p. 23 | Symposium Service

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1907

Symposium Service

In the Friedensau School Chapel, May 3, 1907

[We believe that the following words spoken to the students of the Friedensau School by the visiting brethren will be of great interest and value to our young people everywhere. The meeting was stenographically reported by Brother H. E. Rogers, and we take pleasure in presenting herewith the substance of what each speaker said.—[F. G.]

A. G. DANIELLS: My heart is full of gratitude to-night because of this opportunity. I am glad that you can meet so many laborers and representatives of this cause from America and Scandinavia. We have been looking forward to our council in Gland, Switzerland, with a great deal of interest. We have thought that we should have an interesting, encouraging, and important meeting then; but we feel that we have just such a meeting here in Friedensau.

Why are we here? I wish to give you just one reason why I am here with you, and in Europe at this time. It is because God is now giving his last message to the world.

WM. COVERT: I come from the Lake Union Conference, in which there are fifteen thousand Seventh-day Adventists, and almost all of them are deeply interested in what you are doing here. When we began to hold conferences in the part of the world where I lived, we did not look very far away from our own field for work and workers; but as time has gone on, the work has widened, and our interest has increased. We have now come to Europe to attend a General Conference council. This message is to go to all the world, and we want to become acquainted with one another, so that we can work together intelligently.

E. T. RUSSELL: As I see that Europe is but a vast military camp, training young men for war,—though not known to themselves, for the battle of the great day of God Almighty,—this thought has deeply impressed itself upon my mind: that the young people of this denomination in the different European countries should be trained for the kingdom of God. They should be trained to fight in this final battle, that they may receive the final reward.

FREDERICK GRIGGS: There is an old saying that old men are for counsel, and young men are for war. I count myself happy to be engaged in the work of training young men and young women for war; and I am glad to know that it is the last war of any kind for all time. As I thought of coming to Europe, there were no places that I looked forward to visiting with more interest than our training-school in London and our training-school in Friedensau. I find that they are filled with the same earnest spirit that we have in our schools in America, and I am glad to take back to our schools in America some of the inspiration which I have received from visiting these schools.

E. E. ANDROSS: I am glad to tell you that the work is moving rapidly over in the union that I represent. We have about seventy young people in our college in London, and without an exception, I believe, they are training for service in this last great warfare. There is nothing that gives me such hope and courage in the finishing of this work as the thought that our young people are devoting themselves to God's service. The secret of the success of our work lies in their consecration and devotion to God's cause.

W. J. FITZGERALD: The question of why we are here from America has been raised this evening. In America it was answered that we were to come here, not for the purpose of giving counsel, but for the purpose of joining in counsel concerning the great world-wide work. The one thing that inspires my heart more than any other thing in the world, is the fact that this work has so grown that it is perfectly justifiable, right, and natural for a General Conference council to be held east of the Atlantic, instead of west.

R. A. UNDERWOOD: In the sixteenth century Germany aided largely in the great crisis that was on during the Reformation, and I trust that in the closing crisis of this world, which will come under the third angel's message, not only this country, but all Europe, will furnish a large share of the young men who will stand the truest and bravest in the conflict. As I look into the faces of these young men and young women, I see one hope and one purpose, it seems to me, expressed: you are here to prepare for active service for humanity and for God. I can carry back to the field from which I came a good report from Friedensau.

W. B. WHITE: I remember years ago when I was a young man upon the farm, that many times when the harvest was ripe, and the storm was gathering, the whole family had to go into the field and assist in the work. It seems as if we have reached that time now. The harvest of souls is now ripe, and the storm is gathering, and it is high time that all God's children should be in the field at work.

DR. R. G. INGERSOLL: I am glad to be here to-night as a representative of the Orient, and to tell you that eight years of the most enjoyable portion of my life have been spent in a missionary outpost. I was also very glad to hear this afternoon from Elder Conradi that all the students who are here are preparing for missionary work. There is no question but that we have come to a time when every Seventh-day Adventist must be a missionary. Not all will be permitted to go to foreign countries, but they must be truly missionaries. We are told that those who earn the money to send the missionaries are as truly missionaries as those who go.

I. H. EVANS: There are in the world to-day about one thousand men giving their lives to preaching this gospel. We have about one thousand other men who are either printing or distributing our literature represented by this message. We have another thousand who are engaged in the sanitarian work represented by this message. We have about twelve thousand young boys and girls of various ages attending schools, to prepare to give this message to the world. We have nearly nine hundred teachers in our schools. Our people are paying about one million dollars of tithe annually, for the support of our evangelical work. They are contributing about three hundred thousand dollars for work in foreign lands, besides the tithe they pay. They are distributing literature to all the various nations of earth, in about forty different languages. They gather in from the sale of this literature at least one million five hundred thousand dollars annually. And the sanitariums represented by this message are taking in perhaps two or three million dollars a year.

So you can see that there is a mighty army engaged in giving this message to the world. We need to increase this number of workers many times; we want them to go out into the frontiers and break up new land.

W. H. WAKEHAM, president of the South England Conference: Some years ago I saw a little tract, written, I think, in the city of Chicago, by a Unitarian minister. The title-page struck me so forcibly that I read it. The title was this: “Blessed be Drudgery.” I wondered what there could be about what we call drudgery to be really blessed. But the gist of it was this: All these little experiences and difficulties and trials and hard knocks that we pass through fit us better for the work that we have to do in the future. Blessed be perplexities. Blessed be hard work. Blessed be the trials and the difficulties that you encounter, because these are stepping-stones to a character that will enable you to make a success in the field wherever you may be called.

R. C. PORTER: I expected, on coming to Europe to attend the meeting of the General Conference Committee, to receive much more than I shall be able to contribute. It has been a source of great encouragement to me to meet with the brethren and sisters in England, Germany, Scandinavia, and the representatives from India and other fields. I can only say, as did the queen of Sheba when she visited the kingdom of Israel in the reign of Solomon, that what I had heard of the progress of the work in those countries did not half tell what I really find when I come to see it myself. There is but one motive that is worthy any young man to-day, and that is to prepare to devote his life in God's service.

G. F. HAFFNER next spoke in German, which was not translated.

P. A. HANSEN, president of the Scandinavian Union Conference: I am thankful to meet so many of the same faith here to-night, and to see so large a group of students, especially when I compare the number with those here the first time I visited this school. It was then quite different from what it is at the present. I remember the buildings called the barracks, back of the old grist-mill, which were first used for the school. I remember going through the buildings, and of seeing in the boys' quarters the groups of students along on the floor. I think the floor was the bedstead, and the bedsteads their chairs, and as we walked through there, we had to be very careful not to walk on the beds. The last time I was here, I noticed the motto on the end of the school building. It is, “Pray and work,” and as I look over this group of students to-night, I think there must have been some praying and some working done since I was last here.

O. A. JOHNSON, president of Norway Conference: Many centuries ago numbers of your forefathers migrated north; many of them landed in Scandinavia, and did not stop before they reached the frigid zone. I am a descendant of those ancient forefathers; I claim some relationship to you, and I therefore bring to

you greetings from your relatives in Norway. We are interested in the school question in Scandinavia. Last winter we had a union school, wherein were about forty students. It continued only four months, but we are glad to say that the spirit that seemed to actuate most of them was a desire to take part in this great conflict. And the great majority of them left the school to take part in this great spiritual warfare. We are going to grow.

J. C. RAFT, president of the Danish Conference: I am happy to be with you this evening. What I have seen and heard this afternoon and evening has made a very deep impression upon me, and done me good. Last Tuesday we closed our annual conference meeting in Denmark. I am glad to tell you that it was the largest meeting ever held in Denmark, and one of the best, too. The leading brethren from America and Europe who are here to-night, were with us, and we appreciated their counsel and labor very much. The cause of God is onward in Denmark. We are of good courage, and trust in the Lord.

J. M. ERIKSON, of Sweden: I heard about your work some five years ago, and I got the impression that you were trying to get up a school in a kind of desert. This place does not look like a desert now. What it did look like five years ago I do not know; but when I saw these beautiful buildings and the grounds, they made a great impression upon me. When I got inside this building, and saw the young people attending this school; it made a still deeper impression upon my mind, and I felt to pray God in my heart to bless all these young people, and make them true missionaries for him.

FRED ANDERSON, of Finland: All those who are interested in the work of the Reformation are interested in Germany. I am especially interested in two places in Germany, this place and Wittenberg. And it seems to me that this place should be called New Wittenberg. Reading the history of the Reformation, I notice that in Wittenberg was a power that drew people from all countries. And I know that in this place dwells the same power as dwelt in Wittenberg, and I know that the minds of our people are drawn to this place from all Europe. I pray that the Spirit of God may so dwell in this place that every one who comes here shall not only receive a knowledge of the message, but the power of the message, and go forth endued with power from on high to work for God.

DAVID OSTLUND, of Iceland: Iceland is in reality no ice land for the man who is warmed up by the Spirit of God and his work. There is not a land in the world that would be anything but a real blessing to you if you are in the Lord's cause with all your heart. Some people think that I must have a lonesome sort of time up in Iceland; but I am very glad that I shall soon be able to return to that land and give my life there if the Lord will give me that life to offer him. If I were a young man, I would not hesitate to go over the same way that I have gone. So I thank God for the privilege of being his, and being a fellow worker with you in this great cause.

EMIL LIND, of Sweden: The question that comes to each is, “What shall I do in the work?” That question came to me about twenty years ago, when I was in school in Chicago. I entered the canvassing work, and I have been in it ever since, and am not tired of it, either. In the little school we had in Sweden, which closed the first of March, we had eighteen Swedish students, and sixteen of them went out into the mission work, and ten of the sixteen are canvassers. If you get that per cent out of the school here, you will have a goodly number going out. Surely there is a place in the work for us all. I would like to speak your language, to shake your hands, and give you a hearty welcome to the canvassing work.

N. P. NELSON: Some thirty years ago a German gave me a tract about the Sabbath, and since that time I have loved this blessed truth that has brought us together this evening. In coming to this country I thought about the matter of who is to preach the truth to all these millions of people, but since being here and seeing and hearing what I have seen and heard, I believe the Lord is preparing to raise up workers right here to do this work. I am glad we can be co-laborers with God. We have the same Heavenly Father. He is preparing a home for us over there, where we can all sing and praise God together.

PETER CHRISTIANSEN next spoke, in German, which was not translated.

M. L. ANDREASON: When I heard the beautiful music and the singing this afternoon, I sat in the corner and wept. It touched my heart. There is a power that many of us do not understand. But there is the same power when we see the beautiful harmony that is in the truth. And as you are in the school here to learn that harmony, I hope you will get the truth so imprinted on your hearts that God can use you to publish that truth.