1.03.02. Book 3: 2. Facts which Compelled this Writing

2 FACTS WHICH COMPELLED THIS WRITING

SOME years ago three missionaries in India, in three different mission-stations, were, un­known to each other, seeking light upon the question of separation to God for service.

They had been trained in various schools of thought, but each had learned that to show out the life of our Lord Jesus, and to be a soul­-winner, one must live close to the Master, and each came to the mission-field longing to win souls. But they felt themselves befogged, for the traditions of the stations to which they had been appointed did not lean towards separa­tion to the Lord and to His work as they, at least, understood it; there were things crowded into the life for which there had been no room before, there were things crowded out for which much room had been made in the days of earnest preparation for this very service, and they were bewildered and distressed, fearing on the one hand lest they should be lacking in humility if they withstood the influences brought to bear upon them by those whom they sincerely respected, and fearing on the other hand lest they should lose touch with their Lord if they did not so withstand. Of the three, two gradually gave in, but they lost ground, and went on losing ground, till, startled at finding how much they had lost, they went back to the point from which they had started, the position they had been taught to take at home, of simple untram­melled separation unto God.

Afterwards, in speaking of it, one of them said: "If only I had been warned before I came out! But I knew nothing whatever about it. Why was I never told?"

Perhaps she had been told, but not in plain language. Perhaps she did not understand that all over the mission-field the sent reflect the senders. Is the Church at home one upon this matter? The third stood strong, but she found it hard, and in telling us about it she said much as the other had said: "If only I had been prepared! Could not something be written to give new recruits an idea of what they may have to go through when first they come out?" To the objection that to do so would involve a sort of "telling out of school," which is of all things most against the grain, she answered: "Perhaps one ought to be willing even for that for the sake of souls." A young clergyman, straight from home, stood on the veranda of a mission bungalow and talked with one who had just come down from the up-country station to which he was bound. Later on he spoke of what he had heard: "I wish I had made up my mind," he said, "but, the fact is, I never realized the thing would meet me out her." And he told us how Society had been a snare to him at home; "but I thought I had done with it when I became a missionary."

He had not done with it. He went off to his station without making up his mind as to what course he should pursue. He found the stream too strong for him; he was wrecked on the rock of compromise; he is at home to-day. But what of some who are not at home to­day, whose influence could not be described as spiritual? What of those who are hin­drances to the deeper life in the mission­-house rather than helps?

Remembering these things, we are writing. We are writing to "ourselves" from the standpoint of one who has come to the East for the sake of the people of the East. We do not touch upon any other phase of life, or any other branch of service, and we take it that equally among our countrymen when we find ourselves with them the rule holds good:- We are to know nothing among any save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. For our Calling, by its very nature, calls us apart from everything else; it has for its object nothing less than this: the showing of Christ, the living of Christ, among those who do not know Him. The love of our God must shine through us unhindered if we would live to Him here, and whatever makes for holiness of life, for the clearing of the glass through which the light shines,· this is for us and nothing else.

So-is not our Calling a special Calling? The world so regards it. We are supposed to have understood this, and accepted it, at the beginning of our lives as missionaries. "We have good hope that you have well weighed and pondered these things with your­selves long before this time, and that you have clearly determined by God’s grace to give yourselves wholly to this office where­unto it hath pleased God to call you: so that, as much as lieth in you, you will apply your­selves wholly to this one thing, and draw all your cares and studies this way." This applies, of course, to the missionary’s life on board ship as much as to his life on shore. Take St. Paul as our example. He stood forth in the midst of them-"God, whose I am, and whom I serve." Can we imagine him frittering away his time in aim­less trifles, which had not as their end the salvation of the people on board, or his own preparation for the battle before him? Could our attitude of life on board ship be always described in that single sentence: "God, whose I am, and whom I serve"?