Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 22, 1909

Editorial

By Editor

Girdling the Earth With Prayer

WHILE the General Conference was in session, special prayer was being offered, not only by the believers in this country, but in many lands. The home fields pray for the missions; the mission fields pray for the home conferences.

As a testimony to the unity of the work, we print brief words from some of those abroad who helped to form the world-wide prayer circle at Conference time, sundered far from one another as they were, but all meeting by faith “around one common mercy-seat:” —

Spain: “As this is the day for the opening of the Conference, we are praying that God’s richest blessings may rest upon those there assembled. We feel that the time has come when we must expect great things in the development of our work.”—Frank Bond.

Sierra Leone: “We are earnestly praying that God may in a special way bless this Conference. While our burdens here are heavy, we are willing to carry them as long as we can, so that the additional help given may be used to push forward into unentered fields.”—T. M. French.

India: The second Sabbath of the Conference was made a day of fasting and prayer in India. “Many will be the calls for workers and means,” reads their call to prayer. “Many will reconsecrate their lives to God and his work during the Conference. Let us earnestly ask God to send us men and women fully consecrated, and willing to stand by the work wherever they may be placed.”—W. W. Miller, in Eastern Tidings.

Egypt: “For myself, and in behalf of the people of the cause of God with whom I come in contact, I send Christian greetings, and seek God’s blessing and guidance and his good Spirit in every step that the Conference takes in promulgating the third angel’s message in all the wide world before the soon coming of our blessed Redeemer.”—A. A. Elshabeed, by ancient Thebes.

Peru: “If you are all looking for great blessings during this Conference, then I wish to say we are already receiving first showers of promise. Last week I made a trip into one of the mountain valleys that had never been visited by a Protestant missionary before. I found that the Señales [our Spanish paper] had found its way there, and as a result nearly thirty adults were keeping the Sabbath, and though ignorant of much, were rejoicing in their first love.”—A. N. Allen.

Bengal: “We are looking for great blessings during the Conference, by the time this letter reaches you. Myself and wife will join in prayer and supplication for this. From the day the Conference convenes till the end, we will meet with you all before the throne of grace. . . . Again I would put in our plea for the Bengalese of India. Come over to Bengal and help us.”—L. G. Mookerjee.

Hakka-land: “We shall pray much for you people at headquarters as you meet in council. May all experience rich blessings as you plan for the extension of the work.”—J. P. Anderson, China.

Burma: “You will get this just at the close of Conference. We will have been praying for you. We do that now, but from next Thursday we shall especially pray. We can hardly wait until the Bulletin begins to arrive. Does Burma get help?”—R. A. Beckner.

Turkey: “God be with you all. I pray that the Lord’s Spirit may rest upon you, and that all the decisions made at this Conference may be Christ’s decisions. I believe that you are thinking about Turkey also.”—Ilia Keanidis.

Korea: “Yesterday our two-days’ workers’ meeting closed. Two days were spent in study and prayer. I think I never enjoyed two days more. The meetings were marked from the first by the presence of the Spirit. As it was the last week of the General Conference, many prayers went up to God that he would especially bless his people there assembled. While we know you are receiving great blessings, we certainly have been having a taste of the same. All said it was the best workers’ meeting ever held in Korea. The Spirit of God ran from heart to heart, and the workers go out to the work with new hopes and determinations.”—C. L. Butterfield.

The Answer: More to the work than any flight of feeling, was the answer to prayer that laid upon the entire Conference the solemn conviction that the time had come for an advance move into the unentered fields,—the great cities and the dark regions where millions have never heard. The united action of the conferences in favor of regularly sharing a definite proportion of the tithe with the mission fields will mean the moving forward of the frontier picket-lines in all the world, and the hastening of the finishing of the work. The baptism of the Holy Spirit means an earnest, steady, courageous, businesslike laying hold of the work to be done. The power of God was with the Conference to this end.