p. 40 | The Missionary by O. A. Olsen

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1886

The Missionary.

By O. A. Olsen

Our Home Tract and Missionary Work.

ALL are not called to be ministers or missionaries to foreign lands. Neither may they be called to take a place as Bible workers in city missions, or as canvassers or colporters. Still you have a work to do; and the Lord will call you to an account for your stewardship. We need home missionaries, workers right near home. Your own family presents a field for labor; your neighbor and your neighbor's children present another field. These souls are just as precious and their salvation just as important, as those in distant States or in far-off countries. When God inquires of you where your neighbors are, what will your answer be?

Mothers with their families around them have wished they could act the part of Mrs. Judson, and work for the heathen. That is no wrong wish in itself. But many times they forget the missionary field in their own families. Many a time my heart has been sad to see the indifference manifested by parents toward their children. The mother who succeeds in bringing her children to God, and presenting them saved in his kingdom, has done a most noble work. Would there could be more of a true missionary spirit right in our own homes, that our children might be educated in it from their very infancy. But sad it is when the father is so driven with care and labor, and the mother the same, that what is seen of home religion is only formality.

There may be a family altar, or there may not; but be that as it may, the great burden is to work and plan continually for the purpose of making property, gathering treasures in this world only to feed the flames of the day of God, or be a curse to the children to whom they leave it. Better seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Better make the religion of God of the first importance in the family. What if we should not make quite so much money? Better far that the mother take time to read the Bible and teach the children in the way of God, even if they should be more humbly clad, and not compare so well with the fashionable style of the world. Oh, if that heavenly adorning could beautify us, we might well dispense with this world's gaudy show. There is work for all, and may God help us all to find our place, and act our part to his glory.

And what more need we say? Our home churches and Sabbath-schools need live workers everywhere. Time is short, and what is to be done must be done quickly. We expect much from the week of prayer. By taking time for self-examination, prayer, and meditation, we hope to be enabled to appreciate the time we live in, and its great wants, and from this time on to act a part which will meet the mind of the Spirit of God.

Oh for a deeper draught from the Living Fountain, that our empty souls may know something of the divine fullness,—for a living connection with the divine Saviour, that it may be manifest that we have been with Jesus and learned of him; that this dead formality which many of us have lived in, may give place to activity, that the living power of the truth may be manifest in us. Then there will be a marked change in our attitude, and the power of God will be manifest among his people; our works will correspond with our profession, and our faith will be a living reality. Then prosperity will attend our work at home and abroad as never before.

May the great Head of the church grant it for Christ's sake.

O. A. OLSEN.