Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 25, 1910

Editorial

By Editor

The Message for All Peoples

What We Are Seeing in Europe

RIGHT here in the West German Union meeting in Friedensau we are seeing and hearing things that show that the Lord is fulfilling those words of Isaiah 40:—

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

The message preparing the way of the Lord is to reach all peoples “together.” It was not so with the message of the great Reformation. Some lands let in the light, in those days, and others shut it out. But in this last great reform movement, the message is to go to all peoples within one generation. Not a people nor a nation can shut it out, or prevent the light from streaming in. “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

For many years our work was almost solely in Protestant lands. But in recent years the providence of God has distinctly led forward into the great Catholic fields, and into the great non-Christian lands. And as we follow the Lord’s providence, we find that truly he is making the crooked places straight and the rough places plain, pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh, “and floods upon the dry ground.”

It is an encouraging report that comes to us from these waste places, so little worked hitherto by Protestant effort. The other day Elder J. H. Schilling, president of the West German Union, said in the conference meeting:—

I have seen more evidence of a seeking after God and after truth, and more real hunger of soul for something spiritual in Bavaria [mostly Catholic], than in any other part of the union, except Austria.

And the exception emphasizes the point, that God is now visiting these Catholic lands in a special manner. Elder J. Wolfgarten, of the Austrian Mission, had a most cheering report to make. Though baptisms are illegal, souls are being buried with Christ in baptism, and are rising to walk in the new life of the message. The workers can not open meetings with singing or prayer. But their “More Light” society is proving a success, and publicly from place to place the message is being preached, and privately, as believers are raised up, the ordinances of the Lord’s house are celebrated, and the little church in Austria is growing. The believers are found in places whose names are well known to us—in Vienna, the capital; in Prague, the ancient home of Jerome, the companion of Huss in early Protestant witness and martyrdom; in Salzburg; and in the region of the ancient city of Trent, where the famous Council of Trent was held, that gave the answer of the Catholic Church to the Reformation. Now the third angel’s message is invading these strongholds of the Papacy.

A good word came from Prague. The little company there was left without ministerial help, and the work seemed at a standstill. But three quarters ago a young people’s society was organized; and the few youth in it went to work with publications and Bible readings. As a result six new believers were ready for baptism when recently a minister visited Prague. Thus it is that souls are being brought in, regardless of forbidding conditions.

We were glad to have at the conference our first native Austrian minister. Another laborer in Austria, a German brother, said to me:—

Austria is ripe for the message. The people quite largely have come to feel that the Roman Church is false. They have lost confidence in it; and now is the time to preach the truth in Austria. Many are going into Spiritualism. Seances are common in all parts.

He told me of one man who found that the spirits had not told him the truth concerning a certain matter. He decided they were lying spirits, and that they must therefore be of the evil one. He began to seek for light, and quickly was brought into touch with our workers, and is now rejoicing in the message.

Elder F. Prieser, president of the Bavarian Conference, reported that our large Munich church had drawn more members from Catholicism than from Protestantism. Of the nine candidates in a recent baptismal service, eight had been Catholics. “They are true and whole-hearted people,” he says, “and thoroughly established in the truth.”

We can see it plainly. Our brethren won from the Catholic fold, members of whom are in this meeting, speak the language of the third angel’s message just as purely and heartily as any. This message of the Lord’s soon coming presents an altogether new platform of Protestant truth. It appeals to Catholic hearts just as to Protestants. As Elder J. G. Oblander, of the Rhine Conference, said:—

The Catholic people get little spiritual food in their churches; and when once they see that this message is for Catholics as well as Protestants, they lay hold of it with both hands. And they accept the truth with all their hearts when they do accept it.

In Munich an intelligent lady, a Catholic nurse, had been attending meetings. One evening she overheard a sister speaking to another of the great difference between Sabbath and Sunday. The lady came to the platform, saying to the preacher, “How about this question of Sabbath and Sunday? I have heard something about it.”

“In a short time we will come to that,” replied Elder Prieser.

But the next Friday evening the sister had made all her preparations for the day of rest, and appeared at Sabbath-school next morning, fully committed to Sabbath-keeping.

Thus, in ways that are manifold, our brethren are seeing the hand of the Lord stretched forth to hasten the message on in these distinctively Catholic portions of the field. It is a plainly marked development of recent times, this real hunger of interest in Catholic fields, and it greatly cheers the hearts of the workers.

Down in Rumania, among the Greek Catholics, matters are truly stirring. All our foreign workers have been expelled. But the press is taking up the warning against our work, and is widely spreading information against us, as they intend; but surely it will be overruled to the good of some. A Rumanian brother wrote to Elder H. F. Schubert, who is with us, saying that scarcely a day passes without something in the newspapers about the truth. One paper calls us,—

a mysterious and dangerous sect, that is against the church, the priests, and the pictures.

This refers to the pictures of the saints, which are everywhere in evidence and venerated, really worshiped, in the Greek Church. The law provides that if any one “perverts” any person from the orthodox faith, he shall be liable to a fine of three thousand francs and imprisonment. But the Word of the Lord itself is sending conviction to hearts; and as the papers raise the hue and cry, and bishops and archbishops take counsel together as to what to do with this message, the brethren hear of souls here and there accepting it and rejoicing in it.

Several earnest Rumanian workers are doing all they can. One or two were at our conference. Last Sabbath a baptismal service, with many candidates, was just closing. Three ministers had been officiating together, to hasten the service. The closing song had been sung, and one of the brethren had pronounced the benediction,

when there was a hasty call for the audience to remain a moment. It was announced that a Rumanian brother, a lieutenant in the army, who had come on to the conference to get better acquainted with us, had decided he must no longer defer following his Lord in baptism; so in a few moments our brother was baptized, enlisting as a soldier in the army of the Lord. It may be to him a call to endure hardness indeed, as he well knows.

But none of these things move our brethren in this blessed hope. The word of courage and confidence is heard on every side as the message speeds on, and no hindrances are recognized as barriers.

The Word of the Lord declares that this message of preparation is to reach all peoples “together.” The mouth of the Lord has spoken it; and we see the word fulfilling.

Is it not a thrilling sight to see this rising to the call of the hour and the message in the great Catholic and heathen lands? The Lord is visiting the waste places of earth. He is fulfilling his promise,—

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”

It is the solemn, joyful fact that we are seeing this outpouring of the Spirit to-day in many a field. As for the European field, the reports that come to our ears from day to day in this large meeting cause all hearts to rejoice that the Lord is so mightily at work.

W. A. S.

Friedensau, Germany.