IT is in connection with these words that the apostle entreats the saints not to receive the grace of God in vain. “For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in a day of salvation have I succored thee.” No doubt the thought is suggested that saints may so fully avail themselves of the salvation spoken of as not to give an occasion of stumbling in anything, that the ministry be not blamed; but is this all? In the earnest emphasis of these words, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” may it not be that the apostle is reminding believers not only to profit by, but also to pass on the word of salvation?
When we are indifferent to the salvation of our fellow-men, when not awake to the responsibility of being our brother’s keeper, when Scriptures which press the preaching of the gospel to every creature are practically a dead letter to us, are we not to a painful extent receiving the grace of God in vain? Saints for their service, as well as sinners for their salvation, need continually to be reminded that “now is the accepted time,” “now is the day of salvation.”
The apostles were slow to perceive that the gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. After our Lord’s resurrection “He was seen of them forty days,” and spoke of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Much of what He said during those forty days is evidently not written, but the Holy Spirit is careful to record that Jesus taught them that they should be “witnesses unto Me... unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” In Matthew they are commanded to make disciples of all the nations, in Mark to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” in Luke “repentance and remission of sins” was to be preached in Christ’s name unto all the nations. Peter, quoting from the prophecy of Joel, said, “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” Yet, notwithstanding Christ’s words after He was risen, and Peter’s own application of Joel to the day of Pentecost, Peter himself was slow to receive what Christ had said about preaching to the nations, slow to realize the force of his own words from Joel as to all flesh.
It needed a special vision from God on the housetop at Joppa, as recorded in Acts 10, and a visit from the servants of Cornelius inviting him to Cæsarea, before he was fully prepared to open wide the door of mercy to the Gentiles. Surely all this suggests how easy it is to forget Christ’s words, for it cannot be said that Peter and others had not heard them before the Saviour ascended, and this, too, apart from the force of the words Peter himself used on the day of Pentecost. It is solemn in the light of all that had gone before to notice how this same Peter tries to evade the force of the vision of the great sheet let down from heaven, as recorded in Acts 10, and how he almost resisted the message of God then given. Why this tardiness to embrace the Gentiles? The apostles were slow of heart, even after the day of Pentecost, to believe all that Jesus had spoken. For not only is this true of Peter, but the apostles and brethren afterward contended with him for opening the door of faith to the Gentiles; in other words, for doing what God almost compelled him to do. He and they showed themselves childishly slow to apprehend the extent and reality of the day of salvation in which they lived. Thus slow is Christian experience ever, even at its best, to arrive at the breadth and fullness of the Word of God on every matter. It failed in apostolic times, has failed since, and is failing now to respond to the universal outgoing of the heart of Christ, to aid in sending or carrying the message He has given, at the cost of His own blood, to the perishing millions everywhere. Is not forgetfulness of this service which we owe to Christ, and the increasing indifference of our hearts thereto, one of the “secret faults” for which we need to cry to God, so that we may be henceforth thoroughly cleansed from them? (Ps. 19:12).
All men need to hear of a Saviour, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The day of judgment will soon be here, and there will be no day of salvation then. The day of glory will soon dawn. We shall all reign in that day, and the opportunities of gospel ministry will soon be over. But it is not the time to “reign as kings” now. This is the day when God is working, when Christ is working, when the Holy Spirit is working, and all the saints who have “fellowship in the gospel” are working too.
It is not the day of salvation for England only, or for the countries where to some extent Christ is named in a national way, but it is the day of salvation also for Africa and India, and for Japan and China. The “every creature” to whom Christ commands us to preach the gospel includes the four hundred millions of China, who are about one-fourth of the entire human race. That repentance which God enjoins on “all men everywhere” is to be enjoined by human lips on all the Chinese. The “all men” for whom we are under obligation to pray, include every one of China’s millions. Today is especially the clay of salvation for China. God’s servants during the last century have been waking up a little to their privileges and responsibilities―to preach the gospel to the Chinese. The Old and New Testament Scriptures have been translated into the difficult language of that people. Hundreds of devoted Christian men and women, some from England and some from the continent of Europe, some from America and Canada, and some from Australia lived and died for Christ in China during the latter half of the nineteenth century. A number of these lived in the interior of the country. They lived lives of loneliness, yet of active service. Some of them died natural deaths, while others were killed at the hands of cruel men, yet the labors of these Christian confessors were not in vain. If not in one way, yet in another they bore fruit which remains.
Not a few Chinese have been brought to Christ in Christian schools, others in Christian hospitals, and many by the more direct work of preaching the gospel. It has pleased God to own the various methods that His servants have adopted. Love for souls is often ingeniously inventive of methods of work. The fervent Christian will “by all means save some.” Therefore, Christian ladies, who cannot preach as men do, have found ways and means to open schools in China for young and neglected girls. Even in childhood some of these have been brought to Christ. Then again, Christian doctors, not always specially gifted as speakers, have opened hospitals far from the coast. Patients have carried away from such institutions Scriptures and tracts, together with a living token of Christian love in the medical treatment received, shown to them in a Christian way. Many of these medical men work seven days in the week, and each day put in a full day. Other servants of Christ itinerate, distribute the Scriptures, and preach. Where there is a heart for Christ there will always be a way to serve Him.
Numbers of Chinese are, themselves, actively engaged in making Christ known to their own countrymen. While one preaches another invites neighbors and friends to hear him. The homes of such Chinese Christians as these are cleansed from every trace of the idols which once defiled them, and righteous lives are being lived in place of a corrupt past.
We who live in this country are not by any means awake to the providential way in which China is open, and is still being opened to the gospel. There is no edict at present forbidding Christian “conventicles,” as was long the case in England, but the European Powers have secured such treaties with China as enable not only the missionaries to preach, but also the Chinese to confess and practice the Christian religion, without fear. There is in that country today no compulsion to any form of national religion, but the open door for preaching the Word there just now is most significant. None of us are fully realizing the opportunities at present given.
The Chinese Government allows the servant of Christ to travel throughout the length and breadth of the land. Nay, it gives him a passport which prevents delay in traveling, and affords him the valuable protection of native officials in every locality. Compared with the many past centuries, during which the Chinese Empire has been closed to foreigners, the present open door there is best accounted for by recognizing the hand of God working in this way for the salvation of Chinese millions.
The spirit of inquiry just now amongst the Chinese is universal. Preachers report their halls filled with Chinese who interrupt with inquiries about all sorts of questions. The old narrow system of education has, during the past few years, been universally abolished, and has been replaced by colleges and schools with a plan of instruction after the patterns of Europe and America. Who can tell how soon this open door may be closed? A revolution in China, or a great European war might close it. Now is the time to go forth with the message of grace. May not God be calling some who read these lines to go? Let us bear in mind that “the night cometh when no man can work.”
T. H.