How the Work Is to Be Done by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 4, 1913

How the Work Is to Be Done

By William Ambrose Spicer

“Not by an army, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Zech. 4:6, margin. The human factor is essential, the resources of men and of means; but we are to take the eyes off from the human and look to the divine.

The Mission Board is having to send the word to the regions beyond that the large number of missionaries sent out during 1913 suggests, from the natural viewpoint, that the fields cannot look for as many new recruits during 1914; for with the present income the mission treasury will be pressed to the limit by the work already undertaken. It might be supposed that the missionaries sent out this year would stop the gaps in the advancing line for the present, but it is far otherwise with this growing, spreading work. Thankful as the fields are for new recruits, the plea comes earnestly from many places for just one or two more.

Brother F. A. Stahl writes from among the Indians of the Lake Titicaca regions in Peru and Bolivia, reporting the safe arrival of the three new workers appointed by the General Conference. He says:—

It just seems to me that God favored us with these good workers. We need more of this same kind, as there are so many openings. The truth is, dear brethren, we cannot see how we can get along without them, that is, three more. I realize I am asking a great deal, but I cannot help it. God knows that we are in great need here.

China calls for just two more helpers at once, to fill in at places of urgent need,—one to join in opening up a far interior point where Sabbath-keepers have long been calling. “It does seem too bad,” Elder Porter writes, “to delay in opening up that great territory, and yet it does not seem proper to send one worker there to undertake the task alone.”

From Malaysia, one of the darkest corners of the earth, where heathenism and Mohammedanism mingle, Elder F. A. Detamore tells of urgent needs:—

We do need a man in the Battakland of Sumatra very much. A native worker has been there for months, and has quite a number keeping the Sabbath, though he was sent only to sell literature, the authorities having forbidden him to teach. All his literature has been taken from him by the officials, and he has been forbidden even to answer the questions of the people. I visited him last spring, and we decided that it would be best for him to apply for permission to teach there. If this is refused (which it will be unless the Lord especially intervenes in the matter), we can get permission to go to a place just beyond that point, where no one else is working as yet. We hesitate starting there, however, until we have a missionary to put in charge, for the place is far removed from other stations.

Thus it is at every point—the calls come as urgently as ever for workers. It must seem almost impossible to the little band of laborers in these fields to reconcile themselves to the thought that fresh recruits will not be coming in response to these calls. But even though the way is not opened for large numbers to go, there is much for every field in the promise of God that it is not by an army, not by the multitude of workers, not by the power of human resources, but by the Spirit of the living God that the work is to be done. The prayer of Asa, written down by inspiration, comes with special assurance for our own time as we face the vast work and these still unanswered calls:—

“And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.” 2 Chron. 14:11.

Few though the workers are among the millions in the unevangelized fields at home and abroad, we need not for a moment feel that the ingathering of souls is to be limited according to the limitations of our own resources. So, while pleading with the Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers into the harvest, may there be one united volume of prayer ascending from churches and believers, that the Lord may encourage the laborers already in the needy fields by manifesting the power of his word to break down barriers and win souls as never before. The workers must increase, and the means must increase, and every resource that the Lord gives to his believing children is to be devoted to service. But our eyes are not to be upon the human factor, after all, but upon the Lord of hosts. It is not in men to finish the work, but “he will finish the work,”.

We shall see the resources increasing and growing, and the new workers moving forward to the fields, for thus has the Lord chosen to work through his people in spreading the gospel through all the earth. In the matter of these calls for yet further recruits to follow on without delay, the text has its assurance. Not out of our humanly measured resources, but out of God’s great store of men and means subject to his call, will the deliverance come.

W. A. S.