in Ephesus. On his arrival in Rome he called the chief men of his own race together for a conference. The Jews had a priority of claim and were first addressed. It mattered not where they lived, they were the ones to whom the good tidings of the Kingdom of God were first proclaimed.

The use often made of the passages relating to the priority of the Jew in point of gospel privilege finds no warrant in Holy Writ. It is perfectly proper to carry on work in one's own neighbourhood, but it is not necessary to pervert Scripture to do that. Every little town in Christendom is not Jerusalem; and the Anglo-Saxon is not a Jew. These passages applied only to the Jew, and to the Jew for very special reasons. No part of the wide world field has any primacy or priority now, unless it be that part whose need is greatest. Christ has come and has accomplished His work. The gospel of His grace is for all mankind. Partition walls of every sort have been done away. All men are God's children. They are made in His image, and He is equally interested in the salvation of all.

The Divine order in missions is that the church should do all in her power to give the gospel to every kindred and nation and tongue and tribe and people on the globe. She is not to confine her efforts to any one section. The great commission contemplates the evangelization of "all nations," "all the world," "the whole creation," "the uttermost part of the earth." Only as the parting charge of our Lord is realized can He see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

X

MISSIONS IN THE EARLY YEARS OF
CHRISTIANITY

And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. -MARK 16: 20.

They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word.-ACTS 8: 4.

T

HE missionary cause is a distinguishing characteristic

of the Christian religion. It has been said that no other religion has made it the indispensable duty of its votaries to disseminate its principles throughout the world in order to ameliorate the moral condition of the human family, from a principle of pure goodwill to man. Referring to the time when the Church was established, Ramsay says that no existing religion was wider than national; and no ancient religion wished to proselytize or take in new meinbers. The object of each was to confine its benefits to a small circle of devotees, and to enlist the aid of the god whom it worshipped against all strangers, all foreigners, all enemies, that is, against all who were not within the privileged circle. Our Lord projected a policy which was the exact opposite of this. He contemplated reaching every living soul. So it came to pass that the church which He founded was, during the first period of its existence, distinctively a missionary organization. Its chief and almost its sole purpose was that of spreading the gospel far and near. Its endeavour was to carry into effect the parting command of its Founder, to make disciples of all the

nations. In speaking of missions in the early years of Christianity I ask your attention

I. To the field. Our Lord was very explicit in His instructions as to the territory to be occupied. In one of His parables He said, "The field is the world." He said again, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world." "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all the nations." "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Jesus of Nazareth is never represented as the Saviour of one race or of one nation, but always as the Saviour of the world. He tasted death for every man; He gave Himself a ransom for all. He said to His disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world." He charged them to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. Nothing less than the evangelization and Christianization of the whole world will accomplish His purpose and satisfy His heart.

The world as known by the disciples was the Roman Empire. The world of that time was a Mediterranean world, and extended three thousand miles east and west, and fifteen hundred miles north and south. The area of the Empire measured about two million square miles. In that area there were between four and five thousand cities. Many of those cities were accessible by boats. The population of the Empire was about one hundred millions. These figures show that the world as then known was somewhat larger than India, and had a population about one-third as large as that of India. The immediate task of the church was the conquest of this people and their institutions. To the wise man of that day the most audacious and the most hopeless work ever undertaken by man was that of bringing the Roman Empire into captivity to the

obedience of Christ. The learning, the wisdom, the wealth, and the power of the world were arrayed against the church and absolutely confident of the victory.

II. The agents.

The commission was given to eleven men. On a mountain in Galilee our Lord said to them, "All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." While the commission was originally given to the eleven it was given to them as representatives of all believers. We know what the apostles did. We know how far they went and the countries they evangelized. Speaking for himself Paul said that from Jerusalem and round about even unto Illyricum he had fully preached the gospel of Christ. These places did not mark the limits of the field of his activity. He began in Damascus ; he preached as far west as Rome and perhaps as far as Spain. Peter preached in Babylon, and wrote to the elect who were sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Tradition tells us that Thomas went to India, Bartholomew to Parthia, Andrew to Russia, Thaddeus to Edessa, Philip to Scythia, Matthew to Ethiopia, Judas the Zealot to Arabia. No one knows how much truth there is in these traditions. But it is certain that the apostles were busy somewhere. The magnificent results achieved indicate this.

Harnack says that the most numerous and successful missionaries were not the regular teachers, but Christians themselves by dint of their loyalty and courage. Above all, every

confessor and martyr was a missionary; he not merely confirmed the faith of those already won, but also enlisted new members by his testimony and his death. It was no empty phrase when Tertullian and others like him asserted that the blood of the Christians was a seed. Nevertheless it was not merely the confessors and martyrs who were missionaries; it was

characteristic of this religion that every one who seriously confessed the faith proved of service to its propaganda. We cannot hesitate to believe that the great mission of the church was in reality accomplished by informal missionaries. The testimony of Celsus, a bitter enemy, is to the same effect. "Many of the Christians without any special calling, watch for opportunities, and both within and without the temples, boldly proclaim their faith; they find their way into the cities and the armies, and there having called the people together, harangue them with fanatical gestures." Gibbon says it became the most sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among his friends and relations the inestimable blessings which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal that would be severely punished as a criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but allpowerful Deity.

We are told that the supreme characteristic of the apostolic church in this respect was the missionary zeal and activity of the individual members. Not only apostles and evangelists and teachers, but merchants, and miners, and sailors, and soldiers, and craftsmen, voluntarily made it one of their chief objects, whether at home or abroad, in private or public life, to extend to others the gospel message. There were garrisons along the borders of the Empire. These became outposts of Christian civilization. "These military barracks soon became centres from which Christianity spread outside the civilized world, and these isolated spots along the Rhine, the Danube, the Euxine and the Euphrates became oases of the faith. When the armies pushed beyond the boundaries of the Empire Christianity was sure to go with them. Christian soldiers captured and enslaved by barbarians were the means of converting whole nations.' Women as well as men were active agents. It was Prisca and her husband that expounded the way of the Lord more accurately to the eloquent Apollos. They were Paul's fellow workers in Christ Jesus; they laid down their necks for the apostle's sake. All the churches of the Gentiles united with