p. 12 | The Power of Missions

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 12, 1908

The Power of Missions

JUST before His ascension from earth at the close of the work of His first advent, the Master made an appointment with His eleven disciples to meet them on a mountain. And the record says that, "Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28: 18-20.

These eleven disciples represented a large part of the visible results of the Saviour's work while upon earth. And, humanly speaking, it would seem that He was placing a very great task before a very small and very uninfluential company of men. He meets them and tells them to go into all nations and make disciples, and baptize them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Not Sent in Weakness

But He does not send them in the weakness of humanity to do this great work. He tells them that "all authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth," and then He adds, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." All the mighty power that is in the Son of God is right with the disciple of Christ. For does not this word say that "I [Christ] am with you"? And does it not say still further that I am with you "always"? He is "with" His follower, and He is with him all the time. Not alone was He with the disciples to whom He addressed those words in person with audible voice on the mountain; but He is with every believer "always, even unto the end of the world."

Then every one who believes in Christ has the Master with him at all times and everywhere, no matter in what age of the world he may live. And to have the great Teacher with us means to have all the authority of heaven and earth exercised by the divine hand thru His devoted believer in making disciples for Him.

The Mighty Work Accounted for.

It is this power that Christ Himself exerts thru His followers that accounts for the mighty work that has been done in carrying the Gospel into all lands in all parts of the world. The missionaries for the cross of Christ are just ordinary persons so far as their general appearance and attainments are concerned. They are not above the average in mental endowments. As you would meet them in the ordinary course of business or social life you would not notice anything striking or remarkable about them. And yet these same missionaries will leave all the pleasant surroundings and endearments of home and native land and go into the most uninviting parts of distant and heathen countries to plant the truth of the cross. The people that these missionaries have to associate with are not only uncongenial, but often are decidedly hostile. The missionary's life is in constant danger. But regardless of all these seemingly insuperable hindrances, the missionary goes right on with his work, and these hostile, superstitious, benighted people are won to the life of the Christ.

There is only one way in which to account for all this. It requires a mighty power in the first place to lift the man or woman into the position where they will have the unconquerable and uncontrollable desire to leave behind all that men of this world hold dear in order to go to these dark lands to reclaim and elevate the hostile votaries of the heathen shrines. And in the second place it requires a mighty power to keep men and women devotedly engaged in their work in foreign missions when there is so much to discourage them.

When any one stops to really consider this subject he must be overwhelmingly convinced that nothing short of the mighty power of the personal presence of Christ thru His Spirit could accomplish such a miraculous work. No miracle could be greater than for a power to take hold of men and cause them to make a complete sacrifice of this life in order to help degraded, uncompanionable, uninviting, and hostile heathen tribes to learn of and accept the desirable Christ-life. If any one is looking for present-day miracles, let him turn his attention to the vast army of men and women who have gone into these inhospitable lands to spend their remaining days in the service of Christ. Think you that they could have endured such things unless the mighty Saviour had been with them to encourage, enthuse, and strengthen them?

During the Last Hundred Years.

There has been a mighty work done in the missionary field during the last hundred years. Every continent, every inhabited island, and every nation and tribe in these continents and islands have been sought out and labored for by the consecrated representatives of the cross of Christ. The missionary has gone to foreign lands to spend his whole life. He has broken everything that binds him to his home land and gone into the field to stay. The soldier goes into the army, always with the possibility that he may be killed, but there is also the hope that after the war is over he may return to his home and to greater honors and joys than if he had not enlisted. But the missionary gives up the thought of ever reaching his home and native land again. He gives himself a living sacrifice to the cause of God. Nothing but the mighty miracle of the grace of God acting on the heart could ever accomplish such results. Do you ask for some of the evidences of the power of Christianity? Then look at the army of missionaries who have actually given themselves for life-service to the Master in the hostile and disease-infected regions of the benighted lands of earth.

Love of Home Does Not Deter Him.

The missionary has the same love for home and kindred that others have. Indeed, it may be said that he has even a keener love for his home folks than is possessed by the ordinary individual. But all this is given up as a constant daily sacrifice in order that the sacred duties of giving the Gospel to all the world may be performed.

The last century has seen a mighty forward movement in missions; but we have entered a time when a much mightier work will be seen. We have come to that time in the world's history when the prophecies all declare that the "Gospel of the kingdom" of Christ shall be given in all the world for a witness. The soul-possessing thought is taking hold of a great army of men that this mighty work will have to be done in this generation in which we now live. The prophecies all show that the end of time is at hand, and they also tell of the work of making this good news of the second coming of Christ known in all the world. The great work of the missionaries during the past century is the development of God's plan so that His message of the soon-coming Christ can be given in all the world in a brief space of time. God has worked with mighty power in former days, but the days upon which we are entering will witness the greatest work that has ever been seen.

Some Will Not Recognize It.

There were multitudes of men living in the time when Christ was on earth in person who did not recognize the work that the great Teacher did. Altho He spake as never man spake, and worked the mighty works of God as man had never done or seen, yet the multitude failed to see or sense this, and so did not reap the reward that was offered them. Many men will make the same mistake in this time. How will it be with you? T.