True Missionaries and a True Missionary Spirit
By D. H. KRESS, M. D.
The true missionary is always a home missionary, never a foreign missionary. The one who has a true home missionary spirit will be a home missionary wherever he may be. He will be satisfied to do his best, and will feel perfectly contented, in the place where he is; for he feels he is just where he should be. When the Lord calls him to go elsewhere, he will go, not because he is dissatisfied and desires to flee from his present place or surroundings, but because he recognizes the call of God, and desires to be where God wants him to be. He will be just as true and just as contented in the next place, for he will be a home missionary there. The spirit that he revealed in his previous place, will be revealed in his new place. Such missionaries are needed everywhere. They are especially needed in foreign fields. From my own observations I have found that the desire to be a foreign missionary is frequently due to feelings of discontent, or arises from sentimental feelings, or a desire to travel. Such workers carry this spirit with them wherever they go, and will surely become dissatisfied with their new work and surroundings. Home missionaries with a foreign missionary spirit usually manifest a foreign missionary spirit no matter where they are. They are of little value to the work. If they are sent into a foreign field, they soon return to the country whence they came, or go to some other country, with the same unsatisfied feelings. These feelings of restlessness reveal the absence of the true missionary spirit. I have come to look with suspicion upon young people who have a burden for foreign mission work, and who at the same time give little evidence of being home missionaries. The only ones who are really fitted to be sent forth into foreign fields are those who do their home work so faithfully, and appreciate it so highly, that they would sooner be there than on any other spot on the face of the earth. Their brethren look upon them as indispensable and true home missionaries. The Lord, observing such a spirit of faithfulness, can trust them to stand alone in a foreign field, and will, when faithful workers are needed elsewhere, impress their brethren, and say to them as he did to his servants anciently, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Upon such workers' hands may safely be laid, witnessing10that they are sent forth by the Holy Spirit. Sentimentalism and discontent prevail to such an alarming extent even among Christians that it is unsafe to send forth into foreign fields those who do not bear the credentials of being home missionaries.