The Philippine Islands by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 17, 1915

The Philippine Islands

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Our visit to the Philippine Islands was more than an ordinary occasion. While it was one of real pleasure and encouragement to the visitors, we believe it will prove to have been one of great importance and value to the cause of God in the Far East.

It had been arranged that Elder R. C. Porter, president of the Asiatic Division Mission; Prof. H. R. Salisbury, president of the India Union Mission; Elder J. E. Fulton, president of the Australasian Union Conference; and Elder J. M. Johansen, manager of our Australian publishing house, should join me at Manila, to study how the forces in the territory represented by these brethren might co-operate more closely in pushing the work of God forward in this vast mission field. For weeks we had been giving this matter prayerful study, and while we were together in council we enjoyed much of the presence and blessing of the Lord.

The field represented by these brethren stretches eastward from Persia to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean; and southward from Siberia to New Zealand and Tasmania, in the antarctic regions. In this great stretch of territory there are living ten hundred million human beings—two thirds of the entire population of the world. The vast majority of them are groping in the superstition and darkness of heathenism. Hundreds of millions have scarcely heard of the Saviour who died for them.

The task laid upon the leaders of our work in this field is so great that they constantly feel overwhelmed by it, and many times depressed. The great masses of people are so closely united, and the condition and problems to be dealt with are so similar, that there was a strong conviction that the cause would be greatly benefited by a closer and more definite co-operation on the part of these large divisions. This co-operation, it was believed, could be brought about by a conference of the men in this field upon whom the responsibilities of leadership have been placed. When this council closed, we felt that the great Counselor had been with us, guiding in the laying of plans which, if carried out, will strengthen the administration of the work throughout the field, and thus bring greater results from the expenditure of time, labor, and money. The definite plans agreed upon have been forwarded to the members of the General Conference Committee for their study and counsel. The suggestions which receive the approval of the committee will be published in due time.

We found much to cheer and encourage us in the Philippine Islands. Elder Finster, superintendent of that field, had brought to Manila the native evangelists,

Bible workers, and canvassers for a workers' meeting during our visit. Instruction in different lines of service was given these workers each forenoon during the week. Including the young people employed in the printing plant, there were about forty workers present. They were very responsive to the instruction given, and unitedly renewed the consecration of their lives to God and the work to which he has called them. In all my travels I think I have not met a more earnest, active, self-sacrificing body of young people than these Filipinos. Surely God's grace has wrought great changes in them, and now he is using them in the proclamation of his message to the Filipino people.

Five of the young men of the best education and largest experience are giving their entire time to evangelistic work. At the time of our visit some of these brethren were holding tent meetings in two places—Manila and Baliwag. The latter place is quite a large railway town about sixty miles north of Manila. They were having encouraging success. Forty-six had been baptized in Manila, and about twenty-five others desired baptism, but were being held back until they could be given fuller instruction regarding the Christian life. The evening meetings in that city were attended by many more than could get inside the tent.

We spent one day visiting our brethren and sisters in some of the towns and villages north of Manila. As it was impossible to reach all these places by train, Brother Finster secured a large automobile and took seven of us to visit four different places.

The first was a church of fifteen members at Bukawe, about twenty miles north of Manila. The way this little church was raised up is an example of missionary zeal that should characterize our people the world over. One of our Filipino brethren who was teaching in the public schools in Manila settled his family in this village. There was no one in Bukawe acquainted with our message, so this brother devoted all the time he could to missionary work—visiting families, distributing literature, and holding Bible studies. By these efforts an interest was awakened, which led Elder Finster to send one of the young evangelists to the village to hold public meetings. The result was the organization of a church of sixteen members.

After a pleasant hour with these dear friends, who seemed so glad to have a visit from brethren who had come from such distant fields, we drove to Mololos, twenty miles farther north, where we have a church of thirty-three members. As it was midday when we arrived, the brethren and sisters had a well-prepared dinner ready for us. When this was over, we had a good meeting. About a year ago this congregation erected a neat church building; but soon after its dedication, it, with many other buildings in the town, was burned to the ground. This was a sad blow to these poor people. But their courage is good, and they are preparing to rebuild.

We next hastened to Narzagaray, thirty miles distant. Here we have a church of fifty-two members. Twenty-five others are awaiting baptism. The chief of police and one or two members of the town council are members of this church. These persons were all brought into the truth by the labors of two of our Filipino evangelists. Before they were baptized, Brother Finster visited them and instructed them for church membership. It is surely a great blessing to our cause in foreign lands to have native workers who can raise up good, substantial churches. This meeting was held in the open air, as there was no building at our command large enough to hold the audience. There is an excellent interest here, and the outlook is promising. It is a genuine Filipino town, fifteen miles from the railroad. So far as any of us can judge, this shows what can be done in many other towns in these islands. Everything impresses the brethren in these fields that just now is the time to press our work with all zeal and devotion here.

Our next meeting was held in Baliwag, a good railway town fifty or sixty miles from Manila. A short time before we were there, Brethren Bibiano Panes and Guillermo Dionicia began a series of tent meetings. The people were deeply stirred by the meetings. The attendance grew until there were more people standing outside of the tent than could possibly be seated inside. But just as they had succeeded in securing this large attendance, Brother Panes, the more experienced preacher, was taken very ill with appendicitis, and had to be taken to the hospital in Manila. He was operated upon while we were there. This was a sad blow to the beginning of the greatest movement we have so far seen in the Philippines. I spoke in this tent to a large, appreciative audience. As I looked into the earnest faces of these people who seemed so deeply impressed, my heart yearned to stay with them and unfold to them the purpose of God regarding the salvation of lost men and women as it is revealed in his inspired Word. But I was obliged to hurry away, probably never to see them again.

At 10 P. M. we started for Manila. The road was good, the moon was bright, and our automobile seemed in excellent trim for speed. We pulled up to our mission home at midnight, having traveled one hundred and fifty miles, and having held five meetings during the day.

This journey was a revelation of the density of the population in the island of Luzon. During a large part of the way we passed through village after village so close together that much of the time it seemed like one continuous village. The sad part of it all is that tens of thousands of these people have no spiritual light or guide. For hundreds of years they have been led by a church that has held them in the chains of spiritual darkness. But the cheering and impressive feature is their readiness to accept light and truth. Now is the time to exert ourselves to the utmost to save them, and the Lord is going before us to prepare the way for a great work.

Here is an incident that surely gives evidence of this. Some months ago a man in a town some distance from Manila dreamed that he saw the law of God as it was written on the tables of stone. A circle of light shone around the fourth commandment. In reading the commandment the man was impressed by the word seventh, and was greatly perplexed because he was keeping the first day. The day following this dream he was so troubled that he hunted up the law as given in the book of Exodus, to see if the commandment really said, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” He found that it read just that way. As this increased his perplexity, he decided to go to the pastor of his church for an explanation. The question seemed to be new to this young native minister, and he was soon in as deep perplexity as the man who came to him. This minister had heard that Brother Finster kept the seventh day, and decided to visit him. He did so, with the result that he began to keep the Sabbath. He and his wife have both been baptized, and he is now preaching the third angel's message to the Filipinos. This is Brother Dionicia, who, with Brother Panes, was holding meetings in the tent we visited at Baliwag.

There are many impressive, convincing evidences in these mission fields that the Lord is able and now ready to “do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act,” foretold by the prophet Isaiah. The question of greatest concern is not whether God's love and grace can reach the hearts of these people over whom the superstition and darkness of heathenism have so long reigned, but whether his people are willing and ready to go to the limit of possibility in co-operating with him in his soul-saving work. We are made to believe they will by the statement, “Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power.” Ps. 110:3, R. V. This is preeminently the day of God's power in saving this lost world.

Next week I shall tell of other encouraging features of the work in the Philippine Islands. A. G. DANIELLS.