MISSIONARY WORK IN SWITZERLAND.
By John Nevins Andrews
It gives me pleasure to say that our missionary work still makes encouraging progress. We are reaching a great number of people by means of our French journal, and we are receiving very interesting letters in response to the papers that we have sent out. We are reaching the better class of society, and some of our most favorable responses are from persons of education, influence, and wealth. We are also receiving very favorable responses from some ministers of the gospel and religious teachers. Thus we have received within a few days a subscription from a minister residing in the extreme south of France, who has served for a considerable period as missionary in Asia Minor. The letter expresses great satisfaction with the copies of our journal which the family had received and read. We have also just received a subscription for our journal from a missionary in Japan, who saw our paper on the ship which carried him to that country, and who said that he was much pleased with it, and wished he could receive it weekly. We have received a letter from a doctor of theology residing in the south of France, and author of a history of the Waldenses, who writes to say that himself and wife have read Les Signes with care and attention, and are deeply impressed with the subjects on which it treats. He speaks in the highest terms of the excellence of our paper, and expresses his Christian sympathy for us in our work. A gentleman writes from Delémont, a village in the Canton of Berne, to subscribe for our journal because it is so directly opposed to the philosophical ideas that he has hitherto entertained. He says that he passes each number to a Catholic priest residing near him, and hopes the result will be that he will put off his gown and become an Adventist. From one place in France we have received six letters of much interest. One person pays for the paper; another who has taken an interest to distribute our papers says he will subscribe as soon as he can raise the money; and still another wants the paper, but is unable to pay for it because he can get but little work to do. We have a letter from a man in the city of Neuchâtel, whom we have never seen, who says that our journal is a thousand times more worthy of esteem than the popular religious journals that teach error. He promises to send us the money for our journal as soon as he can obtain it. During the past week we have received seventeen interesting missionary letters. Occasionally we receive a letter filled with insult. I have just learned the cause of one of these insulting letters, and it may be an explanation of the occasion of these insults in most other cases. The family of the man who wrote us the insulting letter had read our paper, and were convinced that it teaches the truth; so we are by no means discouraged at the occasional reception of letters filled with bitterness and reproach. We have found out how to circulate our paper, and how to gain the attention of those who use the French language. I cannot express the distress I have suffered heretofore because it has seemed impossible to gain the attention of the French people. The difficulties in the way of the living preacher have been such that it has seemed impossible to vanquish them except by sending out the paper in advance. But of what use was it to send out papers, when in most cases they would be immediately returned to the office of publication? And what encouragement had we to print the paper, when it was so difficult to circulate it? And why should we use money to sustain the expense of the publishing work, when comparatively few seemed accessible to our publications? It was plain to me from the commencement that we should never succeed without the aid of a paper; and yet our paper, though prepared with the utmost care, and filled with excellent matter, had to be, to a large extent, stored away in our own house. Sometimes it seemed to me that to save expense we had better suspend its publication; but on prayerful reflection I always felt satisfied that this would be wrong. At other times I thought perhaps we ought only to print enough to supply the present demand; but this also has always seemed to me false economy, and I have felt constrained to say, I will take the responsibility of continuing to print two thousand copies, and in the meantime I will make every effort to get them into circulation. After many trials followed by disappointments, we have found how to circulate our papers without having many of them returned upon our hands; and God has by his providence given us one special testimony that he approves what we are doing. He has put it into the hearts of many persons to send us money expressly to pay the postage, so that we have been amply sustained in bearing this extra heavy expense, and still have something in the treasury for that purpose. And now we see the hand of God in our affairs. We have a large number of copies of our paper, each one of which contains a good variety of valuable articles, which are of permanent interest because all of them are Biblical; and there are none of them that contain objectionable articles. We can easily obtain any number of addresses, and we have the means, through God’s blessing, to pay the postage; and quite a number of our friends in Switzerland will take turns in helping us write addresses. I have heretofore explained our manner of conducting this business. I am now well satisfied that we can gain access to the French public generally, and that our paper will everywhere open the way for the living preacher. I have the promise of money from Switzerland to pay for the next purchase of white paper for our journal, and I hope that no expense of this kind will ever again have to be met by money from America. I am making preparations for my immediate departure for England to join Bro. Loughborough; but I am too feeble to undertake such a journey unless God shall interfere in my behalf. I shall, however, finish my preparations for departure within a few days, and I hope that God will make it possible for me to go.