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 thee : When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt 
 not be burnt, nor shall the flame kindle upon thee." If 
 your incomes be small and pinching, " Ye know the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, 
 yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his pov- 
 erty might be rich." He shall see his seed, the "travail of 
 his soul, and be satisfied :" and he has promised, " I will 
 abundantly bless her provision, and satisfy her poor with 
 bread. I will satiate the soul of her priests with fatness." 
 A salary of remarkable fellowship with Christ, and of 
 success in winning souls, is the most delightful and en- 
 riching. If your labours appear to have little success, be 
 more diligent and dependent on Christ. " Never mourn 
 as they that have no hope." Let not the eunuch say, 
 " I am a dry tree," Jesus hath said, " I will pour water 
 on him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground, 
 I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing on 
 thine offspring. A seed shall serve him. The whole 
 earth shall be filled with his glory. The kingdoms of 
 this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
 his Christ," Believe it on the testimony of God him- 
 self: believe it on the testimony of all his faithful ser- 
 vants; and, if mine were of any avail, I should add it, 
 That there is no master so kind as Christ ; no service so 
 pleasant and profitable as that of Christ ; and no reward 
 so full, satisfying, and permanent as that of Christ. Let 
 us, therefore, " begin all things from Christ ; carry on 
 all things with and through Christ ; and let all things 
 iaim at and end in Christ." 
 
^ 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 FOREIGN JMISSIONS. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 CANDIDATES 
 
 THE HOLY MINISTRY. 
 
 BY REV. JAMES W. ALEXANDER, 
 
 TRENTON, N. J. 
 
CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 No one can so forcibly present the claims of Missions 
 as the man who is himself a missionary. Hence there 
 is an urgency in the appeals of Hall, Ward, and Swan, 
 which is almost irresistible. And this might seem to 
 stamp with presumption, if not insincerity, the attempt 
 of a domestic pastor to enlist men for the foreign service. 
 Physician heal thyself, might seem a very natural re- 
 joinder. This, however, is simply a prejudice ; and the 
 flaw of the objection is betrayed as soon as we hold it up 
 to the light ; for the true ground upon which the claims 
 of Missions should be rested, is the broad foundation of 
 the Christian ministry itself. And therefore every min- 
 ister is culpable if he has not, even in his most private 
 toils, the spirit of a missionary. He who becomes a pas- 
 tor, rather than an evangelist, from fear, selfishness, 
 lukewarmness, or pride, is as unfit to preach in the city 
 as in the wilderness. 
 
 Candidates for the sacred office are too much accus- 
 tomed to think thus : " I will prepare myself to serve 
 God as a preacher in my native land, and if I should be 
 
126 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 specially moved, and loudly called, I will become a for- 
 eign missionary." Here there is altogether an error, 
 and an error so great, that we need not be surprised to 
 find him who harbours it, as really unfitted for the min- 
 istry at home, as he supposes himself to be for the min- 
 istry abroad. 
 
 Every candidate for this momentous work should con- 
 sider himself as dedicated to Christ without reserve or 
 exception ; not merely devoted to this or that function, 
 or set apart for the more easy employments of the city, 
 or of refined society, but yielded up to the cause of the 
 Lord Jesus, in the spirit of sacrifice, with no limitation 
 or evasion of his bonds. There is something indescrib- 
 ably attractive in the character of such a youth. He is 
 ready, if the Lord will, to go to the pestilent swamps of 
 Burmah, or to work at the printing presses of Malta, or to 
 endure the still greater self-denials of teaching the Ameri- 
 can Indians, no less than to display his moving oratory be- 
 fore a listening crowd in the metropolis, or through the 
 press to rouse or melt the community of readers. 
 
 It would seem that there is an idea prevalent among 
 our young men, that a call to the ministry, and a call to 
 the missionary life, are generically different. This is 
 untrue and, dangerous. It is undoubtedly right to ex- 
 pect that the concurrence of circumstances and feel- 
 ings which go to constitute a call to the foreign service, 
 should differ from those which determine one to stay at 
 home: Yet the service is the same, the cause is the 
 same, the qualifications are the same, and the spirit 
 should be the same. The spirit which led Whitefield to 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 127 
 
 the West, and Martyn to the East, is the same which 
 urged on the labours of Fuller and Pajson and Rice ; 
 nay, is the very same spirit which leads you into the 
 house of your next neighbour, in order to invite him to 
 Christ. It is the love of God joined with the love of souls. 
 Without this, every minister or candidate is a hypocrite, 
 whose place, unless he repent, must be eternally fixed in 
 hell. And with this genuine characteristic spirit of the 
 Gospel, the minister or the candidate is as ready, at the 
 call of his Master, to go abroad, as to remain in his native 
 land. Where there is zeal for the glory of God, and the 
 love of mankind, there is a fitness, so far as mere dispo- 
 sition is regarded, for either work; and he who is without 
 this should make all possible haste to clear himself from 
 the horrible stain of blood, the blood of souls, which will 
 adhere to unfaithful ministers. 
 
 Let the candidate for the Ministry ask himself this 
 question : " Why do I desire to preach the Gospel ?" 
 His answer will no doubt be, " Because I desire to glorify 
 God, by the conversion of souls ; to obey the commands 
 of Christ ; to turn the talents which I possess to the 
 greatest possible advantage in the service of the Lord." 
 Now, if the heart be sincere, if this answer spring from 
 conviction and feeling, there will be in him who utters it 
 an entire, unreserved willingness to labour any where, 
 without exception, without delay, without one pang of 
 reluctance, where God may be honoured and souls saved. 
 You desire to obey the commandment of Christ, and to 
 be a co-worker with God in saving sinners. You desire 
 it without respect to personal ease, emolument, or hon- 
 L 
 
128 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 our. You seek the Ministry, not as a comfortable pro. 
 fession, or a favourable retreat from the noise of the world, 
 in which you may cultivate literature without interrup- 
 tion, but as a painful, trying- service, in which a draught 
 will be made upon all your capabilities in order to convert 
 sinners. Your object is to contribute towards the illu- 
 mination of the whole world. And why is this your de- 
 sire ? What is your authority for so vast an enterprise, 
 so unusual an expectation? The reply is easy ; the Lord 
 has said, in language which no repetition makes uninter- 
 esting. — " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gos- 
 pel to every creature." It is the very commission under 
 which you hope to act. This will be your watchword, 
 even if you labour all your days in some little village of 
 America; and because it is so, because the field of mo- 
 tives urging you to the Ministry has this extent, and no 
 more; because, if you are preacher at all, you must be a 
 preacher under this commission ; there is every reason 
 why you should cast down the limitations which fence 
 in your views, and regard the field as the world. The 
 same command which makes you a preacher to your 
 own native town, should make you, if duly called, a 
 preacher to the Aborigines or the Islanders. 
 
 The terms which are in common use, contribute to 
 perpetuate an error in many minds. We speak of a 
 missionary as something unique; and draw a broad de- 
 marcation between the respective companies of mission- 
 aries and ministers. This is not indeed intended, but 
 such is the effect produced. Let it be observed by our 
 youth, that a foreign missionary is a preacher to foreign. 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 129 
 
 countries, and nothing else. He is one who would be 
 under no necessity of changing his motives, his feelings, 
 or his zeal in labour, if he were suddenly recalled to the 
 domestic service. On the other hand, the country pastor 
 is a preacher to immortal souls at home, and if he is a 
 faithful man, and acts in pursuance of a divine call, will 
 be entirely ready to leave his charge, and exchange his 
 labours for those of the foreign missionary. In a word 
 the spirit of missions is the ministerial spirit; and where 
 there is not love for souls sufficiently ardent to make one 
 heartily willing to fly to the succour of the Cherokee or 
 the Tartar, there is not enough of the main thing required 
 in pastors to clear a man's conscience or vindicate his 
 profession. Let it not be supposed, as is too common, 
 that the young student or minister must needs have a 
 certain quantum of holy zeal for Christ, in order to make 
 it possible for him to enter the sacred office without sa- 
 crilege, and yet that the ardour and love which would 
 make him a missionary, and would send him to the hea- 
 then, is something still beyond this, which, though excel- 
 lent, is not required ; a mere supererogation, an angeli- 
 cal quality to which only a favoured few can hope to at- 
 tain. Let it not be supposed, to put the caution in a 
 single clause, that you are at liberty to mark the 
 line at which your love of souls shall rea<;h its maxi- 
 mum. A graduating process of this kind may be 
 allowed in trade, in literature, in pleasure, but not in 
 serving Christ. " In this cause we can do nothing aright 
 unless we do all we can. If any one come short of the 
 limits of his ability in aiding this cause, he betrays a 
 
130 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 criminal indifference which renders all that he does ac- 
 complish worthless in the sight of God; and however it 
 may be overruled for good by Him who can make the 
 lukewarmness, as \yell as the wrath of man to praise 
 Him ; yet such a spirit, considered in itself, must be re- 
 garded by infinite purity and love with the loathing 
 occasioned by that which is neither cold nor hot."* 
 
 The Redeemer must have all ; and (blessed be God) 
 not only all that we are and have now, but all that with 
 a still expanding capacity we can ever be, or do. And 
 where is the youth, wounded by the ignominy and misery 
 of sinners, bleeding in secret for the hurt of the daughter 
 of Zion, who can sit down deliberately and make terms 
 with Christ ; or say ' thus far will I follow thee, but no 
 farther ?' Where is the beloved youth under the patron- 
 age of the Church, who can for an instant hesitate as to 
 this entire devotion of himself to her great work — the 
 
 EVANGELIZING OF THE WORLD ? 
 
 To prevent misapprehension, let it be remembered, 
 that it is far from the scope of these remarks to insinu- 
 ate that every preacher should go to the Heathen ; or that 
 they who stay at home must of necessity be less zealous 
 and devoted than those who go abroad. Nay, it is the 
 error which lies coiled in these expressions, that is now 
 combated. It is attempted to press upon the minds of 
 all candidates that the spirit of the good pastor is identi- 
 cal with the spirit of the good missionary ; and that, so 
 far as the spirit is concerned, he who is faithful and 
 
 * Swan's Letters. 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 131 
 
 efficient in America, would be equally so in the islands 
 of the Pacific; that every candidate for the work of the 
 Ministry should encourage the sentiment, that he is a 
 servant not yet assigned to his field, a soldier awaiting 
 orders ; that he has no semblance of a right to determine 
 whither he will go, or whether he will abide at home. 
 
 It is high time that the Church should take a more 
 cheerful view of Christian Missions. It is meet that we 
 should no longer speak and think and pray about the vol- 
 untary expatriation of a happy Christian groupe, bound 
 for distant shores, as if it were a dreary exile ; a doubtful 
 enterprise ; a jeopardy without promise. It is not so. 
 We wrong our dear missionary brethren if we think it 
 so viewed by them. There may be poignancy in the 
 severance of happy ties, especially, as in Martyn's case, 
 where the temperament of the departing Evangelist is 
 delicate. And this is that which makes it a self-denial, 
 a cross-bearing. Were there no pangs, there would be 
 no cross to take up. There are minds indeed so coarse 
 and phlegmatic as to pass even such critical moments as 
 these with apathy ; but they are not the more likely, from 
 such a complexion, to rejoice with them that do rejoicci 
 and weep with them that weep. The generous heart 
 will gush forth at such an hour ; but I have never doubt- 
 ed, that even then, when the last farewell has been said 
 and betokened, when the last headland of the native coast 
 has sunk and vanished, when the freshening breeze has 
 swelled the canvas, and all has conspired to pronounce 
 the divorce from home — I have never doubted that in this 
 hour of imwonted experience there has been a calm 
 L 2 
 
132 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 after tumult, a sweet serenity of composed reliance, 
 and a filial repose in that Lord whose power is such, 
 " that even the winds and the sea obey him," — which 
 together indicate a happiness akin to that of heaven. 
 
 Yet it is by no means proper that the candidate for 
 the Ministry, especially in the early stages of his course, 
 should definitively choose his field of labour — even 
 though his choice should be the foreign service. Like 
 the cadet who is going through his preparations for 
 military life, without knowing whither he shall be sent 
 upon receiving his commission — the pious student should 
 patiently await the indications of a higher authority. 
 The errors against which he must guard are evidently 
 two. He may precipitately resolve to be a foreign mis- 
 sionary — and this without having any decisive evidence 
 of his fitness for the work. The consequence of such 
 precipitation has, in a number of cases, been, that young 
 men, under the influence of a false impression respecting 
 the mental qualifications required in the missionary life, 
 have neglected their studies, and after all, have retreated 
 from the ground of their original determination. The 
 second error, it must be owned, is far more common. 
 Perhaps a majority of our young ministers have set the 
 question at rest with regard to their own case, by deter- 
 mining that, whatever might be the duty of others, it is 
 theirs to be pastors in their native country. Perhaps a 
 large number have never gravely inquired, as a personal 
 affair, whether the perishing souls of millions of idola- 
 ters did not call so loudly upon them, as to make it their 
 duty to become missionaries. Alas ! my brethren, how 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 133 
 
 long shall this spirit of slumber endure ? How long will 
 you take it for granted, as a matter admitting of no 
 debate, that your duty is to labour at home, — and that 
 while, many who have gone out from us are bearing the 
 heat and burden of the day, you may have a dispensa- 
 tion from all services of the kind ? The harvest truly is 
 great, the labourers are few; and when you bow your 
 knees in prayer that God would send forth more labour- 
 ers into his harvest, does it never flash upon your hearts 
 that you are yourselves the very persons to be sent? 
 Have you no sympathy with the awe and contrition and 
 self-renunciation of the prophet, when he cried, 'Here 
 am I, Lord, send me?' 
 
 Consider this plain statement of the case. You ex- 
 pect to be preachers of the Gospel. You hold yourselves 
 so entirely devoted to this work, that you are willing to 
 go wherever the Lord may send you. You accordingly 
 look around to ask which those regions are, where the 
 Gospel is most needed, or where Christ can be most 
 honoured. The question is, usually, between civilized 
 America and the Heathen — and what are the compara- 
 tive circumstances of the two ? In these United States 
 there is enough of Divine truth within the reach of 
 every individual (speaking in general terms,) to render 
 him inexcusable in the sight of God, if not to save his 
 soul. Is it so in other lands ? There are at least five 
 hundred millions who are idolaters, and one hundred 
 millions who are Mohammedans — not to speak of nomi- 
 nal Christians and infidels ! And, as has been well re- 
 marked, " we are not to conceive of this vast multitude as 
 
134 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 collected upon the stage of the world, and standing still, 
 waiting till we are able or disposed to make known to 
 them the way of salvation. They are not standing still ; 
 they are moving along the stage ; and as thousands 
 of them enter every hour on one side of it, as many 
 disappear on the other side ; so that the number per- 
 petually fluctuating is still kept up : but twenty millions 
 of them pass away every year — pass away, and are be- 
 yond our reach forever!" Now to him who expects to 
 be invested with the ministerial office, these facts cry 
 aloud with a voice of importunate supplication. And 
 who can look over the brink of such an abyss of horror, 
 and contemplate the agony of everlasting exile from 
 God, as realized by so many sinful fellov; men, without 
 " great heaviness," yea even " continual sorrow" in 
 heart? Other men are called to less direct measures 
 and sacrifices— candidates for the Ministry are called to 
 give themselves. 
 
 Let the proportion be considered, between the six 
 hundred million souls who have never heard of a Sa- 
 viour from sin, and the comparative handful in Chris- 
 tian America who are in similar ignorance, — and it 
 will be seen at once, that this is not a question which 
 should be in so summary a way set aside; that it is 
 not self-evident that for one who goes to the Heathen, 
 a thousand should remain at home : nay, it will be 
 seen by him who devoutly weighs all the grave con- 
 siderations which encircle the subject, that there is 
 reason to reconsider all his previous determinations. 
 The question is commonly put in the wrong order, 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 135 
 
 namely, thus, — Why should I go on a Foreign Mis- 
 sion? Most plainly it ought to be stated thus, — Why 
 am I exempt from the duty of carrying the Gospel to 
 perishing millions, — when their number is twenty times 
 greater than that of all the real Christians upon earth ? 
 To you, then, dear young brethren, who feel that there 
 is a claim upon your best services, founded on the death 
 of Jesus — that there is a solace in Christian charity, 
 which you desire to communicate to the desolate Gen- 
 tile, — ^that there is a body of Christians whom your very 
 heart pants to see increased by thousands, it may be 
 said, — if there be "any consolation in Christ, if any 
 comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any 
 bowels and mercies," fulfil ye tlie joy of the Church, the 
 joy of Christ, by yielding yourselves to this work. And 
 while we who have gone before you into the Ministry, 
 are struggling with a depressing sense of inefficiency, 
 and stung by conscience for our neglects, do you, in fear 
 of like regrets and compunctions, — take that field which 
 no pious missionary has ever yet repented of having 
 sought. 
 
 It is high time to awake out of sleep. The Church is 
 awakening. Contributions are more like the gifts of those 
 who have "first given their own selves unto the Lord;" 
 every year witnesses the increase of missionary candi- 
 dates in our Seminaries; every Monthly Concert in 
 Prayer is swelled by the accordant notes of new be- 
 lievers. It is time that every probationer, yea, and 
 every settled minister, should hold himself ready to go 
 abroad as an Evangelist ; or rather, that the Church had 
 
136 CONSIDERATIONS ON 
 
 at her disposal, for this work, all the youth whom sHe 
 may deem it desirable to send. Opposition is dying 
 away. We are no longer repelled by objections to this 
 Apostolic Enterprize ; for all are beginning to perceive 
 that no objection can be urged against modern missions 
 which would not have been equally strong against the 
 missions of Paul, Barnabas, and the early preachers. 
 Some there are even now who ^* please not God, and are 
 contrary to all men ; forbidding us to speak to the Gen- 
 tiles that they might be saved," — but they are not the 
 friends of Christ or his caiise ; and we "" hope better 
 things of you, and things that accompany salvation." 
 
 A few brief counsels will conclude this essay. Though 
 trite, they are momentous, and the profound considera- 
 tion of them you will never have cause to regret. For 
 the sake of conciseness they are expressed in the form 
 of exhortation, and this must excuse any thing magiste- 
 rial in their style. To candidates for the Ministry, then, 
 — whether still abiding under the paternal roof, or pur- 
 smng studies in schools, colleges, &x;., the friends of mis- 
 sions address themselves with these hints and admoni- 
 tions^ 
 
 1. Cultivate that desire for the glory of Christ, which 
 is indispensable in the pastor, no less than in the mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 2. Cherish the sentiment that you are not your own, 
 and that, consequently, you have no right to form any 
 habit, or enter into any engagement, employment, or 
 alhance which could give a bias to your determinations, 
 or throw an obstacle in the way of ydur zeal. Hold 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 137 
 
 yourself disentangled, and in readiness to meet those 
 calls which the Church is about to make in behalf of the 
 Heathen. 
 
 3. As the spirit of missions is the spirit of love for 
 souls, imbibe this now, — cultivate this temper from day 
 to day, from this very moment, by doing all the good 
 you can to the souls of your relatives, friends, neigh- 
 bours, dependants, class-mates. If you are fearful, or 
 ashamed of Christ, at the fireside, or in an academy or 
 college, — what can you expect to be if called to " speak 
 of his testimonies before kings ?" 
 
 4. Consider yourselves as agents for foreign missions 
 in every company, and rejoice in the opportunity afford- 
 ed of contributing to the animation of others, and the 
 simultaneous quickening of your own zeal. 
 
 Finally. With earnest prayer for direction, let your 
 language be. Lord, ibhat wilt thou have me to do ? This 
 petition you may offer with peculiar interest in the ex- 
 pected reply, for " in the whole compass of human be- 
 nevolence, THERE IS NOTHING SO GRAND, SO NOBLE, SO 
 CHRISTIAN, so TRULY GOD-LIKE, AS THE WORK OF EVANGEL- 
 IZING THE HEATHEN."* 
 
 • Rev. W. Orme. 
 
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