Home Missions in Action Part 15

His love shared human joy. "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full."

His love held redemption--was a saving love. "He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."

His love knew fullest forgiveness. He said to the woman taken in sin, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."

His love brought friendship. "Ye are my friends."

His love gave new meaning to justice. "Her sins which are many are forgiven-for she loved much."

His love gave inspiration, "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done." "Greater works than these shall ye do."

His love held the promise of eternal companionship. "All mine are thine and thine are mine. I will come and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also."

"Outlawed men, criminals and lepers and madmen, became as little children at His word, and all the wrongs and bruises inflicted on them were healed beneath His kindly glance. This is how He lived and this Gospel was the Gospel of a life He lived in such a way that men saw that love was the only thing worth living for--that life had meaning only as it had love."

O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee.

I give Thee back the life I owe That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.

This many-sided, all-embracing love is the type of love His followers are pledged to yearn for and to seek earnestly to express. The love of Christ found three great expressions--in giving, in service, in sacrifice.

If we, Christian women, are to reproduce Christ's spirit of love, then giving, service, sacrifice must be dominant in our lives.

How wonderfully and fully the Christ gave of all that He had--Himself.

He needs our gifts to-day, ourselves, our talents, our money. Home Missions means a life to be lived, the full, glad giving of thought, prayer, money, that His love may be made known to all the weary, oppressed, ignorant, waiting, suffering ones in our land.

"Christ gives the best.

And in His service as we're growing stronger The calls to grand achievement still increase.

The richest gifts for us, on earth or in heaven above, Are hid in Christ. In Jesus, we receive the best we have."

The Christ-love was expressed in service. From the time that He went forth to be "about His Father's business" we see him always serving to the utmost of His strength with no thought of rest, or comfort.

We recall the long, hard day in Capernaum when after having spent Himself in teaching He came to Peter's house; the news of His presence there spread through the city; quickly were brought unto Him the sick, the crippled and possessed; forgetful of His weariness He healed and ministered unto them until the shadows lengthened and night closed in. All along the way, as He journeyed in Galilee, Judea or Samaria, he gave help and healing to the sick and sinful. When He heard the sad cry of the lepers, He drew near them and gave them cleansing. Those possessed of evil spirits, the blind, the soul sick, the unrealizing, hardened woman at the well, the beautiful, loving Magdelen, all found in Him a response to their utmost need. He said truly, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister."

He says to us, "As the Father sent me, so send I you."

"The final purpose of knowledge is action."

Grant us the will to fashion as we feel; Grant us the strength to labor as we know; Grant us the purpose ribbed and edged with steel To strike the blow.

Knowledge we ask not--knowledge Thou hast lent, But, Lord, the will--there lies our bitter need.

Give us to build above the deep intent The deed, the deed.

--_John Drinkwater_.

Knowledge must find expression in action or it is harmful and vicious in its reaction. Having learned of Home Mission conditions and needs, "word and deed must become one witness in action," else our knowledge will mean a hardening of sympathy, the atrophy of some spiritual impulse. The Lord calls us and sends us forth to serve.

Let us also remember that now is the time to begin a larger service. "To-day is your day and mine, the only day we have, the day in which we play our part. What our part may signify in the great whole we may not understand, but we are here to play it and now is the time."

"Whittier tells us the story of the day in Connecticut in 1780, when the horror of great darkness came over the land, and all men believed that the dreaded Day of Judgment had come at last.

"The legislature of Connecticut, 'dim as ghosts' in the old Statehouse, wished to adjourn to put themselves in condition for the great a.s.sizes, Meanwhile Abraham Davenport, representative from Stamford, rose to say:

"This well may be The Day of Judgment which the world awaits; But be it is so or not, I only know My present duty and my Lord's command To occupy till He come.

So at the post where He hath set me in His Providence I choose for one to meet Him face to face, Let G.o.d do His work. We will see to ours."

[Footnote: David Starr Jordan--The Call of the Twentieth Century.]

The Lord's love found its supreme expression in sacrifice. He walked not only the Via Dolorosa--the way of pain and sorrow--which led through Gethsemane to the green hill far away beyond the city wall; and to Calvary--the pathway of His life was marked by _daily, hourly_ sacrifice.

He knew the full measure of loneliness, of misunderstanding, of cruel malignity. He of the most sensitive perceptions and feelings suffered from the brutality and coa.r.s.eness of those who hated Him.

He knew the anguish of homelessness. Listen to the cry that escaped Him: "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." If we are following Him we too will share in the sacrificial life. "He that would come after me let him take up his cross and follow me." But there is joy in sacrifice, deep and true, and things highest and best come to us only through the life laid down.

Out of the deep of sacrifice The pillars of the future rise.

It was a regiment that had volunteered for sure-death service at Port Arthur, and the j.a.panese captain addressing them as they were about to march said, "I send you forth as my loved children. If as you discharge your duty, you lose your right hand, fight with your left; if your left, too, is lost, serve with your feet; if your feet also are lost, you can help with your head, giving cheer and encouragement to others. Do not be reckless of your lives for they are needed."

Joyously seventy-seven earnest, willing ones went to live that message--gloriously they did their part and won the day, though not one of them ever returned to tell of victory.

G.o.d calls us to _live_ for the saving of America.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ethics of Force H.E. Warner Future of War Jean de Bloch New Peace Movement William I. Hull War Inconsistent with Religion of Jesus Christ David Lowe Dodge American Addresses at the Second Hague Conference Edited by James Brown Scott Moral Damage of War Walter Walsh Newer Ideals of Peace Jane Addams Bethink Yourselves Leo Tolstoi Blood of the Nation David Starr Jordan The Gospel of the Kingdom (Magazine) Edited by Dr. Josiah Strong The Call of the Twentieth Century David Starr Jordan Social Forces Edward T. Devine American Ideals Theodore Roosevelt The New Humanism Edward Howard Griggs The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy Henry C. Vedder Home Missions and the Social Question M. Katherine Bennett Social Advance Rev. David Watson Poverty Robert Hunter A New Basis of Civilization Prof. Patton Jesus Christ and the Social Question F.G. Peabody The Social Teachings of Christ Shailer Matthews Sin and Society Prof. Ross The Influence of Jesus Phillips Brooks (Bohlen Lectures) Ideals and Democracy Arthur H. Chamberlain Democracy and Empire Franklin Henry Giddings

Hospitals W. Gill Wylie, M.D.

The Christian Ministry and the Social Order Charles S. MacFarland Christianizing the Social Order Rauschenbusch Horizons of American Missions I.H. McNash Missions from the Home Base McAfee Missions Striking Home McAfee The Church and the New Age Henry Carver American Social and Religious Conditions Charles Stelzle The Church of To-morrow J. II. Crooker The Social Task of Christianity Samuel Zane Batten The Christian State Samuel Zane Batten

The Indian Dispossessed Seth K. Humphrey The American Indian on the New Trail Dr. T.C. Moffett The Indian and his Problem Francis Leupp In Red Man's Land Francis Leupp

Under the Prophet in Utah Cannon and O'Higgins Story of the Mormons Linn Riders of the Purple Sage Zona Gale Mormonism, the Islam of America Bruce Kinney