Missions and the Millennium 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev, william ASHMORE, 
 
 
 Reprinted from The Watchman^ 
 Dec, 12, 1859. 
 
 RANGOON: 
 
 D. D, 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSION PRESS, 
 F. D. PHINNEY, SUPT. 
 
MISSIONS AND THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM ASHMORE, D. D. 
 
 1 —There is to be a Millennium. 
 
 Nobody who studies the Bible doubts that. It is to be. as its 
 Maine indicates, a thousand consecutive years in duration before 
 it encounters an interruption. Nobody doubts that either. It 
 is an old Jewish notion that, following Sabbatical anal gies, the 
 children of men were to toil and moil for six day^, or for six 
 thousand years from the creation, and then was to come the one 
 day or one thousand years of Sabbath. Call it a Jewish fancy 
 if you choose and let it pass, but remember that in a bo(»k writ¬ 
 ten since the Jewish state came to an end, and a book not re¬ 
 cognized by them, the one thousand years of Sabbaih is declar¬ 
 ed with absolute positiveness by one who spoke lor the Lord 
 Himself. 
 
 2—Nature of the Millennium. 
 
 It is to be a time when the gospel fruitage of all tlie ages 
 shall be gathered in. T'he lesults of all the effort ev< r put forth 
 by the servants of God shall then be made toai'pear. One 
 grand and glorious consummation will then be enjoy, d. T'he 
 kingdom shall then immediatelv fill the whole earth. God’s 
 people will enter into Sabbath. T'he Saints of the- Most High 
 shall posse>s the kingdom. All the nations and kindreds ot the 
 earth shall constitute one great brotherhood. .Amity and love 
 and mutu d regard shall prevail among them. Wars will cease. 
 They will beat their spears into pruning-hooks and their swords 
 into plowshares. All the false religions of the earth will have 
 passed away. .All the blinding and hurtful delusions will have 
 disajrpeared ; the idols shall be utterly abolished—tiiey shall be 
 
4 
 
 cast to the moles and to the bats. Everything that exalteth it¬ 
 self against (jod or against His truth or against the well-fare of 
 mankind shall be effectually brought low. d'hey shall not hurt 
 nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain. The wolf shall dwell 
 with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the 
 calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little 
 child shall lead them. The sucking child shall play on the 
 whole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on 
 the cockatrice den. The earth shall be filled with the know¬ 
 ledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. All nations shall 
 serve him. 'I'he Kingdom will be set up full and comjtlete ; the 
 wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert 
 shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It will be a time of the 
 restitution—a tiiue when the mystery of the world’s history shall 
 be explained and God’s plan of redemption shall be vindicated 
 in the eyes of all nations. 
 
 3—How IS the Millennium to be brought about? 
 
 A notion prevails that it is to be done very largely, if not 
 mainly, by huuian efort. It is true that effort is said to be put 
 forth through the church, but even though through the church 
 it be, it is hiimafi effoit still, and a very uncertain, unreliable 
 effort it has been, and a very uncertain, unreliable effort it is 
 most certain to be so far as any indications to the contrary are 
 discernible to-day. Along with this is still another notion that 
 the coming of the millennium is to be very gradual^ gaining 
 little by little as the church wakes up and works along bit by 
 bit between naps and backslidings and lethargies and variations 
 and departures and reformations, followed by other departures 
 indefinitely, so far as mortal man can see anything to the 
 contrary. If these two notions ai-e correct the outlook is 
 disheartening to the last degree. Some people claim that one 
 person in five in this land is a church member. But who will say 
 that one in five is a Christian, or even one in ten ? It is no 
 millennium when Satan has nine and Christ only one. And hew 
 
5 
 
 about the rest of the world ? When will Europe, Asia and Africa 
 be as far along as the United States ? And when the\ do get 
 aloim are they, too, to be only one out of ten of them real 
 Christians ? Look at our rate of progression, so slow, so uncer¬ 
 tain, subject to so many vicissitudes. How many times “ four¬ 
 teen generations” will pass away and yet “ the end” not be 
 reached. 
 
 Against these two notions we place another conception, that 
 the millennium is to be brought in by divine power, and that 
 when the set time comes its incoming will be rapid, accompani¬ 
 ed with marvellous displays of divine providence and great 
 brightness of divine glory. It was divine power that instituted 
 the original rest. It was divine power that ojjened canaan. 
 'Fhe people entered into rest, they never made the rest. Can it 
 be different with this great Sabbath ahead ? Can it be that God 
 must make the lesser, but that man or the Church can make the 
 greater ? 'Fhis point is of vital importance. Who is to bring in 
 the millennium—the Sabbatism of all the ages, the Sabbatism 
 of all the nations, the Sabbatism of all the generations, the Sab¬ 
 batism of the whole earth ? Is it God or is it man ? Is it the 
 disciple or is it his Lord ? Is it the zeal of man or the zeal of 
 the Lord of Hosts that will do this ? But one answer can be 
 given to these questions. An .Almighty arm alone can exercise 
 the mighty providences which are to usher in the consummation. 
 He alone can chain the wicked one ; He alone can pour out the 
 fulness of the Spirit ; He alone can overturn and overthrow ; 
 He alone can dash in pieces ; He alone can reconstruct ; He 
 alone has the government upon His shoulders. But has the 
 Church of Jesus Christ no part whatever in all this ? Yes. 
 
 4—But We Must First Preach the Gospel in all the 
 
 World. 
 
 This part of the work belongs to the Church ; all the rest be¬ 
 longs to God. Until we have fully made known the gospel to 
 the unevangelized nations there can be no millennium. We 
 
6 
 
 may spend millions in building up some one portion of the 
 earth, this country for example, or Scotland or England, or all 
 three combined, and then millions more on the top of that ; we 
 may plant new churches by the thousand and the ten thousand, 
 and found seminaries by the score and colleges by the hundreds, 
 and endow them all with vast revenues, and fill everv village with 
 gospel preaching till it is full and running over, and yet so long 
 as these unevangelized nations are neglected as they now persis¬ 
 tently are by us, there can be no millennium, d'he United States 
 cannot get their millennium before the other nations of the earth 
 get theirs. It will come to all at the same time, and by the same 
 series of providential interventions. Christ himself is the 
 authority for the statement. And this gospel must first be pub¬ 
 lished among all nations. Until it is so published there is no 
 hope of a millennium anywhere. 
 
 On the same authority of the Lord Jesus we make another 
 statement, that when the gospel is so published and preached in 
 all the world for a witness “ then shall the end cornel^ that is, 
 then, thereupon, as an immediate sequence, then shallP As to 
 days and hours we can tell nothing, but we know that when cer¬ 
 tain things have been done then certain other things shall fol¬ 
 low without fail and without delay. 
 
 'I'his is matter of such transcendent moment that we beg to 
 state It af.esh. Let the reader examine for himself, and if we 
 are wrong in our logic make instant correction, d'he Saviour 
 teaches explicitly two things ; (i) 7'hat the consummation called 
 “ the end''’ cannot come until the gospel has been first published 
 amome. all nations / ( 2 ) that ivhen the tc^ospel is so published^ then 
 and thereupon the consummation, what evei it is, shall come 
 without delay. 
 
 Beyond question the church’s future, the world’s future, our 
 very nation’s future are wrapped up in the accomplishment of 
 that witnessing among all nations. More momentous passages 
 cannot be found than these in which the Saviour sets forth these 
 things of the last days. Yet no passages more constantly get 
 
7 
 
 the go-by. There have been absurd interpretations given, and 
 the moment one refers to this time-table of the world’s progress, 
 the blunders and extravagances of those mal-interpreters are 
 visited upon his head. He is charged with teaching that the 
 whole world is to be at once smashed up; that the whole dispen¬ 
 sation of the Spirit is a failure ; that a hurried run through a 
 land, shouting here and there a word in passing, constitutes 
 the witnessing enjoined by Christ ; and, finally, that God in 
 vengeful spirit is merely taking away excuse so that He can the 
 more readily smite all humankind with a besom of destruction. 
 Such narrow views are associated with “ Millerism,” so-called. 
 They are too ridiculous to receive consideration. But why 
 should we refuse to ponder our Lord’s words because other men 
 have put upon them absurd constructions ? Ought we not at 
 least to try to find out what He did mean, and all the more as 
 we see the time approaching so much nearer than when the 
 words were spoken ? 
 
 Our own small contribution to a correct application we ven¬ 
 ture to submit for consideration. 
 
 “ The end /’ “ then shall the end come.” The essential 
 enquiry is to ascertain what is meant by “ the end” in this 
 connection. It is not the end of all things, it is not the de¬ 
 struction of the world by fire—that is to come at a much later 
 date and after the millennium is over and a new and more awful 
 apostasy has spread over the earth and taken possession of men 
 more numerous than the sands of the sea in multitude. It 
 seems to us that the verse itself contains the key to its own mys¬ 
 tery. “ This gospel of the kingdom,”—the complete establish¬ 
 ment of the kingdom is the end in view. A kingdom is the 
 outcome of the work of the world’s regeneration. God promised 
 to set up a kingdom. John preached a kingdom ; Christ preached 
 a kingdom ; the twelve preached a kingdom ; the seventy preach¬ 
 ed a kingdom ; Philip among the Samaritans preached a king¬ 
 dom, and Paul in the far-off heathen capital preached a king¬ 
 dom. This kingdom was to rule over all other kingdoms. 
 
8 
 
 It was to shape laws and statutes for them according to princi¬ 
 ples of justice and eternal rectitude. This kingdom was begun 
 to be set up when Christ came, but it was only begun ; it is pro¬ 
 gressing now, but it is progressing slowly, and it is progressing 
 under conditions which must be complied with befoie the end 
 is attained, or, in other words, before the long looked-for and 
 long-predicted consummation of the complete setting-up of the 
 kingdom shall take place. 
 
 For a witness unto all nations^ Not the bare and barren 
 racing over the earth, preaching a sermon and running on, leav¬ 
 ing people bewildered as to what you are talking about. A few 
 foreign missionaries in China to-day are making that mistake,, 
 and a sad mistake it is. Very different is the New Testament 
 illustration of the New Testament teaching. Paul was made “ a 
 minister and a witness.” He planted witnessing churches, rig¬ 
 orous, faithful bodies of witnesses, who should continually be 
 God’s witnesses in the cities and communities where they were, 
 and who should be the interpreters of God’s providences as they 
 occurred, both providences of judgment and providences of 
 goodness. And thus he showed that being a witness unto 
 Christ was a mighty and a continuous thing on the part of man 
 in the divine movement of the ages. 
 
 In like manner in missions to-day we are to be witnesses unto 
 Christ, and we are to be witnesses unto the nations. We are 
 messengers of wondrous mercy, and messengers, also, of contin¬ 
 gent judgment in case of refusal to hear. We are to be witness¬ 
 es against and witnesses for. The work is accomplished accord¬ 
 ing to the New Testament model when we go everywhere among 
 the unevangelized nations and plant among them capable wit¬ 
 nessing churches and a competent witnessing ministry, able In' 
 propagate their own spiritual kind, continuously witnessing and 
 continuously interpreting the truth of God as revealed in the 
 Gospel. 
 
 “ And then sha/l the end eome.” When all the nations are 
 duly prepared for what is to come^ and when every where among 
 
9 
 
 them all are His accredited witnesses and interpreters,—in the 
 form ot organized churches,—qualified and waiting to explain 
 to the vast unregenerate multitudes around them the wonderful 
 movements that are to take place, then will the judgments of 
 the nations begin to be meted out, judgments which are to 
 precede and prepare the way for the mighty downpour of the 
 Holy Spirit upon all flesh,” and the great and final mercy 
 which is to come upon all men, Israelite and Gentile alike, as 
 though the verv windows of heaven were opened. This great 
 and unusual witnessing among all nations is an essential prere¬ 
 quisite for the fulness and freedom of the divine movement. 
 Whether God deals forth a judgment or pours out a blessing He 
 would have all men concerned fully ap]:)rised in advance, so that 
 all men can apprehend, can understand and give Him glory. 
 
 A typical foreshadowing of all this took place on a small scale 
 while Christ was upon earth. He appointed other seventy also, 
 and sent them two and two before His face into every city and 
 place whither He himself would come. The blessing was to 
 follow the messengers in due time. He now sends His mission¬ 
 aries before His face into every city and place whither he Him¬ 
 self figuratively speaking shall come in showers of blessing. The 
 seventy represented the Gentile nations we may reasonably as¬ 
 sume, as the twelve” did the tribes of Isnel. 'I'o the latter 
 Jesus said, “ Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel 
 till the Son of man be come.” This w.is not a per.sonal com¬ 
 ings but a coming in providence to make a revolutionary change 
 in the administration of the kingdom of grace. This was done 
 when the Jewish state was subverted and a transfei of privilege 
 was made to the Genti'es, who retain it still. "'I'he thing which 
 has been it is that which shall be,” savs Solomon Following 
 this analogy we may say that the missionaries can hardly have 
 gone over the cities of the world before there will be a coming 
 of Chri■^t of the same nature as took place at the destruction of 
 JerusaFm ; an interposition by providence and by grace, and by 
 manifesto of divine power, ushering in a new state of things a 
 
lO 
 
 hundred times more wonderful than were those which took |)lace 
 in connection with the downfall of Jerusalem, yet all in strictest 
 harmony with tlie existing dispensation of the Spirit. 
 
 5-Group of Events that usher in the Millennium. 
 
 The old proi)hets are full of the coming kingdom or times of 
 the millennium ; Isaiah and Ezekiel are conspicuous. In many 
 instance-^ one single feature is mentioned of a time ; in other 
 cases Several are grouped together. The eleventh, thirty-fifth 
 and sixtieth of Isaiah may be cited for example. Taking them 
 all collectively we may specify the following things that directly 
 have to do with the incoming of the millennium, gatht ring our 
 informati n from Old and New Testament conjointly : 
 
 1. JuDGUKNTs ON THE NATIONS, d'hese must be visited 
 on them in their cotporate capacity as nations. Kesiionsibility 
 is transmissilile ; the final generation has to take the conse¬ 
 quences due to previous generations. This is what Christ 
 teaches when He says that upon this generation shall come all 
 the righteous blood, etc. The last generation of a naiion is the 
 residuary legatee of all the preceding ones. This will be the 
 harvest of the earth when all manner of errors and wrongs and 
 frauds and dece|>tions and false teachings and misleadings will 
 receive their reward in the nations that yet remain unpunished. 
 This is the time of tribulation which is to precede the great 
 Sabbatic dawn. Judgment will be visited, too, on false systems 
 of religion, such as Romanism and Mohammedanism, as has 
 been intimated already. The effect of all these judgments will 
 be to lead men all over the earth to reflection. W’hen thy 
 judgments are abroad in the earth the nations will learn right¬ 
 eousness.'’ 
 
 2. The Literal Binding of Sat\n. He shall no longer, 
 until the th'tusand years are finished, blind the minds of men. 
 'Truth and error shall then stand each on its own basis. 'Then 
 truth, in its own inherent might, shall triumph over everything 
 that is false and hurtful. Everywhere it shall receive full and 
 
candid consideration among men. Men will want to know the 
 truth, and see k the truth, and be willing to he guided by the 
 truth, d’ruth will be king, and all mankind will be its willing 
 subjects. 'There will be no tempter to evil ; no one to blind the 
 eyes of men ; no one with supernatural skill and cunning and 
 infernal malignity to stir men up to crime and evil-doing ; no 
 one to organize resistance to the authority of Christ ; no power 
 ot the air moving swiftly to and fro on errands of evil ; no one 
 to enter into the hearts of men to arouse evil passions and sti¬ 
 mulate to evii j ui poses. All this mighty and ubiquitous hin¬ 
 drance to the triumph of the gospel will be taken out of the way. 
 
 3. 'I hK kl STOKATION OF ISRAEL TO God’s FAVOR. In all 
 the promises connected with the millennial future none are 
 more striking than those w’hich refer to the redemption of the 
 chosen people. He that scattered Israel will gather him again. 
 Say what we may, the future of us w'ho are Gentiles in these 
 United States is associated with the deliverance of that people, 
 d'he casting away of them has prepared the way for the reconcil¬ 
 ing of the world ; the receiving of them will be as life from the 
 dead to us Gentiles. Let any one read the eleventh of Romans, 
 and see it there be a shadow of doubt about this. "Take this 
 for example : “ Now if the fall of them be the riches of the 
 world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, 
 how much more their fullness.” "That teaches that God will 
 bless us Gentiles immeasurably more w'hen he restores His peo¬ 
 ple than He is doing now. And again : After this—that is, 
 after a partial and preliminary gathering in of us Gentiles, and 
 before the great and final gathering shall come—“ I w'ill return 
 and build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, 
 and I will build again the ruin thereof.” And see what an amaz¬ 
 ing purpose of mercy it is intended to subserve : “ That the re¬ 
 sidue of them m ght seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles 
 upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth these 
 things.” Is it possible to state in stronger language that all the 
 blessings the Gentile world has ever had will be as nothing com- 
 
pared with what is in store for them when God shall restore his 
 ancient people to their place in the everlasting covenant ? 
 
 Let us indulge here in a little conjecture. England. Scotland 
 and the United States, with parts of Germany, Norway and 
 Sweeden, constitute the Protestant Christian world of to-day. 
 We are busy in a feeble way evangelizing the heathen. But 
 what of the outlook in the rest of the world ? What are we doing 
 to offset the error of the Romish Church and the Mohammedan 
 Church and the Greek Church ? Nothing, absolutely nothing. 
 How shall we reach them ? We don’t know. What is the pros¬ 
 pect of the conversion of their adherents ? Dark, very dark ! 
 When will we hope to see them brought in with our present 
 means and methods ? Not for ages and ages and ages—nobody 
 knows how many, and nobody can tell when. If anybody has a 
 reasonable conjecture, or any reliable evidence as to how it is to 
 come about, and when it is to come about, let him speak out, 
 for we want light. And yet, unless they are all moved, and 
 mightly moved, how can the earth have any millennium ? In 
 persuance of our conjecture let us contemplate the possible mor¬ 
 al effect of the sudden conversion of a whole nation, such as 
 Israel would be when brought back to their own land. What 
 if it be the purpose of God to plant Israel in the centre of this 
 triangle of error, the Greek Church on the north with 8d,ooo, 
 ooo, the Romish Church with 190,000,000 on the west, and 
 the Mohammedan Church on the east with 170,000,000, and 
 then convert the nation of Israel at once, pouring out over it the 
 spirit of grace and supplication ? Whai a mighty shout ot deli¬ 
 verance would go up ? What Gentile song ever heard in the 
 whole earth would equal that which would go up from suddenly 
 regenerated Israel. I’he whole hou.se of Pharaoh could hear the 
 weeping. A nation would be born at once. Such a mighty 
 witness to the veritable truth of God would give the He to the 
 assumptions of each of these three great false religions at once. 
 Their leaders and their traditions could blind them no longer. 
 A converted nation—a resurrected nation—wauld operate in all 
 
13 
 
 these masses as the resurrection of Lazarus did upon the Jews. 
 ^J'hen. too, would be t'ulfiled the words, “ and he will destroy in 
 this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and 
 the vail that is spread over all nations. Ye are my witnesses, 
 said the Lord God.” Israel has never done much witnessing 
 for God, and never done any witnessing at all as yet for their 
 Kinsman, Redeemer, the mighty child of Jacob, but the day will 
 come when they surely will. To whom much is forgiven the 
 same loveth much. Shall Israel alone be found wanting in a 
 testimony for the Messiah of the seed of Abraham like them¬ 
 selves ? God’s words will not fall to the ground which He hath 
 spoken concerning His ancient people whom he did foreknow. 
 When this time does come the heavens and the earth will hear 
 such witnessing for Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of 
 Abraham, as they have never yet heard from us Gentiles in all 
 our lifedong history thus far. The converted exiles will teach us 
 how to witness, and how to praise, and how to consecrate our¬ 
 selves. 
 
 4. The Unconditional Outpouring of the Spirit up¬ 
 on ALL FLESH. In the economy of the divine administration 
 we are always put under conditions first. I'hat arises from the 
 necessity of teaching us our weakness and our dependence on 
 God. When we have failed under conditions, then God be¬ 
 stows the mercy without any conditions. The former is the ad¬ 
 ministration of law, the latter the administrationof grace. We find 
 that true in the experience of us all. We first try to achieve 
 salvation under conditions. When we find we cannot meet the 
 conditions, and give up in despair, then God justifies us freely 
 by His grace, without any conditions. It is so wi.h the Spirit. 
 The gift of the Spirit’s power is more or less def)endent on con¬ 
 ditions at the outset, seemingly. When the Church comes to 
 discern its helplessness, and the world fails to meet the condi¬ 
 tions, then repentance and faith will be given without condi¬ 
 tions, and the Holy Spirit also will be poured out without any 
 measure save that of the world’s need. “ And it shall come to 
 
14 
 
 pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out niv spirit upon 
 all flesh.” A great many failures were necessary to prepare the 
 way for that wondertul declaration. When Israel cone short 
 God met it by higher promise- When they fell still farther 
 short He met them by a still higher promise. 4 'he lower they 
 fell the higher became His declarations. Where sin :ibounded, 
 grace did much more abound. When they sinned in the narrow 
 land of Palestine, then He declared the whole earth should be 
 blessed. Grace towered above transgression. So in Joel, 
 Israel had sinned and grieved His Holy Spirit ; but the Lord was 
 not to be thwarted. He would get to Himself still grc-ater glory. 
 He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The representa¬ 
 tives of all flesh out of all nations were there in thit crowd on 
 the day of Pentecost. Peter addressed the rei)resent;u ives of all 
 nations, Cretes, Arabians, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and even 
 strangers from Rome, the centre of the heathen world. On 
 that day they saw the first fruits of the outpouring (>f the Spirit. 
 The great outpouring is still to come, when the times of re¬ 
 freshing shall appear. Then the mighty energizing of the Holy 
 Spirit will make j^entecostal ingathering an every-day occurrence 
 all over the world, d’hese will be the days of purely uncondi¬ 
 tional grace. Grace that is conditional is no grace at all in the 
 highest sense. Now, all things are conditioned by our ability 
 to repent. Then He who has been exalted will as a Prince give 
 rei)entance, and as a Saviour give remission of sins, justifying 
 everywhere freely by His grace, not a three thousand at a time, 
 but a ten thousand or a twenty thousand or a hundred thousand. 
 Along the track of the ages, and against the obstacles interspers¬ 
 ed by fallen human nature, has this yearning of the di/ine heart 
 for the unconditional display of His love been steadily working 
 its way. When the end is achieved the millennial brightness 
 will fill the whole earth. 
 
 5. And finally the trooping in of the nations. 
 These will not then turn to the Lord by towns and by cities, but 
 by whole nations at a time. The mountain of the house of the 
 
*5 
 
 Lord shall he established in the top of the moiintcains and it 
 shall be exalted above the hills. That is, it shall take the place 
 of prominence in the whole earth. No human institution shall 
 stand above the Church of God ; none shall even come into 
 competiticm with it. “ And people shall flow into it.” The 
 drift of all human desire and of all human thought shall be to¬ 
 ward the house of the Lord, and whatsoever is associated there¬ 
 with. And many nations shall say—-mark it well—many nations 
 shall say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
 and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of 
 His ways and we will walk in His paths, for the law sha 1 go 
 forth ol Zion, and the Word of the Lord from jeiusalem. 
 Hitherto we have been taught in our own ways and w.ilked in 
 our own paths. But now we come from the ends of the earth 
 confessing that our fathers have inherited vanity, and lies and 
 things wherein there is no profit. Henceforth we will take our 
 departure anew from the law of the Lord and the house of (iod. 
 The teachings of His Word shall be the supreme law in all our 
 national councils, and the controlling factor in the develoj)ment 
 of all our civil and social organizations. We each recognize 
 the other as members of a common family of nations and a com¬ 
 mon broth.erhood of human kind. Into His j)resence will we 
 bring the honor and glory of the nations, and ail our allegiance 
 shall be gi 'en to Him who, wliether present in actual person or 
 only in spirit, is head over the nations, K.ing of kings and l.ord 
 lords. 
 
 6 -What Foreign Missions has to do vyith all this. 
 
 Something has been said already, but a few words more may 
 be added. Foreign Missions have everything to do with the 
 result. W'e apply the word “ foreign” now t(.) the unevangelized 
 portions of the world. We have missions in Europe, 'they 
 are ” loreign ” but they are not to unevangelizerl peoplr. The 
 prosecution of them cannot be of the same importance to the 
 world’s near luture that missions to the unevaiigeltzcd are. Of 
 
i6 
 
 « 
 
 course we must press them, and j^ress them with increasing vi- 
 gor for their own sakes, but whether we jjress them or not they 
 do not stand in the way of the millennium, according to these 
 teachings of Christ. But the others do stand in the way. T hey 
 must hear, and be in course ot preparation. And so Foreign 
 Missions, so-called, loom up into tremendous importance in 
 comparison with any and all other domestic missions combined. 
 We may push domestic missions a hundred-fold beyond what 
 they are now, but continuing to slight the unevangelized, and 
 putting them off till we get ail our fine churches built, and tell¬ 
 ing them to wait till we are more fully supplied, as we are now in 
 the habit of doing—so long as this is the case, we say, we shall 
 find ourselves just where we were. Flow differently Christ esti¬ 
 mates things from ourselves. We discriminate in favor of cultured 
 people and cultured nations in a manner we never see him do. 
 All must hear. All must have the same opportunity. It was not 
 of his chosen purpose, so far as we can see, nor is it according to 
 the precedents of the Book, that one man should be entitled to a 
 thousand sermons while in other cases a hundred thousand men 
 should never hear one sermon. That inequality is not of God, 
 but of man. It is a startling truth, but it is a truth nevertheless, 
 that in this matter the great and important peoples are to have 
 no advantage over the small and unimportant. All are wrapped 
 up in the same bundle of destiny. '1 he welfare of this great 
 nation is made dependent on their faithfulness to the small 
 nations. No millennium for any of them until all have heard. 
 Postpone the evangelization of the heathen in .Asia and Africa, 
 and we postpone the coming of the millennium in the United 
 States. No evangelization for heathendom means no millennium 
 for Christendom. 
 
 China, Octoher, 1889.