The Greatest Power to Move the Message On by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 14, 1911

The Greatest Power to Move the Message On

By W. A. S.

If prayer is the power that moves the arm of Omnipotence,— and it surely is, — the greatest factor in the missionary advance that the believers can supply is universal and importunate prayer. The Bombay (India) Guardian said not long since:—

A Christian girl, who was very fertile in her methods of helping to advance an interest in the cause of missions, on one occasion, after she had made a suggestion as to overcoming some seemingly insuperable difficulty, was answered by her friend with the remark: “Bessie, I believe that if you were put on an island alone, shut in a solitary cell, debarred from communication, a solitary person, you would contrive to do something for missions.” “Certainly,” said Bessie, “I would do there the greatest thing possible for missions: I would pray.”

Not as a matter of method, but as the first and last and supreme resource of the believer who has laid his all on the altar, may the week of prayer lengthen out into a year of prayer for the cutting short of the work.

At a hundred points to-day the two’s and three’s of our missionary force are hearing calls to which they can not respond. More workers are needed. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers.” The united prayers of thousands of believers will increase the ranks of workers during 1912.

The Lord is able to save with few as well as with many. All success in winning souls comes from God. Then may the prayers of the world-wide circle help the few to do the work that we might expect could only be done by a much larger force. We shall pray for more workers, but we shall pray that even the few workers may win the victories that need to be won in 1912.

There are heavy burdens borne where, isolated from association with fellow workers, one or two missionaries are facing the needs of millions of souls, needs that press day and night for an extra exertion to accomplish yet a little more—just to respond to one more call, to enter yet one more open door. It is perhaps more than a tradition, that story of Columba (the Sabbath-keeping apostle to Scotland whom the Catholic Church has made a “saint”), that when his fellow workers came to a steep hill as they were carrying stones for the church and school on Iona, they found their burden lighter because of the prayers of their aged leader. United prayer at home will help to bear many a burden in lands far away.

“The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy that day; I wondered how: A plowman, singing at his work, had prayed, “Lord, help them now.” Away in foreign lands they wondered how their single word had power: At home, the Christians, two or three, had met to pray an hour. Yes, we are always wondering, wondering how, because we do not see Some one, unknown, perhaps, and far away, on bended knee.”

There was a call for importunate prayer in the statement from our General Conference treasurer the other week, showing the barest needs of the world-wide general mission work, at home and abroad, calling for $476,000 for 1912, with a $20,000 deficit in the treasury at the end of November.

Only by the special grace and blessing of God have the loyal, truth-loving believers been able to keep the gifts for missions increasing year by year. But they have done it, and added a little more, and again a little, to the previous record.

Some parts of the States from which large gifts have always come, report drought during the past year. Increased sacrifice there, to reach or pass the usual mark, and increased giving elsewhere, will be necessary to come out even with the enlarged requirements for 1912. It is a call to surround the throne of grace in united, earnest prayer that the Lord may open new springs of mission resources, to bring the waters of life to thirsty peoples from whom we are actually holding back, in plain sight of them, because of the lack of means. Plead the promise:—

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”

Would God that the wilderness of eighty million Hindustani-speaking people in India, without one ordained minister to devote his full time to the field work among them, might see just a little pool beginning to form within its borders.

What a joy to all hearts would it bring if in that dry land of the Karen field of Burma, a spring of living water would burst forth before the end of 1912!

What a blessing just six new evangelists would be for China’s waste places in 1912, or only two or three landed in Japan and Korea, or in the new Malay Mission, or in Africa.

Our work is to “build the old waste places.” Our only hope, as the field extends and the calls increase, is in the living God, who opens streams in the desert, and makes the dry land a pool.

W. A. S.