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Foreign Missions

ESSENTIAL TO THE

A PAPKK KKAD AT THE

SECOND CLERICAL CONFERENCE OF THE DIOCESE OF HURON,

CANADA.

REV. CHA'S. R. MATTHEW, B.A.

(Published by Request.)

TORONTO:

ADAM, STEVENSON & COMPANY.

1876.

FOEEIGN MISSIONS

ES.SE.\T1AI. TU THE

PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH AT HOME.

A PAPER READ AT THE

SKCdNK (I.KIMCAL (ON'FEliKNC'E OF TlIF DIUCHM': iiF HUllON, lAN.VUA.

I!Y

RKV. CHA'S. R. AlATTHIAV. J5.A.

[riihlished hy Request.)

o' r n t :
ADAM, STEVENSON & COMPANY
1876.

FOKEIGN MISSIONS

BSSKNTI.M. HI rUK

PROSPFiRITY OF THE CHURCH AT HOME.

Tii's fourth c|uesli()n, invites us for a brief space to
concentrate our thoughts upon a topic, perhaps the most
essential, of all those which can engat^e the intellect or ani-
mate the heart of a servant of Jesus Christ. It calls us to a
standpoint, whence, oxerlookinjj; for a time tlie narrow bounds
of diocesan and home affairs, we shall survey the <;reat sur-
roundin<j; world field.;, and consider some aspects at least of
the missionar)- tie which links or should link us together. I
thank (iod tliat amid the varied subjects which have been
proposed for our brotherly discussion, this, of most weighty and
abiding interest to the Churcli of Christ, has not been passed
over.

The theme before us is " Foreign Missions essential to
the prosjK^ity of the Church at home."

As I understand this affirmation — it recognizes a distinc-
tion between the existence of a ciiurch, and its prosperous ex-
istence. And while it declares an engagement in mission
work needful to its prosperity, it does not venture to pro-
nounce such ab.:olutely essential to its being. No doubt a
visible Church of Christ exists, as our article holds, wherever
the Word and the Sacraments are ministered to Christian
men. Bu'. it may be a church cold-hearted and declining

3 ^^ 5 i ^

wherein "many are sickly, and many sleep." Such the con-
dition of our own communion throuL^h many a decade of bye-
^one years ; when sunk in worldliness or wilherint; amid the
forms of a dry orthodoxy, the vital flame burnetl low. Tf)
.«uch we dare not indeed deny the tide of a church ; but our
affirmation is that, to a chui-ch's healthful vii,a)r()us life, to a
church's full and true pi'osjierity, foreij^n missions are a ne-
cessity.

But before we can fairl)- enter u[)on the discussion su^-
pjested, we must deal with a subordinate question, a just
conception of which will be found materially hel|)ful in under-
standing;- the main subject. The question is thi.s — What is
that " i)rosperity " to which the church's engai;ement in
" Forei<;n Missions " is declared to be "essential.'" Is it an
outward visible prosperity, or, is it inward and spiritual .' Is
it the multiplication of schools, jjarsouages and places of
worship, or, is it an access of " lo\e and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost .-'" Mainly, I ap])rehend, the latter. The former
only in a secondary and subordinate sense, and as dependent
upon this. It is that which St. John describes as " the soul's
prospering- and being in health," — that which so often freight-
ed the prayers of apostolic lips — the " multiplication of grace
and i)eace of faith and love in the Church of Jesus Christ.''
It is ari increasing unity of j^urpose and a deei)ening peace of
conscience with God. It is a more abounding prayerfulness,
and a quickening of the graces and gifts of the Lord's people.
These things surely constitute the real prosperity of the
church. And if wc find that the Foreign Mission work
directly stimulates and promotes these blessed ends in a
manner and a measure not otherwise attained, we must, I
think, acknowledge that in that work lies an element essential
to the true prosperity of the flock of Christ. I shall endeavor,
then, in this paper to show that engagement in that work
contributes essentially and directly to the furtherance of these
ends.

T. It leads to unity of jnu-posc with God. Whatever our
various views of the purport of unfulfilled jirophecy, I believe
that all earnest students of Moly Writ are agreed that the

clisiK'nsalion .inder wliith \vc live is tlivincly iiitcndvd t<> he
one of j^reat hlessiiiL;- to the whole world. Unlike the earlier
and loi-a1 economies, it is mil to he eontined as a channel of
spiritual i)encrit to place or race. The Saviour, whose i;race
and ^-oodness are its central truth and teachin.LC, is to he a
li,;;ht to lighten the Gentiles no less than the j,,d"0' "f Israel.
The Sun of Rij^htcousncss is, indeed, to rise upon Judea's
purple hills, hut his far extendini;- meridian s])lendors nor
Lehanon, nor snowy Ilermon shall confine. His way is to
hecome known ui)on earth his saving health among all nations.
The one grand and gracious intent of the Father's gift and
the Saviour's suffering and sacrifice that Messiah's beneficent
sway may extend to every sin-stricken shore — tliat the heathen
may become His inheritance, earth's utm(;st parts His pos-
session.

Now, the work of Missions, directed immediately it may
be, to the sins, sorrows and degradations of myriads, ulti-
mately aims at this glory and triumph of the Divine Saviour.
It not only expands the heart with the noblest philanthropy
but elevates it with the loftiest of aims. It does not mean
merely sound UKjrality for Chinese Confucians, nor true
knowledge for Indian philosophers, nor true worship for Afri-
can felichists, n<M- settled civilization for America's roving
braves, nor brotherly affection among New Zealand savages,
— although it means all this. Divi.. : wisdoiu antl goodness
have inseparably woven each and e\ery of these beneficent
results into the mission work. But its truest end lies beyond,
its supremest aim far above all these things. Intelligently
entered on it lifts man's will to the jjlane of the Divine. It
exalts his intentions to the level of God's volitions. It makes
his aims run parallel with those of the merciful Saviour. In
intent or extent he l)ecomes satisfied with nothing lesser,
nothing lower than that which the word and the will of Gf)d
holdout before him, the glory of Christ in the blessing of
earth's farthest tribes. Thus his purposes are led to flow in
the channel of the Divine purposes, to issue ultimately in the
ocean of the Divine glory.

Now blot out the mission work from the hearts of Christian

men. Let each church he content with lookinpj after its own
immecUatc interests; and who ilocs not see that the harmony
between the liearts (if we may so si)eal<) of God and of His
people is destroyed ? The aims of the Master aiul the ser-
vants (hffer. Tile eternal will and purpose are crossed by the
selfishness of man. And while this disharmony continues, it
is difficult to comprehend how prosi)erity of churches or
Christians can be.

The church's f^ait-r of coNSL-ii'iicc must larj;ely depend on
her active en,;4ai;ement in mission work.

Ik'ar in mind that the reference here is not to home mis-
sions. They may well be i"ei;arded as the lowest duty of a
Christian church. " If any provide not for his own, and
especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith
and is worse than an infidel."

Hut the question before us is concerning a wider claim.
Not only has the Lord revealed His etei-nal purpose to bless
the ivorld with the knowledj;e of Christ, it has [/leased Him
also to invite, nay, more, to command the co-()i)eration of His
people to that end. J lis church, while niakini; it her primary
care to build herself up in faith and purity as a structure of
livinjj; stones, acceptable to Him, is also bidden to extend her
boundaries and never cease until she has occupied the whole
world in her Lord's name. The great command, so familiar,
and yet so little laid to heart, addressed by Christ to His
Apostles on the eve of His ascension, will not cease to be in
force until its object has been fully accomplished. 1 lis words,
" Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature," will stand on the great Statutt; Hook as the expres-
sion of His will to all the whole church on earth to the end
of time ; for the promise annexed to it stretches on from the
days of the Apostles' labors through all succeeding ages —
" Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
And the commission directly entrusted to St. Paul by his
Divine Master was significant of more than the work of any
one man's life, as it was also a reiteration of the will of (jod
regarding the duty of the Christian to the heathen : '' Rise
and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for

IN'

>.'

tliis purpose; to make thcc a minister and a witness both of
llu'sc things which thou hast seen, and of tliose things in
the which I appear unto thee ; delivering; thee from the people,
and from the (lentilcs, unto whom 1 now send thee, to open
their eyes and to turn them from ilarkness unto li-ht, and
from the i)owerof Satan unto (lod. that they may receive for-
giveness of sins and inheritance amon<; thi.'m which arc sanc-
tified by faith which is in Mc." A direction thus i^iven to
his whole subsequent life, I'aul ever after felt himself debtor,
both to the (ireeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and
the unwise; and the like debt will rest ui)on the Christian
Church until il is fully paid.*

'ri:jre can be no (|uestion, then, but that the will ol the
Lord in this matter has been clearly revealed.

It is equally plain that His Church to-day is sufficiently
coi;ni/.ant of the fact of its bearing; on direct duty. Not al-
ways was it thus. There was a time, removed from us by the
space of only three or four ^^^enerations, when the Church of
Christ seemed not awake to the practical bearin^^ of these
<'-reat commands. Missionaries had indeed gone forth earlier
to seek the heathen. Hut their work was mostly individual
and isolateil. They were solitary stars in a midnight sky.
On the Church of those days it had not dawned that the
Loixl's " Cireat Commission " referred to a work practicable
in their age, and urged a practical and present duty.

When, in i ;<S9, the celebrated William Carey, then in the
opening of his great career, rose up in a gathering of Ha|)tist
ministers, at Northampton, to propose as a subject for cler-
ical discussion, " The duty of the Christian Church to attempt
the evangelization of the heathen," an old, and, wc may add,
a piotts divine, sprang to his feet and thundered out " young
man, sit down ! when God pleases to convert the heathen, he
will do it without your aid or mine." In 1796 the proposition
to establish a foreign mission was treated by the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland as " an unnatural and
revolutionary design."! And the feeling of our own Church
* Charge ol" tlic .\rchdcacon of Worcester.
t Anderson's •• Foreign Missions."

in the mnttcr may l)e inferred from the fact that, previous to
the jiresent century, no Knjjjlish clergyman had ever beci^
sent out as a missionary to the heathen.

Now all this is changed. The command to ])reach the
Gospel to e\ery creature under hea\en is acknowledged to
refer to present and pressing duty. And it cannot be neg-
lected without sin. In times of men's ignorance God winked
at this neglect. Hut now ikm' churcli nor churchman can
possess God's peace or enjoy a comfortable ho])e of heaven,
while from love of ease or greed of gain doing little or naught
to extend Christ's kingdom. " Such a course might liave
been safe in the davs of Baxter and Ken, or in the days )f
our grandfathers," but it would be ruinous to all inner peace
now. The mission work, then, contributes essentiallv to the
maintenance of that peace with God. which can be found only
in the discharge of acknowledged dut)'.

III. Turn we now in the tiiird place to that side of the
Church's ])rosperity whicli consists in the stimulation and de-
velopment of the Christian life in the Church itself. Not
unduly to extend the limits of this paper, I would ask yon
simply to note 1m, w largely this work has quickened in the
ChurcJi that trinity of Christian gract^ — "faith, hope, and
charityy

I. It has greatly strengthened ouv faith in the supci-
natural orig'n and trutb of our religion. With the first con-
quests of the Gosp J tha'. earliest Missionary Record, the book
of the Acts, has made us familiar. In the hands of Apostles
and apostolic men we have seen tiie Word victorious in manv
a conflict with Jewish Ecclesiasticism, Greek philosopliy and
Roman power, unti^ in a few generations it plarited the
peaceable banner of Christ ui)on the imperial throne of the
Ca'sars.

But for centuries this mighty weapon remained well-nigh
unused. And at the outset of this later era of missionary ef-
fort, doubtless many a heart, both of those who went forth
and those who by prayers and gifts and s)-mpathy strength-
ened their hands in God, must have asked at times, — espe-
cially m the long delays which accompanied tiie infancy of

,>*

some of the missions—" Shall the Gospel pn.ve a power as
mi<^hty, shall it wield an influenee as universal, as in the clays
of old?" Thank (}()d seventy years of missionarv travail
have settled that question. Jt is estimated bv thcKse most
competent to jud-e. that at the rlosc of the first Christian cen-
tury ]iot more than one millj. a souls acknowled-^ed the Chris-
tian name. The one million three hundred thousand won
durinc; the present age from heathen darkness to Christian
h-ht and life, out of almost every nation under heaven, the
many marvellous Gospel triumphs in Sierra Leone and Mad-
agascar, in New Zealand. India and the Isles of the sea, prove
the universal adaptation of the Christian religion to the needs
and its mighty j^ower over the souls of men of e\ery tongue
and tribe.— And this is no small gain in a day when one
professor, learned in the ^\i.sd()m of this world, would
shear away the supernaturalness and universalitv which are
the glory of our faith, to lcu\e us Christianity simply a relig-
i<m among religions, while an(,ther not le.ss renowned is in-
viting us to substitute for the Gospel of atonement a gospel
of atoms.

Often when apixuently the work of God has stood still, the
Church at home has found her faith quickened by tidings of suc-
cess abroad, trust in the unfailing])ower of the Un.seen has been
deepened, and despondency has yielded to new kindling en-
ergies in the :\Iaster's cause. And the oneness of the relig-
ious exjKM-ience developed in men of every variety of raeo
and training, with that which the pastor and the piou'-.. Chris-
tian laborer meet in their home held powerfully tends to
the confirmation of our contulence in the reality'and divme
origin of the religion of Jesus Christ.

2. Once more— the mission work largely calls forth the
patience of hope. The history of many of the most successful
of modern missions is a story of labor drawn out through
years of discouraging and apparently useless effort. Take
as an exami)le the remarkable mission „f that remarkable
man. John ICvangelist Gossner, to the Kohls or devil-wor-
shippers of Chota Nagpore. In i .S45. he sent forth his labor-
ers with the simi)]e instructions, believe, love, hope, pray,

burn, waken the dead, hold fast by prayer, wrestle like Jacob.
Up, up, my brethren, the Lord is coming, and to every one
He will say, '• Where hast thou left the souls of those hea-
then ? Oh! swiftly seek these souls and enter not without
them into the presence of the Lord." Yet though going forth
in a spirit truly apostolic their work long seemed in vain.
Death thinned their slender ranks. Their schools had a
struggle to exist. Did they set out to preach the Gospel in
the villages around, the Kohls remained studiously away.
Not even could they be drawn to conversation on religious
things. Their prospects long continued of the gloomiest.
Yet through private sorrows and disappointed expectations
they held on. Without a visible sign of success, against t)r-
dinriry rules, against their own misgivings, for six long weary
years they hoped against hope. Then the Lord himself kin-
dled a fire before their eyes. It seized not only single souls
but spread from village to village. From every side the ques-
tion was borne to them, " What shall we do } " " How shall
we be saved.' " until, from that sowing in heartsick tears of
hope deferred has resulted a wondrous harvest. To-day
a thousand villages in that district are sanctified by the pres-
ence of Christian families where there is social and family
prayer, and where the elder converts are daily instructing the
younger in the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The same state of affairs accompanied the planting of the
Gospel in Tahiti, where, for well-nigh a score of years, the
missionaries labored without a single convert : and of New
Zealand where our own agents, un[)rotected ])y human arm
amid a population of ferocious cannibals, held on for eleven
years to gather one soul, and where five years more elapsed
before another was baptized. Similar the record of many a
mission whose later years have been as glorious as those
alread} noted.

Now, it is impossible to estimate the benefit conferred on
the church by the discipline enforced by these and kindred
causes. The shutting of doors once open, the sudden removal
of men of noblest promise, the declension of converts, the
stayin;'' of the work amid the first fruits of success. How all

these thin,c:s, thnnvinjj,- (iod's pcftple back on sure promises
and plain duty, have tried, and by tryin.i;-, strcno;thened their
patience and ch-awn out and exercised tlieir Christian hope,
we may not more larpjely relate.

Hut in connection with this point we must not fail to note
that, missions have thus quickened the church's vital breath.
These trials of ])atience have moved thousands to prayer.
I'he presence of sore disappointments and delayed hopes has
forced the church upon her knees. Great interests and ureat
needs, have led to j^reat searchings of heart and [jreat wrest-
lin;j:s like Jacob's. Thus life, earnestness, animation, have
been lent to t!ie intercessions of many a public assembly,
many a [jrivate cl )set. many a family altar. To take but two
illustrations. Who remembers the .Abyssinian war, will recall
the heartiness which it conferred upon the response to that
touchin.:^^ jK'tilion of our Litany: "That it may jilease Thee
to have pity upon all prisoners and captives." Then the an-
nually recurrinii; seasons of prayer for missions, now, let us
hope an established institution in our own and other churches
have larL;ely contributed to spiritual pros})erity. For a pray-
ing church is e\er a prospering church. That which culti-
vates a spirit of supplication is eminently helpful to the inner
liie. And to this great, dut)- the mission work confessedly
leads. It is not more a work of labor than of praver. Its
foundation was laid in pi-aycr. " Ask of Ale and I will give
Thee the heat!ien for Thine inheritance." When the harvest
agency is lacking- we are to "pray the Lord of the Harvest."
And when in distant climes the work stands still though
earnest laborers preach and [)lead, we must cry " Come forth
(J ! breath I "

3. The mission work not only confirms faith, and strength-
ens hope, it largely increases the charity of the Church.

It widens and deepens our sympathies as nothing else
can ; realizing in the highest sense the old heathen saying
" nihil humanem alienum a me putc* " Side by side it draws
out zeal for Cod anil lo\-e to man. Raising us out of national
isolation, it bring;s us to regard men of all races and tribes as
brethren made of one blood, offsprings (jf one great Father,

redeemed h}' ihe death of or.e jirecious Saviour. It woukl
be<;et in us a charity, which, overleapinj;' the narrow barriers
of tongue, C()h)r, clime, sliall embrace in its enlarged sympa-
thy, the embruted negro, tlie proud Brahmin, the South Sea
cannibal, the stolid Indian — men of all grades of civilization
and culture, and engage for them lo\ing efforts and earnest
prayers. ICspecially does it enlist our profound compassions
for the social degradation of her, whose redeemed position
encircled with all the attributes of lo\ing regard as maiden,
wife, and mother, sheds such a tentler grace over our modern
Christian society.

But more, this mission work elicit and cultivates our re-
spectful affection for those of other churches who are fellow-
laborers in tills great undertaking, enlarging thus the com-
munion of the saints. Wc cannot close our eyes to the great
and good work which Christians of other name's ha\e been
enabled under (iod to do. Tlie histoi'v of missions is n stand-
ing rebuke to that spirit which refuses to sei? the Church of
Christ outside its own narrow shell. Neither great missions
nor great missionaries are the exclusixe property of any one
branch of the church. In the distribution of missionary zeal
and success the great I lead of the Church di\'ideth unt(~> eacli
severally as He will. Accordingly we tlnd that in Madagas-
car He has especially prospered the Congregationalists, in
Asia Minor, the Presbyterians, in J^^iji the Wesleyan, in .Sierra
Leone and New Zealand, the Church of England. And turn-
ing to that which is the great common ground of missionary
toil, we find by the testimony of Bishoji Cotton of Calcutta,
that " the most cons])icuous triumphs of the (iospel in India
are those of our own Church in Tinnevelly, of the Lvtheran
Pastor Gossner in Chota Nagpore, of Judson and Ills Amer-
ican brethi-en among the Karensin Burmah." Gather the
names of those eminent for missionary zeal, devotion and
success, — Mans Egede, Christian David, ICliot l^rainerd,
Schwartz, Carey, Morrisen, Martyn, Alarsdeu, Moffatt, Wil-
liams, Duff, Pattesen, Li\'ingstone — and vou ha\'e a list
equally Catholic. And shall we "forbid" these other breth-
ren ? Shall we retrard their labors with cold indifference ?

1:J

Shall \vc wish tlicir work iiiidonc ? Have we learned noth-
in<;- from them? Have we not been stirred by their example?
Has not their brotherly intereoursc cheered, and their holy
zeal profited our lirethren in far off lands? Can we do otlier-
wise than wish them God speed, ami sa\', " Though ye fol-
low not with us, the Lord prosper yini, we wish you good
luck i]i tile name of the Lord."*

lUit tlici-e is another sense in which the l-'oreiifn Mission
work has essentially enlarc;"ed tlie Church's charity. I mean
in the sense of bountifulness. In the year 1790, il may fairly
be estimated that the ii;ifts of i^n^-lish Christians toward the
evangelization of the heathen world would not n-ach 550,000
To-da\' thev exceed SS, 000,000 annualh'. True tliis is not a
titiu.' of wliat it sliould be, considering the vastncss of the
nation's wealtli and the mournful fact that yeail}' slie scpian-
deis on intoxicating di-inks $350,000,000, a sum ecpial to tlie
whole revenue of the em]iire. 'Die contributions to the mis-
sion work reiiresent but a ' few sweepings of tlie peoples'
gold dust." But they exhibit a grand advance upon tlie in
significant gifts of eighty years ago. And the rej)ort.s of our
great missionar)' societies reveal tlie hopeful fact that the
missionary cause has develojicd and niu-tiu-ed in men of
wealth and sons of toil, in all classes of society and all ages,
the grace of Christian bountifulness.

Thus we have seen the Church internally cpiickened and
prospered b\' the rcHex influence of r\)reign Missions. lUit
while our contention lias Ik'cu tiiat this was the direct and
primary influence of the work, we are far from holding that
it ceased here.

Naturalh' and necessarily it went on to produce outward
prosperity in the home cliurch. ivxternaily as internally ' he
that watered was watered also himself." The history of our
now numerous societies for church woxV shows thus. The
very dates of these institutions have a marked significance
Putting aside the Society for the Promotion of Christian
Knowledge, founded in the latter part of the i/th, and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gosi:)el, at the beginning of
* I's. cxxix. <S Prater Hook X'ersion.

the 1 8th centuries, the Church Missionary Society dates from
1799, the Society for Promotinj:,^ Christianity amon<2^ the
Jews, 1809, Church liuildinfj Society. 181 i, I'astoral Aid
Society, 1836, Additional Curates Society, 1837. -^^'ifl now in
the hst the societies and the contributions for the home work
greatly predominate.*

And if any still doubts the essential connection between
mission work and the C'hurch's welfare, let him compare the
low state of our own Church before she entered upon that
work, with her present prosperity, l^y the very jnitting forth
of her energies to bless the outside world, her own vitality
was increased, and every bounding pulse of life was quickened
in her veins. Thus has the weary traveller an^d Arctic
snows reanimated his own stiffening frame in reviving a per-
ishing brother.

* Canon Miller's sermon before the Islin";ton Clerical Meetiner.