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CHURCHES
AT HOME
On
the other hand, God has distinctly shown approval of missionary zeal and
enthusiasm in the church at home which has supplied the missionaries. Spiritual
prosperity and progress may be gauged so absolutely by the measure
of missionary activity, that the spirit of missions is now recognized as
the spirit of Christ. The Scripture proverb is proven true: "There is that scattereth
and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet,
but it tendeth to poverty;" and Christ’s
paradox is illustrated: "The life that is saved is lost, and the life
that is lost is saved." Bishop Phillips Brooks compared the church that
apologizes for doing nothing to spread the good news on the ground of its
poverty and feebleness, to the parricide who, arraigned in court for his father’s
murder, pleads for mercy on account of his orphan hood! The hundred years
have demonstrated that "religion is a commodity of which the more
we export the more we have remaining." (Mr. Crowninshield objected in
the Senate of Massachusetts to the incorporation of the A. B. C. F. M. that it
was designed to "export religion, whereas there was none to spare from
among ourselves." This is Mr. White’s
reply.) The logic of events proves that the surest way to keep the
church pure in faith and life, is to push missions with intelligence and holy
zeal.
MISSIONARY
CHARACTERS
What
a distinct seal of God upon mission work is seen in the high ideals of character
found in the missionaries themselves! If the workman leaves his impress
on his work, it is no less true that the work leaves its mark on the workman.
Even those who assail missions, applaud the missionaries; they may
doubt the policy of sending the best men and women abroad to die by fever
or violence, or waste their sweetness on the desert air; but even they do
not doubt that the type of character, developed by mission work, is the highest
known to humanity in this field have ripened into beauty and fragrance
the fairest flowers and fruits of Christian life; and illustrated, as nowhere
else, unselfish devotion to Christ, unswerving loyalty to the Word,
and unsparing sacrifice for men. Was it not Theodore Parker who said,
that it was no waste to have spent all the money missions had cost, if they
gave us one Judson? On the mission field are to be found, if anywhere, the
true succession of the apostles, the new accession to the goodly fellowship
of the prophets, and the perpetual procession of the noble army of
martyrs.
Surely
all this is the standing proof of the Superintending Providence of God.
He who gave the marching orders gave at the same time the promise of
His perpetual presence on the march; and He has kept His word: "Lo, I am
with you all the days, even un to the end of the age." At every step faith has
seen the Invisible Captain of the Lord’s
host, and, in all victories, behind the sword of Gideon, the sword of the
Lord.
GOD
IN ALL
In
the Acts of the Apostles, within the compass of twenty verses, fifteen times
God is put boldly forward as the one Actor in all events. Paul and Barnabas
rehearsed, in the ears of the church at Antioch
and afterward at
Jerusalem,
not what they had done for the Lord, but all that He had done with
them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles; what
miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And,
in the same spirit, Peter, before the council, emphasizes how God had made His
choice of him as the very mouth whereby the Gentiles should hear
the word of the Gospel and believe; how He had given them the Holy Ghost
and put no difference between Jew and Gentile, purifying their hearts
by faith; and how He who knew all hearts had thus borne them witness.
Then James, in the same strain, refers to the way in which God had
visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name; and concludes
by two quotations from the Old Testament which fitly sum up the
whole matter:
"The
Lord who doeth all these things." "Known unto God are all his
works from the beginning of the world" Acts 14:27-15:18.
The
meaning of such repeated phraseology cannot be mistaken. God is thus presented
as the one Agent or Actor, even conspicuous apostles, like Paul and
Peter, being only His instruments. No equal number of verses in the Word
of God contain such emphatic and repeated lessons on man’s insufficiency
and nothingness, and God’s all-sufficiency and
almightiness.
God
was working upon man through man, choosing man to be His mouthpiece;
with His key unlocking shut doors; Himself visiting the nations;
taking out a people for His name, turning sinners into saints, purifying
hearts and bearing them witness; He alone did all these wondrous things,
according to His knowledge and plan of what He would do from the
beginning. These are not the acts of the Apostles, but the acts of God through
the apostles. In the same spirit the praying saint of Bristol names his journal: "The
Lord’s Dealings with George Muller."
GOD’S
RESERVES
There
is thus indeed, a Superintending Providence of God in foreign missions;
the King is there in imperial conduct, the Lawgiver in authoritative
decree; the Judge in reward and penalty: God, the eternal, marshalling
the ages with their events; God, the omnipresent, in all places equally
controlling; God, the omniscient, wisely adapting all things to His ends.
The Father of spirits, discerning the mutual fitness of the worker and his
work, raises up men of the times for the times. Himself deathless, His work
is immortal though His workmen are mortal, and the building moves on
from cornerstone to capstone, while dying builders give place to others.
He
has opened the doors and made sea and land the highways for international
intercourse, and the avenue s to international brotherhood. He has
multiplied facilities for world-wide evangelization, practically annihilating
time and space, and demolishing even the barriers of language.
The
printing and circulating of the Bible in five hundred tongues, reverses the
miracle of Babel
and repeats the miracle of Pentecost. Within the past century
the God of battles has been calling out His reserves. Three most conspicuous
movements of the century were the creation of a new regiment
of Medical Missions, the Woman’s Brigade, and the
Young People’s
Crusade. The organization of the Church Army is now so complete
that but one thing more is needful; namely, to recognize the Invisible
Captain of the Lord’s hosts as on the
field, to hear His clarion call summoning us to the front, to echo His Word of
command; and, in the firm faith of His leadership, pierce the very center
of the foe, turn his staggering wings and move forward as one united host in one
overwhelming charge.
HISTORIC
QUICKENINGS
Perhaps
the most conspicuous seal of God upon the mission work of the past
century is found in the spiritual quickenings which have at some time visited
with the power of God every field of labor which has been occupied in
His name with energy of effort and persistence of prayer. We have called these
"quickenings" rather than "revivals," for revival really
means a restoration
of life-vigor after a season of lapse into indifference and inaction,
and properly applies to the Church. We treat now of quickenings out
of a state of absolute spiritual death; and again we point to these as the most
indisputable and unanswerable sanction and seal of God on modern missions.
The
following are among the most memorable of the century, arranged for convenience,
in the order of time:
1815-1816
Tahiti, under the labors of Nott, Hayward, etc.
1818-1823
Sierra
Leone, under William A. B.
Johnson.
1819-1839
South Seas,
under John Williams.
1822-1826
Hawaiian Islands,
under Bingham, etc.
1831-1835
New
Zealand, under Samuel
Marsden, etc.
1832-1839
Burma
and Karens, under Judson, etc.
1835-1839
Hilo
and Puna, under Titus Coan.
1835-1837
Madagascar,
under Griffiths,
Johns, Baker, etc.
1842-1867
Germany,
under J. Gerhard Oncken, etc.
1844-1850
Fiji
Islands, under Hung and Calvert, etc.
1848-1872
Aneityum, under John Geddie, and others.
1845-1895
Old Calabar, under J. J. Fuller, etc.
1845-1847
Persia,
under Fidelia Fiske, etc.
1856-1863
North American Indians, under William Duncan.
1859-1861
English
Universities,
under D. L. Moody and others.
1863-1870
Egypt
and Nile Valley, under Drs. Lansing, Hogg, etc.
1863-1888
China,
generally, especially Hankow, etc.
1864-1867
Euphrates District, under Crosby H. Wheeler, etc.
1867-1869
Aniwa, under John G. Paton, etc.
1872-1875
Japan,
under J. H. Ballach, Verbeck, etc.
1872-1880
Paris,
France,
under Robert McAll.
1877-1878
Telugus, under Lyman Jewitt and Dr. Clough.
1877-1885
Formosa,
under George L. Mackay.
1883-1890
Banza Manteke, under Henry Richards.
1893-1898
Uganda,
under Pilkington, Roscoe, etc.
Others
might be added but these twenty-five instances sufficiently illustrate the
fact that, throughout the wide domain of Christian effort, God has signally
bestowed blessings. The instances italicized were marked by peculiar
swift and sudden outpourings of spiritual power, and it will be seen
that these form about half of the entire number, showing that God works
in two very diverse ways, in some cases rewarding toil by rapid and sudden
visitations of the Spirit, and in quite as many others by slower but equally
sure growth and development.
"IN
DIVERSE MANNERS"
It
is also very noticeable that in almost every one of these marked outpourings
some peculiar principle or law of God’s
bestowment of blessing
is exhibited and exemplified. For example, the work at Tahiti
followed a long night of toil, and was the crown of peculiar persistence in the face
of most stubborn resistance. At Sierra
Leone, Johnson found about
as hopeless a mass of humanity as ever was rescued from slave-ships, and he
himself was an uneducated man, and at first an unordained layman.
John
Williams won his victories in the South Seas
by the power of a simple proclamation of the Gospel, as an itinerant; and
then first came into full view the power of native converts as
evangelists. In the Hawaiian group and particularly in Hilo and Puna, it was the oral preaching to
the multitudes
that brought blessing — Titus Coan holding a
three years’ camp meeting.
In
New Zealand Marsden had first to lay foundations, patiently and prayerfully,
and showed great faith in the Gospel. Judson and Boardman, in Burma,
found among the Karens a people whom God had mysteriously prepared,
though a subject and virtually enslaved race.
Old
Calabar was the scene of triumph over deep-rooted customs and age long superstitions;
in Persia,
the blessing came upon an educational work attempted single-handed among women and
girls. William Duncan in his Metlakahtla reared a model state out of Indians
hitherto so fierce and hostile that he dared not assemble hostile
tribes in one meeting. The revival in the English universities is especially
memorable as the real birth-time of the Cambridge Mission Band and the
Student Volunteer Movement which crystallized fully twenty-five years
later. In Egypt the
transformation was
gradual, dependent on teaching as much as preaching, but it
has made the Nile
Valley
one of the marvels of missionary triumph. In China the most marked
features were the influence of medical missions and the raising up of
a body of unpaid lay-evangelists, who generated through their own home territory.
On the Euphrates the conspicuous feature was
the organization
of a large number of self-supporting churches on the tithe
system — sometimes starting with only ten members —
with native pastors. At Aniwa three and a half years saw an utter
subversion of the whole social fabric of idolatry. In Japan the
signal, success was found in the planting of the foundations of a native church, and
the remarkable spirit of prayer outpoured on native converts. In Formosa, Mackay
won his victories by training a band of young men as evangelists, who
with him went out to plant new missions. At Banza Manteke, Richards
came to a crisis, and ventured literally to obey the New Testament
injunctions in the Sermon on the Mount —
for example, "give to him that asketh thee." In Uganda it was
the new self-surrender and anointing of the missionaries, and reading of
the Scriptures by the unconverted natives, on which God so singularly smiled.
Pilkington said in London
that he had never known three converts who had not been Bible readers.
LESSONS
Thus,
as we take the whole experience of the century together, we find the following
emphatic lessons taught us:
1.
God has set special honor upon His own Gospel. Where it has
been most simply
and purely preached the largest fruits have ultimately followed.
2.
The translation, publication, and public and private reading
of the Scriptures
have been particularly owned by the Spirit.
3.
Schools, distinctively Christian, and consecrated to the
purposes of education
of a thoroughly Christian type, have been schools of the Spirit of God.
4.
The organization of native churches, on a self-supporting
basis with native
pastors, and sending out their own members as lay evangelists, has been
sealed with blessing.
5.
The crisis has always been turned by prayer. At the most
disheartening periods,
when all seemed hopeless, patient waiting on God in faith has brought
sudden and abundant floods of blessing.
6.
The more complete self-surrender of missionaries themselves,
and their new
equipment by the Holy Spirit, has often been the opening of a new era to
the native church and the whole work.
These
are lessons worth learning. The secrets of success are no different from
what they were in apostolic days.
"THE
FINGER OF GOD"
Our
God is the same God, and His methods do not essentially change. He has
commanded us to go into all the world and preach the good tidings to the
whole creation; and the promise, "Lo, I am with you always," is inseparable
from obedience. In connection with this Gospel message He has
given us certain prominent aids, which are by no means to be reckoned as
belonging to a realm of minor importance, and among them Christian teaching,
Bible searching, fervent prayer, and Holy Spirit power outrank all other
conditions of successful service. The survey of the century is like reading
new chapters in the Acts; no true believer can attempt it carefully without
finding a new Book of God in the history of this hundred years.
Any man or woman who will take the score or more of
marked quickenings we have outlined, and give a solid month to their
consecutive study, will find all doubts dissipated that the living God has been
at work, and that no field, however hard and stony and hopelessly barren, can ultimately
resist culture on New Testament lines. In nothing do we need a new and
clarified vision more than in the clear perception and conviction that the days
of the supernatural are not past. Here is the school where these lessons are
taught. Ten centuries of merely natural forces at work would never have wrought
what ten years have accomplished, even when every human condition forbade
success. A feeble band of missionaries in the midst of a vast host of the
heathen have been compelled to master a foreign tongue, and often reduce it for
the first time to written form, translate the Word of God, set up schools, win
converts, and train them into consistent members and competent evangelists;
remove mountains of ancestral superstitions and uproot sycamore trees of pagan
customs; establish medical missions, Christian colleges, create Christian
literature, model society on a new basis; and they have done all this within
the lifetime of a generation, and sometimes within a decade of years! Even
Pharaoh’s magicians would have been compelled to confess, "This is the
finger of God!"
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