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In Haiti

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 17, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 11.

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In Haiti

THE Bible Society Record has a report from its Cuban agent, who recently visited Haiti and San Domingo. At Cape Haitien he found Elder W. J. Tanner. The agent says:—
“As the Wesleyans have a native worker here, I went ashore, expecting to attend the services, but found that the weather had been such that services had been temporarily suspended. The pastor, however, was glad of the opportunity to get a family Bible and pocket Testament, and more than glad at the prospect of having some Bible work done in his field. I then called on the Adventist minister, Mr. Tanner, an American, paying a man to lead and carry me over the flooded streets. I was very hospitably entertained for the night in their home.
“The next day, Mr. Tanner called with me to see Mr. Mackenzie, a leading merchant, a thorough Scotchman, though born in Jamaica, and, strange to say for Haiti, an enthusiastic Christian and Methodist. Mr. Mackenzie has been many years in the country, and was delighted to know that the American Bible Society was taking an interest in Haiti. He thought the time was most opportune. He said: ‘The people are restless and dissatisfied. They want something that they have not, and do not know what it is. They are beginning to think that it may be in the Bible. I have given away all I had. A good colporteur could sell hundreds all through these mountains.’
‘To sum up: Here is a country one fifth the size of Cuba, with very nearly Cuba’s population (from one and a quarter to one and a half millions), with a very inadequate missionary force. I know of only four white workers in the republic: two Wesleyans, one Baptist, located at Jacmel, on the Caribbean, just south of Port au Prince (I understand he is working independently), and Mr. Tanner, the Adventist, in Cape Haitien. And this is the way we are helping Haiti to work out her own salvation. We must not leave her to the mercy of those whose only aim is to make commercial gain out of her weakness.”