Missionary alliance 1888.pdf - DSpace

48 INTER-SEllI!'URY MISSIONARY ALLIANCE.CO MMERCE .AND F'OltEIGN 'fISSIONS. 49seCllre from them. And the reward commerce oiffllrs for any new dis·covery from these things, excites men to keep their eyes open, theirthoughts in motion. It develops a people busy In a thousand directionswith possibilities of ever richer returns for their efforts. And this iswhat the Christian religion calls for-minds prepared in a school likethi. to analyze and discover. While we may go back and say that itsactivities arB a uE'cessary product of Christian teaching, that theschool touched hy the shadow of the church spire means tbe ship, yetevery missiona.ry has a deal of consciencr, mODE"Y to place at the door ofthe counting hO/lseg of commerce. While he may receive numerous disadvantagesfrom the traders in his community, he is ever to rememberthat he is under many obligations to the great cause the trader rE:'­presents.Through commerce a thousand things that are of the hiO'hest advantageto the mission cause have come into use. It was the instrumentHod took to tear the shackles off the printing press and theagentthat in His providence haa since made that invention a's free ast~~ air and powerf~l as .the.1i?"ht, Plows, hoes, nails, mills, factories,Cities, fnrms, machines It wittingly Or unwittingly holds out as its coutributio,nto .missio~ary labor. Commerce aids missions by conqueringt~e. antl~athles of Ignorance, dispplling prejudices and softening rehglOllSdifferences, Ghosts not only disllppenr from a ctwelling whenhonAst men live in them, but much of the monstrous in the characterof strangA peoples is gone when we come to know them, Distance farfrom len~i?g enchantment is more frequently the breeder of hatred.The Chfl8tla~ and the Saracen are deadly enemies until the crusadesrub thpm ag~1D~t each ot~er, make them look each other in the face,then the ?hrlstlSIl can kmght the Christless crescent bearer the SarAcencan est With the Christian dog. and even an English prince~s be offeredby her brother ~ a wife for the Sultan's palace. (Gib. vol. v; 105.)Co~merce has rightly been called "the open pye." It looks into everyportlOn .of ~he globe, and is of ~reat use to the miSSionary by tellinthat which It halo1. speno Indeed, the tables furnished to the world b gwen'hauts are the great repositories of knowledge th t . . yboard must consult. Through them we learn not a I' evher y miSSionb'nywereto go'ut wlth what preparations and hopes to 8tart for any locart . It h 'been of great use to missions in the efforts It has mad t hi).. asrights te ted I l eo ave Its ownpro c . t s so largely the means that force 'd'of the rights of uations and the moral claims th h S a ConSI eratIonother, thI'at ntel'natlOnal Law may be said to b d'ey.ave upon eachits necesRlties.e n II ect outgrowth ofAlmost every missionary to-day in Iodin CI I dI . h' " 1p aces, urges 18 work as successfulll' as he duaban many othert tl frea e8 ormed oes, ecause from theby merchants has grown a 11 f .himself. WI'!. 0 protectlOu about• •Commerce is a great friend of peace, and is largely instrumental inpreventing the interruptions wltb which discord and war disturb missionlabor. It needs the metals for so many beneficent purposes that 10God's providence It is a powerful factor in the turning of swords intopruning hooks. Its spirit for pellce haa cleared the world of manydangers, built forts and placed sentinels au almost every Ahore. Itteaches nations to:make concessions but beseeches them not to shed blood.It promotes missions by making evident everywhere It goes the superiorwit and achievements of Christian civilization. No refinement in itskingdom can remain at home. Italy may develop grace, Germanystrength, England acuteness, The gpnius of this enterprise toucheseach production and gives it the element of universality. It is DOlonger grace for Italy, strength for Germany; but grace, strength, witfor every Da.tion. Through commerce "the fa!;hions of our Bazaars andthe thoughts of our schools walk the world." If it does give the samecurrency to lips us to truth, if the portfolio of lust, ideas of extravagance-,false views of life, have p'lssenger rights on the same ship that virtuehas boarded , it must be remembered that righteousness always ha~ supremeclaiml1 nod will conquer the world if its friends are eorne-st forits triumph.It is true the vices commerce introduces are almost innumerable.Every article it deals with sends n crowd of temptations ioto the mindof the one who handles the article.Its teas can be mixed with leaves that never caRt a shndow on anoriental plantation. Its sugars can be adulterated. :Much that it callswool ran be gathered from the cotton fields of Georgia nnd Alabamu.The stre~s for position, that it places upon financial a.bility, architecturalbeauty, refinements ltrappings cunnot help but militatengninst iD~egrityand Yirtue. Yet in the face of all these insinuating evils the missionaryknows he carries the blessed truth that has never failed to be theirmaster. The works of Hume, Voltaire, Ingersoll, may be placed,through its influence, in the hnnds of the heathen j b~t hard by themmust come the knowlejge tha.t even these most studiOUS attacks havenot caused one stone in the citadel of Christianity to move or one grainof its power to fail.Ro notwithstlmding all tbe evil introduced by commerce, commerceand missions are mutually dependent in many particulars. The happysails carry the story of the crosS much more rapidly than. it couldtravel without them, n.nd the cross makes a dem,and for t~e s8.tls. Missionsand commerce are not to be agents of dlffen'nt kIDg~oms; butpowers used by the same Lord and Master for the converSlOn of theworld.It is the outy, however, and the most emphatic duty of Christianseverywhere to do whatever they can to lessen the (>,vlls that attend com·mercial work.