Help for the Colored Work
By C. P. Bollman
There is at least one plan of helping the mission-school work for the colored people that every Seventh-day Adventist can adopt without danger of making any mistake. We speak thus confidently because the plan to which we refer was given to this people through the spirit of prophecy. Sister White says:— “One night as I was praying for this needy field [the South], a scene was presented to me which I will describe.
“I saw a company of men working, and asked what they were doing. One of them replied, ‘We are making little boxes to be placed in the home of every family that is willing to practise self-denial, and to send of their means to help the work among the colored people in the South.’” Of the influence such boxes will have in the families where they are used, Sister White says:— “Such boxes will be a constant reminder of the needs of this race, and the giving of money thus saved by economy and self-denial will be an excellent education for all the members of the family.” Touching the efforts made by Sister White to interest our people in the use of these boxes, we have these words from her own lips, spoken before a General Conference council, at Lincoln, Neb.:— “I have written concerning these boxes, and the self-denial they will encourage, and I now ask if you will not accept the light that God has given to his people. These boxes should be used more than they have been, and let no one, either by pen or by voice, hinder their circulation.” For about two years the Southern Missionary Society has been making and sending out these boxes, attached to calendars, so that they can be conspicuously placed upon the wall, convenient for use by all the family. We have tried in every way possible to introduce these boxes into every Sabbath-keeping home in the United States. Comparatively few of our people, however, have ever given us opportunity to place these boxes in their homes. We appeal to you, now, brethren and sisters, through the REVIEW AND HERALD, to drop us a card, giving us your address, and asking for one of these calendars and boxes, which will be gladly sent to you, postage prepaid. We make this urgent request because, first, the colored mission schools need the help that comes to them through the self-denial boxes; second, you need the blessing that will come to you in the use of the boxes. There are in the Southern field nearly ten million colored people, not one per cent of whom as yet have any intelligent idea of the third angel’s message. These people must have the truth; they must have it in this generation, and in order17that they may have it in this generation, we must put forth greater efforts than we have yet done to carry it to them. We appeal to you, brethren and sisters, who have long enjoyed the light of present truth, to come to the help of this work. Let us send each family one of these self-denial boxes, which will serve as a constant reminder of the needs of this field. Please drop us a postal-card, giving your name and address, and we will send the box at once. Secretary Southern Missionary Society.