CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MISSIONARY LIFE.1

I. A Vital Issue.

The development of missionary life among us is emphatically a vital issue, a life question, in at least two important regards: in the sense of having to do with the nurture of spiritual life and the apprehension of life eternal, and in view of the fact that its solution will engage our closest attention and vital energies during our whole life. If we apprehend the matter in this light, we will not soon reach a stage when we feel that further study of the theme is superfluous, but we will welcome whatever stimulates us to faithfulness in the performance of our duty and promises to increase our efficiency as laborers together with God in the work of His kingdom.

The development of missionary life in the home churches is a factor the importance of which cannot be overestimated. It is indispensable to the inauguration, the maintenance, and the successful prosecution of the work of missions. The work devolves, by divine appointment, upon the Christian Church. Church. Wherever

'For helpful literature on the subjects of this section consult: Warneck, Missionslehre II, ch. 21; a work of his entitled, Die Belebung des Missionssinnes in der Heimat, 1878, is out of print; Hesse, Die Mission auf der Kanzel; Mott, The Pastor and Modern Missions, and The Evangelization of the World in this Generation; Adams, The Missionary Pastor; Brown, The Foreign Missionary, ch. XII; Thompson, Foreign Missions, lectures V., VI., and VII.; Stein, Was will die innere Mission? lecture VIII.

churches cultivate the missionary life within their ranks, they become a missionary force in carrying the work forward. Whereas the churches that neglect the nurture of missionary interest bestow little, if any, energy upon the task and even act in the nature of weights and brakes, retarding by their injurious example and general lethargy the progress of the work.

The vitality of the Church depends on its being missionary. "Its life's blood," as Bishop 'Selwyn has truly said, "would lose its vital power, if it never flowed to the extremities, but curdled at the heart." And as Secretary Brown reminds his readers: "Here is one cause of the poverty of spiritual life. The Church is living too much for itself."1

The reflex influence of missions upon the life of the home churches comes under this head and should be duly emphasized. The following paragraph from the Sunday School Times is directly to the point: "Religion is a thing that spoils by keeping. It is as little meant to be bottled and preserved as is the air of heaven. In the year 1812, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions asked the Massachusetts Legislature for a charter, and it was refused. The main objection was that this organization was designed to afford means of exporting religion, whereas there was none too much of that article to spare from among ourselves. To this the petitioners made the unanswerable reply that religion was an article of which the more we exported, the more we had. Finally their request was heeded, to the eternal benefit of the home field as well as the foreign. Neither churches nor men can live spiritually unless they export their religion. All the good we have must be kept mov

'The Foreign Missionary, p. 233.

ing. He may take the Christianity who will, but he that hoards it loses it, while he that gives it out has it the more abundantly."

The essential and fundamental character of missionary work, its place in Christianity and the Christian life, has been clearly shown. Aside from the preservation of the truth and the maintenance of the true doctrines of salvation according to God's Word, the missionary enterprise is the main work of the Church. In order that it may be done, there must be missionary life in the Church. And that life, like all life, must be fostered and furthered, if it is to be maintained and perpetuated.

Missionary life is the throbbing heart of missionary work. It is the driving wheel that keeps all the other wheels in motion. No natural force can take the place of this vital, spiritual energy. Here the word applies, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." No natural genius or human ingenuity can accomplish the work which God has assigned to the humble believer. When, as is so frequently the case, for the carrying on of the Lord's work appeals are made to the flesh, and resort is had to carnal methods and measures, there may be apparent success in that the immediate object seems to have been gained, but we may rest assured that appearances deceive, and such efforts will end in dismal failure. Efforts that are not in harmony with the Gospel, are not prompted by faith nor supported by divine promises, cannot be successful. They are without the blessing of God, and they cannot redound to His glory.

One of the ever present and pressing needs in mission work is money. We should not be afraid to tell our people so and lay this burden as a divine call upon their hearts. But the very effort to raise the money that is needed for the carrying on of the Lord's work,

and which He expects His people to lay as thank-offerings at His feet, may be made in such a way as to obstruct and stunt rather than promote and foster the growth of spiritual life, thus defeating the very object which it was intended to serve. Here, as elsewhere in the mission cause, we need to lift up our eyes and take a broad and far-reaching view of the matter, lest we become guilty of the folly and error of trying to reap where we have not sown, or expecting to reap grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. We should under certain circumstances be less solicitous about immediate results than we are about remoter effects, less solicitous, for example, about securing a contribution now than about guarding and promoting a spiritual condition that will prompt a person to make sacrifices whenever the Lord calls for them.

2. A Work of Divine Grace.

Wherever there is true missionary life, it has been wrought of God, has been called into existence and is developed and fostered by His grace and Spirit. This is implied in the very nature of the missionary life. It is the spiritual life of the regenerate soul in action, impelling the Christian to live in accordance with his profession, in the obedience of faith, to do God's holy will, to spend and be spent in the work of extending the kingdom of God.

We must not be satisfied with a momentary interest and impulse, nor deceived by spasmodic efforts and fitful enthusiasm. Missionary life implies far more than a knowledge of facts and conditions in the sphere of missions, an occasional contribution to mission work, natural sympathy with people in distress, willingness to feed and clothe the beggar at the door, and the like. Our

conception of missionary life is radical, in that it aims to go to the root of the matter. It joins the workmen with the Lord whose work they are to do, in whom they live, and without whom they can do nothing. Missionary life is faith applied and exercised, the dynamics of the inner man. There can be no true missionary life, no healthy and abiding impulses, desires, purposes and products along missionary lines, where there is no living faith and spiritual life. And there is no healthy and vigorous and intelligent spiritual life that does not sooner or later, according to its opportunities, seek and find channels of activity that exhibit its missionary character.

The history of missions is full of proofs and examples of the intimate correspondence between vital godliness and missionary interest and zeal. Wherever, in periods of spiritual decline and decay and religious stagnation, there has been a revival of faith and piety, a spiritual awakening and a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the new life has always applied and expended itself in the interest of soul-saving, in the spread of the Gospel and the extension of the kingdom. of God. Instructive illustrations may be found in the career and work of such men as Francke, Gossner Harms, George Müller, Hudson Taylor, and many others

Since missionary life implies and requires a regenerate heart and cannot be maintained without a living faith that "worketh by love," it is just as much, as truly and fully, the work of divine grace as is conversion and sanctification. If this fundamental truth, certain and undeniable as it is, is not merely held as a theory, but becomes within us a dominant conviction, it will necessarily wield a powerful influence in shaping our conduct with reference to the awakening and fostering of mis