Our Need of the South by M. BESSIE DEGRAW

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 30, 1914

Our Need of the South

By M. BESSIE DEGRAW

Most Seventh-day Adventists are familiar with the needs of the South. They have had their attention called over and over again to the matter by the workers in this section, and the spirit of prophecy has emphasized the importance of the work in this field for many years. It is an accepted fact that this is a section of the mission field that needs work, that greatly needs it. It needs all the attention that we are able to give it.

But there is another phase of the subject I wish to bring to your attention, and that is the fact that we Seventh-day Adventists have great need of the South. I have lived in the South for the past ten years, and every year strengthens the conviction that we need the South even more than the South needs us.

We are now living in the last days of the world's history. Character must be developed rapidly. And it is strong character that is needed to put us in the kingdom of God. Of this last church it is written, “Here is the patience of the saints.” The question is asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” The answer must be, Yes; for only those having the faith of the Saviour himself will be able to go through to the end. There must be faith to overcome every known sin; faith to step out at the call of God as did Abraham; faith to go through the plagues of the last days,—the greatest physical trouble the world will ever know,—and yet go through free from disease; faith in the daily resurrection of the body from sin and disease. Surely the Son of man must find faith on the earth when he comes to claim his own.

Patience and faith are two of the virtues that must characterize the people of God in the end of the world. And our God has a way to develop these virtues. The Bible tells us how he does it. It is recorded in the life history of that forefather of ours, Abraham, “the friend of God,” called so by his God because of the simple, trusting faith that he had developed in his Father's training school.

Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldees; he was a member of a large church; he was surrounded by his relatives and friends; he was making money, and life looked bright to him. He was an honest man who wanted to do the right thing. And God, seeing this inclination in his heart, called him to leave that prosperous land to take up his home in a new and distant land, a land that did not produce so well as his home, a land where his natural surroundings would not be so pleasant, and where there were many people who knew nothing of the God of heaven.

The Lord had a twofold purpose in calling this family to this mission field: he wanted to carry the truth to the land of Canaan, and he also wanted to save the missionary and his family. Abraham's children, if brought up in Babylon, would not grow up in the truth; if the family could be planted on new soil under different conditions where there was constant necessity to work for others less fortunate than themselves, they would have a better chance to be saved themselves. God wanted Abraham and his children in the new earth, just as we believe he wants Adventists in the new earth, and this was his way of preparing them for that place.

It is dangerous for us to cling to the larger centers—to Ur of the Chaldees. He has told us not to cluster about the larger churches, but to scatter into the needy parts of the vineyard. There should be hundreds of schools and mission centers all through the South, and there are hundreds of Adventists who need the experience of starting these centers. Sanitariums and treatment rooms are called for in the cities and country places of the South, and there are hundreds of Adventists who are able to do a work of a simple nature as outlined by the spirit of prophecy if they were but awakened to the fact. And they need just the inspiration and the new life that will come with the effort.

One coming South may have his choice of work. There are the wealthy; there are the poor white people; there are the colored people; there are the highland people. He may choose for himself.

The workers in the South see some very encouraging things sometimes to cheer them on the way. As an illustration, a few weeks ago the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute, at Madison, Tenn., had the pleasure of a visit from a company of twenty-three California young people who were on their way to the site of the new school in the northern part of the State of Georgia.

One year ago Prof. W. S. Boynton, a member of the faculty of the San Fernando (Cal.) Academy, spent the summer in the Madison school studying with others the principles of Christian education and the South as a mission field. Brother Boynton returned to his school work in California with the settled conviction that the Lord wanted him in the South. As he studied the matter, the conviction deepened, and gradually the way opened, in what seemed a providential way, for him and a number of others to connect with a work opening up in Georgia.

Hundreds of families are called. In this case a few responded. We are yet to see many such scenes as were witnessed when the students of the Madison school and this company of new recruits in the Southern work studied together some of the problems of this field.

There are a multitude of equally interesting things in connection with this southern work. I wish the readers of the REVIEW might all attend the annual convention, to be held at Madison, October 9-13, which brings together the men and women working in this field. Particulars will be given to those who desire them.

M. BESSIE DEGRAW.