OPPORTUNITY IN MISSION WORK.
We are living in the last days. Writing to the Christians of this time, whether he knew it or not, the apostle Paul said, “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” Again he points out the duty of “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The Revision has, “Knowing the season,” special time; and the margin of Eph. 5: 16 is, “Buying up the opportunity.” And now is the time for God’s people to drop the old, antiquated methods of a worldly Christianity, and buy up the opportunities which God’s providence is placing before them. Upon this matter of opportunity, Bishop Thoburn, of the M. E. Church, writing from Manila, under date of April 14, to the Christian Advocate, says:— Indeed one-half the secret of success in doing God’s work is to learn how to recognize and interpret opportunities. Opportunity, in fact, is one of God’s messengers, and while it is easy for us to be mistaken, and while, no doubt, the best of us are prone to put our own interpretation upon events which are less opportune than they seem, yet, on the other hand, we are still more prone to neglect to study the events which God puts plainly before our eyes. Jesus taught His disciples that it was the duty of those who had eyes, to use them for the purpose of seeing. It is much to be feared that the modern church of Christ has not given due heed to this most important lesson. A panorama of great events is passing before the Christian world to-day, and yet millions upon millions who have the overwhelming spectacle in full view before their very eyes seem unconscious of the mighty march. They hear all manner of sounds around them, and yet the tread of the passing millions or myriads seems to fall upon ears that are wholly deaf to unaccustomed sounds. Would to God that all who bear the name of Jesus Christ would rouse themselves from sleep, or from the state of semi-lethargy, which is often more fatal than sleep, and use both the power of seeing and hearing which God has given them, by giving due heed to the startling lessons which He is setting before them.