Without Excuse. The call to foreign mission service is very definite. To each of His followers Christ has said, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations." To everyone who is looking with joyous anticipation for the return of Christ come the added words of the Master, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." The coming of the Lord is thus dependent upon the proclamation of the good news of salvation to all people.
This twofold command of the Lord leaves us without excuse. The responsibility of going to all nations with the message of Christ's return is placed squarely upon the shoulders of every member and worker of the remnant church. Not for a moment should one feel that the commission of the Master is not a personal one.
No other call is necessary than that found in these words of Christ. We need no special vision, as did Paul, wherein he heard one saying to him directly, "Come over into Macedonia, and help us." We need no personal command, as did Jonah, who was ordered to go to a distant city and warn the people of their peril. Our call is recorded in unmistakable terms in the word of God. It is pressed upon us daily by the great need that is evident in lands afar. Let none look elsewhere for a call more definite than this.
Nevertheless many have said to themselves, "The Lord has not revealed to me that I should be a foreign missionary." Or, "I do not feel that I have received a definite call of the Lord—to tabor in a foreign land." Surely this is a wrong attitude of mind. God's call has already been made, and is most definite and personal. It is the duty of each to volunteer for service if an opportunity presents itself. Never should one turn aside an invitation to labor in a mission field without much prayer and careful consideration. Satisfactory conclusions should be reached between one's soul and God, if one finds it impossible to answer a call. Proof does not need to be found that one is called. The record is clear on that point. Proof should be found that one is not called.
To write frankly, there has been at times too great difficulty in finding qualified workers to fill posts of responsibility in foreign fields. Some places of need have had to wait altogether too long while search is being made for some well-equipped person willing to answer the call. The church at the home base is full of well-trained, experienced workers. Besides, hundreds of young people are being graduated from our colleges every year. Why then must the work often wait, or a second and even third choice be made in order to fill the call? Many times, through the urgency of the need and the inability to find the qualified worker, a makeshift arrangement has had to be made. But such an expediency can only result in loss to the work.
The reason for this situation is evident. Some are content to remain at home, while others feel no special call to labor in a mission field. There are some, without doubt, who do not have the health qualifications necessary to foreign service. But all too many permit circumstances in general to keep them from obeying the great commission, while others offer the excuse that the Lord has not revealed to them their duty in this matter.
There are no conscripts in the army of the Lord. God calls for volunteers. The proclamation has already been posted. The time is urgent. The battle against sin is raging in all lands. Enlistments are necessary in the Foreign Legion, if the war is to be won. All citizens of the kingdom of God should feel it their responsibility to join the battle where the warriors are few, and the need is greatest.
The Best Required. The early Christian church sent forth its best. Should the remnant church do less? Never should one think, much less express the thought, that some well-qualified, Ifigh-taTerited person has too much ability to be used in a mission field. Foreign mission work in these days of intense nationalism requires men and women of genius, of vision, and of tact. This service requires the best talent that the denomination affords. No talent is too great and no experience too broad to be used in spreading the last message of warning in strange and difficult fields.
To be able to learn a difficult language so it can be used in a fluent manner, to be able to meet officials properly and handle problems carefully so as not to misrepresent our worldwide work, to be able to break down the conservativeness of the cultured non-Christian and win him to Christ, to be able to lead a newly awakened people in these momentous times,—these things require more than sincerity and humility of spirit. They demand alert, intelligent, widely experienced men who are consecrated to the Lord's world-wide service, and who are willing to be lost, if need be, in the multitude of tasks that come to hand on a lonely inland station surrounded by teeming millions.
In the homeland where communication is almost instantaneous, and where counselors are many and easily accessible, it is necessary to have workers who are resourceful and competent. Much more necessary is it that we have such workers in mission fields where important decisions often have to be made with but little counsel, and where careless and unwise moves may easily involve our world-wide work. The world is small, and even the daily, inadvertent acts of an inland preacher or doctor may be caught up by the news vender and heralded to every corner of the earth.
Everyone who goes forth to represent this message in lands afar should have a training in true Christian diplomacy. He should be intelligent regarding international situations. He should understand and in some sense appreciate the cultural background of national life in the country where he labors. He should learn how to avoid entanglement in national politics. His words should be few and well-chosen on every occasion where an opinion is to be expressed in regard to the life of the people, or their relation to other peoples. No ambassador of earth has greater possibilities for good or evil than one sent out as the ambassador of the Lord. How careful, then, the church should be in the selection and training of those who will be its representatives in mission lands.
I see no reason why our most experienced conference leaders, our well-trained teachers, our greatest surgeons and physicians, and our most talented young people should not volunteer for foreign service. Any policy that would lower the standard of missionary qualifications because of the urgency of a call, because of lack of response on the part of well-qualified workers, or because of the unwillingness of an institution or conference to release its best men and women, would be a very shortsighted one, and very damaging to the cause of truth.
What the Call Is. God's call is to consecrated and sacrificial living among strange peoples. It is a call to wearisome but joyful hours of labor, sometimes far removed from the public eye. It is a call to labor on because of the joy of filling a great need, even though the spotlight of recognition does not reach to the little station where one has been called to do service for the Master. It is a call to days of toil and nights of prayer in order that men and women born in heathen superstition might obtain the light of life.
What the Call is For. The call to foreign mission work is not to a post of leadership, but to a post of service. The call is not for personal advancement or advantage. A doctor should not be concerned about opportunities for personal study of tropical diseases or practice of surgery that he may find in a mission field. A ministerial aspirant should not feel that in going to a mission field he might reach a place of leadership in the work sooner than in the home field where the ranks are already crowded. And never should a conference leader or a college teacher present the factor of personal advancement as an inducement to any young person to answer the call to foreign mission service.
Some disappointments and even failures in mission service have come because of disillusionment along these lines. Personal ambition should have nothing to do with one's response to a call to service like this, or be the motive in one's refusal to answer such a call.
Picture the Need and its Urgency. Millions wait in the darkness of perennial superstition. They are likewise bewildered by modern aggressiveness. The forcefully awakened heathen know not which way to turn for help. We have the only message that can calm their souls and give them hope. We have been commissioned to give this message to a needy world. Time hastens on apace, and there is much yet to be done. While the church may boast of the progress which has been made during the last thirty years, we must realize that we have but touched the task with the tips of our fingers. The outposts have been placed, but we must quickly fill in the gaps. The remnant church must not shrink from giving its best in men and means to the finishing of the work which is growing more urgent and more important with the years. The best is none too good.
(To be continued)