How It Seemed to Chalmers
JAMES CHALMERS’ standard of devotion was a high one. Here is an example from one of his letters:— “Is it impossible to find missionaries who will gladly dare all for Christ—not the ‘life in hand,’ business, or the ‘sacrifices I have made;’ but men and women who think preaching and living the gospel to the heathen the grandest work on earth, and the greatest of heaven’s commissions? We want missionaries like the men Colonel Gordon defines. He says: ‘Find me the man, and I will take him as my help, who utterly despises money, name, honor, and glory; one who never wishes to see his home again; one who looks to God as the source of good and the controller of evil; one who has a healthy body and an energetic spirit, and one who looks on death as a release from misery. Leave the twaddle of sacrifices for those who do not appreciate the sacrifice of the cross. Let the church give her very best in heart, mind, and body, for Christ’s work. The best and greatest of all works require the best and greatest men. We want men who will thoroughly enjoy all kinds of roughing it, who will be glad when ease and comfort can be had, but who will look upon all that comes as only that which gives zest to work, and creates the appetite for more.’”