The Message Making a Stir in Russia
By W. A. S.
THE effort of the Russian clergy to secure compulsory uniformity of religious belief has resulted in making that country a field of wild and extravagant religious movements. Amid the repression on the one side and fanaticism on the other, the third angel’s message steadily makes its way. Testimony to the leavening influence of the Sabbath truth in Russia is borne by a correspondent of the Christliche Orient, who has been making an investigation of the “vagaries” of the evangelical movement in Russia. He says:— The question whether Saturday or Sunday should be observed has caused a great deal of controversy among the evangelicals, especially in Southern Russia, and has drawn not a few back into the orthodox church. Very likely he means that this question has brought people face to face with the fact that the Bible teaches the seventh-day Sabbath, and some who rejected this truth have sought refuge in a return to the position that the church rather than the Bible is the authority in religion. However the agitation is kept up, whether by the efforts of our faithful brethren or by the oppositions and criticisms of their antagonists, the cause of truth goes marching on, winning victories continually. The Lord has blessed the planting of the seed of truth in Russia so abundantly as to furnish us all evidence that this work can make headway amid the most adverse conditions. Nothing can stop the progress of the message through the earth. When, some years ago, the Russian church authorities published a book warning against heretical sects and giving a brief notice to our work, that very book brought the light of the Sabbath truth to some souls. No weapon that is formed against this truth can prosper. The time has come for this message to challenge the attention of men in all the world, and in lands where we can do little by ordinary organized effort, the Lord is showing how he is able to raise up witnesses and bring forth fruit just the same as in fields easily operated. W. A. S.