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General Conference Committee

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 6, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 23.

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General Conference Committee

By W. A. Spicer

At Gland, Switzerland, near Geneva
The council opened on May 9, one day before the time appointed, inasmuch as the majority of the members of the committee had arrived in Gland, and were ready to take up the work. The camp is pitched among the oaks on the grounds of the sanitarium. It is an ideal place for a meeting, and the council has been favored with ideal weather. Sitting in the large pavilion, the congregation may look down upon Lake Geneva, and across to the snow-capped range of the Alps.
At the opening meeting Elder L. R. Conradi, in behalf of the European brethren, welcomed the council, and expressed the appreciation of the believers in Europe that the committee was assembled in this place. It was the first time in the history of the message that such a council had been held in Europe. All the four quarters of the earth were here represented. East and west, and the uttermost north and farthest south, met in council to seek endowment for service, and to lay plans for the more rapid advancement of the work.
Elder A. G. Daniells responded, suggesting what a sight this gathering would be to Elder J. N. Andrews, our first missionary to Europe, had his life been spared to meet with us. When he came to Europe in 1874, the Seventh-day Adventists in all the world numbered about seven thousand. Now, in Europe alone, there are about fourteen thousand believers in this advent message.
The following program was adopted for the council: Rising bell at 6 o’clock; breakfast at 7; social meeting from 8:15 to 9; Bible study from 9:15 to 10:30; business session from 10:45 to 12; dinner at 1; business session from 3 to 4:30; workers’ meeting from 5 to 6; supper at 6:30; reports or preaching from 7:30 to 8:45.
Friday, May 10
The social meeting, led by Elder Wm. Covert, was a blessed season. The text, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled,” stirred every heart. One after another of the visiting delegates thanked God for what their eyes had seen and their ears had heard of the rapid progress of the message in populous Europe. For many years, even since the early days of the message, some of these visiting brethren had worked and prayed and labored to help send the message across the sea from America, and now to see face to face the evidence of the blessing of God upon these labors filled their hearts with joy and gratitude, too deep for utterance.
Elder G. A. Irwin conducted the morning Bible study, dealing with the subject of the spirit of prophecy. While we shall not be able in these reports to give details as to all the services from day to day, we may in this opening report give the points made in this first Bible study. Some of the purposes of the Lord in the gift of the spirit of prophecy to the church are (1) to withdraw man from his purposes; (2) to hide pride from man (Job 33:15-17); (3) to bring people to obedience (Neh. 9:29, 30); (4) to witness to righteousness (Rom. 3:21); (5) to lead and to preserve his people (Hosea 12:13); (6) to establish his people and to bring prosperity to his cause (2 Chron. 20:20); (7) to restrain from wrong and apostasy. Prov. 29:18. The history of the past sixty years has demonstrated in this work the truth of every text, and through all these years the results of every repudiation of this gift by men who have left the faith have likewise shown that to turn against the means by which God seeks to lead his people is to reject the Lord and to plunge into darkness.
At the opening business session of the council the following members of the General Conference Committee were present: A. G. Daniells, G. A. Irwin, I. H. Evans, W. W. Prescott, W. A. Spicer, E. T. Russell, R. A. Underwood, R. C. Porter, Frederick Griggs, G. B. Thompson, G. F. Haffner, W. B. White, L. R. Conradi, E. E. Andross, P. A. Hansen, H. R. Salisbury.
It was voted that all conference and mission field laborers attending the council be invited to participate with the committee in the work of the council. Laborers were present as follows:—
From the United States: Wm. Covert, W. J. Fitzgerald, M. L. Andreasen, Dr. R. G. Edib, Mrs. R. G. Edib.
British Union: S. G. Haughey, M. A. Altman, W. H. Meredith, W. H. Wakeham, W. T. Bartlett, J. J. Gillatt.
Scandinavian Union: O. A. Johnson, J. C. Raft, Fred Anderson, David Ostlund, J. M. Erikson, S. F. Svensson, N. P. Nelson, Emil Lind, P. N. Lindegren, Erik Arnesen, A. C. Christensen, Jens Olsen, John P. Hansen, P. Christiansen, L. Muderspach.
German Union: H. F. Schuberth, J. G. Oblander, H. Hartkop, R. G. Klingbeil, H. J. Loebsack, L. Mathe, G. Schubert, E. Frauchiger, John F. Huenergardt, E. Enseleit, W. Ising, F. Zerndt, F. Prieser, G. W. Hockarth, J. H. Schilling, R. Fenner, H. Meyer, John Steiner, O. Luepke, Dr. Meyer, J. Pieper, J. T. Boettcher, D. P. Gaede, O. Wildgrube, Daniel Isaak, O. Madsen, J. Erzberger.
Latin Union: H. H. Dexter, J. P. Badaut, G. Roth, Paul Steiner, A. Matthy, Samuel Badaut, T. Nussbaum, U. Augsbourger, C. T. Everson, P. Fant, L. Benezet, Frank Bond, Walter Bond, C. E. Rentfro, E. Schwantes, Joseph Curdy, L. P. Tieche, Dr. P. A. De Forest, J. Vuilleumier, J. Robert, C. Reiland, P. Badaut, David Lecoultre, H. Provin, S. Jespersson.
India Mission: Dr. R. S. Ingersoll, Dr. Olive P. Ingersoll.
Besides these representatives many brethren and sisters are in attendance from near-by points, and in connection with the council will be held the meetings of the French-Swiss Conference and of the Latin Union Mission.
The chairman, A. G. Daniells, briefly reviewed the work of the last two years, showing encouraging growth in every department. The 1905 General Conference encouraged local conferences to plan definitely to share funds with the mission fields. In 1905 these conferences appropriated $97,696 to work outside of their own borders. The figures for 1906 are not yet compiled, but estimates place the amount at nearly $125,000.
In 1904 the Sabbath-school Department gave $40,278 to missions; in 1905, $49,894; in 1906 the schools have given $57,901 to missions, and thus the Sabbath-schools have become a most important factor in the missionary advance.
The Religious Liberty Department has been called into very active service in meeting the Sunday issue in Congress, and aiding throughout the field. The new journal Liberty has had a splendid circulation.
A Medical Department of the General Conference was organized at the 1905 conference. This department has been full of work, and great advancement has been made in our medical work. Nearly every sanitarium operated among us now stands related to our denominational organization just as do our educational and publishing institutions. The work has been unified and greatly developed. The institutions are enjoying the best patronage they have ever had. Six years ago our sanitariums numbered eighteen; they now number about sixty.
The educational work is vigorously growing, and our schools have the largest attendance in their history. We have now about 600 schools, 800 teachers, and about 14,000 of the young people of the denomination are studying in the schools. The Young People’s Department bears witness to the fact that the young people of the denomination are in line for service. The Young People’s Societies have been raising money for missions, and engaging in all lines of work.
The publishing work has taken a very encouraging turn during the last two years. Those in charge of the department and laborers in this branch have pushed the subscription-book work upon the original plans which proved successful years ago, and the renewed efforts have been greatly blessed. The sales for 1906 were one third greater than for 1905, and the year 1907, it is hoped, may be the year of largest sales of any in our history.
The organization of the North American Foreign Department has been a great blessing to the work among German, Danish, and Swedish peoples in America, and it is hoped that the establishment of a foreign depository in New York City will prove a great help to the work in foreign tongues in the United States.
Since the last General Conference nearly one hundred and fifty workers, including their wives, have been sent into the mission fields. Missions have been established in Hayti, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Korea, Barotseland, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Algeria, Java, the Philippines, province of Hunan (China), India (North Hill Mission), and South Africa (Kafir Mission). During the two years the South American Union and West Indian Union Conferences have been organized, while the Pacific Union has been divided, forming the new and vigorous North Pacific Union Conference.
Very cheering is the manner in which former mission fields are taking up work beyond their borders. Australasia has laid hold of the work in Polynesia and the East Indies; the German Union is pushing forward in East Africa, establishing mission after mission; the British Union has opened the work in Uganda, while the Scandinavian Union is preparing this year to enter the new field of Abyssinia.
Sabbath, May 11
The Friday evening preaching service was conducted by Elder Prescott, who showed how this advent movement was the filling out in all its details of the prophetic outline given in Rev. 14: 6-12. These preaching services are translated on the one side of the tent into French, on the other side simultaneously into German, while a little group of Spanish-speaking people gathered in the rear are also served by an interpreter.
The Sabbath-school was truly a polyglot session, lessons being conducted in English, German, French, Danish, Swedish, and Spanish.
Elder Daniells spoke Sabbath morning, the thought being “Lo, I am with you alway.” Blessed lessons were drawn for workers facing all manner of perplexities in the fields, and the Spirit of God brooded tenderly over the whole encampment.
In the afternoon Elder Covert spoke of Christ as our Elder Brother bearing the heavy burdens, and this preaching service was followed by a testimony meeting. All hearts were full to overflowing. Brethren and sisters from far-separated fields testified to the grace of God, and confidence in the speedy triumph of the message. It was the same word from Russia, from Iceland, from Algeria, from Germany, from Britain, from Europe, or America. The conviction moves mightily in the hearts of the workers that the last issues of the mighty conflict are swiftly drawing to a close. It was a blessed Sabbath day. Many of the workers spoke of having messages from fields they had left that the believers remaining behind were remembering the council in prayer. In this polyglot assembly the oneness and unity of the world-wide work were touchingly realized. As one German brother put it, he heard a variety of languages from the lips, but it was all one language from the heart.
At the evening service Elder Thompson reported the recent meetings in India and Burma, speaking of the needs and the progress of the work among these millions.
Thus the council is just opened. All have realized the special blessing of the Lord, and are assured that his grace and wisdom will continue with the council as the business is proceeded with.
W. A. SPICER, Secretary.