p. 11 | An Opportunity by C. P. Bollman

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 9, 1909

An Opportunity

By C. P. Bollman

C. P. BOLLMAN

The approaching annual offering for the work among the colored people affords us another opportunity to give that branch of the Lord’s cause a much-needed impetus.

It is true that this work, like almost every other, is far behind what it ought to be; but it is also true that a fair beginning has been made. Not all has been done that ought to be done, but a good foundation has been laid for more aggressive work. Quite a force of colored laborers has been developed, and as a consequence the work is now in a position to advance much more rapidly than was possible even a few years ago. A larger proportion of money and effort given now can go directly to the firing line than formerly. This should be a source of thankfulness to every lover of present truth.

When the Oakwood Manual Training School at Huntsville was first established, almost everything was to be done. There were at that time very few colored Seventh-day Adventists prepared to labor successfully for their own people. Now, however, thanks to the work done at Oakwood and in the mission schools of the Southern Missionary Society, there are scores of colored believers actually in the field as ministers, teachers, nurses, Bible workers, and canvassers.

It is true that in some respects conditions are becoming more difficult than they were five or ten years ago, but now when white laborers are compelled to abandon any part of the field, we have colored laborers ready to take their places. This is due, in large measure, as already stated, to the good work done at Huntsville and in the mission schools.

In the past our work for the colored people has lacked that thorough organization, that homogeneity, necessary to bring the best results and to admit of the most economical effort. Now, however, with the organization of the North American Negro Department and with the coming in of the several union missions in the South, the whole work can be carried forward more intelligently, more economically, and we believe more successfully, than formerly.

There is another consideration also that should have weight with us at this time; namely, the fact that just now the sentiment of the better class of the Southern people is very favorable to intelligent, conscientious effort for the moral and industrial uplifting of the negro. In the past the South has been in a measure indifferent upon the question of negro education. Now, however, a large number of the people are becoming aroused to the fact that the stability of society depends not alone on the intelligence and morality of the white population, but in no small degree also on the intelligence and morality of the colored population. It is true there are some who demand that the negro be kept in ignorance, but thus far a better sentiment has prevailed. The tide will turn erelong, but meanwhile there is a grand opportunity to entrench the principles of present truth so thoroughly among the colored people that when the last white worker shall have been driven from this branch of the cause, the work will still go forward, carried by intelligent, consecrated negroes themselves who have been trained in our schools, and have gained an experience under the leadership of those whose opportunities have qualified them to instruct others.

That the Lord’s hand is in the plans that are now being laid for carrying forward this branch of his work is evident from the fact that the field is opening as never before. Brethren and sisters, there is surely “a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” and in many ways the Lord is bidding us go forward. Nor is the Lord asking us to do something that is beyond our ability to do. He has given the country at large good crops, and consequently better times. Thus the Lord is affording us another opportunity to do the work that must be done.

The work among the white people in this field is rapidly becoming self-supporting. But the work for the colored people must still have help. The colored believers are just as true and just as faithful as white believers, but they are too poor to do what must be done for their people. They are doing what they can, but the Lord calls upon the more highly favored race to share with them in bearing the burdens, that when the labor and heat of the day are past, we may share also in the glorious reward. Brethren and sisters, remember the offering for work among the colored people to be taken up in all our churches Sabbath, October 2.

Nashville, Tenn.