p. 7 | The Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 14, 1907

The Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

By I. H. Evans

For Special Work at Home and Abroad

An Open Letter to Our Workers

THE workers on the pay-rolls of our various conferences in the United States and Canada, constitute quite an army of laborers. Over one thousand men and women of various ages are regularly employed in the work of the Lord.

The supreme purpose of this large body of workers is to teach the third angel’s message to this generation, to persuade men and women to receive Christ as their Saviour and to prepare for his soon coming.

We are organized into general, union, and local conferences for the specific purpose of utilizing the talents and directing the efforts of this band of workers, and to have their energies directed so as to accomplish the most possible good.

Whatever needs to be done in conference work, these workers are always ready and willing to undertake. Rarely has there been developed in any age a more independent, trained, united working force than this army of a thousand men and women. Scattered in every State and Territory in the United States and Canada, oftentimes not meeting one another in many years, this army of workers are as united in the accomplishment of a set purpose as any army that ever marched against a common foe.

Whatever work needs doing in the cause of God, to this task these laborers go with cheery hearts and a set purpose.

In the past great things have been accomplished by such a force as this. It is neither numbers nor wealth that leads to success in God’s cause; it is the manifest presence of Jehovah that brings results.

When Gideon had gathered thirty-two thousand men to fight the Midianites, the Lord said that the number was too great, because if they succeeded, Gideon’s army would take the glory to itself. This vast number of men were scattered and sent to their homes, until only a little band of three hundred remained, and it was with these three hundred brave hearts that God would smite the Midianites.

When the outpouring of the Spirit of God came on the disciples in the days of the apostles, and the Lord was filling the world with the gospel message of a crucified and risen Saviour, it was not the number of disciples that counted, and created this great stir, but it was God’s Spirit and power that won the hearts of the people.

So it was in the days of Martin Luther. When the great Reformation started, only a few at first embraced Luther’s message; yet such a mighty power attended the work which God wrought through him, that nations and kingdoms were stirred as they had not been stirred for a thousand years.

So it is in the work of the third angel’s message. The wide extension of this great gospel of the soon coming of Christ, and of the Sabbath and other kindred truths, has not gone to nearly every nation under heaven because of the power, wealth, or numbers in our ranks, but because we have been a united people, and our workers have been true to the accomplishment of the work of the third angel’s message.

I do not recall a single leading feature of our work during our denominational history to which this band of workers, scattered everywhere, and oftentimes laboring under very trying conditions, have not been true and loyal. Institution after institution has been built, not because of our great wealth, or numbers, nor because the means were available and ready at our command; but because when it has been agreed that a certain thing should be accomplished, the band of workers scattered wherever they may have been, have united their energies for the accomplishment of this work.

When the Review and Herald, the college, and the sanitarium at Battle Creek were started in the early days of our denominational history, it was all our people could do to compass the establishment of these enterprises, and to maintain them. Even this could not have been done, had not nearly every Seventh-day Adventist all over the land stood true and loyal to the interests, which, without their help, could not have been built up.

When the plans were laid that the headquarters of the General Conference and the Review and Herald should be moved from Battle Creek, there was a hearty, sympathetic co-operation on the part of our people everywhere in the wide world, enabling the officers of the General Conference to accomplish this purpose. Again and again have our people rallied to the raising of this money like valiant soldiers who were taking a stronghold of the enemy. Little did it matter what difficulties confronted us, or what obstacles were encountered, or what hindering causes arose, our people rallied to the charge again and again, and raised the fund that was called for, and so greatly needed.

Probably there is not a worker from Maine to California, or from Alaska on the north to Texas on the south, who does not rejoice in the fact of this removal, and who did not respond to this call for help in a most substantial way.

We have now undertaken to raise $150,000 for various enterprises. The General Conference Committee wrestled with this proposition of calling for this large sum of money month after month, not knowing just what to do. They had positive instruction from the Testimonies that they should proceed at once with some of these various enterprises and get them under way; and yet they did not wish to launch the call for so large a sum of money without the advice of our leading brethren. A council was held last September, and it was generally agreed that the call should be made.

There are various enterprises to be helped and built up by this large sum of money, which have long needed financial assistance. We have now set ourselves to the raising of this money, and this will require every worker in the whole field to use his energies for the accomplishment of this end. This fund is to be distributed among various enterprises throughout the field—to the west coast of South America, to England, to Skodsborg, to the Maritime Provinces, to the West Indian field, to the South, to the Sanitarium and the Review and Herald in Washington, and to the Pacific Press.

As before stated, we have one thousand workers in the employ of our various conferences and union conferences, who are directly engaged in the work of God for this time. If every worker would resolve that he would raise his quota of this large sum of money, we would soon have the whole amount raised; for if one thousand men and women should each raise one hundred and fifty dollars from various sources, we would have the $150,000 fund completed.

Every worker should set his heart to the accomplishment of the work of God in the earth with determination and zeal, and pray that the blessing of God may rest upon the labors bestowed.

We are more glad than we can tell for the almost universal co-operation that is manifested throughout the field in working out the plans that are laid for the accomplishment of the third angel’s message; and we believe that every worker will loyally and truly put himself to the task of helping in all these undertakings. To this end we solicit the sympathy and co-operation of our workers everywhere, and of our people scattered throughout the wide world.

Let us pray that God will give us his blessing, and bestow upon us a large measure of his Holy Spirit.

I. H. EVANS.