Unity of Effort in the Financial Support of the Message
By I. H. Evans
CHRIST compares his church to a great army, and us to soldiers. But we can not all go out to fight. Suppose every man in the United States should say, “I’ll be a soldier, and go out and fight the enemy;” could that army long exist? — No, there must be those who stay at home and work, men who labor and plan at the base of supplies, as well as men who go to the front and fight. The success of an army in its campaign against the enemy does not depend wholly upon its numbers, but much upon its equipment. It must have food, clothing, blankets, tents, wagons, horses, mules, etc. If there was not a strong commissariat department to furnish the supplies, the army would soon have to leave the field of action to gather its own supplies. When the general gives orders that at such a date the army is to be at such a place, the commissariat department must have a place cleared and ready for the soldiers when they arrive, or they can not fight. So, brethren, unless we have a commissariat department, we can not have a successful campaign. We can not all be out in China, India, Africa, or the islands of the sea, preaching the gospel. We would enjoy it if we could be there, but there must be some who remain at home, and furnish supplies for those at the front. This part of the work is just as important in giving the message to the world as is the preaching of the gospel. The man who works in the shop, or on the farm, or in the store, and has his heart full of God’s love, and pays his tithes, and gives to the various funds, is doing God’s will and giving the third angel’s message. If Seventh-day Adventists should cease doing that, the preachers and missionaries would be hindered in their work, and compelled to supply their own needs. Now, what is the duty of us who stay at home? — I answer, It is to supply the funds, and pass them on regularly and systematically, that the workers at the front may not want for the necessaries of life. My dear friends, we have come to a very important time in the progress of this message. There never was a time since this denomination began when there was such great progress and growth in the development of our mission work as to-day. You may look over all our past, and there is nothing in our denominational history that will compare with the present. The budget this year exceeds that of last year more than the entire amount put into all our foreign fields in any one year up to 1890. Is that progress? Is that growth? Our budget this year will foot up to more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars to be raised in the United States alone. And if you include all our expenses and appropriations, you will find that we have to raise more than three hundred fifty thousand dollars this year to carry on our foreign mission work and meet our administration expenses. Does that mean something to this people? How are we going to get all this money? Why should a few men work themselves to distraction or to the grave, trying to get money to support this work, when there are seventy-five thousand men and women who are just as responsible as are the leaders? The captain and the corporal and the sergeant and the lieutenant in the army all share with the general in the responsibilities and results of a battle. The success of the work of this denomination does not depend upon the president of the General Conference alone, but also upon every officer, small or great, and upon every church-member. It does not depend upon one man or a few men, but upon the whole organized agency. The work of financing the mission fields must not be left to the General Conference, while everybody else feels very little responsibility in this enterprise. — I. H. Evans, in a talk to church officers in the District of Columbia, at the Memorial Church, May 11, 1908.