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CHICAGO MISSION

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, December 23, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 51

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CHICAGO MISSION.

By James White

It was my privilege to spend a few days at the Chicago mission, and I feel that it is my duty to lay before the people some of the impressions I received while looking over the condition of the mission, and considering the interests of the cause in that city.
By the action of the General Conference this mission has been transferred to the Illinois Conference. This, I believe, is right, and it may be the means of greatly advancing the work there. But whether it shall prove actually to be the means of advancing that work depends upon the officers and members of that Conference.
The importance of the Chicago mission is not appreciated. The time was when we shunned the large cities, and confined our work to the country and to villages. That course was proper at that stage of our work; but times and circumstances are changed. Our cause has so advanced that it is attracting the attention of leading minds all over the world. This should not lift us up; we should not be incited by this thought to be self-complacent; to the contrary, we should be more humble, more careful, more dependent upon God, as our work is more closely scrutinized. But our missionary work is fast making the world acquainted with us, and the time has come to extend this work, to acquaint the world with the truths of the third angel's message as fast as possible. And there is no better means to spread the truth quickly than to plant it in the great cities,—in the commercial and business centers.
Chicago contains about one-fifth of all the population of the great State of Illinois. It has nearly as many inhabitants as the State of Maine; about as many as Connecticut; as many as the Territories of Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Alaska, New Mexico, and the State of Nevada all together; more than the States of Delaware, Florida, and Oregon. In these figures it is not expected to be accurate, but it approximates the true numbers nearly enough to give an idea of the magnitude of the work there.
How shall this vast multitude of people be warned of the things which are coming on the earth? The Scandinavian population is quite large in that city, and there is a church there of that people. But at present they do not seem to be able to do a great amount of missionary work. Some changes in regard to their house of worship are necessary. When these are made it may be possible to do more for them than can be done at present. The mission for the English-speaking people is doing a good work, but it is laboring under great difficulties. The location is good, but the rooms are every way unsuited for the purpose. Among the worst features is this, that the stairway is very narrow, making the entrance obscure. The reading-room and depository are on the second floor, up a long flight of stairs too narrow to pass upon pleasantly; and the chapel, or reading-room, is on the third floor. Any one who is acquainted with Chicago, or any other city, can readily judge that people cannot be attracted to such a place; and to those who do come, the place does not properly represent our work.
Sr. White felt deeply over the future of this mission, deeply burdened over its circumstances. And I have felt it my duty to make some statements and suggestions in reference to it. Living so far from it, no one will suspect me of having any personal feeling in the matter. I only speak because of my knowledge of the wants of the cause, and because I realize to some extent the responsibility of those whose duty it is to cherish and maintain that mission.
1. Let us bear in mind the magnitude of the work, the greatness of the city, and that it is growing constantly and rapidly.
2. Chicago cannot be reached by preaching. By and by, when the tract and missionary work has made the people acquainted with our faith and work, preaching may and probably will reach these masses. Until then, it must be mostly a missionary work,—a work of visiting or colporting, by which means individuals may be drawn to the depository and the meetings.
3. Our mission there, as in other cities, is very different from what are generally known as “city missions.” There are missions in Chicago where the lowest classes, both drunkards and criminals, are gathered in, encouraged, helped, reformed, and converted. These are doing a good work. But such missions do comparatively little for any other class. While our missions will gladly help the lowest, their chief work is with the respectable, the intelligent, the moral. It is to scatter good matter among reading people; to interest and awaken the thoughtful among both the religious and irreligious.
4. The location of a mission for such a work as ours must be different from those selected for other city missions. They need to be on the crowded thoroughfares, where they can work to the best advantage in their way. But for ours a more quiet place is suitable, such as would be chosen for the location of a church; viz., in a thickly settled part of the city, near to important thoroughfares, but among residences, and not surrounded with shops and business houses.
5. Inasmuch as the city is growing very fast, property suitable for this mission ought to be secured immediately. And this can be done. By a train of circumstances which Providence seems to have laid for our benefit, a property in one of the best localities in the city can be procured at a very reasonable rate. But it must be secured soon, as the opportunity will not long remain. A friend who has had a real estate agency in Chicago for twenty years or more, who is acquainted with the city in every part, valued the property above what it will cost to secure it (if it is taken soon), and said there was not in all the city a place more suitable for such a mission as we wish to establish. In this opinion all coincide who have viewed it.
6. To secure this property and make it available for the present purposes of the mission, from $12,000 to $15,000 must be raised in a few months. And if this is not done, the mission must remain in quarters entirely unsuited for the work, or be removed to the suburbs, beyond the reach of the best classes, where it will be impossible to arrest the attention of the city.
7. It can be done. Whether it will be done rests with the friends of believers in the cause in Illinois. There are persons who profess the faith in Illinois who (several together) could furnish the sum named without bringing upon themselves and families any suffering, without depriving themselves of a single comfort in life. It might reduce their property some, but not beyond their ability to do without injuring themselves. And if they loved the cause as well as they love the world,— if they had as high regard for the suffering cause of present truth as they have for even their imaginary wants, this money would all be furnished in less than three months.
Everything indicates troublous times not far in the future. The days will soon be upon us when he who possesses will be as though he possessed not; when gold and silver and estates will be of no value; when that which supplies our present wants will be all that any can use; when traffic will not be permitted. Rev. 13:16, 17. In that day earthly possessions and riches will be spurned with loathing, having been the means of a terrible deception. In that day they who have been covetous of earthly goods and have laid up their treasures on earth, will be filled with grief and lamentations; for they will lose their all. If they who cling to their gains do not soon have their eyes opened to their dangers, they will find themselves bound in a snare from which they can never escape; they will perish with their treasures.
A word for Ohio. I have said that there are professed believers in Illinois who could easily place the Chicago mission on a substantial footing. I believe it without a doubt, judging from my knowledge of other fields. I can pick out individuals in a single church in Ohio who could establish in Cleveland a mission such as we are pleading for in Chicago, and they would be only the happier for it; individuals, too, who have never lifted, on whose hearts never yet rested a heavy burden for the cause of present truth. The cause will not always plead for their means. They are making a sad mistake.
Who will lift on the Chicago mission? It is to be hoped that the officers of the Illinois Conference will look to this matter without delay.
J. H. W.