The Cause in California by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 19, 1883

The Cause in California.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

THERE are many considerations which show that God has regarded and does especially regard the cause upon the Pacific Coast. We place men in responsible positions because we have confidence in them, and expect more at their hands than from others. We believe that they are more capable, and are faithful and trustworthy. We measure their responsibility by the confidence we have in their capability and faithfulness. God has placed upon the California Conference a responsibility that rests upon no other one Conference in the country. In our midst is the publishing interest, which at the present time sends forth each week nearly 20,000 papers; these are remailed by the missionary workers in different parts of the field to all parts of the world where the English language is spoken. He also has established in the midst of this people a school, which he has thus far signally blessed.

These are great responsibilities which the Lord has placed upon us as a people. We are not only placed as the spiritual guardians of these institutions, but we must sustain them financially; and if we remain faithful to the trust committed to us, we shall be required to make greater

sacrifices for them in the future than we have ever made in the past.

No other one Conference in the country has been so highly honored. It is true that at Battle Creek, Mich., there are institutions as important as the institutions in California. There is the Sanitarium that treats many hundred patients yearly, who go to all parts of the country and the world. There is a publishing association, which issues publications in five different languages. These also go to all parts of the world, where the languages are spoken in which they are written. But the aggregate monthly circulation of all these different periodicals is not much greater than the monthly circulation of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. These institutions are sustained by more than twenty Conferences east of the Rocky Mountains. The numerical strength in the East is nine times more than that upon the Pacific Coast. The papers which are sent to the missionary workers are at a price that no great profit can be received from them. We have to look to other sources for the means that sustains the publishing institution.

God has also had placed within our midst a Health Retreat, although it is not as prosperous at present as we hope it will be in a short time from this; but the school and Publishing Association God has signally blessed during the past year. With a good building and a good corps of teachers, when the school commenced it did not present a very flattering prospect for laborers in the cause. Not because the students did not possess ability and were not as promising as others, but because of their youthfulness, there being but a very few of that age where we could expect their labor in the cause for a number of years at least. But God’s providence favored the enterprise both in numbers and character of students. After one year’s experiment not less than twelve of these students have entered the field, and are actively engaged in the missionary work. Has there ever been any school under circumstances like those under which this school started, where in the short space of one year as many laborers have gone into the field?

We think when we look at the unpopular truth we have, and what has been accomplished, that God has especially blessed the effort of his people—this effort to carry forth his work. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES is now upon its ninth volume, and during the past four months it has increased its circulation nearly as much as in the nine years previous. This is God’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

In the past the people in California have done well in sustaining the work as they have. We asked them a few years ago to raise a Reserve Fund of $4,000 for their missionary work, in view of emergencies that might arise in the cause. They freely did this, and the Sunday movement last year immediately following the raising of this money, proved the wisdom of this step. The society was able to carry the edition of 30,000 supplements for ten weeks, to be sent to every neighborhood and village in the State of California. Thus a calamity which greatly threatened our work was avoided.

The increased number of the SIGNS at the present time sent to all parts of the civilized world, and the prosperity which has attended the school, shows us that God now has before us far greater blessings in store, and the question arises Are we proving ourselves faithful to the trust which God has committed to us? In preparing ourselves for these blessings, we fear that in many respects our brethren do not realize the importance of the present time, and consequently are not advancing as the cause itself is advancing. In every advance step which this people have taken, God has seconded their efforts, opening the way before them. Three years ago when the tithing system was adopted in California, instead of the old plan of systematic benevolence, the Conference fund was nearly doubled; and now our laborers are more than doubled, and the prospect is that the funds of this year will be inadequate to meet the expense. With the addition of members and the faithfulness of the old hands, this fund should largely increase yearly. But are the tithes increasing? Do those who have paid the tithe feel its importance and sacredness, and the necessity to continue in the work? Do those who have not paid the tithe feel its importance, so as to take hold with others, or are they robbing God by withholding them? “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” The offerings in no case should take the place of the tithes. If all our brethren are faithful in this respect this year, the tithe should increase at least $2,000 over last year; but judging from the receipts of the last six months as compared with the corresponding period last year, it may even fall short of what it was last year. This should not be. The tithe is the Lord’s, and should be conscientiously paid. It is exclusively used for the ministry, and those that labor in the field. This is the only resource we have to support this branch of the work. We notice also that many pledges have been made, some of which are past due and have not been paid. Shall we not see a coming up of our brethren in our coming camp-meeting as never before? Will they not pay all their old pledges and be prepared to make new ones, and so let God work for us as he has in the past? Shall we not increase in the sacrificing spirit as the work draws to a close? When God accepted a sacrifice it was always consumed.

Our brethren should put forth greater efforts for faithfulness in the trust God has committed to them in placing these institutions in their midst. As the cause on the Pacific Coast enlarges, it will require greater efforts and more zeal than heretofore, if we keep up with the providence of God. Are there not men to whom God has committed means who could place $5,000 or $10,000 in the cause? Who knows but what before us are fields already ripe ready to harvest, which have not as yet been entered? The islands of the Pacific Ocean have already received the light of truth, and from them have come individuals to the city of San Francisco, who have received further light there and are now members of the church. Australia is reaching out her hands, and wants men to come and bring her the light. Will not California and our brethren on the Pacific Coast get ready to supply these wants? While God is raising up laborers, shall we not on the other hand send them forth by sustaining that institution which contributes to this end? God has committed to his servants on the Pacific Coast whom he can trust, means to help in a time like this.

We are living in the most solemn time that has ever been in the history of this work. We are right upon the eve of greater things than have ever been witnessed in the proclamation of the Third Angel’s Message of Rev. 14:9–12. God will do great things for his cause in California, if we prepare the way. There are those all around us that would accept the truth were it properly brought to them. The ship work in San Francisco is opening before us far beyond our expectation. Rooms have been selected on Fremont Street, and prayer-meetings have been established; preaching, prayer-meeting, Sunday-school, and Bible readings are arranged. Already the fruit is being made manifest. On Sunday, the 9th, four were baptized. Our brethren who have so liberally donated to this enterprise will be interested to learn of this; but the sum which has been pledged toward this ship missionary work still falls below what is necessary to carry successfully forward this mission. We believe, however, that there are many yet who have not pledged to this mission that will wish to have a part in this work.

We have not a discouraging word in reference to the cause in this State. The cloud is rising before God’s people, and this Conference is not left alone. We have great confidence in our brethren on the Pacific Coast. We believe that as they see the cause moving forward, they will sustain the work in its different branches. We do not ask for these funds to be appropriated in any way but for the advancement of the truth; and this is the object of the institutions which have been established upon the coast. We believe that we shall see a greater faithfulness on the part of our brethren this coming fall in paying their tithes, in paying their pledges, and lifting at the financial wheel than we have ever seen in the past. We believe there are those that love this truth as much as Zaccheus loved the gospel, and will manifest it in the same manner. Are there not those that love the cause as much as did Joseph of Aramathea, and as Nicodemus, who came to the Saviour by night? Both of these men were wealthy, and when the cause was brought in disrepute at the first advent of Christ, they came to the front and used their influence and their means to sustain the gospel. God blessed them. Their financial reward was not in this life, but it soon will be given to them when the dead are raised and immortality is given to the saints of God. The work is progressing; and the providence of God says move forward.