Shall We Solicit Donations ? by I. H. EVANS.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1908

Shall We Solicit Donations ?

By I. H. EVANS.

WHEN thinking of the missionary campaign to be carried on during the week of November 22-28, doubtless many ask the question, “Shall we solicit donations from those who do not believe this message?” A letter just received from Brother W. C. White contains several extracts from his mother’s writings on this important question. We quote the following: —

Several years ago it was presented to me that the Gentile world should be called upon to make donations to our work in the Southern field. Let discreet, God-fearing men go to worldly men that have means, and lay before them a plan of what they desire to do for the colored people. Let them tell about the Huntsville School, about the orphanage that we desire to build there, and about the colored mission schools that are needed all over the Southern States. Let the needs of this work be presented by men who understand how to reach the hearts of men of means. Many of these men, if approached in the right way, will make gifts to the work.

Let the plans for a sanitarium for the whites be brought to their attention also. Tell them what is needed to place this in running order. Tell them that there are many sick ones who need to be cared for, not in a hospital, but in a home.

There is aggressive work to be done. In the past too much dependence has been placed on the General Conference. There has been too much looking to it to support the work financially. The General Conference has heavy burdens to bear in sustaining foreign mission work, which must constantly be extended.

Why not ask the Gentiles for assistance? I have received instruction that there are men and women in the world who have sympathetic hearts, and who will be touched with compassion as the needs of suffering humanity are presented before them. Let men who have the ability to tell what a sanitarium should be, and the need that there is for such an institution, go to the Gentiles for financial aid. Our missionaries are fully authorized to do this in all the large cities of the South. There are men of the world who will give of their means for schools and for sanitariums. The matter has been presented to me in this light. Our work is to be aggressive. The money is the Lord’s, and if the wealthy are approached in the right way, the Lord will touch their hearts, and impress

them to give of their means. God’s money is in the hands of these men, and some of them will heed the request for help.

Talk this over, and do all in your power to secure gifts. We are not to feel that it would not be the thing to ask men of the world for means; for it is just the thing to do. This plan was opened before me as a way of coming in touch with wealthy men of the world. Through this means not a few will become interested, and may hear and believe the truth for this time.

It seems to me that this is positive proof that the Lord desires his people at this time to lay the great work they are doing before their neighbors and friends, and ask them to contribute financial aid. Such statements can not be strengthened by any comment. They stand as from the Lord, appealing to God’s people at this time to move forward in the work of soliciting from those who are not of our faith, that our work may be built up and established in various parts of the world.

I. H. EVANS.