HEART THINKING by A. R. C.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 16, 1878

HEART THINKING.

By A. R. C.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It is generally an accepted doctrine that a man thinks with his head, but the truth of the former declaration would hardly hold in the latter case. It is often astonishing to see what can be done in a cause where there is thinking in the heart. On a recent Sabbath we visited a church of Adventists which has a membership of about forty-five. At ten o’clock there was a prayer-meeting, lasting forty-five minutes. Old men and matrons, young men and maidens, all kneeled at the same time whenever any one led in prayer.

After a powerful discourse by Eld. V. Hull, the church register was called, and all present made a brief report of themselves, and very nearly every one absent responded by letter. These letters were read by a young man, and were full of interest. In the afternoon, the Lord’s supper was celebrated, washing of feet, &c.

We gathered some items concerning the church, which cannot fail to show what consecration will do. A few Sabbaths previous, they raised $180 for general “T. and M. work,” as they called it,—tracts and missions. A brother in moderate circumstances gives annually $44; another brother, a farmer by no means rich, gives about $200 annually. Young men and women who live by their daily or weekly labor seldom give less than five dollars each, oftener ten. Their pastor, Rev. Mr. Matteson, is in Denmark on a mission. A publishing house is soon to be established in Europe, for which purpose $20,000 have been raised. Eld. Matteson’s wife is with him, but their seven young children are here;—two in Michigan, two in Northern Wisconsin, and three with this church. As we saw the three boys coming to church, whose ages we deemed to be from five years to ten, and were told that after four or five years, when the mission was established, their parents would return “to see their children,” we could but feel that somewhere there was thinking with the heart.

It seems like the days when we were young, when we heard it said that our China Mission would be re-inforced when somebody could be found to go; and the same thing is said now, and the mission has no missionary. Are we not thinking with our heads?

The work of spreading Sabbath truth so gathers on the hands of Rev. Mr. Matteson that he has called for aid, and others will soon go to his assistance. What we as a people would call a failure, and would abandon, this people will carry to victory. What consecration is there in a church which gives nothing to the “T. and M. work”?

A brother of the church alluded to has spent several weeks in canvassing for their publications in his own and neighboring towns, and it was all done gratuitously. A young lady said, “We do our own preaching, so our pastor can help others.” How many churches have we numbering forty-five, giving hundreds annually to tracts and missions? Do we not need a different mode of operation, or more thinking in our hearts?—A. R. C., in Sabbath Recorder.