I. Widening Horizon
The hour in which we live makes it imperative that men study world conditions. It is almost impossible to keep pace with changing conditions and new opportunities unless one is constantly in touch with the progress of the Kingdom throughout the world.
There are at least seven good reasons why every man should plan to devote time to the study of missions.
1. Christ's Missionary Program Includes Study (John, iv. 35).—If a man cannot be thoroughly loyal to Christ without active participation in the spread of the gospel in the world, it is equally true that a man is disobedient to the missionary call of Christ who does not study missions. Information is essential to intercession and intercession is the greatest human missionary force. "Facts are the fuel with which missionary fervor is fired and fed."
2. Missions Is the Greatest Living Issue.—There is no question before the world to-day which involves such large forces, such multitudes of people and with such tremendous issues. There is nothing greater to which a man may relate his life.
3. The Study of Missions Is the Only Possible Way to Keep in Touch with World Progress.—In order to read the magazines and newspapers intelligently constant study of missions is necessary. Progress in our time is largely along Christian lines. The progress of the world is only another way of saying that Christ is increasingly possessing the world.
4. Men Cannot Be Qualified for Leadership Without Study.—There never was such an urgent call for leaders or such unlimited opportunities for the investment of talents as in our day in this greatest of movements. Real leadership is trained leadership and training involves study.
5. World Conquest Is the Biggest Business Proposition Before the Church.—The enterprise has in it all the elements that go to make big business so fascinating to strong men. Here is an opportunity not only of displaying the business talents which men have, but to display them in an enterprise which brings the most satisfactory returns to men in the way of the enrichment of their own lives. The keenest sagacity of business men is sorely needed in all the councils of the Church to-day, and in no place is the need more urgent than in the service of world-wide missions.
6. Investigation Will Suggest Definite and Practical Missionary Activities.—It is not enough to be sentimentally interested in missions. That day has gone by. The calls of our time demand definite and practical plans and methods and there are no members of the church who are in a position to render larger service than the business men.
7. It Furnishes Intellectual Outlook and Spiritual Uplook.—One of the great drawbacks of modern business life is that the horizon is narrowed and life made provincial. There is but little in ordinary business to furnish spiritual stimulus. A church service one day in seven is not sufficient to cause the springs of spiritual power in a man's life to burst forth into activity. Here is a cause which brings the keenest intellectual and spiritual delight. The study of missions will give men a greatly enriched Bible because they will discover that it is the great missionary Book. This fact and the consequent intellectual and spiritual stimulus justify any amount of time spent in studying the program of Christ.