Jesus Christ did not say - Go and save souls (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but - "Go and teach," i.e., disciple, "all nations," and you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself.

When the disciples came back from their first mission they were filled with joy because the devils were subject to them, and Jesus said - Don't rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to Me.

The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God, and realizes that his one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus.

There is a passion for souls that does not spring from God, but from the desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come on the line that people are difficult to get saved, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, that there is a wadge of callous indifference; but along the line of his own personal relationship to Jesus Christ.

"Believe ye that I am able to do this?" Our Lord puts that question steadily, it faces us in every individual case we meet.

The one great challenge is - Do I know my Risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God's sight, and foolish enough according to the world, to bank on what Jesus Christ has said, or am I abandoning the great supernatural position, which is the only call for a missionary, viz., boundless confidence in Christ Jesus?

If I take up any other method I depart altogether from the methods laid down by Our Lord - "All power is given unto Me . . , therefore go ye."

The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts Himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says - "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.

"Then the eleven disciples went . . unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them." v. 16. If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. "Come unto Me" - that is the place to meet Jesus. Are you weary and heavy laden? How many missionaries are! We banish those marvelous words of the universal Sovereign of the world to the threshold of an after-meeting; they are the words of Jesus to His disciples.

"Go ye therefore . . . ." Go simply means live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say - Go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me" in all these places. He undertakes to establish the goings.

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you. . . " - that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings.

"None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself . . ." That is how to keep going til we're gone.

Felt much turmoil of spirit, in prospect of having all my plans for the welfare of this great region and this teeming population, knocked on the head by savages tomorrow. But I read that Jesus said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. . . . and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18–20 KJV)! It is the word of a Gentleman, of the strictest and most sacred honor. So there’s an end of it! I will not cross furtively tonight as I intended. Should such a man as I flee? Nay, verily, I shall take observations for latitude and longitude tonight, though they may be the last. I feel quite calm now, thank God! DIARY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE

During the terrible days of the Boxer uprising in China, as one report followed another of mission stations destroyed and missionaries massacred, Hudson Taylor sat quietly at his desk singing softly the hymn he loved so dearly: Jesus, I am resting, resting, In the joy of what Thou art.

When our confidence is in God, we may be superior to circumstances.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). However impossible it may seem to the reasoning of the earthly-minded, it is nevertheless a blessed reality to the trustful child of God that “Faith can sing through days of sorrow: ‘All, all is well!’ ”

“Though I was afraid of many things,” said John Buchan, “the thing I feared most mortally was being afraid.”

Fierce was the wild billow, Dark was the night; Oars labored heavily; Foam glimmered white. Trembled the mariners, Peril was nigh; Then said the God of Gods, “Peace! It is I.” Ridge of the mountain wave, Lower thy crest. Wail of the stormy wind, Be thou at rest. Peril there none can be; Sorrow must fly, Where saith the Light of Life, “Peace! It is I.”

Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas! RALPH WALDO EMERSON

All power is give unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: . . . and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea.

Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.—My word . . . shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.—So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.