THE CALL TO PRAYER FOR MISSIONS.
For Second Sabbath Missionary Service,
October 12.
God’s word and providences in this opening year of the new century have been calling us to definite, earnest, and persevering prayer and effort in behalf of missions. For years now the message has been taking root in this land, and slowly spreading out into other lands. The new century opens with new conditions and new incentives to haste in the Lord’s work. Both in the work and in the world we may read the call of Providence to so take up the work of witnessing to all lands that it shall be indeed the new work for this new time. This is the distinct issue. Now is the time to meet it.
We know that God waits only for a people through whom, as by one man, He can bear witness to the whole world of His power to save men. The unfolding of events has brought the time when there can be no longer delay. Some must enter in, and the work is to be finished in this generation. But in order to have a part in finishing it, and be of the work indeed when it is finished, we must enter into it heart and soul, just as if the work itself depended upon us individually.
The harvest is so plenteous and the laborers so few that Jesus tells us: “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” Matt. 9: 38. The story of God’s work and of missions in particular shows that decided advances have been marked by earnest and united prayer. We lack laborers and means in all the needy fields abroad. Just as soon as we go through these lands, the work will be finished. Shall we not unite as one people in definitely praying the Lord of the harvest to send forth the laborers now? It is too often assumed that our strength is limited to the ordinary or visible strength in the way of numbers and in the matter of means. The Lord would have us know that His resources are unlimited. In the story of the Moravians and their mission enterprises, and in individual mission enterprises, the Lord has furnished object lessons in the power of prayer in behalf of missions.
THE HERMANNSBURG MISSION
Just as our own work in America was growing up by prayer and earnest effort on the part of a little band of pioneers in the message, a work in behalf of missions was being done by a community of simple peasants in Germany, the story of which must be an inspiration to us, now that this people must take on the definite burden of carrying the message speedily to all the world.
Pastor Harms assumed the pastorate of Hermannsburg about 1844. His soul was made alive with missionary zeal as he read of the needs of the heathen world. A sketch of his life tells the simple story of the work wrought out by prayer and consecration:—
“The parish included seven of the villages that dot the Lüneburg Heath, an expanse of thinly-peopled moorland. The parishioners, about forty-five hundred in number, were, for the most part, sturdy, self-reliant German yeomanry and peasantry. The religious life of the parish was cold and formal, with little spirituality. The new pastor, by his singularly devout life, fed by deep communion and unceasing prayer, soon raised the people to a higher spiritual level, and a great religious awakening followed. He soon succeeded in kindling the fires of missionary enthusiasm throughout his parish. The first fruits were three gifts,—six shillings from a widow, a sixpence from a laborer, and a penny from a little child. Erelong men as well as money began to be offered, until soon a company of twelve stood ready to go wherever God would send them. These untaught peasants, though filled with the Spirit, with faith and heroism, were by no means prepared for the work. A training school is established, and the prospective missionaries enter upon a four years’ course. Besides a daily round of manual labor, the curriculum included Bible study, church history, dogmatics, history of missions, etc.—a formidable array of subjects to men unused to study. This, however, as all else connected with Hermannsburg, was accomplished through prayer. The missionary enthusiasm ran high. As many as sixty offered themselves. Eight more were accepted and put under training.”
“Perplexing questions arise. How is this large company to be sent to the field? The field chosen was a district in southeastern Africa, occupied by a fierce and bloodthirsty tribe to whom as yet no gospel herald had carried the story of the cross. ‘Build a ship,’ was suggested. ‘The proposal is good,’ says Harms, ‘but the money!’ That was a time of great conflict, and I wrestled with God. No one encouraged me. My friends hinted that I was out of my senses. I was spending a night in prayer. I laid the whole matter in the Lord’s hands. As I rose from my knees at midnight, I said, ‘Forward, now, in God’s name!’ The crisis was passed. The contract is let. The ship is built. Hermannsburg is a scene of activity. The women and girls by their sewing and knitting have contributed. The outfit is complete. Eight of the missionaries have completed the course, and are ordained. Farewell services are held. The pastor’s final counsel is given: ‘Give heed to the reading of the word, and pray without ceasing;’ and on Oct. 28, 1853, the first missionary colony from Hermannsburg set sail.”
Year after year the work grew. As the demands exhausted the local supply of funds, the little people who had consecrated all to God, sought Him in prayer, and the Lord was able to open treasuries in the hearts of people outside of their community. Prayer and the spirit of consecration brought the community into the place where God could co-operate with their efforts.
“So greatly was the mission blessed of God that in 1860, seven years after the first missionaries sailed, the Hermannsburg mission in the homeland owned, and had in successful operation, the mission house occupied by forty-five students, a mission farm, a refuge farm, and a printing house; owned in Africa, ten thousand acres of land, occupied by eight stations, at each of which comfortable houses and workshops had been erected. One hundred of their own number were on the field, and fifty converts had been gathered from the African tribes. Besides they owned a ship and a mission magazine. The work of one pastor and his congregation of humble peasants!
“The financial record of the mission has been a marvel. Such operations demanded large outlays of money, and neither Harms nor his people were rich in anything but faith. Though they gave with great liberality, one missionary giving his farm, and some others all they had, it was quite impossible for them to furnish more than a tithe of the whole amount. Where did it come from?—God, who manifestly directed the enterprise, sent it in answer to prayer. Contributions came unsought from all parts of the world. How richly his faith was rewarded! His experiences of answered prayer were as remarkable as those of George Müller.
“While they were so busily engaged in sending the gospel to the heathen, the windows of heaven were opened to them. During the whole period of Louis Harms’s pastorate, there was an uninterrupted revival in the Hermannsburg parish, in which it is said ten thousand souls were brought into the kingdom. Professor Park, who spent three weeks with Pastor Harms during this period, says: ‘Supposing the parish was then in a state of special revival, I asked, “How long has this revival continued?” “About seventeen years,” was the reply, “ever since Pastor Harms came among us.”’
The missionary interest grows out of personal experience. And missionary effort reacts in continuous blessing at home. A thoroughly united effort in behalf of lands and needs beyond our borders is the sure way of keeping hearts in the home churches aglow with the love of God and the joy of service. The work to which we are now called so urgently in other lands will prove God’s way of bringing new life and power into the home work.
So it proves everywhere. The need of the unwarned millions has led churches to determine that by God’s grace they will keep the light glowing in their own communities, while their contributions are to flow out to other fields, and the laborers are to go to those who have not heard. Let the believers and companies take up this work of prayer in solemn earnest. Pray for the fields definitely and by name. God lays the burden of Africa, of India, of China, of South America, and of all lands, upon the hearts of those who know this truth, and who know that prayer and faithfulness in consecrating all to God puts us where God can open the windows of heaven in blessings upon the work. Shall not all the companies in all the services, and day by day, as families, bear before God the needs of the great harvest field?
The paragraphs relating to the Hermannsburg experience will bear re-reading by the leader of the missionary service this month. A discussion of the lessons for our own companies in this story of the power of prayer will quicken many hearts. Let every company adopt the whole world as its parish, and begin to pray and plan for a quick work in it.
