A TRUE Christian is a believer, a follower, of the Lord Jesus Christ, one in whom Christ dwells, who has the life and Spirit of Christ. Christ gave all to save man. Those who are Christ's give all to Him, not only that they may be used in His service, but that they may use all His graces and blessings as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Christ died to save all; and the saved man will hold himself, as did Paul, "debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise." Rom. 1:14. The servant of Christ—the Christian—will hold himself under obligation to save all for whom Christ died. But how are Christians fulfilling this stewardship? How are WE doing it? How is "CHRISTIAN" America doing it? Do not turn from the unpleasant picture. Study it; it is worth while to look upon the great world's needs, and the NEEDLESS EXPENDITURES of what is called "the most Christian nation" of the earth.
There are more than 400 million of Chinese souls in the darkness of sin and death; more than 300 million souls in India dying for want of the Bread of Life; more than 155 million in the "Dark Continent;" more than 46 million in Japan; more than 92 million in the rest of Asia, exclusive of China, India, Japan, and Malaysia; more than 44 million of Malays; more than 37 million in the "Neglected Continent" of South America; more than 700,000 in the islands of Oceanica, nearly all of whom know not Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. More than one billion souls dying for the Bread of Life! Think of it!
These figures are exclusive of Protestants, nominal Protestants, in all these countries, and how many of these nominal Protestants know nothing of the saving power of a personal faith in Jesus Christ!
These figures do not include any of the 389,031,000 of Europe, among whom are millions of Mohammedans and millions of "Christians" whose profession is a cheat and a sham. They do not include the 111,651,000 of North American Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mohammedans, and a hundred other religions and no-religions.
The population of the world at the latest and best estimates is 1,623,446,000, of which there are 272,638,500 Roman Catholics, 120,157,000 Greek or Eastern Catholics, and 166,086,500 Protestants; of non-Christians, 1,064,584,000. More than one billion who have no hope in Christ! And who believes that one-half of the nominal "Christians" professedly are in a saved condition?
CHINESE 419,850,000
EAST INDIAN 315,481,000
The need of the world moved the heart of God to give His only-begotten Son, the richest of Heaven's treasure. The need of the world demands that Christendom shall sacrifice to save the lost. But what are the great, startling facts? We will not go out of the "most Christian country," the most favored of nations, the United States.
The alcohol bill—whisky, rum, gin, brandy, wines, malt liquors
AFRICAN 155,007,000
—of the United States alone amounts in one year to more than 1700 million dollars; the tobacco bill—snuffing, chewing, smoking, cigars, cigarets, pipes—to 900 million dollars; and all the other things diagramed on these pages, amounting to the awful sum of more than three and one-half billion dollars.
ASIATIC 92,297,000
JAPANESE 46,950,000
Not one of these things which go to make up this enormous expenditure is necessary to life, comfort, or happiness. Many of them are positive detriments to health, to mental vigor, to peace of home and community, to life itself. Our estimates of liquors and tobacco are based on what is paid for them at retail instead of the wholesale rate, on which duties, customs, and revenue taxes are paid. These estimates have been submitted to liquor and tobacco dealers, and they considered them conservative. Confectionery is low enough to exclude much wholesome candy and cake which the sweet tooth of the nation may demand. Other estimates on "soft drinks" are higher than ours. That of patent medicines is in all probability greatly too low.
MALAYS 44,962,500
OCEANIC 735,000
No estimate is made of the use of opium, laudanum, morphin, cocain, and other narcotics, greatly on the increase.
No estimate has been placed on gambling of all sorts and kinds, from the enormous speculations in the stock market to various games of cards, dice, pool, billiards, wheels of fortune, nickel-in-the-slot machines, playing the races, etc., the name of which is legion.
One late writer carefully estimates the money spent in vaudeville shows, the cheap theaters, as $60,000,000 a year in the United States alone. We know of no estimate of the money expended upon races, low concerts, dances, etc. In San Francisco recently $116,700 was paid for admission to three prize-fights and a circus. Think of the amount expended thruout the United States on the brutal sport of the prize-ring!
No estimate can be made of the costly banquets, of the lavish and barbarous display, nor of the needless extravagance in dress, and a score of other things as well; nor of the vast amount paid for prostitution; nor of the expense of crime which grows out of drunkenness and vice. The whole useless expenditure must amount to the colossal sum of more than four billion dollars.
Deducting from the alcohol bill the amount expended in the arts, from the whole sum the war expenses, eliminating some of the others considered least harmful, and we still have an expenditure of over three and one-half billion dollars, an annual amount equal, on the average, to $44.00 for each man, woman, and child in the United States.
$949,500,000
What is given by the people of this nation for missions, given to save the more than billion Christless souls of this world?—There is given the meager sum of seven and one-half millions; the paltry pittance of nine cents a year, to the individual. Think of it! Three and one-half billions against seven and one-half millions! Forty-four dollars for selfish pleasure! Nine cents for God!
But of the eighty millions in the United States there are fully one-fourth, at least, who do not indulge in these pleasures. This class is composed of babies, children, paupers, aged persons, and sensible men and women. The sixty million, then, spend upon themselves an average yearly expenditure of $58.00 for each person. Fifty-eight dollars for PLEASURES of self! Nine cents for God! Six hundred and forty-four times more each year on an average for self than for God's needy ones. What will the end be? Is it not time for a humbling of heart and seeking of God?
The Master's Question.
"I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might'st ransomed be
And quickened from the dead.
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou given for Me?"
What Is Our Response?
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a tribute far too small,
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all."
Motive Power in Missions
By J. N. Anderson
A Missionary's Plea
By J. N. Anderson, Superintendent of S. D. A. China Mission
JESUS taught His disciples, and thru them all of His followers, that prayer on their part was the one great lever of missionary activity and success. Just before sending out the "twelve" on their first missionary tour, He bids them behold the magnitude of the harvest, and then urges upon them to give themselves to prayer—"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest." They were not told to inaugurate a missionary movement or campaign, nor even to plan for a full treasury. The word was, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest." Such prayer first prepares the suppliant himself for acceptable and efficient service, and secondly it brings direct answer from the Lord of the harvest in the increased number of workers. It leads us farther and farther into the comforting thought that this work is under the Lord's special care, and that He would have us make our appeal to Him. Too, it lifts the burden of the work onto Him who is mighty, placing us in the position of trustful and hopeful colaborers.
The church of the apostles never failed to make prayer the motive power in all their missionary work. At the very beginning of that great world-wide missionary movement, as the little band of followers stood waiting for the gift of the Spirit to qualify them for the work, the record reads, "These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer." Herein lies the secret of the unparalleled triumph of the early church.
Paul, the greatest missionary of all times next to Christ, began his long, eventful missionary career in the power of prayer ("He prayeth"); and the church that confirmed his call and sent him forth did so under the influence of the Spirit and prayer. See Acts 13:2, 3. He made prayer—his own and the intercession of his churches—his refuge, his inspiration, his weapon of attack. "Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." "Ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication." Thus would he have the Roman and Corinthian Christians aid him by their intercession for missionary success. To the Ephesian church he writes, "With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the spirit . . . and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel." And to the same end he exhorts the Colossians, "Withal praying for us also, that God may open unto us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds." Thus we see that the great apostle to the Gentiles ever sought to make his converts true missionaries by laying upon them the burden of prayer for missionary success. It brought life to the churches and carried the message of salvation to the world in that generation. Nor has any religious movement since that time ever been successfully inaugurated and carried forward apart from the power and spirit of prayer.
“He prayed more earnestly.” Luke 22:44.
The church may well rejoice in her increase of tithes for larger work in the home field, in multiplied gifts and offerings to the missionary campaign in the regions beyond; she may indeed feel a certain pride in, and look with large hopes to, the mustering army of strong, enthusiastic young people; it is but right that she recount in a spirit of gratitude and hope the many cheering triumphs already granted her in the darkened lands of heathenism; but even all this will not suffice to give her final success in carrying the message of the coming kingdom to all nations in this generation. The people of God must stake the whole issue on the Lord of the harvest, they must be the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem who shall never "hold their peace day nor night." Missionary activity and faithfulness in the field are but the reflection of the spirit of intercession and zeal dominating the home church. Confidence and hope must not be placed in mere men and means; both the authority and power are of the "Lord of the harvest."
Brethren, all ye who believe in the final triumph of the crucified One, we who are on the frontiers as your representatives, are deeply grateful for your loyal and generous financial support, for the lively and hopeful interest you have in all that pertains to the success of the work in these dark lands, for the sincere sympathy and fellow-feeling you extend us, but, with the apostle Paul, we need beyond all these "that ye strive together" with us in your prayers to God. Pray earnestly that the Lord of the harvest send forth more laborers into the great unentered fields. Be unwearied in your intercession for those who have already gone forth that they may open their mouths in boldness and in faithfulness, that they be not wearied with the hardships, or discouraged in their oft long waiting for fruit. Pray that the Christian graces, patience, tenderness, meekness, humility, self-forgetfulness, and true love, abound in the lives of all who endeavor to preach Christ and His message to the poor heathen who sit complacently in error and sin. And, once more, do not fail to pray for the native Christians that they may in truth know the power of the Gospel to set them entirely free from all the sins of their past lives, and that they may become faithful witnesses of this great salvation. And let us all pray and labor that God's message of redemption may speedily go to all nations and that "He whose right it is" may return in power and glory to reign forever.
