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(Reading for Wednesday, December 11)

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 46.

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(Reading for Wednesday, December 11)

By Ludwig Richard Conradi

God's Wonderful Providences

L. R. CONRADI
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33.
God's ways are indeed past finding out, and the more we inquire into them, the more the depth of his wisdom and his knowledge appears. Ere the Lord chose natural Israel, he revealed himself to Adam, the head of the human family. Enoch knew his ways, for he walked with God, and was translated. At the beginning of a new world, Noah foretold the divergence of the ways through his three sons, and the divine providences that would be connected with them. Abraham, the father of all believers, saw the day of the Lord, and God's wonderfulway in dealing with his seed, and rejoiced. The psalmist testifies to the wonderful way God led Israel: “Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.” Ps. 77:19.
For fifteen hundred years, natural Israel was to be the beacon-light of divine truth in heathen thralldom; but Jeshurun was not true to his mission, and the people did not appreciate their high privilege of being the sole possessors of the divine oracles. When Christ appeared in the world, the world did not know him; yea, he came into “his own, and his own received him not.” The Messiah was given to Israel as God's greatest gift, “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” being a native of Bethlehem in Judea, “the glory of thy people Israel.” Israel despised their golden opportunities, and rejected the world's Redeemer. Although they caused their own destruction as a nation, yet God not only saved a remnant, which carried the glad tidings of a risen Saviour to the world in their generation, but he overruled the very rejection of natural Israel to the salvation of all the world. The fall of one small nation proved to be the riches of the entire world, and the diminishing of Israel the enriching of the Gentiles.
To-day God does not entrust his precious Word to a special nation, but he chooses a spiritual people from among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, to be the light-bearers of the most glorious truths the world has ever heard. This people are to be the earthen vessels that will be filled with the greatest power ever manifested. Unto all the world this gospel of the kingdom is to be preached as a witness. It is to go with mighty power, and the whole earth is to be lightened with its glory.
When Roger Williams found a place of refuge from persecution, he very fittingly called it Providence; and in the providence of God the United States has become the cradle of the last threefold message. This country was chosen not because of the special goodness of its people nor on account of its greatness, but because of its wonderful advantages. To America's shores millions have flocked, and are still flocking, seeking liberty. The United States has been fitly termed the land of unlimited possibilities. But the Lord was in no way restricted to this one country. Europe had enjoyed the Sabbath truth since the days of Christ. The great Reformation shook Europe at the very time that America was being explored. The great missionary movement of the nineteenth century had its roots in Europe also, and likewise the advent message.
Ere our people sent messengers to Europe, God had moved on honest hearts east of the Atlantic to find in the Word of God the special truth for these last days. He thus again established the fact that although he may choose men as his instruments, yet he is not dependent upon them. God in his rich grace and wisdom uses man as the vehicle; but man thus chosen must act, or the very stones will cry out.
In surveying the European Division, with its five hundred fifty millions of people and twenty-seven thousand believers, the question arises, How did the truth come to Europe? Again, Which country would be chosen to lead out? All eyes would at once turn to Great Britain, it being the motherland of the United States, using the same language, being entrusted with the greatest riches in Europe, and being the most active in mission enterprises. But God's ways are past finding out. We should further expect that one of the strongest men of our denomination would come to make a beginning. But a man refused by our own people sailed to Europe (1865) under the Sunday flag; but the Sabbath truth was so strong in his soul that this poor earthen vessel became its first herald. The Sabbath truth first took root in the free, cosmopolitan republic of Switzerland, in the very heart of the Continent. Four years passed. A young Swiss was sent to America (1869) to petition our brethren to foster the plant thus started in weakness. He remained a year, but four years went by before the General Conference selected Elder J. N. Andrews (1874) as its first foreign missionary. He went by the British Isles, made Basel his headquarters, and wrestled hard with strange tongues. The late Elder B. L. Whitney thus fittingly acknowledged God's guidance in this move: “May we not believe that the hand of Providence has been in this, and that God has designed to preserve this little country in its national neutrality as a favorable field from which to send the truth of the third angel's message to the populous countries of central Europe?”
Twenty-six years have passed, and to-day we have two strong conferences in Switzerland, with about thirteen hundred members. The Latin Union educational, publishing, and medical center is in Gland, Switzerland, while the newly organized Central European Union is about to establish its headquarters at Basel. Switzerland has become a strong factor in developing workers and supplying finances for a number of fields.
For years three hundred Danish papers were sent monthly from zealous missionary workers in the United States to Norway and Denmark. The seed sown soon produced fruit. Elder Matteson wrote, March, 1877, to the president of the General Conference: “I think the time has come when I must get ready to go to Denmark in the interest of the last message. We frequently receive favorable letters from Denmark, and some are keeping the Sabbath there. Our Danish-Norwegian brethren have already donated two hundred dollars for this mission, although we have made no call for it.” Elder Matteson and his faithful wife placed their children among their brethren in Wisconsin, and he, as a true apostle of the Lord, left all to carry the good tidings to Scandinavia, and to establish a strong work in all three capitals.
Not until 1878 did Elder J. N. Loughborough sail for the British Isles; and, strange to say, Australia, with its small population, became a stronger factor in the cause than is Great Britain even to this day. Not until recent years has the work in Great Britain made real, solid progress, and even now there are only two thousand one hundred Sabbath-keepers there, and comparatively few workers. Most of these are the sons and daughters of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Wonderful lessons of providence can be drawn from the manner in which the cause first entered the great Russian empire, covering all eastern Europe and northern Asia. The Reformation, which shook the papal church to its very foundations, affected the German and Swedish settlers only around the Baltic, and left the Russian church untouched. This church boasts over the papal church, claiming to be the true orthodox church which has preserved the gospel in its purity while the Roman Catholic Church held sway. The living minister would have had a hard task to gain a foothold in this immense country, but God's providences cope with all emergencies. Several centuries ago the Russian government invited German settlers into different parts of Russia. Later some of these immigrated to America, where they heard of the truth, and sent silent messengers in the form of our papers across the well-guarded borders. Finally, in 1883, an aged man, with a stammering tongue, returned to Russia, unobserved and pitied on account of his weakness. But in this weak earthen vessel there rested hidden the mightiest truth. Where human wisdom failed, childlike simplicity prevailed. As he went out among his German friends, he filled his pockets with our publications, asking them to favor him by kindly reading certain portions to him. While they seemingly obliged him, they reaped the greatest benefit themselves in that they became interested in what they read. As the country became stirred, the Lutheran adversaries demanded the removal of this man; but in view of his weakness, they felt ashamed to lay violent hands upon him.
In the summer of 1886, the first minister set out on his journey to enter this unknown empire. Already on the way, God's providence sent him a man who by his own sad experience had learned how to enter such a closed field. A Russian tongue was provided for him in the person of a former Bible colporteur, and arriving in the Crimea, he found a company of Sabbath-keepers. While organizing the first Russian church, he was imprisoned, and thus debarred from future labor. But this imprisonment carried the news of this “new” faith hundreds of miles to the Caucasus, and attracted the attention of the honest in heart. Russians who had been exiled for their Baptist faith heard and accepted it, and were persecuted anew. Some were carried in chains to Siberia, and some to the very border of Persia. Although they were fettered, the truth had liberated others from error's chains, and as a result some of the strongestchurches in this vast empire were established in its utmost ends. Priests issued books giving information about these strange Sabbatarians, and gave only their Hamburg address, stating the fact that they distributed literature free; thus honest inquirers after truth were enabled to find it. The government itself sends some of its able men to follow up our general meetings for months to study our doctrines, and to become familiar with our organization. At government expense this information is printed, and freely circulated among officials and clergymen to disseminate correct information. To-day the truth extends all over Russia and Siberia, and five thousand Russian subjects rejoice in it.
KIDZU STATION, VICTORIA NYANZA, GERMAN EAST AFRICA, DR. F. W. VASENIUS IN CHARGE
KIDZU STATION, VICTORIA NYANZA, GERMAN EAST AFRICA, DR. F. W. VASENIUS IN CHARGE
But it does not stop there. Russians received our literature in Manchuria, became convinced of the truth, and forwarded their gifts for years, calling loudly the while for a worker. When he arrived, lo, an entire company was ready to be baptized. This company is not only growing, but through its labors some Chinese are even taking hold. Other Russians settled in Mohammedan strongholds, such as Tashkent and Samarkand, and on Persian soil. And, behold, the truth reaches them, churches are springing up among them, and they in turn become light-bearers in the very heart of Asia.
Likewise, the Turkish empire had for centuries closed its doors to light and progress. But a humble shoemaker who felt a burden for his native land left a good position in California, and for a mere pittance followed his handicraft in Constantinople. He did not fill his home with fine furniture, but with the Book of books, in a dozen different tongues. Although his knowledge was meager, from night to night he assembled a number of interested hearers about him. Soon after his arrival a bright Armenian of good education was converted to the message through his effort. This messenger became a successful instrument in gaining others. Though we now have only about three hundred fifty members in the Levant, a good foundation has been laid, and the truth advances in the very center of Islam, and is extending to old Armenia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.
For a long time Austria-Hungary seemed sealed to the message of peace. One lone Sabbath-keeper among fifty millions remained a silent witness of the Sabbatarians of the seventeenth century. In searching for him, one of our people entered the land, and met an unbelieving professor, who took the messenger to the oldest Baptist in Hungary. Jokingly the professor informed the old gentleman who was in charge of the Bible depository, that this messenger had come to embrace his infidel views. This aroused the sympathy of the old veteran, and he invited the messenger to dine at his home. However, he was surprised to find that instead of being able to do missionary work with the messenger, the latter brought to him glorious truths from the blessed Book, which had hitherto been unknown to him. He took his stand, and others followed. So to-day Hungary alone has some twelve hundred believers, and is the backbone of the newly organized Danube Union. Another three hundred members are in Rumania, Bulgaria, and Servia. Among these are some government spies who had been sent by wily priests to watch our meetings, but were converted to the message.
An Austrian learned the truth in Germany and returned home. Soon others began to keep the Sabbath, and workers were sent into the field. Although they may not open their lectures with song or prayer, nor take a text from the Bible as the basis of their remarks, yet God has revealed ways whereby some five hundred believers have been gathered out.
Spain and Portugal, the home of the Inquisition, persistently closed their doors even to the Reformation. But times changed; ministers of truth entered the field, the printed page found its way even into the homes of the very highest, and to-day about one hundred rejoice in the truth there, and the work is steadily growing.
Infidel France, and Belgium are likewise open, and the message is even pushing its way to the great French possessions of northern Africa. Bright young men are entering the work, and to-day some four hundred persons are rejoicing in the truth.
Yea, even Italy, the very home of the Papacy, has awakened, and joined the happy company of nations, where through God's providence the present truth steadily advances.
As early as 1864, honest Germans had discovered from the Bible the Sabbath and kindred truths. By sheer providence our brethren in Switzerland heard of them, and when in 1873 Elders Andrews and Erzenberger first visited them, they found a company of forty-six adult Sabbath-keepers. Elder Erzenberger worked among them for only a few years, then, in spite of the opening providence, Germany was left without a permanent worker for fifteen years.
In 1889 a mission was established. One would naturally expect that Rhenish Prussia, where these Sabbath-keepers were, would be selected, or some German territory near Switzerland, where rooms for this mission had already been rented, but had to be given up on account of the death of Elder Whitney. God's wonderful providence, however, pointed to Hamburg, the greatest port of Continental Europe, situated in a progressive republic which is a natural outlet of a great empire to all portions of the earth. Though Germany was so recently entered, yet in 1898 a conference could be organized there with over one thousand members. In 1901 the union was organized; in 1909 another union had developed; and in this present year two more have been added, so at present there are over eleven thousand Sabbath-keepers in Germany. Young men are imprisoned because of their faithful adherence to the Sabbath, but in the very cell they learn to know God's ways better, and dedicate themselves to his service; and to-day a number of them not only are proclaiming the glad tidings in Germany, but in the mission fields beyond. Sons of the fatherland become missionary pioneers in eastern Europe and in the Levant; and with the sons of England and Scandinavia they press the battle into the very heart of Africa, where already several hundred converts rejoice in the truth. Even the Bible is being translated by these pioneers into native African tongues, and thousands of heathen pupils throng their schools to learn of the redeeming Saviour. Europe, once wholly dependent on America for men and financial help, hasbecome a strong factor in the cause.
To-day while eleven hundred millions are looking toward America for help, another five hundred fifty millions look to Europe. God's power and providence have wrought in America in raising up sixty-five thousand Sabbath-keepers. He is working in the European Division, where about five thousand annually embrace the truth. He has wrought in Australia, and so will he also in South and Central America, in dark Africa, and populous Asia. Hundreds of millions still grope in darkness, depending upon us for workers and financial help; and even in our home countries millions of people, among whom are many dear relatives and friends, are still unsaved.
O the bright promise, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”! Then our blessed Saviour will appear, and bring our reward with him. Some more years of toil, of prayer, of giving, and the work will be finished. A rich reward awaits every honest soul. God's providences have opened up the way in all the world. We see its triumphs in every clime. It has broken the strongest barriers down. We also can cry out as did Paul of old: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Shall we not meditate upon his ways of old during this week of prayer? And while remembering them, let us consider still more his wonderful providences in the spread of this threefold message. Let us improve the providences of God, live hard by faith, consecrate ourselves fully to the Lord, and praise his wisdom and knowledge as we see the glorious triumphs of his cause in all the world. The mystery of God is nearing its final fulfilment. His Holy Spirit is most anxious to bless. His arm has been made bare in our behalf. Let Zion arise, put on her beautiful garments, and publish to all the world the glad tidings, “Thy God reigneth!”