The General Conference Committee Council at Gland, Switzerland by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 13, 1907

The General Conference Committee Council at Gland, Switzerland

By William Ambrose Spicer

Second Report

The committee voted that all the laborers of conferences and mission fields in attendance should be invited to participate with the committee in the deliberations of the council. The following standing committees were appointed:—

Standing Committees

On Plans and Recommendations: W. W. Prescott, G. A. Irwin, R. A. Underwood, J. C. Raft, G. B. Thompson, E. E. Andross, W. J. Fitzgerald, J. T. Boettcher, Guy Dail, W. B. White, W. Ising, W. H. Meredith, G. Schubert, M. A. Altman, S. F. Svensson, M. L. Andreasen, J. Curdy, C. E. Rentfro, L. Mathe, J. Erzberger, H. J. Loebsack, J. Pieper, L. R. Conradi, A. G. Daniells, Frank Bond, J. G. Gillatt.

On Appropriations: L. R. Conradi, I. H. Evans, P. A. Hansen, W. A. Spicer, E. T. Russell, J. H. Schilling, R. C. Porter, L. P. Tieche, Wm. Covert, S. G. Haughey, W. D. Mac Lay, G. F. Haffner, J. G. Oblander, N. P. Nelson, O. Wildgrube, E. Frauchiger.

On Publishing Work: I. H. Evans, L. R. Conradi, H. R. Salisbury, W. A. Spicer, W. C. Sisley, W. T. Bartlett, J. Robert, W. W. Prescott, H. Hartkop, E. Arnesen, H. H. Dexter, E. Lind, C. T. Everson, Walter Bond, J. Vuilleumier, A. C. Christensen, R. G. Klingbeil, D. P. Gaede, Jens Olsen, S. Jespersson, Fred Anderson, D. Ostlund, J. F. Huenergardt, E. Schwantes.

On Educational Work: F. Griggs, H. R. Salisbury, O. Luepke, O. A. Johnson, J. Vuilleumier, W. H. Wakeham, L. Muderspach, H. F. Schuberth, D. Isaak, J. M. Erikson, W. E. Howell.

On Medical Work: P. A. De Forest, E. Meyer, A. B. Olsen, R. S. Ingersoll, Mrs. Olive P. Ingersoll, V. Pampaian, R. G. Edib, C. Reihlen, John P. Hansen, G. A. Irwin, A. G. Daniells.

Of great encouragement to the council was the report of the treasurer of the General Conference, I. H. Evans, which appears in the opposite column.

On the reading of the Auditor’s report, certifying to the correctness of the accounts, the Treasurer’s report was accepted.

Many expressions of thankfulness to God were uttered in the discussion of the report, as it was seen how his blessing upon the believers had granted prosperity financially to the cause, enabling more workers than ever to be sent forth into the fields, allowing the establishment of new missions, and yet reducing obligations. The General Conference, unorganized, which for years had carried a considerable indebtedness, was now free from debt. These conditions brought satisfaction to the council in view of the fact that the calls for help from the wide-open fields come with tremendous force. Again and again as the workers have presented the victories gained and the doors opening on every side, the council has been mightily moved, and stirred with deep anxiety to press the message forward in the mission fields. Never was the lack of funds so distressingly felt by a council.

As already announced in the REVIEW, the council voted to devote the midsummer offering to the missionary enterprises represented in the $150,000 fund. It was the sentiment of the council that this fund should be quickly made up, thus establishing the missionary training centers benefiting by it, so that with all its powers the denomination may answer the calls from literally the whole wide world for the living preachers to go in among the people who are praying God for light, or who are unwarned and unconcerned about the things coming upon the earth.

Day by day through the meetings the council is studying the needs of the fields as they are presented by the workers representing them. These reports have led every president of an organized field to feel more deeply than ever that the strong must help the weak, and that unitedly Northern Europe and America, with colonial fields where the work is strong, must go forth among the millions amid the darkness of Catholic and heathen lands.

Little French Switzerland, the smallest of conferences, presented a splendid report. It devotes fifty per cent of its income to other fields. It aims to train workers for other countries. While now taking up work among the Catholics in

its own territory, it has supplied nine workers to France, one to Belgium, and one to the West Indies. Elder Tieche, the president, told of incidents showing that the cause is gaining larger recognition in this interesting field in which the council is gathered.

Nearest neighbor to the place of council is the great French field, where two hundred Sabbath-keepers are stretching every nerve to carry the truth among the forty millions of France. Fierce opposition is sometimes met, stones are thrown, and men have sought to break up meetings; but wherever the little band is able to make the effort, souls have taken their stand for the truth. The field needs help to set men into the colporteur work at the lowest wages,—men, too, who have proved their loyalty by giving up well-salaried positions, and enduring privations month after month with never a thought of yielding the truth. The field could keep two tents running if it had them. Elder Dexter’s appeal for France stirred every heart.

A little band of workers and believers are here from Spain. Brother Walter Bond reports twenty-three baptized in that newly opened field, three of whom have turned back, but the rest are true and faithful amid persecution. The believers are workers. We were told of two sisters providentially saved from a mob sent after them by a priest to stone them. They were unconscious of being followed. As they passed through a country path, a man came from a little cottage and beckoned them to come in and sit down and eat some grapes. The mob, following rapidly along the path, went past them, and searched in vain for the sisters, the mob and villagers afterward being stricken with the conviction and fear that the Lord had miraculously snatched them away.

The British Union has made reports of its field, showing progress in all the conferences of that great and important union.

Word just reaches the council that two young men in Germany are under arrest for declining military duties on the Sabbath. Hearty prayers were unitedly offered for these and other young men in these fields who must bear the brunt of existing military law. Through all these trials and by these trials the truth is being proclaimed. But these experiences are stern realities to our brethren and sisters who pass through them. The German newspaper reporting one case said the young man walked from the court to begin a six-months’ imprisonment with head erect and courageous trust in his God.

Elder Boettcher brought cheering word to the meeting that Bavaria, so long denying to our people the right of religious assembly, had just granted liberty to Seventh-day Adventists to meet and sing and pray, with none to make them afraid. The believers can scarcely realize that this great deliverance has come. The council rejoiced with these believers. It is one world-wide work, and God is finishing it.

W. A. SPICER, Secretary.