John Urquhart on Missions

One of my friends is named John Urquhart. At least, I hope he is my friend. I never met him. And he’s been dead for nearly 200 years. But one day, in glory, I hope to meet him, and I hope we can be friends, though I consider any friendship would be much more to my benefit than his. He was 18 years old when he died in Scotland on January 9, 1827. His confidence in the Lord was so complete that as he lay on his deathbed, he declared to his father, “My mind is quite calm now… My hope is fixed on the Rock of Ages. I know that nothing shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord” (The St. Andrew’s Seven, by Stuart Piggin and John Roxborogh, 91).

Urquhart was part of a group of six students and a professor at St. Andrews University who zealously pursued the promotion of missions among the student body. John Urquhart intended to enter the mission field in India, but poor health and illness resulted in his death before he left his homeland. A brief life, however, does not limit God’s ability to bear fruit through it.

Foreign missions in Urquhart’s day were looked upon with skepticism. Urquhart was an instrumental part of the formation of a mission society at his school, where he and the other five students fought diligently to argue for the urgency of missions and saw some success in a change of mind. While he saw enthusiasm for support of missions grow, he did not see a comparable growth in the willingness to serve in missions. He turned his attention to those who agreed on the importance of missions but lacked a willingness to consider if they might be summoned to go as a missionary. At a meeting of the missions society of St. Andrew’s seven months before his death, Urquhart gave an impassioned address later described by those who heard it: “Never probably, in any association, had such an address, on such a subject, been before delivered.” His address is longer and richer than can be contained here (you can find the whole of it in his Memoirs compiled by his real friend William Orme, available at GoogleBooks). But I offer to you a brief extract that I have condensed and mildly edited to update the language for clarity to our 21^st century ears. Read slowly and carefully and learn about missions from this 18-year-old friend of mine:

I am tired of arguing with opponents of the missionary cause. It is my intention this evening to address myself to those who profess to be its friends. I cannot imagine a mind which has carefully weighed the arguments for missions and soberly considered the facts of this important subject to still refuse to embark its energies and influences in the work of evangelizing

the nations of the earth. I turn from those who oppose missions and address myself to you who advocate this benevolent scheme and, more especially, to those of you who, by entering on a course of study preparatory to the duties of Christian ministry, have thereby professed to devote yourselves unreservedly to the service of God in the gospel of his Son.

And I do not address you, my friends, for the purpose of repeating those unmeaning compliments that are often presented to missionary societies. I believe it to be true that the members of missionary associations have absolutely done nothing, when we consider the high demands of a cause whose object is the spiritual and moral renovation of a world. Neither do I address you for the purpose of picturing in romantic colors the high devotedness of the missionary characters and the lofty achievements of the missionary life. Like most other poetic descriptions, it has excited the imagination but has failed to influence the conduct. It may have caused him who listened to indulge in some fairy dream of exile and martyrdom for the sake of his Savior; while it is quite possible that he remained unimpressed with the sober convictions of a duty his imagination had set forth in such glowing characters.

One cannot help wondering about the many who have pleaded so earnestly for the cause of missions and have spoken so eloquently concerning the high dignity of the missionary task that so few have been found who were willing to go forth to the combat. The advocates of missions have erred by regarding missions with somewhat of a sentimental admiration, and by describing it as a work above and beyond rather than a work of duty. We have become too accustomed to regard the missionary life as an undertaking of most extraordinary magnitude, and as reserved for a few of the more daring and devoted spirits in the race of living Christians; and thus we easily succeed in pushing from ourselves the duty of personal engagement. But we would do well to view the matter apart from this borrowed splendor, which by its glare, obscures rather than brightens the object of our contemplation. After all, the greater part of the work must be accomplished by ordinary men. And I am persuaded, if we take a candid and sober view of the case, we shall begin to suspect that the matter may come home in the shape of duty, even to ourselves.

The sacrifices a missionary makes are great, but they are small when we take into account those sublime truths which we believe as well as he. And it is the very deepest importance that we should bear in mind that those very sacrifices are represented in the Bible, not as the fruits of an over-reaching faith which may only come to a very few, but as the test of simple discipleship itself. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

If by these remarks I can impress the mind of any one of you with the duty of engaging in this great undertaking, let me warn such an individual of the delusion of putting such convictions away from him on the ground that this is a work far too high for him to engage in; or under the deceitful impression that his shrinking from such an enterprise is a sign merely that his faith is weak, and has not yet acquired sufficient strength to warrant his engaging in a work of such difficulty and self-denial. If the words of Christ are true, which I have just repeated, then to shrink from duty, even in the face of all the trials that present themselves in the contemplation of the missionary life, does not argue a weakness of faith merely, but a want of faith. The man who is not ready to part with the country and even life itself, at the bidding of his Savior, is not worthy of the name of a disciple.

Urquhart’s words are striking. I have no delusions that all Christians are called to be missionaries in foreign lands. But some are. And I am convinced with Urquhart that all disciples of Christ, whether missionaries or not, are to be willing to surrender all, country included, at the call of Christ. Our Lord expects nothing less.