This obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptation
of the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Alone of all
religions has Christianity proved itself capable of dominating every
type of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, of
assuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of every
race. There are other religions which are evidently destined only to
a narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by geographical
conditions, or by stages of civilisation. There are wines that are
ruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the land where the
vintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all the ethnic
religions. Christianity alone passes through the whole earth, and
influences all men. The history of missions shows us that. There has
yet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or is beyond
the need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the operation of,
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the Gospel.
The distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a
finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the home
and the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand at
the true Christian standpoint. Here is a man who wants the Gospel; I
have it; I can give it to him. That constitutes a summons as
imperative as if we were called by name from Heaven, and bade to go,
and as much as in us is to preach the Gospel. Brethren! we do not
obey the command, 'Owe no man anything,' unless, to the extent of our
ability, or over the whole field which we can influence at home or
abroad, we seek to spread the name of Christ and the salvation that
is in Him.
III. We are debtors by benefits received.
I am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get
their living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade with
lands that need the Gospel. It is not for nothing that England has
won the great empire that she possesses--won it, alas! far too often
by deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of Christian
principle, but won it.
What do we owe to the lands that we call 'heathen'? The very speech
by which we communicate with one another; the beginning of our
civilisation; wide fields for expanding population and emigration;
treasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about which we are too
fond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its
responsibilities--and Manchester its commerce and prosperity! Did God
put us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry the
gifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, great as
that is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our manufactures, to
those distant lands? The best thing that we can give is the thing
that all of us can help to give--the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 'Who
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as
this?'
IV. Lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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