The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 15

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

15

A Missionary Prayer.

Whither Thou sendest,
Whither Thou leadest,
Thither my journey.
Eastward or westward,
Northward or southward,

Dayward or nightward,
Joyward or woeward,
Homeward or starward,
So be it Thee-ward,
Thither my journey.

Missions Defined.

To the question, What are Christian missions?
various answers have been given. The following
definition is quoted as being at once simple and
satisfactory.

The work of Christian missions is the proclama-
tion of the Gospel to the unconverted everywhere
according to the command of Christ.

The word “missions” comes from the Latin
mitto — “J send.” A missionary is therefore a
“sent one.” ‘Three essential factors are implied in
the term, viz., a sender, one sent, one to whom sent.

Jesus Himself was the first missionary. He
constantly spoke of Himself as the Messenger sent
by the Father to a lost world. And He said, “As
My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” John
20, 21.

The missionary does not go or speak on his own
initiative, but as the commissioned agent of the
One who sent him. And the more absolutely he
represents Him, and the more intelligently and
faithfully he conveys His message, the more per-
fectly does he fulfil his missionary calling.

' “Gospel” means “good news.” It is a message
of salvation. Luke 2,10; John 3,16; Luke 19, 10.
A synonym for “Gospel” is “Evangel.” Hence the
terms evangelist and evangelization.

“Unconverted” means “not turned to” — Christ,
and hence signifies a lost condition.
88,11: “Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?”
The term embraces equally those who through wil-
fulness reject the Gospel,-those who through in-
difference neglect it, and those who through igno-
rance do not know it — that is, all men everywhere.
The terms “home” and “foreign,’ commonly ap-
plied to missions, are not Scriptural, but merely
human terms of convenience. ‘“Unconverted” men
are.lost, in America, Africa, or Asia alike. Whether
the sinner is such through inexcusable wilfulness
or through unfortunate ignorance, his condition is
alike one of peril, and his only; hope is in turning
to Christ.

“According to the command of Christ.” The
missionary enterprise rests upon His command and

Cf. Ezek. .

commission for its authority. Christ did not merely
express a wish or offer a suggestion. He gave an
order, clear, explicit, peremptory — “Go ye into all
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Such is His final, most imperative, most inclusive
command, and it is binding upon His followers
everywhere and for all time.
Lutheran Church Herald.

The Critic of Missions Silenced.

When Missionary Weeks, of Africa, was travel-
ing in England, a gentleman in the same railway
carriage began to attack him as the friend of mis-
sions. “What,” said he, “are the missionaries doing
abroad? We pay them pretty well, but hear little
about them or their movements. I suppose they are
sitting down quietly and making themselves com-
fortable.”

There sat beside Mr. Weeks another traveler, as
black as any of the natives of Africa. He quietly
waited until the stranger ‘had exhausted his silly
talk against missions, and then, making a sign of
silence to Mr. Weeks, undertook himself to reply to
the critic of missions. “Sir,” said he, “allow me
to present myself to you as a result of the labor of
the missionaries whose work you have been depre-
ciating.” Pointing to Mr. Weeks, he continued,
“I am an African, and this man is the means of my
having become a Christian and of my coming to
this country in the capacity of a Christian minister.”

The man who had assaulted Christian missions
looked upon the black man with a look of mingled
embarrassment and amazement. He could not be
mistaken; there was a genuine African, who had
addressed him in the elegant language of an edu-
cated and accomplished Englishman; he had, no
doubt, felt the power of the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ; there was in his whole manner the
unmistakable signs of a Christian gentleman.

The accuser of missions sank into a reverie. He
had no more to say against missions, and when he
resumed conversation, it was in a different tone:
he began to talk with Mr. Weeks upon missionary
topics as an interested listener.

That black man was none other than Samuel
Adjai Crowther, who afterwards became the first
native bishop of the Niger Territory in Africa and
who for many years labored successfully as mis-
sionary among his countrymen. Mourned by many,
he, in December, 1891, entered the rest which re-
maineth to the people of God.