More Workers to the Front by M. E. OLSEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 26, 1912

More Workers to the Front

By M. E. OLSEN

It is the aim at the Foreign Mission Seminary, alike of students and teachers, to keep the eye continually fixed on the great harvest-field, and to make the work of each day tell definitely in qualifying for a place among the reapers; but perhaps the essential character of the institution makes itself more strongly felt on those not infrequent occasions when a little band of students bids farewell to the pleasant associations of the place and starts for the front. Such was the character of the meeting in the Seminary chapel on Tuesday night, December 10, when four members of the family, namely, Brother and Sister Brown, Miss Frankie Stout, and Miss Audrey Murphy, said a few parting words to their associates previous to starting for their fields of labor. These four, together with Brother and Sister Wm. Kirstein, of the Review and Herald Office, make up a party of six bound for South America.

The meeting was opened with prayer by Elder G. B. Thompson, after which a male quartet rendered the spirited missionary song “I Go.” Elder N. Z. Town then made a few remarks based on his own pioneer experiences in South America.

“The countries to which we are sending these workers,” he said, “contain a combined population of about forty millions. Brother and Sister Brown go to Brazil, with a territory as large as that of the United States, and a population of twenty millions, three fourths of whom can neither read nor write. Yet Brazil is one of the foremost countries of South America, and the truth has obtained a foothold there. Since work was begun in 1894, from sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred believers have been raised up, and, although the force of workers is small, their faithful efforts are being crowned with success. Brother Brown is to circulate our literature in Brazil; and as railways are scarce, he will have to do a great deal of his traveling on muleback. Brother and Sister Kirstein will settle in Florida, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he will have charge of our printing work. Here are some of the papers which he will be getting out [holding up a number of attractive-looking periodicals]. This magazine, La Salud y Vida, circulates in Spain and Mexico, as well as in South America. This is the missionary paper, published monthly; and this is the church paper, corresponding to our own REVIEW AND HERALD, and published for the Spanish believers throughout the world. The two nurses, Miss Stout and Miss Murphy, will take up work in Montevideo, the capital of the little state of Uruguay, and the cleanest city I have ever seen. They will find plenty to do for the Master in that beautiful and rapidly growing city. You will all have a new language to learn, and there will be things to test your powers of adaptation. You leave here in the middle of winter, but you land there in the middle of summer. You will find that the people there have different customs, and some of these will not be pleasing to you; but you will have grace from God to overlook such things, and give yourselves to the salvation of precious souls. You will all meet with a hearty welcome on the part of the struggling friends and workers already in the field. You will find plenty of earnest work awaiting you.”

Elder Thompson then spoke as follows:—

“Our workers in these far-off mission fields are looking to the Foreign Mission Seminary for missionaries, and little do we realize with what joy they await the arrival of reenforcements. To every sinner in this world, the Lord says, ‘Come’; to every converted person, he says, ‘Go’; yes, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’

“There is sacrifice involved in going. Parents give up their children, the most precious thing they have. The children leave home and dear ones, break off the associations of many happy years, and face new associations and new duties in a far-off country. But there are also compensations. The greatest joy in the world is to be found in consecrated service for others. Languages differ, customs differ; but human hearts are the same the world over. Look deep enough, and you will always find something precious, something worthy of your most earnest efforts.

“I have been thinking while sitting here of some of the things our missionaries must be able to do, and the list is not a small one. They must first learn a foreign language. Then, as people are converted and turn to the Lord, they must be able to train these persons. They must teach them how to live. They must win them away from their old superstitions, and from many of their old customs, which are dear to them. They must build churches and start schools, sanitariums, and printing-houses. They must get out literature, and they must circulate it. For all these means are to be used in carrying the last warning message to the world. They must know how to put up with hardships. Elder Town has told us that Brother Brown will need to know how to ride a mule. Sometimes other qualifications are called for. The other day a certain mission board received this request from a mission field: ‘Send us a good swimmer. The last one was drowned.’ Missionaries must have courage to work under trying circumstances. There is a halo about this work as we view it from afar, but often the halo disappears as we view it face to face. We must be able to work without the halo, and we must go on working, confident of final victory, even when confronted with what seems to be certain defeat.

“Will it pay to endure these hardships? Ask Moses if it paid to give up all the treasures of Egypt; ask Judson, and Carey, and Morrison, and the other worthies who have gone before; they will tell you it does pay a thousandfold. May God prosper you all in taking up work in the Neglected Continent, and may you for your reward win many souls.”

Mrs. N. Z. Town then addressed a few words especially to the women. She told of the noble efforts of the women already at work in various parts of South America, and expressed her joy over the thought of sending them these reenforcements.

The foregoing remarks were followed by a few words from the departing workers.

“I was reared on a farm,” said Brother Brown, “and riding one of those mules will seem so much like being at home that it may almost make me homesick. Seven years ago I first heard a missionary sermon. I was not a Christian at that time, but the talk made a deep impression on my mind. Somehow it seemed to be a call to me. Not long after, I gave my heart to God, and entered Keene Academy to fit myself for the work. I came to the Seminary to get further help, and now I am starting for the field. It is with regret I leave my friends here, but I go to find other friends; and although you and I may never meet again in this life, we may all make an appointment to meet again under the tree of life in the kingdom of God.”

Sister Brown: “I have been asked, ‘Don’t you hate to go to far-off Brazil?’ My answer is, No. Christ gave his life for me, and I am glad to give my life to carry the gospel to those who know it not. My heart will be with the people of Brazil. I hope there to win souls for Christ, that I may at the last day have some stars in my crown.”

Sister Stout: “Instead of considering this a sacrifice, I consider it a privilege. I am glad the Lord has given me a place to work in his vineyard. I am thankful for the time spent at the Seminary; it has given me broader ideas of the message. I go to my field knowing the Lord will help me.”

Sister Murphy: “I can not remember when God first put it into my heart to work in foreign lands, but I have had the desire from childhood. Six years ago, when Elder N. W. Kauble, then at the head of Emmanuel Missionary College, in Berrien Springs, asked how many of the students expected to enter foreign mission work, I raised my hand for India; but I am just as willing to go to South America. I am thankful for the privileges I have enjoyed at the Seminary, especially so for the opportunities for practical work in the city of Washington which I have had in connection with the Bible training-class. I expect to use every talent God may give me in saving souls.”

Prof. M. E. Kern in a few closing remarks recalled the time when he first met Brother Brown out on the far-stretching prairies of Kansas. He believed that Brother Brown’s home training has been an admirable one for meeting the peculiar conditions of the field

to which he is going. The young women have also been well trained, Miss Stout in the sanitariums at College View and Loma Linda, and Miss Murphy at Berrien Springs college and in the Wabash Valley Sanitarium. Brother Kirstein has been given a special training in various departments of the Review and Herald. Best of all, these young people have shown by their daily lives that they have learned those deeper lessons in the school of Christ which fit men and women to bear responsibilities in God’s cause.

Elder J. N. Anderson offered the closing prayer. Thus ended a meeting marked by the manifest presence of God, not in emotional excitement nor in any outward demonstration of feeling, but rather in a spirit of deep heart consecration to the one great aim of giving the gospel to the world in this generation.

These young people have been with us only since the beginning of the year; but in this short time we have learned to love them, and they carry with them to their field of labor the earnest best wishes of the entire school. These good wishes are equally shared by Brother and Sister Kirstein, who, while not regular students at the Seminary, are well known to all the faculty by the interest they have taken in the Seminary chorus and by their activity in other lines of Christian work.

And now that these have gone, we must concentrate our efforts on the training of those who remain; for their turn will soon come. The Seminary does not keep its students. It passes them on to the field.

M. E. OLSEN.