The missionary wife is often taken very much for granted. It is her ordinary lot to spend long weary months and perhaps years in some desolate part of the earth, not seeing another of her kind for weeks and months. She also is often separated from her husband for extended periods of time.
It is not unusual for her to put in long hours at the hospital, or in some other mission work, then come home at night to teach her own little ones and maybe do much of her own house work. She is hardly considered worthy of her calling if she doesn't do her cooking over charcoal or kerosene, bake her bread in a home made oven, and grow her own yeast. As for socials, shopping, or beauty parlors, they are not in her program at all. Her days are full of struggle, emergencies, and making do what she has. Over this there hovers the constant menace of loneliness loneliness that comes over one like a great ocean wave, threatening to engulf and destroy. To overcome this, she must fight just as hard mentally as she would physically if dropped into the sea and then and there having to learn to swim.
The missionary mother must send her children away to school at a very tender age. Mothers at home would be criticized if they suggested sending theirs away so early to boarding school.
What has this to do with Sarah? Sarah was not young when God spoke to Abraham asking him to take all he had and move to a strange, distant land. Surely Abraham talked this over with her, but there is no record of her saying one word against it. She packed her belongings, said good-by to family and friends, and went riding off across the desert on the back of a camel, never to return. Abraham and Sarah had no furlough. Surely there were hardships, disappointments, and loneliness in the years that followed.
Surely there were times when she longed to go back to the land of her people, but there is no record of her complaining or giving up. She only laughed when things looked impossible. Some time in her life she had learned to overcome these very human, besetting weaknesses and carry on.
Peter, in admonishing the women of the early church, makes this statement about Sarah: "For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned them selves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord." 1 Peter 3:5, 6. In this passage Peter by inspiration speaks of Sarah as one of "the holy women . . . who trusted in God." In the last part of the sixth verse, still speaking of Sarah, is a thought that particularly applies to missionary wives: "Whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." Another translation reads, "Doing good and not fearing any terror."
Those who have been called to leave home and family and go to a distant place are Sarah's daughters as long as they "do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." Not afraid to stay at home alone at night when native drums are beating, and the night is full of shouts and the frantic cries of pagans leaping and dancing before their gods.
Not afraid to walk the hot, dusty roads, and never see a kindred face or hear a word of her mother tongue. Not afraid of a meager diet or of going without the frills, the pleasures, and the com forts of civilization and home. Not afraid of work, hard work.
All around the world there are women who have followed their husbands to some faraway spot to labor where God has sent them. They are supporting a work they deem much more important than personal comfort. These are walking in the footsteps of their great maternal ancestor, Sarah, who "trusted in God" and was "not afraid." Let us call them Sarah's daughters.
How happy Sarah would be if she could look down through the ages and see her daughters going out bravely and efficiently, the way she went before them so many years ago! Abraham is the father of the faithful, and Sarah is their mother. What a heritage has been left to her daughters!
"These Are They"
LENORA BURTON, Minister's Wife, Canadian Union Conference
These are they which came out of great J_ tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These are they, therefore, who have been tested, and who have stood the test and overcome by grace. "These are they" who are true conquerors.
But who are the conquerors? Those who are alive when Jesus conies? Then because we live down at this very time, expecting Jesus' soon coming, may it not be quite possible that we, you and I, may be among this group spoken of as "these are they"? Whether or not we are, is really up to you and me, is it not? Just how far are we really determined to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth"? Yes, "these" are Christians, and Christians who have truly over come too. They have been just erring mortals, but they have truly surrendered their all and put God's all first and foremost in their lives. They know by experience what Paul meant when he said, "I die daily." They have put away the I-in-me and allowed the Christ-in-me to be come their hope and glory.
With the disciples of old that I-in-me was so strong, it was ever bringing in discord. Christ could not use them thus, so He told them to tarry and get ready to receive His Pentecostal power. It was a "be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" principle. "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." While striving for the best place the disciples were not ready at all. But after ten days of tarrying they were finally prepared, and the priceless gift came upon them. And what a transformation! These poor human, erring disciples were made fit vessels who could be en trusted with this divine power a power in no sense to glorify any one of them, nor their deeds, but to glorify their Lord and to enable them to extend His kingdom.
And who among us does not see the need of power today? We know it is for us; we expect to receive it someday. But when? We expect to receive it, but how? Does the Lord dare to give this gift to self-centered, selfish, self-glorifying hearts? Never!
Paul's Experience
Paul received this power to witness in his day. But when did he receive it? Not until his self-righteous, dominant, arrogant, intolerant self had been crucified. He says that "Paul" had to die entirely. The Paul that was in him was burned out of him. The beginning of this experience came with that dramatic experience on the Damascus road. It was then that Paul's earthly vessel was cleansed, and when the old Paul died, an entirely new Paul lived. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" became his watch word. The new Paul lived and labored and brought forth much fruit for his labors, and his fruit remained. What gratitude we should feel in our hearts today because there was a Paul who lived the life of victory to glorify God! It reveals that such a thing is really possible for us, if only we are willing to pay the price for it all that he paid. Paul gave all.
Paul was an all-out-for-God man. How many of us today are really all-out Christians? So many of us ding to just a little of self or stubbornness. We want that power; we feel we need it so much in our work, but do we realize that ere we can be really trusted with that power the self that is in us must as surely experience a daily dying as was Paul's experience? It is a power entrusted to mortals only on condition. And that condition is that their lives are truly ready for it. It is not possible for God's power to dwell in any selfish heart.
Paul says to covet spiritual gifts. And the most essential of all spiritual gifts is to be cleansed absolutely and then be filled with God's power. As long as self reigns in our mortal bodies, we can no more bear real lasting fruit than Paul could before he became a new creature in Christ Jesus. Only as self is dead in us are we able to lift up Christ. We start out all right, trying to lift up Jesus, but alas! soon, if we are careful to analyze our own motives, all unconsciously we find ourselves putting a selfish brand on it all. It may not be our actual selves; it may be our family tree. If we know the meaning of the words of Christ, "I am the vine, ye are the branches," even our family connections will mean little to us, for after all, the branch has no root of itself; only in Christ and with Christ in us are we connected at all with any root. Through this mystic relation we are connected with the true source of life.
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Love is the very essence of God's power. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Taking 1 Corinthians 13 as our measuring rod, we can check up on ourselves and see just how far we have traveled along the road of divine love. It is really the only road to the Promised Land. And it is that power of love in our lives that warms the souls and melts the hearts of those for whom we labor. Only love has the drawing power to lead lost men and women to the Saviour. He said, "I, if I be lifted up," that is, lifted up above self, and sin, and the world, and all else, "will draw all men unto me."
This is His promise to us. May God help us each to get a closer look at the divine pattern, that we may indeed be His witnesses.