The Offering for October 2 by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 2, 1909

The Offering for October 2

By I. H. Evans

SABBATH, October 2, is the day set apart by the General Conference for our churches to make an offering for the carrying on of the work of the third angel’s message among the colored people in the United States of America. As the time for this offering is near at hand, it is necessary that the announcement be made so that our people everywhere can plan to help swell this donation to a goodly sum.

The offering for the work among the colored people comes once a year, and the amount received is not sufficient to carry on the work without additional appropriations from the treasury of the General Conference. The amount received on this offering in 1908 was $9,819.94. Surely this year we can do as well as we did last year, if not better, owing to the fact that God has given us the greatest financial prosperity in the history of our nation. The crop reports for 1909 exceed all previous records. Surely Seventh-day Adventists have shared with others in these benefits.

It will be proper for us to bring to the Lord a liberal offering on this occasion. Everything that is given will be thankfully received and well spent in the advancement of the third angel’s message among the colored people.

Most of the readers of the REVIEW will recall that at the late session of the General Conference the work among the colored people in the United States received considerable attention and was reorganized. The North American Negro Department of the General Conference was created, with the secretary’s office at Nashville, Tenn. Elder J. W. Christian, who for years has been president of the South Dakota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, was asked to resign his position in that conference, and to accept the secretaryship of the work of the Negro Department. This arrangement has already been completed, and Elder J. W. Christian is now in the South, and will give his time and strength to the development of the work among the colored people.

There is no question but that the colored people respond readily to the truths of the third angel’s message when they have a chance to hear. The needs among them are unspeakably great, and much money must be supplied with which to support schools and missionaries among them. This question is no new one to our people, as we have been taking up donations for this work for many years.

Surely this year we ought to raise more than ten thousand dollars for this work. All should begin to plan definitely for the donation; and if each will bring a liberal offering, there will be a large collection for this department of our denominational work. Do not forget the date, October 2. From time to time there will be articles in the REVIEW calling attention to the needs of this department of the work.

I. H. EVANS.