Leadings of the Spirit in Missionary Work.
By W. H. Ernst
THE missionary should be a man who is led by the divine Spirit. There is always danger that the work of reformation as conducted even by the ministers of the gospel, may be carried on too much from a human standpoint instead of the divine. We may mistake an outward reformation for an inward change of heart. It appears to me that if this age is retrograding in any respect it is with reference to this idea, that human agencies are too far supplanting the divine. The minister does not seem to have the faith in the power of the Spirit to convince of sin and to sanctify the heart, that his predecessors had. We depend more in training and moral reformation than they. The reformation that this age needs is to return to that pristine habit and doctrine of being directed by the Holy Spirit more than we are, and of depending upon that direction. Paul's life singularly illustrates this important thought. Perhaps no man in the Christian dispensation has been more favored in this respect than he. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he dwells on this thought to some length. According to the common interpretation, he even says, "he was caught up to the third heaven" and "into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." While his writings are largely filled with thoughts of a similar import, we desire to speak of only one, familiar to all our Sabbath-school scholars. In his second missionary journey, Paul was especially directed in a very important matter. He had been working in the small villages around his home, Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. He traveled through the neighboring provinces of Phrygia and Galatia and seemed inclined to continue that plan of work. He was intending to preach in Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade his carrying out that intention. The same was repeated in regard to Bithynia. The Spirit afterwards told him plainly enough that he should go into Europe, which he immediately obeyed. Ever after that his ideas of his work were greatly enlarged. I do not think that we are told of his ever again going into a small place to introduce the gospel. He only visited the great centers of thought and government. This enlargement of plan was doubtless owing to the leadings of the Divine Spirit upon his mind. There is so much in his history and writings to confirm this thought that no one conversant with them will deny it. What therefore was so necessary and at the same time so important and beneficial to him, must be valuable to us. We cannot admit that all this directing power which so assisted him was purely apostolic and was withdrawn at the death of the apostles. I believe that God designs now to lead those who will place themselves in the proper relation to him as certainly as he ever did. Such a course would add great power to us and efficiency to our work.—W. H. Ernst, in Sabbath Recorder.