"Give, give, be always giving, Who gives not is not living, The more you give The more you live, Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give self, Give love, give tears and give thyself, Give, give, be always giving.
Who gives not is not living.
The more you give, the more you live."
The propagation of the principles and methods of stewardship is an important part of the program of every individual Christian and of the Church Missionary Committee. Thorough agitation on the subject should always precede the annual every-member canva.s.s. Many churches have received unprecedented spiritual blessings because of the adoption and practise of higher standards of giving. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the missionary appeal is one of the most powerful motives to stewardship. The appeal for the two should go together.
III. UNENDING PRAYER
The sovereign summons to men is the summons to prayer. It is a call to use the great unused human resource of power. It is a call to every man to walk with the tread of a giant "an open but unfrequented path to immortality." Other lesser calls must die out in us if the present spiritual world crisis is to be met. Practical men of business say that this is the work of the minister or the missionary, but Christ"s call to prayer was not limited to any group of individuals or to a special section of the Church. The men of our time are discovering that they have a wealth of talent of which they did not dream,--to bring things to pa.s.s by prayer. Intercession has ever been what Arthur Smith calls "The deeply buried talent."
Let us in the beginning frankly face the fact that there is no call which involves more of unwithholding consecration than the life of intercession. There is no service which demands so much of a man, which digs down so deep into his life, which floods with such a searching light all the methods and principles by which men govern their lives.
On the other hand let it not be forgotten that there is no human means of releasing such measureless forces among mankind. We are in the midst of a spiritual conflict, and prayer is the determining factor in that conflict. This involves not simply a prayer for ourselves in a few hurried sentences at night, when too tired to remember what has been prayed for when the words are said, not a few fragments of time given to this most important occupation, but prayer, central in life, having a clear s.p.a.ce in which to live and breathe and yet not confined to times and seasons but mingling with the whole of life. Sadly it must be confessed that intercession is not yet the pa.s.sion of our lives.
Prayer gives quiet confidence that things really happen when men pray.
It is as vital as muscular force, as real as electricity. It wrenches men loose from their limitations and projects personality into distant lands. It is the lever of G.o.d to pry continents and dead civilizations up into newness of life. It is the power which helps to lift history out of its bed and puts it down into new channels where it belongs. It is of this force which John R. Mott speaks when he says: "The supreme question of missions is how to multiply the number of Christians who, with truthful lives and with clear unshaken faith in the character and ability of G.o.d, will, individually or collectively, or cooperatively as a church, wield the force of intercessory prayer for the conversion and transformation of men, for the inauguration and energizing of spiritual movements, and for the breaking down of all that exalts itself against Christ and his purposes."
J. Campbell White says: "Prayer is the first and chief method of solving the missionary problem. Among all the methods that have been devised none is more practical, more fruitful than this. If we could get a definite group of people at home into the habit of supporting by prayer each missionary in the thick of the fight, by this simple method alone the efficiency of the present missionary force could probably be doubled without adding a single new missionary."
In bringing in a report on the place of prayer in missions, a committee of men at one of the conferences of the Laymen"s Missionary Movement submitted the following: "Prayer is the only element which can quicken information into inspiration, trans.m.u.te interest into pa.s.sion, crystallize emotion into consecration, and coin enthusiasm into dollars and lives. Resolved, that we seek by every means to convince every man that, whatever may be his contribution of money or service, he has not exercised his highest influence, performed his whole duty, nor enjoyed his highest privilege until he has made definite, believing prayer for missions a part of his daily life."
As we remember Jesus Christ, and recall the kind of tasks he has given his men to do, the kind of men he expects us to be, as we lift up our eyes and look into the upturned faces of the thousand millions of people who know not G.o.d and remember that we are the men who must bridge the racial gulf and capture the world for Christ, we may well be moved by a solemn sense of our responsibility. It is our duty not simply to nurse the wounded but to stop the battle. If we are to face our tasks with inflexible courage and a growing devotion we must cultivate the vital processes and bring to Christ the flawless wholeness of unshared hearts.
One of the old Greeks said that every speech must begin with an incontrovertible proposition. Three such propositions are stated here.
1. _Prayer has Called Forth and Energized All the Great Spiritual and Missionary Movements of All Times._
The history of the Moravian movement, of the great missionary awakenings in Germany, and the modern missionary uprising in Great Britain shows that they were all born and given power because of prayer.
On this side of the Atlantic it should never be forgotten that the three great interdenominational movements which have had so much to do with the arousing of America to her missionary responsibility were all called forth by prayer, and whatever of vitality and power they have displayed still depends upon the energies of G.o.d poured forth in answer to prayer. The Student Volunteer Movement grew out of an unusual volume of intercession on the part, first, of a small group of individuals, and then of a conference a.s.sembled at Northfield in 1886.
It was from a small group of men meeting for prayer and counsel in New York and later at Silver Bay on Lake George that the Missionary Education Movement came into being. It was in a prayer-meeting in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, on November 15, 1906, that the Laymen"s Missionary Movement began its career.
Two principles have been increasingly emphasized in all these movements, and men may well take them to heart and ponder them deeply before deciding that there is any other way in which they can exert so powerful a world influence as in prayer. These principles are:
_G.o.d has accomplished most by the men who have adventured themselves most upon G.o.d._
_Men must commune with Christ if they are to communicate Christ._
2. _Prayer Finds a Way Out in Hours of Crisis._
The history of the way in which victory has been achieved in the great spiritual crises of the world is a record of answered prayer. There is no more impressive picture in the Old Testament than that of Moses, the great leader of Israel, in the midst of a desperate battle with his hands lifted in intercession. When he wearied and his hands were withdrawn, Israel was defeated, but so long as his hands were upheld and there was an unceasing stream of intercession, Israel prevailed.
Crowded into that one incident is one of the greatest single spiritual lessons which G.o.d would teach mankind. There is no other way than this to meet the spiritual crises of the world victoriously. The great battle of Jesus was not won at Calvary but in the garden in prayer.
The crowded record of achievement in all the home and foreign mission fields of the Church is full of incidents of the truth of the principle just stated. Since it is the judgment of the missionary leaders of to-day that there never has been such an hour of crisis and opportunity in the world, then there never was a time when there was such need that men should covenant with G.o.d to wield the force of intercession. The victory which is achieved at the front of the battle will be commensurate with the volume of intercession in Christian lands.
3. _Prayer is the Only Power that can Fill the Gaps in the Thin Line of Battle._
The second study in this little book reveals the tremendous unmet need of the world. The line is very thin in many parts of the field, in many sections of the world it can be said to be nothing more than a picket-line. If qualified leaders are to be thrust out into these fields, if the Church is to recover the lost frontiers in the great cities and country districts of the home land and in the Mohammedan and pagan world abroad, if every man in the world is to be given an adequate opportunity in his lifetime to know our Christ, then the great crucial problem is how to multiply the number of those who will enlist as intercessors and then devote themselves to the enlistment of others until the whole Church is committed to this task.
Is it too much to expect that every man in his place should have the spirit exhibited by Alexander Duff when he said: "Having set my hand to the plough my resolution was, the Lord helping me, never to look back any more and never to make a half-hearted work of it. Having chosen missionary labor in India, I gave myself up wholly to it in the destination of my own mind. I united or wedded myself to it in a covenant the bands of which shall be severed only by death."
May our Living Leader give to his men the spirit expressed by Edmund Burke when he said: "The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thought that never wanders: these are the masters of destiny."
In Ladd"s _Rare Days in j.a.pan_, reference is made to a telegram received by Mr. Matsukata, the President of the shipbuilding company at Kawasaki, from Admiral Togo just two days before the battle of the Sea of j.a.pan. Admiral Togo had received the following order from the Emperor: "Find and destroy the Russian fleet." Because of the weight of his responsibility it is said that Togo ate or slept but little for several days after receiving the Emperor"s order. His mind must have been filled with thoughts such as these: "Where was the Russian fleet?
Where could he find it? And if he did find it, how could he destroy it?" In those hours of anxiety he formed one plan and abandoned it, thought out another scheme and gave it up. Finally he determined upon his course of action and wired Mr. Matsukata, "After a thousand different thoughts now one fixed purpose."
There are a thousand demands upon the time and strength of the modern man. They are bewildering and often conflicting. The Christian man is not less busy than the man of the world, and insistent calls are ringing in his ears every hour. The Church is increasingly needing his strength and leadership. The state calls, the city makes large drafts on his strength. What shall he do? What causes are most worth while?
How shall he spend his energy and his money? What is the most alluring task? Let him choose the highest and the greatest way to spend his life. _If the missionary principle is not unalterably entrenched in the citadel of your life will you not resolve before you put this book down that henceforth all life shall be built around the one purpose which is most worth while;--to let life run out to the end rich and deep and full in the plans of G.o.d for the world?_
Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire, Speak through earthquake, wind, and fire, O still small voice of calm.
In simple trust like those who heard Beside the Syrian Sea, The gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word Rise up and follow Thee.
"AFTER A THOUSAND DIFFERENT THOUGHTS NOW ONE FIXED PURPOSE."
INDISPENSABLE LITERATURE FOR MISSIONARY COMMITTEES
The Church Missionary Committee, Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.
Manual of Missionary Methods, J. Campbell White, Laymen"s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.
What Can the Missionary Committee Do? Laymen"s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.
Essentials in an Adequate Plan of Missionary Finance. Laymen"s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 1 cent each.
Prayer and Missions. A packet of nine pamphlets. Laymen"s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 25 cents per packet.
Stewardship. A packet of thirteen booklets and leaflets. Laymen"s Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 50 cents per packet.
Forward Mission Study Courses
"Anywhere, _provided it be_ FORWARD."--_David Livingstone._
Prepared under the direction of the MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: T. H. P. Sailer, _Chairman_; A. E. Armstrong, T.
B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, A. R. Gray, G. F. Sutherland, H. P.
Dougla.s.s, W. E. Doughty, W. W. Cleland, J. H. Poorman.
The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a conference of leaders in young people"s mission work, held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was manifested at that conference for mission study text-books suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. These courses have been officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now being used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the United States and Canada.
The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the various home and foreign mission fields and problems and written by leading authorities.