One of the great events of every gathering of this kind is the election of officers, the report of the nominating committee. For that nearly all are waiting with interest. A partial report has been rendered, and most of the general officials for the next four years were elected as follows:
For president, Arthur G. Daniels.
For vice-president of the European field, L. R. Conradi.
For vice-president in North America, George A. Irwin.
For vice-president of the Asiatic division, Irwin H. Evans.
For secretary, W. A. Spicer.
For treasurer, W. T. Knox.
For Sabbath-school Department secretary, George B. Thompson.
For Educational Department secretary, Frederick Griggs.
For Publishing Department secretary, Edwin R. Palmer.
For secretary of the Medical Missionary Council, W. A. Ruble, M.D.
For secretary Young People's Missionary Volunteer Department, M. E. Kern.
For secretary of Religious Liberty Bureau, K. C. Russell.
For secretary of North American Foreign Department, O. A. Olsen.
Other additional members of the committee are as follows:
W. W. Prescott, W. C. White, Geo. I. Butler, S. N. Haskell, W. C. Sisley, C. H. Jones, H. R. Salisbury.
To these will be added the secretary of the North American Negro Department, not yet elected, and the presidents of the various union conferences of the world, numbering twenty-one. This body of forty-two men constitute the executive committee of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Later there were added the superintendents of union missions, an uncertain and growing number.
A vote was taken on the nominee for president alone by delegates and by the large representative congregation; and both votes so far as we saw were unanimous. The great burden of the president is for the foreign field. This is what ought to be the burden of homeland Christians. This election was free from all politics and rivalry of any sort. And this we do not say boastfully; it is only Christian that it should be thus.
Changes in the Constitution
The Constitution of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is not a rigid instrument to confine and dwarf and cripple the work of God. It is an elastic mode of procedure designed to bring about orderly cooperation in the church, and subject always to easy change as the growing cause and expanding conditions of a world-wide message demand. The progress of the work in the Orient demanded another vice-president and it was provided for, and some changes were made in the basis of representation of union conferences, fixing upon one delegate for every 500 instead of one for every 1,000 as it has been.
A Great and Needy Field
One of the great fields of the world which appealed to the delegates was India, represented by J. L. Shaw and H. Votaw. Professor Shaw is the superintendent of the field; Brother Votaw has charge of the Burmese field.
The 300 millions of India were laid before the delegates. India is a multiplex problem, in which there are 147 languages and dialects with as many different peoples. The curse of caste has taken strong hold upon the people, separating man from man, drying up human sympathy, and degrading and perplexing the souls of the people. The condition of women, the wives and widows of India, presented another problem not offered by other fields. The poverty of millions is deplorable.
Yet there are precious souls who are waiting for the Gospel of God and who are yielding to its claims, and rejoicing in its freedom. The weak condition of Professor Shaw, who left India ill and nearly died on the way, was a mighty appeal for the Indian field. Only about six provinces have been entered. Other provinces and countries of India, containing from one to ten millions of souls, are yet unentered by the great threefold message.
Burma calls loudly for more laborers, not only among the Burmese, but among the Karens of upper Burma. A good beginning has been made, but much more must be done. Burma is not a poverty-stricken, over-populated country like the western parts of India. The people have more leisure and more room. They are Mongolian in type, altogether, different from the people of the west part. There are those responsive to the pure Gospel of Christ, and many in Karenese Burma are waiting for the truth.
India calls for help in publishing, for sanitariums, for schools, for medical missionaries, for missionary nurses, for Bible-workers, for colporteurs, for teachers, for evangelists; not less than from thirty-five to forty workers are asked for for this great field. We believe they will be furnished, and the hearts of these men who are making the plea for that great field will be cheered by liberal response in men and means.
But India is only one needy field. Of others, later.
