'-/.{A V ^■y-c ‘ r- 'r >•-• ’.• ^v r-- • ■■ <" '. '>/v'"u-^'- ^■-- . . ‘'^ :••'•. ^ ■ W' ' .• . 
 
 -r V. /-' 
 
 ,'s -. 
 
 . •■ V- 
 
 wsc. 
 
 >:■» .'jfir 
 
 fe'JVv.i ■.%.:' ■ 
 
 
 r-v.^ ^........ 
 
 
 cKw': 
 
 r«sr 
 
 WS$M 
 
 PI 
 
 ir,:/'.' 1 
 
 Ppp3?^r'".. ' 
 
 i^-'^,‘-;r. v-; j^'*Vi.>"->i^’ »' . -v^v' 
 
 flS-' 
 
 jSii.' 
 KT ■ '■ 
 
 f ' 
 
 Vv:> i? 
 
 JiSliM 
 
 O ', '- -vr-J;;-*- - ■' . :• : r ,• . -*» ' . ' .V'' I- ' ■, 
 
 .•.; -/.If-'.- ,-a^ V.C ’. ''';''‘^v. v.^ .•'•• 
 
 .■'* ..■.. T.-.,. :V,,:,,;-/,,..;,s,'r',-, .■ ,, , ■■ • 
 
 •v,-'/''^'t-:*7 i. ‘-y-’* :r'.^- . •>♦■•:-...• ’ ' '■* *■ 
 
 
 ,•-.!• yV •'•'r?‘:..> .1^- ’■■4-'*'.■/' 
 
 •V' ; ■:\.yJ^' .^•. 
 
 ■. 
 
 
 
 y-v ' ;.- 
 
 Cj'v-'. 
 
 >»^V'-,-;' 
 
 ■■-'■• V ■ 
 
 V. .Vv; .- 
 v-.v:i''' v^'- 
 
 
 
 V -j<■ ■■ -; - 'i:.- ■>--'’ ■■S;;'ir..V--' „ > ...-' ■‘i.r-L-’' i-,.-r. *'. ■■ 
 
 :c^' < Wv '■ ' -■{••'• . • .•• •‘'• • 'V' f - ' -• ■•■'’s.* »' ''.'• -.^‘’•jL*- ’ ■ '• ■ • • ■■•■ ^-' • '• • 
 
& 
 
 L. ^*vi‘i r,'S » V-" >. v'>sT'*' '-'"'I'/- -* 
 
 *^^ 4 - . Jt-. .,i ^-S . /- : - •^ ^ ^/h 
 
 f-j. . 'i ,- c' - ,-_ ^ 
 
 \ , ^ X ^ ^ ^ «-r*-!: >’*■_ * ' ✓ ^ X ^ ^ ^ »r,r-ar»r> 
 
 ^ '* Afe'* 
 

 MISSIONARY 
 
 w 
 
 •CONSCIENCE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. J. H. PRITCHETT, 
 
 One of the Secretaries of the Board of Missions of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South. 
 
 Published fok the Board of Missi'ons 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 
 Barbee & Smith, Agents, 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 1901. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 contents of this booklet 
 have, for the most part, been 
 already published in the form of arti¬ 
 cles in our periodicals. They assume 
 this form at the instance of those who 
 have a right to command them, and 
 who think that they have yet a further 
 Truly, 
 
 J. H. PRITCHETT 
 
 mission. 
 
A MISSIONARY CONSCIENCE, AND HOW 
 TO SUPPLY ITS LACK. 
 
 T N undertaking this theme it seems of primary 
 importance to discuss briefly several prelimi¬ 
 nary questions. 
 
 I, What Is Conscience ? 
 
 Touching this question, there is in this day of 
 ours a great deal of superficial thinking, loose 
 writing, and inconsequential talking. I pray that 
 this contribution may not justly be condemned to 
 the same category. If this is to be its fate, how¬ 
 ever, I shall not undertake to hide my own sin 
 under the cloak of much-abused science. In seek¬ 
 ing a definition, therefore, I shall not enter the 
 field of metaphysical disquisition, nor do I prom¬ 
 ise to make that definition scientifically bomb¬ 
 proof. All that the occasion requires, and all that 
 I shall attempt, is a plain, commonsense state¬ 
 ment which shall appeal to God’s Word for its 
 vindication, and, thus supported, need not shun 
 or abjectly cower in the august presence of hu¬ 
 man philosophy. 
 
 In the highest sense of the term, man is a cos¬ 
 mopolite—a citizen of the universe. God made 
 him so. His body is of the earth earthy, and must 
 share the fortunes of all inanimate matter. His 
 soul or life allies him with all things that have 
 life in this mundane sphere. His spirit makes 
 him kin to all spirits, and chiefest of all make 
 him the child of God. Standing on the pinnacle 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
4 
 
 A Missionary Consciefice, 
 
 of earth life, he finds the conditions of his soul 
 superiority below him; so, likewise, standing at 
 the base of those spiritual heights of which he is 
 capable, that soul superiority furnishes the condi¬ 
 tion for the attainment of those heights. In or¬ 
 der to knowledge of, and communion with, each 
 of the spheres in which he finds himself, man is 
 possessed of attributes, the aggregate of wdiich 
 constitute him man, and distinguish him from 
 every other being in the universe. The attributes 
 of his lower nature are incipient manifestations 
 of those of his higher, while at the same time 
 they furnish the conditions of its possibilities. 
 Besides these, however, which are carried from 
 the lower into the higher, there appear in the 
 higher certain attributes that do not obtain in 
 the lower. They come down from above. Chief 
 among these is the conscience. It is neither of 
 the Intellect, the Sensibilities, nor the Will; 
 though it is conditioned on all of them, and in 
 turn commands them all. It does not, as many 
 seem to think and teach, exercise the office of 
 discriminator between right and wrong, either in 
 the abstract or the concrete. The first is the func¬ 
 tion of law; the second, of judgment. Con¬ 
 science is neither law nor judgment. But when 
 a law or rule of right has been accepted as su¬ 
 preme, when judgment has made out a specific 
 case under that law, then conscience, as judge 
 supreme, with an authority that can not be ques¬ 
 tioned, with an emphasis that can not be disre¬ 
 garded with impunity, says: “ Obey the law; do 
 the right.” And, if its mandate is obeyed, it re- 
 
And How to Supply Its Lack. 
 
 5 
 
 wards as no other hand this side of heaven can 
 reward. But if it is disregarded, it punishes as 
 nothing else this side of hell can punish. This 
 is conscience, and these are its functions. Its 
 dicta are always in accordance with the highest 
 law and best judgment possible to the man ; and 
 while they concern and affect him alone, they are 
 to him infallible. A higher law, unknown to the 
 individual by no fault of his—a judgment impos¬ 
 sible to him under the conditions—must not be 
 held as vitiating either the rightness or authority 
 of those dicta. No man can do right and violate 
 his conscience; no man can do wrong (judged 
 by the law under which he acts) and follow its 
 dictates. The evil of every wrong life is not to 
 be found either in the absence or perversion of 
 conscience, but in the absence of a higher law in 
 the heart, and a better judgment in the mind; 
 which two alone furnish the condition of a per¬ 
 fect conscience. To remedy that evil, therefore, 
 we must begin, not as we sometimes say, by creat¬ 
 ing or correcting or educating or even arousing 
 conscience, but by supplying the conditions, viz : 
 a supreme rule of right, together with a thorough¬ 
 ly educated judgment, which will understand- 
 ingly and honestly present every case under that 
 rule. When this is done, then conscience will not 
 only always be found in its place, but always is¬ 
 suing its decisions with unerring accuracy and in 
 perfect accord with the highest behests of right. 
 
 This brief and informal statement of the nature 
 and functions of conscience I believe to be in 
 perfect keeping with the Bible use of the term 
 
6 
 
 A Missionary Conscience, 
 
 and the Bible treatment of the subject. The 
 term occurs twenty-nine times in our standard 
 version of the New Testament Scriptures. It is 
 significant that it has no place in the Old Testa¬ 
 ment. John uses it once in speaking of the self¬ 
 conviction of those evil-minded persons who 
 brought the sinful woman to Christ for judg¬ 
 ment. Without antagonizing Moses, or running 
 counter to Roman supremacy, one of which they 
 thought he must do, in one short sentence the 
 Master started a series of forces that soon sent 
 his would-be accusers whence they came : (i) His 
 interpretation of the law; {2) the personal appli¬ 
 cation that each accuser made of that law to him¬ 
 self; (3) conscience, responding to these condi¬ 
 tions, confirms both the law and the application; 
 
 (4) conviction, pungent and irresistable, follows; 
 
 • 
 
 (5) “they went out one by one.” Peter uses the 
 term three times in his first epistle, intlicating by 
 it each time that inner and final court of appeals 
 at which loyalty to God, faithfulness to Christ, 
 and duty to man is each tested. The term ap¬ 
 pears twenty-five times in Paul’s speeches and 
 epistles. In his defense both before the Jewish 
 council and the court of Felix, he predicates his 
 blamelessness of the fact that he had kept a “good 
 conscience”—“a conscience void of offense”— 
 i. e., according to the highest law known to him, 
 and the best judgment possible to him, he had 
 obeyed the dictates of his conscience. In his let¬ 
 ters to the Corinthians, to Timothy, and to the 
 Hebrews, the term has essentially the same 
 significance. The phrases “good conscience,” 
 
A?id How to Supply Its Lack. 7 
 
 “ weak conscience,” “ evil conscience,” etc., evi¬ 
 dently point out the effect of faithful or unfaith¬ 
 ful dealing with one’s conscience. 
 
 The next question to consider is : 
 
 Ih What Is Implied By a “ Missionary Conscience ? ” 
 
 In the light of what has gone before, this is 
 easily answered. Conscience assumes missionary 
 functions whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ 
 becomes dominant in thought, in affection, in 
 purpose. The absence of such a conscience can 
 be accounted for only on the followdng condi¬ 
 tions : 
 
 1. The utter absence of the gospel. This is 
 literal heathenism. 
 
 2. The lack of appetency for the gospel. This 
 is practical heathenism. 
 
 3. A formal acceptance of the gospel without 
 an experience of its power to save. This is form¬ 
 alism. 
 
 4. A Christian experience that has been dwarfed 
 and deadened by the cares of this world, the de¬ 
 ceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things. 
 This is incipient apostasy. 
 
 A third question claiming our attention in the 
 natural order is: 
 
 in. Is the Christian Ministry and the Church of 
 To.'day Lacking in Such Conscience? If so, What 
 Are the Evidences ? 
 
 I shall leave the second part of the question to 
 answer the first. In answering the second I shall 
 adduce only such facts as are notorious and in- 
 controvertable. 
 
 I. The Church of to-day is rich and increased 
 
8 A Missionary Conscience, 
 
 in worldly goods, and Laodicea-like, she boasts 
 of it. She proudly proclaims that the available 
 wealth of the world is to-day controlled, not only 
 by nominal Christendom, but largely by Christian 
 ecclesiasticisms, or at least by men connected 
 with them. A missionary conscience—the Mace¬ 
 donian grace—will not allow men or Churches to 
 get rich while the command of the Lord of souls, 
 the Proprietor of the universe, “ Go disciple the 
 nations,” is yet unobeyed. 
 
 2. The giving of the Church of to-day for so- 
 called Church purposes, meager as it is, is largely 
 prompted b}^ motives utterly foreign to a mission¬ 
 ary conscience. I have no reply to make here to 
 anything that may be said or can be said in ex¬ 
 cuse for, or justification of, the lavish investment 
 of money in fine houses, costly furnishings, artis¬ 
 tic displays, gilt-edged salaries for star preachers, 
 etc. But I will say that a missionary conscience 
 will not let a man, nor a congregation of men, 
 spend ninety-seven and one-half per cent of the 
 Lord’s money upon themselves, even in the name 
 of religion, and less than two and one-half per 
 cent in doing the one thing for which he saved 
 them, called them into the fellowship of his saints, 
 and constituted them a Church. 
 
 3. The Church of to-day is on the best of terms 
 with the world. She knows little or nothing of 
 the experience, ” Blessed are ye when men shall 
 revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all 
 manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.” 
 More than this, and worse than this, she is anx¬ 
 iously studying ways and means to make herself 
 
u-^nd How to Supply Its Lack. 9 
 
 more popular; and, worst of all, many of those 
 ways and means are calculated, if not intended, 
 rather to please and entertain men than to save 
 them from sin. Some of our weekly advertise¬ 
 ments of Church services would better adorn the 
 billboard of an opera house. A missionary con¬ 
 science knows nothing, and employs nothing, as 
 an attraction for men, except Christ and him cru¬ 
 cified. It has no use for unsaved men in the con¬ 
 gregations of the saints except to save and sanc¬ 
 tify them. It is not dependent upon the world’s 
 methods or the devil’s methods either to congre¬ 
 gate men or to manipulate them. 
 
 4. The Church of to-day is at ease. She is sat¬ 
 isfied with her achievements and condition. She 
 has little trouble in excusing, if not justifying, 
 her failures, and spends much time and labor in 
 congratulating herself on even seeming successes. 
 A missionary conscience is satisfied with nothing 
 less, in pulpit and pew, than a vital sympathy 
 with its divine Head, who, just before his final 
 agony, with his entirety of thought merged in 
 the contemplation of the decease which he was to 
 accomplish at Jerusalem, said: “How am I strait¬ 
 ened till it be accomplished ! ” He was straitened 
 till sacrifice for sin was complete. A missionary 
 conscience demands that the Church be straitened 
 till the world be drawn to him—“ till he see the 
 travail of his soul and be satisfied.” 
 
 5. The Church of to-day toadies to the world’s 
 foolish fancies and sinful practices. Extrava¬ 
 gance in dress, theater going, card parties, parlor 
 dances, and other society fads abundantly illus- 
 
lO 
 
 A Missionary Conscienccy 
 
 trate and afifirm what I mean, A missionary con¬ 
 science says: “ Love not the world, neither the 
 things that are in the world. If any man love the 
 world, the love of the Father is not in him. For 
 all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and 
 the lust of the e3'es, and the pride of life, is not 
 of the Father, but is of the world. And the world 
 passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that 
 doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 
 
 6 . The Church of to-day is spiritually incoher¬ 
 ent, and practically nonco-operative as to its parts. 
 We hear a great deal, to be sure, about denomina¬ 
 tions of Christians getting closer together; and. 
 in our seasons of gush, we are accustomed to- 
 make much ado over it. But the truth is that our I 
 unnecessary and selfish divisions are an offense 
 to the Master, an in.sult to the Holy Spirit, a 
 source of sore and cruel disappointment to the 
 world. I could stand here and read page after 
 page of evidence on this point, but one fact, 
 which will bring the matter directly home to us. 
 must suffice: The Evangelical Alliance of the 
 world has for years prepared a programme, and 
 invited—yes, begged—Christians of all nations 
 and Churches to observe the first two Sabbaths of 
 January and the intervening week as a season of 
 united prayer. Faithful compliance with this re¬ 
 quest has many times and in many places wit¬ 
 nessed wonderful displays of divine power, and 
 wonderful quickening to the Churches. This 
 year, however, through forgetfulness or careless¬ 
 ness, or want of faith in Christian co-operation at 
 a throne of grace, or some other reason of equal i 
 
And How to Supply Its Lack. 
 
 II 
 
 importance and force, the Southern Methodist 
 Churches of Nashville—to say nothing of others 
 —declined to hear any part in this world-wide 
 week of worship. If we have gotten, or are to 
 get, any good out of it, it must come in answer to 
 the ])rayers of others. A missionary conscience 
 would suggest and constrain that, while denomi¬ 
 national lines which rest on principle are to he 
 maintained, nevertheless, in prayer and faith and 
 holy living, we are on all possible occasions to 
 provoke one another to good works. 
 
 I pass to another question, viz : 
 
 IV. How is This Lack of Missionary Conscience in 
 the Church to Be Accounted For ? 
 
 Primarily it has come about as the result of 
 a threefold and inexcusable failure: (i) A fail¬ 
 ure to recognize and realize the authority and 
 fearful import of Christ’s command, “ Go ye 
 into all the world and preach the gospel to 
 every creature;” (2) a failure to appreciate 
 the terrible condition of the world without 
 the gospel; and (3) a failure to apprehend 
 the truth that an honest effort to obey the 
 command, and to minister to the world’s needs, 
 suspends the very life of the Church. Because of 
 the first failure, preachers of the gospel have come 
 to distinguish between a call to preach and a call 
 to be a missionary. Even Methodist preachers— 
 sons of him who said, “The world is my parish,’’ 
 himself the servant of that greater One who said, 
 
 ‘ ‘ The field is the world ’ ’—have come to receive 
 their call and read their commission with very dis¬ 
 tinct reservations as to where and under what con- 
 
12 
 
 A Missionary Conscience, 
 
 ditions they will serve. Because of the second 
 failure the Church has been waiting for political 
 ambition, commercial greed, enterprising curiosity, 
 or some other secular force to pioneer the way and 
 open the gates of access to heathen nations. She 
 was not ashamed to enter India through the door 
 opened by the rapacity, extortion, and cruelty 
 of the East India Company, nor to accept the di¬ 
 abolism of the opium war as a means of entrance 
 to China. She followed the warships of Commo¬ 
 dore Perry into Japan, and to-day makes more in¬ 
 terested study of the movements of the ‘ ‘ Powers ’ ’ 
 than of the command of Him who has all power in 
 heaven and earth, or of the needs of those who sit 
 in darkness, dwelling in the region and shadow of 
 death. Because of the third failure, the Church in 
 many instances, while imagining herself to be in 
 need of nothing, is, in the esteem of the Master, 
 poor, blind, and naked, having a name to live 
 while she is dead. 
 
 V, How Is This Lack of Missionary Conscience to 
 Be Supplied ? 
 
 I answer briefly ; First, by seeking for ourselves 
 and our people a profounder realization of what 
 the missionary movement, which is Christianity in 
 earnest and in action, means. We need to know 
 and feel that it is nothing less than the earnest of 
 the fulfillment of the Father’s promise to the Son, 
 “ I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos¬ 
 session ; ” that it is the blood-sealed pledge of the 
 Son that this gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 preached throughout the world, “for a witness to 
 
And Hozv to Supply Its Lack. 13 
 
 the nations ; ” that it is, moreover, the best effort 
 of the best men, acting under the best motives, 
 and in the use of the best means to answer the 
 prayer, ‘ ‘ Thy kingdom come ; ” to usher in the 
 day of our God when every knee shall bow to 
 Christ, and every tongue shall confess that he is 
 Lord to the glory of God the Father ; when the 
 kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdom of 
 our Lord and his Christ ; lastly, that it is the 
 world’s only hope of physical, mental, social, po¬ 
 litical, and religious regeneration and salvation, 
 since whom the Son makes free, they and they 
 only, are free indeed. What Christianity has done 
 for one man—say Saul of Tarsus ; what it has done 
 for one community—say the cannibals of the He¬ 
 brides—it can do for the world—it intends to do 
 for the world. 
 
 We will prepare ourselves for a missionar}^ con¬ 
 science in the second place: By forming and devel¬ 
 oping a broader, fuller conception of the infinite 
 power and boundless resources that justify and 
 guarantee the success of missions. He who or¬ 
 dained them said : ‘ ‘All power in heaven and in 
 earth is given into my hands,” and “ Lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” 
 To discard missions is to deny Christ; to doubt 
 their success is to belie his Word, and to despair of 
 the world’s redemption. 
 
 We will contribute to the conditions in the third 
 place: By seeking for ourselves and inculcating 
 among our people a clearer conception, a deeper 
 conviction, a more sensitive consciousness of what 
 it takes to constitute a soldier of that army that is 
 
14 
 
 A Alissionary Coiiscience, 
 
 to take the world for Christ—a laborer in that vine¬ 
 yard that is to yield a soul harvest for eternity. 
 
 A faith that saves from all sin; promises that 
 consciously enrich to everlasting life; escape from 
 the corruption that is in the world through lust; 
 being a partaker of the divine nature, constitute 
 the furnishment which God vouchsafes to every 
 man who would be a soldier of the cross. To un¬ 
 dertake to be such a soldier without it, is to court 
 defeat in every contest with the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil. To profess to be such a soldier 
 without it, is to practice the boldest presumption. 
 To maintain one’s character as such a soldier, he 
 must add daily to what God has wrought in him— 
 courage, knowledge, temperance, patience, godli¬ 
 ness, brotherly kindness, and love. “For if these 
 things be in him and abound, they make or con¬ 
 strain him that he be neither idle nor unfruitful in 
 his acknowledgement of our Lord Jesus Christ.’’ 
 “ But if he lacks these things he is blind, and can 
 not see afar off, and has forgotten that he was 
 purged from his old sins.” 
 
 As a final condition for a missionary conscience 
 there must be an abiding indwelling of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 To his disciples, unregenerate and unspiritual, 
 though taught by him in person for three years, 
 the Master said ‘ ‘ that they should tell no man 
 that he was Jesus Christ.” To those same disci¬ 
 ples, converted and Spirit-filled, he said: “Ye 
 shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in 
 Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
 parts of the earth.” To be ignorant of the status 
 
And Hozv to Supply Its Lack. 15 
 
 of missions in the world’s economy, is to read his¬ 
 tory without a philosophy—to study the signs of 
 of the times without a key of interpretation. To 
 be at fault in regard to ChrivSt’s power and resources 
 for the world’s conquest, is to be at the mercy of 
 the earth’s petty schemes and Satan’s demoralizing 
 devices. To profess to be Christians without hav¬ 
 ing the nature and spirit of Christ, is to play the 
 part of mere camp followers, mere hangers-on. 
 To be without the Holy Spirit in this campaign, in 
 which everything is at stake, is to go to war with¬ 
 out a leader, without a guide, without a plan, 
 without a purpose, without an inspiration. 
 
 Without the Holy Spirit a misvsionary conscience 
 is an impossibility. With the Holy Spirit it is a 
 necessity. In short, a missionary conscience is the 
 echo in us of the voice of the Holy Spirit. 
 
“THE FIELD IS THE WORLD.” 
 
 C HESE words furnish in part the Master’s own 
 exposition of his parable of the tares. They 
 are eminently suggestive in the presence of every 
 honest effort to evangelize the nations. No vio¬ 
 lence is done either to the structure of the sentence 
 or to the divine teaching if we transpose the words 
 so as to read : “ The world is the field.” 
 
 Indeed, the meaning seems to be that this world 
 in its entirety of mind and matter, as distinguished 
 from all other worlds, is, in a peculiar sense, God’s 
 field—the arena where he purposed from the be¬ 
 ginning to wonderfully display his power and his 
 wisdom and his grace; the domain on which he 
 has, through the ages, lavished the revenues of his 
 universe; the favored realm to express his full es¬ 
 timate of which he spared not even his own Son. 
 But this unusual manifestation of divine interest 
 and love has been the provocation of a correspond¬ 
 ing manifestation of Satanic interest and hate. 
 Hence the old serpent, who first made rebellion in 
 heaven, who was banished to the hell his own re¬ 
 bellion had made, has seemingly massed his all of 
 diabolical resources in a life-and-death struggle to 
 occupy this same field. Surely nowhere else do 
 God’s love and Satan’s malice find at once such a 
 theater; nowhere else are heaven’s gracious con¬ 
 descension and hell’s vaulting ambition so strange¬ 
 ly and persistently matched. 
 
 Man, made to be God’s viceregent in this field, 
 
 ( 
 
“ The Field Is the WorldT 
 
 17 
 
 having betra3^d his trust and transferred his alle¬ 
 giance to the devil, having made himself at once 
 the victim of his own lust and the instrument of 
 his own ruin, having set God and Satan, heaven 
 and hell, at strife over himself and his God-given 
 estate, has, to crown all his other evil deeds, gone 
 deliberately about the business of making this 
 scene of strife the field of his own vanity and 
 greed and ambition and insatiable selfishness. 
 
 Last, and chiefest of all, Christ, to vindicate 
 God’s original purpose, reclaim his infinite outlays, 
 and verify his countless promises; to disappoint 
 Satan’s bold usurpation and disprove his shameless 
 boast of sovereignty and proprietorship; to redeem 
 man and restore his forfeited heritage, has made 
 this world the field of his mediatorial reign. Here, 
 by revealing the Fatherhood of God, by destroying 
 one by one the works of the devil, by making man 
 a new creation, and developing him after the model 
 of his own perfect manhood, he is bringing light 
 out of the chambers of darkness, truth out of the 
 vagaries of error, right out of the wreckage of 
 wrong, and life out of the tomb of death. In 
 short, he is restoring all things. His authority to 
 enterprise this mighty and varied scheme, and his 
 ability to execute it, he predicates of four indispu¬ 
 table facts: 
 
 1. He is the creator and owner of this field, and 
 of all that it contains: For “ the earth is the Lord’s 
 and the fullness thereof: the world and they that 
 dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the 
 seas and established it upon the floods.” 
 
 2. As the eternal Son he is the heir of all these 
 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 “ The Field Is the JVorld." 
 
 things: “I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for thy possession.” “He shall have dominion 
 also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends 
 of the earth.” 
 
 3. He has bought the entire domain with his own 
 life: “He gave himself for us: . . . and when he 
 had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at 
 the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 
 
 4. The right and power to rule are both now in 
 his hands. He has no rival. “For he (the Fa¬ 
 ther) has put all things under him.” “All power 
 in heaven and in earth is given into my hands.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ He must reign until he has put all enemies under 
 his feet. ’ ’ His reign has not been relegated to the 
 future and to some other sphere. It is here and 
 now. It is eternally right and imperatively nec¬ 
 essary that Christ should reign in this world and 
 over this world until every person and thing is sub¬ 
 ject to him; until every knee bows and every 
 tongue confesses that he is Ford; until the wolf 
 shall lie down with the lamb; until the desert shall 
 bloom like a rose, because: (a) His incarnation 
 and death and resurrection have vested in him ab¬ 
 solute and supreme sovereignty over every soul of 
 man. He, and he alone, holds in his hand the 
 personal existence, the character, the relation¬ 
 ships, the destiny of each. This, too, wdthout any 
 let or compromise of human freedom or human re¬ 
 sponsibility. (d) These same miraculous achieve¬ 
 ments of his have vested in him, the God-man, 
 absolute right of property in the w'orld’s untold 
 material wealth. Men are his bondslaves, the con- 
 
“ The Field Is the WorldT 
 
 19 
 
 tents of the world are his goods. Men are here 
 solely because he procured them a new probation. 
 They are good men or bad men solely as they do 
 his will or abuse his grace. The relations they 
 sustain to God or men are virtuous or vicious as 
 they are in him or out of him. The destiny that 
 every one is to achieve will be determined solely 
 by the submission yielded and the service rendered 
 to him. 
 
 Whatever is, or can be, in this world, exists only 
 to be his appointment on his sufference. That 
 which is, by his appointment, must stand despite 
 all opposition; that which exists only by his suf¬ 
 ference must go whenever his wisdom and will 
 shall so determine. There is but one immovable 
 ground of right in this world—that is his immacu¬ 
 late nature. There is but one infallible rule of right 
 —that is his will. There is but one unappealable 
 code of morals—that is his gospel. There is but 
 one final court of appeal from all other courts— 
 that is his judgment bar. To be right concerning 
 persons or principles or politics, is to think his 
 thoughts; to be good is to imitate his example; to 
 be safe is to be on his side in every movement— 
 public or private, social or civil, political or relig¬ 
 ious. Under him virtue can never fail of its full 
 reward; vice can never escape its full penalty. 
 There is no missing or evading or resisting the se¬ 
 cret, silent, searching forces of his rule. As “all 
 things work together for good to those who love 
 God,” so all things work together for ill to those 
 who love him not. ‘ ‘ If any man love not the 
 Ivord Jesus Christ, he is accursed.” 
 
20 
 
 “ The Field Is the WorldT 
 
 The purposes and plans of Christ’s reign in the 
 world are neither mysterious nor hidden. While 
 they are pre-eminently conservative, they are at the 
 same time uncompromisingly radical. Conserva¬ 
 tive, in that nothing good ever did or ever can per¬ 
 ish or suffer loss; radical, in that no evil thing can 
 be approved or finally stand. 
 
 Christ’s reign in this world has this twofold mis¬ 
 sion to men, and to all institutions of whatever 
 sort under men: {a) To save and glorify that which 
 is worth saving; (b) to destroy beyond remedy 
 that which is incorrigibly bad. He intends to 
 make this a new world—in all its agencies and ele¬ 
 ments, in all its forces and functions—wherein 
 “judgment shall run down as waters, and right¬ 
 eousness as a mighty stream.’’ That his power 
 and grace have ever been able to make one man a 
 true Christian, one home a miniature heaven, one 
 community an Bden, one nation whose laws reflect, 
 however feebly, his gospel and his kingdom, is an 
 all-sufiicient pledge of what he has in store, for ev¬ 
 ery man, for every family, for every community, 
 for every nation that will meet his conditions. 
 
 In so far as there are evidences that the world is 
 moving upward in its individual manhood, in its 
 domestic purity, in its social integrity, in its com¬ 
 mercial probity, in its political honesty, in its scien¬ 
 tific correctness, in its philosophical soundness, in 
 its educational thoroughness, in its religious spirit¬ 
 uality, Christ’s reign thus far has furnished them. 
 In so far as there are recognized forces in the world 
 to-day whose working promise, sooner or later, the 
 end of international strife, the federation of gov- 
 
“ The Field Is the World! 
 
 21 
 
 ernments, the brotherhood of man, Christ’s reign 
 thus far is responsible for them; and if the problem 
 of human existence is ever solved ; if the question, 
 “ is life worth living? ” is ever answered; if God’s 
 dealing with the race is ever vindicated, the con¬ 
 summation of Christ’s reign must solve the prob¬ 
 lem, answer the question, and vindicate God’s 
 ways. Otherwise they are insoluble, unanswera¬ 
 ble, inexplicable. O glorious day of perfect, uni¬ 
 versal restoration ! Who would not share in its glory 
 and its awards? Who would not hear the plaudit 
 and the decree that shall change his earthly to his 
 heavenly relationship to his divine Ivord: ‘ ‘ Thou 
 hast been faithful over a few things (as a servant), 
 I will make thee ruler (joint ruler with myself) 
 over many things?” “He that overcometh shall 
 sit down with me on my throne, even as I have 
 overcome and am set down wdth my Father on his 
 throne. ’ ’ Thank God! To see this glory and to 
 hear this plaudit is the heirloom of every redeemed 
 son and daughter of Adam. 
 
 The sole condition of realization is that Christ 
 reigns in us personally, and through us, in our 
 consecration and sacrifice and service, over the 
 greatest possible number of others. In that day 
 ‘ ‘ they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament; and they that turn many to right¬ 
 eousness, as the stars forever and ever.” 
 
 The enterprise pre-eminent of this age is Chris¬ 
 tian missions. It guages to-day the progress of 
 Christ’s reign in the earth. The consummation of 
 the purpose of the one, to give the gospel to every 
 creature, will strike the first note in that triumphant 
 
22 
 
 “ The Field Is the World! 
 
 paeon of the other: “Hallelujah! for the Lord God 
 Omnipotent reigneth.” 
 
 “Blessed are they that sow beside all waters.” 
 May the Holy Spirit show us the wisdom of in¬ 
 vesting our prayers, our faith, our consecrated all, 
 in this one, only infallibly sure, undertaking. 
 
“THY KINGDOM COME.” 
 
 “ When j’e pray, say, . . . Thy kingdom come.” 
 
 (Luke xi. 2.) 
 
 T F the Bible is true and the experience and testi¬ 
 mony of godly men are worth anything, then 
 prayer is at once our highest privilege, our most 
 imperative duty, our surest resort for all needed 
 good, and our most reliable weapon for both of¬ 
 fensive and defensive warfare against all foes. 
 With it the least is equal to any emergency; with¬ 
 out it the greatest is nothing and can do nothing. 
 
 Surely that which promises so much, and which 
 involves so much, personally and relatively, ought 
 to be better understood than it is, and to wield a 
 mightier influence in the affairs of men than it 
 does. It is wondrous strange that prayer is so 
 little accounted as a factor in the world’s happen¬ 
 ings. It is more wondrous strange that so much 
 that is called prayer so evidently fails to verify 
 what is predicated of it in God’s Word, Why do 
 so few men pray ? Why have the best of us so 
 few and such poor returns for our prayers ? Prayer 
 is so simple, so natural, so self-suggestive, so self- 
 consistent, so identified with every real interest, 
 and involved in every right relationship, that it 
 seems to commend itself as the most practical, the 
 most reasonable, the most desirable, the most 
 hopeful, the most infallible exercise known to men. 
 
 That true prayer should fail is impossible. The 
 very thought is inconceivable. He who is the 
 
 (23) 
 
24 
 
 '"Thy Kingdom Come." 
 
 Truth, who also has all power in heaven and earth, 
 says: “Whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye 
 shall receive.” To doubt is to belie all truth, to 
 stultify one’s own mind, and to disqualif}^ himself 
 for the exercise of prayer. Evidently there is in the 
 world and in the Church a widespread misunder¬ 
 standing of what true prayer is, a sad misconcep¬ 
 tion of the end always to be reached in this act of 
 divine worship, whether private or public. We 
 often find ourselves praying as if our chief busi¬ 
 ness were to inform God as to our persons, rela¬ 
 tions, and wants; seeming to forget that he knows 
 us and our wants just as well before as after our 
 gratuitous information. True prayer does not 
 assume to instruct the All-Wise. Then, again, we 
 pray as if we desired and expected to make God 
 willing to do something for us which otherwise 
 he might be unwilling to do; utterly oblivious 
 that our Heavenly Father, having given his Son 
 for us, is not only willing and anxious to give us 
 all other good, but does actually bestow all that 
 we will allow" him. True prayer does not waste 
 itself upon ears that need to be w"on, or upon a 
 heart that needs to be propitiated. Oftener than 
 otherwise, perhaps, w"e give more attention to the 
 verbiage than to the spirit of our prayers; failing 
 to grasp the truth that true prayer is the soul’s 
 sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed; that it 
 may be 
 
 The burden of a sig’h, 
 
 The falling- of a tear, 
 
 The upward g-lancing- of an e 5 "e, 
 When none but God is near. 
 
“ Thy Kingdom ConieT 
 
 25 
 
 Or, it may be 
 
 The simplest form of speech 
 That infant lips can try; 
 
 The sublimest strains that reach 
 The Majesty on high. 
 
 But always, everywhere, it is the soul’s honest, 
 earnest struggle to tell its own needs and to se¬ 
 cure God’s help. True prayer never frames itself 
 for other ears than God’s; its wings never fold them¬ 
 selves short of the bosom of the loving All-Father. 
 
 Moreover, we are prone to excuse our shortcom¬ 
 ings in prayer on the ground of time and place 
 and circumstance. These really have nothing to 
 do either with our duty to pray or with the answers 
 we ought to receive. The duty comes out in w’ords 
 like these: “Men ought always to pray; I would 
 that men pray everywhere : be careful for nothing, 
 but in everything by pra3Tr . . . let your re¬ 
 
 quests be made known to God.” The answers are 
 assured in words just as easily* understood and 
 just as indubitable: “ Your Father who seeth in 
 secret shall reward you openly: ye shall receive : 
 ye shall find: it shall be opened to you: it shall 
 be done unto you : the peace of God . . . shall 
 keep 3"Our heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” 
 
 Our divine Lord has secured for us the privilege 
 of prayer; he teaches us how to pray; he lays 
 upon us the command to pray; and then he an¬ 
 swers us (or rather the Father answers us for his 
 sake), because in prayer we put ourselves in har¬ 
 mony with his will as it concerns us, occupy the 
 place in the divine economy made for us, and thus, 
 being no longer obstructionists, we become a 
 
26 
 
 “ Thy Kingdom ComeT 
 
 part of God’s machinery for saving the world. 
 
 The earth life of the Son of God, being a pattern 
 for ours, was pre-eminently one of prayer. From 
 its standpoint a prayerless life is an anomaly, a 
 failure, an exaggerated indignity. He not only 
 seeks to lead us out of the selfishness, the secular- 
 ity, the barrenness, the viciousness of such a life, 
 but would further save us from ourselves by teach¬ 
 ing us what to pray for. With an unerring appre¬ 
 hension of human needs, he has made lavish pro¬ 
 vision for all, nor left one out of the prayer he has 
 taught us to say. If we would never pray in vain, 
 let us make the Lord’s Prayer at least the leaven 
 out of which shall rise all our petitions. 
 
 Perhaps the most comprehensive of these—in¬ 
 deed, the one that seems to sustain to the others 
 the relationship of genus to species—is that with 
 which this paper opens: “Thy kingdom come.” 
 It does appear to me that to have these won¬ 
 derfully expressive words put upon our lips b}' 
 their divine Author as our inalienable property; 
 to have our minds imbued with the wealth of 
 thought they express ; to have our hearts inspired 
 with the hopes they kindle; to have our lives ele¬ 
 vated to the spiritual level which they make possi¬ 
 ble, is to receive a new interpretation of the mys¬ 
 tery of being, a new vindication of God’s ways in 
 the earth, a new reason for being and doing all 
 that redeemed manhood implies. 
 
 Seeking to know our interest in these words, so 
 fraught with universal human destiny, let us try 
 to find their truest, deepest meaning, their high¬ 
 est, best inspiration. 
 
“ Thy Kingdom ComeT 
 
 27 
 
 The personal reign of the God-man, which is 
 clearly the meaning of the term kingdom as used 
 in this connection, is the most persistent fact of 
 divine revelation. Promise, symbol, prophecy are 
 all surcharged with it; and everywhere man’s 
 noblest work here is held to be that of a coworker 
 in bringing it in ; while reigning with him is 
 counted to be man’s highest destiny hereafter. 
 
 Three aspects of this reign are made prominent 
 in the New Testament Scriptures, and for each of 
 these in its order the words of the Master teach 
 us to pray. These aspects are: (i) His reign in 
 our own hearts and over our own lives; (2) His 
 reign in the Church; (3) His reign over the world. 
 
 He who is obedient to his Master prays intelli¬ 
 gently, honestly, in faith, “Thy kingdom come,” 
 holds as his first thought, cherishes as his fondest 
 desire, seeks as highest good the supreme Kingship 
 of Jesus over himself. Otherwise his words are 
 only mockery, and they but parody the utterance 
 of his divine Lord. It is nothing short of folly to 
 expect, it is little short of blasphemy to ask for, 
 the kingdom elsewhere, when we persistently put 
 it away from ourselves. 
 
 In this aspect the prayer is peculiarly the prop¬ 
 erty of every penitent sinner. It contains the 
 very essence of repentance, faith, and surrender 
 to the soul’s only rightful Lord: the very condi¬ 
 tion of conversion, consecration, and availability 
 in the divine service. The kingdom in us is, per¬ 
 haps, the only infallible sign that we are in the 
 kingdom. Did not the Master mean this when he 
 said, “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God ? ” And 
 
28 
 
 “ Thy Kingdom Come." 
 
 then added in another place, “The kingdom of 
 God cometh not from observation. . . . The 
 
 kingdom of God is within you.” 
 
 A truly converted soul, a truly consecrated life, 
 of itself constitutes a kingdom over which the 
 King of kings delights, above everything else, to 
 rule. “ Thus sayeth the Tord, the heaven is my 
 throne, and the earth is my footstool, . . . 
 
 but to this man will I look, even to him that is 
 poor and of a contrite spirit trembleth at my 
 word. If a man love me, he will keep my words, 
 and my Father will love him, and we will come to 
 him and make our abode with him.” The nucleus 
 of Christ’s kingdom was formed when the first 
 human soul submitted to his easy yoke and took 
 up the light burden of his service. 
 
 Then by the coalition of such soul kingdoms, 
 the empire of the Church of God is constituted, 
 and so manifests the second phase of the media¬ 
 torial reign. Christ is “ head over all things to 
 the Church,” and when the truly saved man, in 
 whom and over whom Jesus reigns, prays, “ thy 
 kingdom come,” his faith compasses the time 
 when the actual shall become the ideal Church of 
 God; when his prayer shall find common answer 
 with that of the blessed Saviour, “That they may 
 all be one; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in 
 thee, that they may also be one in us; that the 
 world may believe that thou hast sent me.” 
 
 In the unfolding of this kingdom the Church is 
 made the magazine of divine power, the dispen¬ 
 sary of divine grace, the instrument of the world’s 
 evangelization; and her prayer, “Thy kingdom 
 
“ Thy Kingdom ComeT 
 
 29 
 
 come,” united, ceaseless, alone makes her divine 
 resources sure, and keeps her human sympathies 
 warm. For her encouragement she has the prom¬ 
 ise of the Father, “I shall give the heathen for 
 thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for thy possession; ” the proclamation of 
 the Son, “ Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man 
 sitting on the right hand of power and coming in 
 the clouds of heaven,” and the assurance of the 
 Holy Spirit, “He must reign till he hath put all 
 enemies under his feet.” Heaven and earth may 
 pass away, but 
 
 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun 
 
 Does his successive journeys run. 
 
 For nearly two thousand years, with these death- 
 confirmed, blood-sealed promises in her hand, the 
 Church has been repeating the all-comprehensive 
 formula, “ Thy kingdom come; ” now, in answer 
 to the challenge, “ What of the night ? ” the watch¬ 
 men upon the wall reply: “Three-fourths of the 
 earth’s multiplied millions are yet in the darkness 
 and death of heathendom, and at least five-sixths 
 of the other fourth are practically infidel, being 
 utterly destitute of any saving knowledge of 
 God.” The response is startling. Is this, then, 
 the legitimate outcome of the divine plan for the 
 “restitution of all things?” Has that plan prov¬ 
 en a failure ? Has the devil and his human ad¬ 
 juncts been more than a match for the wisdom and 
 power and grace of God in Christ? No! a thou¬ 
 sand times no! God’s plan never miscarries, 
 never fails, never retraces its steps in the presence 
 
30 “ Thy Kingdom ConieT 
 
 of a foe. Its institution in the world being sole¬ 
 ly in man’s interest, its progress has been and 
 must continue to be in the direct ratio of man’s 
 consent to be saved himself and to be used in the 
 salvation of others. A compulsory salvation would 
 be a contradiction in terms; a saved man who 
 does nothing to save somebody else simply breaks 
 the circuit of divine grace and plays the part of a 
 heedless ground wire. 
 
 The world is where it is to-day, spiritually, be¬ 
 cause the Church has not really asked for any¬ 
 thing better; it has not really believed that any¬ 
 thing better was practicable or possible; has not 
 really made it her sole business to make it better. 
 That'this is the secret of the whole matter the 
 Word of God attests : “Ye shall ask what ye will, 
 and it shall be done unto you; ” “ If ye have faith 
 as a grain of mustard seed, . . . nothing shall 
 
 be impossible to you;’’ “If these things be in 
 you and abound, they shall make you that you be 
 neither idle nor unfruitful in the acknowledgement 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’’ 
 
 The threefold sin of the Church—the triple¬ 
 headed nightmare of the world—is prayerless- 
 ness, faithlessness, covetousness. She does not pray 
 like Jesus, her Head, prayed, or like he taught her 
 to pray. She does not realize that her sufficiency 
 is of God, and that it hangs upon the asking. 
 Whole volumes of self-laudation and self-gratula- 
 tion occupy the waste places that lack of com¬ 
 munion with God has made; but these are alien, 
 and cannot be utilized in bringing in the king¬ 
 dom. When the Church learns to pray for the 
 
‘■'Thy Kingdom Come." 
 
 31 
 
 world like John Knox prayed for Scotland, the 
 world will be at her feet, or rather at the feet of 
 her Lord. 
 
 But little as the Church prays, she does not be¬ 
 lieve the few things she says, even when she uses 
 the words taught her by the Master. I do not 
 speak of all. God knoweth his own. I mean the 
 body of professed Christians ; or, to be more di¬ 
 rect, the body of our own Methodism. What a 
 consummate farce, so far as the great mass of our 
 people are concerned, is the stated repetition "of 
 the Lord’s Prayer in our churches. Most of them 
 indeed never join in the repetition; they neither 
 know, believe, nor care for its contents; while 
 most of the others have very imperfect, very nar¬ 
 row conceptions of the meaning of the words 
 they utter, and very feeble, very ill-defined faith 
 in any definite answer to them. This is the rea¬ 
 son why “ Thy kingdom come ” has not long since 
 shaken this old world from center to circumfer¬ 
 ence. Millions of lips, on which ought to have 
 been the power of God, have been dumb to its 
 power of utterance, while thousands of other lips, 
 in its utterance, have failed to represent hearts 
 that ought to have been aflame with love and in¬ 
 vincible in faith. 
 
 Moreover, where the prayer has been made with 
 some degree of regularity and fervor, and where 
 a nebulous kind of faith that sometime and some¬ 
 how it would be answered, still our hoarded re¬ 
 sources of personal power and material wealth 
 have been turned into other channels, and devoted 
 to other interests. How few of our people yet 
 
32 
 
 “ Thy Kingdom Come." 
 
 know that it is of the very essence of prayer that he 
 who prays devotes himself and his all, in God’s 
 hands, to the end to which his prayer looks. It 
 is the crucial test of a Christian’s honesty that he 
 is willing to stake everything on the Word of his • 
 divine Lord. 
 
 We stand convicted even to-day by the same 
 message that smote last on Jewish ears before the 
 Voice came : “ Ye have robbed me.” Thank God 
 it is still optional with us to redeem the titne. 
 Thus sayeth the Lord: “Bring ye all the tithes 
 into the storehouse, that there may be meat in 
 mine house, and prove me now herewith, . . . 
 
 if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and 
 pour you out such a blessing that there shall not 
 be room enough to receive it.” 
 
 Brethren, we can bring Christ’s kingdom much 
 nearer to ourselves and much nearer its final goal 
 by raising the average of our foreign contribu¬ 
 tion to fifty cents per member this year. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF MISSIONS. 
 
 D uring this so-called renascent century of mis¬ 
 sions the Church has spent much time and 
 exhausted much treasure of mind and money in 
 discussing and experimenting with plans and meth¬ 
 ods. The most hopeful sign of the closing period 
 is that we are coming to learn that the plan for 
 propagating the gospel is as much a matter of di¬ 
 vine revelation as the gospel itself; that the Church 
 can as easily originate a saving message as she can 
 devise a successful propaganda (Rome deems her- 
 vSelf capable of both); that while the official work 
 of our Lord JCvSus Christ has created, stamped with 
 authority and sealed with his own blood the one, 
 at the same time his personal life has furnished 
 with equal distinctness and authority the other; 
 that as the gospel in every age and among every 
 people has proved itself “the power of God unto 
 salvation” just in proportion as it has been kept 
 pure—nothing added to it, nothing taken from it— 
 so its propagation has been a success just as the 
 same sacred deference has been paid to Christ’s di¬ 
 vinely recorded example. ‘ ‘ For, ’ ’ says he, ‘ ‘ I have 
 given you an example;” and “If ye know these 
 things, happy are ye if ye do them.” 
 
 I said that we are coming to learn these things. 
 Slowly, indeed; ah, so slowly! But we are learn¬ 
 ing them. And, after the spirit of scientific experi¬ 
 mentation, so peculiar to the age and so boastful of 
 its achievements, has spent itself; after the bubbles 
 3 (33) 
 
34 
 
 The Problem of Missions. 
 
 of a cheap and pestiferous optimism have all burst, 
 we shall come back to simple faith in him who 
 said: “All power in heaven and in earth is given 
 into my hands; ” back to simple obedience to him 
 who said: “Follow me.” Christ’s formula for 
 solving the problem of missions is stated in these 
 words: “And Jesus went about all the cities and 
 villages, teaching in their synagogues, . . . and 
 
 healing all manner of sickness and all manner of 
 disease among the people.” (Matt. ix. 35.) 
 
 What Judea and Galilee were to the personal 
 ministry of Christ, the world is to the ministry of 
 the Church. If this is not so, then the Church has 
 no divine ministry in the world, and it matters 
 little what is said along the line of things under 
 consideration. If it is so, then what an exhaustless 
 mine of priceless thought is uncovered! what an 
 armory of untried, or only partially tried, weapons 
 is opened by this short passage ! 
 
 Jesus did four things: («) He went where the 
 thronging multitude, without a shepherd, sorely 
 needed his presence and his blessing; (< 5 *) he 
 preached., that they might know that the kingdom 
 of heaven and hope was at hand; (r) he taught, 
 that they might know how to enter that kingdom, 
 the kingdom having entered them; [d) he heated 
 sickness and disease, that all might have proof and 
 appreciation of the divine character of his person, 
 his preaching, and his teaching. 
 
 There are, then, just four things for the Church 
 to do in following her divine Lord, in executing 
 her world-wide commission. They are the same 
 four things that He did ; and as long as she keeps 
 
The Problem of Missions. 
 
 35 
 
 lierself unentangled with any foreign alliance, she 
 is assured of the same authority, the same powder, 
 and the same success as were always His. He says: 
 “Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth 
 on me (that cuts off all alliance with Self, Caesar, 
 or Mammon), the works that I do shall he do also; 
 and greater works than these shall he do; because 
 I go unto the Father.” (John xiv. 12.) 
 
 The Church has always been slow to believe all 
 that Jesus said of himself and of his kingdom, just 
 as his immediate disciples were slow to believe all 
 that the prophets had spoken of him; and she has 
 been slower to obey than to believe. In the matter 
 of ‘ ‘ going ’ ’ she has had trouble from the begin¬ 
 ning, and her movements have often been eccentric. 
 The centripetal force of Judaism so dominated 
 Jerusalem, even after Pentecost, that Antioch took 
 her crown; and Paul superseded, in apostolic labor, 
 those who had known Christ after the flesh, had 
 heard the commission, and had seen Pentecost. 
 The Church in the Roman Empire, grown strong 
 despite three centuries of persecution, exchanged 
 Christ for Caesar and became the world-wide prop¬ 
 agandist of a miserable mixture of heathenism, 
 Judaism, and Christianity. When Protestantism 
 came upon the stage she seemed to think she had 
 enough to do to maintain her integrity at home; 
 and with sporadic and infrequent exceptions, little 
 going into the ‘ ‘ regions beyond ’ ’ was done till the 
 nineteenth century was well advanced. Even now, 
 much of her going is tentative; much of her occu¬ 
 pancy is precarious; much of her work is experi¬ 
 mental. As to what is meant in this statement. 
 
36 The Problem of Missions. 
 
 and avS a vindication of its truth, no better illustra¬ 
 tion can be found than China. 
 
 Our Protestant missionaries (to say nothing of 
 those of Rome and Russia) have gone to China 
 under express provision of treaties forced upon 
 that nation by the so-called Christian nations. 
 They have gone retaining their citizenship under 
 the governments of these nations, and with the dis¬ 
 tinct understanding that for their conduct they are 
 amenable, not to the Chinese, but to home courts. 
 They have gone committed to the “ Westernizing ’ ^ 
 of the civilization of China. They have gone thus 
 expressing more confidence in Caesar than in Christ, 
 more faith in civilization than in Christianity. 
 Thus going, their occupancy of the country is not 
 in the narne of him who is China’s King as he is 
 their King, but in the name of the powers by whose 
 fiat they entered. Their safety is predicated, not 
 of the promises, the infallible promises of Jesus 
 Christ, but of the diplomatic skill and warlike 
 power of their respective governments; so, it seems 
 to me, our entrance would impress the Chinese, 
 and so it has impressed them. 
 
 It is a fact that few, if any, missionaries have 
 suffered in China purely for Christ’s sake. Rather 
 they have suffered because of real or supposed alli¬ 
 ance with powers whose known business is whole¬ 
 sale robbery, and who patronize Christianity only 
 as a means of aggrandizing themselves. It must 
 be apparent that Christian work done under such 
 auspices must be experimental, and is in danger of 
 sharing the fate of Nestorianisni and early Roman¬ 
 ism in the same field. It is earnestly believed that 
 
The Problem of Missions. 
 
 37 
 
 the time has come when this whole thing vshould 
 be changed; that, pursuant of the present fearful 
 cataclysm, no matter how it terminates politically, 
 the Church ought to get right with Christ and 
 with China. 
 
 Let State Churches do as they may or can, but 
 let true Protestantism resolve at least these things: 
 (rt) Not to enter or occupy any mission field on 
 terms stipulated by any civil government or gov¬ 
 ernments; if') to send no missionary to any field 
 who insists on retaining citizenship at home, and 
 who expects at the hands of his government pro¬ 
 tection against the government under whose juris¬ 
 diction he labors; (<:) to inform all people to whom 
 we go that we represent no government but that 
 of Christ, no civilization but that of pure Christiani¬ 
 ty, no enterprise but the saving of their souls, no 
 system of learning but that which makes wise unto 
 salvation; (d) to let our religion commend our civ¬ 
 ilization, and not our civilization our religion; {e) in 
 short, to return to simple obedience to our Lord, 
 going where he has commanded, where he opens up 
 the way; but going in such Christian independence 
 that our presence cannot, in any one’s esteem, justly 
 involve us in complications alien to his kingdom. 
 
 So Paul went to Asia Minor, Macedonia, to 
 Greece, even to Rome; so Patrick went to Ire¬ 
 land ; so Columbanus and his fellow Irishmen 
 went to the tribes of Germany; so Schwartz went 
 to India; so Eliot and Brainerd went to the North 
 American Indians; so Livingstone and Moffat 
 went to darkest Africa; so Paton went to the 
 South Sea Islands. The list might be lengthened 
 
38 The Problem of ilfissions. 
 
 indefinitely, but these will suffice to show that 
 manner of going which never fails, and never 
 brings reproach upon the worthy name of our 
 Head. This appeal cannot be set aside on the 
 plea that it is visionary, and that the plan pro¬ 
 posed is inexpedient, impracticable. This plea 
 will only hold when it can be shown that Christ 
 himself was a visionary; that his religion is an 
 illusion, and his kingdom a myth. Just as sure 
 as Christ reigns ; just as sure as his Word is invi¬ 
 olable ; just as sure as his Church is under exclu¬ 
 sive commission to evangelize the world; just 
 as sure as every past failure is traceable to defec¬ 
 tion from Christ, and alliance with the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil; just that sure, in order to the 
 conquest of China and the world, must the Church 
 return to her “ first love” and to the “ old paths.” 
 
 With such an entrance and such an occupancy, 
 preaching the gospel of the kingdom becomes the 
 primary, the leading function of the Church. 
 This needs no discussion. On it all the votaries 
 of missions are agreed. Jesus said: “As ye go, 
 preach.” After the martyrdom of Stephen, “they 
 that were scattered abroad went everywhere 
 preaching the Word.” Paul said : “ The Jews re¬ 
 quire a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but 
 we preach Christ crucified.” To fortify his teach¬ 
 ing in the minds of adults, and to introduce his 
 preaching into the minds of children, Christ 
 “ taught.” The Church must teach for the same 
 reasons. It seems strange that there should ever 
 have been a question of this. The adult that be¬ 
 lieves when preached to must be grounded in the 
 
The Problem of Missions. 
 
 39 
 
 faith that saves him, especially if he is to become 
 a preacher to others. This can only be done by 
 teaching—Christian teaching. The transcendent 
 reason, however, for constituting the Church a 
 teacher, is found in the fact that Christianity’s 
 hope, always and everywhere, is the child world, 
 and because the “child world’’ alone is amenable 
 to educational influences. 
 
 That the education may begin at the right time 
 and progress in the right direction, the order of 
 the commission enjoins discipling (by baptism) 
 first, then teaching what Christ commanded. This 
 order is specially adapted to children, and strong¬ 
 ly enforces infant baptism. 
 
 Two important points regarding our mission 
 schools are to be guarded—viz; {a) The founda¬ 
 tion; ( b) the extent of the curriculum. Beyond 
 all question the foundation ought to be unqual¬ 
 ifiedly religious. Without indorsing the matter 
 of Rome’s teaching, nevertheless she holds the 
 right principle in this matter. Secular education 
 without a religious foundation of the right sort 
 is a dangerous acquisition anywhere; it is espe¬ 
 cially so among a people enamored of the material 
 benefits of Christianity, but caring nothing for its 
 spiritual salvation. India and Japan furnish abun¬ 
 dant instruction on this point. It is to be feared 
 that some of our mission schools are engaged in 
 a very doubtful work, because of the modicum of 
 religious influence that pervades them. As to the 
 extent of the curriculum, circumstances must 
 largely determine. All that there is of true learn¬ 
 ing is the protege of the gospel, and is as much 
 
40 
 
 The Problem of Missions. 
 
 the property of the Church as the gospel itself. 
 Nothing worthy to be taught can find better con¬ 
 ditions of dispensation than those of the Chris¬ 
 tian school, which yields to none either in capaci¬ 
 ty or authority to teach. Let the curriculum em¬ 
 brace everything that is needful and that can be 
 used in the name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Again, Jesus “healed ’all manner of sickness 
 and all manner of disease among the people.” 
 The Church is just as much under obligation to 
 do this as she is either to preach or to teach. 
 Medical and surgical science constitutes as much 
 a part of the boon that Christianity has conferred 
 upon the human race as do Churches and schools ; 
 and just as the study and knowledge of universal 
 language has superseded the original gift of 
 tongues in preaching and teaching everywhere, 
 so scientific mastery of sickness and disease has 
 taken the place of miraculous cures. 
 
 The Church can no more make full proof of her 
 ministry among the poor, offcast, sick, and dis¬ 
 ease-smitten, at home and broad, without availing 
 herself of all that her Master has put in her 
 hands for their relief, in body as well as in mind 
 and spirit, than could he have been the Saviour he 
 was and yet have passed by the helpless, suffering 
 multitudes that hung upon his steps, without com¬ 
 passionating and helping them. 
 
 At home Protestant Churches may find sonie> 
 though very inadequate, excuse for doing so little 
 in the way of hospital and dispensary work. They 
 may say that all this is amply provided for on the 
 secular side of our civilization. While this state- 
 
The Problem of Missions. 
 
 41 
 
 ment falls far short of the truth, let it be granted 
 for the nonce; still, outside this civilization, a 
 Christian mission is certainly very poorly equipped 
 for the work which it has accepted from the hands 
 of the Great Ph3^sician, as well as the Great Preacher 
 •and Teacher, unless it is supplied with competent 
 doctors and medicines for the body, as well as 
 teachers and preachers for the mind and heart. 
 
 As was said at the beginning, we are learning, often 
 from sad experiences and humiliating failures, what 
 we ought to have known from the personal life of 
 Him who taught infinitely more by example than bj" 
 precept—viz: {a) That the body of the veriest out¬ 
 cast is worth being rescued in the name of Christ; 
 ( b ) that oftener than otherwise among extreme suf¬ 
 ferers, the only wa}^ open to the soul is through re¬ 
 lief of the body. In all heathen lands, and in many 
 regions which we are trying to rescue from the long 
 and bitter reign of Romanism, the medical arm of 
 our missions is the most hopeful for immediate, for 
 thorough, for permanent results. Our hospitals and 
 dispensaries must be maintained and multiplied. 
 
 Phnally, the problem of nineteen centuries still 
 awaits a solution at the hands of the Church. 
 Great will be the opportunity, yet fearful the re¬ 
 sponsibility, of him who is called to move amid the 
 scenes and activities of the next one hundred j^ears. 
 The Church holds the ke}’- to every situation. Her 
 prayer, her faith, her consecrated endeavor can 
 command victory for her Lord out of ever^" clash 
 of adverse forces; or her indifference, her doubt, 
 her hesitancy, as in the past, can transfer the issue 
 to future generations. 
 
PAYING AND GIVING. 
 
 C HE great conflict which is to decide the proprie¬ 
 torship and government of this world is too far • 
 advanced for any one having both intelligence and 
 honesty to call in qnCvStion either the rightfulness, 
 the reasonableness, or the hopefulness of Christian¬ 
 ity’s cause. Even those who acknowledge a mere¬ 
 ly nominal allegiance to Christ are constrained to 
 confess that the earth and its fullness are his of 
 right, and must ere long be his in fact. His Lord- 
 ship has come to be esteemed as not only funda¬ 
 mental to the Christian creed, but as well an essen¬ 
 tial element of Christian civilization. Second only 
 to this is the doctrine of man’s stewardship. In¬ 
 deed, the two seem never to have been separated in 
 the Mind, as they never stand apart in the Word, of 
 our divine Master. “ Why call ye me Lord, Lord, 
 and do not the things which I say? ” “Not every 
 one that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the 
 kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father who is in heaven.” “Who then is that 
 faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall 
 make ruler over his household ? ” “ Blessed is that 
 
 servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find 
 so doing.” 
 
 The point at which men seem dullest in compre¬ 
 hending this relationship to their Lord, and slowest 
 in conceding his claims upon them, is in the use of 
 their money. The Gospel teaches nothing more 
 evidently and emphatically than that every man is 
 
 (42) 
 
Paying and Giving. 
 
 43 
 
 directly responsible to the Master for the right use 
 of every dollar and of every dollar’s worth that 
 falls into his hands; that his right to have and to 
 hold and handle property in any shape depends 
 solely upon his getting and using it as the law of 
 Christ’s kingdom directs. Yet how far below this 
 unappealable standard is the practice of even the 
 average Church member! How far short of it is 
 the average pulpit teaching ! 
 
 What a modicum of power does this twin doc¬ 
 trine—Christ’s lordship and man’s stewardship— 
 exert in directing the ordinary investments, gains, 
 and uses of money even within the ' Church ! 
 How seldom, too, do the Lord’s messengers press 
 as they do other vital matters this question of ques¬ 
 tions: “ How much owest thou unto my Lord ? ” 
 
 There is certainly great ignorance, great negli¬ 
 gence, great criminality, great loss in this day of 
 grace at this point, for which somebody is responsi¬ 
 ble, and for which account must be rendered some¬ 
 time and somewhere. The Church is suffering 
 grievously from the idolatrous sin of covetousness. 
 Its worst feature is not our depleted and debt-bur¬ 
 dened missionary treasuries, nor our shamefully 
 meager and illy sustained missionary forces, though 
 either of these is sufficient to startle any sensitive 
 Christian conscience. But the truly alarming fea¬ 
 ture is the benumbed and deadened conscience that 
 can contemplate these disgraceful things with in¬ 
 difference, not to say complacency. The Church 
 (and by the Church I mean the entire membership, 
 with only exceptions enough to confirm the rule) 
 not only sins in her “ greed for gain,” just like the 
 
44 
 
 Paying and Giving. 
 
 world’s people, but she is foolishly deceiving her¬ 
 self in regard to the little that is, by various meth¬ 
 ods, pressed out of her in the name of the Lord 
 and humanity. 
 
 Individuals and Churches often congratulate 
 themselves, and boast in an unseemly way to others 
 concerning what they “give,” while in truth and 
 in the Lord’s esteem they have given absolutely 
 nothing. People do not “ give ” to the Lord when 
 they build their own houses of worship, support 
 their own preachers, take care of their own Sunday 
 schools, or feed and clothe their own poor. Not 
 to do these is to deny the faith, and to be worse 
 than an infidel. To do them is to pay a small part 
 of what is due on our constantly accumulating in¬ 
 terest and rental. To the faithful steward the Mas¬ 
 ter has promised a “living” for himself and his, and 
 has secured it beyond contingency. Out of this 
 ‘ ‘ living ’ ’ must come any ‘ ‘ gift ’ ’ with which a man 
 would enrich God’s treasury and make himself a 
 factor in carrying the gospel into regions beyond. 
 
 The Jew “paid” tithes and “gave” offerings. 
 What made the widow’s two mites a gift was that 
 they constituted her “living;” and what made 
 them of incalculable value was that they were all 
 the living she had. The Church sadly misuses— 
 yes, grossly abuses—the best-defined terms when 
 she talks so glibly and writes so voluminously 
 about her “giving,” her “offerings,” when she 
 has not even approximated the payment of her 
 rent. Another error that has become a sore evil in 
 the Church is the notion that some, even many, 
 people are too poor either to pay or give. 
 
Paying and Giinng. 
 
 45 
 
 It is time that we were all learning that in Christ’s 
 economy no one is absolved; none are too poor. 
 The double principle involved in this economy is: 
 (<7) To maintain and develop in us the grace of 
 common honesty—no man can be honest and not 
 pay his debts; {b') to educate us in the spirit and 
 practice of self-sacrifice—no man can be a Christian 
 and consume God’s bounty upon himself. 
 
 The requirement to both pay and give, universal as 
 it is, is not arbitrary. The principle of it inheres in 
 the very relation we sustain to the fact of our re¬ 
 demption and salvation. Christ has left no soul 
 unredeemed, no subject of his kingdom unendowed. 
 He has giveu to every man. And while he is not 
 dependent on the tithes we pay, we cannot be loyal 
 to him and not pay them. While our gifts may 
 not enrich him, we cannot be his disciples and not 
 bestow them. Every redeemed soul has something 
 wherewith to “pay and give as unto the Lord.’^ 
 If not dollars, then cents; if not cents, then some 
 other testimonial of obligation and gratitude— 
 work, prayer, praise; something, “according to 
 that he hath, not according to that he hath not.’’ 
 
 All may of thee, O blessed Christ, partake. 
 
 Nothing- so small can be, 
 
 But draws, when acted for thy sake, 
 
 Greatness and worth from thee. 
 
 It is not the amount that one pays or gives, but 
 the amount that he keeps back for his own aggran¬ 
 dizement, that settles the question of his honesty 
 or dishonesty, his liberality or churlishness. Noth¬ 
 ing is more fatal to spiritual life, nothing more hin¬ 
 dering to growth and usefulness, than this idea of 
 
46 
 
 Paying and Giinng. 
 
 irresponsibility in the matter of giving. It robs of 
 their heritage the very ones for whom the gospel is 
 chiefly designed. “Hath not God chosen the poor 
 of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom 
 which he hath prepared for them that love him ? ” 
 The invariable law of that kingdom is that a failure 
 to impart to others, as occasion serves, the grace 
 received, is to forfeit that grace ourselves. To re¬ 
 ceive and not to give, is to receive the grace of God 
 in vain. 
 
 The two turtle doves or the two young pigeons, 
 in the hands of honest poverty, were equally valua¬ 
 ble, in God’s esteem, with the lamb, or even the 
 bullock, in the hands of the rich. For their sakes 
 the poor of the Church ought to be induced to give, 
 that, like the Macedonians, “their poverty may 
 abound to the riches of their liberality.” 
 
 There is to-day immeasurably more hope to the 
 Church and to the world in cultivating Macedonian 
 poverty than in patronizing Laodicean wealth. 
 Indeed, the shame of the pulpit, the weakness of 
 the Church, and the bane of the world is the fawn¬ 
 ing deference shown men because they have money. 
 Rich men are no more a safe reliance in the Church 
 to-day than they were when James wrote his in¬ 
 spired letter of warning and instruction to the 
 twelve tribes scattered abroad. 
 
 With exceptions too few to affect the rule, they 
 neither pay nor give according to the divine law. 
 Even those who have the credit of doing so make 
 large exemptions in the way of palatial residen¬ 
 ces, costly furniture, fine clothing, high living, 
 showy equipage, and an exhaustive worldly outfit 
 
Paying and Giving. 
 
 47 
 
 in general, to meet the assnmed demands of so- 
 called society upon them and their families. Mark 
 yon, this same society is what Christ and his apos¬ 
 tles called the “world” and “ mammon,” and of 
 which they say: “ Ye cannot serve God and mam¬ 
 mon.” “Whosoever will be a friend of the world 
 is the enemy of God.” “ If any man love the 
 world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The 
 demands of society are unprovided for in the 
 economy of grace, while the claims of Jesus 
 Christ constitute the supreme law. 
 
 The sequestration of the Lord’s money in the 
 interest of society, except to revolutionize, disin¬ 
 fect, and reconstruct it, is a base fraud. Yet the 
 Church money thus divorced from its legitimate 
 functions of paying and giving in the Lord’s ser¬ 
 vice would fill the treasury of every Mission 
 Board and man every open mission field on the 
 two hemispheres. 
 
 According to the almanac published by the 
 American Board of Missions for 1901, the foreign 
 mission receipts for the thirty-five general mis¬ 
 sionary societies of this country for last year 
 were $5,209,656. This amount divided among the 
 members of the various Protestant Churches 
 would give an average of less than twenty-five 
 cents. Nothing can be more apparent to a candid 
 observer than that this amount could be quadru¬ 
 pled in a single year if the spirit of Christ pre¬ 
 vailed in the Church, and that, too, without any 
 real personal sacrifice upon the part of a single 
 member. 
 
 There is a vast deal of pseudo spirituality exhib- 
 
48 
 
 Paying and Giving. 
 
 ited in certain quarters nowadays in the shape of 
 criticism adverse to laying stress on the matter of 
 collections at our various Conferences. As an 
 antidote for, or at least as a partial quietus upon, 
 this impertinent effervescence, let it be said: («) 
 That while no preacher ought to be held respon¬ 
 sible in any way for the shortcomings of an un¬ 
 appreciative and irresponsive people, nevertheless 
 every preacher is morally bound, and ought to be 
 so held by Church law, to see that the connection- 
 al claims share at least equally with his own 
 among the people he serves. There is something 
 radically wrong with the preacher who compla¬ 
 cently poekets his own claim in full and then just 
 as coolly reports the colleetions twenty-five or 
 fifty per cent short. I have never heard anything 
 said at Conferenee, or anywhere else, too severe 
 for that preacher’s case, {b') By every available 
 token we are justified in measuring the genuine¬ 
 ness and depth of a member’s spiritual life by the 
 generosity of his giving. Think as you may, 
 talk and write as 3'ou please, it is nevertheless un¬ 
 questionably true that a man’s profession of re¬ 
 ligion can be better tested and measured by the 
 motive and extent of his giving than b}^ an^' other 
 known method. 
 
 Charity may forbid the saying in so many words 
 that a penurious man cannot have religion, but to 
 say that such a man can enjoy religion is to con¬ 
 found thought and confuse the terms of its ex¬ 
 pression. Man^' preachers, as well as Church 
 members, object strenuously to the association of 
 the Old Testament idea of tithing with our Chris- 
 
Paying and Giving. 
 
 49 
 
 tian economy. They sa}^ that it is not sanctioned 
 by New Testament teaching. I am not disposed 
 to contend for the letter when more than the 
 equivalent of its spirit is everywhere inculcated. 
 Conformity to the New Testament “paying and 
 giving” would not only put “meat in God’s 
 house,” but would pile every Christian altar with 
 the richest of freewill offerings. Some of these 
 principles are; “Cheerfully;” “as much as in us 
 lies;” “according as God has prospered;” “lay 
 by in store on the first day of the week; ” “ heart¬ 
 ily, as unto the Lord ; ” “ for the glory of God ; ” 
 “ all in the name of the Lord Jesus ; ” “ not grudg¬ 
 ingly, or of necessity;” “he that giveth, let him 
 do it with simplicity.” 
 
 It is a shame that a worldly spirit and worldly 
 methods so largely enter into the gathering of 
 even the little we do turn into the Lord’s treas¬ 
 ury; that a popular and successful scheme for do¬ 
 ing Church work or raising Church funds must 
 provide a quid pro quo in some form—fun, recrea¬ 
 tion, self-glory—a pound of self-gratification to a 
 grain of self-denial. When will we learn the bet¬ 
 ter way: “The love of Christ constraineth us;” 
 the higher experience: “It is more blessed to 
 give than to receive ? ” 
 
 As a means of awakening our people to in¬ 
 creased missionary zeal and activity, some breth¬ 
 ren have great faitkin the dissemination of mis¬ 
 sionary literature. This certainly is not to be 
 despised, furnishing, as it does, so much of en¬ 
 couragement and direction to the faith and the 
 labor of trul}^ consecrated men and women. To 
 4 
 
50 
 
 Paying and Giving. 
 
 these it is invaluable. But it does seem to me 
 that the masses of the Church need something 
 more radical than this. In their present attitude 
 to Christ and his kingdom, the conversion of the 
 world, or any part of it foreign to themselves, is 
 to them a matter of comparative indifference. 
 That attitude is one of practical infidelity. The 
 coming of Christ’s kingdom is one of the vaguest, 
 most unlikely things in all their thoughts. Their 
 prayer for it is a dream, their desire for it is a 
 nebulous sentiment. 
 
 Indeed, if to know God’s Word, to believe God’s 
 Word, to experience personally the saving power 
 of God’s Word, does not make missionaries of 
 men and women, ready to “go or send” wherever 
 God opens the way, then no amount of informa¬ 
 tion about the field or workers can do so. World¬ 
 ly wisdom and secular economy may consistently 
 withhold their patronage where these proofs are 
 wanting; but we “walk by faith, not by sight.” 
 
 To the converted, consecrated, Bible-knowing 
 Christian it is enough that he who is Lord of all 
 says: “The field is the world;” i^b) “the 
 
 seed is the Word of God; ” (r) “the sower soweth 
 the Word;” (^d) “blessed are they that sow’ be¬ 
 side all waters;” and (^) “ lo, I am with you 
 alway, even to the end of the w’orld.” 
 
 Participation in the dividends of a redeemed 
 and reinstated w’orld in the ratio of a hundredfold 
 of their investment in the present time and eter¬ 
 nal life hereafter, is the unfailing heritage of 
 those who give themselves and their all to the 
 bringing in of Christ’s kingdom. What of those 
 
Paying and Giving. 51 
 
 whose service and treasure are all confined to 
 earth ? 
 
 My brethren, 
 
 The restless millions wait 
 
 That lig’ht, whose dawning maketh all things new; 
 Christ also waits, hut men are slow and late. 
 
 Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you? 
 
 A cloud of witnesses above encompass us, 
 
 We love to think of all they see and know; 
 
 But what of this great multitude in peril. 
 
 Who sadly wait below? 
 
 O let this thrilling vision daily move us 
 To earnest prayers and deeds before unknown. 
 
 That souls redeemed from many lands may join us. 
 
 When Christ brings home his own. 
 
 » 
 
ENLISTMENT OF PASTORS. 
 
 T N all forms of polity known to the Christian 
 Church the pastor is an important factor. This 
 is pre-eminently so in the economy of Episcopal 
 Methodism. Here no connectional enterprise can 
 succeed without his sympathy and co-operation. 
 No matter how well conceived, how wisely planned, 
 how zealously advocated by others any cause of 
 Christ’s kingdom may be, if, for any reason, the 
 pastor fails to comprehend it, fails to fall in line 
 with it, fails to throw himself into it, the people 
 will, as a rule, remain unappreciative and unre¬ 
 sponsive. 
 
 This is but a corollary of the divinely announced 
 proposition: “Like priest, like people;” the in¬ 
 evitable consequence from the investment made 
 by the great Head of the Church when he said : 
 “ I will give unto thee the keys of the ^ingdom 
 of heaven,” 
 
 It was to the pastor of the Gospel age that he 
 said: “Go make disciples of the nations;” and 
 under this commission any plan or movement 
 which ignores or discounts that element which 
 the Master dignifies with the chiefest place and 
 burdens with the highest responsibility is already 
 a failure. 
 
 It is no matter of wonder, then, that those hav¬ 
 ing charge of general Church interests should 
 make the “enlistment of pastors” among their 
 first and greatest matters of concern. By so far 
 
 (52) 
 
Enlistment of Pastors. 
 
 53 
 
 as the work of missions is above and comprehen¬ 
 sive of all other enterprises of the Church, by just 
 so far does it need, and claim, and seek such an 
 enlistment. 
 
 I have been officially requested to answer the 
 question, “ How can we better enlist our pastors 
 in missions ? ” My intimate association with my 
 brethren in all the grades of itinerant service for 
 more than forty years may justify this attempt at 
 compliance. 
 
 It ought, however, to be premised that the true 
 pastor does not need to be enlisted. He who is, 
 in experience and work, an under-shepherd of the 
 one only Great Shepherd of the sheep, by virtue 
 of his very relationship breathes and dispenses 
 the missionary fire. He may never have heard of 
 a Mission Board ; he may never have been thrilled 
 by a direct and personal appeal from the “ regions 
 beyond; ” he may never have been brought in con¬ 
 tact with an organized movenient.to give the gospel 
 to the nations; yet, with the divine Image restored 
 to him, with the divine Nature renewed in him, 
 with the divine call summoning him, with the di¬ 
 vine unction resting upon him, he cannot but seek 
 to share with others, att others^ by all possible 
 means, the grace that saves him. To enlist him 
 you have but to make known to him the purpose 
 of the Master and the plans of the Church. The 
 fact, if it be a fact., that, at this late day, in a move¬ 
 ment like that to which the entire Church is being 
 rallied, a movement of which all the achievements 
 of the nineteenth century were only a prophecy, 
 any number of our pastors are found to be either 
 
54 
 
 Enlistment of Pastors. 
 
 indifferent or inefficient, is significant of a state 
 of affairs more to be dreaded and deprecated than 
 all the financial panics, money stringencies, and 
 Mongolian wars that could possibly befall us. 
 But one thing seems equally appalling; viz, that 
 spiritual, or rather unspiritual, condition of the 
 Church in many places which necessitates the ex¬ 
 penditure of more than nine-tenths of all evan¬ 
 gelical force upon itself before the world can be 
 reached. Precedent to enlistment of pastors, then, 
 we must make sure of the pastors. 
 
 Pursuant to the “ making of a man,” the making 
 of a preacher, a pastor, is the greatest triumph of 
 divine grace, and involves the greatest outlay of 
 human resources. In no carping, no depreciatory 
 spirit is it averred that in order to do her part in 
 the world’s evangelization—a part made impera¬ 
 tive by her numbers, social prestige, and oppor¬ 
 tunity—Southern Methodism must make a decided 
 and speedy advance in the personnel of her min¬ 
 istry. This is no special plea for theological ma¬ 
 chines for making preachers. What is meant is 
 that our preachers must know God’s Word; that, 
 in order to this, their mental vigor, their mental 
 culture, their mental development must be brought 
 to and kept at their best; that they must be stu¬ 
 dents, knowing how to use, and using, every text¬ 
 book in nature, letters, providence, and grace that 
 God may throw in their way. A pastorate composed 
 of men with intellect and training enough to grasp 
 God’s Word; with religion enough to see a living 
 Christ in every page; with call enough to make 
 them feel, “ Woe is me if I preach not the gospel; ” 
 
Enlistment of Pastors. 
 
 55 
 
 conscience and consecration enough to realize 
 in themselves, “ I am debtor both to the Greek 
 and to the Barbarian, both to the wise and the 
 unwise,” may well be relied on to co-operate in¬ 
 telligently and heartily with any enterprise that 
 promises to give Christ his own. There surely 
 must be something radically wrong in the con¬ 
 version, call, or spiritual capital of that preacher 
 w^ho to-day is not an ardent friend and forwarder 
 of missions. 
 
 Theoretically—may I not say practically as 
 well ?—the pastorate of Episcopal Methodism con¬ 
 sists of the bishop, the presiding elder, and the 
 preacher in charge; to whom may be added from 
 among the laymen, the class leader, the Sunday 
 school superintendent, and the Sunday school 
 teacher. A more thorough or a better correlated 
 system it would be hard to conceive. Indeed, as 
 a system it leaves nothing to be desired. With 
 Christ at its head and the Holy vSpirit in its heart, 
 and the right man in each place, it is invincible. 
 It ought itself to take the world for Christ within 
 a century. 
 
 No man, personally or officially, has a larger 
 sphere for good than a Methodist bishop. Through 
 the lower forms of the pastorate his hand is upon 
 every interest and upon every man, w^oman, and 
 child in the entire Church. How transcendently 
 important it is that the life and official acts of 
 such a man be saturated with the spirit of missions! 
 One of his chief functions is to make presiding 
 elders. At no other point of his administration 
 does he affect the Church so directly or so radical- 
 
56 
 
 Enlistme7it of Pastors. 
 
 ly. An anti-missionary or an uninissionary presid¬ 
 ing elder is an intrusion upon our economy. He 
 can do more to neutralize, to thwart, to defeat 
 connectional plans, than half a score of ordinary 
 pastors. It devolves upon our bishops to put and 
 keep such men in this important arm of the pas¬ 
 torate as have both an understanding of the 
 « 
 
 times, to know what our Israel ought to do, and 
 personal energy and influence enough to see that 
 Israel does it. 
 
 Article XVII. of the Constitution of our Mission 
 Board furnishes a good bulletin for a willing pre¬ 
 siding elder. The thirteenth question in the pro¬ 
 gramme of Quarterly Conference business affords 
 a fine opportunity for the discussion of plans, as 
 well as for the hearing of reports, on the cause 
 of missions ; for the substitution of well-tried and 
 successful ones for those that are crude and ill- 
 conceived and anti-Methodistic. It is safe to 
 sa}^ that wherever a presiding elder will follow up 
 these lines intelligently, faithfully, persistently, 
 he will, for the most part, command his co-labor¬ 
 ers after him. 
 
 In conclusion, two or three questions pertinent 
 to the matter under discussion are commended to 
 all concerned. 
 
 First, where do we get the idea, now practically 
 universal in the Church, of a limited call to the 
 gospel ministry?— i. e.y a call to preach within cer¬ 
 tain territorial bounds to be largely determined 
 by the preacher himself. Certainly not from the 
 commission given by our Lord, which is quoted as 
 the sole authority for all gospel preaching, that 
 
Enlistment of Pastors. 
 
 57 
 
 says without any qualification, “ Go into all the 
 world ; ” not from the call of the Holy Spirit: 
 
 When he has come upon you ... ye shall 
 he witnesses unto me ... to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth; ” not from the precepts and 
 practice of Paul, the first missionary to the Gen¬ 
 tiles. He said : “ I am debtor both to the Greek 
 and to the Barbarian, both to the wise and 
 the unwise;” and one of his chiefest grounds 
 for glory was that he had not entered into oth¬ 
 er men’s labors, but that “ from Jerusalem and 
 round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached 
 the gospel of Christ.” Finally, Methodist preach¬ 
 ers did not get it from the sayings or doings of 
 John Wesley. He said: “ The wortd is my par¬ 
 ish.'" His conception of the itineracy which he 
 instituted was that of an aggressive force which 
 should camp on the field and be ever ready for an 
 advance; not that of an army in garrison, nine- 
 tenths of which are required to look after the 
 stuff,” while the others simply go foraging. Is 
 not the whole thing a false interpretation of a di¬ 
 vine call to preach, and is it not largely responsi¬ 
 ble for much of ministerial barrenness at home as 
 well as ministerial scarcity abroad ? A call to 
 preach at alt means a call to preach everyzvhere., 
 f| with only such limitations as God’s providence 
 g may fix. The man who undertakes to fix them 
 I for himself vitiates the divine call, and lays an 
 embargo on his own ministry. 
 
 A second question is: In view of the fact that 
 the Church was organized and the ministry insti¬ 
 tuted for the sole purpose of evangelizing the 
 
58 
 
 Enlistment of Pastors. 
 
 world; in view of the fact that theological schools 
 have for their avowed object the training for 
 this purpose a more efficient ministry, how 
 is it that these schools have so long deemed 
 their course of instruction adequate, without 
 even an approximation to a department of mis¬ 
 sions ; and how is it that the highest ambition 
 of ninety per cent of their ministerial output is to 
 enter into the most inviting home fields of oth¬ 
 er men’s labors, leaving those of less ambition 
 or less promise of popular favor to be called to go 
 abroad ? 
 
 Still another/question: Since Methodism is ac¬ 
 counted a revival of primitive Christianity, since 
 her ministry seeks to exemplify the principles 
 and polity of the Pauline regime., why is it that 
 up to a very late day no book or other means of 
 instruction on the subject of missions was put on 
 the course of study required of undergraduate 
 preachers ? 
 
 Brethren, v/hen all our preachers come to inter¬ 
 pret their call to preach as also a summons to go; 
 when they come to stay at home only because 
 they cannot go abroad; then will our workers 
 abroad be notably more numerous, and the helpers 
 at home be essentially more effective. 
 
 P'or which let us all pray. 
 
PRAYER AND MISSIONS. 
 
 T F we search exhaustively the domain of earthly 
 entities it will be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 bring into juxtaposition two other things of equal 
 individual importance, and at the same time of 
 such unmistakable interdependence. I shall speak 
 of each in its direct relation to Christ’s economy 
 in the world, then of their correlation in that 
 same economy. 
 
 Prayer is at the same time man’s highest privi¬ 
 lege and his most imperative duty in this life, not¬ 
 withstanding the fact that no other privilege is so 
 lightly esteemed, and no other duty so carelessly, 
 so imperfectly performed. 
 
 “Ask,” “seek,” “knock” are some of the forms 
 of command under which our I^ord himself attests 
 its imperative character. “ Shall receive,” “shall 
 find,” “shall be opened to you” are some of the 
 promises by which he assures its answers. 
 
 “ If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do 
 it.” (John xiv. 14.) “Ye shall ask what ye will 
 and it shall be done unto you.” (John xv. 7.) 
 “Men ought always to pray;” “I would that men 
 pray everywhere ; ” “ Pray without ceasing ; ” “ In 
 everything . . . make your requests known unto 
 God” are but other forms of expression that serve 
 further to magnify the privilege and enforce the 
 duty. 
 
 To give God’s Word opportunity to reply at 
 once against the Pharisaism, fanaticism, skepti- 
 
 (59) 
 
6 o 
 
 Prayer and Missions. 
 
 cism, and infidelity, let it be asked : First, what is 
 prayer, and what is it for ? He who instituted it 
 as the law of giving and receiving in his kingdom 
 alone can answer. He says that it is not {a) a 
 framing of words, however numerous or loud, or 
 elegant or eloquent they may be. We are not 
 heard for much speaking; [b) it is not informing 
 God as to who we are or what we want: “Your 
 Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need 
 . . . before ye ask him;” [c) it is not to make 
 
 God willing to give us things: “If ye then being 
 evil know how to give good gifts unto your chil¬ 
 dren, how much more shall your Father . . . 
 
 in heaven give good things to them that ask him.” 
 God is always willing, always trying to bless his 
 needy, helpless children. Indeed, he does actual¬ 
 ly bless every one to the extent that one will allow 
 him. The sole trouble is that men’s badness 
 turns God’s blessings into curses. He who walks 
 in the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the way 
 of the sinner, or sits in the seat of the scornful, 
 makes blessing impossible to himself God’s 
 gold is turned to dross; God’s grace into an eat¬ 
 ing canker. 
 
 Christ’s example and precepts tell us what 
 prayer is and what it is for. P'roin his example 
 we learn that it is personal, persistent commun¬ 
 ion with the Father, in the strength of which 
 every important thing is done, and done success¬ 
 fully. It is the alliance that weakness makes 
 with strength, and need with infinite resources. 
 His precepts confirm and enforce the lesson of 
 his example: “When thou prayest, enter into 
 
Prayer and Missions. 
 
 6i 
 
 thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door pray 
 to thy Father who is in secret.” Again, by put¬ 
 ting words on our lips that cover the entire range 
 of real human need, and saying, “When ye pray, 
 say.” He not only makes plain the answer to our 
 double question, but also makes it easy for the 
 weakest, the most ignorant, the most helpless to 
 pray—to pray effectually. It must never be for¬ 
 gotten that all right prayer is, in a most impor- 
 I tant sense, secret—it is personal wrestling with 
 God; and others can be “led” in prayer only in 
 so far as they, too, enter into the same exercise. 
 
 I When, amid the pomp and parade of public occa- 
 , sions, we forget this, our so-called praying ceases 
 to be prayer. 
 
 Christ’s precepts further teach us that an intel¬ 
 ligent recognition of the divine Fatherhood is of 
 the very essence of prayer (only a father can 
 comprehend his children’s needs) ; that a felt ap¬ 
 preciation of the brotherhood of man is of its 
 ! spirit (God is “Our Father”) ; that reverent awe 
 I and adoring love must constitute its atmosphere 
 ( (his place is heaven, his name is holy) ; that the 
 I headship of Christ and the ])erfecting of his will 
 on earth is its final desideratum (“ Thy kingdom 
 come, thy will be done on earth”) ; that forgive¬ 
 ness of those who trespass against us is the con¬ 
 dition of its being heard (“Forgive us . . . 
 
 as we forgive those”) ; that a sense of utter de- 
 f pendence and absolute trust is its invariable at- 
 i titude (“ Give us this day our daily bread ”) ; that 
 I ascription of authoiity and power and glory to 
 { him who is alone able to do all these things is its 
 
 t 
 
 V 
 
62 
 
 Prayer and Missions. 
 
 only appropriate conclusion. Such things being 
 prayer in its essence and practice, another ques¬ 
 tion of vital import is: Who ought to pray ? 
 Christ’s answer is: “Men ought to pray.” All 
 men ought to pray. It is just as much one man’s 
 duty to pray as another’s. It is just as much one 
 man’s privilege to pray as another’s. The differ¬ 
 ence, the sole difference, is found in that for 
 which the prayer is made. The unsaved man is 
 shut up to the prayer of the publican : “ God be 
 merciful to me a sinner.” Till that is prayed and 
 answered all other prayer is impertinent, and may 
 be blasphemous. After that he has spiritual lib¬ 
 erty and enlargement, and shall find access and 
 answer in all need. Men ought to pray because 
 they are men, sinful, needy, helpless, and God 
 only can save and help them. Thank God men, 
 all men, may pray because Jesus has opened the 
 way, saying: “ I am the door; by me if any man 
 enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out 
 and find pasture.” The most unreasonable, the most 
 wilfully disobedient, the most ungrateful being 
 in God’s universe, is the one who does not pray. 
 
 Let it again be asked: How ought men to pray ? 
 The first answer that suggests itself is: “ Men 
 ought to pray humbly.” God is in heaven, we are 
 on earth; God is infinitely holy, we are sin-defiled; 
 men cannot afford to put on airs when talking to 
 God. To show the contrast between self-confident 
 and humble prayer, the Master spake this parable: 
 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the 
 one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The 
 Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, 
 
Prayer and Missio?is. 
 
 63 
 
 I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. 
 . . . The publican . . . smote upon his breast, 
 saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus 
 said : “This man went down to his house justified 
 (approved) rather than the other: for every one 
 that exhalteth himself shall be abased; and he 
 that humbleth himself shall be exhalted.” 
 
 But men ought to pray in faith. “ That which 
 I is not of faith is sin.” “Without faith it is im- 
 j possible to please God; ” but “ if ye have faith as 
 a grain of mustard seed, . . . nothing shall be 
 
 impossible unto you.” “When ye pray, believe 
 that ye have the things for which ye ask, and ye 
 I shall have them.” 
 
 Further, men ought to pray importunately. 
 “ Men ought always to pray and not to faint.” If 
 the unjust judge, sensitive to neither divine nor 
 i human obligations, avenged the poor widow sini- 
 ; ply to avoid being wearied by her continual com- 
 j ing, shall not God hear and answer his children 
 who cry importunately to him? Jesus says he 
 will. The success attending the importunate per¬ 
 sistence of the Syro-Phoenician woman further 
 illustrates the answer, and demonstrates the fact 
 that our Father only asks that we allow him to 
 I have his way in us in order that, in the end, we 
 I may have fully our w^ay with him. 
 
 Another thought-provoking question in this 
 connection is. When , and where ought men to 
 pray? “Everywhere, . . . always.” Specific- 
 
 i ally {a) in the closet. No man is a safe man in 
 any relation or business of life who does not, in 
 the “ secret place,” make God his confidant, his 
 
64 
 
 Prayer and Missions. 
 
 counselor. ((^) In the family. This is God’s oldest 
 institution. It is the basis of every other legiti¬ 
 mate institution. No man appreciates it or has 
 any business at the head of it who does not, as 
 Priest, Prophet, and King, “ command ” his house¬ 
 hold after him for God. [c) In the social circle 
 of the Church. This is God’s family, and every 
 member, from the least to the greatest, ought to 
 be able and to feel free to talk with the common 
 Father about the mutual interests of all. [d) In 
 the great congregation. He who has power with 
 God has power with men, and in the same propor¬ 
 tion. The secret of our power to do men good is 
 our ability to command the means of grace in 
 their interest, especially in the house of God. 
 
 Such, partially at least, is prayer; and such is 
 the part it plays in Christ’s kingdom on earth. 
 The history of its answers is the history of the 
 Church’s victories all down the ages. 
 
 Mis.sions constitute the Church’s best endeavor 
 () to realize an answer to the prayer taught her 
 by her divine Ford; “Thy kingdom come.” [b) 
 To vindicate the challenge given by that same 
 Lord to the powers of earth and darkness: “This 
 gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
 the world for a witness to the nations.” (<•) To 
 verify the promise of the Holy Spirit, “That at 
 the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
 things in heaven and things in earth and of things 
 under the earth; and that every tongue should 
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord for the glory of 
 God the Father.’’ ( d ) To fulfill the prophecy that 
 “ The kingdoms of this world are become the king- 
 
Prayer and Blissions. 
 
 65 
 
 doms of our Lord and of his Christ.” Missions 
 form the Church’s vanguard. Where they bivouac 
 to-day she will camp to-morrow. For nearly two 
 thousand 3^ears she has followed up other line of 
 march, she has found no other means of advance. 
 She must pioneer the regions beyond wuth her 
 best, her most reliable men ; her Calebs and her 
 Joshuas, her Pauls and Barnabases, her Jeromes 
 and Augustines, her Las Casases and Xaviers, her 
 Cokes and Careys and Judsons and Moffats and 
 Livingstones, and on to the end of the roll. Mis¬ 
 sions can succeed onl^^ as they are projected and 
 developed by men called of God and sent out by 
 the Church under the direction of the H0I3" Spirit. 
 There is no authoritative model for enterprising 
 missions except the first one. The Holy vSpirit 
 said: “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
 work w'hereunto I have called them. And wdien 
 they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them awa\a” 
 
 Pra3'er, then, is the ver3^ atmosphere in which 
 missions are born, the ver3r inspiration under 
 wdiich they progress, the veiw generator of the 
 power 1)3’ which they wnn final success. To pra3’ 
 for missimis is the most reasonable, the most 
 necessary, the most imperative dut3^ of ever\’ 
 Christian and of the entire Church. A pra3dng 
 Church is the onU- place where true missionaries 
 are bred. A praying Church is the only place 
 wdiere true missions are projected. A praying 
 Church furnishes, under God, the only support 
 upon which both missionaries and missions can 
 lean with assurance. 
 
66 
 
 Prayer and Missions. 
 
 Missions constitute the hope of the world; the 
 prayers of the Church constitute the hope of mis¬ 
 sions. Our blessed Master, looking out upon the 
 world lying in wickedness, through the suffering 
 multitudes that waited on his ministry, said: “The 
 harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; 
 pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he will send 
 forth laborers into his harvest.” 
 
 The harvest is the Lord’s alone. Only divinely 
 called men can reap it. Men are called only as the 
 Church prays. This is God’s order. There is di¬ 
 vine philosophy in it, because he who prays will be 
 willing to go if God calls him; he who prays will 
 be willing to send if God calls his loved ones; he 
 who prays will be willing to give to send others if 
 God calls them. 
 
 Smile, Lord, on each divine attempt 
 To spread the Gospel’s rays; 
 
 And bnild on sin’s demolished throne 
 The temples of th3' grace. 
 
MONEY AND MISSIONS. 
 
 T N sound the words mingle musically, but in 
 association the ideas clash unharmoniously. The 
 one stands for the world’s emancipation, the other 
 for its enthrallment; the one represents the God of 
 heaven, the other the god of this world; one essays 
 obedience to Christ’s last and largest command, 
 “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel 
 to every creature,” the other bars the very entrance 
 to his kingdom—“I say unto you, it is easier for a 
 camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for 
 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 
 
 Our theme is a paradox. The discussion of two 
 or three questions, however, may unveil its hidden 
 truth. 
 
 I. 
 
 Why Should We Have Missions? 
 
 {a) Because Christ commands them. He says 
 with an authority that cannot be gainsaid, with a 
 distinctness that cannot be misunderstood, “Go 
 make disciples of all nations;” “This gospel of 
 the kingdom shall be preached in all the world; ” 
 “Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, 
 and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
 uttermost parts of the earth.” The Church dare 
 not disobey, else she denies, yes betrays, her Lord. 
 
 {d) Because the whole world needs them. Where 
 they have not gone, “the whole world lieth in 
 wickedness.” The stupendous and magnificent 
 ruins of Egypt, Babylon, Ninevah, Greece, and 
 
 (67) 
 
68 
 
 Money and Missions. 
 
 Rome attest at once their glor}^ and their shame. 
 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became 
 fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible 
 God into an image made like to corrnptible man, 
 and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping 
 things. . . . Who changed the truth of God 
 
 into a lie, and worshiped the creature more than 
 the Creator.” Thus the zenith of their several civ¬ 
 ilizations became the nadir of their morals and re¬ 
 ligions. Then God smote them one by one, and 
 their ruins attest at once the stroke of his hand and 
 the truth of his Word. Modern heathendom is no 
 better than they were; nay, it is worse—more gross, 
 more degraded, more vile, more vicious, more 
 bestial. Africa, India, China, Japan, the islands of 
 the sea, one billion strong—an innumerable multi¬ 
 tude—except here and there where the bivouac fires 
 of missions have been kindled, still “sit in dark¬ 
 ness, and dwell in the region and shadow of death.” 
 Modern civilization, itself the child of Christianity, 
 with all its wealth of political, commercial, educa¬ 
 tional, social, and mechanical appliances, has no 
 power to do them good. It can onl}’ galvanize the 
 cadaverous mass, and make it all the more hideous. 
 Witness Kngland’s endeavor in India under the 
 rule of her Bast India Compan3^ Witness Spain’s 
 colonial history in South America and the islands. 
 Witness the dark page- in liistor^^ that we ourselves 
 have made in dealing with the North American In¬ 
 dians. The world’s need is the Bible. Nothing 
 can substitute it—the Bible in the letter, and in the 
 hearts and lives of those who bear it. Hence mis¬ 
 
 sions. 
 
Money and Missions. 
 
 69 
 
 (c) The world needs them because the Church 
 herself cannot live without missions. It is giving 
 to others that keeps alive the grace that saves. 
 “ Give and it shall be given unto you; ” “ It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive;” “There is that 
 which giveth and yet increaseth.” 
 
 G(Xid, the more communicated, more abundant grows; 
 
 The giver not impoverished, but enriched the more. 
 
 The Church may count her heart beats by the 
 number of honest, earnest efforts she has made to 
 give the gospel to every creature. The world does 
 not need missions more to bring it light and life 
 than does the Church need missions to trim and 
 foster that life and light within herself. Under the 
 Old Testament dispensation the Church was an 
 oracle. Her symbols were the temple, the altar, 
 the mercy seat. Now she is an evangel. Her sym¬ 
 bols are a flying angel, a trumpet, a roll. Her 
 mission, her sole mission, is to preach the everlast¬ 
 ing gospel to the ends of the earth. This brings 
 us to question 
 
 H. 
 
 Why Shoutd Christians Givk Money to Mis¬ 
 sions ? 
 
 («) It is not because money per se is necessary 
 to the extension of Christ’s kingdom. This answer 
 is predicated of several considerations. (i) Christ’s 
 own personal and official estimate of money. This 
 estimate is found in such utterances as these; 
 “Verily I say unto you. That a rich man shall 
 hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
70 
 
 Money and Missions. 
 
 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
 needle, than for a rich man to enter into the king¬ 
 dom of God.” “They that will be rich fall into 
 temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
 hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and 
 perdition. For the love of money is the root of all 
 evil: which while some coveted after, they have 
 erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through 
 with many sorrows.” With this estimate of the 
 evil and danger attending the accumulation of 
 money, it is not reasonable to suppose that Christ 
 intended in any sense to condition the success of 
 his cause on anybody’s money. 
 
 A second consideration of which this answer is 
 predicated is Christ’s own example in inaugurating 
 missions. “I have given you an example,” com¬ 
 ing from the lips of Him who spake as never man 
 spake, furnishes at once the highest reason and the 
 best way for doing everything. “The Son of man 
 is come to seek and save that which was lost.” 
 This was his mission. Out of it every true Chris¬ 
 tian mission has grown. “Foxes have holes, and 
 the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man 
 hath not where to lay his head.” “Ye know the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was 
 rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye by 
 his poverty might be rich.” That was his manner. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 
 Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it 
 not robbery to be equal with God: But made him¬ 
 self of no reputation, and took upon him the form 
 of a servant: . . . i^nd being found in fashion 
 
 as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient 
 
Money and Missions. 
 
 71 
 
 unto death, even the death of the cross.” This 
 was his example, “It is enough for the disciple 
 to be as his Tord, and the servant as his master. ’ ’ 
 
 A third consideration of which this answer is 
 predicated is Christ’s order for propagating mis¬ 
 sions. Sending his disciples to “the lost sheep of 
 the house of Israel,” he said: “Provide neither 
 silver, nor gold, nor brass in your purses.” The 
 reason he gave was, “ The laborer is worthy of his 
 hire. ’ ’ Again, when he enlarged their commission, 
 and sent them to the nations, he did not change 
 the order of going, but simply adds: “To, I am 
 with you every day,” implying that he would con¬ 
 tinue to care for them everywhere and always just 
 as here and now. ‘ ‘And ye shall be witnesses unto 
 me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
 Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth,, 
 . the Hol}^ Ghost having come upon you,” 
 Still another consideration of which this answer 
 is predicated is Paul’s entire service as the first and 
 always the principal exponent of Christ’s order 
 among the Gentiles. So far as the record shows, 
 he went out from Antioch on each of his three 
 tours without financial provision for even his 
 traveling expenses; yet no man, against such 
 numerous, and great, and cruel, and persistent 
 antagonisms, ever did such and so much labor for 
 the world’s conversion. Having preached from 
 Jerusalem round to Illyricum, he said: “I must 
 see Rome also; ” and, no other way being open, 
 he invoked the chains of a Roman prisoner, and 
 braved the unmatched cruelty of Nero. 
 
 The final consideration of which this answer is 
 
72 
 
 Money and Dlissions. 
 
 predicated is the history of the Church for the 
 first three hundred years. During this time she 
 came nearer compassing the known world with 
 the gospel message than slie has done since; yet, 
 until the unhol}’ concubinage instituted by Con¬ 
 stantine taught her Caesar’s ways and infused into 
 her Caesar’s spirit, money as a factor was unmen¬ 
 tioned and unknown. 
 
 The modern movement of the Church for mis¬ 
 sions has been hindered, doubtless; certainly it 
 has been divested of much of its authority and 
 power by the disposition often manifested to urge 
 the world’s needs before Christ’s commands, and 
 to magnify money as a factor in supplying those 
 needs. 
 
 Missions have been relegated to the place of a 
 prot'eg'e, while the Church has posed as a patron. 
 Missions have been categoried among the “ benev¬ 
 olences,” and money has been begged for their 
 “support.” I suggest that we need to shift the 
 whole ground of the Church’s responsibility; that 
 we need to change largely the motive for giving 
 to missions. The cpiestion, then, reverts: Why 
 should Christians give money to missions ? 
 
 ((6) To save themselves from the curse that nec¬ 
 essarily follows the accumulation of money, or 
 even the effort to accumulate money, for its own 
 sake. In God’s economy one of the worst things, 
 if not the very worst, that can befall a man is to 
 get rich. Under the Old Testament regime this 
 was provided against by a system of tithes and 
 offerings, Sabbatical and jubilee years. Even the 
 king was forbidden to heap up gold and silver, 
 
Money and Missions. 
 
 73 
 
 and David’s fall and Solomon’s ruin followed in 
 the train of ills which began with the violation of 
 this command. In Christ’s view, being rich seems 
 to cut off a man’s title to an eternal inheritance 
 more effectually, more surely than anything else. 
 What he says of a man losing his life eternally by 
 saving it now, includes his money, and applies to 
 it with special force: “Woe to you that are rich, 
 for ye have received your consolation; ” “ So is he 
 that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not 
 rich toward God; ’’ “ Go to now, ye rich men, weep 
 and howl for your miseries that shall come upon 
 you. Your riches are corrupted, and your gar¬ 
 ments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is 
 cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness 
 against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were 
 fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the 
 last days.” This view of the Master is .so utterly 
 at variance with human philosophy and ordinary 
 human practice, so far above the deliverances of 
 the popular pulpit and the following of the aver¬ 
 age pew, that it needs to be dwelt upon. The in¬ 
 terpretation of these passages is not to be restrict¬ 
 ed to cases of ill-gotten or inordinately loved 
 wealth, as is often taught. They mean just what 
 they say. Would that the Church and her minis¬ 
 ters were as faithful in dealing with rich men to¬ 
 day as Christ was with the young ruler! In many 
 places the Church is little more than a social 
 guild patronized by rich men, who are in turn 
 petted and pandered to, as a suitable reward for 
 the modicum of their money paid into the Lord’s 
 treasury. The Church is thus prostituted, and 
 
74 
 
 Money and Missions. 
 
 the man buys his way through it to a ruinous 
 reckoning with his Master. 
 
 Many of us have yet to learn that to be a Chris¬ 
 tian we must absolutely do these three things: 
 Ivov^e God supremely, follow Jesus Christ implic¬ 
 itly, keep the Golden Rule honestly. Many more 
 have yet to learn three other things: That no 
 man can love God and love the world at the same 
 time; that no man can follow Jesus Christ and 
 hoard up money for himself; that no man can 
 keep the Golden Rule and get rich. 
 
 Granting all this, it may still be asked: “ Why 
 give money specially to missions?” I answer, 
 because giving to,nothing else will substitute it. 
 It is right, it is our Christian duty, to give to 
 many things in the home land, chief among them 
 is the Church and her institutions; but in doing 
 this, at the best, but a moiety of our gifts can 
 claim to be for Christ’s sake. The other half is 
 made up variously of philanthroph}^, patriotism, 
 social claims, hnancial considerations, denomina¬ 
 tional rivalry, personal pride, etc. 
 
 The whole thing is largely a giving to our own, 
 if not to ourselves. We expect and receive re¬ 
 turns in kind. But to give ourselves, our dear 
 ones, our money to put the gospel where it is not 
 —in the dark places and darker souls of heathen¬ 
 dom—is to claim the highest, the surest oppor¬ 
 tunity to do something for Christ’s sake—some¬ 
 thing that is not vitiated by any form of selfish¬ 
 ness. 
 
 With money for missions Christ enables the 
 Church to hasten the going of its messengers by 
 
Money a7id Missions. 
 
 75 
 
 using the improved appliances of modern travel. 
 With money for missions Christ enables the 
 Church to substitute the written Word in many 
 languages for the miraculous “gift of tongues.’^ 
 With money for missions Christ enables the 
 Church in the use of the most improved means 
 and methods to substitute the miraculous healings 
 of primitive Christianity with medical skill and 
 service. With money for missions Christ enables 
 the Church to meet the world’s bodily and spirit¬ 
 ual needs, and at the same time ‘ ‘ escape the cor¬ 
 ruption that is in the world through lust.” 
 
 Christianity furnishes the only safe formula for 
 the use of money. It may be stated under four 
 distinct heads : 
 
 1. Industry and honesty in its accumulation. 
 Diligence in business. “ Provide things honest in 
 the sight of all men.” 
 
 2. Econoni)'^ in saving it. “He also that is 
 slothful in his work is brother to him that is a 
 great waster.” “Gather up the fragments that 
 
 ! remain, that nothing be lost.” 
 
 3. Generosity in using it. “Given to hospital- 
 ‘ ity ; ” “ Give to him that asketh thee ; ” “ Give 
 
 and it shall be given thee. ’ ’ 
 
 4. Loyalty to Christ in making, saving, and giv¬ 
 ing. “Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus;” 
 
 i “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right¬ 
 eousness. ’ ’ 
 
 ; Just as surely as Christ has redeemed this world 
 to himself ; just as surely as he has set up his king¬ 
 dom for its government; just as surely as he has 
 made the Church to be the working force of that 
 
76 
 
 Money and Missions. 
 
 kingdom—just that surely do missions constitute 
 the objective point of Church enterprise; just that 
 surely does the above formula dictate the only 
 right use of money; just that surely will the “ King 
 of kings” settle with each one of us according to 
 these thrilling and destiny-determining words: 
 ‘ ‘ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
 and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
 upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall 
 be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them 
 one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
 from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his 
 right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall 
 the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre¬ 
 pared for you from the foundation of the world: 
 for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, 
 and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I 
 was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and 
 ye came unto me. . . . Verily I say unto you. 
 
 Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall 
 he say also unto them on the left hand. Depart 
 from me, ye cursed: . . . for I was an hungered, 
 
 and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye 
 gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took 
 me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, 
 and in prison, and ye visited me not. 
 
 Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye did it not to 
 one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” 
 
 How gracious the privilege of transmitting the 
 gold that perishes and cankers and curses, into the 
 
 i 
 
 
Money and Missions. 77 
 
 currency of heaven! Hear what the Master says: 
 “I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the 
 mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, 
 they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” 
 
 ” Money and Missions.” The truth of the para¬ 
 dox is unveiled. 
 
 I