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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
to teach a few, nor to be dwarfed by ,a sect, nor to be bricked up by boundaries, Nationality, climate, territory have no place in the foundations o f the city o f God. Geographical considerations may order the procedure o f the enterprise o f missions, but they are forbidden to limit its scope, and so the distinction between home and foreign missions, while convenient for administration, has no spiritual basis. The true homeland o f the Church is defined by the words ‘‘In Christ Jesus/’ and all who do not know Christ Jesus are within thè- bounds o f the visible church o f Christ for evangelical enterprises. Christianity-is not one o f the religions o f the world. It is THE religion for the whole world, a claim which history has long since abundantly justified. In Christianity everything must bring forth after its-kind. Christianity’s commission is Co-extensive with the com mand o f Christianity’s Master. Jesus had worlds in His brain and empires in His heart. So will His church. W e talk about individual and social work, ' and very little about missionary work. It is perfectly evident that Jesus meant to save a man—that is personal work ; and that He meant to save a town— that is Social work ; but it is. also clearly evident that-He meant to evangelize the world:—and that is missionary work. The gospel has a fitness for the world and the' world for the gospel. Only by embracing the globe does the gospel fulfill its own inherent nature. The business o f the church is not to make new creeds, but a new heaven , and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness». He who truly understands the gospel finds himself stand ing between a gospel that needs the world and iL world that needs the gospel, the one reaching out for the other, deep calling unto deep. Missions are not a department o f the church’s'w ork ; they are the whole thing. Missionary activity is not a luxury, but a necessity. ■ THE SUPREME BUSINESS Missions are the supreme business o f the Church. A fter the second battle o f Bull Run, the people in Lexington, Virginia, the
home o f Stonewall Jackson, were in a fever o f anxiety for news from the battlefield. The wires were down, and they were unable to get a message. Finally a letter came in General Jackson’s own well- known handwriting addressed to Dr. White, the pastor, o f the Presbyterian Church; Instantly the news spread through the little town that a letter had come from General Jackson and the people gathered to hear the tidings o f the battle. Dr. White broke the seal, and this is what he read: “My dear pastor, I recall that next Sunday is the day- for our missionary collection, enclosed please find my contribution for foreign missions. Yours truly, T. J. Jack- son.” Not a word about the war between the States, but a volume in a line about missions: •The Church’s foremost duty is to evan gelize the whole world, The church that fails to engage in this propaganda is doomed to death. The artist was not mis taken who, when asked to paint the pic ture o f a dying church, put upon the can- vas a splendid Gothic structure thronged by a fashionable audience which was enter tained by eloquent preaching and beautiful music, but that passed heedlessly in and out by a plain box marked “ For foreign missions” that hung on a nail by the door and ovfer whose slit to receive the gifts there was painted a large undisturbed cob-' web. It was the artist’s Way o f saying that a church that had no concern for the evangelization o f the world is a dying church. I. The Holy Spirit is the incentive to, and the instigator of all true mis sionary activity. The key-note o f a recent missionary con vention was expressed by one o f the mis sionaries in these words: “ The Spirit is within me, therefore I must go.” That the Holy Spirit is the great incen tive to, and the' instigator o f missionary activity is evident, i. From a study o f the book o f Acts itself, in which missionary activity is 1 never separated from the Holy Spirit.
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