as his word and the
Pilgrim Fathers were as good as theirs.

There is a growing conviction with many leaders in America that one of
the central features of our religious life should be this sense of
mission. In the history of the expanding Kingdom, God has evidently
given to America a commanding place of leadership and power. This is
nothing less than a divine appointment. To have such an appointment as
this in a time like ours, from our God, is to have a share in a task
like no other task the world has ever seen. To make men see that the
redeeming of America is strategy of a high order is to strike a high
note of summons to extend the sway of Christ to the remotest bounds of
our own continent. To hasten the time when this conviction shall
leaven the thinking of American Christianity and when this sense of
mission shall liberate the measureless spiritual and material energies
of America to bless the world should be the aim of every Christian
American.

What are some of the signs that America has been called to a place of
leadership in the Kingdom? Are there certain principles according to
which God selects men and nations for the fulfilment of his world
purposes? Do these principles and purposes emerge in God's dealing
with America? The answer to these questions has a deep missionary
significance.

Among the principles which God has evidently applied in choosing his
prophets through the ages, the following are unmistakably clear:

1. PROPHETS ARE STRATEGICALLY LOCATED.

2. PROPHETS ARE CHOSEN BECAUSE OF A CERTAIN FITNESS OF CHARACTER.

3. PROPHETS HAVE RESOURCES SUFFICIENT FOR THEIR TASK.

4. PROPHETS REMAIN SUCH ONLY SO LONG AS THEY HAVE VISION AND
CONSECRATION ADEQUATE TO THEIR TASK.

These principles apply to the outstanding prophetic figures of all
times. Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Malachi in the Old Testament, Paul
in the New, Luther and Wesley in modern times, all illustrate the
working of these laws.

The principles stated above apply to nations as well as to individual
men. Israel may be taken as an illustration. Palestine was the
crossroads of the world. Israel was centrally located so that she had
an unusual opportunity to influence the known world. Her leaders had a
message and a spiritual insight unique in their day. They were a
people chosen not for privilege but for service, and when in the
supreme test the nation failed to understand and accept its world-wide
mission, God was compelled to move