Missionaries—of Good and Evil.
By James H. Waggoner
THIS is an age of missions. A church without a missionary society, or without mission effort, is a reproach in Christendom. And the large bodies of professed Christians are wont to point with pride to the success of their missions as evidence of their prosperity in good works, and of the near approach of the millennium, or the conversion of the whole world. And they also point with derision to the smallness of the Seventh-day Adventists as a people, and to the limited effects of their efforts to propagate their faith. It is my desire to point out their error of judgment in these matters, and to offer reasons why we should be more diligent in our work; and why our work, so insignificant in the sight of the world, is of infinite importance to ourselves, and in the sight of God. 1. We are not to estimate the value of religious effort by the numbers who are led to embrace specified views, but by the effect which these views produce on the lives of their adherents. It is better to have ten souls thoroughly converted to God, than ten thousand, yes, millions, half-way converted, or converted to a fashionable, worldly standard, which has no gospel power and salvation in it. The spirit in which religious effort is put forth, and the holy fruit resulting therefrom, are the true tests of a gospel work. It is an everlasting and world-wide truth that “God measures more with how much love one worketh than the amount he doeth.” Between us and the great religious bodies we accept no controversy on the question of numbers. That is a wrong issue, brought in to blind the eyes of the careless and the selfish. We stand upon the truthfulness of our faith, and its efficiency “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” While others work on the supposition of the truthfulness of their faith, we must be allowed the same privilege; we must, to be consistent, act upon the supposition that we are correct in belief. On the basis of the two suppositions, we inquire, Who has the greatest reason to be encouraged by the result of their labors? (1) They believe in the conversion of the world, the inhabitants of earth numbering over thirteen hundred millions. Allowing for the present that they stand on a level with us in regard to saving truth, it then remains that a conversion with them is but one-thirteen-hundred-millionth of their work. And to this must be added the appalling truth that this great aggregate of sinners will soon pass away only to give place to generations of others, among whom, at the present rate, the gospel cannot be promulgated till thousands of millions have sunk to perdition. If their view of the gospel work is correct, if the conversion of the world is the task allotted to them, it is one of most awful magnitude, and to the performance of which there is no prospect of their even approximating. (2) But we believe that the last generation of men is now living; that wickedness is increasing and will increase even unto the end; that of the whole number of earth’s inhabitants, but a “few,” or a “little flock,” will ever accept the truth. Should we take the number given in Rev. 7, which chapter certainly relates to the last days, it would follow that each one hopefully embracing the faith is an important fraction of the whole; while a few hundreds or thousands converted would be a great step toward the accomplishment of the work. Surely, here is comfort for the laborer in this work. As pointed out in the prophecy, it is a work of great interest in Heaven, as we discover that nearly three thousand years ago God laid the foundation of the third angel’s message in the prophecy of Daniel; and each subsequent prophecy helps to fill out the chain, all ending with the appearing of the Son of man on the white cloud. Who would not like to be instrumental in the conversion of some of this “little flock”? Nay, who is willing to share this great salvation, and in the day of redemption be unable to find a single soul who was brought to accept the precious truth through their influence? Not all the treasures of this world would be worth the privilege of having even one saved soul as a star in our crown of rejoicing. Yet many are content to have the truth, to rejoice in the truth, and to hope to be saved by the truth, and yet spend all their time, and energy, and strength, in gathering up the dross of this world, while their neighbors go unwarned down to perdition. How many need to offer the prayer of Bunyan’s Pilgrim: “Deliver me from the muck rake.” 2. But when we consider that the standard of righteousness is lowered so that a profession of Christianity may embrace fashion, folly, covetousness, and popular vices, we say then that the labors and conversions of the churches are too often a failure, and worse than a failure. In many cases, they are a woeful deception. But while these, who may well be called Missionaries of Blindness, are boasting of their wonderful progress, let us compare with it the work of the Missionaries of Evil. A church missionary seeks a new place in the West—a growing village, and by dint of effort raises a house of worship, gathers a little congregation one day in the week and one hour of the day, and when a few are led to embrace the faith, he makes a most cheering report of a great work accomplished. Viewed in the light of the possible salvation of a few souls by that instrumentality, it is a great work—a very great work. But viewed in the light of their faith of the church’s progress and of the world’s ultimate conversion, it is utterly insignificant. Do they not know that the Missionaries of Evil have taken the ground before them? See those whisky saloons, those dens of corruption and destruction, with their constant attendance of earnest, devoted adherents. Day and night, seven days in the week, their services are kept up. They are untiring and persistent. The wise man says of such: “For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.” But who among the Missionaries of Truth cannot sleep because a day has passed and no one been specially blessed by their efforts? It is a sad reflection that they who labor to destroy, who are working for the wages of eternal death, are more earnest, persistent, and determined, in their purpose than those who labor for eternal life, and who may win souls as stars in the crown of their adorable Redeemer. There is another class, the Missionaries of Falsehood, who present a contrast to our general course of action which is by no means flattering to ourselves. I refer to the Roman Catholics. Their example is worthy of consideration and imitation. They seem to be alive to their specific work, and to nothing else. Or if they attend to anything else, it is only that they may advance the cause of the church. They never boast; no one ever sees their “Reports.” The praise or blame of the world is alike to them. Flattery does not draw them aside; danger does not intimidate them. From the highest to the lowest, they all manifest the same devotion to the cause. The priest in his untiring labor, the teacher in the school, and the serving girl in the kitchen, are all animated with the same purpose—to bring people within the influence and the communion of their church. As sisters of charity, they ignore the pleasures of this world in profession and in fact, and devote their lives to the work. They are consistent with their faith. They profess that religion is worth everything, and they act accordingly. But in nothing is their course of action more strongly in contrast with ours than in their interest for the children. A child once brought within the range of their influence is securely theirs. They do not mean to fail. Patience and forbearance are constantly in exercise. With us, if a family wish to take a child, they seek one with a pleasing face and amiable disposition; one whom it is no effort to love; who needs no molding to reach the affections. The unloving, unlovely, and wayward orphan is shunned. Or if such an one is taken, after a brief training under censure and fretting, is rejected as unworthy or incurable. And the child thus experimented upon grows discouraged, cold, and reckless. Children are great observers of countenance and character. This is a study with them in the absence of book-knowledge. They frequently give us lessons which we would do well to remember. I knew an orphan who was taken into a family, and treated with, perhaps, more than average kindness. One day, his father by adoption was reproving him for not being more diligent in the performance of his duty. “You do not,” said the guardian, “obey me as Bro. C.’s boys obey him.” “Why, pa,” said the boy, “you don’t love me as Bro. C. loves his boys.” Here was a new revelation to the father. The boy was right. Love is the spring of cheerful obedience, and many who take children require that the children shall discharge their duties better than the adults care to perform theirs. The process of patiently molding the mind and disposition of the child is distasteful to them, and their failure is that they do not win the affections of the young they have in charge. In such cases the act of taking an orphan is more for self-gratification than one of true benevolence. We have no objection to the old saying, that “Charity begins at home,” if it is not confined there to die in the chimney corner; for it will surely die if kept too close. It must have air and exercise. But there is quite too wide a departure from this saying in missionary effort. The truth is that many have no taste for such work unless it is far beyond the range of their vision. This is illustrated by the action of the American people toward the Chinese. They will maintain a mission in China at enormous expense in money, with toil and privation of the missionary; but when the Chinese come in great numbers to our shores, they treat them as if they were brutes instead of human beings, actually driving them from our shores. And there is no decided action on the part of the great religious bodies to prevent this. Their professed love for the heathen is hypocrisy or self-deception. An exchange has the following:— “The Chinese immigration on the Pacific coast would appear, says the New York Witness, to have received a sudden check, caused, it is presumed, by the treatment they have received in California. On Saturday, 500 Chinese sailed homeward from San Francisco on the steamship Colorado. What influence this return of the people will have upon the treatment of our own race in China remains to be seen. It may seriously retard missionary labors.”
We are in danger of making the same sad mistake. It is less crossing, less trying to the feelings of many, to give five dollars to the tract and missionary cause than to spend a few minutes in earnest conversation with a neighbor, and to give him a tract with a mild request that he will read it. Some think they cannot be covetous and worldly-minded if they are free to give their money to the cause of religion. But this is a mistake. Money making is often a mania; the love of gain is all-absorbing, and deadening to the moral sensibilities. A man was once reminded of the folly of accumulating wealth, which his sons would scatter so rapidly, when it should come into their possession. He replied, “If they take as much pleasure in scattering it, as I do in gathering it, I am satisfied.” The love of money itself is often not so strong as the love of money getting. This is a besetment which ruins souls. Test yourselves. Get your hearts warmed up by the love of God and of your neighbors. Learn how blessed it is to deny self and to do good to your fellow-men. Live up to Isa. 58 and Matt. 25, and you will each be a True Missionary.