The Foreign Missionary I THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE HY do missionaries go forth? This question is fundamental. The motives must be powerful, for weak motives would not lead thousands of earnest men and women to spend their lives among uncongenial people, far from the associations and opportunities of home and country, nor would they induce the Christians of Europe and America to give millions of dollars annually for the maintenance of the enterprise. In fact, various motives are involved. Some operate upon one class of minds and some upon another, and all of them do not appeal with equal force to the same person. For convenience they may be divided into two main classes, primary and secondary, though this classification is arbitrary and though there may be difference of opinion as to the class to which certain motives properly belong. Something depends upon the viewpoint. The primary motives may be reduced to three. (a) The Soul's Experience in Christ.-In proportion as this is genuine and deep, will we desire to communicate it to others. Propagation is a law of the spiritual life. The genius of Christianity is expansive. Its inherent tendency is to propa gate itself. A living organism must grow or die. The church. that is not missionary will become atrophied. All virile faith prompts its possessor to seek others. Ruskin reminds us of Southey's statement that no man was ever yet convinced of any momentous truth without feeling in himself the power as well as the desire of communicating it.' That was an exquisite touch of regenerated nature and one beautifully illustrative of the promptings of a normal Christian experience which led Andrew, after he rose from Jesus' feet, to find first his own brother, Simon, and say unto him: "We have found the Messias; and he brought him to Jesus." No external authority, however commanding, can take the place of this internal motive. It led Paul to exclaim,-"Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!" It made him plead "with tears" that men would turn to God; and become "all things to all men, that 'he might by all means save some." People who say that they do not believe in foreign missions, are usually quite unconscious of the indictment that they bring against their own spiritual experience. The man who has no religion of his own that he values of course is not interested in the effort to make it known to others. It is true, one may be simply ignorant of the content of his faith or the real character of the missionary movement, but as a rule those who know the real meaning of the Christian experience are conscious of an over-mastering impulse to communicate it to others. (b) The World's Evident Need of Christ.-He who has knowledge that is essential to the welfare of his fellow men is under solemn obligation to convey that knowledge to them. It makes no difference who those men are, or where they live, or whether they are conscious of their need, or how much inconvenience or expense he may incur in reaching them. The fact that he can help them is reason why he should help them. This is an essential part of the foreign missionary impulse. We have the revelation of God which is potential of a civilization that benefits man, an education that fits him for higher usefulness, a scientific knowledge that enlarges his powers, a medical skill that alleviates his sufferings, and above all a relation to Jesus Christ that 1 Modern Painters I, xx. ot only lends new dignity to this earthly life but that saves his oul and prepares him for eternal companionship with God. "Neither is there salvation in any other." Therefore, we must convey this gospel to the world. There is no worthy reason for being concerned about the salvation of the man next to us which is not equally applicable to the man five thousand miles away. "It is hard to realize this concerning those who re so distant?" Precisely, foreign missionary interest preupposes breadth of soul. Any one can love his own family, but it takes a high-souled man to love all men. He who The has that which the world needs is debtor to the world. true disciple would feel this even if Christ had spoken no command. The missionary impulse would have stirred him to spontaneous action. Christ simply voiced the highest and holiest dictates of the human heart when He summoned His followers to missionary activity and zeal. The question whether the heathen really need Christ may be answered by the counter question: Do we need Him? and the intensity of our desire to tell them of Christ will be in exact proportion to the intensity of our own sense of need. We do not hear as much as our fathers heard of the motive of salvation of the heathen. Our age prefers to dwell upon the blessings of faith rather than upon the consequences of unbelief. And yet if we believe that Christ is our "life," it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that to be without Christ is death. Reason as well as revelation tells us that man has sinned, that "the wages of sin is death," and that this truth is as applicable to Asia and Africa as to Europe and America. We grant that it is possible that some who have never heard of Christ may be saved. The Spirit of God is not shut up to the methods that have been revealed to us. He works when and where and how He pleases. In ways unknown to us, He may apply the benefits of redemption to those who, without opportunity to accept the historic Christ, may live up to the light they have. Missionaries tell us that they seldom find such |