Good Plans for a Good Work
By Editor
Two years ago 'this coming winter a tract campaign was conducted. Four special tracts dealing with the living issues of the message were prepared, and although we were late in beginning, yet with the hearty co-operation of our brethren throughout the field, these tracts were circulated by the hundred thousand, and much good was accomplished. In last winter's effort the attention of our people was focused largely upon the Capital and Labor Number of The Signs of the Times, and over six hundred thousand copies of this special issue were placed in the hands of the reading public. This was a good work, but limited in its scope.5 This year careful study has been given to the preparation of a program of missionary work which will be comprehensive enough to include the circulation of a large variety of literature, and flexible enough to be adapted to the circumstances of our people in all parts of the field. It is hoped that we may thus be able to inaugurate a campaign which will continue until the earth is lighted with the glory of this message, and the way of the Lord is prepared. There are at least sixty thousand Sabbath-keepers in this country. If this army of believers should pray and work unitedly with a determined purpose to make known this warning message, what far-reaching results could be seen under the blessing of God! There are whole States where every home could be visited by a messenger of this truth. With hearts filled with a sense of the solemnity of the time, and with an earnest longing to impart saving truth, men and women, old and young, could carry to these homes our periodicals, our tracts, and our books, and could shed rays of precious light upon the pathway of those who are now walking in darkness. Is not this a work worth undertaking? The best incentive to this missionary campaign is a serious consideration of the real significance of the message itself. We have the testimony of the prophetic periods and the inspired predictions concerning the last days to show conclusively that we have come to the time when the mystery of God is to be finished. Sixty years of the judgment-hour period are now in the past. The message has already sounded forth that “there shall be delay no longer.” The great day of the Lord is just at hand. In most earnest messages of warning and entreaty the Lord has been urging his people to be his instruments with which he may do a quick work in the earth. We are thankful for what response has been made, and that some of our conferences have annexed the world to their home field, and are dividing their resources with their outside territory. These are significant steps. But our missionary work can not be done wholly in an organized capacity. Every individual is called into service for his own sake and for the truth's sake. O that each one may hear the call! We must remember that we are not here merely to maintain a denominational work, and to hand it on to our successors of the next generation. There is no “next generation.” This is the last generation. In this generation this message is to be carried to the people of every nation, including our own. In this generation probation will close. In this generation the seven last plagues will fall upon those who have not taken refuge in Christ. In this generation a reeling world will face its coming King, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. In this generation time will merge into eternity, and “the redeemed shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” It is our duty and privilege in this generation to declare the counsel of the Lord and his great salvation, that every one may be without excuse if he refuses to be reconciled to God. We urge our readers to give these things the serious attention which they deserve. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables.” This advent movement is of God, and he will bring it to a successful issue. “We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. The whole earth is to be lightened with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the channels of the great deep. Prophecies are being fulfilled, and stormy times are before us. Old controversies which have apparently been hushed for a long time will be revived, and new controversies will spring up; new and old will commingle, and this will take place right early. The angels are holding the four winds, that they shall not blow until the specified work of warning is given to the world; but the storm is gathering, the clouds are loading, ready to burst upon the world, and to many it will be as a thief in the night.” The work suggested in our missionary campaign for the coming winter is a good one, and the plans are good; but the work will not do itself, and the plans will not execute themselves. There must be personal effort. We call upon conference officers to sound a trumpet call to the Sabbath-keepers within their borders, and to organize them for this work. We call upon the officers of our churches to lead the members in this work. We call upon every believer in the third angel's message to do his part in this work. There is no time to lose. Let us make the missionary conventions next Sabbath really inspiring occasions, and then let us enter upon this “mighty missionary campaign” in earnest. May the Lord greatly bless his people in their efforts to give the gospel message.