H. J. LOEBSACK by H. J. Loebsack

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 3, 1907

H. J. LOEBSACK

By H. J. Loebsack

From the Border of Asia

H. J. LOEBSACK

“Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.”

OUR organized mission fields and conferences extend to the very borders of Asia, in European Russia. But we would speak here of the East Russian Conference. Bounded by the Don and Ural Rivers, the Caspian and Black Seas, and by the Caucasian Range, with its peaks covered with eternal snow, this conference contains six governments, and the territory of the Cossacks in the Don, the Ural, the Kupan, and the Terek district, with about fifteen million inhabitants. Here we find the Russians, the Tartars, the German Cossacks, Armenians, Kalmucks (Buddhists), and about ten smaller Caucasian-Asiatic tribes. Among the latter is the Christian tribe known as the “Chewsuren,” now numbering about seven thousand souls, in the almost impassable mountains not far distant from Tiflis. From very ancient times they have celebrated the Sabbath,

but accepted Sunday later from Rome, and, perhaps because of persecution from the Mohammedans, outwardly celebrate Friday. The tribe is apparently dying out. They are said to be friendly and hospitable, and to bear to this day traces of the persecution to which they were subjected. We have not yet formed any nearer acquaintance with them.

We have four ministers, one Bible worker, one nurse, and two colporteurs in our field. There are thirty-eight churches and companies, among them twenty-six German, eleven Russian, and one Cossack church. Last year we were able to receive through baptism and vote, one hundred and nine, while in North Russia one hundred and five were accepted, and sixty-two in Middle Russia. From January to July of this year, we have received seventy-five, twenty-five among them being Russians and Cossacks.

The manifesto of the government assuring freedom of religious belief and worship to all the subjects of his majesty the czar, has not been violated in the least, so far as we know, for which we feel to heartily thank God and the government.

In the army none of our brethren fell in battle, none were placed direct in the firing line, all had the Sabbath free, and some of them even did not need to handle firearms at all. On the other hand, during these troublous times two Russian and two German brethren were murdered in their fields, or upon the way, or in their dwelling.

For nine months the people have been driven hither and thither like the waves of a billowy sea, but God has protected his ship in the midst of the storm. He is with us ever, unto the end of the world. One hundred and thirty-five million human beings, the sixth part of the inhabited earth, shall hear the last message of warning. The land and the people will not yet see destruction, even though the storm may roar among them. The land is open to the gospel, and the servants of God must enter the open doors, to prepare the way of the Lord.

Brethren, who will go? Who will send means for this work? Pray for this land, and await the signal of God for you to enter this land before it be too late.

Hamburg, Germany.