A Baptist Page Mission
Brief
The
Missionaries’ Charge And Charts
by Charles Spurgeon
NO.
383
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING,
APRIL 21ST, 1861,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“And JESUS came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth, go ye, therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the son,
and of the Holy Ghost.” — Matthew 28:18,19.
WHILE
I was meditating in private upon this text I felt myself carried away
by its power. I was quite unable calmly to consider its terms, or to
investigate its argument. The command with which the text concludes
repeated itself again, and again, and again in my ears, till I found
it impossible to study, for my thoughts were running hither and thither,
asking a thousand questions, all of them intended to help me in answering
for myself the solemn enquiry, “How am I to go and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost?” The practical lesson seemed to me to overwhelm in
my mind the argument of which that lesson is but a conclusion, “Go
ye and teach all nations.” My ears seemed to hear it as if Christ
were then speaking it to me. I could realize his presence by my side.
I thought I could see him lift his pierced hand, and hear him speak,
as he was wont to speak, with authority, blended with meekness, “Go
ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the All-glorious
God.” Oh! I would that the church could hear the Savior addressing
these words to her now, for the words of Christ are living words, not
having power in them yesterday alone, but to-day also. The injunctions
of the Savior are perpetual in their obligation, they were not binding
upon apostles merely, but upon us also, and upon every Christian does
this yoke fall, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
We are not exempt to-day from the service of the first followers of
the Lamb, our marching orders are the same as theirs, and our Captain
requires from us obedience as prompt and perfect as from them. Oh that
his message may not fall upon deaf ears, or be heard by stolid souls!
Brethren,
the heathen are perishing; shall we let them perish? His name is blasphemed,
shall we be quiet and still? The honor of Christ is cast into the dust,
and his foes revile his person and resist his throne, shall we his soldiers
suffer this, and not find our hands feeling for the hilt of our sword,
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? Our Lord delayeth
his coming; shall we begin to sleep, or to eat, or to be drunken? Shall
we not rather gird up the loins of our mind, and cry unto him, “Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly?” The scoffing sceptics of these last
days have said that the anticipated conquest of the world for Christ
is but a dream, or an ambitious thought, which crossed our leader’s
mind, but which never is to be accomplished. It is asserted by some
that the superstitions of the heathen are too strong to be battered
down by our teachings, and that the strongholds of Satan are utterly
impregnable against our attacks. Shall it be so? Shall we be content
foolishly to sit still? Nay, rather let us work out the problem, let
us prove the promise of God to be true; let us prove the words of Jesus
to be words of soberness; let us show the efficacy of his blood and
the invincibility of his Spirit, by going in the spirit of faith, teaching
all nations, and winning them to the obedience of Christ our Lord.
I
do not know how to begin to preach this morning, but still it seems
to me, standing here, as if I heard that voice saying, “Go thou,
therefore, and teach all nations;” and my soul sometimes pants
and longs for the liberty to preach Christ where he was never preached
before; not to build upon another man’s foundation, but to go to
some untrodden land, some waste where the foot of Christ’s minister
was never seen, that there “the military place might be glad for
us, and the wilderness rejoice and blossom as the rose.” I have
made it a solemn question whether I might not testify in China or India
the grace of Jesus, and in the sight of God I have answered it. I solemnly
feel that my position in England will not permit my leaving the sphere
in which I now am, or else to-morrow I would offer myself as a missionary.
Oh, do none of you hear the call this morning? You that are free from
so great a work as that which is cast upon me — you that have talents
as yet undevoted to any special end, and powers of being as yet unconsecrated
to any given purpose, and unconfined to any one sphere; do you not hear
my Master saying in tones of plaintive sorrow, blended with an authority
which is not to be denied, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost?” Oh that I could preach like Peter the Hermit —
a better crusade than he! Oh that there were might in some human lip
to move the thousands of our Israel to advance at once, unanimously
and irresistibly to the world’s conquest, like one tremendous tide
rising from the depths of the ocean, to sweep over the sands, the barren
sands which are now given up to desolation and death? Oh that once again
the voice of thunder could be heard, and the lightning spirit could
penetrate each heart, that as one
man the entire Church might take the marching orders of her Lord, and
go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of Israel’s God!
O Lord, if we fail to speak, fail not thou to speak; and if we know
not how to bear thy burden, or express thine awful thoughts, yet speak
thou with that all-constraining silent voice which well-trained ears
can hear, and make thy servants obedient to thee now, for Christ’s
sake!
“Awake,
thou Spirit, who of old
Didst live the watchman of the Church’s youth,
Who faced the foe, unshrinking, bold
Who witness’d day and night the eternal truth
Whose voices through the world are ringing still,
And bringing hosts to know and do thy will!
Oh that thy fire were kindled soon,
That swift from land to land its flame might leap!
Lord, give us but this priceless boon
Of faithful servants, fit for thee to reap
The harvest of the soul; look down and view
How great the harvest, yet the laborers few.
Oh haste to help ere we are lost!
Send forth evangelists, in spirit strong,
Arm’d with thy Word, a dauntless host,
Bold to attack the rule of ancient wrong
And let them all the earth for thee reclaim,
To be thy kingdom, and to know thy name.”
This
morning we shall first dwell a little while upon the command, and then
secondly, we shall enlarge upon the argument. There is an argument,
as you will perceive, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.”
I.
First, my brethren, and very briefly indeed a few things about the
COMMAND.
And
we must remark, first what a singularly loving one it is. Imagine Mahomet
on his dying bed saying to his disciples, “All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth;” what would be his command? “Go
ye, therefore, with sharp scimitars, and propound faith in the prophet,
or death as the dread alternative avenge me of the men who threw stones
at the prophet, make their houses a dunghill, and cut them in pieces
for vengeance is mine, and God’s prophet must be avenged of his
enemies.” But Christ, though far more despised and persecuted of
men, and having a real power which that pretended prophet never had,
says to his disciples, as he is about to ascend to heaven, “All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” It is the voice of love, not of
wrath. “Go and teach them the power of my blood to cleanse, the
willingness of my arms to embrace, the yearning of my heart to save!
Go and teach them. Teach them no more to despise me, no more to think
my Father an angry and implacable Deity. Teach them to bow the knee,
and kiss the Son, and find peace for all their troubles, and a balm
for all their woes in me. Go ye; speak as I have spoken; weep as I have
wept; invite as I have invited; exhort, entreat, beseech and pray, as
I have done before you. Tell them to come unto me, if they be weary
and heavy laden, and I will give them rest; and say unto them, ‘I
have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that
he should turn unto me and live.’” What a generous and gracious
command is that of the text, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Note,
too, how exceedingly plain is the command, “Go ye, teach all nations.”
The Romish Church has misunderstood this. She says, “Go ye, mystify
all nations; sound in their ears a language once living, but now dead;
take to them the Latin tongue, and let that be sounded with all the
harmony of sweet music, and they will be converted; erect the sumptuous
altar; clothe the priest in mystic garments; celebrate mysterious rites;
and make the heathen wonder; dazzle them with splendor; amaze them with
mystery.” But, “Nay,” says Christ, “nay, go ye and
teach.” Why, it is the mother’s work with her child; it is
the tutor’s work with the boy and with the girl — “go
ye, and teach.” How simple! Illustrate; explain, expound; tell;
inform; narrate. Take from them the darkness of ignorance, reveal to
them the light of revelation. Teach! Be content to sit down, and tell
them the very plainest and most common things. It is not your eloquence
that shall convert them; it is not your gaudy language or your polished
periods that shall sway their intellects. Go and teach them. Teach them!
Why, my hearer, I say again, this is a word which has to do with the
rudiments of knowledge. We do not preach to children; we teach them;
and we are not so much to preach to nations, that word seems too big
and great for the uncivilized and childish people; go ye, and teach
them first the very simplicities of the cross of Christ.
And
note how he puts it next. Who are to be taught, “Go ye and teach
all nations.” The Greek has his philosophers, teach him, he is
but a child; he is a fool, though he thinketh himself to be wise. There
be polite nations which have a literature of their own, far larger and
more extensive than the literature of the Christian: teach them nevertheless,
they are to be taught and unless they are willing to take the learner’s
place, and to become as little children, they can in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Do not debate and argue with them; put not yourself
with them upon their level as a combatant concerning certain dogmas;
insist upon it that I have sent you — sent you to teach the most
erudite and profoundly learned; and when you shall claim it, I am with
you always to back your claim, and men shall be willing to sit at your
feet to be taught the name of Jesus.
I
do not know whether all our missionaries have caught the idea of Christ
— “Go ye and teach all nations,” but many of them have,
and these have been honored with many conversions. The more fully they
have been simple teachers, not philosophers of the Western philosophy,
not eager disputants concerning some English dogma, I say the more plainly
they have gone forth as teachers sent from God to teach the world, the
more successful have they been. “Go ye, therefore, and teach.”
Some may think, perhaps, there is less difficulty in teaching the learned
than in teaching the uncivilized and barbarous. There is the same duty
to the one as to the other: “Go and teach.” “But they
brandish the tomahawk.” Teach them, and lie down and sleep in their
hut, and they shall marvel at your fearlessness and spare your life.
“But they feed on the blood of their fellows, they make a bloody
feast about the cauldron in which a man’s body is the horrible
viand.” Teach them and they shall empty their war-kettle, and they
shall bury their swords, and bow before you, and acknowledge King Jesus.
“But they are brutalised, they have scarce a language — a
few clicking sounds make up all that they can say.” Teach them,
and they shall speak the language of Canaan, and sing the songs of heaven.
The fact has been proved, brethren, that there are no nations incapable
of being taught, nay, that there are no nations incapable afterwards
of teaching others. The Negro slave has perished under the lash, rather
than dishonor his Master. The Esquimaux has climbed his barren steeps,
and borne his toil, while he has recollected the burden which Jesus
bore. The Hindoo has patiently submitted to the loss of all things,
because he loved Christ better than all. Feeble Malagasay women have
been prepared to suffer and to die, and have taken joyfully suffering
for Christ’s sake. There has been heroism in every land for Christ;
men of every color and of every race have died for him; upon his altar
has been found the blood of all kindreds that be upon the face of the
earth. Oh! tell me not they cannot be taught. Sirs, they can be taught
to die for Christ; and this is more than some of you have learned. They
can rehearse the very highest lesson of the Christian religion —
that self sacrifice which knows not itself but gives up all for him.
At this day there are Karen missionaries preaching among the Karens
with as fervid an eloquence as ever was known by Whitfield, there are
Chinese teaching in Borneo, Sumatra, and Australia, with as much earnestness
as Morison or Milne first taught in China. There are Hindoo evangelists
who are not ashamed to have given up the Brahminical thread, and to
eat with the Pariah, and to preach with him the riches of Christ. There
have been men found of every class and kind, not only able to be taught,
but able to become teachers themselves, and the most mighty teachers
too, of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well was that command warranted
by future facts, when Christ said, “Go ye, teach all nations.”
But,
brethren, the text says, “baptizing them.” They are to be
taught, and afterwards they are to be baptized. I know not why it is
that we yield to the superstitions of our Christian brethren, so much
as to use the word baptize at all. It is not an English, but a Greek
word. It has but one meaning, and cannot bear another. Throughout all
the classics, without exception, it is not possible to translate it
correctly, except with the idea of immersion; and believing this, and
knowing this, if the translation is not complete, we will complete it
this morning. “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, immersing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Now, I think that our Missionary Society, while it may take precedence
in matters of time — for it was the first that was ever commenced
with the exception of the Moravians — ought also to take precedence
in matters of purity, because we can carry out this text in every country,
teaching first and baptizing afterwards. We do not understand the philosophy
of baptizing, and afterwards teaching. We hold that we must teach first,
and then, when men are disciples, we are to baptize them. Not the nations;
the Greek does not bear that interpretation, but those who have been
disciples we are to baptize into the Sacred Name. We think that our
brethren do serious damage to the Gospel by baptizing children. We do
not think their error a little one. We know it does not touch a vital
point; but we do believe that infant baptism is the prop and pillar
of Popery, and it being removed, Popery and Puseyism become at once
impossible. You have taken away all idea of a national godliness and
a national religion, when you have cut away all liberty to administer
Christian ordinances to unconverted persons. We cannot see any evil
which would follow, if our brethren would renounce their mistake; but
we can see abundant mischief which their mistake has caused, and in
all kindness, but with all fidelity, we again enter our solemn protest
against their giving baptism to any but disciples, to any but those
who are the followers of the Lamb. Throw down her hedges? Give her supper
and her baptism to those that are not Christ’s people? Break down
her walls? Remove her barricades? God forbid! Except a man be renewed
in heart, we dare not allow him to participate in the ordinances which
belong to Christ’s Church. Oh! it is a disastrous thing to call
unconverted children Christians, or to do anything which may weaken
their apprehension of the great fact, that until they be converted they
have no part or lot in this matter. Brethren, if you differ from me
on this point, bear with me, for my conscience will not let me conceal
this solemn truth. To you who agree with me I say, while our other friends
can do in some things more than we can, — and we rejoice in their
efforts, and would heartily bless God that they have shown more activity
than
ourselves, — yet we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we are
a whit behind. We are a body of Christians who can fairly and purely
teach and baptize; we can obey this command of Christ abroad, as well
as at home, without running counter to our practice in one place by
our practice in the other; we ought to be first and foremost, and if
we be not, shame shall cover us for our unfaithfulness. Again, I say,
I hear that voice ringing in the Baptist’s ear, above that of any
other man, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
I have endeavored to be brief, but I find I have been long, and therefore
pass at once to the argument with which the text commences.
II.
The ARGUMENT is this: “All power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth, go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.”
Three
things here. Christ had suffered, bled and died; he had now risen from
the dead. As the effect of his finished work, he had as mediator received
all power in Heaven and in earth. There is no allusion here to his inherent
power that is not given to him: that is his native right; he has, as
God, all power in heaven and in earth. The text relates to him as mediator.
As mediator he had not this power once; he was weak, he was despised,
he was forsaken even of his God. But now, having finished the work which
was given him to do, his Father honors him. He is about to lift him
to his right hand, and gives him, as the result of resurrection, all
power in heaven and in earth. Three things, then. First, this is the
picture of the Church’s history, and therefore she should teach
all nations. Secondly, this is the Church’s right. Thirdly, it
is the Church’s might; and for all these reasons she ought to teach
all nations.
1.
First, this is the Church’s picture. Christ suffers, bleeds,
dies. Do you give up his cause? Do you look upon it as forlorn and desolate?
He is nailed to the tree; the world abhors him, fools gaze, and sinners
laugh. Do you lay down your weapons and say, it is idle to defend such
a man as this? It is all over now, he bows his head upon the cross.
“It is finished,” saith he; and do your unbelieving hearts
say, “Ay, indeed, it is finished; his career is over, his hopes
are blighted, his prospects withered?” Ah! little do you know that
his shame was the mother of his future glory; that the stooping was
the rising, that the crown of thorns was in fact the fruitful root out
of which sprang the eternal crown of glory. He is put into the grave:
do you say that there is the grave of all your faith could believe,
or your hope could suggest? He rises, brethren, and his resurrection
takes effect and fruit from the fact that he died and was buried. Do
you not see the picture? We have been sending out heralds of the cross
these eighteen hundred years; they have landed upon many a shore to
die. Fever has taken off its hundreds, cruel men have slain their scores,
from the first day until now, the record of the mission is written in
blood. Somewhere or other there always must be martyrs for Christ. It
seems as if the Church never could plough a wave without a spray of
gore. She is still in Madagascar persecuted, afflicted, tormented, still
are her ministers hunted about like partridges upon the mountains, and
her blood is dying the shambles of her slayers. Do you give up all hope?
Shall we, as we look upon the tombs of our missionaries, say that Christ’s
cause is dead? Brethren, as you turn over the long roll, and read the
names of one after another who sleep in Jesus, shall you say, “Let
us close the doors of the mission-house; let us cease our contributions,
it is clear the case is hopeless, and the cause can never have success?”
Nay, rather, the Church must suffer that she may reign, she must die
that she may live, she must be stained with blood, that she may be robed
in purple, she must go down into the earth, and seem to be buried and
forgotten, that the earth may help the woman, that she may be delivered
of the man child. Courage! courage! courage! The past is hopeful, because
to the eye it seemeth hopeless, the cause is glorious, because it has
been put to shame. Now, now let us gather the fruits of the bloody sowing:
let us now reap the harvest of the deep ploughing of agony and suffering
which our ancestors have endured.
I
think that no true-hearted Christian will ever give up any enterprise
which God has laid upon him, because he fears its ultimate success.
“Difficult,” said Napoleon, “is not a French word.”
“Doubtful,” is not a Christian word. We are sure to succeed;
the gospel must conquer. It is possible for heaven and earth to pass
away, but it is not possible for God’s Word to fail, and therefore
it is utterly impossible that any nation, or kindred, or tongue should
to the end stand out against the attacks of love, against the invasion
of the armies of King Jesus.
Thus,
then, you see, a fair argument can be built upon the text. Inasmuch
as Christ is to his people a picture of what they are to be, inasmuch
as by his suffering all power was given to him in heaven and in earth,
so after the sufferings of the Church, the wounds of her martyrs, and
the deaths of her
confessors, power shall be given to her in heaven and in earth, and
she shall reign with Christ over the nations gloriously.
2.
We now take a second view of the argument. This is the Church’s
right. All power is given to Christ in heaven and in earth. What then?
Why this.
Kings and princes, potentates and power, are ye aware that your thrones
have been given away? Do ye know it, ye crowned heads, that your crowns
have been given — given away from you to one who claims to be King
of kings and Lord of lords? Do ye pass degrees forbidding the gospel
to be preached? We laugh at you! Ye have no power to prevent it, for
all power is given unto Christ in heaven and in earth. Do ye say that
the missionary has no right upon your shore? The virgin daughter of
Zion shaketh her head at you, and laugheth you to scorn. She has right
anywhere and everywhere; she has rights in heaven without limit, and
rights in earth without bound, for all power is given to her head in
heaven and in earth, and she therefore has a patent, a claim which is
not to be disputed, to take to herself all countries and all kingdoms,
because the power above is given unto Christ. What is that man doing
on yonder shore? He has landed on an island in the South Seas; he is
an intruder, banish him at once! Sirs, mind what you do, for surely
ye fight against God. But the man is sent away, he comes back again
or if not he, another. A severer edict is passed this time, “Let
us slay him, that the inheritance may still be ours.” But another
comes, and another, and another. Why do you stand up and take counsel
together against the Lord, and against his anointed? These men are not
intruders, they are ambassadors come to make peace, nay, more. They
are delegates from heaven, come to learn the rightful heritage of King
Jesus. Ye, in putting them away as intruders, have denied the rights
of Christ, but to deny is one thing, and to disprove another. He hath
still a right to you, and therefore hath the missionary still a right
to come whithersoever he will, preaching the unsearchable riches of
Christ. Once or twice in my life I have met with some miserable little
ministers, who, when I have gone into a village to preach, have questioned
my right to preach in the village, because I ought to have asked them
first, or to have consulted them. And can Christian men look on a district
as their own dominion, and reckon God’s servant as a poacher on
their estates, or a brigand in their territories? Is there any place
on this earth that belongs to any man so that he can shut out God’s
ministers? We once for all put our foot upon any claim so ridiculous.
Wherever there is found a man, there is the minister free to preach.
The whole world is our parish, we know of no fetter upon our feet, and
no gag upon our lips. Though kings should pass laws, the servants of
Christ can bear the penalty, but they cannot disobey their Master, though
the Emperor should say the gospel should not be preached by any unauthorized
denomination in France, as I have heard he has said of late, we care
not for him. What cares the Church for a thousand Emperors? Their resolutions
are mockery, their laws waste-paper, the Church never was yet vassal
to the state, or servile slave to municipalities and powers, and she
neither can nor will be. At all the laws of states, she laughs, and
utterly defies them, if they come in the way of the law of Christ which
says, “Teach the gospel to every creature.” Brethren, I say,
the Church has a right anywhere and everywhere — a right, not because
she is tolerated; the word is insult, not because the law permits, the
law permitting or not permitting, tolerated or untolerated, everywhere
beneath the arch of God’s heaven, God’s servants have a right
to preach. Oh that they would claim the right, and in every place teach
and preach Jesus Christ continually!
3.
But now, lastly, it seems to me that the argument of the text contains
the Church’s might. “All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Ye have power to teach,
fear not. Let this be your encouragement; you must succeed, you shall
prevail. There never lived another man save Christ, who could say, “All
power is given me on earth.” Canute puts his throne by the side
of the sea, but the waves wet his person, and prove to his flattering
courtiers that he is but a man. What power have kings over the lightning,
of the rushing winds? Can they control the tides, or bid the moon stand
still? Power is not given unto man, even upon earth. Much less could
any man say, all power in heaven belonged to him. This is a singular
expression; one which only could be used by Christ, and if any other
should attempt to use it, it were an imposition, and a blasphemy, but
the Lord Jesus Christ can say to-day, as he said then, “All power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Let
us think, then, all power is given to Christ in providence. Over common
daily events he has supreme authority. You have launched upon the sea,
upon a mission voyage; he rules the waves, and wings the winds; fear
not, for tempest is his trembling slave. You have come near the shore,
but there are hidden reefs and sunken rocks. Fear not, for all power
is given to him in the lowest deep to guide you safely, and to bring
you to your desired haven. A band of men meet you upon the shore, brandishing
their weapons. You are unarmed, you have nothing but the Word. You shall
now prove that “more is he that is with you than all they that
be with them.” Go, in this your might. All power is given to Christ
— power over the wills of men, as well at over the waves of the
sea. But political occurrences prevent your landing on a certain country,
through treaties, or a want of treaties, there is no room for the missionary
in such-and-such an empire, pray, and the gates shall be opened; plead,
and the bars of brass shall be cut in twain. Christ has power over politics.
He can make wars, and create peace, with a view to the propagation of
his Word. He can change the hearts of princes, and preside in the counsels
of senates, he can cause nations that have long been shut up, to be
opened to the truth. And, indeed, what a wonderful proof we have had
of late, that all power belongs unto Christ, for human skill has been
yoked to the chariot of the gospel.
How
wondrously, my brethren, have the inventions of man of late years progressed!
How could we have preached the gospel to all nations — how could
we have even known that America existed, if it had not been that the
Lord put it into the mind of Columbus to discover the New World! And
how wearisome our life, if with the ordinary slow navigation of the
ancient times we had to journey among all nations! But now we are carried
across the waves so rapidly that distance is annihilated, and time forgotten.
Truly God has opened up the world, and brought it to our threshold,
if he has not made a smaller world, at least he has made it more convenient
and nearer to our hand. And then see how countries, which once could
not be reached, have been opened to us. The Celestial King of China,
the rebel prince, invites us to come and preach. He does not merely
permit — he invites, he builds places of worship, he is prepared,
he says, that his brethren should come and teach him, and teach all
his subjects, for they are imperfectly taught in the things of God.
And the Imperial Sovereign of China, too, though he does not invite,
permits the missionaries to go among his millions. There is perfect
liberty for us to preach to four hundred millions of persons who before
had never seen the light of Calvary. And there is India, too, given
up to our dominion, and the old Company, which always impeded us, rolled
up in its shroud and laid in its grave. And there are other lands and
other places which once seemed to be environed by impassable mountains,
into which we have now a road. Oh, for the will to dash through that
road riding upon the white horses of salvation! Oh, for the heart, the
spirit, and the soul to avail ourselves of the golden opportunity, and
to preach Christ where he has never been preached before! All power,
then, we can clearly see, over everything in this world has been given
to Christ, and has been used for the propagation of his truth.
But,
brethren, let us recollect that power is given to Christ in heaven as
well as on earth. All angels bow before him, and the cherubin and seraphim
are ready to obey his high behests. Power is given to him over the plenitude
of the Holy Spirit; he can pour out the mysterious energy in such abundance
that nations can be born in a day. He can clothe his ministers with
salvation, and make his priests shout aloud for joy. He has power to
intercede with God, and he shall presently send out men to preach, presently
give the people the mind to hear, and give the hearers the will to obey.
We have in the midst of us to-day our Leader. He is not gone from us.
If his flesh and blood be absent yet in body as well as spirit he still
lives, adorned with the dew and beauty of his youth. As for the Mahomedan,
his leader has long ago rotted in his coffin; but ours lives, and because
he lives, his truth and his cause live also. We have with us to-day
a Leader whose power is not diminished, whose influence in the highest
heavens has suffered no impairing. He is universal Lord. Oh, let our
efforts be worthy of the power which he has promised, let our zeal be
in some respect akin to his zeal, and let our energy prove that the
energy divine has not been
withdrawn.
I
wish that I could preach this morning, but the more earnestly I feel,
the more scant are my words with which to express my emotions. I have
prayed to God, and it is a prayer I shall repeat till I die — I
have prayed that out of this Church there may go many missionaries.
I will never be content with a congregation, or with a Church, or even
with ministers, many of whom have already gone out of our midst. We
must have missionaries from this Church. God’s people everywhere
will I trust aid me in training young soldiers for my Master’s
army. God will send the men, and faith will find the means, and we will
ourselves send out our own men to proclaim the name of Jesus. Brethren,
it is a singular thing, there are some young men who get the idea into
their minds that they would like to go into foreign lands, but these
are frequently the most unfit men, and have not the power and ability.
Now, I would that the divine call would come to some gifted men. You
who have, perhaps, some wealth of your own, what could be a better object
in life than to devote yourself and your substance to the Redeemer’s
cause? You young men, who have brilliant prospects before you, but who
as yet have not the anxieties of a family to maintain, why, would it
not be noble thing to surrender your brilliant prospects, that you may
become a humble preacher of Christ? The greater the sacrifice, the more
honor to yourself and the more acceptable to him. I have questioned
my own conscience, and I do not think I could be in the path of duty
if I should go abroad to preach the Word, leaving this field of labor;
but I think many of my brethren now laboring at home might with the
greatest advantage surrender their charges, and leave a land where they
would scarce be missed, to go where their presence would be as valuable
as the presence of a thousand such as they are here. And oh! I long
that we may see young men out of the universities, and students in our
grammar schools — that we may see our physicians, advocates, tradesmen,
and educated mechanics, when God has touched their hearts, giving up
all they have, that they may teach and preach Christ. We want Vanderkists;
we want Judsons and Brainerds over again. It will never do to send out
to the heathen men who are of no use at home. We cannot send men of
third and tenth class abilities; we must send the highest, and best.
The bravest men must lead the van. O God, anoint thy servants, we beseech
thee; put the fire into their hearts that never can be quenched; make
it so hot within their bones that they must die or preach, that they
must be down with broken hearts, or else be free to preach where Christ
was never heard. Brethren, envy any one among you — I say again
with truth, I envy you — if it shall be your lot to go to China,
the country so lately opened to us. I would gladly change places with
you. I would renounce the partial case of a settlement in this country,
and renounce the responsibilities of so large a congregation as this
with pleasure, if I might have your honors. I think sometimes that missionaries
in the field — if it be right to compare great things with such
small ones — might say to you, as our English king did to his soldiers
at the battle of Agincourt, changing the word for a moment —
“Ministers
in England, now a bed,
Might think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhood’s cheap while any speak
Who fought with us upon this glorious day.”
Have
we none out of our sixteen hundred members — have we none out of
this congregation of six thousand — who can say, “Here am
I, send me? “Jesus! is there not one? Must heathens perish? Must
the gods of the heathen hold their thrones? Must thy kingdom fail? Are
there none to own thee, none to maintain thy righteous cause? If there
be none, let us weep, each one of us, because such a calamity has fallen
on us. But if there be any who are willing to give all for Christ, let
us who are compelled to stay at home do our best to help them. Let us
see to it that they lack nothing, for we cannot send them out without
purse or scrip. Let us fill the purse of the men whose hearts God has
filled, and take care of them temporally, leaving it for God to preserve
them spiritually.
May
the Lord, the Divine Master add his blessing to the feeble words that
I have uttered, and let me not conclude till I have said, I must teach
you too, and this is the teaching of God — “Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Trust him with your
soul, and he will save you. For “He that believeth and is baptized
shall be served; he that believeth not shall be damned.
C.H.S.
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