The Missionary’s True Purpose
It is a sad mistake for a missionary to go to any heathen land representing himself as "from England," or "from America," and labor to introduce the "Christian civilization" of these lands among the heathen. The next thing the native will see will be a ship-load of rum or muskets from the same "Christian nation." No missionary should seek or claim his credentials from any government on earth, however it may be named. His citizenship is in heaven. He is, if he be a true missionary, Christ's ambassador, sent forth to reconcile men to God, to bear God's message of reconciliation and life to men. He is sent for the purpose of saving men, not civilizing them. All that will come as a matter of course; but that is not the object, even secondarily, of the missionary. His business is to bring men to God, to implant within them the seed of the kingdom of God, to show to every lost soul that there is no hope in this world, but to any lost soul there is eternal hope in Jesus Christ. Then when "Christian England" sends forth her traffickers in opium, and "Christian America" sends forth her dealers in rum, the Christian missionary may declare to the perplexed natives that these men need Christ as truly as any pagan.