were entrusted to his stewardship, he does not differ
from us in the reality of the obligation which was laid upon him.
Every Christian man is as truly bound as was Paul to preach the
Gospel. The commission does not depend upon apostolic dignity. Jesus
Christ, when He said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to every creature,' was not speaking to the eleven, but to all
generations of His Church. And whilst there are many other motives on
which we may rest the Christian duty of propagating the Christian
faith, I think that we shall be all the better if we bottom it upon
this, the distinct and definite commandment of Jesus Christ, the grip
of which encloses all who for themselves have found that the Lord is
gracious.

For that commandment is permanent. It is exactly contemporaneous with
the duration of the promise which is appended to it, and whosoever
suns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the precept of
the former. 'Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world,'
defines the duration of the promise, and it defines also the duration
of the duty. Nay, even the promise is made conditional upon the
discharge of the duty enjoined. For it is to the Church 'going into
all the world, and preaching the Gospel to every creature,' that the
promise of an abiding presence is made.

Let us remember, too, that, just because this commission is given to
the whole Church, it is binding on every individual member of the
Church. There is a very common fallacy, not confined to this subject,
but extending over the whole field of Christian duty, by which things
that are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shoulders
of the individual. But we have to remember that the whole Church is
nothing more than the sum total of all its members, and that nothing
is incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent upon
each of them. Whatsoever Christ says to all, He says to each, and the
community has no duties which you and I have not.

Of course, there are diversities of forms of obedience to this
commandment; of course, the restrictions of locality and the other
obligations of life, come in to modify it; and it is not every man's
duty to wander over the whole world doing this work. But the direct
work of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and the
power of Jesus Christ belongs to every Christian man. You cannot buy
yourselves out of the ranks, as they used to be able to do ou