A militant Church undertakes to take possession of the earth promised to her as her joint inheritance with her Lord and Head. At every step her advance has met with deadly opposition. But the Invisible Captain of the Lord’s host is on the battle-field, and his orders are explicit. We are to surround every stronghold, we are to bear the sacred treasure, our testimony for God, in the very van, and blow the trumpet of the Gospel herald. We are not to meet violence with violence, or hate with hate; we are to use no carnal weapons, rely on no worldly alliances of power or patronage, wisdom or wealth. It is not by power nor might; the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This is the way to fulfil our obedience, and so revenge the disobedience of men. Let men deride our methods; as we scorn worldly policy and simply blow the Gospel trumpet, God is pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe—that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.



 Arthur T. Pierson, The Divine Enterprise of Missions (New York: Baker & Taylor Co., 1891), 206.