SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 312, 29 June 1912, Page 6

SUNDAY READING

missions, y 4 I Extract of address delivered by MISS L. STEWART at the Queen St. Primitive Methodist Christian. Endeavor Society. I purpose not to speak of missionary effort in any one continent or island, but to deal with missions in general. The greatest missionary book in the world is the Bible; the greatest missionary book in the Bible is the Acts of the Apostles; the greatest missionary chapter in the Acts is the 13th; the greatest missionary verses in the 13th chapter are the first three verses. It is a great moment in the life of Paul. Knowing his niter history, we perceive that it is a moment that affects Ms whole subsequent life. It is a moment of new and wide beginnings. It is a moment that bears fruit up to this hour. From that time onwards Paul shunned not to declare unto all the counsel of God until he pronounced himself as pure from the blood of all men. Now, why is it that there are so many millions of heathens in the world to-day? Unfortunately, our belief that we are commissioned to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world is not yet a predominant motive in our life. We have believed it enough to give a little money and send a few men and women to foreign lands. But we have not yet comprehended that the Church is primarily a missionary agency, and that we have been delaying instead of completing the charge of our Church's Lord for 1900 years. What the Church is for is not chiefly to be a safe and comfortable nursery for believers in Jesus. It is to be a mighty army for the conquest of the world. Its richlyprovided home in lands already Christianised is to be the base of supply for an active and ceaseless campaign, in which the banner of the Cross is to be carried everywhere over the wide world. The wealth with which the Church is endow- 1 ed is not its own, but put into its stew- \ ardship to be used for the Lord who ] bestowed it. Listen to what Dr. Mott I says on this subject: "We associate the I command with China and India and AfI rica, but we should also bring it right clown to a personal application within ; the sphere of our daily life and influence. 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.' Does 'go' i mean 'stay'? Does 'ye' include the Christians of our day? Does 'preach the I Gospel to every creature' mean to spend one year, four years, perchance more, in the same home, in the same social circle, belonging to the same organisation, in the same college, or in any other place ' where we are exercising our influence, and to speak of all other subjects of importance but to leave out of the conversation the supreme subject, the claims of Christ upon the individual? We do not so interpret thi9 command of Jesus Christ. To some it will mean that down in the troubled heart of our cities they will be bringing the messages of the peace and power of Christ. But to all clearly in the intent of Christ His command means that we shall be weav- ■ ing into our conversation naturally day by day in the sphere of our calling His surpassing excellencies and claims." CHRIST AND MISSIONS. J During the days between His resurI rection and ascension, the thoughts of Jesus seem to have centred about the extension of His Kingdom. No one who carefully reads all the accounts can doubt His belief in the necessity of foreign j missions. Love for Jesus as the Christ I and loyalty to His commands must ever J be the main motive for missionary ef--1 forts. "The love of Christ constraineth I us" to carry on His work. Christians i who live in civilised lands cannot fail to 1 be moved with compassion for 'heathen people, when once they really know about the wretchedness that everywhere exists in heathen lands, and when they realise, too, that only through Christianity can these people be lifted out of their degradation and sin. He would be selfish indeed who would withhold from them the Gospel. Our own ancestors were once not much better than the heathen ) for whom our missionaries are now working. Caesar has described them, and has told how the women helped the men in battle. Our genealogical tree 'has been traced far back for us hy a Brahmin. The high-caste Brahmins, as you know, form the highest class of Hindu society, and regard themselves as superior to all other men. One of them, Narayan Sheshadri, in 1843 embraced the Christian faith and became a missionary among his own people. He visited America, and at a church in West Philadelphia was introduced to the audience , as an evidence that must satisfy every one of the value of Christian missions. Dr. Trumbull 'has recalled the meeting thus: "Narayan Shesadri, in his imposing dress and presence, stepped forward, and, perhaps touched in his pride as a lordly Brahmin by the reference to his rescue , and uplifting, said, as he looked down into the light faces upturned to his: 'My friends, if I had ever had any doubt as to the value of Christian missions, that doubt would be removed as I stand here and look into your bright and intelligent faces, and consider the facts in the case. ' When my ancestors were among the lordliest persons on earth, considering themselves, and. being considered by others as one with the gods, worthy of divine honors, your ancestors were among the most degraded of human beings, looked down on and despised by those of my race. Yet by Christian missionaries your fathers were sought out arid won to Christ, and in consequence you now sit here, clothed and in your r.ight mind, as a living proof of the vajue of Christian .missions.'" Thesle words of • the Brahmin missionary recall a truth which we do not always consider as we should. Our late Kyig.ljdward VII., when Prince of Wales, : visited India with Dean' Stanley. The Indian officials sent into the jungle and lassoed a few specimens of the ancient race from which the English people are supposed to have sprung, and brought them jn for the young Prince of Wales to look at. Then let us remember that it is owing to Christian missions and Christian missionaries that we are, undei God, pow above - the-level, or the low depths', of our'ancestors. But with all our gratitude, let us not forget the obligations which rest upon us to take or send the Gospel to our heathen brothers. Whim the Duke of Wellington was asked by a chaplain whether .lie thought it worth while to preach the Gospel to the Hindus, he replied with the question "What are your inarching orders?'' "Go ye into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," was the onlj reply possible. "Then follow your orders,"! said Wellington; "your only dutj is to obev." THE CHURCH AND MISSIONS.

The life of a church depends upon its being missionary. The missionary activities of the Church are the circulation of its' blood, which would lose its vital power if it never flowed to the extremities. A church without missions, without earnest, aggressive work, is a declining church. The spirit of self-indulgence grows, the spirit of Christian self-denial dwindles. Mr. J. Campbell White, in an address delivered at the Student Volunteer Convention in America a few years ago, told of a wonderful gift from a young convert on the west coast of Africa. Christmas Day was being observed by the bringing of gifts "for Christ." Ths people were

very poor. Some brought a handful of I | vegetables, some a few flowers, and the ' one who brought a coin worth a penny i : brought what was accounted a very valuI able gift. This sixteen-year-old girl ' handed the missionary a coin worth I about 3s 4d in our money. He was so I astonished that he hesitated to accept I it, thinking she could not have obtained - it honestly. After the service, in reply i to his question, she told him that she wished to give an offering to Christ that i satisfied her own heart, and she had gone to a neighboring planter and bound herself out to him for the rest of her life as a slave in return for this money, and had brought it all to Christ. What an example of self-sacrifice and devotion to Christ! Xow, what must our attitude bo? Back to Divine wisdom, to the living power of Jesus Christ, back through prayer to the source of all power, must be our watchword. On one occasion the* late Dr. Rohson used the expression, "We need three times more missionaries, four times more money, seven times more prayer." May we who profess to follow Christ be stirred to a new intensity in prayer, and may we take part in that ministry of intercession and cry to Him day and night, until He avenge His peo- | pie of their adversary.