The Christian and the Missionary Spirit Identical.
ZEAL in the cause of missions is not seldom regarded as something quite distinct and separable from the requirements of an ordinary Christian life, though perhaps no one would deny that this zeal is in entire harmony with the sentiments a Christian should cherish. A good woman on meeting a young friend whom she had long regarded as a thorough Christian, but of whom she had just learned that he proposed to spend his life in labors among the heathen, saluted him in a tone of utmost surprise: "Have you got the missionary spirit?" Unconsciously she expressed a common notion that the missionary spirit is not an essential element in Christian character, that it is an addendum found in some disciples of Christ, but not necessarily belonging to any of them. Sheldon Dibble has affirmed that "a Christian needs to be converted to a personal interest in foreign missions, just as an unregenerate man needs to be converted to a personal interest in Christ and his salvation." Now it is sadly true that the missionary spirit is not apparent in many who are enrolled as Christians. It is true, moreover, that some of those enrolled Christians have to pass through an experience not unlike that at conversion before they come to any just apprehension of the obligation Christ has placed upon his disciples to evangelize the world. But let it not be thought, therefore, that missionary zeal is anything but the natural and legitimate outgrowth of Christian principle. It is not to be thought that there is any satisfactory evidence of life in Christ where this missionary spirit is wanting. For what is the essential element of Christian life? Is it not love, without which we are nothing? When self is subdued and love is regnant in the soul, then and then only, is there a new creature. The basis of the Christian life is love, and what other basis than this has the missionary spirit? The wish to redeem men, and the willingness to make sacrifices to save them, are not born except of love, the fundamental principle of the Christian life. The very grace which constitutes a man a disciple of Christ should make him in spirit a missionary. But we may be told that many who are regarded as Christians are not interested in missions, perhaps do not believe in them. Who regards them as Christians? There is only One whose judgment on this matter is final, or even of much account. He has assured us that many will say, "Lord! Lord!" whom he never knew. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." But on this matter it should be borne in mind that in the human soul many qualities or principles may inhere which are only slightly developed. A person has faculties of which he has little use. He may cherish opinions of which he has not as yet seen the application. This is what we must say in hope of many who are regarded as having no missionary spirit. If, indeed, they do not have this spirit in germ, they cannot be Christians. They lack the fundamental grace of love, which alone binds the soul to Christ, and certifies that his regenerating work has been wrought within. But it is possible for spiritual life to be, as physical life sometimes is, quite dormant. It does not know itself; it does not appreciate the principle on which it should work itself out. It is life without life; just as we say of a human body when in a comatose state, that it has no vitality, though it be not literally dead. This is, indeed, a contradiction of terms, but we are understood to mean that the body has no vigor, and is in a low state next to death. So, to say that one has a Christian but not a missionary spirit is a contradiction of terms. It is saying that one is filled with love, yet has none of it; that he is loyal to God, yet cares nothing for his commands. Still the expression is intelligible. It means that the Christian life is very low, so low as to be scarcely recognizable. It is a sad state, and its sadness is not, in the least, alleviated by the fact that many are in it. Every minister of Christ should seek to bring out of this spiritual torpor such of his people as have fallen into it. Let the plain truth be brought home to every conscience, pungently and repeatedly, that one cannot be Christ's, and yet not be like him; he cannot love the Saviour's person, and be indifferent to the coming of his kingdom. He who has no earnest wish, and makes no self-sacrificing endeavor that the gospel of God's grace may be preached to all men, lives in a different atmosphere from that which our Redeemer breathed. For, as David Livingstone said, "The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master; the very genius of his religion." How can one who has not this spirit regard himself as a disciple of Christ?—The Missionary Herald.