Elder Matteson Must Have a Paper and Live Helpers.
Times are hard, and we have opposed the publication of papers in Europe in any language in which we now publish papers at Battle Creek, until those American papers had sufficient patronage to support them, and until enough friends should be raised up in the Old World to sustain papers there. But we had no just idea of the extent and strength of the work in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
We are in receipt of letters from Bro. Matteson which stir the soul to the very depths. He must have our sympathy and support. The faithful, working men who, like Bro. M., have ability and a heart and nerve to work, must not be crippled for want of a few hundred dollars. It is no small thing for a man to leave the field of his former labors, where he has spent the best of his strength, to suffer the toils, cares, and responsibilities of a Foreign Mission; and he should be cheered by letters from his friends. Especially should those at our houses of publication be very attentive to his letters, and his requests.
Elder Matteson has charge of the Scandinavian Mission in Europe, under the supervision of the General Conference. He should let his wants be known. Does he want means and live men? He should call for them. He can appropriate means raised in his mission to help those laborers who need help and are worthy of it. No means can be sent from this country to help such. The following letters from our dear Bro. M. will be read with deep interest, and we hope they will stir the hearts of all who read them, especially the Scandinavian brethren in this country, as they have ours.
The first is dated, Osterhausgaden 12, Christiana, Norway, Dec. 10, 1878.
“Elder James White: Dear Brother,—I will again send you a few lines, that you may know how we are getting along. I think Bro. Jasperson will be a good man to labor in Denmark. But he needs a young brother there to help him, and I need one here if the work shall be carried on successfully. Could not Bro. Martin Olsen, of Wisconsin, come here to my assistance? I know him well. He fears the Lord, and is willing to work. And if he came here to help in the mission in Norway, I think some of our good Norwegian brethren in America would open their hearts and pockets much wider for this mission. For I notice that they have done but little up to the present time.
“I must say a little about a paper. We very much need one here now, and means to publish tracts. Without this the work will be cramped. The Lord has never before opened so large a field before me. I have never had so good an interest on my hands. Do not forsake me. Oh! give me help now, when the cause in this far Northern country needs it most. From three hundred to one thousand people listen with marked attention to the preached word every week. I have to move cautiously and slowly, and get as many souls converted as possible as we move along. The mere theory of the truth without a thorough conversion to God will not do in this country. We have had one interesting weekly prayer-meeting, and have now started one more in another part of the town. Last night about twenty souls (mostly Baptists) came to me and wanted to get all the light I had on the Sabbath question. All were fully satisfied, and some will begin without delay to keep the Sabbath. One of these is their leader. He is a Christian man, and publisher of a small monthly paper. He has about one thousand subscribers in this town. I think he could be persuaded to join his interest with ours.
“Many of those who are most interested are Swedes. The truth would naturally work out from this city into Sweden as well as into all parts of Norway. There is ten times more religious interest in this country than in Denmark. And in Sweden religious subjects are still more agitated. Thousands of souls are willing to hear and read. A monthly paper will cost about $427 a year. And our small tracts printed in the paper first, as you do in the SIGNS, would not cost much.
“Can you not help us now? You know that my work is arduous,—furnishing three-fourths of the matter for the TIDENDE every month, besides much correspondence, and preaching four times a week (with other meetings) to intelligent people, often preachers, I have to study my subjects thoroughly, and not be behind others, in order that the truth may advance against all this tide of superstition and hoary theology. Give me a good earnest fellow-laborer. Do send me help. God grant it, and direct your mind for Jesus’ sake.
Yours in Christ,
“John G. Matteson.”
Bro. Matteson's second letter is dated Osterhausgaden 12, Christiana, Norway, Dec. 17, 1878.
“Dear Bro. White: Please excuse me for visiting you again so soon. I have a few things on my mind which I would like to tell you. We need very much a paper here for 1879. The new year is coming on, and yet we are not ready to make this important move. If our dear brethren in America could see the necessity of it, they would send the lightning to speak for them, saying, Here we are, ready to sustain you in this enterprise; go on!
“I am still waiting to hear from you. I have myself ordered and paid for one hundred copies of the ADVENT TIDENDE this year wherewith to supply those who want to read and become acquainted with our paper. Besides this, the Office has sent me thirty copies each month to supply new subscribers with the first two numbers. We have obtained about fifty new subscribers the past month, and all our specimen copies are gone, besides all the old ones. Now we are getting subscribers on the bare promise of securing them a paper by and by. But this is a hard way of canvassing. If we had a paper here we could get five subscribers where we got one in this way. And just now, when from three hundred to a thousand souls will listen to our lectures in the capital of this kingdom, is the time when we could work to the best advantage. Truly, the opening providence of God is far ahead of our preparations.
“Would to God we had suitable publications here. And then a live fellow-laborer—oh! how much I need one such to help me here; not one that is asleep, and does the work with one hand in his pocket, having no burden for anything but to eat and get plenty of sleep and take things easy.
“The new paper (The Danish SIGNS OF THE TIMES) will be best accepted by the people of this country if it is folded up so as not to be much larger than the ADVENT TIDENDE. It would be very convenient to have two columns, each exactly the width of our tracts. Then any article desired could easily be put into tract form. On account of the expense we want no cover, no stitching, or paring.
“Five hundred dollars a year will more than cover the whole cost, and at two crowns [53 cents] a year, we will soon (by the help of God) be able to get five hundred subscribers. Then several hundred copies more would soon be taken by friends, for missionary work.
“Our dearest child is dead. The next one (Tina) was dangerously sick and not able to write when we last heard from there. Our children cannot stand the Michigan climate. It seems to us that they would not have been sick if they had stayed in Wisconsin. They never were sick before, to speak of, and those that remain there are all well.
“I have never in my labors left my field of interest on account of my family, though they have sometimes suffered. But I think the cause of present truth is more than parents, or children, or any earthly interest. I shall also now remain at my post, though I am weak and somewhat failing in strength on account of so many important things pressing unusually hard on my mind at present. I have never before had such an interest on my hands as now. Thirty good souls commenced last Sabbath to keep holy the rest-day of Jehovah. We now have prayer-meetings in three different places in town, where souls are awakened to seek the Lord and love the message, and calling most earnestly on the Lord.
“Now I have spoken freely to you, for I think I have no better friend in America than yourself, and my confidence in you is stronger than ever before. I know that you will do the best for me that you can, and may the Lord bless you and your dear companion much, and give you strength of body and mind.
Yours truly,
“John G. Matteson.
“If you say publish, I can get money here to begin the paper. I can borrow enough without interest to pay for two months.
“If there was some way to get a picture for each number from the INSTRUCTOR, it would help the paper much. The people here think a great deal of pictures.
“J. G. M.”
AN APPEAL FOR NORTHERN EUROPE.
By Ellen G. White
In my last vision I was shown the importance of the work in Northern Europe. The people are awakening to the truth. The Lord has given Elder Matteson a testimony to reach hearts. But the work is just entered upon. With judicious, self-sacrificing labor, many souls will be brought to the knowledge of the truth. There should be several unselfish, God-fearing workers in this missionary field, who will labor for souls as they that must give account in the day of Judgment.
I have been shown that not all is being done by our Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish brethren that they might and should do for their own countrymen. As soon as they embrace the truth, they ought to feel the fire of missionary zeal kindled in their hearts for their brethren in the darkness of error. Many are looking for help from their American brethren while they do not do their duty and feel the burden God requires them to feel for those of their own nation. They may do very much more than they are now doing if they will. These brethren must overcome selfishness and arouse to a sense of their responsibilities to God and their fellow countrymen, or they will lose the precious reward they might secure by putting their talents of means into the treasury of God, and by wisely-directed personal effort, thus being instrumental in the salvation of many souls.
Young men should be educated to become missionaries to their own nation, to teach the truth to those in darkness. Publications should be printed in Europe. But at the present time there is altogether too much ease and too little zeal among the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians who believe the truth in this country to sustain such a continual drain upon their funds. And for this reason I urge upon them the necessity of coming up into working order, feeling even a greater interest for their own people than their American brethren have shown. God requires that these brethren should come up to the help of the Lord without delay.
The Lord is the great benefactor of the universe, a being of infinite love. His tender mercy is over all his works. He sees the great want of those in different countries who have not the truth. Thousands are not satisfied with their present state, and desire to learn a better way. They are hungering and thirsting for light, and longing for greater safety and deeper spirituality. Minds are deeply stirred, and yet how few there are to bear the message to them!
Brethren, we need a deeper work of the Spirit of God in our own hearts. Jesus was rich in Heaven; but for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. The life of Christ, his self-denial and self-sacrifice, rebukes the indolence and inactivity of those who might and should engage in this great work of doing what they can to save their fellow-men. God requires that we should be like Christ, bear his image and imitate his example.
I was shown that many in Northern Europe had embraced the truth through reading. Their souls were hungering for light and knowledge when some tracts or papers came into their hands, and they were represented to me as reading. The wants of their souls were met; the Spirit of God softened and impressed their hearts; tears were in their eyes, and sobs came from burdened hearts. They knelt with the leaflets in their hands, and with earnest prayer besought the Lord to lead them and help them to receive the light as it was from him. Some surrendered themselves to God. Uncertainty was gone; and as they accepted the truth upon the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, they felt that they were indeed standing upon the Rock of Ages. Many persons scattered all through Northern Europe were presented to me as being ready to accept the light of truth.
I also saw Bro. Matteson at work among this very people. A cry comes to us from him across the waters for help. Shall we let him call in vain? We want to invest one hundred dollars in this mission. We do not want to hide our talents in the earth where they will do no one any good, but we wish to put them out to the exchangers where they can be used for the salvation of the souls for whom Christ has died.
We do not feel in the least discouraged to have these calls come in from foreign countries. They will not be made in vain. There are noble, self-sacrificing men and women in our ranks who only wait to know their duty, and they are ready to engage in the work personally, or to help with their money. In doing this they are not only blessing others, but they are blessing themselves. Said Christ, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." It is for ourselves we are laying up treasure. I would not, for my right hand, do as some of our brethren have done. They make but little distribution of their means to sustain the cause of God, and excuse their consciences by resolving that when they shall have no further use for it they will will it to the cause of God. Will such poor, faithless souls have credit for laying up treasure in Heaven? No, no. Satan, through his agents, begins to work to secure the means in his cause, and he generally succeeds. This should be a standing rebuke to those unfaithful stewards, who are acting over the same plan hundreds have acted before them.
Men are too faithless to use their talents themselves and put it out to the exchangers, and so they would throw all the burden of their stewardship upon some one after they are gone. How much better for them to use the means which God has loaned them to be used for the advancement of his cause and to glorify his name on the earth.
The time is near when we shall be called to give an account of the manner in which we have spent our means. When the great white throne comes down from Heaven, and He sitteth thereon from whose face the heavens and earth flee away, then the dead, small and great, will stand before God, and the books will be opened, and all will be judged according to the things written in the books. We are trying to send our means beforehand into glory, and we call upon the selfish and penurious to arouse and do their duty before it shall be too late.
Put the means God has lent you out to the exchangers yourselves. The Lord will require of us personally a faithful record of how we have used our talents of means. Can we show a wise and faithful stewardship? How will you who hide your talents in the earth answer in that day? How will you answer who spend money upon your idols, tea and coffee? How will you, my sisters, answer, who spend much of the Lord's money in needless, expensive dress, when plain, modest apparel would be more in accordance with your faith?
You who would imitate your self-denying Redeemer, should deny the appetite, take the money formerly expended for tea and coffee and many other hurtful indulgences, and put it into the treasury of God. You should have a missionary box, and put the money into it which you have been in the habit of spending for these wicked indulgences which ought long ago to have been laid aside.
Is it not high time that we begin to make some little sacrifice for Christ, when he has sacrificed his life for us? Let the tea and coffee money, and money that is spent so freely for dress and ornaments, be sent in to the treasury, and God will bless you for whatever sacrifice you make for his cause. Shall these important calls for means to carry forward this missionary work come to us across the broad waters in vain? No, no; let every voice answer, No! E. G. W.
Appeal for Scandinavian Mission Support
By James White; Ellen G. White
We recommend that Eld. Matteson commence to publish a paper without delay, and we direct that one hundred dollars be sent to him immediately.
We now call for one thousand dollars to be raised, to assist Bro. Matteson in publishing the paper, in issuing another edition of his European hymn book, and to meet other expenses of the mission during the present year. Our American brethren, who are able, are urgently invited to follow our example in this good work; but the Scandinavian brethren, who have taken but little stock in our Publishing Houses, College, and Sanitarium are our main dependence in promptly raising this sum.
We pledge to pay monthly for this purpose, J. and E. G. White $5.00, and of this sum we now pay for present relief $15.00.
Brethren, send in your pledges and money as soon as possible. And with your alms, let your prayers come up before God for perishing souls in Northern Europe.
JAMES WHITE,
ELLEN G. WHITE.
The Liberal Soul Shall Be Made Fat
“The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”