Every saved soul is called to be a herald and a witness; and we are to aim at nothing less than this: to make every nation, and every creature in every nation, acquainted with the Gospel tidings. This is the first and ever-present duty of the Church: it is the heart of the whole missionary plan. God will give us souls as our hire and crown; large results in conversion of individuals and the transformation of whole communities will follow, as they always have followed, a godly testimony. But we are not to wait for results: we are to regard our duty as never done, while any region beyond is without the Gospel. Let all men have a hearing of the Gospel at least; then, when evangelization is world-wide, we may bend our energies to deepening the impression which a first hearing of the Gospel has made. But, again, let it peal out, as with a voice of thunder, to be heard wherever there are believers! The first need of the world is to hear the Gospel, and the first duty of the Church is to go everywhere and tell every human being of Christ, the world’s Saviour. To stop, or linger anywhere, even to repeat the rejected message, so long as there are souls beyond that have never heard it, is at least unjust to those who are still in absolute darkness. Instead of creating a few centres of intense light, God would have us scatter the lamps until all darkness is at least relieved, if not removed. And if to any reader it appears that this is emphasizing a distinction that is of little consequence, let such an one stop a moment and consider what would be the result if our Lord’s plan were followed.

There are, we will say, about forty million members of Protestant churches, and at least eight hundred millions yet in entire ignorance of the Gospel. Let us suppose that the whole Church, under some mighty baptism of fire, should undertake to bear the Gospel message to every living soul, at once. If every Protestant believer could so be brought into active participation in this work as to be the means of reaching twenty of these souls, now without the Gospel, the work would be done. All cannot go, but all can send. Let us suppose again that Protestant churches should send out one missionary teacher for every four hundred communicants; we should have a missionary force of one hundred thousand; and, by distributing this force in the entire field, each teacher would have to reach but eight thousand souls, in order to evangelize the world. Allowing twenty years for that work, each laborer would have to reach but four hundred of the unevangelized each year!

We must push this work—let men call us fools, fanatics, madmen—we can afford to bear it for the sake of doing the will of God. When Judson had buried himself in Burma, and ten years’ work could show but eighteen converts, he was asked: “What of the prospect?” His heroic answer was: “Bright as the promises of God!”

 Arthur T. Pierson, The Divine Enterprise of Missions (New York: Baker & Taylor Co., 1891), 99–101.