ACTING IN HARMONY by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 29, 1877

ACTING IN HARMONY.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

While the Tract Societies are making an especial effort to increase the circulation of the Health Reformer, Signs of the Times, and Youth’s Instructor, The Review and Herald, Advent Tidende, Svensk Harold, and Les Signes des Temps should not be forgotten. There are no national barriers in the Christian religion. God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Acts 17:26. Christ has “broken down the middle wall of partition,” so that now, through him, we all have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” The truth of God is designed for the human family, and Christ “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” John 2:2.

Those of different nationalities can labor most successfully among those who speak their own native tongue, yet there is no reason why the tract system should not embrace all. The Scandinavians can labor among their own people, but report to the tract officers of the Conference to which they belong. Reports show that six clubs of the Tidende have been taken, making an aggregate of 210 copies; and through these about 300 subscribers have been obtained for this paper. This is as it should be. But this is only a commencement. Throughout this country the friends of the Tidende should be interested in its circulation. The Swedes should pursue the same course with the Harold. In Battle Creek a club of the Harold has been taken, and good results have followed. But there are companies West and East who should engage in this work. There are also companies of French brethren in Illinois, Wisconsin, Canada, and elsewhere. These should manifest the same interest in the same manner with the French paper. These should all co-operate with the Tract Societies.

In Boston, Mass., Portland, Maine, and many places West, there are settlements of the French, Danes, and Swedes, none of whom believe in present truth, and yet there are American brethren living near by. Here is a missionary field for them. When Bro. Sawyer was in Boston, he found a large company of Swedes; and the idea that an American should take such an interest in them as to learn their language, and then go to labor in their midst, so affected them that they at once procured a hall, and now offer him an open door to labor in their midst.

There must be more of a blending of efforts on the part of those of every nationality under heaven in the work of present truth. In all such places as Boston and Chicago, our brethren should take a sufficient number of these foreign papers to meet the necessities of the case. There are tracts and pamphlets in these different languages which should be kept constantly on hand, and furnished to people of these different nationalities. All this can be done through the tract societies. This home missionary work is the quintessence of Christianity. God accepts no service without it. A religion that gives no burden for the salvation of others, of whatever nationality, is a mere shell, a dry form, without any God, or Christ, or salvation in it; and the more one possesses of it the more he is to be pitied.

My brother, my sister, do you fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it? Do you realize that these promises are conditionally given, and that the anxiety on our part should be faithfully to comply with the conditions? Enlarged hearts and tender consciences are valuable commodities in these days of peril.

S. N. Haskell.