"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," let us regard it as no mere sentiment, but as actual fact. We praise God for the missionary graves as well as the missionary stations, knowing that each of those precious lives laid down has contributed to the coming of the Kingdom of Christ. I believe there is need to-day to reemphasize this principle of sacrifice in missions, as one that is fundamental, essential, vital. We live in an age in which selfsacrifice is by no means popular. The aim and effort are to eliminate sacrifice and to indulge ease and selfish. comfort. This same tendency is creeping into Christian churches and homes, and producing a spirit of complacency instead of concern with regard to missions. If individuals are not seriously disturbed or inconvenienced, can wear as good clothes, live in as comfortable homes and spend as much for pleasure or the whims of fashion; if home churches can still be as imposing and as luxuriously furnished, and as well. equipped with musical talent; and if denominationalism can still be everywhere maintained, and every small town and many a mere village can have its three or four churches, each with a mere handful of worshipersif, I say, all these interests can be assured, and the pittance that is over, of men and money, will suffice to break the Bread of Life to a thousand millions for whom nothing is prepared, then the missionary project will receive a unanimous vote of approval. In a word, if we could save the heathen by the mere passing of a resolution, without any appreciable sacrifice, without its costing us, we would. But the hard fact which we have to face is that we can not. Not merely is this clearly demonstrated by the actual facts of the missionary enterprise to-day-its insufficient forces, its embarrassed treasuries, its inability to overtake the needs and opportunities abroad-but it is equally plain for the reason that such easy accomplishment of the task is contrary to the very Divine law of missions-the law of sacrifice. "He saved others, Himself He can not save." No more can we. God never intended we should. It would be to leave out of the mission ary enterprise that which is its very essence and glory. God laid the foundation of this work of world redemption in sacrifice when it cost Him His only begotten Son, and He will finish. it by no less worthy a spirit or costly a means. Yet thousands of individuals and churches, professing allegiance to Jesus Christ, are practically denying to millions of their fellow men the only opportunity of salvation through Christ, simply because they refuse or fail to meet this question squarely on its only true and adequate basis of self-sacrifice. In the light of the world's unsupplied need and the church's unproffered resources it has still to be said, in plain honesty, that the church as a whole is only playing at missions as a sort of diversion instead of making the enterprise its supreme business. I want to bring this question to bear upon those who are gathered here. Have we the missionary spirit? Are we in this enterprise to the extent of any real sacrifice? Men are constantly asking, "Do missions pay?" The question we would do better to ask. is, "Do missions cost?" There is a standpoint, of course, from which the question as to whether missions pay may legitimately be asked and answered. But our concern at this moment is not with the returns but with the sacrifice of missions, and from this viewpoint missionary enterprise is not meant to pay, it is meant to cost. I ask reverently, did missions pay Jesus Christ? No, they cost Him His life-blood. How much have they cost us for love of Him? I wonder if some of us under grace are not falling short of David under the law, in seeking to offer unto the Lord of "that which doth cost us nothing," or very little. Now, there are three great outlets of missionary energy generally spoken of, namely, by praying, by going, by giving. Let us think for a little of this feature of sacrifice in relation to each of these in turn. 1. The first outlet of missionary energy is by praying. I place prayer first because it belongs first. Missions are not primarily a matter of men, or money, or method, but of the unhindered outworking of God Himself, and such outworking is always called forth preeminently through prayer. Prayer is the greatest power in the kingdom of God. The appeal for intercession should, therefore, be placed before even the appeal for men and money. But notice that an essential element of true missionary intercession is the sacrifice which it costs. Our Lord has furnished us with a model for such prayer in His parable of the friend at midnight. It tells of one who so took upon him another's need that he rose from his bed and went forth through the darkness, at an unseasonable hour, to the house of his friend, there to knock and knock again, at the risk of incurring to himself the criticism and displeasure of others--all for the sake of imploring and securing aid for another in want. What was it that won for that man's request a full and satisfactory response? "I say unto you, tho he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." It was the element of self-sacrifice which made that prayer effectual. It was the thought of the lengths to which the man outside had gone in his concern for another that made it impossible for the man inside to refuse his request, however reluctant he at first was to rise from his bed. That man stirred his friend by bestirring himself. Just so shall we stir God when we bestir ourselves unto prayer. God's complaint is that "there is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of Him." We can not blame God for seeming to be apathetic while we are apathetic. God waits to see in you and me His own concern and solicitude for the heathen. Like the man abed in the parable, He wants to provoke us to earnestness, to sacrifice, to importunity in prayer for souls who are starving for the Bread of Life, and then He will rise and give us for them as many loaves as we need. Beloved, have we prayed? Have we "prayed earnestly"? Have we "labored fervently in prayer"? How much has prayer for the souls yonder in the darkness cost us-in time, in strength, in self-denial? Any hours of deep concern? Any sleepless nights of wrestling? If our prayers have cost us little they have availed correspondingly little. God is seek ing intercessors. Oh, let us enter the honored list! 2. The second outlet of missionary energy is by going. We may sit back comfortably and sing: "Waft, waft ye winds His story, and you, ye waters, roll, Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to pole," but that doesn't solve the problem. The only way that the wind and the wind and waters can carry the Story the world around is by carrying forward men and women who go to tell it. We can not stay at home and save the heathen. Here again does our Lord furnish us with an inspired model, in His parable of the Good Shepherd, so indelibly imprest upon our memories by Sankey's immortal hymn, "The Ninety and Nine." You remember how one of those verses runs: "Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way, That mark out the mountain's track? They were shed for one who had gone astray, Ere the Shepherd could bring him back. Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn? They're pierced to-night by many a thorn." Such was the path the Master trod; must not His servants tread it still? Missionary life and labor demand sacrifice. Some must go-cheerfully leaving homeland and loved ones and fond associations, and surrendering bright prospects and cherished plans-go to face uncongenial climes, and difficult languages, and strange peoples, to live and toil patiently and perseveringly, amid hardships and dangers, if these "other sheep" are to be brought in. I will not lower my appeal by making the missionary life appear to be an easy one. True, it has its decided compensations, and even pleasant features, at times. Yet the true missionary life calls for self-sacrifice. It But shall this fact ought to be so. deter you? It is said that Napoleon's appeal for recruits for his army was in the words, "Come and suffer!" Ought missionary appeal to assume in the followers of Christ a spirit less noble, less worthy than that of the common soldier? Young man, young woman! May not you be among those whom the Lord wants to go? Have you asked Him? Have you offered yourself? Is the sacrifice too great, the cost too dear, for His sake who has done so much for you? Some must let go. Parents are called upon to lay their children upon the altar for this blest work. They are not to be denied their part in the precious sacrifice. I tell you that it is the fathers and mothers whose boys. and girls are out on the fighting line. who know best how to hold the ropes by prayer, and sympathy, and sacrificial gift. If God is asking you, dear father, dear mother, for your son or daughter as a witness for Him in some foreign field, I pray you refuse Him not, but willingly make the sacrifice, and you shall share the resultant joy and reward. Some must help go. Churches, as well as parents, have their definite part to play, by sending forth workers, if the ranks on the mission field are to be filled up. Who shall be sent? The no-goods and cast-offs? Those who can easily be spared because of infe Men and women! How much have we really given? Have we cast in "out of our abundance," or "out of our penury"? Are we trying to serve God, satisfy our conscience and save the heathen with our spare cash or pin money, or are we measuring up to the New Testament standard, "Freely ye have received, freely give"? If we look for our Lord's model for this third outlet of missionary energy, as in the former two, I think we have it in His parable of the Good Samaritan. That poor victim of the thieves lies before us again in the picture of fallen, suffering, doomed humanity in India, Africa, China and every other heathen land. What are we going to Some of us, with the rior gifts and abilities, and who never would make their mark at home? That is not the way it appealed to the church at Antioch. They sent forth Barnabas and Saul, their very brightest and best, the ones most essential, as it seemed, to the church at home. And God blest and multiplied that church in consequence, and let it displace the more seifish and narrowminded church at Jerusalem as the great home-base of the missionary movement. "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Would that many a modern church would take a page out of the book of Antioch's experience! 3. The third outlet of missionary Scribe and Pharisee of old, are going energy is by giving. But we need, like those of old, to have our offerings of gold and silver weighed in the scales of the sanctuary, in order to estimate them at their true value. Jesus still sits over against the treasury, watching the offerings of His people. How different His estimate of them from that of man! "Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all; for all these have of their abundance. cast in but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. Here is the very same principle again, this time applied to giving-the principle of sacrifice. With Christ the question was not "How much has each. one given?" but "How much has each one reserved?" For only this latter question brought out the point of importance, namely, as to what each of fering really costs its offerer. It is not giving any two mites, but giving the last two, that puts us in that widow's class. do about it? to pause for a mere passing glance and then "pass by on the other side." We are going to forget this vision of sorrow and despair, as we pass out into the rush of business and the swim of pleasure in this mighty metropolis, because we shrink from the cost of doing our duty. But others, thank God! will be found alongside of that Good Samaritan, whose heart was moved with compassion, who with eyes and feet and hands hastened to the rescue, who freely gave his time, his strength, his skill, his money, yea, his very self, and who saved a lost soul by the sacrifice of giving. And now, beloved, if you have followed me through this theme, and with me have seen that missions have a soul, and that that soul is sacrifice, and that every output of missionary effort, be it by prayer, by going, by giving, involves and demands self-sacrifice, then I believe you will agree with me that the real heart of the missionary problem is love, since love alone is equal to the sacrifice that is love." Have you noticed that? Those called for. Listen to the familiar Word of God. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." "Christ ioved the church and gave Himself for it." What church did Christ love? Was it the church already saved, and cleansed, and sanctified, and radiant in His beauty? No, but it was the poor, vile, sunken sinners who through His sacrifice, His outpoured life, were to be lifted and transformed into such a church. And remember that some members of that church yet lie undiscovered amid the gloom and vice of heathenism. Christ loves them. He gave Himself for them. He longs for them. But only as the love of Christ constrains us to the sacrifice involved in seeking and finding them shall He see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Love is the supreme motive to all true sacrifice. It was love that moved the Friend at midnight, the Good Shepherd, the Good Samaritan. "Love never faileth." Nothing less will avail. And if you are lacking the missionary spirit you are lacking love. Conversely, sacrifice is the supreme test of love. "Hercby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his heart of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Paul's explanation to the Corinthians for sending messengers to receive their missionary offerings was that he might "prove the sincerity of their Christians' profession of love was tested and confirmed not by any quantity of verbal assurances, but by the practical matter of their money offerings. If that may be the way Christ adjudges our profest love to-day, how does each of us stand before Him? "If ye love Me," says He, "keep My commandments." To Peter He said, "Lovest thou Me?" Then, in proof of it, "Feed My sheep!" And the same Master looks down to-night upon those myriads of other sheep," wandering still without a shepherd, and cries, "O, ye, who profess your love to Me! Give ye them to eat!" A ship was returning from distant goldfields when, on nearing port, she suddenly struck a rock and began to sink. The passengers were forced to strike out for themselves and try to reach the shore. One strong man was preparing for the plunge when a friendless little giri stood before him. "Oh, sir," she cried, "will you save me?" A struggle was on in that man's heart. Around his waist was strapped a belt filled with gold. It represented hard toil behind and pleasures and comforts before him. But there stood the little girl, helpless, pleading. One thing was sure he could not save both. Which should it be? A moment of hesitation, and then with a resolute will he loosened the belt and flung it down. "Come, little one," he responded, "hold fast around my neck!"-and with his living burden he plunged into the waves and finally reached the shore. He lay for a while unconscious after his exhausting effort, but when consciousness returned and he beheld that little maid bending tenderly over him and looking with loving gratitude into his face, he |