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The True Missionary

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 19, 1875

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 41.

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The True Missionary.

By James White

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” are the words of the Great Missionary, as he closed his mission here below, and was about to ascend to Heaven to enter upon another work. And this high and holy commission given to Christ’s first chosen representatives upon Olivet, more than eighteen hundred years ago, has not lost its power to move the very soul of those who have within them any thing of the true missionary spirit.
Christians have ever had a world-wide mission. And from the time this commission was first given until the present time, there have been a few men who had the “Go” in them. But in the closing message, fraught with the deepest interest, the word is; “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in.” Luke 14:21, 23. And the extent of this work is indicated by the prophetic declaration, “Thou must prophecy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Rev. 10:11.
Jesus, the great missionary, made an infinite sacrifice. His mission was one of toil, care, and of weariness. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Among the children of men in this world, he was a homeless stranger. And he did not hold out inducements of worldly prosperity and a life of ease and affluence to any who were disposed to become his followers.
When a “certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,” Christ would give him to understand on the start what his followers might expect, and says to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Matt 8:19, 20.
Jesus says to the twelve, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matt. 10:16. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” Verses 24, 25.
In the wonderful conversion of Paul, and his call to the work of the ministry, he does not receive the impression that even his learning and superior talents would secure to him a large salary and a high reputation as a Christian minister. But on the very start, the Lord says of him to Ananias, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Acts 9:16.
The missionary work is that of sacrifice. Christ set the example. And the true-hearted missionary will bid adieu to worldly hopes, and worldly prospects, and will hang all his hopes for this life, and for that which is to come, upon Jesus Christ. He has hold from above. The earth may tremble beneath his feet, worldly comforts may for a time be beyond his reach, and earthly prospects may fade. He has hold from above, and can rejoice in tribulation.
It is the Lord’s plan that men should swing out by faith on his promises, and stay swung out until they have fully proved their strength. The hundred-fold, in the line of friends to administer to their needs, does not come until the missionary has first forsaken houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, and lands.
Our gracious Lord has his hands full of blessings for his people, waiting to respond to their acts of faith. He is more willing to pour the Holy Spirit upon them than parents are to bestow good gifts upon their dear children. But these blessings come in response to acts of living faith.
It is the Lord’s will that men and women should give themselves fully to him, to be fully his, the representatives of their Lord, and his true missionaries. And it is also his will that all his people should cherish the spirit of willing sacrifice to send the light and truth of our time, by our publications, and by living teachers, to every Christian land.
We are told that the sacrifices and the missionary efforts of Seventh-day Adventists fall below other denominations. A case came to our notice, while passing over a railroad in the State of Illinois. We entered into conversation with a Presbyterian missionary to China, who had just returned with his two children, both born in China, to find homes for them and have them educated here, while he and their mother would return to close their labors and their lives in China, away from their children. Where are the men and women among us who would make similar sacrifices? And yet the world have reason to expect of those who are looking for the soon coming of the Lord greater sacrifices than are being made by any other people.
J. W.