Reading for Monday, December 15 by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 13, 1913

Reading for Monday, December 15

By William Ambrose Spicer

Open Doors in the Mission Fields a Sign of the End

W. A. SPICER

The open doors are there. A few ways are still barred, but we know by experience that these gates, too, will fly open as soon as the herald of the third angel's message approaches. And these open doors in all the earth are indeed a sign of the end.

The doors were not thus open when this advent movement began. The way has been prepared of God for the bearing of the last gospel witness. We can see it almost as plainly as if the divine hand had been visible to human sight.

Observers who do not read events in the light of the definite advent movement, nevertheless see that this is the time of wondrous preparation in the vast mission fields. They are impressed with the fact that a new fulness of time has come for the evangelizing of the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, England's highest ecclesiastic, says:—

“Whatever the facts of other days, there can be no manner of doubt about our own. The opportunity is almost limitless. It is urgent, and even clamorous. It is perhaps temporary, and even passing away. And it is ours. . . . The place of missions in the life of the church must be the central place, and none other. . . . Secure for that thought its true place in our plans and policy and prayers, and it may well be that ‘there be some standing here’ tonight who shall not taste of death till they see—in a way we know not now—‘the kingdom of God come with power.’”

Many like words might be quoted.

To us who know the time and the prophecy these conditions speak with yet clearer voice to tell us that the last things are being done to prepare the way, and that Christ is verily at the door. Heaven and earth are being moved for the last closing scenes. The promise of the Saviour grows brighter and nearer: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

To Cyrus, of Persia, called to do service in fulfilling prophecy in ancient times, God said: “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass. and cut in sunder the bars of iron. . . . I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” Isa. 45: 2-5.

Just so the living God and his angels have wrought to prepare the way before the last message. Just a glance at the time of the opening of doors shows a work timed of God for the fulfilment of the prophecy. The “sure word” had declared that when the hour of God's judgment should come, in 1844, the last message of the everlasting gospel would be carried “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” And the same living God who launched the definite advent movement on its way at the exact time of the prophecy, began at the same time in a special way to open the doors of access to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”

We have seen the way open again and again immediately before our own feet as the heralds of the third angel's message have entered the various lands. In 1886 we made the first move toward Africa. Even as late as that the interior of the continent was far away. In that very year a number of Christian boys in Uganda were burned at the stake, by the king's orders—in regions where now our missionaries enter by steam railway to prosecute their work amid peaceful conditions. Within a few years from the time we were ready to enter

Africa, there came the full partitioning of the continent into colonial possessions of the European powers, bringing new means of reaching all the tribes and tongues.

No sooner had we entered South America than countries like Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, where open Protestant missionary effort was forbidden by law, began to take down the age-long bars. No sooner are we in China, really getting a foothold for service, with a constituency of earnest Chinese believers and workers forming to press the work, than here comes the sudden turn of affairs,—the changes of a generation wrought in a few years,—and, lo, China is open as never before.

Our brethren who are on the ground, in all these far fields, seeing the gates flung widely open before their faces, plead now with us to send on the men and the means to enter the open doors. Events of the Balkan-Turkish conflict give now new hope for freer course on both sides of the Bosporus. We have just entered Persia. ‘There are increasing signs in Persia,’ says the Missionary Review, ‘of a breaking free from the traditional trammels which restrict intercourse between Moslems and non-Moslems.’

It is the same story wherever we turn. The powers of heaven have been in real conflict with the powers of darkness to open these ways. The Lord says:—

‘I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.’ Isa. 42: 14-16.

The powers of evil are endeavoring to fill the earth with strife that will culminate in Armageddon. The storm seems ever just ready to break. But God's angels are holding the winds, in all the four quarters of the earth, under command to hold until the sealing message of the Sabbath reform reaches all. Such a time of activity in heaven must demand the outlay of every power and resource in the church of God on earth to give the message for which heaven holds open the way. There seems something almost prophetic in the pronouncement of the great world's missionary congress held in Edinburgh, three years ago. That gathering of thousands of missionaries sent the message to Christendom: ‘The next ten years will, in all probability, constitute the turning-point in human history.’

Truly everything cries to us that the time to favor Zion, yea, the set time, is come. Now, with the salvation of God in our souls and the simplicity of the love of Jesus filling our hearts, we are to heed the call of God:—

‘O Zion, that bringest good tidings, . . . lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come.’

The Lord is pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh. True-hearted souls are being prepared everywhere for the coming of the messengers of truth. To give one example: Early this year, Brother John Boehm, of the German Seminary, was sent to Brazil. Now he writes from an interior point:—

‘Before, and on the way, we prayed that the Lord would send his angels before us to prepare hearts for his message. We had been in San Bernardo no longer than a week when a call came for some one to come several hours' ride by train into the interior, where an interest had been awakened by one of our canvassers. As Brother Spies had no time to answer this call, he asked me to go.

‘So I came, and found the hearts of the people prepared for the message. I returned and reported to the brethren, and just as soon as they had decided to send me back to the colony, one of the men from that place came to plead for me to come. They were hungering for the truth. This is a colony of about two hundred German families from various countries. There is no church in the colony as yet, and the prospects are very bright that Seventh-day Adventists will have the first one here. May the Lord help us. The first Sabbath after my return to these people, two families kept the Sabbath with me. They had always wondered why people keep Sunday when the Bible speaks of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They had no one to explain to them how it was, and knew of no one who kept that day, as they were Roman Catholics. As soon as they saw a people that kept the day, they were ready to join them, for they took the Bible as their leader. For three years, they had been praying for more light. It would do your heart good to hear them praise the Lord on his holy day, and thank him for answering their prayers, even sending a man from North America just for them.’

These are the experiences—and they could be repeated of various lands—that cause the hearts of our missionaries to cry out to God for help. They see the elements developing that threaten to close the open doors or to make the way more difficult. ‘Now, just now,’ as the spirit of prophecy has said, ‘is the time to work for foreign missions.’ Elder E. M. Adams, of the Philippines, tells how they shed tears of joy there as they received the news that more helpers were to join them this autumn. He refers to the conviction on the part of many in the Philippines that stormy times are just ahead for that vast island possession. But now the way is wide open, and our workers feel that all about are the signs of the latter rain. Brother Adams relates an incident showing how native believers, of brief experience, are growing in the message:—

‘We had a little experience in electing and ordaining another deacon at Malolos which made me feel that we are near the time when the Lord will let his blessing rest upon, and indicate his will to, his church, even as he did in the days of the apostles. The church was so divided as to who should fill this new office that we called for a season of prayer to decide the matter. After prayer the selection was clear, and before the roll was called this brother was ordained. When his name was called, in place of bearing his testimony he asked to pray. We bowed in prayer, and his prayer brought the Spirit of the Lord into that meeting so that hearts were touched and the people wept. After this he bore his testimony. While he was speaking, the evangelist who was sitting by me, said to me, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon the new deacon.’ O, for a closer walk with God!’

About one hundred and fifty new missionaries will have gone to the fields in 1913 before the year ends. Pray that every one may be an additional soul-winner. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth yet more laborers into the fields white for the reaper. Prayer will raise more money for missions, and open new treasuries for the Lord's work on earth. Right on through these open doors in all the world, we can see, by faith, the twilight glory of the coming dawn. More and more let us pray definitely for the coming of the Lord. That is the last prayer of the Bible. In response to the last words of Jesus in Revelation, ‘Surely I come quickly,’ the church is to respond, ‘Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’ It is time to pray daily for the coming of the Lord. It will bring the ‘blessed hope’ as a living thing into the heart to transform the life. For ‘every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.’ Jesus will cleanse every stain of sin, and give to us the story to tell other souls far and near.

‘O, bliss of the purified! bliss of the free! I plunge in the crimson tide open for me! O'er sin and uncleanness exulting I stand, And point to the print of the nails in his hand. O sing of his mighty love, sing of his mighty love, Sing of his mighty love—mighty to save!’