SOMETHING WRONG IN THE HEART.
By Archbishop Trench
I CANNOT believe that we can have earnest piety among ourselves unless we feel that these blessings which we ourselves possess we must impart to others; and unless they are like fire in our bones that can set others alight with the same blessed fire—that fire which Christ came to kindle upon earth. I believe that when a church renounces missionary work, or when a church is not expanding in the missionary work, there is something fatally wrong in the heart. I am sure that when ancient imperial Rome began to contract its dominions and to recall its legions and armies from one and another distant land; and when, for instance, she left the Dacian provinces; and when again she left England, and could no longer possess it as she had done for centuries, these were signs that she herself was stricken with death at the heart, that the augury was true concerning her.—Archbishop Trench.