Mission Needs and the Week of Prayer.
By W. A. Spicer
THE blessings of the Week of Prayer, now approaching, are not to be sought for ourselves alone. The blessing received and passed on to others is the blessing really retained. The psalmist sets the model for the missionary prayer: “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” The gifts from heaven showered upon this people on this occasion are to be passed on in a world-wide ministry of blessing to others. The annual offering, which has always been a feature of the prayer season, ought this year to be made a matter of special preparation. The growing demands of the mission fields appeal as never before. We have only to rise up in the strength of God and go out into every corner of the earth with the truth, and the work will be finished and cut short in righteousness. Why wander longer in the wilderness of this world, talking about the time when the message will be preached in all nations, and we shall enter the promised land? Why not throw everything we have, as one people, into this work, and let God finish it? When the little lad gave to Christ all the loaves and fishes that he had, small as the store was, the hungry multitude was soon fed. In all the earth the souls for whose conversion the coming kingdom is waiting are hungering for the truth. When we give all that we have received from God, of life and strength and means, the hungry multitude will quickly be fed with the bread of life. There is inspiration in a great work when God sets us the task. The Mission Board brethren, at the recent council, repeatedly declared that one hundred thousand dollars was none too much to expect from the annual offering if the crying demands of the fields for immediate forward moves are to be responded to. Why not aim at this figure, more than a trebling of former Week-of-Prayer offerings? The tide of missionary interest is rising. More was given for the work abroad in the three quarters of this year than in any full year heretofore. God’s Spirit is clearly indicating the line of advance that is quickly to bear the witness to all. He has prepared the fields. From all the four quarters of the earth our brethren send word of open doors, and appeal for workers and means. What answer will our people send to the fields and up to heaven this coming Week of Prayer? Why not the hundred thousand dollars, laid upon the altar of the world’s need? Rally every believer in our ranks and all the children to prepare for a splendid thankoffering. The Bible says that the liberal soul deviseth liberal things. Let us, out of loving hearts, devise in every way that the Spirit of God may suggest, to give tangible evidence that we do love God’s cause supremely, and that we are investing in it as the one interest of our lives. W. A. SPICER,
Sec. Mission Board.