p. 294 | SELF-SUSTAINING MISSIONS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, May 12, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 19

SELF-SUSTAINING MISSIONS.

The wisdom of making missions self-sustaining from the earliest possible moment, according to the policy which our workers have tried to maintain, is coming to be widely recognized. The Globe Democrat is quoted as saying:—

“The mistake [the too free use of money] is at the bottom of much of the backsliding which, to the grief of the missionaries, so often follows quickly upon their absence. The system is in fact largely one of coddling, both of converts and of missionaries. . . . The missionaries have come to believe themselves the special wards of the church, and the converts are catching the same spirit. They will retain it, as long as the system of petting continues, and until missionaries and converts are taught self-reliance.”

To this the Missionary Review responds:—

“There is much of truth here; but our neighbor needs to know more in detail that very many missionaries go from Christendom to this work among the heathen wholly at their own charges, supporting themselves and their work; and some native workers are doing the same. Unsalaried missionaries may now be reckoned by the hundreds.”