Our Record of a Year by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 19, 1907

Our Record of a Year

By C. M. S.

THERE is considerable cause for encouragement and much food for serious thought in the nine pages of statistics which appear in this week's issue of the REVIEW. There does not appear to have been one grand victory all along the line. In many instances the advance has been so slow that the figures indicate almost a standstill. In other cases there has been a failure even to maintain our ground, and the figures show a decrease. If every field could show what many do show, we would have far greater cause for encouragement.

It is true that statistics are not an infallible indication either of progress or of retrogression. There may be vital progress in the real message where the figures would show a decrease in the numbers professing to have a part in it. Nevertheless, it is worth our while to study the results of our work from a statistical point of view, comparing field with field and condition with condition. The number professing this truth is of less concern to this movement than is the matter of a deep, vital experience in the things the message stands for; and still it is a matter of encouragement to us to know that the preaching of the message is drawing adherents to the cause in all lands.

During the year the total number of Sabbath-keepers increased from 87,311 to 91,531; but the gain was not so great last year as the year before, by 1,370. For instance, the gain for the year 1905 was nearly seven per cent, whereas for the year 1906 it was less than five per cent. That means that less than five persons were added to the membership for each hundred already belonging to the organization. We can see by this how far short we come of being a truly missionary people. There are missionaries among us, faithfully giving the message; but if all were doing what they could along missionary lines, there would be a wonderful difference in the reports of progress from year to year. If each Seventh-day Adventist had brought only one person into the truth, the membership of the denomination at the close of 1906 would have been 174,622 instead of 91,531. This fact should stir up in us a determination to set our hands and hearts to this work more zealously than ever in the history of our denomination. Comparatively few have been gathering sheaves during the year.

In the comparison of fields we find that the European Union Conferences lead in the per cent of gain in accessions to the faith. In the German Union, for instance, there was a gain in membership of nearly nineteen per cent, and the per cent of gain for the whole European field was fourteen and one-half per cent; and this in spite of difficulties in those fields which look to us almost insurmountable.

The South African Union Conference shows a gain of nearly fourteen per cent in membership, the British Union a gain of over twelve per cent, and the Australasian a gain of practically ten per cent. The East Indian field, including India, Burma, and Ceylon, has just doubled in membership during the year, and Cuba has more than doubled. In the home field, however, that is, the North American Union Conferences, the average per cent of increase has been less than two per cent. What the occasion is for the smallness of the increase is not for man to say. That it does not indicate a growing spirit of disloyalty or increased apathy toward the progress

of the message is evidenced by the general increase in the amount of tithe paid per capita. This increase amounted to more than twelve per cent for the year in those conferences. The increase in offerings to missions amounted to nearly nine and a half per cent, and the increase in Sabbath-school contributions from those fields amounted to more than fourteen per cent. There was $140,260.91 more tithe paid during 1906 than during 1905, an increase for the entire denomination of over sixteen per cent. The increase in offerings to missions, nearly fourteen per cent, is a good indication of the denomination's interest in the progress of the missionary work.

Another encouraging item in the annual report is the amount appropriated by the North American Conferences for the prosecution of the work in “the regions beyond”—$117,395.99, an increase of more than sixty-six thousand dollars over the previous year. The total amount raised for evangelistic work by the entire denomination for the year 1906 was the largest ever recorded, $1,394,361.93. This is a large amount of money considered by itself; but when we compare it with the crying needs of the field, the great work to be accomplished, and the shortness of the time in which to do it, the size of the amount decreases in rapid ratio. May God increase in the hearts of his people the spirit of liberality, of loyalty, and of zeal for the progress of the work, that its completion may be hastened, and the day of deliverance be ushered in. C. M. S.