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The Heart of the Problem

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 9, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 41.

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The Heart of the Problem

By R. H. Glover

WHAT is the real heart of the missionary problem? Is it a problem of men? or one of money? or of method? or of prayer? It includes each of these phases, but it is deeper than any or all of them. If we press past all secondary considerations right home to the real heart of the missionary problem, we shall find that it is a problem of love,—personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Why?—Because the very soul of missions is sacrifice, and nothing less and nothing else than divine love can call forth the sacrifice that is needed.
The spirit of missions is the spirit of Jesus Christ, and the spirit of Jesus Christ was essentially a spirit of supreme self-sacrifice. Those words, “He saved others; himself he cannot save,” flung derisively at Jesus as he hung upon the cross, were, nevertheless, the expression of a profound truth. Had the Lamb of God, in retaliation to that mocking cry, come down from the cross, our salvation would not have been an accomplished fact. He has saved us, but it cost him his own life-blood to do it.
“He saved others; himself he cannot save.” No more can we. God never intended we should. It would be to leave out of the missionary enterprise that which is its very essence and glory. God laid the foundation of this work of world redemption in sacrifice when it cost him his only begotten Son, and he will finish it in no less worthy a spirit or costly means.—R. H. Glover.