for its own method. The Congo problem calls for declamation; India, it may be, for statesmanlike reserve, and China for sympathetic counsel, and, wherever opportunity offers, the instilling of high moral principles, seeds of righteousness in the minds and hearts of men in power.

But the prophet was a man with a message and a man of moral and spiritual passion because he had the vision of God. It is most suggestive to take up the Old Testament and glance at the opening chapters of the prophetic books. We are all familiar with the 6th of Isaiah, with the 1st chapter of Jeremiah. We remember the opening apocalyptic vision of Ezekiel when he saw "the likeness of the throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne the appearance of a man. . . This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, and when I saw it," says the prophet, "I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of one that spake." And so with almost every book, though in briefer language "the words of Amos which he saw." "The burden which Habakkuk did see." "The word which Micah saw." The message of the prophet was a message which he saw. He was a preacher because he was a seer.

And so it has been with every religious leader through all the ages, from Moses downwards. Says John: "We beheld His glory full of grace and truth," and "that which we have seen, declare we unto you." It was so with Luther. Fresh from the visions of the closet he faced the Diet at Worms, or electrified Europe with the thunderings of truth. It was so with men like Dale and Spurgeon. It is so to-day in Wales or Manchuria. All this you say is sufficiently obvious. But is it not equally obvious that this is our most outstanding need? Am I exaggerating when I say we go on in jog-trot fashion pursuing our yearly round with our additions and losses, our planning and organising, our committees and conferences, but there is no open vision, no burden of the Lord which we see, which burns into us so that we are straitened till its tale be told. How pathetic is that brief word of the old time chronicler. The word of the Lord was rare in those days." Spiritual deadness to such a degree that there was not one among the whole people to whom God could reveal Himself, save a little child! A whole nation waiting with what wistful patience they might till the child should grow into the man. Is that how it is with us? When all should be prophets, are

It is

we? Is there one who is a seer? And yet our work is a failure before it begins without this vision of the seer. the first necessity of the missionary that he enter on his calling in obedience to a heavenly vision, and the necessity only becomes intensified and more imperative as the years pass. No vision of twenty years ago will stand for to-day's need, nor indeed of one year ago. It is as we descend from the mount, fresh from the immediate presence of the living God that the countenance will glisten and a subtle influence go forth in word and deed. Dr. Mabie, a writer whom I shall quote yet again in the course of this paper, tells how one soul was laid on his heart with such weight that he felt he could not be denied his craving for his friend's salvation. One night, awakened with intense concern respecting this man, he arose and gave himself to prayer. The next morning meeting him face to face he said: "Isaac, I have come after you this morning." "Henry, I know it," he replied, "what do you want of me." Dr. Mabie told him of his immense concern for him, and the man said: "I have no doubt of it. I have known for years how you felt for me." "What impressed me in that case," says Dr. Mabie, "as in many others in my memory, is that multitudes of people really feel divine emanations from us if we are in the spirit of love and grace towards them, even though we do not speak a word.” We understand at once what is meant, but such divine emanations can only be because there has been a divine immanation. We have heard recently of wonderful revivals in Korea and Manchuria, and still more recently among our own people in Shansi. Who of us is not stirred with the keenest longing for such blessing in our own province? We are thankful that the federation has appointed a committee to arrange meetings with that end in view, but let there be no mistake; a revival cannot be organised by any committee. The revival is yet to be that does not begin with the vision of God. To quote again the writer I quoted just now, referring to the revival at Sychar he says: "In an important sense Christ brought that revival with Him, and just as truly we may bring the revival to the communities in which we labour." Against all odds believe in the revival as possible and sudden anywhere, have it within you complete in your own personality, carry it with you wherever you go as Jesus the Master did, and ere you are aware again and again the angels will strike up with you the song of Harvest Home."

The situation calls for the prophet, the man of spiritual vision, the man of moral passion. Where is he? The saddest and gravest feature in the national outlook as it has been for years past, is the dearth of patriots. The most hopeful feature is the emergence of such men. But is it the fact that not only is there a dearth of patriots in the nation at large, but also a dearth of prophets in the church and in the missionary body? I trust not and I believe not. And yet brethren there are not so many but that we need to pray for more, and above all that we ourselves may be possessed of the prophet spirit. In every crisis when men's hearts are failing them for fear, it is the prophet who holds the clue to all enigmas. He sees the decisive factor which is hidden from the eyes of the multitude. The citadel of righteousness is besieged by imposing forces, but his eyes are opened to see the unseen forces of higher regions. And he says to all trembling souls: "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

3. Consider, third, the Missionary as Shepherd.

When considering the missionary as apostle, we were perceptibly breathing the atmosphere of the city. As we passed from the apostle to the prophet, we passed out of the city with its organised life into the prairie with its whirlwind and tempest. To pass now from the prophet to the shepherd is like returning from the prairie to the green sward of the peaceful meadow. To follow up the comparison a little further, the apostle is guided by a divine wisdom; the prophet is on fire with a vision of the divine holiness; while the shepherd is consumed by divine tenderness. Or if we look at the three types of work, the missionary as apostle is planting a church; as prophet he addresses the nation and people; as shepherd he seeks out and cares for the individual. For if you think of it, this is perhaps the most characteristic element in the shepherd as he is presented to us in the Scriptures. "He calleth his own sheep by name." "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." "He leadeth me beside the still waters. " Perhaps the greatest and most sudden leap in the development of religious truth was when Christ enunciated concerning God, "It is not the will of your father that one of these little ones should perish," and concerning man, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? The imperishable value of the individual soul to man himself

and to God is what the Great Shepherd of the sheep has taught us.

Now of all the multiform care which the Shepherd exercises for the individual sheep, there is one aspect which I wish to single out for special emphasis. It is that presented to us in the gem-cluster of parables of the 15th chapter of Luke: "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it?" Here we have the Shepherd as soul seeker, fastening his attention on one individual soul and following it up until he finds it. It is the individual that is brought most forcibly to the front. If he lose one he goes after that one which is lost. There is more joy over the one found than over the ninety and nine who never strayed. For if the prophet declaims and the prophet proclaims, it is the glory of the Shepherd that he reclaims, and this implies seeking the individual.

Let me then ask two questions: Is it not absolutely essential in the missionary that he be a seeker after the individual soul? Is not this also what the missionary is most tempted to neglect? Twenty-five years ago or more, when I was still in business, every Friday and Sunday evening I was working in the east end of London among the sailors of Ratcliffe Highway. One of the lessons I learnt there I have never forgotten. It was the value, even from a numerical point of view, of individual work. So much so that I should have been tempted to slight the place of preaching as such and regard it as misplaced effort, but for the wise corrective counsel of my minister. I suppose at home there is no principle of evangelism more emphasized to-day than this of getting at the individual, and yet strange to say-strange, that is, in the case of those who like ourselves come from such surroundings-we are apt to lose sight of this principle and fail at the very point where we might get into close quarters with the individual. We deal with the people so much in masses. In the church it is through leaders. On the market, in the school or college, dispensary or museum, it is through assistants. Of exhortation indeed there is no lack, but it is just because we are perforce leaders and teachers of teachers, that we are in danger of neglecting the individual. The one boy or girl, man or woman, means so

much time and effort and thought in proportion to the number affected that we are tempted to think it hardly worth while; or the temptation comes more subtly (for we are not ignorant of the value of the individual), and we find it means neglect of the many for the sake of the one. And yet is not that just where we miss it? The Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine and goes after the one. He concentrates on the individual.

But to pursue the subject still further, not only is the individual not left out of account, but time and method and love and tact are all concentrated on winning that one individual soul as if there were no others to be sought in the wide world. What tact is implied in the very figure itself. Picture that Seeker and the sought. There is the wayward, foolish, terrorstricken sheep, fearing most of all the very hand stretched out to save. And there is the Shepherd! What patience and care lest in the very effort to save he drive the lost one to its own destruction. What manoeuvring, and tact too, till at length the wanderer is driven into some rocky corner, whence there is no refuge, save in the arms of the very one from whom he flees. Such is ever the way of the Divine Shepherd. Such he would have us be. He would have us use method and tact, as well as tenderness and love. In the book which I have already quoted in this paper and which I feel sure it would repay everyone to read (I refer to Dr. Mabie's "Method in Soul Winning"), the author deals with this point in his own inimitable way and illumines his treatment on which I would fain draw largely but that I trust you may read it for yourselves. Yet I may quote one or two passages. He says: "We are persuaded that great numbers all about us are lost to Christ and the church because of the lack of skill on the part of those who are supposed to be competent spiritual guides, in affording them a method of escape out of religious obscurity and confusion into the path of clear and growing light." "The secret of success is in managing through love and sympathy, and the tuition of the Spirit of God, to get so near to the soul, to so win its confidence, as to discover the secret of agnostic difficulty and the real point where the remedy is to be applied. In most cases the soul to be won himself must and will, if followed with sufficient love, give up the key to his own difficulty. This once gained, it remains but to turn the bolt, enter and lead the soul to Christ."