The Call for Re-enforcements
By William A. Spicer
WITH an aching but trustful and courageous heart, Sister A. M. Fischer, of Porto Rico, wrote, on the day of her husband's death, of the anxiety felt lest the reverse should lead to delay in pressing on the work. It was a matter of anxiety on Brother Fischer's part in his last conscious hours, lest his illness should discourage and deter others from going out. And Sister Fischer writes in her first hour of sorrow: “O, I cannot understand why he should go like this, just as he was getting started in the church work! What is to be done now? Is the embryo work to lag? I believe that God can work even this to the good of the cause; but don't let the interest drop.” I know that others of our workers falling, and those associated with them in the distant fields, have felt this same anxiety. With the providence of God swinging wide open the gateway into every land, and his voice calling us to enter in haste, we send the word to our workers abroad that the believers in this land, with one voice, will respond with workers and means so that nothing gained may be lost, and the battle may be pressed on to victory. We must stand by with prayer and consecration, and lose no time in filling the broken ranks. By Brother Fischer's death our one regular laborer in Porto Rico is taken away. The sad news comes from Europe that Brother Chas. Grin, the one laborer in Belgium, with its six millions, has fallen. Is it not evident that we must place the workers two and two in these great fields, so that the death of one may not leave millions absolutely unprovided for? God is giving us the workers, ready to go. He is surely giving the people the heart and ability to set such a stream of consecrated means flowing into the mission treasury that there may be no disheartening delay in hastening reënforcements forward. With the progress of the message in other lands, we are made to feel the truth that this work is a battle and a march. It is a campaign that costs life and treasure. The graves of our dead mark many a distant field. Now Porto Rico and Belgium are added to the list. But every new-made grave is a fresh incentive to push forward until every loyal soul in all these waiting lands is won for Christ. So men of this world lay down their lives to build up the kingdoms of this world. Thank God, we have a holy cause into which we may throw ourselves and our all, for the glory of our King and that heavenly country toward which we are hastening. It is almost within sight.