Self-discipline

D. E. Hoste was one of the Cambridge Seven who left England as a young man to win souls to Christ in inland China.  Later, Hudson Taylor appointed him to the position of Acting General Director of the China Inland Mission, thus becoming his successor.

The following wise words are an extract from one of his letters that is included in the biography by Phyllis Thompson, D. E. Hoste:  "A Prince With God.".

"When young people first come out [to the mission field], how this one or that one makes an impression by ability, zeal or personality.  It is easy to imagine such and such a one is going to make a great success.  But it is wiser to wait and see.  Often the unnoticed and less gifted ones by sheer diligence and devotion become the successes.

"'Ephraim is as an heifer that loveth to tread out the corn' (Hos. x. 11).  Most of us are familiar with the picture of an ox or heifer standing between an altar and a plough with the words, 'Ready for either,' underneath.  This is just what Ephraim, as described by the prophet Hosea, was not.  He loved an easy life and a soft piece of work in preference to service that involved real sacrifice and toil.

"This was the more sad because Ephraim originally was designed for pre-eminence amongst the Tribes, which pre-eminence, rightly understood, involved special burdens and even sufferings on behalf of others.

"In the previous history of the Tribe there are indications that the claims of this special vocation had in large measure met with an adequate response; so much so that, as time went on, Ephraim became the metropolitan tribe of the ten, its name frequently including the other nine.

"Declension had not come about all at once.  It was due rather to gradual lowering of ideals and of standards, and the giving way to self-indulgence and self-interest in seemingly slight and unimportant things.

"That the warning conveyed by these words has a special application to the missionary, will hardly be denied.  His vocation, more than any, calls for special self-sacrifice, and the laying aside of personal and family interests.  It demands a supreme measure of devotion, diligence and concentration of purpose.

"The missionary's personal habits and the way in which he spends his time are in unusual degree observed by those around him; any inconsistency between his message and his life being noted.

"It will not avail much, for example, to preach to the Chinese of access to God through the blood of Jesus, if they find that there is not access to the missionary himself and his home.

"That close contact with people of a different civilization often involves trial is true.  There is danger lest we should draw back from that contact, thus failing to pay the full price of a truly Christ-like relationship with those around.

"May we have grace in all these things, like the Apostle of old, to suffer all things lest we hinder the Gospel, thus approving ourselves as His servants."