The Missionary Spirit by John Nevins Andrews

Review and Herald Publishing Association

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 24 Supplement

The Missionary Spirit.

By John Nevins Andrews

The work of the missionary calls for consecration of the whole being to the cause of Christ. The man who consults his own ease, or his own convenience, or his worldly interest, is unfit for this sacred calling. “Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy.” In Paul we have the noblest example of missionary spirit to be found among men. So deeply was he imbued with this that he gave himself to this work without the smallest reserve, and never grew weary of it so long as life was continued to him. Much of his time he was in peril of his life, but this never caused him to stand back from the burdens and toils which were before him. He was whipped, imprisoned, and stoned. He knew by personal experience what is meant by hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness. His name was cast out as evil, and himself counted the filth and off-scouring of all things. Wherever he went, bonds and imprisonment awaited him. Yet he never ceased his labor, nor abated his zeal in their performance.

It is worthy of notice that he labored as a man paying a debt which he esteems most sacredly binding upon him. “I am debtor,” he says, “both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians.” But how came he so heavily in debt to them? He had eaten no man’s bread for naught. He had no man’s money in his hands. He had not even coveted the wealth of others. So far was he from having been a partaker of their good things that persecution, or neglect, or defamation, was his only portion from them. Nevertheless, he labored for them, not as a man who places others under obligation to him, but as one who is discharging heavy obligations to others.

What caused him to feel thus? He had received the knowledge of the saving truth of God. He had found forgiveness of his sins through the blood of Christ. And the infinite debt of gratitude which he owed to Christ was to be discharged by making known to others that Saviour who had extended mercy to Paul. And so he labored for men as one who owed his life to an ungrateful and heartless world. He never felt that he had cause to yield to discouragement, nor a right to cease his painful labors because of the cruel persecution of those to whom he carried the tidings of salvation. The love of Christ constrained him, and so he labored and did not faint.

One thing was ever present before the apostle to keep him from swerving from his work, or from taking credit to himself for his unparalleled labors as a missionary of Christ. And this was the example of Christ himself. In him is seen the missionary spirit, of so exalted a character, that beside his mission and his sacrifice, that of Paul is as nothing. Paul was a missionary just so far as he was imbued with the spirit and influenced by the example of his Master. And we are Christians just so far as we partake of this spirit and no farther. If we are Christians, we cannot see men perish for whom Christ died without putting forth an earnest effort to save them. And this earnest effort to rescue our fellow-men from ruin will make all of us in some humble sense the missionaries of Christ.

J. N. ANDREWS.