Washington, D. C by J. S. Washburn

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Aug 25, 1904

Washington, D. C.

By J. S. Washburn

As will be seen by reference to page 20, the amount of donations to the $100,000 fund now lacks but $128.29 of $30,000, and the donations are still coming in rapidly. We are very much pleased to note that many children, and also a large number of friends who are not Adventists, are helping to make up the needed amount. This is very encouraging. We are also interested to note that many families—father, mother, and children—are all uniting in this work. One family, consisting of father, mother, and nine children, all sent in donations, so that the total family gift was $500.

One thousand dollars has just been donated from a foreign land. It will be fully reported next week. Will not some of our dear friends in America now send a donation of one thousand dollars for the next week’s list to go with this one which comes from a far country? It is wonderful to note that many of our dear brethren and sisters in foreign lands are rejoiced to unite with the loyal brethren in the United States in helping to accomplish this great work.

We call attention to two letters, of remarkable interest from the island of Bermuda:—

HAMILTON, BERMUDA.

If every one of the seventy thousand Adventists felt and knew that ten per cent of all his income belonged to the Lord at any and all times, would it be hard for any of them to say at a time of need like this in Washington: “I owe to him, the blessed Lord who gives me all, three per cent more this month, and I will continue to pay each month for a year, or such a time as needed, three per cent out of all that I receive, besides the tithe, until this amount, $100,000, is raised”? Could anything but happiness come from such a course, if followed conscientiously? And how quickly will all be raised if those who still love to give a specified amount, continue to let the good work go on. My wife and I will follow such a plan.

Brother James A. Morrow, of Hamilton, Bermuda, writes of an aged sister who has sent an offering for the Washington fund:—

She is a dear colored sister, sixty-seven years of age, who works very hard. She sells fruit at the dock yard to families, and to do this she leaves her home early in the morning, walks about half a mile, then crosses the water three fourths of a mile to Hamilton, where she makes her purchases, and takes the nine o’clock boat to the dock yard six miles distant. She walks from house to house, selling her fruit and vegetables. It is night when she returns. She makes this trip two or three times a week. This week she came bringing her donation to the Washington fund, requesting us to send it for her. She laid out six pounds in gold (thirty dollars), saying that she had laid this by for some time, and had been praying the Lord to know where he would have her put the money, when she received letters from Brethren Washburn and Daniells. I wish you could see her face. There is a light there which only the power of God can make. Some day I hope you will see her among that wondrous throng that will surround the throne of God.

When our brethren in foreign lands are so intensely interested in this work, surely those in this country will manifest even a deeper willingness to sacrifice and to work systematically until the whole amount is quickly raised. We quote the following words from the Testimony written June 4 in Nashville, Tenn., in sight of the great need in that field, and within hearing of the pleading of worthy calls for help:—

Our people are to remember that for the present the work in Washington is to be our first interest. There are many kinds of work to be carried forward in different places, but our first interest just now is our work at the capital of our nation. We are to center our minds for the present on the work that needs to be done at Washington.

Has not the Lord called his people to this high mountain top from which the message of warning and of salvation may be proclaimed to all the world? “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. . . . Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come.” Isa. 40:9, 10.

J. S. WASHBURN.