Two Great Languages by William Ambrose Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1902

Two Great Languages

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE message of Revelation 14 is to go swiftly, as by an angel flying in the midst of heaven, to every nation and in every tongue.

Divine providence so ordered that this message proclaiming the hour of God's judgment should rise in the English-speaking world.

By this tongue the largest number of people in Christendom may be reached. It is distributed over the earth more widely than any other.

The expansion of English-speaking peoples is one of the remarkable facts of modern history.

In the year 1500, for instance, just as the era of exploration and discovery was being ushered in, the English language was spoken by four millions of people. And these people were huddled together in the British Isles.

Now, about one hundred and twenty-five million speak the language, and the English speech girdles the whole earth.

The English tongue has been the vehicle of the widest dissemination of the Word of God. While all nations in Christendom have been the scene of the missionary awakening, the great movements in modern missions have sprung from the English-speaking peoples.

Another tongue, widely distributed among the peoples of earth, is the Arabic. It has been the vehicle by which the great Mohammedan missionary movement has been carried forward. A speaker at the London World's Missionary Congress said:—

Have you any idea of the extent of the Arabic language? When the morning sun rises from the Pacific Ocean, eager eyes are straining from the minarets of China to catch the first beams of that sun; and as they rise out of the Pacific Ocean, the song goes up, “There is no God but God;” and that song is caught up and carried from minaret to minaret, across the whole breadth of China. It resounds in the valleys of the Himalayas; its echo is heard all over the plains of India. It sounds out in the islands of the Indian Ocean. It is caught up and echoed back across Persia, far along from peak to peak, among the mountains of Persia and Armenia and Nestoria and Lebanon. It is carried down into the great Arabian peninsula, and then it is taken up in the valley of the Nile. It is carried to the head waters of the Nile, the great lake region, and it sweeps across the Sudan and the Sahara, and not until the sun has set in the Atlantic are its last echoes overcome by the roar of the surf of that western sea. It is a language more extended over the face of the earth, and which has had more to do with the destiny of mankind, than any other, except English.

As yet, we have made little use of this language in sending forth the final message.

Yet the peoples touched by it, need the very same warning and the same gospel that we need in these Western lands. The mysticism of Babylon of old—which lies geographically within the circle of Moslem influence—is flourishing in Eastern lands. The third angel's message, clear, definite, and uplifting, must be carried through the Moslem world. The Arabic tongue must ring out the message far and wide.

We have a good foothold in Egypt. The work in Syria also shows progress. During the General Conference Council, a few days ago, two additional workers, evangelist physicians, were recommended to go to Egypt or Syria as might be determined, to forward the message.

We must hasten on from land to land and with tongue after tongue, with the definite message of the coming of Christ in glory to gather his people. Then will come that glorious scene around God's throne in heaven, of which the prophet said: “I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Now is the time to gather out from the world the precious souls who will then behold God's face and praise him for the gospel of his salvation. God has given us the message to give to these waiting souls. W. A. S.