A sermon devoted to this subject may be preached occasionally, and the preacher may enrich sermons on other subjects by illustrations from the multiform conditions and incidents of missionary work, and thus accomplish two objects at the same time. But the second service, which should be devoted to instruction rather than persuasion, may frequently become a missionary meeting.
The prayers of the pastor may be made more effective for missions than his sermons. If he makes mention in his prayers of the servants of Christ who are toiling among the heathen, or the Freedmen, or the Western settlers, and prays, not with a tedious enumeration, but with fervor and definiteness, he will put missions on the hearts of the people. What has a place frequently in our prayers has a place in our sympathies. Yet how often the petitions of public worship are confined to the boundaries of the parish.
Something may be done by increasing the circulation of missionary magazines. Let the annual contribution make as many life members as possible, to whom these publications will be sent.
Thus there are various means to be used in the interest of missionary work. 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. Not all people can be aroused into interest for missionary work by any methods; whatever the zeal of the pastor, some indifference will remain. But if he has the missionary spirit, he will not be contented with an occasional preaching. He will determine the tone of worship and the direction of all endeavors by his enlarged view of God’s plan for the redemption of men. New suggestions, allusions, illustrations and prayers will swell the current of sympathy for missions, and increase contributions under any method of giving.
But, at all events, if the pastor thinks it wise to preach on the subject, or introduce a Secretary when collections are to be taken, there is no reason why he may not pursue the same course when pledges of money are made only once a year.