Ask the brotherhood what "our neglected fields" are, and the answer will come in a multitude of voices speaking from diverse viewpoints according to each speaker's knowledge, experience and field of operation. This is natural and proper. If your wife is not the best woman in the world, you are not much of a husband. If your country is not the best country on earth, you are not much of a patriot. Love for everybody and everything in general is a good thing in its way, but the specialized affections are of still greater importance in the world's progress heavenward. But while this babel of appeals in behalf of different places, classes and kinds of work is natural and proper, it does not solve the problem as to what are really our neglected fields and as to the relative amount of work and money we should give to the various calls.

      If we are in the streets of a strange city, all is confusion as to the lay of the land; but if we climb to the hilltop in the rear of the city, we can really get our bearings. So we must climb to the hilltop with Christ and the apostles and from there get our bearings in our missionary operations.

      In looking for the scope of gospel work, we discover that the salvation of the individual and his attainment unto eternal life is the supreme aim in view. Put while the Scriptures thus clearly teach that the supreme effort of Christianity is to prepare people for a glorious hereafter, good works in this life are demanded and are of vital importance. It is the nature of godliness to seek the well-being of others, in this life and the life to come, and no soul can remain saved without doing all in its power to minister unto others.

      Having considered the scope of gospel work as revealed in the New Testament, let us next inquire, Where shall we go first? As we can not go everywhere at once, where shall we begin, and where shall we go next? Is this left to chance, or is an order of procedure revealed in the New Testament? We believe that there is, and that it is of the greatest importance that this order should be followed. Christ gave the order of march in Acts 1:8 "Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." If we have any doubt as to the interpretation, the apostles interpret it for us in their work under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Other things being equal, they went to the nearest [193] territory first. Again, we notice that the apostles were especially led to the cities, the great centers of population. This enabled them to reach most people in a given time. Beginning at Jerusalem, their missionary journeys were determined by the location of the leading cities. Furthermore, we learn from the teaching and practice of Christ and the apostles that they went to the ripest fields first. Christ came to the Jews, the best prepared people on earth, to gather a nucleus for his coming kingdom and to scatter preparatory light for the gospel message. The apostles commenced their gospel work at Jerusalem on Pentecost, because the most devout and enlightened saints on earth were gathered there. For this reason the order was first the Jews and then the Gentiles (Acts 13:46, 47). Paul passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, because a synagogue of the Jews was there (Acts 17:1). The Spirit forbade him to go to

HENRY F. LUTZ.

Asia and Bithynia and led him by Mysia into Macedonia, because there were hearts there ready to receive the message (Acts 16:6-10). Christ commanded Paul to depart from Jerusalem, because they would not receive his testimony there (Acts 22:17-21). Open doors were considered as guides by Paul in his missionary operations (1 Cor. 16:8; 2 Cor. 2:12, 13; Acts 14:27; Col. 4:3).

      Summing up, we find that the apostles, in their effort to preach the gospel to every creature, were guided by nearness of territory, density of population and ripeness of field. That is, all things considered, they went along the line of least resistance. This is the way of mercy and common sense as well as of Scripture, as it is the quickest way to reach every creature. It enlarges the army of conquest as fast as possible and always meets the enemy at the point of least resistance.

      I believe we have been raised up for this hour. Our past work and opportunities are but a drop in the bucket compared with our present opportunities for work. As never before, it behooves us to raise the banner of New Testament Christianity as a standard to rally and reorganize the divided, confused and retreating hosts of Christ. It is not a question of staying at Jerusalem until each individual is converted, but the question is whether we will ever go to the Jerusalem of teeming millions in our land who have never even heard the plea for Christian union on the primitive gospel. Just as the apostles went to saints (pious Jews) and sinners and demanded upon pain of their eternal condemnation that they unite under King Jesus, so we must go to the saints of the sects and sinners of the world and insist that they unite under the non-sectarian banner of the Christ, in order that the whole world may believe in him as God's Son. As in the days of the apostles, so now we need a realignment of religious forces in order to conquer the world for Christ.

      Having learned the New Testament principles that should guide us in our missionary operations, and through these discovered our chief sphere of work in view of the present situation, let us turn to special missionary problems that constantly suggest themselves to us, and consider our duty towards them and their relationship to the great mission that rests upon us as a distinctive people. I refer to the Indians, Mormons, Jews, immigrants, the lower and slum districts of our cities, the mountaineers of the Appalachian system, the millions of unevangelized negroes in the South, etc.

      Concerning these problems, I wish to call your attention to the following considerations.

      First, these problems are largely educational, legal, social and philanthropic, and as such should be solved by the united effort of all the good citizens of the land. As this is a nation in which Christians can control the laws, they can do much through good citizenship to solve these questions and bring these classes within the reach of the spiritual gospel. One of the great duties of the churches in behalf of these people is [194] through their spiritual ministries, to constrain their members to make and enforce proper laws for their education, protection and improvement.

      Second, I wish to throw out a warning against engendering or encouraging the class spirit, which we find so severely condemned in the New Testament. In the New testament we read nothing about churches for different classes, or about different classes as separate missionary problems, but the effort is to reach all classes through the local churches along the line of least resistance. The best thing on earth for these various classes is that they might be brought into vital touch with the best Christian people in our local churches. Some have even gone so far as to claim that we can not reach the slum element, but must leave that to the Salvation Army, etc. If that is true, so much the worse for our Christianity.

      The classes enumerated above present indeed great missionary problems. We should keep in mind the entire field, and never plan for anything short of reaching, as soon as possible, every creature with the gospel. But, accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit, revealed in the New Testament, we must go to the ends of the earth as a body united in Christ and his truth, along the line of least resistance, ever keeping in mind the spiritual and eternal salvation of the individual as the ultimate aim.

      These things being true, I still believe, as we have always taught, that the reunion of God's people on the primitive gospel is the overshadowing issue before us, and that in working for its accomplishment we are doing the utmost in our power at present to solve all other missionary problems. Christ can never conquer with a hopelessly divided army. Sectarianism ties up three-fourths of the men and money and kills three-fourths of the spiritual power that could otherwise be used to solve all missionary problems. Unite all saints in Christ, and set free these forces, and within this generation the world will believe and know that Jesus is the Christ whom God sent into the world (John 17:20, 21, 23). I believe that God has providentially prepared both us and the field, and unless we perform the mission set before us, he will raise up another people through whom to bring about Christian union or the primitive gospel, to our eternal shame, but to their eternal glory. Thus it seems that, pre-eminently, our neglected fields lie among the teeming millions of America, ripe unto the harvest for our plea, but who, through our negligence, have not even heard that there is such a plea.

      While greatly increasing all our other activities, let us push the Home Society to the front, where it belongs, according to every principle of Scripture, mercy, economy, efficiency and common sense. If we will renew among us the zeal and self-denial of the pioneers of this movement, we will soon gloriously triumph to His honor and praise.

[CCR 193-195]