We are living in the eventide of the world, when all things point toward
the second coming of our King. God has placed the English-speaking
people in the fore-part of the nations. They number one-tenth of the
human family, and I believe God calls them to do the work of the last
time. The wealth of the world is largely in Christian hands. There
never have been such opportunities for Christian work. Never such a
harvest awaited the husbandman.
You may tell me of difficulties and dangers. We have only one answer.
Sin, sorrow, and death are not the inventions of a Christian priest.
"There is only one Name under heaven whereby any man can be saved." We
have nothing to do with results. It is ours to work and pray, and pray
and work and die. So falls the seed into the earth, and so God gives
the harvest. When the Church sends out embassies commensurate with the
dignity of our King, it will be time to talk of failure. Is the kingdom
of Christ the only kingdom which has not the right to lay tribute on its
citizens? The only failure is the failure to do God's work. Was it
failure when Dr. Hill of blessed memory laid the foundation for that
Christian school which the wisest statesmen say is the chief factor in
the regeneration of Greece? Was it failure when James Lloyd Breck, our
apostle of the wilderness, carried the Gospel to the Indians? Did
Williams, Selwyn, and Patteson fail in Polynesia? Was it failure when
Hoffman and Auer died for Christ in Africa? Have your great-hearted
sons failed who have followed in the footsteps of the saintly Kemper,
and laid with tears and prayers foundations for Christian schools which
are the glory of the West? Has the Gospel failed in Japan, where a
nation is awakening into the life of Christian civilization? Never has
God given His Church more blessed rewards. The century which has passed
is only our school of preparation. The voice of God's Providence says:
"Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." We have some
problems peculiar to ourselves. Twenty-five years ago four millions of
slaves received American citizenship. The nation owes them a debt of
gratitude. During all the horrors of our civil war they were the
protectors of Southern women and children. Knowing the failure of their
masters would be the guarantee of the freedom, there was not one act
that master or slave might wish to blot. We ought not to forget it, and
God will not. To-day there are eight millions. They are here to stay.
They will not be disfranchised. Through them Africa can be redeemed.
They ought to be our fellow-citizens in the kingdom of God. In a great
crisis of missions the Holy Ghost sent Philip on a long journey to
preach Christ to one man of Ethiopia. The same blessed Spirit of God
calls us in the love of Christ to carry the Gospel in the Church to the
millions of colored citizens of the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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