tihvavy of die theological ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 •a^D' 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Rufus H. LeFevre 
 
 .7(o.FL>Z 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/churchsmarchingoOOflic 
 
RUFUS H. LEFEVER 
 
• ( JUN 11 1952 ^ 
 
 THE CHURCH'^ :;j|GALSiS# 
 
 .' 11 i< 
 
 5IGAL S^ 
 
 Marching Orders; 
 
 OK, 
 
 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS 
 
 Missionary Work. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. D. K. FLICKINGER. 
 
 DAYTON, OHIO: 
 
 UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 1879. 
 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1879, 
 
 BY REV. W. J. SHUEY, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at \rasblngton, D. C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page, 
 
 I. God's Reproof and Command to Israel. . - - 5 
 
 II, Much Land to be Possessed. ----- 12 
 
 III. Wisdom of Winning Souls. 19 
 
 IV. Solicitude for the Prosperity of Zion. - - - 25 
 V. Love to God and Covetousness Opposites. - - - SI 
 
 VI. Light and Beneficence of Christianity. - - - 37 
 
 VII. Christ's Compassion for Sinners. ----- 44 
 
 Vm. Teaching all Nations. ------- 50 
 
 IX. Preaching the Gospel to Every Creature. - - - 56 
 
 X. Good Tidings Announced by the Angels. - - 61 
 
 XI. Salvation by the Death and Resurrection of Christ. - 66 
 
 XII. Relation of the Holy Ghost to Missions. - - - 72 
 
 XIII. Paul's Indebtedness to his Fellow-men. - - - 78 
 
 XIV. Living for the Good of Others. - - - - 84 
 XV. Cost of Redemption. ------ 
 
 XVI. The Grace of Liberality. 
 
 XVn. Doing Good as we have Opportunity. - - - 
 
 XVm. Preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. - - 110 
 
 XIX. Caring for the Welfare of Others. - - - - 117 
 
 XX. Provoking One Another to Good Works. - 
 
 90 
 96 
 103 
 
 123 
 
 Ai^ 
 
The Cliurcli's MarcMng Orders. 
 
 I. 
 
 God's Reproof and Command to Israel 
 
 "And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? 
 speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." (Ex. xiv. 15.) 
 
 This language, spoken by the Almighty to Moses, 
 and through him to the Israelites, may be regarded as 
 both a reproof and a command, which the conduct of 
 the children of Israel made necessary. They had just 
 reached the Red Sea on their way from Egypt to Ca- 
 naan ; and with the sea in their front, impassable mount- 
 ains on either side, and the Egyptians, from whom 
 they were fleeing, immediately in their rear, their de- 
 struction seemed inevitable. In this the hour of their 
 peril, instead of trusting God and calmly waiting his 
 interposition as directed by Moses, they gave them- 
 selves to fault-finding, charging Moses with bringing 
 them into the wilderness to die. Hence the reproof and 
 command of the text — "Wherefore criest thou unto 
 me? speak to the children of Israel, that they go 
 forward." 
 
6 SUGQESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 The Israelites had the most positive proof that God 
 was willing and able to save them from their enemies, 
 and that he would bring them to their promised in- 
 heritance if they would trust and obey him. They 
 had just witnessed those remarkable miracles which 
 he had wrought in their behalf in Egypt, and had ex- 
 perienced deliverance from the most terrible bondage 
 by his almighty power. To murmur, doubt, and dis- 
 obey under these circumstances was very wicked. 
 But then, as now, God's people frequently displeased 
 him because of their failure to act their part in the ex- 
 ecution of his benevolent designs toward our race. 
 
 • God had asked the Israelites to do only that which 
 would better their condition, promote the good of others, 
 and glorify himself; and their hearty concurrence was 
 as little as they should have thought of rendering him. 
 So it is still. Christians are called to bear only such re- 
 sponsibilities and perform such work as will better 
 their condition, advance his cause among men, and 
 bring glory to his name. Doing the work which God 
 enjoins upon us will always better our condition, though 
 it may involve privation and suflering for a time. God 
 is able to make up to us all the pleasures we forego 
 for his sake, which he does when it is best. It is 
 a truth that "all things work together for good to 
 them that love the Lord." 
 
 Alas, too many Christians, like the Israelites, lack 
 faith in God, and too often indulge in a spirit of fault- 
 finding and murmuring at the work given them by 
 the Master. That which they are especially called to 
 do now is to give the gospel to all men, if it be ad- 
 mitted that Christ's last command is binding upon us. 
 And yet, how much fault-finding and complaining 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 7 
 
 there is respecting the missionary work. "The cost 
 is so great, and the success so little." " Missionaries 
 and those appointing them, and who have charge of 
 these interests, are not as discerning as they should be," 
 are among the complaints made. And some are ready 
 to say that Christianity must find its way into heathen 
 lands ..through commerce, or adventure, or by some 
 special Providential interposition, or in some other 
 way less costly and more successful than by sending 
 missionaries to them, as Christ commanded. 
 
 It is true that the conquest of earth to Christ is not 
 progressing as rapidly as it ought. And why ? Simply 
 because the church does not do its duty. The chil- 
 dren of Israel wandered about in the wilderness forty 
 years before entering Canaan, because their unbelief 
 and disobedience kept them from going up and pos- 
 sessing the land which G-od had promised them. They, 
 and not God, were at fault for being kept from their 
 inheritance so long, just as the church now, and not 
 Christ, is to blame that the heathen are not already its 
 inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth its 
 possession. God has promised this to the church as 
 certainly as he did the land of Canaan to the Israelites ; 
 and the work progresses slowly because the church 
 moves slowly. 
 
 Over eighteen hundred years ago Christ said to the 
 church, go forward — " Go ye into all the world." 
 And for a little while it did go; and so did the work go 
 forward gloriously. After that many centuries passed 
 through which comparatively little w^as achieved. 
 Indeed, from the first to the last century little was 
 done to extend Christianity. Even now but feeble 
 efforts are being put forth to accomplish this work. 
 
8 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 Did the church put forth twenty-fold more efiort it 
 would see corresponding results. Did it bring all 
 its tithes into God's store-house he would pour out a 
 blessing that there would not be room to contain. It 
 is no marvel that so little has been done, but a wonder 
 that so much has been accomplished considering the 
 feeble efforts put forth and the small amount of money 
 expended. One of the greatest inconsistencies of the 
 Israelites was that their professions and their prayers 
 did not correspond with their conduct. They cried 
 unto the Lord for deliverance, but still longed for the 
 flesh-pots of Egypt. Kot until reproved by the Al- 
 mighty did they put forth any effort to obtain the sal- 
 vation they prayed for. So is it with many in regard 
 to the missionary work. They pray that G-od may 
 send out his light and truth ; that his kingdom may 
 come; that idolatry, superstition, and all wickedness 
 may be destroyed, and the world be filled with the 
 glory of God. But alas, they do not pay much to 
 bring about this glorious end. A comparison of their 
 prayers with their contributions to the missionary 
 cause shows a great lack of harmony. Between what 
 they say and what they do there is positive disagree- 
 ment. 
 
 The Lord asked, "Wherefore criest thou unto me?" 
 while you put forth no effort to save yourselves — as 
 though he had said, " Cease your crying and go forward ; 
 the thing to be done now is not to cry, but to walk." 
 Did he speak to some Christians now it is probable he 
 would say, "Quit your asking or crying to me until 
 your contributions to my cause correspond with your 
 prayers. Less mouth and more purse work for mis- 
 sions ; less pretending and more executing ; less crying 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 9 
 
 to the Lord and more walking in the way of Ms com- 
 mandments. Show your faith in the power of the 
 gospel, and your desire to send it to the heathen by 
 giving as freely for this as for other enterprises that 
 receive so much money. A rich man who paid $900 
 for a substitute during the war pays annually only $2 
 for missions. He still prays the Lord to open the 
 world to the gospel, whereas it ought to be his purse 
 that should be opened. 
 
 I do not wish to speak lightly of the prayers of 
 Christians in behalf of missions, for this is a cause all 
 ought to pray for ; but when they are used as a substi- 
 tute for liberality they become solemn mockery before 
 God, and ought to be called by that name. God did 
 not receive the crying of the Israelites at the Red Sea 
 as an equivalent for obedience to his command to go 
 forward, l^either will he accept the prayers of his 
 people now as a substitute for large-hearted liberality 
 and earnest labor in behalf of his cause. So great is 
 the demand for money to plant and sustain missions, 
 and so ample are the means of Christians and the fa- 
 cilities to obtain them, that to give as sparingly as some 
 do, or withhold altogether, is a great sin, and one 
 that ought to be exposed. 
 
 Some may regard these statements as harsh, extreme, 
 and unwarranted in God's word. Far be it frem me to 
 indulge in misrepresentations or unnecessary severity. 
 But facts are stubborn things, and figures show what 
 facts are respecting giving money to missions. Only 
 one conference in the United Brethren Church gives 
 one dollar missionary money to the member, while the 
 average for the entire Church is about twenty-five 
 cents to the member. More than ten times as much 
 
10 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 as this is paid for useless and often injurious luxuries, 
 and by some of the poorest members we have. Ten 
 times twenty-live cents make two dollars and fifty 
 cents, which is much less than many poor people pay 
 for tobacco and for useless and sometimes wicked 
 amusements. A circus or show has frequently taken 
 more money out of Christians' pockets than the cause 
 of missions annually. Surely something should be 
 done to arouse the people from their lethargy, and 
 show them their sins in withholding money from 
 the cause of missions. A very few do their whole du- 
 ty, while a large majority do not give more than one 
 tenth what they ought, or nothing. 
 
 Contrast what we give for missions with what we 
 pay toward the support of the government and other 
 things, and the comparison will be most damaging to 
 us. It falls far below what many heathens and others 
 do for the support of idolatry and false religions, 
 and what they do for Christianity when enlightened 
 and truly converted to God. We even fall far below 
 what the Jews were required to give by law. Did we 
 give what they did for religious purposes, and did the 
 missionary cause receive its proportion, we would have 
 several times as much money for missions as now. It 
 is a reproach to many of the churches of America 
 that they are so penurious. There ought to be a 
 large increase of missionary zeal and liberality gener- 
 ally. The language, "Go forward," is peculiarly ap- 
 plicable to us as a church. The small degree of mis- 
 sionary zeal among us is seen in the fact that after all 
 the appeals made through our church-papers and other- 
 wise for years past to obtain funds to enter new fields, 
 we have been barely able to^ hold the ground we had 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 11 
 
 with small re-enforcements. Inviting fields have been 
 and still are open to us. Laborers are offering their 
 services ; but alas, we have no money to send them. 
 We ought to be alarmed at this state of things. "We 
 must go forward, or God can not long continue to 
 bless our eflbrts or continue us as instruments in his 
 hands to carry forward his work. God grant that we 
 will heed this call, and be happy and prosperous in the 
 work he has given us to do. 
 
12 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 II. 
 
 Much Land to be Possessed. 
 
 "There remainetli yet very much land to be possessed." (Josh, 
 xiii. 1) 
 
 This text in its original application refers to the sub- 
 jugation of those tribes inhabiting the land of' Canaan 
 at the time the children of Israel entered it, and which 
 they were commanded to extirpate. They had already 
 subdued thirty-one kings and taken from them their 
 possession. But these occupied only a small portion of 
 the country God had promised them, and hence the 
 work of conquest had barely commenced. Let us ap- 
 ply these words to the moral condition ot the world 
 and show that in this respect, also, "There remaineth 
 yet very much land to be possessed." 
 
 According to the most accredited census at the close 
 of the year 1877, the population of the earth is about 
 1,350,000,000. Of this number more than two thirds 
 are heathen, or rejecters ot Christ as the Savior of 
 the world. These are mostly without the light of the 
 gospel, and ignorant of the plan of salvation. They 
 have minds and hearts susceptible of intellectual and 
 moral cultivation, but in the absence of a correct 
 knowledge of God and the plan of salvation, teach- 
 ing them how to use the powers with which they are 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 13 
 
 endowed, so as to subserve tlie will of their Creator 
 on earth, and secure happiness in the world to come, 
 they grope their way down to death amid the greatest 
 degradation and ignorance. 
 
 Of God and his moral government, the gospel and 
 its blessings, religion and its joys, heaven and its 
 glories, hell and its torments, they know nothing, or 
 but little. It is true that Christ " by the grace of God 
 tasted death for every man," and "life and immortal- 
 ity were brought to light through the gospel," but 
 their ignorance of these glorious truths make them as 
 though they were not, so far as exerting any saving 
 power over their lives. They are not only destitute of 
 all correct knowledge of God, and their duty to him, 
 Rot only emptied of all that is good, but are filled 
 with all that is wicked. In the languages of script- 
 ure, " Their feet are swift to shed blood : destruction 
 and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace 
 have they not known." Such is heathenism ; and such 
 will it be to over one half of our race until the gospel, 
 which is the power of God unto salvation, yea, the 
 only power that elevates and saves mankind, is given 
 them. "Without it all else fails. Civilization, educa- 
 tion, and legislation utterly and forever fail to lift men 
 up and save them without the gospel. Here, then, 
 there is much land to be possessed by the church; and 
 the command of Christ to it is, " Go ye therefore, 
 and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 But now let us turn aside from this dark picture in 
 heathen countries a short time, to take a glance at the 
 spiritual destitution existing in the most enlightened 
 countries. In our own country, which is second to 
 
14 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 none, and far in advance of most others, there are 
 scores of places — in some instances large settlements, 
 especially in the far "West and South, — without 
 the stated preaching of the gospel, without Sabbath- 
 schools or any other of the restraining influences of 
 Christianity. The Savior taught that the poor should 
 have the gospel preached unto them, but- even in our 
 own favored land thousands of both temporally and 
 spiritually poor hear but little gospel. 
 
 It is a fact that many in our . midst are altogether 
 ignorant of what constitutes true piety. , They have 
 some indistinct ideas of , Christian obligation, but the 
 gospel has not been brought to bear upon them so as 
 to impress them with their duty to accept Christ as 
 their only Savior. The agencies for the diffusion of 
 Christianity and salvation of men, both in point of 
 number and efiiciency, fall far short of meeting the 
 moral wants of the people in even the most favored 
 portions of earth, while in the less favored, and es- 
 pecially in heathen lands, darkness, superstition, and 
 idolatry reign almost without a rival; so that look 
 where we may, "There remaineth yet very much land 
 to be possessed." 
 
 The following statistics will give some idea of the 
 moral condition of the world. There are 1,350,000,000 
 people on the earth. Of these about 200,000,000 are 
 Roman Catholics, 75,000,000 belong to the Greek 
 Church, 148,000,000 are Mohammedans, 7,000,000 are 
 Jews, and 150,000,000 are Protestants, while 770,000,- 
 000 are heathens or pagan proper, and largely made 
 up of Buddhists and other Asiatic religions- • Now 
 add the 7,000,000 Jewsandthe 148,000,000 Moham- 
 medans, making 155,000,000, to the 770,000,000 pa- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 15 
 
 gans and we have the startling picture before us 
 that 925,000,000 of the human race either know noth- 
 ing of or hope nothing in Christ, and that there are 
 but 425,000,000 Christians, which includes all found in 
 Christian lands excepting Jews. IlTow deduct from 
 this 425,000,000 all non-professors of religion and all 
 unworthy ones found in the so-called Christian lands, 
 and the number of real Christians is small. Not over 
 80,000,000, or one person in every seventeen, of the 
 entire, population of the earth are truly Christians, 
 leaving 1,270,000,000 who are not. What proportion 
 of these die in infancy and in other conditions render- 
 ing them absolutely irresponsible, — all of whom will 
 be'Saved, without a doubt, — we know not; yet the lan- 
 guage, " There remaineth yet very much land to be 
 possessed," is quite appropriate. 
 
 The following, clipped from a newspaper after the 
 above was written and which is quite recent, we add 
 just as we found it. It will be perceived that these 
 statistics differ in most particulars from those which 
 have been given: "A German collector of statistics 
 estimates the population of the earth at 1,340,145,000 
 souls, of -whom about 413,000,000 are Christians and 
 900,000,000. non-christians. Catholics number 210,- 
 000,000, and Protestants 115,000,000. Of the Greek 
 Church there are 80,000,000, and of other Christians 
 8,000,000. Jews are reckoned at 7,000,000, Moham- 
 medans at 120,000,000, and the heathen of all kinds 
 at .770,000,000." 
 
 The population of the world, as given by Behm 
 and Wagner in their late issue, is put down at 1,423,- 
 917,000, and apportioned as follows : Europe, 309,- 
 178,800; Asia, 824,548,590; Africa, 199,921,600; 
 
16 BuaaESTivE thouguts on 
 
 Australia and Polynesia, 4,748,600 ; America, 85,519,- 
 800. 
 
 But to understand the magnitude of tlie work to be 
 done before the church — Christ's tenant upon earth- 
 shall occupy all the land to be possessed, we must 
 consider the obstacles to be removed preparatory to 
 it. These are numerous and formidable, and array 
 themselves against Christianity with great force. Kot 
 only are there thousands of persons who single-hand- 
 ed and alone fight against the truth of God for the 
 purpose, mainly, of neutralizing its power on their own 
 hearts and preventing his Spirit from bringing them 
 into subjection to Christ, but there are many powerful 
 organizations, which command great learning, wealth, 
 and influence, and which are mighty engines for evil, 
 opposed to the onward march of true Christianity. 
 Among these are Catholicism, Mormonism, Juda- 
 ism, LFniversalism, and many other systems of error 
 too numerous to mention. These teach doctrines and 
 give freedom to conduct which are contrary to God's 
 word, and which suit fallen human nature so well as 
 to entrap many in their meshes. They quiet the con- 
 sciences and fetter the souls of men by the delusive 
 hopes which they inspire. I do not mean to say that 
 all who adhere to them are wicked and will be lost, 
 but that as organizations they are in their character 
 and tendency opposed to Christianity. In heathen 
 countries there are similar organizations, such as Bud- 
 dhism, Brahmanism, Mohammedanism, Polytheism, 
 image, beast, purrow, and devil worship, all of which 
 are in direct antagonism to Christianity. These sys- 
 tems of religion are often so interwoven with the po- 
 litical and social institutions of those countries as to 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 17 
 
 constitute a mighty barrier to the spread of Christian- 
 ity. 
 
 But besides these powerful organizations, found botli 
 in heathen and Christian lands, there are many other 
 great evils which, though not organized, are dragging 
 their thousands doAvn to perdition, such as intemper- 
 ance, slavery, covetousness, pride, and other evils, 
 which are in bitter hostility to the spread of religion, 
 and which must be destroyed among men before this 
 land will be possessed by the church of Christ. Yet this 
 work will be accomplished. These evils and systems 
 of evil will be brought to naught, and Christ will 
 reign King of kings and Lord of lords. I do not wish 
 to teach that all men will become Christians, for some 
 will resist the truth till the last, but that the gospel 
 will be so generally known and so far influence men 
 that it will root out all these evils and put such a 
 check to human depravity as to make it true that 
 Christ "shall reign where'er the sun does his suc- 
 cessive journej's run." 
 
 But what ought we do to facilitate this much-de- 
 sired end ? With the fact before us that millions are 
 perishing for want of the bread of life, and that the 
 Master commanded us to give the gospel to every 
 creature, and that multiplied thousands of the hea- 
 then, yea, millions are passing into eternity ever}' 
 year, amidst the greatest possible degradation and 
 wickedness, what is our duty? Is it not to pos- 
 sess the world for Christ at the earliest possible 
 period? One thing ought to put the blush upon our 
 faces; namely, the advocates of false religion are 
 often more self-sacrificing and untiring in their efforts 
 
18 SUGGESTIVE THOUGUTS ON 
 
 to promote their views than many Christians are to 
 promote the cause of missions. 
 
 But by what means may we best facilitate this 
 work? By personal piety, or giving the world a 
 consistent Christian life. There is great power in an 
 exemplary life. If all who name the name of Christ 
 would live out fully the principles of the Christian re- 
 ligion this would do much to facilitate the conquest of 
 earth to Christ. Much as the world needs precept 
 and doctrine, it needs example more. A living union 
 with Christ, making the life symmetrical and pure on 
 the part of professors of religion, will overcome the 
 opposition of the irreligious and win many hearts to 
 Christ. Christians who are living epistles, known 
 and read of all men, whose lives show that they have 
 been with Christ and learned of him, wield a power 
 for good that is irresistible ; and though some may 
 not be able to do much in other ways, all may through 
 grace give the world good examples. 
 
 But we may by personal effort and money do a 
 good deal also to save men. If the love of Christ 
 constrains us we will not only recommend this relig- 
 ion to others, but we will as we have ability con- 
 tribute of our means to save them. God might 
 have chosen other instrumentalities to make known 
 the gospel to the heathen, and thus have saved his 
 people the labor and expense of doing this work, but 
 for good reasons he has made them the channel 
 through which this is to be done; and this fact alone 
 is all the argument that a Christian ought to ask to 
 move him to earnest labor and large-hearted liberal- 
 ity for the world's evangelization. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 19 
 
 III. 
 
 Wisdom of Winning Souls. 
 
 "And he that winneth souls is wise." (Prov. xi. 30.) 
 
 This text will lead us to consider, (1) tlie moral con- 
 dition and circumstances of the soul; (2) the means 
 to be employed to win it to Christ; (3) the wisdom of 
 engaging in the work. The soul, according to the 
 history given by Moses, is the last and noblest work 
 of the Creator, so far as creation relates to our world. 
 It was after God had created the heaven and the 
 earth and all things contained therein that he said, 
 Let us make man, and let us make him in our own 
 image, and after our likeness ; and thus was he created 
 in the moral image of God. But Adam, into whose 
 nostrils God breathed the breath of life, and he became 
 a living soul, with Eve, his wife, soon fell from the 
 high and holy state in which they were created, and 
 became involved in darkness, bondage, and open re- 
 bellion against God. 
 
 In this sad condition are their posterity in their un- 
 saved state. " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered 
 into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed 
 upon all men, for that all have sinned." The soul, 
 therefore, is in darkness; and that it may be won to 
 Christ, light must be thrown into and around it. It is 
 
20 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 also in spiritual bondage, and must be liberated there- 
 from and brought into tlie liberty of God's people. 
 Then, too, it is in open rebellion against the authority 
 and government of Heaven, and must be induced to 
 ground its weapons of warfare and submit to God. 
 To be saved or won to Christ, it must swear allegiance 
 to his government and obey the laws of his kingdom 
 as these are taught and enjoined in the Holy Script- 
 ures. 
 
 This implies faith in God as the creator and gov- 
 ernor of the universe, faith in Christ as an all-sufficient 
 and willing Savior, a sorrow for sin that needs not to 
 be repented of, the renunciation of all that God's word 
 forbids, and the hearty submission of all to the service 
 of Christ. "If any man will come after me, let him 
 deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 
 "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 which is in heaven." Until 
 men are brought to do the will of God, — which they 
 never w^ll be until they are born into the kingdom of 
 Christ, — they are not won to him. They may be won 
 from much that is w^rong and to much that is good, 
 but nothing short of regeneration of heart wins them 
 to Jesus. 
 
 The means to be employed to accomplish this end. 
 This is to be done chiefly through the preaching of 
 the gospel. This is God's ordained method by which 
 to communicate his will to men, as the Scriptures 
 abundantly teach. Ministers are commended to 
 "preach the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; 
 reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and 
 doctrine." " And the servant of the Lord must not 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 21 
 
 strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, pa- 
 tient; in meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
 selves; if God peradventure will give them repentance 
 to the acknowledging of the truth ; and that they may- 
 recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who 
 are taken captive by him at his will." 
 
 The Scriptures should be circulated freely ; so also 
 of good religious papers and books. And other means 
 may be and should be employed to enlighten and 
 Christianize the world. Yet nothing can be a substi- 
 tute for the preaching of the word. The embassador 
 of Christ, the living teacher divinely called and anoint- 
 ed, with God's living truth in his hands, is to go forth 
 and beseech men to become reconciled to God. In no 
 other way can Christianity be so successfully pro- 
 moted. The knowledge of the gospel can be con- 
 veyed to more people and be impressed more deeply 
 upon their minds in this than in any other way. To 
 Bay that other ways are better is to set up our judgment 
 against God's. How important that ministers study 
 to show themselves approved unto God, workmen 
 that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the 
 word of truth. 
 
 How greatly the Lord has blessed and still blesses the 
 preaching of the gospel. In apostolic times, during 
 the licformation, and since then, wherever and by 
 whomsoever it has been faithfully proclaimed, whether 
 in enlightened or heathen countries, souls have been 
 saved. "My word shall not return unto me void, but 
 it shall accomplish that which I please." " The word 
 of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any 
 two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asun- 
 der of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
 
22 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart." " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing 
 precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoic- 
 ing, bringing his sheaves with him." He shall win 
 souls. People will be convinced, convicted, and con- 
 verted, and their fruit will be " unto holiness, and the 
 end everlasting life." 
 
 But while this is the chief instrumentality^, there are 
 other methods and agencies which may do much to 
 win souls. The officers of the church, — class-leaders, 
 class-stewards, trustees of church-property, Sabbath- 
 school superintendents and teachers, — each in his 
 sphere, may labor successfully to promote Christianity. 
 A devoted class-leader, by his godly counsels and ex- 
 emplary life, may do much to edify and encourage be- 
 lievers and induce the wicked to seek Christ. 'Prompt, 
 earnest, liberal class-stewards and trustees of church- 
 property may greatly strengthen the hands and 
 hearts of ministers by furnishing the needful means 
 to make the house of God attractive for worship, for 
 Sabbath-school, and for such other uses as will tend to 
 check vice and promote virtue. 
 
 . Then what a field for usefulness have Sabbath- 
 school superintendents and teachers. How great their 
 opportunities to win souls to Jesus. If they be studi- 
 ous, earnest Christians, and devoted to their work, 
 bearing the souls of those intrusted to their care on 
 faith's wing to the mercy-seat, and like the be- 
 loved John have no greater joy than to hear that their 
 children walk in the truth, many through their labors 
 will be led to Christ and to heaven. JSTot only may 
 the oflicers of the church and Sabbath-school success- 
 fully labor to win souls to the Savior, but all Christians 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 23 
 
 may and should do so. By their heart-piety, right 
 living, earnest praying, faithful attendance upon the 
 means of grace, and liberal support of the cause of 
 Christ, others will he saved. 
 
 Among the essential qualifications for usefulness, 
 which will apply to ministers and people, a holy life 
 stands pre-eminent. The world needs instruction, hut 
 illustration as well ; it needs precept, but example 
 more. "When we exemplify in our lives the truths of 
 Christianity which we teach, then it is that the truth 
 is sharper than any two-edged sword. Living epistles, 
 known and read of all men, are as essential as those 
 contained in the oracles of God. Said Paul to Timo- 
 thy, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; 
 continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both 
 save thyself, and them that hear thee." We must do 
 the things we teach and profess if we would exert a 
 wide-spread influence for good in the world. 
 
 Wisdom of engaging in tliis work. That it is wise is 
 shown by the fact that this work associates us with 
 the best men of every age in the history of the world; 
 yea, with patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, 
 and with Christ himself. It was for this that the 
 blessed Savior came to earth, died upon Calvary, and 
 now liveth at the right hand of God to make inter- 
 cession for us. The Savior, by the labors which he 
 performed, the sufferings he endured, and the power 
 he exerts to win men, attests the wisdom of this work. 
 
 It is wise because of the infinite value of the soul 
 and the unspeakable and never-ending blessings it will 
 enjoy if won, as well as the indescribable and endless 
 tortures it will sufter if not won. Christ asked the ques- 
 tion, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the 
 
24 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 whole world, and lose bis own soul ? or what shall a man 
 give i;i exchange for his soul?" This question carries 
 with it its own answer. It will profit a man nothing to 
 gain the whole world, if he lose his own soul ; and there 
 is nothing that he can give in exchange for it. To 
 gain the world at the expense of the soul is to give 
 pearls for bubbles, life for death, heaven for hell. The 
 world is worth a great deal, — making dollars and cents 
 the standard, — more than we can compute; but one 
 soul is worth much more. Because it is so valuable it 
 is wise to win it, so wise that to this work we should 
 bring all the ability God has given us. 
 
 Look how men exert themselves to win wealth, fame, 
 and position in society. For these they exert every 
 power of their being. Some have labored hard for 
 many years to win an earthly home, others to obtain 
 knowledge, and have done right in doing so ; but still, 
 it is more in keeping w^itli wisdom to win souls. Look 
 again how men of the world exert themselves to win 
 a game, or a suit at court. Should not Christians be 
 rebuked by these things for the heartless manner in 
 which they too often exert themselves to win souls? 
 Well did Christ say that "the children of this world 
 are in their generation wiser than the children of light." 
 When a railroad is to be built, or some worldly enter- 
 prise to be prosecuted that requires a sacrifice of men 
 and money, they are freely furnished. Hundreds of 
 lives were sacrificed in building the Panama Railroad, 
 thousands in the mines, and tens of thousands were 
 slain in war; yet but comparatively few are sacriiiced 
 for winning souls. "He that wiuneth souls is wise." 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 25 
 
 IV. 
 
 Solicitude for the Prosterity of Zion. 
 
 " For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's 
 sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as bright- 
 ness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp thatburneth." (Isa. IxiC 1.) 
 
 What a blessing it has been to the world that in 
 every age of the church there have been those who 
 would speak for truth and right, and who labored for 
 the prosperity of God's Zion with a zeal that knew no 
 abatement. But for these enthusiastic and self-sacri- 
 ficing men Christianity would not have achieved the 
 victories it has, if indeed it would have an existence 
 at all on the earth. Those prophets, apostles, reform- 
 ers, and missionaries through whose efforts the fires of 
 true religion were kindled and have been kept burn- 
 ing Avere men of this class. Like Isaiah, they would 
 speak for truth and God, and work for the pulling down 
 of the strongholds of Satan and the upbuilding of 
 righteousness, regardless of consequences. 
 
 Should such men cease from the earth, — but they 
 will not, for God must and will have them, — then all 
 aggressive effort for the extension of Christ's kingdom 
 would soon cease. Pure religion would be banished 
 from the world, and idolatry, superstition, and hea- 
 thenism would reign supreme. It was through labor, 
 sacrifice, and suffering on the part of Christ that sal- 
 vation was procured for the race; and it is through 
 
26 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 these on the part of the church that its blessings are 
 to be given to the whole world. "Out of Zion, 
 the perfection of beauty, God hath shined;" and out 
 of it will he continue to shine until the whole world 
 is given to Christ for his inheritance. 
 
 The figure used by the prophet to represent the light 
 and glory of the church is a very beautiful and strik- 
 ing one. The zeal which he also manifested for its 
 prosperity, and the confidence he had in its final tri- 
 umph, are worthy of our imitation. With him religion 
 meant more than a formal profession ; yea, more than 
 mere personal enjoyment. It meant earnest labor for 
 the good of others. God's kingdom set up in our 
 hearts accomplishes in us the same work that we are 
 to promote in others; and just in proportion as our 
 personal righteousness goes forth as brightness, and 
 our salvation glows out as a lamp that burneth, in that 
 same proportion will we feel for the woes of others 
 and labor to save them. 
 
 Nothing short of a living Christianity in the hearts 
 of God's Zion will cause her righteousness to go forth 
 as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. 
 Christ said to his followers, " Ye are the light of the 
 world." " If therefore the light that is in thee be dark- 
 ness, how great is that darkness !" Truly, very great. 
 What so dark as a backslidden man or church ? Such 
 are dark to themselves and dark to others. Their 
 light is under a bushel, or quite gone out, and they the 
 opposite to what God intended they should be. In- 
 stead of their righteousness going forth as brightness, 
 their unrighteousness goes forth as a cloud. Like those 
 described by the apostle, " they profess that they know 
 God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, 
 and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 27 
 
 Christians too often forget that one great end to be 
 accomplished by God's Zion on earth is to give the 
 light of Christianity to those who are yet Avithout it. 
 They are to be to the world what light-houses are 
 to the mariner; they are to let their light shine 
 for the good of others. Suppose the keeper of a 
 light-house were found on a cold, stormy night sitting 
 in his own well-warmed and well-lighted room, but 
 without light in the beacon or watch-tower ! Would 
 we not say to him, " Out with your light ; let it shine?" 
 Would we not remind him of the fact that the chief 
 end of such a house was not to furnish him comforta- 
 ble quarters, but to direct mariners, so that they might 
 escape shipwreck and make a safe landing ? 
 
 So it is with the light given to Zion. It is to be dif- 
 fused for the good of others rather than to be enjoyed. 
 " Let your light so shine before men that they may 
 see your good works, and glorify yo ur Father which 
 is in heaven." Some seem to think that the chief end 
 of a religious life is to furnish themselves with com- 
 fortable quarters ; that is, to consume what little light 
 they have for their own benefit rather than for the good 
 of others. They say, or at least act it, that if the hea- 
 then want the gospel, or the destitute the Bible, houses 
 of worship, or Sabbath-schools, let them get them. 
 We will help ourselves ; let others help themselves. 
 Let them kindle their own fires by which to obtain 
 warmth and light, or do without them. Our prayers 
 and contributions and efibrts shall all be expended up- 
 on ourselves. We will get through life as easily and 
 into heaven as cheaply as possible, and let others look 
 out for themselves. 
 
 Thank God not all are such, for there are many (and 
 their number is increasing) who, like Isaiah, speak and 
 
28 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 pray and work and pay for tlie extension of Chris- 
 tianity. But for them and the light-houses established 
 through their instrumentality many who have been 
 saved from idolatry and superstition would yet be in 
 heathenish darkness. But for missionaries and those 
 who furnished them the means to go the gospel would 
 never have been carried to Germany, Holland, the 
 Sandwich Islands, or even to America, to say nothing 
 of Africa, China, and numerous heathen lands in which 
 gospel light is now shining to some extent 
 
 But for such the happy homes now found in the 
 jungles of China, amid the burning sands of Africa, 
 and on Greenland's icy mountains, would still be the 
 abodes of cruelty and wretchedness. Then instead of 
 the Bible and the preaching of the gospel, the family 
 altar and the prayer circle. Sabbath-schools and semi- 
 naries of learning, asylums, hospitals, and the many 
 social, civil, and religious blessings enjoyed in Chris- 
 tian lands and in portions of heathen countries, all the 
 horrors of heathenism would reign unchecked through- 
 out the would. Great as have been the heroism, sacri- 
 fice, and cost to sustain Christian missions, no enter- 
 prise has yielded such returns of good to man on earth, 
 to say nothing of the evils averted, or the good secured 
 in the future world. 
 
 With the testimony before us that the gospel is of 
 such inestimable worth to the heathen, and with the 
 command of Christ, " Preach my gospel to every creat- 
 ure," unrepealed, and as binding as divine authority 
 can make it, how is it that Christians can be so indif- 
 ferent to the claims of missions? Such persons either 
 have a misconception of duty, or they are unwilling to 
 perform what they know is required of them. Be it 
 one or the other, their course is a reproach to the 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 29 
 
 Christian name. They say by such conduct that 
 the gospel is of but little value, and that it matters not 
 whether the millions who have it not shall receive it. 
 We measure the value that men put upon things by 
 what they do for them; and we may safely judge of 
 the estimate they put upon Christianity by what they 
 do for its spread among those who have it not. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that 
 it is still necessary to vindicate the cause of Christian 
 missions among some Christians, and present all the ar- 
 guments that the subject furnishes to move them to 
 give this enterprise a reasonable support. The devotees 
 and propagandists of false religions are often more 
 zealous to propagate their principles than the true fol- 
 lowers of Christ. If all Protestants showed the same 
 zeal and liberality for the diffusion of their principles 
 that Catholics, Mormons, Jews, and Mohammedans 
 often do, it would not be long until the gospel would 
 be given to every nation under the sun. This might 
 be done in the short space of twenty or twenty-live 
 years, and no one be required to bear oppressive bur- 
 dens or do anything but what would be for their 
 spiritual good. 
 
 It is remarkable what men may do when they are 
 fully intent on it. We have a striking illustration of 
 this in our late war. There was a time during that 
 fearful struggle when, because of treachery in higii 
 places and our poverty in arms and money, it looked 
 as though the rebellion would triumph. Just then a 
 wonderful change came over the people of the North. 
 They became fully aroused. Their patriotism, which 
 seemed for a time to be dead, sprung into life ; and as 
 by magic large and well-equipped armies and fleets 
 
30 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 were raised, all the munitions of war were at hand, 
 and in one year afterward the rebellion was so 
 crippled as to insure its speedy death ; and in due time 
 it did die. 
 
 The same zeal that crushed the rebellion against this 
 nation would in a short time crush the rebellion now 
 waged against God's truth, and give this whole world 
 to Christ. Did Zion put her forces into the field as 
 freely and support them as liberally in proportion to 
 her ability to do so as did our government to put down 
 the rebellion, then would the moral conquest of earth 
 soon be accomplished. Christ's command is, " Teach 
 all nations ;" and his promise is, " I am with you alway," 
 — with you to help you accomplish this work. Who 
 in the face of these commands and promises can doubt 
 its final fulfillment. Isaiah did not, as his language 
 shows. Why should we have so little faith in what 
 our heavenly Father says he will bring to pass, and 
 which he has appointed us to do? Oh, for Isaiah's 
 zeal and faith, and success will abundantly crown our 
 eflbrts. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 31 
 
 V. 
 
 Love to God and Covetousness Opposites. 
 
 " For with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth 
 after their covetousness." (Ezekiel xxxiii. 31.) 
 
 It is no uncommon thing for men to profess to be 
 what they are not. All men profess honesty, truthr 
 fulness, and fairness ; but facts show that many are 
 unfair, untruthful, and dishonest. It is also true t^at 
 the conduct of many toward God contradicts their pro- 
 fessions. It would be difficult to find a man who 
 will confess that he is God's enemy; and y^t the 
 Bible teaches that many are his enemies. In the face 
 of these facts, who would expect to find a person who 
 will acknowledge that he is covetous, especially one 
 who is a professor of religion ? And yet that there are 
 many such in the world, and even in the church, there 
 can be no doubt. It is a sad truth that too many who 
 name the name of Christ, like those described in the 
 text, speak one thing but do another, "For, with their 
 mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth 
 after their covetousness." 
 
 The prophet here describes the conduct of a gen- 
 uine hypocrite, a character which has not been hard 
 to find at any time since the fall of Adam. Such 
 were in the Jewish church, and such are still found 
 among Christians. Hypocrisy and covetousness are 
 
32 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 not antagonistic, but are often closely allied, and not 
 unfrequently are partners in the same crimes, the one 
 covering up the deformity of the other, and both 
 striving to withhold justice and perpetrate wrong. 
 When found in a professor of religion, their deformity 
 is detestable above endurance. Such men are held by 
 all as most dishonorable and wicked. A hypocritic- 
 al, covetous person is regarded as a bad citizen and 
 wholly unworthy a place in the Christian church. 
 . The Jews, as we infer from the language of the 
 text, made it a point to speak of their love to God 
 and his cause. It may be they had meetings similar 
 to our speaking or love-feast meetings, when they es- 
 pecially spoke of their love to God. Be this as it 
 may, they showed much love with their mouth while 
 their hearts went after covetousness. And is there 
 not a similarity between them and some professors of 
 religion ? Are there not persons to be found in al- 
 most any community who are very ready to speak of 
 their love to God and his cause, but who nevertheless 
 show that they think much more of the world than 
 of God and heaven? The very small contributions 
 which they give to Christ's cause show it. 
 
 And first, what is covetousness ? It is an inordinate 
 desire to obtain what we have not and to retain what 
 we have. That it is a great and damning sin is shown 
 from its fruits as well as God's word. It leads to false- 
 hood, theft, fraud, robbery, murder, and almost every 
 species of crime against God and humanity. It blunts 
 our moral susceptibilities and all the finer feelings of 
 our nature, and makes its possessor hard-hearted and 
 cruel. It was this which caused Judas to betray 
 Christ, for he wanted the thirty pieces of silver; this 
 which caused Ananias and Sapphira his wife to lie to 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 33 
 
 the Holy Ghost, for they wished to retain a part of 
 their possession, and which led Felix to hold Paul a 
 prisoner, for he hoped that money would be given for 
 his release. 
 
 This, too, often leads to war. One country covets 
 territory belonging to another, and under pretense 
 of vindicating its honor, or maintaining its right, 
 war is made not unfrequently. This also leads to 
 slavery. Men covet ease, superiority, and authority, 
 and to secure these they will, when permitted, make 
 slaves of their fellow-men. In short, there is no 
 crime too great for the demon of covetousness. It 
 makes justice void, outrages the rights of others, and 
 closes the soul against the wants of humanity. 
 
 That it is a great evil is evident also from the fact that 
 the divine word most severely denounces and punishes 
 it. See how summarily and terribly God punished 
 Achan, and Gehazi, and Ananias and his wife, and 
 others whose history and end are recorded in the 
 Bible. Consider also the fact that this sin is put in 
 the same catalogue with the greatest crimes ; and it is 
 said of all who perpetrate them that they shall not in- 
 herit the kingdom of heaven. "Nor thieves, nor cov- 
 etous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, 
 shall inherit the kingdom of God." Now here in 
 this one text both the covetous and extortioners are 
 spoken of, extortion being the result of covetousness ; 
 and the most emphatic language is employed to de- 
 nounce both, and declare that they shall not inherit 
 heaven. If the Bible be true, no crime in all the 
 range of sins will more effectually close heaven against 
 men than this. But terrible as it is, yet many, and 
 even professors of religion, are covetous. In this selfish, 
 dark, damning path they travel, notwithstanding the 
 
34 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 ruin they thereby bring upon themselves and others. 
 How to get and how to keep is the burden of their 
 thoughts by day and of their dreams by night. And 
 though the plaintive voices of the needy may ring in 
 their ear, and the benevolent institutions of Christian- 
 ity may be pining and dying for want of help, yet they 
 close their ears and their hearts against them all, and 
 continue to hoard their pelf. The most touching ap- 
 peals may be made, and objects of the greatest import- 
 ance may be pressed upon their sympathies, yet they 
 steel their hearts against all entreaty and shut up the 
 bowels of their compassion from suffering humanity 
 and all benevolent claims to gratify their covetousness. 
 
 Describe to such the love of Christ and his benev- 
 olence in saving men, the wretchedness of the heathen 
 world without the gospel, and that it alone can elevate 
 them ; show from the word of God and the condi- 
 tion of the spiritual destitute that it is their duty to 
 give their money to send forth missionaries ; present 
 to them motives high as heaven, and urge them from 
 every consideration possible to lend a helping hand, 
 and what is the result ? Why, they tighten their 
 purse-strings and press their gold closer to their 
 hearts than ever. They will gratify their covetous- 
 ness, and will hold on to their money at the risk of 
 being damned for it. Yea, they will sacrifice a good 
 conscience, the smiles of Christ, and their hope of 
 heaven, rather than part with their money for benevo- 
 lent purposes. 
 
 That such persons can be in favor with God is a 
 moral impossibility. Such a state of heart is just as 
 unlike Christ as it is possible to be. Religion invaria- 
 bly enlarges the heart and fills it with sympathy and 
 good-will for others. The first emotion of a newly- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 35 
 
 converted soul is, How may I do good to others? 
 how may I win sinners to Christ? how may I build 
 up the cause of Christianity ? how can I do the most 
 good, let the sacrifice be what it may ? It is not un- 
 til men who have been truly converted have lost their 
 first love that they become so selfish and covetous. 
 The text puts love to God and covetousness directly 
 against each other. Both can not dwell in the soul at 
 the same time any more than can the Lord and Satan 
 dwell together. Every true Christian has, in some de- 
 gree at least, the mind that was in Christ, and hence 
 some of the benevolence that caused him to die for 
 man; and when such a one looks out upon suftering 
 humanity, especially the millions of heathen who are 
 without the gospel, and remembers that Christ said, 
 " Teach all nations," his heart will be moved to ten- 
 derness and his money will be given to the extent of 
 his ability to send them the gospel. How strikingly 
 was this illustrated by the early Christians. They 
 sold their possessions, " and brought the prices of the 
 things that were sold, and laid them down at the 
 apostles' feet : and distribution was made unto every 
 man according as he had need." They counted all 
 things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus the Lord. 
 
 True, covetousness overcame some of them, as in 
 the case of Ananias and his wife, who were so sud- 
 denly destroyed for their sin. They, like some people 
 now, wanted the name of being benevolent but were 
 unwilling to give the money to constitute them such, 
 and to conceal their covetousness lied to the Holy 
 G-host and were killed. If God would deal with cov- 
 etous men now as he did with these, many would still 
 be struck down. They only withheld a part of their 
 
36 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 possessions and told one lie, and for this God killed them. 
 They must have given a considerable portion of it, for 
 the rest were giving all ; but many now keep all, or 
 nearly all they have, and tell more than one lie some- 
 times to cover up their covetousness. 
 
 What are our hearts going after ? Do we talk love 
 to God, but act contrary to it ? The question is not 
 what we say or profess, but what are we doing? If 
 our hearts "go after covetousness," then we do not 
 love God as we ought, nor do we pay for his cause as 
 he has given us ability. We are to pay as the Lord 
 has prospered us. Where much is given much will 
 be required, which is altogether reasonable. Oh, how 
 terrible indeed if we should be so unwise and covetous 
 as to miss heaven at last ! May a kind God give us 
 so much of his love as to destroy all selfishness and 
 worldliness, and enable us to love him with our mouths, 
 hearts, and property. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 37 
 
 VI. 
 
 Light and Beneficence of Christianity. 
 
 " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good 
 works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. v. 16.) 
 
 This text presupposes two thiugs : (1) That Chris- 
 tians possess light; (2) that they perform good 
 works. In the fourteenth verse it is said, Christians 
 being addressed, " Ye are the light of the world ;" and 
 in the text they are told how to use or what to do 
 with their light; namely, let it " so shine before men, 
 that they may see your good works, and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." Christians are to live 
 with special reference to the salvation of others. In 
 other words, they are to so exemplify the excellences 
 of the Christian religion as to arrest the attention, 
 excite the admiration, and win the affections of the 
 irreligious to Christ. They should let the light of 
 kindness, truth, and liberality shine, and thus repre- 
 sent both the life and precepts of the Savior. 
 
 Christ is himself called the Light of the world, and 
 the Sun of Righteousness, and very appropriately, for 
 he is to the moral world, in respect to light, what the 
 natural sun is to the physical world. Much of the 
 light which we receive from the sun comes to us in a 
 secondary sense, or in an indirect manner. He shines 
 upon the moon and other planets, and they reflect 
 
33 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 their light upon the earth. As the moon may shine 
 brightly with the light which it receives from the sun, 
 though it be but a borrowed light, so also may Chris- 
 tians shine by reflecting the light which they receive 
 from Christ. 
 
 The analogy existing between Christ and the Chris- 
 tian, the sun and the moon, is very striking, beautiful, 
 and instructive. When the moon is full, or fully seen 
 by us, how very pleasant and serviceable its light! 
 When the Savior said to his followers, "Ye are the 
 light of the world," "Let your light so shine be- 
 fore men, that they may see your good works," he 
 meant that they should not be quarter moons, or half 
 moons, but full moons; that is, that they be fully in 
 the light themselves and then reflect that light upon 
 all around them. The light of the moon is often ob- 
 structed so that it reflects little or none upon us. So 
 also is the light of Christians often so obscured that 
 but little or none is to be seen. Both shining with a 
 borrowed light, they only can impart it in proportion 
 as they receive it. When Christians possess but little 
 light they can reflect but little; and this accounts for 
 the fact that their light often shines so dimly. 
 
 The reason they have so little light is not because 
 the Sun of Righteousness does not shine constantly, 
 but it is because they allow his light to be obscured. 
 They permit the things of the world to get between 
 them and Christ; yea, sometimes they are found so 
 far down in the dark ravines of disobedience that the 
 rays of the Sun of Righteousness can not reach them 
 at all. They are so completely hidden away in the 
 thickets of sin and darkness that it is impossible to let 
 their light shine. To all such the call from heaven is, 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 39 
 
 "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall give thee light." "In him was life; 
 and the life was the light of men." 
 
 That Christians may discharge the duty enjoined in 
 the text, the life of Christ must pervade their souls 
 and impel them to every good word and work. Gen- 
 uine godliness must be a living, growing principle 
 within, permeating their whole being, making them 
 " living epistles, known and read of all men." With- 
 out this their profession of religion and routine of 
 Christian duty, however good, will be useless, so far aa 
 it relates to their happiness and usefulness. Without 
 this a professor of religion is like a watch without a 
 mainspring. A watch may have a case of pure gold, 
 the wheels and all within may be of the best material 
 and in perfect adjustment, but if there is no main- 
 spring it is a useless piece of property so far as regards 
 accomplishing the end for which it is intended. The 
 object of a watch is to keep time, or to point to where 
 the sun is, so that in cloudy weather and at night we 
 may know our whereabouts. 
 
 So Christians should point to Christ, and let their 
 light so shine as to show him to the world amid the 
 darkness which covers it. How beautiful the saying 
 of a certain writer that Christ has taken our natures to 
 heaven to represent us there, and left us his on earth 
 to represent him here. Christians are his representa- 
 tives in this world, and are expected, like their Mas- 
 ter, to let their light so shine before men, that they 
 may see their good works, and glorify their Father 
 which is in heaven. The godly lives and self-deny- 
 ing acts of Christians often do more to win men to 
 Christ than the most convincing argument. Tliere 
 
40 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 is argument in such a life that can not be successfully 
 controverted. The system of salvation through the 
 atoning merits of Christ needs to be taught theoretic- 
 all}', but it is quite as important that it be exemplified 
 or illustrated practically in the lives of Christians. 
 
 Good works are positively required in the Holy 
 Scriptures; not as a means by which to procure 
 merit through which we may be saved, — for it is " not 
 by works of righteousness which we have done, but 
 according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of 
 regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," that 
 our salvation is secured, — but as a means by which to 
 save others; "that they may see your good works, 
 and glorify your Father which is in heaven." In this 
 way the superiority of the gospel system over other 
 systems may be shown. No religion impels its follow- 
 ers to the performance of good works for the benefit 
 of others as does the religion of Christ. He "gave 
 himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniq- 
 uity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous 
 of good works." Being made zealous doers of good 
 works is the result of being redeemed from all iniqui- 
 ty, and being redeemed from all iniquity is the result 
 of Christ giving himself for us, and Christ giving 
 himself for us is the result of God's infinite love to- 
 ward man. 
 
 The positive manner in which good works are en- 
 joined in the New Testament, and the numerous im- 
 portant ends accomplished by them, both in behalf of 
 those by whom and for whom they are performed, 
 show how essential they are in the Christian life. The 
 text plainly shows both the duty and object of good 
 works. It does not say that they may see or hear 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 41 
 
 your good professions, or prayers, or promises, but 
 see your good works. Good works must exist before 
 they can be seen; yea, they must be of so frequent 
 occurrence, and stand out so prominently as to form a 
 part of every-day life, so that the man's history could 
 not be written without reference to them. There are 
 professors of religion who have been such for twenty 
 or thirty years, whose history eould be truthfully writ- 
 ten without saying good works once. 
 
 We have a striking illustration of the power of 
 good works in the life of Christ. He went about 
 doino- good in every way possible to all who needed 
 help; and so blameless was his conduct that he could 
 say to his worst enemies, " Which of you convinceth 
 me of sin," and, "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father?" He did good to those who did evil to him. 
 He blessed those who cursed him, and gave his whole 
 life to acts of benevolence for man's good. His was 
 more than passive goodness; it was active and self- 
 sacrificing, impelling him to incessant toil and great 
 privation in behalf of others. But what kind of good 
 works are Christians to perform ? 
 
 (1.) All such charitable deeds as are necessary to 
 supply the temporal wants of the poor and unfor- 
 tunate. There is light in fuel to burn, clothes to 
 wear, and food to eat when given to some poor widow 
 or afflicted family who has a hard time to get along in 
 the world; also in advancing the wages of indus- 
 trious laborers, when it can be done, and assisting 
 them by loaning them money to secure a home. A 
 young man— an habitual drunkard— with a wife and 
 two children was found drunkone cold night by the 
 wayside, and would in all probability have frozen to 
 
42 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 death but for the fact that he was helped to his home. 
 The man in whose cabin he lived sent for him the 
 next day, and instead of saying to him, as he expect- 
 ed, "You are a miserable drunkard, and must get out 
 of my house," he said, "John, I sent for you to help 
 you buy a home. You can buy neighbor B.'s farm 
 very cheap now, and I will loan you money to make 
 the first payment. You are to become a sober man, 
 and move to the farm and make the money for the 
 second and third payments, and then you are to pay 
 me back what I loan you with six percent interest; 
 and thus you can obtain a home." After protesting 
 against such an undertaking for awhile, John did as 
 he was told — bought the farm. He did reform and go 
 to work, and paid for that farm and several others. He 
 raised a large and respectable family; and now at the 
 age of eighty he is quite wealthy, and liberal in support- 
 ing the gospel. His benefactor has been dead many 
 years; but though dead, he still lives in the aliections 
 of this man and others whom he thus helped and 
 saved from infamy, poverty, and sin. 
 
 (2.) Such acts of charity as are necessary to sustain 
 the institutions of Christianity. To support Sabbath- 
 schools with our money and by our presence, and 
 ministers in the same way, helping to build houses of 
 worship, giving aid to the Bible, tract, and temper- 
 ance cause, ministering to the spiritual wants of the 
 afflicted, and laboring to lead the irreligious to the 
 church and to Christ, are good works that we are to 
 let others see. "Where there is a society of professors 
 •of religion in which each one is a living, working 
 Christian, taking a lively interest in the prosperity of 
 Zion, there will go out from it a power for good which 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 43 
 
 will be felt, and that will draw others to its fold. Its 
 good works will be seen and felt in the check which 
 it puts to wickedness, the attractions it gives to relig- 
 ion, and the souls it leads from sin to holiness. 
 
 (3.) Such good works as are necessary to enlighten 
 the heathen, and induce them to accept salvation. 
 "Let your light so shine before men," even the 
 heathen, that they may see your good works, and 
 thereby be led to renounce heathenism and espouse 
 Christianity. A young African, who had but a short 
 time before accepted Christ as his Savior, said to the 
 writer, " Massa, we black people in Africa ought to be 
 very good and thankful to God." Asking him why 
 he felt so, he replied, "You people in America do so 
 much for us. You come as missionaries, and pay 
 much money, and you be sick a good deal, and all for 
 our good. We ought to love you, and love the Lord 
 because he sent you." He was quite an ignorant 
 youth of about nineteen years of age, who in less than 
 one year afterward died and gave good evidence of 
 faith in Christ. Spending money, and going to 
 them, and suffering for them, was a light causing him 
 to see good works which led him to glorify God. 
 Millions of heathen remain to be thus led to Christ 
 and to heaven. 
 
44 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 VII. 
 
 Christ's Compassion for Sinners. 
 
 " But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compas- 
 sion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as 
 sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The 
 harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few ; pray ye therefore 
 the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his har- 
 vest." (Matt. ix. 36, 37, 38.) 
 
 Pity for man was predominant in the heart of Jesus. 
 This was the mightiest impulse and deepest emotion 
 of his life upon earth, as shown by his tears at the 
 grave of Lazarus, and by his exclamation, "O Jerusa- 
 lem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
 stouest them which are sent unto thee, how often would 
 I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
 not !" It was not merely as a philanthropist that Christ's 
 bosom heaved with emotion and that he shed tears of ag- 
 ony on account of human suffering, but as the Savior of 
 those who had sinned, and upon whom God's wrath 
 was resting. It was man as a sinner, doomed to ever- 
 lasting destruction, more than as a mere earthly suf- 
 ferer, that called forth Christ's compassion. 
 
 To him a sinner was the most pitiable object in the 
 universe. He understood as no mere human being 
 could the doom which awaited such as received not 
 the forgiving mercy and regenerating grace of God. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 45 
 
 Knowing that all human suft'ering was the result of 
 sin, and understanding the cause as well as the effect 
 of man's guilt before God, he was moved with the 
 most profound pity for him. Man as a sinner might 
 have excited other emotions in the breast of Christ 
 than compassion. His wrath as an outraged Sovereign 
 and his justice as an inexorable Judge might have been 
 called forth ; but not so, " he was moved with compas- 
 sion on them." 
 
 This spirit of compassion which caused the Savior 
 to yearn over sinners is what Christians need and must 
 have to enable them to perform the work God has re- 
 quired them to do in enlightening and saving the world. 
 When the church is pervaded and swayed by this im- 
 pulse for the unconverted, it will embrace every op- 
 portunity, as did the Master, to open the eyes of the 
 blind, and to turn men from darkness to light and from 
 the power of Satan to God. Then will the church send 
 forth an abundance of laborers into the field to gather 
 the harvest. There are three special ways in which 
 this work may be promoted ; namely, praying, paying, 
 and going. And in one or all of these ways every 
 Christian may labor. Woe to any idler in the pres- 
 ence of so vast a harvest. 
 
 If we have felt sin to be the terrible thing which it 
 is, and have experienced the fullness of Christ's love in 
 a thorough change from nature to grace, then we can 
 not be destitute of pity for the unsaved. A sense of 
 personal responsibility and service to God and to our 
 fellow-men is one of the first and most impressive 
 thoughts that true religion awakens in the soul. Those 
 who have not experienced this have not obtained that 
 "godliness which is profitable to all things." With 
 
46 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 this principle of godliness in lively exercise we will 
 realize that the measure of our responsibility to en- 
 lighten and save others is only limited by our ability 
 to accomplish this work. 
 
 If this sense of obligation to God and sympathy for 
 man were as general and profound among Christians 
 as it should be, then the cause of missions would re- 
 ceive much more earnest support, and they would not 
 be so cold and sluggish in their prayers, efforts, and 
 contributions to the cause of the world's conversion. 
 Then would the church be more generally pervaded 
 with the feeling expressed by Paul in his request to the 
 Colossians, when he desired that prayer be offered for 
 him, that God would open a door of utterance to speak 
 the mystery of Christ, for which he was even then in 
 bonds. Though a prisoner in Rome, he longed for an 
 open door of utterance. He felt he ought to be set at 
 liberty more for the sake of the salvation of those in 
 sin than for his own personal enjoyment. 
 
 But what is the relation of prayer to the work of 
 the world's evangelization? Prayer constitutes an es- 
 sential element in the successful prosecution of every 
 work relating to the Christian religion. Other relig- 
 ions may be successfully carried forward without it ; 
 but the Christian can not so much as exist, much less 
 prosper, without it. The same is true of Christian 
 missions. They can not prosper, nor will they long 
 exist without prayer. It was by and through prayer 
 that they were inaugurated. At one of the first mis- 
 sionary meetings held under the Christian dispensation 
 the Master breathed upon the apostles and said, " Ee- 
 ceive ye the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost also se- 
 lected the laborers and sent them forth in answer to 
 prayer. " As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 47 
 
 the Holy Gliost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul 
 for the work whereunto I have called them. And 
 when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent 
 forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and 
 from thence they sailed to Cyprus." From that day 
 till the present this same potent agency has attended 
 all successful effort in behalf of the salvation of men 
 in answer to the prayers of God's people. 
 
 If this be omitted, then missions languish and die ; 
 and so far as saving men is concerned they are an ut- 
 ter failure. Our gifts and labors for the cause of mis- 
 sions must be made effective by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost in answer to prayer. The Holy Ghost was 
 poured out on the day of Pentecost while the apostles 
 were praying; and not until this was done were they 
 fitted for the work committed to them. Prayer has 
 in a very important sense planted every successful mis- 
 sion and brought into the kingdom of Christ every 
 heathen convert. With this coming from warm, be- 
 lieving hearts and holy lips there can be no failure ; 
 without it, all else avails but little. 
 
 The Holy Ghost will move upon the valley of dry 
 bones and bring life out of death in answer to prayer. 
 It will make the truth effectual in the conviction, con- 
 version, and sanctification of the wicked. It will also 
 bring about the result for which we are requested to 
 pray — namely, laborers. We should pray the Lord of 
 the harvest that the right ones be sent, and that enough 
 be found to gather the harvest speedily. God will 
 hear and answer prayer for the speedy conquest of 
 earth to his Son. Has he not said that he would be 
 inquired of by the house of Israel ; and is he not able 
 and willing to give this world to Christ for his inher- 
 
43 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 itance and tne uttermost parts of the earth for his pos- 
 session, in answer to the prayers of his people ? 
 
 Christ would have his people undertake great things 
 for him, as well as expect great things from him. He 
 would have them labor hopefully, earnestly, and pray- 
 erfully in the great harvest-field of the world, believ- 
 ing that he that reapeth receiveth wages, and that "as 
 the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden 
 causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, 
 so the Lord Grod will cause righteousness and praise 
 to spring fortli before all the nations." " The glory of 
 the Lord shall fill the earth, as the waters do the face 
 of the great deep." Great as is this harvest, it will 
 yet be gathered. N^ever before did steam-presses print 
 and steam-ships and railroads carry so rapidly God's 
 word; and never before did word come back to us from 
 so many portions of the earth that souls are saved. 
 
 In the largest and most elegant hotel in Rome there 
 is a Bible in every room. At the world's exposition in 
 Paris there was an open Bible-stand, where Bibles 
 were sold in every known language, or given away to 
 those who desired them in that way. Once much 
 of the world was closed to us, but now we may go into 
 every heathen laud and find willing hearts and souls 
 to hear the gospel. In China, India, Africa, South 
 America, all Europe, and upon most of the islands of 
 the sea, multitudes are stretching out their hands for 
 help. And shall they call in vain? 
 
 Are the obstacles to be overcome to get the Bible to 
 them or to make it efitective in their salvation greater 
 than those which have been surmounted? Is there sin 
 or antagonism of any kind within the human heart 
 which has not been subdued in the past ? Has not the 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 49 
 
 gospel in other times and countries overcome all tlie 
 superstition and evils of men to be found in every 
 country? "Will not the same truth, by the power of 
 the same Holy Ghost that brought to naught all the 
 devices of men and devils to overthrow Christianity 
 in the apostles' day, do the • same work now in answer 
 to prayer? Will not the same conquering Clirist still 
 reign " until all enemies are put under his feet," as is 
 predicted? It is ours to labor, and to pray the Lord 
 of the harvest to send forth more laborers into the 
 harvest. 
 
50 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Teaching All Nations. 
 
 " Go Te therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded j'ou: and, lo, I 
 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matt, 
 xxviii. 19, 20.) 
 
 The church of Christ is the channel through which 
 God carries forward the work of salvation among men ; 
 and hence our welfare, both in time and eternity, is 
 inseparably connected with it. But for it, God could 
 no more endure the present wickedness of earth than 
 he did that of Sodom and Gomorrah because ten right- 
 eous persons were not found in it. Viewed from this 
 stand-point, the text has an exceedingly momentous 
 significance. Never were men or angels charged with 
 a commission so important — one afiecting so vitally 
 man's present and eternal welfare — as the one given 
 in the text. To teach all nations, and to teach them 
 all things commanded b}' the Savior, was and is the 
 high and holy calling of the Christian church. 
 
 We shall consider first the things to be taught, which 
 maybe classed under the following heads; namely, the 
 theory, experience, and practice of religion. These 
 embrace whatever is essential to proper conceptions of 
 the divine character, his law and moral government, 
 man's fall through Adam and his redemption through 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 51 
 
 Christ, as well as the conditions of salvation proifered 
 in the gospel. In short, repentance and reformation, 
 justification and regeneration, holiness of heart and 
 usefulness, the resurrection of the body and the gen- 
 eral judgment, the happiness of heaven and the pun- 
 ishment of hell, are all to be taught and deeply im- 
 pressed upon the minds and hearts of men. 
 
 The duty of prayer, trust in God, humility, and self- 
 denial, the promises and precepts, warnings and threat- 
 enings, duties and privileges, ordinances and commands 
 of God's word are to be taught, and so far as practica- 
 ble enforced upon the people. Christ is to be present- 
 ed as an all-sufhcient, yea, as the only Savior of men. 
 He must be held up before the world in all his labors, 
 graces, sufferings, and glory. The work to be done 
 by the Christian church is to know the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, and so to communicate it to others as to make 
 them see its beauty, feel its power, and by it be led to 
 salvation. Said the apostle, "To open their eyes, and 
 to turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
 power of Satan unto God, that they may receive for- 
 giveness of sins, and inheritance among them which 
 are sanctified by faith that is in me." 
 
 The method by which this is to be done is chiefly 
 through the preaching of the gospel. " Go ye into 
 all the world and preach the gospel." The living 
 teacher is to go forth with God's living truth, and by 
 the power of speech impress that truth upon the minds 
 of men everywhere. Speech is man's best gift. It is 
 this which persuades most etfectually, and makes dead 
 thoughts quick and powerful. Hence God has com- 
 manded that the gospel be proclaimed. The written 
 gospel is so great a blessing that we could not do with- 
 out it; but it is through the medium of a preached 
 
52 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 gospel tliat the masses are to be instructed and won to 
 Christ. The living teacher, called of God and quali- 
 fied, is to go forth and preach the gospel to every creat- 
 ure. 
 
 It is essential that such have a correct theory, sound 
 Christian experience, and consistent life. Especially 
 is it important that such possess a deep Christian ex- 
 perience. This will give them a clearness in divine 
 things, a love for souls, and to their lives and words a 
 power which can not be obtained otherwise. ITothing 
 will so free men from sectarian bigotry and fill them 
 with Christian forbearance and make the work of the 
 ministry pleasant and successful as a deep, growing 
 Christian experience. With this, and close application 
 to the study of God's word, their preaching will be in 
 demonstration of the Spirit and power, and souls will 
 be converted to God. The faithful preaching of the 
 gospel will as certainly lead to salvation and to heaven 
 as that eflect follows cause. Ministers should remem- 
 ber that their business is to teach religion; not to dem- 
 onstrate scientific problems, but to teach the religion 
 of Christ, and do this from the heart as well as from 
 the head. 
 
 " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 
 seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- 
 ing his sheaves with him." It is he that goeth forth 
 and weepeth, bearing precious seed, that shall doubt- 
 less come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 with him. This implies deep concern of heart, im- 
 portunate supplication at a throne of grace-, as well as 
 diligent study of the Scriptures, on the part of the 
 minister. He must be well furnished with the precious 
 seed of the gospel, and should so cultivate the soil of 
 his own heart that he may by precept and example 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 53 
 
 show" forth the excellency of the gospel, thereby 
 strengthening believers and constraining sinners to 
 flee the wrath to come. Diligence in prayer, study, 
 and labor alone will enable ministers to obtain, bear, 
 and scatter successfully the precious seed of the gospel. 
 
 The extent to which this is to be done is clearly in- 
 dicated in the language of the text: "Teach all na 
 tions." But positively as this is taught in the Script- 
 ures, Christians, and even ministers not a few, fail to 
 realize that it is duty to do this to the extent of their 
 ability. Many seek mostly their own ease and grati- 
 fication, and do little or nothing for the spread of the 
 gospel into all the world. The injunction, " Teach all 
 nations," does not enter into the plans of the Protest- 
 ant churches generally as fully as it should. Did 
 ministers and people, with one accord, heartily enter 
 into this work, we would soon witness very difl'erent 
 results. Even the labor performed and the money ex- 
 pended would in some instances accomplish vastly 
 more did Christians unite their efforts in promoting 
 Christianit}^, which they doubtless would do did they 
 more fully feel it to be duty to give the gospel to all 
 the world. 
 
 Money and labor are wasted. In many villages we 
 find four and five churches, while two or three would 
 meet every want. In some places five and six minis- 
 ters are employed to do the work which two or three 
 are fully able to perform. If Christians would lay 
 aside their strait-jackets and sectarian folly and be 
 as willing to hear the truth preached from the lips of 
 others as from those of their own denomination, fewer 
 houses of worship and ministers would be needed in 
 our country; and the money thus saved might be used 
 in sending the gospel to the destitute and heathen. 
 
54 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 The Moravian Church comes nearest carrying out 
 the idea that it is our duty, so far as this is possible, of 
 any church in this country, to preach the gospel to 
 every creature. It labors more diligently to give the 
 gospel to the heathen than to increase its numbers at 
 home. The question with it seems to be not liovv it 
 may multiply its membership most rapidly at home, 
 but how it may enlighten and save the largest number 
 who are without the gospel Its communicants in 
 Christian lands number about thirty thousand, but in 
 heathen lands nearly one hundred thousand. Did we 
 put forth more eftbrt to give the gospel to the heathen, 
 we would more fully accomplish the work given us by 
 Christ. ISTot less work at home, but much more abroad, 
 should be our motto. 
 
 Encouragements to engage in this work. God has 
 assured us that it should be done, and that he will 
 help to do it. " My word shall not return unto me 
 void, but it shall accomplish that which I please." 
 '' Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 isiheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 thy possession." "For he must reign till all enemies 
 are put under his feet." The predictions and promises 
 of God's word concerning this are so positive as to ex- 
 clude all doubt respecting his purpose to subdue the 
 world to Christ; and no one will for a.moment ques- 
 tion his power to bring it to pass. Moreover, the 
 achievements of Christianity in the past are a fuU 
 warrant that it will continue to achieve conquests un- 
 til the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and his Christ. 
 
 The promi&e of the text, that Christ will be with 
 those who engage in this work, should greatly en- 
 courage us. While it is true that in an important sense 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 55 
 
 Christ is everywhere present, it is also true that his 
 gracious, comforting, helping presence is especially with 
 his people in their efforts to extend his kingdom. He 
 is with them as Teacher, Guide, Comforter, Interces- 
 sor, and Victor ; so that with Paul we may say, "I can 
 do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." 
 How manifestly was the Master with the a];)ostles dur- 
 ing the protracted prayer-meeting at Jerusalem, soon 
 after his ascension to heaven; with them on tlie day 
 of Pentecost; with them as they went forth to preach 
 the gospel. And he is no less with his faithful minis- 
 ters and servants now as they seek to promote his king- 
 dom in heathen lands. 
 
 During the first French empire Napoleon Bonaparte 
 was France, army, government, and all. He was called 
 the 100,000, because his presence on the battle-Held 
 was regarded as being equal to that number of soldiers. 
 When he heard of the destruction of his navy, which 
 was on the same day that the scepter of Prussia was 
 surrendered to him, he remarked, "I can't be every- 
 where," — as much as if he had said, "Had I been there 
 this calamity would not have befallen me ; I could have 
 prevented such a disaster," Thank God, we have a 
 Leader that can be everywhere, and who can so wisely 
 direct all who tight under him as to lead to certain 
 victory. He is the church in a much higher sense 
 than Napoleon Bonaparte ever was France. His Zion 
 shall look "forth as the morning, fair as the moon, 
 clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," 
 until the whole earth is filled with the glory of the 
 Lord. 
 
56 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 IX. 
 
 Preaching the Gospel to Every Creature. 
 
 "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature." (Mark xvi. 15.) 
 
 Our Lord while upon earth, both by precept and ex- 
 ample, showed the importance, yea, the duty of preach- 
 ing the gospel to every creature. During his three 
 years of public life he traveled over G-alilee, visited 
 Jerusalem at three different times, and spent a consid- 
 erable portion of time at Capernaum, a neighboring 
 town, preaching the gospel. He also went beyond 
 the River Jordan and remained several months, 
 whence he sent out his disciples at different times to 
 extend the work of evangelization. The Savior was 
 in the true sense of the word an itinerant missionary, 
 having as his mission-ffeld a country with a population 
 of several millions of people. 
 
 His first ministers largely possessed this same spirit, 
 and sought every opportunity to communicate the good 
 news of salvation to those with whom they came in 
 contact. Andrew told Peter, " We have found the 
 Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." 
 Philip told N"athaniel, " We have found him of whom 
 Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of 
 j^azareth." The woman of Samaria, who met Christ 
 at Jacob's well, told the people, " Come, see a man, 
 which told me all things that ever I did : is not this 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 57 
 
 the Christ?" When the church at Jerusalem was 
 scattered by persecution, they also went everywhere 
 preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 
 
 We have an excellent iUustration of the true mis- 
 sionary spirit in the life and labors of St. Paul. He, 
 in twenty-five years, traveled over a large part ot Asia 
 and Europe. When at liberty and while a prisoner 
 he most faithfully preached the gospel whenever and 
 wherever this was practicable. At one place he win- 
 tered, at another he spent a year and a half, and at a 
 third two years, preaching to all who came within his 
 reach ; " so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the 
 word of the Lord J esus." The example of Christ and 
 his early followers, as well as his command, all teach 
 that the first business of Christians after being con- 
 verted is to give the gospel to the spiritually destitute. 
 
 But what is the gospel? It is the result of Christ's 
 work for us while he lived upon earth, his sufl'ering 
 for us when dying upon Calvary, and his intercession 
 for us while sitting at the right hand of God in heav- 
 en, as well as his work in us by the Holy Spirit, 
 whereby he enlightens, renews, and sanctifies our na- 
 tures. It is defined to be "the power of God unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth." In short, it is 
 health to the sick, life to the dead, and an inheritance 
 which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven for all God's people. No 
 marvel that it possessed so much attraction and power 
 in the apostles' day, and ever since when faithfully 
 promulgated. 
 
 The word preach, or preaching, is found about sixty 
 times in the New Testament. It means to proclaim, 
 or make known the glad tidings of salvation; or, in 
 other words, it is to publicly announce, discuss, and 
 
58 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 reason upon the tlieme of redemption as wrought out 
 by Christ. As Paul "reasoned of righteousness, tem- 
 perance, and judgment to come, FeUx trembled." At 
 Troas he " continued his speech until midnight." " And 
 there sat in a window a certain young man named 
 Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep .... and fell 
 down from the third loft, and was taken up dead." 
 Paul went down and restored him to life, and came 
 back " and talked a long while, even till break of day." 
 
 Preaching the gospel is truly the most grand and 
 glorious work committed to man ; and no marvel that 
 the prophet, when foreseeing the happy results of pro- 
 claiming the glorious gospel of the Son of God, ex- 
 claimed, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the 
 feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." It is 
 truly beautiful to show from the testimony of the 
 Scriptures and a truly Christian experience the power 
 of the gospel, as did Peter on the day of Pentecost, 
 and as Paul did when he said, " We pray you in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled to God." To explain and ap- 
 ply the truth of God to the hearts and lives of men 
 so as to reform and save them is indeed a high and 
 holy calling, worthy of the best energies that the best 
 human talent can bring to bear upon this divinely-ap- 
 pointed work. 
 
 This is to be done in every age and to every creature. 
 Christians* of each generation, redeemed b}^ the same 
 blood, quickened by the same spirit, and acting under 
 the same general commission, have the same duties to 
 perform in this department of work. The soul-saving 
 truth of the gospel is to be proclaimed with proof and 
 argument and authority and the unction of the Holy 
 Spirit. This might be done by the Christians of this 
 century more easily than it was done by those of the 
 
iTHE MISSIONARY WORK. 59 
 
 first century ; and it is as much our duty to do it as it 
 was theirs. Did all tell the good news of salvation to 
 as many as they could reach, and labor with the ability 
 they have, it would not be twenty-five years until it 
 would be done. 
 
 The church is much stronger now than ever before. 
 Its facilities for Christian labor of every kind, as well 
 as its wealth, are at least double what they were even 
 a few years ago. It could put 50,000 missiouaries into 
 the field and support them, if it would. Fifty thou- 
 sand would be less than one per cent of the member- 
 ship of evangelical churches in Christian lands. Great 
 Britain sent as many men as this to the Crimea to take a 
 sinde fortress. Ten times this number fell victims to 
 death on each side during our late war. Can not 50,000 
 redeemed souls be found who will give themselves fully 
 to the work of winning this world back to Christ? 
 
 But if they were obtained, could they be supported ? 
 Yes; easily, if all gave but a reasonable amount. Fif- 
 ty thousand at $500 each would be less than five dollars 
 from each member of the evangehcal churches in Eu- 
 rope and America. England spends more than one 
 half of this for intoxicating drinks. Our late war 
 cost hs more than would be needed to put missions into 
 every heathen land, and in numbers sufficient to preach 
 the gospel ta every creature in a short time. It would 
 not require all the money in the hands of 10,000 of 
 the wealthiest Christians now living to plant the stand- 
 ard of Christ in every land. The command, "Preach 
 the gospel to every creature," is quite within the power 
 of the church to accomplish. 
 
 The success of the last fifty years shows this most 
 clearly. The progress made by missionaries within 
 the last half century far exceeds that of the previous 
 
60 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 two hundred years ; and more has been done to give 
 the Bible to the world during this time than was done 
 the first eight or ten centuries of the Christian era. 
 There are also more conversions in heathen lands, in 
 proportion to the number of laborers employed, than 
 ever before; yea, more proportionately than in Chris- 
 tian lands. It costs more per man to make converts 
 to the Christian faith in England and the United States 
 than in heathen lands. The number of nominal Chris- 
 tians now is three times as large as it ever was before 
 the last century. 
 
 One thing is often forgotten in showing the success 
 of Christianity; namely, that each generation of chil- 
 dren of Christian parents have to be Christianized. 
 It is not as some other things, — once done, always 
 done, — but each succeeding generation must be won 
 to Christ. All things considered, Christianity has 
 achieved wonderful results. Indeed, it is a source of 
 devout gratitude to God that so much has been done, 
 and that there are so many hopeful signs. 
 
 But it is sometimes seriously asked, "Would it notbe 
 better for the cause if all effort for the evangelization 
 of the world were concentrated upon some favored 
 places until such lands are made all that the gospel 
 is capable of making them? This is not the wisest 
 policy, nor the best method ; nor is it the divine order. 
 The command was to commence at Jerusalem, but to 
 go from there into all the world. The Savior and his 
 apostles went everywhere, preaching repentance and 
 faith and reformation. The gospel is in its very nature 
 1 disseminative, and will prompt all who fully adopt its 
 principles to diffuse it. Kot until the last heathen is 
 enlightened can it or ought it be otherwise. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 61 
 
 X. 
 
 Good Tidings Announced by the Angels. 
 
 "And tlie angel said unto tliem, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you 
 good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you 
 is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the 
 Lord." (Luke ii. 10, 11.) 
 
 "We notice, first, angels and their interest in man ; 
 second, the good tidings mentioned in the text; third, 
 the duty of those who have them to those who have 
 them not. 
 
 I. The word angel, as used in the Scriptures, does 
 not always mean a denomination of nature, but some- 
 times of ofB.ce merely. Ministers of the gospel are 
 called angels; Christ is called the Angel of the 
 Covenant; and those employed by God to execute his 
 judgments are also called angels. That there is a dis- 
 tinct class of beings, high in rank and intelligence, 
 known as angels, and that they were frequently em- 
 ployed by the Almighty in the earlier periods of the 
 world's history, to communicate his will to man, ad- 
 mits of no doubt. The reason why they are no lon- 
 ger employed thus is, there no longer exists a necessity 
 for it. All that is necessary for man to know respect- 
 ing the character and government of God, his ruin by 
 the fall, and redemption through Christ, as well as 
 the things he must both do and not do to be saved. 
 
62 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 are clearly revealed in the Scriptures, and hence 
 angels' visits for this purpose have ceased. God's 
 word closes with a most positive prohibition not 
 to add nor to take away from the record which he 
 has given. 
 
 That angels are still deeply concerned for our wel- 
 fare and look with delight upon Christians, rejoice in 
 their prosperity, and administer to their wants, as far 
 as they are permitted to do this, are truths clearly 
 taught in God's book. " The angel of the Lord en- 
 campeth .around about them that fear him, and deliv- 
 ereth them." They are ministering spirits to them 
 who shall be heirs of salvation. They watch with in- 
 tense interest the conflict that is going on between 
 light and darkness, sin and holiness, and are ever 
 ready to do the bidding of the Almighty, to minister 
 to the good of his people and protect them in time 
 of danger. Angels have always shown a deep solic- 
 itude for man's welfare. ISTo sooner had he fallen than 
 they wondered who should or who could redeem him; 
 and when they learned that the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah had prevailed to unseal the book and look upon 
 it, they rejoiced exceedingly. And when it was an- 
 nounced to them that the promised Messiah was born, 
 their joy knew no bounds. "And there was suddenly 
 with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, 
 praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, 
 and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
 
 It is also said that there is more joy in the presence 
 of the angels over one sinner that repenteth than over 
 ninety-nine just persons which need no repentance. 
 We are not to infer from this language that angels 
 lack interest in those who are already on their way to 
 heaven, but simply that because of the new trophies 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 63 
 
 thus won to Christ they have new and increased 
 grounds for rejoicing. A feeling similar to this is ex- 
 perienced by Christians. We, too, rejoice more over 
 one sinner that repents than over many Christians 
 who are on the good way; not that we lack concern 
 for them, but because new conquests are made and 
 trophies won we have new and increased grounds 
 for rejoicing. This same principle may be illustrated 
 by many things in nature. We rejoice more over 
 property saved from conflagration, when greatly en- 
 dangered, than over many times its value which was 
 not thus exposed; also, over one friend rescued from 
 imminent danger than over many who were not thus 
 imperiled. Now it may be on this same principle that 
 there is more joy among the angels in heaven over one 
 sinner that repenteth than over ninety-nme just per- 
 sons who are already saved. 
 
 (2) The good tidings announced by the angels. 
 And what were they? "For unto you is born this 
 day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the 
 Lord." No tidings ever greeted human ears so 
 good as these. It was good tidings to Adam to learn 
 that the seed of the woman should bruise the ser- 
 pent's head, and to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to 
 know that in their seed the nations of the earth should 
 be blessed, and to Job that his Redeemer liveth, and 
 to David that the heathen should be given to Christ 
 for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for his possession, and to Isaiah to know that a 
 child should be born and a Son given who should bear 
 upon his shoulders the government, and be called the 
 mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
 Peace, and to Malachi to know that the Sun of 
 Righteousness should rise with healing in his wings. 
 
64 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 The wliole Old Testament is full of good tidings. 
 The writings of Moses, the psalms, and the prophe- 
 cies contain good tidings to man; but these, in 
 comparison to the good tidings of the text, are as the 
 droppings of the cloud before a bountiful shower, or 
 as the shadow to the reality. The Old Testament 
 saints had a Savior in types and promises, but we 
 have him in reality. To them the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness should arise: to us he has arisen. To them a 
 fountain should be opened for sin and uncleanness: to 
 us that fountain has been opened. Such tidings 
 might well cause joy among angels. 
 
 It was good tidings to our revolutionary fathers to 
 learn that Cornwallis had surrendered, and that they 
 had gained their independence. It was good tidings 
 during our late war, to hear that Vicksburg had 
 surrendered, that Richmond had been taken, and that 
 the rebellion was subdued; but tidings so good as 
 those brought to the shepherds by the angel never 
 before saluted human ears. Had there been one who 
 could have saved us from the terrible war through 
 which we passed, great suftering would have been pre- 
 vented ; but this is not to be compared to the suffering 
 prevented by Christ, or to the joys he brought for us. 
 
 And how does he save? This he does by having 
 died to redeem us; by giving his word and Spirit to 
 enlighten, convict, and convert us; by giving grace to 
 keep us in the way of his commandments; and by 
 providing for the resurrection of our bodies, and a re- 
 union of soul and body forever in the kingdom of 
 God. Christ is not a Savior in the sense that he raises 
 us above the want of pardon, but in the sense that he 
 made it possible for God to pardon us without con- 
 flicting with the claims of justice. His name shall be 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 65 
 
 called Jesus, for lie shall save his people not in their 
 sins but from their sins. To take men into heaven in 
 their sins would be to pollute that holy place, and to 
 leave them the same guilty and unhappy beings they 
 now are. 
 
 (3) The duty of those having the good tidings of 
 salvation toward those who have them not. The fact 
 that these good tidings are for all men is evidence that 
 a knowledge of his salvation should be given to all. 
 These glad tidings, said the angel to the shepherds, 
 are for you and for all people. It is just as important 
 for the heathen to know this as it was for the shep- 
 herds; and the angel who communicated it to them 
 thought it so important that he came all the way from 
 heaven to tell them. Doubtless the angel did this by 
 the command of God. But the command to Chris- 
 tians, especially ministers, is just as positive to "go 
 unto all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature," as it was to the angel to come to earth. 
 This work is committed to the church. God might 
 have commissioned other angels to carry the gospel 
 to the heathen. Yea, he might have written his law 
 on the sky, so that every man might read it there, and 
 have made angels missionaries to preach it, but he saw 
 best to commit this work to man. The command of 
 Christ, the wants of the heathen, and the promptings 
 of true religion, all demand earnest eifort, and that by 
 using all the means within our reach. So long as a 
 single soul is without these good tidings, so long is it 
 the duty of Christians to work \ to give it to them, 
 even if it takes all they have to accomplish it. 
 
 5 
 
6Q SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XI. 
 
 Salvation by the Death and Resurrection 
 OF Christ. 
 
 "And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved 
 Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that re- 
 pentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among 
 all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke xxiv. 46. 47.) 
 
 This text contains the first commission wliich the 
 church received from its risen Lord to engage actively 
 in the work of the world's conversion. Forty days 
 afterward, and just before his ascension to heaven, he 
 repeated it in still more emphatic terms. The first 
 thought on his mind after his resurrection, and the last 
 one before his ascension to heaven, yea, the chief 
 thought of his whole life, was the evangelization of 
 the world. The value and grandeur of this work is 
 strikingly set forth in the language of the text, " Thus 
 it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead 
 the third day : and that repentance and the remission 
 of sins should be preached in his name among all na- 
 tions, beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 That we may more fully understand this subject, let 
 us go back to the place where his lips, just released 
 from death, uttered these words, and so open our 
 hearts to divine influences as to receive spiritual illu- 
 mination, without which we shall be unable to discern 
 the relation of Christ's death and resurrection to the 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 67 
 
 salvation of men; also fail to realize our obligations 
 to do what we can to bring the unenlightened and un- 
 saved to a knowledge of the truth. Not until Christ 
 by his Spirit dwells in our souls, making us like him- 
 self, will there be that outflow of love for the welfare 
 of men and the power to overcome the difficulties in 
 the way of their salvation necessary to do successful 
 missionary work. 
 
 This alone can disclose the priceless worth of souls 
 and the horrors to which they are exposed while out 
 of Christ. When with the eye of faith we see the 
 miseries of the lost and the happiness of the saved, 
 then, and not till then, will we realize the glories of 
 that scheme which saves from the one and to the oth- 
 er, and which offers life and immortality to all. Christ 
 in the soul begets a deep concern for the welfare of 
 those who are yet in their sins, and causes the spirit 
 of missions to take deep hold upon us. Then will we 
 be like the Savior: "When he saw the multitudes, 
 he was moved with compassion on them, because they 
 fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no 
 shepherd." It was this which thrilled the souls of 
 apostles and reformers, and which gives sympathy for 
 the unsaved. 
 
 Observe, also, that Christ directed the apostles to 
 commence this work at Jerusalem. But why here, 
 where he had encountered such bitter persecution, and 
 where a conspiracy had been formed to take his life? 
 Does he really seek to save his worst enemies, even 
 the men whose hands are still reeking with his blood? 
 Yes, such Avas his love for them that he prayed for 
 their forgiveness and salvation while he hung upon 
 the cross. Instead of being repelled by their great 
 wickedness, he was moved to pity and earnest eflbrt 
 
68 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 for their happiness. It may be also that he command- 
 ed them to commence at Jerusalem to prove to them 
 and us that a love and zeal which could succeed in 
 such a wicked place would certainly encompass the 
 whole world. 
 
 But next I wish to consider some of the motives 
 that should induce us to engage in this work. (1) Christ 
 commands it. It is not left to our discretion or good- 
 will, but is made a most binding duty, and that too by 
 the highest authority known, and in language so plain 
 and positive that no ignorance can fail to understand 
 it and no ingenuity pervert its meaning. "Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," 
 means what it says, and can not be made to mean any- 
 thing else. The same pretext that evades the force of 
 this command would invalidate everything which the 
 Bible teaches. The duty of faith, prayer, and love to 
 God are no more binding upon us than the duty of 
 giving the gospel to " every creature," so far as this is 
 within our power. 
 
 In this Christ does not enjoin labor or sacrifice be- 
 yond what he did himself. By a most laborious life 
 and excruciating death he made salvation possible; and 
 now that he had just come forth from the grave, still 
 bearing on his person the scars of the mighty conflict 
 through which he vanquished death and hell, he says 
 to all Christians, "Be ye co-workers with me in saving 
 the world." Christ's farewell command is just as bind- 
 ing upon Christians in the nineteenth century as it was 
 in the first century, and will be as long as a heathen is 
 found on earth. 
 
 True, thousands have been enlightened within the 
 last century. In some instances whole countries have 
 been Christianized, and there are more Christians now 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 69 
 
 than ever before. But the population of the earth has 
 also increased, so that there are also as many without 
 the gospel as ever before. Heathenism still glories in 
 her proud temples, darkens the heavens with the smoke 
 of her cruel sacrifices, and whitens the earth with the 
 bones of her victims. And what lesson should this 
 immense moral waste teach us? Not one of despair 
 or discouragement, but one of rebuke for doing so lit- 
 tle to save them. Those who believe in no Savior, no 
 Holy Ghost, no gospel, no convicting or converting 
 power, may doubt the ultimate triumph of Christianity; 
 but true Christians should know nothing of such a 
 feeling. Much, indeed, has been done within the last 
 century. The gospel has been planted in most pagan 
 lands, and thousands have enlisted under the banner 
 of King Jesus. Glorious victories have been achieved, 
 which might have been multiplied many-fold had the 
 labor and faith and prayer of Christians been what 
 they ought to have been. 
 
 If Christians generally were constrained by the love 
 of Christ to prosecute this work, as was the primitive 
 church, it would not be over twenty-five years until all 
 would have the gospel. When this love to Christ and 
 souls is not the main impulse to missionary effort, but 
 little is done. Philanthropy may kindle compassion 
 for the heathen and prompt to benevolence for their 
 welfare; but not until the Holy Ghost fills us with the 
 love of Christ will our efforts be effective. This is ev- 
 erything in missionary labor, as it is in Christian expe- 
 rience, and all kinds of Christian work. "With this no 
 one can be unfeeling, or covetous, or neglectful of duty. 
 Did all the professed followers of Christ have it in rich 
 measure, then the many who perish annually in heathen 
 lands would soon hear the joyful sound of salvation. 
 
73 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON • 
 
 It is a great error, as well as a great evil, to regard 
 the spirit of missions as a peculiar kind of piety not 
 to be expected of Christians generally. The spirit of 
 missions is simply the Spirit of Christ, which we must 
 have to be his true followers. " If any man have not 
 th^e Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." It is a contra- 
 diction in terms to love the Lord with all the heart 
 and oar neighbors as ourselves and be without the 
 missionary spirit. To be without love and pity for the 
 souls of the heathen is equivalent to having none for 
 any souls. It is a misconception of Christianity, and 
 such a one as shows defective Christian experience 
 and ignorance of the requirements of God's word. 
 
 Essential to the success of this work is the sup- 
 ply of funds for its prosecution. When a man gives 
 himself to Christ in the true sense of the word he 
 gives his property, as well as all else that he possesses, 
 to be used as the Master directs. Alms-giving is en- 
 joined by him, and that to an extent which implies 
 self-denial and sacrifice. To give to benevolent objects 
 only what we can well spare falls below the standard 
 given us in God's word. To realize the fulfillment of 
 the promise, " It is more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive," we must give until we feel the loss of that which 
 is given. The more we deny ourselves for Christ's 
 sake the richer will be the blessing. The question 
 ought to be not how little, but how much can be spared 
 for missions? 
 
 It is a fearful thought that money which God in- 
 tended fr)r his cause will condemn those who use it for 
 selfish ends. Every dollar thus perverted will be a 
 swift witness against them in the day of judgment. 
 Ah, could Christians who deal out a few dollars for be- 
 nevolent purposes instead of giving hundreds and 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 71 
 
 thousands see their possessions spotted with the blood 
 of souls, they would realize the guilt of disobeying 
 the command, "Let evety one of you lay by him in 
 store, as God hath prospered him," for the upbuilding 
 of his cause. The tendency with the large majority 
 of Christians is to give too little. Especially is this 
 true of the rich, of whom the Savior said it is hard 
 for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven ; not be- 
 cause they are rich, but because they do not use their 
 riches properly. 
 
72 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XII. 
 
 Relation of the Holy Ghost to Missions. 
 
 "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 
 Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work wliereunto I have called 
 them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them away." (Acts xiii. 2, 3.) 
 
 The book of the Acts of the Apostles, as its name 
 indicates, records action, and that, too, of a remarka- 
 ble character, as is shown by the scenes and events 
 which it so graphically portrays. In short, it contains 
 the history of the primitive church, and especially its 
 ministers, who, in obedience to their Lord's command, 
 "Preach the gospel to every creature," labored so 
 zealously to accomplish this work. Such missionary 
 labors, sufferings, and successes as are here chronicled 
 are not to be found elsewhere. Preaching the gospel 
 was to the apostles so grand and glorious a work, and 
 one fraught with interests so important to others, that 
 it filled their heads and hearts, and prompted them to 
 labor hard and suffer much. 
 
 The chapter from which the text is taken, and the 
 succeeding one, give an account of the appointment 
 of Barnabas and Saul to the missionary work by the 
 church at Antioch ; the services by which they were 
 set apart to it; the places they visited and labors they 
 performed while on their lirst missionary tour; the 
 reception given them by their brethren at Antioch 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 73 
 
 when they returned. It will be borne in mind that it 
 was by the direction of the Holy Ghost that Barnabas 
 and Saul were set apart to this work, and that it was 
 by fasting, prayer, and the laying on of hands that they 
 were inaugurated into it. With such a call, and from 
 such services, did they go forth to " preach among the 
 gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." After 
 they had visited numerous places, and passed through 
 many perils, proclaiming Christ and his salvation, 
 they again stood before tlieir brethren at Antioch and 
 rehearsed '' all that God had done with them." 
 
 And now look at the reception given by their 
 brethren. The whole church came together to extend 
 to them their Christian greetings and hear their re- 
 ports. The whole church had participated in the 
 services, setting them apart to this work, and now 
 they wished to know the result. Being filled with 
 love to God and the unsaved, they were there to hear 
 what God had done through the labors of their repre- 
 sentatives, Barnabas and Saul, and what further they 
 could do to save men. Their sense of obligation to 
 God and to the heathen made them eager to know 
 their duty and to do it. N"ext to their own salvation, 
 that of others was to them the most important work 
 of life. Such was their appreciation of the gospel 
 that they felt it should be given to all men in the 
 shortest time possible. 
 
 Let us consider the relation of the Holy Ghost to 
 the missionary work, and the means we must employ 
 to secure it. Every agency chosen of God to pro- 
 mote his cause has its sphere of action, and infinite 
 wisdom employs none but what is essential. The 
 circulation of the Scriptures and to teach people 
 to understand them, the preaching of the gospel, and 
 
74 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the use of all the appointed means of grace are indis- 
 pensable ; but after all, without the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit they will fail to awaken and reform mankind. 
 The Holy Spirit must be present with teacher and 
 learner, preacher and people, to enlighten, renew, and 
 to guide into all truth, or souls will not be won to 
 Christ. Saving men is emphatically a work of the 
 Holy Spirit, and without its influence it is impossible 
 " to turn men from darkness to light." 
 
 Without this, the best mere human effort will fail 
 to discover to sinners the depravity of their hearts and 
 give them proper conceptions of the gospel and its 
 adaptation to meet their wants in this life and that 
 which is to come. Paul says, " The natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they 
 are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned." If this is 
 true of men generally in their unrenewed state, as 
 this passage and others teach, then how difficult to 
 give the heathen clear conceptions of the truth of 
 God, and make that truth effective in their salvation 
 without the help of the Holy Spirit. As the things 
 of science can only be scientifically understood, so the 
 things of the Spirit can only be spiritually under- 
 stood. 
 
 It is the Holy Spirit that reproves of sin, of right- 
 eousness, and of a judgment to come, and that makes 
 the gospel the power of God unto salvation. It is 
 this which commences the work of salvation by en- 
 lightening the understanding, that carries it forward 
 by renewing the heart, that perfects it by guiding 
 into all truth, and which makes the path of the right- 
 eous shine brighter and brighter, even unto the perfect 
 day. Said Jesus to the apostles, "I will send the 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 75 
 
 promise of my Father upon you : but tarry ye in the 
 city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from 
 on high." No amount of learning, zeal, or good 
 works can become a substitute for the directing and 
 helping power of the Holy Spirit. "Likewise the 
 Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what 
 we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself 
 maketh intercession for us with groanings which can 
 not be uttered." "We know as little of other religious 
 duties as this without the Spirit, and hence its need to 
 guide us into all truth. But how, when, and under 
 what circumstances will the Spirit be given to God's 
 people? and what may they do to secure it? This is 
 clearly indicated by the language, " As they ministered 
 to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate 
 me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I 
 have called them." Ministering means serving, or 
 waiting on the Lord in the use of the appointed means 
 of grace. Dr. Clarke says it was common for pious 
 Jews to meet on week-days for prayer and supplication ; 
 and on these days they fasted. It may have been on 
 an occasion of this kind that the Holy Ghost indicated 
 the divine will in respect to Barnabas and Saul. Long 
 before this time God had said to them, " I will pour 
 out my Spirit upon all flesh;" but he also said, "I will 
 yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do 
 it for them." 
 
 There must be ministering to the Lord and conform- 
 ity to his will in our hearts and lives which embraces 
 the.duty of earnest importunate prayer, in answer to 
 which our obligations to the spiritually destitute will 
 be made plain. Prayer laj's hold of Omnipotent 
 power, and brings pardon and salvation. In answer 
 to it the Holy Ghost will be poured out upon all laud- 
 
76 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 able efforts to Christianize tlie world. " The effectual, 
 fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." 
 If this is true of one, how much more of many who 
 with strong faith pray for the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit. Were we as importunate for the salvation of 
 the heathen as the woman was before the unjust 
 judge it would not be long till they would be brought 
 to Christ. 
 
 Let the church still, as it did at Antioch, send 
 forth its brightest jewels, its strong men, such as will 
 be able to convince the gainsayer and confound the 
 skeptic, and whose love of Christ constrains them to 
 preach salvation to the perishing, and let it liberally 
 sustain those it does send forth ; but let it not forget 
 that it has an important duty to perform at a throne 
 of divine grace. Queen Mary showed her faith in the 
 prayer of the righteous when she said she feared the 
 prayers of John Knox more than all the fleets and 
 armies of her enemies. Wicked as she was, she be- 
 lieved in the power of prayer, especially when offered 
 by John Knox. She knew that his prayers were op- 
 posed to her wicked schemes, and that they must pre- 
 vail. Prayer has accomplished what armies, fleets, 
 arguments, and eloquence can not do. These can only 
 affect men, but prayer moves the hand that moves the 
 world, securing strength for the weak, wisdom for the 
 ignorant, joy for the disconsolate, and salvation for 
 the guilty. The church at Antioch prayed for those 
 it sent forth, and by being present at the missionary 
 meeting which commissioned them to go, and at the 
 \one which received them back, showed a heart-interest 
 in this work. They believed that the command, "Go 
 teach all nations," was as binding as other commands 
 found in the Bible, and that it ought to be obeyed by 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 77 
 
 all Christians. How unlike some of the present day, 
 who at most give a small annual contribution, an oc- 
 casional prayer, and with these dismiss the whole sub- 
 ject of the world's evangelization from their minds. 
 Indeed, some do not this much. They neither pray, 
 pay, nor in any way labor for the cause. 
 
 The most alarming feature in their case is that they 
 do this with seemingly little or no compunction of 
 conscience. They treat the claims of God and the 
 heathen as though it were asking too much to give the 
 gospel to the spiritually destitute. Indeed, not a few 
 act as though the cost of sustaining the gospel at 
 home is a good deal to ask for the mere privilege 
 of getting to heaven. They, like shipping-merchants, 
 are constantly asking'for cheaper rates; and if they 
 could be certain of barely squeezing into heaven by 
 paying still less they would do it. Christ's last com- 
 mission has not that binding force upon their con- 
 sciences which it ought to have. It is a most painful 
 fact that some seem to give to missions only to escape 
 censure, or to get the whole subject out of the way. 
 
 "Why, the mere announcement of a missionary meet- 
 ing puts some professors of religion into agon}'; and 
 to ask them for money for this interest utterly destroys 
 their enjoyment. A member of the United Brethren 
 Church who left the congregation as soon as she heard 
 the text, and went home to get dinner for the preach- 
 ers, said by way of apology, " I never enjoy mission- 
 ary meetings, and hence came away before meeting 
 had fairly begun." She regarded such a meeting as 
 a kind of necessary evil — something to be endured, 
 not enjoyed. She is not alone in her views on this 
 subject. To receive good and not do good is the high- 
 est idea of religious work and worship some have. 
 
78 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Paul's Indebtedness to his Fellow- men. 
 
 "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to 
 the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am readj^ to 
 preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." (Rom. i. 14, 15.) 
 
 It is a most disagreeable thing to an honest man to 
 be deeply in debt. Yet Paul frankly acknowledged 
 that he was debtor '' both to the Greeks and to the 
 Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise," which 
 four classes embraced the entire world. But how did 
 he become so extensively in debt? Was he a money- 
 borrower, or a merchant, or a banker with whom the 
 balance of mankind made deposits? Or by what 
 process did he become so generally in debt ? Kot in 
 any of these ways, for he had little to do with finances 
 or business of any kind after his call to the ministry. 
 
 This will be more fully explained after some things 
 are stated respecting the gospel which he was so ready 
 to preach. The gospel is a revelation of the grace of 
 God to man through- a Mediator. It is that system 
 of faith and practice through which guilty man may 
 be saved by virtue of Christ's life, death, resurrection, 
 and intercession. It is God's appointed instrumental- 
 ity by which to enlighten and save the world. "Thus 
 it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and 
 to rise from the dead the third day : and that repent- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 79 
 
 ance and remission of sins should be. preached in his 
 name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 This gospel shows man that he is " wretched, and 
 miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;" that he is 
 " dead in trespasses and sins ;" that he is " condemned 
 already;" that "the wrath of God abideth upon him." 
 It also tells him how he may escape that wrath; how 
 he may be made alive to God and be clothed with the 
 robe of righteousness ; how he may be made rich in 
 faith and good works in this life, and in the life to come 
 an heir to an " inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away." As the apostle affirms, it 
 is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
 believeth," and the only power that can elevate and 
 save the race. 
 
 With such views of man's wretched state and of the 
 gospel and its benefits did the apostle go forth to pro- 
 claim the glad. tidings of salvation. Is it any wonder 
 that he said, even in the face of imprisonment and 
 death itself, " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ?'' 
 Seeing and feeling the value of this gospel, he could 
 not be indiiferent in regard to its promulgation to oth- 
 ers. He was ready to preach it to the Romans and to 
 all men. He could truly say, "Neither count I my 
 life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course 
 with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of 
 the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
 God." So highly did he appreciate it that he felt that 
 no privation or sacrifice of ease or wealth was too 
 great to be made for the sake of imparting it to others. 
 Grounds of his obligation to thus preach the gospel. 
 (1) He felt he ought to proclaim the glad tidings to all 
 because of the mercy God had shown him in his con- 
 version; also because of the great dangers to which 
 
80 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the wiaked are exposed. Paul liad himself been a 
 great sinner, saved in a miraculous manner; and be- 
 ing so mercifully saved himself, he felt he ought to do 
 all he possibly could to save others. Ho had not for- 
 gotten how blind and guilty he had been, nor the won- 
 derful power that had arrested him on his way to Da- 
 mascus, which caused the scales to fall from his eyes, 
 made him a new creature in Christ Jesus, and gave 
 him a well-grounded hope of immortality and eternal 
 life. Paul looked at things very difl'erently after his 
 conversion from what he did before. He saw much 
 more to admire in God and much more to deplore in 
 man than he ever had before, — God's goodness in so 
 abundantly providing for man's spiritual wants, and 
 man's blindness and indifference in rejecting the only 
 means of his salvation. The life-boat of salvation had 
 picked him up while the waves of iniquity were car- 
 rying him with fearful velocity toward ruin; and see- 
 ing the large majority of the race in the same sad 
 plight from which he had been saved, he felt he ought, 
 yea, must do all that lay in his power " to open their 
 eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and 
 from the power of Satan unto God, that they may re- 
 ceive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
 which are sanctified by faith." 
 
 (2) He felt that he was debtor to all men because 
 God had given him valuable treasures for them, and 
 made him his special agent to distribute them to all 
 within his reach. God made him a depositary of the 
 most valuable gifts, as is true of every gospel minister 
 by virtue of his call to this work, and hence under the 
 most solemn pledge to impart to all, so far as this was 
 possible, a knowledge of the gospel of Christ. He 
 confessed that a dispensation of the gospel was com- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 81 
 
 mitted to him; and having been put in trust with a 
 boon so valuable for others, he felt that he could not, 
 as an honest man, withhold it from them. Had he 
 received thousands of dollars to be conveyed to 
 others and failed to give it to them, that would have 
 been regarded dislionest; and in his estimation it was 
 no less so to withhold from them the gospel, which 
 is more valuable than millions of money. 
 
 Paul was quite different from some who say they 
 are called to preach, but who are nevertheless indiffer- 
 ent as to whether they ever do this, much less to all 
 within their reach. He was so intent on discharging 
 his obligations to preach the gospel that all other 
 things were made secondary to this. He acknowledg- 
 ed that he was in debt. He did not deny this to get 
 rid of paying debts, as some do now, but confessed it, 
 and then used the greatest effort possible to pay them. 
 True, he met with great opposition. They even went 
 80 far as to imprison him to prevent him from doing 
 so ; but pay his debts he would. In some instances 
 men have been imprisoned because they did not pay 
 debts. Paul was because he did. From this he would 
 not be turned aside. 
 
 Paul was an honest, ready man, willing to do what- 
 ever God bid him, even unto death, that he might fin- 
 ish his course with joy. He commenced his Christian 
 career by asking, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do?" and then did the will of God at all hazards. So 
 intent was he on paying debts — preaching Jesus — that 
 no opportunity was omitted. When he was a prisoner 
 before Agrippa and permitted to speak in defense of 
 himself, the king remarked, "Almost thou persuadest 
 me to be a Christian." Paul replied, " I would to God, 
 that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, 
 
 6 
 
82 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except 
 these bonds." When he was before Felix he " reasoned 
 of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." 
 Though there for the express purpose of pleading for 
 his release, yet he had rather remain in bonds than to 
 omit a single privilege to preach Jesus and the resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Paul's idea of life was not so much enjoyment as 
 usefulness. Were the former the end for which men 
 are to live, God would evidently take Christians to 
 heaven as soon as converted. That low, selfish idea 
 never entered Paul's mind. Angels in heaven do not 
 sit indolently down and selfishly enjoy life. They are 
 ministering spirits, and so ought Christians to be to 
 others. Paul practiced the same gospel he preached, 
 and bore the same cross in which he gloried. Religion 
 with him was work as well as enjoyment, or his en- 
 joyment was largely the result of work. This gospel 
 which he was so ready to preach revealed truths so 
 momentous and prolfered a salvation so glorious, and 
 an immortality so desirable, that he felt it ought to be 
 given to all if possible. 
 
 He had completely lost sight of his earthly interests. 
 The question of life or death, health or sickness, liber- 
 ty or bondage, he had submitted to God who called 
 him to preach. It was his business to preach, and 
 God's work to care for him and give such results as 
 he might think wise and good. His time, talent, life, 
 and health, all belonged to God ; and as he had inquir- 
 ed of him what to do, with the full purpose to be 
 obedient to the Heavenly calling, it was his one busi- 
 ness on earth to become all things to all men that he 
 might win souls to Christ. 
 
 (3) The same obligations resting upon him to dif- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 83 
 
 fuse Christianity are upon all Christians. Was he 
 debtor to all men because of God's mercy shown him 
 in his salvation ? So are we. Was he debtor because 
 God had made him a depositary of valuable treasures, 
 and was it his duty to give them to others? So are 
 we. As co-laborers with God in the work of re- 
 deeming this world, that compassion which brought 
 Christ from heaven to be a ransom for man ought to 
 fill our hearts. With the mind of Christ we will 
 show his sympathy for the lost and cease not to do 
 what we can to save them. 
 
84 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Living for the Good of Others. 
 
 '' For none of us liveth to hunself." (Rom. xiv. 7.) 
 
 The gospel requires tis to live largely for the good 
 of others aud for Christ's glory, and to make our own 
 happiness a secondary consideration. The obligation 
 to do this, even when it requires privation and sacri- 
 fice, is clearly taught in the sacred Scriptures. Self- 
 renunciation for Christ's sake and the good of others 
 promotes the happiness of those who practice it, for 
 the reason that this develops those feelings and afiec- 
 tions upon which happiness depends. The funda- 
 mental law of the gospel kingdom is love, — love to God 
 and love to man. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." "On these two commandments hang 
 all the law and the prophets." In another portion of 
 God's word it is said, " For all the law is fulfilled in 
 one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
 as thyself." 
 
 Many reasons might be assigned why we should love 
 our neighbors as ourselves and do good to others. This 
 will promote mutual love and good-will, and thus con- 
 duce to the happiness of both parties. Special acts of 
 kindness toward others increase our interest in them 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 85 
 
 and their good-will toward us, aud increase our sym- 
 pathy for all mankind, l^o one thus employed can 
 have a contracted, unsympathizing heart. A cold- 
 hearted, unfeeling, selfish Christian is a contradiction 
 in. terms, wholly at variance with the spirit of the re- 
 ligion of the Bible. This religion fills the soul with 
 godlike aspirations and affections, and makes its pos- 
 sessor not only willing, but anxious to contribute to the 
 happiness of others. 
 
 This view may be objected to on the ground that 
 it sets up a standard so high that none, cr but few, at- 
 tain to it. But then, is not this the Bible standard? 
 Is not grace proilered to enable Christians to attain 
 to it? Is it not true that some have attained to it? 
 Are there not some in every religious community whom 
 all acknowledge to be Bible Christians, and who large- 
 ly live for the good of others? But God's law does 
 not depend upon the will or conduct of men. It is 
 founded on truth and right, and will abide, even though 
 none meet its obligations. We say of this as did the 
 apostle concerning another subject, "For what if some 
 did not believe ? shall their unbelief make tlie faith of 
 God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God bo 
 true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou 
 mightest be justified in thy sayings." 
 
 It is a great misfortune, as it is a great wrong, that 
 Christians do not more generally live up to the stand- 
 ard given in the word of God. Were this done, there 
 would be fewer skeptics. The arguments of a good 
 life are often more convincing to this class of persons 
 than the best logic and reasoning. Those who are 
 naturally skeptical are more likely to be saved from 
 infidelity by the exemplary lives of Christians than by 
 any other means. A life that is " hid with Christ in 
 
86 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 God" will most favorably recommend the religion of 
 the Bible, and often lead sinners to a knowledge of the 
 truth. To have all selfishness rooted out of our hearts, 
 and to truly love others as we do ourselves, is the way 
 the Bible would have us live. 
 
 To be truly happy ourselves we must make others 
 happy, and do this upon God's plan, which is that we 
 exercise supreme love to him and universal love to 
 man. He is pledged to take care of the happiness of 
 those who for his sake and for the welfare of their 
 fellow-men are striving to make the world better. 
 As Christians, we too often forget that all our interests 
 for time and eternity are safer in the hands of God 
 than anywhere else. " The Lord God is a sun and 
 shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : no good 
 thing will he withhold from them that walk upright- 
 ly." "Who will render to every man according to his 
 deeds : to them who by patient continuance in well- 
 doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eter- 
 nal life : but unto them that are contentious, and do 
 not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indig- 
 nation and wrath." 
 
 The Bible rule by which we are to live in behalf of 
 our fellow-men is, " Therefore all things whatsover ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
 them." Alas, our dwarfish piety prevents us from 
 coming up to this rule ; and instead of doing to others 
 as we would have others do to us, and laboring ear- 
 nestly in behalf of the happiness and salvation of oth- 
 ers, we do little or nothing. If God should deal out 
 blessings to us as we often do to our fellow-men 
 and to his cause, what leanness of both soul and 
 body there would be in our case. He gives us tem- 
 poral and spiritual gifts freely and abundantly, and 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 87 
 
 wifh them the injunction, "Having freely received, 
 freely give." 
 
 Such consecration as this to God and to the cause of 
 humanity will bring genuine happiness to those who 
 possess it, and also such spiritual power as is necessary 
 to be progressive and victorious Christians. This power 
 is referred to by the apostle when he said, *' My preach- 
 ing was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but 
 in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." To 
 possess and wield such power to the editication * of 
 Christians, the conversion of sinners, and the spread 
 of the gospel into all destitute portions of the earth, 
 should be the aim of every earnest Christian. To be 
 without this power as the rule of life is a sin, and proves 
 unfaithfulness to God, just as the absence of true re- 
 ligious enjoyment as the rule of life proves a defective 
 Christian character. 
 
 When we consider that this power is absolutely nec- 
 essary to a growing Christian experience and life, as 
 well as to enable us to labor successfully for the good 
 of others, and that thus laboring and living is the only 
 certain way of obtaining an increase of this power, or 
 even retaining what is already possessed, the appropri- 
 ateness of the apostle's prayer in the following language 
 is clearly seen: " That he would grant you, according 
 to the riches of his glor}^, to be strengthened with 
 might by his Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ 
 may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being root- 
 ed and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend 
 with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and 
 depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, 
 which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with 
 all the fullness of God." 
 
 It is not enticing words of man's wisdom — not ex- 
 
88 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 cellency of speech, oratorical flourishes, philosophical 
 disquisitions, or anything that is merely human — that 
 lift men to a higher, holier, and happier life ; but the 
 power of God or saving grace alone can do this. That 
 power vouchsafed to man through the redemption of 
 Christ can lift him from the. low estate into which sin 
 has placed the race and prepare him for heaven. Tliis 
 power is essential to every stage or condition of Chris- 
 tian life. Without it, there can be no true enlighten- 
 ment, conviction,, conversion, regeneration, growth in 
 grace, or successful work for the salvation of others. 
 " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
 the Lord of hosts;" that is, it is not by human might 
 or human power that his kingdom is established in the 
 hearts of men and they thereby made co-workers with 
 him in recovering this world to himself, but by the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 "For none of us liveth to himself;" that is to say, 
 Christians must act according to the will of God, and 
 not follow their own wills. His glory in their salva- 
 tion, and the salvation of those whom they may induce 
 to become his servants, is the chief end for which they 
 should exert themselves. A true Christian can no more 
 live to himself and for himself exclusively in a spirit- 
 ual sense than he can live physically without food to 
 eat or air to breathe. And what is true of an individ- 
 ual is also true of a church. To prosper, it must show 
 sympathy and extend help to the destitute and un- 
 saved. It can not refuse these and shut itself up to 
 its own wants altogether and retain a living state of 
 spirituality. The feeling that work for God's cause 
 and suffering humanity must be performed will come 
 up wherever true religion exists. The example of 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 89 
 
 Christ, the teachings of his word, tlie dictates of rea- 
 son, and human impulse demand it. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that the obligation to do 
 this does not exert a more autlioritative and command- 
 ing, yea, binding power over our consciences and lives. 
 This work is regai'ded by most Christians in the light 
 of charity ratlier than absolute duty, which accounts 
 for the micertain, spasmodic policy of many professors 
 of religion whose influence is for or against great be- 
 nevolent institutions, and whose money is given or 
 withheld from them, wholly as a matter of choice, 
 without any respect to what God commands and Chris- 
 tian obligation requires. They do not seem to believe 
 that the institutions of Christianity and humanity, so 
 faT as tliey aim at and have for their special object the 
 happiness of others and the intellectual and moral im- 
 provement of generations to come, have a divinely- 
 UTiposed claim upon them. 
 
 This accounts for the reason that many of these be- 
 nevolent enterprises are dependent for support upon 
 popular excitement, or good feeling, or generous im- 
 pulses, at the time their claims are presented, much 
 more than upon iixed religious principle. Instead of 
 Christians regarding their support as a part of their 
 work and duty, they are looked upon as objects of mere 
 charity, Avhicii may or may not be sustained, wholly at 
 their option or caprice. Until the principle be deeply 
 fixed in the hearts of Christians that Providence de- 
 mands that they should not live to themselves, their 
 .gifts toward the support of such institutions, as well 
 as their personal efibrts to alleviate human sufiering 
 wherever found, will fall far below the obligatimi im- 
 posed upon them in God's holy word. 
 
yj SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XV 
 
 Cost of Redemption. 
 
 " For j-e are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your 
 body, and in j'our spirit, which are God's." (I. Cor. vi. 20.) 
 
 To the accomplishment of great ends, several things, 
 and usually the three following, are necessary; namely, 
 time, effort, and money, or their equivalent. No great 
 city or railroad can be built, or any other large under- 
 taking accomplished, without them. The great pyra- 
 mid of Egypt was from twenty to thirty years in 
 course of construction, with one hundred thousand 
 men employed all these years, who were exchanged 
 at the end of every three months for fresh laborers. 
 Our late war furnishes another illustration' of this 
 proposition. The rebellion was subdued;, but it re- 
 quired time, effort, and money, a large amount of each, 
 as well as a great sacrifice of human life. 
 
 But especially is it true that great moral enterprises, 
 such as contemplate the reformation, elevation, and 
 salvation of man, require time, effort, and money. 
 Dr. Judson labored six long years in Burmah before 
 he witnessed a single conversion from heathenism to 
 Christianity. In Siam the missionaries labored twelve 
 1 years before a single conversion took place. Rev. Mr. 
 Williams was seventeen years on one of the South 
 Sea islands before he was permitted to see any fruit of 
 his labor. The Church Missionary Society of Great 
 
THE MISSIONARY "WOllK. 91 
 
 Britain was nine or ten years,, with about an equal 
 number of laborers in the field all this time, and at an 
 expense of from $90,000 to $100,000 to establish its 
 first mission-station in Western Africa. These, with 
 many similar instances, fully establish the fact that 
 saving men from sin is a difficult undertaking. There 
 is in man a strong proclivity to forsake God and to do 
 evil, as the whole history of our race shows. Even 
 those who have been initiated into his kingdom and 
 made the subjects of special favor often forget God 
 and sin grievously against him. How strikingly is 
 this illustrated in the history of the Israelites while 
 they sojourned in the wilderness. God displayed 
 miraculous power in delivering them from their ene- 
 mies in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and at numerous other 
 times. They saw how graciously he would preserve 
 and bless his people, and how terribly he would pun 
 isL those who rebelled against him ; and yet how soon 
 after all this they committed high-handed crime 
 against him; for when Moses came down from the 
 mountain they had made, and were worshiping, a gold- 
 en calf. We would suppose after what they had seen 
 of God's dealings with sin and his goodness to his 
 people they would never forsake him again. 
 
 But now I' wish to apply the proposition that all 
 great undertakings require time, eftbrt, and money to 
 the work of redemption as wrought out for man by 
 Jesus Christ. And first, the time. Soon after the 
 creation of our first parents they fell, and involved 
 themselves and the whole human race in sin; for "by 
 the ofiense of one, judgment came upon all men to 
 condemnation." "But the scripture hath concluded 
 all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
 might be given to them that believe." Four thou- 
 
92 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 sand 3'ears before the advent of Christ to earth the 
 promise was made to Adam that he should come. 
 And the question arises, Why did he delay so 
 long? Why not come at once and redeem the world? 
 Why wait four thousand years? Why not give the 
 millions who lived and died between the giving of the 
 promise of a Savior and his appearance on earth, the 
 benetits of liis teachings, example, and the ten thousand 
 blessings he bought for us. As an all-benovoleut 
 Father, who does the best he can for all his creatures, 
 why did the Almighty delay this work so long? The 
 answer is, all this time was necessary to prepare the 
 world for redemption. Men are slow to receive re- 
 ligious truth, and especially that which teaches that 
 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, 
 and are utterly undone without an interest in Christ's 
 blood. 
 
 Had Christ come soon after the fall, iniidels would 
 have said, as indeed some do say now, that man could 
 and would have fully reb'ieved his losses had he been 
 left alone. He could by his own effort have thrown 
 off the evils brought upon him by Adam's transgres- 
 sion and lifted himself up to the high and holy posi- 
 tion from which he fell. J!Tow to show that man was 
 so depraved, that unaided by divine grace he could not 
 do this, and to illustrate the holiness of God's law, his 
 forbearance toward the erring, and yet his justice in 
 punishing sin, and to give us such knowledge respect- 
 ing his character, government, and our need of re- 
 demption as was indispensable to prepare us for it, 
 all the time was taken that was necessary. 
 
 (2 ) The labor necessary to accomplish this work. 
 How great the concern of our heavenly Father, and 
 how numerous the instrumentalities, human, angelic, 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 93 
 
 and divine, which he employed to prepare the world 
 for redemption. How many angels' visits to earth to 
 communicate God's messages to man, and how numer- 
 ous the men employed for this same purpose in the 
 earlier periods of the world's history. E'oah, Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Sol- 
 omon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and scores of others who offi- 
 ciated as prophets, priests, and kings preparatory to 
 this end. A .long catalogue among the most illus- 
 trious names that earth has ever produced devoted 
 their lives to this great and good object. 
 
 The building of Noah's ark, and the preservation 
 of himself and family during the flood; Abraham's so- 
 journ in a strange land ; the miraculous birth of Isaac ; 
 the remarkable history of Jacob ; the captivity of Jo- 
 seph and his promotion from prison to the royal palace 
 of Egypt; the bondage of the Israelites in that land, 
 and their miraculous deliverance from it; their pas- 
 sage over the Red Sea, and forty years' sojourn in the 
 wilderness; their linal entrance into Canaan, and 
 driving the inhabitants out of it ; their many defeats 
 and victories ; their unparalleled prosperity and sad re- 
 verses while there ; their captivity in Babylon and re- 
 turn to Canaan again ; their religious ceremonies and 
 sacrifices ; their services of the tabernacle and of the 
 temple; all these, and more than time or space will 
 allow to speak of, stand directly connected with the 
 work of human redemption. 
 
 Look also at the labors and privations of Christ 
 while he was upon earth. Who before or since his 
 day labored so assiduously as he? He was an itiner- 
 ating missionary in the true sense of the word, and 
 among friends and foes, in village and in country, by 
 day and by night, he was engaged in his high and 
 
94 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 holy vocation. By prayer, preaching his own gospel, 
 healing the sick, casting out devils, raising the dead, 
 comforting the hereaved, instructing the ignorant, en- 
 couraging the virtuous and warning the vicious, and 
 especially by teaching his apostles the things pertain- 
 ing to his future kingdom, so that they might be qual- 
 ified for their work after his return to heaven, he 
 labored incessantly for three years. Now all this 
 work of Christ, men, and angels, reaching through a 
 period of four thousand years, was necessary to pre- 
 pare the world for redemption and redemption for the 
 world. 
 
 (2.) Redemption costs money, or its equivalent. 
 The daily sacrifices of animals, birds, and precious 
 ointment required under the Mosaic dispensation cost 
 a great deal, to say nothing of the very costly ofler- 
 ings required on special occasions, which were fre- 
 quent. These were all necessary to give the people 
 just conceptions of sin and the means requisite to 
 atone for it. The shedding of the blood of animals 
 typified the shedding of Christ's blood, and the atone- 
 ment made by them prefigured the atonement made 
 by him. In this way men were taught that sin was a 
 most terrible thing, and that without the shedding of 
 blood there was no remission. Cumbersome as was 
 the Mosaic law, and greatly as the time and means of 
 the people were taxed by its requirements, all was nec- 
 essary as a school-master to lead the world to Christ. 
 
 Consider also the cost of the tabernacle and temple, 
 especially the latter, the most magnificent edifice the 
 world ever saw. Think of the gold and silver and 
 costly material in it. God built but one church on 
 earth that we know of, and that was a grand one. 
 This temple was a type of the church which Christ 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 95 
 
 should estaWish in this world, and also of the heaven- 
 ly Jerusalem, and indispensable to give proper con- 
 ceptions of the purity and grandeur of the Christian's 
 life here and in heaven. The priests that were em- 
 ployed, with the numerous and costly services of the 
 temple, show that this preparatory work of redemp- 
 tion was exceedingly costly. To compute the cost of 
 redemption in the sense in which it is here presented 
 would be impossible. And yet all this is but a small 
 consideration in comparison to the giving of the life 
 of the Son of God, of which we will not now speak. 
 The redemption of the world was an exceedingly cost- 
 ly work, and yet the salvation proffered by virtue of it 
 is free to all. Truly we are bought with a price and 
 should therefore glorify God in our bodies and spirits, 
 which are his. This we should do by living true 
 Christian lives and laboring zealously to give the bless- 
 ings of redemption to all men. It will cost time, la- 
 bor, and money to give the gospel to the heathen; but 
 in view of the great price paid for our redemption we 
 should not complain of any demand made upon us 
 within our power to send the gospel to all men. If 
 it is true, as the Savior teaches, it will profit nothing 
 to o-ain the whole world and lose the soul, then it is 
 also true that the salvation of the soul through the re- 
 demption of Christ is the greatest achievement possi- 
 ble to man. 
 
96 SUaGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Grace of Liberality 
 
 ''See that ye abound in this grace also." (11. Cor. viii. 7.) 
 
 The grace referred to in the text is Christian liber- 
 ality. The frequent and positive manner in wliich it 
 is enjoined in the ]S'e^Y Testament shows that it is high- 
 ly essential ; essential to meet the wants of the poor, 
 the benevolent enterprises of the church, and to the 
 full development of Christian character. One reason 
 why the apostles speak so much upon this subject is 
 that Christians are more apt to neglect it than some 
 other religious duties. Then, too, it requires more re- 
 hgion to perform it than some others. A man may 
 pray, or even preach, and succeed reasonably well, 
 so far as thought and delivery are concerned, with but 
 little grace; but to give as he ought, and to do this in 
 the spirit and from the motive he should, and to con- 
 tinue in it, requires God's grace. 
 
 IvTow, much as the Bible says of prayer, that daily 
 and universally binding duty; of faith, without which 
 no man can please God; and of holiness, without 
 which no one shall see the Lord, it nowhere has two 
 whole chapters devoted exclusively to their enforce- 
 ment. But in this second book of Corinthians, in 
 the eighth and ninth chapters, there is nothing dis- 
 cussed but Christian liberality. And it will be re- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 97 
 
 membered that Paul was writing to a people who were 
 already reasonably liberal — at least they were far in 
 advance of many Christians of the present time. Had 
 he addressed his letter to some of the churches of this 
 day, he might have said much more. At all events, 
 were he now living, and were he to urge the duty of 
 giving as he does in this epistle, some would complain 
 and say of him as they do about other ministers, 
 "Wish he would preach the gospel, and let money 
 alone ; we are tired of hearing money sermons." 
 
 It was once said in certain portions of our country, 
 "Wish the minister would preach the gospel, and let 
 slavery alone." But how could he let slavery alone, 
 when his text reads, "Let the oppressed go free?" 
 And how is he to let the subject of money alone, when 
 his text says, " See that ye abound in this grace also? " 
 It would be like preaching on the text, " Have faith in 
 God," and saying nothing of faith or God. Preach 
 the gospel, and let our sins alone, is what some people 
 desire; and that is just what ought not to be done. 
 "What kind of a gospel would it be if all were omitted 
 that people object to? Paul was preaching the gospel 
 when he discoursed to the Corinthians on the impor- 
 tance and duty of giving money, as much as when he 
 said to them, " Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves 
 from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
 holiness in the fear of God." That he did make the 
 money question an important item in the gospel he 
 communicated to the Corinthians, will be seen by the 
 manner in which he introduced the subject. The 
 same skill and argument so characteristic of this em- 
 inent apostle's epistles, are seen here: "Moreover, 
 brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God be- 
 stowed on the churches of Macedonia." Here he calls 
 
 7 
 
98 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the spirit of liberality whicli the Macedonians exhibit- 
 ed the grace of God, meaning, doubtless, but for this 
 grace of God in their conversion they would not have 
 possessed this spirit. Then he says, " To their power 
 and beyond their power they were willing of them- 
 selves to give;" that is, deprive themselves of some 
 of the blessings of life that others might have its 
 necessities. As a matter of course, all superfluity in 
 food and raiment was dispensed with under these cir- 
 cumstances. Their religion taught them to put their 
 money to making things better below as well as to set 
 their aflfections on things above; for, as the context 
 shows, they "first gave their own selves to the Lord," 
 and having made a full surrender of time, talents, and 
 money, they promptly and faithfully met all the obli- 
 gations which such a relation imposed. They felt and 
 acted as though they were bought with a price; and 
 that the end of life was to glorify God in their bodies 
 and spirits, which embraced their money too. As soon 
 as they knew of others in want they gave without 
 being asked, and gave to their power, " and beyond." 
 How different now in most instances. Christians often 
 have to be asked and pleaded with, yea, urged and 
 pressed to give to objects they know to be needy and 
 important, and then often give but little instead of 
 giving to their power, and beyond, as did the Mace- 
 donians. In them and in those Christians who sold 
 their possessions and placed the entire proceeds upon 
 the altar we have what very seldom happens now. 
 
 The commendation pronounced upon the Macedo- 
 nian Christians by Paul was for the twofold purpose of 
 doing justice to those who did their duty and stirring 
 up those who did not. It is said that we should pro- 
 voke one another to good works — not to evil, as is 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 99 
 
 often done, but to good works. Paul, "by the example 
 of the Macedonians, strove to provoke the Corinthians 
 to greater generosity in behalf of the poor. We may 
 infer from this that it is not so wicked after all, as 
 some think, to use outside pressure to get people to be 
 liberal. Paul used it, and that in a most telling man- 
 ner. He felt that the Corinthians needed more of 
 this spirit; and he proved it, both by the example of 
 others and by the word of God. One thing is re- 
 markable, namely, while he acknowledged that the 
 Macedonians had given to and beyond their power, he 
 does not stop to caution against such a course. I sup- 
 pose he thought, better give too much once in awhile 
 than never enough, as the majority do. A most ex- 
 cellent opportunity was offered the apostle to show up 
 the evils of giving too much; and had he believed that 
 the world needed caution on that side of the question 
 he ought to have given it. Christ had also a very 
 striking example of large-hearted liberality in the 
 case of the poor woman when he saw her cast in all 
 she had; and yet he did not chide her or point out the 
 •evils of giving so freely. Look at this case a moment. 
 Christ was seated over against the treasury, and he 
 saw the people casting their contributions into it — the 
 rich of their abundance and this woman of her 
 penury. He spoke of it, and had it recorded in the 
 Bible; and why? Why stop to notice so small an af- 
 fair as this, and why give this woman such a com- 
 mendation? Was it not to sanction liberal giving, 
 and to rebuke those rich men who with thousands at 
 their command give so sparingly? Those who want 
 the gospel preached so as to miss people's sins might 
 complain of Christ's course. 
 
 With such examples as Paul furnishes in his ac- 
 
100 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 count of the Macedonians and as Christ sets forth in 
 the case of the poor woman, and the fact that though 
 they gave so largely and yet were not rebuked or cau- 
 tioned against doing so by the apostle or the Redeem- 
 er, we need have no fears that any arguments or en- 
 treaties that we may present will induce the people to 
 give too much. We need not refrain from using the 
 most convincing, yea, overwhelming arguments for 
 large-hearted liberality. Unless it can be shown that 
 Paul was fanatical, and that he ought to have sent 
 back a part of the contribution the Macedonians gave, 
 and that Christ did wrong in commending the poor 
 woman for having given her all, then the fact is estab- 
 lished that Christians should give, though it does de- 
 prive them of some of the blessings of life. 
 
 But Paul used an example of greater power than 
 that of the Macedonians to impress upon the Co- 
 rinthians the duty of liberality. " For ye know the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was 
 rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye 
 through his poverty might be rich." Ye Corinthians 
 know — not as a mere historical fact, but by happy ex- 
 perience, by your freedom from the lashings of a guilty 
 conscience, by the joy of pardoning love and the hope 
 of immortality, — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 which grace is so undeserved upon your part and so 
 full and free upon his part, so universal in its extent 
 and so impartial in its application. Therefore, " Let 
 this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." 
 Like your Master, spend and be spent in doing good. 
 
 How forcible and conclusive are the apostle's argu- 
 ments in favor Of large-hearted liberality; and how 
 Christians with the love of Christ in the soul and such 
 arguments and examples before them as are given in 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 101 
 
 the Kew Testament can give so little to the cause 
 of Christianity in general, and to missions in particu- 
 lar, is indeed a mystery. Many give less than they 
 do to gratify their tobacco appetites; and others waste 
 hundreds in other ways, but give little to missions. 
 One of two thiu2:s is certain: either Christ and the 
 apostles did too much, or we often do too little. They 
 overestimated, or we undervalue the worth of souls. 
 They gave too much, or we give too little to save men. 
 
 But suppose a few millions of those penny-squeezers 
 should get to heaven, what kind of heaven would it 
 be? The iirst thing would be to take the gold in the 
 streets, — for they are pure gold, — and start mints, and 
 banks, and, as of old, have tables of money-changers ; 
 and if they were required to pay one mill to the hun- 
 dred dollars to stay in heaven they would leave it if 
 they could carry their wealth with them and iind a 
 place where there was less to pay. How dilferent 
 from the apostles and primitive Christians, who suf- 
 fered all things, lest the gospel be hindered. They 
 suffered the loss of ease, earthly honor, and money, 
 rather than be the occasion of hindering the gospel. 
 Ah!, how many respectable church-members would 
 rather that the gospel be hindered than they from hav- 
 ing thousands of dollars at large interest and hoarding 
 it for their gratification or the ruin of their children, 
 or both, as so often is the case. 
 
 Christianity is a system of benevolence. It origin- 
 ated in the benevolence of God, was inaugurated 
 among men through the benevolence of Christ, and is 
 to be perpetuated and pronmlgated in all the earth bj 
 the benevolence of Christians. Its quintessence is 
 benevolence, and how men can possess it and yet be 
 penurious is a great puzzle. Such persons are either 
 
102 SUOaESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 deceived themselves or they try to deceive others. 
 They frequently object to missions or other good objects 
 on the ground of their cost, when this could all be 
 easily met were they to give no more than the Jews 
 did in Old-Testament times, or pay for these purposes 
 as much as they do for taxes to the government. 
 These they pay because they must; but they are not 
 compelled by law to pay to the cause of Christianity, 
 and Christ is put ofl' with a mere tithe of what they give 
 to CaBsar. " See that ye abound in this grace also." 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 103 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Doing Good as we have Opportunity. 
 
 "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good." (Gal. vl. 10.) 
 
 When Christianity, by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 so takes hold upon men as to become a living, opera- 
 tive principle of their souls, influencing the affections 
 of their hearts, the faculties of their minds, and the 
 powers of their wills, it makes them Christians, or, as 
 the Savior said, the light of the world and salt of the 
 earth. The spirit of usefulness, or doing good, is an 
 essential element of true religion. It is not a mere 
 appendage to it, — something which its possessor may 
 or may not do without affecting his piety, — but is it- 
 self a fundamental principle of it. To constitute one 
 a true Christian, this spirit must be srupreme upon the 
 throne, enlisting all his faculties and powers, and im- 
 pelling him to every good word and work. 
 
 To o-ive assent to the truth of God's word, make a 
 public profession of religion, and strive to lead an 
 upright life is only a part of religion. IS'ot until the 
 gospel enters the soul of man, searching out and cast- 
 ing out every sellish principle, and producing in it the 
 moral image of God, making it godlike in character 
 and purpose, may it be said of any one that he is a 
 true follower of Christ. God's benevolence flows 
 without cessation. His goodness is seen in creation. 
 
104 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 redemption, providence, and in all "his wonderful 
 works to the children of men." When Moses prayed, 
 "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory," he answered, "J. 
 will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will 
 proclaim the name of the Lord before thee." This 
 was the highest and most sublime exhibition of his 
 glory lie could make to Moses or to us. " The Lord, 
 The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-sutfering, 
 and abundant in goodness and truth," is God's defini- 
 tion of himself and the exhibition of his glory on earth. 
 
 He is still abundant in goodness, and constantly 
 causes it to pass before the succeeding generations of 
 men ; not always in the same way as before Moses, but 
 no less certainly. It is seen on the land, on the ocean, 
 in the starry heavens, and in the bountiful provision 
 made by him for man and beast; yea, it shines in the 
 8un, waves in the fields and forests, and is felt in every 
 pulsation of life. It is this which more than anything 
 else excites the admiration and wins the affections of 
 men. No display of power or grandeur of his being 
 which God could make to us would so favorably im- 
 press us as this. When Moses saw it " he made haste 
 to bow his head toward the earth, and worshiped;" 
 and so should all men. There is point to Paul's ques- 
 tion, " Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and 
 forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the 
 goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" 
 
 How strikingly also was the divine benevolence or 
 goodness shown in the life and works of Christ. "In 
 him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" 
 and in him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom." 
 "ISTever man spake like this man." He brought to 
 light many wonderful truths, showing what was in 
 man, thus exciting the admiration and astonishment 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 105 
 
 of all who heard him. Yet the distmguishing glory, 
 the crowning excellency of his life consisted in the 
 fact that " he went about doing good." His daily life 
 revealed a religion which silenced all criticism, and 
 commended itself to all men. By healing the sick, 
 feeding the hungry, teaching the ignorant, and doing 
 good to the souls and bodies of men, he exemplitied 
 the truths he taught and effectually foreshadowed his 
 coming kingdom, which should bring peace on earth 
 and good-will to men. 
 
 What lesson is also taught us by following the Mas- 
 ter to the garden of Gethsemane, to Pilate's bar, and 
 to Calvary's cross. "Why such ignominy, suffering, and 
 death on the part of one so innocent, lovely, and migh- 
 ty? He could have easily escaped them all, and in a 
 moment crushed to nonentity those who brought them 
 upon him. Surely he would not have endured the 
 agony which caused his sweat to become as great drops 
 of blood, and which extorted from his lips the lan- 
 guage, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
 me?" had there not been some great lesson to be 
 taught, some important end to be accomplished there- 
 by. John explains it all when he says, " Hereby per- 
 ceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life 
 for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the 
 brethren." Paul also explains in this language, " Who 
 gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify unto unto himself a peculiar peo- 
 ple, zealous of good works." 
 
 Christ's followers are expected to be zealous doers 
 of good works, in imitation of their Lord; and not 
 until they become such is the end for which Christ 
 gave himself fully accomplished in them. In profess- 
 ing Christianity we place ourselves under obligations 
 
106 SUGQEPTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 to unite religious development or growth in grace to 
 Christian activity in doing good. In this way we 
 strengthen our capacities both for usefulness and 
 enjoyment. Alleviating human sorrow and saving 
 men from their sins imparts a peace to our souls, and 
 kindles in us an enthusiasm essential to a successful 
 Christian life. "It is more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive." The benefactor receives the largest share of 
 the good accruing therefrom. Helping others is the 
 surest way to be helped, and doing good the certain 
 way to get good. 
 
 But are we required to make sacrifices to do good? 
 If so, to what extent? Said the Savior, "If any 
 man will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
 take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will 
 save his life shall lose it : and whosoever will lose his 
 life for my sake shall find it." Again: "Verily I say 
 unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or 
 parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the king- 
 dom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold 
 more in this present time, and in the world to come 
 life everlasting." Christian self-denial is certainly 
 taught in these passages and other portions of God's 
 word; and yet, when really done for Christ's sake, it 
 is simply giving up a small good for a large one, or 
 letting go of transient and temporal good for perma- 
 nent and heavenly blessedness. 
 
 Giving up this world for Christ's sake is taking fuller 
 possession of it than can otherwise be obtained, as 
 well as securing a perpetual inheritance in the heaven 
 ily world. In short, it is taking a lien upon all that is 
 good in both worlds. "All are yours, and ye are 
 Christ's, and Christ is God's." This world and all 
 worlds belong to God; and in his presence the Chris- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 107 
 
 tian is at home, tliough lie be far from friends and 
 earthly possessions. He is more at home in the line of 
 duty in heathen lands suffering for Christ's sake than 
 it is possible to be out of the line of duty, though in 
 the possession of all earthly good. Doing the good 
 our heavenly Father bids us do, though at the cost 
 of every earthly treasure, brings a rich reward, and 
 should be regarded as a high prerogative rather than 
 a great sacrifice. "Would that Christians realized this 
 grand truth. Then would Zion put on her strength 
 and Jerusalem her beautiful garments. Then would 
 the heathen soon receive the gospel, and the church 
 abound with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 Who are the men that have been most happy, have 
 made the most lasting impressions upon society, and 
 have guided the nations ? Are they the military heroes 
 who have led armies to conquest, or the explorers who 
 have discovered new worlds, or the inventors who have 
 lessened labor and promoted the material wealth of 
 the world by their ingenuity and skill, or the scholars 
 who have added so much to scientific knowledge and 
 mental culture? Yes, these to some extent; but more 
 than they, Christian philanthropists who gave their 
 lives, to schemes of benevolence for the good of others. 
 These are the great lights of the world. They have 
 enthroned themselves upon the memories and in the 
 affections of men. Doing good on Bible principles se- 
 cures both human and divine honors. Worldly fame, 
 human ambition, or selfish motives do not enter into 
 this as they may into the exploits of warriors, explor- 
 ers, scientists, and other great men who live and labor 
 merely for earthly considerations. 
 
 Moses, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Knox, Brainard, Jud- 
 son, Howard, Livingstone, and many others, will never 
 
108 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 be forgotten on eartli; nor in heaven, for many will 
 there rise up and call them blessed. Could we have 
 an adequate idea of the exercises of their souls, all 
 ablaze with benevolent feelings and activities, and 
 could we show how through these spiritual light and 
 peace flowed into their own souls as a result of their 
 labors to benefit and save others, — how, while causing 
 the streams of salvation and earthly good to flow into 
 the souls of others, they brought Heaven's richest 
 blessing to their own, — then would we furnish the 
 grandest argument that can be presented in favor of 
 doing good, and one that would carry conviction to 
 every heart. 
 
 Thousands now in heaven thank God that he gave 
 them a disposition and the opportunity to do good; 
 yea, that he opened their spiritual eyes, instilled into 
 their souls the principle of doing good, and gave them 
 to experience the precious truth that " it is more bless- 
 ed to give than to receive." Said a dying Christian, 
 " What I have spent is gone ; what I have lost is be- 
 yond my grasp; but what I gave away for Christ's 
 sake I carry with me." "Blessed are the dead which 
 die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors; and their works 
 do follow them." The periods of the greatest pros- 
 perity of the church, as in apostolic times, have been 
 when its zeal and liberality were most active. This 
 spirit gave them a moral courage, a spiritual power, 
 and a religious joy which they could never have ob- 
 tained otherwise. 
 
 It is remarkable what an amount of good may be 
 done in a short life-time by a single individual fully 
 imbued with this spirit. Who can measure the re- 
 sults of the labors of Messrs. Moody and Miiller ? But 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 109 
 
 men need not be ministers to be useful. True, this 
 position gives tliem great opportunities to do good ; 
 but laymen may do good, great good. IS'either need 
 they be rich to do good. Some very poor people have 
 done great good. The widow's mite has multiplied 
 into millions, and will continue to do so as long as 
 time endures. But to do good truly they must have 
 hearts warmed with the love of Christ, wills sanctified 
 by his Spirit, and lives consecrated to his service. In 
 short, all their intellectual, spiritual, and material re- 
 sources must be brought into his service. "As we 
 have therefore opportunity, let us do good." Oppor- 
 tunity we will have, and ability we may have in great- 
 ly increased measure if we are fully the Lord's. 
 
110 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. 
 
 " That I should preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ." (Eph. iii. 8.) 
 
 The theme of this text is the gospel and its promul- 
 gation among the heathen, or, as stated by its author, 
 preaching " among the gentiles the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ." The language is strong and exceedingly 
 expressive, but not too much so to represent the value 
 of the gospel. Such riches of grace, knowledge, sav- 
 ing power, love, and mercy as are contained in the gos- 
 pel may well be called "the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ." Had Paul lived and continued to preach and 
 write until the present time, he could not have fully 
 shown the value of the gospel of Christ. It is possi- 
 ble to compute the wealth of the mightiest nations, 
 and perhaps of the whole world; but in the gospel 
 there is a mine of wealth which no mathematical cal- 
 culation can show. 
 
 By a comparison of its value with the riches of earth 
 we may learn something, yea, much of its worth; and 
 the more carefully this is done the more fully will it 
 appear to be " unsearchable riches." Said the author 
 of this text in one of his other epistles, " the depth 
 of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of 
 God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. HI 
 
 past finding out!" Said the psalmist, "Such knowl- 
 edge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I can not at- 
 tain unto it." That the gospel does exert a wonderful 
 power for good over individuals and nations may be 
 seen by a comparison of those countries where it is 
 with those where it is not. Look at the complexion 
 which it gives to their civil institutions, the order 
 and prosperity it gives to business, the protection it 
 gives to life and property, and the provision it makes 
 for the insane, blind, dumb, and unfortunate of every 
 kind. 1^0 such provision is made for them in heathen 
 lands; but they are left to perish, or are killed out- 
 right. 
 
 Contrast, also, the knowledge of the sciences, me- 
 chanical arts, and the many useful discoveries — the 
 power of the press, steam, electricity, and the numer- 
 ous institutions, human and divine, which do so much 
 to alleviate human suffering and promote happiness — 
 found in Christian lands with that which exists else- 
 where, and the gospel will indeed appear to be, as it 
 is, "unsearchable riches." The riches of earth are 
 esteemed valuable by men, as is proved by the struggles 
 they put forth to obtain them. Yet they can only sup- 
 ply material wants, and those to a limited extent, but 
 can do nothing toward meeting our greatest need. 
 The wants of the soul far exceed those of the body 
 and the unsearchable riches of Christ alone can sup- 
 ply them. If the wants of the body are not met, there 
 will be sufiering'; but it can not be very long, as death 
 will put an end to it in a comparatively short time. 
 But if the wants of the soul are not provided for 
 endless sufiering will be the result. 
 
 Man is a sinner, and as such is guilty before God. 
 And whatever other wants press upon him there is one 
 
112 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 which far exceeds them all, and which the gospel alone 
 can meet and must supply in this life, or he can not be 
 happy here or hereafter. That want is pardon. Let 
 me illustrate this. Suppose a man is guilty of a cap- 
 ital ofiense, and by the law adjudged to be deserving 
 of death. The Court pronounces the sentence of death 
 upon him, and he is remanded back to prison to await 
 the day of execution. I^ow what does he regard as 
 his greatest want ? What would he say to the proffer 
 of gold, or earthly riches of any kind ? Would he 
 not answer, "Keep your treasure, but, if possible, pro- 
 cure a pardon for me?" Pardon is his great, yea, his 
 only want. At least without this all else would do 
 him but little good, and do that good but for a little 
 while; but with it he would feel rich, however great 
 his poverty in material things. This alone would bring 
 him comfort. 
 
 Such is man in his unsaved state. He is under the 
 condemnatory sentence of God's law, and by it doom- 
 ed to death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And 
 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 
 " Sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so 
 death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 
 Without pardon the sentence of death will be executed. 
 Hence man's iirst great want is pardon. Without this 
 he can not be happy, either in time or in eternity. And 
 it is in the unsearchable riches of Christ alone that 
 pardon is oftered to all. " God is made unto us wis- 
 dom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 tion;" and the invitation is, "Let the wicked forsake 
 his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and 
 let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
 upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
 pardon." How full, how free, and how glorious the 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 113 
 
 provision made for us by Christ, who "hath brought 
 life and immortality to light through the gospel." 
 
 Well may the apostle exclaim, "For we which have 
 believed do enter into rest." Faith in Jesus, such as 
 sweetly works by love and purifies the soul, alone can 
 give the troubled spirit rest ; and without this there is 
 an aching void which this world can never fill. We 
 may multiply earthly ricVies, gain great fame among 
 men, possess all the good that earth can give, and yet 
 the soul will be unsatisfied without Christ, the hope of 
 glory formed within. With this, poverty may pinch, 
 the world may frown, and Satan may rage, but still 
 the Christian has the sweet assurance that all things 
 work together for good to them that love God, Well 
 may he sing, as he often does : 
 
 ' '''TIs religion that can give 
 
 Sweetest pleasures while we live, 
 'Tis religion must supply- 
 Solid comfort when we die." 
 
 And anticipating the future he continues to sing: 
 
 "After death its joys shall be 
 Lasting as eternity ; 
 Be the living God my friend, 
 Then my bliss shall never end." 
 
 One of the most blessed things in connection with a 
 Christian life is the fact that just at those periods of 
 its existence when earthly treasures utterly fail to af- 
 ford happiness, as in times of great misfortune, aifiic- 
 tion, and death, then the unsearchable riches of Christ 
 meet every want of our circumstances. Ko condition 
 of life can deprive the Christian of the consolations of 
 religion on earth, or rob him of his inheritance in 
 heaven, so long as Christ and the riehes which he pur- 
 
 8 
 
114 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 chased for him are his. Said the apostle, " For I am 
 persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of 
 God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The riches 
 of earth may be taken from the Christian, and often 
 are; but the riches of grace in Christ Jesus can not 
 be taken away without his consent. 
 
 To estimate properly the value of the gospel, how- 
 ever, we must do more than show the good it does on 
 earth. We must also know the number of the saved 
 and the value of their inheritance in heaven, which is 
 simply impossible. True, the Scriptures speak of a 
 "great multitude which ^no man could number," and 
 that the saved shall have •' a crown of life " and " a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." But as 
 to the number of the one and the value of the other 
 we are left to conjecture, and will be until we reach 
 heaven. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 God hath prepared for them that love him." It is 
 enough for us to know that great multitudes will be 
 saved ; and they shall be perfectly happy, beyond the 
 possibility of their being otherwise, or of losing their 
 heavenly inheritance. 
 
 Kow in view of the value of the gospel, its many 
 and most precious blessings, both in this life and that 
 which is to come, need we marvel that Paul went forth 
 so gladly to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ 
 to the gentiles? Had he been able to make every 
 man, woman, and child in the world as wealthy as the 
 Rothschilds, and as learned and great as earth's great- 
 est, it would have' been a very small gift in comparison 
 
TUE MISSIONARY AVORK. 116 
 
 to giving them the " unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 So he believed and acted, and so do all believe and 
 act who have that high appreciation of the benefits of 
 the gospel which it deserves. To give the gospel to 
 all men, so far as this was possible, was the chief work 
 of his life, and the only thing he thought worthy of 
 nis eitbrt. Hence his language, "For I determined 
 not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, 
 and him crucified;" that is, I will not know wealth, 
 nor ease, nor honor among men ; I will know and do 
 nothing but preach " the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 Were Paul now living, with our increased facilities 
 for promulgating the gospel and the pressing demands 
 for such labors, he doubtless would be still more en- 
 thusiastic to give the gospel to every creature than he 
 was when he wrote the text. Il^Tever was there a time 
 when there were so many inviting fields and such 
 pressing demands for Christian activity in this depart- 
 ment of labor as now. How closely or near to each 
 other are the ends of the world now^ brought by the 
 use of steam and electricity. Distance is no longer a 
 hinderance to the free and constant intercourse with 
 all the nations of earth. We can now q[uickly go to 
 every heathen people, and they can readily come to us ; 
 and coming they are, as the 100,000 Chinamen on the 
 Pacific coast show. 
 
 God is rolling events together with amazing rapidi- 
 ty. What was formerly the work of a day in travel 
 and business is now reduced to that of an hour; and 
 equally rapid are the communications of thought. 
 Look at what has been done within the last few years. 
 In our own country slavery has been abolished, 
 telegraph lines have been stretched across the Atlantic 
 Ocean, the Pacific Railroad has been built, and other 
 
116 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 enterprises equally great are rapidly approaching com- 
 pletion. By these and other methods God is opening 
 the way for the rapid diffusion of the gospel, and for 
 removing obstatcles which heretofore have been in its 
 way. "With such opportunities to give the gospel to 
 all, and the vast resources we have for doing this, the 
 church ought to rush forward to achieve the speedy 
 conquest of earth to Christ. 
 
 The same faith and consecration that the apostles 
 had would give the gospel to all men before this gen- 
 eration passes away. And did the Almighty ask us 
 why we had less, what would be our answer? Why, 
 with the same missionary spirit that they had our 
 excuses for doing so little would be as hateful to us as 
 they are to God. With the zeal they had for the sal- 
 vation of souls, how gladly would we go to the hea- 
 then, and how our people would pour in their money, 
 and push us off by scores into heathen lands, among 
 the Chinese of California, and elsewhere. Then, in- 
 stead of paying about twenty-five cents to the mem- 
 ber it would be nearer twenty-five dollars upon an 
 average. And then those dull pastors who drag their 
 slow length to their regular appointments to preach 
 dull sermons for a whole year without a single dis- 
 course upon missions, such as warms the soul and 
 opens the pocket-book, would have to become more 
 zealous and efficient, or get out of the way for men 
 who would be somewhat apostolic in their labors. 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 117 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Caring for the Welfare of Others. 
 
 'Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the 
 things of others." (Phil. ii. 4.) 
 
 To obtain the full meaning of the text, the word 
 "only" should be supplied, which would make the 
 reading thus : Look not every man only on his own 
 things, but every man also on the things of others. 
 Paul did not intend to teach that it was wrong for 
 Christians to look after their own interests and wants, 
 but that it was wron^ for them to be indifferent to the 
 welfare of others. It is right, yea, our duty to look 
 after our own things, and provide for our own wants. 
 " But if any provide hot for his own, and specially for 
 those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and 
 is worse than an infidel." That professor of religion 
 who does not use all reasonable industry and economy 
 to secure for himself and those under his care what- 
 ever is necessary to their health and comfort gives ev- 
 idence that he is not a true disciple of Christ. 
 
 Self-preservation is said to be the lirst law of nature, 
 and self-salvation may well be called the first law of 
 grace. Self-preservation from temporal want, danger, 
 and injury, and self-salvation from sin, its guilt, pollu- 
 tion, and dominion are the first duties that we should 
 perform, or laws that we should obey. And there is 
 
118 SUGaESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 no conflict whatever between these two — that is to 
 say, no necessary worldly interest needs to be neglect- 
 ed to be a Christian, nor need any religious duty be 
 omitted to be a worldling so far as this is necessary to 
 secure that which is requisite. By the observance of 
 these laws, we secure present and future happiness, 
 and the neglect of them brings certain disgrace and 
 suffering. He that does not provide for his physical 
 wants will su:^r with hunger and cold, and ought 
 to; he that does not provide for his intellectual wants 
 will suffer as an ignoramus, and ought to ; and he that 
 does not provide for his spiritual wants will suffer as 
 a sinner, and ought to. 
 
 God has inseparably connected our' happiness with 
 looking after our own things. But while we should 
 do this, we are also under obligations to look after the 
 things of others. God has made our obligations so 
 personal that each one is in duty bound to look after 
 his own tilings, and also so general that no one is ex- 
 empt from looking after the welfare of others. JSTo 
 condition in life can raise us above or place us below 
 this obligation, unless it be unavoidable incapacity. 
 "Let us not be weary is well-doiug: for in due season 
 we shall reap if we faint not." In well-doing for our- 
 selves and others, we shall reap happiness in this life 
 and in the world to come. But in what respects and to 
 what extent is it our duty to look after the things of 
 others? The Bible never enjoins a duty, or points to 
 a path in which to travel, without clearly telling us 
 how we may lind that path and perform that duty. 
 In the following passage we have full directions: 
 "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do to you do ye even so to them." In doing 
 to others as we would have them do to us, we will not 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 119 
 
 take advantage of them in a business transaction, or 
 misrepresent them in character, or influence tliem to 
 what would be detrimental to their interests. If men 
 would always talk of, and exert their influence over, 
 and deal with their fellows as they would have others 
 speak of, act toward, and deal with themselves, what 
 a different world this would be. 
 
 It is just as easy for some men to beat others in 
 striking a bargain as it is for some to do this with 
 their fists, and just as honorable to do the last as the 
 first. Because one man has more financial tact or 
 money-sense than another, this does not make it right 
 for him to use it to the injury of the weaker man. 
 Yea, it only places the stronger one under greater 
 obligations to help him. He should the more scrupu- 
 lously look after his things, consider his wants, and 
 have respect for his rights. Instead of looking after 
 his things to get them from him he should look after 
 them to prevent their loss. It is not right to take 
 always all that can be got in a bargain, the general be- 
 lief and practice of the world to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. To take advantage of the necessities of 
 others, and rob them rather than to help them, is crime 
 against our fellow-men and sin against God. 
 
 The Bible rule is that the more favored and success- 
 ful are to assist those who can not so well take care 
 of themselves. The strong ought to bear the infirm- 
 ities of the weak. Where much is given much is re- 
 quired ; and if one man has tenfold greater gifts and abil- 
 ity than has another to acquire property, or to aid in 
 building up the cause of Christianity, either by his talents 
 or money, or both, he will be required to do ten times 
 as much. Did Christians more fully recognize and 
 act out the truth that they are not their own, but that 
 
120 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 they belong to Christ and his kingdom, and that they 
 should glorify God in their bodies and spirits, and 
 work for him with heads, hearts, and purses, the obli- 
 gations resting upon them to look after the things of 
 others would receive a heartier response than now. 
 
 It is true that in this and other Christian lands this 
 Bible principle is being recognized and acted upon 
 both by civil and ecclesiastical legislators. Our com- 
 mon-school system is based upon it. It makes the 
 rich man's 'money help educate the poor man's chil- 
 dren. Our legislators also provide asylums for the 
 blind, deaf and dumb, and insane. We also have 
 alms-houses and hospitals for the afflicted and helpless 
 poor. In other countries, especially in pagan lands, 
 no such provision is made. Hence there is but lit- 
 tle or no correct education ; and the unavoidably poor, 
 and the unfortunate, and afflicted, of whom there are 
 thousands, are left to grow up in utter ignorance or are 
 killed outright, to avoid the annoyance and trouble of 
 taking care of them. Christianity alone teaches the 
 duty of looking after the things of others. 
 
 With this principle inculcated into our religious sys- 
 tem, and acted upon by our legislators and the mana- 
 gers of humane institutions, it is but reasonable that 
 the Christian church would organize missionary, tract, 
 and Bible societies for the specific object of looking aft- 
 er the spiritual welfare of others. The great marvel is, 
 with the Bible as their guide, that it has not done this 
 more generally and successfully. Christ's last work 
 upon earth was to. organize his followers into a mis- 
 sionary society, and his last command was that they 
 should go into all the world and "disciple" all nations. 
 And the apostles and their followers clearly under- 
 stood that the great work of their lives, next to work- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 121 
 
 ing out their own salvation, was to carry the gospel to 
 the ends of the earth, and thus imitate Christ in look- 
 ing after the welfare of others. 
 
 When Paul said that he counted all thinscs loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the 
 Lord, and that he was ready not only to go into bonds 
 but to death for the cause of Christ, he expressed the 
 view which he and the early Christians had of their 
 duty to their fellow-men. When we contrast the 
 hearty, heroic, and untiring labors of the primitive 
 church with the weak and spasmodic efforts of many 
 now, we are constrained to say. How are the mighty 
 fallen ! We are glad, however, to know that there is 
 a waking up, and that within the last half century a 
 number have shown some of the zeal and earnest en- 
 deavor that existed in the apostolic churches to save 
 the heathen. 
 
 That we may properly look after the religious wants 
 of others, we must ourselves be spiritual. A living 
 union with Christ is an absolute necessity to give us 
 the disposition and ability .to properly look after the 
 things of the spiritually destitute. We can not suc- 
 cessfully teach others to travel heavenward without 
 doing this ourselves. It is said that "the natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they 
 are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned." As the things 
 of science are scientifically discerned, so the things of 
 the Spirit are spiritually discerned. That we may be 
 mighty through God to the pulling down of the 
 strongholds of Satan we must be spiritual. If any 
 man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his, 
 and as a matter of course can not be a co-worker with 
 him in leading others to salvation. 
 
122 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 "The love of Christ constraineth us," said the apos- 
 tle; and said Jeremiah, "Oh that my head were 
 waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
 weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of 
 my people!" Isaiah, in the deep solicitude of his soul 
 for the extension of the kingdom of God, says, "For 
 Zion's sake Avill I not hold my peace, and for Jerusa- 
 lem's sake sake I will not rest, until the righteousness 
 thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation there- 
 of as a lamp that burneth." These quotations indi- 
 cate the true missionary spirit. Those who have such 
 love and concern for souls as to move them to heart- 
 sympathy and incessant labor will prayerfully look 
 after their spiritual welfare. 
 
 Why, if the Christian church had the spirit of 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Paul» it would not be over a 
 quarter of a century until every place needing gospel 
 laborers would be brought under the influence of 
 Christianity. With our educational facilities to fur- 
 nish the necessary qualifications, the press to print Bi- 
 bles and other necessary text-books, our facilities to 
 travel into all the world, millions of money controlled 
 by members of church, and a gospel that will arouse 
 men to a sense of their duty and danger when fully 
 and faithfully preached, what could hinder the speedy 
 conquest of earth to Christ, were all to do what they 
 could to carrv forward this w^ork? 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 123 
 
 XX. 
 
 Provoking One Another to Good Works. 
 
 'And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good 
 works." (Hebrews x. 24.) 
 
 We wish in this closing chapter to indicate the 
 mes;ins to he employed "to provoke," or as these words 
 mean, to arouse or excite, "one another" to zeal and 
 liberality in behalf of missions. (1) Ministers should 
 give their people a clear perception of their duty in 
 the work of winning the world back to Christ. A 
 deep conviction that the Lord requires this, and that 
 they should be prompted by religious principle to ear- 
 nestly engage in this work will do much to secure their 
 hearty co-operation. Without this their zeal for mis- 
 sions, at least, will be spasmodic and their contributions 
 unreliable. (2) There must be system in collecting 
 missionary money. As such collections are purely vol- 
 untary, coming from many contributors, and mostly in 
 small sums, a well-devised plan, easily carried into 
 effect, and which will bring the claims of missions to 
 the consideration of every member of the church, and 
 others friendly to thi» cause, ought to be adopted. 
 Such a plan is contained in our church Discipline, 
 and was devised by the General Conference. It has 
 proved to be successful when faithfully carried out, and 
 ought to be in general use among our ministers and 
 
124 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 Sunday-school officers. It says the preacher " shall hold 
 a general missionary meeting at some convenient place 
 on his work. He shall also preach a missionary ser- 
 mon, and appoint a soliciting committee at every ap- 
 pointment, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with 
 himself, to canvass the class and community, person- 
 ally, to solicit funds for the missionary society. He 
 shall also keep a list of the names of contributors, so 
 far as possible, and report the same to conference for 
 publication with the minutes. * * * * jje shall 
 also establish monthly missionary prayer-meetings 
 wherever practical in the societies of his charge. 
 * * * Each of our Sabbath-schools is hereby con- 
 stituted an auxiliary to the branch society within 
 whose limits it is located; and the superintendent, 
 secretary, and treasurer of the Sabbath-school shall be 
 president, secretary, and treasurer of the said auxilia- 
 ry, and shall report annually, through the preacher in 
 charge, to the branch society; and it shall be the duty 
 of every auxiliary society to hold a quarterly mission- 
 ary meeting, and take up missionary collections." 
 
 This plan provides for a general missionary meet- 
 ing, to be held at some convenient place on the Held 
 of labor, so that the members belonging to it may all 
 be present if possible. This meeting shall continue 
 as long as a quarterly meeting usually does, have as 
 much ministerial help, and be of a positive missionary 
 character in all its exercises. Especially should the 
 speakers have strong perceptions of the great facts 
 and truths of the missionary work, and be able to fur- 
 nish such intelligence respecting it as will effectually 
 "provoke unto love and to good works." The wants 
 of the world, both in heathen and Christian lands, 
 the work to be done to give it to Christ for his in- 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 125 
 
 heritance, and the duty of Christians to labor zeal- 
 ously to accomplish this object should be clearly 
 shown. 
 
 In addition to this the minister in charge " shall 
 preach a missionary sermon and appoint a soliciting 
 committee at every appointment." This sermon 
 should also be full of impressive truths, illustrated by 
 stirring statistics and facts, and so delivered as to 
 make lasting impressions. The minister should preach 
 as though he believed what the Bible says upon the 
 subject of missions, and that it is so binding a duty 
 to contribute to their support that to refuse to do this 
 when possible is absolutely wicked. 
 
 This plan also provides for monthly missionary 
 prayer-meetings wherever this is practicable. The 
 minister in charge should appoint, and, as often as this 
 is possible, conduct these meetings, and by his short, 
 telling addresses, well laid upon the hearts of the peo- 
 ple, and his earnest petition at a throne of grace, 
 thoroughly arouse and heartily engage them in the 
 duty of praying and praying for the cause of mis- 
 sions. When Christians sincerely ask the Lord to let 
 his kingdom come, and his "will be done in earth as it 
 is in heaven," the duty of paying money to bring about 
 these desirable ends will forcibly impress itself upon 
 them. They will not pray and sing the sentiment, 
 
 . " Salvation let the echo fly, 
 
 The spacious earth around, 
 Till all the armies of the sky- 
 Conspire to raise the sound," 
 
 From month to month for a whole year without feel- 
 ing that they must give something to help it fly. 
 Another important thing to be done by the preacher 
 
126 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 in charge is to appoint solicitors who in conjunction 
 with himself will solicit contributions for missions. 
 To select the right persons, and properly instruct them 
 so as to secure a thorough and successful canvass, not 
 only among the members of church, but others friend- 
 ly to missions, is a matter of great importance. The 
 object should be to obtain a liberal contribution from 
 every one. A few will contribute all they should be 
 asked most cheerfully, others will soon consent to do 
 something yet not as much as they should, but a 
 large number will give absolutely nothing unless they 
 are induced to do so in the way indicated in the text. 
 All should be prevailed upon to contribute something, 
 if this is possible. The larger the number of regular 
 contributors the more uniform and reliable will be the 
 collections from year to year. It is much more assur- 
 ing for the future support of the missionary work to 
 have lifty persons give one dollar each than for one 
 man to pay iifty dollars, for the reason that if the one 
 man should cease to contribute nothing would be re- 
 ceived, but if one of the fifty would fail to give there 
 would still be forty-nine left, and the loss would be 
 but one dollar instead of fifty dollars. All large con- 
 tributions should be gratefully received, but solicitors 
 should see to it that the smaller ones be given annual- 
 ly, even if the amount usually collected is occasionally 
 given by a few rich persons. 
 
 The Wesleyans of great Britain are the most suc- 
 cessful people in the world to obtain missionary col- 
 lections. This is because their ministers make the 
 cause of missions their own, and have such a plan for 
 soliciting money as effectually reaches all classes — the 
 poor and rich, the young and old. They not unfrc- 
 quently preach three missionary sermons in one day 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 127 
 
 to the same congregation, and take a collection each 
 time. Their people hear them gladly, because their dis- 
 courses are full of missionary intelligence and their 
 hearts full of love for the unenlightened and unsaved. 
 They provoke their people unto love and good works 
 most effectually, as the large annual contributions which 
 they receive from them show. They do not, as we have 
 known Americans to do, preach to their congregations 
 a whole year and at its close, for the first and only 
 time, make a few remarks respecting missions, and 
 then in an apologetic way say, " It is made our duty 
 to ask you for a collection for missions, and hence this 
 will now be attended to; and whatever you can give 
 will be thankfully received." They give prominence to 
 missions constantly, and solicit money for them in such 
 a way as to make their people feel that not to give 
 when giving is within their power is a sin. 
 
 How a Christian minister or any true Christian can 
 contemplate the sad condition of the world because of 
 sin, w^ith the knowledge that the gospel is the only 
 remedy for the ruin brought upon it, and that money 
 by the millions is needed to send it to the heathen, and 
 yet be indifferent as to whether little or much be re- 
 ceived for this good object is a great mystery. Plenty 
 of money is expended for useless, not to say wicked, 
 purposes. Millions of money are given for war, rail- 
 roads, steam-ships, telegraph lines, tobacco, and nu- 
 merous other things which could in many instances be 
 dispensed with, but for missions and other religious ob- 
 jects there is very little contributed. Mr. Joseph Cook 
 sa.ys, "The drink bill of the United States is $700,000, 
 000 a year; and its church-property, all told, is worth 
 only $354,000,000. The financial loss sustained by the 
 sale of drinks amounts every fifteen years to a value 
 
128 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON 
 
 equal to that of the property destroyed in the five 
 years of our civil war." This war cost our government, 
 from April, 1861, to September, 1866, the sum of 
 $1,094,000,000, as pay of officers and men alone, while 
 a much greater amount was expended for other pur- 
 poses in its successful prosecution. This sum would, 
 at the present rate of carrying forward the mission- 
 ary work throughout the world, meet all expenses 
 for hundreds of years. President Grant said of one 
 of our Indian massacres, "A war ensued which cost 
 the nation $30,000,000." This war resulted in the 
 death of about twenty Indians, at a cost of over one 
 million of dollars apiece. The Modoc war cost the 
 United States more than three times as much as was 
 contributed in this country that same year for all evan- 
 gelistic work. 
 
 Another part of the disciplinary plan is intended to 
 and will in almost every instance, when it is faithfully 
 carried out, secure the hearty co-operation of the Sun- 
 day-schools of the church. These are, by virtue of 
 this plan, all organized into missionary societies; and 
 were the officers and preacher in charge to hold the 
 quarterly missionary meetings provided for, and take 
 collections, as they are required to do, thousands of 
 dollars would be received from our Sabbath-shools an- 
 nually. More money ought and could be collected 
 from them than is now given by the entire church 
 were they fully enlisted in this work. And this might 
 easily be done. This much-neglected and hopeful 
 field, from which much fruit might be gathered, should 
 no longer remain uncultivated. "Were the 173,683 
 persons attending our Sabbath-schools each to give but 
 five cents a quarter, — and that this could be obtained 
 there is no doubt, — it would put into the missionary 
 
THE MISSIONARY WORK. 129 
 
 treasury annually $30, 736.60. This is almost as much 
 as the entire Church gave last year. We sincerely hope 
 and pray that the Woman's Missionary Association, 
 the preachers in charge of fields of labor, and Sabbath- 
 school officers in the Church will see to it that all our 
 Sabbath-schools, as often as once a quarter, be invited 
 to meet for the express purpose of singing missionary 
 hymns, hearing missionary prayers and addresses, and 
 paying missionary money. 
 
 In addition to the large sums of money which might 
 be thus obtained, the children and youth of the Church 
 would in this way be trained for systematic and liberal 
 giving to all its benevolent enterprises. Ever since it 
 has been our custom to preach missionary sermons and 
 take collections annually the liberality of our people 
 has steadily increased in behalf of the cause of educa- 
 tion, building houses of worship, and supporting their 
 ministers. It is owing largely to the culture given to 
 the Church by the earnest eftbrts put forth for the 
 support of missions during the last quarter of a cen- 
 tury that has given us our financial growth in other 
 benevolent enterprises. After our people had been 
 trained to give from $10 to $100, and occasionally 
 $1,000, annually to missions, giving from $1,000 to 
 $5,000 to building a college or house of worship be- 
 came possible. Their leaving large sums of money to 
 our benevolent institutions by bequest is also contem- 
 porary with the adoption of systematic eftbrt for se- 
 curing money for missions. 
 
 Soon after the Board of Missions was organized, in 
 1853, earnest efi:brt was put forth to impress the truth 
 upon the minds of our people that the missionary en- 
 terprise of the Church was a great and important 
 work, and demanded large contributions. It is a great 
 
130 SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS ON MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 error into which some have fallen, to represent that 
 it is one of the small enterprises of the Church, and 
 needs but small contributions. To enlighten and win 
 the world to Christ is a very great undertaking, and 
 demands liberal gifts. 
 
 The many inviting fields open to us, the excellent 
 success we have had for the small amount of money 
 expended, the large financial resources of the Church 
 still undeveloped, and the positive command of Christ 
 "to preach the gospel to every creature," demand 
 much greater eftbrt than we are putting forth to col- 
 lect money. We already have a large force in the 
 field for the means at our command for their support. 
 No less than three hundred and sixty-seven mission- 
 aries are now in the field, which is near one third of 
 the entire ministerial force actively employed in the 
 church. To wholly discontinue our annual collections 
 for missions would cause most of these to cease labor- 
 ins:. To double the amount thus secured would pro- 
 portionately increase the number found laboring 
 among the spiritually destitute. With a membership 
 of 152,231, we ought to have 1,000 missionaries in 
 the field, and furnish them an ample support. Since 
 the organization of the Board in 1853, 78,271 persons 
 have been brought into the Church through the labors 
 of our missionaries, at an average cost of seven dollars 
 and sixty- eight cents per member; that is, for every 
 seven dollars and sixty-eight cents of missionary 
 money contributed by our people, one member has been 
 added to the Church. This wonderful success in the 
 past ought "to provoke unto love and to good works" 
 every member of the Church in a larger degree, and to 
 an extent hitherto not attained by the most devoted. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 y^..^-J^ 
 
 '- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PniNTEOINU S*. 
 
/ 
 
 V 
 
BX9878.76.F62 
 
 The Church's marching orders : or, 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00046 9926