Acts 13:13; 2 Timothy 4:10
Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.
ADONIRAM JUDSON (1788-1850): The motto of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster, ought to be “Devoted for life.”
WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): Truth requires the statement that persons have gone on foreign missions who were certainly never called to that work.
ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): The idea of being a missionary, abroad or at home, may feed the vanity of some minds; and, indeed, there is no man that is proof against such temptations.
WILLIAM S. PLUMER: It is necessary, for the comfort of the honest inquirer and for the glory of God, that it be distinctly stated that perhaps all who have erred in going abroad have been influenced by some wrong motive, or some want of reflection, as they themselves might have learned, if they had with sufficient care examined the whole matter.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We all know what the missionary spirit is, and yet we could not any of us exactly describe it. It is a sort of thing that sets a man longing to see others saved, and makes him pant especially for those who have no means of grace in their own lands, that they may have those means carried to them, that they may be saved.
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Before conversion, the soul is sordidly selfish, but no sooner does this change take place than the heart begins to be enlarged with an expansive benevolence. The whole world is embraced in its charity. “Good will to man” is a remarkable characteristic of the “new creature;” and this intense desire for the salvation of our fellow-men, and ardent wish that they may all become interested in that Saviour whom we have found to be so precious, is the true source of the missionary spirit.
HENRY MARTYN (1781-1812): The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.
GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): Although I was still very weak and ignorant in faith, I longed to win souls for Christ. Every month I circulated about three hundred missionary papers, distributed many tracts, and wrote letters to some of my former companions in sin.
C. H. SPURGEON: The very first service which my youthful heart rendered to Christ was the placing of tracts in envelopes, and then sealing them up, that I might send them, with the hope that, by choosing pertinent tracts, applicable to persons I knew, God would bless them. And I well remember taking other tracts, and distributing them in certain districts in the town of Newmarket, going from house to house, and telling, in humble language, the things of the Kingdom of God.
COUNT NIKOLAUS VON ZINZINDORF (1700-1760): I have but one passion―it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Go ye into all the world,” Mark 16:15. Well then, you say, “Where am I to go?”
Oh, that is very easy…There is nothing easier in the world than to know where you ought to begin missionary work. You have it in the first chapter of Acts and the eighth verse: Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem―that is the city in which they were; and in all Judea―that is the State in which their city was; and in Samaria―that is the adjoining State; and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
If you want to begin missionary work, you have to begin it in your home-town, and my friends if you are not interested in the salvation of the Chinese [here], then you are not really interested in the salvation of the Chinese in China, and you are only fooling yourselves if you think you are! Oh, I am calling a spade a spade tonight. If you are anxious about the souls of the Chinese in China, then you will be equally anxious about the souls of the Chinese here!―and I wonder how many of you have bought a thousand or a hundred Gospels of John, and then have gone round to the houses in the Chinese quarter and have said, “My friend, this is a little gift that will do your soul good if you will read it.” Ah, my friends, we are playing at missions, it is just a farce, that is all! “Go ye” is the first command. Go where? To those around me first.
C. H. SPURGEON: Rest assured that no missionary ardour really burns in the breast of that man who does not love the souls of those who live in the same house and dwell in the same neighbourhood. Give me that man for a missionary of whom it is said, that when he took a lodging in a house, all the other inhabitants were brought to God within six months; or he was a son, and his father was unconverted, but he gave the Lord no rest till he saw his parent saved; or he was a tradesman, and while he was pushing his business earnestly, he always found time to be an evangelist. That is the man who will maintain missionary fervour alive at home, and that is the man who will help to promote missionary effort abroad.
D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I made it a rule that I wouldn’t let a day pass without speaking to some one about their soul’s salvation; and, if they didn’t hear the gospel from the lips of others, there will be three hundred and sixty-five in a year that shall hear the gospel from my lips.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): There is no better test of our spiritual state and condition than our missionary zeal, our concern for lost souls. That is always the thing that divides people who are just theoretical and intellectual Christians from those who have a living and a vital spiritual life.
C. H. SPURGEON: Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all…If every one of you Christians would every day make Christ known to somebody, what a missionary organization we should be!
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let me look at my condition, my resources, my opportunities. How can I glorify God and promote the welfare of my fellow-creatures? Is there not a Bible to circulate? Are there not missionaries to support? Are there none perishing for lack of knowledge that I can myself instruct? Have I no irreligious neighbours to reclaim?
