A Good Beginning by W. T. Knox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 15, 1914

A Good Beginning

By W. T. Knox

"WELL begun is half done," is an old saying, the truthfulness of which has been frequently demonstrated by many of the readers of the REVIEW. Too frequently its antithesis is demonstrated, and that, too, in connection with most excellent plans and resolutions, sometimes causing an entire failure. It behooves us, therefore, to see that every laudable enterprise for 1914, in which we are concerned, has a good beginning.

A commendable object is worthy of a good and workable plan; a good plan merits a good beginning. To the Seventh-day Adventist people there should be no more commendable object, no greater undertaking, than that of preparing the way for the coming of the Lord,—the proclamation of the truths of the everlasting gospel to the nations of the world. The Lord's instruction to them is:—

"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." Isa. 40:9, 10.

John the revelator, in describing this movement in Rev. 14:6, 7, says: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." The distinguishing characteristic of this people is their possession of the everlasting gospel, and their one overshadowing work, the proclamation of this gospel, with its especially distinguishing last-day truths, to them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. In other words, they are, above everything else, to be a missionary people, commissioned by Heaven to preach to all nations the judgment message and the coming of the Lord.

With the blessing of God, this work is making progress. One nation after another is being entered by its messengers, until now this message is being taught orally in over ninety languages and dialects. Converts from heathenism are being obtained in increasing numbers. As an instance of this, in a recent letter from Elder R. C. Porter, superintendent of the Asiatic Division, it is stated that during a trip through the Central China Mission, sixty were baptized by him, making two hundred and twenty-three baptized converts in that one mission territory during the year.

For the year 1914, the General Conference will require in mission offerings for the work already established, a full $500,000. The laborers are already in the field, bending all their energies to complete the work in this generation. The responsibility of sustaining them is ours. In encouraging them to leave their homes for these distant lands, we have assumed this responsibility. In addition to this, we desire during the year to raise by our weekly offerings $175,000 for the relief of our training schools and sanitariums. To accomplish these objects, the offerings of our people must average twenty cents a week per member. Our ability to accomplish this has been demonstrated in many conferences. Where failure has occurred, it was invariably due to failure to begin right at the first of the year.

The general showing of the American conferences for the first six months of 1913 in raising their mission funds revealed a shortage of $80,000, resulting in great embarrassment to the Treasury Department of the General Conference. During the last three or four months of the year, much of the energy of conference officers has been expended in trying to make up this shortage. Some will succeed in these efforts, but doubtless quite a number will fail, principally because the beginning of the work was too long delayed, and the task will prove to have been too great to accomplish in the remnant days of the year.

The degree of success the denomination has attained in financing its evangelical work, is to be attributed to its working along the Lord's plans. They are all systematic in character, and not spasmodic in their nature, and if fully followed out by all the denomination all the time, during the first as well as the last months of the year, would supply to our treasury ample funds to meet all the ever-increasing demands of the cause.

Why should we not, therefore, in 1914, take up in a systematic manner this important feature of our service to God, in the month of January, and carry it steadily forward to the close of the year, instead of either delaying the beginning of the work until the latter half of the year or pursuing it in a spasmodic manner? Surely, if any enterprise is worthy of a good beginning, it is ours—the proclamation of the third angel's message. Do not forget that "Well begun is half done." W. T. Knox.