then, misreading history, wander in a maze of confusion and perplexity, misled by the apparent failure of history to realize the ideal.

We may therefore lay it down as an axiom that any supposed plan of God in missions which is not scriptural, cannot be really historic; nor can that be really historic which is not scriptural. In other words, the true plan of God must be read by these two guides. If we get the right focal centre, it will be seen that, like the twin pictures in the stereoscope, they harmoniously blend: if they do not, the fault is not in their disagreement, but in our seeing.

The writer may be permitted to address the reader personally and familiarly. He wishes to be honest with God, his readers, and himself. For many years he confesses that he could not bring into apparent agreement the promises and prophecies of God's Word as to missions, and the providence of God in human history. From the lofty summits of Holy Scripture there was an inspiring outlook, a prophetic prospect, which lost all its reality, if not its romance, when one descended to the lower level of actual fact, as the purple mantle and the golden veil of the mountain lose their soft enchantment as we come near enough to see and touch the bare, bleak, rugged crags of rock. There was an instinctive consciousness that the conflict was only apparent, that the difficulty lay in my own vision: either I read

Scripture wrongly or I read history wrongly, or both.

There was but one way out of the maze of perplexity to retrace steps already taken and begin anew, to lay aside as far as possible all bias, whether of prepossession or prejudice, and, in a prayerful spirit, humbly, like a little child, seek open, unveiled eyes * wherewith to read the Word and will of God. The results are now, in brief, to be laid before the readers of these pages. Is it too much again to ask that, before pronouncing hasty judgment, the indulgent reader will undertake to get at the truth in the same spirit?

Looking first at God's Word, one book in the Bible seems entitled to a special rank as God's own commentary on missions. The Acts of the Apostles is the Missionary Encyclopedia of the Ages. Here, if anywhere, will be found in full, both the Divine idea and the Divine plan.

This book opens with the repetition of the Great Commission, and the prediction of the Great Anointing. It briefly outlines the whole scheme of missions, as Giotto drew a perfect circle at one stroke: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea; and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Then it proceeds to trace the history of the witnessing Church, through the first age-the lifetime of one generation-showing how God went before to *Ps. cxix. 18. † Acts i. 8.

open doors of access wide and effectual, and how the Church, following His lead, gave her witness, in the exact order which our Lord had indicated— in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria; then in the uttermost part of the earth, Rome, Greece, and the regions beyond.

Surely this is no accident. The New Testament opens with four Gospel narratives, all of which end with the great commission, presented in four various aspects, like a building viewed from as many sides. Then immediately follows this fifth book, in which God's leadership of His witnessing Church by His providence and grace, during one entire generation, serves this double end: first, it stands as a permanent illustration of His purpose, and of the duty of every successive generation of believers toward those who at the same time live on the earth; and, secondly, it furnishes us a practical example of the general results which we are to expect to follow faithful witness. In one word, this book is the typical history of the first age of missions; and a key to all future ages of Church history.

The Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon, "to prove him with hard questions, and there was not one thing hid from her which he told her not." * Here, in this book of the Acts, is the perpetual audience-chamber of the Prince of Peace. No perplexity or difficulty has ever arisen, or will ever * I. Kings X. 1−3.

arise, in the missionary work of the Church, for which there is not here an adequate answer and solution. We shall therefore reverently inquire, first of all, at this Holy Oracle; and, possibly, even in this closing decade of the nineteenth century, the Church may find something yet to be learned as to the true methods and principles of missions.

Seven grand features are here plainly marked in God's plan: the ruling idea and word is still, WITNESS, but this witnessing is qualified by certain definitions and limitations:

I. Its Purpose: the evangelization of the world. II. Its Result: the out-gathering of an elect Church.

III. Its Order: to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

IV. Its Scope: a whole Church, witnessing to a whole world.

V. Its Method: a division of the field, and a distribution of the force.

VI. Its Stress: service rendered to the existing generation.

VII. Its Power: essentially superhuman and supernatural.

Within these seven landmarks will be found comprised the whole duty of the Church, with all those details which serve for her complete guidance in carrying out the great commission.

These seven features it is our design, in course

of these chapters, to survey. One of them, the duty of the whole Church to witness to the whole world, has been already touched upon in the previous pages, and others will naturally be considered later on. But, just now, we may confine ourselves to one great question: What is the purpose which God has in view, and what are the results therefore which we are warranted in expecting?

This question we seek to answer in the double light of the Scripture and of history. We find it to be God's declared purpose to have the Gospel preached throughout the world, and thereby to gather out from the world a believing people, the Church or Bride of Christ. If this be so, then our true aim is divinely defined, and our reasonable hope is suggested, which need not be disappointed.

Our Lord Himself defines the bounds of our work: First of all, the purpose of this world-wide witnessing is a world's evangelization.

It behoves us carefully to notice our instructions, for they not only define our duty, but they limit our responsibility. In some matters absolute accuracy is indispensable; as, for example, in astronomical calculations. A soldier studies his orders, as an ambassador his instructions, minutely; and, in this work of missions, we who are both soldiers and ambassadors need clear conceptions of the orders and instructions of our King.

If we closely examine the entire commission entrusted to the Church by our Lord, we shall be