The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-06

witness to the majesty ON high, and
| out OF this apprehension Of what it was to be,
| clouds Of heaven part and take Him to the
throne and one Of them, at least, had been
caught up in the glory and had been an eye
witness OF the majesty on high. And out of
| this apprehension Of what it was to be called
in Christ; cut Of this conception of what
| it is to belong to Christ, what widened ideas
OF the heavenly missions present themselves.
Are men admitted to be lustful? Know
ye not the bodies are the temples Of the Holy
Ghost? Are they inclined to chickering's at
law? Know ye not that We shall Judge the
angels Are they forgetful of the proper de-
votion that shonld purify them: They are
reminded of the leve of Christ and God who
takes man into His fellowship that we may
share his presence and glory, 1t is here, it is
here! the inspiration Of many missionary
apostles finds its higher glory. Sc it will be
with us, standing before this lost world, hope
less and despairful, you and I and those be-
loved with us, are to lift up our fellow men
to be enc with Jesus Christ and having
fellowship in the Kingdom that is yet to be
revealed Of having q transformation in char
ter and life wrought now by the same sn-
pernal omnipotent Spirit thai indwelt in Him
and waiting for his crowns Of that high cal
ling. These are to be the conception by
which our hearts are to be inspired and four
work is to be carried forward to its triumph
have left myself but little space to make
observations on another subject. Bear with
me while / call attention to two or three prac-
teal points. First fall, how manifest that
supreme allegiance to and exultation of the
word Of God nnderlies and canditions yitally
The whole missionary work.
First of all we see how clearly supreme
allegiance to and supreme exaltation Of the
word Of God underlies and vilally condi-
tions all missionary work. These earlier
missionaries Ihave named, chosen, equipped
and sent forth, stood on the Divine infalli
bic authority of the word. 1t is an interest
ing fact in relation to this missionary histo-
ry that nothing appears about the genius of
Paul or the eloquence of Peter or the amia-
bility of Barnabas; bat the record OF their
work runs on tThe Word of God in
creased p "The Word maltplied;'' $50
nightly grew the Word and prevailed"
The very personality Of the man was for
gotten before the fact that they came as the
message-bearers Of God. There are two
signi6 sant things about this. First, that
they planted themselves on this infallible
authority Of the Scriptures, and the second
that standing there they taught men the
doctrines which were set forth in that infal-
lible Word.
How significant that not one of these meu
sent of the Spirit, ever thought OF impugn-
ing the value of the Word, Their witness
was partly the witness of spirit, giving fresh
revelatio S, or, as in the case of Paul, of
truth from the life Of Christ himself. But
the bulk of their testimony was the Scrip
| lures then ia their hands, How significant
now that they never Disseminated between
what fell from the lips of the Master at the
right hand of God, what was given by
the Spirit and the written record of the
| Word In their thought the word of
| Moses and Of David were all one
| with the word Of the Spirit and
| the word of Jesus Christ Even Paul, fa-
| m.liar with the science and literature of his
| time, familiar with the civilization of his
| day, a civilization that, apart from Chris
| tianity, has never been parallel in the histo-
| ry of the word,-eyen Paul in all the sweep
| Of that classic learning, found not fact If
| Science, nor teaching Of philosophy, nor
| sentiment of literature by which either to
| correct or enrich the testimony Of the sim
| pie word that was in his hands. He accepts
| Moses, accepts David, accepts Jonah,
| and all the testimonies of these
| writer's, from the first to the last. Nothing
here Of the allegory Of creation, of the le-
| gend of the Deluge, Of the myth of Jonah
| aud the whale Nay, standing before a roy
al Governor and Jewish King, he goes
back to the testimony that in cur day is the
most sneered at and despised Of all, and
| planting himself there, says: Having
| therefore obtained help of God continue
unto this day witnessing both to the small
| and great etc. Saying none other things
! than those which the prophets and Moses
mark the words-and Moses did say should
come, that Christ should suffer, and that he
should be the first who should rise from the
| dead, and Should show light unto the pe0-
/ Pile and the Gendles." And there stood
[ they all Not a man, or woman, or child
of this missionary epoch ever dreamed Of
F Fdoubtlng the divine infallible authority Of
| the Word of Ged. They would as soon have
thought of doubling the stability of the eter-
| nal throne itself
| And this was not the mere blind assent of
| those on whose necks was an iron yoke they
| conld not throw off. 1t was an intelligent
| belief and belief with profound purpose.
| These men knew that if they were to COM
| mand men they must speak with the author
| ity of God. And that is the only ground
| upon which any witness for the truth in any
| age can appeal to men.
| What the doctrines Of this Word were. as
| these apostolic missionaries taught them,
| and taught them as the great, fundamen-
| tai doctrines these Scriptures were given to
reveal, aud upon whose acceptance the sal
vstion of men depended-how clearly these
| reco. ds everywhere show. Arace lost and
without hope apart from the grace of God,
the human heart natively and peIsistently
| and nightly alien from God and at enmity
| with Him and His lava divine Christ lift
| ed on the cross as the rue sacrifice for sin
| heart regenerated by the supernatural
| power of the Holy Spirit, and this condi-
| toned upon faithin Jesus Christ--the real,
| bodily resurrection Of the Lord Jesus, and
| his glorihcation at the right hand of the
| Father, as the guaranty of the like resurrec-
| tion and gloriiication Of his saints-a day of
| finel judgment, on whose irreyocable deci-
| sioDs the destiny of all human souls hangs
| and beyond this life future unlighted by
gleam of hope to all who die unsaved -
| these are the unmistakahle witfess every
| where given by these Apostolic missionaries.
| And these are the testimonies inspired of the
| Spirit, repeated and re-emphasized by the
| Spirit, by and through which this earliest
| era of missions achieved its amazing results
| aud even in the lifetime of these witnesses
| sounded forth the gospel unto all the world
If we are to share their success, we must
| share their faith and their testimony. But
how many to-day that come short of this
| How many that impugn the inspiration and
| infallibility Of the scriptures How many de
! clare their statemens Of fact unscientific !;
their chronology false; their conceptions eff
| God and his government unworthy; and not
few of his commands inhuman and immoral
l
dictions between the evangelists and between
the apostle also. Now, with some this book
of God is only one of at least three reyela-
tions; the revelation Of the scriptures; the
revelation Of nature, and the revelation of
reason; and these three they affirm are of
equal value and CO. ordinate authority.
Then to how many not preaching, but sit
ting in pews, the scriptures have lost their
authority. The doe trine of sin and its pen
| alties been explained away, the crucfxion
become only picture, retribution hardly
more than figure of speech. and bow of
| promise spanning ever the pit of perdition.
What [ say now is that in just so far as
| views like these prevail, there must inevita-
bly, result apathy in the work of missions.
To preach such doctrines of the church,
| confronting as it does a lost world and an
| impending Judgment, and expect thereby to
| arouse it to duty, would be like giving chic
roform to an army on the eve of battle to
inspire it for the struggle. Worse than this,
| such doctrine not only Supplies the church,
but it furnishes to heathenism weapons with
which to resist the gospel. DR.. Donis of
| Japan stated publicly in my hearing few
months ago, that in his experience there