The Attraction of the Cross # 5

The Attraction of the Cross # 5

Missionaries, you noble hearted men, whom I feel myself unworthy to address, and whom we all regard, or ought to regard, not as the servants of our institution, but its respected and beloved agents in foreign countries; receive my congratulations upon the high honor to which you are called. Yours it is to follow in the train of the Redeemer's path and earth's best friends, next to apostles, evangelists, and martyrs. Learn from the subject of this discourse your exalted  and unalterable duty. Your peculiar and almost exclusive business is to make manifest the savor of the knowledge of Christ in every place. "You are debtors both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, so much as in you is, to be ready to preach the gospel of Christ." You go far hence to the heathen to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ. However you may sometimes, for relaxation, engage in the studies of natural history or local pursuits; this is your business - to preach the gospel. Seek to have your own minds filled with the glory, and your own hearts attracted by the influence of the Cross, until you burn with inextinguishable ardor to plant the holy standard on the loftiest ramparts of superstition. Take as your example the inspired missionary to the Gentiles, and determine in his spirit to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, where you are going. Be faithful unto death. Never forsake your cause. When you are found among the slain, let your face be toward the foe, and no scar be seen upon your back; then will we tell the world that,

"When you fell, you fell like stars,
Streaming splendor through the sky."

Upon the congregation, the discourse which they have heard demands just and extensive claims. Behold the Lamb of God for yourselves, my hearers, with penitence, with prayer, and faith. Could you direct the eyes and hopes of millions to the Saviour, this would avail nothing for your salvation, in the absence of a personal application on your own behalf. Having first given yourselves to the Lord, then use every scriptural means for making Him known to the heathen. Be importunate in prayer that His kingdom may come, His "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Believing prayer is the animating soul of the missionary cause. It is this which distinguishes it from every worldly combination, and elevates it far above the level of mere earthly institutions. Let this cease, and it sinks down from its own exalted rank, to take the place and share the fortune of all other human associations. Any increase of eloquence, funds, or patronage, which the cause of missions might acquire, when the spirit of prayer is departed, is only like the rigidity which the human body sometimes gains when the vital principle is extinct, or at best but as the swelling which precedes death. 

"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations;" and of which the top stone shall at length be brought forth, amidst the shouts of exulting spectators, crying, "Grace, grace unto it!" Stupendous and glorious edifice! its transept shall extend from the northern to the southern pole. Its choir shall rest upon the emp8ire of China, and its western window look out upon the waters of the great South Sea; while all the nations of the earth, attracted by the Cross which shines upon its dome, shall assemble within its mighty circumference, and amidst the sacred memorials of missionary institutions, and the monumental inscriptions of illustrious men occupying every niche, and hanging from every pillar, shall celebrate the jubilee of the world, and unite in the sublime anthem, "Hallelujah; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God! The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever! Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!"

While the ten thousand times ten thousand angels around the throne shall respond to the shouts of the redeemed on earth, "Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!" And still the chorus shall swell, and still the strain shall wax louder and louder, "until every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, shall cry, Blessing, honor, glory, and power, be unto Him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever! Amen! Amen!

~John Angell James~

(The End~