The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-08-25

| " 0Ohquer Ine WOrlQ lot Cnr1St tnat we
have mastery over it. AS soon as our
efforts intermit, the world gains on us
with appalling rapidity.
g. THIS a0ork lies directly at our doors
and belongs to as. God has given us as
church work to do in our Southern
land, and we must do it. We cannot ex-
pect the Christians of Great Britain or
Continental Europe, or the Northern
States, to take this labor off our hands,
and were they willing and able to do so,
it would be an indelible stigma upon us
to suffer it. Every man must stand in
his own lot and do his duty Every
church must stand in its place and meet
its obligations. The one that shirks is a
drone and unworthy of this grand voca-
ton. God has marked out the measure
of our responsibility and we cannot guilt
lessly evade it. Here are our fellow
countrymen in want of the bread of life.
Here are places within our own bounds
under the oversight of our Presbyteries,
where souls are perishing for the lack of
the waters of salvation. Here are CEN
tres OF influence in our very midst, where
people are gathering for purposes of traf-
nc, but they have none to tell them of
Jesus and the life to come. Shall the
church see all this and sit idly by and
do nothing? Shall we fold our arms and
go about our business and leave these
people to restitution of gospel ordi-
nances and to the ignorance and wick
edness which this implies? No. no, God
makes US responsible. We are "our
brothers keeper" The duty lies at ON.
door. We must give them the gospel.
a. THIS eOork IS Se1perlatively tmpor-
ta7't because Of ats intimate and indis-
soluble connection uith the progress of
Gods kingdom throughout tile earth.
This point is so obvious that it scarcely
seems to need argument; it is so weighty
as to carry unspeakable force. The
Psalmist expresses it when he prays :
"God be merciful unto us and bless us
and cause his face to shine upon us, that
thy way may be known on earth, thy
saving health among all nations" The
prosperity of the church in gospel lands
is needful to the manifestation of Gods
glory among heather nations. 1t has
been said by eminent men in public
places that religion may so deteriorate
In England and America, that at some
future day Chinese Christians may have
to send the gospel to christendom as we
are now sending it to the early churches
in the East. If this were So it would
seem bootless task in which we are en-
gagged. But certainly it ought not to be
and will not be so, if the church has wis
dom to carry out her Lords commands
by the full discharge of her duty. The
whole world, we are taught in the Bible,
is to be converted to God. 1t can only
be converted through the instrumentality
of the church. But the church will have
to possess a very different spirit and to
attain very different standpoint and to
do very different work than at present,
before this glorious contamination is
reached. The sainted Duff is reported
to have said that so far the church has
only been playing at Foreign Mis-
sions. He is also credited with saying,
that " a man who would attempt to dam
back the waters of Niagara with straw,
would be as reasonable as he who ex-
poets the world to be converted by any
such insufficient efforts as are now being
made. Now, why is the church so ag-
gard in giving the gospel to the lost ma
| UlOuS Is IL HOG because she Is so de-
relict in the discharge of her duty to the
perishing at her doors, that the despair
ing walls from perishing millions across
the seas fail to arouse her from insensi-
bility? Will she ever arise to the
magnitude of the duty imposed upon her
until she awakes to see that God expects
each one of her members to be a workt r
for souls; that upon every congregation
is laid the obligation of extending the
knowledge OF Jesus, and that the whole
church must do all in its power for the
furtherance of salvation at home and
abroad. "Thus it is written and thus
it behooved Christ to suffer, and to
rise from the dead on the third
day; and that repentance and remis-
sion Of sins should be preached in His
name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem. This is the doctrine of Ms
SONS which needs to be preached in our
churches, to be embraced in our hearts
and to be put into daily practice in our
lives. When the church is brought to
entertain this conception Of her COW
enanted obligations; when Christians
show by their lives that they are not
their own, but redeemed, that they may
win others to Christ; when every minis
ter, elder and member of the church be-
comes a missionary and reaches forth in