A Thousand Dollars a Day by G. B. THOMPSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 12, 1909

A Thousand Dollars a Day

By G. B. THOMPSON

G. B. THOMPSON

A THOUSAND dollars a day is quite a large sum, yet this is practically the amount that is needed to carry forward the work already begun in planting the standard of the third angel's message in the regions beyond. Think of it! Every time the sun rises in the morning, Sabbaths and all, from some source there must come a thousand dollars to feed and clothe our faithful laborers toiling at the front. And we must either furnish this amount or recall some of our laborers, and dismantle some of our mission posts established in the midst of teeming millions who know nothing of this message.

But, you say, our missionary operations in foreign lands are becoming quite expensive. They are, thank the Lord! And it will take more each year, until the work is done. Next year's budget must be larger than this year's. If it is not, it will indicate stagnation in some place. As the lines of the message extend, more laborers must be sent to strengthen the work; and the more mission stations opened and the more laborers sent to fill the Macedonian calls, the more funds it will require. A thousand dollars a day will not long suffice. An individual offering of a dime a day will do just now, perhaps, as a financial shibboleth, but the growth of the work already warns us that we must soon pass on to something larger.

Back in 1874, when Elder J. N. Andrews, our first missionary across the sea, went to Europe, it did not require so much as it does now to finance the work. We did not have to plan for a thousand dollars every time the orb of day came up. A few thousand dollars would suffice while the earth was describing its yearly orbit around the sun. Would you be glad if it took no more than that now? Hardly, for we desire to see growth. We all are glad the message is taking on new and greater strength, and taxing our resources to the utmost to furnish the recruits needed to advance into new fields, and to strengthen the work already begun. But in order to keep pace with the work we must continually lay broader plans. To depend on the plans laid in the past to carry forward the work of the future is folly. This would be something like putting a full-grown man into the clothes he wore when a boy.

But who is responsible for securing this thousand dollars a day? Dear reader, as you see the sun come up each morning, remember that another thousand dollars must be found to use in forwarding God's last message, and ask yourself the question, “How much am I responsible for raising this amount?” Is the treasurer of the General Conference responsible alone?—No, indeed. Are the union and local conference treasurers responsible?—In part they are, but not wholly. The responsibility must be laid where it belongs, and that is upon the local churches. Every church elder, deacon, and treasurer, the officers and teachers in every Sabbath-school, should all wrestle with this financial problem, and help solve it. It is an individual responsibility, and nothing is needed more in this cause than a recognition of individual responsibility in all lines of work. Why should a few men carry all the burden in this matter, and the great majority in the churches scarcely ever think of it? My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Ministers and laymen should keep this stupendous work constantly before them, and be ceaseless in their activities until they know that what is actually needed to carry forward the work in an economic manner, is placed in the treasury. When all do this, there will be no scarcity of funds for carrying forward the message either at home or abroad.

Takoma Park, D. C.