“DO you see those women coming along the road? They require medicine, and will receive it at three o’clock. Meanwhile they will hear the gospel. Of course, if their cases were serious I would attend to them at once; but I am not here merely to dispense medicine but to preach the glad tidings.”
The above words were addressed to me as I was leaving a mission hospital in a wealthy city of the province of Kiangsu, China. It was then about a quarter to one o’clock, so the women would hear in a conversational way a good deal of the gospel story before they left the hospital precincts, and as I bade farewell to the doctor I was much cheered by his remark. He had the welfare of souls at heart, and was being honored in his service for the Lord as he thus day by day testified for Him while ministering to the bodily needs of those poor Chinese women. What a privilege it is to be a co-worker with the Lord Himself as He is gathering out from the heathen His own sheep! I felt that this doctor was to be envied. But cannot we, too, share in the joy of this work which lies so close to the heart of the Lord? Are we in the home countries to be shut off from all participation in missionary effort? Surely not. There is a vast field for each one of us; our prayers, our pens; our pence may all be used to link us up with the work. It may be that the Lord wants our lives, but if we have not heard His call in this direction, there is plenty of opportunity for true service apart from our presence on the mission field.
Our Prayers. ― “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Again and again as I have said “Good-bye” to one and another who have gone forth as the Lord’s laborers in His harvest, they have said, “We shall value your prayers.” A letter from Huangchow, Hupeh, now lying before me, reads thus: “Please do not forget our work in this land. I hope you will pray for us.”
The many servants of the Lord on foreign fields are counting upon our prayers. They know their value! Are we withholding what might prove such a blessing to them and to others through them by our lack of intercession? May the Lord awaken us to a sense of our responsibility and privilege in this direction. Prayer for the workers in their isolation; prayer for the native believers who are seeking to tell their own countrymen of the unsearchable riches of Christ; prayer for the young converts who find such forces of evil against them; prayer that the faith of the Lord’s servants may not waver when one and another “inquirer” turns back, or when persecution effects a covering of the light of some feeble believer. Brethren, let us pray.
Our Pens. ― Here is a field for many. Do you know a worker in the foreign field? Send him a letter; get in touch thus with his work. Learn the details so that you will be able to enter into his joys and his trials. It will add greatly to the definiteness of your prayers, but more than this, it will greatly cheer the worker. “Good news from a far country” ―a refreshing draft! From letters received from abroad, I can testify to the cheer which missionaries have acknowledged as having received through letters of interest in their work.
“But I know no one to whom I could write.” Is this your reply? Thousands of the Lord’s servants in the forefront of the battle, you abiding by the stuff, part and parcel of the army, and yet you know none of those in the thick of the fight! Surely something is wrong? Let us make inquiries and get in touch with some one, although perhaps unknown to us personally.
If we have spare time I am convinced there is a sphere for co-workers here.
Our Pence. ― May the Lord exercise our hearts as to the manner in which we are spending our pence. I was astounded upon making inquiries as to the amount subscribed in a large center for the Lord’s work in a country where there are many with whom we are in happy fellowship. The sum was ludicrously small, and one smiled involuntarily though filled with shame.
Are we giving a tenth of our income to the Lord? But we are not under law. True, under grace; but would that lead us to give more or less? “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.”
It may be that once a quarter there is a collection for brothers laboring at home and abroad. We give such spare sum as we may have during that week perhaps, but how about the preceding twelve weeks of the quarter? Have we been laying up week by week? Thirteen weekly portions usually amount to more than one quarterly sum. Paul suggests putting aside a weekly sum.
I would not offer “unto the Lord my God that which loth cost me nothing.” What the Lord has given to us cost Him much.
“Ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor that ye through His poverty might be rich.”
How much shall I give―a tenth, or more, or less? Let each answer for himself before the Lord as he contemplates the grace of Him who gave Himself for us.
“He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
Our own spiritual interests are at stake.
“If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is Another’s, who shall give you that which is your own?”
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Lord of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
G. R. R.