Your ShelfYour Projects

Who Will Be First?

11%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 23, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 34.

Read the full edition

Who Will Be First?

By I. H. EVANS

THE call for the One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund for the work in the South and for finishing the work in Washington has been heard by nearly all of the readers of this article.
The reasons for making this call have been stated, and are generally known.
It looks like a great sum of money when thought of from the standpoint of the sum total, but when we divide one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into fifty thousand separate sums, it drops from one hundred and fifty thousand to three dollars.
Now three dollars does not look like a great sum of money, yet that is the amount that each Seventh-day Adventist in the United States must give on an average to complete the One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund. The present generation has never seen times more prosperous than now. Money is more plentiful, crops are more abundant, labor is in greater demand, than at any time in our memory. Shall not the cause of God reap a portion of this great, almost universal prosperity? It was never more easy for our people to give to the cause we all love than now. If every Seventh-day Adventist in the United States will give three dollars before Dec. 31, 1906, we can raise the last dollar of this sum before the new year.
We need not spend thousands of dollars in gathering this sum. Each individual is to be a committee to see that he pays his share. Each church, led by the officers of the church, can see that the church raises its share. Each conference can see that it pays its proportion at the rate of three dollars a member. Each union conference will then turn in its whole quota, and the amount will be raised.
Never has such a large sum of money been raised by such a simple plan as the one proposed. It saves labor, postage, traveling expense, and worry. It distributes the burden, and gives each Seventh-day Adventist a part in the work. Those who can not give three dollars should give what they can, and then let those who are able to give more, make up that which the others can not contribute.
Why should not this sum be rapidly closed up? The time to give is now. We do not need to wait for any one. Why should not each individual be the first to raise his proportion of this sum? Then why should not each church endeavor to be the first church in its conference to make up the sum? Each conference can then emulate the others, and we all can endeavor to be first in completing this good work.
What church in any conference will lead in this great plan? What conference will be the first to say, “We have raised our share and finished the work”? Shall not this great work be speedily finished? I. H. EVANS.