No Romance About It by William A. Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 15, 1906

No Romance About It

By William A. Spicer

THERE is no romance about foreign missionary service, no peculiar uplift of inspiration in the surroundings, to keep the worker in high spirits. The love of Christ and the love of souls are the inspiring factors in fields abroad, as in home service. The novelty of strange sights and of dealing with strange peoples, very quickly wears away, and it is like home mission work—just the steady plodding, the daily earnest seeking to win souls from darkness to light.

And the laborer abroad, often in loneliness and isolation, without the privileges of frequent association with fellow laborers, feels, I believe, more than any the need of special grace for courage and buoyant spirit.

One of our missionaries in the depth of a heathen land was pleading for help for a fellow worker, left all alone, month after month, at another station. His plea gives a glimpse at the conditions:—

You know that in work for these people sometimes the work goes hard, as, for instance, when you have some promising and trusted helper, or some encouraging inquirers, and then all at once they turn out to be false. It is a trying thing to meet. Then, too, you know what it is among the heathen—when one is surrounded on all sides by the works of the enemy, and when the people worship the devil—that there is something depressing about it. Then it is necessary for one to look well to his altar fires, to see that they are kept burning brightly under such unfavorable circumstances.

These are some of the reasons why the laborers in the distant fields desire the prayers of the believers in the home lands who have sent them forth. There is a heavy burden, too, in personal contact with unwarned millions.

A missionary voices the “plea from the fields” in the following message to the believers at home:—

“Will you not pray for us? Each day we need Your prayers; for oft the way is rough and long, And our lips falter, and forget their song, As we proclaim the word men will not heed.

“Pray, pray for us! We are but vessels frail; The world’s appalling need would crush us down, Save that in vision we behold the crown Upon His brow who shall at length prevail.

“Not yet the crowning! Fields must first be won, Lives freely yielded, martyr blood be spilt, Love cast out fear, redemption blot out guilt, Ere we behold the kingdom of God’s Son.

“We shall behold it! Lo, his word stands sure, Our King shall triumph in a world set free. With joy his chosen ones his reign shall see! Pray for us, brothers, that we may endure!”

Thank God for the glorious victory assured, and for the privilege of fellowship in the service. The “blessed hope” shall keep our spirits buoyant through all the conflict. W. A. S.