The Gospel in the World
Table of Contents
The Mission, the Missionary, and the Field
The field is the world. Into this world God sent His Son on this great mission, “For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world,” and again, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Our blessed Lord then was the great Missionary, or Sent One. More than forty times in the Gospel of John He is so called. He brought the knowledge of the love of God into this world; and in His death the glory of God’s love has been manifested here, that men might be supremely blest.
Before our Lord’s time God sent forth many servants (Matt. 21:34-36), but these were manifestly sent to the house of Israel; for only in a very minor way did the prophets speak to the Gentiles, who were left in ignorance; and the times of this ignorance God winked at, though now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Indeed our Lord Himself came in the first place to Israel only (Matt. 15:24); but He could not be restrained, and the more His rejection by Israel came out, the more widely His divine compassions became manifest, and He taught by act and parable that His mission was to the whole world (Matt. 8, 11, 13, see the parables thereof; John 4:34-38).
We read in several places in the gospels of the twelve being sent out by Him to preach and to heal, and also of seventy being sent out for the same purpose; and all this was evidently in view of what they were to do after His death. Therefore in each gospel we get the great commission, or mission, of His disciples set forth each in its own distinct way, showing that the whole world was to be in the scope of the gospel. The last words of our Lord before He was taken up into heaven were, “Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
If it be replied that some of these commissions at the end of the different gospels have a dispensational bearing, and are not applicable to us, the answer is “Not so!” A dispensational bearing they unquestionably have, but not so as to exclude a present application also; and if we miss the present bearing of Scripture, we shall be great losers. A study of the quotations from the Old Testament in the New will prove that very few quotations are made to skew their exact dispensational fulfillment, but almost always it is a present application which is pressed. Moreover, whatever may be said as to the dispensational character of the commission in Matthew’s Gospel, there can be no question that the words of the Lord in Luke bear altogether on this day (24:47).
The great mission that the Lord gave to His disciples may be stated in His own words, thus: “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world (John 17:18); and “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). To be in the world as He was in it, and to make Him known, is therefore their mission throughout the length and breadth of it; and the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven to be in them the power for this most blessed service.
Strange to say, an argument often used in the present day is that “the times of the heathen Gentiles have not yet come: and therefore they should be left in ignorance.” The pitifulness of this astounding statement is exceedingly great, seeing that they who use it are themselves Gentiles, and “the apostle of the Gentiles” is their great apostle (Rom. 11:13). But it only proves how easy it is to fall from the simplest truths of Scripture.
A thought which has long been before us is this: “How has this mission which the Lord gave to His own been carried out, and what is the state of things in the world with regard to it at the present time?”
These are questions which it is very difficult to answer, and which are only capable of imperfect answers at best; yet it may not be without interest to seek to get some little knowledge of the subject. If a friend comes from some other town or country, we are glad to hear from him something about the Lord’s work in that town or country. We do not say, “He cannot give a correct account, he knows not the hearts of men, therefore we will listen to nothing.” No, we listen with eagerness; though we quite understand that much that is said will have to be subsequently corrected at a future day. It is thus with regard to our subject: we desire to understand the matter as well as we can, and any help should be cordially received: hence this feeble attempt to interest our readers.
Feeble the attempt must be for a three-fold reason: 1St, because of the vastness of the subject; 2nd, because of our own lack of knowledge; and 3rd, because in a magazine of this sort we must be very brief. All we can hope to do is to stimulate our readers to look into matters for themselves, and so increase the interest of saints in the whole circle of Christ’s interests; for how, otherwise, are we to fulfill the apostolic injunction to pray for all men (1 Tim. 2:1), and all saints (Eph. 6:18), and how else can we truly and intelligently desire that God’s will may be done on earth even as it is in heaven. Surely nothing should be allowed to rob us of this longing.
We must remember that the outward, responsible history of any movement of God must necessarily be a sad one. Every dispensation ends in failure, every movement of God committed to man begins to deteriorate from that very moment, and continues so to do until God comes in with fresh energy of the Spirit.
Moreover we are plainly taught in the Scriptures that unless we continue to advance, make progress, and conquer, we shall be defeated and enslaved. Compare the Book of Joshua with the Book of Judges, for proof of this; and even the latter part of Joshua is sad reading compared with the former. The twelfth chapter is a list of conquests, the thirteenth begins in a sad strain: Joshua was old, and there remained “yet very much land to be possessed,” and hundreds of years of sad experiences had to be passed through before this land was possessed by a new energy of God manifested in David, a remarkable type of Christ.
The Acts of the Apostles is like the Book of Joshua, and also ends in a different strain to its beginning, concluding in the account of the shipwreck of the twenty-seventh chapter—a parable of what was to follow. The Church’s history on earth since then answers to the Book of Judges, and is a sad history of failure relieved by many interventions of the grace and goodness of God. But though the appalling failure of that which bears the name of Christ might well make us weep, there is no need for despair, for the resources of our God are not exhausted, and Christ fails not.
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Let no man think error in doctrine a slight practical evil: no road to perdition has ever been more thronged than that of false doctrine. Error is a shield over the conscience and a bandage over the eyes.
The Early Centuries After Christ
The Scriptures record for us the great blessing that was given in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, of the thousands of Jews who early embraced the faith of Christ, and the extraordinary unity and love which characterized the first days of the Church of God on earth. We are also told (Acts 10) how that being especially instructed by a vision, the apostle Peter went to the centurion Cornelius, and by preaching the gospel to his household opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, to whom God also granted repentance unto life.
Yet the marvelous brightness of the early dawn did not long continue; failure soon set in within the Church, while from without came fierce persecution. Stephen was martyred, and all were scattered abroad from Jerusalem (except the apostles), and these went everywhere preaching the word. In the meantime, the chief persecutor, Saul, been converted in a miraculous manner, and became Paul, the mighty apostle to the Gentiles, and with marvelous energy he carried the gospel into the western parts of Asia, and into the south eastern portion of Europe. We know also that he was long a prisoner at Rome, and in all probability he also, being let out of prison, visited Spain, after which he was again imprisoned, and finally beheaded. Wherever he went he founded churches, and great grace was upon the work which God gave him to accomplish, while his missionary journeys were extraordinary and his sufferings unsurpassed.
At the time of his death, the faith of Christ had taken a firm hold in many parts of the mighty Roman Empire, and the converts had become conspicuous by their numbers, their zeal and devotion, the purity of their lives and the love they bore one to another. But they were not allowed to rest from persecution; the Jews hated them with the most bitter hatred; the Greeks attacked them with their philosophy and keen satire; while the Romans began the attempt to crush out Christianity in the dire struggle which lasted about two-and-a-half centuries.
Nevertheless in spite of the wonderful amount of purity, love, and zeal, which remained, there were not lacking symptoms to show that deterioration had already set in.
The Apostle Paul had solemnly warned the elders at Ephesus, where some of his best work was done, saying, “After my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them “(Acts 20:29, 30). And in his last epistle, the second to Timothy, it is clear, in spite of the manifest faith and courage of the lion-hearted apostle, that very serious defection had set in. All in his beloved Asia had departed from him, he was left much alone, the word of false teachers was eating like a canker, and Timothy is most solemnly enjoined to faithfulness to the testimony of the Lord, in view of all that was coming to pass, yet the work of the evangelist was not to be neglected.
Looking back, that time seems to us one of wonderful purity, but to the spiritual and prophetic eye of the apostle the germs of all subsequent evils were evident.
The Apostle Peter, who died about the same time as the apostle Paul, also warned his hearers, most solemnly, against the damnable heresies which would come in; while Jude told of the apostasy which would be the culmination of evil.
The Apostle John (the last, we believe, of the apostles to die) was not only sent to banishment at Patmos by the world powers, but was even rejected by the church of which Diotrephes was the leading spirit. This apostle also gives us in Revelation 2-3 the only inspired account of the history — prophetically pictured for our learning in the condition of the seven Churches of Asia — of the responsible church on earth. From that time we have but human records as to the state of affairs in the Church, but these may teach us something.
The era succeeding the times of the apostles, was generally one of dire persecution until the time of Constantine the Great in the fourth century. This epoch would doubtless correspond historically to the epistle to the church in Smyrna (Rev. 2), when the Lord was purifying His people — as silver is refined — by the cruel persecutions they endured. Vast numbers were martyred: The Christians to the lions,’ became the common cry, and many and grievous were the tortures to which they were subjected. Still the faith grew and prospered, the area which was Christianized was extended, and the civilized world was astounded at the vitality which could not be crushed, and which prospered all the more as the persecutions grew fiercer. The attacks made on them drove the Christians to God and to His Word; when there was respite heresies often increased. Even the leading teachers were sometimes not quite sound in the faith, but on the whole, the attacks and persecutions had a most beneficial effect.
There is no doubt that evangelists in this period penetrated to Gaul, England, and many parts of the then known world, but the records of what happened are legendary, and not much is known with certainty about the spread of Christianity in the outlying parts of the empire and outside it, in Parthia, China, India, etc., though we know much of what was going on in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Northern Africa, and the better known portions of the Empire on the shores of the Mediterranean.
During this period the gross and horrible idolatry of Greece and Rome had greatly lost its hold upon the people of the Empire, and there was not anything like the intense veneration we find in the East for the great religious systems there.
Early in the 4th century Constantine became emperor and embraced the Christian faith, though whether he was really a Christian in heart we cannot say. It seems very doubtful. Whether or not, great consequences resulted therefrom; the persecutions ceased, and to be a Christian meant the favor of the world instead of the former hatred and enmity. Naturally, accessions in great numbers took place, and often-times pressure was put upon the heathen to become Christian; as a natural consequence, corruption set in fast, and the question is, did Christianity conquer paganism, or paganism conquer Christianity, adopting the name of the latter while retaining the spirit of the old faiths?
The history of the times is sad reading, nevertheless there were many bright names during this period, i.e., from the early part of the 4th to the early part of the 7th century, and as so often happens the greatest brightness was rather on the outskirts of Christendom, while corruption grew apace in the center.
Parts of England, Scotland and Ireland had been early evangelized, but a great set-back Occurred in England when the Romans left the land, and the Angles and Saxons (fierce idolaters) came in. We know but little of those early days except in legends, but in the period we are now come to we are on firmer ground. Martin of Tours evangelized Gaul in the fourth century, he seems to have been a mighty man of God, albeit rough. About 440, a Briton called Ninian settled in north-west England, and worked round about in England and Scotland. A little later Kentigern carried on apostolic labors in pagan Wales, in Scotland, along the Clyde and in the North of England; and about the same time (6th century) Columba came from the Scots in Ireland to the Scots and Picts north of the Clyde. He and his companions settled in Isle of Iona, and a grand work in the gospel was done by them, and when Columba died in A.D. 597 the Highlands were occupied for Christ. At this time Ireland seems to have been far ahead of England and Scotland in the Christian faith, how far this was due under God to Patrick we cannot say. Some speak of his as a mighty work, and others that the credit was due to other men. God knows.
From Iona the work spread. Aidan went thence to Lindisfarne, and a splendid work was done there as to the evangelization of England, of which more later. From Iona men went out to the Orkneys, the Shetlands, the Faroes, and even to Iceland, braving seas and storms and bearing great hardships.
Before the death of Columba, a namesake of his, called also Columbian, born in Leinster and trained at Ulster, sailed with twelve helpers to the Continent. They settled in the Vosges Mountains, built their wattled homes, felled trees, tilled the land; they copied Bibles and prayed much. Great numbers were converted, and all the north of that country was won for Christ by these and other Irish missionaries. Driven by persecution from France he went to Switzerland, and there he and his faithful Gallus and others were much used, and St. Gall became a missionary center from which much blessing spread, while Columban passed over the Alps, founded another center in Bobbio in the Alps, and pushed on into North Italy where heathen still abounded.
Towards the end of the sixth century Pope Gregory sent Augustine and others on a mission to England. It is often stated that they brought Christianity to the land. This is untrue and in all probability the faith would have been much purer in England had the Roman missionaries never come.
Meanwhile, how had it fared elsewhere? Northern Africa was won to Christ, at all events in name, the great Augustine labored there, living at Carthage, which had previously given many noble martyrs to the cause, but the corruption was also very great. This was the epoch of councils, and of fierce strife among Christians, and idolatry began to pollute the Christian centers.
In Asia the work did not prosper well. The gospel at the beginning was carried far, a church was founded in the extreme south of India in Travancore, early in the Christian era, the legend says, by Thomas the apostle. The gospel knocked at the door of North India in vain, though Hinduism was modified by it, and apparently the story of Rama, who is worshipped by so many in India, is a corrupted form of the story of Christ. The gospel was carried to China, in, alas, a corrupted form, but after some triumphs all died down. No vernacular translation of the Bible seemed to have been given to the people in these parts, and this was doubtless a cause of much failure.
Much of Parthia or Persia was Christianized. Edessa was one center, and Nisibis succeeded it. Babylon was another center. Armenia and Asia Minor were mainly Christian, also Syria and Palestine, with some Christians in Arabia, which was generally idolatrous. Purity, however, was greatly lacking, and at the end of the period we are considering, the state of these Christians in Asia was very bad.
Those generally known as Paulicians seem to have made a bold stand for the truth, and gained many adherents. They seem to have stood mainly for the truth given in Paul’s epistles, whence the name, but all we, know of them is written by their enemies. They were bitterly persecuted, they furnished many noble martyrs, but were eventually wiped out, to the apparent great loss of the Christians in Asia amongst whom they stood for the truth.
Thus at the end of the first period corruption had become great, yet many faithful souls were found, and especially in the outskirts of that which bore the name of Christ.
The Middle Ages - Early in the 7th to Early in the 16th Century
We now come to the Middle Ages, and a time of deepest darkness and apostasies; yet, thank God, during all that time Christ was at the right hand of God and the Spirit here; therefore, as divine Persons never fail, the will of God was being accomplished in His own people all through this period, and the moral features of Christ were being reproduced in their hearts and lives.
The centers were corrupt, the brightest spots were on the outskirts. Rome rose up to her greatness at the beginning of this period, the Pope claiming to be the Vicar of Christ, and to have a triple crown and complete jurisdiction in every way over the world. This was in the west, while in the east there rose up Mohammedanism to be God’s scourge on idolatrous Christendom; for the state of Christendom was terrible.
Mohammedanism rose in Arabia with startling rapidity and power; it quickly conquered Syria and Egypt, and then spread over North Africa, penetrating into Spain and even into France, though driven back from the latter by the conquering sword of Charles Martel. It also spread north and east, and divided Western Christendom, with its center at Rome, from Eastern or Persian Christendom, of which Babylon was at one time the center.
There were times when Eastern Christendom had revivals, and missionaries went out therefrom to the Mongols, the Chinese, the Tartars, and Indians; and at times partial and even considerable successes seemed to be gained. This was especially the case in the time of the Kerait prince generally known as Prester John: handsome stone churches were built far and wide, and in 1250 A.D. the majority of the Turks were Christian, not Mohammedan, and there were more Christians (so-called) in the east than in the west.
But it all came to naught; the form of Christianity there was corrupt, forms and ceremonies occupied its votaries. Vernacular translations of the Bible were practically unknown; and while there doubtless were many true humble followers of Christ, the known leaders were no help, but more often corrupters. Christianity fell in the east, and we cannot wonder at it, for it was not pure. The Chinese expelled it from China. Timur destroyed Bagdad, the then center of Eastern Christendom; and early in the 15th century Christianity as a vital force had gone from the east.
There remained the Syrian Church in Travancore in South India, the Armenians, Nestorians, and others in Asia; the Copts in Egypt; and the Abyssinians in East Africa. All these clung to the truth that Christ is the Son of God and suffered, in consequence, and God will not forget this; but other vitality there seems to have been none, deadness was everywhere, no gospel preached, no going out in the activities of love, but mostly dead forms; though we must not forget that God ever has hidden hearts who know Him in the darkest places.
Deeply humbling it all is, for the power was there in Christ and the Spirit. It is useless to talk of the great power of the Eastern religions. Could they stand before the Lord and the Spirit? No: it is the corruption of the truth that brought all to the ground; God cares not for forms and names. He wants Christ formed in souls in vital power, and nothing less will satisfy: better nothing than the presentation of a false Christ.
Now we turn to the west.
In the center at Rome there was corruption deep and dire, yet even there now and again we see something of God, though more and more suppressed; but in the outskirts the best work was done. From the Celts, Scots, and Franks grand missionaries went forth. From Iona in Scotland and from Lindisfarne in Northumbria and other places noble men arose. Among these may be mentioned Cuthbert in the north of England, and Chad who worked in the Midlands, whose brother became the apostle of Essex; and thus it was from the North that England was mainly evangelized.
The Roman priests, however, were in England at the beginning of this period, seeking to Romanize everything, and in the middle of the 7th century these came into collision with the simple Iona missionaries. The chief point about the dispute was the method of computing Easter; the king sided with the Romans and the simple Christians were driven back, and the Roman agents began to Romanize all England. Still, many noble names are met with, amongst them Wilfred of York who evangelized Sussex; the Venerable Bede and others. But it was not till the beginning of the 11Th century that Canute’s kingdom, including Britain, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, became as a whole Christian (as we speak). The battle was oft strong and dire, but the apparent victory was won at last, but not, alas, without compromise and the sowing of much corrupt seed.
Wulf the Goth, being converted, went to the Goths; an Englishman named Winfred, but better known as Boniface, did great things among the Saxons and Norsemen on the Continent; Willibrord worked in Friesland. These pagans did not yield easily. Then with the 9th century came Charlemagne and his conquests. He set out to conquer the Saxons and force on them the gospel, and behind his troops came an army of monks. It was rough work, not the way of Christ, yet in the midst of all the failure God worked. It took four centuries to subdue the stout Teuton race, and then paganism disappeared to return no more to all those regions.
Later the Bulgarians, Moravians, Bohemians, Poles, Prussians, Russians, etc., were attacked, but it was not till about the year 1400 that these parts became wholly Christian. Alas, in the work good and evil were ever mixed. Pure work, like that of the Apostle Paul, we see not; still how greatly we are indebted to the noble missionaries of those days, of whose work we know little; but their record is on high.
In Spain there was conflict continually between the Christian and the Moslem. Finally the Cardinal Ximenez paid large sums to secure converts. The Moors rebelled; they were suppressed with cruelty; then about 1500 A.D. no other religion save Christianity was tolerated in Spain. Europe was at last in name practically Christian, though in 1453 A.D. the Turk established himself in Europe, and a corner of Europe was therefore Mohammedan.
In the meantime corruption had spread apace. The Waldenses in the rocky fastnesses of the Alps kept the torch of truth burning in spite of much persecution. The Albigenses, less fortunate, were wiped out by Pope Innocent III., and their fair country of Languedoc turned into a desert with awful cruelties, just because they were simple Christians and would not accept Popery.
Peter Waldo and his poor men of Lyons, did much to preserve the pure gospel. In the 14th century Wickliffe nobly stood for the truth, and his followers, the Lollards, bore much for Christ. In Bohemia that man Huss, of beautiful character, stood faithfully for Christ, and in the 15th century he and Jerome of Prague were burnt to death. Witnesses there were, and not a few — though the names of most are on high, not in the annals of men — but generally speaking sad corruption had its sway all over Europe.
In the 11th century the great schism between the west and the east occurred.
The nominal cause was as to whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from both Father and Son, or only from the Father; but never did the ostensible cause of the breach appear to be the real cause of any division, ancient or modern. The breach occurs in spirit, and then some trifle is taken up; the stronger demands complete submission, with excision as the only alternative, and the thing is done. Alas, alas, truly we only do the deeds of our fathers.
Thus the corruption spread both west and east, though the west exceeded; but God is over all, blessed be His Name. All must be well, and the Seed of the woman must bruise the serpent’s head in the end, even if dispensations end in great darkness, as they assuredly do. How wonderful it will be when God displays the hidden beauties which He formed and sustained in all this apparently hopeless confusion.
Modern Times: 16th to the 20th Century
The darkness could scarcely have been deeper than it appears to the spiritual eye at the commencement of this period, but God had His resources; and just when the state of things could not have been worse there burst forth a glorious light in almost every country in Europe — it was a time of God’s visitation. Martin Luther’s is the, name especially associated with this movement and with the truth of justification by faith, but Le Fevre and William Farel, in Paris, preached justification through Christ alone before Luther knew it. Zwingle and Calvin in Switzerland, Berquin and Beza in France, John Knox in Scotland, were amongst the most illustrious witnesses of this period; but nearly every country in Europe had its glorious martyrs, and there was more and greater cruelty practiced upon them by the so-called Christians in Papacy than even under the worst pagan persecutions. Thank God for the many steadfast ones of that time. England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, a great part of Germany, and part of Switzerland, were emancipated from the Roman yoke at that time and have had much prosperity ever since, though, alas, the spiritual has so greatly succumbed to the material.
God knocked at the door of Spain and grand were its martyrs; even from the highest ranks brave souls were found willing to bear dishonor and incredible tortures; but the light was ruthlessly stamped out by direst cruelties at the hands of the Inquisition, and Spain sank from its proud position of first of the nations to the low place it has held since.
France has a vast martyr roll, but the sword was taken up and great battles fought; spirituality waned, and many have been the sufferings of that great nation since, and the end is not yet.
Italy had but few martyrs save in the Waldensian Alps. The chain of Rome was not broken there, and the state of that land today is very sad.
In Hungary, Bohemia and Poland, many died for Christ’s sake, but it almost seemed as if they had died in vain, though this can never be. Their record is on high, and their works do follow them.
We cannot be too thankful for this movement of God in the 16th century, generally called the Reformation, without which apparently all had been lost; but alas! the spirituality soon waned, as we see in the epistle to the Church in Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6), which doubtless foreshadows this condition of things. Political ends took the place of spiritual ones, and in the 17th century Protestant Europe had sunk very low. In the 18th century God granted in England a wonderful revival through the Wesleys, Whitfield, and a host of others, who preached the gospel, according to their light, with remarkable zeal and fervor, and God greatly blessed the word. Germany had its blessing through Labadie, Terstegen, Count Zinzendorf, and many others, and thus God did not leave Himself without witness. Even among Roman Catholics, Fenelon, Pascal, Madame Guyon, and others, bore witness to the truth and suffered in consequence. Roman Catholicism, though unchanged in heart, put on a more decent garb.
In the 16th century, after America had been discovered, South and Central America were seized by the Spanish and Portuguese (the latter taking Brazil).
These vast regions were nominally Christianized, the inhabitants were cruelly treated and robbed, and their history is incredibly sad. At the present time the yoke of Spain and Portugal has been broken, and the great majority (all except the interior tribes of the States) are nominally Christian, but heathen darkness pervades the whole. Some light has penetrated here and there in modern times, and still, thank God, the gospel is being preached in these dark regions. May the Lord of the harvest send more laborers into the harvest. The laborers are very few.
Remarkable to say, the earliest modern missions to heathendom have been carried out by Roman Catholics. In the 14th century Ramon Lull, a Spanish layman, who seems to have been a godly man, went once and again to preach Christ in a Mohammeden stronghold, and finally lost his life in consequence. He may be termed the father of modern missions, yet before him Francis of Assisi had gone out to Egypt, and his followers to other places.
In Reformation times rose up Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesuits, who went out far and wide through the earth to spread their religion and to plant the banner of Rome. The most noted of these missionaries was Francis Xavier, who labored long in India, and died off China, longing to enter it.
Was the work of these men all bad? We know that great and terrible evils were mixed up with their work, but can we say it was all bad? Mixture of good and evil is what we see everywhere, the bad not so bad, but that there is some good (Rev. 18:4), the best not so good, but that great and sad evil is found there, as Judas among the twelve.
The evil of these Jesuits is easily seen, and in the days of their prosperity they were proud, acted with cruelty, and behaved themselves as great lords; but in times of adversity when they were proscribed, banished, and persecuted, they often crept back one by one and endured hardships and suffered much with the persecuted flock. The persecuted converts in China and Japan also at times came out right well in evil days. Thank God for this, and that His heart is so far greater than ours. The judgment seat ill becomes us, but if we see any signs of good let us rejoice. At the present day the state of the Roman Catholic missions is very low indeed everywhere.
Modern Protestant missions date almost entirely from the last 200 years. The Moravian brethren were pioneers on this line and their works have, been noble, but the great impulse in this direction was chiefly from about the year 1800; since then the work has greatly spread, and almost the whole of the heathen world has been more or less occupied by missionaries. These are defective, as indeed we all are, but their methods are apparently far purer than most of those of the early centuries of the Christian era, and they are mostly converted men and women doing their best according to their measure, and their lives are as lights in dark places. The more the difficulties and hardships, the brighter as a rule are their lives. In deserts and in mountains, in torrid and in arctic zones, in Central Asia and in Africa will be found refined men and women who, forsaking pleasant times in the Fatherland, have gone out to preach Christ to the poor, the degraded, and the unrefined. Thank God for such, for they are, as it were, some of those who form the salt of the earth. As ever, the brightest are generally found at the outskirts and not in Christian centers.
China, Japan, Uganda, Madagascar, and many other countries have furnished their quota of devoted martyrs in recent years — thank God for this. If the general standard amongst the Protestant converts from heathendom is not high, yet we can thank God for what there is of Christ, and this is not little, and many have been found willing to forsake father, mother, wife, children and property for the Lord’s sake. Will He call this nothing? Oh, it is easy to criticize — God have mercy on the critics — they are generally accusers of the brethren. No, the only criticism worth anything is the work of him who will do better than another and show more of Christ. God raise up many such critics.
For ourselves, we have lived a lifetime in a heathen land, and know the weaknesses of modern missions better than most; but we thank God for them; they have preserved from utter corruption; thousands upon thousands have been won for Christ from all parts of heathendom; and many lights still burn brightly in the dark places of the earth; and year by year God shows how He loves to bless and use those who humbly seek Him.
But early in the 19th century came a great spiritual movement, doubtless corresponding to the address to the Church in Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13); a most blessed movement it was: not so wide spread as the Reformation, but far deeper and more spiritual. The glories of Christ were unfolded in a way never known before, save in the days of the apostles. The place of the Church, the counsels and purposes of God, the coming of Christ, and many other kindred truths rejoiced the hearts of thousands, as they were again brought to light (though always in Scripture), and ministered with power.
These blessed truths spread far and wide, and produced real heart-separation from the world and a true watching for the Lord’s return. But with accession of light there is always danger, for if the conscience and heart are not brought into exercise thereby, it becomes the knowledge that puffs up, and produces the bitter fruits of self-felicitation, the judging of others, spiritual pride, coldness of heart, and indifference to the prosperity of the gospel to sinners. Alas I how much of this is painfully manifest today.
What is before us now? Nothing but Laodicea and the coming of Christ (Rev. 3:14-22). He will not come to a Christendom yearning for Him, but to take His own beloved ones out of corrupt Christendom to be forever with Himself, before He comes in judgment to deal with this world.
O God, teach us; make Thy people faithful; cause us to love the reproach of Christ more than all the treasures of Egypt; to suffer the loss of all things that we may win Christ; to have fellowship in His sufferings and know the power of His resurrection. O God, bless Thy people, and maintain the cause of Christ until the end, deepening the work within, as corruption grows without.
We would, make one last appeal to those who have much light in these last days. Oh, brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, let us love one another as He gave us commandment. Sinners are perishing everywhere for lack of a full, clear gospel, saints are perishing for lack of knowledge. Let us give these to them. Has not the light and truth been given for this purpose? Is the lamp lighted to be put under a bushel? Let us give others credit for being as sincerely anxious to do the will of God as ourselves. We are expressly told not to judge one another. Who are we, to judge Another’s servant? Beloved brethren, while seeking to walk in deepest self-judgment and humiliation, seeking to maintain true separation to God, let us understand that to go out in the real passion of love to Christ and to men, with the gospel and with the truth, is not to lack separation, but to be followers of Him whom the Father sent to be the Savior of the world, and of him who said “Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.”