Nov 14

"Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains a single grain, but if it dies away in the ground, the grain is freed to spring up in a plant bearing many grains"(John12:24)

Go to the old burying ground of Northampton, Mass., and look upon the early grave of David Brainerd, beside that of the fair Jerusha Edwards, whom he loved but did not live to wed.

What hopes, what expectations for Christ's cause went down to the grave with the wasted form of that young missionary of whose work nothing now remained but the dear memory, and a few score of swarthy Indian converts! But that majestic old Puritan saint, Jonathan Edwards, who had hoped to call him his son, gathered up the memorials of his life in a little book, and the little book took wings and flew beyond the sea, and alighted on the table of a Cambridge student, Henry Martyn.

Poor Martyn! Why should he throw himself away, with all his scholarship, his genius, his opportunities! What had he accomplished when he turned homeward from "India's coral strand," broken in health, and dragged himself northward as far as that dreary khan at Tocat by the Black Sea, where he crouched under the piled-up saddles, to cool his burning fever against the earth, and there died alone?

To what purpose was this waste? Out of that early grave of Brainerd, and the lonely grave of Martyn far away by the splashing of the Euxine Sea, has sprung the noble army of modern missionaries. ━Leonard Woolsey Bacon

Is there some desert, or some boundless sea,

Where Thou, great God of angles, wilt send me?

Some oak for me to rend,

Some sod for me to break,

Some handful of Thy corn to take

And scatter far afield,

Till it in turn shall yield

Its hundredfold

Of grains of gold

To feed the happy children of my God?

"Show me the desert, Father, or the sea;

Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me!

And though this body lies where ocean rolls,

Father, count me among all faithful souls."

十一月十四日

「一粒麦子不落在地里死了,仍旧是一粒,若是死了,就结出许多子粒来。」 （约十二:24）

到美国马塞诸塞州诺桑普顿城的古坟场，凭吊戴维．勃雷奈特的坟墓，这墓是在他所心爱的美丽的杰鲁霞．爱德华兹小姐坟墓旁边，他因死得早，生前没有与她结婚。

这位年轻的传教士对于基督事业的多少希望和多少期待，都随着他的遗体进入坟墓，关于他的工作，现在只留下亲切的回忆和几十个浅黑皮肤的印第安信徒。然而那位德高望重的清圣徒乔纳单．爱德华兹曾希望戴维成为他的女婿，他把戴维一生事迹收集在一本小册子里；而这本小册子竟插翅飞过海洋，落到剑桥大学一个学生亨利．马廷的桌上。

那位马廷就抛弃他的学业成绩、他的才华和他的机会到印度去传教。当他从印度的珊瑚海滨启程回家，中途患病，于是带病向北跋涉，远到黑海之滨那阴郁沉闷的托卡特可汗，在那里他蹲伏在园木堆下，贴着泥土来减轻高烧，终于孤独地死在那里。他成就了什么？

这种浪费达到什么目的呢？从勃雷奈特的古墓中，和远在黑海海滨的马廷坟墓中，已兴起了现代传教士的浩荡大军。━倍根

伟大的主,有没有甚么地方,

像沙漠,或是海角天涯,

你要孤遣我前往?

有没有障碍,要我打开?

有没有土地要我耕耘?

把你的种子,在田野里种栽,

直到它结出一百倍的黄金壳粒,

来喂饱你子民的饥怀。

天父指示我,沙漠或海在那里,

若是你的计划,请派遣我去。

即使我躯体在波浪的翻腾中,

你忠实信徒的队伍里,我也能参与。
关键字:荒漠甘泉
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