Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1911

Editorial

By Editor

The Lord's Doings

OUR missionary reports continually bear witness to the Lord’s intervening power in changing hearts and breaking down barriers. Three incidents in last month’s second-Sabbath missionary program illustrate this:—

1. Our evangelist Emanuel, of Sumatra, tells of changes wrought in Battakland, in northern Sumatra, since his first visit and expulsion two years ago:—

There is another wonder that has been wrought in the Battak country by the power of God. When I visited the country in company with Elder Jones, the German missionaries, who had long taught the people there, were very angry with us, and drove us, as it were, out of the country, persuading the people to hate us, and requesting even the government officials and the rajahs not to suffer any man to hold intercourse with us.

But on this my second visit, God gave me abundant liberty and great success in setting before the people the words of this life. He prepared the way before me by keeping the missionaries and the rajahs perfectly quiet.

And a remarkable experience our evangelist had, truly, with village after village begging him to remain or to send a teacher of this message.

2. The large house of a Mohammedan widow was opened for meetings in one town in Battakland. Formerly, this woman, zealous for Islam, had tried to kill her husband, because he was interested in Christianity. Brother Emanuel says:—

But on the occasion of my recent visit, when this woman heard that true Christians must be pure and holy in their lives, pure in heart, pure in person, pure in spirit, she straightway came and began to examine into the truth. When I had fully explained to her the way of salvation, there was a change in both her heart and countenance.

Every day and night, and especially on Sunday, that big house was filled with people, Christians mingling with Mohammedans for the one purpose of learning the truth. I took up new subjects every day until I had covered practically the whole ground of the message. My heart rejoiced exceedingly during that visit, and so must have the angels in heaven, to see the earnestness manifested by all those people in investigating the truth.

3. Among the Indians of the Peruvian Andes, where Elders J. W. Westphal and A. N. Allen recently visited Brother Stahl and his mission, a mob was stirred up by the priests against us. They set out in a mad frenzy to kill our Indian Brother Camacho. But friendly Indians met the mob, spoke with its members a little time, and the crowd dispersed with the cry of, “Long live Camacho! Long live the gospel!” The report adds:—

Then the priest persuaded the officials that we were teaching the Indians not to obey the officers. This enraged them, and another crowd was raised; but Senator Toba heard of it, and sent the subprefect to forbid any abuses and to call the people together and tell them we had the true religion, and any one molesting our people here would be severely punished. The curious part is that this subprefect is the same man who imprisoned Camacho a few years ago.

Thus our workers send us month by month these evidences that the Lord is leading the missionary advance. His angels are on the ground, actually doing things on earth, and the Holy Spirit is swaying human hearts and hastening on the work. The reports from the fields in our papers and in the missionary programs with which all the churches are supplied, are more than reports of what our workers are doing; they are reports of what the Lord is doing before our eyes in the cutting short of the gospel work. Let us read and study them in this light. W. A. S.