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 THE INFLUENCE OF MISSIONS 
 
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 PEOPLE AND NATIONS: 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 PKEACHEO BY THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SYNOD OF NASHVILLE, AT THEIR 
 MEETING IN THE CITY OF NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 4tH, 1854, 
 
 BT REV. WILLIAM H. MITCHELL. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF SYNOD. 
 
 . 4 
 
 NASHVILLE: 
 
 J. F. MORGAN, FINE JOB AND BOOK PRINTER. 
 
 18 54 . 
 

SERMON. 
 
 
 Isaiah xxxv: i. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
 glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. 
 
 Under the figure of n desert covered with vegetation 
 and adorned with flowers, we have, in the text, a prediction 
 of the vocation of the Gentiles, and of the glorious 
 * triumphs of the Christian dispensation. Long, indeed, did 
 the nations remain as a bleak and barren desert, without 
 any blossoms of piety or fruits of holiness; but when 
 God’s own Son died on the cross, “ the just for the 
 unjust,” the wilderness and solitary place were made glad. 
 
 We use the passage to describe the success of Missions. 
 The grand object of Missions is the conversion to God of 
 a world lying in wickedness. This idea should never be 
 overlooked — never be forgotten. In prosecuting the work 
 to this object, every other must be esteemed subordinate. 
 But, whilst this is true, we think the secular and secondary 
 benefits of Missions are so great and important as to 
 deserve at least an occasional consideration. On this point 
 comparatively little has been written or spoken. Some of 
 these collateral advantages and blessings we intend to dis- 
 cuss in this discourse. 
 
4 
 
 It is true, as it is trite, that this is an age of progress. 
 Silently it may be, but resistlessly onward and onward is 
 man advancing. Past attainments inspire yet more earnest 
 efforts after higher achievements. But although the forces 
 of nature have been impressed and enlisted in the service 
 of man ; although the circumference of knowledge has 
 been enlarged, and each segment of the circle more thor- 
 oughly mastered ; although the fact is patent before every 
 observant eye, that, from the garden of science planted by 
 our ancesi^rs, we are gathering richer clusters of mellow 
 fruit than the ancients in their dreams of the Ilesperides 
 ever painted ; and although the area of freedom has been 
 increased and the domain of despotism diminished — it is a 
 deplorable fact, that there are multitudes of men and 
 women sunk deep, very deep, in the mire of ignorance and 
 idolatry ; on whose benighted minds neither the star of 
 civilization nor of science dawns ; on whose hearts the 
 refulgent beams of Christianity have not risen. 
 
 Yon will admit, then, it is a very grave and momentous 
 question — a question which must interest every patriot 
 and philanthropist — by what lever-power shall these mil- 
 lions be raised from the slough of barbarism and moral 
 degradation, and placed on the rock of civil and religious 
 liberty ? To this interrogatory w'e reply, that to civilize 
 the savage nations of the earth, to enlighten and polish the 
 untutored heathen, the dissemination of the Christian 
 religion is incomparably the best instrumentality. 
 
 By civilization we understand,* “ the conversion or trans- 
 formation of a country or people from a savage or barba- 
 rous state, into a state formed by a due regard to the prin- 
 ciples and obligations, the habits and manners of social life, 
 
 Tl.eese’s Etcvclop. 
 
5 
 
 by the means of mental and moral instruction, salutiiry 
 laws, and regular government.” 
 
 When we survey man in his highest relations, as an 
 intelligent, intellectual creature, exalted above the beasts 
 that perish, created in the image of his Maker, endowed 
 with an immortal soul, accountable for his thoughts, words 
 and actions to the tribunal of Jehovah — we shall at once 
 arrive at the conclusion, that right notions of the duties he 
 owes to God and his fellow-man lie at the very foundation 
 both of individual and national advancement. Incorrect 
 views, either of the relation in which we stand to God or 
 man, must operate injuriously on our S3'stem of ethics; and 
 an erroneous morality must necessarily be detrimental to a 
 nation’s true prosperity and refinement. But has the 
 nation ever existed which understood and discharged the 
 duties it owed to God and man, without a knowledge of 
 the Christian religion ? 
 
 Shall W’e direct your attention to the great Assyrian 
 power — to Babylon — to Media — Persia — Egypt ? These 
 godless nations have all vanished, leaving us in their ruins 
 the monuments of their former grandeur. 
 
 If we examine the history of Borne we shall find, that 
 during her different governments, of kings, and consuls, 
 and decemvirs, and dictators, and even during the reign of 
 Augustus the demi-god — the leading features of the Roman 
 conquerors, taken as a wdiole, were an insatiable thirst for 
 renown, and an enthusiastic love of national fame. But, 
 as a people, they were ignorant, superstitious and profligate. 
 They had no deep reverence for truth, no indomitable love 
 of justice and equity, no irrepressible desire to civilize and 
 elevate the human family. To establish on a solid basis 
 the individual rights of man ; to raise the masses to their 
 proper level in the scale of social and political existence; to 
 give freedom of thought and freedom of action to the people, 
 
c 
 
 were not the grand conceptions of the Roman goremment. 
 And what became of their golden Capitol with its brazen 
 gates, their splendid p»antheon with its marble walls ; their 
 gorgeous temples, their triumphal arches, their forum, their 
 pillars and porticos ? What became of these monuments 
 of Roman grandeur and valor and victory ? They were 
 trodden down and trampled in the dust by Visi-Goths and 
 Vandals, Huns and Heruli. And a night — a dart, dark 
 night — of indolence and ignorance fell on the mighty 
 nation whose brilliant exploits dazzled the dauntless and 
 terrified the timid. 
 
 A glance at Greece will not lead us to a different con- 
 clusion. In the days of Alexander, she laid claims to 
 unparalleled wisdom and invincible valor; and w'as justly 
 regarded as the most cultivated country in the world. But 
 any close observer of their history may perceive that the 
 rulers who imposed wholesome restnctions on their lawless 
 passions, soon sunk into disrepute and forfeited the favor 
 of the populace, whilst those who permitted them to give 
 free scope to their vile sensuality and unbridled appetites, 
 were lauded to the skies as the true patrons of liberty. 
 
 What the common people sought w'as not a republican 
 government, with proper checks and balances, but a lawless 
 democracy. Their aspirations were for freedom from res- 
 traint, and to be allowed to pursue, with blind frenzy, their 
 own licentious impulses, caprices and passions. Their 
 civilization was municipal, not grasping the idea of the 
 power of personal existence, and energ}g and responsibility ; 
 and was incapable of developing the faculties of the indi- 
 vidual man. The mild and social virtues were never 
 assiduously cultivated. Avarice, briber}' and corruption 
 abounded. Tliere is scarce a black and foul excrescence on 
 the loathsome carcass of sin that was not found in exuber- 
 ance in Athens. The impure Wythology of Greece ; the 
 
7 
 
 * 
 
 libidinous legends and the unblushing allusions of their 
 purest writers to the most revolting vices — all go to prove 
 how deep was their moral degradation, and how very far 
 they were from having attained a high state of civilization 
 and refinement. 
 
 And where are now her Attic fountains distilling waters 
 of poetic inspiration ? Where her fragrant groves and 
 magnificent temples ? Where is the glory of her Parthe- 
 non, the pride of her brave sons and beautiful daughters, 
 and the wonder of their posterity ? Where is the mother 
 of eloquence, the cradle of song, the home of the Muses ? 
 Where are the men of might who once dwelt within the 
 walls of Athens? Where is the voice of genius which was 
 wont to sway her “ fierce democracy,” and make the Athe- 
 nian bosom glow afresh with national enthusiasm ? Her 
 deserted groves, her dilapidated temples and mouldering 
 columns, afford a most melancholy illustration of the insta- 
 bility of human governments established on the sliding 
 quicksands of idolatry and polytheism. Says a beautiful 
 writer : Had the vale of Tempo been the garden of 
 
 Gethsemane, had Olympus been Calvary, and had the 
 ambiguous responses of the Delphic Oracle been the sure 
 testimony of the Word of God, then had not the swaddling 
 clothes that wrapped her infant liberty so soon have proved 
 its winding sheet.” 
 
 The history, both of Greece and Home, affords proof, we 
 think, of the fact, that reason may rise to the zenith, 
 whilst virtue and morality may at the same time sink to 
 the nadir. 
 
 II. Let us, in the second place, briefly advert to the 
 superior adaptation of the Christian religion to civilize, and 
 in the highest degree refine the barbarous and benighted 
 nations of the earth; and to prepare them for the enjoy- 
 ment of civil and religious libert}% 
 
One of its leading doctrines is, that man is accountable 
 for his conduct to a holy God, at whose judgment bar we 
 must all appear. 
 
 We are taught that Ilis All-seeing eye blazes on the 
 inmost soul, and that its every conception, virtuous or 
 vicious, is naked and open before Him. The concentration 
 of all the religious feelings and emotions on one great, 
 powerful and perfect Object, must necessarily produce a 
 most salutary impression on the moral sentiment of any 
 nation or people. 
 
 Again, it shows its adaptation to elevate man’s social 
 and civil condition when it makes the announcement, that 
 we have all one Father, and one God created us.” 
 
 Let the people feel that there is one common ground 
 which all may occupy, without regard to adventitious cir- 
 cumstances, and you inspire all classes with confidence ; 
 you give stability to the institutions of the country, and 
 you impart peace, contentment and happiness to its citi- 
 zens. And just such a platform does Christianity present 
 wdien it proclaims that — “ God has made of one blood all 
 nations : ” that W'e have one common Father, and are all 
 members of the same great family. 
 
 Another of its foundation principles is — Love. It incul- 
 cates the most enlarged charity — the noblest philanthropy. 
 We are commanded to love the Lord with all our hearts, and 
 our neighbors as ourselves. “ Love worketh no ill to his 
 neighbor ; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” The 
 conspicuous display of God’s love to man in the gift of His 
 Sou, requiring man’s love to God in return, is the flowing 
 fountain from which all the pure streams of charity do 
 emanate. Engraft this principle on the heart of any people, 
 and, in proportion to its growth, will proud domination and 
 lordly oppression hide their diminished’ heads. 
 
 Christianity, moreover, possesses a marvellous compre- 
 
9 
 
 hensiveness. It prescribes, and most powerfully and per- 
 suasively inculcates, the relative duties which wo owe to 
 each other, to our families and to our country. 
 
 Upon each and all temperance, honesty, punctuality, 
 hospitality and courtesy are enjoined. The rich are told 
 that to despise the poor is to reflect on God : “ Whoso 
 
 mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker.” They are com- 
 manded to be “ ready to distribute and willing to commu- 
 nicate ” to the needy. And the poor are exhorted to be 
 contented with their condition. It comes with its kindly 
 admonitions into the family, and charges husbands to love 
 their wives as their own bodies, and wives to submit to their 
 own husbands as unto God ; parents not to provoke their 
 children to wrath, and to train them up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord; children to love their parents and to 
 obey them in the Lord ; masters it commands to give 
 to their servants things just and equal, and to forbear 
 threatening, knowing that their master is in heaven ; ser- 
 vants to count their masters worthy of all honor, obedient 
 in all things, not answering again, not purloining their 
 goods, not eye servants, faithful in all things, and to per- 
 form all their service under the eye and in the fear of God. 
 It speaks with authoritative voice to the patriot, and orders 
 him to render unto all their dues — honor to whom honor is 
 due — to obey the laws of his country, to respect and pray 
 for magistrates, remembering that civil government is 
 God’s ordinance. It recognizes no “higher law.” To 
 magistrates it issues its mandate from the King of heaven, 
 to wield the power with which, under God, they are invested, 
 for the punishment of vice and for the promotion of virtue. 
 
 Now we enquire, is it possible to conceive or devise any 
 code of laws so well adapted to civilize, cultivate and dig- 
 nify man as a social creature — so admirably calculated to 
 develop his mental and moral powers, as are the precepts of 
 
10 
 
 Christianity ? How vast, how incalculable the benefits and 
 advantages which would accrue to mankind, if they swayed 
 the minds and regulated the conduct of the millions who 
 now sit in heathen darkness, the abject slaves of supersti- 
 tion and idolatry ! 
 
 Vt here amongst the writings of sages, or philosophers, or 
 jurists, can the legislator find such correct principles for 
 the ground work of legislation ? Where can the masses 
 find such wholesome admonitions — inducing them on the 
 one hand to entertain a high respect for law and order, and 
 on the other, to repudiate the idea of slavish cringiug to 
 unrighteous power ? 
 
 Such teachings of charity, honesty, benevolence and 
 beneficence ; such sound philosophy, pure morality, mag- 
 nanimous philanthropy as are found in the Gospel of Christ 
 are, unquestionably, opposed to ignorance, selfishness and 
 licentiousness — to every species of injustice, fraud and 
 peculation. Where such principles prevail, man will not 
 attempt to usurp the rights of his fellow-man, or trample 
 on the privileges of his neighbor. No : under its benign 
 influence the rights of the poor man in his log shanty shall 
 be respected and protected, as well as those of the rich 
 man in his splendid mansion. Let the principles of our 
 holy religion spread and flourish, and they shall become 
 the best palladium of individual rights, and the peaceful 
 panoply of civil liberty. “ The religion,” says De Tocque- 
 ville, which declares that all are equal in the sight of God, 
 will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in 
 the eyes of the law.” The precepts of Christianity sweep 
 away the distinctions of caste, which are the greatest barrier 
 to the civilization and evangelization of myriads of heathen. 
 The glorious Gospel of Christ neither pampem nor fosters 
 hereditary privileges. It prostrates the proud pretensions 
 of the few who would lord it over the many. It checks 
 
11 
 
 the haughty assumption of the great — it prevents the ser- 
 vile submission of the lowly. It raises to their proper 
 position the poor and penniless populace. It tells them 
 they have rights — heaven-constituted rights and immuni- 
 ties — which appertain to them as creatures of the same 
 Creator and the progeny of the same progenitor ; rights 
 which riches do not confer, and which power must not 
 alienate. It proclaims to the prince on his throue, that 
 the beggar at his gate is his brother. 
 
 So broad and expansive are the principles of Christianity, 
 that there is no man so exalted as to be beyond their con- 
 trol — none so despicable as to be below their influence. 
 They extend to the degraded inhabitants of Greenland, as 
 well as to the citizens of proud Britain ; to the benighted 
 African, as well as to the enlightened American. Compared 
 with the glorious privileges which the Gospel bestows, how 
 insignificant and absurd appear the escutcheons of a titled 
 aristocracy — their^inctures of argent, and azure, and san- 
 guine, and sable ; their bucklers and banners; their mitres 
 and mantlings ! The man who loves and fears the Lord 
 has graven on his heart the heraldry of the court of 
 heaven. He belongs to the commonwealth of Israel. He 
 is a fellow-citizen Avith the saints and of the household of 
 God. He is a joint heir with Jehovah’s Son. He shall 
 occupy a throue, and through the cycles of eternity wear 
 a glorious crown. 
 
 These vieAvs have been fully sustained by the ablest 
 statesmen and the most learned jurists. 
 
 “The history of Europe,” says Chancellor Kent in his 
 Commentary, “ during the earlier periods of modern history, 
 abounds with interesting and strong cases to shoAV the 
 authority of revelation oA’er turbulent princes and fierce 
 warriors, and the effect of that authority in meliorating 
 manners, checking violence, and introducing a s}'stem of 
 monfls which inculcated peace, moderation and justice.” 
 
12 
 
 The eminent judge, Sir Allen Park, said : ‘‘ We live in 
 
 the midst of blessings till we are utterly insensible to their 
 greatness, and of our civilization, our arts, our freedom, our 
 laws, and forget entirely how much is due to Christianity. 
 Blot Christianity out of the pages of man’s history, and 
 
 what would his laws have been — what his civilization? 
 
 Not a law that does not owe its truth and gentleness to 
 Christianity — not a custom which cannot be traced in all 
 its holy, healthful parts to the Gospel.” 
 
 The illustrious Montesquieu, whom Burke characterizes 
 as a man “ with Herculean robustness of mind,” in his 
 Spirit of Laws, remarks : “ The principles of Christianity 
 
 deeply engraven upon the heart, would be infinitely more 
 powerful than the false honor of monarchies, the human 
 virtue of republics, and the servile fear of dqpotic states.” 
 And, in his oration on the occasion of laying the corner 
 stone of the extension of the Capitol, our own Webster said: 
 Let the religious element in man’s nature be neglected; let 
 him be iutluenced by no higher motives than low self-interest 
 and subject to no other restraint than the civil authority, 
 and he becomes the creature of selfish passions and base 
 fanaticism. On the other hand, the cultivation of religious 
 sentiment represses licentiousness, incites to general benev- 
 olence, and a practical acknowledgement of the brotherhood 
 of man, inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength 
 to the whole social fabric, at the same time that it conducts 
 the human soul upward to the author of its being.” 
 
 And, after all our advantages as a people, after our large, 
 extensive and satisfactory experiment of self-govornment, 
 tear up the Bible, the magna charta of American liberty, 
 make bonfires of the Book of God, raze to their founda- 
 tions, in every city and town and hamlet, the houses dedi- 
 cated to the service of Jehovah, seal the tongues and close 
 the lips of the ambassadors of Christ, let the cause of the 
 
13 
 
 Redeemer be no longer advocated, let the name of Jesus 
 be no longer heard on the lips of our fathers, our states- 
 men and governors, and what, with all our boasted civiliza- 
 tion and refinement, would be the result ? The hand of 
 despotism would scotch the wheels of the car of freedom, 
 anarchy would take the place of order, vice would usurp 
 the throne of virtue, the potentate of revolted angels would 
 become the prince of rebel man,'’and our country would be- 
 come a wide field of radicalism and lawless oppression, of 
 bloodshed and rapine. Exclude the Gospel from these 
 United States, and soon, by the morbid dili^ation of the 
 artery of democracy, shall there be formed on the aorta of 
 the body politic, a tumor which, whilst it enlarges, shall 
 close up the healthful channels through w'hich flows the 
 life-blood of liberty. 
 
 De Tocqueville, in his work on the Democracy of Amer- 
 ica, says : “ It is easy to show how' much the success of 
 
 the democratic republic in the United States is due to the 
 
 religious feeling of the people. As long as Americans 
 
 shall preserve the severity of their moral conduct, they will 
 presence the democratic republic.” 
 
 The immortal Washington, on resigning the Presidency, 
 said : “ Reason and experience forbid us to expect that 
 
 morality or political prosperity can prevail in exclusion of 
 religious principle.’’ And the honorable Simon Greenleaf, 
 one of the ablest jurists our country has produced, re- 
 marked : “Amid the fluctuations to which all governments 
 
 are exposed, and especially ours, with a population many of 
 whom are unaccustomed to liberty, and but faintly imbued 
 with Bible truths, the Word of God is the only anchor of 
 safety. In proportion as men feel the restraints of religion 
 derived from this source, the coercion of government be- 
 comes less necessary, and liberty may be more fully 
 enjoyed. Men may be permitted to do as they please. 
 
14 
 
 only so far as they are pleased to govern themselves by the 
 precepts of Christianity. If we would extend the blessings 
 of free government to other nations, it is the Bible alone 
 that can prepare them to receive it — the Bible opened wide 
 to the people by Protestant hands. For it is this alone 
 that exhibits the true and vital principle of free govern- 
 ment — I mean the inseparable union of liberty with law.” 
 
 III. We advance a step further. We proceed from the 
 probable to the actual. Having noticed what Christianity 
 is capable of doing, we shall attempt, in the third place, to 
 show what it has really accomplished. 
 
 We assume the position, that the history of Missions 
 affords a most cogent proof and convincing illustration of 
 the power of Christianity to civilize and polish the most 
 barbarous and benighted nations and people. 
 
 Take, for instance, the Sandwich Islands. Their early 
 history exhibits them as a people the most savage, degra- 
 ded and cruel — as a race of cannibals immolating to their 
 gods human victims, recklessly perpetrating the worst 
 crimes — incest, polygamy and murder. 
 
 In the year 1819, Bingham and Thurston took their 
 departure as missionaries to these Islands."*^ In six years 
 
 after thoir arrival, one of their princes might have been 
 seen making a tour through his dominion to enquire into 
 the moral state of his subjects, accompanied by a missionary 
 of the cross and a hundred followers — a sort of peripatetic 
 academy — carrying with them their spelling books and 
 slates, and the prince acting as a nursing father to the 
 infant church, exhorting his people and leading in their 
 prayer meetings. Within about eleven years after the 
 establishment of the Mission, spacious and costly churches 
 were erected, fifty thousand scholars were under the 
 
 *Sec Chowles on Missions ; also Bib. Eep., Vol. xx. p. 505, &c. 
 
15 
 
 influence of Christian teachers ; temperance societies were 
 constituted ; stringent laws were enacted and rigidly exe- 
 cuted against incest, polygamy and other flagrant vices to 
 which the natives were addicted; and prayer meetings were 
 regularly attended by thousands of mothers who had in 
 their younger days buried their offspring alive. In 1839, 
 during the great revival, nearly eleven thousand members 
 were added to the churches. In 1840, in these Islands 
 where the will of ignorant and cruel despots had been for 
 ages, the supreme law, and where the club and lance were 
 the instruments of its execution — a constitution was 
 adopted, in wliich the authority of the Word of God was 
 acknowledged, and protection guaranteed to all forms of 
 worship. The Islands were placed under four governors, 
 to whom were assigned their respective districts, and the 
 kings and chiefs, together with the representatives of the 
 people, were to form a General Assembly for legislation. 
 
 If we had no other illustration, is not the sketch which 
 we have just presented a sufficient proof of the correctness 
 of our position ? See the cloud of barbarism which so 
 long brooded over these beautiful Islands dissipated by the 
 bright beams of the Gospel ! Behold the blood-thirsty 
 warriors laying down their clubs — beating their spears into 
 pruning hooks, and sitting as disciples at the feet of the 
 missionaries of the cross ! See the loathsome anthro- 
 pophagi now the meek followers of the lowly Jesus ! Be- 
 hold their beautiful coral churches, erected at the cost of 
 tens of thousands of dollars, raising their domes to heaven 
 and crowded with devout worshippers ! Mark the aston- 
 ishing change in their social relations — prostitution pun- 
 ished, polygamy abolished, conjugal bands respected, chil- 
 dren educated, knowledge disseminated, arts cultivated, 
 temperance societies established, God’s sabbath consecrated, 
 serfs made citizens and enjoying the sweets of liberty, and 
 
16 
 
 say, is not Christianity the civilizer, refiner and elevator of 
 man ? 
 
 The history of Missions in New Zealand affords another 
 striking exemplification. When Mr. Leigh arrived the^e in 
 1822, the country was distracted by the most cruel and 
 sanguinary wars.* One of the chiefs to whom he was intro- 
 duced, boasted of having quaffed the blood of a rival chief- 
 tain, and one of their priests directed his attention to the 
 bones of a young woman wdiom he had killed for disobejing 
 his order, and given to his men, who had devoured her near 
 the place where the bones were strewed. 
 
 ‘‘God only knows,” says another Missionary, “what were 
 my feelings when I saw a human being laid at length, and 
 roasting between two logs which they had drawn together 
 for the purpose.” Female infanticide was not only com- 
 mon, but some of their respectable women spoke of it with 
 apparent satisfaction. And now their barbarous customs, 
 cruel rites and cannibalism are abolished, and in their stead 
 the humanizing and hallowed influences of Christianity 
 are felt. A minister who has lately returned from a tour 
 among them remarked at a Missionary meeting in Eng- 
 land : “ The New Zealanders are interesting, both as 
 
 Christians and as men,| and several of the chiefs with 
 whom I conversed, displayed great mental power and have 
 a fair share of religious knowledge.” “ The Islands of 
 New Zealand,”;|; says Sir George Grey, “ which no foreigner 
 could approach with safety, have become, ly the benign 
 influence of Christian Missionaries, tvithout the aid of arms, 
 or any other of the usual means by which barbarous countries 
 have been acquired, a valuable dependency of Great Britain^ 
 
 *Cliowles on Missions, Vol. 2, p. 185. 
 fPresbyterian, Aug. 19, 1854. 
 
 JIbid, Sept. 9, 1854. 
 
17 
 
 Do not such facts as these give a triumphant refutation 
 to the false philosophy which maintains “that to make 
 revelation precede civilization in the order of time, is no 
 less absurd than to pretend to unfold to a child the Prin- 
 cipia of Newton before he is made acquainted with the 
 letters of the alphabet ” ? 
 
 The influence of Missions in China presents, we think, 
 another illustration. In 1807 the first missionary arrived 
 in that mighty empire, among a people extremely vile and 
 disgustingly polluted — liars, thieves, polygamists and infant 
 killers. Seven years after his arrival, the New Testament 
 was translated, and two thousand copies printed. Soon, 
 numerous tracts and religious books were largely circulated. 
 
 About twenty-three years since, a young man of sixteen,"*" 
 remarkable for his talents and attainments,' while on a visit 
 at Canton, received a religious tract from “a man with large 
 sleeves and long beard.” The “Good Words Exhorting 
 the Age” were read by the lad and laid on his shelf. Four 
 years elapsed, and when convalescing after a severe illness, 
 the tract was re-read. Its truth filled the soul of Hung with 
 remorse for sin, and the heathen youth wrote : “ Besides 
 
 the God of heaven, there is no God. Our dependence is 
 on the full atonement of Jesus.’’ “ While he was musing, 
 the fire burned” He did not long hide the truth in his 
 heart. Like a true reformer, he proclaimed the precious 
 doctrine. It gained converts. Idolaters became icono- 
 clasts. Images were broken; false gods “cast to the 
 moles and bats.” The government apprehended danger. 
 The new religionists were arrested, persecuted, and two of 
 them in consequence died. The slumbering minds of the 
 celestials were awakened: apathy was exchanged for action. 
 Thousands sympathized, and ten thousand glittering swords 
 
 ♦See Biblic. Rep., Vol. sxyt. p. 321. 
 
18 
 
 were unsheathed. A revolution was commenced, and the 
 Tartan dynasty began to totter. And now hundreds of 
 thousands of strong men with stout hearts are marching 
 through the empire, accompanied by printers and printing 
 presses, striking off Bibles and religious books. This in- 
 vincible host are proclaiming their belief in the sovereignty 
 of the only living and true God, and their dependence on 
 His providence for every blessing ; recognizing the doctrines 
 of man’s depravity; their need of a mediator, and of the 
 influences of the Holy Spirit to change their wicked hearts. 
 Hundreds of thousands of men whose camps are Bethels, 
 whose officers are religious leaders of their respective com- 
 panies, hundreds of thousands of warriors, many of them — 
 like the soldiers of Cromwell — carrying their Bibles in their 
 bosoms, are banded together, avowedly, for the purpose of 
 extirpating the idolatry and superstitions of centuries, and 
 of exterminating despotism. Hosts of men are battling 
 for the cause of God and liberty. 
 
 And to what instrumentality is this wonderful revolution 
 and reformation, in the providence of God, to be traced ? 
 To the tract handed the young man in the streets of Can- 
 ton. In other words, to the vigilance of a Christian Mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 Let us for a few minutes turn our attention to India, 
 where, for forty centuries, idolatry and superstition, with all 
 their cruel and degrading accompaniments, held undisputed 
 dominion. 
 
 Not more than about thirty-three years have elapsed 
 since missions have been prosecuted with any degree of 
 efficiency in India. Let us look at what has been accom- 
 plished. The mtUe, which caused the annual immolation 
 of thirty thousand widows, has to a great extent been 
 abolished. Infanticide has been very considerably re- 
 pressed. Human sacrifices are by law prohibited, and an 
 
19 
 
 agency is established to snatch the unhappy victims from 
 such a terrible doom. The sanguinary association of 
 Thuggery has been eradicated, and thus the lives of thous- 
 ands have been saved. And, what every American citizen 
 will esteem no small advantage, all natives of India are 
 free to hold their own conscientious opinions in religion, 
 without fear of legal penalties.”* Add to this the immense 
 influence on national character of the translation of the 
 whole Bible into ten languages, and the New Testament 
 into five others ; the distribution of one hundred millions 
 of pages of Christian literature ; one hundred and twelve 
 thousand one hundred and ninety-one native Christians ; 
 one thousand eight hundred and twenty schools ; seventy- 
 three thousand five hundred and eighty-five Hindu children 
 receiving a Christian education ; and have you not an 
 overwhelming demonstration of the beneficial influence 
 which Christian Missions have exerted on the civil and 
 social condition of the degraded heathen ? 
 
 Contemplate for a moment an epitome of the whole 
 work. 0, it is enough to warm the bosom of the patriot, 
 fire the heart of the philanthropist, and thrill with delight 
 the soul of the Christian. Four thousand churches have 
 been established, two hundred and fifty thousand pagans 
 have renounced their idols, three thousand Missionary 
 Schools are in operation, two hundred and fifty thousand 
 scholars are receiving a Christian education, the Word of 
 God has been translated into two hundred dialects, and 
 thirty-two millions of Bibles have been distributed. 
 
 These are some of the statistics of a cause which scep- 
 ticism has pronounced a splendid failure. A failure, indeed ! 
 No : the success of Missions is one of the triumphs of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 *Calcutta Review, quoted in South’n Pres., Oct. 21, 1852. Home 
 and Foreign Rec., July, 1864. Lowrie’s Manual, pp. 89-54. 
 
20 
 
 " I see her toil, abroad, at home, 
 
 From tropic to the pole, 
 
 Wherever swells a pagan dome 
 Or weeps a human soul. 
 
 The sacred fane reflects her flight, 
 
 The soul to Christ is given ; 
 
 And where hung out the pall of night 
 Now cluster beams of heaven.” 
 
 The Banner of the Cross has been unfurled in every 
 quarter of the globe. It has been fanned by the gentle 
 zephyrs of the South, and rumpled by the ruffian blasts of 
 the blustering North, l^n the Baltic’s broad billow its en- 
 sanguined folds have been reflected. It has waved over 
 the snow-clad hut of the Greenlander, and fluttered in 
 triumph over the palace of the Eastern prince. In Africa, . 
 in India, in China, in the Islands of the South Sea, in the 
 deep recesses of our own forests — East and West, North 
 and South — around it have gathered hosts of faithful ad- 
 herents. 
 
 The self-denying heralds of Immanuel have not essayed 
 to satisfy their consciences by breathing a sickly senti- 
 mentalism, and whispering commis|eration for a world “sit- 
 ting in darkness and in the shadow of death,” in the ear 
 of old England, or of progressive Young America. Not 
 bribed by gold, nor enticed by the prospect of worldly 
 honor, not fascinated by the siren song of fame, not cheered 
 by the plaudits of the admiring multitudes, but actuated 
 by a sense of duty and animated by a desire to promote 
 God’s glory in endeavoring to save from ruin immortal 
 souls — they have exiled themselves from their native land 
 and estranged themselves from the firesides of their child- 
 hood and from the associates of their youth. With admi- 
 rable moral heroism, not a few of them have marched be- 
 yond the confines of Christendom, traversed the trackless 
 ocean, penetrated “ the dark places which were full of the 
 
21 
 
 habitations of cruelty,” endured the burning heat of the 
 tropics and breasted the chilling blasts of the polar regions. 
 Others of them, men of liberal education, men of decided 
 talents, men of the keenest and most delicate sensibilities, 
 have gone as pioneers of the Gospel into our distant States 
 and Territories. These domestic missionaries are enduring 
 hardness as good soldiers. Many of them are living on 
 small salaries and scanty fare, riding solitary and alone 
 over our immense prairies, wandering through our dense 
 and unpopulated forests, sleeping, occasional!}’', beneath the 
 shade and shelter of their spreading oaks, swimming creeks 
 and rivers, entering their pulpits with dripping garments, 
 and proclaiming God’s truth with shivering frames : toiling 
 and laboring and praying that sinners may see the error of 
 their ways and embrace the glorious gospel of the blessed 
 Savior. 
 
 And now, are we not, each and all, prepared to admit, 
 that this cause has weighty claims upon us — claims which 
 no Christian, nay, which no lover of the human family will 
 for a moment dispute — if we consider not only the great 
 work which has been performed, but also the wide field 
 which remains to be cultivated ? 
 
 Within the bounds of our own immense territory, con- 
 taining three and a-half millions of square miles, there are 
 one hundred and fort}'-six thousand Aborigines, a very 
 large majority of whom are ignorant, savage and degraded. 
 To these heathen at home, it is, undoubtedly, our duty to 
 send the Gospel. 
 
 Into California thousands of Chinese are j^migratiug, and 
 amongst them there are a few who, in their own land, em- 
 braced the religion of Christ. In San Francisco a Mission 
 house has been erected, a church organized, and a minister 
 acquainted with their language is laboring among theci 
 with an encouraging prospect of success. 
 
22 
 
 Besides these, there are myriads of men, women and 
 children flocking to our shores from every quarter of the 
 globe, many of whom are exceedingly ignorant, uneducated, 
 bigoted and superstitious. We bid them welcome. It is the 
 genius of our republican government to bid the stranger, 
 the homeless, the friendless welcome. Thank God, we have 
 room enough, work enough, food enough, a}^e, and freedom 
 enough for them all. But it is our privilege and our 
 bounden duty as Christians — as Presbyterians who believe 
 that the Bible is the bulwark of civil liberty, as well as 
 “ the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and 
 enjoy Him forever,” it is our duty — to provide for them 
 moral and religious instruction : to put the Word of God 
 into their hands and send the living missionary to their 
 homes. Do this — give these multitudes the Gospel of 
 Christ, impress its vital truths on their consciences and 
 and hearts, and you will accomplish more politically, as well 
 as morally, for our country than you could possibly achieve 
 by rigid municipal laws and vigilant city police, or by build- 
 ing court-houses, jails and penitentiaries. 
 
 But look abroad ; for charity, though she begins her 
 work at home, never finishes at her own fireside. Cast 
 your eye over the world. Array before your imagination 
 six hundred millions of pagans, one hundred and twenty 
 millions of Mahomedans, and five millions of Jews, living 
 without any well grounded hope of heaven through the 
 atoning blood of Christ, and are you not prepared, without 
 a moment’s hesitation, 'to admit that this great work of a 
 world’s evangelization has high and holy claims on us as 
 patriots, philanthropists and Christians ? 
 
 Further, this noble, God-like work has paramount claims 
 on us as Christians who profess to feel the love of Christ 
 constraining us, in view of its future career and glorious 
 destiny. 
 
23 
 
 The preaching of the cross of Christ is the grand instru- 
 mentality ordained by God for the reconciliation of a lost 
 world to His favor. In the Scriptures we read, that “ all 
 flesh shall see the salvation of God;” that “Christ shall 
 have the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for His possession ; ” that the king- 
 doms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord 
 and of His Christ.” 
 
 Brethren, the work of Missions is not an enterprise 
 to be prosecuted or abandoned at discretion. It is no work 
 of supererogation for the performance of which we may, as 
 a Church, accumulate a stock of merit. So intimately 
 blended, so interwoven its it wai*p and woof, with the fabric 
 of Christianity, that to refuse to co-operate is a virtual in- 
 fringement of the command of Christ, and a renunciation 
 of one of the great privileges of discipleship. Christianity 
 is the religion of man ; it is adapted to the wants of the 
 whole human family, and its object is to bring the nations 
 of the earth under the spiritual dominion of Christ, their 
 Sovereign Lord. It aims to unite continent to continent, 
 island to island, ocean to ocean, empire to empire, until all 
 the nations of the earth shall be gathered into one fold and 
 acknowledge one Shepherd. 
 
 It is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, 
 which shall smite the images of idolatry, and break in 
 pieces the false gods; and whilst the monstrous superstitions 
 of heathendom are scattered on the wings of the wind, like 
 the chaff of the summer threshing floors, the stone shall 
 roll on, roll on, still accumulating until it shall become a 
 great mountain and fill the globe. It is like the streamlet 
 which Ezekiel saw, bursting from beneath the threshhold 
 of the sanctuary, deepening and deepening its channel until 
 it became an unfordable river, and gave verdure to the 
 trees on its margin, healed the impurity of the streams vith 
 
24 
 
 which it commingled, and imparted new life to the creatures 
 by which it was inhabited. So, in like manner, shall the 
 Gospel — the river of life — flow on, deepening and widening 
 its channel until, with healthful power and restorative 
 energ}', it shall cover the waste and desolate places of the 
 earth, invest the wilderness with beauty, fructify the barren 
 desert, and cause it to blossom with the freshness and ver- 
 dure of Eden. 
 
 For the accomplishment of the glorious things spoken of 
 Zion, loant more men, and we loant more means. 
 
 The following resolution was adopted by the General 
 Assembly at its last meeting : 
 
 “ That the Assembly would recommend this whole sub- 
 ject of increase, both of missionaries and missionary 
 funds, to the careful and prayerful consideration of the 
 pastors and sessions of all our churches, that they may 
 adopt such measures as, in their judgment, will best secure 
 the attention, awaken the Christian sympathies, and call 
 forth the cheerful and liberal contributions of all the mem- 
 bers of their respective churches.” 
 
 From the golden hills of California we hear the Macedo- 
 nian cry, Send us more Missionaries. Through the gorges 
 of the Rocky Mountains, in tones of thunder, we hear it 
 repeated. Send us more Missionaries. From pagan India, 
 with its teeming myriads of idolaters, and from the Celes- 
 tial empire, with three hundred and sixty millions of im- 
 mortal souls, we hear the cry reiterated, Send us more Mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 What shall we do ? What answer shall we return ? 
 Shall the melancholy monotone proceed from the heart of 
 our Synod, We have no more men — no more means ? 
 
 0, no, brethren : no. Then what shall we do ? 
 
 First, we must pray the Lord of the harvest that he 
 may send forth more laborers, and that he may crown the 
 
25 
 
 labors of those who are now working in his vineyard, with 
 more abundant success. The great want of the Church is 
 m.ore prayer, more prayer for Missions, more prayer for the 
 advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom. Not a formal, 
 casual, incidental mention of Missions in the service of the 
 sanctuary on Sabbath mornings, but warm, ardent prayers 
 in view of the awful condition of a world lying in wicked- 
 ness. Fervent prayers uttered in the house of God and 
 preferred at the family altar in the hearing of our children, 
 that the Lord may take our Isaacs and Samuels and make 
 them ministers of Jesus; ardent prayers in our closets, 
 too, when none but God hears, that we may ourselves im- 
 bibe more of the spirit of our Master — more of a Mission- 
 ary spirit. Such prayers we need, from grateful, humble 
 hearts, in our pulpits, in our families, in our closets, that 
 the Lord will cause the influences of the Holy Ghost to 
 descend in copious, reviving showers on our fields of Mis- 
 sions ; cheering the drooping hearts of our beloved brethren 
 in their arduous and self-denying work, and permitting 
 them to behold the forest changed into a fruitful field. 
 
 Secondly : To carry on the Missionary enteri3rise vigor- 
 ously, we want more means. The beneficence of a Church, 
 or of an individual, has a direct and a reflex influence. 
 The witholding of a liberal portion of the goods with which 
 God has has blest us from His service is productive of a 
 two-fold evil. It retards the progress of the Gospel at 
 home and abroad, and it provokes Jehovah to withhold from 
 ourselves the affluent effusions of His grace and Spirit. 
 “He which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly.” 
 
 “ He that watereth others shall be watered also himself.” 
 
 “ Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there 
 may be meat in mine house ; and prove me now herewith, 
 saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of 
 
2G 
 
 heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be 
 room enough to receive it.” ^ 
 
 And what have we done, as a Synod, for the cause of 
 Missions ? What has been the amount of our liberality 
 individually ? 
 
 According to the reports in the Minutes of the General 
 Assembly, we contributed during the last ecclesiastical 
 year two tJiomand six hundred and sixty dollars for Home 
 and Foreign Missions. We have two thousand eight hundred 
 and twenty-four white communicants. If we estimate our 
 congregations at double the number of communicants, then 
 each member of our congregations contributed, on an 
 average, a little over forty-seven cents. Not even a cent a 
 weelc from each member of the Presbyterian congregations be- 
 longing to the wealthy Synod of Nashville ! The measure of 
 our responsibility is the measure of our ability. 
 
 We have forty-eight Churches within our bounds, 
 twenty-one of which have not reported a dollar paid to the 
 Board of Domestic Missions, and thirty-two of the forty- 
 eight have not reported one cent paid to the Board of 
 Foreign Missions ! Brethren, can we with these facts star- 
 ing us in the face, say before God, “ We have done what 
 we could ” ? If we feel we are verily guilty — if we feel 
 that “ we have robbed God,” let the liberality of this hour 
 compensate, in some degree, for past defalcations. 
 
 It was a grand sight to which the eye of the philanthro- 
 pist was directed a few years since. Melancholy and mys- 
 terious as was the dispensation of Providence to the suf- 
 ferers, it was an arrangement which admirably exhibited to 
 the world how fully and freely sympathy flows through the 
 great heart of America, and how liberally and copiously its 
 leaping, sparkling streams gush forth and fertilize and 
 replenish the sterile and parched places of the earth — when 
 every bosom responded to the wail of wo whose plaintive 
 
27 
 
 tones proceeded from Erin’s isle. 0, it was something suf- 
 ficient to cause the heart of the misanthrope to throb 
 with emotions of charity, to behold the citizens of this 
 riclily blest and highly favored land, not merely, like the 
 reapers of Boaz, scattering “ with charitable stealth the 
 liberal handful,” that the perishing poor who had come to 
 our country might glean in our golden fields, but unlock- 
 ing your barns, and opening wide your granaries, and lading 
 your vessels with the finest of your wheat and corn, and 
 converting the man-of-war into a store ship freighted with 
 food for a famishing people. 
 
 Who can describe the gratitude which the poor sufferers 
 felt ; who can clothe with words of burning eloquence the 
 cordial thanks which proceeded from the stammering lips 
 and faltering tongues of the pale and emaciated victims 
 who were snatched from a lingering death by your bounty ? 
 0, methinks I hear them — their hands clasped and their 
 eyes upturned towards heaven — exclaiming : “Americans, 
 we thank you : ‘ every drop of blood in our veins thanks 
 you.’ ” 
 
 But imagination presents vividly before the eye of the 
 Christian minister, when he advocates the cause of Mis- 
 sions, a more heart-rending picture than that which Ireland 
 exhibited, when gaunt and meagre famine glazed the eye 
 and sunk the cheek and palsied the limbs, and made the 
 once sturdy frames of her stalwart peasantry lean, lank 
 and painfully erect. On the shores of heathendom, strewn 
 on her scorching sands, covering her wild solitudes, we see 
 not thousands but millions of our fellow-beings, ha\dng the 
 same blood coursing their veins, proceeding from the same 
 primeval stock and stamped with the same Divine image, 
 perishing for the want of the bread of life. They have no 
 knowledge of revealed religion, no idea of the true God, 
 no friend to lead them in the narrow way of life, no hand 
 
28 
 
 to point them to the Lamb whose sacrifice is sufficient to 
 atone for a world’s transgressions, no tongue to tell them 
 the story of the cross — millions, millions there are in nu- 
 broken succession marching down to perdition. 
 
 And will not you, who evinced your compassion for, and 
 gave substantial demonstration of your sympathy with, the 
 famishing sons and daughters of Ireland — will not you 
 manifest your sympathy for the perishing heathen ? You, 
 who at the bidding of humanity, helped to feed a fainting 
 nation with the bread that perisheth, will you not, at the 
 bidding of God, deny yourselves to send the bread of life 
 to a dying world ? You, who to-day have been feasting at 
 the blaster’s table, eujo}'ing the bounties of His Provi- 
 dence and the riches of His grace ; you, who have heard 
 Him at the sacramental board, saying : Eat, 0 friends ; 
 
 drink, yea, drink twiTo^ikly, 0 beloved ; ” you, who would 
 not exchange the heavenly manna for this world’s wealth ; 
 you, who would not barter the privilege of bathing your 
 weary souls in the living streams that flow from Judah’s 
 fount for the diadems of princes ; you, who are ready to 
 say, rather than let the Gospel be torn from my heart, let 
 the flesh be torn from my bones — rather than resign my title 
 to the blood of Christ, let my blood by the hand of perse- 
 cution freely flow — 0, can you, will you refuse to contribute 
 liberally, largely, bountifully, for the spread of that religion 
 which, like a sheet-anchor, is the sinking sinner’s last 
 refuge, and which links, indissolubly, the immortal soul to 
 the imperishable foundation of heaven’s inner temple ? 
 
 AVe appeal to you as patriots who profess to bind to your 
 consciences and to twine, with three-fold chord, the princi- 
 ples of freedom around your affections. We appeal to you 
 as Southern men and Western men, to wffiom God has 
 given a goodly heritage. We appeal to you, on whom 
 Jehovah Jesus has bestowed much of this world’s goods. 
 
29 
 
 and to whom He says, the gold and the silver and the 
 cattle on a thousand hills are mine, freely have ye received, 
 freely give. We appeal to the citizens of Nashville, re- 
 markable for their benevolence and munificence. We 
 appeal to the Presbyterians of this city, who have been so 
 long and so highly blessed by the ministrations of your 
 beloved pastors. We appeal to you, ministers of the Gos- 
 pel, who, though your income be comparatively a pittance, 
 will not withold the tithes and olferings. We appeal to 
 you, Elders of the Church, who are the honored standard 
 bearers of our beloved Zion, and who are expected to be 
 examples to your respective congregations. In the name 
 of humanity, in the name of philanthropy, in the name of 
 patriotism, in the name of our holy religion, in the sacred 
 name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — as you value 
 the disenthralment, the redemption and eternal salvation 
 of a lost world, in the presence of an All-seeing God, cast 
 your contributions freely, liberally, cordially, prayerfully, 
 into the treasur}" of the Lord. 
 

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 'A I S& 
 n,L 
 
 Guidelines For Today’s Ministry 
 
 Commencement Address 
 
 Francis E. Kearns 
 Resident Bishop 
 Ohio-East Area 
 Methodist Church 
 
 May, 1966 
 
GUIDELINES FOR TODAY’S MINISTRY 
 
 The guidelines for today’s ministry which I would lift before 
 you on this significant day are those given by Paul in the fourth 
 chapter of II Corinthians. They are really Paul’s testimony as to 
 the guidelines in his own ministry. We are strengthened and in- 
 spired in our ministry when we gain insights into the experiences 
 of another whose witness was both relevant and compelling in 
 the day in which he lived. 
 
 The first guideline comes from these words, “For what we 
 preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” This testi- 
 mony is true to the faith of the first-Century Christians who 
 were a community of believers in worship, in study, in witness 
 and in service and who declared their faith with the affirmation 
 “Jesus Christ is Lord.” 
 
 He is Lord of our individual lives. Man has been created in 
 and through and for Christ. He is Lord over all the areas of our 
 lives — our thoughts, our desires, our ambitions, our decisions, 
 our purposes. At all times and in all places he demands willing 
 and complete obedience. 
 
 He is Lord of creation. The Lordship and sovereignty of 
 Jesus Christ are clearly set forth in Colossians 1:15-20. This 
 passage lifts up the centrality of Christ both in the universe 
 and in the church. He is “the image of the invisible God, the 
 first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created 
 . ... all things were created through and for him.” The 
 emphasis upon “all things” repudiates the thought of a fun- 
 damental division between the sacred and the secular. Matter 
 and spirit alike are of divine origin. As a theological student 
 I remember that I was somewhat shocked when Bishop Mc- 
 Connell said that “Christianity is the most materialistic religion 
 in the world.” As I thought about it I realized that what he 
 was saying was that Christianity emphasizes the world of crea- 
 tion in which matter has sacramental meaning. Here we have 
 a basis for Bonhoeffer’s accent upon “the holy worldliness of 
 the church.” 
 
 Our tendency has been to relocate the church, not only 
 
in the suburbs, but, what is even worse, we have removed it 
 from the world and from our culture. Our separation has been 
 so great that we tend to become “commuters” between the 
 church and the world. 
 
 By placing a higher value on the sacred and a lower value 
 on the secular we have even encouraged a division within the 
 church itself. There are two grades of citizens in the church — 
 the laity and the clergy. Too often the laity have become 
 second class citizens whose responsibility is to assist the min- 
 ister in performing the less important tasks within the life of 
 the church. Many of you will be ordained elders in the near 
 future. You will be ordained, not to a special order of priests, 
 but to a specific function of ministry in the Christian commu- 
 nity. Your primary task through your preaching and teaching 
 will be “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” There 
 are divisions of function in the body of Christ, but there is no 
 place for distinctions of status. The “call” is for every Christian 
 to participate in the priesthood, in the ministry of Christ. “Every 
 shoemaker can be a priest of God and stick to his own last 
 while he does it,” said Martin Luther. 
 
 Another result of the separation of the sacred and the 
 secular has been an increasing pre-occupation of churchmen 
 with the institutional church to the neglect of their Christian 
 responsibilities in the world. 
 
 A young Japanese theologian referred to our approach as 
 “removing fish from a dirty river, called the world, and plac- 
 ing them in a clean pool called the church.” Both the church 
 and the world are God’s creation. The church is in the world 
 and the world is in the church. We are the church at home, 
 at work, in the voting booth, at the union meeting, at the 
 employer’s meeting, in our recreation. In the incarnation God 
 stood alongside of us in the world. As followers of Christ who 
 was the incarnation of God we are to live in the midst of the 
 world to minister to the world. We need to take seriously the 
 prayer of our Lord, “I do not pray that thou shouldst take 
 them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from 
 the evil one.” We are not saved from the world. Rather we 
 are saved in the world. In our ministry we are to acknowledge 
 Jesus Christ as the Lord of all creation. 
 
A second guideline for ministry is revealed in these words, 
 “With ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul was a 
 grateful servant of Christ which made him a willing servant 
 of God’s people. His desire to be a humble servant was created 
 in him by the living Christ who, instead of aspiring to a higher 
 status, emptied himself that he might serve mankind. He did 
 not merely disguise himself as a servant, but he became a 
 servant, subject to all human weaknesses and limitations. He 
 fully identified himself with man. He “humbled himself” mean- 
 ing that he gave up all personal ambitions, aU self-seeking im- 
 pulses, and surrendered himself without reserve to the will of 
 God. He claimed no rights of his own. His attitude was one 
 of complete submission. Dr. Ernest Scott writes that “the very 
 secret of Christ’s nature was his complete unselfishness and it 
 was by this road and no other that he arrived at his sovereign 
 place in the plan of God.” 
 
 With this lofty example of servanthood in mind, Paul says 
 to the Christians at Corinth, we are “your servants for Jesus’ 
 sake.” Pastoral care finds its roots in the awareness that all 
 Christians are to be servants. In the Old Testament the priest 
 was the custodian of the nation’s religious tradition. To him the 
 people were to turn for understanding and guidance in all 
 problems which involved their relationship to God and to each 
 other. 
 
 The prophets are often characterized as those who pro- 
 claimed the will of God to the people with peculiar divine 
 authority and sometimes in thunderous accent. But there is 
 also clear indication that they were concerned for individuals. 
 
 The Gospels represent Jesus as the great physician and as 
 the good shepherd. People never felt that he was bringing an 
 external judgment upon them, but that he was trying to under- 
 stand them from within. A significant part of Jesus’ pastoral 
 care focused on those who were excluded from the religious 
 community. He did not wait for them to come to him. He 
 went to them and sought for every opportunity to relate himself 
 to them in a meaningful way. Through him the love of God 
 reached out with its reconciling and redeeming power. 
 
 In no community can the minister do all that needs to be 
 done in pastoral care. This becomes the responsibility of every 
 
Christian who is a member of the community of faith. It can 
 be truly said that no church is fulfilling its nature and its mis- 
 sion unless it is a servant church. A great deal of criticism has 
 been focused upon the modern church at this point. The church 
 has allowed itself to become ingrown until its major concern 
 centers upon itself and its own interests. It is so easy for the 
 church to “imbed itself in the cocoon of irrelevance.” The 
 modern church is threatened to become paralyzed by a crip- 
 pling sense of self-preoccupation. The disease has been referred 
 to as “organization sclerosis — a hardening of its institutional 
 arteries ...” 
 
 The church today is called to be a servant church in the 
 world. God is not “out yonder” or “afar off.” God is deeply 
 involved in the struggles, the trials, the testings through which 
 his people are going. He is not alone within the walls of the 
 sanctuary; he is not imprisoned vrithin the pages of the Bible. 
 He is with his people in their severe testings and in their deci- 
 sion making. Toward the end of his life Archbishop Temple 
 said that “he was sure that God was concerned with many 
 things beside religion.” 
 
 We Christians often have a hard time to be persuaded 
 that God is in the great social struggles of our day. Some lay- 
 men cannot understand why their ministers tr)^ to relate the 
 gospel to these social struggles through which people are going 
 or why they encourage their lay people to become participants. 
 What are some of these issues? Included would be: the in- 
 clusive church, war and peace, civil rights, fair employment 
 practices, fair housing, the rehabilitation of alcoholics, the re- 
 habilitation of criminals. These are all concerns of the servant 
 church dedicated to the will and purpyose of God in the com- 
 munity. 
 
 To be a servant church in the future we will need a 
 revolutionary modification of our structures. This should not 
 be too difficult for us to accept as Protestants because we do 
 not believe in the infallibility of the church. The institution 
 of the church should always be flexible and look upon itself 
 as a servant of Christ — not an end in itself. This does not mean 
 that we are not going to have any structure. I cannot imagine 
 Christians fulfilling their mission in the world in a totally dis- 
 
ordered fashion. There must be some kind of order for effective 
 witness and service. John Wesley realized the need of purposeful 
 organization to preserve the results of his evangelistic efforts. A 
 careful evaluation of our present structure will enable us to 
 change in the direction of our new understanding of the nature 
 and mission of the church. It will lead us to greater participa- 
 tion in the ecumenical movement through which all of us may 
 enter more fully into that unity which has been given to us 
 in Christ. If we are flexible, we will be led from an institution 
 preoccupied with itself to a servant church in the world. 
 
 Dr. George Adams Smith defined a servant as “a person 
 at the disposal of another to carry out his will, to do his work, 
 to represent his interests.” A servant church, then, is a church 
 who is at the disposal of her Lord to carry out his will, to do 
 his work and to represent his interests in the world. 
 
 A third guideline calls our attention to the message — “the 
 gospel of the glory of Christ” or in Dr. Phillips’ translation 
 “the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.” Paul was determined to 
 keep the focus of attention on the gospel as it was disclosed 
 in Jesus Christ. It was far from his wish that he should impress 
 by his personality. It was his deepest desire that the message 
 should convince by its own inspiring truth. His enemies accused 
 him of tampering with the Word of God. Such a charge is not 
 unknown today. It is often used against those who accept the 
 help of modern scholarship in their interpretation of the Scrip- 
 tures. Paul refused to use the Scriptures as a means of manipu- 
 lating people to his own ends. His approach to the message 
 was by “the open statement of the truth.” He assumed that the 
 Scriptures manifest the truth about God and man and, there- 
 fore, correspond with universal human needs and aspirations. 
 
 Preaching is primarily kery'gmatic — the proclamation of 
 the gospel. The heart of the gospel is the story of a gracious 
 God who reaches out to his erring children in their need and 
 restores the broken relationship in an act of suffering love. 
 Dean Inge reminded us long ago that the gospel is “not good 
 advice but good news.” It is a joyous word from God to man 
 in the depths of his existence. The gospel is not merely the 
 proclamation of an idea, but of God’s action in history — past, 
 present and future. It is the good news of a terrific force let 
 
loose in history for the redeeming of mankind. This gospel has 
 the power to shatter the heart with wonder and to shake the 
 world with hope. 
 
 Of this glorious gospel we are called to be the proclaimers. 
 There is a crying need for such preaching today — not preaching 
 that is brilliant, but proclamation that has about it the ring of 
 reality. Dr. Spike reminds us that “preaching that is rigorously 
 faithful to the central biblical themes of creation, judgment, 
 redemption and resurrection is one of the greatest needs of the 
 American Church.” Dr. Sockman pleads for biblical preaching 
 and says that: “Gripping sermons can start on the sidewalk 
 level where men are living and then lead their thoughts into 
 the biblical uplands of the soul where men are transformed by 
 the renewing of their minds.” 
 
 There was an urgency about first century preaching which 
 is quite lacking in our preaching today. The proclamation was 
 charged with reality as the world-changing events in the life, 
 death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were recounted. Then 
 was related what had actually happened to the community of 
 believers through the power of his living presence. Dr. Hazelton 
 reminds us that preaching is in the doldrums today; that our 
 mood is largely untouched by the urgency of preaching. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln once said that he never really enjoyed listening 
 to a preacher until he began acting as though he were fighting 
 bees. 
 
 What about our preaching? Is it our aim by clever tricks 
 to manipulate the minds and emotions of people? Are we 
 striving for popularity? Do we feel obligated to impress the 
 people with our profundity? This might pass once in a while. 
 Richard Baxter said that he liked to preach a sermon above 
 the heads of the people once a year to show them that he could 
 do it every Sunday if he wanted to. Do we go into our pulpits 
 to bare our opinions? If so, then we are guilty of what Henry 
 Sloane Coffin called “ecclesiastical nudism.” Bonhoeffer raises 
 a searching question when he asks, “Does not our preaching 
 contain too much our own opinions and convictions and too 
 little of Jesus Christ?” 
 
 It would be misleading to give you the impression that the 
 
congregation will be sitting on the edge of the pews every 
 Sunday morning eagerly waiting for your message. A young 
 man came to Dr. Gossip and apologized for missing one of his 
 lectures. He explained that he had to go to preach. Dr. Gossip 
 inquired, “How did you get along?” “Well,” the young man 
 replied, “I didn’t get along too well; I didn’t get very far in 
 the sermon until the congregation froze me up.” Dr. Gossip 
 asked him where he had preached. The young man told him. 
 Dr. Gossip smiled and said, “Well, don’t worry about that, 
 I preached in that same church thirty years ago and I’m still 
 thawing out.” 
 
 However, I can assure you that people will be much more 
 responsive to your preaching if you reveal a deep undertone of 
 passion and urgency than they will be if you preach as though 
 what you are saving doesn’t matter after all. If we are pro- 
 claiming the “glorious gospel of Jesus Christ,” then our preach- 
 ing should have something about it like a knock on the door 
 which calls for attention and which calls for action. We are 
 challenging people for a verdict in their relation to Christ as 
 their Lord. 
 
 The fourth guideline is revealed when Paul testifies, “We 
 have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the tran- 
 scendent power belongs to God.” “The light of the knowledge 
 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” was a treasure 
 given to Paul which he was to make real through his life and 
 message. Paul was so conscious that this treasure was contained 
 in “a frail vessel of earth.” And then he recalled that it was 
 through the humble earthly life and shameful death of Jesus 
 that God had done his revealing and redeeming work. 
 
 Redemptive work is always costly for the individual dis- 
 ciple and for the community of believers. There is no hope of 
 ease and comfort for those who are faithful servants of Christ. 
 There is no way for Christians to evade the burden and the 
 heat of the day. Physical weariness, sickness of heart, bitter 
 disappointments, frustration of hopes, the strain of Christlike 
 concern — all these the minister will experience in full measure. 
 Paul, together with the community of believers, knew the deep 
 agony of suffering for Christ. What an eloquent testimony! 
 “We are afflicted in every w'ay, but not crushed; perplexed. 
 
but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck 
 down, but not destroyed.” How real to them must have been 
 “the dark night of the soul.” And yet it all had a purpose — 
 “to show that the transcendent power belongs to God.” 
 
 You will be tempted to be overcome by the magnitude 
 of the task and to be overwhelmed by your own unworthiness. 
 The members of the congregation will not always change as 
 rapidly as you desire that they should. They will drag their 
 feet on some causes which to you are so important for the 
 relevance of the gospel in our day. You will be disappointed 
 to learn that people’s attitudes are resistant to change. There 
 will be times when the flags will not be waving and the trum- 
 pets will not be blowing. You will find yourself plodding along 
 a road that is steep and rough. You may even wonder at times 
 why you accepted a commission in such a warfare. Then it 
 is that you will be encouraged and strengthened to realize that 
 while your vessel is earthen and frail, the transcendent power 
 belongs to God. 
 
 Thomas Chalmers was musing over the problem as to why 
 there were not more spiritual results from his deliriously popular 
 ministry. He came to this conclusion — that he was trusting 
 more to his own animal heat and activity than to the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 In the New Testament God’s presence and power were 
 manifested to those who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord 
 and were striving to be his willing servants in the world. God 
 is ready and willing to dwell in us at the deepest levels of our 
 being, cleansing the roots of behavior and purifying the springs 
 of motivation. Such an awareness of his Holy Spirit comes to 
 those who are fully committed to him. As Dr. Thurman says, 
 such commitment is “the yielding of the nerve center of con- 
 sent.” It means that something total within us says “yes” to 
 God. 
 
 Paul has given us significant guidelines for our ministry 
 today. We are to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in all 
 creation. We are to be servants of Christ and part of a servant 
 community whose mission is in the world and to the world. 
 We are to proclaim the gospel that men may come to a knowl- 
 
edge of the glory of God disclosed in Jesus Christ. We are to 
 give ourselves to courageous witness and unselfish service so 
 that beyond the earthen vessels men will be aware of the 
 transcendent p>ower of God.