"This money method of making disciples and preachers seemed to me the very opposite of the course employed by Christ and His apostles. I saw clearly then, as now, that it must lead to utter corruption; and I said to myself, A true living Baptist church can never be built on mission money. From that moment my conscience rose to action and I resolved never to use or to sanction the use of mission funds in paying native converts to preach or to do any other kind of religious work. To me a hireling ministry implied a corrupt membership."
— Tarleton Perry Crawford
Source: Evolution in My Mission Views; or, Growth of Gospel Mission Principles in My Own Mind (1903)
preaching, employment, life, benefit, mission, support
Views: 393
"Conscience is the essence of the matter — responsible first to God, to truth, to duty, rather than to government, to human authority in a religious body, or to opinion. Respect for conscience runs through all effort to secure religious liberty."
— Miner Searle Bates
Source: Religious Liberty: An Inquiry (1945), "Summary Observations on the Meaning of Religious Liberty," p. 373
Worldly, commandments, law, obedience
Views: 366
"I am One's slave. Thou hast no power over me whatever. ... I came here to save many, and I am to depart from my body by thy hands."
— Thomas
Source: The Acts of Thomas, "Consummation of Thomas the Apostle" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8)
Body, soul, connection, life
Views: 361
"Wesley A. Milne (1923–2016), a Canadian missionary of the China Inland Mission, arrived in Shanghai in 1948 and moved to Taiwan in 1954, serving among Chinese people for more than half a century. He cared for soldiers, students, young workers and troubled teenagers, and took many boys who were away from home or in trouble into his own house, which came to be known as "the Milne home." He never married. Over fifty-three years of missionary service he wrote 134 prayer letters, nearly every one of them about the boys he served. Fellow missionaries summed up his example in a single phrase: "Life is ministry.""
— Liu Ruqing, author of Uncle Milne's Story
Source: Liu Ruqing, "Behind the Writing" (Campus Books, on Uncle Milne's Story, 2010); Chinese Wikipedia, "Wesley A. Milne"
Abundant, work, responsible
Views: 354
"I was 32 years connected with the Mission, from its foundation until the year 1882. Since that time I have been in London looking after the Chinamen who come here, so that I have been connected with the Chinese every month of every year since 1850."
— George Piercy
Source: Evidence before the Royal Commission on Opium, London, September 9, 1893, reprinted in A Veteran Missionary's Evidence (1896)
Bridge, Christ, Returning Home, Letters, Gospel
Views: 330
"When Emperor Taizong began his glorious reign, ruling the people with enlightened wisdom, there was in the land of Da Qin a man of eminent virtue named Alopen. Guided by the azure clouds he bore the true scriptures, and watching the winds he braved hardship and danger. In the ninth year of Zhenguan (635) he arrived at Chang'an. The emperor sent his minister Duke Fang Xuanling with an honor guard to the western suburbs to receive him as a guest and bring him into the palace. The scriptures were translated in the imperial library, and the emperor inquired into the Way in his private apartments; deeply understanding its rightness and truth, he gave special orders for it to be taught and spread."
— Jingjing (Adam), priest of the Da Qin monastery
Source: Inscription of the Nestorian Stele (Stele of the Propagation of the Luminous Religion of Da Qin in China), AD 781
Respect, capable
Views: 399