8 EMI. 
 
 Hpostolic /NMssions: 
 
 Jhe Qospel 
 
 for 
 
 Ev>ery Creature. 
 
 3 y JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D. 
 
 
 UBLISHED BY 
 
 James Nisbet & Co.. 
 
 21 Berners Street, 
 London. 
 
APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 The Gospel for livery Creature. 
 
 Ti Sermon 
 
 FIRST l'RI.\< lllCD BEl'ORI THK BAPTIST MISSIONARY 
 SOCIETY. APRIL 26m. 1871. 
 
 A .VMM' EDITION - , WITH FACTS BROl'GHT DOH A’ TO 
 THK CENTENARY YEAR OF THE BEGINNING OF 
 ENGLISH M( WER.V MISSIONA R V SOCIETIES , iSqi. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH ANGUS, M.A., D.I). 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. 
 
 London : 
 
 JAMES NISBET \ CO., 21 BERNERS STREET, W. 
 
TO ALL WHO LOVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 
 
 IN SINCERITY 
 AND ESPECIALLY TO 
 
 THE GREAT MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF EUROPE AND 
 AMERICA 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 GOOD word has permanent value. 
 
 “A word fitly spoken " — literally, 
 “ on its wheels” — “is like apples of gold set 
 in framework of silver.” 
 
 The discourse which follows is a mes- 
 sage on wheels, and ought to run round 
 the world. Though first delivered twenty 
 years ago, it is no less adapted to the 
 wants of the present day than it was for 
 the time when it was originally con- 
 structed. In fact, it will perhaps stir and 
 arouse the Church of God more effectively, 
 as this new century of modern Missions is 
 opening, than it could when the interest 
 
4 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 felt in a World’s evangelization was less- 
 extensive and less intense, and when the 
 openings for Mission work were far less 
 numerous and clamorous. 
 
 At my earnest solicitation, Dr. Angus 
 now reprints this vigorous address. It 
 impresses me as one of the boldest, wisest, 
 strongest appeals for immediate and world- 
 wide evangelization I have ever read. 
 Years ago it sounded its clarion-call, and 
 the echo of its trumpet-peal is now heard 
 Avherever Missions to the heathen are 
 planned and undertaken. So far as I 
 know, it w as this address from which was 
 drawn the motto of this new crusade: 
 Tiie World for Christ in our 
 Generation ! May the Great Head of 
 the missionary host use the new and 
 louder repetition of this trumpet-blast to 
 set the whole army of the Lord moving 
 in a mighty assault on every fortress of 
 
INI ROD UC 7 OR J NOTE. 
 
 5 
 
 the devil! May the venerable and dis- 
 tinguished Author of this pamphlet yet 
 live to see the Church preaching to every 
 creature the Gospel he loves ! 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 

Uhc Oijospel for €bevn (feature. 
 
 “ Anil he said unto them. Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature.” — Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 I T is a hundred years since the revival 
 of the spirit of Missions. At the close 
 of the last century, amid the din and blood- 
 shed of an earlier French Revolution, Dr. 
 Carey was publishing his first translation of 
 the New Testament into one of the lan- 
 guages of Bengal. After seven years of 
 apparently fruitless labour, he had begun 
 to desecrate the water of the Ganges by 
 the baptism of his first convert. In the 
 same year Dr. Vanderkemp reached the 
 Cape, and began Missions in Africa. It is 
 only a century since ; and now the Bible 
 has been translated for the first time into 
 more than a hundred and fifty languages, 
 spoken by more than half the globe. Three 
 thousand missionary evangelists are now 
 
8 
 
 A POS TOL IC MISSIONS : 
 
 labouring among the heathen. More than 
 thirty thousand native preachers and 
 teachers have been raised up through their 
 toils, and native Church-members are 
 counted by hundreds of thousands. There 
 arc still found men who ask tauntingly for 
 evidence of our success, and yet I venture 
 to affirm that as mighty a work has been 
 done in these last hundred years as in any 
 hundred since the beginning of the Gospel : 
 while in Biblical Translation as much has 
 been done in this century, to give the Bible 
 to the world, as was done in the eighteen 
 centuries that preceded it — Pentecost 
 included ! 
 
 Cheering as this success and these labours 
 seem, they have not kept pace either with 
 the march of Providence or with the needs 
 of the world. Knowledge and commerce 
 and material civilization, the bounties and 
 the openings of Providence have all multi- 
 plied faster than our Missions. When 
 Carey began his work India was closed to 
 the Gospel, as was nearly all Asia. Over 
 Africa there brooded a darkness which 
 made 'even its geography a mystery. 
 
THE GOSPEL EOK EVERY CREATURE. 9 
 
 Europe was everyw here under the power of 
 the man of sin, or its Churches frow ned 
 upon all evangelical labour. Within living 
 memory, India and China, Turkey and 
 Egypt, Burmahand Persia, have all become 
 open. Africa has been traversed from end 
 to end ; and as to Europe , there are tw'o 
 Baptist Churches in Madrid, and dozens of 
 Protestant Churches in Italy, while the 
 Gospel is now preached again “ at Rome 
 also ” — the Gospel that is “ the power of 
 God unto salvation to every one that be- 
 licvcth.’' The march of Providence, I 
 repeat, has outstripped the progress of the 
 Church. 
 
 Or, if that march be measured by other 
 standards than the number of open doors, 
 it is no less striking. When Franklin, the 
 American printer and statesman, proposed 
 for his wife, her mother objected to the 
 marriage, because there were already two 
 presses in America, and she thought there 
 was not room for a third. It is little more 
 than a century since, and there are now ten 
 thousand printing offices in that country 
 alone To reach that Continent required 
 
IO 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 as many weeks as now it takes days. Only 
 thirty years ago to cross from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific was a six months’ journey, 
 perilous and toilsome in the extreme: now 
 it is pleasantly done between Monday 
 morning and Saturday night ! Any man 
 who has to travel much will save ten weeks 
 out of every twelve ; and if he were to 
 spend his life in travelling, the facilities of 
 travel would practically multiply his years 
 five-fold. Half-a-century of life spent in 
 travel would now effect as much as two 
 centuries and a half a hundred years ago ! 
 In 1871 I read in S. Francisco what had 
 been written that morning near Sedan, seven 
 thousand miles away ; and most marvellous, 
 perhaps, of all, I reached that city within a 
 month of leaving home, by the gentlest 
 touch of human hands controlling iron and 
 steam — forces that arc among the mightiest 
 that men wield. Yet within eighty years 
 the man who spoke of “ steam waggons " 
 was deemed insane, and was helped 
 only because “his invention,” it was said, 
 “could do no harm, and might lead to 
 something useful.” So it is with everything. 
 
THE GOST EL EOT EVERY CREATURE, u 
 
 The human eye can now sec through space, 
 millions of miles farther than it could even 
 when we were born. T he three thousand or 
 four thousand fixed stars which the Apos- 
 tles saw arc now known to be six or seven 
 millions. The yearly income of England 
 is six or eight times larger than at the 
 beginning of the century, and has trebled 
 within thirty years. The effect of all this 
 is that, for openings of Providence, for 
 facilities of usefulness, for material strength 
 and resources, this year of grace 18921s 
 much further beyond the year uSco than 
 are the missionary labours of this year 
 beyond the labours of our fathers. The 
 march, the bounty of Providence, has out- 
 stripped us all. 
 
 You will readily gather from these 
 remarks what the feelings are in which 
 we ought to indulge : devout thankfulness 
 and as devout discontent. 
 
 Our labours have been “ more abundant,” 
 the results are highly encouraging, and yet 
 comparatively very little has been done. 
 It is in this spirit 1 desire for a few 
 
12 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS . 
 
 moments to discuss the subject of Mis- 
 sions, under the twofold division of — (i) 
 The work itself ; and (2) The extent to 
 which we are to prosecute it. We are to 
 preach the Gospel — that is our work, and 
 we are to preach it to every creature, to all 
 creation, as the word is also rendered — 
 that is the limit of our work. May the 
 Good Spirit Himself help us to under- 
 stand and to observe both parts of this 
 command ! 
 
 1. Our Work . — We are to preach the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The Gospel ! In an important sense, it 
 is as old as creation ! From the very first, 
 men knew of a Divine law, fixing distinc- 
 tions between right and wrong. Their 
 sinfulness and guilt, atonement through 
 vicarious suffering, God’s free and yet 
 righteous mercy, the obligation and the 
 efficacy of prayer, the necessity of holiness 
 — all were revealed. But now these truths 
 are set forth with new proofs, are enforced 
 by new motives, amid stronger light, and 
 for a wider audience. 
 
 This Gospel we may describe in various 
 
the gospel lop evepy cpeatupe. 13 
 
 ways. It is a threefold message — of 
 repentance and remission of sins through 
 our Lord — of personal holiness, and of the 
 work of the Spirit whereby the new life is 
 begun and perfected — of blessedness for 
 all who love and serve God. Forgiveness, 
 holiness, blessedness ! What more can we 
 need ? Or it is a twofold message — Christ’s 
 work for us, in living and dying and plead- 
 ing and reigning ; and Christ’s work in us 
 beginning in grace and ending in glory. 
 Or it is a single message — of Christ as 
 crucified, the true Revealer of the Divine 
 holiness and love, the Redeemer and Com- 
 forter. and Pattern and Sanctifier of us all. 
 This Gospel — at once a threefold, and a 
 twofold, and a single message — Christ 
 came to found, even more than to teach. 
 Yet it is the Gospel He taught, as it is the 
 Gospel His Apostles taught. So mighty 
 did it prove, that the most successful 
 preacher of the Apostolic age resolved, 
 as much, perhaps, from experience as from 
 direct inspiration, to know nothing among 
 men, save Jesus Christ as crucified — the 
 power and the wisdom of God. 
 
 And this Gospel we are to preach. The 
 
14 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 words that describe our duty in this respect 
 are all of them suggestive. The first 
 of them is the one used in this passage — 
 We are to proclaim it as heralds ; not 
 making our message, but carrying it and 
 announcing it with boldness and authority. 
 Sixty times in the New Testament is this 
 word found. Everywhere it describes the 
 bearing of men who feel that they are 
 speaking in God’s name. A second word, 
 translated in the same way, means “ to 
 talk.” It is applied to the easy conversa- 
 tional method adopted by our Lord, and 
 to the somewhat exaggerated sayings of 
 the woman of Samaria. It describes a 
 gift of priceless value — the power of 
 readily introducing and speaking of re- 
 ligious themes. A third word means “ to 
 reason,” “to discuss.” It is the word used 
 to describe Paul’s discourses : and it was 
 preaching of this kind that he continued 
 at Troas till midnight : as it was under 
 such preaching Felix trembled. The 
 fourth, and one of the commonest words 
 of all, translated “ preach,” means to 
 announce “ glad tidings.” More than fifty 
 
THE GOSPEI. FOR EVERY CREATURE. 15 
 
 times this word is used. It forms the 
 glory of the new Dispensation — that “ the 
 poor have the Gospel preached to them.” 
 This is the thought that justifies the out- 
 burst of the Prophet — “ How beautiful 
 upon the mountains are the feet of them 
 that preach the Gospel of peace.” “ Blessed 
 [happy] are the poor in spirit," is the first 
 word of our Saviour’s longest discourse, 
 and it is the word that is found oftenest 
 there. 
 
 We are to be heralds, and talkers, and 
 reasoners, and publishers of good things. 
 
 Constantly connected with these terms 
 which are all translated “ preach,” are 
 other three. One means to “ testify, or 
 bear witness ” — from Scripture, and espe- 
 cially from our own experience ; another 
 means “ to teach”; and a third “ to exhort, 
 or entreat.” Thus, at Pentecost, Peter 
 testified and exhorted, saying, “Save your- 
 selves from this untoward generation.” 
 Thus, Christ sent His disciples to teach 
 all nations : thus, the Apostles ceased not 
 to teach and preach Jesus Christ; the word 
 suggesting that the truths which we an- 
 
i6 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 nounce, we are also to explain and apply. 
 Thus also, wherever Paul went, he exhorted 
 and entreated : his own summary of his 
 ministry is, “ As we go, we beseech men in 
 Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled unto 
 God.” 
 
 Here, then, we have in brief the inspired 
 description of our calling. We are to pro- 
 claim the truth with the authority of am- 
 bassadors and in God’s name ; we are to 
 announce it in quiet talk ; we are to 
 enforce it by argument, by explanations, by 
 appeals to what we have ourselves felt, by 
 earnest entreaty. There is a preaching 
 that never speaks with authority, but ques- 
 tions and doubts on all things. There is a 
 preaching that never reasons, but is always 
 dogmatic or emotional. There is a preach- 
 ing that never “talks,” but is ever stilted and 
 formal. There is a preaching that is cold 
 discussion, or bare announcement, and 
 never entreats. Apostolic preaching was a 
 combination of all these processes, satura- 
 ted witlr prayers and tears. 
 
 These statements of the work of Christian 
 
THE GOSPEL FOP EVERY CREA TURE. 17 
 
 evangelists arc, 1 hope, familiar to us all.- 
 It is part of their glory that they contain 
 nothing new ; and yet they rebuke theories 
 and practices which are found on all sides 
 1 hey tell us that it is the Gospel we are to 
 preach ; not science, or art, or ethical duties ; 
 not what we think on public questions, or 
 even on subordinate points of theology, but 
 what we know of e-sential truth. This 
 Gospel we are to preach, not to discover, or 
 to manufacture, or to excogitate from our 
 own consciousness. We are to preach the 
 Gospel ; not become pastors of the Churches 
 which our preaching may form ; not exhibit 
 a gorgeous ritual, or repeat a solemn litany. 
 We are simply to preach it. as men who 
 (eel its power, are convinced of its truth, 
 and know that they have a Divine authority 
 for all they are saying. To this work we 
 are to restrict ourselves when carrying out 
 our Lord s commission. This is the com- 
 mand that is embalmed in the tenderest 
 feelings of true disciples ; the one legacy 
 which, besides His peace and the promise 
 of His presence, He bequeathed to His 
 Church until He come again. 
 
 o 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 2. But the second part of my theme may 
 create difficulty. The words of the text 
 not only tell us what our work is, but what 
 its limits are ; to what extent we are to 
 prosecute it: “To every creature,” “to all 
 creation ” is this Gospel to be preached. 
 “ In Jerusalem and Judaea, in Samaria, and 
 to the ends of the earth,” is the inspired 
 description of the duty as defined in the 
 Acts ; and in thirty years after the death 
 of our Lord, it had been preached, as the 
 Apostle expresses it in the Colossians, “ to 
 every creature, ‘ in the whole creation,’ 
 under heaven.” 
 
 The words arc addressed to the Apostles, 
 “ the eleven ” : but to the Apostles as the 
 representatives of the entire Church ; for it 
 is a duty in which all share. It was in the 
 spirit of this command that Andrew found 
 Peter, as Philip found Nathaniel, preached 
 Christ to him, and brought him to Jesus. 
 It was in the spirit of this command that 
 the woman of Sychar went and told, in the 
 fulness of her heart, of Him who seemed 
 the Christ, and through her talk multitudes 
 
THE GOSPEL POP EVERY CREATURE. 19 
 
 believed. It was in obedience to it that 
 the members of the Church at Jerusalem, 
 when scattered by persecution, all except 
 the Apostles, went “everywhere preaching 
 the Word.” Hence, Apostles welcomed all 
 fellow-helpers, men and women, in the 
 patience and kingdom of Christ. Hence, 
 the Thessalonian Church earned the high 
 praise that they were “ ensamples,” a model 
 Church to all that believed ; for from them 
 sounded out the Word of the Lord through 
 all the region beyond them. A common 
 duty ! 
 
 The only other peculiarity that needs 
 notice, is that the form of the command, 
 as given in Matthew, shows by the very 
 expression that this work of preaching the 
 Gospel to every creature belongs to each 
 age. It is not done once for all. It has to 
 be done again and again. The Church of 
 each generation redeemed by the same 
 blood, renewed and blessed by the same 
 Spirit, has practically the same honour and 
 responsibility : the honour of making known 
 to the world of each generation “ the mani- 
 fold wisdom ” and mercy of God. 
 
 B 2 
 

 20 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 Here, then, is our work, and here its 
 limits. The Christians of each age are to 
 give the Gospel to the people of that age. 
 Every Christian is to tell the “good news ” 
 to every one he can reach ; and Christians 
 collectively are to tell it, if they can, to all 
 the world. Till this is done we are not- 
 free from obligation ; and if any of the 
 millions we can reach perish unwarned and 
 unbidden, we divide with them the guilt of 
 their ruin. “ Many have not the knowledge 
 of God. I speak it,” says the Apostle, “ to 
 3'our shame.” 
 
 The Gospel tor every creature ! Can we 
 give it? Is it possible tor the age to tell 
 to the age, for the Church to tell to the 
 world the glad tidings of the kingdom ? In 
 ten or twenty years can repentance and 
 remission of sins be preached through 
 Christ to all nations ? 
 
 I believe that they can. The Christians 
 of the nineteenth century arc more able to 
 preach the Gospel to the whole world than 
 the Christians of the first century were to 
 preach it to the world of their day. If so, 
 
THE GOSPEL LOT EVERY CREATURE 21 
 
 the duty is binding, and the precept of the 
 text is a literal command, a summons 
 claiming obedience from us all. 
 
 Carefully mark once more what the duty 
 is, and how, in the light of the Gospels and 
 of the Acts, it is to be fulfilled. In the 
 three years of our Lord's ministry He 
 travelled three times over Galilee. Three 
 times He travelled through Judaea and 
 visited Jerusalem. He preached for weeks 
 at Capernaum, His home, and a border town 
 where many were coming and going. Six 
 months He laboured in Persia ; twice at 
 least He was in Samaria. Twice He sent 
 out disciples — the Twelve, the Seventy ; and 
 in all these districts there were believers — 
 hundreds of them, though no Church was 
 yet formed Such was His three years' 
 work — an itinerant home ministry — among, 
 perhaps, three millions of people. 
 
 In five-and-twenty years Paul travelled 
 three times over a great part of Asia 
 Minor and Europe. Twice he was kept as 
 prisoner for two years, at Caesarea and at 
 Rome, preaching to all who came to him 
 
22 
 
 APOS TO Lie MISSIONS : 
 
 and especially to successive soldiers to 
 whom he was chained. At one place he 
 wintered ; at another he spent a year and 
 a half ; at a third two whole years, “ So 
 that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the 
 word of the Lord Jesus.” The charm of 
 each scene of labour was an open door and 
 many adversaries. If Churches were formed, 
 he encouraged others from among the 
 Churches themselves to take the oversight 
 of them, sending written instructions for 
 their government. Those instructions arc 
 now the inspired hand-books, which we 
 give in a printed form to our converts, and 
 which are, under God, the means of the 
 growth and permanence of our societies. 
 This missionary rented buildings and used 
 the houses of those who were disposed to 
 receive him. He took nothing of the 
 Gentiles, i.e., of the unconverted ; but 
 gratefully acknowledged the gifts of all 
 fellow-Christians who ministered to his 
 necessities, and yet was ready to work 
 with his own hands, that he might preach 
 a free Gospel, and maintain his character 
 for disinterested independence. In this 
 
THE GOSPEL FOR EVERY CREATURE. 23 
 
 spirit he travelled from Jerusalem even 
 unto Illyricum, fully preaching by his life 
 and by his words the Gospel of Christ. 
 Fellow-helpers he found or made wherever 
 he went ; so that within thirty years after 
 the Ascension, the sound of the voice of the 
 first preachers — the music of their message 
 as the terms imply — had gone out into all 
 the earth, and their words to the end of 
 the world. And 1 believe it demonstrable 
 that with Apostles, Messengers of the 
 Churches, Missionaries, as we call them, 
 of a like spirit, we are able to do for our 
 world, in the way of preaching, more than 
 Paul and the Apostles did for the world of 
 their day. 
 
 To the extent of our ability we are to 
 preach it, and we can preach it to all. 
 Take the least favourable case. Suppose 
 that this work is to be done by members 
 of Churches in Christendom only, i.e., in 
 Europe and America. We might need 
 fifty thousand preachers, and their support 
 might amount to fifteen million pounds a 
 year for ten years. In that time and by 
 
24 
 
 A PUS TOPIC MISSIONS . 
 
 such an agency the Gospel might be 
 preached, and preached repeatedly, to 
 every man and woman and child on 
 earth ! 
 
 It seems a great company — fifty thousand 
 preachers. And yet the number is less 
 than ten per cent, of our Baptist Evan- 
 gelical Church Members in Great Britain 
 and her Colonies. Two out of every 
 hundred members of Baptist Churches 
 alone in Great Britain and America would 
 yield more than we need. While if Britain 
 and America and Protestant Europe were 
 to combine, our fifty thousand would mean 
 one Christian worker out of every three 
 hundred Church members only. England 
 sent as many men to the Crimea to take a 
 single fortress, and to keep up for a few 
 years a Mohammedan despotism. Ten 
 times the number of men fell on each side 
 in the great American war, to set free three 
 or four millions of slaves. Five hundred 
 years ago the Crusades had cost more lives, 
 and they sought to win from men well nigh 
 as chivalrous as the invaders a material 
 Jerusalem and an earthly "sovereignty.” 
 
THE GOSPEL FOE EVERY CREATURE. 25 
 
 And cannot fifty thousand redeemed men 
 be found to win back the world to Jesus 
 Christ? Have our hymns no meaning? 
 
 “ O send ten thousand heralds forth, 
 
 Front east to west, from south to north, 
 
 To blow the trump of Jubilee, 
 
 And peace proclaim from sea to sea.” 
 
 It seems a great sum — a hundred and 
 fifty millions in ten years. Yet it is only 
 a pound a year from each member of 
 the Baptist, Congregational, Methodist 
 and Presbyterian Churches of Europe and 
 America. England alone spends as much 
 (within ten or twenty millions) every year 
 on intoxicating drinks; and the blessings 
 of civil government, imperial and local, 
 cost Britain every year more than two- 
 thirds of the amount. The Crimean war 
 cost a hundred millions; the American war 
 more than ten times as much. An annual 
 tax of ninepence in the pound on the tax- 
 able income of Great Britain alone would 
 yield the fifteen millions we need. Nay, 
 more; it would be easy to find ten thousand 
 professing Christians who could give it all! 
 
26 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 Looking only at men and money, is it 
 not self-evident that it can be done? 
 
 But, in fact, the process is less costly 
 than I have supposed. In America and 
 England, and generally on the continent of 
 Europe, the Gospel might be preached — 
 fully and tenderly — without much more 
 cost than the loving personal labours of our 
 Church members. In India there are, say, 
 one hundred and fifty millions of heathen. 
 Suppose that we could send out at once 
 three thousand men, who should each spend 
 a couple of years in learning one language 
 or more, and go for eight years or ten of 
 work. They might gather around them, or 
 get from existing Churches, three thousand 
 more — plain men or women, competent to 
 preach the Gospel with tenderness and 
 power. And then in ten years the Gospel 
 might be preached, and preached repeatedly, 
 to all India. The entire cost of such an 
 agency for ten years, and for six thousand 
 agents, need not amount to fifteen millions. 
 Five thousand men sent in the same way 
 to Cfiina, might, in the same time, evan- 
 gelize the whole country. It can be done. 
 
THE GOSPEL FOP EVERY CREATURE. 27 
 
 I have not forgotten the difficulties of 
 all kinds that surround this enterprise — 
 travel, health, unknown regions — barbarous 
 tribes, the great wrath of one who perceives 
 that his time is short. I know, or can 
 imagine, them all. But I venture to say 
 that, whatever these difficulties, they would 
 be oven.ome if English national honour 
 were at stake; if diamond- beds or gold- 
 fields of sufficient value had been dis- 
 covered-nay, if even a Nile were to be 
 traced and mapped. Is there a part of the 
 earth that Englishmen could not penetrate, 
 for a consideration ? And shall Christ’s 
 command, and the world’s needs, fail to 
 move ? I repeat it — It can be done! 
 
 The recommendations of some such plan, 
 so simple and comprehensive — the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel, and nothing more , to 
 every creature, and nothing less — are clear 
 and decisive. 
 
 There is, first of all, the Divine command 
 and the Divine example. Education is of 
 value; so is the relief of distress; the alle- 
 viation of suffering ; so are canals, and 
 
28 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 railroads, and commerce — the implements 
 of a material civilization. We honour them 
 all; but they are most honoured when 
 made subservient to the Gospel. When 
 the blessed God stepped forth from His place,, 
 as philanthropist,* He gave His law, and 
 prophets, and sent His Son. And now all 
 the improvement He works begins in human 
 hearts, and is to spread from within out- 
 wardly till all is renewed. There are, be 
 assured, profound reasons, as there is a 
 Divine command, to justify the announce- 
 ment that the preaching of the Gospel is 
 the first business of the Christian Church. 
 
 Some such comprehensive plan, more- 
 over, will have the advantage of proving to 
 the world that we believe what we profess, 
 viz., that the Gospel is God’s remedy for 
 human misery and sinfulness, and that it 
 is the Church’s honour to make it known. 
 Every one sees that our present agencies, 
 with their million a year, for the evangeli- 
 zation of eight hundred millions of people, 
 do not mean business ; and there is, in con- 
 
 Tit. iii. 4. 
 
THE COS TEL FOE EVERY CREATURE. 29 
 
 sequence, widespread infidelity in relation 
 to the Gospel and in relation to the sin- 
 cerity of the Christian Church herself. . . . 
 What an answer it would be to Rationalism, 
 and Secularism, and Sectarianism, and 
 Popery, and Infidelity in all their forms; 
 and what a healthy confirmation of our 
 own faith, if the Evangelical Churches of 
 Christendom were to resolve, in God’s 
 strength, to preach the Gospel to every 
 creature! It would be the fitting reply at 
 once to Papal Infallibility and to Rational- 
 istic unbelief. 
 
 And how our work would simplify and 
 extend if we confined it to this business of 
 preaching the Gospel. Many men would 
 be found, of every class and of various 
 social positions, competent to do this work, 
 but not competent to become pastors, and 
 not caring to take upon them the business- 
 labours of many modern missionaries — 
 good men, full of faith, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Nay, might not our best men — 
 our laymen and pastors — whether young 
 or old, be prepared to give five years or 
 ten, or parts of every year, to this specific 
 
30 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISS JONS : 
 
 work, who are not prepared to become 
 missionaries for life, in the common mean- 
 ing of the term? 
 
 What enormous anxieties would be 
 spared us in connection with mission- 
 buildings, and churches, and schools — the 
 dead weight of many existing agencies. 
 All these things would come in time, but 
 they would come independently of those 
 who make it their business to preach the 
 Gospel. Churches would be formed by 
 
 thousands ; but they would be left to their 
 New Testament, and to native pastors, 
 being commended, not selfishly, but from 
 enlightened conviction, “to God and to the 
 word of His grace.” A freer Christian life 
 might be the result of such an arrange- 
 ment ; but the life would be more true, 
 more natural, and, 1 believe, more abiding. 
 
 And what a blessing would it be to the 
 heathen to find hundreds of men in their 
 country all preaching substantially the 
 same Gospel, and all pointing for details 
 of spiritual and ecclesiastical life to the 
 same Ipook | 
 
THE GOSPEL FOP EVERY CREATURE. 31 
 
 It can be done. It is our duty to do it, 
 and there will be blessing even in the 
 attempt. Yes, you say, in the attempt, 
 but in anything besides ? Can \vc, without 
 miracles, hope that men will believe? Is 
 a message of human sinfulness, of Divine 
 mercy, and of holiness — in one word, of 
 Christ, and of Christ as crucified for us — 
 likely to win men who have grown old in 
 sin ? Must we not rather keep to our 
 schools and be content to elevate men by 
 the gradual training of a few in each 
 generation, till, centuries hence, the whole 
 are trained ? I think not. The contempt 
 of the foolishness of preaching has not yet 
 died out. Signs, miracles, are still deemed 
 essential. Wisdom, education, is still 
 sought for, as the precursor of the Gospel 
 or its substitute. Yet is the Gospel more 
 than a sign. It is power itself, and the 
 power of God ; and more than wisdom — 
 the wisdom of God. Miracles have their 
 place in introducing a new revelation, but 
 they are not needed to justify us in preach- 
 ing the Gospel, nor were they the means of 
 the repentance and faith of the first 
 
32 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS : 
 
 converts. The truths we have to preach 
 — man’s guilt, God’s free and righteous 
 mercy, the necessity of holiness — still 
 appeal to men’s consciences and hearts, as 
 they did at Jerusalem and at Corinth ; the 
 preaching is still followed by “ greater 
 things ” than Christ Himself wrought ; 
 and, in short, the message of the Cross, 
 delivered as it ought to be, with prayer and 
 tears, is still the power of God ; and our 
 strength is in proclaiming it. Some will 
 not believe, but multitudes will ; and we 
 shall have discharged our conscience and 
 have obeyed our Lord. There will be a 
 blessing in the attempt, and in much besides. 
 
 This, then, is the conclusion to which I 
 come. If the Christian Church will give 
 itself to this business of preaching the 
 Gospel, it has wealth enough and men 
 enough to preach rt, in the next fifteen or 
 twenty years, to every creature. All we 
 need is a “ willing mind ” — a Pentecostal 
 spirit of prayer, and faith and zeal. Only 
 expect what God promises to give, only 
 attempt what God bids you to do, and the 
 thing will be done. 
 
THE GUSRE 1 . FOR EVERY CREATURE. 33 
 
 Hut we arc here to-day as a single 
 Society — what can we do ? Does not this 
 appeal address itself to the entire Church — 
 to the dozen tribes of Israel, and not to 
 what is in England one of the least of the 
 tribes? No doubt it does address itself to 
 all, but none the less to us. It was one of 
 the least of the tribes that God honoured 
 most of all. What you can do in this 
 business depends entirely on what God 
 disposes you to do ; on what, speaking 
 from the human side, you will do. Were 
 any one of our larger religious denomina- 
 tions the only Christians on earth, 1 believe 
 they would have men and wealth sufficient 
 to meet this call. Hut I am asking less at 
 your hands. We are honoured with 
 common privileges and with common 
 work. Do your share. Fifty thousand 
 men means, if you are alone, a tenth of 
 your entire membership ; and £15,000,000 
 means an average of £3^ every member. 
 If you work with American Baptists, one 
 member in every seventy-five, and £4 from 
 every member will suffice. If you divide 
 the work and the cost among the fifteen 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 or twenty million Christians connected with 
 our five largest Missionary Societies, one 
 member out of every three hundred, and 
 £ i a year on the average from each mem- 
 ber will more than do it all ! Do your share. 
 
 The Divine method of Missions has 
 been briefly marked out. Work to this 
 model ; make the preaching of the Gospel 
 to every creature your ambition, your 
 passion, as it was Paul’s. Begin with your 
 children and your friends. Continue in 
 your business that you may have the more to 
 give. Take it up as work, not as play. 
 
 If to-morrow our Committee were to 
 resolve to help no pastors and aid no 
 buildings, but restrict themselves and their 
 agents to the double duty of preaching 
 Christ to those who have never heard His 
 name, and of giving His Word to the 
 Church and to the world, they would make 
 less change in their plans and organization 
 than any Society I know. This is largely 
 their method now. Help them to keep to 
 it and to carry it through. Let their 
 
the GOS/'E/. foe EVERY CREATURE. 35 
 
 resolution be to have hundreds of mission- 
 ary evangelists with simple work, requiring 
 few, though noble qualifications — love, 
 insight, faith. And let our resolution be 
 to give, not single guineas, but fives, tens, 
 and hundreds — sums we think we can ill 
 spare ; and let all give. And soon — the 
 Lord hasten it! — “ His way will be known 
 on earth, and His saving health among all 
 nations,” 
 
 And yet it is not so much men we need, 
 or money! Not so much demonstrations 
 of the sufficiency of our wealth and num- 
 bers. What we most need in order to 
 use the wealth we have and to send the 
 men is a heart of warmer love — still greater 
 tenderness and simplicity, more faith and 
 more prayer; in short, the Holy Spirit in 
 us and with us. All I have said on the 
 power of preaching takes as granted that 
 it is not we who speak, but God who speaks 
 by us. The consciousness, the temper, and 
 the reality of a Divine presence — is not 
 this the great need of us all ? 
 
 Yet is it less accessible than the men or 
 the money ? Xay, it is more accessible 
 
36 APOSTOLIC MISSIONS: 
 
 than either, and the only thing needed for 
 the acquiring of both. If God give us the 
 Spirit— and canvve doubt His willingness? — 
 nothing else essential will be withheld ! 
 
STATISTICAL FACTS. 
 
 I. NUMBERS. 
 
 Baptists. 
 
 Minsters and 
 
 Members or 
 
 M issionaries. 
 
 Communicants. 
 
 British Empire, Colonies, 
 and Missions ... 
 America and Foreign 
 
 2,853 • 
 
 505,090 
 
 States ... 
 
 25,005 
 
 3,281,500 
 
 Total (< 7 l 
 
 27,858 .. 
 
 3,786,590 
 
 Congregation ai.ists. 
 
 Ministers and 
 Missionaries. 
 
 Members or 
 Communicants. 
 
 Great Britain (A) 
 
 2,722 
 
 360,000 
 
 America (c) 
 
 4,640 
 
 492,000 
 
 Total 
 
 7,362 
 
 852,000 
 
 Episcopalian Church. 
 
 Benefices. 
 
 Sittings. 
 
 England (d) 
 
 14,250 
 
 6,250.000 
 
 Ireland ... 
 
 1,210 
 
 602,300 
 
 America ... 
 
 4,163 (Members! 1,650,000 
 
 Total 
 
 19,623 
 
 7,502,300 
 
 ('») “ Baptist Handbook,’* 1892. The Congregational Hand- 
 book ” (Boston) for 1891 gives American Baptists as a million more. 
 
 (l>) •‘Whitaker’s Almanac.” 1892. A very inadequate view of the 
 influence and working power of the body. 
 
 (r) “ The Congregationalist Handbook " (Boston) for 1891. 
 
 (✓/) This seems the simplest way of giving an idea of the strength 
 of the Episcopal Church. The ministers are much more numerous 
 than the benefices, and the nominal members than the s* # tii gs. Sec 
 “ Whit Aer’s Almanac ” p. 236. 
 
;8 
 
 STATISTICAL FACTS. 
 
 I. Numbers —continued. 
 
 Presbyterian. 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Communicants. 
 
 United Kingdom, Colo- 
 nies, and Missions 
 European Continent 
 America ... 
 
 5 . 5 '° 
 
 5.527 
 
 1 1,918 
 
 1.418.000 
 469,000 
 
 1.561.000 
 
 Total (e) 
 
 22,955 
 
 3,448,000 
 
 Wesleyan and Other 
 Methodists. 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Communicants. 
 
 Great Britain, Colonies, 
 
 &c. (7 bodies) 
 
 America (14 bodies) . . 
 
 7,285 
 
 31.365 
 
 1.362.000 
 
 4.983.000 
 
 Total (/J ... 
 
 38,650 
 
 6,345,000 
 
 Grand Total (about) 
 
 120,000 
 
 23,000,000 
 
 The number of Communicants is equally divided 
 between Europe and America. 
 
 It will be gathered from this list that in these five de- 
 nominations there are upwards of 15,000,000 of Church 
 members who are pledged to the spread of the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, with seven or eight millions more who are 
 equally pledged as members of Episcopal Churches. 
 
 (r) From “ Reports of General Presbyterian Council, " sent by 
 Rev. Or. Mathews. 
 
 (/) Fr< 5 >n " The Wesleyan Methodist Kaleiular," sent by Major 
 Smith. • 
 
.9 TA 77.9 TIC A L FAC 719. 
 
 39 
 
 II. WEALTH. 
 
 In all money calculations in the Sermon and Notes 
 the amounts are in founds sterling. If multiplied 1 >y 
 five, they give the amounts in Dollars. 
 
 Since modern Missions began in 1792, the wealth of 
 England has enormously increased. Ninepence in the 
 pound from income-tax payers alone would now yield 
 £15,000,000 a year. We spend each year on our army 
 and navy ^35,000,000. We spent last year on drink 
 /1 40, 000, 000. 
 
 Our yearly contributions for foreign Missions amount 
 to £1,300,000. (g) 
 
 In 1850 the communicants of Evangelical Churches in 
 America were worth ,£200,000,000 ; in 1880 they were 
 worth ^1,800,000,000. 
 
 The Americans spend on drink ,£200,000,000 a year ; 
 on tobacco, £120,000.000 a year ; on jewellery, 
 £110,000,000. 
 
 Their yearly contributions for foreign Missions amount 
 to £1,400,000. (//) 
 
 Looking at our numbers and wealth, am I wrong in 
 affirming that the Christian Churches of Europe and 
 America alone have men enough and money enough to 
 do all I have described in a fraction of the time I haw 
 assigned for the accomplishment Of this great and blessed 
 work ? 
 
 (tf) See Church Missionary Intelligencer , Ja i., 1892. p. 64. 
 
 (A) See “ Report of the Centenary Conference oa Missions,' 
 534. 
 
 Henderson & Spalding (Ltd.), Printers, .Marylebone Lane, \V.