In India by William Warren Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 12, 1911

In India

By William Warren Prescott

The Conference at Lucknow

In harmony with the request of the General Conference Committee, made about the middle of August, I made arrangements to visit India and attend the biennial conference to be held in October. After a voyage of exactly one month, stopping only one night in London, I landed in Bombay on the twenty-first day of October, and proceeded at once by rail to Lucknow, where I arrived on the following evening. I was given a cordial greeting at the station by Brethren J. L. Shaw, W. W. Miller, H. C. Menkel, and Geo. F. Enoch, and was taken at once to the mission headquarters, 19 Banks Road, where the conference was already in session. Practically all the foreign workers and some of their native helpers from the various parts of India were assembled, and the welcome which they extended to me was a very hearty one. It was a pleasure to me to meet them all. Some of their faces were familiar from an acquaintance in America, and I was glad to find them in the mission field.

A report of the conference has already been furnished for the REVIEW by Elder Shaw, the superintendent of the India Mission, and I shall therefore deal only with some special features of the meeting. Those who have the privilege of attending frequent gatherings of the workers in America can hardly appreciate the feelings with which a mission worker looks forward to a biennial conference. After many months of trying labor, much of the time entirely alone and in any case with only a short visit at long intervals from a fellow worker, facing with but little outside help the perplexing problems peculiar to the field, having many drawing upon him all the time but with little opportunity to draw help from others, he longs for the spiritual uplift which results from association with other workers, and from the concert of prayer and the study of God’s Word. For this reason a conference, in order to meet the demands of the situation, must be more than a time for discussing and passing resolutions; it must be, what all conferences ought to be, such a season of personal fellowship with God and revival of spiritual life as will place one upon vantage-ground for future victories in the work.

The Lucknow conference was planned and conducted on this basis. I held a Bible study every morning, in which I endeavored to lead all into a prayerful study of the vital features of the gospel message which should be proclaimed in this last generation to prepare a people for the coming of Christ. Familiar truths, as presented in familiar scriptures, were viewed again from the standpoint

that all truth centers in Christ, and that such a fulness of knowledge of Christ is found in the threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12 as will make believers complete in him, and enable them to stand before the world as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. In addition to giving these Bible studies, I spoke each evening in a tent which had been pitched in the same compound. Quite a number of strangers attended each service, and manifested a deep interest in the things which were presented. So many of the native people have learned some English, that there was always a sprinkling of them in the congregation, and yet an interpreter was not required.

We all felt greatly blessed in communing with God through his Word and in meditating upon the wonderful fulness of the present message and its adaptation to the needs of this last generation. Some had come to the conference with questions to be answered, as to the way to present the truth to the native people, but their questions were answered when they saw that to preach Christ to this generation is to proclaim the threefold message. Such a view of Christ and his work strengthened the hope and courage of all.

The needs of the field were considered, and such calls for help were made as seemed actually demanded in order to maintain the present work, and to meet the most imperative requirements. These calls seemed pitifully inadequate, as compared with the needs of a field containing about three hundred millions of people who speak a large number of different languages and scores of different dialects. One is almost overwhelmed with a sense of the magnitude of the undertaking to give the message in such a country, but our reliance must be upon a God of infinite power and resources. On no other basis can we hope to accomplish the work.

While our hearts were burdened with the desire to extend the truth in India by taking advantage of every possible opening, it was saddening to receive word from America that the funds were very low, and that it would be impossible to open up new work until the treasury was replenished. There is nothing more distressing to the worker in these far-off fields than to be compelled to turn a deaf ear to earnest calls for the gospel message. His heart longs for the rapid extension of the work, and he sees many opportunities for entering upon new ground. It is hard to be compelled to defer and defer and defer. I have encouraged our laborers with the hope that the Harvest Ingathering and the annual offering would supply needed funds, and that they might look forward to further development of their plans somewhat later. If our people in the home land could only have a real understanding of the situation in these countries, I am sure that they would rally to the support of these missions.

Immediately at the close of the conference, I commenced a tour among the various mission stations; of this I will try to write in future articles.

W. W. P.