'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those
that are ready to be slain; 12. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it
not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that
keepeth thy soul, doth not he render to every man according to his
works?'--PROVERBS xxiv. 11, 12.
What is called the missionary spirit is nothing else than the
Christian church working in a particular direction. If a man has a
conviction, the health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he
has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a
duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak
what he believes. On these common grounds rests the whole obligation
of Christ's followers to speak the Gospel which they have received;
only the obligation presses on them with greater force because of the
higher worth of the word and the deeper misery of men without it. The
text contains nothing specially bearing on Christian missions, but it
deals with the fault which besets us all in our relations and in life:
and the wholesome truths which it utters apply to our duties in regard
to Christian missions because they apply to our duties in regard to
every misery within our reach. They speak of the murderous cruelty and
black sin of negligence to save any whom we can help from any sort of
misery which threatens them. They appear to me to suggest four
thoughts which I would now deal with:--