p. 8 | The Work in Russia

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 23, 1901

The Work in Russia

L. R. Conradi: To-day I received some letters from our brethren in Russia. In them the brethren tell their experience of the last few months,—some in prison two or three times. One brother writes from near the Baltic Sea. He began to preach, and was fined five dollars. But as he would not pay the fine, he was put into prison, first for two days. He preached again, and they made it three days. He preached again, and they made it four days. The prison was a small place, and eight or ten persons were crowded in, and the air was terrible. But five cents a day was allowed for food. I have heard that you can live on ten cents a day; he had only five cents a day. But he found some better food.

They asked him, “Are you a criminal? Did you steal a horse?” “No.” “Why are you here?” “I am here for preaching the gospel.” “The gospel?” They began to laugh. He says there was in that prison room an old Bible. Part of the leaves had been torn out, and used for papers to make cigarettes. One young man brought the Bible to him, saying, “You stand here, and preach to us.” He began to talk to them, and in a little while they became interested; and when the fourth day came, and his deliverance was announced, he was not yet through answering all their questions. He said, “The time seemed so short to me. I did not know that I had had so little food, or anything of the kind.”

Another case: A brother wrote, the first of December, that he was imprisoned in the Caucasus. A few Christians were with the other prisoners,—Lutherans and Catholics. He says: “We received hot water twice a day, and five cents a day with which to keep ourselves.” As he took his Bible, and read it there in the prison, he thought of the words of our Saviour, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” And then he speaks of another text, Isaiah 25,—how the Lord was his refuge and strength.

There was a brother in the Catholic Church, a Russian, who heard the gospel. He took hold of the truth, and began preaching it. As he received the light, he preached it to those around him. The next thing he was exiled from the western part of Russia to the Caucasus. He had no work, had a large family, which he had left behind. He went from door to door trying to find employment. The people all knew he was an exile, and would ask him, “Why are you here as an exile? Have you killed somebody?”—“No.” “Have you stolen?”—“No.” “Well, why are you here?”—“Oh,” he said, “on account of my belief.” They were Catholics. “Oh,” they said, “you are a heretic. We do not want any heretics.” So he went from door to door, trying to get work and something to eat.

But what happened?—A German Baptist took him into his store, and talked with him. One of our ministers went there, and talked with this German brother about this last message; and as he read from the Bible, this Russian said, “You must have some good things; I would like to know them, too; tell me.” And so he was told about the Sabbath, and that the Saviour is coming. Then the German said to the other,—his partner now,—“We will keep next Sabbath.” “But,” the other said, “how about our business? I can not do it so quickly.” “Why,” the other said, “after I have left my home and everything, and now the Lord brings the truth to me, I must not stop short; I can not.” He kept the next Sabbath. He then began to preach, and in a little while twenty-five Sabbath-keepers were gathered together.

Then the Russian Church said, “We will stop that thing.” They banished all these men to the other side of the Caucasus Mountains, near the Persian border. I was there just at that time, and had a general meeting. The brethren told us their experience. One brother said there were the brethren in chains, ready to be taken away across the mountains. On the one side of the soldiers were the men, and on the other their wives and children. The soldiers would go up and down between them, and they could not say farewell to each other. It was a hard thing. In the midst of the winter they were to cross the mountains.

The priests said, “This thing will stop. There are only women left, and a few children. They can not do anything.” I asked the daughter of one of these exiled men, “Are you not discouraged? Your elders have gone, your preachers have gone, and everybody else.” “No,” said she; “God still lives.” [Voices: Amen!] “And,” she said, “if we ever go to work, we want to go to work now, and all they can do is to send us where our fathers have gone.” So they went to work, and in a little while there were twice as many as they had before. [Voices: Amen!] More than that. As the exiled brethren went down to the Caucasus and to the Persian border, do you think they kept quiet?—No; they began preaching, and in a little while quite a number accepted the truth.

There are in Russia one hundred and thirty-five million people. Some may say, because the country is so large, it is thinly populated; but I will give you a little idea about Russia. When you cross the German border, Russia is as thickly settled as New Jersey. If you go a little farther, it is as thickly settled as New York and Pennsylvania. And when you go a little farther, and from there to the Siberian border, it is settled about like Iowa. And when you get into Siberia, it is about as thickly settled as Montana. The southern part of this Siberian country is a good country, just as good as the West was in the United States before it was settled.

To-day, as the Siberian railroad goes across there, hundreds and thousands of Russians are brought into that country, and are settling along that railroad, all the way to China. There is a mission field. And not only Russians, but Germans and others, are going into that country to develop it. It is just as good a country as you have here. The railroad is being built for six thousand miles. I met a man who told me he had been twenty-one days on the railroad coming from Siberia. There is a mission field in Russia, and we ought to look to that vast mission field.