BY THE REV. ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE.
THE advantages which the Christian mind derives from a constant intercourse with Missionary subjects are very many and very great.
I. A spirit of intercession on behalf of the heathen is encouraged.
It was “when Jesus saw the multitudes that he was moved with compassion, and bade His disciples pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest” (Matt. ix. 38). This shows how completely the Son of God was also the Son of Man, for with us it is always the sight of the object that calls forth the emotion. We come—we see—we are conquered. It was “when Paul saw the city wholly given to idolatry that his spirit was stirred in him” (Acts xvii. 16). The eye affected the heart. Just so will it be with every Christian mind. Set him down, like Buchanan, among the myriads that shout around the car of Juggernaut; or, like Gutzlaff, among the more civilised idolatry of China—the man who is follower of Paul, as he was of Christ, will be “stirred in spirit,” and “moved with compassion,” and one vent of the full heart will be in prayer to the Lord of the harvest. But we who sit at home cannot see the spirit-stirring sight, we are cut off from this blessed influence to drive us to our knees. Nor can any written information wholly make up this deficiency. The hearing of the ear will never produce so powerful an effect as the seeing with the eye. Yet, in the absence of the greater influence, how dare we neglect to use the less? When we cannot see, how dare we refuse to hear? If we live in ignorance of the state of the heathen world, how can we pray intelligently on its behalf? If we content ourselves with general notions of its idolatries, and barbarities, and struggles against the Light, shall not our petitions be general, unfervent, and ineffectual? On the prayers of the children of God depends the coming of the kingdom and the conversion of the heathen, as it is said in the 2nd Psalm, “Ask of me.” Should not every child of God then bring himself under those influences which shall bind him to intelligent, fervent, effectual prayer on this behalf. Come, then, true child of God, who art bound to the service of Christ in thy native soil, come and let us gather from the records of faithful men who have jeopardized their lives in the high places of heathenism, food for meditation, and incitement to prayer. Let us give ear to these spies of the land of darkness, that when they tell us of some spot where grace is beginning to drop from above “like the first of a thunder shower,” our prayers, mingled with thanksgivings, may arise with interest and intelligence on this special behalf: or, when they tell us of some stronghold of Satan, fortified on every side by the triple brass of superstition, self-righteousness, and lust, our united cry may ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth—”Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”
II. Intercourse with Missionary subjects helps forward personal holiness.
We find in I. Thess. ii. 16, that “forbidding the preaching of the word to the Gentiles,” was looked upon by God as the filling up the cup of sins—the crowning transgression of the Jewish people; and conversely, the bidding and enabling faithful men to preach the word to the Gentiles, is one of the essential virtues of the child of God. And if it be a good and gracious thing to send grace, it is but the continuation of this grace to look after them—to sympathise with their difficulties and encouragements—to weep with them when they weep over obstinate sinners—to rejoice with them and the angels, when they rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. But love increases and abounds the more it is conversant with its object; increase of appetite seems to grow by what it feeds on; and the sure effect of increasing and abounding love toward all men, is a surer establishment in personal holiness (I. Thess. iii. 12, 13). The very effort of sending a man to be an instrument to convert others, makes us ask the question, “Am I myself converted?” The very sight of so many millions left in ignorance of “the only name whereby we may be saved,” whilst we have heard it from our infancy, overpowers the believing mind with an abiding sense of the sovereignty of God, and the freeness of His electing love. Privileges are used more ardently—thanksgivings are offered more feelingly—”What have I that I did not receive,” is graven more durably upon the heart. And if God does bless the efforts of our Missionaries, how is every grace of the new nature stirred into a burning flame! When the Greenlander, the Hindoo, or the Chinese becomes a believer in Jesus—when the same gracious feelings which sparkled in our bosoms “when first we saw the Lord”—have evidently got possession of these barbarian souls—when we can trace a kindredness of sentiment and affection—a oneness of spirit with these last of men—then we remember that it is written, “we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Our lagging faith is by sympathy quickened into active service. The flame of our “first love” is rekindled, and we hasten to “do the first works.”
III. Intercourse with Missionary subjects makes us watch more anxiously the coming of the kingdom.
“When the world shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” To them “the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.” But the children of God “are not in darkness that that day should overtake them as a thief.” Does not this Bible truth imply that the saints are watchful and intelligent as to the signs of the times? And is not the state of the Jewish and heathen world the very page to which we must chiefly look for signs of the latter day glory? “When the branch of the fig-tree is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, we know that summer is nigh.” So likewise shall there be infallible signs of the coming of the season when the Beloved shall speak and say unto His bride, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Fôr, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” These buddings and premonitions of the coming summer of our world, “none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” And why? Just because “the wise,” the taught of God, are not fools nor slow of heart to believe all that is written concerning the coming of the kingdom of Jesus; and they are on the watch for the first vibrations of that shaking of the earth and the heavens that shall usher in the kingdom “that cannot be moved.” Where is the intelligent child of God who is not even now looking with most intense interest upon the movements now making in Hindostan, and upon the strange spirit of enquiry that within these few years has caused such a shaking in the Jewish community, like the shaking of the dry bones in the open valley? As upon the first streaks of the eastern sky before the breaking of the day—the day when “the fulness of the Gentiles being come in, all Israel shall be saved”—the day when the whole temple being completed, of which Christ is the foundation-stone, corner-stone, and top-stone—the Lord shall “be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.”
Child of God, sleep not thou as do others, but having thine own heart established with grace, be ever moving the anxious question, “Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?” And then shall the answer be returned to thee—”The morning cometh!”