IV A MISSIONARY CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Then said He unto His disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth labourers into His harvest.-MATT. 9: 35-38. N We We O one can read the gospels attentively without being impressed by our Lord's constant activity. He made eight circuits of Galilee. He visited Samaria and Judea and Perea each more than once. find Him as far north as the parts of Cæsarea Philippi. find Him in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. We find Him in Galilee of the Gentiles. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and His endeavour was to reach the entire population before His earthly career should close in death. Many followed Him from place to place and listened to Him from day to day. But in the very nature of the case most of the people could not do that. It was necessary for them to remain at home that they might attend to their business and domestic affairs. If they were reached at all, He must go to the cities and villages in which they lived and press the claims of the gospel home to their hearts and consciences. John the Baptist stationed himself beside the Jordan or at places where there was an abundance of water for baptismal purposes. He waited for the people to go to him. When they went, he preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. If they repented he baptized them. Our Lord's method was different. Instead of waiting for the people to go to Him, He searched them out. At one point the multitude sought after Him, and came unto Him, and would have stayed Him, that He should not go from them. But He said unto them, "I must preach the good tidings of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also; for therefore was I sent." His mission was not to judge the world, but to save the world. He could not accomplish His mission if He should remain in one place and speak to only one group of people. Confucius said that if the philosopher has any great truth, he need not go abroad to proclaim it; the people will flock to him that they may hear it. That may be true in philosophy. It is not true in religion. The gospel must be carried to the people. Otherwise they will not hear it or care to inquire about it. In his address in the home of Cornelius Peter referred to Jesus of Nazareth, and told how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and said that He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him. This is an admirable summary of the history of the earthly life of our Lord. Buddha is nearly always represented as sitting in a lotus flower; he is in a state of slumber. Here and elsewhere Jesus the Christ is represented as going about from place to place. As He goes He teaches and preaches and heals. He is actively engaged in doing good. We read in this passage in Matthew that when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep without a shepherd. He saw the deepest need of human nature. He saw the moral misery and the spiritual destitution of the people. He was moved with compassion for the multitudes because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. They had no one to conduct them into green pastures and along the still waters. They had no one to protect them. thrown down and stretched on the ground. exhausted and unable to proceed any further. They were We are to remember that it was the people of rich and fertile Galilee, with its numerous and prosperous cities, our Lord had in mind. These were the chosen people. They had a knowledge of God. They had the Law of Moses and the Prophecies and the Psalms. They had the temple on Mount Zion with its magnificent ritual. They had the synagogue and its services. Highly favoured as these people were, when Jesus saw them He was moved with compassion for them. He was profoundly concerned about them and deeply anxious to do them good. He wanted them to have fellowship with Himself and with the Father. It is characteristic of the non-Christian faiths that they distrust and despise the common people. Horace said: "I hate the vulgar crowd, and keep it at a distance." The Brahmin regards himself and is regarded by the lower castes as a god. If he washes his feet the people gladly drink the water. John Williams said that in the South Seas the women were not allowed to enter the sacred enclosures. The pigs might; the women could not. Christ's feeling towards every human soul is that of sympathy. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth. He tasted death for every man. He gave Himself a ransom for all. He loves every soul that He purchased with His own blood. As He saw the multitudes around Him He said to His disciples, "The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few." The way the people followed Him and pressed upon Him to hear the word and to be healed showed that they were in need of something better than they had. There was no lack of priests or Levites or Scribes or lawyers. There were innumerable teachers and expounders of the law. Yet our Lord could say with absolute truth, "The labourers are few." The real teachers of the people; the men who know God and have His spirit and know His will; these are a small number. So He said, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send forth labourers into His harvest." It is for us to consider that many things are done in answer to prayer that will not be done if prayer is omitted. The promise is that those who ask shall receive. Of others it is said, "You have not because you ask not." The Most High God has made the progress of the Kingdom depend in some measure upon the prayers of His children. He has made us partners with Himself; the work to be done cannot be done if we fail to do our duty. There are two considerations that should lead us to obey this command. One is pity for the lost. Their condition pleads like angels trumpet-tongued on their behalf. Whatever they may think about themselves, the fact is, that they are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked, and in need of all things. The other is zeal for the Lord's honour and glory. This is His harvest. These lost souls belong to Him. If they are allowed to perish because of a lack of knowledge, He will suffer loss. We claim that we are Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ. If we are Christians we will think and feel and speak and act as Christ did. We will be imitators of Him; we will walk in His steps. He said to His followers, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." The man in the church who does not go is as guilty as the man outside the church who does not believe when sufficient evidence is presented to him. They shall be condemned together, one because of disobedience, and the other because of disbelief. The great promise is, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But the questions follow: "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent ? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!" The church must send out a sufficient number of missionary agents to give a knowledge of the gospel to all mankind. The church is set for a light to the nations, and for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth. She cannot keep the light to herself; she must send it out. We are told that, after the ascension of our Lord, the disciples went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with the signs that followed. That is the work of the disciples of Christ now. If we are really Christians we will have compassion upon those who are distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Our compassion will assume a practical form. We are told that in the dark lands sin is enthroned and deified and worshipped. Crime and sorrow are everywhere. These lands are a waste, howling wilderness. The people are without hope and without God. In Africa bloodshed abounds; Satan is supreme; the darkness is darkest. In India the foundations of social life are utterly rotten, beastly rotten. The foulest ceremonies are carried on in the name of religion. Bishop Foster says, "Paint a starless sky; hang your picture with night; drape the mountains with long, far-reaching vistas of darkness; hang the curtains deep along every shore and landscape; darken all the past; let the future be draped in deeper and yet deeper night; fill the awful gloom with hungry, sadfaced men and sorrow-driven women and children ;—it is the heathen world, the people seen in vision by the prophet, who sit in the region and shadow of death, to whom no light has come, sitting there still through the long, long night, waiting and watching for the morning." There is nothing in the nonChristian faiths that can cleanse the soul, nothing that can give peace to the troubled conscience. There is not a man or |