which can find universal acceptance among all 
 classes in all lands. Ritualism is a local thing, and cannot pro¬ 
 ceed far in any direction without traveling beyond the area in 
 which it is impressive and reaching a point where it is only 
 grotesque and curious. It yields quickly to superstition, even 
 when it maintains its purest forms. Rationalism is a restless 
 and transient thing, forever learning and never able to come to 
 the knowledge of that truth which truly reveals the unchanging 
 God and authoritatively commands the adhesion of mankind with 
 its unchanging wants and ancient woes. But evangelical Chris¬ 
 tianity, with its doctrines of experimental religion, is at home in 
 all lands and powerful in all times. It can never be local or 
 transient, for it ministers to the universal wants of man and speaks 
 eternal truths. This is what is implied in the memorable words 
 of the Master to St. Peter and the other disciples at Cesarea 
 Philippi. When the son of Jonas had confessed that he was “the 
 Christ, the Son of the Living God,” our Lord warmly responded: 
 “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. . . . And 
 upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it.” By these sublime words the Master did 
 not teach, as the Romanists claim, that the Church is founded on 
 the primacy of Peter, nor did he teach, as some Protestants aver, 
 that the foundation of the Church rests on the abstract doctrine 
 of his divinity. What he taught is that the perpetuity of the 
 Church arises from that spiritual life which springs from heaven- 
 born faith in him, not originating in the processes of flesh and 
 
11 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 blood, but in the direct revelation of the Divine Father to the 
 human soul. It is interesting to observe that when that great 
 saying of our Lord had been wrested from its true meaning, al¬ 
 most to the overthrow of a pure Christianity by the Roman 
 hierarchy, a personal and living experience of the truth upon 
 the part of Martin Luther and the reformers saved the Church 
 from death and vindicated anew the confident prediction of our 
 Lord concerning its perpetuity. It was this evangelical and 
 experimental religion which brought new life to the English- 
 speaking world in Wesley’s time, when faith apparently lay 
 a-dying. In the same form of Christianity the whole world of 
 to-day must find its salvation and hope. 
 
 Again, no form of religion which does not realize daily the 
 personal presence of a living Lord can be equal to the evan¬ 
 gelization of the earth. So great a task exceeds the natural 
 powers of man, and nothing but the assurance of the present and 
 constant aid of a superhuman Leader will induce men to prose¬ 
 cute such a mighty work to its ultimate culmination. 
 
 When Joshua, the successor of Moses, led Israel across the 
 Jordan and stood beneath the shadow of the walls of Jericho, 
 he would not have dared the siege of that city except the en¬ 
 couraging vision of the Lord had met him. Then it was the 
 new leader of Israel met One who gave him to understand 
 that he was only a subordinate in that bold invasion of Canaan, 
 saying unto him: “As captain of the host of the Lord am I now 
 come.” In this vision Joshua saw the Lord himself taking com¬ 
 mand of the forces of Israel, and with such a superior Leader he 
 felt that failure was impossible. 
 
 When the apostle Paul plunged into the deep, dark heathenism 
 of the first century, without a mission board behind him, or even 
 a sympathetic Church, his courage was constantly renewed by 
 visions of the risen Lord. “He endured, as seeing him who is 
 invisible.” 
 
 In the same manner to-day must the great missionary enter¬ 
 prise be carried on. No form of Christianity except that whose 
 adherents live in daily touch with the living Christ can by any 
 possibility be equal to this work. No second-hand Christianity 
 imparted by the touch of sacerdotal fingers, no rationalistic Chris¬ 
 tianity blinded and hesitant, can do this work; only that clear¬ 
 eyed faith which finds in its daily life the fulfillment of the word, 
 “Lo, I am with you always,” will dare and do what this great 
 “Day of Opportunity” calls for. 
 
 T hope I shall not be accused of bigotry if I say that, of all 
 
12 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 forms of evangelical Christianity, Methodism is best adapted to 
 this great work. Not in narrow sectarianism, but in honest sin¬ 
 cerity, I venture to affirm so. I am very catholic in my senti¬ 
 ments. I have to be; I have one brother who is a Baptist, three 
 brothers who are Presbyterians, two brothers who are Methodists, 
 one sister who is a Baptist, another who is a Presbyterian, and 
 another who is a Methodist. So, you see, catholicity of spirit 
 is a household necessity with me. But I cultivate it not alone 
 as a domestic expedient for peace, but as an essential element of 
 Christian character. Notwithstanding I thus cultivate a cath¬ 
 olic spirit, I am not the less persuaded that Methodism is the 
 best type of Christianity for making the conquest of the world. 
 And my reasons for so believing are plain and conclusive. 
 
 In the first place, Methodism proclaims a doctrine of atone¬ 
 ment which provides for the salvation of all men; it believes that 
 the redemption which is in Jesus Christ is for all, and that our 
 Saviour “tasted death for every man.” No narrow creed that 
 proposes the salvation of a part only of the world can hope to 
 take the whole world for Christ. It may be very busy seeking 
 the elect, but it will fall very far short of saving the lost. 
 
 Then, again, the policy of Methodism is adapted to the work 
 of saving the world. Its preachers do not wait to be called, but 
 go quickly where they are sent. There is a great difference be¬ 
 tween a called ministry and a sent ministry. Nineveh would 
 have been a long time calling Jonah, and Jonah would have been 
 a long time accepting such a call if the Church at Nineveh had 
 sent it to him. The prophet was greatly needed in that wicked 
 city, but he was not wanted. 
 
 And, furthermore, the Methodist preacher who may be sent 
 anywhere, and who I hope will sooner or later be found every¬ 
 where, goes forth, not as a priest speaking a word of human 
 absolution to men, but as an evangelist calling men to that 
 knowledge of God and assurance of salvation which is found in 
 what we call “the witness of the Spirit.” Do you know that 
 doctrine had been lost sight of and was almost unrecognized 
 when Wesley came? When he claimed to have experienced the 
 witness of the Spirit and began preaching that great truth, so 
 devout a woman as his own saintly mother became alarmed. 
 She wrote him a word of warning, which ran somewhat on this 
 wise: “Dear Jackey: Beware how you preach that doctrine and 
 claim that experience. My understanding has always been that 
 it is a peculiar experience, reserved for bishops and venerable 
 saints about to die.” But John Wesley, who in Aldersgate 
 
13 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 Street had felt his “heart strangely warmed,” disregarded the 
 misguided caution of his mother, and sounded forth anew among 
 men the apostolic truth that no human parent can speak more 
 directly to a child that our Father in heaven can speak the 
 word of forgiveness and assurance to a penitent and trustful 
 soul. All the world now knows, wherever evangelical Chris¬ 
 tianity is preached, whether proclaimed by Methodists or others, 
 that every child of God knows his Father in heaven, not by a 
 message from priestly lips, but by the direct word of the eternal 
 Spirit to the human heart. 
 
 It is this sure knowledge of God which mystified India needs, 
 which cold, philosophic China trusts for, which Japan, fevered 
 with vanity and faithlessness, requires, which Mohammedan 
 lands, manacled with fatalism, hunger for—which the^ whole 
 world must have or perish. And it is our business to give this 
 knowledge of God to all who have it not, and this great business 
 of carrying this gospel to the ends of the earth must be under¬ 
 taken in an earnest, dignified, and businesslike way. It cannot 
 be carried on successfuily and properly in any other manner. 
 
 As I intimated in the outset, my brethren, I am afraid our 
 Christianity has, in the matter of its practical enterprises, been 
 too effeminate. I beg pardon of the ladies for the use of that 
 word, but it is the best I can now think of to describe what is 
 in my mind. We have too many effeminate rhetorical essays 
 from the pulpit, and our Church music is often of a sort that 
 suggests a light, artistic musicale, rather than the adoring praise 
 of the eternal God. Earnest men who have been dealing with 
 great political issues or great commercial enterprises, whose ears 
 are accustomed to stern" war cries, can never be commanded by 
 services in which such things predominate. 
 
 And in our financial methods we often adopt expedients equally 
 effeminate. A sum of money is needed for a given enterprise of 
 the Ghurch, and forthwith we encourage the women of the 
 Church to give an “oyster supper” or a “strawberry festival” to 
 raise the amount required. Such methods belittle the cause of 
 Christ. I do not blame the women. They resort to this be¬ 
 cause they know not what else to do when the men refuse to give 
 the money which is required to carry on the work of the Church. 
 But, depend upon it, our Christianity can never command the 
 serious attention of business men when it is supported by such 
 peddling devices. What does a banker think of Christianitv 
 when he comes home after a day’s work in which he has dealt 
 with enterprises involving hundreds of thousands of dollars and 
 
14 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 finds his Christian wife and daughter trying to raise some mis¬ 
 sionary money by peddling on a lawn three oysters for a quarter 
 or a tablespoonful of ice cream and strawberries for fifteen 
 cents? 
 
 And the impression made upon the unconverted is scarcely 
 less hurtful when in the great congregation they hear a timid, 
 faithless, and half-hearted preacher apologizing'for taking his 
 collection for foreign missions. How often have we heard the 
 pastor of a large and wealthy congregation address them thus: 
 “Brethren, I have come to-day to take my collection for foreign 
 missions. It is a part of my duty, you know, under the Disci¬ 
 pline. I am sorry the district stewards have assessed our Church 
 more than its share, but we must try to raise it!” That sort of 
 apologetic presentation of so great a cause is a reproach to the 
 Church and an offense to God. Often the smallness of the 
 amount for which we ask to carry on this tremendous work is 
 a surprise to men accustomed to large figures in business. They 
 cannot possibly understand how a world-wide campaign can be 
 projected on a two-penny basis. If a man were to ask me to 
 give him twenty-five cents to buy a horse, I would not do it, be¬ 
 cause I know no such sum will pay any appreciable part of the 
 price of a horse. I would rather give him twenty-five dollars 
 for such a purpose than to give him twenty-five cents. And many 
 a business man will hear an appeal for a hundred dollars for 
 the cause of missions who would be utterly indifferent to a 
 request for one dollar. He argues, and argues correctly, that 
 the Church cannot do such a work with such a sum, and that 
 if such a cause needs only one dollar from him it can probably 
 get on without that. Our preachers should learn to make ap¬ 
 peals for amounts commensurate with the cause, and they should 
 press these appeals with a courage and confidence worthy of the 
 Christianity they profess. Let them not come to the pulpit with 
 apologies upon their lips, but rather let them come speaking 
 authoritatively, saying to the owners of hoarded treasure: “The 
 Lord hath need.” Let them put this great cause upon no lower 
 basis than that it is the will of God concerning us, and that it 
 is a high privilege to do the will of God. 
 
 We want no appeals to sectarian ambition or ecclesiastical 
 pride. Sometimes we hear it said from the pulpit: “Our Church 
 must enter this field or occupy that station because if we do not 
 some other Church will.” Such a consideration is not proper 
 ground for our entering any place whatsoever. If any other 
 Church could save the world or any part of the world without 
 
15 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 our aid, by all means let us bid such a Church Godspeed. Let 
 us base our appeals for doing this work on the higher and truer 
 ground that without our efforts the salvation of the world will 
 be delayed, if not prevented. 
 
 I am glad to bave before me a company of men to whom I can 
 speak thus plainly without giving offense. You are picked men, 
 and you will not misunderstand me. I pray you go back home, 
 and by both your precept and example tell our preachers and 
 our people that the Lord’s business must henceforth be conducted 
 in a nobler fashion. Tell them that an enterprise projected to 
 lift into light the whole world that lieth in darkness calls for the 
 highest self-sacrifice. And tell them also that our welfare, as 
 well as our duty, is involved. This whole world must soon be 
 all pagan or all Christian. The ends of the earth have been 
 brought together by the modern inventions of transportation and 
 communication. When Mr. Jefferson was President of the Unit¬ 
 ed States he put forth the idea, which Mr. Lincoln subsequently 
 more fully elaborated, to the effect that our country must sooner 
 or later be all free soil or all slave territory. At that time the 
 proposition was doubted and debated ; but in the end we have seen 
 that it was absolutely sound, and that the result was inevitable. 
 I say to you now that the whole earth must soon be all Christian 
 or all anti-Christian. Peking, China, is to all intents and pur¬ 
 poses nearer to Washington City now than was New Orleans 
 when Mr. Jefferson was President. Indeed, you know that 
 General Jackson and General Pakenham fought the battle of 
 New Orleans after the War of 1812 was over. The treaty of 
 peace between the United States and Great Britain had been 
 signed some days before the belligerents met in deadly conflict 
 near the mouth of the Mississippi. Both of them were too far 
 away from the seats of their governments to be informed that 
 the war was over, and so they fought a bloody battle in time 
 of peace. But when the battles of the allies were fought a few 
 years ago before the walls of Peking, you knew in Knoxville in 
 the evening the results of the fighting in the forenoon. This will 
 show you how close now are all lands to each other. All nations 
 are now neighbors; there is no “Far East.” When I went out 
 to the Orient last year, I sailed from Seattle on the afternoon of 
 July 25, and I ate my breakfast in Yokohama on the morning of 
 August 8. It required less time for me to go from our Pacific 
 Coast to Japan than my father consumed in going from our home 
 in Georgia to my uncle’s residence in Louisiana in 1855. It is 
 impossible that with the nations thus close together the moral 
 
i6 
 
 The Day of Our Opportunity. 
 
 conditions of mankind shall not soon become uniform throughout 
 the earth. This missionary campaign is, therefore, not only a 
 warfare to rescue the benighted heathen, but for the protection 
 of the whole earth, including our own land, against the powers 
 of darkness. The “Day of Our Opportunity” is nothing less 
 than the day of salvation for the race. But “the night cometh 
 when no man can work.” The issues involved are so great that 
 no sacrifice can be made that will be greater than the cause justi¬ 
 fies and demands. Let us realize this truth. Our people know 
 how to make sacrifices. For sectional interests and political ends 
 they made without hesitation the greatest sacrifices of both blood 
 and treasure in the late Civil War. It is war time in the king¬ 
 dom of Christ now—war time full of opportunity for victory and 
 not without chance of defeat. With the Captain of our salvation 
 going before us, and with his blessing resting upon us, we may 
 take this whole world for Christ; or, faithless to him, for¬ 
 feiting his favor by fostering our selfishness, we may lose the 
 day, and a darkness settle on the earth that can never be lifted. 
 The alternatives are plainly before us. We must have done with 
 selfishness and live lives of self-sacrifice. We must have done 
 with littleness and lay hold of great things. We must crucify 
 our lust and deify our Lord, or we will deify our lust and crucify 
 our Lord. 
 
 Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Nashville, Tenn.