From: The Challenge of Missions, by Oswald J Smith.
Dr. Duff that great veteran missionary to India, returned to Scotland to die, and as he stood before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, he made his appeal, but there was no response. In the midst of his appeal he fainted and was carried off the platform. The doctor bent over him and examined his heart. Presently he opened his eyes.
“Where am I?” he cried. “Where am I?”
“Lie still”, said the doctor. “You have had a heart attack. Lie still”
“But”, exclaimed Dr. Duff, “I haven’t finished my appeal. Take me back. Take me back. I must finish my appeal.”
“Lie still”, said the doctor again. “You will go back at the peril of your life”.
But, in spite of the protests of the physician, the old warrior struggled to his feet, and, with the doctor on one side and the Moderator of the Assembly on the other, he again mounted the steps of the pulpit platform and as he did so the entire assembly rose to do him honour. Then when they were seated he continued his appeal and this is what he said.
“When Queen Victoria calls for volunteers for India, hundreds of young men respond, but, when King Jesus calls no one goes.”
He paused. There was silence. Again he spoke:
“Is it true”, he asked, “that the fathers and mothers of Scotland have no more sons to give for India?”
Again he paused. Still there was silence.
“Very well”, he concluded, “Then , aged though I am, I’ll go back to India. I can lie down on the banks of the Ganges and I can die and thereby I can let the people of India know that there was one man in Scotland who loved them enough to give his life for them.”
In a moment young men from all over the congregation strand to their feet crying, “I’ll go; I’ll go.” And after the old white haired warrior had been laid to rest these young men having graduated, found their way to dark benighted India, there to labour as his substitute for the Lord Jesus.
My friend will you go? Has God spoken to you? Have you heard His call? And if you cannot go, will you not send a substitute? It is for you to decide.
Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before he has heard it once?