MISSIONARY DELINQUENCIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 A PAPER READ AT THE MISSIONARY CONVENTION 
 OF THE SYNOD OF MICHIGAN, 1879. 
 
 By the REV. FRANK T. BAYLEY. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SYNOD’S COMMITTEE OP BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 rpHEY are very great: they are criminal before God: 
 
 they indicate an alarming condition of the Church 
 and they threaten, nay, they have already worked, a 
 woeful crippling of the cause of Christ on earth. 
 
 It is our solemn duty, as servants of Christ, to con¬ 
 template these delinquencies, to estimate their measure, 
 to enquire after their causes, and, with penitent prayer 
 and earnest effort, to seek their removal. 
 
 They can be rightly estimated and appreciated only 
 in the light of these three facts, viz: 
 
 The Calling of the Church. 
 The Need of the World. 
 The Ability of the Church. 
 
 Consider then: 
 
 I. The Calling of the Church. It is a missionary 
 calling. The Church is under a double bond to be 
 missionary. 
 
 First.—It is to be like its Lord. It is named after 
 Him, and His name is Love. “Who so lovetli is born 
 
2 
 
 of God; and he that loveth not, knoweth not God.” 
 Salvation, in its very essence, is an inspiration of love, 
 —love to God, because He first loved us, and love to 
 man for Christ’s sake,—and for man’s sake, too. The 
 true Church, then, will love man—as did its Lord; and 
 and since man is lost, it will seek man, — as did its 
 Lord. Not to do so is to be recreant to Christ; to deny 
 Him, by being unlike Him. 
 
 And, secondly, the Church has received a specific 
 command to be missionary. Her ascending Lord com¬ 
 mitted to her a blood-bought gospel, in trust for the 
 world. His last word to her bade her go into all the 
 world and carry it to every creature. 
 
 Evidently, a Church that is not missionary is not 
 Christ-like. It is unfaithful to His example, to His 
 whole spirit, to His express command. It robs the 
 world, disobeys a crucified Savior, and imperils its own 
 life. 
 
 II. Consider the need of the World. Much has been 
 accomplished: we have reason to thank God and take 
 courage. Nevertheless, brethren, the present condition 
 of the world is terrible. Altogether, outside even nom¬ 
 inal Christianity, there are some 530,000,000 souls dwel¬ 
 ling in the shadow of death. And of 383,000,000 nom¬ 
 inal Christians,—Protestant, Roman Catholic and Greek 
 —what a vast multitude are Christ-less! Even in our 
 own land, behold how infidelity, indifference and sin 
 abound; yet, we are all reckoned as nominal Christians. 
 
 The conclusion, awful, appalling as it is, it forced 
 upon us, that more than 1,000,000,000 are now living 
 on earth without Christ,—a number of which we can 
 have no conception whatever. Surely the cry of innu¬ 
 merable souls unites with the bidding of the Savior in 
 the missionary calling of the Church. 
 
3 
 
 III. Consider the ability of the Church. Let us judge 
 by a right standard. The question is not “ what could 
 the Church give as well as not”—“without feeling it,” 
 —tho’ alas! even this standard would suffice utterly to 
 condemn the Church. We have no right thus to esti¬ 
 mate Christian ability. Let us remember, that we 
 belong absolutely to Christ. “Ye are not your own.” 
 Surely, He has a claim upon more than the gleanings 
 of His own vineyard. All that we have is His; it is 
 a question of administration, only, when we ask, how 
 much ought the Church to give. It is the Divine will 
 that Christians should take proper self-care; that they 
 should duly provide for all those varied interests which 
 are committed to them personally and peculiarly. But 
 after all allowance is made for every interest which 
 ought to precede the claims of benevolence, it is most 
 evident, that a very large benevolent ability remains 
 with the Christian Church. It may give, if it will, a 
 'great sum into the Lord’s treasury. 
 
 Think of the aggregate property and income of the 
 church members of the United States,— all belonging 
 to Christ in fact , and by the vows of Church member¬ 
 ship ; and all to be used for Him, whether in eating 
 and drinking, in caring for dependent interests, or in 
 missionary contribution. Think of the resultant revenue 
 were that property, or even that income, taxed system¬ 
 atically, at even one per cent, for missionary purposes! 
 It is, of course, impossible to estimate with any exact¬ 
 ness the real financial ability of the Christian Church, 
 or to say what sum that Church might give and ought 
 to give in missionary consecration. But we may be 
 aided to judge both of the ability, and the delinquency 
 of the Church in this direction, by some comparisons, 
 to which I ask your attention. 
 
4 
 
 Is it too much to say, that the Christians of the 
 United States should give as much in proportion to their 
 numbers as the converted heathen f The very suggestion 
 of such a standard seems an insult and an absurdity, 
 —does it not? 
 
 But let us apply it! The native churches of the 
 Friendly Islands had, in 1868, 8613 members. In 1870, 
 these churches gave $17,500 to send the gospel to other 
 tribes. 
 
 The church members in the Harpoot (Turkey) field 
 number 1188. Nearly all the churches sustain them¬ 
 selves, and they have contributed within the three past 
 years for general Christian work $17,037. 
 
 The native Church at Hilo, Sandwich Islands, raises 
 yearly $1200 for Foreign Missions and has sent 12 of 
 its members as missionaries to Southern Polynesia. 
 
 From 1865-1875 the churches of the Sandwich 
 Islands contributed over $50,000 to Foreign Missions ; 
 and they have sent out, from first to last, over 40 of 
 their members as missionaries to Micronesia. 
 
 In the Missionary Herald—organ of A. B. C. F. M. 
 —for June 1879, among acknowledgments of Receipts, 
 are these items: From four missionary Churches—con¬ 
 tributions of oil, $343.67. (They are not the first who 
 have brought oil to Christ!) From the Churches on 
 Mortlock Islands, proceeds of shells sold, $75. From 
 eight Churches among the Zulus, these amounts respect¬ 
 ively: $20.21, $25.18, $24.35, $61.64, $20.45, $38.35, 
 $38.17, $9.74; a total from the eight churches of $238.09. 
 The 5000 Christians in Samoa gave in a single year 
 $1500 to the British and Foreign Bible Society. The 
 missionary Churches in Asia contributed to Christian 
 objects in 1875, $45,000. The contributions in the 
 Central Turkey Mission alone, were over $10,000. 
 
5 
 
 In Naniwa, Japan, is a church two years old. It 
 had 35 members, until it sent out a colony of nine last 
 January. Its money contributions last year were $240, 
 —of which about $60 was used outside their own expen¬ 
 ses. Dr. Bushnell told us at Synod last year, that the 
 church at Corisco, Africa, gives $300 a year in gold to 
 Missions, remembering even the Freedmen of the Uni¬ 
 ted States. And when asked how many members it 
 had, he replied, “it has less than a hundred.” 
 
 The Minutes of General Assembly for this year give 
 the Church at Gaboon, Africa, a membership of 84 and 
 credit it with a contribution to every one of the Boards, 
 aggregating $418.38. 
 
 We may well ask, if these new-born souls of Tur¬ 
 key, of Japan, of the Pacific Isles, of Africa, can give 
 so much out of their poverty—but they are rich—how 
 much can the Christians of this favored land contri¬ 
 bute? If this is their standard, what should be ours ? 
 
 Our resources, our abilities are certainly incompa¬ 
 rably greater. Is our giving in proportion? A few 
 facts may help us to judge. 
 
 But just at this point I wish to enter a caveat. I 
 am about to appeal to statistics: such a method of 
 comparison seems the best available. But objections are 
 often raised against this use of statistics, on the ground 
 that they are not absolutely correct, and the force of 
 them is often sought thus to be evaded. I am aware 
 of the imperfection of these statistical reports, that some 
 churches, practically dead, appear on the roll; that some 
 benevolences are not reported to any Board or to the 
 General Assembly. Nevertheless, brethren,—the figures 
 represent an approximation to the truth. This is all that is 
 claimed ; this is enough for our purpose. Let us be can¬ 
 did, as before God, not seeking a shield against the truth* 
 
6 
 
 There are 5415 Presbyterian churches on the roll 
 of our General Assembly. 1823 of them contributed 
 nothing to Home Missions; 2489 of them gave nothing 
 to Foreign Missions—nearly one-half of the whole num¬ 
 ber. We are to remember, of course, that many of our 
 churches are feeble, many very poor, indeed. But are 
 they poorer than the Christians of Africa, of tax-ridden 
 Turkey ? 
 
 And the lack is by no means confined to churches 
 feeble in number, or resources. As, for instance, in 1878, 
 one church of 380 members gave to all the Boards, $13; 
 one with 288 members, $29; one with 1219, gave to 
 Home Missions $100, and to Foreign Missions $200. 
 Four churches in St. Louis gave T 9 ^ of a cent, per mem¬ 
 ber, daily; four in Pittsburgh, If daily; four in New 
 York, 21 cents daily. The average of sixteen large 
 churches, with 8240 members, for all the Boards, was 
 $6.24 a year, per member, about It cents a day. The 
 little church at Gaboon, Africa, poor as to this world’s 
 goods, gave in 1877, to Foreign Missions within $31, 
 as much as the Indianapolis churches, (excluding their 
 women’s work, not reported,) and more than three times 
 as much as the five churches in Toledo, with their 1285 
 members. 
 
 The Gaboon and Benita churches gave more than 
 the w T hole Synod of Columbus, more than the Presby¬ 
 tery of Maumee, with 2960 members, more than the 
 Presbytery of DesMoines, with 2953 members, and more 
 than the Presbytery of Mattoon, with 3349 members. 
 
 But let us apply this standard of the converted 
 heathen to the churches of our own Synod. 
 
 The church in Gaboon, Africa, gave to the Home 
 Mission Board last year, $35. Only eleven churches in 
 this Synod gave as much,—only five outside the Detroit 
 
7 
 
 Presbytery. Gaboon gave $230 to the Foreign Mission 
 Board. Only eight Presbyterian churches in Michigan 
 gave as much; six of them in the Presbytery of 
 Detroit. 
 
 The highest average per member among our chur¬ 
 ches, according to last year’s Report of the Synod’s 
 Committee on Benevolence, which Report is based on 
 the receipts acknowledged by the Boards, was $4.79. 
 The average per member in the Gaboon church was 
 $4.98. The one, the average of a church of 644 mem¬ 
 bers, in Detroit, aided in their benevolences very greatly 
 by a wealthy congregation outside the church member¬ 
 ship ; the other, of a church of 84 members, in Africa, 
 with very little help, if any, from a sympathizing .con¬ 
 gregation ! And yet, this church in Detroit, that looks 
 so small in comparison with the church in Africa,— 
 was the banner church of our Synod. If we blush for 
 it, in the comparison, surely we should hide our heads 
 for ourselves! There were last year but nine churches 
 in this Synod reported as giving to all the Boards more 
 than $2 per member; only sixteen more as reaching $1 
 per member; thirty-five as giving less than 25 cents 
 per member; and forty-six are reported as having given 
 not one cent to any of the Boards. 
 
 And the Gaboon church does not stand alone as 
 our accuser before God. Nine churches in Hawaii gave 
 in 1870, $4.10 per member for the mission in the Mar¬ 
 quesas Islands. There are ten churches connected with 
 the United Presbyterian Mission in Egypt. The Report 
 of that mission for 1874 shows an average contribution 
 of $5.87 per member. 
 
 What shall we say to these things, brethren? We 
 ought to be ashamed of congratulating ourselves upon 
 reaching an equal standard of Benevolence with con- 
 
8 
 
 verted heathens: but we may well be overwhelmed at 
 finding ourselves so far beneath it. 
 
 But let us estimate our giving from yet another 
 stand-point. Cannot the Christian Church afford to 
 give, may we not expect to find it giving, as much, in 
 proportion to its members, as the world gives for its 
 pleasures, even for its pleasant vices? 
 
 Let me suggest a few comparisons. During Sep¬ 
 tember 1878, the Government received for the sale of 
 Revenue stamps for whiskey in Chicago, $560,555. 
 The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions received 
 last year, including legacies, $425,482,—a difference of 
 $135,000 in favor of whiskey! The Cincinnati Gazette 
 gives the amount paid in that city last year for liquor 
 and beer as over $9,000,000. The total Benevolences 
 of the forty-nine churches of the whole Presbytery of 
 Cincinnati, as reported in the Minutes of the Assembly, 
 including the Miscellaneous, were $27,316. John Mc¬ 
 Culloch played at the Detroit Opera House last Sep¬ 
 tember. The receipts for a single evening were nearly 
 $1500. The seven Presbyterian churches of Detroit are 
 credited in the Minutes of the General Assembly with 
 contributions last year to Home Missions amounting to 
 $4576,—about three times the receipts of one theatre 
 for a single night. At the recent walking match in 
 New York, the receipts for six days were about $75,000, 
 —as much, within $7000, as the whole Presbyterian 
 Church gave to the cause of Education last year. 
 
 The Mapleson Opera Company recently completed 
 a two weeks’ engagement in Chicago, and during that 
 time took nearly $60,000. The churches of our Assem¬ 
 bly gave last year for work among the Freedmen 
 $43,000. 
 
 The receipts of the Board of Sustentation last year 
 
9 
 
 were $17,379,—only $2000 more than the receipts of a 
 single retail candy counter in Detroit, as certified to 
 me by the man who keeps it. 
 
 And we cannot escape the terrible logic of these 
 facts by pleading that they are isolated and exceptional, 
 chosen to give a fictitious force to special pleading. If 
 you feel that comparisons upon a larger scale would 
 be more truthful and more favorable, I commend to 
 you the following. 
 
 The Government tax on tobacco in New York State 
 for 1876 was $7,040,985. All Christian denominations 
 in the United States gave about $1,500,000 that year 
 to Foreign Missions. 
 
 The Internal Revenue receipts for tobacco in 1876 
 in the whole United States were $39,795,339. The 
 whole Christian world gave about $6,000,000 to Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 Do Missions pay ?—or is it tobacco! which ? 
 
 Look at another comparison. Dr. Young, the Chief 
 of the United States Bureau of Statistics, estimated the 
 cost of liquors consumed in the United States in 1867 
 at $600,000,000; and the consumption has largely in¬ 
 creased since then. Think of it, brethren ! The United 
 States expends annually for intoxicating drink 400 times as 
 much as all its churches , of all denominations , give for 
 Christian work in Foreign lands —$600,000,000 against a 
 million and a half; and 100 times as much as the whole 
 Christian world contributes to Foreign Missions. Six hun¬ 
 dred millions against six millions :—the one the revenue 
 of the Juggernaut of Strong Drink,—the other the rev¬ 
 enue of the Savior who died that men might live! 
 
 The total annual contribution of all the churches 
 of the United States, for both Home and Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions, is about $5,000,000. 
 
 That is less than our drink bill for three days! 
 
10 
 
 Brethren, let us judge ourselves, lest we be judged 
 of God ! Surely we are condemned, not only by the 
 gifts of the very heathen to their new found Christ, 
 but even by the offerings which the world brings 
 ungrudgingly to the idols of its pleasures and the 
 demons of its lust. And if these condemn us, what 
 shall we say of the love of God in Christ! He bids 
 us make this our standard: “freely ye have received 
 He says: “ freely givey 
 
 Brethren, did I speak too strongly in affirming 
 that our missionary delinquencies are great , criminal 
 and alarming f 
 
 Is it any wonder (in view of such delinquencies) 
 that our ears are filled with the cries of appeal and 
 protest from causes that are dying of starvation ? 
 That we hear on every hand of empty treasuries and 
 increasing debts and crippling retrenchments? That 
 our Board of Publication reports a debt of $8,800, the 
 Board of Education a debt of $9,561, the Board of 
 
 Relief a deficiency of $14,699, the Board of Home 
 
 Missions a debt of $26,451, though appropriations are cut 
 down 25 per cent., and the Board of Foreign Missions 
 a debt of $62,532? What shall we do to be saved, 
 
 and to save the church from the sin and curse of this 
 
 apostacy ? The question should press on with us 
 with an awful solemnity. 
 
 Before we can answer it we must know the causes 
 which have produced this lamentable condition. Diag¬ 
 nosis should precede and indicate prescription. 
 
 And the diagnosis of this sad case is clear. It 
 requires no special wisdom to discern, among the chief 
 causes of our present condition, three things: Ignorance, 
 lack of method' in giving , and spiritual indifference. Only 
 the first of these will be considered in this paper. 
 
 With only individual exceptions, gross ignorance 
 concerning missions, both Home and Foreign, prevails; 
 
11 
 
 ignorance of the origin, the history, the practical 
 workings, the actual results, the needs, and the promise 
 of Missions; in a word, ignorance of the whole subject. 
 This is true of even our Christian congregations and 
 our contributors, to a great degree. 
 
 Knowledge is not inborn, even, on the subject of 
 benevolence and missions; it must be gained through 
 external channels. And how largely are these used, 
 even in our churches ? There are missionary books, 
 various and excellent. But in how many home libraries 
 are they found ? how often do we see them on the 
 centre table, or in hand ? Then there are the mission¬ 
 ary magazines,—certainly they ought to diffuse a great 
 deal of missionary intelligence; doubtless—in the same 
 sense in which an excellent school ought to educate 
 the children who never attend it. 
 
 Out of a number of statistics bearing in the same 
 direction, I commend these to you as samples. Out of 
 a Presbyterian church membership of over half a 
 million, the Foreign Missionary has about 900 hundred 
 subscribers. There are nearly two thousand churches , in 
 which not a copy is taken , save that sent to the pastor. 
 
 In January last there were taken in Detroit 35 
 copies; number of church members 2307! 66 were 
 
 taken outside of Detroit, making 101 copies within the 
 Synod of Michigan! 
 
 The Missionary Concert ought to be the source of 
 a good deal of missionary education; but in a host of 
 churches it is not observed, and in a multitude more, 
 it is so managed as to be voted a bore, even by many 
 who attend it. 
 
 Thus the vast majority of people are left depend¬ 
 ent upon the scant and fragmentary missionary 
 information of the religious papers, and the very 
 infrequent missionary sermons of a very few pastors, 
 for their knowledge of the missionary work of the 
 church. What wonder that they are ignorant of it? 
 
12 
 
 As both an evidence and a fruit of this ignorance, 
 I would point you to many of the objections which 
 are current against missionary work, especially against 
 Foreign Missions. 
 
 The banker who gave his pastor $10 for the 
 heathen, and $15 to get it to them, is a representative 
 of a large class; many, but not all of them, uncandid. 
 
 They do not know, many of them would be glad 
 to know, that the whole cost of administration in the 
 American Board is but 51 per cent, of receipts, and in 
 our own Foreign Board only 41 per cent. 
 
 Then there are the complaints, and worse still, the 
 silent skepticism, widely prevalent as to the results of 
 missionary work—especially in the foreign field. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Stevenson, in the Catholic Presbyterian 
 (January, 1879) tells of a good man who had given to a 
 mission for years, who professed profound astonishment 
 when a missionary from that region told him that there 
 were Christian believers there! 
 
 Even Christians and regular givers know almost 
 nothing of the results of Foreign Missions. 
 
 They do not know of the redemption of the Sand¬ 
 wich Islands from universal thieving, from infanticide, 
 from human sacrifice, from almost every heathen vice; 
 of their elevation to such civilized and Christian con¬ 
 dition, that Richard H. Dana and other travellers could 
 testify, that a man may travel alone, with money, in 
 the wildest parts, unarmed; that a greater proportion 
 of the inhabitants can read and write, than in New 
 England, (I am quoting Mr. Dana’s words,) and that, 
 as Mr. Dana says, he found no hut without its Bible 
 and Hymn Book in the native tongue; and the prac¬ 
 tice of family prayer and grace before meals is as 
 common as in New England a century ago. 
 
 They do not know of the 55,300 souls received into 
 the Christian churches there during the fifty years’ his¬ 
 tory of the mission, and that almost one-third of the 
 
13 
 
 inhabitants were church members in 1868; they do not 
 know that the native church has been self-supporting 
 since 1870; that it raised over $200,000 in gold between 
 1865-1875 for the Gospel at home, and more than 
 $50,000 for Foreign Missions,—taking the whole support 
 of the Micronesian Mission. 
 
 They are ignorant of the marvellous transformation 
 in the Fiji Islands, where, in 1835, the first Missionaries 
 found the people cannibals, but where there were in 
 1874, 140,000 regular attendants on Sabbath worship— 
 out of a population of only 200,000; 25,468 church 
 members, besides 4,450 on probation; 946 native 
 preachers-and 1282 day schools, and where the native 
 church has sent several missionaries from its own num¬ 
 ber to other islands. 
 
 They do not know that a single Missionary among 
 Karens of Burmah, has planted 40 churches, gathered 
 between eight and nine thousand worshipers, opened 
 42 houses of worship, 32 school houses and trained 
 about 100 native pastors, evangelists and school teachers. 
 
 They have not heard of the work of God among 
 the Shanars, a great tribe of former devil-worshipers 
 in India, where now there are over 500 native preachers, 
 where the native Christians gave $20,000 in gold for 
 religious purposes in 1866, and where a single mission¬ 
 ary during 20 years labor has received 3500 converts, 
 and seen them destroy 54 devil temples and build 64 
 houses for Christian worship. 
 
 They are not aware of the testimonies of such men 
 as Sir Bartle Frere and Lord John Lawrence, concern¬ 
 ing the influence and results of Christian missions in 
 India; nor of the increase of the native Christians there 
 from 138,731 in 1862 to 224,161 in 1872; 85,000 in ten 
 years, more than 20,000 of whom were Hindoos of 
 high caste. 
 
 They have not heard of the Christian work in forty 
 walled cities and 360 villages in China, which was shut 
 
14 
 
 against all Christian labor but so little time ago; of the 
 400 native preachers there and of the increase of the 
 native Christians from 351 in 1853 to more than 13,000 
 last year. 
 
 They are ignorant of the work in Madagascar, 
 where the Mission began less than 60 years ago, and 
 where, in spite of a 25 years’ persecution of the fier¬ 
 cest sort, there are now 3900 native preachers and 
 67,729 communicants in Christian churches,—and of the 
 Presbyterian Mission in Mexico—South and Central— 
 begun only about six years ago, which has organized 
 22 churches, received more than 3000 members, and 
 established a theological school with 18 regular attend¬ 
 ants. 
 
 Of all these things, and of many more like them, 
 they are ignorant; and they wonder if Missions pay! 
 
 Then there is the common objection, often held 
 when not uttered ,—that missions cost too much. This, 
 too, grows out of ignorance; for any man who knows 
 the facts would be utterly ashamed of the statement 
 or the thought. 
 
 Think of it! the total cost of the American Boards’ 
 Mission in the Sandwich Islands from its beginning 
 until it was turned over to self-support, was $1,220,000! 
 Think of its results! the whole nation reclaimed from 
 the vilest depths of barbarism; civilization built up, a 
 literature created, schools, and even colleges, instituted, 
 —to say nothing of spiritual results, which only God 
 can estimate,—and the total cost—less by $800,000 than 
 the cost of A. T. Stewart’s recently built hotel in New 
 York—and only $220,000 more than the cost of Dr. 
 Hall’s new church on 5th Avenue! 
 
 The total expenditure of the American Board for 
 55 j^ears did not exceed the cost of 150 miles of rail¬ 
 road in Massachusetts and was less than the capital 
 stock of either of half a dozen railroads leading out of 
 Chicago. 
 
15 
 
 The cost of an iron-clad monitor is much larger 
 than the yearly cost of our own Foreign Board. A full 
 cavalry regiment in the Army of the Potomac cost in 
 wages, rations, clothing and forage, over $600,000 a year. 
 Our Foreign Board makes great, but fruitless efforts, 
 to bring its annual receipts up to $500,000. 
 
 And as to the popular expenditure for tobacco and 
 liquor,—we have already seen that either item utterly 
 buries out of sight the total expenditures of the whole 
 Christian church in benevolences of every sort. 
 
 Why, brethren, the force of these facts is tremendous! 
 If they were only brought to bear , it would be irresistible! 
 
 But they are not brought to bear: The people only 
 know that they are asked from time to time to put 
 into a box or a basket money, which they never see 
 or hear of again; and that is very discouraging busi¬ 
 ness; it makes giving seem like a dead loss. 
 
 Human nature being what it is, men will not give 
 cheerfully or liberally unless they are interested; and 
 they cannot be interested unless they are informed. 
 The expansive forces of beneficence can only be gener¬ 
 ated by the fire of zeal; and that can be sustained only 
 as it is supplied with the fuel of facts. Even the 
 shavings of emotional appeals are almost worthless, if 
 left alone; they can only produce a fitful blaze that 
 soon dies out. 
 
 Certainly, brethren, this point of diagnosis clearly 
 indicates the appropriate remedy. We must educate 
 the people if we are to have a missionary revival. The 
 facts must be laid before them, impressed upon them, 
 burned into them; they must be made to see and then 
 they will begin to feel and to act. 
 
 I do not propose to speak of the particular methods 
 of putting up or administering this prescription. I 
 can only stop to impress the necessity of its adminis¬ 
 tration. And let me inquire in all frankness and love, 
 if we do not, some of us, need to take a good dose of 
 
16 
 
 the medicine of knowledge ourselves. Like minister, 
 like people: the missionary information and zeal of a 
 congregation cannot be expected to go beyond those of 
 its pastor. And I verily believe that there is a lament¬ 
 able and culpable ignorance of missionary matters on 
 the part of many pastors. 
 
 Pardon me, dear brethren, if I speak amiss. I only 
 appeal to your individual conscience in the sight of 
 God. 
 
 I confess with shame and sorrow, that I was a 
 pastor for a time, and trying in a perfunctory way to 
 stimulate the benevolence of my people, while yet I 
 was myself grossly ignorant of the missionary work of 
 the Church. The Lord looked on me and I was a- 
 shamed and repented; and, having been, I trust, sound¬ 
 ly converted to the 'pursuit of missionary knowledge, 
 (I count not myself to have attained) — I would fain 
 strengthen my brethren. 
 
 I appeal to you, ministers and elders, of the church 
 God; I appeal to you in the name of a crucified and 
 reigning Savior. Is not a missionary revival a great 
 and crying need, both of the world and of the church? 
 And is it not our solemn duty and blessed privilege, 
 first to obtain it in our own hearts, and then by the 
 grace of God, to bring it to pass among our churches? 
 Should we not draw near to the Cross to-day and, re¬ 
 alizing afresh what Christ has done for us and for the 
 world, consecrate ourselves anew to Him and to His 
 work ? And should we not labor and pray unceasingly 
 for the missionary education and consecration of the 
 entire Church of Christ ? 
 
 “ Then shall the earth yield her increase ” of souls; 
 “ and God, even our own God shall bless us. God 
 shall bless us; and ail the ends of the earth shall fear 
 him.”* ct All the ends of the earth shall see the salva¬ 
 tion of our God.”