As Making Many Rich
The faith element in missions—The Clarendon Street Church as a mis-
sionary church— Its training in giving
IT will be readily believed that the voice which rang out
with these sentiments in the churches and in the great gatherings of the denomination did not fail to advocate in the meetings of the Executive Committee a policy of continuous advance. We have seen with what earnestness Dr. Gordon went over the country in behalf of the Congo Mission. Every other forward movement had likewise his unhesitating support. This was not bravado or an irresponsible recklessness, though it often seemed so to the timid. It was an enthusiasm of faith conscious of the opportunities which a humble cooperation with God in his work opens up.
" Is Christ the chief treasurer who supplies the missionary funds? " he asked in an article on " The Faith Element in Missions." " Practically there is a very wide difference of opinion upon this point. 'And Prudence sat over against the treasury, watching the expenditures, to see that Faith did not overdraw her account,' would fairly state the financial method of many missionary committees. ' Faith in the work of preaching the gospel, indeed, but in administering the missionary exchequer sound business principles, if you please.' So we have often heard it, and we do not dispute the wisdom of the saying.
" But here we are conducting the King's business, let it be remembered, and in its transactions are no overdrafts of faith ever allowable? May the promises of God never be taken as collateral in this business? Is the Lord's servant forbidden to hypothecate the bonds of the everlasting covenant as a security for a missionary contract when he has no funds in the bank? The enterprise of missions is peculiarly the Lord's work, and as such has guarantors and guaranties back of any that are human,
" The paradox, ' Verum est quia impossibile,' which Tertullian uttered concerning doctrine, it is time for us boldly to apply to action, saying, ' It is practicable because it is impossible;' for, under the dispensation of the Spirit, our ability is no longer the measure of our responsibility. 'The things which are impossible with men are possible with God,' and therefore possible for us who have been united to God through faith. Since the Holy Ghost has been given, it is not sufficient for the servant to say to his Master, ' I am doing as well as I can,' for now he is bound to do better than he can. Should a New York merchant summon his commercial agent in Boston to come to him as quickly as possible, would he be satisfied if that agent were to arrive at the end of a week, footsore and weary from walking the entire distance, with the excuse, ' I came as quickly as I could '? With swift steamer or lightning express at his disposal, would he not be bound to come more quickly than he could? And so, with the power of Christ as our resource, and his riches in glory as our endowment, we are called upon to undertake what of ourselves we have neither the strength nor the funds to accomplish.
" We have watched with the deepest interest an experiment of enlargement which has come under our own observation. A missionary treasury, taxed to the utmost for years to meet the demands upon it, was assessed at one stroke an extra fifty thousand dollars annually for a new work which the providence of God seemed to enjoin. Seven years have passed
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since the undertaking, and yet the treasury has kept just as full through all this period, notwithstanding the extra draft, as during the seven years previous. Certainly this outcome does not seem like a divine admonition not to do so again, but rather like a loud invitation to repeat the experiment upon the first new call. And now, when the bugle is sounding for an advance along the entire Hue, we do well to mark the significance of such experiments. Our Lord does not say, ' Be it unto you according to your funds,' but, ' Be it unto you according to your faith.' If he sees that we trust him for large missionary undertakings, he will trust us with large missionary remittances. If, on the contrary, we demand great things of God as a condition of attempting great things for God, we shall be disappointed; for that is not believing, but bargaining. ' Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? ' (John xi. 40.) Shall we reverse this order, and believe only according as we have seen that glory? If so, he will give us little credit for our faith. Most significantly is it written, ' Many believed on his name because they saw the miracles which he did; but Jesus did not believe in them.' (John ii. 23, vide Greek.)"
This was the theory which, in the administration of missionary interests, Dr. Gordon advocated. As a pastor of a local church supporting and contributing to the executive board, he proceeded upon similar lines. The faith element became, as the spiritual life of pastor and church progressed, the dominating factor in this ministration. In the early years of his pastorate it was customary to appoint collectors, who went
about once a year soliciting for the missionary fund. A
friendly rivalry always existed among these. To secure more than any other collector gave one a pleasant prestige among the friends in the church. The regular church contributions were made once a month. The amounts given were relatively small, the proportions contributed to outside missions and
a 54 ADONIRAM JUDSON GORDON
charities being often not half the current expenses of the church.
Soon after Gordon became pastor he set about to develop deeper convictions of responsibility in this direction. Systematic giving was urged. " Milk a cow every other day, and you will be sure to dry her up. How much more certainly will a church be dried up by infrequent giving!" he once remarked. Weekly collections were advocated, but this was felt by many to be too radical a step. " It will drive people away," was the commonly expressed opinion. And so for many years the old system lingered on. The pastor did not, however, relax his efforts to create new standards and new ideals of giving. In a series of sermons on the subject delivered in the early years, he said
" Let a decree go out from the Lord's day that every week shall be taxed, and you will soon find that your business hours have received a wonderful consecration. Instead of looking back upon your six working-days as a band of marauders, each making way into the irrevocable past with its plunder of time and energy and devotion, you will see each of them marching up to pay its tribute to him who is Lord of the Sabbath.
"Thus the Lord's day to the Christian will be a kind of summary and epitome of his week-days. Instead of being a periodic exception, a fragment of holy time interjected between certain portions of secular time, it ought to be the culmination of all his week, the flower of his days, that has drawn all their finest juices into itself. Business robbing God, a ledger purloining the attention that belongs of right to the Bible, work trenching on the rights of worship in family or private— all this is to be regretted and mourned over. But if, when Sunday comes round, it puts the climax on this fraud of holy things, compelling God to say, * Ye have robbed me in tithes and offerings,' our case is truly pitiable. For it is to indorse
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and, as it were, reiterate our six days' remissness by a seventh day's defalcation.
"What are we to do, then? Lay by in store each Sabbath a deposit for the Lord. Then see if you do not get your heart into your Sundays. See if you do not get dividends of grace that you never knew of as falling due on that day. See if your whole worship is not pervaded with a new spirit and power thenceforth.
" How thoroughly this rule, if observed, would fix in us the
habit of a thoughtful consideration of God's mercies! How
profoundly would it discipline our inward spirit to the truth that we are only pensioners of otu: Father and almoners of his bounty! The Lord's day worship would be more sincere, more hearty, more chastened, if we came to it always from a little sanctuary at home, where we had settled in quiet meditation the claims of God upon us and apportioned out our sacrifice for him. It would turn our charity into orderly and systematic service for the Lord who bought us instead of leaving it to be, what it so often is, the unripe fruit of emotion or the heartless price which we render to the demands of custom or respectability.
" I would, therefore, that we could bring ourselves to a literal and whole-hearted conformity to this apostolic rule, ' Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by at home [this the words mean literally] as God hath prospered him.' Here is a kind of family devotion, an act of private and household worship, in preparation for the service of God's house. If it were habitual with us it would, I am sure, settle all our difficulties in regard to this department of our Christian service. The calm hour of retrospection on the Lord's day morning, wherein all the mercies of the week should be made to pass before the memory; the mind that has been busy for itself now sitting for God at the receipt of custom and taking tribute from all the week-day blessings; gratitude summing up the account and directing the obedient worshiper how much to carry with him to the sanctuary— if this were our method, there would be great inequality in our contributions, indeed, since the degrees of human prosperity are infinitely various; but there would be perfect adjustment of charity to necessity, since the returns would be according to God's providence and not according to man's caprice. In that providence, summing up all its variations, there is a perfect equilibrium between man's ability to give and man's necessity of receiving."
As the years passed on, and as the needs and opportunities of foreign work became more deeply impressed upon him, he labored with increased zeal to educate his people in giving and to stimulate their self-denial. He would make special appeals, the strain of which upon himself was to the last degree taxing. He urged immediate giving, placing in strong contrast postmortem and present-day benevolence. " Is it not distinctly affirmed in Scripture that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the deeds done in his body? " he would say. " Why, then, should Christians so industriously plan that their best deeds should be done after they get out of the body? Is there any promise of recompense for this extra corpus benevolence? And, after all, these benevolences of the dead hand are usually nullified. By a strange irony of custom we call a man's legacy his ' will '; it is really too frequently an ingenious contrivance for getting one's will defeated."
He urged his people, too, to limit to the lowest figure possible the expenditures on their own worship. " Ecclesiastical luxuries " always irritated him. " If the angels are invisible spectators of the church," he said, " what must their impression of our sanctuary self-indulgence not be! Can we not easily imagine them shutting their ears to these voluptuous strains and holding their noses at these sickening odors of Easter flowers, and eagerly searching through the whole
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elaborate scene that they may, perchance, 'rejoice over one sinner' bowing in the dust of repentance?" Neither did he stop here. Many times he notified the standing committee of the church that he did not need or ask for the salary which he received, and urged them finally to give him no fixed amount, but whatever the people might choose. This was never done; yet his personal contributions to missions were so frequent and so large as to lead virtually to the same result. " If it be asked, ' How about costly ministers?' " he said once, when speaking on church administration, " we will not wince under the question. ' Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.' But this can signify no more than a humble and modest support. It gives no warrant for sumptuous salaries or palatial parsonaces or the accumulation of clerical fortunes. Is not the teaching of ecclesiastical history sufficiently solemn on this point? And are there not tendencies visible among the ministry in our great cities which should occasion deep heartsearching? Like priest, like people! We have no doubt that our missionary contributions would soon reach the highwater mark if in every pulpit the Christ-like humility of becoming poor in order to make many rich should reach the low-water mark."
Year by year the contributions of the church reached higher points in spite of the fact that the proportion of wealthy members was steadily declining. In the last five years remarkable results in this line were attained. There had been a cumulative education which was now yielding its fruits. Giving was, furthermore, made by both pastor and people the subject of special prayer. Direct appeals, with all that they implied of exhausting anxiety, were a thing of the past. " I am tempted never to beg a cent for God again, but rather to spend my energy in getting Christians spiritualized, assured that they will then become liberalized," he wrote; and again: " Experts in such matters say that a bottle of wine that cannot throw out its own cork is rarely good for much. Certainly a Christian's prayers and gifts and testimonies are of little value if they do not come forth by the effervescence of his own inward spiritual joy. For one, I am tired of using the pulpit corkscrew to draw out of Christians the offerings and prayers and service which, to be of real value, ought to be spontaneous. I shall continue to pray and persuade and plead, but I shall not come begging you to do your duty. ' My people shall be willing in the day of my power,' says the Lord."
Statements were made of the needs of fields. Missionaries and Christian workers were constantly invited to present their causes. When large contributions were required, the situation would be presented and the people urged to go to their homes and consider prayerfully their personal accountability. Sometimes several weeks intervened before the collection was taken, in order that the full import and responsibility might be felt, and that the giving might not be prompted by a mere impulse or by an unhealthy, feverish enthusiasm. The results were extraordinary. Money came often from wholly unexpected sources. Thus when the contribution for the Centenary Missionary Fund was made (a contribution which amounted to the aggregate benevolent contributions of the first four years of Gordon's pastorate), a gift of five hundred dollars was sent in by one unconnected with the church or denomination and wholly unknown to the members.* The outside gifts of the
* " I am glad to get the good tidings of you contained in your letter and circular. Especially do I rejoice to know of your interest in the great theme— the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I am now more and more persuaded that the greatest things are possible if only we have his power resting upon us. I have seen such a demonstration in my church last year as I never witnessed before. We met morning after morning in the early year simply to pray for the power of the Holy Ghost. We were looking for a revival. When I made my plea for foreign missions, I astonished my conservative brethren by asking ten thousand dollars this
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church, chiefly to missions, amounted from 1890 to 1895 to nearly eighty-five thousand dollars. The influence of this example upon the Baptist churches at large was, according to the testimony of the Executive Board, very great and very salutary.
year for our contribution. Only a few wealthy men among us, and they not likely to do largely. But when the collection was gathered twenty thousand dollars came, nobody asked, no solicitation made. It was simply a great impulse of the Spirit, and the astonishment of all still continues. Now is coming a gracious ingathering of souls."