The Harvest Ingathering Campaign by Arthur G. Daniells

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

The Harvest Ingathering Campaign

By Arthur G. Daniells

For the past three years our people in the United States and Canada have been engaged in what we have been pleased to call the Harvest Ingathering campaign. Each year some 600,000 copies of the REVIEW AND HERALD have been distributed, and approximately $100,000 above all campaign expenses has been gathered in for our mission work in the fields abroad during the three years, or about $33,000 each year, a sum sufficient to pay the salary of forty-five or fifty missionaries.

Think what this means to our mission fields. In many of these dark places we have laborers struggling alone, far from home and loved ones, to advance this message. By means of the Harvest Ingathering campaign we have been able to send into these fields, either to open new mission centers or to strengthen those already opened, nearly fifty missionaries, and to support them. This is certainly a great help in meeting the demands made upon us to answer the many urgent calls that come to us from all parts of the world. And the funds to do this have come, not from the already heavily taxed income of our people, but from those who are not directly connected with us. A very small effort on the part of each has made this result possible.

In addition to this, we have placed each year hundreds of thousands of copies of our church paper, filled with information concerning our work, in the hands of the people, many of whom knew but little concerning this movement, or had been allowed to get their information concerning it from those who perhaps were prejudiced against us. Thousands have been visited personally, and many have received favorable impressions concerning our work, and have willingly contributed something toward its support. No doubt there are many among all these thousands who will yet embrace the truth, and give all their energies to its advancement. The excellent and far-reaching results of this effort can not be estimated now. Only in eternity will they be fully known.

Besides this, the influence of this campaign upon our own people has been of great value. Our churches need personal missionary service more than preaching. By means of this campaign, churches have been revived and strengthened. New life and spiritual power have come to those who, in the fear of God and for love of the truth, have taken part in this work.

We are now fast approaching the time of another Harvest Ingathering campaign. The last two months of this year have been set apart to this work. Instead of using the REVIEW AND HERALD, we shall use that excellent pioneer journal, the Signs of the Times. The publishers, in connection with our Mission Board, have been working untiringly to get the issue ready, and a most excellent number has been produced. If this work is taken hold of as it should be, there is no reason why we may not place at least one million copies of this paper in the homes of the people, and gather in for our needy mission fields a much larger sum than we have in any previous year. Certainly none of us can be satisfied with our former efforts.

Our church officers and laborers have a special responsibility in this matter. You are called to stand as leaders in the church for such a time as this. Your work is to see that in the church over which you are called of God to act as overseers, the matter is definitely placed before the brethren and sisters, and a campaign organized that will enlist every available member of the church. Then when the campaign is organized, you are not to drop the burden and think your work done, but see that the plans laid are made effective. This you can best do by leading out in the work. Let the leaders set the pace, and the church will follow.

I would that I could say something to arouse our people to action at this time. We have not pushed this matter as we should. Some have done comparatively nothing. Here is a golden opportunity to do something for God. I hope none will be idle now. Effort, not money, is what is called for in this campaign. What excuse will you be able to give if questioned at the tribunal of the universal Judge as to why you sat idly by while your comrades in the faith were active in the campaign? God will never excuse idleness and indifference. Remember Meroz. A bitter curse came upon those people, not for what they did, but because while their comrades were engaged in the battle, they did nothing.

O for more of the spirit of the great Missionary! When Jesus saw the multitude

without a shepherd, he was moved. He was not simply touched, he was moved. He wept over impenitent Jerusalem. If something of this same spirit could take possession of us in this campaign, I am persuaded a great work for God would be accomplished.

Dear brethren and sisters, think of the shortness of time. Remember that on October 22 sixty-seven years of the ministration of our High Priest in the most holy place of the sanctuary will be finished. He will soon lay down his priestly censer forever. Then the door of mercy will be closed, and divine judgment visited upon the impenitent. Think of this!

The destiny of this world is soon to be settled. The lengthening shadows warn us that the sun of human history is nearing the horizon, and the time to work is soon to end. We should show by earnest work that we believe this solemn truth.

But looking out into the world, we see fields of grain—millions of lost souls—ripening for the harvest, but unwarned and unprepared for the end. The line of laborers which reaches out into many of these fields is very thin. We must send help. There are some Macedonian cries to which we have long been unable to respond. If all our people will but rally in this Ingathering campaign, a great work for God can be done, and a large sum gathered in for our mission work, thus enabling us to respond to some of the many calls which are waiting. Shall we not bestir ourselves as never in the past?

The great missionary, Martyn, once said: “I have been long in kindling my torch. Now let me burn out for God.” Shall we manifest some of this zeal?

A. G. DANIELLS.