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FINDING ONE'S LIFE WORK.
We are accustomed to say, it is a great hotir
in a boy's life when he finds himself, when he
rcaches up, almost in a day, from boyhood to
being a man, when he finds his powers and their
capacity. It is a greater hour when a man
finds his life work, when he realizes his mis
sion here.
No thoughtful man imagines that one's mis
sion is to translate effort into bread and meat
and raiment, even if it be for loved ones in
the home.
A life is more than a living. We make a liv
ing, we are a life. What we are is infinitely
more than what we can get and hold. It is no
insult to say that a man only finds his life
work at the feet of Jesus. Some years ago at
a meeting of the Synod at Petersburg, the
members were greatly startled by a man of at
least sixty-five, arising and saving, "This is my
twenty-first birthday." What he meant was,
he was born of God's Spirit twenty-one years
before, and all the rest of his life he counted
as nothing. He was thinking along the same
line with Paul, who exclaimed, "The past of my
life is enough to have wrought the futile will
of the Gentiles." Said found his mission at
the feet of the Just One against whom he was
unconsciously and futilely fighting. It is cer
tain that we must find our life work in the cir
cumference of the will of God for us.
Jesus said to Ananias, "Go and tell Said
that the God of his fathers has chosen him,
that he should know God's will." What a
great thing that is! God speaks to us, some
times through natural gifts and graces, which
He bestows. They become for us indices of
His will.
He speaks to' us through circumstances. The
pointers are about us and if we are wise enough
we will find them. God speaks to us direct
through His Spirit. There is a voice behind
each one of us saving, "This is the way, walk
ye in it." What a magnificent backing to a
man's life, to know that he has God's will
behind him. Is there any difficulty too great
for him to face and overcome?
The great men who have wrought terribly
and pushed this weak and sinful world a little
higher up the hill, have been men who reck
oned not with man, but clove close to the will
of God, who felt chosen of Him to do a certain
thing.
Then, too, our life work is found in witness
ing to the divine things we have seen and
heard. It is so simple. Just where we are we
are to witness to v.liat we know of Jesus Christ.
Said did not know much at first. There must
have been a spiritual development in his life
as in ours, yet what he knew he was neither
ashamed of nor afraid to declare. We may not
have appreciated the difficulties of Saul's ear
lier experiences. He was in the midst of cruel
enemies. He was amoncr Christians who were
naturally shy of him. He naturally did not
like to turn completely around in his set opin
ions. any more than wo would. Yet Saul did
not hesitate one day. He immediately declared
Jesus was the divine and risen Son of God,
and confounded the arguments of all in the
Synagogue.
The hardest thing for him to bear with his
fiery temperament was the cool and critical at
mosphere of the Christian Church at Jerusa
lem. Tf that slonned him from testifying at
Jerusalem, it did not keen him from Cilicia
and Tarsus and afterwards from Antioch. Our
life work can bo no greater than our testimony
for Jesus. Quietly, earnestly, by life as well as
by lip, telling men tho storv.
Tt transforms lives. Tt enlarges life. Tt puts
a permanent, heavenly value on our souls. Tt
is like the path of the just, growing brighter
toward the perfect day.
A. A. L.
Contributed
TWO' GRIEFS OP JESUS.
By Rev. Parke P. Flournoy.
Why "Jesus," instead of Christ? ' Because
it was the name ordered to be given Him, com
ing into the world as a human being, a divine
Saviour, indeed, but alas, a man, that He, "a
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,"
might suffer and die to save us, suffering and
sinful men.
The announcement of the Apostles, who,
when John the Baptist had been beheaded,
look up the headless corpse "and buried it,
and went and told Jesus" (Matthew 34:12),
the blow was one of unspeakable severity.
John was His kinsman, His fore-runner sent to
prepare His way before Him, greater than all
other prophets, great in character and per
forming the functions of the most exalted of
fice ever held by a human being.
Like all other normal human beings He longs
for retirement from public gaze. In His great
grief He went "into a desert place apart"
(verse 13). Who can "measure the magnitude
of His grief? when His soul's cry was, "All
Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me."
Ah ! when it is so with us, do we not draw
the blinds close, and seek to shut out the gaze
and noise of all the world, that we may be
alone, and seek the presence of the everlasting
arms of our merciful, loving Father in heaven?
No other comforter can compare with Him
who brought, and yet controls, all the waves
and billows of overwhelming grief, when death
fears from our bosoms our little ones or breaks
the loving cords that have bound us to one
even dearer still.
But .we should not and cannot continue in
our solitude. Duty calls, and we must rise and
obey, however painful it may be. There are
other sufferers in this sad world, and we hear
their sighs, witness their wounds. Our griefs
must not be selfish. Even in His solitude, a
multitude of sufferers sought Him, and in their
woes, brought to Him another great grief.
Grieving over one He is now called to grieve
over and grieve with, and help and solace,
thousands.
They gathered round His hiding place, "and
when the people heard thereof, they followed
Him on foot out of the cities, and Jesus went
forth and sa.w a great multitude, and" (an
noyed? as we would have been. Oh, no !) "was
moved with compassion toward them, and
healed their sick" (v. 14).
This done, He seeks solitude again, but for
another purpose; "and when He had sent the
multitude away He went up into the mountain
apart to pray" (verse 23). He was "alone"
again, grieving still, no doubt, but doing what
we should do when "alone." We may seek
comfort, meditating upon the love and trust
in our Saviour of one "lost awhile" from us;
but are there not others left with us, for whom
we are to do all that in us lies, that when their
time of departure comes, they, too, may "de
part t?> be with Christ, which is far better"
than all earthly pleasures, gains or triumphs,
even? And is not highest duty to them
"to pray" to Him through whose grace alone
this glorious consummation can be secured?
Washington. D. C.
UNREST ON THE MISSION FIELDS.
Some Causes.
By a Missionary.
The articles on the conditions in foreign
fields that are constantly appearing in the home
papers reflect a certain unrest which really ex
ists. There is no denying that things are more
or less disturbed. Several reasons may be
given for this state of affairs.
We must remember that the Church on the
foreign field is a young, growing Church. In
many countries she is just coming into a con
sciousness of her existence. She must meet
new conditions quite different from the West
and adjust herself to surroundings that are
not always helpful to her growth. ,The minis
try and membership, too, is different and they
often express their religious experiences in a
way that is strange to us, yet after all may be
iu harmony with the teaching of the Bible.
The wise missionary desires that the work un
der his care be grounded in the Bible and does
not care whether everything is done as we
would do it in our home churches. In other
words, he does not want to inflict Western
Church customs that are not vital on the East
ern people, but urges them to develop accord
ing to the teaching of the Bible. Of course
there will be differences regarding the unes
sential things. In a word some of the unrest
is due to "growing pains" and should not give
us much concern.
Another source of unrest is found in the
strong nationalistic consciousness that is de
veloping in the native people. Some of the na
tive Christian workers feel that it is a reflec
tion on their country to be considered a "mis
sionary field." The unconverted feel insulted
to be classed with the heathen. These people
are encouraged by a certain type of Western
teachers to think that their civilization and
ancient religions are as good as anything that
comes from Christian countries. This strong
nationalistic feeling affects the action of the
native Church courts toward the work of the
missionaries.
Some of the unrest is due to the eonstant
interference from "missionary diplomats,"
who have assumed a peculiar responsibility for
directing the Church policies on the foreign
field. Organizations that are considered as
creatures of the Church and auxiliary to the
Church in the homeland sometimes assume a
strong desire to run things abroad. Repre
sentatives of these auxiliary organizations are
constantly visiting the various fields and al
ways have some axe to grind and some new
organization to put over. The mission fields
are so burdened with organizations fostered by
these circulating "missionary statesmen" that
many workers give practically all their time
to running to committee meetings. I heard of
one man recently who declined to serve on
some new committees by stating that commit
tee work had taken two solid months of his
time last year.
The National Christian Conference of China
seems to be one of the imported organizations,
a piece of heavy expensive machinery. The
founders of this body had hardly given birth to
it before they rushed to Japan and called a
convention together and urged the formation
of a like national conference in Japan. The
cost of this convention was about 11,000 yen
and most of the money came from New York.
The "missionary statesman" always gets a
sympathetic hearing from the Orientals, for
the Orientals like to "organize." They or
ganize much, but do not get very far. Won
derful plans were proposed for the national