The Farewell Missionary Service at the General Conference
(Reading for Sabbath, July 26, After Opening Song and Prayer) The Farewell Missionary Service at the General Conference
The testimonies continued, touching and inspiring all hearts. Philip Giddings (West Indies): I realize here that heaven is both a condition and a place. I have spent four of my happiest weeks here. The Lord has blessed me greatly in this Conference. I have met friends that I knew in America eighteen years ago, and the joy was so great that we could hardly keep the tears back. Think what the joy will be when we all meet in the kingdom of God. Truly this is a wonderful people. I remember eighteen years ago, in Battle Creek, I was sick and in the hospital along with two other patients. While lying in bed I closed my eyes for a moment, and these two patients thought I was asleep. One of them made this remark: “These Seventh-day Adventists are a wonderful people. No matter what their race or language, they all speak the same thing, and they all act alike. They must be the ten lost tribes of Israel.” I am glad to be among the Israel of God. I hope to be with this people at that great general conference on the sea of glass. J. E. Fulton (Australia): Many times in this Conference the prayer has gone up from my heart that God would make me a more useful missionary. Now I am anxious to go back to the field. The nineteen years I spent there seem as but a few years. We have many brethren and sisters there who love the truth the same as you do; and there are many dark places in that land where many of us are anxious to see the banner of truth unfurled. A. W. Anderson (Australia): All the other missionaries who have spoken have been missionaries from this country to foreign lands, but I am from another land, though at home among you. It is twenty years since I accepted the truth in Australia. I was told by my relatives that I should lose all my friends; but I have always taken comfort from this text of Scripture: “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” I used to think this was a mere figure of speech; but I had not been long with this people before I found it was literally true. Wherever I have traveled and found Seventh-day Adventists, I have found brothers and sisters, and fathers and mothers, and houses and lands; for I was made welcome as a part of the great family. In Tahiti, in San Francisco, in Portland, wherever I went, it was just the same. And now here in this great General Conference, it is like one great family. When I came on this ground, I found that my relatives had multiplied a thousandfold. I am so thankful to be one with you. A. H. Piper (New South Wales): The thing that has impressed me more than anything else since I began my travels from Australia, through Italy, Switzerland, France, England, and then over here, has been the uniform love I have found in the hearts of our people. And, brethren, on behalf of our delegation from Australia, I can express to you our appreciation of all your love extended toward us. Another thing that has impressed me here, and that is the wealth of young men and women you have here in America. I have asked myself the question again and again, How many of them are going to the foreign field? G. S. Fisher (Australia): In our sanitarium in Australia we have many bright young people. As I go back with this added experience, I feel I shall have more power of the Holy Spirit to labor for souls in pointing them to a risen Saviour. I believe that very soon the end will come. I have often wondered how the work is to be accomplished; but since I have been here, my eyes have been opened to the resources of this people, as I have seen the hundreds and thousands of young people we have. We have a glorious message, and this work will be cut short in righteousness. Mrs. J. E. Fulton (Australia): Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. We have had trials, perplexities, and afflictions many times in the mission field. I myself have been brought to death’s door; but the Lord has delivered me out of all my afflictions. All these things are nothing compared to the joy, the love, the satisfaction that we have in seeing souls saved in the South Sea. If I had my life and my strength and my youth back again, I should pray the Lord to send me to the South Sea to spend the remainder of my days. R. W. Munson (East Indies): Fifteen years ago I accepted the truth at Battle Creek, and was sent out to Sumatra, the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary in that field. Brother and Sister Jones, who are here today, were the first missionaries to follow me. I do not want to forget to speak of the last worker to join us before I left Java, Brother Richard Sisley. He has passed the three-score mark; and yet he has settled down to study the language, and is teaching the Chinese boys to speak English, and through that is giving them the gospel. I believe there will be precious souls in the kingdom through Brother Sisley’s labors. It was a great grief to me and to my wife to have to leave Java; but it was necessary to save her life. Now I do not know that we can go back; but we have dedicated our three sons to the work in the East Indies; and one is to go back next year. My heart is glad to see at this Conference so many young people going out to China and to the Philippines, and to those dark lands where the gospel should go. A. G. Daniells: Brother Sheafe will sing to us now, L. C. Sheafe (singing):—
“There is a blessing in the cross for me,
In the cross where Jesus died.
It was there I found salvation free,
Through a Saviour crucified.
And the story of redeeming grace
Is the theme of all my song;
And the hope to one day see his face
Cheers me all the way along.” A. G. Daniells: While we are rejoicing this afternoon in these messages that come to us, I feel we should not forget to rejoice that Brother Sheafe and his people are united with us today [Amens]. We are praying that his ministry from this time on will be greatly blessed of God; that he will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, to reach thousands of the colored people in this country. L. C. Sheafe: I am truly glad to be in the assembly of this people throughout this Conference session. My heart and mind go back to the early days of my experience in this message, and to the kindly attitude the people held toward me and my people in unfolding this word to us. I see men and women here from the North and the South, from the East and the West, to whom God has permitted us to break the bread of life; and my heart goes out in praise and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father for his loving-kindness and his tender mercy that he has spared us to again mingle our hearts and voices, and our activities, and to consecrate our energies with yours, in the proclamation of this message, that it may be hastened to the close. L. V. Finster (Philippine Islands): I wish to express my thankfulness for the privilege, after a separation of twelve years, of meeting friends again in the home land; but I must say that after I had my visit, my heart was soon back in the field I had left. I have learned to love the people there, and I have been longing for the time to hasten when I shall go back to them again. Mrs. L. V. Finster (who a year ago was invalided home): Sometimes people ask me if I am not sorry I am going back to the Philippines. I feel sorry for you who cannot go back with us. Instead of being sorry, I am glad. We have a people there one cannot help but love. C. L. Butterfield (Korea): I am indeed thankful for the privilege I have enjoyed of attending this meeting. I have received many and great blessings here. It has been a great privilege to meet old friends and workers again. But my heart turns back to Korea. I have learned to love that people, and I want to spend and be spent for them, to raise up souls to share the new earth with you. As I return, I know that your prayers go with me. Many times when discouragements came, a letter from home saying, “We are praying for you,” has been a great help to us. From this point on we shall have to abridge the report. Other workers from the South Sea, the West Indies, South Africa, the Asiatic Division, India and Burma, and Europe, answered to the roll-call of the nations and peoples, the same key-note of love for this people and the work ringing out in each testimony. Our hearts were glad as Brother and Sister G. C. Lowry, of India, expressed their hope of soon getting back among the Tamil people. Sister Lowry was sent home to die last year, but by the blessing of God is making splendid progress toward full recovery. Elder W. G. Bond (Spain) translated a testimony given in Spanish by Sister Lola Casals: I thank God for having brought me out from under the power of the “beast” by the power of the third angel’s message. I thank this people for having sent a son of this country to Spain to bring us the light that has brought me out of the power of the papal beast; and I thank God for the Brethren Bond whose parents gave them to consecrate their lives to this message in Spain. J. L. Shaw (India): The testimonies which I have heard this afternoon have moved my heart very much, because they bring to mind some of the experiences through which the missionary in the field is called to pass. And brethren and sisters, some of these experiences are sacred to our hearts. We cannot tell in a meeting like this the real experience through which we pass. As we hear of those who have fallen at their post, we are reminded of conflicts which we have had. I have been called to the bedside of those who have been sick; I have seen them fall; I have gone to their graves, and I have visited their graves in after-years. But, dear friends, we must expect this. It is one of the incidents of warfare. And as we are sending out more missionaries to the field, I presume there will be more graves in the mission field. That matters not. If we are only faithful to the work, in a little while we shall reap if we faint not. Mary Robertson (South Africa): A little over twenty-four years ago when you first sent laborers to South Africa, our family accepted the third angel’s message under the labors of Elder I. J. Hankins. I want to say to the praise of God that ever since the precious truth has been blessed to me. Sixteen years of that time have been spent in laboring for the Master, and I want especially to thank God for the value that the testimonies of his Spirit have been to me in my work. J. S. James (India): About seven years ago the Mission Board gave me an invitation to go to India. I wrote to my mother, who was an aged pioneer in this cause, and asked her what she thought about my going. (I am saying this for the benefit of some gray hairs I see here this afternoon.) I was the only child in the truth of a large family that she had reared. When I asked in my letter how she felt about my going to India, she wrote back like this: ‘To this end were you born.’ I went away, and I have been in the foreign field seven years. When I went, I wrote her that perhaps I should never see her face again until we were in the kingdom of God together. My father was one who saw the stars fall in 1833; and I had to write the same message to him. While I am in this land, I must go and look on the graves of those parents; but I know, dear friends, that they died with a bright and blessed hope. We have a loyal body of believers in southern India today, who are looking at this time to this General Conference and to its results. When I came away, they said, ‘When you go to the General Conference, we hope you will impress upon the people there our great need in south India, and when you come back, bring some help with you.’ Mrs. August Anderson (Finland and north Sweden): It is twelve years since we left this country for our Finnish field of labor. We labored there for nine years. During the last three years we labored in the northern part of Sweden, where I lost my dear companion. He fell at his post. A week before he died he preached his last sermon. After the meeting a sister came to me and said, ‘O, how he preached tonight! He preached as if it were the last time he was going to speak.’ We had no idea it was his last sermon, but it was. I have now returned to this country to educate my children for the work of God. There is nothing in this world that I long for more than that my children will be able to do something in the cause of God. As the delegates and congregation listened to these parting words from the mission field representatives, it was voted to respond to their testimony as follows:— Our Answer to the Missionaries
We, the delegates and representatives of North America, wish to assure the visitors from other lands that their presence with us, their reports of the progress of the message, and their testimonies of good cheer and consecration to the work have blessed and inspired our hearts in this land where the advent message had its rise. We rejoice at the evidences brought before us that the cry of the third angel is being heard over land and sea, and that the people of the prophecy are gathering,—that company of every nation and tongue, keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” We ask our visiting missionaries to thank these brethren and sisters of ours in other lands for the greetings sent to us; and we ask that, in returning to their fields, our visiting brethren be sure to tell these fellow believers, of many tongues and tribes; that we rejoice that they have learned to love this “blessed hope,” and we love them, as brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, pledged with us to the carrying of the last gospel message to all the world. We thank them for the welcome given our fellow workers who have brought the truth to them. We rejoice in the prosperity and growth reported by their representatives who have been at this Conference; and we pray that the day may quickly come when the work will be finished, and we shall meet face to face in the heavenly kingdom. To our missionary visitors, we say, God speed you as you return to your fields of labor. We pledge to you the prayers of the believers in the North American Division Conference as you go, and as God gives us grace we shall stand by the missionary advance with men and means as never before, until the work is done and the Saviour calls his people home. Words From the “Old Hands”
A. G. Daniells: I have thought it would be proper here to hear from some of our “war-horses,” J. N. Loughborough, G. I. Butler, S. N. Haskell, and O. A. Olsen, to finish this up. I cannot say anything to these brethren about brevity. J. N. Loughborough: I have heard a great many express themselves that they were more thankful than anybody else on the ground. It makes me think of what my grandfather used to tell, when he lived in Trenton, N. J., in the devoted days of Methodism. They were talking about the virtue and the grace of Christ, and one man got up and said, “Brethren, I suppose I am the biggest sinner in this house.” Grandfather said there was a man behind him who said, “John, John, you forget I am here.” If any of you think you are the happiest man on this camp-ground, you must have forgotten I am here. I believe in the providence of God. I believe that if time should last until another General Conference, you would want a tent ten times as big as this one to hold the people. G. I. Butler: I do not know what to say, brethren, in view of such a congregation as this. I do not know that I could represent them very well. I can say that I have felt very much blessed myself in the meetings, and that I have appreciated beyond expression what I have learned in regard to the work in foreign lands. I shall carry it away from this meeting, and I hope to express to others what a wonderful and glorious evidence this is of the soon coming of Christ. I know that I express the feelings of this great audience when I say that we are very thankful to God for this privilege. S. N. Haskell: I feel something as Brother Butler expresses it: I hardly know what to say. I am thankful for this meeting, for the evidences right before us of the soon coming of the Lord. From the time I embraced the Sabbath, sixty years ago, we talked about the time when the truth would go to all the world; but we did not have the least idea how it would be. In fact, we thought the people from the different nations were to come over to this country and get the truth; but we see now that the truth has gone to all the world. God is working in these different nations in a most miraculous manner to gather in souls. And that is the surest sign of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If ever a people on the face of the earth were called to have faith in Christ, it is Seventh-day Adventists at the present time, from what we see at this meeting. I thank God from the bottom of my heart. When some of the brethren were talking about the fields, I wished I were forty or fifty years younger; I should like to go there. But they say I am getting a little old. I do not know but I am. I am very thankful for what I see today, and what I have heard. A. G. Daniells: I have rejoiced all through this, that some of our brethren were here who used to tug and pull so hard to get the work started back there; I remember the days well when they were in the harness. They were pulling a tremendous load; and now they see before them a great body of active men out in those fields. Praise God! Now, Brother Shireman, come up here. You cannot be heard there. Come right along at once. D. T. Shireman (from the platform): I am sorry I did not get up before Brother Haskell. He told my story. Fifty years ago we used to read in “Early Writings” about the loud cry of the third angel’s message. Brethren, we are in it. A. G. Daniells: This is my father, or grandfather, in the message, the man who brought this glorious truth to my mother’s home when I was four and one-half years old. I had no father. He had died in the army. My mother was a widow; and this man brought the third angel’s message into our doors. I have never ceased to revere his name and honor him, and I expect to meet him in the kingdom of God, on the sea of glass. D. T. Shireman: I took the truth to that place in the deepest poverty. There is a story connected with it too long to tell, but I am thankful I passed through the trial, and had the privilege of taking the truth there.643 A. G. Daniells: Now, Brother Olsen will close the meeting. We have been together about four hours, and we must soon close. J. O. Corliss: I should like the privilege of saying just a word. I can remember when I received this truth, that we had no idea that it ever would grow to the extent it has. I remember very well forty-five years ago, when Brethren Loughborough and Bourdeau went to California to start the work there. We said, “Surely the Lord will come now, for the message is going to the ends of the world.” We thought that was as far as it could ever go, to California. And now I am thankful to God that I have lived to be at this General Conference, perhaps the last one I shall ever be permitted to attend. Brethren, I want my heart to be in tune with this work all the way along, until the Master comes. A. C. Bourdeau: I thank the Lord that I embraced the truth nearly fifty-eight years ago. I loved it then, I love it far more today than I did then. I would never separate from this people for anything in this world. This is my people. E. A. Curtis: Elder Loughborough preached this message to my father more than fifty years ago. About forty years ago, I and the members of my family listened to Elder D. M. Canright, and we accepted the truth from his ministry. I have been connected with the work ever since. I have loved it as my life. A. G. Daniells: You don’t know how hard it is for me to in any way stop this, but it has been nearly four hours now. We will let Brother Brown (who was standing) say a word. M. H. Brown: Yes, brethren and sisters, I have watched with intense interest the progress of this work for many years,—since 1871, when we embraced the truth,—and my heart rejoices at this scene today. By God’s grace, brethren, I shall be with you to the end. O. A. Olsen: I want to be counted with the foreign missionaries. I wondered if I should get the privilege. For twelve years I was abroad—Africa, Europe, Australia. For the last four years I have been in the foreign work in the home field, and today I stand here as a representative of some thirty or forty millions from all these nationalities who are right here in our own land. I am glad that the Lord is reaching out after them as well as those far away. I do earnestly pray that the burden for these souls at home may also rest upon this people. Brethren and sisters, this is the great day of the feast. It has been a wonderful feast, and I tell you this is an evidence of the loud cry of the third angel’s message, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. We are having it here this afternoon in a most marked manner. It is not in any special flight of feeling, but it is in the forward march of this message to the ends of the earth, and that is what is in the loud cry of the third angel’s message, for the finishing of this glorious work. I rejoice that in a short time from this the great General Conference will be around the throne of God, when the saved will be there from all nations and kindreds and tongues and people, not only a few representatives, but in the fulness of their numbers. A. G. Daniells: I do not know whether my conscience will be quite clear unless I give Brother W. C. White a word in closing; and we all want him to take our Christian love and loyalty and greeting to his mother from this Conference. W. C. White: I had no thought to take a moment of your time. I have been taking notes of this meeting to hasten off to mother by the first mail. Her heart rejoices to hear what she can hear so far away of this blessed meeting; and I thank God that through our reporters many of our people can hear it. Brethren, I thank God with a full heart for the privilege of service, for the privilege of association with you, and I thank him for the privileges of this meeting, and my prayer is that he will guide us day by day to the end of this conflict. A. G. Daniells: While so many have been speaking I have seen Brother Edson White looking wistfully up this way. Come, Brother White, the elder brother of W. C. White. J. E. White: The principal thought that has been in my mind this afternoon is to compare this General Conference with the first one I attended in my father’s kitchen in Rochester, N. Y. I did want to say that much to you this afternoon. This is a wonderful gathering as compared with that. When mention was made of so many in other lands who have never known of Jesus Christ, I thought of one teacher in the South, who gathered, within a few rods of our church, a group of young children who did not know who Jesus Christ was. So I hope you will be interested also in work for the mountain whites in the South. I pray that we may have the benediction of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as we separate from this place, and that we may join in working for the salvation of souls as never before in all our lives. At this point the entire great assembly voted that the report of this farewell meeting should be sent to all the churches to be read at the time of the Midsummer Offering for missions. And it was voted to ask the believers to bring to God the largest Midsummer Offering to missions that we have ever had. It is needed—many large gifts and many thousands of smaller ones—to send out a large band of new missionaries this season, and to provide for a large extension of the work in many lands. [Here let the offering be taken. Isolated believers may either send their offerings to their church treasurer or direct to their conference office. May there be many liberal gifts to God at this time.]