Untitled article by E. E. MESSINGER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 8, 1915

An Important Mission Field —No. 1.

By E. E. MESSINGER

We are living in stirring times. Every one can see this; it no longer requires an elaborate argument to prove it. The time, foretold by prophets, looked for by God’s people, and feared by men and women of the world, has come when men’s hearts are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”

But is God’s work done? Are we as near to perfection as the world is to Armageddon? Have we done what we could so that we can say, “I have glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do”? John 17:4, A. R. V. We must admit that we are individually far from “reflecting the image of Jesus perfectly,” and that we are years behind with the work of God. Were it a work bringing us abundant temporal means, we might be more zealous in its prosecution. But infinitely more is involved than any earthly considerations. Our work is for souls, the least of which is more valuable in our Father’s sight than the resources of his universe; and in order to rescue them, he gave that which was nearest and dearest to him; he spared not his own Son, but gave him for us, that we might be a people showing forth his glory.

Soon the work of soul saving will be over. Divine messages of mercy have long been proclaimed to sinners; but the last one will soon have been borne to mortals for the last time. Can we say that we have done our full duty? that we have labored with our might while it was day? Can we consistently listen for the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? Let us at least now redeem the past by seeking pardon, and working in the eleventh hour to glorify the Lord, upon whom we have, by our negligence in times past, cast reproach. What remains to be done we must either do quickly or leave undone.

Many make the excuse that they cannot do much; that if they were ordained ministers or had been sent to heathen communities, they would certainly do a wonderful work. But many such overlook the opportunities that God has placed before them. There are many places and ways in which all can labor. We wish here to notice particularly the foreign population within our borders. What American, especially in our Northern, Eastern, and Western States, does not daily come in contact with scores, and perhaps hundreds, of foreigners? And in spite of the fact that we have existed as a denomination for well-nigh three quarters of a century, the majority of the foreigners within our borders have never been reached with the third angel’s message, and among the greater number of tongues we have either made only a beginning or done nothing at all. Outside of the work among the Germans and Scandinavians, aggressive effort has not been put forth for a dozen or more nationalities well represented here, not to speak of a score or more of less widely spoken tongues. And yet we were told years ago by the Lord’s servant that it is fully as important to bring the message of truth to the foreigners in our own country as to carry it to those still in their native lands.

Why are these people unwarned? Is it because we cannot learn their language? Our workers in foreign lands can. Are they too far from us? We deal with them in the stores; we sit beside them in the street cars and trains; we have to work with them; our neighbors are oftentimes foreigners. Have we not literature in their languages? Our best tracts and some of our best books have been translated into almost every tongue foreign to Americans. Have we no time to “go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in”? Then we can practice self-denial, devoting all the means possible to an extension of the foreign work at home. Let us remember that in evangelizing the foreigners here, we are doing a work as great and as important as if we were preaching the gospel in Asia or Africa. Let us work, give, and pray for this work. Let us each set apart an hour a week for special prayer for these peoples; and let us use the truth-filled literature, and if possible spend our lives in this blessed work.

Let us take an imaginary trip over one of Chicago’s important streets, noticing the foreign communities. Beginning in the northern part of the city, we pass through a Swedish part of town, and continuing find a large German settlement. Then, for about a mile, we find a mixed population consisting of Swedes, Poles, Italians, Greeks, and Jews. After a Bulgarian neighborhood is passed, we emerge again into a large Greek and Italian neighborhood, and a little south find the ghetto. Next come the Bohemians and Poles, and then, in the ever-changing scene, we reach the Lithuanian quarters, among whom we find numerous Slavs interspersed. Again we find large numbers of Germans, and farther on a Swedish community. This is but one of Chicago’s “foreign” streets, and may be considered a fair sample of conditions in almost all our cities. All these peoples must be reached, and our denomination must reach them, if there is to be a people gathered out of “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb on Mt. Zion. E. E. MESSINGER.