Forward Ever, Backward Never
by C. T. Studd

"Seeing that some 40 years ago at God’s command I left mother, brethren, friends, fortune and all that is usually thought to make life worth living, and to have so continued ever since, have been called fool and fanatic again and again, yet lived to prove that the worldly counselors were the fools, I don’t think I should much enjoy ending up in being frightened out of doing my duty by hearkening to the comments of men. "Cursed is he that trusteth in man" does not make a very good pillow for a dying man, but there is much comfort in the other one, "Blessed is he that Trusteth in the Lord."

"And do you think that I can consent to turn a deaf ear to the cries of these people clamoring for the Gospel and craving for teachers? If I can’t send them teachers because there are no teachers to send, yet at least I can stop one yawning gap myself. If I am not so efficient as youngsters, yet at least I may be more efficient than an absentee, a nobody. And if others have failed to hear and respond to these awful pleadings of sinful men going to hell, yet desiring to know the way to heaven, at least my presence can assure them that there are still some who to save them will count life and all they hold dear as of no account in comparison.

"God knows all about my health and need of a rest and need of many things regarded as absolutely necessary in order to live in these regions. I  gladly laugh at being without them, and rejoice in a living death with a marvelous joy, in order to fill the place that others have left unoccupied whatever their reasons for doing so."