The Marks of God's Hand in Missions.
By Arthur T. Pierson
THE progress of missionary advance has been supernaturally rapid. In the Hawaiian Isles, in five years, results were reached that mere human power could never have compassed; and ordinary Christian activity would have been fitly rewarded, if such results had crowned the work of fifty years. The unique triumphs of the gospel among the Karens were like the strides of a giant with his "seven-league" boots, in comparison with the common rate of progress. As to Japan, President Seelye, at the meeting of the American Board, at Syracuse, calmly affirmed in 1879, and it was confirmed by that immense assembly, that "never before has the gospel wrought such great and speedy changes as during the past seven years in Japan. It is not only the most remarkable chapter in the history of modern missions, but there is nothing in the history of the world to compare with it. We talk about the early triumphs of Christianity; but the early records of the church, bright as they may be, pale in the light of what is taking place before our eyes at the present time. Even Madagascar offers nothing to compare with Japan." Africa was for thousands of years emphatically the dark continent. Yet so rapidly is missionary exploration going forward that our maps of yesterday are scarce accurate to-day, and will be obsolete to-morrow. At Harpoot, on the Euphrates, we find one little mission church multiplying itself into fourteen, with 418 church members, eleven native pastors, more than half of them supported by these native churches, twelve licensed native preachers, twenty-one native teachers, and forty-one other helpers. Of pupils, 2,041; and scores of unpaid laborers are continually going forth to tell the wonderful story of Christ, under the inward impulse of love for souls. The people are very poor, yet so liberal that the faithfully paid tithes of ten converted families enable their native pastors to live on a level with their people. And all this the outgrowth of a single church, in a single missionary station, in less than twelve years, at a cost not exceeding in all $150,000—the cost of one modern church edifice. Yes, these little churches on the Euphrates, gathered from native converts in Eastern Turkey, are, perhaps, the best illustrations in modern times of the three great principles of church life: "self-government, self-support, and self-propagation." Study the career of San Quala, the converted Karen, the first baptized by Dr. Judson, who preached his first sermon in the hearing of Quala. Baptized in 1830, his first thought was to tell others of Jesus. He aided in translating the New Testament into the Karen tongue, for fifteen years guided the missionaries through the jungles of Tavoy and Mergui, and planted new churches. He himself began to preach and organize churches in January, 1854. Before the close of that year, he had formed nine churches, with 741 converts. In less than three years the nine churches had grown to thirty, and the converts to 2,127. He did his work in the spirit of Paul, and like him, without salary. Offered a position by the English Government as overseer of a wild tribe of mountain Karens, this apostolic convert nobly replied, "I cannot do it—I will not have the money. I will not mix up God's work with Government work. There are others to do this thing, employ them. As for me, I will continue the work in which I have been engaged." At this very time his poverty was such that he was compelled to leave his lovely wife at Tavoy, and take up his lonely pilgrimage among his people. All motives appealed to, that touch greed or ease, failed to move him; and he still went on, eating his bread with the children of poverty, that he might the better win to Christ. One such man is an unanswerable proof that the supernatural element is not eliminated either from modern conversion or labor. "Just here," says Dr. Anderson, "is the grand defect in the practical Christianity of our age. It responds not as it should do to the calls of God's providence." And this, with the culpable ignorance prevailing as to the facts, and the awful skepticism that abounds as to the lost estate of the heathen, is sufficient to make God the foe of his own people, but for the infinite riches of his forbearance. The voice of the Lord is heard out of the midst of the cloud: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." And while this voice peals in our ears, as with tones of thunder, behold, a way is opened by divine power, as through the very midst of the sea! It is for us individually to obey. This matter is a personal summons to every disciple. We must not lose ourselves in the mass, nor hide behind that vague abstraction, the church. Every one of us must give account of himself unto God. We must die alone; and alone confront the open books of God. You and I must simply move, whoever else stands still, and move in the direction of divine leading. In the secret place of prayer, in the thick darkness, where God dwells, in the silence, solitude, seclusion, secrecy of the closet, we must ask in candor, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Let the localized light of the Shekinah in all its intensity shine upon us, piercing and dissolving all the veils behind which we hide, and disguise even from ourselves our true motives and ambitions. And let that light search and smite us; it shall be a kindness, as the anointing chrism of excellent oil that shall not break our head. No man is fit to preach the gospel till, like Saul, he is separated unto God for the work unto which God has chosen him. He who is not ready to go wherever God sends him, is really sent nowhere. His commission is not put in his hands until he waits, with bowed head and humble heart, to be kept at home or carried far hence unto the Gentiles.—Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., in Christian at Work.