Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 8, 1909

Editorial

By Editor

The Call of the Fields

FRESH from regions where a few workers face unwarned millions, delegates to the General Conference voiced the plea of the mission fields for help. Their cry still sounds upon our ears:—

Where Rome Has Ruled: “Remember that we have one hundred ten million souls to care for, and only forty workers. We hope this Conference will give us one or more workers each for Spain, Portugal, and Italy; and five thousand dollars to start a printing plant.”—L. P. Tieche, Latin Union Conference.

The Sunrise Kingdom: “Our brethren and sisters in Japan are praying and waiting for good news from this Conference, and I hope they may not be disappointed. In the East the angels are holding the spirit of strife, and we can not tell how soon the clouds may break. The truth must be spread now, or it may soon be too late. Remember needy Japan in your prayers.”—H. Kuniya.

One Fourth the World: “We are planning for an advance move on the entire Chinese world—one fourth the population of the earth. . . . In this situation we are constrained to submit to our brethren here assembled, and to the entire body of believers, the desirability, the wisdom, the necessity, of at once planning to send out to that field forty strong, consecrated young married men, to enter upon the great task of carrying the advent message to the millions of the Chinese world.”—J. N. Anderson, China.

South America: “Imagine North America as one union conference, with two thousand five hundred Sabbath-keepers scattered from Alaska to Panama and Maine, and you will get some idea of our situation.”—J. W. Westphal, of South American Union Conference.

America’s Gateway: “The message must be given to the two million five hundred thousand foreigners in New York City. But on the other hand, we must not neglect the work for the American people. . . . We have no sanitarium, no treatment-rooms, no school building, no institution of any kind, not even a conference office. Worse than all this, we have no church building that might stand as a memorial of our work.”—Memorial of Greater New York Conference.

Wide-Open Russia: “Calls are coming from many parts of Siberia. . . . Turkestan needs five or six workers at once; but we have neither the men nor the means. . . . When I visit these few places [in Little Russia], they take hold of me bodily, and beg me to stay. . . . We appeal to this Conference not to put this matter [the Russian training-school] off much longer. There is no country in the world where ministers, teachers, nurses, Bible workers, and canvassers are more appreciated than in Russia. Our needs are certainly great; but this is the cause of God.”—J. T. Boettcher, Russian Union Conference.

The Moslem World: “Hours might be spent in making pleas, but, brethren, consider just a moment that in the world there are two hundred million Mohammedans, from whose ranks but one has been converted to the truth. . . . May our prayers go up to God in behalf of the millions who to-day turn their faces in their devotions toward Mecca. Let us supply means whereby their faces may be turned toward the New Jerusalem.”—C. D. AcMoody, Turkey.

West Africa: “A hundred million, with two hundred languages and dialects to be reached.”—D. C. Babcock, Sierra Leone.

South Africa: There was thrown upon the screen one night in the large pavilion, by stereopticon, the photograph of a chief who walked three hundred miles to one of our stations to call for a missionary. The chief returned alone—no worker being available. “And this chief is only one of many who are urging us to send them missionaries.”—H. J. Edmed, South African Union Conference.

East Africa; a Dying Plea: “She had returned from Africa on account of her husband’s health, and now she was stricken. When I met her husband, he told me that she would have but a few hours to live. She had two beautiful children, and she herself was on her death-bed. Death marked her features as I entered the room; yet there was with her such a sweet peace as she stated that she was glad to meet me, and asked me to pray with them, that she and her husband might be restored to health, to return to Africa. There is indeed the stamp of divinity in such a dying request. And while some noble workers lay their all upon the altar of God, and while dark Africa is calling for hundreds more of workers and thousands of dollars of means, ought not we to respond? Ought not our young people to consecrate themselves to this work? and ought not the men and women of means to bring their thousands to support it? The Master of the vineyard is looking down upon us. What will his people say?”—L. R. Conradi, for East Africa.

The Response: Next week we will give the response of delegates from home conferences to the call of the mission fields.