To the Dear Missionaries in Distant Lands by J. B. Reis

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 3, 1910

To the Dear Missionaries in Distant Lands

By J. B. Reis

J. B. REIS

In Jesus’ worthy name, I will, through the REVIEW, express my heartfelt gratitude to my dear Heavenly Father for your many good letters which appear in the REVIEW from time to time. They are certainly a feast of good things. I can not express in words what a joy they bring to my soul. I wish I could say something to bring equal joy to your hearts.

I can not understand how any young man or woman can read such stirring appeals, and sit still; nor how any one who loves the truth can keep any money in his possession. Twenty odd years ago, when a call came, and our General Conference was saying, “Whom shall I send?” I responded, “Here am I; send me.” I was questioned about my age. Word came, “Your age is against you.” At that time I considered myself a young man. Now I am past the sixty-fifth mark, and have no more heart to respond. Why so?—“He is an old man.” But give me a pick, ground, seed, and the increase which the Heavenly Father gives, and I live, thanks be to him. I can say, with Caleb, I am as strong to-day as I was twenty-five years ago, and my interest in the message is unabated.

Dear young men and women, there is nothing that will give you a better fitting for the great harvest-field than the reading of these stirring appeals from our dear brethren in foreign lands, with two or three silent talks a day with Jesus, who said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”

Though I may never be with you, dear missionary, in person, yet I am with you in spirit. You have a hold on my heart, and also on my purse-strings. When young, I studied geography, and learned outlines of countries, seas, lakes, rivers, etc., and became acquainted somewhat with the people inhabiting the earth. But your letters are the best geography any man can study. I am following you right along. Some Sabbaths I am in China, India, Japan; on others in Korea, Africa, Asia, and in South America. You can see what an old man can do. Let the young men do the same.

I thought I could do much through the Ingathering week, but in this I failed. I think I am living in as dark a corner of the earth as can be found; for men who love darkness rather than light are surely in gross darkness. What I collected will barely pay the expense for paper and ink. But as these people read your letters and your appeals, and see how the Chinaman, the Korean, the Indian, the African, and people of many other nationalities begin to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, it may open their eyes, and much good may result from the distribution of these copies of the REVIEW. May the Lord grant it, and to him we will ascribe all praise.

Lancaster, S. C.