QUALIFICATIONS FOR MISSIONARY SERVICE.
[Condensed from Missionary Review of the World, by a Missionary.] 1. A MISSIONARY should have a vivid sense of the power of Satan over men. In undertaking aggressive work we must know the power of the enemy. To underrate our foe is to invite disaster. A missionary to Mohammedans should know that Islam is not a decrepit and tottering system, but an organized force in the Eastern World, united, fanatical, aggressive, and hostile to Christianity. A missionary to China or Japan should understand that Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Shintoism have preoccupied the moral fortresses of those empires, and will not surrender in a day. 2. A missionary, above all other men, should believe in the supreme power, the omnipotent sway, of Jesus Christ, the great Head of the church; that He who gave the great command, 'Go teach all nations,' has all power in heaven and in earth. Christ has all power, and He is ready to use it. 'According to your faith be it unto you.' Every Christian missionary should believe with all his soul and mind and heart, that Omnipotence is armed on the side of the Gospel, and that Satan's empire is to be overthrown. He will not be deceived by the subtle philosophies of Oriental religions or their hoary antiquity, or overawed by the countless millions of Asiatic and African populations. 3. A missionary should be able to speak from the experience of the love of Christ for him personally. There is no eloquence like that inspired by the experience of divine love. Let no man, at home or abroad, enter upon the work of saving men, unless he has known by experience the power of divine love. If a missionary has felt in his own soul the power of Christ over Satan in giving the victory over self and sin, he can confidently preach the Gospel as the 'power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,' high or low, rich or poor, civilized or savage. 4. A missionary must have a sense of men's lost estate without Christ. If we would sincerely preach Christ as the only Saviour, we must believe that men need Him, and are lost without Him; not simply unfortunate, but lost. 5. A missionary should be familiar with the language and the people. A knowledge of the language is the first need of the missionary. Without it he is helpless. Diversity of language is an immense barrier between races of men. But the missionary must break down this barrier. To preach through an interpreter is to rob the message of a great part of its power, to say nothing of the danger of perversion and misrepresentation of truth. The missionary must identify himself with the people,—use their idioms, their common speech, their proverbs, know their national prejudices, so as not to offend and alienate them, and without a knowledge of their language, this will be impossible. 6. A missionary should have sympathy with the people. He should live near their life. As soon as possible he should train native teachers, who ought to be by far the most effective laborers for their people. An Arab proverb says: 'The handle of the ax which cuts down the tree is made from a limb of the tree.' An American missionary, while proud of his native land, must remember that he is first a Christian, and that the commonwealth of Christian love is wider than any nationality. His foreign habits and ways are more an obstacle than a help to his work, and any assumption of his superiority will repel those whom he came to win to the truth. 7. A missionary should have a personal call to the work. Can we now be sure of such a call? A call by Christ to follow Him is a call to service. The foreign missionary work is a part of Christ's13work. If you are fitted for it, and there are no providential obstacles in the way of your going, then Christ calls you to it. We need not wait for an audible voice. The cry of a nation for help is an indication as to what Christ wants us to do. All the providential openings among the nations are echoes of the voice of Christ. We are called to take the message or send it by a substitute.