"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28:19. It has been said that "God's commands are His enablings." It can be said with equal truth that His commands are also His sure promises. God does not command impossible things. He does not despatch His messengers on a fool's errand, to wander here and there in quest of they know not what. He commands them to go with a definite purpose in view,—to teach all nations the Gospel of Christ, baptizing those who believe. His command to go is a sure promise that some from among all nations will hear and believe, else why should He send messengers to them?
A companion text to the one quoted from Matthew is as follows: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. 55:10, 11. There is no place in the world inhabited by man, so dark and remote that the light can not penetrate to it. There is no tribe or kindred so fettered by the chains of sin, that they can not hear, accept, and go free; no race or tongue so steeped in ignorance or superstition, that they can not walk in the light and reason of God's love.
Found Wanting
India might well be called God's most incorrigible child, the darkest moral spot on the face of creation. Religious and social conditions are blended in such a manner in the lives of all her people as to make them well-nigh insensible to a need of anything better. Yet the Word of God, which carries with it a mysterious power, is cutting its way through the barriers of opposition and heathenism that occupy the hearts and minds of millions. India's greatest need is the teaching of the pure Word of God, free from all the traditions and philosophy of men. For thousands of years India has sought to her sages and philosophers for light and wisdom to lead them in the "better way," but they have been disappointed. Her gods, which are no purer nor wiser than the weakest among themselves, have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Surely we shall bring nothing to the credit of the Gospel or the enlightenment of the people by preaching the vagaries of human tradition.
The Stupendous Task
India has a population approximating three hundred millions, or more than four times the population of the United States. If this vast multitude spoke one language and held one religious faith, the task of reaching them with the Gospel would be a gigantic one.
Tamil School-teachers and Medical Helpers
But when we consider that among these millions are spoken one hundred forty-seven distinct languages, twenty-three of which are spoken by over a million each, and that this babel of voices profess eight systems of religion, each wholly different from the other, hopelessly at war among themselves, and all bitterly opposed to Christianity, it will be seen that the task surpasses all human conceptions. Then we must remember that ninety-five per cent of the population live in the plains where climatic conditions are almost unbearable for eight months in the year, and where one is constantly subject to the ravages of plague, cholera, smallpox, and fevers.
Reader, can you realize that every time your watch ticks off a minute twenty souls have closed their earthly career? Can you realize that in one short month eight hundred thousand souls pass beyond the hearing of the Gospel? Are you sensible of what it means for more people than live in the States of Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas, to pass every year into eternity without light and without a Saviour? These things actually happen every year in India.
A Group of School Children Seated on the Tennis Court
"O," you say, "human life is of little value over there among so many heathen." Of little value indeed to the adversary of souls, but of untold value to Him who came to seek and save the lost. Does Christ take note of us, and not of these? Does He count the very hairs of our head, and leave their lives unnumbered? Does He have regard for the flitting, thoughtless sparrow, and notice not those who were made in His own image? Ah, no; Christ came to seek and save just such as these. It was their need that brought the Son of God down from heaven. The joy and riches of heaven were poured out in a crimson stream that those who sit in darkness in these far-off lands might share in the blessings of eternal life.
A Fruit-Bearing Seed
The apostle Paul bears record in his epistle to the Colossians that in the early days of Christian teaching the Gospel "was preached to every creature which is under heaven." Col. 1:23. This is a remarkable statement, but there is another still more remarkable one in the same chapter; one that should send a thrill of energy and courage to every toil-worn missionary in the dark places of the earth to-day. Here it is: "For the hope . . . of the Gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Col. 1:5, 6. Wherever the Word of God is preached, even to the ends of the earth, it will bring15forth fruit. It was so in the beginning of the Gospel. It will be so in these last days, when the final message of God's truth is carried to all nations. Hearts will respond, the shackles of superstition and sin will be riven, and souls will be converted. These statements are not intended to be prophetic in nature. Even now we see fruit appearing in all parts of this land. God's everlasting message is finding its way among the many tongues, separating the wheat from the chaff, and gathering out a people prepared to meet the Lord. What we have already seen is only the beginning of what is to follow when we throw ourselves wholly upon God's arm of strength and trust in His wisdom and keeping power.
