CHAPTER I.

THE GOSPEL A MISSIONARY DISPENSATION.

GLAD tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, was the message of the angel, when he announced the advent of the Messiah. And, suddenly, celestial voices were heard, repeating, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men."

The whole scene was missionary in character; and so elevated, that human hearts were not found sufficiently pure to celebrate the occasion. None but a multitude of the heavenly host were qualified for such a chorus. Jewish benevolence was too contracted to entertain the sentiment: much less adequate to breathe it forth in song. "Glad tidings of great joy to all people." A

new idea was breaking upon Palestine, bringing with it the harbinger-spirit of the Gospel; and its reception, by an Israelite, was like new wine in an old bottle. It would burst his narrow views respecting the good will of God to men. Self-conceit, regarding the divine favor to them, and them alone, could not hold a sentiment which embraced all people, as the objects of its benevolent regard. And this new idea, which required a missionary band of angels, to give it publication and sing its prologue, has required missionary agency, at every step of its progress over the world. The good seed of the word has taken root, only as it has been carried and planted and watered by commissioned efforts. The Hebrew church, as the Great Teacher found it, contained not the elements which would give it spontaneous growth. The idea, that God would invite all men to the relationship of children, was offensive to their prejudices.

The missionary spirit of the

Gospel was emphatically leaven which must be placed in the mind; and then it could only progress, as it destroyed the old leaven of selfishness.

In truth, both the theory, and the practice of the Gospel is missionary in its type. The plan and the execution of the scheme are such from the beginning. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" to be its first missionary. And this mission was not to the Jews merely, but that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. So the first missionary was the Lord from heaven, sent from the bosom of his Father and the home of his glory, to be the light of this world;-to shine upon the darkness which could not be dispelled, till the radiance of his doctrines and example had illumined the gloom. In the whole of the enterprise, the natural and established order of things was from the heart, as the home of benevolence, out to the objects of compassion, wherever they might be found. "More blessed

to give than to receive," seems to have been the motto which determined the character of action. Every idea seems to be looking away from self; every impulse, from within, pressing outward. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom" for others. The world was sunken and lost in the depths of its own depravity; and he came to seek, to lift up and save it. He saw the people scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, and he freely offered himself, not only as the Good Shepherd to guide and feed them, but to lay down his life for their sake. In his instructions, he taught that men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle-stick, that it may give light to all in the house. So the light which he shed, was to shine for all that were in the world. By these illustrations, he showed his disciples that they were not to be so many absorbent bodies, always taking in, and only taking in; but reflec

tors; first collecting from the grand, radiating light-fountain, and then giving off to irradiate the surrounding gloom as widely as possible. So let your light shine, that others may see, was a cardinal precept in the Divine teaching. And this for a most obvious reason. Men must have light before they could see by its influence. And this influence they could not enjoy, until it was imparted to them by such as already possessed it.

Light was made for the world. There is enough for all its nations; and yet, it does not benefit those upon whom it never shone. There is sufficient truth revealed, but God must commission, and his people must fulfil, else the world will perish for lack of knowledge. As there is no other way of salvation, given under heaven among men, except through Christ, so it is equally clear, that no way of publishing this plan, except through missionary efforts, has yet been revealed. Indeed it is evident, that the Son of God as really intended the world should receive