Seventh-Day Adventists and Foreign Missions
THE United States census report shows that the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is operating 126 stations in 45 foreign countries; the denomination reporting the next highest number of countries is the Methodist Episcopal Church, operating in 28 countries with 172 stations. The highest number of stations operated in foreign countries by any denomination reported is the Protestant Episcopal Church, with 387 stations in 7 countries. The next in point of stations, after the Methodist Episcopal, is the Presbyterian Church, with 136 stations in 15 countries. The per capita contributions for home and foreign missions by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States for 1906 were $6.88; an average higher than that of any other of the 92 denominations reporting contributions for conducting evangelistic, educational, or philanthropic work at home and abroad. In the language of the census report we read: “The highest averages for distinctively mission work both home and foreign are $6.88 for the Seventh-day Adventists; $5.30 for the United Presbyterian Church of North America; $2.88 for the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; $2.60 for the Congregationalists; $2.50 for the Northern Baptist Convention; and $2.22 for the evangelical bodies.” Quoted from Part 1, page 135. The average per capita for all denominations reporting was $1.08; 64 cents for home, and 44 cents for foreign work per year per member. The total amount of contributions for home and foreign missions reported by denominations for 1906 was $21,506,898, of which $12,762,271 (59.34 per cent) was for home missions, and $8,744,627 (40.66 per cent) was for foreign missions. There are 217 denominations in the United States; 111 conduct evangelistic, educational, or philanthropic work outside the United States, and 92 made a specific report as to contributions. The census report shows that the average amount contributed for foreign missions by all members of the religious bodies in the United States for 1906 was 44 cents. Total amount contributed to missions during 1909 by the 65,122 communicants of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination was $381,147.38, a per capita of $5.85, or an amount more than thirteen times greater than the average per capita of the members of all the other religious bodies in this country. And yet who will say for one moment that these gifts are more than they ought to be? Or who, because of this, will be satisfied to compare himself with others and think that his deed is well done? God asks all, and His message demands all the powers of our being. The responsibility of the saved soul does not come between the soul and his church, or his church and any other church, but is a direct relationship between that soul and his Master, and that responsibility should be discharged in the wisest way so as to reach as many souls as possible for whom the Master died.