HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
THE church that would measure up to the standard of the divine Master must be a missionary church. It must go out to seek and to save the lost. That was the mission of our Lord into this world, and into the hands of His followers has been entrusted the continuation of this great work. We may find a field of labor at the very doors of the church, and a large and inviting one it truly is. The harvest it presents is great, and not every one is willing to work in it. We should, therefore, earnestly pray that the Lord of the vineyard may provide laborers for the harvest, and that He may fit us and make us worthy to be co-laborers with Him in the ingathering work. Every member of the church should be a missionary for Christ. He, above all others, should be able to appreciate the blessings of salvation. He has realized the horrors of the pit from whence he was taken; he can understand, in some degree, the value of a soul, and he can not but feel the weight of obligations resting upon him through the mercies of God of which he is the continual recipient, to make whatever return may lie in his power. In the home field he finds everything ready to his hand. It needs no long study of a foreign tongue, no acquisition of new and strange habits and customs and modes of thought and speech. He only needs a heart filled with the love of souls, and quickened by the grace of Christ. Let him go to the Master in prayer, seeking for these, and his work will be both easy and successful. He who, in addition to himself, thus becomes13instrumental in the conversion of but one soul, doubles his effectiveness in the great work of the salvation of the world, and he may go on to multiply it indefinitely. We believe that there is at this time a special call to this work. Let us pray for a larger spirit of tolerance for ourselves, and for that spirit of gentleness and tenderness toward the doubter and the questioner which, in the end, is sure to gain the victory. Let us not be discouraged if at times we seem to fail. The kingdom of heaven in the heart has been likened to a mustard seed, the smallest among seeds, but it grows to be a tree, and to mature its fruit. The Christian's work may show but small results, perhaps even none at all. But he is not to concern himself about that, however gratifying it might be. His share is to work, to sow the good seed, and to leave the results to God.—Selected.