Earlier text: My Times Are in Thy HandThe Week of Prayer
By G. F. Haffner
The time for our week of prayer is almost upon us again, and what preparation are we making for it? As we are coming nearer and nearer to the end, these seasons of prayer become more and more important. The Lord has great things in store for us, and he tells us: “Ask, and it shall be given you; if ye seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” We are told that we live in the time of the latter rain, when we should ask especially for the outpouring of the Spirit of God; and Christ tells us further that if we abide in him, and his words abide in us, we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. John 15:7. But why should we ask for his Spirit? The next verse will give the answer: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” We should not ask for the Spirit of God in order that we may have better times or an easier time in the work of God. No, no! It is given that we may bear more fruit. Just remember our Saviour after he received the Holy Spirit. He was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and you all know he did not have a very easy time during those forty days. Then after that we see him returning in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and “there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.” Luke 4:14, 15. He preached the gospel to the poor, healed the broken-hearted, preached deliverance to the captives, recovered the sight of the blind, and set at liberty them that were bruised. He spent his whole time in doing good, in saving people. At night he would go out on the mountains and commune with his Father. Now, brethren and sisters, are we willing to unite in praying for the outpouring of his Spirit, in order that we may be filled with the same spirit that he had, and be engaged in the work of saving souls as he was? Do we need more of that Spirit?—I believe we do. Many of our people are asleep or in a lukewarm condition. Brethren, we need to pray for such, that the Lord may wake them up. We all need more or less to wake out of sleep. We do not realize in what a solemn time we are living. Do we not see the signs fast fulfilling? The day of the Lord is near, and hasteth greatly. O let us wake up now, and do the work of God so that the Lord may come and gather his people home! The Lord is preparing the way for us to carry the message to the world. From every land the calls are coming in, Come over and help us. The General Conference never before received such urgent calls, and from places where the message never was preached before. Shall we fill these calls, and send men to preach this message? Shall we pray especially to the Lord of harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest? But we should not only pray for laborers, but pray that God may make his people willing to support these laborers when they do go. The General Conference needs means as well as laborers to fill these calls. Will our people now open their hearts to these calls, and not only give the amount that is called for, but double it? There is plenty of money among God’s people, and if each one would give as much as he could, or as much as he ought to give, there would be plenty of money in the treasury. In conclusion, I would especially appeal to our brethren in the Oklahoma Conference to arise and come to the help of the Lord against the mighty. We have a great enemy to fight. Let us do our part. Let us double our donations to the foreign work. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over.” “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” 2 Cor. 9:6. “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Gal. 6:9. Let us sow now, and soon we shall reap. Opening of Missions in English Countries
By J. O. Corliss
The Experiences of Former Days—No. 18
Opening of Missions in English Countries
AT a session of the General Conference held in Battle Creek, in the spring of 1875, word was given through the spirit of prophecy that the third angel's message would yet gain so much strength as to have missions, and even publishing houses, in many foreign fields. This announcement was a surprise to some who had thought that time must close within a half-score of years, and the question was asked, “In what countries will such extensive work be done?” The answer was, “In several; one in particular, which I remember, is Australia.” This seemed very strange to most of the delegates, because Australia was then little known by them, being so far away on the opposite side of the globe. But the statement did this for our people: it caused them to take broader views of the work to be accomplished by the message, and to plan accordingly. An awakening regarding missions followed. Two years later Elder Matteson went to Scandinavia, and the following year Elders Loughborough and Ings went to England, and began their labors in the ancient town of Southampton. In time a church was organized there, and through the labors of others, the12 work has spread until churches of Seventh-day Adventists are now located in many parts of Great Britain. Little was done, however, for several years about extending the work to the British colonies. But in a session of the General Conference held in the autumn of 1884 it was decided to send a company to open the work in Australia. This party, headed by Elder S. N. Haskell, sailed from San Francisco, May 10, 1885, and landed in Melbourne the ninth day of June following. After looking over the field around Melbourne, and Hobart, Tasmania, for a few weeks, Elder Haskell left for New Zealand, where he remained long enough to see a small company accept the truth. During his absence a portion of the company remaining in Melbourne began active work, and held two series of tent-meetings before his return. A church of twenty-nine members was organized, Jan. 10, 1886. Weekly additions were made to this company until, as the tent season closed, it numbered fully one hundred members. Ballarat was next entered, and at the close of a seven weeks' series of hall meetings a company of forty-five Sabbath-keepers was established. In September of the same year (1886) the work was opened in the town hall of Norwood, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, and in a little over three months a church of thirty-five members was organized. In the latter part of February, about six weeks after the organization of the church in Melbourne, Elder Haskell left Australia to return to America. About the middle of the following November, Elder A. G. Daniells landed in Auckland, New Zealand, to continue the work in that island. In April of the next year a large church was organized in that city, and workers were selected from among them to accompany Elder Daniells to Napier, where another large company was reared up in the truth. During the second series of meetings in Melbourne (in December, 1885) the publication of the Bible Echo was begun. The circulation of this paper added much interest to the work, and was the means of many learning the truth who otherwise would not have known of it. In time the message spread to all the colonies of the southern hemisphere. An industrial school was instituted in New South Wales for the education of mission workers to go to the islands of the sea. This has been successful in its work, and is still flourishing. A sanitarium is also filling a good place in that field. But let no one imagine that all the work done in that part of the world has been without anxiety and perplexity. Sacrifices of means, and even health, have been freely laid on the altar there, as in other foreign mission fields. But the work might have been more easily done had the field been entered immediately after the instruction came in 1875, that that field was one of the number to be so fully developed; for then some of the obstacles that hindered the work when it was entered, had not arisen. How slow men are at times to comprehend the voice of the Lord concerning duty. But these mistakes are covered by the hand of mercy, and the commission to the delinquents is not revoked, until they have opportunity to retrieve the past. Surely, our God is good, and greatly to be praised. A GOOD interest is being manifested in the campaign work throughout the conference. Many have not yet received their supplies, not having ordered in time to begin work with the month of November. Some churches took hold well in the matter of getting all to take the REVIEW. One librarian sent in a list covering the entire church, some with longer and some with shorter subscriptions. Every family should have the REVIEW. The campaign will not be begun right unless the REVIEW visits the home of every campaigner. At one small company I recently visited, two aged followers of the Lord were ready to unite with the church. Their attention was first called to the truth by reading “Bible Readings.” All the circumstances connected with ordering it and with its delivery were very vivid in their minds. I am sure that in the kingdom, if they and the one selling them the book are faithful, they will recognize the man who brought them the book. Thus after many days the fruit appears. It is the seed-sowers God is looking for even now at the eleventh hour. The church at Buffalo used six hundred and fifty copies of the first issue of the special Signs. Fine lists of orders for single copies to be sent are being sent in. One pastor, not connected with us as a people, near Schenectady, ordered two hundred and fifty copies of the Signs sent him at three different places where he was to visit. He expected to dispose of them himself. The church-school children at Rome have undertaken to dispose of a club of twenty-five copies of Life and Health. Thus the good work is beginning in our part of the field. We are expecting good things at the hand of the Lord as we further work for him. T. E. BOWEN,
Missionary Secretary. Faith and Works
By J. C. Rockwell
No answer comes to those that pray,
And idly stand
And wait for stones to roll away
At God's command.
He will not break the binding cords
Upon us laid
If we depend on pleading words,
And do not aid.
When hands are idle, words are vain
To move the stone;
An aiding angel would disdain
To work alone.
But he who prayeth, and is strong
In faith and deed,
And toileth earnestly, erelong
He will succeed.
—J. C. Rockwell. Let Your Work Vindicate Itself
Do not waste a minute — not a second — in trying to demonstrate to others the merit of your own performance. If your work does not vindicate itself, you can not vindicate it.—T. W. Higginson. One Missionary Convention
By H. H. Hall
THE convention I attended was in many ways an ideal one. At the close of the readings the leader invited those who had not yet subscribed for the special Signs to do so. As they proceeded, a ten-year-old boy said that he wanted fifty sets. A few moments after, another boy, only a little older, ordered a similar number. The leader then asked if there were those who would pay for papers if others would sell them. I then noticed a nine-year-old girl on the front seat who seemed anxious to attract the attention of the leader. When she succeeded, she stated that she could use a hundred sets if they were thus provided. One of the brethren became responsible for the number. In a private talk with her later I found that she was a genuine missionary worker, and would probably sell the hundred copies of the first issue in two evenings. At the close of this work, a large diagram of the city was brought in, and each worker assigned territory. Nearly one thousand sets were subscribed for, in addition to more than five hundred sets which had been ordered previously. The meeting then closed, and as the custom was, the Young People's Society met immediately. After a few encouraging experiences were related, the members were given opportunity to subscribe for additional sets of the Signs. They immediately raised their club from two hundred and sixty-four sets to five hundred and twenty-five. The leader asked the secretary of the juvenile society, a girl of twelve years, how they were succeeding in missionary work. She said, “We have ordered two hundred, and every one is taken, and most of them are sold already.” A sister then told of her work with the members of a board with which she was connected; and of her need of $1.80 with which to send them literature on a special subject they were to consider the next Thursday night. She also needed help in the writing of letters to accompany it. A collection was taken, and instead of $1.80, she obtained $3.20. Her need of assistance in correspondence was more than met. After a few more experiences of work had been related, we sang a hymn, and went out to work. Messages From the Field for the Week of Prayer
WHILE large numbers have not accepted the truth, the message has been onward in the Pacific islands during the past year. Generally our workers are sick, full of courage, and are making steady spiritual progress. BY the time this is read, we shall have three missionaries working in Singapore. A new church building will soon be erected in Padang, Sumatra. In a few weeks we hope to have a school started in Fiji, where young natives will be trained for service in the Savage Islands of Melanesia. AT the close of our late Eastern Polynesian conference, at Raiatea, five young persons were baptized. WE are confident of the speedy triumph of the last message. IT is now almost three years since our first company of three workers landed, and well may we at this point in our experiences pause to raise our Ebenezer, and devoutly say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” From this small beginning our force has increased to a band of thirteen adults and five children. One has fallen from our ranks. Dear Brother La Rue, at the age of eighty years, was laid to rest in April, 1903. IN all our trying experiences consequent upon entering a new field—the change of climate, and other physical conditions affecting health; the new, strange world of thought, customs, habits of living; and the peculiarly difficult language—in it all the Lord has not only preserved our lives, but prospered us on our way, so that now we feel to thank God and take courage. WE have been enabled to enter two provinces, and are laying the foundations for two mission stations—one in southern China, at Canton, in the Qwangtung Province, and one eighteen hundred miles distant, in the province of Honan. There still remain sixteen provinces unentered by any herald of the third angel’s message. It is as though all Europe had two stations—one in Great Britain, and one at the farthest point of Russia; or as though North America had but two stations—one at Montreal, and the other at New Orleans, with all intervening railroad facilities blotted out. IN the south we have progressed in the language so far as to be able to make a small beginning in preaching. We have opened a girls’ school and a boys’ school, and have begun the preparation of literature. In the north Brother Pilquist and wife had been in the work for years previous to connecting with our mission, and are carrying on regular work. They have a boys’ school, and several native helpers to assist in preaching the Word. The other six are making excellent progress in the language, and already are able to do considerable by treating the sick and teaching the Word. China is heathen, but not barbarous nor uncivilized. Independent of outside help, she has built up and maintained an immense empire, has a written language, a literature and schools, a fixed government, with law and judiciary that touches every man. Industries and arts to fully meet the needs of her civilization have been developed. China’s one great urgent need is the everlasting gospel—the present truth. Taking into account the fact that a great part of the work of carrying this third angel’s message can and must be done by native workers, there is still a crying need for a great army of efficient leaders who will be able to train and direct the efforts of native help. We must have strong men and women, who know how to maintain their own integrity and help the argumentative and the weak,—experienced workmen, who can give mold and character to the work, and those of sufficient physical endurance to enable them to do battle with a trying climate, and endure the hardships of pioneer life. WE need money for printing, for the opening and support of Christian schools, for the support of such native help as God may bring to our aid. As yet we have not a dwelling, schoolhouse, nor chapel—not one spot of our own where the sick can come for relief or the sinner for comfort; not one foot of Chinese soil is owned by Seventh-day Adventists. One thousand dollars has been devoted to the opening of a general headquarters for gospel and medical work in Honan. A song of praise from our united band went up to God for that thousand. But many more such precious gifts will be needed before our work is fairly begun. The native houses in which we are compelled to find shelter are not sufficiently lighted and ventilated, and are too damp and unhealthful to be used for homes. Our hospitals, chapels, churches, and schools can be built even in large cities much more plainly, and at much less cost for labor and materials, than in the western lands, but we must have them, and a few are needed at once. For these and other needed blessings, we rely upon the promise, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” SIN TSAI HSIEN.—The time we have spent in China has been the best of my life. We have seen more of the Lord’s working, and have had closer communion with him. There is a pleasure in working when one knows he is doing his best to fulfil the Lord’s will. We are thankful to the Lord for the help he has given us in studying the language. We are just beginning to see now what a great help in the study it would be to a newcomer to have help from some one who knew the language. THE past year has been one of trials and triumphs in the cause in India. As we look back over the past few months, and note the progress of the work, we see unmistakable evidences of the blessing of God attending the sowing of the seed. We praise God for the way he has sustained the work in this field, though some of the most capable workers have had to lay down their burdens for a time, and seek health in a more invigorating climate. FROM different parts of the field we are receiving encouraging reports. At the present time the Oriental Watchman has reached a larger circulation than any previous year at this season, and we hope the paper will reach a circulation of five thousand before the year shall end. A list of five thousand paid subscriptions represents an immense amount of work. To accomplish this, our faithful fellow workers travel through India, Burma, and Ceylon, during the trying seasons of the year, facing difficulties and diseases unknown in other lands. THE amount of territory covered by these workers equals an area of twelve times that of England, Ireland, and Scotland combined. The way the Lord has sustained them in carrying the literature, and the remarkable experiences they have had, is a clear evidence that the Lord has set his hand to the important work of bearing the message of the third angel to the English-speaking people of this land. COMBINED with circulating the Oriental Watchman, our agents are circulating the Indian edition of the English Good Health, which is helpful in gaining access to many who could not otherwise be reached. In addition to this, our Watchman press is doing all it can to get out our literature in the vernacular. “Steps to Christ,” which is printed in Bengali, will soon be off the press. We are laying plans to get out little pamphlets of truth in the Hindi, Bengali, Santali, and Burmese languages. OF late we have received very encouraging reports of the work in Simla, the seat of the English government in India in the hot months. For two seasons past, two lady workers have been engaged in the work there. As a result, not less than nine persons have begun to observe the Sabbath. IN my recent trip to Burma, I was much encouraged by the earnestness and zeal of the Burmese brethren. Without financial help, and almost without any encouragement, these dear brethren are doing what they can to tell their fellow countrymen the truth. Again and again they plead with me to send some one to further instruct them and to lead them14 forward in the work. Just as our boat was leaving Rangoon for Calcutta, they came, beseeching us to remember them in our prayers, and do what we could to help them. And we promised to faithfully lay the matter before the Mission Board and our brethren at home. Nearly a century ago, Judson stirred the hearts of the Burmese people, and he still lives in their memory. What is needed now is God-fearing men and women to go and continue the work of reformation begun by Judson so many years ago, and raise up monuments of present truth in that land where Buddhism has so long held sway. Elder Armstrong and his wife went to Ceylon last May. These are the first permanent representatives of the truth in this island of three million people. Already they are sending encouraging reports of the work there, and are anxious to make a public effort in the city of Colombo as soon as possible. The sanitarium is getting well settled in its new quarters in Calcutta, and will have larger accommodations and better facilities both for treating the sick and for training workers in medical missionary work. With these and other evidences that the Lord is going before his workers in India, we take courage, and go on, believing that in this land, among these down-trodden millions, some trophies will be won to sing the song of victory when the work is done. Experiences of Power in Queensland, Australia
By R. D. Quinn
“God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” For it is “not by might [human energy], nor by power [inherent ability], but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” How slow we have been to learn this all-important truth! and it is usually not until our own strength fails, and, like Jacob, we are forced to abandon our wrestling and resistance, that we acknowledge that “power belongeth unto God.” The manifest working of God’s Holy Spirit in connection with aggressive work is clearing our minds of all difficulties as to how the third angel’s message is to go as a witness to all nations and peoples before the end. The time has now come for the final warning to be given; and where the gospel is being preached in the power that belongeth unto God, the people are mightily aroused, and the honest souls, “such as should be saved,” are pressing into the kingdom. It need not be longer asked, “Where be all his miracles which our father’s told us of?” when the greatest of all miracles are being performed before our very eyes. In one of our recent tent efforts two young men came to our meetings. They were both from Sweden, and were college bred. One was a Swedish nobleman by birth. Having studied under infidel tutors they were both rank atheists. One had studied the principal religions of the world, from which he had formulated a religion of his own, which was practically sun-worship. They came under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, and their foundation was shattered at once. The compelling power attending the message urged them to the meetings until they both experienced a remarkable conversion. One of them was driven of the Spirit into the woods at noon one day, where he remained that day and one whole night in study and prayer. In giving his experience afterward, he said that when he came out of the woods in the morning, he knew that there was a God in heaven who forgiveth sins. These two young men have since been the most ardent followers of the Master; for having been forgiven much, they love much. So rapid was their growth in the message, that in a few weeks they were holding discussions nightly for some time with visiting pastors who were trying to unsettle them in their new-found hope. As a result, the pastors were utterly confounded and put to flight. One of these brethren immediately translated a number of our English tracts into the Swedish language, “Elihu” among others, and sent them to his home in Sweden, along with an account of his remarkable conversion. This resulted in the conversion of his father’s house to the third angel’s message. At this same meeting a man who, through false reports, had become so prejudiced against our work that, shortly before we came, he had burned a beautiful copy of “Bible Readings,” was constrained by the Spirit to come a distance of eight miles each night for weeks, in order to attend the services. He and his family accepted the truth, and he was elected to the leadership of a company of twenty Seventh-day Adventists organized in that place. Others, by special providences of God, were brought great distances in order that they might hear the message for this time. The mysterious ways in which they had been led were not understood by them until they saw and accepted the message for this time. Then, with hearts made tender by the wonderful revelations of truth, they understood all. One lady, the wife of a local Methodist preacher, who, having attended the meetings, was strongly impressed with the truth, yet held back from taking her stand by the opposition of her own family and visiting evangelists, was awakened in the night with a definite impression to get up and study the Bible, certain passages so impressing her that she immediately accepted the truth. In this she was soon followed by her husband and her whole family. Believing that He who forgiveth all our iniquities, also healeth all our diseases, she claimed the promise and sought God for physical healing, and was restored to health. So, by all this and much more, we see that the work is going with mighty power; and although we are in the closing hours of the last generation, there is plenty of time for God to do the work when he gets hold of men who recognize that “power belongeth unto God.” Some are beginning to wonder how the work is going to be finished in the few brief years left us in this generation. But when we read in Joel that under the latter rain, which will be much more abundant than the former, God will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, that the old men will dream dreams, and the young men see visions, and, by comparing this with the way God worked under the former rain to enlighten Cornelius and the eunuch, whom he knew to be devout men searching after truth, we are led to wonder why so much time is needed, and if we are not, after all, nearer the end than any of us realize. With the certain knowledge that God knows just where every honest soul is, as is shown in the case of Cornelius and the eunuch, and that he has men who recognize the workings of his Holy Spirit, as did Peter and Philip, how long, think you, will it take on the basis of special revelations from heaven, if need be, to bring his servants in direct communication with every honest soul in all the earth, and thus the work be cut short in righteousness? Let us beware of limiting the power that “belongeth unto God.” “Faith which worketh by love,” is the message now, and it brings certain victory. “The men that love and fear thy name
Shall see their hopes fulfilled;
The mighty God will compass them
With favor as a shield.”
A JAPANESE woman, teacher in the Ferris Seminary (Reformed church) in Yokohama, has been invited many times to leave the seminary and take a better position in a government school. They offered her ten dollars, and finally twenty-two dollars a month salary, if she would accept. But she stays in the missionary school on a salary of seven dollars and a half. The reason? — She could not teach pupils in the other school to seek the blessing which she herself has found in Jesus Christ. IN 1833 three white men from France appeared before the great chief Moshesh in Basutoland with a message about a Saviour and a gospel. The chief compared their message to an egg, and said he would wait for it to hatch before forming an opinion. The egg has hatched. After seventy years there are in connection with the Paris Mission in Basutoland 27 missionaries and 425 native workers, with 22,356 professed Christians, of whom 14,950 are communicants. In the year 1903-04 these Basuto Christians gave nearly $20,000 for home and foreign missions. That is to say, they supported all of the 197 outstations of the Paris Basuto Mission, and besides this they sent $400 to the mission in Barotseland on the Zambesi.