Earlier text: Questions and AnswersA Raven the Messenger of Deliverance
By W. A. S.
THE attitude of thoughtless unbelief toward the records of providential care in Holy Scripture is well illustrated by an advertising card displayed in a car on a Western interurban line. Presenting some business offer, the card declared:— If Elijah were alive today, there would be no ravens to feed him. That brand of ravens has gone forever. The only bird that will feed you today is the eagle on the American dollar.
Sad to say, it is more than an irreverent treatment of a sacred story. It is the expression of a sentiment that obtains too generally in these days, of which Christ asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” We need a revival of faith in the God who actually doeth things for his children. Inspiration puts on the lips of those living in these latter days the prayer:— “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days. . . . Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?” Isa. 51: 9, 10.
He is ever the same, a God able to do things on earth, whose arm is stretched forth in might today the same as in olden days. He does not work always in the same way. His wonders are not repetitions for display. But he who made the depths of the sea a way in ancient times is still making ways for his children; and he who fed the prophet by the ravens so long ago is still able to provide in trouble. Many a man in unbelief draws back from the path of righteousness because he can see no way of livelihood in the narrow way that leads to life; while the foot of faith presses into that path and finds that God is truly the living God. Whether his care is manifested in the ordinary or the extraordinary way, it is his loving providence. Here, however, is a story of a providence, a raven being an actual agent in the deliverance. It was in the seventeenth century that Paul Gerhardt, of Germany, a Lutheran pastor, wrote the blessed hymn, “Give to the Winds Thy Fears.” The familiar English translation (“Hymns and Tunes,” No. 733) renders two stanzas:— “Give to the winds thy fears,
Hope and be undismayed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
He shall lift up thy head.
“Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears thy way;
Wait thou his time, so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.”
It was amid trial and persecution that Gerhardt’s trust had grown strong; and the hymns of faith and hope that poured from his soul have blessed and helped many another heart waiting through dark hours for God to “clear the way.” One such was a Polish peasant named Dobry, who lived near Warsaw, in the days of King Stanislaus (1764-95). Dobry experienced a remarkable deliverance by a raven’s visit, in which he recognized the direct intervention of the Lord. The story is told by S. W. Duffield, in his standard history of “English Hymns” (page 166):— He had fallen into arrears with his rent, and his landlord was about to eject him from his home. It was the dead of winter, and the poor man had thrice appealed for mercy, but in vain. The next day was to see himself and his family homeless and hopeless in the midst of the snow. But Dobry kneeled down and prayed, and then they all sang this hymn. At length they came to the words, “Dein werk kann niemand hindern:”— “Nothing thy work suspending,
No foe can make thee pause
When thou, thine own defending,
Dost undertake their cause.”
There was a rap at the window. Dobry went to it, opened it, and a raven which his grandfather had trained and set at liberty popped in with a valuable jeweled ring in its beak. The peasant took it at once to his minister, who identified it as the property of King Stanislaus, to whom he restored it. The king sent for Dobry, rewarded him handsomely, and the next year built him a new house, and gave him cattle from his own herds. Over this house door, on an iron tablet, appears still, it is said, the effigy of a raven with a ring in its beak. Underneath are the first four lines of the stanza which was being sung: “Weg’ hast du allerwegen,” etc., which are thus rendered in the admirable version of Mrs. E. Charles:— “All means always possessing,
Invincible in might;
Thy doings are all blessing,
Thy goings are all light.”
It is good to know that our Father in heaven is never at loss for means by which to send the deliverance from trouble or perplexity, when he sees best. And when the trouble must be borne, his sustaining, comforting grace amid trial never fails his dear ones who put their trust in him. Let us give two stanzas of Gerhardt’s hymn (in this translation of Mrs. Charles’s), so full they are of the spirit of trust in the living God who can make ways where there are no ways:— “Commit thy way to God,
The load which makes thee faint;
Worlds are to him no load;
To him breathe thy complaint.
He who for winds and clouds
Maketh a pathway free,
Through wastes or hostile crowds,
Can make a way for thee.
“Hope then, though woes be doubled,
Hope and be undismayed;
Let not thine heart be troubled,
Nor let it be afraid,
This prison where thou art,
Thy God will break it soon,
And flood with light thy heart
In his own blessed noon.”
Minded to Be Rich
By C. M. S.
ISRAEL worshipped a calf of gold and suffered God’s displeasure. His servant burned the calf, ground it to powder, and scattered the dust upon the water. The people today are not making calves of gold to worship; but they are certainly worshipping the material of which Israel’s calf was molded. The worst feature8of the situation is that such worship is not confined to the people of the world. In very many cases even the church member has sacrificed truth and honor to the shining idol, and then has sat down to eat and drink and risen up to play. The Word declares: “They that be minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6:9, 10. In very many cases we have found that this unholy and dangerous love has taken possession of those of our own faith; and an idol has been set up in the soul that has eclipsed the missionary zeal, the love of the message, and even the fervent love of God experienced in former days. Satan has been wonderfully industrious in these closing years to invent a myriad of schemes to catch, if possible, the eye, the ear, and the heart of every soul in this age. If we are “minded to be rich,” we may know, as surely as the Word of God is true, that we have put ourselves in the way of Satan’s temptations and thrown ourselves into his snare, and have opened up our hearts for the “many foolish and hurtful lusts” that Satan has invented for the very purpose of drowning men “in destruction and perdition.” We cannot love two things supremely at the same time. When the love of God is uppermost, the love of the things of this world sinks out of the heart. When the love of money is uppermost, the love of God declines and vanishes; and then it is that men are “led astray from the faith.” At the present time unscrupulous men, whose only god is the gold they have or covet from you, are advertising all kinds of plausible schemes to enable “the small investor” to amass a fortune in a few months or a few years. They seem able to figure out their propositions to a demonstration. The people invest their means, and may even receive a dividend; and then for some reason, plausibly explained, the project ends, the “promoter” is rich, and the people who have invested, because they were “minded to be rich,” have the experience and a depleted purse. Some of our own people have invested in these plausible propositions, and riches are still beyond their reach. In many cases they have not received a cent in dividends. They cannot contribute as they would like toward the promulgation of the message; for the very being who prompted the proposition and fosters the love of money, is holding theirs where it can never be obtained to use for that purpose. It is a scheme of the adversary, and it works for the advancement of his purposes and the hindering of the message God has given us to give to the world. Such investments are like those of which Haggai speaks: “He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” God’s blessing is not upon them. How much better to follow our Saviour’s instruction: “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33, 34. The powers of darkness will never come to the support of the legions of light to advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ in the world. Satan exults when Christians (and especially Seventh-day Adventists) put their means where he can handle it in his own way. God has made us stewards of the means he intrusts to us. When we invest in the money-making schemes of this world, we are making the “god of this world” the steward of what God has intrusted to us; and we are in no way warranted in expecting that the god of this world will so handle our funds that the cause of God will be advanced or our eternal interests in any way served. There is a bank that is safe; there is an enterprise that will not fail nor disappoint the investors. That bank is the bank of heaven, and that enterprise is the third angel’s message. C. M. S. Our Attitude Toward Others
By Francis M. Wilcox
THE attitude of others toward us will be very largely determined by our feelings toward them. He who would have friends must show himself friendly. The environment in which we live is homelike, the people surrounding us are neighborly, very largely in proportion as we kindly relate ourselves to men and conditions. This principle is true as applied to our relation to men and women of other Christian faiths and churches. Like Paul, we may belong to the sect which is everywhere spoken against, and this may result from the very nature of the message we are bearing to the world. But we should seek to give the message in such a spirit that no unnecessary antagonism will be aroused. Our work in this world as a denomination is not to antagonize other denominations. We are not set to fight the Methodists, the Baptists, or the Catholics, or any other denomination. Heaven has ordained this movement for the proclamation of the everlasting gospel, the great saving message of truth. As the harbingers of this message, our work is to save men, not to condemn them. It is not for us to hold up the cherished views of others to jest or ridicule or scorning. Some of the religious bodies in the world today have a Christian experience and history antedating ours by many years. God has used them for the accomplishment of a great work in the world. They have sent to the mission fields many heroic souls who have watered the gospel seed with their blood. These denominations contain many earnest men and women who are serving God according to the best light they have. The recognition of these facts should lead us to the exercise of a kindly spirit in our relationship to them. God has blessed this people with advanced light, with a special message for this day and generation. It is for us kindly and considerately to place this truth before those who know it not. In the preaching of the gospel it is inevitable that truth must clash with error, and that error should be exposed, but the best way to expose error is to preach the positive truths of the gospel. This message is designed to give a warning against great systems of error and evil. It sounds a warning against the beast, his image, and the reception of his mark. But the great foundation truths of the warning of the third angel's message are found in the proclamation of the first angel, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” These positive and negative truths constitute together the message. Without the preaching of the positive, the preaching of the negative will be of no avail. There are men in the world today sounding a warning against the beast and against his image, but they are not giving the warning of the prophecy of the Word; and in the giving of their own warning they fail to provide the antidote for the evil. The source of help for the ills against which they strike is contained in the positive truths of the message. The warning against the beast and his image is not designed of Heaven to hold up to ridicule the errors and weaknesses of the system represented by these symbols. It is designed to save men, and to present to them the truth and power of God which will enable them to break loose from the strongholds of error and darkness, and assert their liberty in Christ Jesus. God has made us a distinct and separate people. This separation we must maintain. We must not compromise the message he has given us to bear. We must not lower the standard one iota for the sake of so-called peace and harmony. We must stand fearlessly in defense of the truth of God. But while we speak the plain truth, let us do it9in the spirit of the Master. We need today a greater love for perishing souls. We need more tenderness in our methods of labor. We need to enter new fields, not with a spirit of antagonism toward any, nor should we go necessarily anticipating opposition. This expectancy will place us on the defensive, and afford us poor preparation to bear the message of mercy and forgiveness to those in need. Let us avoid as far as possible in our labors the spirit of contention, of debate, of criticism. Let us preach the truth and live the truth, revealing in our own lives its power. This will give strength to the witness we bear above any mere power of human reasoning or argumentation. The gospel of Christ is a gospel of peace and love and good will to men. To prove a savor of life the gospel must be preached in the spirit of its divine Author. F. M. W. Instruction for the Last Days
By C. M. S.
THE book of Deuteronomy contains special instruction for the people living in the last days. That being so, we shall not be fortified against the conditions of those days without a study of that book. We shall find in it many precious lessons of a general application, and we shall also find in it very definite and specific instruction on particular subjects. The reason which the Lord mentions for giving the people his law while still in the wilderness was that they might learn to obey it in the land into which he was bringing them. They had forgotten the ordinances of the Lord, and the world was far from walking in harmony with those precepts. For several hundred years they had mingled with a people who were worshiping gods of their own creation, and almost everything in creation in which the life principle was manifest. So God brought them out from that people to make them a peculiar people for himself; and during all that journey he was educating them and fitting them for an inheritance in the land he had prepared for them. He would bring them in a pure people, free from idolatry and the baneful customs of the heathen. In view of God's purpose concerning them, and in view of the associations in which he found them, these words have a special significance:— “Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flieth in the heavens, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them.” Deut. 4: 15-19. They had been among a people who saw a god in everything alive, and in everything they could create to represent their idea of his attributes. No doubt many of the Israelites had imbibed the ideas of the pantheistic people among whom they lived. So before taking them into the land of their inheritance, the Lord must teach them to purge themselves from pantheism and to learn the pure worship of the true God. Today, when the time of the long-expected entering into the antitypical promised land is drawing nigh, the same instruction is needed, and it is needed, too, among the people whose hearts are specially set upon that glorious consummation. The world is teeming with pantheism today more than it was then, and a very definite effort has been made to wreck this movement in that treacherous current. If the Israelites of old were so specifically instructed in the wilderness that they might live out the principles of God's law in their promised land, it is necessary also that we shall know the principles of that law here, that we may be prepared to keep it in the land which we hope so soon to enter. A kind of religious philosophy, based on the pantheistic teachings of the ancients, is spreading through the world like a veritable leaven of death. The people from whom Israel was called out saw a god in everything, and so they worshiped everything. The modern world, out of which God's remnant people are called, is traveling toward that same wide gate, or, in a gross materialism, are discarding the very idea of God. In either case the object of the great deceiver is attained. As God's specific instruction was necessary then to prepare his people to enter in, so it is necessary now when the antitypical Canaan is so near. “Little children,” says the apostle John, “guard yourselves from idols.” Idolatry was merely the working out of a belief. The belief thus worked out was pantheistic. What it worked out then it will work out now. So we should consider the admonition given in the above Scripture quotation as applicable to us, and necessary, and meeting a condition now, even as it did then. As the Lord brought that people out of Egyptian bondage that he might bring them into liberty and their own inheritance, so has he brought us out of our bondage to the things of this world, that he might give us that liberty that there is in Christ, and bring us into an inheritance of which Israel's inheritance was but a foretaste and a shadow. He gave them his law that their lives might be brought into harmony with his purpose and his character and carry out his will in that promised land; and for the same reason he has given us his law, that, under the influence of his Spirit, it may work in us the purpose of his will, bringing our lives into harmony with his purpose and his character, so that his ways may be our choice, and that our entrance into the eternal inheritance may not be marred by disobedience. There is much in that wonderful book of interest and profit and instruction to those who hope to meet their Lord in peace and enter with him into the better Canaan. He has called us out of this world that he might conduct us into a better one. Let us not murmur nor halt nor complain. We have “compassed this mountain long enough.” The command now is, Go forward.
C. M. S. God's Care
By G. B. Thompson
WORRY? Yes, most people do, but why the Christian? “Casting all your care upon Him; for he careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7. Can we, amid the sorrow and perplexities of life, when the heart aches, and when the fondest dreams of life fail of being realized, cast all on the Lord? When tossed on Adria, and neither sun, moon, nor stars have appeared in many days, can we safely let our Maker carry the load? Listen:— Look up, on any night when the stars are clear, and you will see at its post the same sentinel star which God commanded of old to guard the throne of the eternal North. Arcturus and his sons are still circling around the pole, as they were when the Almighty answered Job out of the whirlwind, and challenged him to lead forth that prince of the ethereal host on his way. Orion is still girt with his blazing bands as he climbs the steep ascent of the eastern sky. The sweet influences of the Pleiades are still unbound. The signs and seasons are still numbered upon the glittering belt of Mazzaroth. There they stand, from century to century, upheld by nothing save God's invisible hand, withdrawn to an inconceivable distance from us in the silent and awful depths of space,—every star a world, and many of them a million times larger than our earth,—and yet there is no jar, no collision, no falling out of the ranks, no change of place. All earthly things fade and pass away. The whole order of human society has been repeatedly changed, revolutionized, and set up anew while the flood of ages sweeps along. But the hosts of heaven are marshaled forth in the same symmetrical order upon the measureless fields of space. The clouds and the tempests of earth have not dimmed the light of the stars. The shock of armies and the thunder of a thousand battles have not shaken one gem from the diadem of night. No hostile hand has hurled the sons of the morning from their flaming thrones.10 Can we not as believers in him who marshaled the host of heaven, and calleth them forth by name, come to him with our little load of trials and perplexities, and lay it down in his almighty arms? Let us lay aside our unbelieving worry. The Present Situation in the Balkan States
By L. R. Conradi
NOTHING is more helpful in order to understand the present difficulties in the Balkan States than a map from which can be readily seen how the different nationalities and creeds are intermingled in this territory. There are large compact areas in all the Balkan States where only Roumanians or Bulgarians or Servians or Greeks live. But whenever you come to the outskirts of these countries, then the map begins to look more like a “crazy quilt.” There are red patches of Greek settlements all along the seacoast of Bulgaria and of European and Asiatic Turkey, and in Albania. There are yellow patches of Turks in Roumania, Bulgaria, and Servia, and in Greece and Albania away up to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We see blue patches of Roumanians still in Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Servia, and Turkey. There are brown patches of Albanians in Montenegro, Servia, Greece, and even in Italy. There are violet patches of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, and Albania. But the patchwork and the variety of color become still more complicated when we come to their religion. The religious divisions of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula do by no means correspond to those of race. The Turks are not the only followers of Mohammed, for a large number of the subdued races, chiefly the Bulgarians, Albanians, and Servians, have, in order to escape oppression, turned converts to the creed of their rulers, and have since become fanatical followers of the Prophet. Thus we have Bulgarians and Servians who belong to the Orthodox Church, and a minority who have turned Mohammedans. In Albania the larger portion in the south is Mohammedan; the smaller, in the north, Roman Catholic. The Bulgarians, Greeks, and Servians all belong to the Greek Catholic faith, but each state has its own church; and as the national feeling is strong, they hate one another, because with them church and state are identical. Of the twenty-three millions in the six Balkan States, over twenty millions are adherents of the Greek Catholic Church, probably two millions are Mohammedans, and the rest Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Thus the Balkan Peninsula presents contrasts not only between the six Balkan nations, or between them and the church, but between Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews; and also among the professed Christians, and between Greek and Roman Catholics; and among the Greeks, between the Roumanian, Bulgarian, Servian, and Greek state churches. In the United States and Canada, one language largely predominates—the English. Freedom is granted to every nationality, and liberty to every belief. These nationalities assimilate of their own free will with the ruling nation, and within one or two generations all are good citizens of the new fatherland. The contrary is true in the Balkan States. Ever since the great migration brought these different nations into the Balkan Peninsula, they have held tenaciously to their nationality and creed where they were a solid mass, and have mostly done so where they were strewn in smaller settlements over the country. From childhood up, they imbibe not only the national hatred, but also the creed hatred. In the territories which Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro occupied before this late Turkish war, there was some intermingling. Turkey has constantly had its hands full to keep peace among all the so-called Christian subjects in its territory. But their very division kept them in weakness. The moment Turkey lost this territory and the Balkan States began to divide it, then the real difficulty appeared. There were large Bulgarian and Greek settlements interspersed; the same was true with the part that Servia claimed. The same issue arose also when Albania was set aside. Most of the subjects in these parts professed Christianity, but many had turned Mohammedans and were most fanatical. And yet the very preponderance of Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, or Albanians in disputed territory would turn the scale one way or the other. In their greed for territory, principles of justice, mercy, and tolerance were utterly disregarded; and wherever settlements of another nationality were found, they were driven out or exterminated. Of the male population no one was spared, from the child in the cradle to the old patriarch, and even many of the women were killed. Thus whole settlements of Bulgarians in Greek territory and Greeks in Bulgarian territory, disappeared. In a little while hundreds of thousands of Turks, who still lived in the Balkan States, had to leave their lands and houses and emigrate to Turkey in utter destitution. The Turks retaliated, and thousands of Greeks who had lived on Turkish soil, were driven out and had to emigrate to Greece. All this only added new fuel. As the great powers wanted to give the Albanians a national existence, the boundary commission had the most difficult task. In order to give the new state any kind of national boundaries, some Greek, Servian, and Macedonian settlements came within the line of Albania, and some Albanians remained in Greece, Servia, and Montenegro. Again, in Albania proper, while the great mass in the south are Mohammedans, quite a number in the north are Roman Catholics. So there was even in this small state abundant fuel for religious conflagrations. Had the Balkan States learned the lesson of civil and religious liberty, all these difficulties would not exist. If religion were not a state affair, many of these difficulties would not have appeared. In some parts of Greece, the remaining Mohammedans were even crucified. Greece itself does not allow the sale of the Bible in modern Greek. Lately, when Greece took possession of Saloniki, it decreed that all foreign firms must employ only Greeks in their offices. As the Bulgarians were driven out, and as there is an intense hatred now between the Greeks and the Bulgarians, the latter recently converted all the Greek churches and schools in Bulgaria into Bulgarian. Thousands of people would assemble in the cities of Sofia, Rustchuk, Varna, etc., take possession of the Greek churches and schools, change everything Greek into Bulgarian; and the Greek churches became Bulgarian property. But while all this is going on and the Balkans seem like a seething volcano, which at any moment may erupt anew, God’s work is to go on. There are at present in the Balkan States about six hundred Sabbath keepers, five hundred of whom live in Roumania and form a self-supporting conference. But should we include the Roumanian and Servian Sabbath keepers in Hungary and Austria, this number would probably not be far from one thousand. They have suffered greatly during the war. In Roumania, every able-bodied man was called to arms, and forty-four of our brethren, including all our workers, were taken. The same was true in Bulgaria and Turkey. Some left these latter countries, never to return. This is a terrible blow, as our force of workers was already so small. Roumania did not entangle itself, and being the strongest before, it has now become the leading Balkan state. It has acquired quite a strip from Bulgaria, and with it one of our churches, which we have lately transferred. Other Protestant denominations have tried in vain to gain a foothold in Roumania. We tried for years, but finally got some good native workers; and in spite of all opposition, a prosperous conference has grown up. But the more we grow, the more the priests become enraged. They even appealed to the state attorney. He told them that as the constitution guaranteed religious liberty, he could not do any- anything, and their only weapon would be to use kind persuasion. But a new ministry came, more favorable to the clergy. The clergy renewed its attempts, and is being heard. Priests, accompanied by armed policemen, have gone to the houses of our people in full ornate, forced the people to kneel before them, and demanded them to renounce their heresy. In case they refused, the priests struck them with the crosses which they carried in their hands, and the policemen with their swords. Thus the cross of liberty becomes the sign of religious thralldom, being joined with the fleshly sword. Quite a number of government employees had accepted present truth, and had succeeded in obtaining the Sabbath free. But the priests learned of this, and now a decree has gone forth that all such must be dismissed. The priests tried to hire false witnesses to testify that we teach insubordination to the government. The matter is before the court. Ought we not to remember our struggling workers and brethren and sisters in the Balkans in this time of crisis? In spite of persecution, they remain of good courage, and press the battle to the very gate of the enemy. Political and religious difficulties in almost any part of the world today involve us as a peculiar, united people. The more we spread and the more we increase, the more all these difficulties, wars, and strifes cause suffering to some dear members of the great family of Christ, which is walking in the commandments of God. Troublous times are before us; some of our people feel it keenly. What we need to do is to work more diligently than ever that the God-given task may soon be accomplished. A Needy Mission Field
By O. A. OLSEN
I know not what title other than “A Needy Mission Field” to give to the ever foreign field that is here in North America, the homeland of the message. The tide of immigration which a hundred years ago, yes, even fifty years ago, was only a few thousands each year, has increased so rapidly that it has startled the world. Instead of coming by thousands, they come by the hundreds of thousands every year, and in 1907 more than a million and a quarter of these immigrants landed on the shores of the United States, in addition to the thousands that landed in the great Dominion of Canada. True, the tide fluctuates; they do not come in the same numbers every year. That the reader may have some idea of the rate at which they are coming, we give below the number of immigrants that have landed in the United States, year by year, for the last ten years:—| Year |
Number |
Year |
Number |
|---|
| 1904 |
815,361 |
1909 |
751,786 |
| 1905 |
1,026,499 |
1910 |
1,041,570 |
| 1906 |
1,100,735 |
1911 |
878,587 |
| 1907 |
1,285,349 |
1912 |
838,172 |
| 1908 |
782,870 |
1913 |
1,197,892 |
Total ........................9,718,821 This is in the United States alone. Add to these the thousands and thousands that have entered Canada during the same time, which also composes a part of our field. North America presents a condition worthy of most careful study and interest from the standpoint of the third angel’s message to all the world in this generation. From where do they come? In reply to that, let me quote from the report of the Government Immigration Commission for the year ending June 30, 1913: “Here they are, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Denmark, France, Corsica, German Empire, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Roumania, Russian Empire and Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, China, Japan, India, Africa, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, etc.” Here they are from all quarters of the globe. The countries furnishing the largest numbers in 1913 are: Russia, including Finland, 295,040; Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia, 265,542; Austria, 137,245; Hungary, 117,586. The other countries follow with lesser numbers. These figures will give the reader some idea of the condition of our country’s population. Who will say that we do not have an extensive foreign mission field right here in the homeland? Where do they locate? To this we answer, Everywhere. It is true, however, that the larger number settle in our large cities. About thirty-four per cent settle in New York, a smaller number in the cities of Massachusetts and in the larger cities in the interior of the country; but aside from those who go to these large cities, we meet the foreigners everywhere, in the cities, the rural districts, the populous country districts, and on the great prairies of the West. In short, they are everywhere, and sometimes in large compact communities, where they keep up their foreign customs and preserve their own peculiar characteristics and languages for generations. We find men and women who were born in America many of whom speak no English, and others who have only a very limited knowledge of it. Such is the situation in general, and it is no wonder that it is attracting the attention of the government and of thinking people in both state and church. It is but natural and right that it should, for it presents a condition of things that unless properly cared for may be a menace to both state and church, instead of a blessing. The phase of this question that is of special interest to us is its relation to the gospel message to all nations in this generation. The Master stated very definitely that— This Gospel of the Kingdom
should be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then would come the end. We are putting forth a strong effort to bring the message to people in foreign lands, which is what we ought to do; but while doing that, we should not overlook the foreigners whom providence has brought in such vast numbers to our very doors. If we had put forth greater efforts for these foreigners who have come to us from all countries in the world, our work in the foreign fields would have been less difficult; for among these nationalities many would have accepted the truth who could have been quickly trained to bear the message to their own people. This is evident, from the results of the small efforts that have been made to give the message to the foreigners in this country. Aside from all that, we owe a duty to all these foreigners. They must hear the message, and now is the time to give it to them. Something has been done, but even among those where most has been done, there are a great many yet unwarned. It has been found by experience12that new settlements are by all means the most favorable to work. Old associations have been broken; new relations, new acquaintances, are being made; religious privileges are few, and prejudices have to quite an extent given way. Such opportunities should be improved to the fullest extent possible, for they yield an abundant harvest at a comparatively small outlay of labor and means. We have not taken advantage of this as much as we should have done, and it is our duty, at this late hour, to do our utmost, for the day in which we can work is far spent. Workers are needed in these various tongues, and funds with which to support and carry on the work. This is the situation everywhere. What can we do? What course can we take to supply both money and workers? While attending camp meetings in Western Canada, many brethren in all the provinces spoke to me of large communities of foreigners—Germans, Russians, Swedes, Norwegians, and others—whose religious privileges were few, who were calling for some one to come and preach to them the gospel of salvation. I presented these calls to the various conference presidents and others, but they had neither the workers nor the funds to support them; so what could they do? What we find in Canada, we find in many other places. Truly it is a needy field. Our local conferences feel deeply over the situation, and so does our North American Division Conference Committee. Feeling that something very definite should be done to meet it, they have decided to call for a special collection to be taken on Sabbath, August 22, 1914, for the foreign work in North America. Think what it would mean if the North American Division Conference could render some aid to the local conferences, through the Foreign Department, to promote this work by developing laborers and by assisting them when they are ready to enter these promising open doors. This is what the offering has in view, and we believe it will appeal to all our people. We are not asking for money to build any institution, however good and proper that may be; but we are asking for funds to enable us to assist in developing laborers among the foreign nationalities, and to assist where it is necessary in order to get them started in the work. Our local conferences have shown themselves ready to do their utmost to cooperate in this work, and now we ask all to help us, and thus aid in hastening the message to its final and glorious consummation. The Bible’s Worldwide Circulation
“A STATISTICIAN tells us that the Bible is now published in over 600 languages, and that every year from eight to ten new languages are added to the list. During the year which ended May 1, the British and Foreign Bible Society distributed 8,958,233 copies of the Bible entire or in part. During the same period the American Bible Society circulated no less than 5,251,176 copies of the entire Scriptures or bound portions of the Bible. A grand total by all Bible societies of more than 18,000,000 copies is the best answer we can offer to the critics. During the past year in China alone 2,183,000 Bibles were distributed in the various Chinese dialects. No ten of the most popular books the world ever published can together equal the present circulation of the Bible, and that is saying nothing of the millions of copies that have already been circulated in all parts of the world. Truly the Word shall accomplish the mission whereunto it hath been sent.”