Standing Alone
Jonathon Goforth was the first Presbyterian missionary to China. He was not only a good friend of Hudson Taylor but shares with him the honour of being God’s most effective instrument in opening up that great nation in the latter part of the 19th century.
Jonathon grew up in Canada at a time when the church was happy to leave those who didn’t know Christ alone. When asked to speak at a large church in the area, his missionary zeal well and truly got the better of him. The congregation was about to sing a rousing hymn about going off to foreign lands with the gospel when Jonathon jumped to his feet with hands raised to stop the singing. He bounded to the pulpit and boomed “No! No! A congregation like this doesn’t have the right to sing that hymn.” He waved the blue book with the church’s financial records high in the air. “You are a large and prosperous church yet you only give 78 cents per person each year to foreign missions. This isn’t a hymn you’ve earned the right to sing.”
Jonathon followed this with a rousing message on the feeding of the five thousand but re-interpreted as the feeding of the first ten in the crowd. In his version these first few were given bread and fish over and over, instead of the food being equally shared amongst all. He drove home the point that this was what the church was doing with the gospel. “Aren’t we doing the same thing when we put most of our time and money into giving the Bread of Life to those who have heard it so often while millions of people in China are starving for the gospel message?” No wonder the congregation sat stunned.
Taking the gospel where it’s never been received is the duty of every believer.
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