p. 5 | Our Day of Opportunity by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1907

Our Day of Opportunity

By C. M. S.

THERE is a mighty stirring process now going on in all the less-evangelized portions of the earth. There are two forces at work in them all—one looking to an extension of education and leading the people to a consideration of Christianity, and the other threatening the very existence of the missionaries and the mission stations already established in those countries. It is a matter of no little significance to us and our work that this condition is so prevalent throughout the darker portions of the earth. We have been warned repeatedly that now is the day of our opportunity, and that the work which we do not do now, under favorable circumstances, we shall have to do under great difficulties and trials. God will open up the countries of this world that his witnesses may testify for him. He is doing it now, and doors long closed are swinging open everywhere.

In India the “Swadeshi Movement” is absorbing the attention of a large portion of the people. It and other nationalistic movements aim to bring about Indian independence in religion, government, education, and social life. The India National Congress at Calcutta demanded Indian self-government, and the advocates of these demands are among the best-educated people of India. Speaking of these movements, the Missionary Review of the World says, “India needs to be more than ever the center of missionary effort.”

In South Africa there is more or less unrest among even the evangelized natives, and the agitation for an independent native church has quite seriously affected the work of some of the missionary societies. There is also a movement on foot in South Africa whose slogan is, “Africa for the Africans.”

The long-neglected country of Morocco is now seething with unrest, and so dangerous did the situation become for all foreigners, that France and Spain are on Moroccan soil to keep the peace. It will doubtless be in this case as it was in the case of the Boxer rebellion in China, that greater evangelical progress will be seen for a time at least.

Persia has never been so stirred as at the present time. One writer declares it almost impossible to realize that such reforms are actually going on in Persia as have recently been established. Persia has waked up from her sleep of centuries, and now has a constitutional government and a parliament, and local assemblies have been established in all the larger cities to take the place of resident governors and priest-judges. Newspapers are springing up in many of the cities, preaching freedom and political honesty. The new movement has assumed also somewhat of an anti-foreign aspect. “Persia for the Persians” is the rallying cry of this element. In one city there is a demand that the representatives of the Church Missionary Society be expelled. Over against this is an agitation for religious liberty.

In Korea there has been a gain of more than sixty per cent in the number of converts to Christianity during the past year. This is a remarkable showing. Twenty years ago, Korea had no Bible, and no part of it except the Gospel of Mark; now, thousands are studying it and accepting Christ.

Rev. C. W. Briggs, of Iloilo, writes that “the gospel is making splendid progress in the Philippines, and that all denominations share alike in the great harvest.”

There is a struggle and an agitation on in Russia. The granting of religious freedom to Seventh-day Adventists at a time when there is such an upheaval in progress there, is another indication of the contending forces that are now working in the earth to bring the culmination of the long controversy.

For no other people in the world does this phenomenal situation have the meaning that it has for our own people. It means that God is preparing the world for the promulgation of the third angel’s message. An unseen hand has taken hold of the very foundation of this old world to shake its inhabitants out of their sleep that they may listen to his last warning. They are waking up; they are opening their doors; they are listening; and some are giving heed. Now it is for those to whom this message is committed to follow God’s leadings, press into the openings, and give the message which this important hour demands. C. M. S.