A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1882

A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

ARRIVING in Detroit the morning of March 12, on route for the East, we were in time to witness the arrival of the ferry boat connecting on the Canada side with the Great Western Railroad, on which were two hundred and fifty Scandinavian emigrants, direct from Castle Garden, and bound for the West. “What is the average number through this place daily?” I inquired of a railroad official. “About two hundred, all from Castle Garden going West,” was the reply. This is the winter emigration; in the summer it is far greater. From this it appears that over one thousand persons from the old country pass over this one route every week. It has been repeatedly ascertained that many who thus throng to our shores are led by the same motive which actuated our forefathers in seeking a home in this new country. Many of them are in quest of a place where they can have religious freedom, and worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, without being cut off from all resources for a livelihood.

What are we doing for this people? is an important question. Is there no one speaking the Scandinavian tongues who will volunteer to act as a missionary among them as they congregate in Castle Garden from week to week,—no one who will volunteer to give them the truth in the form of tracts and periodicals in their native tongue as they go to their new homes in the Western world? One active, faithful person laboring in this capacity among the thousands arriving each week from Europe, using our Danish, Swedish, and German publications, could accomplish more in spreading the truth than all our missionary workers in using our foreign periodicals, throughout the various Conferences.

The plan of taking our periodicals in clubs, and remailing them to different portions of the world is a good work, and should be encouraged more and more. But to neglect openings where God’s providence brings to our shores thousands of people, and places them in a position where a thousand of these periodicals and tracts can weekly be directly placed in their hands, accompanied with some kind, sympathizing word, is to neglect an opening for which God will hold us responsible in the day of Judgment. They are strangers in a strange land. Former associates and friends they have left behind. If there is one time more than another when the heart responds to words of sympathy and love, it is under such circumstances. While we are raising money to support the cause in Europe,—and more should be done in this direction than has yet been done,—shall we as a people neglect such an opening as this, by which a much larger number of persons can be reached at a comparatively trifling expense?

Again we repeat, Where are the volunteers who will give themselves to this work? God has committed to us truths which pertain to these last days, and here is a large and promising missionary

field which is unoccupied, excepting by those having no knowledge of the truth. Other denominations are awake to its importance. The Mormons have their representatives there; and publications calculated to subvert the mind and infuse a spirit of bitterness against the Sabbath of the Lord are thus circulated. Can we let this season pass as we did last, and not be guilty before God? There is no question but that our brethren would gladly sustain the proper person as a missionary in this field, could such a one be found. There would be plenty of work for a man and his wife. There is also sufficient work for half a dozen ship missionaries in this city (New York), where we have not one. The General Tract and Missionary Society can furnish reading matter to be used in this kind of work and with this class of people, providing faithful missionaries can be found to enter the field.

My heart is stirred as I write. Time is short, and what is done in spreading the truth must be done quickly. We are in danger of overlooking fields especially prepared in the providence of God to receive the truth, while laboring to enter fields that require a far greater amount of labor to reach a less number of people. We might not see the immediate fruit of the seed sown, but it should be distributed wherever these emigrants might locate.

Any one feeling desirous to enter this field to labor for souls should correspond with the General Conference Committee or the officers of the General Tract and Missionary Society.