OTHER SHEEP I HAVE.' 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE SHEPARD MEMORIAE CHURCH, 
 CAMBRIDGE, OCTOBER 15, 1882. 
 
 By ALEXANDER Me 
 
 ER ^McKE 
 
 NZIE. 
 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. Mass.: 
 1882. 
 
/ 
 
 OTHER SHEER I HAVE 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE SHEPARD MEMORIAL 
 CAMBRIDGE, OCTOBER 15, 1882. 
 
 By ALEXANDER McKENZIE. 
 
 
 CHURCH, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. Mass.: 
 1S8’. 
 
PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 Reported by It. IV. Gleason. 
 
OLl. 
 
 SERMON 
 
 Text: — “ And other sheep I have, uhieh are not of this fold: 
 them also I must briny , and they shall hear my voice; and there 
 shall be one fold , and one shepherd .” — St. John 10 ; 16. 
 
 This was the broad, far-reaching view of the Christ of God. 
 lie had gathered a few men about him ; he had made the land to 
 feel the blessing of his presence in comfort, in healing, and in life. 
 There were men seeing who had been blind ; there were men 
 running who had been lame ; there were men living who had been 
 dead, until he found them and saved them. But he was not con- 
 tent that his life should be bounded within these narrow limits. 
 As he was passing out of the world, already I13- anticipation enter- 
 ing the glory, his eyes wandered out over the earth. He saw 
 others as needy as these ; he saw others as dear as these, whom he 
 could reach and whom he could bless. The land of Palestine, 
 where our Lord’s earthly life up to this time had been spent, in size 
 and in shape is like our state of Vermont ; and Vermont is not 
 the whole country, still less the whole world. He could not be 
 content that this little state should be blessed while all the rest 
 of the laud and the world was living in the same necessity, need- 
 ing the same Savior. We find to the end, as Christ’s life passes 
 on from this point — for now it is drawing towards its consumma- 
 tion — this same reaching out of his thoughts to those who are 
 beyond. Thus, when he prayed with his disciples the night before 
 his crucifixion, the same night in which he was betrayed, opening 
 his heart before the Father, he was not content that he had blessed 
 eleven men who were with him in that hour and whom he carried 
 in his petition to the Father ; but, reaching beyond the walls of 
 that chamber and past the walls of Jerusalem, he cried, “Neither 
 pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on 
 me through their word.” Then again, when his resurrection was 
 accomplished, and he met his disciples in the mountain in Galilee, 
 
4 
 
 lie gave them their commission that they should go and teach all 
 nations. He taught them at another time that repentance and 
 remission of sins should be preached “among all nations, begin- 
 ning at Jerusalem.” Finally, when he stood upon the Mount of 
 Ascension, and for the last time his feet were treading the earth, 
 looking beyond all the glory that was before him, he cried, “Ye 
 shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, 
 and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the -earth.” They 
 caught the words so eagerly that they seemed scarcely willing to 
 wait until he had ascended. We mark how he holds them, de- 
 tains them, lest they should go too soon into their work. “Tarry 
 ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endowed with power from 
 on high.” 
 
 We see, then, this thought of the Christ for the “other sheep,” 
 and we find in this the whole idea and principle and spirit of that 
 which in our day, alas, we still call the missionary work. The 
 whole genius of this endeavor and enterprise lies in that single 
 sentence : “Other sheep I have, and them also I must bring.” If 
 we keep to this figure, we mark how the Lord has gathered to- 
 gether some sheep out of the peril in which they were, and that there 
 are others whom he will succor. We mark that there are other 
 sheep wandering in waste places, where there is no herbage and 
 where the brooks are dry ; and that they must be made to lie down 
 in green pastures and be led by still waters. We mark other sheep 
 wandering aimlessly and hopelessly over the earth ; and they must 
 have the Shepherd who shall lead them safely and happily into the 
 rest, the eternal keeping, the eternal fold of God the Father and 
 Savior of them all. So simple it is : so many sheep saved from 
 the wolves, so many others still in danger ; so many sheep safely 
 folded, others not folded ; so many wisely led, others not led. — 
 we have here the whole spirit of this enterprise. 
 
 Or, if we should drop this imagery for the moment, we find it in 
 this wise : Christ seeks, as he has brought certain men into the 
 knowledge of God, to bring other men to know God ; as he has 
 brought some men out of the guiltiness and wrong of their lives, so 
 he will bring others to righteousness and holy lives ; as he has re- 
 vealed the grace and wisdom of God to some, he will reveal them 
 to others ; as he has placed some men in paths of usefulness 
 and happiness and life, so he will place other men ; until, out of 
 all the earth, he shall gather his own together, and there shall be 
 
one flock and one shepherd. Ho looks, therefore, for the world, to 
 this deliverance on the one hand, and to this advancement of all 
 their interests which shall carry them beyond deliverance. 
 
 We may come to this, then : to see that there are certain bles- 
 sings lying within this greater thought of Christ’s greater purpose 
 which justify this endeavor whose full accomplishment they so 
 beautifully illustrate. For, casting our eyes even hastily over the 
 world to-day, we find sore need of comfort and peace and all those 
 blessings which tend to make life useful and happy for us. Christ 
 would say*, “I would give to all the world the blessings of my 
 grace, until they know God, and dwell obediently in his love ; until 
 they have peace one with another ; until superstition, witchcraft, 
 slavery and all iniquity have passed away ; until women have their 
 place in the home and the life of children is secure ; until they have 
 good schools and all the blessings of a good civilization ; until 
 they have upright governments with good rulers aud good people ; 
 until life is a blessing and is safe, while it is the earnest and the 
 hope of a higher and better life that is to come.” Even out of our 
 own world, and our own methods of living, which are so far from a 
 complete civilization ; even out of these broken, disordered meth- 
 ods. so full of reproach ; we can see the need that others should be 
 brought, even as far as we have come, into the blessings of our 
 peace, of our orderly communities, of our Christian homes and 
 Christian schools. 
 
 Perhaps we might catch the spirit of the Christ as well by keep- 
 ing within the words which here he presents, in the passage now 
 before us, and of which he, like his Father, was so very fond. It 
 was a pastoral country ; he was descended from the Shepherd of 
 Israel ; he was accustomed to this keeping of sheep and to all that 
 concerns a pastoral life. It was natural, therefore, that he should 
 take up this method of speaking, in which he should be the Shep- 
 herd and men should be the sheep. 
 
 What do we wish to do. what does Christ wash to do, for these 
 “ other sheep”? Why, merely what he has doue for those who 
 are gathered already within his fold. Mark these two or three 
 points : 
 
 First, he wishes to teach the other sheep, all belonging to him 
 the world over, to read and enjoy the 23rd Psalm. He wants the 
 men and women in the heart of Africa to be able to say this, as 
 they cannot say it to-day : ‘‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall 
 
6 
 
 not want.” He wants to teach them the exceeding comfort of 
 that truth, in view of all that is before them. He wants to teach 
 them on the plains of Asia to say as the}- die, ‘“Yea, though I 
 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; 
 for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” 
 Again, he wants to teach them in Africa and Asia, and in the 
 islands of the sea, to read the tenth chapter of St. John, and to 
 hear the Lord, say : “I am the good shepherd ; the good shep- 
 
 herd giveth his life for the sheep.” Again, he wants to teach them 
 the world over those words which St. Peter has. written, looking 
 forward to the life that is before them, the great event which is 
 to usher in the Day of God that is to be : “ When the chief shep- 
 
 herd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not 
 away.” Finally, he wants to teach the “other sheep” of all 
 nationalities, scattered throughout the world, those words which 
 St. John heard on that Lord’s-day morning, when Patinos grew 
 bright with the light of heaven and a voice came from out the 
 excellent glory, revealing the things which are forevermore before 
 the throne of God, where men stand from Africa, from Asia, from 
 America, from the islands, out of wretchedness, out of guiltiness, 
 clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, singing one 
 song to which the angels listen : “ Unto him that loved us, and 
 
 washed us from our sins in his own blood.” For these are they 
 that have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God” ; 
 and they shall “ follow the Lamb whithersoever lie goeth.” 
 
 Here lie the motive and the incentive to this work which Christ 
 gives to us. You and I need nothing more than this : to mark that 
 Christ stands looking the world through, and to remember that he 
 has died for the whole world ; to mark that his longing desire, as 
 he goes out from the world, is to have all men everywhere know 
 what he has done for them ; and to hear him sa}-, as he commits 
 his work to men : “I must ascend to the Father ; I leave this in 
 
 your hands. There are other sheep as dear to me as you, and 
 they are scattered through all the world.” “Other sheep I have.” 
 Who needs more argument? Who asks for greater persuasion? 
 Who seeks a higher reward? Every Christian heart leaps, all 
 piety starts, all the blood of our faith and our devotion runs 
 quicker in our veins, stirred not by commandment, lured not by 
 promises, moved not by threatenings, won by the great heart, the 
 
broad, high vision, the compassionate grace, of the Christ: — “0 
 ye who lo\e me, I have other sheep ; them also I must bring, that 
 there may be one fold and one shepherd.” We seem to hear these 
 words of Christ extending through all our faith and through all 
 the revelation of his grace, summoning us to the opportunity and 
 to the duty of our life. It seems to me, that when I read the 
 Psalm of David, it is as when we sing the Psalm in the Sanctuary, 
 and the human voice lifts up its syllables with all their sweetness 
 and their power, while the organ with its grand, rich notes, bur- 
 dened with melody, accompanies the voice, that organ and voice 
 may bear the psalmody up and raise our thoughts with the words. 
 I wish I could sing it and make the organ sound as I sing. I think 
 that it is like this : the divine accompaniment behind the Psalm, 
 under it, above it, through it, inspiring it and uplifting it by its 
 breath; as one might sing : “ The Lord is m 3 ' shepherd; I shall 
 
 not want,” — ‘‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold”; 
 “ lie maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me be- 
 side still waters,” — “Them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
 my voice” ; “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
 of death. I will fear no evil,” — “And there shall be one fold and 
 one shepherd.” Christ’s compassion at the cross gives to the psalm 
 of the old shepherd the rich melody of its fulfilment, when Christ 
 enlarges the thought of him whose son he does not disdain to be. 
 There is a seventh verse to the 23rd Psalm, and Christ, the Sou 
 of God, wrote it. We do not read the Psalm through to its 
 end if, when David has laid down his pen, we do not find in 
 another handwriting underneath : “Other sheep I have which are 
 
 not of this fold.” “Think not that you are the only man whose 
 shepherd I am,” he would say, “think not in your conceit that I 
 stretch out my rod for you only ; think not that in the pastures 
 where I feed my flock there is only grass enough for you, and that 
 in the brooks which follow where I touch the rock there is only 
 water enough for you and for j our friends.” “Other sheep I have 
 which are not of this fold.” 
 
 Brethren, I think that this matter might well be left sirnplj- here. 
 I doubt very much if we add anything to its force bj r adding to its 
 words. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ it is impossible that you 
 should not feel the constraint of that sentence: “Other sheep I 
 
 have.” I heard that a person said once, “I do not believe in 
 foreign missions.” It was a thoughtless word ; it was saying this, 
 
8 
 
 although this was not meant: “I do not believe in the other 
 
 sheep. I think Christ died for me and for my countrymen, and 
 I do not believe he died for anj'body else.” You have only to 
 state it to see how absurd it is, and how far, as the east is from 
 the west, it is removed from every line and from all the spirit of 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 But it will be asked, I know, as it is asked so often, suppose 
 that we do not go to these other sheep, what, then, becomes of 
 them?-- a question drawn so largely and so unhappily into the 
 religious discussion of these days of the church. We are having a 
 renewed interest in the consideration of the missionary enterprise ; 
 but the renewed interest keeps repeating the inquiry : What will 
 
 became of the “other sheep” if we do nothing for them? Surely 
 it is a very painful question. It marks a decline of spiritual life 
 in anybodj’ who asks it. It shows a falling off of piety when we 
 come down to consider anything like that. What will become of 
 the heathen if we do not go to them with the gospel of the grace of 
 God? Why, what matters it what would be doue, for we are going 
 to them with the gospel of the grace of God. Suppose you should 
 be told that last week, at the meeting of the Overseers of the Boor 
 in this city of Cambridge, they spent an hour discussing what they 
 should do with your family in case, during the coming winter, you 
 refused to provide bread for them. You would feel justly offended. 
 You would say, “These men have no right to arraign me and 
 presume upon my inhumanity ; they have no right to consider what 
 provision they shall make in case I do not provide bread for my 
 household. I always have done it, I am doing it, I always shall 
 do it.” Friends, it is a dishonor to the church of God that men sit 
 gravely down to consider what God will do for the heathen pro- 
 vided we do not share our bread with them ; what God will do for 
 our brothers and sisters through the world, provided we, whose 
 kinsmen they are, refuse to give to them the bread which is in our 
 hands that we may share it with them. I will have none of it. 
 It is a wrong to the church, it is a wrong to our common humanity 
 and our common Christianity to enter into any such discussion. 
 What will become of the heathen if we do not go to them? Why, 
 we are going to them. It is beyond all question. What will be- 
 come of them if we do not give them the gospel ? Why, we are 
 giving them the gospel, and shall give it to them jet more and 
 more until all the world has heard the Word. 
 
9 
 
 Hut still tin* question is pressed: “Tell me, as a matter of 
 
 curious interest, what will be done with them and what will become 
 of them if we do not give to them the gospel of the Son of God?” 
 I set it with other questions. You say, “ It is possible that we 
 may not go ; it is at least conceivable that the missionary work 
 should die out.” Y r es, it is conceivable. What shall be done? 
 What will you do if all the men who own ships, the world over, 
 refuse to carry out a missionary? Build other ships. What will 
 you do if all the ship-builders in the world refuse to build ships to 
 carry missionaries? What will you do if all sailors and ship 
 captains refuse to man ships to carry missionaries? What will 
 you do if all the makers of charts and compasses and sails and 
 anchors refuse to furnish these things to ships that carry mis- 
 sionaries? What will you do if Euroclydon, arising on this Octo- 
 ber Sabbath, sweeps over the ocean until the waves rise mountain 
 high and the tempest blows until the I)ay of God? What will 
 you do if these things come to pass? As well look for all the 
 ship-buiklers of the world to refuse our money, as to suppose that 
 the churches of the world will refuse to go in ships and carry the 
 good news of God over the seas. As well think that men will let 
 their ships perish at the wharves when they could send them on 
 profitable voyages, as that Christianity will rot into selfishness and 
 men in their insufferable conceit will think that God cares for them 
 only, and that the Son of God died upon the cross for them only 
 and meu of their complexion. Call religion selfishness ; call the 
 Redeemer an American ; call Christ a man who cares for you and 
 your children alone ; you must do all this before the church loses 
 the divine inspiration and the power of those simple thoughts and 
 desires out of the heart of the Christ : “I have redeemed you ; 
 
 I have blessed you ; I fold you to-day under my protection. There 
 are other sheep which are not of this fold ; them also I must 
 bring, you must bring ; and the}' shall hear my voice, your voice ; 
 and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Under the con- 
 straint of this longing we shall go out. It is beyond discussion ; 
 we are going to-day. 
 
 I know we are told that we need another inspiration and incen- 
 tive. It is not enough that Christ wants the others, not enough that 
 Christ sends us to them with the blessings of his word ; unless we can 
 feel their hopelessness, destroyed by themselves and soon to be for- 
 ever deserted of God, we shall not stir hand or foot. What right 
 
IO 
 
 has any man to say that? What need have we to hear it? It is a 
 lower consideration ; it is down beneath our common motives and 
 practices as Christian men. If we will not go to the heathen be- 
 cause Christ wants us to go, I do not believe it is of much use for 
 us to go at all. If we cannot preach to them the love of Christ, we 
 have very little to preach. If the love of Christ does not lead us to 
 go, then we should not have much of the love of Christ to preach if 
 we should go. If we are not moved by those, things which moved 
 him who redeemed us with his blood, then we shall not be moved. 
 I love to read that divinest missionary sentence of them all, the 
 strength and heart of the Gospel, that God gave his son to the 
 world because he loved the world ; and to believe that it is the 
 spirit of modern missions to seek men because we love men and 
 because Christ loves men. 
 
 “.Still, is not this a lost world”? I thought it was a found world 
 — so have 1 read the Gospel. The great fact of the Gospel is that 
 Christ has sought the world and found it. Christ has redeemed it ; 
 Christ has saved it. The great thing to feel is not that it is cast 
 down, but that Christ has come to lift it up; not that it is gone 
 from God but that God has come to it; not that it is wandering 
 into perdition, but that Christ has reclaimed it for Paradise. But, 
 would it not be an incentive to go to him, to feel that a man dying 
 this day without the knowledge of Christ sinks instantly, like a 
 stone in the sea, into the depths of eternal perdition? Would 
 not that stir us and make our hearts quick to go abroad with the 
 gospel? I do not deny that there may be an incentive of that 
 kind ; but I do insist upon it, if I know anything of the gospel 
 of Christ, if I know anything of the motives which move Chris- 
 tian effort in this land and in other lands, that this is not the 
 spirit which is sending men to save men ; but that they are going 
 for the love of the Christ, and for the love of those whom Christ 
 would save. 
 
 “But, is it not true that they are sinking into this hopeless 
 perdition unless we go to rescue them.” I am not concerned now 
 to talk about that. But what shall be done with the heathen? 
 It is a very important question ; it is a question of great personal 
 interest; and yet it needs definition like anything else. Whom 
 do you mean by the “heathen”? The heathen in the first instance 
 were simply the people who dwelt on the heath; country people. 
 That was the early distinction. A pagan was a villager, and urban- 
 
ity was simply the method of city life. In the beginning civiliza- 
 tion, and therefore naturally Christianity, centered in the cities, 
 and from them spread gradually into the country. Now, what is 
 to be done with the country people? Jerusalem has the gospel : 
 what of the people without? Boston has the gospel: what of 
 the heathen of Cambridge, Somerville, Charlestown, and all this 
 country district about us? That was the original question. Well, 
 we cannot draw any lines of that sort and say that a person living 
 within a great municipality is to hear the gospel of the grace of 
 God ; but that, if a person lives in the country it is not necessary, 
 or will be to no effect. 
 
 Let us narrow the question. The heathen are those living 
 without the knowledge of God; that is our general definition, — 
 those who do not know the true God ; do not know his name ; do 
 not do his will. Now, who are the heathen on this plan? Why, 
 they vary every day. You must often ask the question and 
 answer it. There is not a day in the calendar when the heathen 
 are the same as on other days. Who were they when Christ was 
 here? Think of it for a moment. Who were the heathen when 
 Christ said, “There are other sheep which are not of this fold?” 
 Think of it geographically for an instant. Why, the heathen in- 
 cluded everybody in this world except the Jews. Go out to the 
 east of Palestine, or to the west, to Greece, Rome, Gaul, and the 
 plains of India, and the regions beyond, — the people were heathen 
 to a man, except as they were Jews, or proselytes of the Jews. 
 What shall be done with the heathen? Ask St. Peter. It is a good 
 question for that day. St. Peter says, “Let them go ; nobody can 
 be saved but a Jew. The Jew is God’s peculiar man.” It needed 
 a vision out of the heavens to persuade him that it was worth while 
 to preach the gospel to the heathen, — meaning the Greek, the 
 Roman, the Englishman, anybody except a Jew. Well, the gos- 
 pel went out for them, went out beyond Jerusalem and Judea, and 
 reached out beyond among other people, spreading gradually over 
 the earth, winning men everywhere it went unto the grace and 
 goodness of our God. 
 
 What of to-day then ? It has come to pass, strange as it may seem, 
 and it is an absolute fact to-day, that there are millions of Christians 
 in the world who never were Jews at all. I do not think you could 
 have made St. Peter believe that it would ever be so, until he had 
 that vision. You remember the disciples called him to account for 
 
acting on this principle. Even the}’ had to be persuaded by his 
 vision out of heaven. How do we stand, then, to-day as related 
 to the heathen ? We stand in this great mass of humanity of which 
 Palestine is the centre, and the gospel is reaching a little way into 
 it. What of the rest? Why, let it keep on. That is the whole of 
 it. Let it go on still further. Why do you draw the line ? Are they 
 more heathen on that side of the meridian than on this? They are 
 all heathen together; only some, we. have received. the truth, and 
 others around us have not received it yet. They are precisely what 
 we were, with the same necessity, and the same gracious offer is 
 made to them. The only difference is that they are by a single step 
 more removed from Christ. It is all there. Let us understand the 
 language we are using, nor confuse ourselves over terms without 
 an accurate conception of their meaning. Let us repeat what has 
 been done. Let this word which has come to us spread from us to 
 those who are near us, and to those who are remote, until at last 
 they all come unto this grace of God. For we wrong ourselves 
 when we saj- that we need to be saved and the heathen do not. 
 We wrong them when we say that we are able to be saved and they 
 are not. We do not differ from them at any essential point. 
 The only difference is on outside matters which are not at all 
 essential to this matter of their redemption before God. They 
 have the same human hearts, the same duty, the same everlasting 
 years before them ; and for them all the Son of God has died. We 
 have won out of all nations and kindreds some already unto the 
 kingdom of God : it needs but the extension of this which has al- 
 ready been done and they shall all come, the “other sheep” shall 
 be brought, and our Lord’s thought of the “one flock and the one 
 shepherd” shall be fulfilled. 
 
 It has been suggested, in another connection, that ignorance 
 is bliss. It may be ; but I never yet heard that ignorance is 
 righteousness. I never have been told that ignorance is glory, 
 and honor, and immortality. 1 have never yet read in Holy 
 Scripture that men stand before the throne of God with white 
 robes and palms in their hands as a reward of their ignorance, and 
 that the best preparation for God’s kingdom above is paganism, 
 that all a man needs is to die in darkness to enter upon the glory 
 of the eternal light. Ignorance may be bliss, but ignorance is 
 not godliness. A state of ignorance may have its advantages but 
 it is not the kingdom of God. 
 
r 3 
 
 I know the question will be pressed, and that I shall he told 
 I have evaded, and have not answered it, — what will become of 
 the heathen if we do not give to them the gospel of the Christ? 
 I would evade nothing. Let me ask you to notice briefly these 
 two or three points touching those who have not heard the gospel 
 of the grace of God. Let it be remembered that they do not 
 differ from you and me except that we have heard already 
 and they are yet to hear. Let it be remembered that your ances- 
 tors and mine, unless the} - were Jews, are numbered with the 
 heathen of yesterday, those whom St. Peter thought were not to 
 b > reached, those for whom St. Paul was especially commissioned 
 that he might speak to them the word of mercy. Now as touch- 
 ing them notice these things: First, that the state in which they 
 live is not a state of misfortune merely : it is a state of guilt. 
 There is nothing more important than that. One of our primal 
 errors is in pitying them when we ought to feel that they are 
 guilty before God, and are to be dealt with as guilty men. Sec- 
 ondly, let it be remembered that right and wrong have no respect 
 whatever to the color of a man’s skin or to the raiment which he 
 wears, and that as long as God is God, whoever stands and who- 
 ever falls, it shall be well with those who do right and it shall be 
 ill with those who do wrong ; that doing right keeps men and 
 brings men into the favor of God ; and doing wrong tends away 
 from God, unto his condemnation. Let it be noted again that 
 God’s will is revealed to these as to others ; not as completely to 
 these as to others, but completely enough for their duty, complete- 
 ly enough to give an opportunity for guiltiness. They have the 
 light of nature, of which we are boasting more and more in our 
 day ; they have conscience and the moral sense ; they have rea- 
 son : they have the experience of life. If they do right, they do 
 right under the force of these faculties ; if they do wrong, they 
 do wrong in spite of these faculties and they yield to the induce- 
 ments to evil. Let it be noted again, that God will deal with 
 them in perfect justice, as he deals with other men, according to 
 their opportunity. We need not run the line of separation be- 
 tween Christian and pagan nations. I rnn it through your houses, 
 among the families of this people. The child of the Christian 
 father and mother has more responsibility upon him to-day, and 
 in the day of judgment, than that unfortunate child for whom no 
 father prays. God deals with meu always according to their 
 
H 
 
 opportunities and the light they have or can have if they will. 
 And again, God requires them, whether the}' be in that land or 
 in this, to live up to the light they have. If it be much, they 
 must live up to the great light ; if it be little, they will be judged 
 as those who have the little light. But they will be judged dis- 
 criminatingly and thoroughly, according to the opportunities 
 which they have had. Jesus declared this strongly, that they 
 who know r the will of God, as you do. and do it not,, shall be beaten 
 with many stripes ; and that they w ho do not do the will of God 
 because they do not know' it, or do not know it perfectly, shall 
 have the few stripes ; not that they shall be exempt from stripes, 
 for there is no man w'lio docs not know' something of the will of 
 God, else he is not a man at all. They shall be dealt with accord- 
 ing to their light. 
 
 But there comes to us this fact, — and here is the difficult point of 
 the whole consideration — that Christ has come into the world 
 declaring God’s will and revealing God’s grace. Therefore, under 
 these Christian conditions our character and our destiny are made 
 up. What shall be done for those wdio never hear of Christ? I 
 answer in this wise: that the grace of God is for all men, that 
 Christ died for all men, and that if a man lives up to the light he 
 has without hearing of Christ, it is quite possible for God to apply 
 to him the merits of Christ’s redemption ; as it w'as with the Jew 
 before Christ came, who did what he could, by his faith in the 
 sacrifice, without clearly understanding the meaning of the sacri- 
 fice. God understood the meaning, and he gave to the obedient 
 Jew the advantages of that sacrifice, because he did what he 
 could, and God applied the whole. It may be so with a man on 
 this side of the crucifixion of Christ who never hears of him, but 
 who yet comes to him, or towards him, as w'ell as he can, and offers 
 his life in obedience and sacrifice, and praise and love. The power 
 of Christ’s redemption may be applied to him as to the Jew with- 
 out his ever hearing of the Christ. Alas that they are so rare of 
 whom such things can be said ! The search of the years brings 
 up few men who stand by the side of the Grecian sage who is 
 habitually mentioned in this connection as a man who did what he 
 could, and found the grace of God which is in Christ. 
 
 Now I am quite content to leave men there, if I must consider 
 this question at all ; that God will deal with them justly and may give 
 to them, if they be obedient, the grace of the Christ of whom they 
 
15 
 
 have never heard. There is a suggestion which has been talked 
 about within the last six or eight months, that after men are dead 
 Christ may go to them in their prison-house and preach to them 
 personally the gospel of which the}' have never heard. To my 
 mind this is not a very probable solution of the question. I do 
 not object to it as a generous thought upon a painful theme. It 
 has been repeatedly declared, with my most hearty concurrence, 
 that there is nothing in it to disqualify a man for the Christian 
 ministry in a Puritan Church ; that is all which has been proved 
 by these recent public, and most interesting and thoughtful discus- 
 sions. It does not seem tome that this is the most rational way of 
 meeting this difficulty ; if we feel called upon to meet it at all, as I 
 do not. I think it is not clearly taught in Scripture ; indeed, that 
 is not claimed. Upon a kindly, well meant theory one does not 
 speak in a dogmatic way. But I do not feel that this is so prob- 
 able a way of meeting the necessity of these men as that which I 
 have already described. But it will be said. I know, — and here 
 comes the special point of difficulty, — that if they have the pres- 
 ence of Christ and the personal preaching of Christ, which we 
 have, and under which we make up our character, then they may 
 be won unto the grace of God. We must believe that the presence 
 and voice of Christ would bring to them an immense increase of 
 light. Yet it is noticeable that the preaching of Christ and the 
 presence of Christ have not succeeded in winning men into the 
 fold of God. That which has brought men to be the children of 
 God is the Spirit of God, the IIolv Ghost, finding men. convincing 
 them of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and bringing them 
 unto the blessings of the grace of God. The Spirit of God can 
 find men now in darkness, and can apply to them the grace of God, 
 in their obedience and penitence, even though they may never hear 
 the name of Christ. 
 
 I am quite willing to leave it there. And yet why say these 
 things? Why indulge in speculations concerning what we should 
 do if the sun should never rise again, if the air should suddenly 
 vanish away, if seed should never yield bread, and the water- 
 brooks should be dried up. and hope should fail from out the 
 hearts of men? When it comes we will see what we shall do. 
 It has not come yet. What shall we say of the heathen who never 
 hear the Gospel? When you and I have done our duty and there 
 are heathen who have not heard the gospel, I will join you in con- 
 
i6 
 
 sideling the question which then, for the first time, has become 
 practical. Do you not mark that the heathen are provided for? 
 They need simply that which has come to us. The only thing 
 wanting is the personal factor, the man. who. taking the mercy of 
 God, shall teach it to others just as it came to him. Between 
 Christ and you there stands a man or woman — your father, 
 mother, teacher, minister, friend. Somebody came from Christ to 
 you and brought you to Christ, and that is your personal experi- 
 ence. It is meant to be so the world over ; nor are we to think 
 that men will be brought to love Christ unless men go out to teach 
 his name and to illustrate the power and the beauty of his life and 
 bring men up into his redemption. 
 
 This, then, is the broad commission of our great love for Him : 
 “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.” And this has 
 occurred to me, brethren : that if we fail of onr duty, and these 
 men go into eternity with our duty undone, the mercy of God 
 shown to them may be taken from us, and by as much as they have 
 happiness beyond their desert may the happiness be taken from 
 us. It may be that something will be taken from us that they may 
 be found clothed, and that we shall be set in inferior places that 
 they may rise into the higher places which would have been theirs 
 if we had done our duty to them. 
 
 You will not. you will not I am sure, think that 1 forget, or 
 lightly regard, the solemn words which describe the estate of those 
 who go to the judgment with their sins upon them. I would not 
 conceal from you, or from myself, the fearful estate of men who 
 live without God and die without a Savior. I venture nothing 
 upon the hope which tender pity may suggest. 1 take nothing from 
 the eternal punishment of guilt. I see no bridge across the gulf 
 which is fixed. Profoundly solemn and awful are the teachings of 
 onr Lord regarding the ungodly. Right and wrong are infinitely 
 far apart in their character and their consequences. 
 
 I do not question that this is the belief of the missionaries of 
 Christ ; and that it enters into their desire and their sacrifice for 
 men. But I do not believe that in these sad truths is found the 
 motive which has sent our youug men and young women to the 
 ends of the earth as the ambassadors of Christ, and has kept them 
 in strange lands, and laid them in strange graves; so that, but 
 for these gloomy truths, they would not have gone, although Christ 
 bade them : that the love of men who were in present distress would 
 
i7 
 
 lisive appealed in vain ; and the urging and command of Clnist 
 would have fallen on hearts which would not have been moved, and 
 on ears which would not have listened. I am dealing with facts, — 
 they have gone and they stay ; others will go and stay, for the 
 love they bear to men and the greater, unquestioning, sufficient 
 love they bear for Christ. Nothing which men may suggest in the 
 way of hope will take from the force of Christ’s pommand ; Christ’s 
 commission : “ Other sheep 1 have which are not of this fold ; 
 
 them also I must bring.” 
 
 Brethren, remember or forget as you will that which I have 
 now said, but remember this which Christ has said. 1 do Dot 
 believe that we need a higher and holier incentive than that, it 
 has been said in public places, that unless certain things are be- 
 lieved in regard to the immediate and eudless hopelessness of those 
 who die without hearing of Christ, the arm of the missionary will 
 be unnerved ; and that by a variation from certain theological 
 views we may cut the nerves of our missionary effort. That is, 1 
 suppose, we shall cease to give money or prayer, and the men and 
 women who have gone out will come back and no others will take 
 their places. I wonder that men who have given treasure and 
 labor to this Christian enterprise have heard such things in silence, 
 perhaps with approbation. I wonder that of those who have lis- 
 tened to such suggestions, — some of them missionaries, some the 
 fathers and mothers of missionaries, who knew the hearts of the sons 
 and daughters they had anointed with holy tears, — there was not 
 found some one to rise and say, “In the name of truth, in the name 
 of my child, and of my Savior, I protest against this charge.” It 
 is late, but I lift my voice in ‘defence of the absent, the living and 
 the dead. I will not have this dishonor thrown upon the life oT 
 Judson, and Scudder, and Tyler, and Brown, and all the glorious 
 company of our elect. It shall not be said that the love of Christ 
 was not enough, the love of humanity was not enough, the com- 
 mand of Christ was not enough ; that they never would have gone 
 to teach the grace of God to others, unless they had held certain 
 special beliefs concerning those to whom they were sent ; that 
 they must hear the crackling of the flames, or they may turn 
 to their merchandise and their beds. I do not believe it ; 1 
 wont believe it. In the name of every Christian missionary the 
 world over, I den}' it. I ask to be heard until the missionaries 
 have had time to speak for themselves. The love of Christ was 
 
i8 
 
 enough to send them ; the desire of Christ was enough to inspire 
 them. They would have gone, they would have stayed, they would 
 have wrought, the} - would have died, so long as the Christ said. 
 “Other sheep I have, and them also I must bring.” I have heard 
 of but one missionary’s arm that was unnerved. It was cruelly 
 unnerved. When he was dead, in England, they stripped off the 
 cerements from hpn that they might find whether it was the man 
 or not. They saw the broken bone still bearing the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus. But his arm had been unnerved by the bite of a lion, 
 and not by the shiver of a ghost. No, men, no ! This is a 
 Christian sanctuarj T ; we are moved by the love of Christ. Down 
 through the light of this Sabbath day comes that word which is 
 warning, and motive, and spirit, and longing, and compassion, 
 enough for us all : “ There are other sheep which are not of this 
 
 fold ; them also must I bring, and they shall hear 1113' voice.” 
 
 I read the missionary hymns where thought rises into its imag- 
 inative and passionate expression. I have turned the pages of our 
 “ Sabbath Hymn-book” which are headed “Conversion of the 
 World” and “Missionaries,” that I might find whether this was true, 
 that only the belief in certain fearful things would induce men to 
 carry the gospel to their fellow-men. I have not found one hymn 
 to justify the thought that men would not be missionaries, or efficient 
 missionaries, unless to the command of Christ is added a vision of 
 the hopeless doom of the heathen, a doom instantaneous and 
 eternal at their dying. From the old lyric which will be sung as 
 long as there are “other sheep,” all the way through, it is one 
 strain : the love of Christ, the coming and the glory of Christ. 
 His gospel is to be preached and sling, “From Greenland’s icy 
 mountains” to “India’s coral strand,” until the consummation 
 when the prayerful song is fulfilled in the earth, and the “ Re- 
 deemer, King, Creator, in bliss returns to reign.” The same glad 
 and stirring hope rings in the grand anthem of Isaac Watts, most 
 majestic of all missionary hymns : 
 
 “Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
 Doth his successive journeys run.” 
 
 The missionary believes that the world needs to know that Christ 
 has sought it and saved it. But his master thought is, I will 
 count nothing dear unto me, if I may hasten the coming and 
 kingdom of the Lord. And this shall be his inspiration : “Other 
 
19 
 
 sheep I have.” Men will go and prcaeh the gospel until Christ 
 has ceased to say, “There are other sheep.” 
 
 Brethren, this is the word of the Lord this morning. I wish 
 I might illustrate it out of the lives of these men who dignify 
 our humanity in this day that we are living in. I have alluded to 
 one man.. I think there is not in all the century a grander name 
 than his. It was this spirit of devotion to the Christ which moved 
 him through all Ids heroic career; — that Scottish boy, that 
 weaver’s child, born into a Christian home and trained to the love 
 of Christ until it became the longing of his heart that he might 
 do good to men. Restrained, held back, 3 - ct pressing forward by 
 the force of his own consecrated endeavor, at last he found him- 
 self in Africa, glad to be there, startled with the thought that he 
 might have missed it all. ••What an unspeakable mercy it is to 
 be permitted to engage in this most holy and honorable work ! ” 
 ••What commission is equal to that which the missionary holds 
 from Him?” lie pressed forward with his great purpose, through 
 all sacrifice, through all pain, in faith and joy, never questioning, 
 never flinching, dying and behold he lived, counting it enough for 
 him to be a missionary of the Cross; refusing to have men pity 
 him, and giving them no warrant for ascribing low motives to a 
 high enterprise. “Can the love of Christ not cany the mis- 
 sionary where the slave trade carries the trader” he asked. 1 >y 
 the banks of the rivers, along the lakes, upon the mountains, 
 through the swamps, he walked, repeating those words of the 
 Scotch ploughman, humming them to himself out of bis Scotch 
 heart, — that vision of Robert Burns of the day, when 
 
 “Man to man the world o’er 
 Shall brothers be for a’ that,” — 
 
 keeping before him that loftier vision of the Christ, cheering his 
 enfeebled eves with that time when the earth shall be filled with 
 the knowledge of the Lord, and calling to mind that word of 
 promise. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world,” — “It is the word of a gentleman,” he said, “of the most 
 sacred and strictest honor ; and there is an end ou’t.” “Fear God 
 and work hard” was his parting word in Scotland. This was the 
 spirit which bore him forward to the end. He said that he should 
 like to die there where his work was, and be buried there where 
 his child lay, in “the first grave in all that countiy, marked as the 
 resting place of one of whom it is believed and confessed that she 
 
20 
 
 shall live again.” There his wife la}' on Shupanga brae. There, 
 in the forest solitude, he wished to lie among this people, who 
 loved him for his love, and wait the coming of the Lord. But 
 men said it must not be so. They carried him away ; they buried 
 his heart in Africa ; they carried his unnerved^ arm, and all the 
 rest that was left of him, back to England ; they opened the 
 Abbey doors and laid him down with king and statesman, chief and 
 sage. Men gathered to do him honor. They put the stone down 
 upon Lis grave, and wrote upon it that epitaph which is the grand- 
 est of all which Westminster Abbey boasts to-day. I think West- 
 minster Abbey has not another line among them all so good as 
 that. They wrote this, cutting it into the black stone : “Other 
 
 sheep I have which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, 
 and they shall hear my voice.” Oh, friends, there is not another 
 sentence in all the Bible I would like so well to have written on 
 my gravestone. The letters are red with the very blood of the 
 Christ, the very thought of the Savior’s heart ; and to have men 
 say when you are dead that this was the thought of your life, that 
 you lived and gave yourself because there were other sheep — 
 not yourself, other sheep, Christ’s sheep, who are now hearing his 
 voice because they have heard your voice — it is all a man could 
 ask. 
 
 But there is a better place to write it than a monument. Can 
 we not write it on our lives? Christian men, will you write it on 
 your banks, on your stores, on your gold, for Christ’s sake, for the 
 love of men : “ There are other sheep besides myself, and this is 
 to save them.” Write it upon your lives, young men. Harvard 
 College might give to this work every student it has, and not a 
 single calling among men miss one of them. Write it, young 
 men, on your lives, upon your plans, upon your choice of a pro- 
 fession, the thought of the Christ ; hear it as you go out in your 
 morning ; let the words find you as they come sweet and clear, 
 and tremulous with the very love of the Christ: “Other sheep I 
 
 have which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, and they 
 shall hear my voice.” 
 
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