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The “New South”

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 29, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 35.

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The “New South”

By William Ambrose Spicer

VERY frequently in the South this phrase is met with. It is interesting to see on every hand the evidence that the phrase correctly describes the development going forward in the South. In fact, it is generally recognized that the strongest movement in the United States, in the way of fresh commercial and industrial expansion, is just now going forward in the most of these Southern States.
This is as a signal of good cheer in our work. In our own cause in the great Southland there is evidence of the new time in the New South. In the fields where the message has been least preached, there, if we will but push in, we may redeem the lost years. It is the time of the latter rain. And we may now claim that promise of the time of the latter rain, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” The locust of neglect and delay has eaten many a year in the unworked fields; but God’s providence brings about a new time and an awakening through the fields, giving opportunity to enter in and regain the lost time.
The ranks of believers in the South are being increased at a rate that shows that God is abundantly blessing the work of the little band of laborers. The Sabbath-keepers in the Southern field have been increasing at the rate of twenty per cent a year. That rate would double the number every five years; but as a matter of fact, the ratio of gain is increasing.
Well may we thank God for the timeliness of the fifty-thousand-dollar gift to the institutional work in the South that has now been made from the large fund. Help just in time is doubly helpful. One thing that is written large all over the Southern work is the fact that the training-school, publishing, and sanitarium centers being helped by the $150,000 fund are giving the strength and solidity to the work which the cause has long needed. This timely lift will mean still greater expansion in our work for this great field. It is not a matter of prediction, but only an observation of cheering developments. W. A. S.
Spartanburg, S. C.