PRACTICAL MISSIONARY THOUGHTS.
By E. E. Hoss
The Christian who comes to realize in a vital way that all men are his brothers, to whom he is bound by the most sacred ties of duty and obligation, is made thereby not only a better Christian, but a better citizen. The man who gives a dollar to save the soul of some foreign heathen may possibly have reason to believe that it has failed to accomplish that result; but it has done something else, perhaps quite as important. It has strengthened and deepened the spirit of brotherhood in the heart of the giver, and taught him to realize more perfectly than he ever did before the interdependence of all men upon each other. In fact, modern civilization is making the term foreign mission a misnomer. Innumerable tendons, social, industrial, political, and commercial, are making the whole world one. There are to-day no foreign nations in the old meaning of the word; for in a large but real sense we are all becoming citizens of the world, so that if we try to elevate and enlighten some one in the most remote corner of the earth, we may lift up to a higher plane of living a man who may have a profound influence, either direct or indirect, on our own lives. It was the apostle to the Gentiles who said, “None of us liveth to himself.” In carrying out the spirit of these words we are all apostles to the Gentiles to-day; for not only Christianity, but modern civilization, must acknowledge them as fundamentally true. The success of our missions depends not only upon the money that we give to support them, but also on the prayers that we offer in their behalf. This is not considered as much as it ought to be. Our age is materialistic. We have come to measure everything in dollars and cents. Let us come back to the true position, that more things are wrought by prayer than men dream of. Praying without giving would do little good, and so would giving without praying. Let us give and pray. Who among us regularly remembers the lonely workers of the far-off fields in his private devotions? At how many family altars are the names of our foreign missionaries included in petition and supplication? Nothing would so cheer the hearts of the brave men who, few and scattered, are holding up the torch of truth in the midst of heathen darkness, as the certainty that they are not forgotten by believers at home. O, for more prayer, and more earnest prayer! Shall our lips be dumb and our hearts cold, when interests of such magnitude are at stake? The needs of the world should drive us to the throne of the heavenly grace.—E. E. Hoss, D.D.