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EUROPEAN MISSION

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 15.

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EUROPEAN MISSION.

By James White

The following letters from Eld. Andrews and Dr. Ribton have been received by us and read with great pleasure. We give them for the benefit of the readers of the REVIEW, especially the old friends and supporters of the cause. Here are two men wholly devoted to the work of the last message, and who deserve the prayers, sympathy, and support of all true believers. Their sacrifices are great. Their work is vast, and their reward will be correspondingly great. Those who assist them in their work will share with them the final reward of the faithful:—
“VERY DEAR BRO. WHITE: I have watched the news with respect to your health with deep interest. I do not know just how it is with you, but fear that you are very feeble. I lift my heart to God every day for you. I feel great assurance that God hears my cries to him in your behalf. I pray that you may be able to find relief from the great burdens of care and toil, and that your mind may be quieted and encouraged in God. It has pleased God to make yourself and wife the special instruments in his hand of advancing his work, and of instructing his people. Do not be disheartened if you feel greatly worn in his cause. The Master that you have served is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love in his cause, and eternity is the period which he proposes to employ in showing his love and what he can do for those who are faithful in his cause. Be not sorrowful; your reward is great in Heaven. The time will come when the heavy burden will be laid down, and when the cross shall be taken from your arms, and the crown of life, with many stars upon it, will be placed upon your head. You will be satisfied then.
“I send with this a letter from Dr. Ribton to you. You can see something of his spirit from this letter. I have confidence that the time will come when you will visit Europe, and we shall share your counsel, and that of sister White. We see progress in the work, and our hearts are encouraged. In Christ yours,
“J. N. ANDREWS.”
“DEAR BRO. WHITE: I have long been desirous of writing to you directly, since I undertook the work of announcing the Advent message in Italy; but great pressure of work between preaching and correspondence on the same work, already extending into Malta and Egypt, has prevented me hitherto. I believe, however, you have seen the reports which I sent to Bro. Andrews. We were much grieved to hear of your enfeebled health last fall, but have read with great pleasure and thankfulness the news of your recovery, in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
“It would not be possible for me to describe the happiness of mind which the knowledge of the true Sabbath, the advent message, and the glorious promises of our Lord to those who keep his commandments, has conferred upon me and my family. From the time of the visit of our dear Bro. Andrews to Naples, we date our birth into the family of the ‘watchers’ of the latter days. What appalling scenes God's Revelation has opened, even now beginning on the world! And what a joy to think that in the midst of them not a hair of our head shall perish! And yet what anguish of heart to those who know these mysteries, to witness the many, even those with whom one is in daily intercourse, who close their ears to the warning and will not learn what is coming upon them. How dreadful will be their remorse when repentance comes all too late! Oh! if one had twenty voices, twenty pens, it would be all too little to proclaim the warning,—flee from the wrath to come.
“And so the Spirit has urged me to exert all my humble force to raise the trumpet cry in this most unhappy and benighted land. It is no light matter to dare the mystical beast in his own head-quarters, and to proclaim the commandments of God, where they have been trampled upon for more than twelve hundred years. It is no wonder if we have had our place of meeting beset by armed assassins, or if the enemy deludes even those who have light, to become our opponents. But truth is great, and it will prevail; and the few who had the courage in America forty years ago, to raise the standard of truth in the midst of the Babylon of error, have seen it, through the all-conquering power of the Spirit of God, pass eastward; and I believe that, after going around the world, it will arrive at the place of beginning again.
“Our mission here, in the midst of a people, who, until some years ago, knew not what the Bible was, and whom Rome purposely encouraged in a slavery to carnal passions, granting pardon to all sins for a sum of money, is a difficult one, as I have explained in my letters to Bro. Andrews, and as he has seen for himself. Still in six months I have been able to report some precious fruit, precious stones in the edifice, that I trust will be the means of extending the third angel's message in the land. We have now a fair prospect of so doing if it please the Lord to give us the means that are essential for the extending of the work. An Italian ‘Signs of the Times’ has become a matter of necessity, and above all things we want to establish a system of colportage. Bro. B., who wrote relating his conversion, will not be able to remain in the church in which he has been employed, and I think the Lord has given him for our work, for he has all the qualifications for it. Could we employ him, he could increase our work fourfold by house to house visiting, for with the occupation of preaching and extensive correspondence, I am unable to see half the persons I am called on to visit. I have to do all the translation from English into Italian myself, there being no one who can aid me in this; and, indeed, there is work enough to keep three persons fully occupied. We pray, then, that the Lord will give us the means to carry out the work which lies open before us, and I trust he will do it.
“We read with great pleasure sister White's truly Christian book, the Spirit of Prophecy. Our Italian brethren cannot read it, but I endeavor to give them portions of it orally, in their language. When we have our Italian journal, we shall be able to give them many articles out of it.
“We hope that you and our dear sister in the Lord, your wife, will give yourselves a little rest in your new home in California. It is, indeed, time after so many years of unceasing labor; and praying God to give still more blessing to your work and hers, believe me, sincerely yours in the hope of our Lord's speedy coming,
“H. P. RIBTON.”
May God bless our dear missionaries and fellow-laborers in Europe. J. W.