Need of Missionary Effort
CHRIST came to this world to teach us the importance of missionary effort. His work is the ideal for all missionary endeavor. He “went about doing good.” In all our labor we should let it be seen that we know Christ. In helplessness and disappointment men and women are fighting the battles of life, when our Great Captain is so ready and willing to help. He designs that his followers shall help one another, and bear one another’s burdens. In “Gospel Workers,” page 340, we read: “Wherever you can get access to the fireside, urge your way there. Take your Bible and open before the people its great truths. Your success will not depend so much upon your knowledge and accomplishments as upon your ability to find your way to the heart. By being social and coming close to the people, you may turn the current of their thoughts more easily than by the most able discourses.” In Volume IX of the “Testimonies for the Church,” pages 27, 26, these words are found: “Time is short, and our forces must be organized to do a larger work. Laborers are needed who comprehend the greatness of the work, and who will engage in it, not for the wages they receive, but from a realization of the nearness of the end. The time demands greater efficiency and deeper consecration. O, I am so full of this subject that I cry to God, ‘Raise up and send forth messengers filled with a sense of their responsibility.’” “Let the church arouse and go forth to her appointed work. Every believer, educated or uneducated, can bear the message.” Who, then, let me ask, is excused? The day is far spent, and it is high time that a flaming and burning torch should be started in our churches that will be a beacon-light to shed radiance all around, and guide lost travelers to their Father’s home. The fact that souls are perishing all about us ought to stir us to an earnestness and a consecration that would burn into our very lives. Christ said of John the Baptist, “He356was a burning and a shining light.” His fervor and zeal was no mild and tame affair that fluctuated with popular acclaim or disfavor. He had a definite message to bear, and nothing could hinder or prevent the accomplishment of his mission. His life centered in the one absorbing theme of a soon-coming Saviour to a lost and dying world. To-day a message similar to John’s is being carried to the world. Our churches need to awake to their responsibility in it. Were the church elders and leaders to call a solemn assembly, and spend the time of several meetings in earnest, agonizing prayer by every one for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, far more would be accomplished. When the words, “I will make you fishers of men,” and “He that winneth souls is wise,” burn into our very lives with their real meaning, then hearts will be aglow, there will be a love for the different lines of work outlined for the society members, reports will be forthcoming, souls will be cheered by missionary letters and a kindly interest, and, in short, every member will be a pilot-boat. John Vassar delighted to call himself “the Shepherd’s dog.” “My business,” he would say, “is not to preach, but to go over the hills and seek for the sheep that are lost.” In the cities, over the hills, and in the valleys God’s children are to go with the message of salvation contained in our good books, periodicals, and tracts. Our business is to seek for lost sheep. A great many are lost and know it not. These are to be tenderly sought out and brought to a sense of their condition. This kind of work, if entered into by all, will take away selfishness, break up indifference, and leave no place for strife and evil-speaking in the church. One of our young Indian girls, who received the truth by attending our school, visited her friends on another reservation. While there, she had opportunities to tell publicly of her cherished faith and give Bible studies. She was able, with the Lord’s help, to give what she had received. Our boys can work with the Temperance Youth’s Instructor. Other children can make small rolls of our papers and tracts, tying them neatly with a little ribbon, and put them into automobiles and wagons. By having them arranged in a neat manner and carefully laid in, a far better impression will be made than if the papers were carelessly thrown in after the fashion of circular distributors. There may be lonely, sick, or discouraged ones in the church or neighborhood. Enlist several to take part in filling a “sunshine bag” with little remembrances, enclosing in the neatly arranged packages comforting texts of Scripture. When it is delivered, you will be ready to say that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” “Life is made up of little things—simple, commonplace duties. It is these which influence our lives, as well as those of others. The power of influence is a terrible power. It clings to us; it is born with us, and it grows and strengthens as the years pass by. Our spheres may be limited, yet we have influence. It speaks, moves, lives in every look of the eye, in every word of the lips, in every act of life. So long as we live, we exert an influence. ‘No man liveth to himself.’ The record of our influence in its completeness is preserved in the books above, to be met again, not as a phantom, but as a stern reality.” “Have you found the heavenly light?
Pass it on!
Souls are groping in the night,
Daylight gone!
Hold your lighted lamp on high,
Be a star in some one’s sky;
He may live who else would die,
Pass it on!”