It would hardly seem necessary to speak on this subject. It must be everywhere understood that a life of spiritual power is, and must ever remain, the first requisite of the missionary. And yet, I fear that the missionary force of today reveals more serious delinquency at this point than at any other. If missionaries were asked, wherein lies the chief hindrance to their work, I believe they would, all but unanimously, refer to their want of spiritual power. Not that they are more defective in this respect than are the ministers at home. They are a noble band of consecrated men and women. But they greatly need, and bemoan their need of, a growing spiritual endowment, the possession of which would give to them a new joy, and, to the people, an inexhaustible gift of life, and to the missionary work a power hitherto unknown.

A man should not go out as a foreign missionary unless he has a definite call from God to go. It must be laid so strongly upon his heart that he feels the necessity of going forth unto the heathen. There must be a constraining power and a felt conviction within, that in the mission field alone can he find rest and peace and power.

The missionary should be a man of pronounced and positive spirituality—a man who loves the Word of God, who finds meditation in it sweet, and who finds relief, strength and joy in frequent daily prayer. [pg 211] The depressing influences which beset his spiritual life are many. The all-pervasive, chilling influence of heathenism, and its dead and deadening ceremonialism tend to exercise an increasing power over him. He will not, at first, realize this influence; but as an insidious and an ever swelling tide of evil it will come into his soul, unless he is well guarded and daily fortified against it by frequent communion with God. In India the hardening influence of the all-surrounding heathenism is as subtle as it is potent in its influence upon the life of any Christian worker and needs to be overcome by constant spiritual culture.

The life of the European Christians who reside in that country is so far from being Christlike and is so wanting in these spiritual traits which should characterize an earnest Christian, that the missionary constantly has to guard himself against its influence upon himself.

The loneliness of the missionary—his frequent and long-continued absence from those means of grace which so largely minister to the spiritual strength of a pastor in this country—is something deeply felt. Few men realize the extent of the spiritual helps which the Christian society of America renders to the aspiring life of a man of God. In his loneliness, in the far-off land, the missionary feels its absence keenly.

Moreover, all the native Christians of the community of which he is the official head look up to him for inspiration. Is he wanting in faith, hopefulness and cheer; is he depressed and discouraged; is he lacking in the power of prayer and of sweet communion with God? It is marvellous how quickly this frame of mind is transmitted from him to the [pg 212] people of his charge. The pastors, catechists and other mission agents of his field all look to him for their ideal and seek to draw from him their inspiration in spiritual life. Is he down; then they are down with him. In coldness as in spiritual ardour they faithfully reflect his life and temper. It is, indeed, true that many of these live spiritual lives which bring inspiration and spiritual joy to him. The simplicity and earnestness of the faith of most of the native Christians is beautiful. Still, in many respects, he finds the community a heavy spiritual drain upon him; and, if he is to maintain himself as a worthy leader in the higher Christian life, he must live constantly with God and find daily strength in Him.

In India, specially, there are needed a few definite spiritual gifts which I desire to emphasize and which a missionary should aim to cultivate.

The first in order, if not in importance, is patience. To us of the West the Orient seems preËminently slow. To them of the East we of the West rush everything unduly and are the victims of impatience. There is much truth in that homely skit of Kipling's:

The ordinary Hindu will endure the white man's impatience, [pg 213] and he and the native Christian will submit to the same weakness on the part of the missionary. But they fail to understand it; and the missionary's power with them is very largely impaired by the manifestation of this evil spirit. Even if impatience were ever, anywhere, a virtue, in India it is always an unmixed evil and should be guarded against. The warning is the more needed because the tropical climate itself is a very bad irritant to the nervous system. Among the Hindus patience is regarded the supreme virtue of God and of man; and it should adorn every missionary who seeks to be their leader.

Humility also is a grace which needs much cultivation by the missionary. He has constant temptation to pride. The sin of masterfulness is naturally his besetting sin; for his influence over his people and his control in the direction of his work gradually grow sweet to him and develop, if he is not very careful, into an imperiousness of will which is neither pleasant to those who come in contact with him, nor consistent with the golden grace of humility, nor in any sense pleasing to God.

Love—that essence of divine character—needs preËminent guarding, encouragement and development on the part of the missionary. There is so much that is unlovely and unlovable all about him, so little to attract and draw out his tender emotions that he needs to drink freely from the fountain of love above; or he will degenerate very easily into a hard, cold, unsympathetic, cynical missionary—a frame of mind which will utterly disqualify him for any joy or power in his work. One of the best missionaries I have known used to pray very frequently—“O Lord, save [pg 214] me from the sin of despising this people.” It is a prayer which every missionary may find it necessary to offer frequently. True Christian love is none the less necessary, yea the more necessary on the mission field, because the missionary lives among people who are not kindred in blood to himself.

Then he needs also a large gift of faith and of hope. The smallness of the Christian Church in the midst of a dense mass of heathenism; the apparent inadequacy of earthly means to convert that great people to Christ; the slowness of progress and the fewness of results—all these tend to depress and discourage the worker. And he needs to offer for himself, as for his people, the prayer which Elisha offered in behalf of the young man,—“O Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

Spiritual power, in all its forms, is not only greatly needed by the missionary, it is also highly appreciated by the people who are always ready to be led by it. I believe that the people in the East are much more amenable to this influence and much more ready to follow spiritual guidance than are the people of our own land. And this, in itself, is an added reason for deep spirituality in the missionary.