The Gift of Lives in Missionary Service by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C.

FromReview and Herald, Harvest Ingathering Number

The Gift of Lives in Missionary Service

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

THE supreme purpose of the foreign missions movement now being carried forward by the Christian churches is to evangelize all the non-Christian world. This is the highest, the truest, and the most enduring service men can render to their fellow men. Sin is the cause of all the unspeakable sorrows of the human race. The Son of God came into the world to break this reign of sin, to set men free, and eventually to bring to an end all suffering and sorrow. The gospel is the revelation of that great truth; for it is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16. This is the hope, and the only hope, of sinners. It is the grandest message that can be borne to the ears and hearts of those wandering in the valley of the shadow of death. And this is the message being proclaimed by missionaries who have gone to heathen lands.

The great world-wide, thoroughly organized foreign missions movement in behalf of non-Christian peoples has been in operation a little more than a century. The results are known the world over. Millions have accepted Christ as their Saviour. Marvelous transformations have been wrought. Savagery and cannibalism have been banished from populous island groups and from other vast areas, while in every continent the blessed light has been let in among millions in darkness, dispelling superstition, and reforming lives, and lifting whole peoples to a higher plane.

But the results of this great evangelizing movement represent but one side of the undertaking. On the other side are the missionaries, their toil, self-sacrifice, and those who give the means required to support this work. The combined annual reports from the various mission boards and societies show that there are at the present time about twenty-five thousand European missionaries making Christ known in heathen lands. These are being assisted by six thousand ordained native evangelists and over one hundred thousand other native workers. To maintain this splendid work the churches in the homelands contribute thirty million dollars annually. The native Christians each year raise between seven and ten million dollars to push this work along in behalf of their own people. The toil and sacrifice, the separations and the sorrows, of this movement for a single year are too great either to trace or to express. Every year death reaps its cruel harvest. Filling the gaps breaks hundreds of family circles, and causes the repetition of hard labor to master the languages and make necessary adjustments all around. To hold the ground already occupied and to enter the doors everywhere thrown open to the missionary forces require constant and earnest efforts on the part of all believers in foreign missions.

LISTENING TO THE PREACHING OF THE WORD, CHANGSHA, HUNAN, CHINA.

And the work of raising funds can never cease. The years pass quickly and consume the annual appropriations. There can be no let-up in giving. The movement is on in full force. The missionaries are at the front with their wives and children. The schools, printing houses, and dispensaries are all operating. This great work cannot stop. To continue means the full expenditure of present appropriations, and that calls for continued giving on as large a scale as the church has ever contributed to the cause of foreign missions.

And why should not a work so helpful, so uplifting, and so transforming, continue and steadily enlarge? If any endeavor in the world is worth while, this is. If money is of value for any purpose, it is of special value in this movement. The unnumbered blessings the gospel has brought to us in the homeland, the new life and hope it has brought to millions in heathen lands, and the great needs of the

multimillions who are still without it,—all these appeal to us to go on recruiting and giving for foreign missions. And this is the mission of this Harvest Ingathering number of the REVIEW.

A. G. DANIELLS, President General Conference.

ARGENTINE MISSIONARY COLLEGE, SOUTH AMERICA.