Missionary Department by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1875

Missionary Department.

By John Norton Loughborough

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” Eccl. 11 : 6.

What Tracts Are Doing.

THERE is a brother keeping the Sabbath in South Africa, 500 miles from Cape Town, who was brought into the truth by reading. I have thought for some time that I should make a minute of this case to encourage and stimulate all our T. and M. members to activity and zeal in the work.

In the summer of 1869 this brother was living in Nevada. Elder Bourdeau and myself were at that time holding tent-meetings in Healdsburg. The interest in our tent-meeting was at the highest pitch. I was to speak one Sunday evening upon the subject of the United States in Prophecy. A Methodist church was dedicated that day at Windsor, six miles distant, by Eld. Benson, one of the editors of the California Christian Advocate. The resident Methodist minister of Healdsburg, undoubtedly wishing to run opposition to our tent meeting, and thinking the prestige of the elder from San Francisco would draw the crowd, announced for him to speak in Healdsburg the same evening of our discourse on the United States. Alas! While our tent was filled the S. F. elder had only about a score of hearers.

When the elder returned to San Francisco and published his next paper, he came out, in an editorial, in bitter terms against us and our work. In his article he first called attention to the Advent movement of 1844, in which the ministers so explained “Daniel’s prophecies that a child could comprehend them.” He ridiculed that movement in his article for a time, and then said “A remnant, however, persist in holding on to the fallacy. They will be nothing but Adventists, albeit, they are careful not to say just when the Lord will be revealed from Heaven. They are not a whit less arrogant and boastful of their skill in unfolding the hidden mysteries of prophecy, than were Miller and his co-laborers. Their wisdom and fluency amuses ordinary mortals who go to hear them unfold the dark sayings of the ancient seers. . . . In public they are cautious as to the language they use in speaking of the churches; but they sell books and pamphlets in which their bitterness and fatal errors are fully revealed.” In conclusion, he stated, “No one fears that such teachers will ever effect any permanent organization.”

As to his last statement about permanent organization, we can only point to the results of six years of labor: to sixteen organized churches in this State, with some six hundred earnest Sabbath-keeping Christians; a thoroughly organized State Conference; a well organized and efficient missionary society; and a legally organized publishing house with a capital stock of $28,000, as some tokens in the line of “permanent organization” and of this we expect more still, for our motto is onward!

But to return to the bearing of this upon the case in hand. About ten days after Eld. Benson’s article appeared in print, a letter came to Healdsburg from Nevada, addressed “To the Elders at the Tent.” On reading the letter, we found that Eld. Benson had been doing some advertising for us, and were strikingly reminded of that scripture which says, “They can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” The letter was from our Nevada friend, now a Sabbath-keeping brother in South Africa. He wished us to excuse him for addressing us in the manner he did, as he did not know our names. Said he for a number of years he had read his Bible, and had been especially anxious to understand the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. Several times he had written to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, to get works on the prophecies, but he had not yet succeeded; but seeing what Eld. Benson said about our speaking on the prophecies, and that we had books treating on our views, he ventured to write. He requested us to send him some of our works by Wells and Fargo’s express, to be collected on delivery. This revealed the fact that Elder B. had done first class advertising for us.

We found that to send books by express, it would cost our friend about as much as the price of his books. So we ventured to mail him “Thoughts on Revelation,” and works, such as we then had, on Daniel, the sanctuary, the three messages, spiritualism, signs of the times, and a number of tracts, worth, in all, $2.50. This accompanied with a letter respecting the nature of our mission here, and correcting the misstatements of Eld. B. We also called our friend’s attention to works we had upon other topics, and to the Review, Health Reformer, and Instructor, published at Battle Creek, Mich.

In about ten days we received a letter from him, expressing the greatest delight and thankfulness for his books, and sending us a twenty dollar gold piece, wishing us to send him the Battle Creek periodicals, and a few more books of other kinds, and desiring us to use the balance of the money in our work here. I continued to write to him and to send him books until he had a copy of all the works published at our Office in Battle Creek. These with the papers amounted to about $13. At his request, we applied the balance, $7.00, to the work here. He read, believed, and became more and more interested in the mission, and before our summer’s tent campaign in 1869 closed, he sent us $40.00 more in gold to help in the expenses. This came with great acceptance as money was not so very plentiful in starting the mission here.

The following spring, this brother came to Bloomfield, where I was holding meetings, and remained ten days. Told me he was going to Australia and Africa for his health. He admitted the whole truth, and, besides the books he had, he wanted to take with him “the very pair of charts” on which we had lectured thus far in our mission in this State. Of course we let him have them. We went into the Bloomfield hills, where we spent several hours together in prayer and conversation. He there promised that when he came to his journey’s end he would keep the Sabbath.

Three years passed away and we had no tidings from him, and feared he was dead. In January, 1875, I received a letter in which he made earnest inquiries about our people and work, saying that he had had no news from the United States in three years. I responded to his letter, and wished to know what he was doing. The letter received the first of August, states that he has strictly kept the Sabbath ever since he arrived in Africa, now nearly four years; that he is loaning his books, and “has loaned them until some of them are nearly worn out; and that some persons admit the truth, but as yet none have taken their stand to obey it with him.” Pray for him, brethren and sisters, and for those convinced of truth in that distant field.

If the truth can thus find its way to hearts, shall we not be stimulated to more earnest efforts in scattering the light, especially in distributing copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES wherever we go?

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.