FOREWORD
In olden days kings and emperors sent their armies to conquer weaker nations. As soon as the victory was won, the flag of the vanquished was torn down, and the flag of the victor was raised.
Two thousand years ago a new king sent his army into the world. It was a small army with no guns and no battleships, and in it were only twelve men. They were commanded to go first to the lands nearest to them and then out "into all the world."
They were not to tear down any flags, but they were to raise the banner of their Leader above all other flags. There was on it a new device, a Cross, which signified that the king was a King of Love. His commands were such as no other conqueror had ever given:
Teach All Nations
Heal the Sick
Cleanse the Leper
Feed the Hungry
Clothe the Naked
Preach the Gospel
The enemies against whom His soldiers were to fight were not human beings, however wicked and depraved they might be, but ignorance and poverty and superstition and hunger, which made people wicked.
The army did not long number only twelve men; it soon grew to hundreds and thousands. Of the soldiers some were shipwrecked, some were stoned, some faced lions and tigers and poisonous serpents; but they all did the King's work. They preached the gospel, not only from pulpits, but in schools and hospitals and on the farm. They taught men how to make better homes, and to raise more food; they healed the sick and comforted the dying by telling them of Heaven. Under many flags they fought, but by their lives and their teachings they lifted the flag of their Leader above all.
It is of a few of these brave men and women that this book tells. The authors hope that the boys and girls who read it will enlist in this army.
K. S. C.
E. S.
March, 1921.