The Penn's Grove record., 1906-03-02
THE PULPIT.
4 SchoLARLr SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. A. H. C. MORSE.
Subject Evangelization.

SUBJECT being "EvangeliZation." The
text was from Joshua kill: "There
remaineth yet very much land to be
possessed" Mr.. Morse said:
There is. an ancient Israel. and there
IS a modern Israel. The task before
the former was the establishment of
the kingdom of God in the land of
promise. And the task before the LAT
Ter is the establishment of the kingdom
or God in all the world. The work be-
fore these ancient peonle was prepara-
tory n temporal. The work before
the church is final. What remains be-
vond the work appointed to us is vet
hidden behind the hills of eternity.
The supreme thing. then. is the evan
gelization of the world. And I make
no apology this morning when I call
your attention to this s%tuDendous sub
!ect. 1t will do us good to lift our ewes
from our own immediate field. and look
at the world which is the field of Cod:
ana to leave our own little beaten
track. n to swing ont into the circle
where sweep His mighty plans. Cen.
turtles have elaDsed since our work was
announced. and herculean tasks have
been performed. Mountains of prpiu-
die have been leveled: rivers of blood
have been forded: fires of persecution
have been endured. and whole king
doms have been taken. "But there re-
maineth vet much land to be pos
sessed." I want to sneak to You then
up "The Authority for Foreign Mis-
sions. and Their Aims and Inspira-
ton"
In a single word. the authority for
Christian missions must be found. not
in the truths we hold. but in tie Per
son whom we love. This may be seen
in the very etymologv of the word. for
authority is something added-added
to the abstract truth or duty. There
is no authority apart from a person.
When an attorney is asked his author
ity. he cites the decisions of a Judge;
and when a scholar is asked his au-
thority. he does not exploit his onin-
ions. but he names his author. The
same principle holds in religion. And
the ultimate authority must be a per-
son, and that person must be the high
est. and moreover he must be known.
1t is easy to see, therefore, that au-
thority is ruled from the so-called re-
ligion of pantheism. for it posts no
personal being. 1t rules authority also
from rationalism. for reason. fallible
and dependent. cannot be the highest.
And it takes authority from agnosti-
cism. for that declares that God cannot
be known. But l shall not pursue this
subject into the maZes of philosophy.
/ simply lay this down as an opening
thought that the authority for Chris
tan missions is found in Christ be-
cause He is a person, and because He
is the highest person, and because He
can be known. 1t is in view of this
that He can say, Cali authority is
given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go We, therefore, and teach all ma
tons"
Authority belongs to Christ because
He is the eternal word, and is also the
only God with whom we have to do. !
know there are secondary sources of
authority to which we must give ODE
dience, such as to parents and teachers
and to the laws of the State. But back
of all these and over them all is the
personal Christ, and He alone has a
right to tell me what are truth and
duty. And authority belongs to Him
because He has undertaken to dispel
the darkness of the world by a special
revelation of the love of God. He has
Joined Himself to humanity to save it.
And it is this revelation of God that
is added to all the truth we hold that
constitutes the authority for missions.
Missions are the propaganda of Jesus,
and His method of %reconciling an apos-
tate humanity. And even if He had
not uttered His great commission, still
worldwide missions would have their
11a.~o- -, 4E1- --o G,,4 I1o n--u-aN
to the call from the ends of the earth;
for humanity sundered from God feels
its restitution and misery. The whole
world groans in its hunger. You can
bear it in the plaintive song of the bird.
and the signing of every breeze. And
after all a worldwide mission is only
an answer to a worldwide need.
The authority for missions is "God
manifest in the flesh" But what
flesh? The flesh of the Anglo-Saxon.
We are a wonderful people. Let us
freely admit that we are the most
virile race upon the earth; that our in
situations are the best; that we possess
the bulk of the worlds culture and re-
finement; that we are the subjects of
the best government; and are the most
ingenious and inventive and wealthy.
But how came we to have this premier
position? We are only the great-grand-
children of heather and barbarous
fathers. We owe u superiority to
the. remaining heather nations TO the
fact that the Gospel vas first preached
to us. Wonderful We are. But we
are not the sum total of the race of
men. "Who do men say that I the
Son of Man am?' The son of what
man? OF Abraham? OF the Anglo
Saxon? OF the man of India? Or of
Africa? Or the a of the islands of
the sea? The manhood of humanity
was in the flesh of Jesus, and 1 fall
back upon the humanity of Christ as
my authority for a worldwide mission.
And that is what makes me confident
that the Gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to India and China and
Africa, to the islands of the sea. Not
that we hope to make these peoples
but a pale copy of the Anglo-Saxon: but
that we shall develop that gift of
thought and heart which God has
wrought into their texture, and that
they shall be patterned, not after us,
but after the Son of Man. The au-
thority for missions is found in a uni
versal hunger of the heart.
So much then for the authority for
foreign missions. Now 1 speak of their
aim and inspiration. And this is a
phase of the subject which is not al
ways clear in the public mind. l have
read in a missionary paper, even, that
If foreign missions are to accomplish
permanent results, we must aim at the
total reorganization of the whole social
fabric of the countries into which we
go. Now that is an evil doctrine. You
can find nothing to justify it in the his
tory, nor in the experience of the
church. nor in the example of our Lord
and His apostles. They did not aim at
reconstructing the social fabric, but at
implanting the life of Christ in the
human heart. They sought to renew
the lives of men, and they knew that
these new lives would demand new
social combinations. They knew that
no human tyranny could exist where
Jesus Christ was King.
We must not confuse the immediate
aim with the secondary aim, nor with
the ultimate result of missions. There
is no work in all the world so powerful