No mission has yet been an entire failure. We who see such small
segments of the mighty cycles of God's providence often imagine some to
be failures which God does not. Eden was such a failure, The Old World
was a failure under Noah's preaching. Elijah thought it was all up with
Israel. Isaiah said: "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed?" And Jeremiah wished his head were waters, his
eyes a fountain of tears, to weep over one of God's plans for diffusing
his knowledge among the heathen. If we could see a larger arc of the
great providential cycle, we might sometimes rejoice when we weep; but
God giveth not account of any of his matters. We must just trust to his
wisdom. Let us do our duty. He will work out a glorious consummation.
Fifty years ago missions could not lift up their heads. But missions now
are admitted by all to be one of the great facts of the age, and the
sneers about "Exeter Hall" are seen by every one to embody a _risus
sardonicus_. The present posture of affairs is, that benevolence is
popular.
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