beyond the power of any arithmetic to count. Soul-winning is the method,
and world-winning is the object and the final result.
<u>The Programme of World-winning.</u>
There is <i>a programme of world-winning</i> repeatedly outlined in this old
Book of God. That programme has not always been clearly understood.
Indeed, it may be said that for the most part it has been misunderstood,
and still is by many. And, as a result, many churchmen have lost their
bearings, and strayed far from the Master's plan for their own lives and
service. It helps greatly to get the programme clear in mind, so we can
steer a straight course, and not get confused nor lost.
The first item of that programme is world-wide evangelization. That is the
great service and privilege committed to the Church, and to every
Christian, for this present time. Every other service is second to this.
This does not mean world-wide conversion. That comes later. It does mean a
full, winsome telling of the story of Jesus' Gospel, to all nations and to
all men.
It means the doing of it by all sorts of helpful, sensible means; the
hospital and medical dispensary, the school and college, the printed page,
and the practical helping of men in every way that they can be helped.
Above all, it means the warm, sympathetic, brotherly touch. Not simply by
preaching; that surely, but in addition to that the practical preaching of
the Gospel by all of these means..
When that has been accomplished the Kingdom will come. The King will come,
and with Him the Kingdom. There will be radical changes in all the moral
conditions of the earth. It will be a time of greatly increased
evangelization, and of conversions of people in immense numbers. It will
seem as if all were giving glad allegiance to Jesus the King. The world
will then seem to be indeed a won world.
But there will be many who have simply been swung into line outwardly by
the general movement among the mass of peoples, just as it always is. And
our King wants whole-hearted love and service.
And so, at the end of the kingdom period, there will come another crisis.
It is spoken of by John in his Revelation vision[6] as a loosing of Satan,
and a renewal of his activity among men. That used to puzzle me a good
bit. I wondered why, when that foul fiend had once been securely fastened
up, he should be loosed again. But I'm satisfied that the reason is that
at the end of the Kingdom time there is to be full opportunity for those
who are not at heart loyal to Jesus, and who simply bow to Him because the
crowd is doing so, to be perfectly free to do and go as they choose.
Jesus wants a <i>heart</i> allegiance, and only that. The great thing is that
every man shall freely choose as he really prefers. This it is that both
makes and reveals character. And so there will be a final crisis. All who
at heart prefer to do so may swing away from Jesus.
That crisis ends with the final and overwhelming defeat of Satan and all
the forces of evil. He goes to his own place, the place he has chosen and
made for himself; and all who prefer to leave God out will go by the moral
gravitation of their own choice to that place with him.
Then follows the full vision of a won world, which John pictures in such
glowing colors in these last two chapters of Revelation, as a city come
down from God out of heaven.
<u>Early Moorings.</u>
There are two leading passages that speak of this programme. You remember
that during the last week of His life Jesus told His disciples of the fall
of Jerusalem. They came earnestly asking for fuller information regarding
the future events. They asked when the present period of time would come
to an end. And in answering He said--and the answer became a pivotal
passage around which much else swings--that the Gospel of the Kingdom
would be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony unto all
nations. And then the end of the present age or period of time would
come[7].
The first council of the Christian Church was held as a result of the
remarkable success attending the beginning of world-wide evangelization.
It was held in Jerusalem to consider the serious question of what to do
with the great multitude of foreign or Gentile converts.
The Church had been practically a Jewish church. But Paul had commenced
his remarkable series of world-wide preaching-tours. Great numbers of the
outside peoples had accepted Christ, and been organized into Christian
churches. Some of the Jewish Church in Jerusalem thought that all of these
should become Jewish in their observance of the old Mosaic requirements.
Both Paul and Peter, the two great church leaders, object to this.
It is at the close of the conference that James, who was presiding,
outlines in his decision the programme of world-winning of which we are
talking together[8]. He quotes from the prophecy of Joel. He says there
are to be three steps or stages in working out God's plan.
First of all is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus to all the nations,
in which work Paul had been so earnestly engaged, and the remarkable
success of which it was that had given rise to the whole discussion. When
this has been completed the kingdom is to be established with the nation
of Israel in the central place, the tabernacle of David set up, as he
quotes it. The purpose of this is that all the rest of the peoples on the
earth, all the nations, "may <i>seek</i> after the Lord."
The purpose of the Kingdom is the same, in the main, as is now the purpose
of the Church. It is to push forward on broader lines, and more vigorously
than ever, the work of bringing all men back to the Father's house.
There are many other passages that might be referred to, but these will
answer our purpose just now. There is to be a won world, and the old Book
outlines plainly just how and when it will be won.
<u>Service Unites.</u>
Now, I know that all ministers and Christian teachers are not agreed about
this. There has been a controversy in the Church, both long and sometimes
bitter, unfortunately, about the Lord's return and the setting up of the
Kingdom. And I have no desire to take any part in that, but instead, a
strong desire to keep out of it. There is too much pressing emergency
among men for helpful service to spend any time or strength in
controversy.
In a word it may be put this way. There are those who believe that Jesus'
coming is a thing to be expected as likely to occur at any time, or within
our lifetime, within any generation. His coming is to be the beginning of
the Kingdom period, when all peoples will be loyal to Him.
The others believe that the preaching of the Gospel will bring the whole
world into allegiance, and that will be the Kingdom, and then Jesus will
return. Both agree fully that the thing to be desired, and that will come,
is the world-wide acknowledgment of Jesus as Saviour and King.
It may be added, however, that of later years there is a third great group
in the Church, which is really the largest of the three. These people
practically ignore the teaching about an actual return of Jesus to the
earth. They believe that He has already come, and is continually coming in
the higher ideals, the better standards, and nobler spirit that pervade
society.
If it be true that the present preaching of the Gospel is to result in
winning the whole world at once, without waiting for this programme of
which I have spoken, then there is in that a very strong argument for
world-wide evangelization. For only so can the desired result be secured.
And so we can heartily join hands together in service regardless of what
we believe on this question. I make a rule not to ask a man on which side
of the question he stands, but to work with him hand in hand so far as I
can in spreading the glad good news of Jesus everywhere.
The difference of view regarding the Lord's return need not affect the
practical working together of all earnest men. We are perfectly agreed
that the great thing is to have the story of Jesus' dying and rising again
told out earnestly and lovingly to all men. And we can go at that with
greatest heartiness, side by side.
The great concern now is to make Jesus fully known. That is the plan for
the present time. It is a simple plan. Men who have been won are to be the
winners. Nobody else can be. The warm enthusiasm of grateful love must
burn in the heart and drive all the life. There must be simple, but
thorough organization.
The campaign should be mapped out as thoroughly as a Presidential campaign
is organized here in our country. The purpose of a Presidential campaign
is really stupendous in its object and sweep. It is to influence quickly,
up to the point of decisive action, the individual opinion of millions of
men, spread over millions of square miles, and that, too, in the face of a
vigorous opposing campaign to influence them the other way. The whole vast
district of country is mapped out and organized on broad lines and into
the smallest details.
Strong brainy men give themselves wholly to the task, and spend hundreds
of thousands of dollars within a few months. And then, four years later,
they proceed as enthusiastically as before to go over the whole ground
again. We need as thorough organizing, as aggressive enthusiasm, and as
intelligent planning for this great task which our Master has put into our
hands.
And we have a driving motive power greater than any campaign-manager ever
had or has--<i>a Jesus</i> who sets fire to one's whole being, with a passion
of love that burns up every other flame. We need a Church as thoroughly
organized, and every man in it with a burning heart for this great
service.
<u>The World-winning Climb.</u>
An old school-master, talking to his class one morning, many years ago,
told a story of an early experience he had had in Europe. He was one of a
party travelling in Switzerland. They had gotten as far as Chamounix, and
were planning to climb Mont Blanc. That peak, you know, is the highest of
the Alps, and is called the monarch of European mountains. While it is now
ascended every day in season, the climb is a very difficult task.
It requires strength and courage and much special preparation; and is
still attended with such danger that the authorities of Chamounix have
laid down rigid regulations for those who attempt it. One's outfit must be
reduced to the very lowest limit. And, of course, nothing else can be done
while climbing. It absorbs all one's strength and thought.
There were two parties in the little square of the town, making their
preparations with the guides. One young Englishman disregarded all the
directions of the guides. He loaded himself with things which he
positively declared were absolutely essential to his plans.
He had a small case of wine and some delicacies for his appetite. He had a
camera with which he proposed to take views of himself and his party at
different stages of the climb. He had a batch of note-books in which he
intended recording his impressions as he proceeded, which were afterward
to be printed for the information, and, he hoped, admiration of the world.
A picturesque cap and a gayly colored blanket were part of his outfit.
The old toughened guides, experienced by many a severe tug and storm in
the difficulties ahead, protested earnestly. But it made no impression on
the ambitious youth. At last they whispered together, and allowed him to
have his own way. And the party started.
Six hours later the second party followed. At the little inn where they
spent the first night they found the wine and food delicacies. The guides
laughed. "The Englishman has found that he cannot humor his stomach if he
would climb Mont Blanc," one of them said grimly. A little farther up they
found the note-book and camera; still higher up, the gay robe and fancy
cap had been abandoned. And at last they found the young fellow at the
summit in leather jacket, exhausted and panting for breath.
He had encountered heavy storms, and reached the top of the famous
mountain only at the risk of his life. But he reached it. He had the real
stuff in him, after all. Yet everything not absolutely essential had to be
sacrificed. And his ideas of the meaning of that word "essential"
underwent radical changes as he labored up the steep.
Then the old teacher telling the story suddenly leaned over his desk and,
looking earnestly at the class, said, "When I was young I planned out my
life just as he planned out his climb. Food and clothing, and full records
of my experiences for the world's information, figured in big. But at
forty I cared only for such clothes as kept me warm, and at fifty only for
such food as kept me strong. And so steep was the climb up to the top I
had set my heart upon that at sixty I cared little for the opinions of
people, if only I might reach the top. And when I do reach it I shall not
care whether the world has a record of it or not. That record is in safety
above."
We laugh at the ambitious young Englishman. But will you kindly let me
say, plainly, without meaning to be critical in an unkind sense, that
<i>most of us do just as he did</i>. And will you listen softly, while I say
this--many of us, when we find we can't reach the top with our loads, let
the top go, and pitch our tents in the plain, and settle down with our
small plans and accessories. The plain seems to be quite full of tents.
The plan of the Swiss guides is <i>the plan</i> for the life-climb. It is <i>the</i>
plan, and the only one for us to follow in the world-winning climb. That
was Jesus' plan. He left behind and threw away everything that hindered,
and at the last threw away life itself, that so the world might find life.
We must follow Him.
The Urgent Need
Three Great Groups.
The Needle Of The Compass Of Need.
A Quick Run Round The World.
West By Way Of The East.
Christian Lands.
The Greatest Need.
Groping In The Dark.
Living Messages Of Jesus.
The Great Unknown Lack.
The Need
<u>Three Great Groups.</u>
The human heart is tender. It answers quickly to the cry of need. It is
oftentimes hard to find. In Christian lands it is covered up with
selfishness. And in heathen lands the selfishness seems so thickly crusted
that it is hard to awaken even common humanitarian feeling.
But that heart once dug out, and touched, never fails to respond to the
cry of need. We know how the cry of physical distress, of some great
disaster, or of hunger will be listened to, and how quickly all men
respond to that. When the terrible earthquake laid San Francisco in
burning ruins the whole nation stopped, and gave a great heart-throb; and
then commenced at once sending relief. Corporations that are rated
soulless and men that are spoken of as money-mad, knocking each other
pitilessly aside in their greed for gold and power, all alike sent quick
and generous help of every substantial sort.
Beside expressing their sympathy in kindest and keenest word, they gave
millions of dollars. Yet this might seem to be a family affair, as indeed
it was. But the great famines in India and in other foreign lands farthest
removed from us, have awakened a like response in our hearts. Great sums
have been given in money and supplies to feed the hunger of far-away
peoples, and help them sow their fields and get a fresh start.
There is a need far deeper and greater than that of physical suffering.
And there is a heart far more tender than the best human heart. That need
is to know God, whom to know is to enter into fulness of life, both
physical and mental; and into that life of the spirit that is higher and
sweeter than either of these lower down. And that tender heart is the
human heart touched by the warm heart of God.
Many of us Christian people who are gathered here to-night have had
unusual blessing in having our hearts touched into real life by the touch
of God. And there's much more of the same sort waiting our fuller touch
with Him. And now we want to see to-night something of the needs of God's
great world-family, which is our own family because it is God's. Then we
shall respond to it as freely and quickly and intelligently, as He Himself
did and does.
I am going to ask you to come with me for a brief journey around the
world. We want to get something of a clear, even though rapid view, of the
whole of this world of ours. For the whole world is a mission field.
Missionaries are sent everywhere, including our own home-land, and
including all of our cities.
Our cities are as really mission fields as are the heathen lands. There
is a difference, but it is only one of degree. The Christian standards
present in our American life, and absent from these foreign-mission lands,
make an enormous difference. But, apart from that great fact, the need of
mission service is as really in New York as it is in Shanghai.
If we are to pray for the whole world, and to help in other ways to win
it, we ought to try to get something of a clear idea of it, to help us in
our thinking and praying and planning.
It will help toward that if we remember at the outset that the world from
the religious point of view, divides up easily into three great groups.
First there are the great non-Christian, or heathen, lands and nations.
This includes those called Mohammedan; for, while that religion is based
upon a partial Christian truth, it is so utterly corrupt in teaching and
morally foul in practice that it is distinctly classed with the heathen
religions.
Then there are the lands and nations under the control of those two great
mediaeval historic forms of Christianity, the Roman and Greek Churches, in
which the vital principles of the Christian life seem to have been almost
wholly lost in a network of forms and organization. The essential truths
are there. But they are hidden away and covered up. There are untold
numbers of true Christians there, but they live in a strangely clouded
twilight.
The third great group is of lands and peoples under the sway of the
Protestant churches.
<u>The Needle of the Compass of Need.</u>
Let us look a little at these peoples. Where shall we start in? The old
rule of the Master's command, and of the early Church's practice, was to
begin "at Jerusalem," and keep moving until the outmost limit of the world
was reached. I suppose that practically, in service, beginning at
Jerusalem means beginning just where you are, and then reaching out to
those nearest, and then less near, until you have touched the farthest.
But the old Jerusalem rule will make a good geographical rule for us
English-speaking people, with an ocean between us, in getting a fresh look
at this old world that the Master asks us to carry in our hearts and on
our hands. So we'll begin there.
The needle of a magnetic compass always points north. The needle of the
compass of progress has always pointed west; at least always since the
Medo-Persian was the world-power. But it is striking that the compass of
the world's <i>need</i> always points its needle toward the east. And so,
starting at Jerusalem, we may well turn our faces east as we take our
swing around the world to learn its need.
It may be a relief to you to know at once that there will not be any
statistics in this series of talks. We want instead just now to get broad
and general, but distinct, impressions. Statistics are burdensome to most
people. They are a good deal of a bugbear to the common crowd of us
every-day folks. They are absolutely essential. They are of immense, that
is, immeasurable, value. You need to have them at hand where you can
easily turn for exact information, as you need it, to refresh your memory.
And an increasing amount of it will stick in your memory and guide your
thinking and praying.
There are easily available, in these days of such remarkable missionary
activity, an abundance of fresh statistics, in attractive form. We are
greatly indebted to the Student Volunteer Movement and the Young People's
Missionary Movement and the Church Societies for the great service they
have done in this matter of full fresh information.
But the thing of first importance is to get an intelligent thought of the
<i>whole world</i>. And then to add steadily to our stock of particular
information, as study and prayer and service call for it. It is possible
to get a simple grasp of the whole world. And it helps immensely to do it.
It helps at once to this end to remember that two-thirds of all the
peoples of the earth are in the distinctly heathen, or non-Christian,
lands. This in itself is a tremendous fact, telling at once of the world's
need. At the beginning of the twentieth hundred-years since Jesus gave His
command to preach His Gospel to all men, two-thirds of them are still in
ignorance of Him and under the same moral sway as when He went away.
I might add that there are a billion people in these two-thirds. But that
figure is so big as only to stagger the mind in an attempt to take it in.
The important thing is to see that it doesn't by its sheer bigness,
stagger our faith or our courage or our praying habit. We want to be like
the old Hebrew who "staggered not" at God's promise to do for him a
naturally impossible thing. Yet it is well to repeat that word "billion,"
for it brings up sharply and gigantically the staggering need of the world
for Christ.
One-third is in lands commonly called Christian. Though we must use that
word "Christian" in the broadest and most charitable sense in making that
statement.
<u>A Quick Run Round the World.</u>
Beginning at Jerusalem, then, means for us just now beginning with the
Turkish Empire. And with that, in this rapid run through, we may for
convenience group Arabia and Persia and Afghanistan. This is the section
where Mohammedanism, that corrupt mixture of heathenism with a small
tincture of Christian truth, has its home, and whence it has gone out on
its work throughout the world.
Great populations here have practically no knowledge at all of the Gospel,
for missionary work is extremely scant. The land of the Saviour, with its
eastern neighbors, has no Saviour, so far as knowing about Him is
concerned, though it needs His saving very sorely.
Next to it, on the east, lies the great land of India, with the smaller
countries that naturally group with it. And here are gathered fully <i>a
fifth</i> of the people of the earth. These are really in large part our
blood-brothers. Their fathers away back were brothers to our fathers. And
so missionary work here ought to be reckoned largely as a family affair.
British rule has had an immense humanizing influence here. Missionary
activity has been carried on aggressively for years, and great and blessed
progress has been made.
Yet it is merely a preparation for the work now so sorely needed. These
years of faithful seed-sowing have made the soil dead ripe for a harvest
in our day. A strange religiousness utterly lacking both in religion and
in morality, abominably repugnant in its gross immorality, honey-combs the
life of these people. The cry of need here is deep and pathetic.
Pushing on still to the east, the great land of China with its
dependencies, looms up in all its huge giant size. Roughly speaking,
almost <i>a third</i> of the world's people are grouped here. There are
practically almost as many in what is reckoned Chinese territory as in all
Christian lands. Here is found the oldest and best civilization of the
non-Christian sort. The old common religion of Confucius is practically
not a religion at all, but a code of maxims and rules, and utterly lacking
in moral uplift or power.
The peculiarly impressive thing about China, as indeed about nearly all
of the heathen world, <i>is the spirit of stagnation</i>. There is a deadness,
or sort of stupor, over everything. It is as if a blight had spread over
the land, checking all progress. Habits, customs, and institutions remain
apparently as they were a thousand years ago. This stands out in sharp
contrast with the spirit of growth that marks Christian lands.
It seems strange to us because the spirit of growth is the atmosphere of
our western world, breathed in from infancy. The one word that seems
peculiarly to describe China is that word "stagnant." The people
themselves are remarkable both for their mental power and their habits of
industry. The Chinese may well be called the Anglo-Saxons of the Orient,
in latent power and mental character.