MISSIONS AND THE ADVENT
By A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
It was a saying of Immanuel Kant that every man
propose to himself three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? and for what I may
hope? All action is the result of incentives; and
the more numerous and powerful the incentives, the more prompt and energetic
the activity. Hope is, therefore, the
greatest motor of human life; it is the very sculptor of character and conduct;
the architect of history and destiny.
Hope is so connected with happiness that its perfect crown is heaven;
and Dante was not less philosopher than poet when he wrote over the gates of
the Inferno, “Abandon
hope, all ye who enter here!”
The Blessed Hope of our Lord’s Return was, no doubt, the foremost of all motives,
hopes and incentives which moved early disciples to zeal and activity in
missions; and to revive this hope - to make it practically a mighty motor to us
that it was to them, is to provide a new impulse and impetus in the work of a
world’s evangelization. Hope is the one
impulse that never loses its youth, and, above all, this hope. On the contrary, so soon as we lose sight of the Advent’s imminence and say:- “My
Lord delayeth His coming,” we are tempted to indolence,
self-indulgence, and controversy on minor matters. When disciples felt the time to be short and
the duty to be urgent, they were “all at it and always at it”; self-denial was an
easy yoke and petty jealousies were scorned as trifles. So soon and so long as that hope was dim, and
Christ’s coming [and Kingdom Age] was pushed into the far-off future, the Church
began leisurely working, then flippantly playing at missions, as though vast circles
of time lay before us in which to witness to the world. Revive this hope of the Lord’s Coming and it begets hourly watching, ceaseless
praying, tireless toiling, patient waiting.
The
Scriptures warrant no expectation of the world’s conversion in this [evil] age of
witness; so far as we look for such result we
work on the wrong basis, and
will either be disappointed or deceived in the outcome. The soldier who misconceives the object of a
campaign, may falsely construe all the movements of the army. If he thinks the whole force of the foe is to
be captured, the seizure of a few leading strongholds seems only next to
absolute defeat. But, if he knows that
this is exactly according to orders from headquarters, and that the plan of his
great commander is thus carried out, seizing and holding certain strategic
points, and waiting for him to arrive with reinforcements, what would otherwise
have seemed defeat, now becomes success.
The
Since Jesus of Nazareth, through the rent veil of
His flesh and the rent door of His tomb, opened to every believer the path of
life, nineteen centuries have gone by, during which a vast number of souls,
equal to twenty times the present population of the globe, have gone down to
the grave, ignorant of Christ. Isaac Taylor once attempted a catalogue of
the great social evils:‑ polygamy, legalized prostitution and capricious
divorce, bloody and brutal games, rapacious and offensive wars, death and
punishment by torture, infanticide, caste and slavery. From all lands where the Cross has been set up
and the gospel faithfully preached, these owls of the midnight flee before the
new dawn.
The war is God’s, but it needs money and materiel. Brave
Captain Gardiner, at Tierra del
Fuego, led a little band of seven against Satan’s seat in
One of the most venerated missionaries, Dr. H. N. Barnum, once gave an account
of fourteen years of labour, in preaching, establishing stations, training a
native ministry, and carrying on all the work of evangelization and education
over a wide territory. The question was
asked:‑ “At what cost was all this done?”
And the answer was - for a sum less than
the cost of the church building in which he was then speaking - an edifice
worth probably £30,000! Fourteen years
of such wide-reaching work at an average cost per year of somewhat over £2,000!
Is it strange that the soldier of Christ endures
hardness, fights the good fight of faith, carries the Cross at all risks to
plant it on Satan’s strongholds, while he is looking daily for the coming of
the Captain of his salvation, and knows not how soon he may lay down his
warrior’s armour for the crown of victory? Paul
forgot all his losses in such gains - and counted all but refuse, for the sake of
the [select] resurrection
hope.* Fellowship with Christ in suffering brings fellowship
in glory; and to die with Him as a malefactor is to be exalted with Him as a
benefactor.
With many disciples, the eyes are yet
blinded to this mystery of rewards, which is one of the open mysteries of the
Word, and some cannot see how rewards can have any place in an economy of
grace. But we must not confound [eternal] salvation
and recompense. It must be an imputed
righteousness - exceeding far that of the most proper Pharisee - whereby we enter [‘the race’ (1 Cor.
9: 24; Heb. 12: 1, 16, 17)]; but having
thus entered by faith, our works
[will] determine
our relative rank, place, reward, [inheritance,
and entrance into the millennial kingdom of Messiah, (Matt. 5: 20; Col. 3:
24; Eph. 5: 5, 6).]
[* See, Phil. 3: 11; Acts 20: 24; 21: 13.]
More than twenty-five years ago a missionary, after
seventeen years of work on the foreign field, lay on his deathbed. Suddenly arousing himself, with great
emphasis, he said “I have a testimony to give, and
would best give it now. Tell the Christian young men that the
responsibility of saving the world rests on them; not on the old men, but on the
young. It is past time for holding back
and waiting for providences. I used to
think that a missionary ought to husband his strength; but this is a crisis in
the world’s history, and one man by keeping back may keep back others. Reason is profitable to direct, but the man
that rushes to duty is faithful. There
are times when rashness is the rule and caution the exception. I look upon the Church as a military company:
an army of conquest, not of occupation.”
While that dying missionary was leaving behind his
last legacy in a message to young men, there was at Princeton, New Jersey,
another missionary, returned after thirty years’ service in India, who was
gathering in his own house, from time to time, a few younger brethren, to urge
on them the same deep conviction - that on
them God had laid the burden of beginning a new missionary crusade. He put before them the map of the world,
pressed the need of an organized movement among young men to enter the regions
beyond; and, while he left them to consider and confer, he withdrew into a
neighbouring room to pray. To those
prayers we may trace a movement so mighty that in twenty-five years it enrolled
on its missionary covenant more than eight thousand young men and women.
The golden chalice which is filling is God’s
purpose; its flood is man’s opportunity. And whenever God’s full time comes, the angel
whose stride spans sea and land declares:- “There shall
no longer be DELAY!” Then, or never, we fall into line with God’s
movement. His times and tides wait for
no man. Swiftly His plan sweeps on to its goal, leaving behind the sluggard and
the idler. Ye watchers, be ready, and
when the full hour is come for the work
and war of the ages, stand in your lot and be not found faithless.
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