The Foreign Immigration Our Opportunity
By Ole Andres Olsen
We stand face to face with a tremendous problem in the matter of giving the message to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all the nations of the world already in our country, and to the hundreds of thousands that are still flocking to our shores year by year. By a divine providence the advent20movement stands for a great work to be done in a short time. The third angel's message is to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people in this generation. In a marvelous manner the Lord has thrown wide open the doors of nearly every nation for the entrance of the gospel, thus giving us the opportunity to carry to them the last solemn message of salvation. Indeed, we have inaugurated a mighty missionary effort, and already the sound of the third angel's message has reached the uttermost parts of the earth. Still, when we remember the hundreds of millions in China, India, and other countries, we realize that the work is only begun. While a divine providence has thus opened a wide door in the regions beyond for the proclamation of the gospel for this time, and missionaries have gone forth, the same providence, as if doubly to hasten the spread of the message, has sent hundreds of thousands of foreigners from every nation on earth to our shores; yes, to our very doors. Thus, while at the best but few comparatively can be sent abroad as missionaries, our entire denomination can take a direct part in giving the message to these foreigners in our home land. The best laborers must be set to work among these foreign people,—among the Italians, Bohemians, Hungarians, Slavonians, Poles, Russians, Finns, Chinese, etc. This great immigration is no accident, but the real meaning has not been comprehended. It is time that there should be an awakening. The urgency of the case is great. Aside from what has been done among the Germans and Scandinavians, and a slight work among the French, what have we done?—We have done nothing, and must confess to have been very negligent. Have you stopped to consider that fully one third of our population are foreigners; that we have State after State where more than half the people are foreigners and speak a foreign tongue? Have you known that we have city after city where from fifty per cent to eighty-five per cent of the inhabitants are foreigners? You may not have given this matter much thought in the past, but this is the situation, and it calls for an awakening. What effort has been put forth to bring the message to these people? How many laborers have been set apart by our various conferences to give the truth to these people of foreign nationalities whom God has brought to our very doors? Alas, we have done virtually nothing. We plead for an awakening; we plead for our local and union conference officers to take this matter in hand without delay; we urge that properly qualified persons who have tact and ability, and above all a real missionary spirit, be set apart to labor for Italians, for Hungarians, for Poles, for Bohemians, for Chinese, etc., in this country. Such laborers should lead out and develop native laborers from among these nationalities themselves, the same as we do in lands abroad. This is what is needed, and what is called for. The Production and Circulation of Literature
Another line of work is the circulation of literature. Here is an open field for the rank and file of our people. At present we have publications treating on present truth in sixty-seven different languages, and we have foreigners of different nationalities scattered all over the land in our cities, villages, and rural districts. We come in contact with them everywhere. Now, why should not our people everywhere make it a business to form a friendly acquaintance with these foreigners? Many among them can speak a little English. Here is a great mission field for the individual members in our churches. The publications in these many languages will do no good while they lie on the shelves of the publishing-house; but they can not take themselves to the people. Men and women are needed to carry them. Even though they can not speak the Italian or the Bohemian or the Chinese, they can hand out tracts or papers to people of those nationalities who may be their neighbors or live in their community. Will not our church officers consider this matter? Will you not bring this subject promptly before our churches? As church-members, shall we not improve this opportunity? We plead with you to consider this matter and to come to the help of the Lord in this time of such need by circulating our literature in many languages among these people for whom it has been prepared. The situation calls for a general revival in the circulation of small literature. We rejoice in the success of the colporteur and of the canvasser, and their success gives evidence of the fact that the mission of our literature is being especially blessed of God. But we are not circulating our smaller literature as we should, especially that in foreign languages. We plead for a revival of the old-time missionary spirit. This is a matter that must receive more and more attention from our conference officers and from all our conference workers. The mission of our literature has wonderful possibilities when taken hold of in real earnest. Our foreign population also presents a wide-open door for our sisters, who can visit the homes and hold Bible readings with the women and children. There is the greatest need for just such work. In the homes, our sisters can come in touch with these mothers, and by kind, sympathetic association can turn their hearts to Christ. There could hardly be a more needy mission field than that which presents itself in the homes and families of these foreigners. How This Home Foreign Mission Work Would Affect the Work Abroad
This is another phase of the situation that should not be overlooked. The fact has been demonstrated over and over again that every stroke of work put forth for any one of the foreign nationalities here reaches the home land of that people. It is like a stone thrown into the pond which causes a ripple that does not stop until it reaches the farther shore. When an individual gets a tract or a paper in which he is interested, his next thought is to send it, or write about it, to some relative or friend in the home land; and if he should accept the truth, he would write letters and send literature to a large circle of relatives and acquaintances, and thus the light would spread. This is not only one of the most efficient ways, but also the most natural way of doing foreign missionary work. This was the way the truth first went to Scandinavia and to Germany, and we now see the results. What would have been the result if we had in the past put forth earnest efforts for the Italians, the Hungarians, the Chinese, the Japanese, and all the other nationalities who are represented by thousands of foreigners here? Do you not see that it would not only have simplified our foreign missionary work, but also greatly facilitated the same? Can you not see that we have not only neglected, but literally let go to waste the most fertile field, the one where best results might be expected from foreign missionary efforts? Cultivate the foreign field at home, and you will reap a double harvest,—one at home and one abroad. A terrible indifference has existed with reference to the foreigner at home, and as a result we have had much harder work abroad. We plead for a change; we urge our conference officers to study this question, and work for a revival. Do nothing less for foreign missions abroad, but on the other hand, give the foreign mission work abroad a new impetus by doing vigorous work in the foreign field at home. Not only will letters be written and literature be sent from this country to the home land, but missionaries who will have accepted the truth here will return home with it, and laborers will be raised up from among these nationalities to proclaim the truth to their own people both here and abroad. In this way a fresh impetus will be given to the message in the home land and in the world-wide field abroad. I submit this plea with an earnest prayer that this great subject may receive its proper attention, and the work be hastened to its final and glorious consummation.
O. A. OLSEN.