Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Success of Foreign Missions: An Address Delivered Before the Foreign Missionary Society of the Theological Seminary of Virginia, in Commencement Week, A. D. 1873
Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them. -ac'i's 16: 10.
IN a noble argument for the moral dignity of the missionary enterprise, it is correctly affirmed that no undertaking is entitled to the meed of sublimity unless the execution be arduous. To engage our admiration, it must task the noblest energies of man. It must try men's souls, test their wisdom, endurance, perseverance, courage, faith. This is not only an essential, it is a capital element of sublimity. Though the enterprise be dignified with every other noble feature; though it be vast as the globe; though the means be so simple, that the mind without distraction can watch them as they speed on to sure success - yet, if no obstacle be encountered; if no heroism be evoked if the dauntless spirit, the unconquer able will, do not start up into life; if this element of sublimity be wanting, the enterprise is not sublime.
N ow, it is this very feature of the missionary enterprise, it is its arduousness, that vexes and alienates the present generation. Emulous of great things, it is delighted with the grandeur of the plan. The grander the better. And what enterprise can be more colossal - oh, it sobers us as we think of it - than to reform, nay, regenerate the W hole race of man; to reclaim not this family, this tribe, this nation, but all natio, ns tribes and families of men; to over throw every venerated temple, every ancient altar, hoary superstition, and cherished sin, until each Sabbath's dawn shall awaken our whole redeemed race to worshlp one Lord, recite one creed, acknowledge one baptism, and love one God and Father of all?
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