which our Nonconformist churches are largely organised means, 'I
do not need to do anything unless I like. Inclination is the guide of
duty, and if I do not care to take any active part in the work of our
church, nobody has anything to say.' No man can force me, but if
Jesus Christ says to me, 'Go!' and I say, 'I had rather not,' Jesus
Christ and I have to settle accounts between us. The less _men_
control, the more stringent ought to be the control of Christ. And if
the principle of Christian obedience is a willing heart, then the
duty of a Christian is to see that the heart is willing.

A stringent obligation, not to be shuffled off by any of the excuses
that we make, is laid upon us all. It makes very short work of a
number of excuses. There is a great deal in the tone of this
generation which tends to chill the missionary spirit. We know more
about the heathen world, and familiarity diminishes horror. We have
taken up, many of us, milder and more merciful ideas about the
condition of those who die without knowing the name of Jesus Christ.
We have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science,
forgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a science
is spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions of
men. And all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool the
fervour of a good many Christian people nowadays. Jesus Christ's
commandment remains just as it was.

Then some of us say, 'I prefer working at home!' Well, if you are
doing all that you can there, and really are enthusiastically devoted
to one phase of Christian service, the great principle of division of
labour comes in to warrant your not entering upon other fields which
others cultivate. But unless you are thus casting all your energies
into the work which you say that you prefer, there is no reason in it
why you should do nothing in the other direction. Jesus Christ still
says, 'Go ye into all the world.'

Then some of you say, 'Well, I do not much believe in your missionary
societies. There is a great deal of waste of money about them. A
number of things there are that one does not approve of. I have heard
stories about missionaries being very idle, very luxurious, and
taking too much pay, and doing too little work.' Well, be it so! Very
probably it is partly true; though I do not know that the people
whose testimony is so willingly accepted, to the detriment of our
brethren in foreign lands, are precisely th