prominent place in the Christian life and the work of the Church.

And, finally, we have viewed the enterprise in its essential unity amid the diversities that are incidental to home, and "inner," and foreign mission work.

With these introductory reflections, it is hoped, the reader is prepared to study with growing interest the fundamental principles of missions, touching the missionary enterprise in its origin and foundation, its aim and end, and its prosecution in various places and under varying conditions.

II. The Biblical Ground of Mission Work.

THE NATURE AND SCOPE ON THIS SECTION.1

I. Of Fundamental Importance.

The importance of a foundation is generally recognized in all occupations and undertakings. It is folly to erect an elaborate structure on a defective and insufficient foundation. In all wise building the dimensions and strength of the latter are planned in view of the size and extent of the structure to be erected.

The missionary enterprise is no exception to the rule. At one of the early trials of the apostles Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, spoke these significant words: "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." If the missionary enterprise had been of men, it would have been completely checked and the Christian Church would have been exterminated long before the time of Constantine and his edict of toleration. The fact that it has endured amid all the violent and mighty assaults from without, and all the human weaknesses and folly within the bounds of Christendom, bears strong presumptive evidence that the Church and her missionary enterprise are of God.

1

To believers, who accept the Bible as God's inspired

For purposes of further research the student will do well to consult, in the study of this entire section, the exhaustive work of Dr. Warneck, Missionslehre, vol. 1.

and revealed Word, it is more than presumptive evidence, it is positive assurance and confirmation of faith in the Savior's promise to the Church which He has purchased with His own blood, that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Yes, there are many evidences, both in the history of the Church, and in the witness of the Spirit of God in the hearts and lives of believers, that the Church is divinely established, and that mission. work is God's work.

The Lord Himself laid the foundations of the missionary enterprise, and He has revealed them to us in His Word. They support the whole structure of His work of grace and salvation among men, in men, and through men, and in behalf of men. All the force and vitality, and all the vital features of the enterprise are set forth for our learning. And as Christ is the great Teacher sent from God to work out redemption for mankind and to interpret to us God's good and gracious will and ways, let us sit as faithful disciples at Jesus' feet and learn of Him.

2. General Reflections on the Subject.

How does it come that the missionary efforts of many disciples and church-members are so fitful and haphazard, so lukewarm and dilatory? May it not be due in part to the fact that their knowledge of the connection between the Bible and missions is fragmentary and imperfect, that they have not grasped in their fulness and depth the missionary thoughts that run through the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments? At any rate, it is certain that knowledge of these truths is essential to abiding interest and sustained activity in the Lord's work.

There is an erroneous notion, widely prevalent,

which must be overcome, namely, that live missionary interest is a beautiful, but unessential ornament of Christianity, that mission work is not something essential and obligatory, but accidental and optional to the Christian, an enterprise of superior and superfluous piety. Nothing will help to overcome this erroneous and pernicious notion like a thorough and comprehensive acquaintance with the central, vital, integral place which missionary thought, enterprise and principle hold in the Bible the all-pervasive, dominant influence of the divine thought and idea of missions in the economy of divine grace and in the revealed Word of God. Not only that the Bible is full of missionary thoughts expressly stated in different forms, in prophecy, symbol and type, historical narrative, command and promise, but that the missionary thought and purpose is a vital element of Christianity, a constituent part of God's revelation and gracious plans and purposes, permeating all Scripture, filling and forming the entire economy of grace and salvation, from the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began, to the culmination and completion of His counsels in His second advent, the final judgment, and the kingdom of glory.

CHAPTER XI.

MISSIONARY THOUGHTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

I. Character of Old Testament Missionary Thoughts.

Their distinctive character is in accordance with the nature and purpose of the Old Testament itself, and its relation to the new dispensation. We do not therefore expect to find missionary thoughts as specifically expressed and as fully developed as they are in the New Testament. Still, when we make a careful search and begin to note and group them, we may be surprised to find how many precious missionary truths we have gathered from the Scriptures that were fulfilled in the person and work of Christ Jesus.

Christian chronology and the Christian dispensation began historically with the birth of Christ and the founding of the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost. But as the New Testament is founded upon and is the fulfilment of the Old Testament, so Christianity, with its universal adaptation, provision and aim, its missionary character as the world religion and the only saving religion of the world, has its roots in the Old Testament, and that not only in its prophecies, but in the religious consciousness, life and leading of Israel. Judaism, as historically developed, was not a missionary religion. But this development was not in full accord with the revelation of the Old Testament, nor was it a true expression and interpretation of what we may call the missionary spirit which continued to throb in the hearts