The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 1, January, 1882

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

THE
American Missionary.
Vol. XXXVI.
JANUARY, 1882.
No. 1.
We welcome the advent of the new year with praise and thanksgiving. The toils and burdens of 1881 are past. The husbandman has garnered his sheaves. The sower has cast in his seed, and awaits the spring time. We greet our friends with hope and gladness. The prosperity of the past is significant. We have a fuller experience, enlarged facilities for work, and a place in the confidence and esteem of the church and the nation that brings with it not only cheer and courage but an added weight of responsibility.
We are, doubtless, on the eve of great events in the world of missions. He who has taught all Christendom of every sect and every age to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” has never decreed such immense strides in the material world as our eyes have seen, without a purpose to overmatch them all by spiritual achievements.
The current of events does not tarry; it rushes on more mightily than ever. We may pray expectantly. We may accustom ourselves to meditate upon vast plans for enlarged work in fields already occupied, and for new and fruitful enterprises in regions beyond. Such gifts from the living as have been bestowed by Mrs. Stone and Mr. Seney, such legacies for missions as were left by Mr. Otis, reveal to us what floods may come when all things are ready, while such revival waves as have swept over Madagascar and the Telagoo people in India are earnests of the power of the Holy Spirit to subdue speedily islands and continents to Himself.
Girt with the promises, and armed with all prayer and faith, we shall go forth to conquer. The day is dawning, the morning star is piercing the twilight, and dark night will shortly be rolled away. Over the continents, over the islands, over the seas, victory is watching and waiting to come; but tarry it will, tarry it must, till we, or such as we ought to be, win the battle in God’s appointed way.