p. 5 | Church Officers and Camp-Meetings

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 14, 1908

Church Officers and Camp-Meetings

By G. B. Thompson; I. H. Evans

Another year has quickly passed, and the camp-meeting season is upon us again. One year less of probationary time remains, the end is near, and these annual seasons of worship will soon be in the past.

The camp-meetings this year should be the best in the history of our work. Spiritual blessings and deliverance from sin should be brought to many souls. In view of the shortness of time we ought to expect great things from the Lord.

The attendance should be large. Every Sabbath-keeper who possibly can should be there. Begin now to plan to be present, and do not allow the cares of this world to keep you at home. It will require some sacrifice, but it will surely be worth the effort.

Do not fail to bring the youth and the children. This is a time of special danger for the young, and their attendance at this annual feast of the Lord may be the means of their being saved in the eternal home of the redeemed. Study Joel 2: 12-17.

Especially would I emphasize the need of church elders and other officers being present. Every church elder should attend one or more of our camp-meetings this year. Officers should come at the beginning of the meeting, and plan to remain till the close. You not only need the spiritual blessings of the meeting, but you should be present to study plans presented for advancing the work in home and foreign fields. The time has fully come when the officers of our local churches will need to get under the burden of this work in the home church in a new and special way. If all the church-members can not attend the meeting, they should plan to have the elder and other officers attend, that they may come back to the church prepared to impart the rich blessings received at the camp-meeting.

G. B. THOMPSON.

nation throughout the world prior to 1890. Certainly this is most encouraging when viewed from the standpoint of raising funds.

Doubtless some sincere soul will ask, How can we raise $198,714 for mission work in 1908, when the year is nearly half gone? We answer that already plans have been laid in every union conference in the United States to endeavor to raise the sum of ten cents a week per capita for all of its church-membership. By the time this article is read by our churches throughout the field, most of them will have already heard from the presidents of their conferences, and will be swinging into line in raising this donation. If every Seventh-day Adventist in the world will take hold of this matter of the ten-cent-a-week plan, we can not only raise the $198,714, but we can push this sum far beyond that amount, and have more than $300,000 for work in foreign fields. Of course to this $198,714 for mission work there will have to be added the expense of maintaining the home office, supplying necessary postage, stationery, and incidental expenses, and paying salaries of all the General Conference officers and departmental secretaries, besides carrying several other workers who receive pay from the General Conference in the home land.

The real budget for 1908 to be raised in the States will aggregate about $250,000; but ten cents a week for each member, if fully raised for the year 1908, will give us a large surplus, and we can pay every bill, and put a large number of recruits in the mission fields already opened. Every church should at once regularly and systematically take up the weekly offering for foreign missions. Envelopes can be secured from the State secretaries, so that each church can have an envelope for every member, and these envelopes should be distributed and collected every week by the church officers according to the arrangement. If we all work together, there is no question but that we can raise this large sum of money, and thus greatly strengthen the work in all parts of the world. These large calls are a source of encouragement to our people, because they give evidence of the rapidity with which the work is going, and assurance that the end is near.

Why should not every Seventh-day Adventist fall into line in bringing a weekly offering to the house of worship for the work in other lands?

I. H. EVANS.