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Among the Nations

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1875

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 46, No. 21.

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Among the Nations.

By Maria L. Huntley

The mission of the General Vigilant Missionary Society of New England is to a large extent conducted by correspondence outside the limits of our people; thus introducing our publications and periodicals where the light of truth has never before found its way. Some of the following extracts from letters were read at the last quarterly meeting of the New England Tract and Missionary Society.
A French corresponding agent reports to the Society as follows: “I have this evening received an answer from the young man in France to whom you sent tracts. He did not receive the tracts you sent, but is very anxious to get them; and he prays God to bless those who are so interested in him in America. He says that he read and re-read my letter with great surprise and joy. I have great hopes of him. I have also written, and sent tracts, to an old gentleman in France, who is somewhat interested, and he has given them to a minister.”
A correspondent sends us a letter from New Zealand, from which we extract the following: “The friend to whom the REVIEW is duly posted wrote to us a few weeks ago that he was deeply interested in the Sabbath question. I feel convinced that there must be very many like myself in the matter of being persuaded that you have the truth on your side. . . . The REVIEW has attracted the attention of many at our post-office. It is as good as an advertisement. I am not afraid of being attacked by our archdeacon about the paper. I know I could meet him with the truth. The time may come when I shall see my way clear to confront him. He knows from others that I am studying the Scriptures. May the One who is all-powerful help us with his strength.”
A brother in Georgia who is an active missionary in that State, and who has suffered much from opposition and the prejudices of the people, states the following circumstance in a letter, which indicates a much better state of feeling toward our views in that vicinity: “A few days ago, I met a man in Griffin, who seemed to be interested about our views. He is a Methodist, and invited me to attend meetings at his church to-morrow (Sunday) about twelve miles from here. No providence preventing, I shall go. It may be that some honest heart may be led to investigate—not that I shall presume to speak from the pulpit, but that I may drop a word or a tract as seed by the wayside.”
There is a Society in Ireland called the “Scripture Reader’s Society,” whose efforts are more or less extended throughout that country. Their system is similar in many respects to that of our Tract and Missionary Society. They have agents appointed something like our directors. A few copies of the SIGNS, “Sufferings of Christ,” “Scripture References,” etc., were sent as a sample of our publications. The following is their reply: “I have duly received your kind communication of June 23, and in reply beg to say that the Committee of the ‘Scripture Reader’s Society for Ireland,’ will be most happy to accept your generous offer of the donation for one year of the religious publications you name, which, with any other works you may please to send, they will have much pleasure in having distributed throughout the country by their agents.”
The readers of the REVIEW will doubtless recollect the article that appeared in its columns some time ago concerning the Chinese Sabbath-keepers. Our correspondent in that country, a Seventh-day Baptist Missionary, sends us the following, from which it seems reasonable to infer that there are observers of the seventh day at the present time in some of the remote portions of China:—
“I heard a curious story a few days ago from a brother missionary. A Chinaman came into his chapel and heard preaching. He informed the preacher that it was the same doctrine he was accustomed to hear at home; and that his home was some hundreds of miles to the north-west of that place in the province of Nganchoni. The district in which he lived was surrounded, he said, with hills which could not be gotten over, and there was but one way of ingress and egress to his home, and that was by a tunnel where there was a draw-bridge; so they have just as little to do with the outside world as they choose to have. The man left the missionary, taking a copy of the New Testament with him. After a while he returned and inquired for the other book; for in reading the New Testament they learned there was another book to which reference was frequently made. This time he took a copy of the Old Testament with him and has not been heard from since.”
To the cold, half-hearted professor there may seem to be nothing in the above extracts that is very soul-inspiring; but it will be a source of joy to those who believe that the truth is world-wide in its application, and that the world must be warned by it, to see prejudice so giving way everywhere, and that there is a disposition to read the truth of God. Men cannot be warned while they are perfectly encased in prejudice. It is only a quarter of a century since the pioneers in the work, Eld. James White and wife, Eld. Joseph Bates, and a few others, after having traveled one or two hundred miles, would be rejoiced to meet a half-dozen believers, and perhaps two or three of their neighbors, convened in some private room. There was then so much prejudice that the people could not be reached. Now a hearing can be obtained in almost every community, and there are more calls for lecturers than could be filled by all the ministers of Seventh-day Adventists were there ten times as many as there now are. These letters evince the fact that a great change in the feelings of the masses has taken place. God by his Spirit is preparing the way for the spread of his truth on a scale that has not as yet been witnessed. He has truly gone out before his people; his providence, and his Spirit call, as never before, for active missionaries to enter the field.
MARIA L. HUNTLEY.