OPPORTUNITY by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 8, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 47.

OPPORTUNITY.

By Editor

PAUL writes to the Philippians thanking them for the gift received by their messenger, Epaphroditus, and says: "I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye have revived your thought for me; wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity." Phil. 4:10, Revised Version. It was not an easy matter to send money from Philippi to Rome in A. D. 64. There was no mail service, no express, no banks to draw and honor drafts. The only way was to intrust the money in coin to a special messenger. And that messenger could not go by steam and in a few days, as now. The journey was both tedious and perilous, as we learn by reading the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts. Indeed, Epaphroditus, who bore the bounty of the Philippians to the apostle, was sick at Rome and "nigh unto death," as the result, doubtless, of exposure during that journey. See Phil. 2:27. The primitive churches were poor, many of their members were slaves. They were not able to give much. But what they did give for Paul at Rome or for the poor saints in Jerusalem it was no easy matter to send to them. How they would have rejoiced in our facilities! How such facilities would have stimulated their liberality!

Now, God's rule for giving, or rather for doing good in all Christian ways, is stated by Paul in Gal. 6:10, "As we have therefore opportunity." Every new opening for benevolent effort should be to a Christian what a new channel is for a river. The current passes into it and fills it of its own accord. No effort, no pumping, is needed.

But how can we obey such a rule in these days when it is all opportunity? The Christian in any town in the United States can send his gifts to any part of the world, by mailing a draft to the treasurer of a missionary society in New York, and specifying for whose benefit the money is sent. He can have Bibles distributed in China or India by making a donation for that purpose. He can write a letter to cheer the heart of a laborer in the foreign field, and a five-cent postage stamp will insure its delivery, as addressed, in China or India, within a few weeks. Suppose that Paul, while a prisoner at Rome, had enjoyed our opportunities of communication—that he could have mailed a letter to any place in the Roman Empire, and known that it would be taken there as fast as steam could carry it and promptly delivered at the cost of an obolus—the Athenian three-cent piece. Would he not have wanted to write day and night, and to keep all his companions busy writing? And would he not have expected to have received scores of letters every day from the churches that he had founded and the converts that he had won to Christ? With such facilities would even he, the great Christian enthusiast, have dared to say, "Do good to all men as ye have opportunity"?

Yes, for what he wrote to the Galatians was not for them and their times only, but for all believers in all time. Opportunities are providential. God gives them on purpose that the progress and triumph of his gospel may be hastened. The printing press, the steam-car, the steam-ship, and the international postal service are divine arrangements for facilitating the work of the church. Jesus said to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." And now, in the progress of modern civilization, he is helping us to obey this, his last command. No one who believes in that triumphant declaration of the Saviour, "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth," can think for a moment that there is no connection between the advance of the race in the facilities of communication and the mission of the Christian church. "All things are yours," wrote Paul to the Corinthians, and he wrote it for us. The world belongs to our ascended Lord. He rules and overrules to bring about the fulfillment of his promises. He owns and controls every steam-car on the land and every steamship on the sea. They are all opportunities for us, and we are bound to avail ourselves of them to the extent of our ability.

Indeed, the measure of Christian obligation may be stated in two words—ability and opportunity. We receive both from God; we receive them as his stewards; they are charged against us in the books before the throne, and we must offset the charge by a corresponding Christian activity and benevolence. If, with our improved facilities, we can do an hundred-fold more than we could have done had we lived a thousand years ago, then that is just what we ought to do.

We are persuaded that a prayerful study of our opportunities would lead us to a renewed consecration of ourselves and our wealth to the work of our Lord and Saviour on the earth. He is going before us, throwing the doors wide open, and he says with renewed emphasis, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."—Interior.