MISSIONARY WORK by W. A. Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 12, 1901

MISSIONARY WORK.

By W. A. Spicer

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: In the work for the regions beyond, all may share. One scripture that is a source of added courage to the missionaries in the field is 2 Cor. 1:11, in which Paul, speaking of his warfare in various parts, says: “Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.”

By reports in the Missionary Magazine and elsewhere you are kept informed as to the location and the work of the various laborers. They report in order that the dear ones at home may be helpers together by prayer for them. This whole work is to be done by the power of prayer. That is to qualify the missionaries and send them forth with the sinews of this holy war. The Japanese missionary, Joseph Neesima, who wrought a great work in his native land, said, “We must advance on our knees.” And so must we all. The prayer circles at home have much to do with the progress in far-away lands.

Many have been thinking of the little band in Matabeleland mourning the death of good Brother F. L. Mead, whom everybody loved for his hearty, manly nature. But we know that those who are left are so pressed with added burdens that they have no time to stop to mourn. Out in the fields the struggle is so like a veritable battle against mighty hosts, that when workers fall, the ranks close up, and the conflict goes on with no time for thinking of the changed conditions. Brother Mead’s last letter reported the beginning of longed-for fruits in their native work, the development of teachers. Several, qualified by their training in the schools, had been sent out with promise of success in evangelizing districts to the northward.

During the last few months, four workers who stood in charge of their fields, have died: L. M. Crowther, of Trinidad; H. P. Holser, formerly of Central Europe; D. T. Jones, of Mexico; and now F. L. Mead, of Matabeleland. What does it mean? We need not try to penetrate God’s providences, but the meaning to us is that more earnestly than ever men are to be pressed into the field to take the places of those who fall. This is what every general does in time of battle. We must put in enough men, too, so that those who lead will not have so often to work beyond the bounds of human endurance.

We are now getting within sight of a real effort for China. Aged Brother La Rue has been alone in Hongkong for years. The Mission Board is getting together a picked company to

pioneer the way in China. A Swedish brother already in the country, employed by a Bible society, has accepted the truth, and we expect he will join this party. The wife of a missionary, who read herself into the truth on her return to China after a time at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, is also praying that our work may open there. Are you not glad that the walled kingdom, with one third of all the world’s population, is at last to be entered by us?

“O Church of the living God! Awake from thy sinful sleep! Dost thou not hear yon awful cry Still sounding o’er the deep? Is it naught that one out of every three Of all the human race Should in China die, having never heard The gospel of God’s grace? Canst thou shut thine ear to the awful sound, The voice of thy brother’s blood? A million a month in China Are dying without God!”

The dear Lord will help us to go through these lands quickly, late as we are in entering them. We must keep the literature—sharp, pointed literature in leaflet form for these populous empires—falling like the leaves of autumn. Miss Burrus tells of the interest in the leaflets on the second advent, among the millions of Bengal. Work in shop and bazaar was dropped as the people crowded after her to secure the tracts. But one poor man, not a Bengali, was unable to get a leaflet in his tongue. He said, sadly and reproachfully, “Mensahib, don’t you know there are millions in India who know only my language? What are you going to do for us?”

Of course we shall give his countrymen the tracts in their own tongue. And so in all the great fields. And our brethren and sisters at home will see that it is possible to do it.

As we send out this letter, a council of the Conference Committee and the Mission Board is being held in Battle Creek. The work to be done and the ways and means of doing it are being considered day by day with prayerful study. Every unproductive feature that can be discovered must be dropped, and the plain, simple truth of this message must be set on high before all the earth. A thousand more workers are needed in the fields abroad. Will you pray God to send them, and stand by as God gives the ability while they go?—Of course you will. By the grace of the dear Lord, who loves us so, and who loves everybody else just as much, we shall soon be where He asks us to be—out in every land, telling this message, either personally or by representatives.

The keynote in the coming week of prayer will be the topic that will thrill our hearts to the end—“this message to all the world now and at once.” The best of it all is that this is not to be talk merely, but this people is actually to do it. It will take all we have. It will stir us up, and forbid our settling down in easy indifference as if a very battle was not raging out in the field. It is bound to set in motion a whole people. For this annual season of prayer and the annual gifts to mission fields all of us should now begin to plan. Discuss the gifts to be made with the Lord in prayer. Tell Him how much you love Him, and ask for His help in making ready the offering. Last year’s annual offering was $26,000. The new year of the century, a new year in the history of God’s work, the year from which we ought to be able to date the missionary revival which will quickly finish this work and bring the coming of the Lord,—yes, this very year ought to be marked by a double contribution, $50,000, as the thank offering this coming week of prayer. Let us work for it everywhere, and pray for it. Turn into money everything that you can spare for God and the cause that He loves so much that even His Son Jesus was not too precious to give up for it. That is the cause for which we now are to yield our all of life and means.

We have not to establish great plants in all lands. Training centers there must be for workers. Self-supporting medical institutions will multiply. But the splendid work before us is to run, swift-footed, through every land, preaching the word and sowing the literature.

MISSION BOARD, per W. A. Spicer, Sec.