The Missionary: ‘I was sent, so speak’ (2) (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 17

The Missionary: ‘I was sent, so speak’ (2)

The Bible in Amy’s life and work

There are certain defining moments in every life, key crossroads along the way. Moments when a person’s destination is consciously revealed. M. Scott Peck calls it a choice between going down the path everyone else was following and taking another path – what he called ‘the road less travelled’.1965 Amy did not choose her life destination. Her destination had chosen her. There are occasions when life gives us no choice at all; we are chosen by God to go the way less travelled. Once one has entered upon that road with its permanent consequences, one travels the road or, in Amy’s words, one ‘follows the Gleam’. She trusted the Lord in the way he was leading her and in what is in the Bible. She had the traits of character of a visionary mystic, and the visions she had – in her own words – ‘may be given to confirm, reassure, rather than to reveal’1966 ‘Prayer to know God’s will is not begging, it is communion, conversing with God, and He gives you peace.’1967 The most important thing is, ‘in whose name do we pray’?:1968 A good deal happened last week which caused some stress and strain, and I felt rather at the end of everything. I turned to my Bible, and happened to open on Acts 16:29, Then he called for a light, which was exactly what I was

1965. Cf. M. Scott Peck, 1978, The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth, New York: Simon & Schuster.

1966. Amy’s remark written on p. 146 of B.H. Streeter & A.J. Appasamy, The Sadhu, 1921, A Study in Mysticism and practical Religion, London: MacMillan & Co. In the Dohnavur library.

1967. Here she has the remark on p. 94 in The Sadhu, ‘True of one form of prayer that of Philippians 4 to which the answer is peace’.

1968. See in her own handwriting p. 98 in The Sadhu.

How to cite: Kommers, J. (Hans), 2017, ‘The Missionary: “I was sent, so speak” (2)’, in Triumphant Love: The contextual, creative and strategic missionary work of Amy Beatrice Carmichael in south India, pp. 449–478, AOSIS, Cape Town. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2017.tl41.17 doing. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path (Ps 119:105) what would be the word of light? It was a word so familiar that we could all say it backwards. But take it for yourself today, and you will find it as welcome as the lamp which somebody brought that night to the jailer in the prison of Philippi. It was Isaiah 40:29–31.1969 Those who know the Dohnavur Fellowship know that it could not be at all if it had any doubt about the truth of the Scriptures.1970 As Amy says:

[W]e are all of one mind in an house as regards the Bible, very Word of Very God, and no one would be at home with us who was not happy in the simplest form of evangelical religion. […] ‘Surely all who love meet in essentials’.1971 With these words Amy wants to underline, that everything in Dohnavur, what is done, what is built and the aim of the education, the inspiration and the foundation of it, comes from the Word of God. In days of joy or of sorrow, she had her Bible at hand and sought God’s guidance. In her Bible we read next to Psalm 112:7: ‘Heneratgoda. Ceylon. 94. Nov. 27; Kotagiri. 1896. May 7; Ooty. 1899. June 10’ and then a place with the name written in Tamil, dated ‘1900. Oct. 9’.1972

Amy’s faith, to a large extent, was founded on reverence for and knowledge of Scripture.1973 She had a very high view of the Scriptures. Already as a child she was surrounded by God-fearing people who taught her the Scriptures. We can say that she was under and in the Word of God. She not only used to go through the Bible, but many times it had gone through her. She refers to 2 Timothy 2:21974 to mark that hearing and telling it to others go hand in hand. I had the privilege to study the remarks Amy wrote in her Bibles and I was amazed by the way she had studied the Word of God thoroughly. She must have ‘crept’ through every chapter. 30 September 1895, just before her departure for India, she received a Bible1975 from Mary Biggs. With different colours Amy marked the things that were for her important. For example, a yellow dot means: ‘Millennium glory’.

Also, many commentaries on Bible books were thoroughly studied. In the bookcases (Figure 33) still in Dohnavur, we find many Bible commentaries in which are many indications that Amy went through them very carefully, occasionally making several remarks in the margins. We do not only find her remarks, questions and encouragements in the margins, but often she mentions a date.1976 She says that

1969. Whispers of His Power, December 6, 256–257.

1970. Gold Cord, 121.

1971. Nor Scrip, 122.

1972. In Amy’s Bible in the margin of Psalm 112:7.

1973. Cf. Bebbington, Evangelism in Modern Britain, 12–14.

1974. ‘And what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.’

1975. This Bible is in the UK office (Brentford) of the DF. On the blue cover is in capital letters: ‘THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD. AMY WILSON CARMICHAEL, 11 OCTOBER 1895’.

1976. In G. Campbell Morgan’s The Gospel According to Luke she wrote: ‘Full of suggestions, very helpful. The writing has none of the charm of Bishop Moule or the depth of Westcott. […] But it is true to the Truth and opens windows, and though not the greatest, surely he is a great Bible teacher’. In the margins of this book Amy wrote many comments. From the same author she read The Acts of the Apostles, the book she got 27 January 1947. Her reaction is short: ‘Full of light’. The Emphasised Bible by J.B. Rotherham shows that she read this Bible thoroughly and on nearly every page of O.E. Daniel’s A Combined Harmony of the Gospels we find some of her comments, as is the same with A. Stevens and E. De Witt Burton’s A Harmony of the Gospels. All books here mentioned are in the Dohnavur library.

Chapter 17

Source: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 33: One of the bookcases in Amy’s room. spiritual growth depends upon ‘study, concentration and determination’.1977 For her the Bible is the inerrant and inspired word of God, and every promise in it has with it the backing of the faithful and eternal God. Thus, it is her supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice,1978 a guideline for her in the establishment of the DF. God, ‘a living and a loving God must speak’:1979

Great books have been written to buttress faith in the truth of the Bible, but the ultimate proof is that this Book of books finds us where we are, meets our deepest needs, and speaks to us with a voice utterly different from any other voice.1980 Her Bible was always open because for her the study of the biblical text was an integral part of the whole running and educational process of the Fellowship:

There is one beautiful thing about life lived in this way. We are perpetually rediscovering the wonder of words of our Bible. Not only the great fabric, but each little jewel in it sparkles; each little facet of each minutest crystal catches the light and brightens as we look into it.1981 Amy welcomed every new translation and scholarly commentary, but she grew up with the King James version and so she returned every time to this beloved version. The Bible offered Amy an endless wealth. It was difficult for her to understand that a real lover of the Lord could so thriftily read the Bible, for then he would miss what is stored up for him. She once referred to Psalm 37:3, and said that this verse gave her the richest treasure of all.1982 Feed on faithfulness is Kay’s translation, and for Amy this is ‘the faithfulness of God’:

Here are various ways of feeding on faithfulness. One way is found in Bible reading. How do we read? In snippets? In little bits chosen for the lambs of the flock? That is good while we are lambs, but it is not enough for us after we grow up into Christ. ‘I read a chapter a day’, say some, and feel that is quite enough. It is not enough. Are you earnest to be fed? The soul of a sluggard desires, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat (Prov 13:4). Our Father wants His children to be diligent, to take trouble to find what He has stored up for them.1983 Everything in the Bible is of some use. What we learn from the Bible we give to others, ‘sooner or later’. The treasures Amy found in the Bible and which she had marked were given her to be turned into life. ‘Did we use it as a precious substance for our nourishment in weakness or encouragement in difficulty, or victory in temptation, or jot in weariness or peace in strife?’1984 And so she did. She took God’s promises from the page with her into her daily life and service in Dohnavur of the ensuing hours. She taught the children to learn it, believe it, and to trust him who gave it to fulfil it, and so their feet would be kept from many snares in their lives. For some her use of the Bible is too mystical. Many times God gave openings which came by surprise and there were things she encountered for which she always had an appropriate Bible verse. At home or during itinerary work Bible study came first. On one of her journeys with the Starry Cluster she wrote:

1977. Whispers of His Power, 25 July 160. To make sure she had a good translation she looked up in various versions of the Bible. Once she even studied in seven versions to have the correct word. See Thou Givest…They Gather, 68.

1978. Cf. 2 Timothy 3:16–17.

1979. In Amy’s Bible (1895). These words Amy wrote on top of Hebrews, Chapter 1.

1980. In Whispers of His Power, 13 September, 196.

1981. Tables in the Wilderness, 10.

1982. Amy quotes here the Septuagint: ‘Hope in the Lord, and do good; and dwell on the land, and thou shalt be fed with the wealth of it’.

1983. In Whispers of His Power, 28 October, 227.

1984. In Whispers of His Power, 29 October, 228.

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Later in the morning the band went home, or back to the tent, breakfasted, and studied the Bible together, searching its pages through and through for that without which our work would have been in vain.1985 She trusted the Lord completely and his word was the last word. When she wrote of the Lord speaking to her she did not claim a revelation, but putting into words the teaching experiences all believers have when the Lord directs our thoughts to give us some particular instruction.

After the accident in 1931, when moving around became difficult, she daily wrote a ‘note’ to her ‘children’ to encourage them. Mostly it was a short explanation of a Bible verse. To her family she explained the reason why she did wrote every day these notes:

It is a great cheer to know that these notes are sometimes a help. There are so many of you, and your needs are so various and your ages so different, that it is impossible any one word should be for everybody. No archer ever shot several hundred targets with one arrow. But if any arrow finds its target I am content – and grateful. I do not want you to be spoon-fed children, but to get your food direct from your Heavenly Father. But this is my only way to reach you, my own dear children, and I often read things I long to share with you, and sometimes our Lord speaks a word to my heart which I think would speak to yours.1986 Within this scriptural framework, she saw that God gives freedom to believers and churches to utilise a variety of approaches, strategies, and styles to accomplish their objectives. She believed what came to her from the Bible, and therefore, she did not concentrate on obscurities. Using for herself the King James version, she felt free to look in other versions to get a clearer meaning of the text:

In case any are puzzled by the different translations from which I draw strength and help and delight, it is like this: In studying any object with the microscope we use different lenses and turn the mirror in various ways; each change brings out some new wonder and beauty. So it is for those who are not Greek or Hebrew scholars, and who use the work of scholars to open the meaning of the inexhaustible Word – the Bible is richer than any single version can fully show.1987 To a group of Sitties in the Forest House, she once said about Bible versions that they have to look through the New Testament ‘with all the versions you can lay your hands on, and find out everything the Lord says about love and unity’:

You will find some amazing verses […] At dinner you could talk over the finds of the day. It would be a wonderful study, and very searching […] But be sure to end your talks with singing together some love song, some prayer for love, something kindling about His love. Let us humble ourselves very low. Let us ask Him to make us moss for His feet in this matter of vital intertwined love and unity that nothing can sever – no, not for an hour. I long and thirst to have our Fellowship utterly satisfying to Him. He must be so often disappointed. Let us not disappoint Him.1988 For believers, even the young ones, it was for her important that they know the Scriptures and be grounded in it for their whole life. The Bible, ‘the most wonderful book’, is not meant to have ‘a quick run through the appointed chapter or portion. We must look closely and continue looking’.1989 She said, ‘Try using Bible words as a sword with which to fight the devil of discouragement’.1990 For Amy the study of the Bible with the children and others was important, because studying the Bible marks the

1985. In Elliot, A Chance to Die, 122.

1986. In the introduction of Whispers of His Power, 5–6.

1987. In the note in Edges of His Ways, VII.

1988. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, 343.

1989. Whispers of His Power, 22 September, 202–203.

1990. Whispers of His Power, 20 February, 44. beginning of their journey to faith; Bible study will lead to meet its composer. Reading the Bible in a reverent spirit, she was convinced that it is the inspired Word of God, and that the Holy Spirit would speak through it to her, and enable her to see ‘great and unsearchable things you do not know’.1991 In reading with a prayerful heart, she found in the Bible a reservoir of untapped resources. She was a missionary who ‘crept’ through her Bible and was always ready to expect and to discover new things. Reading in the new translation of James Moffat1992 she underlined Luke 13:18, ‘but all the crowd rejoiced over all the splendid doings’, and at the end leaf she just wrote ‘Luke 13:18’. In Orville’s A Combined Harmony of the Gospels, we see many comments in the margins. When the angel tells Mary that she will become the mother of Jesus and that ‘He shall be great’ (v. 32) she wrote in the margin ‘His greatness found in His service and sacrifice’. In her Bible she had a never-ending source of life and encouragement. ‘I am more and more impressed as I read the Bible’, and ‘there are so many promises, […] the promises are enough to rest upon’.1993 Amy knew that in India the Lord could speak to his children in dreams. ‘We do not explain this or defend we only know that it is so.’1994

It was important for her to have a listening attitude. In application for her it was always, ‘What did Jesus say?’ Concentrating on what he said, she could stake all her trust upon his Word; it was Scriptural concentration and not sentimental consecration. The Bible was not an object of contemplation, no cause for subtleties, but support and companion on the path of life. God’s revealed Word was always the starting and pivotal point of all reflective thinking for her. The wagon wheel (Figure 34) on the bungalow’s veranda shows exactly from which premises Amy was thinking. ‘Feet accustomed to the road to God can find it in the dark.’1995

Her study of the Bible and her spiritual experience gave her full assurance of the truth of the Christian religion. The key of her understanding of the Bible was not her general knowledge, nor her intelligence, but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. She developed her thoughts and mission theory after she had got into the inside.

‘This Book of books finds us where we are, meets our deepest needs, and speaks to us with a voice utterly different from any other voice.’1996 The content of her devotional writings focused on lively immersion in the Scripture and reproduced the message in songs, most of them now gathered in the Dohnavur songbook Wings. For her message, she rambled all over the Scripture. ‘It is an unfathomable jewel mine – this Book of ours.’1997 She was just digging for gold. By every means, Amy tried to make her children genuine Bible Christians. She tried to give them a thorough knowledge of the Bible in Dohnavur and above everything else, to receive ‘the one thing necessary’ in their lives. A life of full concentration to God.

The themes dealt with issues related to Christian initiation and the Christian life, repentance, dedication and holiness, obedience and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, working with joy for the Lord, experiencing living waters flowing eternally, bearing the Cross for the Lord and redeeming the debt of

1991. Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV).

1992. The New Testament (New York: Association Press, 1918). This Bible in the Dohnavur library.

1993. Edges of His Ways, 01 March, 32.

1994. In Gold Cord, 87.

1995. Amy quotes Dr Maclaren on Psalm 3:4 (in Whispers of His Power, 28 April, 93).

1996. Whispers of His Power, 13 September, 196.

1997. Candles in the Dark, 44.

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the Gospel, and enduring trials that foster faith. We can be sure that these themes were set in the wider horizon of the salvation secured for all in the Cross and resurrection of Christ.

She looked for solid conversions and lasting faithfulness. Her use of the Bible to bring people to repentance, to awaken faith and to nurture holiness signals the older pietistic conception of the Bible that focuses on a soteriological reading of the text. Amy clearly holds the Bible to the reliability if not inerrancy of Scripture, but this is not what holds her attention in practice. She stands here in the tradition of John Wesley and early Methodism. Amy worked at the edges of the Church where she saw many Church members just as nominal members who need to be born again. The doctrine of Christian

Souce: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 34: On each of the six segments of the wheel on the bungalow’s verandah is a Tamil word which indicates some part of the Fellowship’s work. The whole is bound by a band of shining brass which looks like gold, and signifies the bond of love which holds the Fellowship together. In Amy’s time the wheel stood in the church, so that all the members of the Fellowship were constantly reminded of their high calling, and helped to magnify their office and to do the will of God from the heart. A vision the Dohnavur Fellowship still has in this present day. life was for her as important as the great canonical faith of the Church. However, love was essential to the feeding of Christ’s little lambs.

She never argued about the inspiration or criticised the text; she watched its influence upon human lives and that gave her a definite and distinct evidence that this was from God and that what he said was true. Through faith in God, she saw, trusting God’s Word, closed doors opened, closed hearts opened for the redeeming grace, unoccupied fields possessed, funds supplied, and fruit obtained. God’s presence, God’s promises and his salvation through his Word have proved to be a reality in her life. Never in all those years of mission work, had God’s faithfulness failed or his Word been found to be other than trustworthy.1998

For Amy the Bible was like a flower. We cannot see the fragrance of a flower, as we cannot see the presence of the Lord, ‘but you can let its sweetness refresh you’.1999 We need to take ‘the time and the trouble’,2000 to absorb it, otherwise we do not gain anything. ‘Isn’t the Bible amazing?’ ‘In Scripture every little daisy is a meadow.’2001 What weighed on her spirit was the fear that missionaries would not tend towards a view of the Bible, leading eventually to ‘quicksands’.2002 Such an attitude would not build the Church in India, but sooner or later would lead to rubbing out the boundaries and rob the Church of its foundation.

A decision was never taken in Dohnavur without seeking the Lord in prayer and ruminating over the Word before claiming a promise from God. Care and prayer took every new step. She  combined intellectual pursuit with intimate fellowship with God, resulting in a faith that was  strong, bold and sound. God is faithful and trustworthy. ‘Does He ever break His Word? No, never.’2003 In all her work she was keeping on the steady track of the Bible. She saw many changes during her life, but the essential Bible track remained. She studied in the Bible until the very end. Every time she found new thoughts. For example, when reading ‘For thus says the Lord, you are Gilead to me’ (Jr 22:6), she exclaimed, ‘That’s it. That is what I am. I am Dohnavur – all that I am, loved in the beloved place’. She was one with the Fellowship, which she believed was God’s creation.

An eye-opener

During a convention week in India, the attendants – about 70 missionaries – hurried out after the lecture to get a cup of tea. There Amy heard from an Indian women who lingered around, stories about missions and the behaviour of missionaries, which caused her to write God’s Missionary. By writing this booklet, she wanted to help new missionaries who have not yet made up their minds.

1998. Cf. Hudson Taylor’s statement about the principles of the CIM: ‘We concluded to invite the co-operation of fellow believers, irrespective of denomination, who fully believed in the inspiration of God’s Word, and were willing to prove their faith by going to Inland China with only the guarantees they carried within the covers of their pocket Bibles’ (Broomhall, Faith and Facts, 24).

1999. Whispers of His Power, 13 September, 196.

2000. Whispers of His Power, 14 September, 197.

2001. Candles in the Dark, 40.

2002. See When God Came, 15.

2003. God’s Missionary, 24.

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First:

We are here [in India] to live holy, loving, and lowly lives. Anything that would hinder us from the closest walk that is possible to us until we see Him face to face is not for us. […] Are you burning hot people? We look to you to show us patterns but you are showing us ‘crooked patterns’? The very moment the missionary is on board the ship that will bring them to the assigned place, pray God, ‘asking Him to keep you, as we ask Him to keep us, from showing “crooked patterns”’.2004 The danger for missionaries is that they are too much entangled in worldly affairs. She saw in the community where she was that the Church was very active but there were no changed lives.

Then Amy told of her own experience, without mentioning her name. Three missionaries in three different mission stations had sought light upon the separation for God and his service. All three had come to India with the longing to win souls for the Lord. They felt ‘befogged’ in the tradition of the mission station. Too many things had to be done, and all three felt the danger of losing the touch to their Lord. Two gradually gave in. They did not understand that all over the mission field ‘the sent reflect the senders. Is the Church at home one upon this matter?’ The two who had given in said, ‘If only I had been prepared’. Another said: ‘Society had been a snare to him at home’. And in the end, ‘he was wrecked on the rock of compromise’. Some missionaries are ‘hindrances to the deeper life in the mission house rather than helps’. ‘Remembering these things’, Amy writes, ‘we are writing. […] We are to know nothing among any save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified’.2005 The main purpose for being on the mission field is ‘the showing of Christ, the living of Christ, among those who do not know Him’. Whatever makes for holiness of life, for the clearing of the glass through which the light shines, ‘this is for us and nothing else’.2006

She advises all new missionaries to be sure that the way they go is from God and that this gives them assurance. In this case missionary calling is a ‘special calling’ and is ‘giving yourselves wholly to this office’, wherever you are, whether this be on board a ship or on shore. She quoted Paul, standing in the midst of his shipmates, who said, ‘God, whose I am, and whom I serve’.2007 And where to serve? ‘Is it not true that the point is not so much where we are, as whether we are where our Lord wants us to be?’ The work is one, what would become of us, out here, if for one day the Lord ceased to ‘hold the ropes’? Only wherever we are, let us pour out our ‘love like the rush of a river, wasting its waters forever and ever’, and ‘when the King comes back, forever and forever we shall rejoice together’.2008 Be constantly among the people you are sent to. We are in:

[N]eed of a fresh touch, as we speak with them and see them day by day. We need renewed compassions, renewed earnestness. It is easy to grow accustomed to things, easy to get cool. […] We pray for ourselves with ever deepening intensity: Oh, for a love, for a burning love, like the fervent flame of fire! Oh, for a love, for a yearning love, that will never, never tire! […] Lord, in my need I appeal unto Thee; oh, give me my heart’s desire!2009 Amy could not understand that there was alienation between Indian Christians and missionaries. By experience, she writes, she knew so little of these difficulties. ‘We have found India friendly, and her Christians are our friends. […] Nowhere could there be warmer love, more tender affection.’2010 She had

2004. God’s Missionary, 15.

2005. God’s Missionary, 17–20.

2006. God’s Missionary, 20.

2007. Acts 27:23.

2008. From Sunrise Land, 125. experienced meetings with other missionary women, drinking tea and gossiping, but showing very little concern for the eternal souls of those about them.

In the searchlight of the cross

‘Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden and ever since in every garden of His lovers there has been a cross.’2011 In what way will God’s servant appear and present the Gospel? Did not Paul write, ‘For I am determined not to know anything among you, save Christ and Him crucified’! She underlined these words in Saint Teresa’s The Interior Castle, ‘there are no better arms than those of the Cross’.2012 Thinking about the Cross of Christ, she agreed with Mrs Hodgkin who wrote in a figurative speech:

[B]orrowed from the outward Tree, or Wooden Cross on which Christ submitted to the Will of God in permitting Him to suffer Death at the Hands of Evil Men. So that the Cross Mystical is that Divine Grace and power which crosses the Carnal Wills of Men. […] For nothing else can mortify Sin or make it easy for us to submit to the Divine Will in Things otherwise contrary to our own.2013 The Cross on which Jesus died was for her not a thing to admire, but she saw in it the sense of Matthew 16:24: ‘If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me’.

Always in everything, the missionary stands in the way of the Cross in doing his duty; therefore, mission work can only be done in putting off the old man and putting on the new man. In this she discovered, that she belonged to God, and therefore, could not live her life autonomously, but had to do it in connection to him, to whom she belonged.

Since Amy had been in the Keswick circles, she had met many influential holiness preachers of whom some were so ablaze for the glory of God that they presented the Word of God emphasising only the glory side while they ignored God’s method, as Paul explained, in presenting the Gospel. Since her arrival on the mission field – even earlier in Belfast – Amy had presented the side represented by the Cross. Christ was exalted on the Cross and in the Cross his glory is revealed. In her talks with the people in India and in her books, she never dealt with the Cross doctrinally, but she did what Jesus told us to do, to lift him up. ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’2014 At the time when the call to the mission field came, she was pulled back and forth between her love for her family, the DOM, the work for the Keswick Convention and the obedience to God’s call. Someone sent her a poem, which encouraged her and strengthened her faith.2015 Several times she came back to this poem and frequently quoted the verses:

2011. Gold by Moonlight, 47.

2012. On page 18.

2013. These words in L.V. Hodgkin, Guliema: Wife of William Penn, (London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1947), 131. Amy loved these words: ‘God often touches our best Comforts, and calls for that we most love, and are least willing to part with. Not that He always utterly takes it away, but to prove the Souls’ Integrity, to caution us from Excesses and that we may remember God, the Author of those Blessings we possess, and live loose to them. I speak my Experience: The Way to keep your Enjoyments is to resign them: and though that be hard, ‘tis sweet to see them returned with more Love and blessing than before. … The Way of God is a way of Faith, as dark to Sense, as mortal to Self’ (p. 131).

2014. John 12:32.

2015. Author unknown. The lines are a paraphrase of pages 83–85 of Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), Book II, Chapter XI. See Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, 42.

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Many crowned the Saviour’s Kingdom, Many sit at Jesus table,
Few receive His Cross, Few will fast with Him
Many seek His consolation, When the sorrow-cup of anguish

Few will suffer loss Trembles to the brim-

For the dear sake of the Master, Few watch with Him in the garden
Counting all but dross. Who have sung the hymn.
Many will confess His wisdom, But the souls who love Him truly
Few embrace His shame, Whether for woe or bliss,
Many, should He smile upon them, These will count their truest heart’s blood
Will His praise proclaim; Not their own, but His;
Then, if for a while He leave them, Saviour, Thou Who thus hast loved me,
They desert His Name. Give me love like this.

In dealing with these things, Amy did not write for others, ‘but we are writing to ourselves’.2016 ‘We, as missionaries treat the world not only in its corruptions but in its legitimate joys, in all its privileges and blessings’, but eyes fixed upon the Lord, ‘to receive the manna that falls from Heaven’. There are things in this world, which ‘are not for us, not for us’. It is not that the Lord forbids, but we should ‘voluntarily and gladly lay aside’ the things that charm and ravish the world. Reciting Tauler’s words, ‘a pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring’, she urges us to search ourselves in the searchlight of God.2017 Years later she would underline the following sentence:

One of the great risks […] is the worker’s surprise at vocations to share the passion. So many of us recoil from the real Cross. We have our limits and we too easily find reasons for this way or that of dodging painful calling.2018 Amy saw God’s missionary as a soldier, disentangled, a Nazarite, separating himself unto the Lord, a Priest, crowned. A soldier on service is out on campaign, and he cannot be entangled in the affairs of this life. He has to be aware to walk ‘in the cross-marked path of Jesus’.2019 The Greek has here ‘the little affairs’. The things here are so little compared with the great affairs of the war. Missionaries see many things and yield to the temptation of closely studying cases rarely seen, but does it ‘hasten the coming of the Master’s Kingdom’?2020 Amy had seen the social entanglements, where missionaries were often drawn into futile discussions. The daily affairs on the mission compound were often so overwhelming: this thing had to be done and that, but where was the quiet time to talk with God? The windows were often closed and not open to Jerusalem. In Amy’s opinion, there was too much empty talk:

Too often colleague missionaries are hurt by our talking. Be sure when you are talking, you have the three sieves: Is it true? kind? Necessary? […] Imagine the Lord at table or in the room (and He is). […] All we need, all we want, is to have His ungrieved Presence with us always.2021 Many missionary women would be busy with their dresses. What to do?:

2016. God’s Missionary, 37.

2017. God’s Missionary, 39–40.

2018. In H.M. Smith, Frank, Bishop of Zanzibar. The Life of Frank Weston (1871–1924) (London: SPCK, 1926), 150. In the Dohnavur library.

2019. From Sunrise Land, 170.

2020. God’s Missionary, 33.

2021. God’s Missionary, 24–25.

Let us go to our Lord, the Crucified, and ask Him what He thinks about it. And if He asks us to change our ways even in this, for his sake and for the sake of those whom we might help […] shall we not do it?2022 Here she must have thought of the opposition she received after having changed her Western clothes into Indian dress. As for recreation, of course there is no harm in recreation, but only if it is seen as ‘reequipment for future work with no leakage of spiritual power’. If not, ‘we dry up and become a desert in a desert’, it ‘hinders’ rather than ‘is a help’.2023

There is the entanglement of overwork. The burden of the unreached can overwhelm a missionary and often result in unconfessed, perhaps unrealised ambition – this deadly entangling – the love of the praise of man that brings a snare. When we fail? Then the heart breaks with the shame and the sorrow of the thought: ‘If I had spent more time with God for souls I should have had more power with souls for God’.2024 Powers of darkness creep in!

Here she quoted Coillard2025 of the Zambezi who said, ‘The evangelization of the heathen world is a desperate struggle with the Prince of Darkness’. For Amy mission work was ‘a serious task’. It should mean ‘a life of consecration and faith’. In the Bible the word ‘entanglement’ is connected with something dangerous. Missionaries are afraid of malaria. This sickness sometimes drives them out of the mission field. ‘Should we less dread this spiritual malaria, the fever of a restless soul, which has a power, we know not how. […] It unnerves us for the fight.’ ‘What is the good of a fit body with an unfit soul inside it?’ And the better way?:

O to be holy
Thou wilt not say me nay
Who movest me to pray:
‘Enable to endure’.
Spiritual cleansing Fire,
Fulfil my heart’s desire:
Make pure.2026

In conclusion, Amy saw the secret of fruitful mission work in Arnot’s words: ‘I do not think there is anything so essential to real service for God as an entire separation and devotion to the work’.2027 For Amy, one of the secrets of going on was to ‘get away’. Breathe in sea air or mountain air, air that is pure and strong, and you come back refreshed! Do this with your Indian friends and when you come back be busy and you will experience being ‘on the spot when we are needed’. Unpractical? ‘It works.’ You come and your work with the people is successful, ‘because they have come in real love, and because they know they do’. Then she concluded:

2022. God’s Missionary, 25.

2023. God’s Missionary, 37.

2024. God’s Missionary, 27.

2025. François Coillard (1834 in Asnières-les-Bourges, France – 1904 in Lealui, Zimbabwe), of Huguenot descent. Offered himself in 1854 to the Société des Missions Evangélique de Paris. In 1857 he went to Cape Town. Robert Moffat at Kuruman urged him to move north where he founded the Zambezi Mission in 1885. He sent a lot of lively and moving letters to the mission office in Paris. Many of these letters were published in 1889 as Sur le Haut-Zambèze: voyages et travaux de mission (On the Threshold of Central Africa, 1879).

2026. God’s Missionary, 28–29.

2027. God’s Missionary, 34.

Chapter 17

We can never know an Eastern people – it is fallacious to imagine we can – while we find our chief recreation to be an escape from their companionship into the society of our fellow-Europeans.2028 Missionaries should be aware that the people of the land are keenly observant: they mark our preferences in the choice of our friends, as in everything else, if we find our rest and pleasure in being away from them, will they open out to us and let us understand them? No, we shall be farther away from them than we know. They may be affectionate, there will always be a certain reserve in their confidence – unrecognised by us, because we are not near enough to them. You cannot be a good missionary if you cannot be happy among the people you are working with. Amy does not want to define someone else’s duty but she urges that each of us should be sincere in finding out our own. There is a sense, even physically, in which the joy of the Lord is strength. First things first. What is the missionary’s first thing? ‘Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.’2029 ‘O that in me Thou my Lord, may see of the travail of Thy soul, and be satisfied.’2030 For Amy the death of Christ on the Cross was the gateway to enter into the union with God. The Cross of Christ is often seen as a type of the cross we have to carry. But Jesus did not say, ‘if any man will come after Me, let him take up “My cross”’, but, ‘let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’.2031 For her the important question was: ‘How can we missionaries most effectively touch our world for Christ?’ We should know to draw the line. There should always be room for Christ and we know that there are places where there is no room for Christ. We have but one responsibility that is not to miss ‘the opportunities’ as they pass. ‘To speak for our Lord is not to write in sand.’2032 No plans or strategy, but ‘the Cross is the attraction’. In the Cross Amy saw the dimensions of divine love. The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the exhibition of the heart of God:

We never touch the realm of the cross until we are suffering vicariously, until our suffering of sympathy with others, and our strength is being poured out in order to help others. That is the cross. We can only interpret the cross by His cross.2033 With all her Keswick experience, she followed her own path. Since the beginning of the 20th century the Keswick movement has begun to shift away from its Christ centric and mission characteristics and to grow introspective in spirituality. The danger was that people more and more see their own experience rather than the source of that experience, the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Amy always concentrated on the objective side, the work and the person of Christ Jesus. He was always the first and the last, always in the centre of her thinking. Her spiritual experiences were founded in Christ’s work on the Cross.

If a missionary works in another way, ‘be aware not to shipwreck on the rock of compromise’.2034 One can only go to others in compassion, when the surrender to God is first in life. Amy was in contact with Lilias Trotter in Algeria and both shared the same opinion. Mrs Trotter wrote:

2028. God’s Missionary, 43.

2029. God’s Missionary, 45–46. The Bible quotation is from 2 Corinthians 4:10.

2030. God’s Missionary, 46.

2031. Cf. here O. Chambers’s quotation: ‘The Cross of Jesus Christ is a revelation; our cross is an experience’ (Chambers, The Complete Works, 1091).

2032. God’s Missionary, 49.

2033. Whispers of His Power, 25 August, 181.

2034. God’s Missionary, 53.

And so the Spring-time expands, till it passes once more into the shadow of Calvary. For the blessedness of receiving is not all God has for us: a new world lies beyond – a world of giving: a giving first to God in surrender, then to man in sacrifice.2035 For a missionary the crown of God is enough. The crown of being anointed by God and the crown of rejoicing, the crown of converts won by his wonderful, infinite love, when we shall stand in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jim Elliot’s words: ‘How many Mara’s have been sweetened by a simple, satisfying glimpse of the Tree and the Love which underwent its worst conflict there’. Yes, the Cross is the tree that sweetens the waters. The crux is love. Love is the answer and it carries a burden, without being burdened. Love knows no measure, but warmly glows. ‘Love is the answer to all things: love ends all questions. Lord, ever more give us this love.’2036 When speaking or writing about sufferings, adversities, she would say ‘the Cross is the attraction. […]. No dressing of the Cross with flowers in that prison, May 7. 1936’.2037