The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell — John Shaqi
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Sermons
The Christian armory is well supplied with all the weapons essential
to the conflict. We need them all. "We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the
regions of the air." Hence the need of having our "loins girded with
the truth"; having on the breastplate of righteousness, our feet
shod with the preparation to publish the gospel of peace, taking
the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit, the Word of God, always praying and making supplication for
our fellow-missionaries and for all saints.
The missionary fields are numerous and various. They are both
domestic and foreign. The harvest is great in both. The laborers are
still few, comparatively very few, in either of them.
The supply is not a tithe of the demand. The Macedonians cry, "Come
over and help us;" "Send us an evangelist;" "Send us missionaries;"
"The fields are large, the people are desirous, anxious, to hear
the original gospel. What can you do for us?" Nothing! Nothing! My
brethren, ought this so to be?
Schools for the prophets are wanting. But there is a too general
apathy or indifference on the subject. We pray to the Lord of the
harvest to send our reapers to gather it into His garner. But what
do we besides praying for it? Do we work for it? Suppose a farmer
should pray to the Lord for an abundant harvest next year, and
should never, in seed-time, turn over one furrow or scatter one
handful of seed: what would we think of him? Would not his neighbors
regard him as a monomaniac or a simpleton? And wherein does he excel
such a one in wisdom or in prudence who prays to the Lord to send
out reapers--missionaries, or evangelists--to gather a harvest of
souls, when he himself never gives a dollar to a missionary, or the
value of it, to enable him to go into the field? Can such a person
be in earnest, or have one sincere desire in his heart to effect
such an object or purpose? We must confess that we could have no
faith either in his head or in his heart.
The heavenly missionaries require neither gold nor silver, neither
food nor raiment. Not so the earthly missionaries. They themselves,
their wives and children, demand both food and clothing, to say
nothing of houses and furniture. Their present home is not
"The gorgeous city, garnish'd like a bride,
Where Christ for spouse expected is to pass,
The walls of jasper compass'd on each side,
And streets all paved with gold, more bright than glass."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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