The Facts Are the Appeal by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 10, 1908

The Facts Are the Appeal

By William Ambrose Spicer

On Sabbath, December 19, the annual offering for missions will be taken. No mere collection will meet the situation that presses upon this people.

The facts are the appeal. They call in trumpet tone for an earnest, prayerful dedication of means to the missionary cause. The fields look to this offering as the signal for the order of battle during the next year. Here are a few of the messages that come to us, taken from letters lying this morning on the table of the Mission Board room:—

From Peru, South America: “The Lord is opening doors for us. We do not have to look for an interest. There are more calls for help than we can even hope to fill. The thing that perplexes us most is that our health and strength are not sufficient for that which ought to be done.”—Elder F. L. Perry.

From the South American Union: “We are making so many calls that I suppose you hardly know what to do, and what is the first thing to be done. I see places for so many faithful men and women in these fields that are so important and in such urgent need of being filled, that my heart rather despairs of ever seeing the help supplied, especially when our calls can be responded to only so very slowly. Yet the Lord has the men, and they will come sometime.”—Elder J. W. Westphal.

From the Pemba Mission, Africa, above the Zambesia: “You know I must have help. Do not wait until after the General Conference. I beg you, I entreat you, do not do that. Send them along at once, at once, at once. It is true they could not come up here till next April, but have them on this side of the Atlantic, studying the language and people, and getting acclimated.”—Elder W. H. Anderson.

So the calls come in. There is not a great field but must needs talk of the crying necessity for more help. The annual offering is the time when the whole people together respond to the calls. Workers must go, and money must be found to send them. It is a matter of the gravest concern to every believer in this message that we shall plan and pray to secure the largest offering ever made. W. A. S.