The Missionary by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 42.

The Missionary.

By Editor

THE PACIFIC PRESS AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.

WHEN the Pacific Press Publishing House was instituted, no one dreamed of the important relation it would eventually sustain to the work of the Third Angel's Message. The Pacific Coast was then recognized as missionary ground, and the new publishing venture was designed merely as a means of building up the Seventh-day Adventist faith in the local field. As such an enterprise, it asked and received material help from those interested in the work. Means was freely given and loaned, because the institution could not at first make money, and its work and its very existence were missionary objects.

In course of time the Pacific Press became self-sustaining; in turn it did missionary work from its own earnings, and was called upon to aid other institutions which were auxiliary to the same general cause. This it has often done, many times to its financial disadvantage, and many times in having its trained workers removed to other fields. Last year the demand upon its energies necessitated the establishment of a branch in New York, which so far has been an accommodation to the cause rather than a profit to the home office. However, it is expected to carry this branch on a business basis, as the American Sentinel will shortly be removed to that office, and other enterprises are in prospect.

But the last call upon the original house for a forward movement is the placing of a branch in London, the world's great commercial center. This is not only a new field, but it is a foreign field, and one demanding a peculiar class of laborers fitted for working it. In short, this step is a missionary effort. London, to Seventh-day Adventists, is missionary ground, and those portions of the world which it is expected to reach from London are all missionary fields. It will require considerable time and much expense to work up in all those countries a demand for Seventh-day Adventist literature and get financial returns for the outlay.

If the establishment of the Pacific Press in California fifteen years ago was a missionary enterprise, the move for a branch work in London is much more so. The territory and the people involved in the two enterprises are hardly to be compared in extent and numbers. The London branch of the Pacific Press stands before the denomination to-day in about the same light as the original enterprise did in its infancy; only this difference,—there is fifteen years less time in which to work than there was then. The Pacific Coast mission then had specially in view little more than one million population; while the London branch contemplates the supply of more than one hundred million. Local papers and cheap tracts may be printed in the various contingent countries, but the London branch will be looked to for supplying standard bound books for Great Britain, South Africa, the Congo country, India, Hongkong, Australia, and New Zealand. Who will suppose for an instant that the Pacific Press can plant a branch six thousand miles from home to carry on such a work as this without help, and liberal help. Especially when the limited time allotted to our message is taken into consideration, the urgency of the case becomes still more apparent. When the Conferences east of the Missouri River, in their comparative weakness of fifteen years ago, could promptly respond to a call for $10,000 to plant a printing press on the Pacific Coast, what may reasonably be expected for an enterprise fraught with so much greater prospects?

And in grateful remembrance of those primitive favors, what will Californians feel constrained to do, as the unlimited opportunity for doing likewise comes fairly before them. In various ways they have responded to calls for aid to foreign missions; but has it been fully realized that every dollar now contributed, or loaned, to the London work of their home institution is a dollar in aid of foreign missions? Here is a new channel through which to assist the foreign work, and it is a channel through which a double purpose is accomplished. At the recent camp-meeting in Oakland the subject was presented at a session of the Conference; but there was a small attendance even of those who were in the encampment; and the greater portion of the Conference at large, to say nothing of other Conferences, have not had opportunity to be properly informed in regard to the situation.

Were some influential representatives of the faith to travel over the country in the interest of this London branch of the Pacific Press, as was done when the first call was made, no doubt a much larger response would be made, notwithstanding the many other calls for means. But why should such a course be necessary? Why should it be necessary in such a case as this, among a missionary people expecting soon to give an account of their stewardship, to make extra appeals when opportunities for spreading the message are so apparent. It does seem that a fair presentation of the absolute necessities of the case is all that could be desired, and that anything more would be superfluous. We therefore leave each one to make the appeal to himself, and save to the cause the expense of someone coming around to do it for him. Time is precious, money is scarce, and the day for arguing and impressing by extra measures that which is plainly apparent, ought to be past. "The King's business requires haste."

Donations, subscriptions to stock ($10 per share), or loans, may be sent by express, by postal money order, or by registered letter; drafts on San Francisco or New York preferred. Do not be deceived with the idea that the amount you are able to put into this grand work is too small to be of any assistance. You cannot afford to stand outside because you have only "two mites," nor does the Lord want you to. The reckoning in all such work is according to that which is at command. A dollar to-day is of more value than five which it may be designed to give next year.

Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal.; 43 Bond Street, New York City; 451 Holloway Road, London N., England.