Watchman Of The South

For the Watchman of the South

ENCOURAGEMENTS TO MISSIONARY LABOR.

II. The second encouragement that will be named is, the great importance of the missionary work.

The missionary is not laboring, and sacrificing, and enduring for a small or indifferent object. By our Saviour's account no man is likely to put too high an estimate on the missionary cause. The interests involved are of that magnitude, as to justify all the labors and sacrifices that have ever been, or ever will be, made by the disciples of Christ for the conversion of the world to God.

The soul of man is so elevated in its nature so glorious in its immortality; so capable of unexpressed happiness in heaven, or of misery in hell, that all created inanimate things fade away in comparison.

Men will hazard much for the gains of a small part of the world; what ought they not then to do for the soul of one individual? Christ asks what shall be given in exchange; what shall be put in competition with the soul?

2d. The importance of the missionary work is increased by the fact, that the missionary is laboring for the good of a tribe, or nation of people. Perhaps many thousand souls are interested in his daily labors and self-denial: perhaps many millions. He is doing something, it may be, he is doing much, for the salvation of the many hundred millions of heathen on the earth, for whom the Church has not as yet felt that compassion, it becomes her to feel for those, whose ruin and whose help are from the same source as her own. We fell in Adam, and are restored in Christ.

3d. He is laboring for the welfare of men in both worlds. He is in possession of that only true knowledge, which shall guide the poor bewildered soul from the labyrinths of error, and release it from the pollution of that original and actual sin which has brought present wrath and involved future misery.

It is now a well established fact, that the only sure way of civilizing a barbarous people is to christianize them. The missionary goes before refinement in morals, and improvement in social relations. The immediate effects of a successful mission are found in the improvement of the temporal condition of those under its influence, They are next seen in the elevated moral sentiments and the delicacy of the social relations. And then in the power of the good hope through grace in the trying circumstances of life, and in the most important article of death.

These weighty interests kept always before the missionary's mind may well encourage him. He is not laboring for a treasure of earth; but for something that shall shine gloriously, when this earth and all its treasures shall have been consumed, in the fires of the last judgment.

Men will labor long and hard for the support of their families; will endure toil in prospect of independence, or even a bare subsistence. They will navigate distant seas, and undergo the privations of perilous expeditions, for the advantages offered by this world. Under all their sufferings and labors they are consoled by the hope of good to come, to themselves, or to those they love.

Now a missionary is laboring in a cause, a thousand fold more interesting and important, than all the enterprizes for gain, and ambition that have disturbed the world since its creation. He is striving for the welfare of immortal creatures, whose blessedness he may contemplate as perfected in heaven, as eternal ages pass on. He may contemplate them as beholding the glory and goodness of the Lord; and changed from glory to glory as they behold. He may anticipate the joys of the blessed throng, as they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, each having a harp in his hand. He may in spirit begin to walk with them in white.

In view of these delightful exhibitions of God's grace, his courage and strength shall be renewed, even if his heart has been aching under the pinings of affection for friends, and his body been sinking under the effects of the climate, and his soul been grieved and burdened by the sins and transgressions of those among whom he lives.

There is no danger of overrating the importance of the missionary work. If it consulted only the interests of time it would take precedence of all other enterprizes. But as it embraces the greater concerns of eternity, that endless, that boundless state of being and acting, the most deep contemplation of the most ardent mind will fail to measure its just, or even its comparative influence.

III. Another source of encouragement is—that the work of missions is one that must be done. Christ has said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Here is a command. God has said that "in Christ all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." he has repeated it that. "he shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions." The word and honor of God are engaged in this matter. The gospel must be preached in all languages before the end comes. The Bible must be translated into the various tongues of men, "before the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord." All flesh must be taught to read the wonderful works of God. Whoever reads the Bible with care, sees that one prominent truth held up everywhere, is the universal spread of the gospel. The object of the divine government cannot be obtained without this. It is a work therefore which must be done.

To engage in this work is to engage in the fulfilling the great decrees of God, determined in the secret councils of the divine mind but made public in his word as axioms of the divine and of human action. "The kingdoms of this world must become the kingdoms of our Lord." To engage in this work, is, it is true, to engage in a work full of perils; but the post of danger has always been the post of honor. To wear the crown with Christ one must have suffered with Christ; the fellowship must be complete in the humility as well as exaltation.

It is full of hazard and may lead one to the laying down of his life, and thus make him like his master, in the peculiar action of his life; and associate him with the glorious company of martyrs that have already come out of great tribulations, from nations and languages and tongues under heaven and have made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb.

There are undoubtedly great difficulties in the way of putting the crown on the head of our Lord: but, the crown must be put on or Christ dishonored, and God's word unfulfilled. The hearts of many may fail in the commotions and sufferings that may precede and accompany the exaltation of our Lord: but what in the order of God's decrees must be done in the order of God's government will be done. The crown must be put on the head of Christ come what will.

Christ says be ye faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life; and he is calling his professed followers to offer themselves willingly, as they will do in the day of his power. He shows to the faith of his church, "a crown of glory bright" to adorn his own temple, and diadems of beauty for theirs; but he cannot put on his own, nor they be adorned with theirs till the gospel has been preached to all nations, and the whole world has become converted to God.

Who is there, that for the honor of his Lord desires, like Paul to fill up, in his body, those sufferings the Church expects to undergo before the work of redemption shall be complete? Let them come out for God; let them put on the whole armor of the Lord; and then though the work be hazardous let them be comforted by the reflection, that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is watching with a jealous eye every effort of Christians for his cause, and every attempt of his adversaries to thwart their good designs for the conversion of men.

As this work must be accomplished by the followers of Christ giving themselves willingly to the more arduous duties of missionaries; some to continued labor, others to vehement struggles; some to prison and some to death; the enquiry among God's people often is—"as some must go why not I: and as God's grace was sufficient for Paul, in his labors, why may it not be for me." And one and another feels the importance of the work, and the share he has in the labors for the conversion of the world, and is saying to his brethren, woe is me, if I preach not Christ to the heathen. The Church scarcely asks, "who will go for us?" when the answer comes from many lips; "here am I send me." And what is both encouraging to faith, and also humiliating to zeal, is the fact, that the Church is not sending out to foreign lands as many as are willing to go, or might be persuaded to go in obedience to an urgent call. Were such a call now made, the fire of love, that has been burning secretly in many breasts, would burst into a flame; and worldly men would be astonished to see how many are willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of God.

F. H. W.