THE MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITY 
 OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/smokeofthousandvOOclar 
 
“THE SMOKE OF A 
 
 THOUSAND VILLAGES” 
 
 By JOSEPH CLARK, D.D. 
 
 General Secretary of the Ohio Sunday School 
 Association 
 
 The Opening Address of the Conference on the 
 Sunday School and Missions of the Young 
 People’s Missionary Movement of the 
 United States and Canada, Silver 
 Bay, New York, July 16, 1908 
 
 ) 
 
 New York 
 
 Missionary Education Movement 
 of the United States and Canada 
 1912 
 
Copyright, 1908, by 
 
 Young People's Missionary Movement 
 of the Untied Si ates and Canada 
 
“THE SMOKE OF A 
 THOUSAND VILLAGES” 
 
 I wish I were a painter. I would put upon 
 canvas a picture in Great Britain’s history 
 back in the thirties, Robert Moffat facing 
 David Livingstone. Just two characters: 
 Livingstone, trained for service, waiting 
 his marching orders, and Moffat, fresh 
 from Africa, seeking help in the redemp- 
 tion of the Dark Continent. History 
 caught little of what was said that day, 
 but enough to tell us that, under God, 
 Moffat spoke twenty words which gave 
 to Livingstone his life’s vision, and turned 
 him from China to Africa. 
 
 What were the historic words spoken 
 by Moffat? He said, “/ have sometimes 
 seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a 
 thousand villages where no missionary has 
 ever been." 
 
 That was enough ! It was the call from an 
 African Macedonia to a nineteenth century 
 Sk Paul. In that brief sentence Livingstone 
 had revealed to him his opportunity. From 
 that moment his life’s work was the task of 
 carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ to the 
 “thousand villages” whose smoke was 
 ever upon the horizon of his activities. In 
 the sunlight of each new morning Living- 
 stone saw the ‘ ‘ smoke of a thousand vil- 
 lages,” the “pillar of cloud” that lured 
 him on in his work . In each smoke-clouded 
 African sun he read the sign of need that 
 stimulated him to renewed endeavor. It 
 
was the one youth-given vision of oppor- 
 tunity that oncoming years were never to 
 dim. 
 
 In this address we are to consider the 
 missionary opportunity of the Sunday- 
 school. We are not to dwell upon its duty 
 nor its responsibility. Human nature has 
 little love for the goad of duty — the stir- 
 rings of conscience that drive to unwel- 
 comed tasks. But it welcomes a guide 
 that points to doors of opportunity. We 
 are, therefore, to lure, not to compel ; 
 to awaken to enthusiastic endeavor, not to 
 goad to action; to stimulate, not to drive. 
 
 Sunday-school specialists are generally 
 agreed that when the Sunday-school comes 
 to its missionary aivakening the world will 
 be quickly won to Jesus Christ. The 
 Sunday-school is a sleeping giant. It 
 knows not its pou T er. Once shown its or- 
 ganic relation to the evangelization of the 
 world it will spend its energies for the 
 world rather than for the community. It 
 has a relation to the community which 
 rightfully claims a part of its work at its 
 “ Jerusalem,” but it will at the same time 
 keep in constant vital touch with the ends 
 of the earth, and extend its influence to 
 the uttermost bounds of the kingdom. 
 ‘‘The light that shines farthest shines 
 brightest at home.” 
 
 We shall mention only a few missionary 
 opportunities that confront the Sunday- 
 school of to-day — opportunities that should 
 help it see the ‘‘smoke of a thousand 
 villages,” and stir it to action. 
 
 I. The Opportunity of an Established 
 Organization 
 
 The Christian world little realizes the 
 dormant possibilities of the modern Sun- 
 
 4 
 
day-school. It is a mighty organization 
 ready for action — a gigantic piece of ma- 
 chinery with unlimited productive capacity 
 —a 200,000 horse-power engine, expend- 
 ing less than half its energy, doing less 
 than half the work for which it is de- 
 signed. It is not a machine to be con- 
 structed. It is here, in place, in action. 
 Its wheels are whirling. It is studying 
 the Word, teaching the children, shaping 
 lives, touching homes, enlisting men, 
 forming character, producing Christian citi- 
 zenship ; but its activities have been 
 largely local. Its energies have been util- 
 ized for our school, our church, our com- 
 munity. Its world of endeavor has been 
 bounded by the sky-line of neighboring 
 hills and valleys. It has lacked the world- 
 vision so essential to a large life of sympa- 
 thy and usefulness and so essential to the 
 highest local success. 
 
 The Sunday-school needs to meet a 
 Moffat, and to see “ the smoke of a thou- 
 sand villages where no missionary has ever 
 been.” Then, and not till then, will it 
 have a new interpretation of the Great 
 Commission. When the Sunday-school 
 has the vision of the world’s need it will 
 look in vain for a horizon to limit its mis- 
 sionary interest and activitj’. 
 
 II. The Opportunity of Training and 
 Inspiring Missionary Leaders Through 
 Organized Sunday School Work 
 
 The International Sunday School Asso- 
 ciation and its auxiliary organizations in 
 states, provinces, counties, and minor ter- 
 ritorial divisions offers marvelous opportu- 
 nities to the Sunday-school world in its 
 new Missionary Department, through 
 which it is planning systematically to carry 
 5 
 
missionary inspiration and missionary 
 teacher-training to every part of the field. 
 
 During the last triennium, 1905-08, 
 forty-nine thousand Sunday-school conven- 
 tions were held in the United States and 
 Canada. These conventions are the open 
 conduit through which the importance of 
 missionary teaching and missionary giving 
 may be carried to a million and a half of 
 teachers and officers. More than 50,000 
 conventions will be held in the next trien- 
 nium. In these, systematic missionary in- 
 struction can be introduced, daily definite 
 prayer advised, and proportionate syste- 
 matic giving urged. Millions of pages of 
 missionary literature must be distributed, 
 dealing in detail with methods of pro- 
 cedure in the task of bringing the indi- 
 vidual school to its highest efficiencj^, and 
 in providing the agents and the accessories 
 for the world’s speedy evangelization. 
 
 Through the interdenominational empha- 
 sis given in the next three years to the 
 Sundaj'-schools of all of the denominations, 
 by means of the organized Sunday-school 
 work, thousands of mission study classes 
 should be formed, and an increase of hun- 
 dreds of thousands of dollars added to the 
 several denominational missionary treasu- 
 ries. 
 
 The organized Sunday-school work has 
 seen “ the smoke of a thousand villages.” 
 Henceforth it is the yokefellow of each de- 
 nomination to assist it to make effective its 
 own denominational missionary plans, and 
 to increase its denominational missionary 
 income. 
 
 III. The Opportunity of Numbers 
 
 The Sunday-school of to-day is no toy 
 or plaything. It is a mighty living army. 
 
 6 
 
Iu North America alone it counts its hosts 
 by millions. It has the glorious opportu- 
 nity of numbers. It need not hesitate to 
 undertake any task for God. It is an 
 army of occupancy awaiting a vision that 
 will transform it into an army of conquest. 
 Like Israel it has occupied only a part of 
 the Promised Land. It has little more 
 than crossed the Jordan, yet it has the 
 promise that “every place that the sole of 
 your foot shall tread upon, to you have I 
 given it.’’ Not the United States, Canada, 
 and England alone, but India, China, 
 Korea, Japan, Africa, South America, and 
 the uttermost parts of the sea are her 
 promised inheritance. 
 
 The Sunday-school simply awaits the 
 vision. O for a Moffat, and the story of 
 the “ smoke of a thousand villages ! ’’ 
 
 IV. The Opportunity of Converting 
 Each Sunday School into a Missionary 
 Society 
 
 Thousands of Sunday-schools give noth- 
 ing to home or foreign missions. Thou- 
 sands of others have no method of syste- 
 matically reaching their scholars "with 
 missionary information or of collecting 
 missionary funds. Such schools are with- 
 out missionary organization. Their 
 money is expended largely upon them- 
 selves ; likewise their energy. They have 
 no “outlook” nor have they an “out- 
 let.” The Dead Sea is a dead sea because 
 it has no outlet. The Sunday-school that 
 has no connection with the missionary 
 world is moving toward the dead-line. 
 Missionary streams are the fresh vitalizing 
 currents that keep churches and schools 
 7 
 
aglow. A missionary Sunday-school can 
 be none other than a live and growing 
 school. The more money it gives for 
 missions, the more will it have for its own 
 rise. This is a law of the kingdom : 
 “There is that scattereth and increaseth 
 yet more ; and there is that withholdeth 
 more than is meet, but it tendeth only to 
 want.” (Prov. xi.24.) It has been proved a 
 thousand times. The Sunday-school which 
 is at its best is organized into a missionary 
 society, with officers and a missionary 
 committee. The salvation of thousands of 
 schools depends upon their organic con- 
 nection with the missionary world through 
 a Sunday-school missionary society organ- 
 ized in the school. The Methodist Epis- 
 copal Sunday-schools give more money to 
 missions than do the schools of other de- 
 nominations, because the law of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church demands that each 
 Sunday-school shall be organized into a 
 missionary society, and shall take an offer- 
 ing once a month for missions. When 
 these Sunday-school missionary societies of 
 Methodism begin to utilize the educational 
 plans of the present day along missionary 
 lines, no seer can conceive the increase 
 that will come to the missionary treasuries 
 from the missionary offerings of the schools; 
 for missionary education will have given 
 them the vision of the “smoke of a thou- 
 sand villages” — the vision that compels 
 sacrifice and service. 
 
 V. The Opportunity of Youth 
 
 The Sunday-school has no greater asset 
 than its young life. The evangelization of 
 the world depends upon the missionary 
 idea incarnate in flesh and bone, in blood 
 8 
 
;*nd heart, in mind and purpose. Incarna- 
 tions seldom, if ever, occur in maturity. 
 The only institution that deals with the 
 child, that follows him through youth, to 
 fashion him after the God-man in char- 
 acter and purpose, is the Sunday-school. 
 It is the God-established supply-station of 
 the Church for missionary workers. Pity 
 the Sunday-school that sees it not. It is 
 God’s training-school for service. Blind is 
 the Sunday-school that fails to recognize 
 this to be its mission. It is incumbent 
 upon the Sunday-school to suppl}' the 
 Church with its missionary leaders and 
 workers and to raise up its missionary 
 givers. No other institution can furnish 
 them. In the Sunday-school of to-day are 
 the missionaries of fifteen years hence in 
 embryo. There they will get their bias 
 toward missions. Many a j’oung mission- 
 ary reveals his purpose in his twenties, 
 but his eyes catch the “ smoke of a thou- 
 sand villages ” in his teens. 
 
 With the teens comes the inquisitive 
 age. Livingstone was an explorer in his 
 boyhood. The bugs and beetles, flowers 
 and forestry, hills and dales, caves and 
 crags, of Scotland were the stepping-stones 
 to Zambezi, Lake Nyasa, and the heart of 
 an unknown continent. 
 
 With the teens we also find the acquisi- 
 tive age ; the period when strange lan- 
 guages are easily acquired. It is the age 
 of courage and aggressiveness ; the age of 
 enthusiasm, blind to obstacles ; the age 
 that questions neither strength nor powers 
 of endurance ; the age of visions and of 
 consecration to purpose. 
 
 “ Pitt entered Parliament at twenty-two, 
 and was prime minister of Great Britain 
 before he was twenty-five. Timothy was 
 only nineteen when he w^as converted, and 
 
 9 
 
at twenty-oue was assistant to the Apostle 
 to the Gentiles. Adoniram Judson devoted 
 himself to missions at twenty-two, and 
 started for India at twenty-four. At 
 twenty-two Robert Morrison was commis- 
 sioned to open Christian work in China, 
 kivingstone w r as nineteen, Chamberlain 
 nineteen, and Thoburn only seventeen 
 when called to foreign missions.” 
 
 God is still looking to youth for his 
 missionaries. In this year 1908, the Sun- 
 day-schools of North America have in 
 them 15,000 Livingstoues, in their teens, 
 waiting for a Moffat to point them to the 
 “ smoke of a thousand villages.” 
 
 Were the Sunday-school to cease busi- 
 ness to-morrow, where would the Church 
 and the Kingdom turn for its workers? 
 The Sunday-schools of North America are 
 already giving to the Church ninety-five 
 per cent, of its ministers, ninety-five per 
 cent, of its workers, ninety-five per cent, 
 of its missionaries, eighty-five per cent, of 
 its Church members, while seventy per 
 cent, of the churches of North America 
 were organized out of Sunday-schools. 
 Without the Sunday-school there would 
 be no army of workers for the Young 
 Men’s Christian Association, no Student 
 Volunteers, no Young People’s Society of 
 Christian Endeavor, for, where there are 
 now one hundred Christians, there would 
 be only fifteen. The Sunday-school is the 
 harvest-field of missionary opportunity for 
 the Church of God. Its output is wonder- 
 ful, yet with little effort it could be more 
 than doubled. 
 
 The resources of the Sunday-school as a 
 missionary- furnishing agency are w 7 orthy 
 of consideration. The statistics of 1907 
 show a Sunday-school enlistment for North 
 America of fifteen millions. If out of 
 
 10 
 
every one thousand Sunday-school scholars 
 could come one missionary it would give 
 the Church an additional army of 15,000 
 missionaries — enough, we are told, when 
 supplied with native helpers, to reach more 
 than the entire non-christian world. 
 These figures are not merely speculative, 
 they are in the realm of the possible, for 
 many Sunday-schools have already sent out 
 into mission fields more than one for each 
 one thousand members. 
 
 I predict, from a knowledge of the field 
 at close range, that the time is near when 
 the Sunday-school of three hundred , which 
 has not continuously on the foreign field 
 some one of its members devoting his or 
 her entire time to missionary work, will be 
 ashamed to have it known. 
 
 It is not enough for the Sunday-school 
 to teach about the Eible. It must rather 
 continue its contact with the pupil until 
 there is instilled into the youthful life 
 which is being trained the missionary im- 
 pulse of the inspired Book. It is not 
 enough to win a generation, but rather to 
 enlist a generation in missionary service. 
 
 This is the opportunity of the Sunday- 
 school : to pass out to the immediate fu- 
 ture a generation “instant with the mis- 
 sionary spirit, pervaded with a missionary 
 passion, responsive to the missionary mo- 
 tive, seeking the attainment of the mis- 
 sionary end.’’ It can be done ! And this 
 it will do, when it sees the “smoke of a 
 thousand villages,” the life- vision of Liv- 
 ingstone. 
 
 VI. The Opportunity of a Stupendous 
 Need 
 
 The Sunday-school has so long been 
 heedlessly singing and hearing about the 
 
 11 
 
‘ ‘ millions ” in the heathen and pagan world , 
 that the term has lost its power to awaken 
 interest or arouse to action. The stupen- 
 dous needs of the missionary world must be 
 presented in new 7 form — in some statement 
 that w 7 ill reveal a startling picture. 
 
 Some years ago, w 7 hen Bishop Thoburn 
 stated that the converts to Christianity in 
 India approximated a million, a friend ap- 
 proached him and enthusiastically said, 
 “ That is glorious news ; at that rate India 
 will soon be saved.” The Bishop looked 
 upon him in pity, as he saw how 7 little he 
 appreciated the vastuessof the Indian field, 
 and said, “Suppose that after to-day no 
 more children w 7 ere born in India and that 
 all who are now living there were to remain 
 alive until they could be w 7 on to Christ. 
 At the rate of a million a year, how long 
 do you think it would take to reach the 
 last one?” The friend w r ould not venture 
 even a guess. " Three hundred years!" 
 said the Bishop. 
 
 Recently I received a letter from Rev. 
 Chas. E. Scott, of Tsing-tau, North China, 
 in which he said: “This parish contains 
 more souls than all the nation of Korea, 
 (11,000,000), and has an equivalent to seven 
 preachers for the whole United States, and 
 practically all are heathen. I am the only 
 pastor in fourteen hundred villages, towns, 
 and w r alled cities which have never yet heard 
 the Gospel. This is not God's fault, but 
 that of an indifferent, self-satisfied Church ; 
 and the key to the awakening lies in the 
 Sunday-school. Push this line of work. 
 It pays big. 
 
 After having given this picture of appal- 
 ling need, Mr. Scott further writes : “In the 
 face of such needs, think of three or four 
 seminary graduates settling dow r u in a town 
 of from 500 to 1,000 people wEo are simply 
 
 12 
 
gospel- hardened. There are over 250 such 
 towns in Michigan, my native State, alone.” 
 Such figures presented to any Sunday- 
 school should give it the vision of the 
 “ smoke of a thousand villages ” that will 
 arouse to sacrifice and call to service. 
 
 VII. The Opportunity of Giving 
 
 How much is needed ? Dr. Goucher 
 says, “ Thirty millions a year.” The 
 adult Church is giving fifteen millions a 
 year for home and foreign missions. The 
 other fifteen millions are waiting for us 
 in the Sunday-schools of North America. 
 It is there, and we are derelict if we do 
 not plan speedily to get it. It will come 
 in response to missionary education and 
 prayer. 
 
 There is but one stone wall between the 
 need and the money — the wall of ignor- 
 ance. The Suuday-school does not know 
 the need. We have 3 7 et to learn how to 
 make missionary instruction attractive and 
 palatable to boys and girls. We are mak- 
 ing some valuable experiments, and we 
 need to make more. These newer methods 
 have thus far reached only a few. The 
 average Sunday-school child and youth 
 has no conception of missions. Missionary 
 Sunday is simply a special occasion with 
 an 11 extra pull” on the pocketbook. It 
 is often a bore to both old and young. In 
 many Sunday-schools the missionary offer- 
 ing seems like throwing money into the 
 sea. Much of it is given under protest. 
 Not because the Sunday-school is* a close- 
 fisted institution. It is not. It is always 
 liberal when interested, and it is always in- 
 terested when informed. The Sunday- 
 
 13 
 
School is not liberal in its missionary offer- 
 ings because it does not know. Show it 
 the “ smoke of a thousand villages where 
 no missionary has ever been.’’ Put it in 
 close contact with the missionary world. 
 Place before it the picture of the heathen 
 world in some concrete form. Give it 
 some conception of the utter blackness of 
 the night of paganism, and the need of 
 Jesus, the Light of the world. Then the 
 wealth of the Sunday-school will flow like 
 a Niagara into the treasuries of our mis- 
 sionary societies. 
 
 It is possible, within the next ten years, 
 to secure from the Sunday-schools of North 
 America an average of two cents a week for 
 missions. That means a postage-stamp 
 every seven days. It will not come 
 through a missionary offering once a 
 month, nor from an annual collection. // 
 will come only through a systematic weekly 
 offering of two or more cents for missions 
 regularly given and systematically collected 
 and recorded. 
 
 And the key that w r ill unlock these 
 treasures is missionary education. When 
 the Sunday-school is provided with “ sys- 
 tematic graded missionary instruction,” and 
 is trained to ‘ ‘ definite daily prayer, ’ ’ then 
 ‘‘proportionate systematic giving” will 
 follow as day follows night. 
 
 Fifteen million Sunday-school scholars, 
 at two cents a w r eek, means fifteen million 
 dollars ; and it will come when the modern 
 Moffats fix the eyes of the Sunday-school 
 on the ‘‘smoke of a thousand villages” 
 until they catch the vision, and the ears 
 of the youth of Christendom hear the cry 
 of a lost world. 
 
 >4 
 
VIII. The Opportunity, through Edu- 
 cation, of Substituting Passion for Im- 
 pulse 
 
 It has been said that the Protestant Chris- 
 tianity of North America expresses itself 
 too much in impulse and too little in pas- 
 sion. Impulse rather than passion is re- 
 vealed in almost every phase of Anglo- 
 Saxon Christianity, be it worship, service, 
 or giving. We do one or all as we are in- 
 clined. 
 
 I well remember a remark of Bishop Wil- 
 liam Taylor, made a few years ago, as he left 
 an Ohio camp-meeting platform after preach- 
 ing. He said, “I’d rather preach in India 
 than in America. ’ ’ When asked, ‘ ‘ Why ?’ ’ 
 he answered, “ Because in India, when a 
 sinner accepts Christ he becomes inocu- 
 lated with the passion of soul-winning. In 
 America the new convert has a momentary 
 mpulse for soul-winning immediately fol- 
 lowing his conversion. It is rarely more 
 than a spasm. It soon leaves him. 
 But in India, the Christian once saved, 
 carries to his dying hour the passion of 
 saving his neighbor. It occupies his con- 
 stant thought and engages his every spare 
 moment.” 
 
 It is the opportunity of the Sunday- 
 school to educate toward a missionary pas- 
 sion rather than toward missionary im- 
 pulse. 
 
 Some one has said that there are three 
 classes of Christians in the Christian 
 world: the “shirker,” the “jerker” and 
 the “worker.” The first is the church- 
 member who stands on the edges of the 
 church activities and looks on. He ap- 
 plauds the preacher, but does nothing him- 
 self. His constant prayer is, ‘ 1 1 pray 
 thee have me excused.” The “jerker” 
 
is he who belongs to the Church, but 
 whose activity is spasmodic. He has 
 spurts of activity. He is usually inter- 
 ested in- the revival meeting and is present 
 on special occasions, but no dependence 
 can be placed upon him for regular work. 
 He is “ off and on ” in his religious activ- 
 ity. The “worker ” is the Christian who 
 never loses his vision ; who is regular in 
 worship, in religious duties, and in giving 
 to the enterprises of the kingdom. He be- 
 longs to the faithful minority upon whom 
 the preacher and the Church can rely. 
 
 It is the opportunity of the Sunday- 
 school, through missionary education, in 
 which are studied the lives of men and 
 women whose years and strength have 
 been consumed with the altruistic spirit, 
 to pass out to the Church a generation pos- 
 sessed with a passion for sendee — a passion 
 born of a vision of the ‘ ‘ smoke of a thou- 
 sand villages where no missionary has ever 
 been.” 
 
 IX. The Opportunity of Inspiration 
 through Service 
 
 Activity in missionary effort holds for 
 each Sunday-school a reflex blessing — the 
 blessing that grows out of the conscious- 
 ness that it is having a part in something 
 worth while ; the sense that the school is 
 really needed to carry forward the work 
 of the kingdom ; the joys of altruistic ser- 
 vice. 
 
 “ Papa!” called a little girl at the foot 
 of the stairs in a western parsonage, 
 “ somebody wants you!” That was the 
 sixth time the pastor’s study hour had 
 been interrupted by callers that morning. 
 With some impatience he left his room, 
 soliloquizing upon the petty annoyances 
 16 
 
of the pastorate, when the echo of the call, 
 “somebody wants you,’’ arrested his im- 
 patience and gave him a new view of his 
 calling. “Well,” he thought, “ am I not 
 in the ministry because I thought some- 
 body wanted me ? Ought I not to be 
 pleased rather than annoyed when some- 
 body wants me? Did I not enter the min- 
 istry because I thought somebody would 
 want me? Would I care to continue in 
 this work if nobody wanted me ?” Out of 
 this brief stair-case meditation there came 
 to him a new inspiration for the service 
 in the thought that “somebody wanted 
 him !” 
 
 Upon the Sunday-school alive to mis- 
 sions is soon bestowed the blessings of al- 
 truistic service ; the joy of service to others, 
 growing out of the consciousness that 
 “somebody wants it;” the service rend- 
 ered in response to need ; the appeal of 
 the “ smoke of a thousand villages.” 
 
 X. The Opportunity of Acquiring 
 Power through Cooperation 
 
 Not only does missionary activity in 
 the Sunday-school bring to it the joys of 
 altruistic service, but it brings. to the school 
 the power that is the inevitable product 
 and reward of connection with a world- 
 movement. In this age isolation means 
 decay. Water cut off from vitalizing 
 streams grows stagnant and breeds death. 
 
 Along the New Jersey coast and the 
 white-sanded shores of the South, just 
 back from the ocean a few yards or a 
 few hundred feet may be found little lakes 
 or pools cut off from the might}- deep by a 
 strip of sand. These elongated pools or 
 lakes are of little value. They have a. life 
 of their own. To the animalculae found 
 
therein the pool is their ocean ; but its 
 waters are of no service. They carry no 
 commerce. They have no sweep. Their 
 waters lave the shore to no purpose. They 
 are parted by no keel of ocean steamer. 
 They are ever the same ; without power. 
 Sometimes a great ocean storm will sweep 
 away the sand-bar betweenone of these pools 
 and the ocean. Then the pool becomes a 
 part of the ocean. Its waters rise and fall 
 with the tide ; they help float navies, they 
 become part of the world’s pathways; they 
 take to themselves the power and the sweep 
 of the ocean, and enter upon a career of 
 service and freedom and strength. They 
 have come to their vision. 
 
 The average Sunday-school is the pool ; 
 the sand-bar is ignorance ; the storm is 
 missionary education. Missionary educa- 
 tion will bring to the school the power of 
 the ocean of world-movements. It will 
 stimulate and strengthen its ever}’ activity, 
 local and foreign. It will show it the 
 “smoke of a thousand villages ” and turn 
 its face toward the divine task of world- 
 conquest. 
 
 XI. The Opportunity of Missionary 
 Education in the Sunday School for its 
 Own Sake 
 
 One’s world is no larger than one’s fund 
 of education. The more one knows of his- 
 tory, literature, science, philosophy, travel, 
 and language, the wider is one’s horizon. 
 Each new mental acquisition lifts him to a 
 higher plane, and gives him greater range of 
 vision. He needs to know, not only that he 
 may achieve, but for bis own sake; that he 
 may be enlarged and strengthened in life, 
 and may reach maturity in development. 
 iS 
 
Likewise missionary education brings to the 
 Sunday-school a training and a development 
 it can acquire in no other way. 
 
 The Sunday-school needs an increased 
 faith in the Word of God. Nothing can 
 so quickly give it as the marvelous stories 
 of the conquest of Christianity over heathen 
 and pagan nations through the power of 
 the Book. 
 
 The Sunday-school needs a stimulated 
 faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. 
 Nothing can so strengthen this sovereign 
 faith as can the thousands of missionary 
 incidents in which the power of the person- 
 ality of Jesus Christ has been revealed in 
 mission fields. 
 
 The Sunday-school needs deepened inter- 
 cessory prayer. Nothing can so call out 
 agonizing prayer for the lost as a knowledge 
 of the peoples who sit in the dark and cry 
 for light. 
 
 These are the vital needs of the Sunday- 
 school world, without which its life be- 
 comes mechanical and cold and stereotyped. 
 Where these are lacking in the soul and the 
 religious life of the school, doubts, skepti- 
 cism, formality, and apostasy follow. 
 
 Missionary education is absolutely essen- 
 tial to thespiritual lifeof the Sunday-school. 
 Oh, that all ministers, superintendents, and 
 teachers could see that for its own sake the 
 Sunday-school needs the discipline, training, 
 and food obtainable only through a knowl- 
 edge of missions — their need, purpose, 
 achievements, triumphs, and glory. With 
 this recognized, the Sunday-school will come 
 to itself in spiritual life and Christian 
 activity. Oh, that it might see the “smoke 
 of a thousand villages,” and hear the voice 
 of a Moffat! 
 
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