gospel spread with a rapidity and an enthusiasm that carried all before it.

Fifthly, they visited and confirmed the believers. On their return from the first missionary tour, Paul and Barnabas visited Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. After the council in Jerusalem, Judas and Silas, being themselves also prophets, exhorted the brethren in Antioch with many words and confirmed them. We read that Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city wherein we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they fare." Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them. Because of this he and Paul parted company. Paul chose Silas, and went forth, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches. Paul and Silas visited Derbe and Lystra and the other places in the region of Phrygia and Galatia where churches had been founded on the first tour. As they went they delivered to the churches the decrees which had been ordained by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily." After his return from the second tour, Paul spent some time in Antioch, and then departed and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples. On this third tour he spent two years in Ephesus. After that he passed through Macedonia and Achaia, and gave much exhortation to the disciples. By these visits the believers were constituted a compact and powerful body. As the church was edified it was multiplied.

Sixthly, literature was provided. The things most surely believed were reduced to writing. The gospels were written that believers might know the certainty concerning the things

wherein they had been instructed. Speaking of the things not written in his Gospel John said, "But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name." The Epistles were written to protect the churches against heresies, to stir the members up to do their duty; and to make the whole counsel of God known. In these documents the fundamental principles of the kingdom of God and all that relates to life and godliness are set forth. Far more than the Old Testament Scriptures the New Testament is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. The written word is able to make one wise unto salvation, and is therefore an evangelistic agency of the greatest value.

IV. The motive. The command of the risen Lord was clear and plain. He said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation." "Ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." That command was unlike any other ever given, in that it had all authority in heaven and on earth behind it. Their Lord's command impelled them to devote their lives to this task. Another motive was the need of the world. Darkness covered the lands, and gross darkness the peoples. Gibbon says that to the philosophers all religions were equally false; to the people they were all equally true; and to the statesman they were all equally useful. The Emperor was at once a priest, an atheist, and a god. The nations needed pardon and peace and hope; they needed strength for their daily tasks and burdens; they needed the consolation that brightens the great mystery of the grave. The need was a motive. Compassion led those who were enlightened and redeemed to give the blessings of redemption to all mankind. The love of Christ constrained them. To many they appeared to be beside themselves; the

onlookers did not know the secret of their quenchless enthusiasm. They did not know that the love of Christ was the mainspring of their lives. Christ in them was the hope of glory; Christ in them was the force that sent them out in all directions to make His saving grace and power known. Lawrence says, "The main source of missions is not, strictly speaking, in any motive at all, but in a motor, in Christ Himself as author, operator, and energizer of all divine vitalities and activities. Christ is the one motive power. Not the command of Christ, not the love of Christ, not the glory of God, not the peril or guilt or possibilities of souls, no one of these alone is the great controlling force, but Christ Himself." The prince of missionaries is represented as saying,

"Christ! I am Christ's! and let the name suffice you,

Ay, for me too He greatly hath sufficed:

Lo! with no winning words I would entice you,
Paul has no honour and no friend but Christ.

"Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter,
Yes, without stay of father or of son,
Lone on the land and homeless on the water
Pass I in patience till the work be done."

V. The results. No one can read the New Testament or the writings of friends or enemies of the truth without being impressed with the thought that Christianity is a victorious faith. The success of Pentecost was a forecast of what was to come. Triumphs are scored on every field. The apostles are spoken of as the men that had turned the world upside down. The elders in Jerusalem said to Paul, "Thou seest, brother, how many myriads there are among the Jews of them that have believed." The charge made against this man by the Jews was that he taught all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and the temple. They were alarmed and wanted to take his life. Their fear is a measure of the progress of the truth. Persecutions show the same thing. If no victories were being

won, the authorities would have ignored it. They saw it making progress in all ranks, in the army, in the court, among scholars, everywhere. Writing to the Romans the apostle said, "Your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." To the Colossians he spoke of the gospel which they heard, and which was preached in all creation under heaven. It could be said of the missionaries that their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world. Early in the fourth century the Emperor was numbered among the converts. His conversion is an indication of the triumph of the gospel. With the conversion of Constantine persecution for the sake of the Name ceased. What had been the consolation of the slave and the fugitive in the catacombs became the creed of the statesman and the magistrate, and the cross was blazoned on the banner of the Empire.

P

XI

PAUL'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MISSIONS

ROм. 1: 13-16; 15: 19-21

AUL gloried in the fact that he was called of God to be

a missionary to the heathen. At the time of Paul's conversion the Lord said to Ananias, "He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel." Paul was profoundly concerned about the salvation of his own countrymen; he wanted to stay in Jerusalem and preach to them. But the Lord said to him, "Depart, for I will send thee forth far hence to the Gentiles." He went out into the heathen world, and published the gospel of the grace of God everywhere. Later in his life we hear him say, "Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry." The record of his work as a missionary fills a large place in The Acts. Of one of his missionary tours, Stalker affirms that in its issues it far outrivalled the expedition of Alexander the Great when he carried the arms and civilization of Greece into the heart of Asia, or that of Cæsar when he landed on the shores of Britain, or even the voyage of Columbus when he discovered a new world. The whole world is different from what it would have been because of what Paul did while serving Christ as a foreign missionary. He made all nations his beneficiaries.

There are a few sentences used by Paul which deserve special attention, because they furnish clues to his thought on this subject. The first one that I wish you to consider with me is this, "Oftentimes I purposed to come to you." He earnestly desired to preach in Rome, as he had preached in Antioch and Athens and Corinth and Ephesus and other large