A Neglected Work by J. O. Johnston

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1904

A Neglected Work

By J. O. Johnston

FOR some time in the past I have been receiving letters from different ones in the North and West, saying that they had read my article in the REVIEW with reference to persons coming to the South to live, and stating that they had a burden for the South. Some say they have felt this burden for years, and yet but few have come, and the work to be done here is still waiting almost untouched, while a neglected field is sending up its appeal to heaven for help.

For many years the South has been calling for means from the North, and much has been given; but the field is so large and the work so great that all that has been given is scarcely a tithe of what must be expended before we can hope to say that our work is done.

It is the opinion of the writer that the South is more in need of men than means. The Lord says, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” We may have thought that this simply meant persons who were supported by the conferences, and have therefore said, “Give us more means; for we are not able to support the laborers we already have.” But I know whereof I speak when I say that the South needs men more than money. Money it must have, but the money we so much need would be here if our people had followed the instruction which the Lord has been pleased to give us for many years past.

In order that the reader may have this brought again fresh to his mind, I will quote a few sentences from the testimonies of God’s Spirit:—

“Why should not Seventh-day Adventists become true laborers together with God in seeking to save the souls of the colored race? Instead of a few, why should not many go forth to labor in this long-neglected field? Where are the families who will become missionaries, and engage in labor in this field? Where are the men who have means and experience so that they can go forth to these people, and work for them just where they are? There are men who can educate them in agricultural lines, who can teach the colored people to sow seed and plant orchards. There are others who can teach them to read, and can give them an object-lesson from their own life and example. Show them what you yourself can do to gain a livelihood, and it will be an education to them. Are we not called upon to do this very work? Are there not many who need to learn to love God supremely and their fellow men as themselves? In the Southern field are many thousands of people who have souls to save or to lose. Are there not many among those who claim to believe the truth who will go forth into this field to do the work for which Christ gave up his ease, his riches, and his life?”—Review and Herald, Nov. 26, 1895.

Again I quote a most precious promise: “The same assurances given to Moses will be given to those who go forth to be co-laborers with Jesus Christ in the Southern field. We are not to wait for great men to undertake the work. We are to encourage those who have a burden to go to this field, who are willing to undertake the work.”—Id., Jan. 21, 1896.

“God calls for missionaries, and asks us to take up our neglected duties. Let farmers, financiers, builders, and those who are skilled in various arts and crafts, go to this field to improve lands, and to build humble cottages for themselves and their neighbors. Christ says to you, Lift up your eyes and look upon this Southern field; for it needs the sowers of seed and the reapers of grain.”—Id., Jan. 28, 1896.

“In his providence, God is saying, as he has been saying for years past: Here is a field for you to work. Those who are wise in agricultural lines, in tilling the soil, those who can construct simple, plain buildings, may help. They can do good work, and at the same time show in their characters the high morality which it is the privilege of this people to attain to.”—Id., The Southern Work, page 114.

Many more quotations might be given. Please read pages 220 to 230 in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VII, where much of this instruction has been repeated. Had these testimonies been followed by our people, what a different state of things would exist in the Southern field to-day. Schools and meeting-houses would have been established. The tithe from these brethren, and from those brought into the truth through their efforts, would have been sufficient to amply support the ministry, and there would not now need to be appropriations sent here by the General Conference; for we would have enough and to spare.

Shall this state of things continue forever? The writer has been laboring in the Southland for over thirteen years. He has seen the need, the pressing need, of suitable persons coming South to do the very work outlined in these testimonies; but the years roll round, and the work drags along in the same slow way,—a few laborers struggling against poverty, without means to do aggressive work, and much of the time without even the wages which they have earned and need for the support of their families. He has seen company after company of Sabbath-keepers raised up by the faithful labors of earnest workers, left to drift away from the truth because there were no suitable persons to take the oversight of the little centers when the time came that the laborers were compelled to leave. O, how happy would the ministers be if at such a time as this they could have one or two good families from the North to locate among these companies, and act as leaders, holding the flock together, and leading out in the Sabbath meetings! But even this is not all that the Lord has been calling for. The Lord would have families go ahead of the minister, and move into neighborhoods where the truth has never been proclaimed, and there begin the Sabbath meetings, and become acquainted with the people. Then when the time comes for a public meeting to be held by those who labor in the word, and a company is thus brought out, how natural it would be for those who had awakened the interest to take their places as leaders, and hold the work together after the ministers had done their work, and must of necessity move on to other fields.

There are conditions existing in this field which we can not describe to our brethren in the North through the columns of our papers. You may say, Why do you not do this or do that? And we can not publish the answer, which would of necessity be sent back here to be read by those of sensitive minds, who would be quick to exclaim, “By so saying thou speakest against us,” and our opportunity for doing them good would be destroyed.

J. O. JOHNSTON.