A Year of Blessing by W. T. Knox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 24, 1910

A Year of Blessing

By W. T. Knox

What has the year been to us? is a question that we can properly ask ourselves, now that 1910 is drawing to a close. How has God dealt with us? How have we met our responsibility to his work and kingdom? While as individuals, as well as a people, we have had disappointments and sorrows, yet have not the dealings of God with us been such that our hearts should be filled with gratitude toward him, so that this will be to us a season of real thanksgiving?

It is true that our hearts have been saddened as death has claimed some faithful workers, or sickness has for a time appeared to stay the service of some brother or sister in distant lands.

In our personal affairs, without doubt we have all fared very much alike; for trials, difficulties, and temptations are common to all mankind; but, on the other hand, what do we see? Throughout the year the progress of this message has been steadily forward. From every field we in the home land are continually receiving the most encouraging reports of difficulties being overcome, of successes attained, and of constant growth. Continually the Lord is demonstrating to us that he has gone before us to prepare the way for his servants, so that there are ever standing before us open doors, inviting us to enter new fields.

In our large cities, especially in New York, we have been greatly encouraged by the results of this summer’s work, as seen in the excellent attendance at the different meetings, and the scores of men and women who have gladly accepted the message presented.

In our individual experiences, the year has not failed to reveal to us a God most gracious, and that the “same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” And while in America we have had some drought in certain sections of the country, yet the promise has stood true to us that “while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest . . . shall not cease.” And now at the close of the year, we find that generally the crops have been good, and the prices obtained all that could be desired.

In view of all this, surely we should in this national thanksgiving time be able to fully enter into the spirit of true thanksgiving. There is a great need of this, and that we give unto the Lord substantial evidence of our appreciation of his goodness. The history of this movement is big with evidences that our message is of heaven. The progress made in the sixty-five years of our existence, in which time it has, from less than a score of persons, gone to almost every nation and people in the world, might not of itself be sufficient evidence of this. But when we put with this marvelous development the wonderful fulfilment of prophecy, and the present condition of the world, with its evident impending doom, who can question that man to-day needs just such warning and such saving grace as this message carries? And nothing else will suffice, or will meet the present world-wide situation.

Who, then, will say we are doing too much in its proclamation, or that now we must be satisfied with our past and present efforts? Yet the General Conference finds itself compelled to call a halt. To missionaries under appointment for foreign fields, we are obliged to say: “We can not send you forward now. We have not money for your transportation or support.” Pitiful conditions are reported to us from some

fields already entered, on account of a lack of funds for their present work. We have not only been obliged to shut our eyes to the many doors standing open before us, but worse—we are not able properly to care for the work already established by the denomination.

The gifts and offerings of the people have not been wasted. They have been carefully husbanded and expended, but they have not been adequate for the necessities of the work. There is hardly a mission field to-day in the far East, in South America, in the Southern States, or in our large cities, that is not keenly feeling, and in some cases absolutely suffering from, the lack of funds.

All will say that this is not as it should be; but can we not now, in the few remaining weeks of the year, redeem the time, and change this condition? Let us all now, in this time of thanksgiving and prayer, change this unbearable situation, and at the same time show our appreciation of, and our gratitude for, God’s goodness to us by adequately supplying his treasury for present needs. Christ is calling to us to-day to meet him at the altar of sacrifice. W. T. KNOX.