A Record in Missionary Appointments by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 14, 1911

A Record in Missionary Appointments

By W. A. S.

THE current number of the Missionary Review has the following note:—

A Hundred New Missionaries

The largest number of missionaries ever sent out by one denomination in one year will be sent out by the Foreign Mission Board of the Northern Presbyterian Church during the present year. One hundred have already been accepted, and will sail in July, August, and September. This large number of new missionaries has been made possible by a recent bequest to the board.

The regular income of the Presbyterian Board is about $1,300,000 a year. We are glad to hear of this large addition to the missionary force.

Of special interest to Seventh-day Adventists is the statement that this one hundred new missionaries is the largest number ever sent out by one denomination in any year. Our own figures for recent years are as follows:—

1907 ........................ 58 1908 ........................ 140 1909 ........................ 134 1910 ........................ 61

This makes 393 missionaries sent out in the last four years, or an average of very nearly one hundred a year.

No wonder our little mission treasury is pressed continually to the limit to supply the needs in the mission fields. But wonderfully God has blessed our brethren and sisters in keeping the gifts flowing in, and he has blessed our missionaries in the fields in developing local resources, and in economizing to make the appropriations go to the farthest limit.

Now the encouraging growth of the staff of native workers in mission fields calls for continual and large increase, regardless of new missionaries; and it will require our united devotion in earning and giving to make ends meet in the fields, even though we reduce the number of missionaries sent out. Yet the call for new workers comes with compelling urgency. As we see what a small people are doing, with meager resources, we feel that truly the Lord, whose blessing multiplied the loaves and fishes for the hungry multitude, is giving power to the last gospel message.

This should be added: Our list of missionaries includes those going out from Europe and the colonies. Our work is one the world over, and our denomination one in its activities. The figures from the Presbyterian Board represent the main American branch of that church.

W. A. S.