Religious mission

“ It also became plain that if the Church would fulfil its mission it must serve all the interests of the people. I was brought up with the idea that its mission was largely, if not exclusively, spiritual. Its chief and almost only concern was the soul of the individual man. It was thought that a man has a soul, and that that soul was in peril. ”

“ And all of the work should be done through the missionary society which alone can rightly coördinate and unify the whole work of the particular mission.
Faith Missions, so called, represent a genuine and a worthy spirit among many of God's people today. To them the somewhat lumbering business methods of the large missionary organizations savour too much of worldly prudence and seem subversive of the deepest Christian faith. They maintain that the old method is one that looks too much to men and too little to God for support. ”

“ The churches in America, which have aided in sustaining the mission by their offerings and their prayers, have seen fewer results, than have crowned their labors in other fields; their faith has been sorely tried; but they have been permitted to hear, from time to time, of souls ransomed from darkness and sin; echoes of the songs of triumph sung by departing saints have been borne to their ears, and they have felt that their labors have not been unrewarded. ”

“ Unite with a church that has a real active interest in the salvation of the lost, where young Christians are looked after and helped, where minister and people have a love for the poor and outcast, a church that regards its mission in this world to be the same as the mission of Christ, “to seek and to save the lost.” ”

“ There is no place on this earth where greater good can be done than here, preaching the gospel to this people and getting them to be Saints indeed. I would say to my young friends and to the middle-aged brethren, though I believe all who are going may be called young men, that if you go on a mission to preach the gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, looking for this and that, and to learn what is in the world, and not having your minds riveted—yes, I may say riveted—on the cross of Christ, you will go and return in vain. ”

“ This work of preaching Christ to those who know him not, must be carried on by missionaries and agents. It is usually the custom to expect that every mission agent shall devote some of his time in visiting neighbouring villages and in gathering the people together and in presenting to them, in all simplicity, the message of salvation. ”

“ The mission of the church is to participate in the reconciling dialogue between God and man. Here is the source of the true life of the world. Here, too, is the source of the life of the church and its worship. ”

“ We wish the brethren to understand the facts just as they are; that is, there is neither man or woman in this Church who is not on a mission. That mission will last as long as they live, and it is to do good, to promote righteousness, to teach the principles of truth, and to prevail upon themselves and everybody around them to live those principles that they may obtain eternal life. ”

“ What is needed is the flavor of missions in the life of the churches, the vision of Christ’s kingdom kept continually before the imagination and faith of the people, the proportions of the local, not magnified into excessive size, but brought into true harmony with the greatness of our Redeemer’s work for the race. ”

“ I can talk to the brethren to-day on the same principle—there is not a man in this Church but what is capable of doing good if he has a mind to do so. Here are Elders who say, "I want a mission; I want to go and preach ”

“ The supreme question of missions is how to multiply the number of Christians who, with truthful lives and with clear unshaken faith in the character and ability of God, will, individually or collectively, or coöperatively as a church, wield the force of intercessory prayer for the conversion and transformation of men, for the inauguration and energizing of spiritual movements, and for the breaking down of all that exalts itself against Christ and his purposes. ”

“ Such lives in the churches of mission lands are the weightiest arguments for Christianity. But conversion to Christ goes, in its influence, farther than the individual. It has a far-reaching social influence. ”

“ Human nature has never felt influences more deeply religious than those set at work by missions, recalling the effects of the preaching of the Apostles themselves. Remorse of conscience, loathing for sin, terror at the divine wrath, confidence in God, sympathy for our crucified Saviour, the ecstatic joy of the new-found divine friendship, utter contempt for the maxims of the world, iron determination to love God to the end—these are the sentiments which, by the preaching of missions, are made to dominate entire parishes in a degree simply marvellous. ”

“ If only you would consider the savior influence you have over your children, and the mission God himself has given you, Creator of all things, how much would you struggle to infuse in those tender souls the principles of christian faith, that afterwards the Church, through his ministers, will explain and complete, to make them worthy children of the heavenly Father! ”

“ The principal requisite is greater faith in its Divine mission. If the Bishops and clergy had a stronger conviction that what they are divinely commissioned to undertake they will be divinely assisted to fulfil, this question need not be suggested. ”

“ Our missionary societies are aiming at this great object, but far greater efforts are necessary. We have the word of God, and Christian Sabbaths, and Christian ministers, and religious ordinances, in abundance, to direct and comfort us ”

“ Nothing need be plainer. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to impart unto or bestow upon each member of God's church such qualifications as will make him a useful and effectual organ in this holy structure. ”

“ But we do not only pray that the kingdom of God would come to us and remain with us, we also pray that it may come to all men who as yet are not members of this kingdom. We pray that all men may become true believers in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. This work, preaching the Gospel to all nations, we call mission-work. The Second Petition is the great mission-prayer of the Church. The Lord admonishes us: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest." ”

“ THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. Our mission has been to save men. We have been laboring all these eighty-odd years of the Church to bring men to a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring them to repentance, to obedience {88} to the requirements of God's law. We have been striving to save men from error, to persuade them to turn away from evil and to learn to do good. ”

“ I confess to the Latter-day Saints and to the world that I want power to prevail on all the inhabitants of the earth to embrace the gospel of the Son of God that they may be saved in the Kingdom of Heaven. I want influence in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, sufficient to get all men and women to sanctify themselves before the Lord and to sanctify the Lord God in their hearts, and that they may be of one heart and one mind in all things, that they may be the disciples of the Lord Jesus. ”

“ It is the peculiar mission of the Church to be the channel of grace to each soul by her spiritual and pastoral action—she alone has this mission; but it is not her only work. She has also to govern and educate, so far as government and education are needful subsidiaries to her great work of the salvation of souls. ”

“ If we needed other evidence that this line of work is the true one, we have it in the historical examples of other successful missionary work since the time of the Apostles. We only need to examine those great religious movements in history which not only lifted the Church, but started the human race forward on higher courses of thought and life, to satisfy ourselves that the Gospel was the quickening power, and furnished the motive and impulse to the astonishing results which followed. ”

“ Therefore our attention turns towards the Church, her nature, her establishment, and her extension in this world through missionary activity; further, toward her inner growth, by which she gives expression to her religious and harmonious life as a communion in solemn divine worship, and through her sacred acts and order consecrates human life unto a vessel for divine life. ”

“ The brooding Spirit of God is especially near the Christian worker in foreign lands, and imparts to him much joy and peace.
Another of the missionary's joys is to see the gospel gradually taking hold of the hearts of the people and renewing and transforming them. It {232} is passing pleasant to tell the gospel story, so full of hope and joy, to these people whose religious ideas and aspirations are only dark and gloomy. ”

“ In the increase of mission interest, in the tidings of revivals in places where all were dead or cold, in the hosts of our young [p181] gathered into Students’ and other Associations or Christian Endeavour Societies, in doors everywhere opened in the Christian and the heathen world, in victories already secured in the fields white unto the harvest, wherever believing, hopeful workers enter, they find the assurance of a time of power and blessing such as we have not known. The Church is about to enter on a new era of increasing spirituality and larger extension. ”

“ It means the giving to others the opportunity to hear of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and allowing others to have a chance to [Pg 130] receive, and accept the blessings of the Gospel, as we have it in Christianised lands. It means that those who enjoy the benefits of the Gospel give these same religious advantages and Gospel privileges to all of mankind. Prayer has a great deal to do with missions. Prayer is the hand-maid of missions. The success of all real missionary effort is dependent on prayer. The life and spirit of missions are the life and spirit of prayer. ”

“ Our aim is to lead a strict religious life in community, starting with the voluntary principle; leaving the question of vows to further experience, counsel, and indications of Divine Providence. Our principal work is the missions, such as we have hitherto given, but we are not excluded from other apostolic labors as the wants of the Church may demand or develop. ”

“ I only ask God, my Father, in the name of Jesus, to help me to live my religion, and to give me ability to save my fellow-beings from the corruptions of the world, to fill them with the peace of God, and to prepare them for a better kingdom than this. ”

“ Converts are multiplying; the fruits of the gospel abound. Both missions need reinforcement. Men filled with the spirit of Christ, able to endure hardness, of practical wisdom, [Pg 22] which knows how to do good, and not to do only harm when good is meant, men of faith, energy, meekness and prayer, who will commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God as his servants, are required. It gave me pleasure to assure the missions of the strong desire of the Prudential Committee, and of my future personal endeavors, to obtain such men for them. ”

“ To exalt the spiritual character of Faith above the verbal and metaphysical,—to unite mankind through their common love and acceptance of Christ’s goodness and of Christ’s God,—to make his Church one by their participation of one spirit, even the spirit of the life of Jesus,—has been our highest aim, not only on this particular occasion, but throughout all our Ministry. ”

“ Being thus freed from the condemning power of original sin, and regenerated by baptism, men were expected to work their way to heaven by observing the laws of God and the rites of the church. These rites were fasting, masses, saying of prayers, pilgrimages, and the like, and in practice crowded the moral law out of mind. ”

“ Here is the Mission of the Saints to go and aid in the gathering of the poor, to labour here for the building of the Temple wherein we can officiate for the dead and prepare to redeem Zion and to build up the waste places thereof, and to establish the principles of righteousness and truth upon the earth. Let our enemies learn their true position ”

“ I wish also to urge the necessity of your proceeding on your missions immediately, and of going to the place of your destination full of the Holy Ghost, preaching righteousness to the people; and while you do this, live up to the principles you preach, that you may teach also by your example, as well as by precept. Go, ye Elders, and now consider yourselves from this time forth missionaries. If the Gospel is in you like a flaming fire, to be poured upon the people, gather your neighbors together, and give your brethren an invitation to your house, and set before them the duties of man ”

“ May my days be spent with renewed ardour and watchfulness in my Christian profession; never yielding to supineness and discouragements in my Ministerial labours, and toils in the wilderness. Of all men, the Missionary most needs strong faith, with a simple reliance upon the providence and promises of God in the trials that await him. ”

“ And last, but not least, the full and faithful preaching of the gospel, for which our missionary brethren have ever been distinguished, and the employment of Christian education, have made a marked impression upon heathenism; have broken its prestige, have silenced its objections, and have prepared the way for future victories, more triumphant in their grandeur than anything the Society has yet seen. ”