Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-13

before; that He Himself was prophecy fulhlled-He was the Messiah whose got Mary and Nazareth No wonder His Fathers business dominates every thought and interest. His consclous Deity is stirred in that place where He will manifest His good will toward men," by offering Himself as sacrlhce for the sins of the world.
 And why should this one, vivid incl dent in the life of the divine child be as- sociated with this group of unpretentous women? Does not each one of you say, God is my father; l, too, have learned of His original, unchangeabie purpose to give everlasting life to the wor'l through His Son. and have come to his house to be about my Father s business?" Deep as the mystery around the lad in the temple may be, is 1t not equally marvellous that to weak mortals is given divine life through faith in Him, an insight into the counsels of the infinite mind; yea, that He has left frall children of the dust to be His only rep rescntatives ,as witnesses of His truth and messengers of His gospel? Oh, that we may apprehend the exceeding good ness of our blessed Redeemer in what He confers as privilege, or commits to us as responsibility May His conscious pres ence inspire, control and make our ser vice accepta ble while we are met to- gether in His name.
 Perhaps nothing has more perplexed the devout soul than the long delayed fulfillment of Gods early promise to our fallen race. Age after age saw the worli still full of sin and suffering-"d darkness covered the earth gross darkness the people" When, after 4000 years, the Son or Man came the wicked one dared to Haunt his boast in the very face of Messiah, ''The kingdoms of the world, their power and glory, are mine, and to whomsoever l will I give it." Then Jesus after short divine-human ministry in the small land of Palestine, left a few unlearned men as the only human means of making him known to the nations, of establish ing His kingdom among men. Strange ito our sense that the Son of God could say, "All power is given me in Heaven and in earth, yet He walked the dusty ways without place to lay His head, He was ministered to by few poor men and women, was dscredited by His own brothers, misunderstood by His dis ciples and with a profound pathos all luded to Himself most frequently by His human relationship, the Son of Man. Strange to us that He did not cast out the devil and begin His gracious rule of righteousness in the face of all peoples. Passing strange that that handful of unlearned men should have been sent out on the hardest, largest, most tremendous errand ever attempted by human belnES. Not according to mans wisdom-but they went and began a new conflict with the ruler of the kingdom of darkness. They went in Jesus name-in the power of the spirit, and preached everywhere. They were wonderfully successful-they began to make the history of missions, which is the history of the church.
 We do not look back tonight at those few brave apostles to start the questions which any of us might ask, but none or us successfully answer We will not grow confused over the faithless thought that after all, human means seem ln- adequate to propagate the gospel, since the world needs Jesus as much today as it did 1900 years ago. We echo not the scoffer's word, Where is the promise of His coming? We know that thousand million souls are without Christ. Yet we believe that with God 1000 years are as one day. We know He is still using men; His only commissioned angels are hu- man messengers, who go to tell what Jesus says to them, who first freely re- ceive" and then freely give the water of life.
 Gifted men have gone to the ends of the earth-toiled for years to make writ ten languages into which the Bible might be translated; they have created mar vicious literature, which turns search light on the nations; the history condi- tions and prospects of peoples are made known; comparative statistics are pup liShed-and never was the desperate need Of the 2OSpel by lIe HililloHo WHC wait in darkness for the light made more apparent than now. They tell us China has one missionary to 363, 900 souis Korea one to S00.000, Turkey Gin Asia) one to near 10000: in India there are 1000 towns of 5000 inhabitants each that have not seen a missionary, and there are more objects of idolatry than there are people In Brazil there is one missionary to every ,000 souls; yet. in the past fifty years laborers have multiplied thirty fold; the Bible is printed in $50 languages with a circulation of 6,000,O GOO comics in one year. Medical treatment of 200 900 patients has widened the way for the missionary; indeed, the old-time barriers arc gone, and every mail brings prayer to the home church for help. Look which way you will, there stands the vision--a man in the night praying, Come over and help us
 Faithful effort has been made-iS mak- ing--to instruct and arouse the church and to put in motion the vast army of believers for the peaceful conquest of the world to Christ. Churches and in- dividuals have grown in liberality, con- tributions. are larger and women are of fering themselves and are being equipped by careful training for effective service. There never has been such encourage ment to set about this work. The signs of the times are writ like those of the sky, and the cry is sounded out in every ear, "He that reads must run!'
 If an army of men and women would go at once the work could be done quick ly, without the loss in time, in money in life, which are now consumed in our meagre supply of overworked mission aries and in our limited advance on the strongholds of superstition and death.
 Sisters, as the lightning sleeps in the ground on which we tread, pervades the air we breathe, slumbers in the clouds that float above us, and we know not the moment. it may awake so does the Holy Spirit enclose us round, above, beneath within and as the human appliance can make that mighty power available for our use. so can God Is methods and means cnnNeAz- the AnlX Snirit tn His ,neal1 chi