YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
JOHN R. MOTT

Missions and Leadership

BY

J. CAMPBELL WHITE, M. A., LL. D.,
PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER,
AT WOOSTER, OHIO, U. S. A.

Being the Smythe Lectures for 1915-1916
of the Columbia Theological Seminary
Columbia, S. C.

Wooster, Ohio
The Collier Printing Company,
1915

COPYRIGHT, 1915, RY
J. CAMPBELL WHITE
ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL
LONDON, 1915

To my Mother
and my Wife
representing the
two gentlest and
most powerful
human forces in
the life of men.

Preface
Since leaving College in 1890 my work has
been related directly to the problems of missions.
Ten years' residence in Calcutta, India, provided
a good base-line for the study of the situation at
the front. The past twelve years of travel
throughout the United States and Canada trying
to enlist the men of all churches seriously in the
work of Missions has given me a general ac
quaintance with some vital needs of the home
churches. I have embodied in the following
chapters my chief observations and results of
experience during the past twenty-five years.
I feel grateful to the Columbia Theological
Seminary, at Columbia, South Carolina, for
leading me to put these convictions into type, by
inviting me to give the Smythe Lectures for
1915-16.
J. CAMPBELL WHITE.
Wooster, Ohio, October, 1915.

The Decisive Decade of Missions
The Great Commission is the only commis
sion. The Church has no other business. The
world-field is the only field. Anything less is
inadequate as the field of Christ or of His Church
or of any disciple of His. The law of Chris
tianity is propagate or deteriorate; expand or
perish. The first work and the chief work of the
whole Church is to give the gospel to the whole
world. "The world is redeemed, but it does not
know it." And it never will know until the
Church publishes the good news everywhere
through living witnesses. Christ will never
change His plan. He will wait until His fol
lowers fulfil His expectations. "This gospel of
the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole
world, for a testimony unto all the nations; and
then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14.
The one great event toward which all history
is unfolding and upon which all the universe is
waiting is the world-wide propagation of the
Christian evangel. The Steel- Trust and the
Standard Oil Company and all other aggrega
tions of capital and all human governments are
but as children's toys compared with the infinite
significance of the eternal Kingdom which Jesus

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Christ is founding in the hearts of His disciples.
The Church of our day is well able to carry
out literally the marching orders of her Lord and
preach the gospel to every creature. The world
is open, accessible and responsive. The Church
has workers and funds in super-abundance for
the accomplishment of the task. The promise of
Christ's presence with His ambassadors is abso
lute. There is no power on earth or in hell that
could withstand an obedient Church in its speedy
occupation and evangelization of the world.
We are living now at the cross-roads of
human history. "The next ten years," declared
the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh
in 1910, "may be of more critical importance in
determining the spiritual evolution of mankind,
than many centuries of ordinary experience."
Not only could many millions of converts be won
for Christ in this decisive decade of Christian
missions, but the tide can be turned toward
Christ in whole nations, and in some entire non-
Christian systems of religion, if the present op
portunity is seized and used.
And if this world-program of Christianity is
carried out, it will bring such enrichment to the
churches of Christian lands as can never come
in any other way. The resources of God are
promised in their fulness only to those who un
dertake the program of God in its wholeness.
The chief reason why the Apostolic Church was
so successful was that it started out to fill the

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
world with the good news of the Saviour. They
experienced the fulfilment of the promise, "Ye
shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is
come upon you; and ye shall be my witnesses
both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts
1:8. But no one can have the fulfilment of the
promise unless he undertakes the corresponding
task. Judaism failed nationally because it failed
universally. Any nation will fail sooner or
later unless it fulfills its mission to mankind.
President Wilson truly says that the mission of
the nation is the service of the race. Selfishness
and self-centeredness in a nation, no less than in
an individual, will lead inevitably to decline and
ruin. The only chance that any nation has of
perpetuity is that it fulfill its destiny as a con
structive factor in world-progress.
Never before in human history have such
vast populations been in a state of rapid evolu
tion, — educational, industrial, social and spirit
ual, — as at this hour. Three-quarters of human
ity is in unrest. When nations are in transition
is the time to give them impulse in the right
direction. It is impossible to switch a motion
less engine, but one that is moving may readily
be directed. One of the most difficult questions that young
men and women are now asking of missionary
leaders is this: "What is the very neediest field?

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
I am putting my life into missions and I want to
go to the field that needs me worst."
It is impossible to give a positive answer to
this question. So great and so general is the
present need and crisis that it would be safe to
undertake the argument for any one of six of the
main sections of the non-Christian world as the
most critical field; viz., 1. Latin America,
2. Africa, 3. India, 4. The Moslem world, 5. Japan
and Korea, 6. China. Let us pass these in rapid
review that we may see how readily a case could
be made for any one of them as the neediest field
of all. 1. Latin America, including Mexico, Central
America, Cuba, Porto Rico and South America,
has a population of about seventy millions. The
terrible social and intellectual condition of this
total mass of human beings may be summarized
in two sentences. Far more than half of these
seventy millions of people were born out of wed
lock. Far more than half of them are absolutely
illiterate. In the presence of undisputed facts
like these, further argument is unnecessary to
prove their desperate need of vital Christianity.
Into these fields all Protestant Churches com
bined have sent 531 ordained missionaries, or an
average of one to 131,000 of the population.
Each one of these missionaries has a field about
two hundred and fifty times the size of the aver
age parish- of ordained ministers in the United
States, in addition to the unspeakably more
10

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
difficult conditions of Christian work in Latin
America or in any non-Christian land.
There is widespread and bitter revolt in Latin
America against the religious formalism which
leaves the heart unfed and the life unre
deemed. The whole continent is also in the
midst of an unprecedented industrial develop
ment. These people are dependent almost
wholly on the efforts of the churches of North
America. Certainly Latin America has strong
claim to be listed among the neediest of mission
fields. 2. Africa has a little more than twice the pop
ulation of Latin America, — about 150 millions.
While almost the whole of Africa is desperately
needy, the outstanding fact from a missionary
view-point is the advance and the peril of
Mohammedanism. One-third of the entire pop
ulation of the Dark Continent are in danger of
being made Moslems through the efforts of
Mohammedan traders and missionaries. They
would then be many times more difficult to reach
than they are in their simple paganism. Nothing
but a great Christian advance can avert this
threatened calamity. To meet this opportunity
the total missionary forces in Africa should be
at least doubled at the earliest possible date. It
is said that there are seventy millions of people
in the Dark Continent that are not even included
in the plans of any missionary agency. If
you choose Africa as the neediest field your
11

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
decision is not likely to be seriously disputed.
3. While Africa has twice the population of
Latin America, India in turn has more than
twice the population of Africa, — or a total of
over 315 millions. As has often been stated,
there are so many villages in India, — averaging
nearly 400 persons each, — that if Christ had
begun to visit them when He began his public
ministry and had visited one village each day
since that time, it would still take Him about
fifty more years to visit them all once.
When the last government census was taken
in India there was widespread alarm on the part
of non-Christian leaders at the rapid spread of
Christianity. The census returns show in all
parts of the country a steady increase in the
number of Christians. Travancore had an in
crease of population of 16% during the decade,
while Christians increased by 30% ; just one-
quarter of the people are now Christians. In
Cochin, likewise, they form one quarter of the
population; in the Punjab, though there was a
decrease in the general population of half a
million, the Christians increased over 100%.
In the Central Provinces, Hindus show an in
crease of 16%; Mohammedans, 13%; Animists,
30%; Christians, 169%; in the United Prov
inces, the Christians increased by 75%. Com
menting on the census returns, "The Indian
Messenger," a Hindu paper, says: "So there is a
marked general increase of Christians all over
12

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
the country, and this is no doubt due to the better
propagation of the Gospel amongst our own
countrymen. The depressed classes and the hill
tribes are for social emancipation running into
Christianity's arms. Christian missionaries are
forestalling us in this most fruitful field. Be
fore the indigenous reformers can make ready
to take up the work they will have finished
bringing the depressed into the Christian fold.
This enthusiasm is no doubt most creditable to
them. But do our Hindu countrymen, who are
so lukewarm about the depressed classes mis
sions realize what the Christianization of the
masses means? It means in no small measure
the wiping out of the hoary Hindu civilization.
// the apathy of the Hindus continues, the Chris
tianization of India is only a question of time."
This would be regarded by many people as
an exaggeration if uttered by a missionary.
What shall be said of it when it comes from one
of the most influential Hindu editors?
There are about sixty millions of these "de
pressed classes" in India. For several years
past they have been applying for baptism faster
than the missionaries with their small force have
felt justified in receiving them. Many millions
of them can be led to Christ, if workers are
provided. As a sample of the rapid growth of the
Church among these low-caste people, the follow
ing illustration is worthy of note:
13

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
A mission of the United Presbyterian Church
of North America was founded at Sialkot, Pun
jab, India, in 1855. The first convert was in
1857. The present foreign mission force con
sists of about 100 missionaries.
Christian Community, 1875 .... 153
Christian Community, 1895  9,912
Christian Community, 1914  54,000
One of the most experienced of the mission
aries in this field says: "In our district we have
about 300,000 Chuhras. From among these we
have definite requests from thousands for in
struction, looking to baptism and reception into
the Church. I think it is no exaggeration to say
that if we had the missionary force, within a
decade we might hope to have the great mass of
these people instructed and received into the
Church. To me the possibilities among these
'untouchable' people are not more startling than
the opportunities among the caste people, with
their minds so wonderfully opening to. the appeal
of the gospel, and with so many of them not only
passively receptive but actually inquiring con
cerning Christianity and the Christ, and with
such numbers already secret believers." An
other missionary of this district says that the
public instruction of these despised low-caste
people in the principles and truths of Christian
ity has had a marvelous preparatory effect on
vast numbers of higher caste Hindus and
14

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
Moslems who have been present as listeners
while this work was being carried on, as most of
it is done, in the open air.
Another Illustration of Wonderful Growth
The work of the Methodist Episcopal Church
in India began with the arrival of Dr. William
Butler, on the 25th of September, 1856. At the
first meeting for organization of the India Meth
odist Mission, in 1859, Rev. J. M. Thoburn (now
Bishop Thoburn) was present. There were then
only one Methodist native member, six proba
tioners and four inquirers. The following
growth has all occurred during Bishop Tho-
burn's lifetime. In 1866 there were 282 persons
in connection with the Church. In 1876 the
numbers reached 3,840; in 1886 there were
14,429. It was during this decade that the at
tention of the missionaries was first more es
pecially drawn to the depressed classes.
In 1896 the Christian community had grown
to 149,462. In 1906 the numbers had reached
168,178, while in 1912, only six years later, there
were 241,860 persons in connection with the
Methodist Church.
During the past year the Methodists in India
received 37,500 new members and refused ad
mission to 152,000 others who applied for bap
tism and were ready to be received but for the
single consideration that the ' mission was not
able to employ the workers needed for their
15

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
proper training and development. It is a very
perilous thing for the future of the Church in
these lands to receive illiterate converts without
following them up carefully with further in
struction. There must be oral instruction for a
considerable period of time, as almost none of
these low caste people are able to read. The
Methodist leaders look forward to the time with
in a very few years when they will be receiving
converts in India alone at the rate of at least 100,-
000 a year. Their leaders declare that literally
millions of earnest seekers after God could be re
ceived during the next ten years if their present
appropriations from the home church could be
increased by $100,000 a year. One village whose
people have repeatedly and urgently asked for
baptism, recently sent in this pathetic appeal:
"Will - you not come and baptize us before we
die?" Another American mission has this past
year baptized the people of certain villages that
first asked to be received ten years ago. The
Church is at least ten years behind the provi
dence of God in entering into these open doors.
A very serious word of warning ought to be
spoken in this connection. Millions of these
people are in grave danger of being led off into
some false form of religion unless they are given
the truth now when their hearts are open.
Mohammedanism would never have spread as it
did, but for the fact that the Christian Church of
that day was failing terribly in its work. There
16

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
is still the danger that some modern false
prophets may arise amid the world's present re
ligious unrest and lead vast multitudes yet
further astray, if the Church of Christ fails to
offer to the waiting hosts in lands like India the
everlasting truth of the gospel.
4. The Moslem World has been generally re
garded as the Gibraltar of the non-Christian re
ligions. There are over 200 millions of Moslems
scattered all the way from North Africa to China
and the Philippine Islands. The greatest single
mass of them is found in India where there are
about 67 millions. Until recently the number of
Moslem converts to Christianity has been com
paratively small. The chief gains have been in
Java and India. In Java there are over 40,000
who have turned from the Moslem to the Chris
tian faith.
In India there are over 200 native Christian
preachers in addition to many thousands of
church members who were once Moslems. But
the most significant thing is the changed attitude
of multitudes of Moslems toward Christianity.
Christian education has done much to shake the
faith of thousands of the most intelligent Mos
lems in their religion. The steadily diminishing
place and power of Moslem government in the
world has led many of their leaders to very
serious questioning about the sources of their
weakness. Contact with Western civilization
and bitter defeats in war have still further
17

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
sobered and humbled Moslem leaders, so that
never before in the thirteen centuries of Moham
medan history has there been such an open door
for aggressive evangelistic work among these
proud but powerful people.
Perhaps the most striking work going on
anywhere among Moslems is in Cairo, Egypt, the
seat of the famous Mohammedan University and
in many ways the intellectual center of the whole
Moslem World. For several years past, a con
verted Moslem leader, a highly educated gradu
ate of their University in Cairo, has been hold
ing evangelistic meetings for his own people.
He is so skillful in public debate that no Moslem
can stand up against him. He is compelling
serious attention of the claims of Christ on the
part of many educated Mohammedans. Re
cently in one of his public meetings a young man
interrupted him with a captious question, as
Moslems in nearly all parts of the world are
trained to do. Instantly one of the Professors
from the Moslem University was on his feet in a
vigorous rebuke of the questioner, saying to him :
"Sit down, young man. The time has gone by
for that kind of opposition. We are here with a
serious purpose, in order that we may learn more
about the truth, in order that we may follow it
ourselves." Just now there is in process of being estab
lished the Cairo Christian University for further
bringing powerfully to bear upon the future
18

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
leaders of the Moslem world, the truth as it is
revealed in Jesus Christ.
5. Some may doubt whether Japan and
Korea should be included in this list of neediest
fields for missionary effort. They have a com
bined population of about 65 millions. There
has been a widespread impression that Japan
could look after herself, in view of her progress
and achievements.
"It may be said without hesitation that Japan
has become unique among the non-Christian
nations of the world. A constitutional govern
ment in successful operation now for many
years; a stable financial policy; an excellent
post, telegraph, railroad and steamship service
already become a second nature; a splendid edu
cational system, providing for practically every
child in the Empire, and reaching out to all the
vocations of life and up to the highest grade of
university work, established now for over a
quarter of a century; almost universal reading
of newspaper, magazine and book literature; as
siduous study of foreign nations by means of
many hundreds of men sent abroad during over
forty years for research and observation, which
has made Japan acquainted with the world at
large as few other nations are; and a deep and
intelligent hungering and thirsting for all that
is best in the world — these things characterize
the Japan that has come to be since Commodore
Perry knocked at her gates sixty years ago.
19

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Does not this remarkable position of Japan have
a meaning for the coming of God's Kingdom that
loudly asks to be taken account of by the forces
of Christendom today?"
The very fact of Japan's progress gives her a
unique position of leadership and influence in the
entire Orient. Perhaps one of the most effective
ways of reaching China and even India may be
by winning Japan. Recent investigations made
with great care by the Federated Protestant
Missionary forces of Japan make unmistakably
clear that there is still vast need for missionary
work in this field. They report that 80% of the
population of Japan live in rural districts, of
whom 96% are still unprovided for.
Of the 20% living in cities, one-fifth of the
people are unprovided for.
The missionaries and Japanese leaders call for
a doubling of the present number of evangelistic
workers, which would mean at least 400 more
foreign missionaries, in addition to multiplying
the force of Japanese workers at least fourfold.
Two recent events mark a change in attitude
on the part of the Japanese nation to Christian
ity that have a very important bearing on mis
sionary work in that Empire.
In February, 1912, the Vice-Minister of the
Home Department, officially representing the
government, called together representatives of
Buddhism, Shintoism and Christianity and re
quested the help of these three religions in up-
20

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
lifting the moral and spiritual life of the nation.
This was an official recognition of Christianity
which has already given the missionary work in
many places an unprecedented standing and
prestige. The changed attitude of the people in
many sections formerly indifferent or opposed to
Christianity is already very apparent.
The Constitution and the Imperial House law
of Japan prescribe that when a new Emperor as
cends the throne "a new era shall be inaugurated
and the name of it shall remain unchanged dur
ing the whole reign." When the late Emperor
of Japan, Mutsuhito, ascended the throne he an
nounced that his era should be known as Meiji,
or "Enlightened Reign," and he announced that
knowledge should be sought for throughout the
entire world. His reign was indeed an era of
enlightenment, and during the forty-four years
he was the reigning sovereign, Japan became one
of the great and enlightened nations of the world.
The new Emperor, Yoshihito, in beginning
his reign announced that his era should be
known as Taisel (or Daisho), which means the
"Era of Great Righteousness." Article two of
the Constitution of Japan already guarantees
freedom of religious belief, and if the era of the
new Emperor is to be one of "Great Righteous
ness" Christianity will have an almost unpar
alleled opportunity to prove its value in that
most advanced of all non-Christian nations.
In the University of Tokyo there are some
21

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
5,000 students. Of these 6 report themselves as
Confucianists, 60 Christians, 300 Buddhists,
1000 atheists, and the remaining 3600 agnostics.
It is a highly significant fact that many of the
Japanese leaders are recognizing that their ma
terial and intellectual progress is inadequate and
that greater emphasis must be put upon moral
and spiritual culture.
By the action of the Federated Missions of
Japan, including all the evangelical churches,
there was inaugurated in March, 1914, "a three
years' evangelistic campaign." The present time
is regarded by missionary leaders in that field as
probably the most favorable opportunity there
has ever yet been for a widespread expansion of
Christianity among the Japanese.
Though Korea has only about one-fifth of the
total population of Japan, and though mission
work in that field has only, been carried on for
about half the length of time it has been done in
Japan itself, yet the church in Korea is now al
most if not quite as large in point of members as
the church in Japan. And in its evangelistic
and missionary zeal the Korean church is an
inspiration to the churches of all lands. The
absorption of Korea by Japan will probably re
sult in hastening the evangelization of Japan
itself. The persecution and suffering of the
Korean church seems only to have added to its
spiritual power.
6. And after all that has been said and far
22

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
more that might be said of these five great and
important and needy sections of the non-Chris
tian world, the giant among them all still re
mains. Does any argument need to be made for
China as one of the very neediest and ripest fields
ever thrown open to Christian occupation and
influence? China contains one-quarter of the
human race in startlingly rapid transition, edu
cationally, industrially, governmentally and re
ligiously.' It is a question whether the Church
can ever again confront so stupendous an oppor
tunity. Morrison, the pioneer modern missionary to
China, worked seven years for his first convert
which was secured in 1814. In 1834 there were
three converts. In 1842 there were six; in
1853  350
1857  1,000
1865  2,000
1886  28,000
1900.-  100,000
of whom probably at least 15,000 were killed in
the Boxer rebellion.
In 1910 there were 278,628, and now there are
well over 300,000 Christians in China, or an in
crease of over 200% since 1900.
"The whole world is agreed in recognizing in
the transformation of China one of the greatest
movements in human history. Whether we con
sider the immensity of the population affected,
23

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
the character of the change that is taking place,
the magnitude of the interests which are in
volved, the comparative peacefulness of the
crisis, or the significance of the fact that a great
and ancient race is undergoing in the period of
a decade a radical intellectual and spiritual re
adjustment, it is evident that it is given to us to
witness and have part in a vast movement whose
consequences will affect the whole world and be
unending. This movement, we believe, may become, by
God's grace, if the Christian Church is faithful,
the regeneration of a nation. For no change of
institution, of political principles, of social order,
or of economic conditions can avail to satisfy the
deep needs of which China has now become con
scious. Political reformation requires a new
moral and religious life. All that China has had
that is worthy she needs now, and with it she
needs also, and seems now prepared to receive,
the new conceptions of the Gospel, and not these
conceptions only but also the power of God in
Christ by which alone they may be realized in the
life of the nation in this new and wonderful day.
The time, for which we have long worked and
prayed, appears to have come at last in a meas
ure and with a momentum beyond our faith.
Everything seems to be going into the melting-
pot, and Christianity at last has an opportunity
to furnish the molds into which a new civiliza
tion of one-fourth of the human race may be
24

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
cast. Of all times in history, now is the time for
Christian churches to put forth their supreme
effort to aid the Chinese people in remolding
their institutions and shaping their destiny."
"If we fail in our part now, the glowing
metal that seems all but ready for the touch of
the Divine Artist will fall cold and hard again,
and the Church may have to wait through dec
ades, if not through centuries of shame and re
morse, for the return of the opportunity of this
day." With all, however, that may be said about the
hopefulness and promise of the situation in
China, the following words of warning by two
great missionary leaders in that land, Bishop
Bashford and Bishop Lewis, are both true and
timely :
"While we recognize the Almighty as back of
the awakening in China, we dare not hold Him
responsible for what the Chinese have done or
may do, now that they are awake. Here the ele
ment of human freedom must be reckoned with.
Worse still, we must also reckon with those evil
influences which stand ready in every great up
heaval to divert the awakening forces into
channels of destruction or at least to push them
along the channels of reform at such a rate and
to such as extreme as invite destruction.
Hence those who desire to see the truth whole
must recognize dark lines in the picture of China's
revolution. With the almost universal ignorance
25

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
of the masses, with almost universal corruption
of Chinese as well as Manchu officials, with nar
rowness and bitterness of clan feuds, the local
jealousies of province against province, and the
widespread jealousy of the south against the
north, with the difficulty of uniting Chinese and
Manchus and Mongolians and Mohammedans,
with the danger of foreign intervention and the
lawlessness which accompanies every transition
in government, with the recurring sufferings
from famine and the more widespread suffering
from foot-binding, with the dark shadows of
slavery and polygamy still lingering over the
land, and with the helplessness and hopelessness
of pagan faiths — only those living in a Fool's
Paradise, and asleep in that, can dream that the
proclamation of the republic will be attended by
the inauguration of the millennium. Only that
divine Providence which guides nations in the
great crises of human history can assure the
success of the experiment now being made by the
countless millions of China."
The needs of each non-Christian people are
so great that there is room for the widest dif
ference of opinion as to which is really the
neediest of all, but when the needs of all are
combined, the situation is one which should pro
foundly move every disciple of Christ. For after
all these centuries since He sent His Church out
to evangelize the world, it is probable that more
than one-half of all the people now living in these
26

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
non-Christian lands will die before the first
messenger of Christ reaches them, unless the
Church is moved mightily and speedily to expand
her missionary operations. It is futile to
imagine that their own religions can meet the
spiritual needs of these multitudes. None of the
non-Christian religions has a worthy conception
of the character of God. None has any adequate
or consistent standard of moral conduct. None
teaches the real nature of prayer. And not one
of them gives any idea of what, salvation
consists in.
The true nature of God is terribly misrepre
sented by non-Christian religions. I have asked
many an educated Hindu how many gods there
are, and they always answer "333 millions."
That is a god for each man, woman and child in
India and 18 millions of gods to spare ! Yet they
are "without God," for they are without any true
or satisfying knowledge of God.
The most famous among the gods of India
were liars, thieves or adulterers, according to
their own "sacred books." When asked how
they can worship gods that lived such wicked
lives, I have had Hindus tell me repeatedly that
God being divine may commit any sin he likes,
but such large liberty is not permitted to merely
human beings!
No wonder their standards of morality are so
inadequate, so confused and so contradictory.
No wonder that lying, stealing and impurity are
27

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
the rule rather than the exception throughout
India and the non-Christian world. Only a holy
God can make a moral people.
One chief reason why the Bible is not a more
popular book is because it reveals on its every
page the holiness of God. In the presence of that
purity, all human nature shrinks as consciously
sinful and unworthy. The only condition under
which the Bible becomes comfortable reading is
when one is ready to have his life made over into
the likeness of God's character.
Even prayer becomes a form and a method of
work in non-Christian lands. The widespread
conception is that the value of prayer depends on
the number of prayers that are said. Among
Buddhists this conception has led to the use of
various mechanical devices for saying prayers.
Among these one of the most common is to write
their prayers on pieces of cloth and attach them
to the tops of poles, with the notion that the
prayers are all repeated each time they are
swayed by the wind. Another method is the
prayer-wheel, consisting of a hollow cylinder,
with a pivot running through it and a weight at
tached to one side so it can be easily revolved.
Into this cylinder is placed a coil of paper with
one prayer printed upon it hundreds of times, the
idea being that every time the cylinder is re
volved the prayers are all repeated. I bought
one of these machines from a Buddhist priest on
the crowded main street of Darjiling, India. He
28

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
was walking along the street, talking with a
friend, and incidentally grinding out several
thousand prayers every minute. They carry the
idea to yet further absurdity in Thibet by mak
ing these cylinders very large, — sometimes as
large as a barrel, — and filling them with yards
and yards of these same printed prayers; and
then to save labor, they generally attach them to
a crude water wheel that keeps them grinding
around day after day without any effort on the
part of anyone. This might be described as
prayer by the barrel! And prayer by water-
power! But the tragic thing about it is that it
is not prayer.
I shall never forget the amazed expression on
the face of a little girl in North Carolina to
whom I showed one of these prayer wheels, as
she searched my face and my heart with the
natural question: "Why doesn't somebody tell
them?" Until they understand God they will never
know how to pray. God is only revealed to men
"in the face of Jesus Christ." "Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe
in Him whom they have not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how
shall they preach except they be sent? Even as
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them
that bring glad tidings of good things ! So belief
29

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
cometh from hearing and hearing by the word of
Christ." (Rom. 10:14,15,17.)
These people go through life without any idea
of what salvation consists in. The Hindu be
lieves in transmigration of soul. He expects to
be born many thousands of times in the form of
various animals and finally to be absorbed into
the great universal spirit, losing all conscious
ness and all personal identity. The Moslem be
lieves in a personal conscious immortality, but he
has turned even his heaven into an eternal house
of prostitution !
I once had an experience on the Red Sea that
illustrated vividly the failure of all non-Christian
religions. We saw a little sail-boat containing
eight native Africans off in the distance one day
about noon run up a signal of distress. Coming
up to them and stopping, we very soon dis
covered by the signs they were making that they
were without food and fresh water. They had
manifestly come out from the African shore
under favoring breezes, hoping to go back again
at their pleasure, but the wind had entirely
fallen, leaving them helpless in the midst of the
sea. Being insufficiently supplied with fresh
water and food, these had been exhausted, and
they were left to perish of hunger and
thirst. Our captain supplied them with a
barrel of fresh water and a bag of rice and they
appeared well content to wait until a breeze would
spring up to carry them back home. As we
30

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
sailed away from them that day I could not help
feeling how those men in their physical distress
illustrated the spiritual condition of the 150
millions of people in Africa, the 315 millions in
India, and all the other multitudes of the non-
Christian world. Here were men with water in
every direction from them further than the eye
could reach, yet thirsting to death for a single
drink! Many a man in similar straits, trying to
slake his thirst with sea-water, has been thrown
into such an agony of suffering as to lose reason
altogether and not infrequently to leap over
board, committing suicide. All the non-Chris
tian religions in the world are like salt water
to a man who is thirsting to death for the water
of life. Not one of them can satisfy the soul's
thirst after God. Not one of them knows the
secret of victory over sin. Not one of them can
point the way of life and liberty or give any as
surance of salvation.
Nor is the failure of the non-Christian re
ligions only a religious failure. It is an
educational failure. More than half of the
people living in the world today are absolutely
illiterate. It is not because they do not have
splendid mental capacity. A few years ago the
President of one of the great American Univer
sities which had about 3,000 American and
thirty-three Chinese students, declared that
there were no other thirty-three men in the Uni
versity who were the equals in scholarship of the
31

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
thirty-three Chinese. Yet a very small percent
age of the men and a far smaller percentage of
the women of non-Christian lands have ever had
a chance to learn to read.
Consider also the vast volume of unnecessary
suffering in the non-Christian world. More than
half the world today are living without any
scientific knowledge of hygiene, sanitation, med
icine or surgery. They are born, pass through
life and die, unattended by any physician, unless
it be some native quack doctor who more often
aggravates the suffering than he alleviates it. I
brought back with me from Korea a set of the
"chims" or small knives and needles used by
native doctors in Korea and China. These
doctors believe that pain is caused by the pres
ence of an evil spirit and the knife is thrust into
the seat of the pain to let the evil spirit out.
This practice is so common that some missionary
doctors say that they have seldom seen anyone
not deeply scarred for life by the use of these
knives, or of red-hot charcoal used for the same
purpose. One Medical Missionary told me that
a native Korean had come to him saying that
different native doctors had thrust nine of these
little knives into his abdomen and left them
there! He was feeling very uncomfortable and
he hoped the missionary doctor could do some
thing. My friend told me that he put this man to
sleep, opened up his abdomen and hunted for
these knives. He did not find nine but he did find
32

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
four; two of them had gone clear through the
man's body and were deeply imbedded in the
walls of his back !
Another case that came to my attention was
of a woman with a cancer. The native doctor
had thrust one of these knives into the cancer
and the next case brought to him was a boy with
a sprained ankle into which he put this same
disease-infected knife, with the result that the
boy was soon dead of cancer as well as the
woman. Another boy with a swelled foot was
told to wrap it up in cloth, soak it in kerosene oil,
and set fire to it. When the boy was found by
the missionary doctor there was only time to am
putate the limb in order to save his life.
I met an old man in Korea who had recently
become a Christian. I asked him if he had any
scars on his body from the treatment of native
doctors. He tossed back the loose cotton cloth
from his shoulders and exposed his breast and
shoulders and back to me. I never saw such a
sight before. There was scarcely a square inch
of the upper part of his body that had not been
deeply scarred for life either by red-hot charcoal
or the use of these knives. He was able to speak
about it with a smile, for he had now found the
Saviour. And I shall never forget his explana
tion of his torture. He said to me: "The devil
was very hard on me before I found Christ !"
The churches of the United States and
Canada have sent out 546 Medical Missionaries
33

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
to deal with the physical needs among the 600
millions of people in the non-Christian world
who constitute the field of the North American
Churches. This is an average of less than one
among a million of people. Four times the
number would be an extremely conservative
allotment. The United States has a population of less
than one hundred millions. This is less than
one-sixteenth of the population of the world, and
less than one-tenth of the population of the non-
Christian world. In the United States are over
140,000 ordained Protestant ministers and about
$300,000,000 annually are spent for religious pur
poses by Protestant Churches. For the work in
the entire non-Christian world the same constitu
ency spends annually only one-twentieth the
amount they spend at home, and the total mis
sionary force from the United States and Canada
is only 9,223, including both men and women, or
dained and unordained, or only one-fifteenth the
number of ordained ministers at home. Every
missionary from America, including laymen and
women, has an average of 65,000 persons in his
field. At the present rate of giving it would
take Protestant Christendom sixty-five years to
spend an average of two dollars on each person
to be reached in the non-Christian world, while
we already spend an average of over three
dollars annually on every man, woman and child
of our home population. The plain fact is, that
34

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
the Church generally has not taken seriously the
command of Christ to evangelize the nations.
Only one out of 2,500 of our Protestant Church
members has gone as a missionary and the gen
eral average contribution to foreign missions is
still less than one dollar per member per year,
though of course many congregations and some
entire denominations are giving much more than
this. Yet in spite of the comparatively small in
vestment of both workers and funds, God has
marvelously blessed the work and given it a
fruitage that can only be accounted for by His
divine favor and power.
The Bible has been translated by mission
aries, in whole or in part, into nearly 600 of the
languages and dialects of earth, an achievement
so stupendous that it can hardly be compre
hended. The circulation of the Bible or im
portant portions of it, has now reached about
eighteen million copies annually, or far more
than the aggregate circulation of the next one
hundred most popular books in the world.
A native Christian church has been estab
lished in every great section of the world, with
an aggregate membership of about three mill
ions of souls and four millions more of adher
ents. These Christians are organized into about
16,000 congregations, and contribute over five
million dollars annually for the support of the
Church and the spread of the Kingdom. There
35

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
are already over six thousand ordained native
ministers, or nearly as many as the total force
of ordained missionaries supplied by the whole
of Protestant Christendom. It requires a higher
standard to get into many of these native Chris
tian churches than into any church in America.
In Korea, for example, it is expected that new
converts will show their faith by their works in
bringing at least one other person to Christ be
fore they are themselves received as full mem
bers. No wonder that in that field there has
been an average of one convert for every hour of
the day and night since the first missionary
landed on Korean soil !
Rev. S. J. Corey tells of seeing ten members
of one African congregation refused the priv
ilege of communion for inconsistent Christian
conduct. Of these ten, three were for adultery
and three others for not paying the tenth of their
income to the Lord! If only those who give at
least one-tenth of their income to God were
eligible to the communion tables in America,
probably not over one-tenth of the church mem
bership could pass this test. Yet by giving the
tenth of their incomes to the Lord, and also by
setting aside one out of ten of their members for
whole-time Christian service, that one native
African congregation supports seventy-five of
its own members as evangelists to the surround
ing territory. The nearest approach today to
the spirit of the Apostolic Churches may be
36

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS
found among native Christians on foreign mis
sion fields.
But the greatest achievements of Missions
are not in the number of converts but in the
changed attitude of whole non-Christian nations
toward Christ. It is easier now to add millions
of converts than it was to secure hundreds at
the beginning of the modern missionary era.
Through the influence of missions, modern edu
cational systems are now beginning to be pro
vided for whole nations that have been illiterate
for centuries. The place and possibilities of
womanhood are being rediscovered all over the
non-Christian world through missionary influ
ence. Already there is being raised up the van
guard of that coming army of native doctors and
nurses in all lands that will one day lift the
burden of unnecessary suffering from one-half of
the human race.
If missions had done nothing else they would
have been justified many-fold by the demonstra
tion that they have provided on a world-scale of
the absolute sufficiency of Christ to meet all
human need. He has taken hold of humanity at
its lowest and at its worst in every section of the
world and has transformed it by His matchless
power. Many of the outcastes in India have been
so lifted up and transformed by Christ that even
the Brahmins now sit at their feet and hear the
words of heavenly wisdom from their lips. The
only thing that is now necessary to the world-
37

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
wide planting of the Christian Church and the
universal preaching of the gospel in our day is
sacrificial obedience on the part of the followers
of Christ. In comparison with the infinite im
portance and eternal results of this divinely ap
pointed task, nothing else greatly matters.

38

THE DECISIVE DECADE OF MISSIONS

I said "Let me walk in the fields;"
He said "Nay, walk in the town;"
I said "There are no flowers there;"
He said "No flowers, but a crown.."
I said "But the skies are black,
There is nothing but noise and din;"
But He wept as He sent me back,
"There is more," He said, "There is sin."
I said "But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun;"
He answered, "Yet souls are sick
And souls in the dark, undone."
I said "I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say;"
He answered me, "Choose to-night,
If I am to miss you, or they."
I pleaded for time to be given,
He said "Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in heaven,
To have followed the steps of your Guide."
I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town;
He said "My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?"
Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He,
And I walk in a light divine
The path I had feared to see.

39

Essential Elements in a Worthy Life Purpose
The final test and measure of greatness is
service. "Whosoever would become great among
you shall be your servant; and whosoever would
be first among you shall be bondservant of all.
For the Son of Man also came not to be minis
tered unto but to minister and to give His life a
ransom for many." Mark 10:43-45.
The chief way to serve Christ is to help one's
fellowmen. He has so identified himself with
mankind that he represents himself as saying
at the last judgment: — "Inasmuch as ye did it
unto one of these my brethren, even the least, ye
did it unto me." Mat. 25:40.
No life purpose is worthy that fails to recog
nize service to others as its central law. To live
for gain or fame or pleasure is to throw life
away foolishly and fruitlessly.
The organizing life-purposes of all Chris
tians ought to be fundamentally identical in
their essential elements. The main avenues of
service are the same for the farmer and the
preacher, for the mechanic and the missionary.
Any disciple of Christ in any land may and
should live with the same glorious purpose work
ing out through his life that filled the life of
Moody and Spurgeon, Livingstone and Carey and
40

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
the Apostle Paul. In the plan of Christ it was
never intended that some men should follow a
"secular" and others a "sacred" calling. Every
disciple is to seek first the Kingdom of God.
There are no two standards of moral conduct,
one for ministers and missionaries and another
for laymen. Nor are there two standards of
spiritual obligation. "From every man accord
ing to his ability, — to every man according to his
need," is the law of the Christian life. "No man
has done his duty till he has done all he can."
1. The first condition of a complete life is
the recognition of the fact that all life belongs
wholly to God and that EACH SEPARATE
LIFE IS A DIVINE PLAN. "For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God before prepared that we
should walk in them." Eph. 2:10. "I press on, if
so be I may lay hold on that for which also I was
laid hold on by Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:12. The
supreme ambition that any life can cherish is to
discover and fulfill the perfect plan of God.
An infidel once asked a humble Christian man
what kind of a God he had, — a big God or a little
God. The inspired reply was, "My God is so big
that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him,
and so little that He dwells in my heart." This
is in exact accord with the promise of Jesus him
self : "If a man love me he will keep my word:
and my Father will love him, and WE WILL
COME UNTO HIM AND MAKE OUR ABODE
41

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
WITH HIM." John 14:23. "Thus saith the high
and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose
name is Holy: I dwell in the high and lofty
place, with him also that is of a contrite and hum
ble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite." Isa.
57:15. This is not only the superlative
privilege but the inevitable experience of
all who love Christ and obey Him. The
experience of Paul is meant to be that of every
other loyal disciple: "I have been crucified with
Christ, and it is no longer I that live but Christ
liveth in me." Gal. 2:20. This is not a figure of
speech, but practical reality. The work that
Jesus "began to do" (Acts 1:1) while on earth
in the flesh, He now continues to do through the
members of His body. "Now ye are the body of
Christ and severally members thereof." 1 Cor.
12:27. 2. Why are not the actual presence and
power of the indwelling Christ more fully re
alized in the lives of Christian people? This
brings us to the second condition of a complete
and worthy life,— OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL
OF GOD. Conscious or unconscious disobed
ience to God is the one most prolific cause of
failure and barrenness in Christian life and
service. Obedience is the test of love,
the condition of assurance,
the basis of personal victory,
42

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
the way into spiritual discernment,
the measure of power,
the guarantee of fruitfulness, and
the secret of heavenly joy.
(1) Obedience is the test of love. "Ye are
my friends if ye do the things that I command
you," said Christ. John 15:14. "If ye love me
ye will keep my commandments." John 14:15.
"And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the
things which I say?" Luke 6:46. One of the
most solemn warnings in all Scripture is given
by Christ in these words: "Not every one that
saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will
of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say
unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not
prophecy by thy name, and by thy name cast out
demons, and by thy name do many mighty works ?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Mat. 7:21-23.
(2) Obedience is the condition of assurance.
"Hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep
His commandments." John 2 :3. A man has no
right to be sure of his own salvation unless he
knows himself to have the purpose of obedience
to Christ as Lord.
(3) Obedience is the basis of personal vic
tory over sin. "Be subject therefore unto God,
but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
43

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto
you." Jas 4:7,8.
The complete prescription for victory is:
(a) Subjection to God,
(b) Resistance to the devil,
(c) Drawing nigh to God.
"Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free.
Help me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be."
AIL victory begins with surrender to Christ as
Lord and ends with reliance on His omnipotent
strength. (4) Obedience is the way into spiritual dis
cernment. "If any man willeth to do His will he shall
know of the teaching whether it is of God, or
whether I speak from myself." John 7:17.
"He that doeth the truth cometh to the light."
John 3 :21.
"The counsel of Jehovah is with them that
fear Him ; and He will show them His covenant."
Psalm 25:14.
"What man is he that feareth Jehovah?
Him shall He instruct in the way that he shall
choose." Psalm 25:13.
The will of God for each life can only be dis
covered as there is the disposition in the life to
undertake it. God does not reveal His plans
merely to satisfy curiosity. It was when Paul
44

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" im
plying the will to do whatever was commanded,
that Christ was able to unfold to him His perfect
plan. "Wherefore, I was not disobedient unto
the heavenly vision," (Acts 26:19) is Paul's own
description of his attitude. If he had been dis
obedient he would have spoiled God's plan for his
life, as multitudes of others have done.
Many young men and women are anxious to
know what their lifework should be. The way
to find out is to surrender utterly to the will of
God in advance, and resolve to obey Christ,
whatever His plan may be. As long as one has
any resistance to God's will in his heart it is of
little use to hope to discover His mind.
Some years ago there was a young man pre
paring for the service of Christ, and he was
asked one day by a friend, "Are you willing to go
to Africa for Christ?" This proved a severe
test of the young man's obedience. He became
willing after some struggle to go to India or
China, or almost any other field except Africa.
But his friend kept pressing the question each
time he met him : "Are you yet willing to go to
Africa for Christ?" regarding that as the
hardest field and so the severest test of obedi
ence. The man had no peace until he fought the
issue out in his own soul and decided that he
would obey Christ even if he were sent to Africa.
As a matter of fact he is not in Africa. He
is a minister of. the gospel in Colorado. But
45

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
spiritual peace and power did not come until he
was willing to go even to Africa.
Stonewall Jackson was noted even as a young
Professor for his absolute devotion to the will of
God, no matter where it might lead him. To test
his obedience, he was one day asked by a friend,
"If you believed God wanted you to go to Africa
and spend the rest of your life there in missionary
work, would you go?" And the instant answer
was : "Yes, without waiting to get my hat."
Christians would do well to put to themselves
the severest test of obedience, that all resistance
to the will of God may be discovered and cast out,
for only then can the fulness of God's presence
be realized and His will for us and through us be
fully known.
And yet it is not so much through these hypo
thetical tests that we discover our own deepest
attitude of heart and will, but in the multitudinous
acts of our daily life. Is Christ really directing
my life's energies this day? Is He getting done
through me the things He wants done in the
world ?
One of the most searching and suggestive
things ever said to me was a recent remark by a
friend to this effect: "I have stopped merely
measuring my life by what I hope to do in the
future and have begun to think in terms of what
I have actually got done today, to fulfill Christ's
will through me."
(5) Obedience is the measure of spiritual
46

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
power. "We are witnesses of these things : and
so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given
to them that obey Him." Acts 5:32.
I once asked a large audience whether there
were any parents present who were unwilling to
have their children go anywhere in the world
that God might send them. The question went
like an arrow to the heart of one of the most
prominent ministers present. At that very
moment he had an only son who was a student in
a Theological Seminary, but he recognized in his
own heart an unwillingness to have this son go
as a missionary. He was aware of the danger of
having any controversy with God, and in earnest
prayer was given grace to say "Lord, not my
will, but thine be done." That very day he went
out to preach to a great audience of factory men
in the open air, and according to his own testi
mony the power of God came down upon him in
such fulness that over forty of those men yielded
their lives to Christ in that single service. His
own explanation of the experience was his new
surrender and obedience to the will of God.
There is no use in asking for the Holy Spirit
unless we mean to obey Him. He will only work
in power where He can have His way in the life.
It would be absolutely unsafe for God to in
trust His power to anyone who was not deter
mined to use it only and wholly for the accom
plishment of God's will. The whole universe
might be thrown into confusion by the exercise of
47

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
divine power that is not in complete harmony
with the divine purpose.
It is only as we actually obey the commands
and will of God that we become conscious of the
work of the Holy Spirit through us. The gift of
the Spirit is to be accepted by faith, as is the gift
of salvation through Christ. His work will be
evident as we actually perform the service to
which we are called.
(6) Obedience is the absolute guarantee of
fruitfulness. "Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch can
not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine ; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I
am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abid-
eth in me and I in him, the same beareth much
fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much
fruit: and so shall ye be my disciples." John
15:1-6,8. The single condition of fruitfulness is obed
ient abiding in Christ. He did not say, if ye
abide in me and are an ordained minister, or, if
ye abide in me and have a good education, or, if
ye abide in me and have special qualifications ; no,
to abide in Him is in itself the sole condition of
bearing much fruit. How often is it evident
that the person with few gifts but full consecra
tion can accomplish what is utterly impossible to
those of the greatest natural gifts but without
the touch of divine power upon them.
48

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
(7) Obedience is also the secret of heavenly
joy. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's com
mandments, and abide in His love. These things
have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in
you, and that your joy may be made full." John
15:10, 11.
One of the favorite lies of the devil is that
doing God's will makes one miserable. The fact
is that fighting the will of God leads to most of
the misery in the world. Obedience to the will
of God is the secret of all the deepest joy in the
world. The whole philosophy of life can be summed
up in three phrases: the wisdom of righteous
ness, — the beauty of holiness, — the joy of obed
ience. Dr. Jowett well says: "Religion that costs
nothing is worth nothing. A religion that sheds
no blood can render no vital service and can ex
perience no heavenly joy."
The price of perfect joy is perfect obedience.
The normal attitude of the Christian disciple
should be that described by Florence Nightingale
when she said: "I never refuse God anything."
That was a notable declaration of Dr. Sun
Yat Sen, of China: "God wants not your patron
age, but your obedience."
One of the most striking expressions of this
attitude of constant surrender and obedience to
49

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
God's will that has ever come to my notice was
in the dying words of Adam McAll, a young
missionary to the Congo, who after only eighteen
months of service was stricken down with the
fatal fever. In his closing conscious moments
he slowly breathed out this prayer of surrender
and victory: "Thou knowest the circumstances,
Lord. Do as Thou pleasest. I have nothing to
say. I am not dissatisfied that Thou art about
to take me away. Why should I be? I gave
myself, body, mind and soul to Thee, consecrated
my whole life and being to Thy service. And
now if it please Thee to take me, instead of the
work which I would do for Thee, what is that to
me? Thy will be done !"
In the presence of a spirit like this even
death is vanquished. An obedient church would
be resistless in its advance and in its success.
One of the most helpful little booklets that I
have discovered during the past two years is en
titled "The Life that Wins." It contains the per
sonal testimony of Mr. Charles G. Trumbull, the
widely known Editor of the Sunday School Times.
I have already given away some thousands of
copies of this booklet, and warmly recommend a
similar use of it by others. That all who read
these pages may have at least the summary of his
remarkable testimony, the following sentences
and paragraphs are reproduced here:
"There is only one life that wins; and that is
the life of Jesus Christ. Every man may have
50

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
that life; every man may live that life.
I do not mean that every man may be Christ
like; I mean something very much better than
that. I do not mean that a man may always have
Christ's help ; I mean something better than that.
I do not mean that a man may have power from
Christ; I mean something very much better than
power. And I do not mean that a man shall be
saved from his sins and kept from sinning; I
mean something better than even that victory.
To explain what I do mean, I must simply
tell you a very personal and recent experience of
my own.
The conscious needs of my life, before there
came the new experience of Christ, of which I
would tell you, were definite enough. Three in
particular stand out:
1. There were great fluctuations in my spirit
ual life, in my conscious closeness of fellowship
with God. Sometimes I would be on the heights
spiritually; sometimes I would be in the depths.
2. Another conscious lack of my life was the
matter of failure before besetting sins. I was
not fighting a winning fight in certain lines. Yet
if Christ was not equal to a winning fight, what
were my Christian beliefs and professions good
for? I did not look for sinlessness. But I did be
lieve that I could be enabled to win in certain
directions habitually, yes, always, instead of un
certainly and interruptedly, the victories inter
spersed with crushing and humiliating defeats.
51

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
3. A third conscious lack was in the matter of
dynamic, convincing spiritual power that would
work miracle changes in other men's lives. I was
doing a lot of Christian work — had been at it ever
since I was a boy of fifteen. I was going through
the motions — oh, yes. So can anybody. I was
even doing personal work — the hardest kind of
all ; talking with people, one by one, about giving
themselves to my Saviour! But I wasn't seeing
results. Once in a great while I would see a little
in the way of result, of course ; but not much. I
didn't see lives made over by Christ, revolution
ized, turned into firebrands for Christ themselves,
because of my work ; and it seemed to me I ought
to. Other men did, why not I ? I comforted my
self with the old assurance (so much used by the
Devil) that it wasn't for me to see results; that
I could safely leave that to the Lord if I did my
part. But this didn't satisfy me. and I was some
times heartsick over the spiritual barrenness of
my Christian service.
I was in Edinburgh, attending the World Mis
sionary Conference, and I saw that one whose
book on "The Triumphant Life" had helped me
greatly was to speak to men Sunday afternoon on
"The Resources of the Christian Life." I went
eagerly to hear him. I expected him to give us a
series of definite things that we could do to
strengthen our Christian life ; and I knew I need
ed them. But his opening words showed me my
mistake, while they made my heart leap with a
52

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
new joy. What he said was something like this :
"The resources of the Christian life, my dear
friends, are just Jesus Christ."
That was all. But that was enough. I hadn't
grasped it yet ; but it was what all these men had
been trying to tell me about. Later, as I talked
with the speaker about my personal needs and
difficulties, he said, earnestly and simply, "Oh, Mr.
Trumbull, if we would only step out upon Christ
in a more daring faith, He could do so much more
for us."
It was about the middle of August that a crisis
came with me. I was attending a young people's
missionary conference, and was faced by a week
of daily work there for which I knew I was mis
erably, hopelessly unfit and incompetent. For
the few weeks previous had been one of my peri
ods of spiritual let-down, not uplift, with all the
loss and failure and defeat that such a time is
sure to record. The first evening that I was there
a missionary bishop spoke to us on the Water
of Life. He told us that it was Christ's wish and
purpose that every follower of His should be a
wellspring of living, gushing water of life all the
time to others, not intermittently, not interrupt
edly, but with continuous and irresistible- flow.
We have Christ's own word for it, he said, as he
quoted, "He that believeth on me, from within
him shall flow rivers of living water."
The next morning, alone in my room, I prayed
it out with God, as I asked Him to show me the
53

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
way out. If there is a conception of Christ
that I did not have, and that I needed because it
was the secret of some of these other lives I had
seen or heard of, a conception better than any I
had yet had, and beyond me, I asked God to give
it to me. I had with me the sermon I had heard,
"To me to live is Christ," and I rose from my
knees and studied it. Then I prayed again. And
God, in His long-suffering patience, forgiveness,
and love, gave me what I asked for. He gave me
a new Christ — wholly new in the conception and
consciousness of Christ that now became mine.
Wherein was the change? It is hard to put
it into words, and yet it is, oh, so new, and real,
and wonderful, and miracle-working in both my
own life and the lives of others.
To begin with, I realized for the first time that
the many references throughout the New Testa
ment to Christ in you, and you in Christ, Christ
our life, and abiding in Christ, are literal, actual,
blessed fact, and not figures of speech. How the
15th chapter of John thrilled with new life as I
read it now ! And the 3rd of Ephesians, 14 to 21.
And Galatians 2:20. And Philippians 1:21.
Do you wonder that Paul could say with tin
gling- joy and exultation, "To me to live is
Christ"? He did not say, as I had mistakenly
been supposing I must say, "To me to live is to be
Christlike," nor "To me to live is to have Christ's
help," nor, "To me to live is to serve Christ." No ;
he plunged through and beyond all that in the
54

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
bold, glorious, mysterious claim, "To me to live
is Christ." I had never understood the verse be
fore. Now, thanks to His gift of Himself, I am
beginning to enter into a glimpse of its wonder
ful meaning. As a young missionary friend put
it, whose life, as he was about to sail for the field,
was revolutionized through his new appropriation
of Christ,. "For me to live is for Christ to
live." And that is how I know for myself that there
is a life that wins: that it is the life of Jesus
Christ : and that it may be our life for the asking,
if we let Him — in absolute, unconditional sur
render of ourselves to Him, our wills to His will,
making Him the Master of our lives as well as our
Saviour — enter in, occupy us, overwhelm us with
Himself, yea, fill us with Himself "unto all the
fulness of God."
What has the result been ? Did this experience
give me only a new intellectual conception of
Christ, more interesting and satisfying than be
fore ? If it were only that, I should have little to
tell you today. No; it meant a revolutionized,
fundamentally changed life, within and without.
If any man be in Christ, you know, there is a new
creation. The three great lacks or needs of which I
spoke at the opening have been miraculously met
as follows: (1) There has been a fellowship with God,
when I have trusted fully, utterly different from
55

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
and infinitely better than anything I had ever
known in all my life before.
(2) There has been victory-by-freedom over
certain besetting sins — the old ones that used to
throttle and wreck me — when I have trusted
Christ for this freedom. There is yet infinitely
much ground to be occupied by Christ; of that
I am more painfully aware than I ever used to
be; and I know, also, that there is in my life, as
has been well said, "a vast area of undiscovered
sin" that I have not let Him, as I must by ever
completer surrender and obedience, yet open my
eyes to.
(3) And, lastly, the spiritual results in serv
ice have given me such a sharing of the joy of
Heaven as I never knew was possible on earth.
Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper;
He wants to be our life.
When our life is not only Christ's, but Christ,
our life will be a winning life: for He cannot
fail. The conditions of thus receiving Christ as the
fulness of the life seem to be three — after, of
course, complete confession of sin and our per
sonal acceptance of Christ as our Saviour from
the guilt and consequences of our sin.
(1) Surrender absolutely and unconditionally
to Christ as Master of all that we are and all that
we have.
(2) Ask God for this gift of the fulness of
Christ as our life. 56

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
(3) Believe, then, that God has done what we
have asked — not will do, but has done it. Upon
this third step, the quiet act of faith, all may
depend. Faith must be willing to believe God in
entire absence of any feeling or evidence. For
God's word is safer, better and surer than any
evidence of His word.
And remember that Christ Himself is better
than any of His blessings ; better than the power,
or the victory, or the service, that He grants.
God creates the electricity that drives cars, and
carries messages, and lights our houses; but God
is better than electricity. Christ creates spirit
ual power; but Christ is better than that power.
He is God's best; He is God; and we may have
this best: we may have Christ, yielding to Him
in such completeness and abandonment of self
that it is no longer we that live, but Christ liveth
in us. Will you thus take Him?"
3. The third vital element in every Christian
life-purpose is habitual personal witnessing. It
was to make effective witnesses that the Holy
Spirit was given.
"Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit
is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Acts 1 :8.
There is no command in the Bible to uncon
verted people to come to church to hear the
gospel. The command is to disciples to go out
57

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
and preach the gospel to every creature. And
the great method of preaching is to bear testi
mony concerning what the Lord has done for us.
No disciple is free from this obligation. It
is the one thing for which Christ declared that
the Spirit was being sent, and the promise of the
Holy Spirit was to every disciple. This is made
unmistakably clear in the second chapter of the
book of Acts. Peter closed his sermon on the
day of Pentecost with these words: "Let all the
house of Israel therefore know assuredly that
God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this
Jesus whom ye crucified." Acts 2:36. The
statement that follows is of the greatest signifi
cance. "Now when they heard this (these men
who had crucified Christ) they were pricked in
their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of
the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And
Peter said unto them, Repent ye and be baptized
every one of you- in the name of Jesus Christ
unto the remission of your sins ; and ye shall re
ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is
the promise, and to your children, and to all that
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
shall call unto Him." Acts 2:37, 38.
No language could be employed to indicate
more positively or unmistakably that the gift of
the Holy Spirit is for every disciple. It is abun
dantly evident that
God needs us all,
God calls us all, •58

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
God equips us all, and it is also true that
God holds us all responsible.
"So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watch
man unto the house of Israel ; therefore hear the
word at my mouth, and give them warning from
me. When I say unto the wicked, '0 wicked
man, thou shall surely die,' and thou dost not
speak to warn the wicked from his way; that
wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood
will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou
warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and
he turn not from his way, he shall die in his
iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul."
Ezekiel 33 :7-9.
To the same effect is the picture of Christ's
rejection of those at the final judgment, who
have not shown their faith by their works:
"Then shall He say unto them on the left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire,
which is prepared for the devil and his angels:
for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat ; I
was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; I was a
stranger, and ye took me not in, naked, and ye
clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye
visited me not. Then shall they also answer,
saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto
you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these
least, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go
59

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
away into eternal punishment: but the righteous
into eternal life." Mat. 25:41-46.
The cry of the Psalmist is, "Let the redeemed
of the Lord, SAY SO." Ps. 107 :2.
How can one who has been bought by the
blood of Christ be content to go through life and
not SAY SO to others who have not yet been
redeemed? "He that is wise winneth souls."
Proverbs 11 :30. "They that are wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and they that
turn many to righteousness as the stars forever
and ever." Daniel 12:3.
"Let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of lips that make
confession to His name." Heb. 13:15.
In other words, let us praise God continually
by confessing Christ habitually.
"With the heart man believeth unto right
eousness ; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Rom. 10:10. Not only is con
fession with the mouth one of the most import
ant initial evidences of salvation, but habitual
confession of Christ with the mouth is one of the
best continuous evidences of Christ's saving
power from sin.
The chief reason why testimony to Christ is
not more general and more habitual among
Christian disciples is personal defeat in the
battle with sin. People are conscious of the in
consistency of bearing testimony to a Saviour
who is not now saving them from the dominion
60

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
of sin, even though they know perfectly well that
it is their own fault and not Christ's, that they
are meeting defeat.
The place for emphasis therefore is on such a
surrender and obedience to Christ as will make
possible a steadily victorious life through His
abiding presence. On the other hand, it is of
the utmost importance that the duty of habitual
witnessing be impressed upon all disciples of
Christ. The consciousness of this obligation is
a mighty inspiration toward living the kind of a
life where witnessing is not only possible but
normal and inevitable.
I was- told recently by a man about seventy
years of age that he had been distributing gospel
tracts wherever he went for more than- thirty
years. He told me that he could notice any cold^
ness or decline in his spiritual life at once, by a
tendency to neglect this work, which had become
to him his most constant method of bearing
testimony to Christ.
One of the chief reasons for the rapid growth
of the churches on the mission fields is the fact
that personal witnessing is so much more gen
eral there than in the home churches. I met a
freshman in college in Korea who told one of his
teachers that he had dealt personally with over
3,000 persons within six months. Many entire
congregations on the mission field are made up of
people, every one of whom has brought some one
else to the Saviour. 61

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
I know of no better rule for personal witness
ing than that adopted by the late Henry Clay
Trumbull, and illustrated with many incidents
in his book, "Individual Work for Individuals."
This is the resolution which he made early in his
Christian life and followed faithfully for more
than fifty years:
"Whenever I am justified in choosing my sub
ject of conversation with another, the theme of
themes shall have prominence between us, so
that I may learn his need, and, if possible, meet
it." More than ten years before his death I heard
Dr. Trumbull say that he had a written record
of over ten thousand such personal interviews. I
was deeply impressed with two remarks he made
in commenting upon his remarkable experience.
He said that in every case the devil had tempted
him not to have the interview, at least at that
particular time. He also said that in no single
case that he could remember had he been rudely
repulsed. 4. The fourth vital element in a worthy life-
purpose is STUDY. This includes study of the
Word and study of the world.
"If ye abide in my word then are ye truly my
disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free." John 8:31,32.
"Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes and
look on the fields, that they are white already
unto harvest." John 4:35. 62

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
No one can go beyond his knowledge. Knowl
edge comes not by accident but by diligent ap
plication and effort.
"Give diligence to present thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, handling aright the word of truth."
The study of God's word is necessary to dis
cover the principles and methods by which God
is extending and establishing His Kingdom. It
is also vital as the greatest single means of
fellowship with God Himself.
Bible study is the very chiefest element in
preparation for every kind of effective Christian
service. "Abide thou in the things which thou
hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them ; and that from
a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every
scripture, inspired of God, is also profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruc
tion which is in righteousness; that the man of
God may be complete, furnished completely unto
every good work." 2 Tim. 3:14-17. The Bible
is called "the sword of the Spirit," and those
whose work has been most honored and blessed
have been those who have used most faithfully
and largely the Spirit's favorite weapon.
This point needs emphasis even in Theologi
cal Seminaries, where one would naturally sup
pose that the Bible is the chief book that is
63

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
studied. But those familiar with the facts know
that even in these schools of the prophets, there
is an almost irresistible tendency to study other
subjects so much that the study of the Bible
itself is neglected. So much time is given to
Hebrew and Greek, and Church History, and
Apologetics and Homiletics, and Biblical Criti
cism, and other subjects, that large numbers of
students who graduate from the Theological
Seminaries of America have no real command of
the material in the Bible itself, and only the most
rudimentary knowledge of how to teach the
Bible. No one can mingle freely with the
ministers and missionaries of the present day
without hearing convincing evidence of the truth
of these observations. It is not intended here to
depreciate the value of the other studies ordi
narily included in Theological Seminaries, but it
is contended that the knowledge of the Bible
itself, and how to teach it, is of more importance
than all the other elements of the Theological
curriculum put together.
What is learned of Hebrew is of very limited
use to nine out of ten of the ministers of our day.
Perhaps one-quarter of the active ministers
make a somewhat larger use of the Greek. Most
of the seminary text-books are seldom opened
after the final examinations are passed. The
business of the minister is to "preach the Word."
But only a small fraction of the ministers of our
day can be regarded as proficient in this most
64

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
essential preparation. The whole curriculum of
most of the Theological Seminaries of North
America needs to be reorganized around the
Bible as the central text-book.
6. Another great need is for a better method
and a larger amount of Bible study by college
students. By common consent the Bible is the
highest standard of English literature. For all
the real business of living, no other book can
compare with it in practical importance. No
one ought to graduate from a Christian college
without a fair knowledge of the Bible as a whole,
a thorough mastery of selected books, a method
of study that can be followed for the rest of one's
life, and the ability to teach the Bible interest
ingly and profitably to others. There is as much
mental discipline in thorough Bible study as in
the mastery of any other textbook, and no other
book can begin to furnish the moral and spiritual
illumination and inspiration that the Bible
contains. The study of the world is also important in
order to know what the religious conditions are
now in each part of the world, and what yet
needs to be done in order that the total program
of Christ may be carried out. The necessity
for this study is continuous, for the world is
changing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep in
touch with Kingdom-progress and opportunity.
Thorough and continuous study is essential to
every Christian who would fulfill God's plan
65

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
through his life. No one can pray with intelli
gence unless he knows the problems and the per
sons to pray for at any particular time. No one
can use his possessions to the best advantage
unless he studies the strategy of the Christian
battle, and knows where money can be used most
fruitfully. We have entirely too much of leav
ing these matters in the hands of officers of con
gregations or of denominations. This is poor
education and worse religion. Every Christian
should decide with intelligence and prayer how
to invest his money for the Lord, for it is a vital
part of the investment of his life.
It must be apparent that no one can exercise
the all-round influence that God intends, on the
whole forward movement of Christianity in the
world, unless he knows enough about current
world conditions and problems to instruct and
inspire others, as well as to direct his own
prayers and efforts.
5. The fifth element of a Christian life-pur
pose is Prayer.
After this manner therefore, pray ye :
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name ) on earth as it
Thy Kingdom come V is in heaven —
Thy will be done j Mat. 6:9-10.
"The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the
laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of
66

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His
harvest." Luke 10:2.
Those who seek first the Kingdom of God will
certainly put the Kingdom first in their prayers,
as well as first in time, first in effort, first with
gifts, influence and all the other potentialities of
their being.
In the model prayer the Kingdom is not a
postscript; it is the main burden of the prayer.
Before even daily bread or any other personal
need is mentioned, the interests of the Kingdom
are presented. Do our prayers stand this test?
How much real prayer is there for the sending
out of needed laborers ? This is the chief method
by which laborers are to be found and sent, ac
cording to our Lord's statement. Yet how often
this command of Christ to pray for laborers is -
ignored and neglected !
If people pray aright for missions, they will
do everything else that they ought to do. This
is the significance of the fact that Christ did not
even wait to mention the other things that are
necessary. No one can pray as he ought for laborers and
not be willing to go himself to any part of the
world field. No one can pray this prayer with
reality, and not be willing that his children and
other loved ones should go to the ends of the .
earth as Christ's ambassadors. No one can pray
this prayer with any power if he withholds from
God his own possessions that might enable those
67

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
to go who are willing. It is inconsistent to offer
this prayer for laborers and then do nothing to
find the laborers needed, or to bring to the at
tention of young men and women the great
unoccupied fields.
Rev. W. B. Anderson puts this in a way that
is very challenging: "A man cannot live in sin
and really pray that others be delivered from
sin; nor can he live his own life in selfishness
and pray that others may have their lives filled
with love; nor himself live far from God and
pray that others may be drawn near to Him,
A man may pray as much as he lives, and all the
rest of his attempts at prayer are mockery."
There are those who have taken Christ se
riously and have prayed for laborers. They
" have asked Him if He wanted them to go, and
told Him they stood ready to follow His direc
tions. They have been on the lookout for pos
sible laborers, and have made it a habit to ask
young men and women and even children the
question of whether they might not best serve
God by becoming missionaries. And some of
these people have been used to lead scores of
missionaries into various parts of the world, be
cause they prayed and along with their prayers
allowed God to use them as His agents in calling
workers into the fields.
One of the most inspiring object-lessons of
this fruitful form of service is Pastor Ding
Lee Mei, of China. I have never met anyone else
68

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
who seemed to me to have gone into the business
of prayer quite so systematically and thoroughly
as this Chinese pastor. I saw him at the Kuling
Missionary Conference in China in the summer
of 1911. Though he was not able to understand
English, he attended the Conference day after
day, to keep in spiritual touch with it. While
the meetings were in progress, I noticed him
hour after hour holding a little pocket note-book
quietly before him. After two or three days, my
curiosity led me to inquire what this man was
doing, with his note-book out in front of him so
much of the time. I was told that this was his
prayer-book and that he had in it the names of
over 1000 individuals for whom he was praying
regularly. So important did he regard prayer
that he found some hours each day for this form
of service. At the close of the Conference my brother
asked Pastor Ding if he would not put his name
on the list of those for whom he prayed. Imagine
his amazement when the reply came: "You do
not need to make that request, I have had your
name on my list for a long time."
Another of my American friends some time
after this asked Pastor Ding to pray for him.
He gladly consented to do so. My friend's num
ber is 1262. How many American Christians
have sixty-two names on their prayer-list, to say
nothing of 1262?
This man is no fanatic. He has been used of
69

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
God more than any other person to lead several
hundred strong Chinese young men and women to
devote their whole lives to the evangelization of
China. When asked the secret of his success, he
replied : "I have only one method. It is prayer."
Would it not be safe to say: "Whoever prays
most helps most." How many pastors and Sab
bath School leaders, and Young People's workers
and Christian disciples generally, will adopt this
divine prescription for filling the world with the
needed laborers ; and then for filling the laborers
with the presence and power of God?
Advantage ought also to be taken of the
special promises to united prayer and agreement
in prayer. "Again I say unto you that if two of
you shall agree on earth as touching anything
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of
my Father who is in heaven. For where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them." Mat. 18:19-20.
In view of such a promise, ought there not to
be much more of agreement in things to be
prayed for, and also much more of the practice
of praying in small groups of two or three?
Among other objects of prayer is it not of
great importance that every missionary have a
group of intercessors who undertake to support
him and his work habitually by prayer? There
are many hundreds of church members in each
denomination to every missionary who has been
sent to the front. It ought surely to be possible
70

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
to have a group of from fifty to one hundred
people organized into a definite prayer group for
the spiritual backing and support of each mis
sionary and the work to which he is related. All
the organization needed would be to have some
member of the group act as its secretary, to re
ceive from the missionary occasional reports of
answered prayer and additional requests for
prayer. These could be duplicated by the sec
retary of the group and sent to each member. It
ought not to be expected that the missionary
would be able to write personally to each member
of the group, though doubtless it would be well
if each of them would occasionally write to him.
It is my firm conviction that if the Church were
organized in this way as a definite praying force,
the spiritual power and effectiveness of the
whole missionary enterprise would probably be
doubled without adding a single new worker.
The same method applied to the securing of ad
ditional workers would undoubtedly secure them,
as it is the only method which the Master Him
self felt it necessary to suggest.
6. For the sake of completeness the sixth
element of a worthy life-purpose is here men
tioned as Giving. As this subject will be treated
in detail in a subsequent chapter, only passing
reference is made to it in this context. But the
highest use of possessions is one of the fine arts
of Christian character, and inseparable from a
complete and worthy life-purpose. 71

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
7. The seventh element in a Christian life-
purpose will likewise be dealt with in a later
chapter, but is mentioned here because it is too
important to be omitted. It is Leadership.
There is wise and comprehensive planning
needed and it is open to anyone to plan for the
Kingdom. The whole Church and the whole
power of the Church are to be enlisted: How
shall it be done ? The whole world is to be evan
gelized: What can be done to hasten it? These
objectives are not the exclusive preserves of offi
cial church leaders. Some of the greatest ad
vances of all Christian history have been led by
men from the ranks. Since every man's field is
the world, the winning of the whole world is each
separate person's problem. In the words of Dr. D.
Clay Lilly, "Let us study how to do this thing, not
merely how to get it done."
8. The last of the elements of a worthy life-
purpose to be mentioned is Going. In some real
sense every disciple must go.
"And Jesus came to them and spake unto
them, saying, All authority hath been given unto
me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all the nations, baptising
them into the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit : teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world." Mat. 28:18-20.
This commission contains a promise that we
72

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE
all want to claim. But we have no right to the
promise unless the command also is accepted and
followed. These three questions have helped many per
sons to accept both the commission and the
promise as their own :
1. Does "go" mean stay?
2. Does "ye" mean some one else only?
3. Does "into all the world" mean only into
any one part of it alone?
Manifestly every disciple is to go at least to
those within his reach. He is also to be ready to
go to the furthest field, if the Lord opens the way
and indicates His will. He is to "go" by prayer
and gift and influence to the uttermost part of
the earth, even if he cannot go in person.
He is to let others "go" who feel called to go.
He is to find goers and to help those to go who
are willing. In short he is to see to it that the
commission is carried out, and to put into its
execution as much of interest and love and
sacrifice as anyone else who may be engaged in
the entire enterprise.
The spirit of Paul's great volunteer declara
tion should be adopted by every follower of
Christ: "I AM DEBTOR both to Greeks and to
Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
SO AS MUCH AS IN ME IS I AM READY to
preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; For it is
73

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek." Rom. 1:14-16.
In other words, in the condensed summary
suggested by Bishop Henderson :
1. Every man needs Christ.
2. Christ is able to meet every man's need.
3. I owe to every man everything that
Christ means to me.
There is no middle ground. Attempting to
pay 25 or 50 cents on the dollar of my debt is
unsatisfactory to me and to Christ and to the
world. Any argument that would lead me to pay a
part of the debt would compel me to try to pay
it all. All that is necessary in order to fill the world
with the gospel is that each disciple "treat Jesus
Christ right," by paying his honest debt.
"If Christianity is worth anything, it is
worth everything. If it calls for any measure
of warmth and zeal, it will justify the utmost
degrees of these. There is no consistent medium
between reckless atheism on the one hand, and
the intensest warmth of religious life and zeal
on the other."

74

ELEMENTS IN A WORTHY LIFE PURPOSE

"God wants our best. He in the far-off ages
Once claimed the firstling of the flock, the finest of the
wheat
And still He asks His own with gentlest pleading
To lay their highest hopes and brightest talents at His
feet.
He'll not forget the feeblest service, humblest love.
He only asks that of our store, we give to Him the best
we have.
"Christ gives the best. He takes the hearts we offer
And fills them with His glorious beauty, joy and peace,
And in His service as we're growing stronger,
The calls to grand achievement still increase.
The richest gifts for us on earth, or in the heaven
above,
Are hid in Christ. In Jesus we receive the best we
have.
"And is our best too much? O friends, let us remember,
How once our Lord poured out His soul for us,
And in the prime of His mysterious manhood,
Gave up His precious life upon the cross.
The Lord of Lords, by whom the worlds were made,
Through bitter grief and tears, gave us the best He
had."

75

Knowledge That is Power
How much does a person need to know in
order to be the largest possible factor in extend
ing the Kingdom of Christ throughout the
world ?
He needs to know what God's plan for re
deeming the world is. This will mean a life of
Bible study.
He needs to know how the Kingdom has
progressed thus far, what obstacles it has met
and what triumphs it has won. This will mean
a knowledge of all the past.
He needs to know what the Church as a whole
and his own particular church have done, are
doing and are planning to do to complete the
work of evangelizing the world. This is not
knowledge that will be gained without prolonged
and painstaking effort.
He needs to know the failure of non-
Christian religions and the vast intellectual,
physical, moral and spiritual needs of the nations
in spiritual darkness.
He needs to know the adequacy of the gospel
to meet all the deepest needs of mankind. His
working creed might be summarized in the
slogan, "Christ for every life and for all of life."
To know with any fullness what Christ has al-
76

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
ready wrought in behalf of childhood, in behalf
of womanhood, in behalf of manhood, in behalf
of human society and government and civiliza
tion and brotherhood and peace, this is to know
not only biography and history but the deepest
secrets of human development and achievement
and future possibility.
How can one feel the weight of the world's
need unless he knows these things? How can
he pray as he ought unless he is touched with
the compassion that comes through knowledge?
How can he give as he ought unless the need has
penetrated his soul? How can he inspire others
to take their part in the world-program unless he
is familiar with the whole undertaking and is
fully committed to the work himself?
How to become and to keep really intelligent
one's self, and how to get and keep the whole
church intelligent in these matters of deepest
significance, is enough to tax the resources of the
greatest educational leaders living.
It is desirable for us to study some of the
main channels of such knowledge. Nothing
less than a carefully wrought out educational
program, prayerfully and persistently carried
through in each congregation is sufficient to meet
this great need.
1. Beyond question the pastor must be the
chief missionary educator of the masses of
Christian people. And there is probably no
other field of human knowledge from which he
77

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
can bring to the average congregation so much
that is new, startling and inspiring as is avail
able from the wide field of missionary opera
tions. Only an occasional pastor has yet learned
how rich a goldmine this is of fact, suggestion
and illustration. While special missionary ser
mons will doubtless be wise occasionally, those
pastors who are saturated with missionary in
formation and the missionary spirit, and who let
it come out normally in all of their preaching,
their prayers and their contacts with life, are
those who make the deepest impression. Only
the pastor who regards the whole world as his
field will ever succeed in lifting his church up to
its maximum missionary interest and efficiency.
This can only be felt adequately when one gets
beyond thinking merely in congregational or de
nominational terms, and yields his life to the
achievement -of Kingdom objectives.
The two questions which the most powerful
men are ever asking themselves are these:
1. What needs to be done in the world?
2. How can I best help to do it?
Multitudes of men are forever tied down to
the particular little task that they are officially
responsible for. "Study larger maps," and take
your part as an intelligent and important con
structive factor in shaping history and lifting
the whole world up into fellowship with God.
2. Along with the pastor, it is of the greatest
78

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
importance that the officers of the congregation,
including the officers of every organization with
in the congregation, realize their vital relation
to the whole missionary problem and make it a
matter of most earnest study. In too many
cases, when a pastor leaves a church, the mis
sionary interest and offerings are allowed to lag
and decline. This is not to the credit of the
pastor. His method must have been fatally de
fective if such a result follows his departure.
The wise leader will take pains so to share his
deepest life and convictions with other respon
sible leaders in the congregation that even when
he is gone, the work will go on. In this respect
the Women's Missionary Societies are notable
illustrations of the possibilities. They go on in
much the same way whether a pastor is present
or not, and their contributions do not show the
variations that are common in congregations as
a whole. That is the highest leadership that so trains
associates that the work is not seriously impeded
by the withdrawal of any one person. The
heads of every Christian organization within the
Church have need to learn this lesson. If their
policies are to be continued, they must take pains
to train a group of associates in the actual
leadership of the work while they are in charge
of it and so are in a position to do so naturally.
The short-sighted and ineffective way to do
is to attempt to carry the work through
79

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
single-handed, neglecting the enlistment and
training of associates. It is to be feared that
many preachers and other Christian leaders fre
quently fall into this grievous error.
3. The third natural step in an adequate
program of missionary education for a congre
gation is the development of a strong missionary
department in connection with every organiza
tion within the church. This would include the
Sabbath School, the Young People's Society, the
Men's Society, the Organized Bible Class, and
the Women's Society, together with any other
organizations in the church. There are now
available well wrought out plans of education for
all of these various agencies.
New textbooks on timely and vital missionary
subjects are prepared each year. Experienced
leaders draw up a comprehensive program of
missionary education year by year, suggesting
the various ways in which the available books,
programs, etc., may be used with greatest
advantage and results. The clearing house for
most of this rich and diversified educational
material is the Missionary Education Move
ment. No alert pastor or missionary committee
can neglect for a single year the study of this
material and the accompanying suggestions
without immeasurable loss to the whole cause of
Christ in the world. And yet only a fraction of
the pastors are making any use whatever of
these splendid helps at the present time. It is
80

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
so much easier to keep on in the old rut. It
needs to be remembered that when a rut becomes
deep enough it becomes a grave!
There still remain some general methods of
missionary education that apply most properly
to the whole congregation. Among these should
be mentioned: a. A monthly missionary meeting of the
congregation as a whole. This may take the
place either of a mid-week prayer service or of a
Sabbath evening church service. The programs
can either be arranged by the Church Missionary
Committee or by the various Missionary Depart
ments of the different organizations within the
church, in turn. For example, the Men's Society
may take charge of this meeting one month, the
Women's Society the next, the Sunday School
the next, and the Young People's Society the
next. One plan for conducting this monthly
popular meeting that has worked admirably is to
spend a part of the time in a rapid survey of the
world by seven or more persons. To one man
might be assigned for a period of six months or
more, the topic of reaching the immigrants with
the gospel. He should be given two or three
minutes at each monthly meeting to report the
most interesting facts he has been able to dis
cover during the month on this topic. Another
person might be assigned the field of Latin
America; another, Africa; another, the Moslem
World; another, India; another, Japan and
81

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Korea; another, China. By this plan a fresh
look at each of the great fields of the world can
be taken each month. The facts brought out
should be made the occasion of prayer for these
fields and their special needs. After the general
survey has been made, there will still be time to
take up some other theme in a fuller treatment.
Experience proves that sustained study of one
field after this simple plan often results in great
interest being aroused on the part of the one to
whom the field has been assigned, in addition to
the information which he gathers and gives to
the whole congregation. The most important
principle to safeguard in connection with all
meetings of this character is that a considerable
number of people take part in each service. People
learn by doing. They are more impressed by what
they express than by what others say to them.
"Expression deepens impression" is one of the
laws of education that should be recognized far
more fully in all of our churches. No wonder
the preacher is impressed with the importance of
his message. Every time he opens his mouth to
talk about it the reaction upon his own soul is
deepened. But what chance is there for the per
son who sits dumb through the years and gives
no open expression to his best thoughts and con
victions? The wonder is that any spiritual life
can survive this hampering process. To discover
adequate opportunities for the life of the mem
bers of the Church to express itself is one of the
82

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
greatest and most neglected privileges and duties
of pastors and church officers.
A man was asked whether he knew another
man in the same town. "Know him?" he ex
claimed, "Why, I've slept with that man in the
same church for twenty years." Nothing but a
proper amount of personal exercise and expres
sion will keep the average Christian awake. The
most impressive address one ever hears, in its
effect on one's own life, is the address one makes
himself. That meeting is always a good one to
you that you help to make. A man can often
persuade himself of something that no one else
has ever been able to persuade him of. We had
a good illustration of this principle in one of our
Laymen's Missionary campaigns. We appealed
for laymen to go out as volunteers and speak on
missions in various churches. It is, of course,
always wise to send out these inexperienced men
with others who have larger experience. So a
vigorous new recruit who volunteered was sent
out for a week of special meetings with an ex
perienced secretary, the two men being scheduled
to speak together in a different town each night.
On the opening evening the new layman
spoke very briefly, but closed up his remarks by
saying that he had recently become so deeply in
terested in missions that he had decided to give
$25.00 to this cause this year himself. It was
evident from his manner of announcing the fact
that this was many times his past contribution.
83

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
The next night in another community, when this
same man got to the climax of his speech, his
friend who was traveling with him was startled
to hear him say that he had decided to give
$50.00 this year to missions! This was the
prompt effect of his own speech upon himself!
The following night, when he got to the final
flourish of his address, he doubled his subscrip
tion again ! At the end of the week of speaking
he decided to support a missionary of his
own at $600 a year.
Twenty-five dollars looked big to him the first
night. In a single week he persuaded himself to
multiply this by twenty-four. There is no other
way to get men to give so liberally as to set them
at work as advocates of a good cause. As they
think through the case for themselves, so as to
be able to state it forcibly to others, it will take
far more powerful hold upon themselves than it
ever did before.
b. A good working missionary library, kept
in constant circulation, is essential to an adequate
educational program. Brains and skill are
necessary to get the maximum dividends out of
such equipment. But no thorough education is
possible without it. To begin with, such a
library should contain the best books on each of
the great mission fields, some strong book on
each of the great non-Christian religions, and a
dozen or more of the best missionary biog
raphies. There should be added a number of
84

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
new books each year, including the text-books
published each year by the Student Volunteer
Movement and the Missionary Education Move
ment. To these should be added the books in the
"Library of Christian Progress" published by
the Missionary Education Movement at the uni
form price of 50 cents each. In many instances
it is an easy matter to get all of these books and
others also into the Public Library, if it is re
quested by the Ministers' Union, or any other
influential group of citizens. Special attention
should be given to keeping the Church people of
the community informed about what missionary
books are available. One of the important regu
lar duties of the missionary committee in each
church should be to stimulate the reading of such
literature. c. Another important method is the securing
of subscribers to church and missionary periodi
cals. Every missionary committee should make a
systematic effort once each year to get every fam
ily in the church to subscribe for the most impor
tant denominational and interdenominational mis
sionary periodicals.
What missionary periodicals are essential to
the minister or any other person who would keep
informed comprehensively on this many-sided
subject? First of all should come one's own denomi
national Missionary Magazine. This is indis
pensable. Only second to this in importance
85

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
is THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE
WORLD, which keeps one in touch with the gen
eral progress of missions in all fields and in all
denominations. All pastors and all men who
serve on Missionary Committees should regu
larly read MEN AND MISSIONS, the official
organ of the Laymen's Missionary Movement
and the best means of keeping informed about
the cultivation of the whole church as a mission
ary force. Wherever there are boys and girls in
a home, the magazine, EVERYLAND is of great
value. Those who would be fully informed on
the church's progress in reaching Mohammedans
should read "THE MOSLEM WORLD,"" a quar
terly edited by Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, of Cairo.
The most scientific and scholarly of all the gen
eral missionary magazines is "THE INTER
NATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSIONS," pub
lished by the Continuation Committee of the
World Missionary Conference. This list may
look rather formidable, but the total cost of all
those periodicals would only be from seven dol
lars to seven dollars and a half a year, depending
on the cost of the denominational magazine. If
one family cannot afford to secure all this litera
ture, by grouping two or four families together
the cost to each could be reduced to four dollars
or two dollars per family per year. This expense
is insignificant in view of the value of the in
fluences released in the home and the church
through these records of the wonder-working of
86

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
God in the world. (A list of these magazines
with their subscription prices may be found in
the Appendix, page 192.)
d. The circulation of selected pamphlets and
leaflets during the year, and especially during the
special educational campaign preceding each an
nual organized canvass for missionary subscrip
tions is of great value. These pamphlets should
be purchased in quantities and distributed per
sonally at the close of the church service by the
members of the missionary committee.
Nearly very Mission Board publishes several
such pamphlets each year, and either offers them
without charge, or at the mere cost of printing
and postage. The Laymen's Missionary Move
ment and the Student Volunteer Movement have
also developed a wonderfully rich pamphlet liter
ature. You can often get a person to read a
pamphlet when he might not be willing to read
a book. If this condensed form of missionary
education were appraised at its real value, many
millions of leaflets and pamphlets would be dis
tributed each year in American churches.
e. Organized Mission Study Classes have
proved to be one of the most powerful means of
missionary education. A great array of suitable
text-books for such study has been prepared.
Most of them are arranged in eight chapters, —
to be used by a class one evening each week for
eight weeks. The classes are generally small, so
that every member can express himself at every
87

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
meeting. Such co-operative and intensive study
must be ranked as one of the best proved
methods of creating a church that is intelligent
on missions. There is no sufficient reason for
not having some of these classes in every con
gregation each year.
To meet the special demands for a still
briefer course, especially for men's missionary
discussion groups, two text-books of four chap
ters each have already been issued, and others
are in course of preparation. These are books
at twenty-five cents each, in size convenient to
be carried in the pocket and read on street cars
or at other times which otherwise are often
wasted. Many thousands of these little books
have been sold and a large number of Men's Dis
cussion Groups have used them as a basis for
their study and discussion. If the practical in
terest and value of such discussion is presented
forcibly to the men at a suitable season at least
once each year, and definite plans are outlined by
which they may pursue one of these courses by
giving to it one evening each week for one
month, it will be found that large numbers of
men can be led to an independent investigation
and consideration of missions that may prove of
great and permanent value to them.
f. Supplementing all these methods, it has
been found to be of enormous help, once each
year, to have a sustained period of consideration
of missionary problems in each congregation,

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
immediately preceding the annual canvass for
subscriptions. From four to six weeks have
been found desirable for such cultivation. Dur
ing this period every possible avenue of approach
should be used to bring the whole congregation
under a fresh and fuller realization of the sig
nificance and urgency of the whole missionary
problem. All of the above mentioned methods
should be used, together with other special
features worked out by individual churches, to
lay the missionary burden heavily upon the heart
of every member. Such a preparation of heart
and mind is absolutely essential to the highest
success of any organized financial canvass.
It must be apparent to anyone that if such a
program of education is carried out, it will re
quire skilful and persistent work on the part of
a few leaders. It has been assumed that a
Church Missionary Committee is in existence in
every congregation that is making any serious
effort to measure up to its missionary obligation.
Such a committee is essential to the best results.
It should be officially appointed and should be re
vised annually, and be given every possible sup
port in its work. This Committee will need to
spend an unhurried evening together once each
month in conference and prayer, if they do the
work open to them in the congregation.
All the methods of missionary education sug
gested thus far are for use in the individual con
gregation or parish. There remain two other
89

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
special methods of approach to be mentioned.
1. Deputations of men visiting churches
within a given area.
2. Interdenominational conferences and con
ventions. It has been found by experience that a church
is often greatly stimulated by the visit of a depu
tation of two or three men from some other con
gregation or community. Many laymen have
been discovered and developed who do this work
admirably. The laymen are more free to parti
cipate in such work inasmuch as most of it can
best be done at the regular church services on the
Lord's day.
By way of illustration of the great possibili
ties of this form of work, two laymen in one
Baptist Association in North Carolina visited the
twenty-eight congregations in that Association,
spending as a rule one entire Lord's day with
each congregation. They not only presented the
reasons for enlarged missionary interest and
consecration, but also the methods found best to
secure larger results. Before they left they had
a series of resolutions passed by each congrega
tion, adopting (1) the weekly plan of missionary
offerings, (2) the annual organized personal
canvass for missionary subscriptions and (3)
the fixing of a definite amount that the congrega
tion would aim to raise that year for missionary
purposes. There were many helpful results of this sys-
90

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
tematic effort. Its success on the financial side
is indicated by the fact that these twenty-eight
congregations increased their total missionary
offerings that year by an average of 95%.
Similar systematic cultivation is being given
groups of churches in many parts of America.
The work may be done either denominationally
or interdenominationally. Perhaps the best ex
perience thus far would favor its being done de
nominationally. The other form of promoting missionary in
telligence that has been specially powerful has
been the interdenominational convention or con
ference. No other single method has been so
effective as this in gaining the attention of men
uninterested in missions, in overcoming their
prejudice and in inspiring them to take hold
seriously of the work of missions. Large num
bers of these conventions and conferences have
been held by the Laymen's Missionary Move
ment, which was first organized in 1906, the
number of conferences in the season of 1913-14
alone being about four hundred and fifty. It is
found helpful to have such gatherings about once
every two years in all the larger communities.
The peculiar power of these meetings in which
all churches are represented lies largely in the fact
that the whole task of the entire Church can thus
be considered by the representatives of all the
churches of any community. This gives a sense
of unity, solidarity, and power that cannot be
91

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
secured in separate denominational assemblies.
So long as the Church is divided into many dif
ferent communions, some agency will be needed
to bring them all together in this co-operative
fashion. The unprecedented missionary advance
of the past few years in the United States and
Canada has been largely due to this united ap
proach to the subject. The advance in contribu
tions to home and foreign missions during the
past ten years has been nearly 100%, and in
some entire communions considerably more than
this. It is only a step from the united consideration
of the missionary problem at home, to the united
study of the problem as a whole by the repre
sentatives of the churches abroad. Recently
there has occurred the most extensive and
thorough co-operative study of missionary prob
lems yet undertaken on the foreign mission
fields, in a series of conferences conducted by the
Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh Con
ference. Both abroad and at home the forces of
Christendom are rapidly coming to act in a co
operative instead of an isolated way. This co
operation has gone so far in some fields abroad
as to lead to a complete subdivision of the terri
tory between the various communions. It is
notable also that even in the matter of theologi
cal education it has been found possible to do the
work admirably in union institutions. Missions
are coming to be recognized increasingly as one
92

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS POWER
of the mightiest forces in the promotion of that
true spiritual unity of the Church for which our
Lord prayed.

93

Effective Missionary Speaking
It seems desirable in this connection to give
some careful consideration to what constitutes
effective missionary speaking. This is a matter
of vital interest not only to pastors but to all lay
men who desire to make their lives count largely
in making the Church the force she is capable of
becoming. The following suggestions are made
up from actual observation of missionary speak
ing that hits the mark.
1. Give information rather than exhorta
tion. "An audience is always interested when it
is learning." Appeals soon get tiresome. Let
the facts be the main appeal. The chief weak
ness of much missionary speaking is that it is
long on exhortation and short on facts.
2. Deal largely in the concrete, and tie up
facts and principles with personality. People
are interested more in persons than in principles.
The Bible is written in terms of personality.
Use illustrations and stories to enforce general
facts and principles. Avoid also the peril of
merely telling anecdotes and not relating them
closely to general missionary facts and consider
ations. 3. Be human. Let the emotions as well as
the intelligence be stirred. Study points of con-
94

EFFECTIVE MISSIONARY SPEAKING
tact with the audience. Don't begin your ad
dress at a point too far removed from common
experience. Humor that is not forced is a help,
if it is not overdone. Human problems, like
illiteracy, poverty, suffering, make a powerful
appeal to people, and may open their hearts to
the deeper spiritual needs. "Out of the heart
are the issues of life." We are governed not so
much by what we know as by what we feel.
Illustrations of the unnecessary suffering in
the world where Christ is not known are very
valuable. If these can be accompanied by object-
lessons, however simple, their value is much
increased. 4. Present any topic in its widest relations.
Study to give comprehensive views.
If speaking of a Hindu inquirer let his case
illustrate some situation in Hinduism generally.
If telling about work in your own district let
it illustrate the conditions in a whole nation.
Think and speak in terms of the whole King
dom rather than merely of your own denomina
tion. Of course, it is helpful to use denomina
tional facts for illustration, but they should not
obscure the larger work of the whole Church.
Every Christian has a right to the inspiration of
the success of the whole army of Christ, and also
needs the challenge of the whole world's need.
5. Study the value of the eye in acquiring
knowledge. About 80% of all we learn comes to
us through the- eye. Maps, charts, and object
95

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
lessons of all kinds are, therefore, of great as
sistance in picturing the missionary situation.
They double the power of many a speaker. They
are also of much help in arousing the attention
and interest of a tired audience. "What gets
your attention gets you."
6. Meet criticisms of missions indirectly, as
a rule, without advertising them.
7. Study accuracy in statement. Many' a
good cause is weakened by exaggeration. One
statement by a speaker, recognized as not true by
a hearer, casts doubt on all the rest he may say.
8. Study to minister to the spiritual needs of
the people in the audience. Missions furnish.
splendid opportunity for this. Exalt Christ,
that seeing Him, all may be enriched.
9. Be the incarnation of all you ask of
others. Unless a man is a message, he cannot speak a
message of any power. Give what you ask and
then ask what you will. Remember that it is
often true :
"What you are speaks so loud that I cannot
hear what you say."
"The depth from which our words are spoken
is the measure of the depth at which they will be
heard." Only a consuming conviction will burn its
way deeply and permanently into other hearts
and lives.
"No great reform will accomplish more than
96

EFFECTIVE MISSIONARY SPEAKING
is latent in the character of the reformer."
There is a deposit of character back of all words.
"No more comes out of men than is in them."
"Intense conviction, showing itself in intense
personality, marks the difference between an or
dinary leader, or counselor, and an exceptional
one. It was not the number of his soldiers, but
his power to use every man as if he were ten
men, or a hundred that made Napoleon, or Phil.
Sheridan, the general he was. Surely he who
has Christ back of him in his every word and his
every deed ought to feel that he is wielding the
power of the Almighty when he acts or speaks
for his Saviour in that Saviour's work."
10. Have a definite and great purpose in all
missionary speaking.
It is not mere entertainment or information
the people need. It is conviction, consecration,
action, devotion, to the end that the will of God
may actually be done among men. To this end,
inform the minds, arouse the feelings, but never
be satisfied without trying to move the wills of
those to whom you speak.
Only the knowledge that finds expression in
appropriate action is of the highest value to
men. If one has his mind persuaded, and his
heart touched, but fails to make the proper re
sponse through his will, it is a serious question
whether he is not injured rather than helped.
We are all familiar with optical illusion. But
I am inclined to believe that a more common ex-
97

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
perience is emotional illusion. Many people
have been deeply moved emotionally by some
stirring appeal and have felt profoundly that
something must be done to meet the need and
have then gone away and done nothing. They
seem to have deceived themselves into believing
that the important thing is feeling right about
the subject, rather than acting right in view of
the facts. But proper conceptions and appro
priate feelings are meant to be the springboard
for consistent action. Until the will has acted
the person has not acted. It is of great im
portance therefore that the educational process
be carried to its logical conclusion, and that all
new knowledge issue in worthy action.
The widespread indifference of the Church to
missions must somehow be overcome. Indis
pensable in this process is it that the Church
should become and be kept intelligent. Christ
Himself calls upon His followers to lift up their
eyes and look on the fields. In other words,
study missions. Study that you may pray
aright. Study that you may work efficiently.
Study that you may give adequately. No one is
apt to live beyond his knowledge in any of these
vital respects. Christ gave four commands,
obedience to which would lead to the speedy so
lution of the missionary problem :
1. Know John 4:35.
2. Pray Mat. 9:38, Mat. 6:9-10.
98

EFFECTIVE MISSIONARY SPEAKING
Love John 13:34.
See also 1 John 3:16-17.
Witness Acts 1:8.

The restless millions wait
The light whose dawning
Maketh all things new;
Christ also waits,
But men are slow and late:
Will we do what we can?
Will I? Will you?

99

Money and the Kingdom
Money is a good servant but a bad master.
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
It will produce these evil results in the life of the
poor as well as of the rich, if the love of gain is
allowed to dominate the life.
The perils of prosperity were clearly seen and
emphasized by Moses away back in the early
days of Hebrew history. "Beware lest thou
forget Jehovah thy God in not keeping His
commandments, and His ordinances, and His
statutes, which I command thee this day; Lest,
when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built
goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy
herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and
thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is
multiplied ; then thy heart be lifted up, and thou
forget Jehovah thy God, who brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage; who led thee through the great and
terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents
and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was not
water; who brought thee forth water out of the
rock of flint ; who fed thee in the wilderness with
manna which thy father knew not; that he
might humble thee, and that he might prove thee,
to do thee good at thy latter end: And lest thou
100

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
say in thy heart, My power and the might of
my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou
shalt remember Jehovah thy God, for it is He
that giveth thee power to get wealth; that He
may establish His covenant which He sware unto
thy fathers, as at this day." Deut. 8:11-18.
Christ called emphatic attention to the same
danger. In the parable of the sower occurs this
deeply suggestive statement : "He that was sown
among the thorns, this is he that heareth the
word; and the care of the world and the deceit-
fulness of riches choke the word, and he be-
cometh unfruitful." Mat. 13:22. In another
place He spoke even more strongly : "How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the King
dom of God!" Mark 10:23.
In view of these plain and powerful warnings
how timely and appropriate is the command
which Christ gave: "Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust
consume, and where thieves break through and
steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth con
sume, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal: For where thy treasure is there will
thy heart be also." Mat. 6:19-21. It is of great
importance that this reason assigned to this
command be clearly observed: "For where thy
treasure is there will thy heart be also." Christ
wants our hearts set on spiritual and eternal
things. To this end He asks that we do not
101

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
make the earth the storehouse of our treasure.
I know a business man who is very successful,
with an income of over $100,000 a year, who
takes this command to lay up treasure in heaven
just as it stands and follows it. He refuses to
invest in stocks or bonds or real estate or gold
mines or anything else apart from his one bus
iness. As rapidly as God gives him money he
uses it for the extension of the Kingdom. He
has a large family of children, and he says that
for their sake, he does not want to take the risk
of accumulating wealth, though if he wished, he
could accumulate a million dollars within ten
years. Has he not discovered the real spirit of
Christ's teaching?
There is another very successful business
man who, in the prime of life, has decided to give
practically all of his time and strength to King
dom-building instead of to fortune-building. He
has written a most suggestive booklet on "Why
I'm Glad I Stopped Getting Rich." The Lord
has used him in a very wonderful way since he
took this stand. Is God not calling on hundreds
of successful business men to do something like
what these men are doing? One is remaining
active in business and using his income for King
dom purposes; the other has turned over his
business almost wholly to the management of
others, that he may put his own time and con
structive leadership into spiritual affairs.
One of the best modern definitions of money
102

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
is given by Dr. A. F. Schauffler in these words:
"Money is myself. I am a laboring man, we will
say, and can handle a pickaxe, and I hire myself
out for a week at $2.00 a day. At the close of
the week I get $12.00 and put it in my pocket.
What is that $12.00? It is a week's worth of my
muscle put into greenbacks and pocketed; that
is, I have got a week's worth of myself in my
pocket. Or, I am a clerk and I hire myself out
at $20.00 a week. Saturday comes and I get my
pay, and when I put that in my pocket, I pocket
a week's worth of myself as a clerk. Or, I am
a merchant, and I have larger affairs. At the
end of the week I strike my balance-sheet and
find that I am to the good $1,000. That is a
week's worth of the merchant. The muscle man,
the mind man, the genius, when he gets his
money, is really getting the result of his own
labor in the shape of cash.
Money in your pocket is not merely silver and
gold, but it is something human, something that
is instinct with power, because it represents
power expended.
Now, money is like electricity; it is stored
power, and it is only a question as to where that
power shall be loosed. It can do nothing simply
as stored power; it is stored that it may be
loosed. How shall it be loosed? That is the
only question. It is a very serious question
indeed, because with the Divine blessing, there
may come such results as shall cause us to marvel
103

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
here and to praise God throughout all eternity."
Jesus said : "No man can serve two masters,"
but it is quite clear that it is impossible not to
serve one. As an indication of the two masters
that are likeliest to be set over against each other
in bidding for first place in our lives, Jesus went
on to say, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
It might well be rendered "Ye cannot serve God
and gold." The argument which Jesus bases on
this fundamental principle is of the greatest
practical value. The statement that immediately
follows is: "Therefore be not anxious for your
life, * * but seek first the Kingdom of God." Mat.
6:25-33. Since you cannot serve both yourself
and God, serve God, and He will see that you
have what you need for your physical needs. It is
impossible to get the full force of this command
of Jesus to seek first the Kingdom of God, with
out going back to the basis of the whole argu
ment at the beginning of the paragraph, viz.,
"No man can serve two masters." It is a
terrible tragedy for a man made in the image of
God and destined to live forever, and intended to
be an important constructive factor in building
the eternal Kingdom of God, to be possessed with
a passion for earthly possessions. This must
inevitably mean that he cannot possibly "seek
first the Kingdom of God." The folly and danger
of seeking first for earthly gain is impressively
stated in Paul's counsel to Timothy: "But god
liness with contentment is great gain : For we
104

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
brought nothing into the world, for neither can
we carry anything out; But having food and
covering we shall be therewith content. But
they that are minded to be rich fall into a
temptation and a snare and many foolish and
hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction
and perdition. For the love of money is a root
of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after
have been led astray from the faith, and have
pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
"But thou, 0 man of God, flee these things;
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness. Fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on the life eternal,
whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess
the good confession in the sight of many wit
nesses." "Charge them that are rich in this
present world, that they be not high-minded, nor
have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches,
but on God, who giveth us richly all things to
enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in
good works, that they be ready to distribute,
willing to communicate; laying up in store for
themselves a good foundation against the time
to come, that they may lay hold on the life which
is life indeed." 1 Tim. 8:12, 17-19.
Covetousness is one of the most deadening
and damning sins described in the Bible. Yet it
is about the most respectable sin among modern
Christians. One of the ten commandments of
the decalogue deals exclusively with this sin,
105

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
which marks it at once as one of the fiercest foes
of a worthy life. Paul puts covetousness in a
very black list when he says: "Put to death
therefore your members which are upon the
earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil de
sire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for
which things' sake cometh the wrath of. God
upon the sons of disobedience." Col. 3:5-6. One
of the few men that God is described as calling a
fool is the covetous man. Jesus said: "Take
heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness:
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a
certain rich man brought forth plentifully and
he reasoned within himself, saying, what shall I
do because I have not where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
barns and build greater; and there will I bestow
all my grain and my goods. And I will say to
my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be
merry. But God said unto him, Thou foolish
one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and
the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall
they be? So is he that layeth up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God." Luke 12:
15-21. "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor
106

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extor
tioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God."
1 Cor. 6:9-10.
It is necessary that Christians see clearly the
perils of wealth and the corroding and crushing
sin of covetousness, in order properly to value
the means of overcoming these temptations in
themselves and among their fellow-disciples.
For God never asks of us anything that is not
for our own good. When He makes His King
dom dependent on our gifts, we may be sure that
His plan contains blessing for us in connection
with our giving. No character can be complete
in which this grace of giving is not largely de
veloped. "As ye abound in everything, in faith
and utterance, and knowledge, and in all earnest
ness, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in
this grace (of giving) also." 2 Cor. 8:7. If
the grace of giving can thus be classified with
faith and utterance and knowledge and earnest
ness and love, it becomes apparent at once that
this grace needs cultivation in the life of every
disciple. Dr. Alexander MacLaren says: "Giving
is essential to the completeness of Christian char
acter. It is the crowning grace, because it is the
practical manifestation of the highest excellences.
It is the result of sympathy, unselfishness, of con
tact with Christ, of drinking in of his spirit."
It is from this angle that it is seen to
be of surpassing importance that all children as
well as older people be taught proper habits and
107

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
standards of giving. Our financial plans for the
Church must be based on the purpose of helping
to save our whole Church membership from the
blight and curse of covetousness.
Childhood and youth are the natural period
of habit-forming. Habits neglected until mature
life is reached, are formed with far greater dif
ficulty. Where children have not been taught
to give until after they are grown to maturity, it
is only with the greatest difficulty that they ever
learn proper habits of giving. Parents are as
responsible for teaching their children to give as
for teaching them to pray. It is a serious ques
tion whether the failure to give is not as damag
ing to character as the failure to pray. Pastors,
Sabbath School teachers, editors, and all other
Christian leaders, should make this danger so
clear and emphatic that no one in connection
with the Church in any of its departments would
be left without patient and thorough instruction.
Parents can no more do the giving for their chil
dren than they can do their eating for them.
It would be well if all of our children could be as
well trained in the habit of regular systematic
giving as the one of whom the following incident
is told. He was in his seat in church one day
when a fashionably dressed strange lady was
shown into the pew beside him. When the ushers
began to take up the collection, the boy noticed
that the lady had no offering to put on the plate.
He felt keenly the humiliation of such a situa-
108

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
tion. As the ushers drew nearer, a happy thought
struck him, and leaning over close to the stranger,
he handed her his offering as he said in a stage
whisper : "Here, you put this in ; I can get under
the seat."
It would take rather radical changes in the
architecture of our churches to provide accommo
dations for all the people who by these stand
ards would have to get under the seats.
Every person needs the personal spiritual de
velopment that comes from proper habits of
giving, just as certainly as every individual re
quires food and exercise for the normal develop
ment of his physical powers. Moreover, children
as well as older disciples are to take their part as
active workers and witnesses in extending the
Kingdom of Christ throughout the world. Those
who are called to tend the sheep and feed the
lambs, should see to it that the Church uses
methods that will secure the development of this
grace of giving in younger and older alike.
Too often the question of finance has been
one of getting funds enough to keep the
Church machinery running. God's main idea of
it is that through giving, character is being de
veloped that could not be produced in any other
way. Unless all financial work in the Church is
approached from this angle, there is danger of
its being regarded as a burden instead of a spir
itual opportunity, and there is danger that the
very thing that God intended to be a means of
109

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
blessing and enrichment shall be turned into a
reproach to the Church. Because of the unspir-
itual and wrong financial methods often used,
many people outside the Church have received
the impression that one of the chief things which
the Church wants of them is their money. No
money ought ever to be asked for by the Church
that is not to be given to God as an act of love
and obedience and worship to Him. Christ
would still drive from His temple many of the
methods that have been used in Church finance
with the solemn warning: "Take these things
hence. Make not my Father's house a place of
merchandise." John 2:16.
It is not because God is either a pauper or a
beggar that He asks us for money for His King
dom. He is already the owner of the wealth of
the universe. "The silver and the gold are mine,
saith the Lord, and the cattle . upon a thousand
hills. If I were hungry, I would not ask thee,
for the world is mine and the fulness thereof."
"It is not a question of how much of my money I
will give to God, but how much of God's money
I will keep and use for myself."
If God is so rich, why then does He ask us for
money? There is only one possible answer. It
is that we may become more like Himself in char
acter. If we are going to become like God,
we have got to give as God does. And the more
we share His likeness, the more absolutely cer
tain is it that we shall give as He does.
no

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
"God so loved the world that He gave." And
in giving, He gave His best. This passage is
wonderfully illuminated and applied in 1 John 3 :
16-17. "Hereby know we love because he laid
down his life for us; and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the
world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need,
and shutteth up his compassion from him, how
doth the love of God abide in him?" This is
God's challenging way of saying that it does not.
God's love cannot abide in the heart of a person
who does not give. "A man may give without
loving, but he cannot love without giving." His
giving is the manifestation and the measure of
his love. All graces grow by exercise, just as
muscles become strong through use. The grace
of giving needs a great deal of hard exercise to
keep it healthy.
The churches of North America are not now
giving half enough to keep themselves healthy,
even if there were no world to evangelize. The
average contribution of American church mem
bers, for all church and missionary purposes, is
only about thirty cents per week. Thirty cents
is one-tenth of $3.00, and $3.00 is earned by the
most unskilled laborer in America in a day and a
half to two days. Even if the church members
of America were not earning on the average more
than the most unskilled laborers in the land, they
are giving only about one-fourth of one-tenth of
their income to the Church in all its
ill

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
manifold operations and work. Giving even
one-tenth of the income to God would
probably multiply the contributions of most
churches at least four-fold. But one-tenth
is not the full measure of Christian obliga
tion. It is only a good starting-point in the de
velopment of Godlike giving. The New Testa
ment rule isr "Freely ye have received: freely
give." In other words, give in the same way
that God has given to you.- In another striking
passage Jesus says: "Whosoever he be of you
that renounceth not all that he hath he cannot be
my disciple." Luke 14:33. That is to say that
all possessions must be held absolutely at Christ's
disposal. It will require a good deal more than
giving one-tenth to keep multitudes of people
from covetousness in these days. Yet the prin
ciple of the tenth as the starting-point is not to
be set aside as of no value. It has enormous
spiritual value. Many have thrust it aside as a
part of a worn-out legal system. But this is a
very superficial course to pursue. God never put
such tremendous emphasis upon giving the tithe
in any dispensation unless there was something
inherently and eternally right and reasonable
about it in all dispensations. Two of the severest
tests of loyalty to God in Old Testament times
were keeping the Sabbath and paying the tithe.
It is doubtful whether there are any more im
portant practical tests of love and loyalty in the
New Testament dispensation. 112

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
"System, not spasm, is God's method." No
man can do his best in any direction unless he
uses system. In the matter of giving system is
peculiarly important, if one is to put the king
dom of God first. If the matter is left to im
pulse the danger is that multiplied calls of a
personal nature will consume one's resources,
and only the leavings will be available for God
and His work.
I was once asked by a church officer how one
could give to the church when he needed all of his
money for other things. He said, "How can you
get any juice out of an orange that is already
squeezed dry?" My answer was, "My dear man,
the time to squeeze for God is when the orange is
full. It is not the dregs He asks, but the first-
fruits." It was doubtless partly the human necessity
for system that led to the divine call for at least
one-tenth of the income to be brought in regu
larly to the appointed place of worship. No
elaborate massing of scripture is necessary to in
dicate this proportion as the very least that any
Christian should give.
"The tenth is the Lord's." Lev. 27:30.
"Will a man rob God? Yet ye rob me. But
ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes
and offerings. Ye are cursed with the curse;
for ye rob me, even this whole nation. Bring ye
the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there
may be food in my house, and prove me now
113

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not
open you the windows of heaven, and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it." Mai. 3:8-10.
"Ye tithe ; this ought ye to have done." Mat.
23:23. "Here men that die receive tithes; but there
one of whom it is witnessed that He liveth."
Heb. 7:8.
What the law of God commands, what the
Son of God in specific terms approves and com
mends, and what forty centuries of experience
endorses as of deep spiritual significance and
value, is not to be set aside by any careless in
terpretation of the transient value of parts of
scripture. "Every scripture inspired of God is
also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for cor
rection, for instruction which is in righteous
ness : that the man of God may be complete, fur
nished completely unto every good work." 2
Tim. 3:16,17. It is not only New Testament
scripture that is thus profitable. The Apostle
Peter voices the call of the Spirit of God to the
obedience of all Scripture in his emphatic decla
ration : "No prophecy (or teaching) of Scripture
is of private interpretation. For no prophecy
ever came by the will of man: but men spake
from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." 2
Peter 1:20-21.
There is another powerful line of argument
that is not only confirmatory but absolutely con-
114

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
elusive. In discussing the relation of the law
and the gospel Paul makes this great generaliza
tion : "For what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh : that the requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
after the flesh but after the Spirit." Rom. 8 :3-4.
In other words, the very purpose of the gos
pel is to enable men to fulfill the requirement of
the law, not to dodge it. People who are willing
to fall below the standards of the law are thereby
dishonoring the gospel. Christ read fuller mean
ing into every law of the Old Testament. And
He certainly means His disciples to go far be
yond the tithe in their loving obedience to the
outworking of His life through them. The tenth
is the starting-point and the minimum propor
tion for all Christians to give systematically to
God. Those who can afford to do so will give
a far larger proportion if the love of God is al
lowed to possess them.
The only people competent to give testimony
to the spiritual value of obedience to this law of
the tithe are the people who have obeyed it. It
is deeply significant that with one voice, those
who have given to God habitually at least one-
tenth of their income, heartily testify to its great
spiritual value. The ancient challenge of God
to His people has not been withdrawn, and many
are still accepting it and finding it true: "Bring
115

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there
may be food in my house, and prove me now
herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open
you the windows of heaven and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it." Mai. 3:10. There can be no great
general spiritual awakening throughout the
Church until there is fuller obedience to God's
will in this matter of giving.
One of the most blessed things about the
habit of proportionate giving is that in so many
cases it is the first step toward giving God two-
tenths or five-tenths or nine-tenths of the income,
instead of one. The instances where this has
been done are legion. But there are very few
cases of persons reaching high altitudes of Chris
tian stewardship without beginning to climb up
to them on the ladder of the tithe. In this case,
again, "The law is our school-master to bring us
to Christ." And having come to accept Christ's
standards, men go on beyond the requirements of
the law from the new principle of divine love
that He has imparted to them.
I do not want to be quoted as saying that a
man is doing his financial duty if he is giving
one-tenth of his income to God. It is possible to
give this, and still be a Pharisee and a hypocrite.
All prosperous Christians ought undoubtedly to
be giving a far larger proportion than this. But
even the poorest disciple cannot afford to give
less than one-tenth. Nine-tenths of even a very
116

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
small income will go further after one-tenth of it
has been given to God, than the whole amount
will go if it is all kept.
Mr. H. Z. Duke of Dallas, Texas, gives very
remarkable testimony to the blessings of God that
have come from simple obedience to God's law in
the matter of proportionate giving. He has been
so prospered in business as well as in spiritual
matters that he is now at the head of a large
string of stores in Texas and the Southwest, and
rejoices at being able to give not only one-tenth,
but practically all of his income to the work of
the Lord.
I met a man in Des Moines, Iowa, who told
me that he had not been converted until middle
life, and had then joined a Methodist church.
The stewards of the church called on him and
told him that they had assessed him $12.50 to
ward the church expenses. He asked them how
long this $12.50 was supposed to be good for.
They told him that it would do for a year. In
utter amazement at so small an amount being
stipulated, he exclaimed: "Why, when I was
serving the devil, I often spent that much on him
in one evening!" When he got home, he dis
cussed the matter with his wife. She suggested
that probably there might be something in the
Bible to help them determine how much they
should give. So they decided to read the Bible
through to find out. My friend showed me the
passages from the Bible that he had copied into
117

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
his note-book, that threw light for him on his
duty. As he turned the leaves, he put his index
finger on a verse he had written, and said to
me, "This verse fixed me." I was, of course,
deeply interested to see the verse that had "fixed"
him, as he described it. I found it to be the fa
miliar passage in Mai. 3:8-10, "Will a man rob
God?" He went on to say that he and his wife
then decided that they would certainly give to
God at least one-tenth of their income. As they
read on through the New Testament, they discov
ered higher standards still and had accepted
those also.
"And now," he continued, "perhaps you
would like to see what we have given to God in
the last six months. I have the account right
here in this same book." He referred to the
book in which he had written down all the chief
passages on giving. And what do you suppose
this man had given, of whom the church stew
ards had asked $12.50? He showed me the fig
ures. He had given $327 during the past six
months. Would that every new convert would
go to the Word of God for his standards of giv
ing, rather than accept any inadequate basis sug
gested by any church officers whatsoever.
If this problem of leading people to give as
God gives is ever to be settled, I know of noth
ing that can help so much toward it as the ade
quate presentation of the whole world's need.
The world is the only thing big enough to pro-
118

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
vide outlet and motive .for giving on a scale com
mensurate with the capacity of the Christians of
our day.
The money that belongs by every right to
God, but that is kept back from Him by His peo
ple, is probably the greatest hindrance to vital
spirituality that there is in the world today. No
person can become Christlike without accepting
Christ's standards of action. If Christ were on
earth in the flesh, and had the money now in the
possession of Christians, how long would it take
to get all the money needed to support mission
aries enough to evangelize the world? If Christ
had your bank account, what would He do with
it? Does He have it? Shall He have it? Shall
He have it from now on? "Ye are not your own :
ye are bought with a price: Therefore, glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are
God's." I. Cor. 6:19-20.
How much money is needed for the evangeli
zation of the world and what are the best
methods of securing it?
The whole of Protestant Christendom is now
spending about $33,000,000 annually to evangel
ize the non-Christian world, of which amount
about one-half is contributed by the churches of
the United States. The total present missionary
force should be at least doubled in order to reach
the whole world with the gospel in this generation.
The present material equipment is also very in
adequate, and the cost of living is increasing
119

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
abroad as well as at home. Eighty million dol
lars a year would, therefore, be a very moderate
estimate of the total financial need. More
than three and a half times this amount is being
contributed annually for religious purposes with
in the United States by the Protestant Churches,
and the population of the United States is less
than one-tenth the population of the nori-Chris-
tian world. So from some angles, an estimate
of $80,000,000 a year for the whole non-Chris
tian world is absurdly small.
In order to double the total number of mis
sionaries abroad, it will probably be necessary
for the churches in the United States to treble
the force in the territory they occupy. This
would mean in round numbers a total of 25,000
missionaries from the United States, together
with an annual contribution of $50,000,000 by the
24,000,000 Protestant church members in Amer
ica. It ought to be possible to enlist the active
co-operation of at least 16,000,000 of these, or
two-thirds of the total number of Protes
tant Christians. Twenty-five thousand mis
sionaries would only require one out of every
640 of these 16,000,000. To support these 25,000
missionaries and their work, together with an
army of native Christian workers, would cost
about $2000 a year per missionary, or
$3.12 per member annually for the 16,000,000
Christians that we are supposing could be
reached. $3.12 a year is only six cents a Week, or
120

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
a penny a day for the working days of the year.
If only one-half as many people can be enlisted as
we have supposed, it could still be done for an
average of a postage stamp a day for the work
ing days of the year. Or two million people each
giving 50 cents per week would provide the total
$50,000,000 a year needed, or one million people
averaging each one dollar per week could do the
same thing.
These calculations are only to indicate how
perfectly simple and feasible it is to provide the
money needed if the Church really cares. If the
Church does not care and cannot be led to care,
then Christ will have to wait until He finally gets
a Church that shares His own compassion. It is
not intended to suggest that the actual giving
will be done according to any such mathematical
calculation as the above. Already there are in
dividuals pouring money into the missionary
treasury by the $10,000 or more every year.
And their number should be greatly increased.
The law of "averages" is a dangerous thing in
religion. God is not looking or asking for "aver
age" Christians. There are entirely too many of
them now. What is needed is a school of Chris
tians who will undertake to do all they can, re
gardless of the disobedience of others.
One man has undertaken to provide all the
workers and equipment needed in a field of
250,000 people in Korea. He is supporting thir
teen American missionaries in that district. In-
121

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
side of ten or fifteen years the probabilities are
that he will have carried the gospel to that whole
quarter of a million people, and will not have ex
pended upon it as much as -many Christian people
spend on the house they live in or on a yacht, or
some other extravagant plaything that they do
not need. Increasingly individuals, families and
churches should relate themselves in this definite
fashion to some part of the world and evangelize
it. This should in the nature of the case be done
in connection with the organized missionary
agencies of the Church. They are the most ex
perienced, the most reliable, the most economical,
the most efficient, and the most permanent.
Only by challenging many of the wealthier
men and women of the Church to some such pro
gram as this is it likely that they will ever give
what they ought to this cause. There are persons
in almost every town who might be led to do this
if brought face to face with the definite opportu
nity and suggestion. There is no probability that
these large gifts will ever be secured by the ordi
nary appeal, or by the annual organized personal
canvass. This must be done by special personal
effort, but it is open to anyone to engage in it, not
only among members of his own communion, but
among suitable persons of all communions. In
every case, people who become interested should
be put into communication with their own mis
sionary leaders.
Another method of securing the larger gifts
122

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
for missions is to present definite needs for en
larged equipment, such as hospitals, dispensaries,
schools, and other large items of the missionary
budget to individuals capable of supplying these
needs. Every denomination owes it to its con
stituency, as well as to the cause of Christ, to
adopt plans for cultivating and reaching its
potential larger givers. People of small incomes
may be reached by the ordinary methods now
being used in the most progressive churches.
But as yet no adequate plan has been developed
for securing large contributions regularly from
all who can afford to make them.
The first step in systematic cultivation of this
constituency is to have a card catalogue pre
pared at the central denominational headquar
ters, containing the name and address of every
man and woman in the denomination with
property worth say $10,000 or more. It would
be abundantly worth while to send to each of
these persons, about once each quarter, some
strong timely message, either in the form of a
letter or an attractively printed pamphlet.
The larger missionary needs of the denom
ination should be carefully tabulated, and be
brought strongly before this constituency by per
sons specially selected to do this work. All those
who are led to make a first substantial contribu
tion should be kept on a separate list and should
have additional special cultivation, particularly
by way of report of what is being accomplished.
123

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
By a process including these features, the Dis
ciples of Christ have recently raised a million
dollars for the equipment of their foreign mis
sionary work, though this is about three times
their annual regular contributions to foreign
missions. Out of that effort developed a further
plan to secure $6,000,000 more and a thousand
new workers, to equip their educational and mis
sionary work both at home and abroad, and pro
vide needed leaders for their enlarging mission
ary operations. The testimony of the leaders in
this work is that by these methods large numbers
of men and women are being led out into abso
lutely new standards of stewardship; and along
with this their lives are being wonderfully en
riched. Already over two million dollars and
many new workers have been secured on their
present campaign and they have no doubt of
completing the work they have so successfully
begun. They had not gone far toward raising
the larger amount when one man in the West
undertook to give one million dollars himself, on
condition that the whole six millions be secured.
There are other men and women in all the de
nominations who can be led to give in amounts of
a million dollars or more, if only the case can be
got fairly before them, in an atmosphere where
the Spirit of God can work. And nothing could
bring greater personal blessing and joy to them
than to be led out into this great service.
There is no greater need in the organized
124

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
church life of America today than to have at
least one strong man in each denomination set
aside to do nothing but cultivate the larger
givers. Pastors everywhere should heartily co
operate in all such efforts without trying to fer
ret out all such special gifts to swell the financial
reports of their congregations. It will be far
better not to have these special gifts included in
the statistical report of the local church. Many
large givers can only be led to make these special
gifts in case they are regarded as confidential.
And there is always the peril of a congregation
being satisfied if its total contributions are fairly
respectable — even though the bulk of the amount
may have been given by one or two persons. To
avoid these real dangers and difficulties, let these
special large contributions only appear in the re
ports of the Missionary Boards of the denomina
tion. It is important that all leaders of the Church
have clear convictions about the standard general
methods of finance in the local church. During
the past ten years, very rapid progress has been
made toward the standardization of these
methods in the churches of North America.
Practically all of the communions have now ac
cepted these basic principles :
1. The contributions both to local church
support and to all missions and benevolences
should be on the basis of a weekly subscription
from every member and adherent of the church.
125

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
2. There should be an organized personal
canvass for subscriptions in each church every
year. 3. This canvass to be effective must be pre
ceded by a thorough and unhurried educational
campaign. It is due very largely to the wide adoption of
these principles that the contributions of Amer
ican churches to missionary purposes have been
increasing so rapidly during recent years.
It is important in this connection to call at
tention to the general difficulty in all commun
ions in getting equitable consideration for foreign
missions, among the many urgent calls for finan
cial assistance that come to all churches. The
easy, superficial thing to do is to say, here are
seven or ten or twenty different agencies asking
for financial help, one of these being foreign
missions. We must give something to each one of
these agencies, and so cannot give more than
25%, or 33%, or 40%, of the missionary and ben
evolent offerings, as the case may be, to the work
in the non-Christian world. As every agent and
member of a committee or board of each of these
many home agencies is apt to be partial to his
own particular department, this makes a large
and formidable opposition to giving the work
abroad such share of contributions as the needs
of the work really call for and demand. This
is a result that is all but inevitable while the
churches are organized as they are at present,
126

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
with the entire work abroad administered
through a single agency, while the work at home
is administered by so many boards and agencies
as often to be confusing and bewildering.
Yet the combined work of all these agencies
at home does not cover so broad a field of opera
tions as does the work abroad, to say nothing of
the fact that we have at least ten times the num
ber of people to reach abroad that we have at
home. Many things are done by the State in
America, that must be done by the Church in the
non-Christian world. This is particularly true
of public education, and also of medical work of
all kinds, even including Medical Colleges.
Every Foreign Missionary Society is com
pelled to support a system of schools from the
primary grade to the university, out of its cur
rent funds. In addition to these extra expenses,
there is need on every foreign mission field of all
the multiplied lines of activity that are carried
on at home through the various separate agen
cies. If the whole benevolent and missionary
work of the Church were administered by one
agency, whose members were equally intelligent
about the needs of the work, both abroad and at
home, it is safe to say that not less than 50% of
the entire benevolent and missionary offerings of
all the churches would be spent abroad, and in
many cases it would rise to at least 60% of the
whole.

127

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
The plan of some people in view of the needs
of the whole work, is to designate at least as
much of their offerings to missions and benevo
lences as to congregational expenses of all kinds;
and also to give at least as much to the work
abroad as to the combined work of all benevolent
and missionary agencies at home. This is a very
conservative course to follow, a course that is
more fair to all the other agencies involved than
it is to the work abroad, in view of its magnitude
and urgency. But very few pastors and church
officers have yet reached anything like these pro
portions in the distribution of the offerings of
the people.
It is very striking how many congregations
have been able to multiply their offerings to mis
sionary purposes, by simply stopping to ask
themselves whether the combined work of Christ
in all the rest of the world is not at least as big
and important as the work in that single congre
gation. And if so, whether the congregation
should not give at least as much for work outside
itself as it spends upon itself. There are now at
least two hundred congregations in the United
States that give more for outside work than for
all congregational expenses. There are at least
ten thousand others that ought to do this. Every
reasonable expedient should be adopted that will
help to get people to take the broader view of the
Kingdom and not forever be bound by their im
mediate horizons.
There is spiritual wisdom and strategy in this
course. The divine law is: "There is that scat-
tereth and increaseth yet more. And there is
that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth
128

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
only to want. The liberal soul shall be made fat :
And he that watereth shall be watered also him
self." Proverbs 11:24,25. This law has full
illustration during recent years. The churches
of America have more than doubled their foreign
missionary contributions during the last decade,
under the impulse of attempting actually to
evangelize the world. Instead of these greatly
enlarged contributions decreasing benevolent of
ferings to work at home, exactly the opposite re
sult has occurred. The increase to these objects
has actually been greater than the increase to
work abroad, though the work abroad has un
doubtedly been the main challenge that has pro
duced the result.
And what is even more striking is this, that
the increase to congregational expenses has dur
ing these very same years been greater than the
total increase to all forms of missionary work
both at home and abroad. No longer can anyone
in touch with the facts argue that enlarged mis
sionary giving depletes the local church treasury.
On the contrary, it is the very surest way to
solve all local financial problems. That is a poor
strategist who fails to use the world-appeal to
lift his people into their largest expression of
unselfishness and Christ-likeness. Attempt to
solve the world-problem, and local problems will
be included and solved with a speed and power
otherwise unattainable.
There is an important time element in spirit-
129

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
ual investments. A thousand dollars invested at
just the right conjuncture of circumstances may
increase and multiply at a phenomenal rate.
There are tides in the affairs of nations as there
are in the case of individuals. A million dollars
expended for evangelization at the opportune
moment in a nation's life, may mean more than
ten times that amount a few years later. Never
was there a period in so many nations that
seemed so truly the very nick of time, as the
present hour, in the matter of pressing our mis
sionary propaganda. This fact has a large
bearing on the question of men and women be
coming their own executors. Instead of making
wills, and making money wait for death to re
lease it for the Lord's work, why not invest it at
once and see it do its work while the conditions
are so favorable?
More than twenty years ago Dr. and Mrs.
Goucher of Baltimore began to spend about
$5,000 a year in one district in India. They in
vested about $100,000 in the district during
twenty years. The tangible result was 50,000
converts out of paganism! Dr. Goucher is still
living and we hope he may be for many years
to come. Supposing he had only had grace
enough to give the $100,000 in his last will and
testament, when he could not possibly hold on to
it any longer? It would do good, of course, but
how could it ever catch up in productiveness for
the kingdom with the same amount spent intel-
130

MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
ligently and deliberately, when he was sound and
in good health? Where would the 50,000 people
be that he rescued from heathenism, if he had
not released this potential energy until after he
had gone where money can't buy anything?
Thousands of these converts will get to glory
ahead of him, and be ready to welcome him when
he arrives. Are you arranging for any very ex
tensive welcome of that sort?
A sane and strong missionary leader of one
of the great churches of America declares it as
his conviction that under present conditions an
added investment of $100,000 a year in India,
would add literally millions of converts inside the
next few years. The statement appears incred
ible. Yet many leaders familiar with the situa
tion believe that he is right. Does it not seem
an appalling thing that such an opportunity as
this may be neglected? Opportunities like this,
— perhaps as great as this, — challenge us at this
moment from many parts of the non-Christian
world. Will the Church of our day worthily meet
its unprecedented and matchless opportunity?
An epitaph in an English churchyard reads:
"What I spent that I had;
What I saved that I lost;
What I gave that I have."
Carve your name high over shifting sand,
Where the steadfast rocks defy decay —
"All you can hold in your cold, dead hand
Is what you have given away."
131

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Build your pyramid skyward, and stand,
Gazed at by millions, cultured they say —
"All you can hold in your cold, dead hand
Is what you have given away."
Count your wide conquests of sea and land,
Heap up the gold, and hoard as you may—
"All you can hold in your cold, dead hand
Is what you have given away."

132

Why the Battle Halts
or
Leadership, Its Opportunity, Its Development
and Its Price
The greatest undeveloped force in the world
is the Church. If its latent power could be
called out and directed, results would be achieved
which would be the astonishment of the ages.
The Church has enormous latent financial re
sources. The present contributions of Ameri
can Protestants to organized church work are
something over 300 million dollars annually.
This is approximately 30 cents per week from
each church member, on the average. By adding
five cents a week to the giving of these church
members, you add over sixty million dollars an
nually to the revenues of the Church. If the
American Church could be led to give even one-
tenth of her income to the Lord, the total would
probably be over one billion dollars a year, in
stead of three hundred millions. But if really
worthy standards of stewardship were generally
accepted, this total amount would doubtless be at
least doubled again, making two billion dollars
annually for Christian purposes. If this esti
mate is correct, the Church is not now using
133

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
more than about one-seventh of her potential
financial ability. Yet the measure of giving is
a fair criterion by which to judge the degree of
spiritual life that is present. "He that hath the
world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need
and shutteth up his compassion from him, how
doth the love of God abide in him?" I John 3 :17.
Of its spiritual power, it is very doubtful
whether the Church has yet developed even one-
seventh of its capacity for usefulness. It is prob
ably true that not one-seventh of the Church
members of today would even claim to be follow
ing Christ's commands as the great imperatives
of their lives. It is equally certain that not one-
seventh of the membership are making any
serious effort to win anyone else to Christ as
Saviour and Lord. Even among the most ad
vanced Christians there is an almost universal
feeling that they might be of far greater use to
God and the world than they have ever yet been.
We are probably understating the actual facts,
then, when we say that not one-seventh of the
power of the Church for personal spiritual
service has yet been called out.
It is still harder to estimate the undeveloped
prayer-possibilities of the Church. When one is
dealing with finances, it is possible to feel that
we have some standards of measurement that we
can partially appreciate and comprehend. In
the realm of possible personal service and use
fulness, new elements are introduced which are
134

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
far more elusive and difficult to' measure. When
one enters the domain of prayer, the forces being
dealt with are infinite, and their reach is beyond
all limit of time or space or thought. We are
unable, therefore, to imagine what might occur,
if the church as a whole really set herself to pray
for the things that are revealed as according to
the will of God.
It is to the development and direction of these
latent potentialities of the Church that Christian
leaders of our day are summoned. Whatever
opportunity may be provided to the highest
gifts and qualities of leadership in business or in
politics or in education, none of these compare in
their ultimate possibilities with the limitless and
overwhelming field of achievement open to those
who succeed in leading the Church out into her
divinely-appointed inheritance and destiny.
Wherever some Christians go things begin to
happen. It does not seem greatly to matter
what the particular type of community is, real
work is done and lasting results are accom
plished. What is the quality that makes these
successful people different from others? It is
initiative. It is independence of character, of
judgment and of action. It is leadership.
Most people seem born to follow the leader
ship of some more dominant personality. "Men
walk singly and alone," says Bishop Brent, "only
until the right voice calls them to follow. The
world is greedy for leadership, so much so that
135

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
it is easy to impose upon the credulity of the mul
titudes. But this makes it all the more neces
sary that your leadership should be a real thing,
sound to the core, determined as fate, pure as the
sea. A leader is one who goes before, who keeps
in advance of the crowd without detaching him
self from the crowd, but so influencing them as to
attach them to his ideal selfhood. Obviously and
of necessity he is a social personage who has the
power of enabling other people to see what he
sees, to feel what he feels, to desire what he de
sires. He contracts the crowd into the span of
his own personality. He converts them into a
composite second self. He does not hesitate to
say 'Follow me,' nor does he lose in humility in
the invitation, in that, for the moment at any
rate, he is the best available embodiment of the
ideal that he lives to promote.
He whose sense of purpose for life is more
acute and glowing and definite than his fellows
is a leader. All leaders worthy of the name
possess common characteristics, they 'see life
steadily and see it whole;' — they discern, more
distinctly than their fellows, evidences of pur
pose in themselves and in human life at large.
They aid the world-purpose by their activity and
their surrender to it. The truest leader is he
who best aids the world-purpose in extinguishing
the lower elements that are at war with it, and
by encouraging the production of the higher."
These are selected sentences from Bishop Brent's
136

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
suggestive lectures on leadership before Harvard
University. The hardest men to find are always the men
for the largest positions. And nowhere else is
real leadership so scarce as in the Church. Not
that the Church does not contain in its member
ship a multitude of the most gifted leaders in
secular callings. But these men are as a rule
doing almost nothing in the Church. For some
reason the Church has not called forth the same
qualities of leadership that business and politics
have done. It would be well if the whole expla
nation of this fact could be revealed. Doubtless,
human selfishness and personal ambition are im
portant factors in the case. But may it not be
largely due also to the way in which the Church
is managed? What conditions in the Church
itself discourage leadership?
1. One trouble is that church services are
emphasized rather than Christian service. The
standard of success which most ministers and
churches have set up is attendance at the stated
services. If these are well attended the church
is judged to be in a prosperous condition. But
this is not a sufficient test. The real measure of
success is what the members of the church as a
whole are doing personally to serve and help
others. The Christian who abides in Christ and
has Christ abiding in him brings forth much
fruit habitually. If members of the Church gen
erally are not bearing much fruit, something is
137

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
radically wrong. When the Church becomes a
working body of Christians, leadership- will in
evitably be developed. It waits for real leaders
to set it at work. It takes leadership to develop
and multiply leaders. If this were one of the
main ideals of ministers, and they were to make
the art of leadership one of their chief studies, a
better day for the Church would soon dawn.
2. Another alarming weakness of modern
church life is that the preacher is expected to do
practically all the public talking and all the ac
tive personal work. Most preachers are so oc
cupied with the preparation of sermons that they
have scant time left either for personal dealing
with individuals, or for leading the members of
their churches into the active work of which they
are capable. If one were to judge by observing
the practice of most ministers, he would be
forced to conclude that very few of them have
really made a study of the principles of setting
Christian people at work or calling out their
capacities of effective Christian service. These
men may be preachers, but they are not skillful
leaders. It is doubtful whether the average
minister spends one-fourth as much time in
training and leading his people in actual service
as he does in preparing sermons and addresses
with which to feed their spiritual life.
Yet the real secret of Christian growth is not
so much in being fed with predigested food, as in
getting into vital contact with the Lord for one's
138

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
self. And nothing will stimulate this so power
fully as the attempt to help someone else. The
chief reason why Christian people are so poorly
developed is not because they are not fed enough,
but because they do not work enough and so they
never learn to lean hard on God for the fitness in
which to do their work.
One is forced to the conclusion also that the
ministers do entirely too large a proportion of
the talking in connection with the Church and its
services and work. They do more talking than
they can do without excessive strain, and the
people do not express themselves half as much as
is essential for their spiritual health and growth.
In some way both of these difficulties must be
overcome. Not only does our present system fail to de
velop the average preacher into a real leader, but
it leaves the capacity for leadership among the
men and women of the Church dormant.
The Church is full of men and women of
capacity, who are doing big things in all the sec
ular work of the world. But in the Church most
of these same people are mere figure-heads, ex
cept perhaps for their contributions of money,
which is the smallest and cheapest thing that
anyone can give. They have never been seriously
challenged to put the same degree of intelligence
and initiative into the work of the Church that
they put into their own business affairs. Some
of them have tried to find something to do in the
139

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Church, but have not been successful and have
settled down into a life of inactivity and spiritual
stagnation. Sooner or later many of them drift
away from the Church altogether.
Christ's declared method of propagating His
gospel was by personal testimony. For this pur
pose the gift of the Holy Spirit was promised,
not merely to Apostles but to every disciple. Yet
in the Church life of today not one person in ten
is giving any testimony. And most preachers
are not asking or expecting their members to be
witnesses. To come closer still to the heart of
the problem a great many of the ministers do
little or no personal witnessing themselves.
Little wonder that with all our manifold ma
chinery and expensive equipment we add only
about 2% a year to our Church membership on
profession of their faith! If we had general
witnessing on the part of all Christians, we
would not need so much preaching. Indeed we
would not have time for it. And the people
would as a rule come to church if they had been
at work during the week. People who feed
heavily without exercise soon get indigestion or
dyspepsia and lose appetite. The basic trouble
is that Christian people are not working at their
religion. They are not witnessing. This inac
tivity makes them careless about personal Bible
study, about proper habits of prayer, and about
attendance at the church services that are held.
It also makes them careless about their manner
140

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
of life. Nothing more powerfully stimulates a
person to live a eonsistent and victorious Chris
tian life than the knowledge that his usefulness
as a worker depends on the depth and reality of
his own present experience of Christ. Past ex
perience is not sufficient. If one is going to be
a forceful witness for Christ, he must be con
scious of what Christ is doing in him and for him
now, — not last week or last year. The Salvation
Army well illustrates the effect of witnessing and
of service in developing leaders. Though their
recruits are for the most part from the unedu
cated classes, yet the work which they do soon
gives them a capacity for service and even for
leadership that is far beyond that of the ordinary
church member.
There is, however, this great encouragement
in the study of the present situation. The people
are not satisfied, and want to be led out into
something better. On every hand one finds a
hunger for a larger and more fruitful Christian
life. What the people are waiting for is to be
shown, — or leadership. The present world sit
uation, the undeveloped resources and capacities
of the members of the churches, and their desire
for the larger life that Christ means them to live,
combine to present the richest opportunity for
real leadership that has ever come to mortal
men. This opportunity comes not only to min
isters, though it does come to them with compell
ing force, but it comes in a large way to all
141

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Christian men and women. Whoever has the
capacity for independent thinking and acting,
and the courage to take the initiative in attempt
ing the things that ought to be done and is will
ing to pay the price of complete obedience to
Christ, there you have a potential leader.
How can Christian leadership be developed in
one's self and in others?
1. The conviction that God has definitely
planned for every life the largest work of which
that life is capable is a good foundation upon
which to build. This means that one must al
ways be reaching out to exert his own maximum
influence and must always be studying how to
call forth larger exercise of spiritual power in all
the people he meets. Most people have never yet
discovered themselves and their own possibil
ities. Only a small fraction of Christian people
have yet come to believe that God has a definite
plan for their lives, to say nothing of trying to
find it and follow it.
The very first condition of helping others to
find God's plan and will for them is to make sure
that we have found them for ourselves. The
quality of service rises and falls automatically
with the fluctuations of one's own spiritual life.
No law in the realm of the soul seems more rigid
and unchangeable than this, that "apart from
Christ — at any moment — we can do nothing."
"The value of our work for God depends on the
degree of our intimacy with Him at the time we
do it." 142

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
Nothing is more important then than to dis
cover the secret of the life of abiding in Christ.
This involves a life of habitual victory over sin,
of constant fellowship with Christ, of ceaseless
fruit-bearing. The way into all of these rich
blessings may be summarized in three words:
Surrender, Obedience, and Faith. These three
may be still further concentrated into the single
word Obedience, for it involves surrender and
leads to faith. The central thing needed in the
life of the Church and of each Christian today is
simply obedience to the will of God.
And nowhere can one find so brief and
comprehensive a summary of that will as
in the specific commands of Jesus Himself.
There are at least thirty-four of these definite
commands, and the number might easily be in
creased by adding those commands that are im
plied in other forms of His teaching. Yet these
three new Testament decalogues and more, in the
form of imperatives, may fairly be regarded as
representing Christ's will for His disciples. Let
us put them down here, in the order in which
they occur in the four gospels and the book of
Acts, even though this is not their chronological
order, and test our own lives by them.
Some of the Definite Commandments of
Christ
1. Ye are the light of the world. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your
143

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
good works and glorify your Father who is in
heaven.— Mat. 5:16.
2. Be not angry with thy brother, but be
reconciled to him. — Mat. 5:21-24.
3. Lose your right eye or right hand, rather
than tolerate impurity of heart. — Mat. 5:27-30.
See also Mat. 5:8.
4. Swear not at all.-^Mat. 5:34.
5. Resist not him that is evil. — Mat. 5 :38-41.
6. Love your enemies and pray for them
that persecute you. — Mat. 5 :44-48.
7. When thou pray est, enter into thine inner
chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy
Father who is in secret. — Mat. 6:6.
8. After this manner pray ye ; Thy Kingdom
come, Thy will be done on earth. — Mat. 6:9, 10.
9. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on
earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven.— Mat. 6:19,20.
10. Ye cannot serve God and mammon,
therefore be not anxious for your life, but seek
first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
—Mat. 6 : 24-33.
11. Judge not.— Mat. 7:1.
12. Ask, and your heavenly Father will
give. — Mat. 7:7.
13. All things whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so to them. — Mat.
7:12. 14. The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the
laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest that he send forth laborers unto his
harvest.— Mat. 9:38.
15. Confess me before men. — Mat. 10:32.
16. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
144

WHY the battle halts
thy mind. This is the great and first command
ment. — Mat. 22:37.
17. And a second like unto it this, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — Mat. 22:39.
See Rom. 13:10.
18. Be ye also ready ; for in an hour that ye
think not, the Son of man cometh. — Mat. 24:44.
19. Watch and pray that ye enter not into
temptation. — Mat. 26:41.
20. All authority hath been given unto me
in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world.
—Mat. 28:18-20.
21. The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom
of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the
gospel. — Mark 1:14.
22. Suffer little children to come unto me:
forbid them not : for to such belongeth the King
dom of God.— Mark 10:14.
23. Have faith in God.— Mark 11:22.
24. Whensoever ye stand praying, forgive,
if ye have aught against anyone, that your
Father who is in heaven may forgive you. —
Mark 11 :25.
25. Be ye merciful even as your Father is
merciful. — Luke 6:36.
26. If any man would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross daily and fol
low me. — Luke 9:23.
27. Ask for and receive the Holy Spirit.
—Luke 11:9-13. See also Acts 1:8.
28. Take, heed and keep yourselves from all
covetousness. — Luke 12:15. 145

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
29. This is my body which is given for you:
this do in remembrance of me. — Luke 22:19.
30. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields
that they are white already unto the harvest.
—John 4:35.
31. A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another; even as I have loved
you that ye love one another. — John 13:34.
32. Abide in me and bear much fruit. — John
15:4,5. 33. As the Father hath sent me, even so
send I you. — John 20:21.
34. Ye shall be my witnesses, both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth. — Acts 1 :8.
In proportion to one's faithfulness in obeying
these commands of Christ will be his own power
of leadership. And no other method of develop
ing others to their highest capacity in every way
can be so important as leading them into the at
titude and habit of full obedience to Christ.
Fellowship with Him multiplies Christian lead
ers on every hand.
2. The definite acceptance of the Holy Spirit
as the only adequate equipment for witnessing
and for service of all kinds is of the highest im
portance. It is not an optional thing with any
Christian whether or not he will receive the Holy
Spirit. This is one of the commands of Christ
that comes in various forms, each one of which
adds emphasis to His declared will in the matter.
Perhaps the four most striking statements that
146

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
Jesus made with reference to our receiving the
Holy Spirit were the following:
1. And I will pray the Father and He shall
give you another Comforter, that he may be with
you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth: whom
the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him
not, neither knoweth him : ye know him ; for he
abideth with you, and shall be in you. — John 14:
16-17. 2. * * * It is expedient for you that I go
away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him
unto you. — John 16:7.
3. And being assembled together with them,
He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which,
said he, ye heard from me : For John indeed bap
tized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the
Holy Spirit not many days hence.
But ye shall receive power, when the Holy
Spirit is come upon you : and ye shall be my wit
nesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth. — Acts 1 :4, 5, 8.
4. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it
shall be opened unto you. For every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him?— Luke 11:9, 10, 13.
From these and similar passages, it is clear
that the acceptance by faith of the gift of the
147

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Holy Spirit is not an optional thing but is an im
perative obligation upon all Christians.
That we may keep the channels wide open be
tween ourselves and the life of God, it is also vital
that we give proper place and emphasis to per
sonal Bible study and prayer as the chief means
through which the Spirit of God speaks to the
hearts and minds of men. One of the chief re
sults of the gift of the Holy Spirit at the be
ginning was courage for witnessing. Only a
divinely-bestowed courage will enable us and
others to venture to undertake the things that
must be done in order that Christ may be en
throned in all hearts, and in the total life of the
world. 3. It will help us to become leaders and to
develop other leaders if we remember that each
person is just as responsible as anyone else in the
world for doing whatever needs to be done. The
lazy habit of blaming someone else for the un
satisfactory conditions we find about us, breeds
indolence, cowardice and hypocrisy. There are
no two standards of moral conduct to be found
in the Bible, one for preachers and one for lay
men. And there are no two standards of duty.
Christ asks of every disciple that he give his best
to the work of building the eternal Kingdom.
Any honest, prayerful attempt to get done any
thing that clearly needs to be done is a definite
step toward leadership. Ours is an absolutely
impartial God. He is no respecter of persons.
148

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
He will use anyone who is fit to be used and will
ing to be used. The marvel is that He is
able to use the men who do not have greater ap
parent fitness. But the one thing that most
completely hinders God and thwarts His plan is
unwillingness and disobedience on His people's
part. "Thy people are freewill offerings in the
day of Thy power, in the beauty of holiness."
— Psalm 110:3. God's power can only be re
leased through His people when they are in re
ality free-will offerings.
It is important to remember that God uses
human agency in all His work. He can, there
fore, use me in getting His message to others,
and the value of His message is not lost because
of the unworthiness or weakness of the messen
ger. My constant attitude should therefore be,
"Lord, what message would you send to this per
son and that? Shall I speak it for you?" It
will help us if we remember that very few people
ever get started in new forms of service until
called into them by someone else. It may be our
personal privilege to lead out many people into
types of work that they would never have under
taken but for our initiative and encouragement.
Most people who are now in the ministry or
mission field were first led to think of it by being
spoken to about it by someone. Are you in this
business? Christ says to all, "Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth
laborers into his harvest." And he wants us all
149

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
to work for the definite objects for which we
pray. A leader is one who sees the way, who goes
ahead, and who gets others to follow him. We
cannot get others to do what we do not do our
selves. And we cannot ordinarily get others to
go further in any course of action than we go
ourselves. Much practice is essential to efficiency in
leadership. Keeping eternally at it, one cannot
help but learn how to do it better. Most things
are best learned by doing.
God never could get Himself understood in
the world until He became incarnate. "No man
hath seen God at any time," yet Christ said, "He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father."
As incarnation was the divine method of
God's self-revelation through Christ, so is it His
method still of self-revelation through His fol
lowers. "As the Father hath sent me into the
world," said Christ, "even so send I you." Our
mission thus becomes merely a continuation and
completion of Christ's mission to the world.
The most inspiring conception that ever takes
possession of any human being is that we are
partakers of the divine nature "and workers
together with God" in building His eternal
Kingdom. The measure of incarnation is always the
measure of spiritual power. Paul was able con
sciously to say, "I am crucified with Christ, nev-
150

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
ertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me." When anyone in any age becomes thus
more conscious of Christ's indwelling personality
than of his own, he becomes an instrument
through which Christ can work in a mighty way
for the redemption of the human race.
4. Counsel with others and prayer together
concerning the will of God is one of the best
methods of successful leadership and of develop
ing leaders.
"In a multitude of counsellors there is safe
ty." Prov. 11:14.
"Where there is no counsel, purposes are dis
appointed: but in a multitude of counsellors
they are established." Prov. 15 :22.
"There are many devices in a man's heart,
but the counsel of Jehovah, that shall stand."
Prov. 19:21.
Under this classification would come all of
the best types of committee work in connection
with the Church and all Christian organizations.
Only a few committees take their work seriously
enough to grasp its possibilities. Routine busi
ness is pushed through as if it were merely to be
gotten rid of as expeditiously as possible. But
many of the best lessons of life are learned in
small groups of people who have some important
work to do together. If the members of any
such group will study their work in its possible
outreach and spiritual influence, and especially if
they will take unhurried time for prayer over the
151

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
work, and attempt to do it, not in a perfunctory
way, but in the best possible way, it will be
marvelous how it will open up and expand until
its possibilities seem almost without limit.
There is far too little of either counsel or
prayer together, by ordinary church members, in
congenial groups small enough for informality.
In connection with all such work, as the will of
God becomes clear, definite responsibility should
be assigned, and a time should be fixed when re
ports shall be made of work actually done. Many
persons can be led in this way to make personal
visits and do a large amount of splendid Chris
tian work, who if left to their own initiative,
would do nothing. We should not be satisfied to
give people mere routine work to do, such as
ushering, taking up the collection, and attending
meetings of committees or boards. Every Chris
tian needs to be ministering in a vital, personal
way to the spiritual needs of others, not only for
the good he can do, but in order to keep his own
heart warm with the love of God. As love is
expressed it grows.
5. One of the best methods of developing
workers and leaders is through helping people to
become real Bible students. One very helpful
method of doing this is by organizing a Personal
Workers' Bible Class of not more than about ten
members. The definite object of such a class is
to study the Bible for greater fitness for personal
Christian service and at the same time to agree
152

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
together to do some personal Christian work
each week, reporting the cases dealt with to the
class for united prayer. Every church ought to
have several classes of this type in constant op
eration. It would be far better in many cases for
the hour of the mid-week service to be used in
this way rather than in a so-called prayer-meet
ing, with only two or three formal prayers. It is
easier to get people to express themselves in a
small meeting than in a large one. And if they
can be seated around a large table, instead of in
stiff, formal, straight rows, it will be found to
make personal expression much easier and more
natural. Having found one's self in the small
meeting, it will be easier to undertake larger re-
ponsibilities as the powers and confidence are
developed. There is no more crying need in the Church
today than that the members generally should
learn how to feed on the Word of God for them
selves. Only a small fraction of Christians are
doing this and in this fact alone lies one of the
chief sources of weakness of the Church. People
cannot be healthy and strong without proper
habits of feeding. An army soon falls back if
its food supply fails. The ordinary method of
preaching does not stimulate personal Bible
study, and is not as a rule suggestive of how
to study the Word for one's self. Much of the
preaching of the day makes but scant use of
Scripture. A text is generally taken, but not in-
153

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
frequently it is chiefly used as a point of depar
ture. One could attend most of the churches for
many years, and not secure any comprehensive
grasp of the Bible.
A revival of appetite for the Bible must come
before the Church becomes the conquering force
she is intended to be. One of the greatest net
results of the Student Christian Movement of the
past generation has been the enlistment of many
thousands of students as observers of "The
Morning Watch." From fifteen to thirty
minutes each morning spent in prayerful Bible
study and in Bible-directed prayer makes the
whole day different and sooner or later makes the
whole life different. An excellent plan of daily
systematic reading by which the entire New
Testament may be read each year, and the Old
Testament every two years, is published by the
Laymen's Missionary Movement.
It has been suggested by some that this entire
work of leadership is so different from the work
of preaching that some layman should be em
ployed by each church to take charge of this de
partment. In most of the churches this is an
impracticable plan. And it is of doubtful value
in any case. What is most needed is volunteer
leadership and initiative developed on the part of
large numbers of people. If there is too much
employed and paid leadership, there is always
the risk of the balance of the members leaving all
the real work to such employees. The minister
154

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
holds the key to this situation in most cases. If
he will give even one full evening each week to
the one specific task of developing leaders in his
church, it need not be long until sufficient initia
tive is developed to set the whole membership at
work. Only as they are set at real service can the
rank and file of church members ever come to
their own in the life of the Church. Practically
all denominations at present are managed by the
preachers. This is unnatural and unhealthy.
God never intended the ordinary disciple to be
submerged in this fashion in His Church. Lay
men are just as responsible as preachers for per
sonal Christian service. But the traditions under
which we have grown up put the preacher on a
pedestal, out of touch with the people, and grad
ually the people have come to look to him to do
all the Christian work of the Church. This is
not only perilous, it is deadly. Only by the sense
of personal responsibility being developed among
the whole membership of the Church can we ever
hope to Christianize our civilization or to win the
world to faith in Christ.
The Theological Seminaries themselves, in
many cases, can hardly be said to be training men
to change these conditions. Some seminaries are
even filling the minds of their students with ques
tions and doubts rather than with unshakable
convictions and resistless spiritual power. Schol
arship is often exalted till it develops into ration-
155

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
alism. In many cases neither professors nor
students are keeping in vital touch with actual
present conditions and needs, through habitual
personal effort to lead men to Christ. It is as
impossible for a Theological Seminary to train
men for effective Christian leadership in the
ministry without actually working with them in
the salvation of others as it would be for a medical
college to prepare men properly for surgery
without having any clinics, or hospital practice.
The only way to save the seminaries is for the
professors and students to keep active in saving
the people. The model seminary was conducted
by Christ. It consisted largely in being with
Him as He went about His healing and saving
work. But we have gotten a long way removed
from His method. "Character is caught not
taught." No man is fitted to teach in any semi
nary who is not a soul-winner himself. From
some modern seminaries it is likely that the adop
tion of this principle would eliminate most of the
faculty. But it is not likely that the closing of
any such institution would be of any real injury
to the Church. Even in some of the colleges the
Bible is being taught in a way that is probably
doing more harm than good. Some earnest
Christian parents are very much concerned
about the effect of the Bible teaching which their
children are receiving in these institutions. It
seems passing strange that some professors have
no more ordinary sense of the fitness of things
156

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
than to fill the minds of young students
with all the doubts and questions and dif
ficulties that skeptical scholarship has raised
about the Bible, instead of spending their
time in a reverent and constructive study
of what the Book really contains and
teaches. The advice of a great teacher of the
past generation is both wise and timely : "Believe
your beliefs and doubt your doubts, but don't
doubt your beliefs and believe your doubts." To
much of the modern destructive criticism of the
Bible Josh Billings' remark would apply: "I
would rather not know so many things than to
know so much that isn't so."
If I were asked to summarize the principles
which successful leaders use in developing lead
ership in others, the following points would cer
tainly be included :
1. Believe in people. Remind yourself that
God has a definite and important work for every
disciple to perform. Recall the hesitating and
stumbling way in which you did the first real
work ever entrusted to you. Remember that
God's chief way of getting things done is through
very ordinary folks. Think of the unlikely
group that Christ took hold of and developed into
apostles. If you do not believe in the big possi
bilities in ordinary people, your leadership will
be sadly limited. According to your faith in
people will it be unto you.
2. Let people know that you believe in them.
157

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
What would you ever have become without the
faith in you that other people have shown ? What
about your mother? Has she not always be
lieved in you away beyond your own faith in
yourself? God trusts us with infinitely import
ant work. If we act for Him we must trust men
as He does.
3. Locate definite responsibility upon indi
viduals. Let there be no uncertainty about
just what is expected. Assignments should be
specific and accepted individually.
4. Have a definite time for reports, and call
for them in detail. It is only the most mature
leadership that can do its best work without the
necessity of reporting its efforts arid achieve
ments. 5. Work with the people whom you are try
ing to develop. To see you do the thing may in
dicate to them what no amount of descriptive
talk could do.
6. Pray with people over their specific tasks.
Somehow help them to realize that Christ is
working with and through all those who under
take the doing of His will. The highest leader
ship is that which is absolutely confident of
Christ's indwelling presence and outflowing
energy. Make all this clear from Christ's
promises, and let those whom you would help
realize that you have tested these promises and
found them to be utterly trustworthy.
7. Keep adding larger responsibilities as
158

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
they can be carried, always expecting a little
more of people than they can do alone. God asks
of us all more than we can do. We are respon
sible for letting Him work through us in a way
that reveals divine energies in operation through
human channels.
8. Show people not only your results but
your processes. They want to know how you go
at things. Many a man would help his students
more by giving his own experience than by filling
their minds with the results alone. To be all we
are capable of being and then to reproduce our
selves, is the highest kind of ministry. This is
preeminently what Christ did. And He says to
us: Be examples. Be object lessons. Be illus
trations of what I can do in a human life. Be
witnesses. 9. Keep growing yourself and expect every
body else to keep on growing.
The glory of the life in Christ is that it gets
bigger every day. We can never comprehend it,
much less exhaust it, in this world, no matter
how fast we grow. The more we grow the
more limitless Christ appears, and the less we
seem to have attained. One of the most sug
gestive addresses that has been published on
Leadership is by Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, the
present-day apostle to the Moslem World, en
titled "The Price of Leadership." The following
excerpts are made from this address as they
gather up so suggestively some of the main con-
159

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
ditions of entering into our priceless heritage in
the greatest of all enterprises :
"Missionary leadership, to my mind, is the
one solution of the whole missionary problem.
Not money, but men; not statistics, but dy
namics; not how many we can enlist, but how
much we can enlist in this enterprise, will give us
the victory.
"Missionary leadership does not depend upon
geographical location, because some of the
greatest missionary leaders today have never left
the place where they were born, and some of
them never left the town where they were
brought up.
"Nor does missionary leadership depend upon
wealth or 'social position or ecclesiastical pres
tige. A man need not be a bishop on the books to
be a bishop in missions. Although there are men
who are considered only laymen, we have had
them all down the ages that, without any ecclesi
astical position whatever, were head and shoul
ders above all the men of their generation in mis
sionary leadership. Think of Carey, the cobbler;
think of Raymond Lull, a layman in the days of
the Popes, when men swore by ecclesiastical posi
tion ; and the only name we remember in the thir
teenth century is not the name of a Pope, or an
inquisitor, or a crusader, but of that lonely lay
man, Raymond Lull, the first missionary to Mos
lems. "What, then, is the price of missionary lead-
160

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
ership? I think the price of missionary leader
ship includes seven elements. VISION
"The first price of missionary leadership is
vision. As soon as you see something that
everybody else cannot see and won't see,
then God is baptizing you to leadership
in that thing. Carey saw the whole world
when Sidney Smith only saw the pavements of
London. Henry Martyn saw India and Persia
and Arabia and Barbary and North Africa, a
vision of the Moslem world, when the rest of the
Church was blind. DECISION
"But vision alone only makes a man vision
ary, and God deliver us from visionary men on
missions! After vision comes decision. Every
one of those great heroes in the eleventh chapter
of Hebrews was a man of decision. They saw, and
then they considered. When Moses saw the burn
ing bush he did not write poetry. He went out
and led God's people through the weary wilder
ness. When Abraham saw the city that hath
foundations he laid the foundations for God's
church right there in his own household. And if
you and I catch the vision of the missionary pos
sibilities, then, like Carey, we must put that vis
ion in our cobbler's shop and start to realize it.
KNOWLEDGE
"And the third price of leadership is knowl-
161

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
edge. All the missionary leaders today in this
country have risen to missionary leadership by
the fact that they know. The greatest foe to
business leadership is superficiality. A man who
does not know banking will never be a banker.
If you know more about missions than, your
Board secretary does, they will put you in his
place. If you know more about missions than
any man in your town you can get their hearing.
It is sheer ignorance on the part of a lot of us
that deprives us of missionary leadership.
PASSION
"And the fourth fact in missionary leadership
is passion. It is not only to see, it is not only to
set your jaw and plant your foot and say, 'I will
do it,' it is not only to know the road, but you
have got to put on some speed. The leader is
the one who keeps ahead.
If you want to make people follow your leader
ship you must actually do what Christ did, have
compassion on the multitude. The pathos of the
whole thing is enough to keep us warm on the
subject. Think of John Knox, that great mis
sionary leader of Scotland. They say he used to
kneel and pray in his little room, and he would
call out to God and say, 'Oh, God, give me Scot
land or I die.' Well, God gave him Scotland
though he died, and John Knox has got Scotland
today. And so if we will pray in that fashion
and live in that fashion, with the passion for mis-
162

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
sions, we will be leaders. The swiftest ships that
cross the Atlantic are not those that have the
finest captains or the finest cabins ; they are sim
ply those ships where the boilers are fed with
the greatest consumption of coal, where the fires
burn fiercely. And that man will keep ahead
who, with Henry Martyn, is quietly burning out
for God. SACRIFICE
"And then the next price to pay for missions
is not only knowledge and passion but sacrifice.
That is where the leaders particularly fail, self-
sacrifice; nothing pulls so much as the print of
the nails and the mark of the spear. We foreign
missionaries can get our native helpers, as we
call them, to do anything that we will do first.
You can get your church to give anything to
missions if quietly, unobtrusively, you have done
it first. SELF-EFFACEMENT
"And then a price to pay which is still greater
and still harder to pay and that is most funda
mental, is self-effacement. The thing that
guides the ship is the oak rudder away
down below the water. There are men whose
names are not on the church rolls as missionary
leaders, but who quietly have changed the poli
cies of their local churches, and quietly have
changed the lines of missionary activity simply
by the willingness to efface themselves as long as
163

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
the work is done. A man who seeks prominence
is not a leader; a man who seeks results is a
leader. A demagogue is not a leader; a states
man is a leader. Lincoln was a leader, the most
modest president we ever had. And so you can
go down the list of missionary leaders at home
and abroad and you will find that those men are
missionary leaders who are willing to efface
themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God,
willing to suffer anything so long as the great
cause is advanced, who do not count personal
plans when they interfere with the plans of the
Kingdom of God. LONELINESS
"And finally, the last price to pay is the hard
est, and that is loneliness. The leader is the one
who keeps ahead. Did you ever see men run
ning a race? The man who keeps ahead has no
encouragement. All he has is the weary road.
The fellows behind him, the man away behind,
try to catch up with the leader, but the loneliest
man on the turf is the man who runs ahead or
alone. The loneliest ship on the Atlantic is the
ship that sails fastest. And the loneliest man
in your denomination tonight is the man who
sees the vision of what your denomination could
do. And the loneliest missionary in Korea or
Japan or Arabia is the man who sees what the
others cannot see yet. But the price of leader
ship is always loneliness. There is a loneliness
164

WHY THE BATTLE HALTS
of the desert, and there is a loneliness of the
sea, and there is a loneliness of a great city.
But there is no loneliness so great as the loneli
ness of a great idea that nobody else has caught
and only you can see."
I have quoted thus extensively from Dr.
Zwemer for two reasons. First, he says the
thing in the briefest, strongest way, I have found
it said in print; and second, he illustrates in his
personality to a remarkable degree, the very ele
ments of leadership that he describes.
President Garfield said: "To a young man
who has in himself the magnificent possibilities
of life, it is not fitting that he should be per
manently commanded; he should be a command
er. You must not continue to be employed; you
must be an employer."
"You don't know what you can do until you
try," said David Livingstone.
"Attempt great things for God," said William
Carey.
"One thing makes the years its pedestal.
Springs from the ashes of its pyre, and claps
A skyward wing above its epitaph —
The will of man willing immortal things.
The ages are but "baubles hung upon
The thread of some strong lives — and one slight wrist
May lift a century above the dust."

165

Personal Service, the Only Adequate Re
sponse to the World's Need
The divine method of revealing truth and
propagating it is by its incarnation in human
life. God never was understood until He was
manifest in the flesh.
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of
the only begotten from the Father) , full of grace
and truth." John 1:14.
The work of revealing God is still done chief
ly through the indwelling of Christ in the life
of his disciples. "As the Father hath sent me
into the world even so send I you," was Christ's
description of our mission. "If anyone would
knock at the door of my breast," said Luther,
"and say, Who lives here? I would not reply
Martin Luther, but the Lord Jesus Christ."
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is
no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me,"
was Paul's explanation of his Christian life.
That this experience of the indwelling Christ is
no mere figure of speech, but a tremendous re
ality, is made convincingly clear in Christ's own
promise: "If a man love me, he will keep my
word; and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him and make our abode with him."
John 14:23. 166

PERSONAL SERVICE
The exclamation of Helen Keller is but the
echo of the surprise we must all have felt: "I
often wonder how God can silence keep, while
sin keeps stalking through his house of time."
There is no greater occasion of wonder than this
in the world. And yet is the explanation not to
be found in this self-imposed limitation of God,
that he must be reincarnated in some human
life in order to be revealed to men and to accom
plish his will of destroying sin?
Disciples are essentially simply human trans
mitters of the divine truth and life. There is a
Marconi wireless station at New Brunswick, N.
J., one of a chain of stations that is planned
ultimately to reach around the globe. The elec
tric power to operate this great plant passes
through two small cables not more than three-
quarters of an inch in diameter. This enormous
energy does not require any very pretentious
means of transmission. All it needs is a suitable
medium, together with perfect insulation, and
perfect contact with the source of power. Men
and women are the chosen medium for the trans
mission of God's truth and life into this world.
They also need to fulfill these two conditions of
perfect insulation from the sinful world, and
perfect contact with their source of power. But
under these simple conditions, there is no limit
to the amount of spiritual dynamic they may
transmit. Some one sums up the whole Christian life
167

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
in four words: Admit, Submit, Commit, Trans
mit. Admit Christ, Submit to His will, Commit
your life to Him, Transmit His life to others.
The reason why the Kngdom of God does not
come with power in the world is that the trans
mitters are not working well. There is power
enough. God has not failed. The cross is suf
ficient. The love of God is infinite and includes
all His creatures. Not one word has failed of His
promises. The whole difficulty is with the' trans
mitters. Somehow the life of God is impeded in the
human channels through which He means it
freely to flow. An old illustration has helped to
make this vivid to my own consciousness. If
there were only one Christian in the world now,
and he were to win one other within a year and
these two were each to win one other during .the
next year, and this process were continued, every
convert adding only one other each year, the
whole world would be Christian in less than
thirty years ! Why then has it taken the church
nineteen centuries to carry out Christ's commis
sion to make disciples of all the nations? There
can only be one explanation. The church has not
been doing its divinely-appointed work. And it
is not doing it now. It is only the exceptional
church member who is even trying to win others
to a vital faith in Christ. In some way this must
all be changed, and disciples generally must be
come witnesses and workers. 168

PERSONAL SERVICE
Christ is not going to change his plan. At
the first he said, "Ye shall be my witnesses to the
uttermost part of the earth." This is a prophecy
as well as a commission. In another significant
passage he said, "This gospel of the Kingdom
shall be preached throughout all the world." The
work is going to be done, and it is going to be
done by willing human agents. The fulfilment of
the program of Christ and the redemption of the
world alike await the consecration of the mem
bers of the church to personal Christian service.
No human intuition or calculation can estimate
how speedily the Kingdom of Christ would come
everywhere if the members of the church made
this work actually their first business. There
would be a continuous revival in every church
until all the people within its reach had been
evangelized, and then its workers and its wealth
and its prayers would be poured out unstintedly
to secure a similar result in every other commu
nity in the world. This would be real Chris
tianity. And all that is needed to bring it about
is to clean up and insulate the transmitters and
keep them in contact with the central power
house. Let us think also of the powerful reaction of
personal service upon character, upon estimates
of value, upon habits of prayer, upon depth of
spiritual conviction.
No one can go far in attempting to reveal
Christ to others without feeling afresh the need
169

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
of Christ in the salification of his own life.
For character is not only or chiefly taught; it is
caught. "The depth from which our words are
spoken is the measure of the depth at which
they will be heard." The value of our work
for God depends on the degree of our intimacy
with Him at the time we do it. Emerson's state
ment is too often literally true: "What you are
speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."
Unless a person is a message he cannot speak
a message of any power. One of the best meth
ods therefore of saving one's self is to give one's
self unreservedly to the helping and saving of
others. Many a man has been greatly helped in
his own fight with temptation by the knowledge
that compromise means spiritual impotence.
There is no other way in which the highest char
acter can be so speedily and surely developed as
to abandon one's self to a life of personal service.
How quickly one's standards of value are re
adjusted and corrected by actual experience in
saving the lost! No longer is it possible then to
think of material possessions as worthy of one's
first thought and effort. Selfish ambition is dis
solved in the love that goes out, not to be minis
tered unto, but to minister, and to give one's life
for the rescue of others. Worldly pleasures that
seemed irresistible in their fascination not only
lose their glamour, but many of them become
silly and repulsive in the presence of the joy of
winning even one priceless life for Christ and
170

PERSONAL SERVICE
righteousness. The business that seemed so com
pelling yesterday is in its proper place of sub
ordination today. The money I spent lavishly
for personal pleasure or luxury yesterday, I am
studiously saving today to use in hastening the
Kingdom of my Lord. Nothing can take the
place of actual personal witnessing and service
in helping a person thus to see truth whole. It is
safe to say that the entire financial problem of
the Church would be solved instantly, if Chris
tians generally "first gave their own selves to the
Lord" and to His service in a personal way.
The direct effect of service on personal
habits of prayer is equally striking. It is when
one gets into active co-operation with God that
he feels the need of God as never before. If you
want to be driven to prayer, undertake some
serious spiritual service. And the doubt and
hesitation and questioning of men would soon
give place to overwhelming conviction and spirit
ual certainty, in the presence of the actual mira
cles that are still wrought in the transformation
of human lives by the divine Christ. The men
who are spending their time raising doubts about
the authority of the Scriptures and the divinity
of Christ are not the men who are leading men
out of bondage into liberty. "By their fruits ye
shall know them."
Another powerful motive to urge as an in
spiration to Christians to give themselves to seri
ous, personal effort for others, is that we thus
171

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
come into most vital fellowship and con
scious co-operation with God himself.
"My Father woketh hitherto, and I work,"
expressed Christ's sense of oneness with His
Father in ceaseless activity. Through the gen
erations God has been at work leading mankind
back into knowledge of Himself and into person
al reproduction of his own life of holiness. Every
one who gives his life to this great end becomes
a constructive worker with God in his unfolding
plan of redemption for the world. And no one
can in any large measure become a "partaker of
the divine nature" without of necessity letting
that nature express itself by becoming an active
partner in the divine program. There is bound
to be an absolute relation between our living the
life of God and our doing the work of God.
All of God's work is universal in its bearings.
His field is the world. And he cannot confine
Himself to a part of the field. Nor can man
if he partakes with any fullness of the
divine nature. "No man discovers himself
until he identifies himself with universal
ends." The work that I do today is meant
to have its bearings on all the world and
on all the future. No longer can life's work be
humdrum or commonplace. "They that turn the
world upside down have come hither also." It
would have been a great thing to be with God
and to work with Him when He was creating the
heavens and the earth. Is it not an even greater
172

PERSONAL SERVICE
privilege to be with Him and to work with Him
now in the creation of the new heavens and the
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? And
this is not only the privilege but the urgent call
and duty of every disciple of Christ.
Those who build with God are securing abid
ing and eternal results of their labor. The deep
est needs in the world are spiritual needs. The
most powerful forces in the world are spiritual
forces. The only permanent values in the world
are spiritual values. Every one is facing in
evitable and eternal bankruptcy except as he in
vests his life and his treasure in something that
is spiritual. We brought nothing into this world
and it is certain we shall carry nothing out in the
the way of material treasure. The only things we
can take with us as an eternal possession will be
our own characters and the lives of others made
better by our touch. How utterly reasonable
and fundamental then is the teaching of our
Lord: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume, and where
thieves break through and steal, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves
do not break through nor steal: for where thy
treasure is there will thy heart be also." Matt.
6:19-21. William W. Borden had nearly a million
dollars left to him, and he had it in his own
absolute right while still a student at Yale. For-
173

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
tunately he had discovered the blessedness of
giving himself to Christ in personal service of
others. And this restrained him from any os
tentatious or extravagant use of his wealth. He
gave largely to the support of a rescue mission in
New Haven, and better than his gifts of money
was his more expensive gift of time and life to
the winning and saving of enslaved men.
When a student in Princeton Seminary, he
was asked by a fellow-student one day why he
did not get a touring car, when he could so well
afford it. Borden's stern reply was: "Get thee
behind me, Satan." It was not the first time the
devil had tried to get this young man to follow
the popular drift in self-indulgence and extrava
gance. A little later he went on to say, "How can
I allow myself this unnecessary luxury, when the
money it would cost would build a hospital in
China?" With such rigid self-control he went on to the
very end of his life, with the purpose of invest
ing himself and his fortune in the evangelization
of the Moslems in China. And when he was sud
denly called to higher service while completing
his preparation in Cairo, he had already made
his will, leaving his entire earthly possessions to
continue the work to which with such fidelity he
had devoted his life.
Did he make a mistake? Does he regret now
what he did here? Or are ten thousand others
making the mistake who have equal opportunity
174

PERSONAL SERVICE
but who are wasting their wealth in pleasure
and luxury?
Any argument for doing anything at all to
extend the Kingdom of Christ is an argument
for doing all of which one is capable. Mackay
of Uganda did not overstate the case when he
said, "If Christianity is worth anything it is
worth everything. If it calls for any measure of
warmth and zeal, it will justify the utmost de
grees of these. There is no consistent medium
between reckless atheism on the one side and the
intensest warmth of religious life and effort on
the other." The trouble is that men do not take
seriously Christ's call to co-operate with Him.
They act as if the main issue of life were busi
ness or politics or personal pleasure. There is
not the slightest ground for such a conclusion
from the teachings of our Lord.
"If any man serve me, let him follow me."
"Come ye after me, and I will make ye fish
ers of men."
"He that abideth in me, the same beareth
much fruit."
"Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not
all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
"Whosoever saveth his life shall lose it, and
whosoever loseth his life for my sake and the
gospel's, the same shall save it."
The peculiar significance of the missionary
appeal in this connection is that it constitutes
the supreme challenge to personal service, inas-
175

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
much as it includes all the unfinished work of
God in the world. Those Christian leaders are
employing only the simplest strategy of the situ
ation by using the compelling force of the entire
world's need as an appeal to every individual
Christian to give himself without reserve to the
completion of this great world-enterprise. The
biggest thing in the world is the world. If the
appeal of the whole world's need is not sufficient
to arouse and enlist the service of men, what les
ser appeal is likely to be adequate? The possible
forms of personal service are so many and so
varied as almost to make classification or de
tailed description impossible. Only to the eyes
opened by Christ's compassion to the human
needs that touch us on every hand will these op
portunities be fully seen or appreciated.
1. First in importance are to be mentioned
the people with whom we are thrown naturally
into contact, those in our homes, our neighbors,
those in our places of business, those whom we
meet in social or professional life, those whom we
meet in travel. How many of these have unmet
spiritual needs to which we may minister?
How many of them are living at peace
with God, in victory over temptation,
and in harmony with God's plan for
their life? It is ours to live with our hearts
alert to all these needs, and our wills responsive
to any opportunity that may open to minister
to them. More than this. It is ours to seek the
176

PERSONAL SERVICE
opportunity of helpfulness and not always wait
for it till it comes of itself. Christ came to seek
and to save that which was lost. He went about
doing good. He made doing good his habitual
business. And no one who does this will need to
go very far to find someone who needs help.
2. The second natural field of spiritual oppor
tunity is in connection with one's own church.
A prayerful study of the ways in which one can
be of the largest service through this agency will
doubtless reveal much that waits on willing
hands and hearts. Are all the members of my
church at rk for God? Is the Church really
reaching ana winning the people of the commu
nity? What needs to be done to make the church
fulfil its mission more perfectly to the commu
nity and to the world? How can I take hold to
help it realize these possibilities?
I have heard of a church which year after
year made a report something life this:
"Given to Home Missions, nothing.
"Given to Foreign Missions, nothing.
"Added to the Church on confession of their
faith, not any.
"But thank God we're about holding our
own!" In the name of all that is vital in religion,
how long will it take a church to win the world
that is satisfied with "about holding its own?"
3. I am a member of a community. My
spiritual influence ought to reach out and be
177

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
helpful to all the churches and to the interde
nominational work that may be going on. Has
my church some experience that might be of
value to the neighboring churches? We are all
engaged in the work of Christ. Our work will
be more effective if it is sympathetic, correlated,
co-operative. If the world is my field, I am in
terested in the highest efficiency of every Chris
tian agency that is cultivating that field. I am
not thinking primarily about building up any one
church or denomination, but about building up
Christ's universal Kingdom. If it would help
along that Kingdom as a whole for my church
to be absorbed into some other church, I will be
ready to yield mere sentimental objections to
such an adjustment. My zeal is for Christ and
his cause, not for any particular human agency
that may be co-operating.
In the war against sin in the world all the
churches are or ought to be real allies. It would
not be more insane in the European war for the
Allies to ignore or hamper or compete with each
other, than for the churches to act in such a
spirit. 4. I belong to a denomination or communion.
This is only one of the regiments in Christ's
army. What can I do to make my whole regi
ment more efficient? Can I help in the setting
up of higher standards? Is the emphasis right
in my communion? Is the main drive for the
whole Kingdom or is some smaller horizon limit
ing the view? 178

PERSONAL SERVICE
Is my Church doing its part to save America?
Is it taking its share of burden for the rest of the
world? When we get together in our official
church meetings, is the dominant issue the com
pletion of Christ's world-program?
5. I belong to certain Christian organiza
tions within the church, such as the Sabbath
School, the Adult Bible Class, the Young People's
Society, the Young Men's Christian Association.
Are all these organizations with which I am con
nected possessed with the spirit of complete loy
alty and obedience to Christ? What can I do to
bring them up to this point?
6. I belong to a Christian nation. What is
my nation's mission to the world? Is that mis
sion being fulfilled? How can I influence public
opinion so that its mission may be more com
pletely accomplished? How can I help to Chris
tianize the whole life of my own country, both
for its own sake, and for its influence on the
world ?
7. I belong to the Church universal. How
can I make the churches of other nations strong
er? What points of contact have I that can be
used to inject new life and spiritual power into
the churches of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, of
South America? What dangerous tendencies are
there in the life of the various churches of the
world today? And how may I best help to
change these tendencies?
In short, what most need to be done in the
179

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
world, and where can I take hold to get it done?
This is no fancy picture of the opportunity
of personal service open to every Christian. The
Kingdom of God is an absolute democracy. God
is no respecter of persons. Anyone anywhere
with anything to give, may give it to the whole
world if he will.
We are workers together with God. We are
sharers in all that God is trying to get done.
There is no limitation upon our prayers or our
service except what we impose upon them our
selves. There are four questions which I have been
asking of my own heart in the recent months. I
am persuaded that they are fair questions and
that they strike at the root of our problems.
1. How long would it take to make my com
munity really Christian, if every other follower
of Christ worked at it and prayed about it just
as I do?
2. How long would it take to make my whole
nation really Christian, if all Christians gave
their prayers and efforts and money toward it
just as I am doing?
3. How long would it take to plant the
Church of Christ in every community in the
world and make disciples of all the nations, if
all other Christians were to give this great pro
gram of Christ the place in their lives that it has
in mine? 4. And the fourth question may cut deeper
180

PERSONAL SERVICE
still. Have I any moral right to expect or de
mand of any other Christian, even of preachers
and missionaries, any service or sacrifice for
Christ that I am unwilling to give myself?
It seems to me that any Christian who
asks or demands of any other Christian any serv
ice or sacrifice which he is not willing to share
must be either a coward or a hypocrite.
The work of winning the world to Christ is
my work, as really and as fully, as it is the work
of anyone else. Let me not avoid it or shirk it
in any way.
It is not a question of where I live or what my
profession is that determines the quality of my
life ; it is my central and con-trolling life-purpose.
And that can be right, no matter where I live or
what I work at to pay expenses.
There is one other reward of personal spirit
ual service that is of great value. Only as we work
for God, do we become actually conscious that the
Spirit of God is dwelling in us and doing His
work. He was promised at the beginning to
equip Christians for witnessing. It is as they
actually witness that His power is felt and re
vealed. The gift of the Spirit is to be accepted
by faith. But the work of the Spirit if unhin
dered, will soon produce fruit that can be seen.
The possibilities of wide-reaching usefulness
are so great, for laymen, as well as for ministers,
that if we only had the faith to see them in ad
vance, it would seem that our utmost interest
181

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
and enthusiasm would be enlisted. Perhaps I
cannot better help to indicate some of these pos
sibilities than by brief sketches of some of the
devoted Christian laymen whom it has been my
privilege to know in a rather intimate way.
Three of the men whom I will mention have al
ready gone to their eternal reward, but at least
one is still in the midst of the fight here.
During ten years of service in Calcutta, In
dia, I was intimately associated with Mr. Kali
Charan Banurji. He was born a Kulin Brah
min, the highest among the high, in his social
standing. One of the privileges of this class of
Brahmins is that they are allowed to have a wife
in each village that they visit in their priestly
work. In the exercise of this prerogative, the
grandfather of my friend had sixty wives.
In the good providence of God young Mr. Ba
nurji was sent to the Scotch college in Calcutta
for his education, while Dr. Alexander Duff was
at its head. The student found before he left
college that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and that the eternal God is revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. Though he was vio
lently opposed by his family and friends, he open
ly confessed Christ in baptism. When I met
him — years later, he was a practicing lawyer of
the highest standing, and an honored lecturer on
law in some of the leading colleges of Calcutta.
But his heavy regular work was not allowed to
prevent him from doing all sorts of Christian
182

PERSONAL SERVICE
work. He was President of the Student Young
Men's Christian Association of Calcutta and
gave unstintedly of his time to the work at the
student building. He was the recognized leader
in the open air evangelistic work at Beadon
Square, Calcutta, for many years. No man was
more in demand for religious addresses of every
sort. He was much of the time leading one or
more Bible Classes each week. He was also one
of the chief leaders in the Indian National Con
gress. So deeply was he respected by Hindus
and Moslems as well as by Christians, that he
was selected to the high honor of Registrar of
Calcutta University by the votes of these men.
His public services to the community and the na
tion were so conspicuous that a prominent Hindu
gentleman on his death, left a substantial an
nuity to Mr. Banurji for the rest of his Hfe. On
one great occasion when the whole community
was doing him special honor, Hindus and Mos
lems being the great majority of all the vast
assembly present, he brought the whole meeting
up to a magnificent climax by saying in his re
sponse to all the praise that had been heaped
upon him, "If any of these kind things are true
that you have been saying about me, — I owe it
all to Jesus Christ."
Though he came straight out of heathenism,
he became one of the rarest Christian characters
that it has ever been my privilege to meet.
Though he was a self-supporting layman, he
183

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
probably did more to promote the Kingdom of
God in Calcutta than any one of us who were
there as foreign missionaries. Though he has
now been received into glory, his testimony and
his influence abide in power among multitudes of
people throughout India.
In the year 1906 there was a young business
man in the city of Washington who had been de
veloped in connection with the Christian Endeav
or Society and the Young Men's Christian Asso
ciation to a point where the vision of the world's
need had taken deep hold of him and he was
looking about to discover how he could help to
meet it. He was only about thirty years of age,
did not have the advantages of a college educa
tion, had neither wealth nor social prestige, but
he was deeply in earnest and had the faith and
courage to find a way or make a way to put
through any plan that he believed the Lord want
ed undertaken. He kept his eye out for signs
of God's moving and tried to be responsive to
spiritual calls and opportunities.
He was deeply impressed by a great conven
tion of more than 1000 men of the United Pres
byterian Church held in Pittsburgh in 1905.
This was probably the first of the big modern
missionary conventions of men. It proved to
him that large numbers of laymen could be deep
ly moved by the missionary situation and ap
peal. With this at work in his mind, he at
tended the International Student Volunteer con-
184

PERSONAL SERVICE
vention held in Nashville in February, 1906.
When he saw that great company of some thou
sands of students from all over the United States
and Canada, sitting through four days of intense
consideration of the world-situation, and their
personal relation to it, he had an inspiration,
or vision. He said to himself, if the serious
Christian laymen of America could see the
world as these students are seeing it, they would
gladly furnish the funds and the prayer to back
this magnificent young life in the great enter
prise looking toward healing the hurt of the
whole race. And there in this one man's soul the
Laymen's Missionary Movement was born, that
within ten years has spread its influence over
the world.
As yet no one knew about it but himself.
But he returned to Washington and consulted
his warm friend, S. W. Woodward, who shared
with him the conviction that something must be
done. The next step was a trip to New York
and Boston to consult other trusted advisers. In
November of that year the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions was to cele
brate their Centennial. The Chairman of that
Board, Mr. Samuel B. Capen, warmly welcomed
the proposal to do something to enlist laymen
more fully and deeply in missions. And so it
came about very naturally that at the celebration
of the Board held in New York, one special ses
sion was given up to a discussion of Laymen and
185

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
Missions. It was also arranged that in con
nection with this series of meetings there should
be one session to which selected laymen from
all the communions would be invited. Strange as
it may seem, it was announced as a meeting for
prayer over the missionary situation, to be fol
lowed by informal conference. The meeting
was on the afternoon and evening of Nov. 15,
1906, in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church,
New York. The day was very wet and stormy,
and only about seventy-five men were present,
of whom only one was a minister, the assistant
pastor of the church where the meeting was
held. There was only one address given on this
eventful day. Much of the afternoon was spent
in prayer. This was followed by conference on
what ought to be done to enlist the laymen of the
Church to take their proper part in the world
wide propagation of Christianity. Before the
evening meeting closed a series of resolutions
was adopted, calling into existence the Laymen's
Missionary Movement, and appointing the nu
cleus of the Executive Committee.
It was only during its wonderful opening
years that John B. Sleman, Jr., remained on
earth to share in the development of this provi
dential movement, for he was called home at the
early age of thirty-seven. But he lived to see
his vision fulfilled in the beginnings at least of
the modern uprising of laymen for world-con-
186

PERSONAL SERVICE
quest. He had accomplished far more at the
age of thirty-seven than most men do who live
twice as long. And the influence of his work
will go on forever.
Only second in vital importance to Mr. Sle-
man in the organization of the Laymen's Mis
sionary Movement, was Mr. Samuel B. Capen,
of Boston, to whom reference has already been
made. He was a carpet merchant for paying
expenses, but no one could come into real contact
with him without feeling that the real business
of his life was building the Kingdom of God. In
years when active Chrstian laymen were scarce,
he stood out as one among a million in his tire
less devotion to the work of the Church. And
he was one of the very first to see the necessity
for a great awakening among laymen as an es
sential condition of the Church going forward in
any adequate way.
He was made Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the Laymen's Movement when it
was first organized, as the man preeminently fit
ted for the position. Though he lived in Boston,
lie never missed one of the monthly meetings of
the committee in New York, unless through ill
ness. He left his business for several weeks dur
ing the National Missionary Campaign of 1909-
10, in order to attend the conventions and press
upon men their great privilege and duty to help
in evangelizing the world. He was on a trip
around the world to participate in special cam-
187

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
paigns in various fields in the Far East, when
he was suddenly called to his long home from
Shanghai, China, in January, 1914.
The men of this spirit are not all dead by
any means. A long list could be given of notable
instances of laymen now living who are influenc
ing the whole world by their lives. I will ven
ture to describe one of these who has been a
great inspiration to me, and also to many others.
Why should it always be necessary to wait until
men have gone from our sight, in order to hold
them up as inspiring object lessons of obedience
and faith?
A few years ago the Lord began to search
the heart of a successful young business man in
the Central West with questions about his life,
and his growing love of money, -and his neglect
of personal effort for the salvation of others.
The man had already found himself in business
and knew how to make money rapidly. He had
capacity for management and courage to under
take big new things, and poise and perseverance
to carry them through to proved success. When
only at middle-life with his best business years
ahead of him, an unusual missionary conviction
got hold of him.
One day when he came home, his wife told
him that their little boy had asked her a peculiar
question which she had not been able to answer.
And she wanted his help in answering it. The
question was this: "Why don't you and father
188

PERSONAL SERVICE
and I go as missionaries?" They sat up long
into the night trying to find the answer. And
they finally decided that there was no answer.
And so they went. They bought a trunk full
of missionary books, and tickets around the
world, and started out to see where they could
fit into the great world-enterprise. Before leav
ing home they made it a matter of record, that
if the Lord would show them a place on the mis
sion field itself where he wanted them, they
would remain there. But if not, they would come
back and live here at home in the same spirit of
obedience to Christ as if they had stayed at the
battle front.
No clear opening came for them on the mis
sion fields. But in obedience to their determina
tion, when they returned, they sold their beauti
ful home, and began to seek some relation to
the organized missionary agencies that would
enable them to fulfill their purpose.
In spite of discouragements which many
a man would have concluded were meant by God
to send him back into business, his faith held.
The way of service opened, and he has
been out at work with abundant evidence
of the divine inworking. He has turned over his
extensive business to managers, so that he gives
only his summer vacations to it. The other nine
or ten months of the year he is as busy planning
and executing great things for the world-wide
extension of the gospel of Christ as any ordained
189

MISSIONS AND LEADERSHIP
minister or board secretary. And God is using
him to bring inspiration and benediction to thou
sands of men in all the churches.
One of the most suggestive and challenging
life stories that has come in our day from the
pen of a layman has been written by him under
the title, "The Confessions of a Business Man."
No better brief piece of literature exists to set
laymen to thinking about their obligations to God
and to the world.
Perhaps this man might have earned
a million dollars or more, if he had stayed
in business. If he had made a million and
given it all to the missionary cause, it would have
been a small gift compared to the one he has al
ready made in the giving of himself. And be
cause he has been willing to obey God, even in
this unusual and striking manner, it would seem
that God has been able to employ him in a way
that very few other laymen in our generation
have been used.
I close these lectures with the two thoughts
with which I opened them, the two central facts
around which every Christian should build his
life:— 1. The world-field is the only field.
2. The Great Commission is the only com
mission. To meet humanity's unspeakable need, and
heal its mortal wounds, the Spirit of God today
is calling to every loyal disciple of Christ, saying,
190

PERSONAL SERVICE
"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
The only answer that can worthily meet the
challenge is for each blood-bought child of God
to answer: "Here am I; send me."
Unwithholding and unconditional acceptance
of God's plan and will by each one of us will in
evitably open up to us the highest and largest
service and satisfaction conceivable by the mind
of man and made possible by the infinite wis
dom and love of God.
Laid on Thy altar, O my Lord Divine,
Accept this gift today, for Jesus' sake;
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,
Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make,
But here I bring within my trembling hand
This will of mine — a thing that seemeth small,
But Thou alone, O Lord, canst understand,
How, when I yield Thee this, — I yield my all.
Hidden therein Thy searching gaze can see
Struggles of passions, visions of delight,
All that I have, or am, or fain would be, —
Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite.
It hath been wet with tears, and dimmed with sighs,
Clenched in my grasp till beauty hath it none;
Now from Thy footstool, where it vanquished lies,
The prayer ascendeth, — May Thy will be done!
Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail,
And merge it so in Thine own will that even
If, in some desperate hour my cries prevail
And Thou give back my gift, it may have been
So changed, so purified, so fair have grown,
So one with Thee, so filled with peace Divine,
I may not know, or feel it as my own,
But gaining back my will may find it Thine.
191

APPENDIX
List of Missionary Periodicals Recommended
1. The Missionary Magazine of Your Own Church.
2. The Missionary Review of the World. $2.50 a
year. Funk and Wagnalls, New York.
3. Men and Missions. 50 cents a year. Laymen's
Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Ave., N. Y.
4. Everyland, Magazine for Boys and Girls. 75 cents
a year. Missionary Education Movement, 156
Fifth Ave., New York.
5. International Review of Missions. $2.00 a year.
Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Ave.,
New York.
6. The Moslem World. $1.00 a year. Fleming H.
Revell Co., 156 Fifth Ave., New York.
Pamphlets Recommended
1. Why I Am Glad I Stopped Getting Rich. The
Confessions of a Business Man. 5 cents a copy.
Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Ave.,
New York.
2. The Life That Wins, by Charles G. Trumbull.
2 cents a copy, 20 cents a dozen. Sunday School
Times Co., Philadelphia.
3. The Price of Leadership, by Dr. S. M. Zwemer.
5 cents a copy. Student Volunteer Movement, 25
Madison Ave., New York. 192