and yet not impatient, to be patient and yet not indifferent, to bear the infirmities of the weak without fostering them, to testify against sin and unfaithfulness, and the low standard of spiritual life, and yet to keep the stream of love free and full, and open—to have the mind of a faithful shepherd, a hopeful physician, a tender nurse, a skilful teacher—requires the continual renewal of the Lord's grace.
Pray for the mission among Israel and the heathen nations. Christ's command is explicit, God's promise sure. The Church, obeying the divine word, and constrained by the love of Christ, cannot but send forth evangelists.*[1] Let us regard the missionary spirit as the very spirit of Christian prayer; and in all our thoughts and prayers and work connected with the missions of the Church of Christ, let us remember how closely we are brought into communion with the Saviour. There is nothing higher and more Christlike; there is nothing in which the love of God comes nearer to our hearts. Here all divine truths and gifts meet as it were. You believe the supremacy of the Father, and that His glory is the end of all things as well as the joy of His chosen; you believe the universal character of Christ's kingdom, and the promise given to Him, that the heathen are
- ↑ * During the present dispensation the purpose of God, according to Scripture, is to gather a Church, an election out of the nations. The gospel is to be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations (Matt. xxiv. 14). Wherever it is preached, it bringeth forth fruit; enough to encourage us, not enough to make us forget that "the kingdom" is only at the coming of the Lord Jesus.
