Your ShelfYour Projects

THE TRUE MISSIONARY

10%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 10, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 50.

Read the full edition

THE TRUE MISSIONARY.

By L. A. S.

The true missionary is he who follows the missionary example set by Jesus Christ.
Of Jesus it is written: “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4.
There is no light, apart from the life. If the life of the would-be missionary is not right, he may talk howsoever he will, and it will be but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The very truths that he utters are turned to darkness if “the life” is not in him.
The missionary is not necessarily one who goes somewhere. “The field is the world,” and every Christian in the world is in the field. There is urgent need everywhere of that life which “is the light of men.” In many places there is plenty of theoretical Christianity,— plenty of preaching,— but everywhere there are those who are dying spiritually for the want of that life which would demonstrate to them that Christianity is a divine reality, and set before them the power of God unto salvation. This is so in many Seventh-day Adventist churches.
Jesus Christ came from God; and of the apostle John it is written that He was a man “sent from God.” Every true missionary is sent from God. First he must be raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places; so that, as has been said, the Christian is not one who looks up from earth to heaven, but one who looks down from heaven to earth. To him there is no “home” field or “foreign” field. He sees only one field, and that is the world.
The life of Christ was both in doing and in teaching. Acts 1:1. His teaching was founded upon His doing. All Christian teaching, to be effective, must rest upon this foundation. The light is in the life. It is the life that will draw the soul to the truth, or repel him from it.
“In Him was life,” and in Him was God. No man can create this life; nor can he acquire it, save by opening his heart to Christ. He who opens his heart to Christ, becomes a missionary by the manifestation of the life of Christ in him, no matter in what part of the world he may reside. The darkness of sin and ignorance of God is not in one part of the earth only, but in all parts; it covers the earth, and gross darkness covers the people; and nowhere is the darkness greater than where people have put darkness for light and light for darkness. Nowhere is there greater darkness than in so-called Christian lands.
The word from heaven is, “Arise, shine.” All are not called on to make a missionary journey; butall are called to “arise” where they are, and give forth light into the surrounding darkness. And now, as ever, it is the life that is the light. Theories are plentiful, and words are cheap; but the life of Christ shown forth in human flesh is rare indeed. It will attract the attention of those who see it, as a light attracts the gaze of one wandering in darkness. Everywhere the invitation is to be sounded, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink;” but he who would sound the invitation must first himself have drunk from the life fountain. To become a true missionary is, in short, simply to open the heart fully to Christ, allowing Him to be in the soul a well of water, springing up unto the life that is everlasting.
L. A. S.