THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 19, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 41.

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THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE.

From a synopsis of a missionary address delivered by President A. G. Daniells, at the late Indiana camp-meeting, published in the Daily Bulletin, we cull a few items. After reading a letter from Dr. Miller and wife, the speaker said:—
“These physicians recently went to Honan, China, where they are now giving the truth in this dark land of heathenism. This marks a new era of our work in missions. Honan is the last of eighteen provinces to be entered by missionaries. It is very densely populated, having 22,000,000 inhabitants. These missionaries have to work very differently from other missionaries who do not believe in the soon coming of Christ. They left the most highly civilized land, with all its comforts, and plunged into the very darkness of heathenism in inland China. Yet they cling to the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The customs of living are the most primitive, and the inhabitants dwell in walled cities. The language is very difficult to learn, yet Dr. Miller has in six months become able to read, and hold services in the Chinese tongue. He has read the Gospels and the book of Revelation. The natives are very ignorant, only one woman in ten thousand, and one man in twelve, can read and write. But they are just as quick to detect the Third Angel’s Message as are the people of Indiana. A convert of Brother Pilquist has prepared a Chinese hymn book. He is a graduate of the Chinese schools, and accepted the truth against great opposition on the part of influential men, and was even disinherited; now he is a Chinese evangelist. Having learned the trade of printing and book-making, he was able to produce our Chinese hymn book, and is getting out tracts in the language. Surely the hand of God was preparing this man to print the message.
“Dr. Selmon has succeeded in securing a large house, for ninety-nine years, for $1,000, which will afford splendid facilities for hospital work. These missionaries are there to stay. They have no desire to come back to the States. Thank God that this denomination can produce such missionaries. Let us send them to the uttermost parts of the earth. Do we not see in this work evidences of the fulfilment of the scripture which says: ‘Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.’ Isa. 60: 4, 5.
“Many loyal parents have sacrificed sons and daughters in foreign lands. When one brave worker in Africa gave up his life in service, and the news was carried to his mother, she said: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. I have a second boy that Africa can have.’ He went, and died there, then that mother said, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. I have another boy that Africa can have.’ He went, and did a glorious work. That is the spirit that must animate this denomination. Japan orders her men to the front to shoot men. How much more blessed for our Commander to order us, not to shoot men, but to save them.”