Appendix B: Extracts from Essay on Missions: Connection Between the Home and Foreign Work

Th£ cause of extending the blessings of Christian instruction to the whole of our people at home, and that of sending the Gospel to the heathen abroad, are, each of them, so obviously deducible, in their great principles, from the Divine Word, and so certainly the objects of a common interest in heaven, — and so very plain is the maxim, that the performance of one duty can never vindicate the neglect of another, that it might at first be a matter of wonder that such a subject as that now read in your hearing, has come to be discussed at all. But the truth is, that distance, although in other cases it may lend enchantment, is often, in regard to the efiforts of benevolence, the ground of unreasonable prejudice, or the last entrenchment behind which an indifiference to the whole matter is apt to find or make for itself a shelter. And hence, instead of supporting home .nd foreign missions, as essentially one and the same cause, by one and the same line of argument, we are compelled to treat them as if they were different, and,- for a little, to keep them asunder, in order that, by God’s help, we may at last the more effectually join them.

Our general subject comprehends two specific inquiries, — the one relating to a point of duty — the other to a point of fact. It may be asked, whether the call to difiiise religion at home, affords a valid reason forgiving less heed to the work of sending it abroad; and then, whether it affords an excuse, which, be it valid or the contrary, many will be disposed to employ. In other words, our double inquiry is. Ought the home work to cause any suspension of our labours in promoting the foreign? and then, will it tend to interrupt or diminish them?

Now, to the first of these, the answer, we apprehend, is so evident, that little timeneed be spent either in proving or in expounding it. We assume that, as Grod has made of one blood all nations to dwell upon the face of the earth, — so, to their common misery, he has adapted <me scheme of salvation. The disease is co-extensive with the human family; and the remedy provided by Divine wisdom, — like some of those simples which Nature’s pharmacy commends to every tribe alike, — is of such a kind that no one member of that familj can ever tralj deny its fitness and sufficiency for him., Nor is this all. As the Gospel is suited to the universal want, so it is made over to all in a deed of universal donation. ‘I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.’ Hence, no sooner does one sinner receive this Gospel for himself; no sooner, as 9kjoyf»l sound, does it obtain a lodgment in his ear and heart, than he is bound to let others hear it, and to make them (if possible) partakers of his own gladness. He dares not attempt to retahi it for himself alone; the word of God is not o to be bound; the command is imperative, to be, not a grasping miser, but, a ^ood ^tewardy of the manifold grace of God. So that every member of our race, to whom the word of this salvation is sent, is just in the same position with the man who, in a country distracted by the alarm of hostile invasion, is keeping watch on the top of some conspicuous hill. When he sees, afar, the gleam of that friendly light which warns him of the coming danger, his duty is|, not merely to consult for the preservation of his own possession, but to kindle another blazing messenger, which may send the warning across another province, and so to make the sharers of his peril sharers also of his means of safety. Let it be particularly observed, that the formal and explicit ground on which Christians are under obligation to diffuse the blessings of the Gospel, is totally independent of proximity of place, — has no concern with the geographical position of those for whose good they are charged to labour. The duty on man’s part is measured by the grant on God’s. And if ’ salxation unto the end of the earUi ’ is the Redeemer’s glorious title, we are not at liberty to confine our aspirations and exertions within narrower limits than the circumference of the globe. We owe this debt of pious effort — not to nei/ghhour& — but to men, A common nature — a common need — a common misery — is the bond of union; and that bond b wide enough to embrace all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. We may, indeed, be better able to transmit the truth to one people than to another; and on the scene of the greatest probable utility, a Christian prudence would lead us to expend oar contributions and endeavours. But, viewing the subject in its general aspect, — as it is presented in the injunction, ‘Go ye and teach fill nations,’ — it makes a claim upon us for the widest sympathy — th most diffusive kindness; it calls upon us, in sending forth the message of life, to ask

—not, * Who is nearest, but — * “Who is most necessitous!

But some, perhaps, will be ready to answer all that may thus be reasoned respecting the abstract and general claims of the world, by a reference to the fact, that multitudes within our own borders are yet in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. We admit the fact; we trustye are not insensible to its moumfulness; and he who deplores it, will find, we are sure, in every true advocate of foreign missions, a sincere partaker of his sorrow. But we cannot see its weight as a reason for suspending our efforts in behalf of the distant heathen. True, those who are perishing at home are our brethren, our kinsmen according to the flesh; and their case demands and deserves much of our solicitude. But, because the churches have been faithless stewards in regard to them, are we, therefore, to rob of their patrimony those remote nations of idolaters, whose cry, wafted across intervening oceans, falls more faintly on our ear? Because our care for the heathen among our own countrymen is to be earnest, must it therefore be exclusive? Surely not. If a balance must be struck between the two cases, we have little hesitation in saying, that, on the side of the destitute in other lands, is found the pressure of heaviest wretchedness. If many at home are sinking under the faintness which is caused by a famine of the word, they are at least not far from a plenteous supply; if over the greater portion of our country, there rests the gloom of spiritual darkness, yet does it also contain a Goshen — where all is light. It is not so with other climes. There is famine, unmitigated by a single fragment of the bread of life; there is an horror of great darkness, pierced by scarce a single ray of the beam that shines from Zion. If, then, the lesser evil calls forth your pity, with what intensity of compassion should you contemplate the greater? If you seek the good of the perishing thousands at home, what striding is required to meet the urgent necessities of the perishing millions abroad %

The utter vanity of the imagination — that the diffusion of divine truth at home can ever in the least relax thie obligation to send it abroad — may obtain from an analogous case a very plain illustration. It will at once be conceded, that if the wants of our own land may lawfully absorb that regard which has hitherto been bestowed, in too small and stinted a measure, on those of the world, — so, by parity of reasoning, we are at liberty to look exclusively homewards

z in the matter of our own peraonal salvatioDy and to let our neighbours shift for themsetves, while we are giving all diligenoe to make our own calling and election sure. Yet who would maintain this selfish paradox in reference to individual Christians! Who would say that it is no man’s hounden duty to labour in bringing others unto Jesus, until he has cleansed kimtdf fmm ail filthiness of the flesh and spirit, — until every fail has been retrieved, and every obstacle surmounted, and every lust mortified, and every temptation vanquished, and every grace matured! A moment’s thought is enough to satisfy us, that-, if the work of endeavouring to promote the conversion of others were suspended, or interrupted, or pursued with feeble and divided aim, till all thit were done, the period of cordial and vigorous exertion would come just a lifetime too late — would arrive when he who should have so exerted him* self, has taken his departure for a better world. Every one sees, that, if the Christian must wait for perfection ere he invites others to lay hold on that blessed hope which is the anchor of his own soul, he will just wait till the earthly house of his tabernacle is dissolv.

But the line of conduct which would be thus preposterous in a Christian man, is not rendered a whit more rational by its transference to a Christian community. It is granted, that every man’s first concern is the salvation of nis own soul; and it is granted, in like manner, that the spiritual wellbeing of those who are our brethren (as being the children of the same soil), has the foremott claim on our compassioupitc regard. But it is contended, that as, in ther*^ case, we are not to suspend; or languidly to prosecute, our labours in behalf of others, till we ourselves are perfect, — so, in the second, we may not defer the season of energetic action in behalf of the distant heathen, till our own country has attained the measure of Christian fulness. The man who is most deeply sensible of the claims of the spiritually destitute of Britain, and who is most thoroughly under the dominion of that selfishness (so often mistaken for patriotism) of which we have spoken, will freely admit, that, at aome time or other, the forlorn dwellers in heathen darkness are to become the subjects of our most fervent sympathies. Yet, if his principle is good, we may put the question. When are they to become so f If the existence of unreclaimed wastes at home is a good reason now for giving a measured and half-reluctant aid to foreign missions, it is likely to hold as good /or ever. It were, indeed, a glorious consummation — and one for which we would both hope

and patiently wait — that, in our own beloved country, the

people shoidd be all righteous, — that, from * each old

poetic mountain ’ of our fatherland, there should breathe

the strains of a higher ’ inspiration ’ than ever mingled

with the poet’s raptures. But we dare not conceal from

ouraelves the fact, that, if we are to lend but a faint and

irresolute hand to the foreign work till this consummation

arrives, we shall be found hesitating, and calculating, and

expecting, and deluding ourselves with vain excuses, when

the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven. The foun

tain of human depravity is ever sending forth its bitter

waters; and never, in this world of sin, shall a single

channel of its thousand streams be left entirely dry. In

pausing till our own land is all reclaimed, we are just

planting ourselves on the bank of one of these ceaseless

currents; and if we are to go no feurther till its waters fail,

we hall skmd UiUfor ever.

* Rutticus expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille Labitur, et labetur, in omne volubilis aevum.’

But, bad as our nature is, we trust these are but a small minority among the number of givers; we trust it is seldom that these motives operate alone. Even in those who are much under their dominion, there is still an intermixture of something less degrading; and we hope we are taking up by far the most common case, when we turn to that of a man, whose liberality is the product, either entirely or in part, of higher considerations. Now, there is not one consideration of this order in favour of the home missionary enterprise, which may not be uiged, with still aug* mented power, in favour of the foreign; or which, if faithfully represented, will not appear to have gained an accession of cogency.

Is, for example, our supposed contributor to domestic objects influenced chiefly by a view of the misery of those around him who are still sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death i But what, I beseech you, in comparison with the state of the far-ofl heathen, is all their misery? Anmud theie, if not upon them, the true light now shineth; thoee are enwrapt in the sevenfold gloom of what seems to be helpless — hieless ignorance. ITiete are subject to laws, «nd are encompassed on every side by the restraints of a morality, founded mainly on the Bible; tkoee either have XLO law but violence no restraint save feeble, groping,

364 APPERnni:.

undecided conscience, — or yield too ready an obedience to statutes, under which the wicked triumph, and the worker* of iniquity boast themselves. These are occasionally warned by the godly walk of some around them, for few recesses, even of our cities, are so abandoned, that no solitary member of the little flock is found to tenant them; those are unvisited by so much as the silent admonition of a single holy life. These, at the very worst, cannot escape the solemn invitation of the Sabbath-bell, calling the weary and heavy-laden to forget their sorrows in the peaceful house of prayer; on those, although all creation around them seems to enjoy its Sabbath, there lights no such melody of rejoicing and salvation, — there is one deep gladness of which they cannot taste — for it is never said unto them, ‘Let us go unto the house of the Lord, Surely, then, the man who glows with desire for the diffusion of the truth among the one class, will, if their relative situsrtions are fairly depicted to him, bum with enthusiasm for its transmission to the other.

From these specimens it is apparent, that if the friends of missions are but true to their own cause, and apply, with all the enhancement that the subject gives them, those very motives on which the supporters of Christian exertions at home have already acted, contributors will not be wanting. If any other consideration were necessary to evince the natural harmony of the two classes of objects, it would be found in the fact, that benevolence is a progressive thing. It increases by exercise. ‘MobiUtaterigetj viresque cbequirit eundo* It spreads like a conflagration, involving first one object and then another, till it has laid hold on every thing by which mankind may be benefited. The luxury of doing good once enjoyed in one of its departments, he who has tasted it will recur gladly to what was found so delicious. He comes, moreover, to exl)erience that, the more he gives away of the word of life, the more of its excellence does he himself know and feel. You can imagine that scene of wonder, to which, in the days of the Raieemer’s sojourn upon earth, the wilderness of Bethsaida was witness. You can mark that one man — although * a man of sorrows, and in the form of a ser-A’ant,* — standing in the midst of perishing thousands, and, with his single hand, satisfying the hunger of them all. He has already distributed a supply far exceeding the five loaves with which he was at first furnished, but still the work of this mysterious provider goes on. You marvel whence arose the materials of so copious a feast; but astonishment gives place to adoration, when you recognise a present deity, and see that the food multiplies as it passes through his hands. In spiritual things, although there we do not so well appreciate it, the same wonder is daily wrought. He that begins by contributing to the cause of Christianity at home, will soon know, that our Saviour’s mode of supplying the multitudes is but an image of the way in which the bread of life increases. He will find that, by communicating of it to others, his own stores are nowise impoverished; that, in truth, it grows in his hands; that he grasps the more of it — and that the more firmly — the more he gives away. Hence he will go on more largely to dispense it; and ever as he proceeds, his tOwn portion will multiply. He will drink more deeply into its spirit, and be more conformed to ite standard; his benevolence will take a wider range; in the arms of a Christian and comprehensive charity, he will embrace the world.

If all the considerations, to which we have now briefly endeavoured to advert, be put together, we are assured that it will appear indisputable that the foreign labour will go hand in hand with that at home — nay, that by spreading the Gospel among ourselves, we are providing most cfTectually for its triumphs abroad. The apostles never dreamed of such a question as that which we are now discussing; they assumed as certain the perfect consistency of the two departments of Christian effort. More than this, they steadily acted upon it; so that. at once, ’ from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum,’ they * fully preached the Gospel of Christ.’ All experience tends the same way. A Simeon and a Chalmers, the most zealous in striving for the regeneration of our own land, have enkindled or fanned the missionary flame in the breasts of the most potent assailants of the kingdom of darkness in its distant strongholds — in the breasts of a Martyn and a Duff. In fact, the work is one in essence, though in place divided. The churches at home constitute the grand reservoir whence the waters of the sanc-> tuary are to flow forth for the fertilizing of the dry and parched soil of heathenism. Fill, then, the reservoir to overflowing; and, in doing so, you will irrigate the desert. It is one and the same plant of renown, of which the churches in Britain and the infant assemblies of believers in beatbea lands are bnaches: and if hat a drop of the fjwieiM dew be made to fall on one leaf, it will instantly he abnorbed, and will circulate refreshment through its whole organiaation. Let not, then, the lahonrers who are miniatering a sap to one of its spreading honghs, look wiUi jealousy on those who are watering another. They are brethren in the service of the same Divine Hnshandman. They are both, in their own .way, performing his work — speeding the time when Son, in joyfbl amaze ment at the moltitnde of her thronging children, shall ask, ‘Who bath begotten these f and who hath brooght up these? Behold! I was left alone: these, where had they been?’ — hastening the dawn of that mom of ecstasy, on which, framed and fashioned anew, this long-disordered world shall be clothed with the moral beauty that shone in it at first, when the fiice of Deity smiled on a young creation bright with the reflection of his own transcendent excellencies.