The new acts of the Apostles

Front matter

mm

Hi

SKI

Dedication

AS A GRATEFUL OFFERING TO THE MEMORY OF

THE REV. ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LL.D.

WHO, BEYOND MOST OTHER MEN OF THIS CENTURY OF MISSIONS,

Introduction

By Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D., F.R.S.E.,

Edinburgh, Scotland.

THE DUFF MISSIONARY LECTURESHIP.

The Duff Missionary Lectureship was founded by William Pirie Duff, Esq., son of the Rev. Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. Dr. Duff was a man distinguished alike by his fine genius, his glowing eloquence, and his Christian zeal — a man whose name, familiar as a household word in many parts of India at the present day, stands in the front rank of those great missionaries who have been incalculable blessings to India during recent generations. When Dr. Duff died on the twelfth of February, 1878, leaving his son, his heir, Mr. Duff immediately proceeded to make arrangements for the establishment and endowment of a quadrennial course of lectures on some subject " within the range of foreign missions, and cognate subjects," as a suitable memorial of the venerable missionary. He was prompted to this at once by filial piety and by the fact that, during his later years, his father had repeatedly expressed a wish that, as a means of perpetuating his influence, a considerable portion of the bequest which he would leave behind him, should be consecrated to this end.

Trustees were appointed to arrange and administer the trust, and these, being selected from the various evangelical denominations, fitly represented viii INTRODUCTION.

Dr. Duff's catholicity of spirit. In the same spirit, it was provided that the lecturer should be a minister, professor, or godly layman of any evangelical church, and that he should hold the lectureship for four years. The course must consist of not fewer than six lectures on his chosen subject, and these must be delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow during the second year of his tenure of the lectureship, on consecutive Sabbath evenings in the months of January and February, and re-delivered at such other times and places as the Trustees might direct. A further condition, binding on the lecturer, was that he should print and publish, at his own expense and hazard, at least one hundred copies of his lectures, which he should distribute free of cost among the Trustees and libraries of evangelical churches and missionary societies at home and abroad, it being understood that then he should be at liberty to publish as many further copies as he might see fit, and the profits of which should belong to himself. In 1880, the arrangements had been completed, and, between that year and the present, four courses of lectures have been delivered, showing an interesting and edifying variety in the particular branch of the great subject treated by the lecturers, but each and all making a valuable contribution to the literature of Christian Missions.

I

The Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D., professor of Evangelistic Theology in the Free Church of Scotland, was chosen to deliver the first course of lee-

INTRODUCTION. ix

tures in the Duff Missionary Lectureship. Being amply satisfied with his qualifications in other respects, it was felt by the Trustees, as well as by Dr. Duff's own family, that there would be a seemly gracefulness in Dr. Smith's being appointed to lead the van of lecturers, arising from the fact that he had been associated with Dr. Duff in mission work, first in Bengal and afterwards in Edinburgh, for the long period of forty years, during all which time the friendship of the two men had been most intimate and uninterrupted ; while, to quote Dr. Smith's own words, ' ' he shared with the universal Church the sentiment of admiration of his gifts and veneration of his graces. "

Dr. Smith's lectures were delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the spring of 1880, and were seven in number. His selected theme was Mediaeval Missions, and the lectures were mainly historical and biographical. But when we consider that the mediaeval ages extended over a period of a thousand years, namely, from the fifth Gentury to the Reformation, and that the geographical range of the word included all Europe and even large portions of Asia and Africa, besides ; it will be seen that the history of Christian missions, during so many ages and over so vast a space, could only be touched by the lecturer at certain points, and many of them not referred to at all. Nevertheless, Dr. Smith has done much within his narrow limits to increase our knowledge of those periods in which attempts were made to Christianize nations in the mass and at the point of the sword, and when the change effected was, of course, little more than nominal. In almost every page, we can discern x INTRODUCTION.

evidence that the lecturer knew a great deal more on the subjects treated by him than he was able to compress within the compass of seven lectures. He has done good and permanent service in separating the fabulous from the real, in disentangling knots that had perplexed earlier writers, in shedding additional information at times upon the struggles of light with darkness, and in giving us good reasons for believing that, even in the midst of much error that was mingled on some occasions in what was written, there was sufficient truth to lead anxious hearts to Christ. At times men rise before us in the narrative who were not missionaries merely, but reformers, influencing extensive regions and transmitting their light to succeeding generations; and who, like St. Patrick in Ireland and St. Columba in Scotland, with the sea-girt island of Iona as his centre of action, sending forth his evangelists over wide districts of Scotland to found Culdee settlements and " houses of Christ," did almost Apostolic work, and helped to prepare the way for the glorious Reformation that was to come.

II

The second of the Duff missionary lecturers was the Rev. William Fleming Stevenson, D.D., minister of Rathgar Presbyterian Church, Dublin, and convener of the Foreign Mission Committee of the Irish Presbyterian Church and Synod. He stood preeminent as a preacher among the ministers of his church, and his position as convener of its Foreign Mission Committee kept his mind in unbroken con-

IN TR OD UC TION. xi

tact with missions and missionaries. Everything was looked at by him from this sacred centre, and was coloured by it. Nor was this his only qualification; for before the period of his being engaged to be one of the Duff lecturers, he had visited nearly all the great mission fields in the world, especially those scattered over India, and had brought back with him gathered stores of knowledge from many lands, and a heart glowing with zeal and full of hope for the great future which seemed to brighten before him, for India and the world.

He chose as the title of his course, "The Dawn of the Modern Mission," his intention being to restrict his lectures to the ages which immediately followed the Reformation, when the Protestant Churches had not yet been fired by the missionary spirit, or become alive to the all-embracing authority of the great gospel commission which included in it every Christian disciple : ' ' Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." While individual men, such as Ziegenbalg and Zinzendorf and Schwartz, as if they had been born before their time, did noble work in their narrow spheres, and were as morning stars which foretold the rising of the sun, the Churches themselves were not yet awake. It is not unlikely that Dr. Stevenson hoped to have time and opportunity to record the later history of foreign missions, when the Churches should have awakened to their responsibility, and the dawn of the mission should have passed into the day. But this was not to be. Even his course of lectures on the Dawn of the Mission was never completed. In 1884, he delivered four lectures in the appointed xii IN TR OD UC TION.

places. And these, in so far as he had strength to give them a full revision, were worthy of himself, distinguished by vigorous thought, comprehensiveness of view, and literary beauty. His finely appreciative and living portraits of the great pioneers of missions whom we have named, and of many others, could scarcely have been surpassed in their rich colouring and felicitous touches by any writers of his day. But death came with its sad interdict, the effect of overwork, and "in the midtime of his days" he was summoned upward. His accomplished widow, who had been ' ' of one heart and soul " with him in all his cares and toils, superintended the publication of the four lectures which he had delivered, under the felicitous title which he himself had chosen. In its incomplete form, the little volume is like a broken pillar, but the pillar is composed of the finest marble and it is chiselled with a master's hand.

III

Sir Monier Monier Williams, the distinguished Oriental scholar, was the third lecturer appointed in connection with the Duff Missionary Lectureship. His chosen subject was Buddhism. And his first intention was to present in seven lectures a scholarly sketch of true Buddhism. But he very soon perceived that in order to do justice to this form of false religion, which was the faith of so large a portion of the human race, it was necessary that he should exhibit it in connection with Brahmanism and Hinduism, and even Jainism, and also in its contrast with

INTRODUCTION. xiii

Christianity. And as the subject expanded in his mind, he became more and more convinced that any endeavour to give an outline of the whole subject of Buddhism in seven lectures would be " like the effort of a foolish man trying to paint a panorama of London on a sheet of note-paper." The result of this conviction was that the seven lectures multiplied into eighteen, the greater number of these far exceeding in length the dimension of ordinary lectures which might be delivered in an hour. The literature of Buddhism has immensely gained by this expansion into a massive volume of 563 octavo pages; the parts which formed the lectures which were delivered in Edinburgh in 1888 having been absorbed into the volume.

In a modest and manly preface, the learned author claims for his elaborate treatise an individuality which separates it from those which have been written on the same vast subject by others, — an individuality which, as he says, may "commend it to thoughtful students of Buddhism as helping to clear a thorny road, and to introduce some order and coherence into the chaotic confusion of Buddhistic ideas." The unanimous favourable opinion of Oriental scholars, and the continuous and extensive sale of the book ever since its publication, far more than realized the hopes of the accomplished scholar; while its value and authority are greatly enhanced by the fact that, on three occasions, Sir Monier Monier Williams travelled through the "sacred land" of Buddhism, and carried on his investigations personally in the place of its origin, as well as in Ceylon and on the borders of Thibet.

INTRODUCTION.

IV

The fourth and most recent Duff Lecturer was the Rev.ArthurT. Pierson,D.D., of Philadelphia, U.S.A., whose name is pleasantly familiar to the Churches of Christ on both sides of the Atlantic. The title of his lectures, which form the contents of the present volume, is, ''The New Acts of the Apostles ; or, The Marvels of Modern Missions," and their design was to compare the Christian Church in the nineteenth century with the Church in the first century, especially in their missionary aspects, and to bring out the features of resemblance and of contrast between them. They were addressed in the early months of 1893, to crowded audiences, not only in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but in Aberdeen, Dundee and St. Andrew's, and some individual lectures were also delivered in other places, as in Arbroath. I had the pleasure of listening to some of them, and knowing as I did, that they had been composed by Dr. Pierson while he was occupying Mr. Spurgeon's place in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London — a task which of itself would have exhausted and even overstrained the energies of most men — I was astonished at their power, and freshness, and varied excellence. They were as new and fragrant as the flowers of spring. His vigour and originality of thought, his extraordinary knowledge of all subjects connected with Christian missions, his ingenuity and skill in the exposition of Scripture, and in extracting from familiar texts new and unexpected stores of instruction, his inexhaustible command of anecdotes which helped to enrich and enliven his addresses, his power

INTRODUCTION. xy

of making external nature pay tribute to spiritual instruction, as well as the glowing fervour of his appeals — made multitudes listen unwearied for hours in hushed silence. I trust that the powerful impressions and healthful impulses, produced by his lectures when spoken, will be equalled in their influence and blessing when they are read, and I am sure that my honoured and beloved friend will own himself to have received in such results his richest reward.

ANDREW THOMSON.

Edinburgh, March, 1894.

Author's Preface

In the winter of 1890, while wandering among the ruins of the picturesque abbey at Arbroath, Scotland, my eye rested upon an old and much worn headstone which had marked the grave of some member of that large family whose name I bear. Along the side of this slab could be distinctly traced the letters, Pierson, and the ancestral "coat of arms" graven upon the stone had not been quite obliterated by the unsparing hand of Time. In presence of such a memorial of my forefathers, I felt like a lad visiting the old homestead where his ancestors had dwelt, and ready, in a filial spirit, to render to dear old Scotland any service asked of me.

One might well hesitate to attempt to fill the appointment to the " Duff Missionary Lectureship;" to follow such men as the heroic missionary, Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D., the seraphic advocate of missions, Rev. William Fleming Stevenson, D.D., and the accomplished scholar, Sir Monier Monier Williams; but, like Franklin at the Court of Versailles, I may say, I come, ' ' not to succeed, but only to follow " those who have gone before me.

To Dr. Alexander Duff, America owes a debt which can never be paid; and the visit of one of her sons to Scotland upon this errand was but a slight acknowledgment of that obligation, a tribute of the gratitude of my fellow-countrymen for that new imxviii PREFACE.

pulse imparted to missions by that eloquent advocate, who, in the year 1854, visited our shores and set us all aflame with his holy enthusiasm.

By an undesigned coincidence, the opening lecture of this course fell, in Edinburgh, upon the exact anniversary of the death of Doctor Duff, February 12, 1893, fifteen years after the departure of that illustrious man, who was the Raimond Lull of our century.

One of the conditions of this trust is that each course of lectures shall, so far as practicable, be delivered in the various academic centres of Scotland. Hence, I undertook to give the full course in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, and three lectures in St. Andrew's also.

Another condition of the lectureship is that the lectures shall, after delivery, appear in printed form. This made preparation with the pen necessary and proper, on a scale more extensive than was available for oral delivery, within the usual limits. In the lectures as given there was a fragmentary and perhaps disconnected character, which, it is hoped, may be relieved by that fuller and final form in which they now appear.

For many years my habit has been to speak not only without manuscript, but without much penwork in preparation. It was perhaps well that the necessity of furnishing material for the press compelled the writing of these lectures; for the theme became so absorbing that, but for this check upon my utterance, the treatment of it, like some of our American railways, might have lacked " solid foundations," " close connections," and " terminal facili-

ties." Even in seeking finally to revise the manuscript for publication, Rousseau's remark seems forcibly verified, that "one half a man's life is too little to write a book — the other half too little to correct it when written."

To make this volume as far as possible complete, I have undertaken, at no little cost both of toil and money, to add to it a Map of the World, which may exhibit to the eye the prevailing religions of the world, with their comparative territory and area, and may also show the progress of the Protestant missions of the world toward permeating and penetrating the habitable globe. In this part of my work I owe especial thanks to my friend, Mr. William E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Illinois, whose careful research largely forms the basis of this valuable addition to my published lectures.

It would be ungrateful to close this introductory word without acknowledging the many unselfish and untiring efforts of various friends who, in the several places of delivery, so largely contributed to whatever measure of success crowned my humble efforts to demonstrate and to illustrate the essential correspondence between the features of this missionary century and the age of the Apostles.

Arthur T. Pierson.

2320 Spruce St., Philadelphia, May, 1894.

Part I. The New Links Of Mission History

SECTION PAGE

I. The New Chapters, .... 3

II. The New Pentecosts, . . „ 11

III. The New Times and Seasons, „ „ 19

IV. The New Open Doors, . . . - 28 V. The New Era, . . . . .38

Part II. The New Apostolic Succession

I. The Calling of the New Apostles, 51

II. The New Pioneers, .... 63

III. The New Apostolate of Woman, . 133

IV. The New Lessons, .... 141

Part III. The New Visions And Voices

I. The Leading Voice — The Voice of

the Master, 147

II. The Call to all Disciples, . . 152

III. The Vision of the Field, . . 171

IV. The New Lesson of the Power, . 189 V. The New Ministry of the Spirit, . 196

CONTENTS.

Part IV. The New Converts And Martyrs

SECTION

I. The Miracle of Conversion, II. New Converts and Martyrs, .

III. Transformed Communities, . '

IV. The New Witnesses and Workers, .

TAGB 209

Part V. New Signs And Wonders

I. The New Miracles, .... 293

II. New Opportunities and Preparations, 305

III. Providential Preservations, . . 309

IV. New Judgments of God, . . . 318 V. General Administration, . . . 322

VI. Miracles of Grace, .... 329

VII. Rapidity of Results, .... 340

VIII. Answers to Prayer. . . . 352

Part VI. The New Motives And Incentives

I. The Look Forward, II. The New Order of Things,

III. Medical Missions,

IV. The New Activity of Woman, V. New Lessons from Experience, .

VI. New Incentives to Giving, VII. The New Appeal of Man, .

VIII. Harmony with God's Purpose, IX. The Blessed Hope, X. The New Outlook, .

Part I. THE NEW LINKS OF MISSION HISTORY

THE NEW ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

Part I. — The New Links of Mission History.

THE NEW CHAPTERS.

God's coin has the mark of His mint, and bears His image and superscription. When His Son came to earth, though His divinity wore the disguise of our humanity, behind His robe of flesh there flashed upon His breast " the star of empire." And so, when the word of God came in the dress of human speech, it shone with the glory of God.

The manifold uses of the Holy Scripture grow clearer as we study the inspired book. It is the key that unlocks all perplexities. As Arthur Hallam said, it proves itself God's book, because it is man's book, fitting every turn and curve of the human heart. Bengel's motto was: " Apply thyself wholly to the scriptures, and apply the scriptures wholly to thyself." The Son of God Himself found in His Father's word, His sword in temptation, His stay in trial, His guide in teaching ; its prophecies were the seals of His messiahship, its precepts the rule of His obedience, its promises the balm for His suffering ; through life He had no grander theme, and in death no richer legacy. Modern critics often handle it with irreverent hands, but to Him it was sacred in every part; and Michel Angelo's romantic devotion to the famous torso of Hercules in the Vatican, seeking to feel through touch the thrill of delight no longer granted through his blind eyes, is but a faint image of the divine and holy rapture with which Jesus studied the inspired Scriptures.

World-wide missions present for solution a most perplexing practical problem. Where shall we come for guidance if not to these oracles of God ? Over these "pillars of Hercules " is forevermore written, nc plus ultra. Beyond this word there is nothing satisfactory, nothing needful. God has magnified His word above all His name, and here are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This principle we seek now to apply to one book of the New Testament, which will be found to be both a history and a philosophy of missions in one. That book is the Acts of the Apostles. Here, what is found in the gospels in precept, is found in practice ; gospel teaching as set forth by the Evangelists, applied actually and historically, by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Luke, who, in the gospel, tells us what Jesus " betran," in the Acts tells us what He " continued, both to do and teach," by the Spirit, through disciples, as to the kingdom of God. Here, as in the very order of the gospels, the door of faith is successively opened to Hebrew, Roman, and Greek believers. Pentecost links Old Testament prophecy with New Testament history. This is the book of witness : both man's witness to God, and God's witness to man ; the sequel of the gospels, the basis of the epistles; not so much the acts of the apostles, as the acts of the Holy Spirit and of the risen Redeemer in the person of the Paraclete.

Here the Spirit is seen, first applying the truth and the blood to penitent believers, then anointing believers for service, then sending them forth as heralds and witnesses to preach the kingdom, to make disciples, and to organize disciples into churches. What meaning is wrapt up in the fact that the period of time covered by this book is only about thirty-three years — the length of our Lord's human life, the average of one generation — as though plainly meant to teach us what may be and should be done in every successive generation, until the end of the world-asfe itself !

THE NEW CHAPTERS. 5

The Acts of the Apostles thus forms one great inspired book of missions: God's own commentary and cyclopedia for all ages, as to every question that touches the world's evangelization.

The opening verses of each gospel narrative show a fourfold completeness and comprehensiveness; and what Bernard calls "a progress of doctrine:"

MATTHEW:

" The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David," etc.

MARK:

" Thebeginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," etc.

LUKE:

.... "A declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us," etc.

JOHN:

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God," etc.

Thus Matthew links on messianic predictions of the Old Testament to the historic chain of New Testament events, tracing our Lord's human beginning as born of Mary but begotten of the Holy Spirit. Mark starts with His mature manhood, and shows the Divine messenger delivering his message. Luke sets forth an orderly statement of facts and truths held to be beyond dispute by primitive believers. John goes back beyond them all, to the eternity of the Divine Word.

So do the initial chapters of the Acts bear marks of design as the sequel not of Luke's former treatise only, but of all the four accounts which this book follows. It braids together into one their four strands of testimony. In the structure of the New Testament this is the entablature resting upon and uniting the four columns which support it and which it surmounts. Hence, to read this book aright, we must perceive its fourfold character or aspect. It is the book of the advent of the Holy Spirit, and of the generation of the Church of Christ, begotten of the Spirit in the womb of our humanity. It is the beginning of the gospel of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. It is the orderly setting forth of the great fact and truth of the Spirit's outpouring, as most surely believed among those who were eye-witnesses of His majestic advent. And it is the first clear revelation of the person of Him who as the Spirit of God was in the beginning with God and was God.

In a word, just what the fourfold gospel is to Christ, the Acts of the Apostles is to the Spirit — the inspired account of His advent, and of the birth of the Bride of Christ ; the beginning of the gospel of the Spirit's presence and power; the declaration in order of that supreme secret of all holy living and faithful service, His inward working; and finally, the unveiling of His eternal identity with, and procession from, the Godhead. Truly this book is the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Thus the advent of the Spirit, and His activity in and through the Church, are the keys which open the doors to all the chambers in this House of the Interpreter. From the first chapter to the last, the theme is the same : the coming of the Spirit, to apply the truth, arouse the conscience, soften the heart, subdue the will, anoint the tongue, and hallow the lip — to take the place of the absent Lord — nay, to make real to believers the promise of His perpetual presence, by becoming to every renewed soul all that Christ would have been had He remained on earth.

Upon one grand fact we lay great stress, and shall recur to it from time to time, that by blow upon blow repetition may deepen impression. This book of the Acts, which is to the Church the Principia embodying the great laws and principles for our guidance in the work of missions ; this book, which is the history of primitive missions, and like all history is " philosophy teaching by examples," illustrating the practical operation of these laws and principles during one whole generation — this book is manifestly and designedly incomplete, unfinished.

This unfinished character is shown both by its beginning and its close. That " former treatise of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up," implies this latter trea-

THE NEW CHAPTERS. 7

tise of all that He continued both to do and teach after that He was taken up. This introduction stamps this book as a continuance and sequel to a previous narrative, which is necessary to its full interpretation. Accordingly, we are prepared to see Christ in the Acts continuing His words and works through the Spirit. He who for forty days after His resurrection gave in His personal presence many infallible proofs of the reality of that resurrection, here gives equally infallible proofs of His perpetual presence in the work of the Holy Spirit.

How long will He continue thus to do and teach ? So long as He has a believing body of disciples who still go forth into all the world as witnesses bearing His message. The wondrous story opens with the enduement of power, and throughout exhibits its effect in qualifying witnesses for their work : nor is there any hint that this Power ever was, or will be, withdrawn. The narrative stops, but the history goes on. Wherever devout disciples claim in prayer and by faith their full share in that Pentecostal fulness, they may go forth endued with power from on High. Wherever, from that day to this, Christ's witnesses have gone forth in obedience to His word, the same essential marks as in the Apostolic age have attended their service and explained their success.

If now we turn to the conclusion of the Acts, we find a close so abrupt that it suggests yet again a continuance and sequel. The curtain of silence suddenly falls upon a scene of continued action. Paul, dwelling in his own hired house, is still seen receiving all who come unto him, preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only the act, but even the scene, is incomplete. Paul's life is not brought to a close, and his work at Rome is yet going on. Surely this is an unfinished picture ; the canvas awaits other touches and tints from the Divine Artist; new scenes in missionary history are to supply new material for suggestion. These last two verses furnish a formula for record for all true witnesses through all aftertime. Change but the name, and the number of the years, and each successive disciple may here find a brief epitome of his life and labour; for whoever, by fulfilling his mission, adds one more unpretending entry to this Apostolic record, belongs to the Apostolic succession. You may think of yourself as less than the least of all saints, yet if, in obedience to your Lord and dependence on His Spirit, you spread the good tidings, to you is this grace given to add and form one more link in that golden chain that reaches from the upper chamber of the Jewish capital to the bridal chamber of the New Jerusalem, and which unites in one glorious succession all in whom Jesus thus continues by the Spirit to speak and work.