ion makes progress in
civilization in proportion to the variety of its environment. The
principle applies also to the development of the individual. Our
missionaries thought perhaps that they were leaving culture behind them,
when they left America for barbarous lands. But losing their lives for
Christ's sake they found to be mental gain. Even on the Congo our men
have learned more, and have developed stronger characters, than would
have been possible if they had accepted ordinary pastorates at home. And
they have not lost, but have won, that fine flavor of sanity and
judgment, which belongs to men who have had large experience of life.

So far, I have referred only to the intellectual side of one's
education. The spiritual equipment is even more important. In heathendom
one comes in contact with towering systems of idolatry and superstition,
venerable with age and rooted deeply in the nature and habit of the
people. The Christian teacher realizes that, in his conflict with these
systems, he is powerless, unless backed by Omnipotence. He is thrown
upon the divine resources, and learns, perhaps for the first time,
that, while apart from Christ he can do nothing, with Christ he can do
all things. A new experience of the presence and power of the Saviour
comes to him. The struggle that at first taxed all his energy is at last
a glad walk over the course in the strength of Christ. Anxiety and fear
have taught him lessons which he could not otherwise have learned. He
has become a hopeful and joyful Christian.

All this tends to render the missionary doctrinally sound.
Evangelization makes men evangelical. When you tell the gospel to a
heathen sinner, you must put it in the simplest terms, or he will fail
to understand it. Your effort to reach his mind and heart clarifies your
own. To one condemned and lost, no mere human example in Jesus will
suffice; you need an atoning Saviour. To one struggling with demonic
powers and helpless in their grasp, no mere man of Nazareth, no Jesus,
according to the flesh, will answer; you need the Lord of Glory, who was
declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the
dead. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit who regenerates, sanctifies,
comforts, and saves, becomes an indispensable element in preaching, and
so becomes ingrained into the preacher's confession of faith. A personal
and present Christ, Immanuel, God with us, is the source of the
missionary's power; he has practi