p. 14 | In Other Tongues by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1911

In Other Tongues

By William Ambrose Spicer

We are thankful to see the strengthening of the effort to reach the peoples of other tongues than the English in the great centers of population in America. We hear cheering reports to this effect from many parts.

At the annual meeting of the New Jersey Conference, which closed last week, it was stated that work was being done in that conference in nine languages. Of the last five churches organized, four were foreign, and one was English.

Crossing the river to the Brooklyn side, for a brief visit to the Greater New York city mission foreign training-school, I found Elder H. R. Johnson leading a serious and earnest class of men and women in Bible study. Here was a young man from Rumania, a sister from Hungary, and another from Italy; the German, Slavic, Norwegian, Danish, and, I think, Bohemian languages were also represented.

The General Conference Foreign Department is working in connection with the local conferences to foster this growing work. The leaven is being planted in the great mass. It is encouraging to see that fruit appears wherever work is taken up in a new tongue.

It is not something being merely talked about, but a movement under way—this revival of work for foreign peoples in the New World. It commands our prayers and sympathetic co-operation. The development shows that it is not by waiting to make a big effort, but by putting forth just the effort within reach, that the successful beginnings are made.

W. A. S.