A Missionary by F. G.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 6, 1906

A Missionary

By F. G.

A MISSIONARY is one who is sent on a mission. Before he is sent, however, he must have been given and have received his mission. Being thus possessed of a mission is the most important qualification of a missionary. But this is not to say that other qualifications, relatively less important, are not as absolutely necessary. Altogether too many persons go out as missionaries who do not have their mission. These are too often like Ahimaaz, who besought Joab to permit him to run with a message to King David. When Joab said, “Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready?” he said, “Howsoever let me run.” He ran, but he bore no message to the king. So with those who pass under the name of missionary, but have no message; they run to no purpose, bearing often nothing but a false message.

The only way one can have actual possession of a mission is for his mission to absolutely possess him. This can be only when it is interwoven into every fiber of his being, so much so that it is quite as much an absolute impossibility for him to relinquish this mission as for him to relinquish his life. Then, and then only, is he actually possessed of the chiefest of the many important qualifications of a true missionary.

We want all our young men and women, and even our boys and girls, to become missionaries in the fullest sense of the word. This they can not be unless they are capable of being possessed, body, mind, and soul, of a purpose. Many—too many young persons—seem almost wholly incapable of grasping a purpose so firmly and tenaciously that it takes complete possession of them. They are listless, even about their sports. Now if they fail under the thrill of youth to grasp some purpose to which they cling with an unfaltering grip, we can not expect them in later life to be constant in their ways.

The life of King David is a lesson upon the point in question. God was wiser than his servant Samuel in the selection of this man who should be king over his people, for he looked upon his heart. He saw in him, as a boy and a young man, those sterling qualities of the heart which for forty long years stood him in such good stead, when as a man he brought from a disorganized confederation of tribes a strong, united kingdom. He was one who could form a purpose, and then hold to it. Witness his disheartening experiences with Saul. Though he was driven into the very fastnesses of the mountains for protection, and though his persecutor was at times wholly within his power, yet he held steadily to his purpose. Brave, determined, cool, yet tender and kind as a young man, he became in the prime of life, by means of these qualities, one of the most eminent rulers of all time.

The purpose and the mission are quite the same, and the one who can select and hold a worthy purpose is the one who possesses those traits of character which go to make a good and true missionary.

It remains for the Christian teacher to recognize that one of his chiefest duties in the formation of the character of his pupils, if he would make them real Christian missionaries, is to seek to develop the ability to choose and hold to a worthy purpose. This can be done only by superhuman effort—by divine help. Every time the teacher allows careless and incomplete work on the part of the pupil to pass unnoticed and uncorrected, he is losing a golden opportunity for the development of the chiefest element in the character of the gospel worker.

The noblest work or mission which we can present to our boys and girls and our young men and women is that of the spread of this last message of salvation to all the world. We should seek to present it to them in all its attractiveness, in such a manner as to enable them to thoroughly grasp it. When properly presented, this message is indeed an enticing one. When we have so presented it, then we must seek, by having our own lives in accordance with this mission, by every look and word in our daily intercourse with our pupils, in the teaching of every lesson, even in the form of the questions, to inculcate into the lives of those whom we teach, the great principle of unswerving constancy. Thus, and thus only, may we hope to make a real gospel missionary of each one of our pupils. F. G.