Church Missionary Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 49.

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Church Missionary Work

Suggestive Program for Fourth Sabbath Service

(Dec. 23, 1911)

[The following program was prepared by M. E. Ellis, missionary secretary of Nebraska.]

OPENING EXERCISES.

READING: “A Consecrated Church Needed.”

SONG.

READING: “Opportunities for Service Now.” (Arranged for several to take part.)

Collecting of missionary reports and the offering.

CLOSING EXERCISES.

Note to the Leader

THE year 1912 should be by far our best year for every kind of missionary endeavor. To make it so, it will be necessary to begin the first of the year to plan definitely, to act intelligently, and to continue persistently in missionary work. The suggestions given in the article “Opportunities for Service Now,” are for use now; and we suggest that where practicable the numbered sections be passed out to different individuals, and when read, time be given, after sections one, seven, and eight, for consideration as to how definite action can be had by the church. Let some immediate good results follow this service. “The church of Christ on earth is organized for service.” If nothing definite materializes from this program, it has entirely failed in its object.

A Consecrated Church Needed

THE Word of God does not contain merely here and there a missionary chapter, or the music of a missionary psalm, or some clear word of prophecy, or some commanding word of Christ; but it is throughout an intensely missionary book, the missionary spirit being the very essence of its revelation; it is a book that responds with the sensitiveness of a divine sympathy, to the cry of the lost but seeking spirit everywhere. It is a book that proclaims with every one of its tongues of fire, that there will be a people, instinct with its own spirit, by whom its sympathy and its offer of life and rest will be borne to every soul; in whom the great hunger for the redemption of the world has struck so deep that every one who is of that company must hunger with the same intensity and look out on the world with the very eyes of Christ.

The church has been consecrated to this work by its Master; and when the consecration is accepted, penetrating not only assemblies and councils, but every little group of Christian people, penetrating like a fire that burns into men's souls and leaps out in flames of impulse and passionate surrender, we shall see missionary work done as Christ would have it done.

In the apostolic church the Word of God sounded out from every believer, and we read that after the martyrdom of Stephen these believers “were all scattered abroad . . . except the apostles.” Then we read that they “went everywhere preaching the word.” The rank and file of the Christian army were to be missionaries. Each one was to say, “Here am I; send me.” The same thing should be true to-day. All are to go, and to go to all. Each is to make an honest attempt to obey the divine command. The Christian religion is a personal religion, and, under the power of the Holy Spirit, is to be communicated from heart to heart by personal testimony and influence.

God's commands are enablings, and what is impossible with men is possible with God. The very impossibility, from a human standpoint, of the task of warning the world, holds the secret of the ultimate success that waits the faithful, earnest, prayerful, active church, because it drives her to the Source of all power for strength to do the work.

The great missionary hero of the first century, and indeed of all time, was the apostle Paul. His soul was fired and consumed with zeal by the example and love of Christ, beholding in every one, however degraded by sin, a brother or sister to whom, for Christ's sake, he was indebted. He labored more than all the rest, and for twenty-five years or more, bravely endured every form of persecution that he might carry the gospel to every creature. His life and work, following so closely the example of Christ, will ever furnish a powerful inspiration to every missionary effort.

The acts of Christ's apostles are not yet ended. A continuation of that wonderful story of missionary work may be found in the history of the early church during the first three centuries, when three million martyrs surrendered their own life-blood as a testimony to the truth of the gospel. During the middle ages God left not himself without witness. The nineteenth century has been called the “century of missions.” The great religious revival, starting with the Wesleys and Whitefield, gave the impulse to modern missions. God was opening the doors of the nations.

Foremost among the many modern apostles of Christ who took their places on mountain heights of heathen darkness and sin, were William Carey, who in early life used to say: “My business is to preach Christ. I cobble shoes to pay expenses,” and what a work, under God, he wrought in India; Adoniram Judson, the apostle of Burma, who, after many years of apparently fruitless effort, being asked what were the prospects, answered cheerfully, “The prospects? Why, they are as bright as the promises of God;” Henry Martyn, the devout missionary to India and Persia; Robert Morrison, the father of Protestant missions in China; David Livingstone, who gave his whole heart and life to the redemption of Africa, and whose last words were a prayer for the Dark Continent. One of the most thrilling stories of missionary labors is that of Dr. John G. Paton, in the New Hebrides. Many times a day, during the first years of his work there, his life was threatened by those ferocious cannibals of the South Seas; but, trusting in God, he persevered till the wonderful grace of the Lord changed their hearts.

It is an all-consuming love for souls, and a realization of the terrible results of sin, that nerve the Christian to do true missionary work. The law that governs moral values was stated by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” A life spent on self and for selfish ends is wasted; but a life of denial of self is the way to secure eternal values. We are not here alone to get ready for heaven, but to do our Heavenly Father's will here. I am not in sympathy with those people who with folded hands are ever singing of the mansions, bright and fair, awaiting them hereafter. Such people fall far short of what Christ expects of them in service. Bishop Taylor said, a few years ago, that he would rather spend the next twenty years in Africa than in heaven. That is the fiber from which true Christians are made. We shall have all eternity to enjoy the rest and peace and plenty of the eternal mansions. Our business now, as well as our joy, should be to do the will of God, “who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Loyalty to him demands whole-hearted service.

I have read of a Scotch shepherd who, on a dark, stormy night, discovered that three of his sheep were missing. He went at once and called out his faithful dog, and raising three fingers, said to her, “Three sheep missing; go!” and she at once darted out into the storm and darkness, and in about an hour returned with two sheep safe and sound. The shepherd took them to the fold, and again counted the sheep to make sure that he had made no mistake, and found that one was still out in the cold, dark night. With a heavy heart he again appeared at the door of the kennel, and called out his faithful helper, and lifting up one finger, said, “One sheep missing; go!” She looked up piteously into his face, and down to her little ones in the snug, warm house, and then, forgetting her weariness, she darted forth once more into the darkness of the night. An hour elapsed, and yet no return. The shepherd grew anxious as two and three hours sped by; but at last his vigil was cheered by the return of the dog with the sheep that was lost. But the dog was so bruised and bleeding by reason of the thorn-bushes and the fightings with the mountain wolves, and so exhausted by the long weary journey, that when she had delivered her precious charge into the shepherd's hands and received his approving smile, she fell dead.

O brothers and sisters in Christ, is it true that the dumb brute, with no hope of a future life before her, would leave all that was dear to her, and face every danger, and lay down life itself, just to please her master; and do we hesitate to make any sacrifice for our Master? We spend far more for needless things than we do for the Lord's work. To conform to social customs, we have increased so greatly what we are pleased to call our expenses of living that we have comparatively little time or money to devote to taking the news of salvation to a lost world. O that we might have a baptism of consecration; that we might be wholly on the altar; that the Lord by his Spirit might send us forth into his harvest!