comfortable, but competitive, congregation in their old home town? Is there no great program to which they can consecrate their lives? Are they simply to sink back unto the old self-centered ends? The glory of a Christ-filled world must be set forth as an object definite enough to arouse in-. terest, and appealing enough to command one's utmost loyalty. We ought to be able to go to the man most indifferent to the Church and say: "Here is a big thing-why are you not in it? We are working for the enfranchisement and ennoblement of every single human life, the perfecting of human society in all its myriad activities and relationships, the transformation of the kingdoms of this earth until they have become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, the Christianization of all life everywhere."

"What are Christians put into the world for, except to do the impossible in the strength of God?" said General S. C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute. The very developments which have accompanied the War compel the Church to face a parting of the ways. Surely the Church will not shrink from this enlarged program as too great for its strength. That would be an acknowledgment to the world of poverty of faith in the living, present God, whose nature it is to work with infinite resource through man.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Why do people sacrifice so much more willingly for patriotism than for religion?

2. Why will people spend themselves more for democracy than for Christian Missions?

3. What similarities exist between the highest aims of war and of the missionary program?

4. How would you formulate the justification of missionary work amongst obscure or dying peoples?

5. What attitude would you take toward a protest such as the following: "Of course these moral and social reforms are all well enough in their way, but we must not forget that our real mission is to preach the Gospel"?

6. Discuss the relation of the task of evangelizing (that is, preaching the Gospel to) the world to the task of Christianizing the world. Can either task be said to be more binding than the other?

7. How broad do you think Christ's interests would be if he were with us today in body?

8. What part did Christ give men in the Christianization of the world?

9. Is it worth while to attempt to establish throughout the world the social institution called "the Church"? Why? What are some of the problems and difficulties in the task?

10. What arguments would you use with a person who wanted to limit his program to his own home community, to lead him to take into consideration the world?

II. Draft a statement of the largest and most comprehensive task that your mind can grasp.

12. From the point of view of winning the whole world to the democracy of God, of which is there greater need today, foreign missionaries, or men and women who stay for work in America?

CHAPTER VIII

Readiness to Pay the Cost

The greatest revelation of the War was not the wickedness and depravity of mankind, but its unsuspected capacity for devotion at any cost to ideals and duty that are supreme. This readiness of men and of women both in and behind the lines to undergo sacrifice was surprising and inspiring. A new life has been manifested. Thousands who had lived self-centered lives tasted the joy of abandon to utterly unselfish service, even unto death. Through it all even children learned that there are times when progress requires the cheerful payment of a cost.

In the light of the stupendous sacrifices crowded into each day of the Great War, we must urge the claims for heroism in the more normal times ahead. The declaration of peace still leaves multifarious enemies of social welfare that must be fought for years to come by means of the united efforts of men and women. Every Christian citizen of the world must gird himself for this struggle and enter the contest each day with fortitude and sacrifice.

Eighth Week, First Day: The Stigmata of Jesus

In labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth

upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.-II Cor. II: 23-28.

Violence, exposure, privation-Paul knew what all these were. His physical sufferings had been such that it seemed that he was "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus" (II Cor. 4:10). But they were accepted as part of the task. Ordinarily Paul would never think of mentioning them, for where Christ and the Gospel are concerned the sufferings of the flesh are forgotten.

Those who have followed Paul in world ministry have often had to pay the price of service with their bodies. In the early days of work in Africa a large portion of the time and strength of missionaries was taken up in pushing their way through interminable jungles and pestiferous swamps. As a result they died prematurely by the scores and hundreds, so that for a generation or two on an average every convert cost the life of a European. Within two years of Mackay's arrival in Africa two of his original party of eight had been massacred, two had died of disease, and two had been invalided home. The first worker on the Gold Coast died within six months; his two successors died within fourteen months; and the next two workers died within one month of their arrival. In Zanzibar at least half the men and women sent out died within a year of their arrival on the field. In Japan alone, 1,000 Catholic missionaries and 200,000 converts had died for their faith before modern missions had started. The average martyr death of Christians from the West was over two for each year of the first century of Protestant missions in China. Who would imagine that Mexico could count its martyrs to the extent of eighty-four? James Hannington's message, "Tell the King that I purchase the road to Uganda with my life, and give my life for those who kill me," shows the spirit that has dominated untold numbers, not only in Africa but in other lands.

But death is ofttimes easier than life. Can you picture Xavier striding forward for twenty hours over the hot sands to relieve the Parava Christians of Cape Comorin? Or turn to James Gilmour working alone among the nomad Buddhists of Mongolia. Go with him on his twenty-three mile walk through the desert, with swollen and bleeding feet, in order to make possible a personal conversation with the

first Mongol who had shown a desire to be a Christian. Henry Martyn's words, spoken two days after his arrival in Calcutta, "Now let me burn out for God," were prophecies of his seven brief but fruitful years of missionary service.

And the pioneer converts have their cost to pay as well. "There, take this and that," and down came the big stick of a great-fisted man on Prem Das's back. The angry Hindu landlord was incensed that low-caste Christians should be taught. And so Prem Das went away bleeding and internally injured. His friends advised Prem Das to sue the lordly Brahman. Prosecute? No, on the contrary, Christlike, he forgave his persecutor, and returned to organize the school. Again the ire of the landlord led to a beating, and he was ordered never to show his face again. But Prem Das only went to his friend, the missionary, and said: "Sahib, let me have a dozen first Hindi books. I am going to open the school again, and we are going to keep it open." "But won't it mean more beatings?" "Perhaps, but this is Jesus' work, and I am a Jesus man and, beatings or no beatings, Jesus can and will conquer this Brahman.”

Branded, speared, poisoned, stoned, crucified, morally tempted, ostracized-converts have had to meet the cost of being Christian.

"From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast" come thrilling accounts of those who have carried about in their body the dying of the Lord Jesus. If a Chinese mail carrier can be found dead on the Kien Yang road, his hands all gashed and bleeding because he had clung till death to the little bundle of foreign letters entrusted to his care, what about the faithfulness of a man whom Christ entrusts with a sacred and eternal message to his fellowmen? Stanley said Mackay faced death-"with calm blue eyes that never winked." May God help us to face the hardships in our path with equal fortitude and courage.

Eighth Week, Second Day: The Cost of Stewardship

Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit what things were gain to me,