GOD'S WAY IN THE MISSION FIELDS.
WE are too apt to assume that the rate at which we travel and erect buildings and make fortunes must have its counterpart in the work of missions, and hence the impatience for immediate results. 'Architects and builders adjust their work to the temper of the day, but the Eternal Workman heeds not the varying moods and fashions of His creatures, but in spite of the demand for rapid production is at this hour as slow and sure in His work as at any past time in His history.' Does the sun shine any different from what it did in Adam's day? Do the trees of the forest grow any faster than in Solomon's time? Do the tides ebb and flow with more rapidity than when Alexander beheld them on the shores of India? When the church realizes that the evangelization of the whole world is the task committed to her, and enters upon this work with the consecrated zeal and unflinching energy which characterized the early church, then will the day of India's redemption be hastened, and it will be found that the success which has hitherto been attained is only the first-fruits of the harvest that is in store for us. Yes, the harvest time is coming—such a harvest as has not yet been dreamed of—when the Lord Himself 'shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.'—Selected. [And yet the Word teaches that there will come a time when the Lord's work will go with a power and a rapidity that we have not expected. With a short work and a swift work will the Gospel message close.]