The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-05

Judas when he criticised Mary for breaking
the alsbaster box of precious ointment upon
the Saylour's head, or as the rulers of the Jews
when they thought they knew the lnmost heart
ef Joseph of Arimathea.
II Is related of Adoniram Judson, when he
was on his visit to this country after thirty
years OF toilsome foreign service, that upon
one occasion, when listening to public ad-
dress from youthful missionary who was
severely censuring the churches and ministers
before him for their lack of missionary inter
est the SCARED veteran turned to him and
quietly remarked, "My young friend, you
ought to know that there is as genuine miss
ionary conservation here at home as ever ysu
have shown or l." 1t was deserved rebuke.
and came from the appropriate lips. Foreign
missionary conservation as every true miss
lonary VIII be the first to emphasize, does not
consist IN voyage across the ocean. and a
residence, whatever may be the externsls
pleasant or otherwise, in foreign lands For
eign missionary conservation is the surrender
of the entire being, spirit, soul, and body"
person, time, energy and property, to the
| proclamation Of Christ, to the utmost of our
ability, in our ewn time to the ends of the
earth. And this is known just as truly in the
| self denying and systematic bestowment of
| gifts as in the individual bearing of the mes
sage Q) Therefore it becomes a missionary
society like the American Board to reeog-
nize the sacredness of the gifts intrusted to it
| as truly as that of the personal mi sioparies
and of the missionary fields. And this
| point grows in importance as the gifts and
| legacies become larger, as they must become if
the spirit of missionary conservation pervades
more thoroughly, as it will, the churches and
the ministry at home. Not only has the Lord
declared, s'All souls are mine." He hath also
said, "The silver and gold are NINE When
therefore, through human instruments, he
commits these, his own possessions, into sul
hands for the spread of the gospel throughout
the world, be they the coAsecrated souls or
the conseerated gifts, they are alike to be
received and appropriated as sacred trust.
OUR TRUST, OUR POWER.
! Nor should VIC forget that these noble trusts
which have been so generously committed to
us in the past, and which we have no reason to
| doubt, are to be more largely committed to us
IN the future, constitute our magnificent pow
| er Here In pre-eminent sense, for the COM
| ing generation is our great Christian opportun-
| ity. This is the field upon which we shall do
our best work, most fruitful, far-reaching and
| permanent And if well done, on liberal
scale worthy of the trust, it will assuredly bear
| with 1t everything else. For there is no
thorough intelligent surrender to the proclaim
alton OF Christ throughout the world which
| does not, from the very nature of that surren-
der, carry with it the most thorough devotion
| to every department of home evangelistic SER
| vice, and to every conceivable form of personal
| Christian growth and activity. Our supreme
| place OF power for our churches and ministry
for the day which is just before us, is that
| which gives us our broadest outlook and our
| widest reach Of influence for all lands and for
/ all time.
OUR NECESSITY, FRESH SPIRITUAL AroINT
! We may well ask the question, "Who is
| sufficient for these things?" and as we bow our
heads to receive the Masters reply, we shall
| certainly receive it in the bestowal OF a fresh
| divine spiritual amounting, setting us apart
cnew for our own personal work during our
new generation OF opportunity, and enabling us
| to say humblY, but also with assurance of faith
Il can do all things, through Christ that
| strengthened me-
| Oh for this divine spiritual amounting in full
| est measure, at this eventful period of our his
| tory, descending upon the missionaries of this
| Board, some of them drawing near to the end
| OF prolonged aud useful service, many of
| them young, and having the prospect OF more
| than one generation before them. Who need
| this amounting more than our messengers
abroad, exposed as they are to peculiar perilS
to their own spiritual life, as they themselves
| we'll know when they send home so earnestly
| the urgent request, "Pray for u.s.
| Oh for the same fresh amounting upon the
| officers and members of this Board, the gravity
Of whose trusts in the selection of missionaries
| III the wise distribution and appropriation of
| the funds committed to them, and in the decis-
| ion of intricate and momentous questions is in
| creasing every year.
| oh Tor similar amounting upon all pastors
and churches; upon the teachers of our col
| leges and theological seminares; upon the
| Christian women of our land who labor with
| us 50 efficiently in the gospel of the kingdom,
and who, from the beginning, have been
among the first to proclaim the risen Lord;
| upon our Sunday-schoos, with their great
| ofh alf % mi
| tian households.
THE TIME IS SHORT.
| And if the thought occurs to some of us g. at
our years of vigorous service are not many, if
| we are reminded Of the symbol upon the monu-
ment of John Howard, a dial-plate on which
| ara drawn lires to represent only four hours,
| from ten to two" as embematc Of mans
active life, we May, perhaps, be encouraged if
| We recall the names of some who were not per-
mitted, all of them, even to fill up the flour
| hours, but who are so identified with our mis-
| sionary history that we often think of them as
| veterans.
Samuel Worcester and jeremiah Eyarts,
venerable men" as We picture them, neither
OF them attained to the age OF fifty-one; William
| j. Armstrong was but fifty; Henry S. West,
| but forty -nine; Marshall ID. Sanders, but forty
! eight; Fideia Flske, but forty-six; Robert A.
| Hume, but iorty-tive; Edward Payson, but
/ forty-four; Augustus Walker but forty three;
| I'll nry Ballantine, and George w. Dunmore,
| bat forty-two; Benjamin b. Wisner, bu. forty
| Que; Gordon Hall, but forty; James Richards,
| Elias Cornelius, and David 7. Stoddard, bat
| thirty EIGHT; Samuel Newell, Mrs Ann III.
| Judson, Joshua Huntington, and Asahel Grant
| were but thirty-seven Samuel j. Mills, jr.,
| still - Junior" when he died. but thirty-five
| Mrs Sarah L. Huntington Smith, DIR. Azariah
| Smith, DIR. ID. W. Osgood, but thrty-four;
| Pliny Fisk finished his earthly life at thirty
| three, one year older then than Henry Martin:
| George Champion was but thrty-one; Levi
Parsons and Samuel Munson, but thirty one
| year older then than David BraiIard Henry
LobdelI was but twenty-eght; David q. Scud-
der, but twenty-seven; Henry Lyman and
Judith S. Grant, but twenty-five; Harriet
Harding Williams bat twenty-one; and Har-
] ret Newell, when she laid to rest
| upon the Isle of France, had completed but
nineteen years and one month. Certainly
something can be accomplished in "four
hours"
PAST MERIDIAN.
But il any are reminded to-day, as those GER
ianly are who recall the meeti & of thirty -one
years ago, that the generations as we'll as the
years are rolling on, and that possibly 1t may
be with some OF us, almost unconsciously,
"past meridian" we may still take courage
when we remember that more than one deci-
Sive battle in more than one memorable cam
| l,aigu has been fought in the afternoon, and
that o. casionally even "the sun stands still mp
on Gibeon and the Moon in the
valley of Ajalon," in order that th , triumph
| may be complete, I'VE have lost the battle,
and we are being cut to pieces was the dis
: heartening message on ono occasion sent to q
81 great military commander by one of his subot-
dinate officers The commander took out his
watch and replied il is only o'clock; you
have lost the battle; but there is time enough
to win another; charge upon the foe." II was
victorious charge
FORWARD.
So may IL be with us as we draw near to the
end of this nineteenth century, be we younger
or older iii the service. The now generation
| is before us, with its grander, and possibly
/ more difficult, work, with its nobler heroism
and with its assured conquests. But one thing
remains Tor us to do, to accept the work hum
bly, and gratefully in all its breadth and digni.
ty,-something better than any preceding
generation has achieved or attempted, some
| thing worthy of our heritage and our trust,
something commensurate to the greatness oil
J our opportunity,-and then b the grace Of
God to go forward in the name of the Great
Commander, and in obedience to his word.
~ u have recently learned of one Of the cor
tributors to the Board who although widow living il
small cottage without servant, doing her work
OiV nd To fba lknard md