J. B. Phillips on Missionaries

In the book, “The Church Under the Cross” in 1956 on page xi, J.B. Phillips wrote,“I have never been a missionary myself, though that was long my heart’s desire, but I grasp with both hands the opportunity of paying tribute to this magnificent, unadvertised army. I know many missionaries personally, and at summer schools and elsewhere I have met many more. I believe there is no body of people who deserve our respect, our admiration and our support. It should not be a spiritual chore but a high privilege to support these front-line warriors with our prayers. I confess that I am often outraged by the world’s treatment of such committed, dedicated lives. Nothing is more easy than for a novelist or playwright to jeer at the “simple” missionary, or to build his own success upon the theme of a lonely missionary who “goes wrong.” I grow very weary of disparaging remarks about missionaries made by men who are not fit to black their boots. Now I would challenge all those who sit comfortably at home and disparage the work of the missionaries and jeer at “native Christians”. What have they ever done to win a single person from darkness to light?”