A RECLAIMING FORCE
"Go ye and teach the next one whom you meet—
Man, woman, child, at home or on the street—
That 'God so loved them' each in thought so sweet
He could not have them lost through sin's defeat,
But sent you with His message to repeat That pardon
through His Son might be complete.
So shall our land be saved from sore defeat
And gather with the nations at His feet."
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Referring to the incident when the disciples, James and John, confronted by the lame man at the gate Beautiful of the Temple, gave him restored health through the power of the Christ, instead of the alms which he solicited, Dr. John Henry Jowett said: "He, the Master, gave fundamentally to those in need. He did not attend to the symptoms, but cured the disease. He gave capacity for incapacity, ability for inability, life for feebleness. He strengthened the wills of those born impotent and gave them the power of self-control. "As Christ gave fundamentally in His earthly ministry, so He has given since. It is still the greatest mission of the church to reach and restore—to give "capacity."
Christ said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." It can never come in society, it can never prevail in a nation, until it has first come into individual lives and found expression through them.
"All true progress," says the Hon. James Bryce, "has always been from the soul working outward through men's acts, and it is so to-day."
Home Missions has pre-eminently been the agent of the church in this fundamental work of reclamation. Let us go to the laboratory of the Mission fields where we may see Home Missions in action, and witness the Christ power to restore, uplift, transform, to give capacity.
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It was a crisp day in early autumn when the visitor from the
Women's Board stepped from the train at a small station in
Northern Minnesota and was met by the Home Missionary pastor.
A pair of strong horses and a light buggy made quick work of the ten-mile drive, to the new mission church at M—— L——.