A Word From the Mission Treasury by W. T. Knox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 9, 1913

A Word From the Mission Treasury

By W. T. Knox

We are pleased to be able to report that the Harvest Ingathering Campaign of 1912 was a very satisfactory effort in every respect. Letters received from those participating in this campaign indicate an increased interest in mission operations. Financially, it was by far the most successful effort of this character thus far conducted by the Mission Board, the amount realized from donations for the year being $50,164.45.

While this amount was largely made up of small contributions, and the amounts contributed probably caused no serious inconvenience to those who so kindly donated to the fund, yet the results will be far-reaching, as the grand total of the many small gifts is sufficient to enable the Mission Board to place thirty-five additional American or European gospel workers in such heathen fields as India, China, or Africa, and to maintain them for one year; or it would be ample to support five hundred native workers in these heathen lands for a like period. The results accruing from such an enterprise in our evangelical work, cannot be estimated. In view of this, the writer, in behalf of the Mission Board, desires to express to the many friends of mission effort who by their contributions have made such a work possible, its most hearty appreciation of their liberalities.

The year 1912 has been, in many ways, a most gratifying one in mission endeavor. Funds from all sources have been received in the treasury in a more liberal volume than in any previous year during the history of the Mission Board, the Sabbath-schools of the denomination being the most fruitful source of income, $228,029.24 being the actual amount contributed for foreign missions from all the schools. Their aim for the next four years is to place in the mission treasury $1,000,000. The same liberality has been noticeable in the gifts of the churches, and in the special donations received.

From almost every field come most encouraging reports of conversions. This is especially true in China, Korea, the Philippines, the Malaysian field, and some of the difficult countries of Europe. In Mexico, notwithstanding the protracted unsettled political condition, 1912 was, without doubt, our most successful year.

The plan outlined for our work the current year calls for an expenditure for missions of between $500,000 and $600,000. A liberal appropriation has been made to open the work in Chinese Manchuria. The Asiatic Division is also planning on entering Siam. There are now at the Foreign Mission Seminary in Washington a goodly number of men and women under appointment to mission work, taking their final course of preparation. And from many others engaged in the evangelical and school work in our conferences in Canada and the United States, the Mission Board is continually calling workers to be sent out to distant lands as rapidly as possible.

The energies of the General Conference in mission work are not, however, confined to heathen lands. In the borders of our own enlightened countries of Canada and the United States, there is great need of the services of the true missionary. Conditions in the large cities, with their constant influx of tens and hundreds of thousands from all countries of the world, create a situation that invites and demands the attention of every mission board,—a situation that in many ways is more difficult to meet than that existing in some of the foreign fields.

There are also, in the Southern States, millions of men and women with dark skins, but souls for whom Christ died, whose condition and environment place an obligation upon us that cannot be ignored.

These conditions, therefore, that are within our own borders, demand and receive, to the extent of our ability, our attention and our means. Properly to care for this phase of the work, there has been organized a North American Foreign Department, whose principal field of operation is the large cities of America; and a North American Negro Department, with the Southern States as its field.

In sending out this another special missions number of our denominational paper gifts to the friends of foreign missions, we wish again to express our gratitude for the past evidences of their appreciation of our efforts to obey the Saviour's injunction to carry his gospel to all nations, and for the substantial assistance they have afforded us in doing this, and again to extend to all so inclined the opportunity to assist us in this great work, by such donations as may to them seem proper.

May the day soon come, foretold of old, when “they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

W. T. KNOX, Treasurer Mission Board.