p. 21 | Memorial and Appeal

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1905

Memorial and Appeal

By E. R. PALMER; M. C. WILCOX; A. T. ROBINSON; J. O. CORLISS

The Delegates of the World's General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Assembled in its Thirty-sixth Session at Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., to Those of Like Precious Faith in All Lands; Greeting:—

We have now reached the closing days of this conference, and it is our desire, before we scatter to our several fields, to unite as a body in a communication to all our brethren and sisters throughout the world concerning matters that involve the prosperity of this cause and the advancement of the message, in that strong way which should characterize the closing work of this glorious, everlasting gospel.

This General Conference session has been a precious season; and had it been possible for all our people to have enjoyed this privilege, we are confident that every heart would have been overwhelmingly convinced upon matters which we will set before you in this appeal. But, believing that the Spirit of God, which works alike upon the hearts of his people in all lands, has visited you, and feeling assured that the reports of these meetings, which have reached you through the papers, have kindled your hearts anew with the same resolve which we feel in ours, we take pleasure in addressing you; and we do this with confidence, believing that God will lead you all in the way which he is opening up clearer and clearer before his people.

The strongest features of this conference have been, first, a spirit of union and drawing together; second, a deep, settled conviction that the time has come to preach the third angel's message as it was first delivered to this people, and to rally as a united body around the pillars of our faith; and, third, a universal conviction that the time has come for a more substantial foundation for the support of missions.

It is concerning this third feature that we particularly address you. This conference has been, as it were, a great telescope, drawing nearer to our vision the needs of foreign fields. We stand amazed before the opening providences of God which are preparing the way for the third angel's message in countries where barriers in the past have seemed almost insurmountable.

Professor Field, from Japan, has told in glowing words how the Spirit of God has kindled a fire in Korea, and how in a few months eighty native Koreans have accepted the message, and fifty or sixty more are deeply interested. He has told also of the providential openings in Japan, and the integrity and faithfulness of young men who have accepted the truth.

Elder Anderson brings good news from China, telling of the openings for our work in different places, and in languages which pave the way for reaching a large per cent of the people in that dark land of Sinim, from which, the prophet has said, some shall come in the gathering day.

Professor Shaw related remarkable instances of how the message is gaining fresh recruits among the one hundred dialects of India.

Elder Hyatt spoke with confidence of the wonderful openings in the Dark Continent, and how the truth is now “spreading like wild-fire among the native Kaffirs.”

Elder Conradi tells again, as he has done at so many past conferences, of the almost unnumbered millions of Europe and the Orient, who must be reached by the gospel message. Reports of equal interest are brought from the great “neglected continent” of South America, from the East Indies, and from the islands of the great Pacific. And while God has been opening doors in heathen lands, he has been moving upon devoted men and women in the United States to offer themselves for foreign mission work.

But thus far no adequate means have been provided by us for carrying the gospel in foreign fields. In the United States the regular tithe is sufficient to place the support of the ministry upon a solid, reliable basis; but when we send our workers to foreign lands, which contain nineteen twentieths of the population of the globe,—when we send them to the frontier, far from home, amid dangers and privations, we ask them to depend on the ever-shifting base of donations for their support. This is not right, and we wish to bring about a change. While donations have accomplished a blessed work in foreign lands, yet these great countries should not be left to depend upon donations alone, which amount to only about one fourth as much as the tithe consumed in the United States.

And yet there does not appear to be an overprovision of funds for the work here in this country. This being true, what must be the shortage and the privations in foreign lands, where the receipts are so very small?

We believe that in the system of tithes and offerings, God has instituted an abundant provision for carrying the gospel to all nations. In the spirit of prophecy we read as follows:—

“God's plan in the tithing system is beautiful in its simplicity and equality. All may take hold of it in faith and courage, for it is divine in its origin. . . . If one and all would accept it, each would be made a vigilant and faithful treasurer for God; and there would be no want of means with which to carry forward the last message of warning to the world. The treasury will be full if all will adopt this system, and the contributors will not be left the poorer.”

During this conference many plans have been suggested, and several resolutions have been discussed looking toward a better financial basis for the support of missions; but in the discussion of all these plans and resolutions, we have come back again and again to the proposition that if all God's people would pay a tithe of their entire income, there would be an abundance of means in the treasury for carrying the gospel to the world. It is not designed, however, that there

shall be any lessening of our offerings; God calls for these as well as tithes. Arrangements for these offerings have already been set before you in resolutions which have passed the conference. Our object in addressing this communication to our people everywhere is to invite every child of God to unite with the delegates who have been sent to this conference, in a determined resolution that, in the future, God shall receive from our hands his own.

We are confident that God has been preparing his people for such a forward move as this. During the past few years our hearts have been turned with strong yearning toward foreign lands. Our weekly donations have increased; the annual offerings have very largely increased; and in State conferences there has been a growing desire to divide the State income from the tithes, with foreign lands; and many laborers have been sent from State conferences to needy parts of the world, and have been supported there by the home conferences. And again, just before this conference convened, a blessed wave of liberality swept over the United States in the form of a “surprise party” to the General Conference, and many thousands of dollars have already come to the treasury from this source, and large gifts are coming in every day. All these splendid moves in the right direction are an indication to us that God's Spirit is working with his people, and, while preparing the fields for the harvest, he is preparing reapers to gather in the harvest, and means for their support.

An examination of the statistics from all parts of the United States indicates that, on a conservative estimate, our people are paying less than fifty per cent of a full tithe. These facts will be fully placed before you in other ways; but we wish, dear brethren, to invite you, in harmony with God's arrangement, to look carefully into the question of your regular income, and conscientiously and in the fear of God, place in his treasury a tenth of all that he gives you. Do not spend time in questioning the exact ways in which this money will be spent. If you are faithful in returning to God his own, he will take care of the funds, and will bring glory to his own name.

Further: God speaks through the blessed Book to the remnant church. After bringing against his own people the great charge of robbery, our covenant-keeping God thus exhorts and assures his people:—

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

In what a mighty twofold way this scripture should appeal to us! One of the strongest elements of success in the building of eternally righteous character is loyalty,—a sense of duty. How this was demonstrated in the character of our Lord! “It behooved him” to do the work God gave him to do; and therefore he did it because duty, or loyalty, demanded it. If the eternal Son of God was moved to duty on our behalf, how much more should we be moved in whose behalf he suffered; for “they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

But more than this: God appeals to us by his blessings, by his own note of hand,—“I,” the great Jehovah, will “pour you out a blessing.” All the universe is his; the heavenly storehouse is full of blessings waiting to be poured out upon a people who are prepared to receive them. There is the word of him in whose hands are all the resources of eternity. He can not go back upon his word; he will not “disgrace the throne of his glory.” Duty demands that we shall render to God his own. Our need of his blessing demands that we shall place ourselves in the channel of his blessing. “Blessed are they that do.”

But some may ask, How will the faithful paying of our tithes into the treasury increase the funds for the support of foreign missions? This brings us to one of the grandest features of our conference. For several years there has been a growing desire in State conferences to divide the regular tithe with foreign missions, and this spirit of liberality has gained wonderful momentum during the conference session, and several thousand dollars have been voluntarily turned over by State and union conferences during this meeting for foreign mission work; and a resolution has been unanimously adopted to the effect that each conference generously divide its tithe with foreign missions.

Therefore, if our people everywhere pay faithfully a full tithe into God's treasury, and each conference generously divides its tithes with foreign fields, there will be no lack of funds for the world-wide work.

E. R. PALMER, M. C. WILCOX, A. T. ROBINSON, J. O. CORLISS, Committee.