Notes from the Edinburgh Missionary Conference by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 21, 1910

Notes from the Edinburgh Missionary Conference

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE largest world's congress on missions ever held is in session in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are gathered here from all lands about twelve hundred delegates of the Protestant societies, in the congress proper; and several thousand other representatives are in attendance at parallel meetings, really a part of the congress.

This great gathering is of the deepest interest to us, as a sign that the day of the Lord is at hand. Here is focused a mighty movement that comes in the providence of God to prepare the way for the closing work of the gospel.

The sure word of prophecy predicted the rise of the great apostasy. It predicted also the shortening of the days of the papal supremacy, and the breaking in of the light once again. The great Reformation movement of the sixteenth century accomplished this work, and set free the Word of God.

But the sure word of prophecy also foretold the world-wide spreading abroad of the light of that Word in the days just before the coming of the Lord. And the great missionary movement of the nineteenth century came as the complement and the successor of the Reformation movement.

Both were of God in preparation for the finishing of his work in our generation. The Reformation gave the blessed Word again to the world. In the modern missionary movement we see the Lord breaking down all barriers, opening all lands, and putting that Word into the tongues of all tribes and peoples.

It is the work of God; and the facts that we face appeal as the voice of the living God to Seventh-day Adventists to rise in his name, and carry to all nations the definite message that we know is to close the gospel work on earth.

It is of deep significance that the keynote of this great congress, representing so diverse and even conflicting views, should be that now, just now, is the time to strike for the evangelization of the world.

That was the note struck the opening day. If others see so clearly the challenge of this very hour, how much more clearly should Seventh-day Adventists see it, and throw into service every resource of time and strength and money.

Here, for instance, the highest ecclesiastic in Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in the opening meeting:—

It is frankly incomprehensible to me why the Christian leaders and teachers of former generations, in the last few hundred years, gave so comparatively small a place to direct missionary endeavor. . . . Whatever the facts of other days, there can be no manner of doubt about the facts of our own. The opportunity is almost limitless. It is urgent, and even clamorous. It is perhaps temporary, and even passing away. And it is ours. . . . The place of missions in the life of the church must be the central place, and none other. . . . Secure for that thought its true place in our plans and policy and prayers, and it may well be that “there be some standing here” to-night who shall not taste of death till they see—in a way we know not now—“the kingdom of God come with power.”

How well we know that men now living, and that ere many years, will see the kingdom literally coming in power and glory! And there is a pressure in this time that is laying every force under contribution to hasten the day.

Mr. Robert E. Speer said:—

No one can now follow Him without following him to the uttermost parts of the earth. If we follow Christ, we must follow him to all nations of men. That which has waited all these centuries need wait no longer.

And Mr. John R. Mott, the permanent chairman of the conference, declared, in his opening outline of the work to be done:—

In our judgment this time is the time of all times for the evangelization of the non-Christian world. There never has been a time when, in all the non-Christian countries, the conditions confronting Christianity were so favorable for a great and well-considered advance as at the present time. . . . Before the eyes of many of us shall close in death, the opportunity, at least, may be given for all peoples of the non-Christian world to accept, if they will, the living Christ.

We Seventh-day Adventists well know this note of urgency. For years the message has rung in our ears, “Now, just now, is the time to work in foreign fields.”

It is not a call to neglect any home field. Rousing ourselves to meet the call of Providence in all the wide world, we shall be the better fitted to witness in neglected parts at home. But the fact is, the time has come to carry the witness to all the world, and the Lord is definitely preparing the way for this definite message to reach every tribe and people before many years have passed.

In this congress we see some of the forces of God’s preparation, that have been putting his Holy Word into the languages of all nations, so that even to-day it speaks the wonderful works of God in tongues understood by ninety-five per cent of the peoples of earth. Never before was such a thing known. Now, in our time, God’s providence has wrought it out; and we know why. It is because the generation is come, and is now closing, that is to see the end.

Beginning with Friday, and continuing over Sabbath and to-day (Sunday), we have turned aside from the congress to meet with our Scottish brethren in their little annual conference. The fellowship and blessedness of the meetings with this little flock seemed emphasized by the contrast with the great gathering we had left. The Lord has been with us in the little meetings. Thank God for the third angel’s message, and the blessed hope of the Lord’s soon coming! It is the only hope. Men talk and dream of a world-conversion; but we know the futility of such a thought. All the forces of this great missionary conference can not remove the slums and the depravity of these ancient narrow passages in Edinburgh, that adjoin the very place of the missionary congress. The coming of the Lord is the only hope of the world. The greatest betrayal of trust in the history of man would it be for Seventh-day Adventists to settle down to mere philanthropic and humanitarian effort. We can never heal the hurt of this world; but we can obey our Lord’s command, and carry the witness of his last message to all the world, and then he will come to put an end to sin. This we shall see within the next few years.

Brethren L. R. Conradi, W. J. Fitzgerald, H. C. Lacey, W. T. Bartlett, and Guy Dail, of Europe, are in attendance at our Scottish conference and at the missionary congress. To our Scottish believers in other lands I would say, Be of good cheer, and pray for our work in Scotland. It has moved slowly here; but the new time is coming even in kirk-bound Scotland, and the hearts of the believers here abound with fresh hope and courage.

Here we are to call the people back to the Sabbath-keeping ways of the early Scottish people; for until the twelfth century the north British people, the Culdes, kept the seventh day. On Castle Rock, just above the meeting-place of the congress of missions, is Queen Margaret’s Chapel. And it was Queen Margaret, the Saxon princess, who came to Scotland from Catholic England, to marry Malcolm the Great, and who used all her royal power to pervert the Sabbath-keeping Scottish people. She declared to them that the “blessed Pope Gregory” had commanded that men ought not to rest on the Sabbath, but to work; and at last she persuaded the people to adopt fully the Romish practise.

But the days of final reformation have come, and now again the message of the Sabbath is to be heard over Scotland.

W. A. S. Edinburgh.