The General Conference Committee Council at Gland, Switzerland
By W. A. Spicer
One topic pressed repeatedly upon the consideration of the council was that of the selection and special preparation of missionaries to answer calls that come with ever-increasing force from the wide-open fields. Experience in our own work, as well as the experience of all missionary societies, emphasizes the need of care and deliberation in selecting and sending out workers. More attention given to the physical fitness of candidates may save breakdowns in the fields. Further, each call from the missions may have its own special requirements; and workers adapted to one situation and kind of work may not be so well adapted to another field and class of work. Special Training for Missions
Nearly all societies planning for systematic work have special foreign training institutes, to supplement the work of the colleges, where candidates for the fields may receive special help in the particular line that will best fit them to lay hold strongly upon the work to which they are called. This special preliminary study and testing is looked to by mission boards to save many an expensive experiment in the fields. The council felt that this people must plan for determined and persevering effort to meet the calls coming now from the most populous but most trying and difficult portions of the earth. This question came up in the councils in a way that impressed all hearts that the time had come to give it definite study. Accordingly a committee was appointed, representative of all the field, to make recommendation regarding provision for special instruction of volunteers for foreign missions, as such persons may be recommended by our training colleges or conferences. This committee brought in a report which was adopted, as follows:— Your committee appointed to take under consideration the advisability of making the Washington Training College a foreign mission school in which to give special instruction to volunteers for foreign mission fields, respectfully submits the following:— Whereas, The providence of God has signally and unmistakably opened nearly all the countries of the world to us for the proclamation of this message; and,— Whereas, Our forces of workers now stationed in these fields are altogether inadequate for the work before them, and should be immediately strengthened by the addition of many workers; and,— Whereas, It is highly necessary that missionaries receiving appointments to distant fields before sending them abroad, that they may know more of their spiritual, educational, and physical fitness for the difficult tasks before them; and,— Whereas, The responsibility of finding and selecting persons who are prepared to go to these fields as ministers, teachers, physicians, nurses, and business managers, is continually becoming greater as the field enlarges; therefore,— Resolved, 1. That it is our deep conviction that the hour has come for this people to enter upon a much larger and more thorough effort in behalf of foreign missions. 2. That a more systematic plan than we have yet followed should be adopted to secure and qualify the various classes of workers which the fields need. 3. That in order to accomplish these ends, we request the trustees of the Washington Training College to so change their courses of study and plans of operation as to make that institution a distinctively foreign mission training-school. 4. That the officers of the General Conference and the union and local conferences take immediate steps to select for this special instruction, training, and preparation a hundred volunteers for mission fields. 5. That the union and local conferences be invited to assist the General Conference officers in meeting the expense of such missionaries as shall receive appointment to other fields, while receiving this instruction at the Washington Foreign Mission College. It was further recommended that Prof. H. R. Salisbury be requested to return to America to take charge of this school. It was with regret that the council withdrew Professor Salisbury and wife from the appointment to the Levant, to which field they were planning to go after the council; but the committee believed that the cause of missions would be best served by making this change. The departmental committees of the General Conference, appointed biennially, were made up by the council, as follows:— General Departmental Committees
Educational Department: Chairman, Prof. Frederick Griggs; Secretary, Prof. C. C. Lewis; other members, L. A. Hoopes, C. W. Irwin, C. H. Hayton, R. H. Habenicht, H. C. Lacey, O. Luepke, O. A. Johnson, Jean Vuilleumier, M. E. Cady, H. R. Salisbury, B. F. Machlan, Mrs. Fannie Dickerson Chase, Mrs. L. Flora Plummer, B. E. Huffman, O. J. Graf, C. Sorenson, E. A. Sutherland, J. E. Tenney, J. W. Lawhead, W. W. Prescott, W. A. Spicer, M. E. Kern, N. W. Kauble, C. B. Hughes, H. G. Lucas. Publishing Department: Chairman, C. H. Jones; Secretary, E. R. Palmer; Assistant Secretary, H. H. Hall; other members, S. N. Curtiss, I. A. Ford, F. F. Byington, James Cochran, R. L. Pierce, D. W. Reavis, B. B. Noftseger, W. C. White, L. R. Conradi, W. D. Salisbury, W. C. Sisley, A. C. Christensen, H. Hartkop, J. Robert, E. Lind, N. Z. Town, D. E. Wellman, F. E. Painter, A. F. Harrison, J. B. Blosser, C. N. Woodward, Carl E. Weaks, I. H. Evans, W. A. Spicer, W. A. Ruble, F. Griggs, W. C.5White; Secretary, E. R. Palmer; other members, G. A. Irwin, J. E. Froom, H. H. Hall. Medical Missionary Council: Chairman, W. A. George; Secretary, W. A. Ruble. General Conference appointments: D. H. Kress, H. F. Rand, C. Prince, F. J. Otis, F. A. Washburn, G. H. Heald, F. M. Wilcox. (Union conference representatives to be added.) Sabbath-school Department: Chairman, G. B. Thompson; Secretary, Mrs. L. Flora Plummer; other members, W. W. Prescott, M. C. Wilcox, Mrs. Fannie Dickerson Chase, M. E. Kern, T. E. Bowen, W. A. Spicer, C. M. Snow, H. R. Salisbury. Young People's Department: Chairman, M. E. Kern; Secretary, Miss Matilda Erickson; other members, G. B. Thompson, H. R. Salisbury, F. Griggs, Mrs. Fannie Dickerson Chase, Mrs. L. Flora Plummer, Meade MacGuire, C. L. Benson, and such other persons as may be selected after the young people's convention in Mount Vernon. Religious Liberty Bureau: Chairman, K. C. Russell; Secretary, W. A. Colcord; other members, Allen Moon, L. A. Smith, G. B. Thompson, D. W. Reavis, J. S. Washburn, R. C. Porter, S. B. Horton, H. W. Reed, C. M. Snow, W. T. Bartlett, A. J. S. Bourdeau, W. Ising, W. A. Hennig. North American Foreign Department: Chairman, G. A. Irwin; Secretary, I. H. Evans; other members, G. F. Haffner, O. E. Reinke, S. Mortenson, L. H. Christian, B. G. Wilkinson, L. W. Graham. Transportation Agents: I. H. Evans, C. H. Jones, C. L. Kilgore, I. A. Ford, Wm. Covert, N. B. Emerson, C. M. Everest, James Cochran, Meade Mac Guire, C. N. Woodward, A. Bacon, George Fisher, A. G. Adams, W. Ising, N. Z. Town, J. M. Calvert, Secretary Cape Colony Conference. The reports from these dark Catholic fields were continued in an afternoon session. Very differently is the field presented now as compared with a few years ago. French Switzerland has about five hundred believers; France, two hundred (fourteen recently baptized in Paris); Italy, nearly fifty; Spain, twenty-four; Portugal, twenty-two; French Belgium, thirty; and Algeria, four. Brother J. Vuilleumier spoke of the need of the training-school for this field started last September under the trees at Gland, as the schoolroom was not ready. They had a beautiful landscape all about, and could even have a school without buildings; but the greatest need was students. The youth from the Catholic fields must be helped to get a training. Earnestly he appealed for fifty students next year. C. T. Everson reported an encouraging year in Italy. Our work there began in Torre Pellice, where the oldest Seventh-day Adventist in Europe still lives, a sister who began to keep the Sabbath in 1866. She still walks frequently to Sabbath meetings, her home being two or three miles from the place of meeting. Brother Fant has had good experiences in Turin and Monasteralla, and a number in these places await baptism. A man at Turin, hearing preaching on the prophecies, accepted the light with joy, saying, “This is what I have been searching for for years.” In Monasteralla the priest rang the alarm bell, as in time of pestilence, to warn the people against our teaching. J. Curdy reported for French Belgium, where there are only ten thousand Protestants among seven millions of people. They have more priests and monks than any other country, the number having doubled since the expulsion of the orders from France four years ago. There is much intemperance. Babies often cry for the tobacco pipe, and their mothers soothe them with it. Brother Curdy has been able to do much temperance work. One man who was a confirmed drunkard was persuaded to seek for help. He has been a sober man for three years. He learned to read and write, and the first thing he read was the New Testament. The Crown Prince, or heir to the throne of Belgium, is president of a temperance society. He asked this man, whose case was notorious, to give a testimony for a large meeting in Brussels. The man told how Elder Curdy and the Bible had found and helped him. Now he says he is anxious to walk with us in all the light. The people who embrace this truth love it. They are careful to bring their tithes and offerings. One may hear it said as they bring in tithe on their little store, “There is a half-centime more [a tenth of a cent], but I will bring it next week.” They are careful to render the full portion belonging to the Lord. E. Schwantes, who last year joined Brother Rentfro in Portugal, reported progress in this newly entered field. Strangely were some led to the truth. For instance, in Lisbon a Protestant preacher warned his people that our workers were agents of the devil. One man’s curiosity was awakened, as he wondered how such agents would look. He stole into the meeting place, looking half-fearfully about. He listened until he was won to the simplicity of the truth. In Oporto, the second city of Portugal, there were hard experiences in getting the attention of the people. At last a breaking down of barriers came, when one hundred and fifty would attend Sabbath meetings, and as many as three hundred on Sundays. Many wept at the preaching. Attempts were made to get the magistrate to prohibit the meetings. But as the preacher stood inside the meeting room, though the congregation was largely outside the doors and windows, no prohibition could issue. Interest spread to villages round about. On Easter Sunday people from three villages gathered, three hundred of them, leaning upon their mountain sticks, urging the preacher to go on and on and tell them more. Once Brother Schwantes was stoned by the sons of priests. A colporteur sent to a village was assaulted, and would apparently have been killed had not some merchants passed by and rescued our brother. Eight have been baptized in this district, and seven others await baptism. In Lisbon, also, where Elder Rentfro is laboring, several await the ordinance. The leading newspaper and the leading illustrated journal of Lisbon have given publicity to our work in Portugal, and other papers have copied the notices. The message is onward in this long-neglected land, to which we sent Brother Rentfro only two years ago. Brother Jespersson had cheering words to speak of Algiers, where some are keeping the Sabbath. As the evidence was presented showing that the time of harvest has come in these fields where so little has been done, the council was greatly stirred with the conviction that more means and more workers must be devoted to the work in the darkest corners of Europe.