p. 15 | Adventist Work Amid Bombay’s Plague

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 5, 1906

Adventist Work Amid Bombay’s Plague

By Carl A. Hansen

BOMBAY.—Since we last wrote you from this place, there has been much excitement and a great deal of moving about among the people. One of the chief causes is the Bubonic plague, which started about two months ago, and strikes everything and everybody that it meets with a blow that almost always means sure death. It was thought by some that Europeans were exempt from this dreadful scourge, but already several of my friends have been taken, and in a few hours were laid to rest. The plague is a peculiar disease. It begins with high fever, and severe pains in the back and limbs. Soon follow swellings under the arms and about the groins and neck, and in a few hours at most a call is made for the coolies to carry the victim to the cremation yard. One very strange thing about it is that a drink of cold water given at certain stages of the disease will produce death in a few minutes. Those in authority state that about twenty-five hundred die from plague every week at present in Bombay. It is plain to see that the work which we should have done years ago must now be done, as the spirit of prophecy states, “under trying circumstances.” Yet we are glad to say that God has taken away our fear of death to a most gratifying degree. We do not know what our fate will be, but if death comes, it will find us at our post.

We are having some success, but of course the work goes slowly in a new place, and especially where the opposition is so strong against our people. We have one French lady who is rejoicing in the truth, and who eagerly grasps every advance ray of light. She told me the other day that she wanted a copy of “Early Writings” as soon as I could get it here. We rejoice that God is impressing these souls with the necessity of the gift of prophecy. At present there are six who are keeping the Sabbath, and we plead with God that he will keep that which we have committed into his hand, and that our little Sabbath-school may soon grow into a large one. Let me say in this connection that one of our number, Brother Marshall, an old sea captain, first heard of the message through Brother Ellery Robinson while he was canvassing in this city, and the other day he asked me to help him write to his former church that he could no longer go with them. This is another encouragement for canvassers. I really believe that the time has come when something can be done for India, and what it needs is the direct stroke of the ministers and Bible workers. Thousands of books and papers have been scattered throughout this vast field by our faithful canvassers, and this has prepared the hearts of many for more aggressive work, and now the great question is, Where are the ministers and Bible workers to hasten over the territory and put on the finishing touches, and bring the people into the truth?

We also need good, consecrated medical workers to move into the cities, and help keep up the Sabbath-school and meetings among these new companies of Sabbath-keepers. There are hundreds of openings for American physicians, dentists, and nurses, etc., where the work could be made self-supporting from the beginning. India is a vast harvest-field; it has the educated class; it has also the teeming ignorant masses. About two hundred and fifty million in India could not tell their name from their neighbor's if they saw it in print; even the mail deliverers often call at my door to have me read to them the names on the letters they are to deliver. So while we need the highest talent we can get to reach the wealthy classes, yet there is plenty of room for the humblest worker from whose heart is tender, and who longs sufficiently for Jesus to come, to leave home and friends to come and help finish the work. India has one fourth of the world's inhabitants, yet it has not to my knowledge a dozen workers who are free to go among the people and preach the message. Let us pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send us laborers

soon. Soon the golden harvest will be over, the sheaves will be gathered, and some one will wear the starry crown.

Now is the time for all to work, Now in probation’s day; Soon the angel of mercy will take its flight, And the harvest pass away. CARL A. HANSEN.