VII OUR ABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY NOR a long time the ancients supplied us with The F the massive, immovable sort which could be seen by the eye and cost much money and sweat. But these wonders have been revised. The editor of the Popular Mechanics Monthly wrote to about one thousand scientists and men of note for their vote on what they considered the real seven wonders of the world. The majority of votes stood for: the wireless, the telephone, the aeroplane, radium, antiseptics and antitoxins, spectrum analysis, and the X-ray. The next revision will show the triumph of the human heart regenerated by the truth, the love, and the power of Christ. There will be so many wonders that seven plus seventy times seven will not complete the list. In that day, every idol will have fallen and every temple will have been rededicated to the. worship of God the Father. Swords and armour plate will be turned into sewing machines and steel granaries to hold the fruitage of earth, because the energies of man shall be turned to subdue the earth, so that "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." The treasures of wealth will be laid at Jesus' feet and man's intellect will be employed to banish pain and ignorance. Even the poor will have an instrument for praise, for "the tongue of the dumb shall sing" and "sorrow and sighing shall flee away." † *They were the Pyramids, Pharos of Alexandria, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Statue of Jupiter by Phidias at Athens, the Mausoleum of Artemisia, the Colossus at Rhodes. In this last chapter the author has in mind not only Japan From the middle of the Fifteenth Century to the middle of the Sixteenth Century, providential events occurred as starters in this last great crusade. The Protestant reformation, the invention of printing, the discovery of America, the landing of colonists in the new world were extraordinary and necessary events in preparation for the modern missionary propaganda.* One hundred years ago it was an impossibility to get far into the pagan or Mohammedan world. Little was known of Africa away from the coast line. Turkey and other Moslem states were shut tight. Japan, China, and Korea were sealed to all traders, travellers, or missionaries. But to-day doors are open everywhere and some are off their hinges. "When Stanley started, in 1874, for his journey of nine hundred and ninety-nine days across Africa, in the course of seven thousand miles he never met a Christian."† But to-day both Africa and Asia are being belted by railways and lines of mission stations. When Carey sailed for India in 1793, there was but one republic in the world. To-day there are twenty-four republics and an equal number of constitutional monarchies. Just as despotisms have fallen and man for but all mission fields. How can one intelligently pray "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" unless his heart feels for all who stray? While Japan is the most strategic mission field, Korea is the ripest, China the greatest, Tibet the most remote, India the most pitiable, the Levant the most impregnable, and Africa the darkest. *The Diet of Worms was in 1521; Gutenberg's Bible was printed in 1450-1455; the French Huguenots led in the first attempt at settlement within the United States at Port Royal, South Carolina, in 1562. John R. Mott, "The Pastor and Modern Missions," p. 13. "Of the fifty-six principal countries in the world, twenty-four are governed by constitutional monarchs, twenty-four have adopted a republican form of government, seven are under an absolute monarchy, and one (Tibet) is ruled by an oligarchy.The Christian Herald Almanac, 1913, p. 37 the first time has come to know the world's geography, invention has given us the wireless, the ocean cable, the fast express, and floating castles of the sea. And thus faster and still faster, more and still more, are sent forth Bibles, hospitals, schools, and missionaries to make Christ known. At the end of the first century 500,000 converts had been won, but there were few church buildings, few portions of Scripture were in circulation, and but few of the wealthy and mighty had been called. As the result of this last century of mission effort, there are 4,249,623 baptized Christians, 24,092 missionaries, and 111,862 native workers. But in spite of progress and success, we have not whereof to boast. Near a billion in idolatrous lands are still out of Christ and the greater part have no means of hearing of Him. A billion! Few can grasp even the cold idea of a million, but people a million with souls and then do it one thousand times. Who but God can know the tragedy of a billion lost? Who but the Crucified can know the awful footing of the long column where there is registered the tears, the sin, the hopelessness of a billion souls without God and strangers to His love! We have the machinery and the equipment for missions which the early Church did not have. But they excelled us in faith and personal sacrifice to make the glad tidings known. In spite of our missionary statistics, running into the millions, it must be confessed with heartache that our averages are pitifully small. In the United States, "over one-third of the congregations and parishes take no part in the expansion of Christianity beyond our borders. And what to my mind is the most serious, the average contribution at present is about seventy cents."* Last year the United States gave $14,942,523 to foreign missions, which is not quite onefiftieth of the poultry products of the United States, * John R. Mott, "Men and Religious Measures," Vol. IV, p. 311. and is just about equal the price of one super-dreadnaught. There are thirty-three women in the United States who have an annual income of $30,250,000, if we compute a five per cent return on their fortunes. We are building magnificent temples in the United States, twelve every day in the year, but the true temple of God is the human heart. The Almighty who spread out the milky way cannot be pleased with brick and mortar and clanging bells of brass, or even paid soloists and organists, if the Church neglects the parting words of his Son, and is indifferent to the tears of millions of wandering sons whom He would make joint heirs with His Beloved. If we believe the Book and own the Lordship of Christ, then our faith and work ought to measure up to the world's needs and our own opportunities. God has broken down every barrier. Millions cry—and wait while they cry-beseeching, “Give us life, give us life!" And yet the majority of Christians rock along just as if what ought to be first can be put last, or attended to any time in the next thousand years. Centuries ago, shortly after the Turks had captured Jerusalem (A.D. 1076), a French monk made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Here he was mistreated, and with a heavy heart he beheld the sepulchre of his Lord in the hands of infidels. He made his appeal to the Patriarch at Constantinople, but Constantinople itself was none too secure, and so this man of small stature and contemptible appearance said, "I will arouse the martial nations of Europe in your cause." And he did. Kissing the feet of the Roman pontiff and securing his approval, he went from city to city and from town to town. He bore a heavy crucifix and went bareheaded and barefooted, with a coarse garment thrown about his body. With an enthusiasm as contagious as a flame, and with a vehemence as irresistible as a spring flood, he joined Urban II in a campaign that aroused Europe, shook it out of well-worn social ruts, and hurled its armies for two hundred years against the Turk and Saracen. And why? The people thought and the thousands shouted, "It is the will of God! It is the will of God!" With all the opportunities awaiting us in Christless lands, and with the men, the ability, and the heaven-given authority to enter in His name-oh, that there were a Peter the Hermit to move us to prayer, to sacrifice, to the gentleness of love and the healing ministry of preaching the Gospel "unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people." Led by the Spirit of God, they who coined and defended the phrase, "The evangelization of the world in this generation" conferred a blessing on the Church and the unredeemed of every generation. The phrase tersely expresses the privilege, the ability, and the duty of the Church. Since our Lord gave the great commission, there has not been a proposition for the Church so full of faith and challenge. It proposes a test of love for the lost and of loyalty to our marching orders. It is the only thing that would call forth the unused power of the Church and clothe her with a battle armour that would be glorious and all-conquering. Let the man of the world smile, and enervated theologians stagger under the proposition if they will, we are fast approaching the time when, by Gentile, Jew, or Oriental, every creature, family, and tribe shall hear the Gospel of the Son of God. The daring audacity of the watchword is enough to give old Satan the shivers. Let the Church march out with a serious purpose and thorough equipment to set the millions of earth free, and we will see lively times down on this footstool of God. The glorious day of victory will not come without a stupendous struggle. To sit in idle comfort and contemplate the pleasurable prospects of the millennium, contributes neither an hour nor a dollar nor a prayer towards its dawn. There are some easygoers who have it settled in their minds that the time has just about |