North Pacific Mission by General Conference Committee

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 11, 1877

North Pacific Mission.

By General Conference Committee

To the friends of the cause in Oregon and Washington Territory.

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: By the advice of the General Conference Committee Elder J. N. Loughborough now comes to assist Elder Van Horn in organizing a Conference, and in helping otherwise as may be thought best. As this will mark an important era in your mission, we wish to call your attention to some facts in connection with it.

Some four years since, at your urgent request, we sent you our dear Brother Van Horn, one of our best laborers, though his help was greatly needed in other fields. The General Conference, at a cost of $476, sent with him a good new tent, and have since contributed to the support of that mission $1,338. It also paid the entire expense of Elder Waggoner's trip to your mission. We state these facts as substantial evidence of the deep interest we feel in the success of the work there.

We do rejoice in the good degree of success which God has given to the cause among you. We trust that this may not only continue, but greatly increase in the future. To secure this, there must be much labor and sacrifice on your part. From the very rise of this message, the work has been one of great self-sacrifice and continued hard labor. Where this has been lacking, the cause has soon withered, for God has not blessed it. Hence we feel anxious that you shall from the beginning start right in this work.

In the Eastern States, times are hard and money is very scarce. The work of this message is rapidly spreading on every side, much faster than men and means come in to meet the increasing calls. Several new missions have been started during the past year; others must be started soon; new institutions are required, larger buildings must be erected, and all the old ones kept running.

In view of these facts, we think that your mission should henceforth be self-sustaining. If all will do their duty, and sacrifice for the support of the work as the old friends of the cause elsewhere have done and are still doing, there need be no lack of means to support the mission. Not only should the ministers be sustained in the field, but the T. and M. work should be taken hold of more extensively than it has been. A thorough organization should be effected, and every one who truly loves the cause should unite in the work. Every effort should be made to encourage proper men to enter the field as laborers. Little will be done unless you have ministers to carry on the work.

But we would call your attention particularly to your duty to help support the Signs of the Times and the Signs Office. The whole design in establishing that Office, and that paper, was to spread the truth and help the cause on the Pacific coast. The friends in the East have done nobly in building up that Press. But now their duty is elsewhere. The Signs must be sustained by those on the Pacific coast, of which your mission is an important part. We recommend that you not only take the Signs and make great efforts to circulate it through the T. and M. Society, but that the more able brethren should take stock in the Pacific Association.

But all these things Elder Loughborough will fully set before you in his labors among you. He is not only a faithful man, but he has had a long experience in the work. Hence we hope you will receive him heartily, and be ready to co-operate with him in building up the cause in your midst.

GENERAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.