Earlier text: The Law of GodMission Needs for 1916
By W. T. Knox
THE work of providing for the needs of the mission fields for 1916 was one of the principal items considered at the fall council. The demands coming from our various missions for additional laborers and increased appropriations were found, by careful investigation, to be based upon the actual needs of the rapidly growing work of the message, in most cases verified by the personal investigation of some member of the General Conference Committee. So pressing were these requirements that it seemed impossible to the council to very greatly modify the budgets under consideration. The final action of the body is herewith submitted:— Asiatic Division:
General ......................$ 36,071.00
Signs of the Times Publishing House ............ 12,254.00
China Missions Training School ............ 2,610.00
East China Mission ........ 18,624.00
West China Mission ....... 7,946.00
Central China Mission ..... 45,135.00
North China Mission ....... 5,511.00
South China Mission ....... 49,712.00
India Union Mission ....... 87,867.00
Japan Mission ............. 22,671.00
Korean Mission ............ 19,481.00
Philippine Islands ........ 21,590.00
Malaysian Mission ......... 18,355.00
Manchuria ................. 13,384.00
Bahamas Mission ........... 395.00
Brazilian Union Conference ... 24,652.00
Hawaiian Islands .......... 3,250.00
Central American Conference ... 256.00
Cuban Mission ............. 6,704.00
Guatemala Mission ......... 2,660.00
Haitien Mission ........... 3,245.00
Mexican Mission ........... 8,000.00
Porto Rican Mission ....... 3,190.00
Salvador Mission .......... 1,100.00
Southern Honduras ......... 975.00
South African Union Conf. .. 54,140.00
South American Union Conf. . 37,678.00
South American Div. Conf. .. 3,244.00
West Indian Union Conf. .... 18,508.00
Special appropriations ..... 6,590.00
Sustentation Fund .......... 11,659.00
Missionary appointees’ salary ... 4,500.00
Harvest Ingath. promotion ... 25,000.00
Total ......................$576,957.00
Executive Department ...... 17,000.00
Educational Department .... 2,500.00
Missionary Volunteer Dept. ... 3,000.007
Medical Department ........$ 2,500.00
Publishing Department ..... 2,500.00
Home Missionary Dept. ..... 3,000.00
Sabbath School Department .. 4,000.00
General laborers .......... 6,000.00
Total ......................$ 40,500.00
Total appropriations ....... 617,457.00
Amount appropriated for 1915 504,464.14
Net increase in appropriations
for 1916 ...................$112,992.86 Consideration of this statement reveals that the year 1916 marks a new era in our foreign mission work. Never before have there been such heavy appropriations to our foreign fields. Never before has such a large percentage of our mission funds been definitely set apart for actual work in the foreign fields, and so little used in the administrative and departmental work. The increased appropriations are in part to provide for the transportation and support of approximately seventy-five to eighty new workers, whose services are immediately required. This will mean a corresponding number of families to be supplied from our home fields, and later, homes for them. In attempting to provide for this large appropriation, some slight modification has been made in our method of raising funds in North America. The basis, as in the past two years, will remain at an amount equivalent to fifteen cents a week per member for the foreign missions, and five cents a week for the relief of our institutions, but with the understanding that all over twenty cents a week is to be applied to the mission treasury, thus helping us to meet the increasing demands that are sure to come throughout the year. It is evident that this is the day of opportunity for the people of God. The reports coming from our workers in every mission station reveal that open doors are constantly multiplying, and that the peoples of every land are ready to hear and receive this gospel message. It behooves us therefore to avail ourselves of our opportunities, and with the very beginning of the year take up anew our responsibility of supplying from the blessings bestowed upon us the necessary means to meet these ever-increasing demands. Amoy and Swatow
By R. C. Porter
On account of a cable stating that I must come by first steamer in order to make connection at Hongkong for Borneo, I could stop only one day each at Amoy and Swatow. In Amoy the boys' training school is well under way, and will soon be ready for occupancy. It is constructed of solid stone masonry, and will be strong to resist the force of the typhoons that sweep the Chinese coast. The brethren hope to secure a piece of ground near by for a girls' school. The Amoy is a distinct dialect, and this makes necessary a school for the training of workers for that field. Schools for girls are as much needed as schools for boys, as most of the work for women must be done by trained women workers. In China men cannot work for women, as in America. The Amoy work, under the supervision of Elder W. C. Hankins, is making a good advance. The members are paying tithes and offerings for the extension of the work, and are beginning to manifest a missionary spirit toward their fellow men who still bow as worshipers at the shrines of Buddha. The Swatow field, under the management of Elder J. P. Anderson, assisted by Elder Ang, is making a strong and steady advance. I was informed that three hundred persons would convene for the general meeting, which I was obliged to miss in order to reach Borneo at the appointed time, as there would not be another steamer for a month. While in Swatow, I visited the school conducted by Brother Ang and his daughters. It is very orderly, and closely adheres to the same Chinese order and courtesy mentioned in describing the school at Fu-chau. The students were all neatly dressed, and many of them show marks of intellectual ability. This school now numbers about ninety, and it is doing excellent primary work in general educational and Bible teaching. A foreign family is greatly needed to take charge of the missionary training of the more advanced students. Brother and Sister F. E. Bates had settled in Swatow for this purpose, but Sister Bates was taken with severe hemorrhages of the lungs shortly after their arrival, which made it necessary for them to remove quickly to Amoy, where they could live at a little higher altitude. Since their removal to that place, she has had no further hemorrhages, and it is hoped that they will be able to connect with the school work there. Another family is needed at once to fill the place made vacant by their removal from Swatow. The church members there now number more than one hundred. While in that place, we had opportunity to sell the foreign residence erected for our mission headquarters. As the building was very poorly located, being quite a distance from the portion of the city where most of the work was required, we decided to accept the proposition, and proceeded at once to secure another location. By careful investigation, we found a good location about three blocks from the railway station and about four blocks from the main street of the city, much nearer the place where the larger part of the work of the mission is required. This land is on a small island in the river, and is thus isolated from the undesirable odors arising from the congested portions of the Chinese city. As possession of the mission house must be given soon, the work of building a dwelling house for the superintendent will begin at once. A dwelling for the school-teacher and a building for the training school are needed in order to provide for the immediate needs of the work in Swatow. Ten million Swatow-speaking people are waiting for the message. In order to supply workers to meet the demands of this field, a small training school in this dialect is an absolute necessity. Our work here is far in advance of our facilities at the present time, and no time should be lost in supplying facilities for opening this training school, that workers may be speedily developed to meet the requirements of this field. Growing Recognition of the Tithing System
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS have been the denominational pioneers in teaching the Bible system of the support of the gospel work. It is gratifying to see that this principle is being recognized by religious teachers in other denominations. The Western Christian Advocate of Sept. 29, 1915, contains an article from A. D. Batchelor, S. T. B., a Methodist clergyman, which expresses the following views regarding the obligation of the church to render unto God his own:— In Malachi we read, “Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” In Luke we read, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.” These two passages from both Testaments emphasize the necessity of giving. Both promise a blessing to the giver. . . . According to Malachi, the blessing was dependent upon the tithe. It is significant that piety and prosperity in Israel always followed the payment of the tithe. Every declension in morals was marked by a nonobservance of this duty. Every national repentance and regeneration was marked by its restoration. This was God’s appointed means for the support of his work. The obligation was not optional with the Jew. He owed the tithe. It was a debt which had to be paid. Provision was made for freewill and thank offerings, after the tithe had been paid. These were optional, and depended upon the good feeling and voluntary spirit of the individual. But the windows of heaven were not to be opened until the tithe had been given. God Our God
By Arthur W. Spaulding
THEY say, who guard the gates of hell,
“Aha! the snares are set,
The cords await to bind him well,
The victim, in our net.
Upon his way we stumbleth,
He is devoted unto death.” *But who is God save our God,
And who is Hope but he,
Who looseth bands, destroyeth snares,
And them who’re taken unawares,
Setteth at liberty?* O haughty peoples that contemn
The stricken’s mortal cry,
Not yours the succor given them
Ye have foredoomed to die.
Loud shall your startled anguish ring
When death shall claim to be your king. *For who is God save our God,
And who is Life but he,
Who feedeth not the pride of men,
But giveth to the poor again
Life in infinity?* Our God, he liveth, and the life
In hope and love outrolls
To them whose souls are prize of strife,
And them who rescue souls.
He standeth on the road of death,
And them that will he rescueth. *For who is God save our God,
And who is Love but he?
And them alone his hand shall bless
Whose greatness is their gentleness,
Whose power their charity.* Modest Apparel
By Ellen G. White
THE Bible teaches modesty in dress. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.” This forbids display in dress, gaudy colors, and profuse ornamentation. Any device designed to attract attention to the wearer or to excite admiration, is excluded from the modest apparel which God’s Word enjoins. Our dress is to be inexpensive,—not with “gold, or pearls, or costly array.” Money is a trust from God. It is not ours to expend for the gratification of pride or ambition. In the hands of God’s children it is food for the hungry, and clothing for the naked. It is a defense to the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, a means of preaching the gospel to the poor. You could bring happiness to many hearts by using wisely the means that is now spent for show. Consider the life of Christ. Study his character, and be partakers with him in his self-denial. In the professed Christian world enough is expended for jewels and needlessly expensive dress to feed all the hungry and to clothe the naked. Fashion and display absorb the means that might comfort the poor and the suffering. They rob the world of the gospel of the Saviour’s love. Missions languish. Multitudes perish for want of Christian teaching. Beside our own doors and in foreign lands the heathen are untaught and unsaved. While God has laden the earth with his bounties, and filled its storehouses with the comforts of life, while he has so freely given to us a saving knowledge of his truth, what excuse can we offer for permitting the cries of the widow and the fatherless, the sick and the suffering, the untaught and the unsaved, to ascend to heaven? In the day of God, when brought face to face with him who gave his life for these needy ones, what excuse will those offer who are spending their time and money upon indulgences that God has forbidden? To such will not Christ say, “I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; . . . naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not”? But our clothing, while modest and simple, should be of good quality, of becoming colors, and suited for service. It should be chosen for durability rather than display. It should provide warmth and proper protection. The wise woman described in the Proverbs “is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with double garments.” [Prov. 31: 21, marginal reading.] Our dress should be cleanly. Uncleanliness in dress is unhealthful, and thus defiling to the body and to the soul. “Ye are the temple of God. . . . If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” In all respects the dress should be healthful. “Above all things,” God desires us to “be in health,”—health of body and of soul. And we are to be workers together with him for the health of both soul and body. Both are promoted by healthful dress. It should have the grace, the beauty, the appropriateness of natural simplicity. Christ has warned us against the pride of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty. He pointed to the flowers of the field, to the lily unfolding in its purity, and said, “Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Thus by the things of nature Christ illustrates the beauty that heaven values, the modest grace, the simplicity, the purity, the appropriateness, that would make our attire pleasing to him. The most beautiful dress he bids us wear upon the soul. No outward adorning can compare in value or loveliness with that “meek and quiet spirit” which in his sight is “of great price.” To those who make the Saviour’s principles their guide, how precious his words of promise:—
“Why are ye anxious concerning raiment?” “If God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? . . . Be not therefore anxious, saying, . . . Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.” What a contrast is this to the weariness, the unrest, the disease and wretchedness, that result from the rule of fashion! How contrary to the principles given in the Scriptures are many of the modes of dress that fashion prescribes! Think of the styles that have prevailed for the last few hundreds of years or even for the last few decades. How many of them, when not in fashion, would be declared immodest; how many would be pronounced inappropriate for a refined, God-fearing, self-respecting woman. The making of changes in apparel for the sake of fashion merely is not sanctioned by the Word of God. Changing styles and elaborate, costly ornamentation squander the time and means of the rich, and lay waste the energies of mind and soul. They impose a heavy burden on the middle and poorer classes. Many who can hardly earn a livelihood, and who with simple modes might make their own clothing, are compelled to resort to the dressmaker in order to be in fashion. Many a poor girl, for the sake of a stylish gown, has deprived herself of warm underwear, and paid the penalty with her life. Many another, coveting the display and elegance of the rich, has been enticed into paths of dishonesty and shame. Many a home is deprived of comforts, many a man is driven to embezzlement or bankruptcy, to satisfy the extravagant demands of the wife or children. Many a woman, forced to prepare for herself or her children the stylish costumes demanded by fashion, is doomed to ceaseless drudgery. Many a mother with throbbing nerves and trembling fingers toils far into the night to add to her children’s clothing ornamentation that contributes nothing to healthfulness, comfort, or real beauty. For the sake of fashion she sacrifices health, and that calmness of spirit so essential to the right guidance of her children. The culture of mind and heart is neglected. The soul is dwarfed. The mother has no time to study the principles of physical development, that she may know how to care for the health of her children. She has no time for ministering to their mental or spiritual needs, no time to sympathize with them in their little disappointments and trials, or to share in their interests and pursuits.9 Almost as soon as they come into the world the children are subjected to fashion’s influence. They hear more of dress than of their Saviour. They see their mothers consulting the fashion plates more earnestly than the Bible. The display of dress is treated as of greater importance than the development of character. Parents and children are robbed of that which is best and sweetest and truest in life. For fashion’s sake they are cheated out of a preparation for the life to come.—“Ministry of Healing,” pages 287-291. Definite Prayer for Specific Things
By William Covert
PAUL wanted a prayer fellowship with his brethren,—prayer definitely offered, embracing specified things. His trained hands and warm heart opened up before him a world of work. And his quickened conscience made him anxious to do all things in the very best way. Out of these desires were born these words: “I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Rom. 15:30. They were to pray “that I [Paul] may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints: that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.” Verses 31, 32. He thought, if many prayers together went to the throne of God, that for Jesus’ sake and the love of the Spirit, the united requests would be granted. He had been sorely tried in having to meet the unbelieving people of Judea, and so he wanted the whole prayer power of the church at Rome to join with his prayer strivings to meet that disobedient spirit. It was necessary that the spirit of infidelity be restrained in order for the apostle effectively to perform the ministry that had been assigned him for the needy saints in Jerusalem. This service before him required a wise and tender heart on his part, and a gentle spirit of gratitude on the part of those who were to be recipients of benefits bestowed. Paul had some questioning in his mind as to how the unbelieving Jews would conduct themselves toward him when he should enter Jerusalem with contributions from the Christians of Macedonia and Achaia, to bestow on the poor Judean Christians. His anxiety was that all might be done in such a tender manner as to make each one concerned feel glad. He thought if he could perform this missionary service in the beauty of holiness, he could carry that refreshing with him all the way from Jerusalem to Rome. How the heart of the apostle must have yearned and pleaded with the Lord, and with those who were in sympathy with him, concerning help for the suffering saints! It will not be out of place for us now to join in earnest pleading with the Lord in behalf of those who are today in need of help. May a spirit of intercession come upon all our people in behalf of the vast missionary work of carrying present truth to a needy world. God’s Opportunities
By J. S. Washburn
WHEN human hope is dead, when all earthly help has failed, when the bitter struggle ends in failure,—then is God’s opportunity; then he works. When the precious life slipped from the worn watchers’ hands; when the loving sisters’ anxious vigil closed with the death of their brother; yes, even when the loved form was fast moldering back to dust,—then Christ displayed his divine power; then the Author of life called Lazarus from the darkness of death to the light of life. The raising of Lazarus from the dead is the seventh miracle recorded in the Gospel of John. Those recorded before seem to ascend step by step to this culminating point; for this crowning miracle is the most positive evidence during his earthly ministry of Christ’s divine power as life-giver. The cases of three persons whom Christ raised from the dead during his earthly ministry are given in detail: (1) The daughter of Jairus, immediately after her death, while still warm with life just departed. Luke 8:49-56; (2) the son of the widow of Nain, while those who were bearing him to his grave stood still in amazement. Luke 7:11-17; and (3) Lazarus, who had already lain four days in the grave. John 11:17. For safety Jesus had gone to Bethabara, nearly sixty miles northeast of Bethany, where was the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus;” and yet when he heard that he was sick, “he abode two days still in the same place where he was.” Sending back to the pleading sisters the assurance, “This sickness is not unto death,” apparently without any effort to help, he who had the power to preserve from dying, left Lazarus to grapple alone with his grim enemy death, and Mary and Martha to watch with straining, sleepless eyes the conflict that ended in the terrible quiet of the dreamless sleep. How often during their brother’s illness had the sisters said to each other, “Oh, when will he come? Surely he will not slight our call. He alone can save the one who is so dear to us and to him.” But the Great Physician comes not. “Too late now! How could he permit us to suffer this deepest sorrow which he could so easily have prevented? Does he really love us, as until now we had firmly believed?” With breaking hearts they follow their beloved brother to the tomb. The door stone closes upon him who sleeps cold and still. “Farewell, till the morning breaks, till the day dawns, till the shadows flee away.” During the dark days that follow, the home is occupied by professional mourners whose constant wailings and doleful, empty cries grate harshly on the ears of those whose sorrow is so terribly deep and real. Four days have passed. Christ appears in Bethany; Martha hastens to meet him, leaving Mary still in the house. Her first pathetic words, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” seem almost to reproach Christ for his delay in coming. When Mary heard that the Master had come and called for her, these were her first words also. Many times, yes, constantly, during those dark days had these words been in the sisters’ minds and on their lips. Why come at all when his appearance brought to them only the painful memories of the “hope deferred” that had made the heart sick, the fatal delay that seemed so causeless and cruel. “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” Why should he weep in apparent sorrow and sympathy over this death that he might have prevented? Words of worldly wisdom, cold, critical unbelief! Have you ever heard this sentiment? have you ever expressed it yourself? “Take ye away the stone.” Hastily Martha protests: “Lord, four days he has been dead. By this time he is decaying, offensive. Oh, when you could have saved him from dying, why expose the one we loved, to become an object of curiosity and of loathing? Why open the tomb that so mercifully guards from the eyes of the living the return of his dust to the common dust of earth?” “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Jesus lifts up his eyes to his Father, who is love and life. Divinity flashes forth. “Lazarus, come forth.” The resurrection trump, the word which is itself spirit and life, pierces the cold ear of the unconscious dead. There is a rustle, a stir in the dark cavern. With amazement, almost horror, all eyes are fixed upon the white form that now rises, ghastly in its graveclothes, and comes forth into the light. “Loose him, and let him go.” With joy Lazarus feels the mighty thrill of new life that flows, that throbs, in every fiber of his being. He who once was dead turns from the dark tomb toward the light of a new life, his face glowing with the flush of perfect health, of victory over death and the grave. Oh, then there were greetings and joy unutterable! Infinitely better and more glorious this marvelous victory over death than the sisters’ wish that their brother should be healed. God’s way, God’s time, is best. Weary, tempted soul, fear not; trust to the end; say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Every moment he seems to tarry will but make all the more glorious his revelation at the last. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” Believe, and thou, too, shalt “see the glory of God.” The Holy Spirit and the Sanctuary
By Elbridge M. Adams
The Holy Spirit and the Sanctuary
THE heavenly sanctuary is to us very important; for it is through it that the great plan of salvation is worked out. And the Holy Spirit is associated vitally in the work of man’s redemption. “The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail.” We should, therefore, expect to see manifestations of the Spirit in connection with the work of Christ our Saviour in the sanctuary. Accordingly there are recorded two special outpourings of this heavenly power coincident with important events in Christ’s ministry. And a third is still future, but, nevertheless, certain, for God has promised it. Paul, in Eph. 1:19, 20, speaks of “the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.” And he compares it to “the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” The setting of Jesus “on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” we understand, from Heb. 8:1; 1:3, and other scriptures, to mean his exaltation to the priesthood. It was the beginning of his work as our high priest in heaven. In explaining the wonderful manifestation on Pentecost, Peter says: “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” And when Peter stood before the council, he refers to Pentecost in these words: “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.” Acts 5:31, 32. Here he plainly says that the Holy Ghost is a witness that God had exalted Christ “to be a Prince and a Saviour,” particularly mentioning “repentance,” and the “forgiveness of sins,” which clearly is accomplished by virtue of the sanctuary service. What was Pentecost? What else it may have meant and accomplished, it was the divine announcement to the world that Jesus had entered upon his mediatorial work in the heavenly sanctuary. “Christ’s ascension to heaven was the signal that his followers were to receive the promised blessing. For this they were to wait before they entered upon their work. When Christ passed within the heavenly gates, he was enthroned amidst the adoration of the angels. As soon as this ceremony was completed, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in rich currents, and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which he had with the Father from all eternity. The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven’s communication that the Redeemer’s inauguration was accomplished. According to his promise he had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to his followers as a token that he had, as priest and king, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over his people.”—“Acts of the Apostles,” pages 38, 39. The prophecy of Revelation 10, which so clearly refers to the advent movement of 1844, not only represents the angel “clothed with a cloud,” which may refer to the part of the message that was not understood, but he is said to be a “mighty angel;” . . . his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” Moreover he “cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth.” His might, his lionlike voice, and the exceeding brightness of his appearance, would indicate the power that attended that message. A few words from the pen of Sister White will refresh our memories regarding the mighty power that accompanied the preaching of the first and second angels’ messages:— “Near the close of the second angel’s message, I saw a great light from heaven shining upon the people of God. The rays of this light seemed bright as the sun. And I heard the voices of angels crying, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.’ “This was the midnight cry, which was to give power to the second angel’s message. Angels were sent from heaven to arouse the discouraged saints, and prepare them for the great work before them. . . . “In every part of the land, light was given upon the second angel’s message, and the cry melted the hearts of thousands. It went from city to city, and from village to village, until the waiting people of God were fully aroused. In many churches the message was not permitted to be given, and a large company who had the living testimony left these fallen churches. A mighty work was accomplished by the midnight cry. The message was heart-searching, leading the believers to seek a living experience for themselves. They knew that they could not lean upon one another. “The saints anxiously waited for their Lord, with fasting, watching, and almost constant prayer.”—“Early Writings,” page 238. “It was only at the solicitation of his brethren, in whose words he heard the call of God, that Miller consented to present his views in public. He was now fifty years of age, unaccustomed to public speaking, and burdened with a sense of unfitness for the work before him. But from the first, his labors were blessed in a remarkable manner to the salvation of souls. His first lecture was followed by a religious awakening, in which thirteen entire families, with the exception of two persons, were converted. He was immediately urged to speak in other places, and in nearly every place his labor resulted in a revival of the work of God. Sinners were converted, Christians were roused to greater consecration, and deists and infidels were led to acknowledge the truth of the Bible and the Christian religion. The testimony of those among whom he labored was, ‘A class of minds is reached by him not within the influence of other men.’ His preaching was calculated to arouse the public mind to the great things of religion, and to check the growing worldliness and sensuality of the age. “In nearly every town there were scores, in some, hundreds, converted as the result of his preaching. In many places Protestant churches of nearly all denominations were thrown open to him; and the invitations to labor usually came from the ministers of the several congregations. It was his invariable rule not to labor in any place to which he had not been invited, yet he soon found himself unable to comply with half the requests that poured in upon him. “Many who did not accept his views as to the exact time of the second advent, were convinced of the certainty and nearness of Christ’s coming and their need of preparation. In some of the large cities his work produced a marked impression. Liquor dealers abandoned the traffic, and turned their shops into meeting rooms; gambling dens were broken up; infidels, deists, Universalists, and even the most abandoned profligates were reformed, some of whom had not entered a house of worship for years. Prayer meetings were established by the various denominations, in different quarters, at almost every hour, business men assembling at midday for prayer and praise. There was no extravagant excitement, but an almost universal solemnity on the minds of the people. His work, like that of the early Reformers, tended rather to convince the understanding and arouse the conscience than merely to excite the emotions.”—“The Great Controversy,” pages 331, 332. This great movement culminated in what we know as the “midnight cry.” And it was at the close of the midnight cry that Jesus entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. “Christians who fell asleep before the door was opened into the most holy, when the midnight cry was finished, at the seventh month, 1844, and who had not kept the true Sabbath, now rest in hope.”—“Early Writings,” pages 42, 43. Kindness Within Our Power
“WHEN we have nothing else that we can do for the good of mankind, and are so poor that we have nothing else that we can give, we can always and everywhere give kindness. Kindly sympathy in another’s interests, kindly judgment of his efforts, honest pity for his mistakes and failures, sincere pleasure in his successes, — these are always in our power if we are not too self-engrossed to bestow them, and these more than anything else supply the days with a sunny atmosphere.” I WASTED time, and now doth time waste me.— Shakespeare. To God be true.
Let naught of praise or blame
Turn thy true heart from following the
right. Weak is the help of man; and weaker still
The soul that puts its trust in such
A broken reed. None else but God
Can power bestow to stem the tide of evil
That assails thee; and he alone is true. Then give him all thy heart,
And all thou art. Keep nothing back.
For when thou giv'st him all,
He doubles blessings on thy head, and
All things that he hath are thine
Forevermore. — H. L. Babcock, in Herald of Life.