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devoted, Spirit-filled, compassionate disciple and witness for Jesus Christ. And it was just in the measure in which he had realized the power of the gospel in his own heart and life that he had confidence in it to reach and save other lives, and so he was enthusiastic to preach it as much as in him lay. T h ^N eed of P lacing M issions R ightly Another stake which needs emphasis is the right con ception of the place of missions in the will of God and in the life and work o f thd'church. Many people have the altogether erroneous idea that missions are a side issue, a kind of a hobby of a few overly pious folk, and that the desire and purpose on the part of the few young people to become foreign missionaries is nothing more than a notion and predilection of their own. Away with such an un worthy idea! World-wide missions are the great central task, the supreme business of the church, the one thing to which everything else relating to the church is meant to be subordinate and contributory. “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” is the church’s marching orders, and it should be its one absorbing aim and objective. T he N eed of S acrifice There is one other stake to
The New York papers not long ago devoted much space to the incident o f a little child o f that great city being lost. The immediate family, then the neighbors, and finally the whole community devoted themselves day and night to searching the woods and scouring the highways in an effort to locate that little lost girl. The Word of God makes it altogether plain that the world is lost, apart from Christ the Saviour. That most familiar of all gospel texts, John 3:16, speaks of the alter native of believing in Him or perishing. The great mission ary, Paul, wrote: “ If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds” (2 Cor. 4 :3 ). Jesus Himself said: “ The Son o f man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19 :10). The Acts of the Apostles tells us that “ Nei ther is there salvation in any other;: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4 :12 ). The only alternative to saved is lost. If we really believe that all people are lost who are without Christ, how can we remain short of a passionate concern and endeavor for their rescue? The attempt of some people to dissociate these two is foolish and futile. I am firmly o f the opinion that the
waning of missionary interest and resultant shrinkage in finan cial contributions is correctly to be traced to this primary cause rather than to the economic de pression. The depression has sorely tested many o f God’s peo ple, and yet there are some Mis sions which have not halted; on the contrary, they have gone steadily forward through these years of depression. They have been the Missions which were and are actuated by the motive of deep concern for lost souls, on the testimonjr'of God’s Word which they implicitly accept. T he N eed of V ital C hristian E xperience A s e c o n d stake is vital Christian experience. Doctrinal conviction is important; it is fundamental; but greater is the actual personal experience of
be mentioned because it is a stake which every Christian, however far he may have gone in his spiritual experience, how ever faithful and active he may have been along the line of God’s will for the world, needs to drive home still more firmly. That stake is sacrificial devotion to Jesus Christ and to His cause, real sacrificial devotion. The completion o f the task of world evangelization within this gen eration is a sanely practicable task. It will never be easily ac complished, for God did not in tend it to be easy to carry out this great commission of His Son, the taking of the message of redemption to all the world. We shall never obtain the right view of missions until we have
Beautiful in God’s Sight By MABEL M. SEVERN How beautiful the feet of those who go Bearing Good News, the gospel overflow! How firm their stride, sustained their pace; Loaded with fruits of His perennial grace! How beautiful the feet of those who go, Obedient feet and swift as mountain roe! How beautiful the hands that take the bread And break it in the gracious Master's stead; Toil-hardened hands that many duties grasp, Yet tender hands in fellowship's warm clasp! How beautiful the hands that take the bread And serve it in the gracious Master's stead! How beautiful the hearts that feel the woe And, love-constrained, into their closets go! What battering-rams of faith-inspired cries Attack the yielding fortress of the skies! How beautiful the hearts that feel the woe And, love-constrained, into their closets go!
stood at Bethlehem’s manger and beheld that wondrous scene o f the incarnation—God incarnate descending from the ivory palaces down to this world of sin and woe in utter self-emptying and humiliation, until we stand in dark Gethsemane, that antechamber to Calvary, and behold the bloody sweat of Christ’s agony in prayer, until we stand at Calvary and hear those awful words, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?” The price o f our redemption was costly indeed, and only as we contemplate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ shall we get a right view o f missions. God laid the foundation for world evangelization in the price less sacrifice of His dear Son. He is not going to complete that work in any other spirit or by any other means out of keeping with the incarnation and the cross of Calvary. Sacrifice has ever been the very soul of missions. As we read the story of missions the world over and the centuries through; as we think o f that long line of worthy pioneers, martyrs, and devoted laborers for Christ in the foreign mission fields; as we reflect upon the heroic death of John and Betty Stam in China, and ponder the fact that they werite pot. the first and second martyrs, but ; [Continued on page 395]
spiritual truth. Head belief must give way to heart belief, rather lead to it. W e must go deeper than logic or theory. Having been engaged in missionary deputation work for forty years, long ago I discovered that the only satis factory basis for missionary appeal is spiritual life in those to whom one speaks. Where there is cold, feeble spiritual life, there is little or no response to missions. If Jesus Christ means very little to you, if you think of Him at best only on Sunday, and that not very much, you are not going to be enthusiastic to introduce Him to some one else. Only as Jesus Christ is a living, bright reality, a precious Sav iour, a loving Friend, your All-Sufficiency, your very life, your hope for eternity will you be zealous to carry the mes sage of His love and grace to others. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “ I am not ashamed o f the gospel o f Christ” (Rom. 1:16), it was. out of personal experience. Why did he have such confi dence in the gospel that he was willing to face even im perial Rome? It was simply because of what he had himself experienced of that gospel’s power. The gbspel had found that proud, haughty, Christ-hating, ehurch-persecut- ing Saul of Tarsus and had changed him into a humblg,
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