The American Missionary | Page 3

white teachers from the North. But now activities will be resumed,
and we contemplate the work with joy and hope.
These workers, and others like them, are the hope of the South. They
go not arrayed and armed for bloody battle-fields; they go not as
commercial travelers to sell the wares of the North; they go not as
capitalists to start the whirling spindles or to kindle the fires in the
smelting furnaces; they go not as politicians to speak for or against
tariffs, nor to build up or break down parties. Their work is quieter and
deeper than all this. They reach the mind and heart. As Christ aimed
not so much at once to tear down or build up the outer, but to reach the
inner springs of the soul, so these workers aim to make character,
intelligent, pure, active, and thus to impel to all that is noble and honest
in life, that stimulates to industry, economy, thrift--to making the home
pure and all outer things prosperous and right. But, as Christ was
misunderstood and rejected, so are these laborers ostracized. We rejoice
to find a growing recognition of their worth and work, and trust that the
day is coming when they will be fully appreciated and welcomed. In

the meantime they toil on uncomplainingly, and for their sakes and for
the work's sake we invoke, not perfunctorily but earnestly, the prayers
of God's ministers and people in their behalf.
* * * * *
On another page will be found a review of two books by the
well-known author, Edmund Kirke (J.R. Gilmore), who has made a
special study of the white people of the Mountain regions of the South.
Mr. Kirke has at our invitation prepared a paper to be read at our
Annual Meeting, in connection with the Report on our Mountain Work.
We have been permitted to read it. It is replete with racy incidents and
delineations of quaint yet noble characters. If the tears and smiles
which the reading of the paper drew from us are any test, then we can
promise a treat to those who may hear it at the meeting in Providence.
* * * * *
QUALIFICATIONS OF CANDIDATES FOR MISSION WORK.
Many of our missionaries who are engaged in their devoted and
self-denying labors in the South, have been compelled by the nature of
our work to take their summer vacations. The educational work of the
American Missionary Association is through and through a missionary
work. It is begun with a missionary purpose and is carried on in the
name of Christ to disciple the people, that they may know Him who is
the Way, the Truth and the Life. All of our teachers are sent to be
missionaries. Many are returning now to their fields of service with
which they are well acquainted, and some are going for the first time.
Among these, questions are raised as to the requirements needed in
those who are to go. We have thought that a few suggestions given to
the candidates for the China Inland Mission by Hudson Taylor, might
be properly repeated here for those who are to take upon themselves
these responsible Christian duties. He says:
First of all, it is absolutely essential that those desiring to be
missionaries should have a deep love for Christ, a full grasp of His plan
of salvation, and be wholly consecrated, in their inward lives, to Him.

Mission work is not preaching grand sermons, or witnessing
marvellous baptisms; it is a patient Christ-like life, day by day, far from
external help, far from those we love; a quiet sowing of tiny seeds,
which may take long years to show above the ground, combined with a
steady bearing of loneliness, discomfort and petty persecution. The
work demands of every worker very real and manifest self-sacrifice and
acts of faith. It aims at, and ought to be satisfied with, nothing less than
the conversion of the people to God. Not witness-bearing merely, but
fruit-bearing is the end in view. Anything short of the salvation of souls
is failure.
It is generally found that when people are of no use at home, they are of
no use in the mission field. The bright, brave, earnest spirit, ready to
face difficulties at home, is the right spirit for the work abroad. A
patient, persevering, plodding spirit, attempting great things for God,
and expecting great things from God, is absolutely essential to success
in missionary efforts. Those will not make the best missionaries who
are easily daunted by the first difficulty or opposition, but those whose
strength is equal to waiting upon God, and who fight through all
obstacles by prayer and faith. The spasmodic worker, frantic in zeal one
month, and at freezing-point another, will be