if educated and properly directed, is capable of enriching others to
a far greater extent than he himself is the least aware of. But what
power will develop this force? What power, we reply, in the universe
is so fitted to do so, and to bring out of a man all that is in him,
and to direct all the force of his being to worthy and ennobling
objects, as the power of a living Christianity? If the love of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, understood, believed, felt, does not kindle
all the love in a man's heart, and fire it with all the enthusiasm,
and inspire it with all the bravery of self-sacrifice, and nerve it
with all the indomitable perseverance of which it is capable, then
we know nothing else which can do this, or anything like this.
Christianity has not become effete! It is still the "power of God and
the wisdom of God." It is still mighty in pulling down strongholds. It
can still convert "the elements we have to work upon" into instruments
of righteousness, and "make the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise;" and "the weak things of the world to confound the
things that are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things
that are despised, and things that are not, to bring to nought the
things that are." But we must have real, living, and undying faith in
Christ's life and power to do this, and be earnest in personal and
social prayer; and then only will we be able to judge as to the
capabilities of "the elements we have to work upon."
There is no department of congregational work in which the personal
ministration of the individual members is more required than in its
_Home Mission_. The sphere of this mission must necessarily be a
district in which the members of the congregation can labour. We may
assume that there is no district even in this Christian land in which
are not to be found a number who require to be instructed in the
gospel, and brought into the fellowship of the Christian Church, as
well as a number who require to be ministered to in private owing to
the infirmities of their bodies, the bereavements in their households,
or other necessity of supplying their temporal or spiritual wants.
In large cities not only does each district inhabited by the poorer
classes abound in what has been termed a "home heathenism;" but this
population is so fluctuating from month to month, that a more extended
and vigorous agency is required to make use of the brief opportunity
given us for doing it any good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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