5erh\oh. 
 
 • • 
 
 The Motive and the Object 
 OP Missionary Work. 
 
 i^ay 26 , 
 
delivered at the 
 
 Ordination of the Rev. Henry Huizinga 
 
 AS MISSIONARY TO INDIA, 
 
 IN 
 
 HOPE CHURCH, HOLLAND, MICH. 
 
 MAY 26, 1896, 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rev. JOHN W. BEARDSLEE, D. D., 
 
 professor op biblical languages in the western 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, HOLLAND, MICHIGAN. 
 
 HOLLAND, MICH.: 
 Ottawa County Times Presses. 
 
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 '■^And hath made oj one blood all nations of men /or to 
 dwell on all the /ace of the earth and hath determined the 
 times be/ore aj)j>ointed, and the bounds of their habitation ; 
 that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after 
 him and find him, though he be not /ar from every one of 
 us.” — Acts 17:26, 27. 
 
 The Bible is the only text-book on Religion 
 which is broad enough in its teachings to em- 
 brace the whole human family. In its doctrine 
 of a federal headship in Adam it makes humanity 
 a unit, not merely in ph}’^sical descent from a 
 common father, but in moral responsibility and 
 spiritual capacity. In its doctrine of redemp- 
 tion from sin it knows nothing of race or culture 
 but provides one salvation for Jew and Gentile, 
 for the bond-slave as well as for his master. In 
 its doctrine of a future life it provides one 
 
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 4 
 
 heaven into which it gathers all who are made 
 heirs of eternal life through faith in the One 
 Mediator. 
 
 This peculiarity of Bible teaching gives in- 
 spiration to the great Missionary movements 
 which engage the Christian world. Its teach- 
 ings are everywhere permeated with the thought 
 that the human race is a unit, a brotherhood. 
 What one man needs, all men need. What is 
 good for one is good for all. 
 
 An old Latin poet once said, “I am a man 
 and nothing ^hat relates to man can be of un- 
 concern to me.” Much more can the Christian 
 man, rejoicing in the blessings of the Gospel, as 
 he looks at the masses of humanity toiling and 
 groaning under the bondage of sin say, ‘‘I am a 
 Christian and I can never be satisfied till ever)- 
 human being shares with me the blessings of the 
 Gospel.” The church can have no nobler incen- 
 tive to evangelize the world than is thus sug- 
 gested. In carrying the Gospel to men we are 
 but giving to our brethren what has been the 
 
5 
 
 greatest blessing to ourselves. This gives force 
 to the appeal of Paul, the first and chiefest of 
 Christian Missionaries, as he stands on Mars’ 
 Hill before that refined but spiritually ignorant 
 Athenian audience. With his own life enriched 
 by the spiritual teachings of the Gospel, there 
 sprang up an irresistable desire to tell every 
 brother man about God and about redemption 
 through Christ and about the heavenly inherit- 
 ance. As they were of one blood with himself, 
 so if they could know God and Christ as he 
 knew them, their hearts would exult as his did. 
 What had been so great a blessing to him would 
 be just as much of a blessing to them. 
 
 The special service of this evening, when we 
 ordain this young man as a preacher among a far 
 away heathen people will naturally lead us to en- 
 quire in the light of our text what is the motive 
 and what the object underlying this great Mis- 
 sionary work which stirs the Christian Church? 
 I. The Motive. 
 
 The motive is expressed by Paul when he 
 
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 says, “God hath made of one blood all nations of 
 men.’’ (The unity of the race is an irresistable 
 argument for preaching the Gospel to all men. 
 
 The fact of such a unity is everywhere as- 
 serted in the Scriptures, and is confirmed by the 
 most rigid scientific investigations. Science and 
 the Bible agree as to the common origin of men. 
 When we open our Bible and read the story of 
 man’s creation we are told how little children 
 were born into that first home, the first begin- 
 nings of that marvelous multitude which now 
 fills the earth. That first family with its happy 
 home life, where the air first caught the sound 
 of happy children’s voices, and the earth was 
 first marked by happy children’s footsteps, 
 where the first mother clasped her first born to 
 her bosom and felt the first rapture of mother- 
 hood, from whose surroundings men first went 
 forth with the inalienable bands of brotherhood 
 upon them, stands forever as a proof of unity 
 among men. As we may stand at the mouth of 
 some noble river, bearing on its bosom the com- 
 
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 merce of the world, and trace its course through 
 prosperous valleys and between high mountains 
 till we come at length to the spring from which 
 it flows, so we may stand to-day and look at the 
 millions of human beings from Africa and Asia 
 and Europe and America and the Islands of the 
 sea, and trace their history back from one gen- 
 eration to another till we come to that first cra- 
 dle where the first infant lay sleeping in the 
 morning of the world. Says one of the 
 profoundest of the students of our generation, 
 who has studied man in the light of his own or- 
 ganism and of his surroundings, “All men form 
 but one species,” which is but the Bible way of 
 saying “God hath made of one blood all nations 
 of men.” Another great scholar, after making 
 the different languages of men the study of his 
 life, says “We have examined all possible forms 
 which language can assume and we now ask, 
 Can we reconcile with these the admission of 
 one common origin of the human speech?” And 
 his answer is, ‘ ‘Most unhestatingly we say, Yes. ’ ’ 
 
8 
 
 The same impression of unity is formed when 
 we look at the prominent characteristics of men. 
 Take the stunted figure of a man from the north- 
 ern borders of Greenland and place him beside 
 the most perfect specimen of manhood found 
 among the celebrated Life Guards of the Queen 
 of Kngland and you are impressed not so much 
 with the difference in their physical develop- 
 ment, as with their essential similarity. 
 
 Appeal to their intellect and you at once dis- 
 cover that while one may be more alert of 
 thought and sweep a wider field, they are alike 
 in their capacity to think. Look at their moral 
 nature, their conception of truth and honor and 
 patriotism and while one may have ideas so clear 
 and powerful as to regulate his life, and the 
 other may have but a shadowy outline which has 
 little power to control his action, yet the essen- 
 tial thing, the power to think and reason is 
 there, born with every human life, never to be 
 entirely blotted out by any excess or superstition. 
 
 Above all look at the spiritual faculty, the 
 
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 power of conscience, the approval of what is 
 good, the condemnation of what is evil, which is 
 found only in man, but in man is universal. Go 
 to the most abandoned island of the ocean, where 
 life seems hardly worth the living, and you find 
 conscience appealing and good charming and evil 
 repulsive to men. The idolater in Africa and 
 the speculative philosopher in India seek in their 
 way to secure good and avert evil, just as do the 
 thoughtful men and women in Kurope and 
 America. 
 
 So perfectly do the facts of observation and 
 the results of scientific research confirm the 
 teachings of the Bible. There is but one blood 
 flowing through the veins of all the human race. 
 
 , Wherever a human being is found, in heathen or 
 civilized lands, there you find a brother whose 
 welfare you are under obligation to promote. If 
 there is a neglected element anywhere in this 
 great family, all the world suffers. If you do 
 not do all you can to lift up your fellows and 
 help them to know about God and Christ you 
 fail in your duty to your brethren. 
 
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 We recognize this claim of brotherhood when 
 we think of the moral degradation which char- 
 acterizes our modern city life. We try to im- 
 prove their sanitary conditions, we build for 
 them hospitals and churches, noble Christian 
 men and women live among them that by per- 
 sonal contact and influence they may win them 
 to a better life, we exhaust every resource to en- 
 able them to see that in the knowledge and love 
 of God and in the tender compassion and infinite 
 sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the only power which 
 can effectually transform their lives. But we 
 need to remember that the same law of brotherly 
 obligation binds us to those who are far away as 
 well as to those who are near. The limit of duty 
 is the limit of brotherhood and the limit of» 
 brotherhood is the human race. A man living 
 without the knowledge of God and of Christ in 
 the center of Africa or in the heart of China or 
 on one of the coral reefs of the Pacific is a stand- 
 ing danger to the human race, he has claims of 
 sympathy and fellowship and love which appeal 
 
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 to every Christian heart and bid us do what we 
 can that he may live as a brother man among his 
 fellows and as a Son of God in the family of the 
 redeemed. We do not do our duty as Christians 
 till we do all we can to win every such man to 
 Christ. We must go even to the ends of the 
 earth if there is one there whom we may help to 
 a right understanding of his duty, and to the joy 
 which fills the heart when we can rest in the 
 assurance of God’s approval and love. 
 
 Here then is the motive suggested by our 
 text as an inspiration to this great Missionary 
 effort. There is a bond of brotherhood which 
 binds us to humanity and bids us do what we can 
 for all who are in distress and sin. Our Savior 
 4aas joined this obligation of love and help for all 
 men to that of personal loyalty to God, and pre- 
 sents them as duties kindred and inseparable 
 when he says “Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thy- 
 self.’’ 
 
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 II. The Object. 
 
 But we look in another direction and ask, 
 what ought we to do for our brethren who are 
 in such distress? What will best show our true 
 brotherly regard and at the same time be of the 
 utmost benefit to them? 
 
 Paul tells us in our text when he says, “That 
 they should seek the Lord if haply they might 
 feel after him and find him, though he be not 
 far from every one of us. ’ ’ In other words we 
 must help him to find God. The figurative lan- 
 guage of Paul is very suggestive. He puts be- 
 fore us a man surrounded by thick darkness 
 groping after some object by which he may find 
 his way into the light. Our interest in the fig- 
 ure is greatly increased when we -know that the* 
 darkness surrounding the man is spiritual and 
 that the object he is groping after is God. The 
 man is trying to find God, but on account of the 
 darkness caused by sin, he cannot find him and 
 so is dying, dying a spiritual death. What 
 Christian can be insensible to such an appeal. 
 

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 Here is a brother man trying to find the light, 
 the light of God’s love as seen in the forgiveness 
 of sin through Jesus Christ, but he does not 
 know where to find it. Blinded by his sin, mad- 
 dened by the curse which clings to him, baffled 
 in every effort to escape, he appeals to his idols, 
 he seeks relief in hopeless fatalism, he plunges 
 into some deeper sin, he bewails the very day of 
 his birth. If he could only know the truth about 
 God, if he could hear that sweet story of re- 
 deeming love in which the Son of God enters our 
 darkness that he may illuminate our souls with 
 the true light of God, his distress would come to 
 an end, he would rest in the peace of God which 
 nothing can ever disturb. 
 
 To help men find God, that God so near to 
 every one of us, yet whom we cannot find until 
 we have the Gospel, that is the object which 
 sends Christian men and women all over the 
 earth. If the ignorant idolators of Africa can 
 find God they will soon give up their idolatry. 
 If the speculative philosophers of India can find 
 
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 God, they will soon throw away their vain spec- 
 ulations. If the stagnant millions of China can 
 find God they will soon tear down the walls of 
 separation they have built and with open arms 
 and loving hearts join their brethren in that 
 grand march which brings them to the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb, where all the family of 
 God finds its everlasting joy. 
 
 Such an object towers grandly above every 
 other to which a person can dedicate himself. 
 How noble it is and how worthy we learn when 
 we listen to Christ, as in his great intercessory 
 prayer he says, “This is life eternal that they 
 might know thee, the only true God and Jesus 
 Christ whom thou hast sent.” He that helps a 
 man to find God brings him into' possession of 
 eternal life, that life which forms the bliss of 
 those who cast their crowns before the throne of 
 God. To give such help to men we must carry 
 the Gospel to them, for by that alone can they 
 ever hope to find God. If we would scatter the 
 darkness which prevents men from finding God 
 
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 we must give them the Gospel, we must exalt 
 the Lord Jesus Christ who is the true light 
 which is able to lighten every man which com- 
 eth into the world. 
 
 This then is in brief the one object of all 
 Missionary effort. We would help men to find 
 God. What the Bible means by finding God I 
 will not stop to discuss. It is a knowledge of 
 God clearer than that taught by the study of the 
 wonders of nature and science, more complete 
 than we gain when we examine the human intel- 
 lect or the human conscience, it is the knowledge 
 of God which comes through a right understand- 
 ing of his salvation accomplished when his well- 
 beloved Son dies on the cross to redeem men 
 from sin, as revealed to us in the Scriptures. 
 That is the knowledge of God which all men 
 need. That is the knowledge of God which re- 
 news the heart. That is the knowledge of God 
 which transforms the life. 
 
 My dear brother, to be a Missionary among 
 those who have never truly known God, has 
 
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 seemed to me to be the noblest mission upon 
 which a man can enter. God did not give me 
 that work to do for him but I rejoice to-night 
 that he has permitted me to be one of his agen- 
 cies by which you have been trained for such an 
 exalted service. As one after another goes from 
 our Seminary, I feel that God is honoring me 
 in those who go into the darkness to help their 
 fellow men find God. Through you I am now 
 to preach the Gospel in India, as through our 
 brother Pieters I am preaching it in Japan and 
 through many more am preaching it among the 
 scattered families on our great Western prairies 
 and in the larger churches of our older settle- 
 ments. Could I send ten thousand such young 
 men, I would say to every one of them, with all 
 the earnestness of a life-growing conviction. 
 Remember every man you meet is your brother 
 and your great mission is to help men find God. 
 Wherever you go tell them about God, tell them 
 about the common salvation centering in his 
 only begotten Son, tell them about the heaven 
 
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 whose door opens wide to every believer. How- 
 ever repulsive they may be, however dwarfed by 
 sin, do your best to bring them where the Sun 
 of Righteousness can shine upon them and they 
 will begin to shine with a glory born of God. 
 
 If you look up to the clouds at sunset you will 
 find a thousand different shapes and colors. 
 Some are large and beautiful, some small and 
 ill-shaped. Some are all aflame with crimson 
 and gold and are piled up like mountains of 
 glory, others lie black and sullen against the 
 sky. But 5’^ou know they are all composed of one 
 element and owe their varying hues to their dif- 
 ferent relation to the same sunlight. The dark- 
 est, ugliest cloud which hangs in the sky is com- 
 posed of water and is colored by the sunbeams 
 which fall upon it, and the same is true of the 
 most brilliant gem which adorns the heavens. 
 
 It is just the same with men. Some are large 
 and beautiful and generous in their nature, be- 
 cause glorified by the brightness of the Sun of 
 Righteousness which shines upon them; others 
 
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 are dark with crime and lust and spiritual deg- 
 radation^ because no such brightness illuminates 
 them. But they are all men, of one blood, of one 
 capacity, having one nature. The wonderful 
 difference between the enlightened Christian and 
 the degraded heathen arises from their different 
 relation to the Sun of Righteousness. His rays 
 can make the darkness light, can exalt the most 
 degraded to a glorified Son of God fit to reign 
 with Christ in heaven. It is ours to bring them 
 to God and thus to secure for them a part in his 
 great salvation. 
 
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