The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 34

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Why They Went.

We have on record the testimony of not a few
missionaries who have expressly stated what mo-
tives induced and inspired them to go forth to bring
the glad Gospel-tidings to their fellow-men.

John Eliot Speaks.

The Apostle to the Indians has this to say as to
why he brought the Gospel of salvation to the In-
dians near Boston: “God first put into my heart a
compassion for the poor souls of these Indians and
a desire to teach them to know Christ and to bring
them into His kingdom.”

Count Zinzendorf
tells us that the prayer of his childhood was: “Be
Thou mine, Lord Jesus, and I will be Thine.” The
motto of his manhood was: “I have but one pas-
sion; it is He alone.”

William Carey Answers His Own Question.

At a conference of Baptist ministers Carey
asked the question: “Is not the command given to
the apostles to teach all nations obligatory on all
succeeding generations of ministers, seeing that the
accompanying promise is of equal extent?” The
chairman severely rebuked Carey for asking such
a question and called him a “miserable enthusiast.”
But this rebuke did not prevent Carey from de-
claring: “God is the principal theme of the Gospel.
To be devoted like a sacrifice to holy uses is the
great business of the Christian. I consider myself
devoted to the service of God alone, and now I am
to realize my professions.” After he had arrived in
India to take up his great work there, he wrote: “In
order to be prepared for our great and solemn work,
it is absolutely necessary that we set an infinite
value upon immortal souls and that we often en-
deavor to affect our minds with the dreadful loss
sustained by an unconverted soul launched into
eternity. We are apt to relax our exertions in a
warm climate; but we shall do well to fix it always
in our minds that all around us are perishing and
that we incur a dreadful woe if we proclaim not the
glad tidings of salvation.”

Adoniram Judson’s Testimony.

While lecturing in this country on the great
work he was doing in Burma, that great missionary
Adoniram Judson was asked what his motives were
in going to heathen lands. Here is his answer:
“Some one asked me not long ago whether faith or
loye influenced me most in going to the heathen.

I thought of it-a while and at length concluded that
there was in me but little of either. But in think-
ing of what did influence me, I remembered a time

. when I was almost disheartened. Everything
looked black. No one had gone out from this
country. The way was not open. The field was far
distant and in an unhealthy climate. I knew not
what to do. All at once that ‘last command’ seemed
to come to my heart directly from heaven. I could
doubt no longer, but determined on the spot to obey
it at all hazards for the sake of pleasing the Lord
Jesus Christ.” At another time he wrote from
Burma: “May God forgive all those who forsake us
in our extremity! May He save them all! But
surely, if any sin will lie with crushing weight on
the trembling, shrinking soul when grim death
draws near; if any sin will clothe the brow of the
final Judge with an angry frown, withering up the
last hope of the condemned in irremediable, ever-
lasting despair, it is the sin of turning a deaf ear to
the plaintive cry of ten millions of immortal beings
who by their darkness and misery cry day and

night.”
Words of David Livingstone.

Livingstone writes: “It is something to be a.
missionary; it is something to be a follower, how-
ever feeble, in the wake of the great Teacher and
only model Missionary that has ever appeared
among men; and now that He is Head over all
things, King of kings and Lord of lords, what com-:
mission is equal to that which the missionary holds.
from Him ?”

Henry Martyn Speaks.

Henry Martyn, that noble young missionary
who gave up the brightest prospects in the home-
land that he might bring the Gospel to the followers.
of Islam, writes: “The soul that has truly ex--
perienced the love of God will not stay meanly in-
quiring how much it shall do and thus limit his.
service, but will be earnestly seeking more and more-
to know the will of our heavenly Father that he-
may be enabled to do it.”

John Morrison’s Motives.

The great missionary to China John Morrison:
declares: “Zion’s King has important affairs in all
lands; embassies of pardoning mercy to the guilty,.
of peace to the bitterest enemies, of salvation to per-
ishing sinners, of conflicts with the powers of dark-.
ness, where Satan and idols sit enthroned; and it
is the disgrace of our Zion that she sends not some-
of the ablest and wisest and holiest of her servants.”

Upon another occasion he said: “I know not.