And all the Christian churches are agreed that this duty has been laid
upon them, The churches are alive to this duty as they never were
before. And this is one of the most hopeful signs of the age. It does
seem at times as if society were getting worse at the core; yet in
regard to sympathy and helpfulness, especially in regions remote, it is
certainly improving. And this increased interest and sympathy relates
both to the bodies and the souls of men. This age has witnessed marvels
of kindness and enterprise that would have been impossible only a few
years ago.
Surely it is time. It must be confessed that the church in general has
been very slow to take up the subject of missions with any zeal. There
was great activity in the first century of the Christian era, and a
little later. If it had only been sustained until the present time,
possibly the whole world would have been evangelized. But there was a
deplorable lapse of interest and of effort. And it was long continued.
We might say that for sixteen hundred years the church was almost
indifferent on the matter. But now there is renewed enthusiasm and
enterprise.
This long lapse of interest should certainly make us moderate in our
interpretation of Scripture. Here were the Saviour's words, clearly
before the eyes of the church for sixteen hundred years; and it seems we
did not see or hear them. He commanded us--and it was one of his last
commands--to preach the Gospel to the world. But we took almost no
notice. The world might have been dying in heathenism, but we seemed not
to care. We had not the spiritual alertness to realize that the words of
Christ had any application to ourselves. Such torpor of spiritual
understanding and sentiment, I say, ought to keep us from being unduly
positive, or self-assertive, in our interpretation of Scripture. Happily
there is renewed interest now; and in this all the churches are agreed.