The Eastern Question by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 1, 1903

The Eastern Question

By William Ambrose Spicer

The events day by day in the East show how, on the side of the nations, everything is ready for the final conflict. The Eastern question means far more to us than simply a watching to see the Turk driven from Europe, preparatory to the final fall of the Ottoman empire.

We have a part to act all our own in the Eastern question. We are a part of it, and not spectators merely. When it has seemed from time to time that nothing could restrain the elements of strife from breaking out in universal war, a divine hand has restrained. Why? — That the final message of the gospel might be carried through the unentered lands. God has committed to us a message to be borne through all these lands before the storm shall break. Every fresh development in the East is a signal to us to be up and doing.

We who know all about the political aspects of the Eastern question, and the relation it bears to the end of all things, know nothing at all of value if it does not stir us into earnest and definite missionary activity at home and abroad just now.

Glad responses have come to the call from Egypt for help to place zenana workers in the homes of the women in that land. This is a splendid development in our part of the Eastern question. God's truth is marching on in these lands which constitute the storm-center in the coming struggle of the nations. The Mission Board is endeavoring to supply a leader for the little flock in Turkey, left long without a shepherd. Effort is to be made to do definite work for the region of the Trans-Caucasus, a portion of the ancient Armenia, and from that point the standard of truth may be carried into Persia, where never yet have we set foot.

The agents of Satan, the evil spirits that are stirring up the nations for war, and gathering all the world to Armageddon, are doing their work in those regions. Persia is taking the place assigned it in prophecy in the lining up of the nations for the final conflict. God's agencies must no longer delay. Exiled believers from Russia have already prepared the way in the far Caucasus. God beckons us on into the near East. Our brethren in Europe call earnestly for some definite action in placing at least one or two standard bearers in these regions, so soon to be desolated.

The Mission Board is endeavoring to send Dr. Pampaian to this region of the Caucasus in October. He knows the languages, and has been working hard to complete his medical preparation in New York, and to do missionary work among his own Armenian people in that city. God has given him fruit of his labors here, and we know the same blessing will follow him in the distant field. His brother, a nurse, is to accompany him, and thus we shall take yet another step in our part in the Eastern question. Wherever the spirit of strife is stirring men's hearts, we are to press in with the gospel of peace, the simple, straightforward third angel's message, which is now due in every land. We must pray, and give, and go as never before. This is the lesson of the Eastern question for us Seventh-day Adventists. There is now a mission treasury practically empty, and a cry from the world that God loves, which he says will not long remain unanswered. It is our present and eternal salvation that we are deciding now in our attitude toward our part in the Eastern question. As we hear the calls, let us throw into this work every energy of our being and every resource at our command. Pray that special help may now come in for our missionary campaign. W. A. S.