Missionary alliance 1888.pdf - DSpace

INTER-SEMINARY MI SSWNAH.Y ALLIANCE.COMMERCE AND FOREIGN 1IISBION8. 4'1commerce)" i8 in an Important sense a gift rather than acquisition, mendo not gain it except IlS stimulated thereto by some incitement fromabove tbemselves' tbe labor. and desires of the savage are botb de·pendent upon so~e spirItual gift, which quickens his aspiration andcalls forth his toil. Unless he has some help from without, some lightsDd life from above to illumine him, the savage remains a savage,and without this al1 the blandishments of civilization with which hemight be brougbt in contact, could no more win him to a better statethan all the Ught and warmth of the sun could woo a desert into a fer·til. field." Everywhere among the Turks, Negroes, Indians we look invain for upward tendencies before we see their spiritual and intellectualnatures awakened. Religion must come with its life before the shipsare IlSked to come with their cargoes.Sixty years ago, before the gospel was carried to the SandwichIslands, tbey had almost no commerce. Now, after about fifty years oftbe development of the gospel truth among them, they pay annual1yin commprcial trade, at just one American port, over $367,000, more thanthe whole work of evangelization among them cost for fifty years. Re·cent statistics give the imports of the island at $l,n5,4D2, and the exportsat $1,025,852. The trade between the United States and thoseislands, according to government records, amounted last year to morethan *5,500,000. A grand witness of the manner in which missioDariesprepare the world for the merchants! And besides laying the foundationfor commercin.l enterprise, missions are helpful to it in a largenumber of directions. The whole tendency of the Gospel is to bringman, civilized or savage, into a condition that is health fu l to trade. Thehistory of the Marshan Islands is a striking picture of its power to subdueviolence and overcome dangers with which heathen ferocitythreatened, and for years has seriou,ly disturbed, the operations of commerce.Some of the very natives who helped to murder the crew of theWtLverlyand other trading vpssels, after a frw years were convertedand became most useful protectors to the life and property of sailors andmerchants. Dr. Thompson says: "In places Once noted for piracyhundreds of thousands of dollars have been sent home saved froO:wrecks by UhristiaD or converted natives." Places th:t have beenabandoned by co~mercial men on account of the dishonesty and deceitfulnesoot the natIves have been visited by missionarie. and throughtheir teaching, habits have been cOl rected to such an exte~t that tradingposta have been ,e-estabiished, and the work of commerce opened witha renewed an.d trustworthy people. If any men in I,he world should beliberal In tbelr s~pport of mi SSions, it is the men who afe reaping thisabundant .flnanClal harvest f~om soil prepared by the apostl e of thecrOSl. WhIle, however, watchlDg the motives and purposesf0 commercewe do not find much In it ,hat is calculated to br'lngblesslng.upon mISsionenterprise, yet tbe incidental advantage that.mlSSlOns. .securefrom••it is a testimony to tbe fact that every force In the world Is Christ's,and that even movements put in operation by the wrath of man can bemade to work out his praises. And it would be but a partial view ofthe subject not to look at some of the advantages that come even incidentallyto missions from commercial enterprise. While missions canmark and have marked their own way across continents, while thenecessity placed upon the Church to bring men to Christ will not permitany waiting for transportation, tbe world can al10w no stopping onaccount of oceans or hesitating at the boundaries of deserts, while thissame spirit has shown itself able to turn dialects into written languages,make grammars and lexicons wh ~ re there were none, overcome prejudices of old religions, stubbornness of Mahometanism, perpetual firesof Parsee, castes of Buddha; yet the efforts of its laborers seem toattain their full est effect, wben the bearer of gospel ligbt is accompanipdby the boxes of merchandise and the activities that commercegives.Commerce mU