p. 13 | A UNITED EFFORT by William Clarence White

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 17, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 16.

A UNITED EFFORT.

By William Clarence White

LET us all unite in a supreme effort to raise quickly the $150,000 fund. The work can soon be accomplished if we all take hold with faith and enthusiasm. Let us devote our best energies to this work just now, and see what can be accomplished in April.

In May, the representatives of our work in all lands will be assembled in Gland, Switzerland, as a General Conference Council. And there, in the presence of the grand old mountains that witnessed many of the severest struggles of the Great Reformation, our brethren from every continent will be engaged in conference. On the banks of the beautiful lake, midway between Geneva and Lausanne, two strong citadels of ancient Protestantism, they will engage in prayerful study of the ways to keep the later Protestantism pure and active.

Reverently will they study the way in which the Lord has led this people, and the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Diligently will they study the world's map to see how they can place the few workers in newly entered fields where they can accomplish the most for the Master in a short space of time. Faithfully will they study the ranks of the workers in the older fields, to see who can be spared to go to the frontier. Earnestly they will plan for the strengthening of every educational agency, so that all may be doing their utmost in the training of workers to go to the front.

Our schools, our publishing houses, and our sanitariums will be brought into faithful review as regards their value as training-places for missionaries. And broad plans will be laid for the strengthening of every known agency for the education and fitting up of laborers for the great harvest field. The importance of such councils can not be estimated.

Let us unite in earnest prayer that a full measure of grace and wisdom be given to our representatives at this council. And shall we not also pray that grace and wisdom be given to us, that we may keep step with the advance movements that shall be inaugurated at the council?

As our brethren consider plans for broader work in China, Japan, India, Africa, and South America, the question will always arise. What promise is there of sufficient means to support the present work, and the proposed enlargements? How long will it take to make up the large fund we are now working on? And how soon can we give our principal financial support to the strengthening of numerous other agencies for the training of workers?

The answer to many of these vital questions will be found in the results of the efforts made just now by ministers, teachers, physicians, and managers of our institutions, to do a full and acceptable work in raising the large fund. The enthusiasm that we put into this work in April, and the results telegraphed to the General Conference Council in Switzerland, will largely influence the brethren in their plans for broader work in the newly opening fields.

What Shall We Do?

Let us plan a big surprise for our brethren who assemble in Gland next May. Let us all, ministers, licentiates, teachers, physicians, and managers of institutions and enterprises, take hold of this matter at once, and, uniting our efforts with church officers and others having a burden to help, let us do a quick work in raising the balance of the big fund. Thus we can count its accomplishment as a mile-post of progress, and go on to other work.

W. C. WHITE.