The Future of Africa/Chapter 6
THE
FITNESS OF THE GOSPEL FOR ITS
OWN WORK.
Preached at St. Mark's Church, Harper, before the Christmas Convocation of Cape Palmas, Christmas Day, 1859.
"For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."—Isaiah lv. 10, 11.
A SERMON.
Romans i. 14.—"I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians."
This style of expression, wherein St. Paul mingles personal references with Gospel teachings, is common in his epistles. Of all the several writers of Scripture, none speaks so much and so often of himself as this Apostle; not one who uses so frequently the personal pronoun "I." In the verse which follows my text we see the same peculiarity: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." In the 11th chapter,—"I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin;" and, again,—"For I speak unto you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles." And so likewise in chapter ix. 10-20. But though this is, indeed, common with the Apostle, it is a great mistake to suppose that he is egotistical. ISTever was there a man, in all the world's history, in whom selfishness was so thoroughly mortified. So entirely conformed had he been made by the Spirit, to the Lord Jesus his Master, that his whole life, after his conversion, presents the rarest, most exquisite spectacle of self-forgetetfulness and self-sacrifice that the world has ever witnessed.
It is therefore no absorbing thought of self, no exaggeration of personal pride or self importance, which led the Apostle to speak of himself, and to make so many personal allusions. It has a far different origin. It proceeds from a deep mastery of the Gospel over his soul, and from the most solemn convictions of personal duty connected therewith. Underlying all this frequent and multiform egoism, there is a most painful sense of man's spiritual needs, and a most yearning desire to meet and supply them. The two feelings seem to mingle and unite in his soul, to so overpower all other feelings, to so intensify all other sentiments and emotions, that the Gospel and himself become, as it were, identical in his soul: this is his life; aside from this he has no being; and hence he ever speaks as though he bore the whole burden of the Gospel—as though he, Paul, alone was sot for the defence and confirmation of the Gospel. And therefore he pours forth his ardor, his desire, his zealous flame, in a continual strain of egoisms, through the whole of his thirteen epistles; the significance of which may be best comprehended by that one singular, personal expression—"I am crucified with Christ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
We are not, therefore, to concern ourselves so much with the Apostle himself, as with the burden of his heart—"the Gospel of Christ, in its adaptation to the needs of men." This idea so fills his soul that it overcomes him. "Here is man's safety," seems to be his feeling. "Here is man's hope; there is no salvation without this. Here is balm, and here is the physician."
These few words of explanation open the way for me to introduce to your consideration the topic, that is—"The fitness of the Gospel to the great needs of humanity, and the great work it contemplates with respect to those needs"—to which I desire to call the attention of this Convocation this morning.
1. With respect to these spiritual needs of men, we have no great difficulty in apprehending them. Our human miseries are so common and so personal that no one can miss them. They lie at every man's door. They press heavily upon every man's soul. There are the common miseries of life, which bring their measure of soul-sickness, and plead for healing. This earth is a charnel-house, filled with the diseased and suffering. The griefs and the pangs of the wretched issue forth continually from palaces, and huts, and alms-houses, and hospitals, in all the lands of earth. Cold, and hunger, and famine, lade the air with the plaints and the murmurings of their multitudinous victims. Injustice and oppression crush out the hearts of millions. War, intemperance, and lust, destroy the hearts of nations, sweep millions into untimely graves, carry desolation and sorrows into innumerable families. And passion, hate, and jealousy, poison the well-springs of life at their highest sources.
But besides these, there are the deeper, more secret, and sorer miseries, which afflict the unirersal heart of man. As there is a wretchedness which is originated in physical ill, which comes out of the bodily afflictions of men, so there is an anguish which has the soul itself as its fountain-head, and preys upon its own vitals. "The heart knoweth its own bitterness." There is an inward agony and desolation, the torture of which is felt by mortals, but which they cannot, at times, find words to tell each other. The pains and the sorrows which disappointments, and failures, and jealousy, and care, and treachery, and malice, gender in the souls of men, who can estimate? Then there are the lacerations of bereavements, the sorrows and the desolations which death entails. Deeper yet are the gnawings and the pangs of wounded consciences; the stings of felt but unrepented iniquity; the shame of exposed baseness; the fear or the hardihood of blackened guilt; the convulsive agonies or damning yet determined remorse; the terrible apprehensions of death!
These are what may be regarded as the great spiritual miseries of man, and they are common to mankind everywhere, whether on Christian or on heathen ground. They are those ills and sufferings which assail our human nature, irrespective of circumstance or condition. No one will deny their presence in the better states of society; and if any one doubt their existence among sueh rude and benighted fellow-creatures as the heathen around us, we can refer, without the shadow of a doubt, to the facts which meet us on every side in this benighted land. Are not tears, and shrieks, and heart-breaking moanings the heritage of these poor people, as well as of ns who are civilized? Do not sorrows press heavily upon their spirits, and woful agonies eat into their hearts? Does not grief furrow their brows, and the cancer eat away their soul? Are there not miseries so brimful and multitudinous that the spirit ofttimes gives way, and the poor victim seeks willingly the sod, saying to corruption, "Thou art my father; and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister?" Are they not bruised, and wounded, and lacerated, all their life long, by all the divers thrusts of deadly sin? And does not death come here to them, with all its doubt, and desolation, and agony? The groans of infants, the shrieks of convulsed children, the despair of men and women, passing, in darkness, from time into eternity, come wafted on the breeze from these crowded towns, at times, every morn and eve. And then, when death has done its doleful work, and carried grief and wretchedness into their sad homes, do we not see the deeper traces of his mischief and malignity in the wretched rites and the miserable ceremonies which attend the passage of the dead from the hut to the grave? A whole populace carried away in a frenzy by the absurd notions of the after-life which they cherish among them; the exhibition of debasing superstitions over the dead bodies and the open graves of the departed; the abject subjection of these poor creatures to the power of the devil, to whom they crinage and degrade themselves lower than the beasts of the field; and then, at times, that which cannot but touch any feeling heart, the convulsive sobs, the bitter moanings, the mournful weepings over the departed—stout men made weak as water over the lifeless remains of children; heart-broken mothers lifting up their voices in despairing tones, reminding one of the words of Scripture: "Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not!"
2. Now, with respect to this universal phenomenon thus presented, the declaration of St. Paul is equivalent to this: that the Gospel is the complement to main's universal needs and miseries. He says, in effect, these words: "I know that men have intense spiritual ailments; I am aware of man's inward needs and miseries; I see clearly the fact of soul-sickness, and God has made me an instrument for man's cure and man's relief. Hence I have announced this sacred medicine among my own kith and kin—the Jews; but do not think for a moment that this medicine is for them only. The day of differences and distinctions has passed away. The blood of Jesus Christ is for all men. It is indeed my duty to preach this to the Jews; but Jesus is your Saviour as much as theirs; and it is as much my duty to preach it to Gentiles as to them. Yea, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise!"
And this explanation shows most clearly how the personality and egoism of St. Paul fade and vanish before the glory and the power of the Cross. It does this other service also—it furnishes the great truth, that is, the fitness of the Gospel for all men. The Gospel, and the Gospel alone, is healing and restoration. No idea is comparable with this in importance to man. There is, indeed, a seeming indifference to religious snbiects among men; but he who looks narrowly into things will clearly see that of all subjects that appeal to men and influence them, religion, all over the globe, is the deepest, most powerful, most absorbing. But all the other anxieties of men upon this subject have been fruitless. At length the redemption of Jesus is announced to the nations; and at once all the needs and the painful necessities of the case are met.
This exclusive claim of the Gospel to be the medicine for the deep and otherwise incurable diseases of the soul is visible in two distinct points, which I will briefly point out:
(a) We know from experience and from observation that the disease which is destroying souls is one; and, as all men are alike in constitution, it follows that the cure must be one which will affect all alike. Now, many of the ills of men are local; they pertain to particular nations, zones, and hemispheres, and hence the cures of certain ailments in one quarter could not benefit men with dissimilar ailments in other quarters of the globe. Now, the peculiarity of the Gospel is, that the remedy for the great evil which underlies all human woe is both fitted and designed for all men. It is world-wide in its adaptedness, and universal in its efficacy.
If you go to China, the disease which is the fruitful source of all her multiplied miseries—social, civil, religions, and political—is sin. If you come to Africa, you find the fruitful source of her heterogeneous ills and sufferings is sin. If you visit the islands of the sea, sin there is the parent of pains and agonies. If you turn to India, sin, among her many millions of idolaters, is the desolator. And so, if you traverse the provinces of enlightenment, whether in Europe or America, everywhere you will see the deadly spots of the same loathsome leprosy, which from the infant days of the world has been eating out the vitals of humanity.
Now, whatever may be the development of this virus, if you do not attack it itself your labor is in vain. You may cure this evil; you may get rid of that ailment; you may lop off this withered limb; and cut off that cancered excrescence; and yet, after all, if you do not go directly to the seat of the disease which is ruining man, your labor is vain and profitless.
Sin in the heart, that is, selfishness, alienation from God, perfect absorption in self, that is the disease in every man and nation on earth which must be cured; and whatever other alterations, changes, and apparent good may be done, if that is not effected, then nothing has been done. And that the Gospel alone can do. It can do it anywhere and everywhere. Its power is not confined nor limited. It is fitted to men of every clime and nation. It is the only remedy, the only agency on earth, which has such power and ability. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only physician of souls who stands up amid the million masses of men, capable of turning and touching any one of the crowd surrounding, and by touching curing, and sending them away healed and whole, for time and for eternity.
There is another point in which we may see the fitness of the Gospel for all men. I have been showing, objectively, how the Gospel is adapted to us; (b) but now I wish to point out its fitness, in that God has made us in such a way, that we are fitted to it. And this is seen in the fact that wherever the Gospel is proclaimed as the healing agency for sinners, and the terms are announced by which its saving power may be obtained, all men can understand and appropriate it. If the Gospel demanded money as its terms, if it demanded learning, if it demanded power, if it demanded wisdom, if it demanded skill, few of the wretched sons of men could secure its blessings and its gifts. They could not meet its terms, they could not come up to the demand, they could not answer the requirements. As a consequence, the Gospel would not be fitted for all men, nor be adapted to the whole race. But see how, in its terms and requirements, the Gospel proves its universal fitness. The grand terms of the Gospel are repentance and faith. And never have there lived a people on earth, however lowly and debased, who have not had regret; none who have not exercised, in some way, the quality of faith. All men have been sorry about something in their lives, and so when they are convinced of the error of sin against God, they can be sorry for sin. All men have believed in something around them, and therefore when Jesus is pointed out to them, they can believe in the "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."
Here, then, is a new principle introduced into this world, which comes to us with the claim that it can heal all the wounds and bruises and lacerations which sin has bred in this world for the ruin of the souls and bodies of men; and, on examination, we find that its great Author adapted it exactly to our nature, and, conversely, fitted the nature of man everywhere to it; and this, we cannot but feel, is "the tree, the leaves whereof are for the healing of the nation."
3. All this, however, is but a theory of the fitness of the Gospel. The facts of Church history and missionary enterprise give full confirmation of it. The past, at least, is certain. Everywhere in the world where the Gospel has secured permanent residence, it has worked a marvellous transformation; and often, where it has but in passing been casually proclaimed, it has left behind a lingering odor, at once healing and sanctifying. We sit down and brood over the evils of Christian countries, forgetful that those evils are in no way whatever the fault or fruit of Christianity, but only show the quarters where devils have not been cast out, where evil spirits still linger, and show the needed power of Christ's Church. By this short-sightedness, moreover, we lose the full impression of the wonderful work the Gospel has done, and fail to see the conquering might inherent in the religion of Jesus. It was four thousand years before Jesus came into the world; but the nineteen hundred years of the Christian era are more than a match for those old four thousand years in beneficence, in brotherhood, in love, and in purity. What great work of goodness was ever done under the Old Covenant which can compare with what the Gospel is doing every day in our time, both on Christian and on heathen soil? What large and extended blessedness was ever carried through all the earth, to all the sons of men, by any religion before Jesus came? There was no such universal agency in being; no such world-wide influence existed anywhere. But when the angels of Bethlehem proclaimed on the mild airs of Palestine, "Peace on earth, good-will to men!" then a new order of things was heralded to all the sons of men—to every quarter of the globe. The Gospel then began its work, and ever since has been pushing its way through the giant hindrances of sin, and proving in innumerable ways its adaptedness to all the conditions of life, to all the nations of the earth, to all the sons of men.
The phenomenon is before us in the history of man, and its details are manifest. Look now among men for any thing high, noble, manly, brave, generous, beautiful, large-hearted, expansive, and where do you find it? Nowhere else but among Christians! The bravery of arms; the security of freedom; the order of states; the manliness of nationality; the purity and excellence of woman; the expansion of colonies; the beauty of art; the assiduities of philanthropy: what are these but the gracious fruits of Christianity? Aye, and wherever Christianity goes she produces these fruits. See how, in a single generation, our Holy Faith has brought forth the first beautiful blossoms of these excellencies from the dark and chaotic disorder of the Pacific isles, New Zealand, Sierra Leone. Should we have doubt that yet nobler triumphs await her progress in new and opening fields among more susceptible and anxious people? I know that we often get discouraging words from the wise men of the world as to the prospective results of missionary labors. They look back with an inquisitorial eye, a carping mind, and a doubtful and denying spirit, at the long years of Christian zeal and energy from the time of Christ. They see the larger epiarters of the globe under the rule of Satan, and presumptuously demand, "Where is the promise of His coming? We do not see the signs of the earth's conversion. Heathenism still rules the masses of men. Even where your missionaries have been sent, and your mission schools and churches have been built, we can see no signs of the superior power of the faith you are preaching."
And yet it is a singular and striking fact that, with regard to those particular fields at which the sneers of doubters have been aimed, God there, on those very spots, has demonstrated the foolishness of man and the power of His Gospel, by the abundant ingathering of souls from among the heathen. Who is there here who does not remember the bitter, biting wit and the keen sarcasm with which a humorous priest in England once ridiculed the missionary zeal of Carey? And yet Sidney Smith lived to hear and know of the triumphs of the faith in India, of the strong and permanent establishment of Christ's Church amid the splendid monuments of Hindooism. So, only a year or two ago, a leading English review brought all the power of a proud intellect, all the keen force of a bitter, savage pen into play, to demonstrate the folly of attempting to change the hearts and to save the souls of the heathen. And before the ink was well dry upon their blasphemous pages, the news came careering by wind and sail of that recent singular spiritual upheaving in India,which for months has been bringing multitudes to prayer, to submission, to baptism. Here on this coast, where heathenism is rampant, English and American civilians and traders sit down at table with us missionaries, and assure us that the natives of this coast can never be converted to Christianity. And at once up rise Samuel Crowther, J.C. Taylor, our own Jones, and Kinkle and Harris, and Pitman, and a host of other native-born negroes, all along this coast, from Sierra Leone to Abbeoukuta, and in the name of God cast back the infidel imputation, and declare in their lives and utterance that the Gospel is the "power of God to salvation, to every one that believeth"; to the Jew, the Greek, and the barbarian alike. And it is these, and such like facts as these, from every quarter of the globe, which demonstrate by fact that the Gospel claim is true in its results as well as in theory; namely, that it is the one only remedy for that which, without it, is the incurable disease of all human souls, the leprosy of sin!
Since the Gospel is thus proven, both by theory and fact, to be the only remedy for the ills of life, the only hope for eternity, we have (a) ground for faith in all our work and labor in this field in which God has placed its. It is God's scheme, and it is designed by Him for the salvation of the nations. You may be assured, therefore, that it shall not fail in the work to which He hath appointed it. Here, then, we have the character of Clod pledged to the completion of His own work. We have His promises, too, that His Gospel shall prevail, and lie has given vouchers for the triumph of the Gospel, in the glorious facts which the work of missions presents in every quarter of the globe, and among the most debased of human tribes, "turned from dumb idols to serve the living God" There is a certainty about our work, then, which anticipates our labors, and which has never been realized before, in any of all the endeavors of men. Here is ground for faith and assurance which men in no other undertaking could possibly experience. We do not merely trust in and hope for the triumphs of the Gospel; we know that all the rudeness and barbarism of surrounding heathenism shall vanish from this neighborhood; that the Church of God shall supplant the disorganized paganism of this people; and that here, where now indifference, obstinacy, sickness, death, and discouraging weakness seem to baffle all missionary zeal, the Cross of Jesus Chrbt shall shine with a burning lustre, on hilltop and in the valley—the symbol of an o'ermustering and victorious faith!
(b) We have, moreover, every incentive to renewed exertion in all our labors; for we see that a great feature in the economy, that is, the workings, of this gracious scheme for man is, God's use of human agencies for the ends he purposes.We are the present agents He employs for the grand objects we have been considering. And as God has always blessed the wise efforts of faithful men and holy women striving to save souls and to glorify Christ, so we have every spur and incitement to press on in our work, looking for and expecting gracious results to follow faithful labors. With all our hopes and encouragements, however, we must remember that the Divine blessing waits chiefly upon those efforts of His people that are in accordance with the universal law of fitness. Random zeal and injudicious energy accord with no law of His government, and, as a consequence, bring forth but few of the fruits which are the result of His perfect system. The kingdom of God, in all relations, is marked by the presence and the power of this great principle, that is, the adaptation of means to ends. The law of order rules and reigns under the highest spirituality and the most exuberant grace. The Holy Spirit breathes, and vivifies, and enlightens, in strict accordance with the most rigid system. There is nothing erratic in the kingdom of grace. All the facts of Scripture, though at times seemingly confused and disarranged, have, nevertheless, underlying them great laws of regulation. There is a science of Scripture; so, likewise, there is a science of the application of Scripture. So far as the facts which may serve for precedents are concerned, God has given us but few in the Bible. The Acts of the Apostles seems to be the history mainly of missions among civilized people. What was the course of the immediate followers of the Apostles, in their work among the rude and barbarous pagans of old, we know but little of. We have, however, the whole broad field of modern missions for nigh three hundred rears before us. God thus by His providence teaches us the details of our work and labor, points out to us the mode and manner in which sacred truth may be savingly applied to the souls of the heathen, and also how His servants may conduct missions among barbarous people. We must fall back, then, upon these facts for instruction and direction as to the regimen and rule of our work here. We know already what we have to teach souls. But we need, all missionaries need, skill and discretion as to the modes of carrying on their work. Let us observe the wise steps of our predecessors here. Let us seek out and examine the lives of the noble spirits who have spent their lives in Gospel labors on heathen soil. No one can estimate fully the riches of missionary biographies or the value of missionary journals. There are the records of the mother Church of England, the narratives of the successful ventures of the godly of the different denominations; and, not seldom, of even pious Romanists. Everywhere we may learn wisdom and pick up instruction. Culling advice from this held, learning discretion from another, extracting skill from a third, we shall, with a prayerful spirit and with the Divine blessing, become master workmen for Christ in the household of faith.
Cut there is this great favor vouchsafed all the true disciples of Christ laboring for Him, that, whatever may be their mistakes, their ignorance, their blindness, and their unskilfulness, He abideth faithful; "He cannot deny Himself;" that "the word of God abideth for ever;" and that, though even our labors maybe crude and ill-designed, yet we can speak the pure words of salvation to needy souls, and they shall bear fruit, despite our weakness and infirmities, to the praise and glory of His grace, if we only stand aright in our place: "holding the Head, from whom all the body by joints and bands aving nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."