Earlier text: The Relation of Man to His Fellow ManReview of the World-Wide Field
By William A. Spicer
This must be but the merest outline of facts. The details of progress, stirring stories of the four-years’ advance, belong to the delegates fresh from the fields, who have gathered in literally from all the ends of the earth. They will tell us of opening and closing doors, of expanding boundary lines, of new tongues taking up the cry, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Four years ago how it thrilled our hearts to greet here thirty-two visiting representatives from other lands. Never had so many gathered at our General Conference, or from fields representing so vast a population. This year, however, we greet over one hundred delegates and fifty additional representatives from abroad. It is one token of the rapid flight of the message, an earnest that the day is soon to come when the great multitude that John saw, of all nations and tongues, will stand “before the throne.” And as we of this country greet these workers from abroad in blessed conference, face to face, we are thinking of those they represent. Our hearts to-day are with the wives and workers left behind in distant mission fields; and we pray that God may use this Conference to send a message of cheer and comfort to all, and to give a fresh impetus to the work in every land. It looks good to see the message go. These four years have been packed full of mercies and providences for missions. In real earnest, great union conferences abroad, as in Europe and Australasia, have been joining the American field in sending companies of missionaries into regions beyond their natural boundaries. During the quadrennial period three hundred twenty-eight missionaries have gone out from the older fields to other lands. It is an average of over eighty a year. Last year it was one hundred thirty-four. Every year it has seemed as if the limit had been reached; that the pace at which the workers were going would have to be slackened, to allow the means to accumulate to care for work already in hand. But year by year the mission treasury, like the widow’s barrel of meal,14has seemed able to supply yet a little more. How it stands now the treasurer’s report will show. But certain it is that we must cry to God and to his people for help to respond to such Macedonian calls as never came to our ears before. At the last General Conference we seemed to be fairly getting into formation for a systematic advance along the whole line of the dark Catholic and heathen lands. Since the rise of the message the advance generally had been along the line of least resistance. Logically, the truth of the Lord’s soon coming was proclaimed first of all among Protestant peoples. But a change came a few years ago. The last stage of the journey was before us. The pillar of God’s providence led straight into the dark regions of Catholicism and paganism. Through these, and then beyond, is the rolling Jordan and the promised land. Our missionary vanguard went in to spy out these waiting lands, and now their representatives return, every one of them with precious fruit of his labors. Hearts among Catholic peoples are responding in hundreds, and wherever the outposts have been planted amid heathenism, there is heard the song of praise for the light of the third angel’s message. During these four swift years thirty-three new countries and island fields have been entered, counting the great provinces of China and India as separate countries, which they really are in their vastness of population and differences of language. Thirty-three new fields, thank God, and nearly every one in the great Catholic and heathen zones, representing a population of two hundred fifty millions newly brought within our missionary boundaries, with a score of new tongues thanking God for the “blessed hope.” The message of Revelation 14 is flying in the midst of heaven. That good old Seventh-day Adventist phrase, “keeping pace with the message,” means much in these days. We must step fast to do it. Others than ourselves recognize the wide extent and rapid progress of this advent movement. We thank the New York Methodist Christian Advocate for its half-humorous and yet serious characterization of our missionary enterprise, in the words:— “Its aim is avowedly to run the earth; and small though the denomination still is, it has its missionaries scattered through every region of the globe.”
We ourselves can scarcely keep watch of the advancing line of light. Daniel Webster, in the Senate, once described in words that became historic the vast extent of the British empire, “whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain.” Even so the voice of this message circles the earth to-day, following the sun and keeping company with the hours. Measure off on the map the fifteen degree spaces representing hours, and you will see that from the time the sun rises with the new day in the mid-Pacific, there is now no hour of the twenty-four in which its meridian is not touching regions in which the cry is being lifted. “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Well may the fact quicken our pulses, and drive us on with all the earnestness of our being. Before Turkestan was entered, this could not have been said; but God’s hand flung the blazing brand of truth into the heart of Asia, and the shining circle of the hours was complete. There are brethren here representing organized work within the arctic circle. Others represent the extreme of the habitable earth to the southward. If the arms of our brethren in South Africa, Tasmania, New Zealand, and South America could be stretched forth as widely as their sympathies, their hands clasped across the seas would parallel the antarctic circle. With all the wide gaps to be filled in, we may pray with confidence,— “Waft, waft, ye winds, His story,
Ye waters onward roll,
Till like a sea of glory
It spreads from pole to pole.”
Two years ago the General Conference Committee council in Switzerland was like our General Conferences of a few years back. Eighty representatives assembled, their fields stretching from Iceland to Algeria, and from Portugal to Mt. Ararat. We thank God and our brethren in Russia for that signal flying from Ararat. The last message has reached the region where righteous Noah began anew the history of the human race. The providence of God leads the way into these unwarned lands where the millions wait. Of the total net gain of sixteen thousand Sabbath-keepers during the four years, eleven thousand were gained in countries outside of the United States. The believers abroad to-day number thirty-two thousand five hundred, more than the entire world membership in 1891. The third angel’s message is a success. It wins its way in every land it touches. The work must be kept strong in the older fields. They are to be bases of supply for men and means. But their own hope is in seeing the message carried quickly into every unentered region. There is no rivalry in this work, no antagonism of interests. No field can finish its work till all have finished it. These delegates who have come in with needs that wring their hearts are not seeking advantage for their fields to the disadvantage of any other. We are all gathered as children round a father’s board. The stronger are not intent on getting the larger share of food, but are rather insistent that the little ones, the weaker members, shall be supplied. Even so we surround our Heavenly Father’s board to-day, and pray that famishing fields may have the bread of life. A few years ago I stood one evening with Elder John Maas, of South America, in the plaza of Parana City, the park-like square in front of the ancient cathedral. A military band rendered a selection in a manner new to me. They were separated in groups amid the shrubbery about the square. From one side came a stirring strain, and then from another place came the answering notes. The martial music seemed to awaken answering and cheering chords from every side. Then, marching together, the entire band joined in the triumphant chorus of victory. So the word of cheer is passed from land to land in our work to-day. North America lifts the cry, and Europe echoes the strain. The continents respond, Asia and Africa, Australia, and South America, land answering to land, and the islands of the sea joining the glorious strain. “From the uttermost part of earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.” And soon must come the united chorus of victory. We have a right to rejoice in this thought only as we actually strip for the race. Measured by time, the work is nearly done; surveyed by what remains to be accomplished, it is but begun. With almost one accord, the newer fields that have been opened call now for facilities with which to train workers and develop resources. They have reached the point where they must have facilities. And the laborers are pitifully few, even where we have entered. There is more than one great country, with millions of people, where only one missionary, with a brave wife by his side, is holding the fort, looking to see if help is coming from this Conference. On every side stretch the wide expanse unentered. There are the thirteen provinces of China waiting, with vast Mongolia and Tibet lying beyond. There are a score of principal languages, and scores of lesser ones, in India and Burma, silent in the third angel’s message. There are Persia and Arabia, in Asia, and Afghanistan, Nepal, and Siam, not to speak of lesser states, with never a worker. Most of the Dark Continent is a region unknown to us, and Madagascar is untouched. South America has its vast blank spaces on our map, with no settled worker in Colombia and Venezuela. There are populous Borneo and the Celebes, in the East Indies, and Dutch and German New Guinea, and smaller island groups whose darkness has not yet caught the gleam of Australasia’s torch. Livingstone gave his heart to Africa when Moffat told him he had seen the smoke of a thousand villages rising in the morning air, with never a missionary among them. What shall we say to a thousand walled towns in China with no settled missionary of any society? We can carve out more than one square in Africa, a thousand miles on every side, with never a mission station. What does it mean to us that a thousand and more languages have not uttered a syllable of the third angel’s message? There is no reason for discouragement, or for thinking in our hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” The very greatness of the task brings courage; for it is a work that only God can do; therefore it will be done. We have not to ask how long it will take us to carry the message to every people, but how long will it take God to do it. The Lord will do it; but if we are to be saved when he does it, we must be found working as though we were to do it ourselves. It is estimated that already the translated Scriptures, in four hundred fifteen languages, may be understood by ninety-five per cent of the people of earth. The Lord, who gave to John that vision of the last message flying to every nation and tongue, is able to finish the work and cut it short in righteousness. He has wonderfully prepared the way. A few years before the hour of God’s judgment struck, in 1844, men were traveling about the world just as they did in the days of Abraham or Solomon, as fast as horse or sailing ship could15take them. But as the hour came for a message to be carried swiftly to all the world in one generation, the whole six thousand years of man’s history was changed, so far as locomotion is concerned. There came suddenly the steamship, the railway, the application of steam and electricity to locomotion, production, and communication. In these last days, for the evangelization of the world in this generation, it has been done. “He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway to the
ends of all the earth.”
Changes have come within the decade that indicate the arm of the Lord made bare in the sight of all the nations. It is by no means our advent hope coloring our view and causing us to create evidences from our own heart’s desire. The secretary of one of the great missionary societies, said a little time ago:— “Within five years the missionary situation of the world has been so transformed as to be hardly recognizable by those who studied the problem in the previous period. There has been nothing like it since the preparation of the Roman empire for the advent of Christ. We are in a new fulness of time.”
Thank God it is so. The fulness of time has come for the preparation for the second coming of Christ in power and glory. The finishing of the work is not to be deferred to another generation. “I have long time holden my peace,” saith the Lord; “I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry out. . . . I will lay waste mountains and hills. . . . I will bring the blind by a way that they know not.” We see the beginning of it. In these last four years three great kingdoms and one Catholic republic have removed legal barriers to gospel work, two of them with special decrees mentioning our own work and opening a wider path for the message. At the same time, we see other open doors threatening to fly shut. Again and again it has seemed that unwarned regions would be involved in tumult, and our brethren in needy fields be brought into close places. For many years we have watched the Eastern question narrowing down toward the final fulfilment of Daniel 11. But we have scarcely touched our part of the Eastern question, the proclamation of the advent message through the near and far East. We have our orders, “Go.” And our Leader’s promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” This promise is carved over the portal of the magnificent new cathedral in Berlin. It seems hardly in place on the costly pile of marble. The promise better suits the tented field. “Go, . . . and, lo, I am with you.” Only by heeding the call to go does the church have the promised presence. Stay, settle down, neglect the regions beyond, and we lose him; for the Shepherd is seeking the other sheep. “Go, . . . and, lo, I am with you.” Every believer who is praying and giving and living only that the message may be carried to all the world, is obeying the great commission, whether his own work is in near or distant lands. But it is time to cut loose and devote every resource to service. Laborers in destitute fields, with millions upon millions of unwarned souls about them, are convicted that the work is soon to close. From a point about ten thousand miles to the westward a brother wrote: “As we see these manifestations of his power, we can but feel that the time of the ‘latter rain’ has indeed come.” From a lone station five thousand miles eastward, on the edge of a vast unentered region, a brother wrote: “It is a shower of the ‘latter rain.’” From away southward, two thousand miles, came the word: “It seems to me that everywhere there is a moving of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of men.” It has come—the time that we used to hear gray-haired pioneers talking about, when some of us were children. The message swells to a loud cry. The showers of blessing are falling. In this generation the gospel of the kingdom is to be preached as a witness to all nations; and “then shall the end come.” The advent people are nearing the journey’s end at last. “Not far from home! O blessed thought!
The traveler’s lonely heart to cheer;
Which oft a healing balm has brought,
And dried the mourner’s tear.
Then weep no more, since we shall meet
Where weary footsteps never roam—
Our trials past, our joys complete,
Safe in our Father’s home.”
Atlantic Union Conference
Delegates to the Thirty-Seventh Session of the Seventh-Day Adventist General Conference, Convened in Washington, D. C., May 13 to June 6, 1909
_Atlantic Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—B. F. Davis, O. Montgomery, C. H. Edwards, M. L. Andreasen, F. H. DeVinney, H. W. Carr, Louis Zecchetto, Jennie Thayer. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—E. W. Farnsworth, Dr. W. E. Bliss, R. J. Bryant, B. F. Machlan, Mrs. V. J. Farnsworth. _Canadian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—Wm. Guthrie, Geo. H. Skinner, Eugene Leland, Ira S. Jones, C. H. Keslake, J. O. Miller. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—W. H. Thurston, B. F. Noftsger, Miss Margaret Shanks. _Central Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—Chas. Thompson, B. W. Brown, H. M. Hiatt, Jacob Riffel, A. T. Robinson, H. Hansen, M. E. Ellis, J. H. Morrison, J. S. Wightman, Dr. Orville Rockwell, J. W. Lair, W. F. Kennedy, E. E. Farnsworth, A. R. Ogden, D. U. Hale, J. H. Wheeler, G. F. Watson, Dr. J. D. Shively. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—E. T. Russell, C. C. Lewis, C. G. Bellah, Meade MacGuire. _Columbia Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—H. H. Burkholder, F. D. Wagner, W. H. Heckman, B. F. Kneeland, L. F. Starr, H. W. Herrell, J. M. Rees (deceased), E. R. Brown, A. C. Shannon, I. D. Richardson, Dr. W. H. Smith, S. M. Butler, R. G. Patterson. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—G. B. Thompson. REGULAR DELEGATES.—A. G. Haughey, S. D. Hartwell, W. R. Matthews, C. A. Hansen, E. L. Richmond, E. K. Slade, A. R. Sandborn, J. J. Irwin, E. A. Bristol, C. McReynolds, John Hoffman, P. E. Sheppler, A. J. Olsen, Wm. Covert, B. A. Wolcott, S. E. Wight, Chancy Wood, Morris Lukens, W. A. Young, W. H. Edwards, Dr. George Runck. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—Allen Moon, Dr. R. M. Clarke, J. W. Mace, J. B. Blosser, O. J. Graf, W. E. Straw, C. J. Herrmann. _Northern Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—M. N. Campbell, J. C. Clemens, Christian Juhl, S. E. Jackson, C. M. Everest, John Anderson, C. J. Kunkel, A. V. Rhoads, J. W. Christian, R. E. Harter, J. B. Clymer. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—R. A. Underwood, Dr. C. P. Farnsworth, J. G. Lamson, T. D. Gibson. _North Pacific Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—H. W. Decker, A. J. Breed, G. E. Langdon, R. D. Quinn, S. W. Nellis, W. W. Steward, C. W. Flaiz. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—W. B. White, M. E. Cady, C. E. Weaks, O. K. Butler. _Pacific Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—E. E. Andross, S. G. Huntington, W. M. Healey, R. S. Owen, E. D. Sharpe, Mrs. S. N. Haskell, H. G. Thurston, J. J. Ireland, H. Shultz, A. O. Tait, J. A. Burden, Mrs. H. W. Cottrell. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—H. W. Cottrell, S. N. Haskell, W. C. White, C. H. Jones, J. O. Corliss, M. C. Wilcox, Dr. H. F. Rand, Dr. J. R. Leadsworth, H. H. Hall, H. G. Lucas, I. C. Colcord. _Southeastern Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—T. H. Jeys, R. T. Nash, G. W. Wells, R. W. Parmele, J. F. Pogue, R. T. Dowsett, Sydney Scott. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—W. A. Westworth, Mrs. R. T. Dowsett, Mrs. M. Lenker, V. O. Cole, M. B. VanKirk, L. A. Hansen, Dr. J. H. Neall. _Southern Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—A. O. Burrill, W. R. Burrow, A. J. Haysmer, W. S. Lowry, E. L. Maxwell, A. F. Harrison, W. A. Wilcox, S. A. Jordan. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—C. F. McVagh, Dr. W. A. George, S. B. Horton, I. A. Ford, W. J. Blake, C. P. Bollman, E. A. Sutherland, J. S. Washburn, Kate C. Bickham, L. A. Smith. _Southwestern Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—Andrew Nelson, V. B. Watts, David Voth, L. W. Terry, H. L. Hoover, C. N. Woodward. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—C. Santee, W. W. Eastman, C. Sorenson. _Western Canadian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—H. S. Shaw, C. A. Burman, Wm. C. Young, W. M. Adams. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—E. L. Stewart. _District of Columbia Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATE.—J. E. Shultz. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—B. G. Wilkinson. _Australasian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—J. E. Fulton, C. W. Irwin, A. W. Semmens, J. M. Johanson, W. A. Hennig, G. B. Starr, B. J. Cady, Hattie Andre. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—O. A. Olsen. _British Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—W. T. Bartlett, H. Armstrong, W. H. Meredith, S. G.16Haughey, M. A. Altman, H. C. Lacey, Dr. A. B. Olsen. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—W. J. Fitzgerald, W. C. Sisley. _German Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—Otto Luepke, G. W. Schubert, J. Wintzen, K. Sinz, L. Mathe, H. Fenner, E. Bahr, J. G. Oblander, F. Gernhardt, H. Hartkop, E. Frauchiger, J. F. Huenergardt, J. H. Schilling, G. Perk, W. Prillwitz, J. Wolfgarten, O. Madsen, Dr. E. Meyer, Mrs. L. R. Conradi. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—H. F. Schubert. REGULAR DELEGATES.—J. Curdy, J. Vuilleumier, H. H. Dexter, C. T. Everson. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—L. P. Tieche. _Levant Union Conference_
DELEGATES AT LARGE.—W. Ising, C. D. AcMoody. _Russian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—H. J. Loebsack, D. P. Gaede, D. Isaac. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—J. T. Boettcher. _Scandinavian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—E. Arnesen, S. F. Svensson, Fred Anderson, L. Muderspach, E. Lind, N. P. Nelson. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—J. C. Raft. _South African Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—H. J. Edmed, J. V. Willson, F. B. Armitage. _South American Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—F. W. Spies, Ed. Thomann, Dr. R. H. Habenicht, N. Z. Town, F. L. Perry, Wm. Steele. DELEGATE AT LARGE.—J. W. Westphal. _West Indian Union Conference_
REGULAR DELEGATES.—D. E. Wellman, B. E. Connerly, O. E. Davis, E. W. Snyder, L. E. Wellman, H. C. Goodrich, W. J. Tanner, J. B. Beckner, E. L. Cardey. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—U. Bender, H. H. Cobban, C. B. Hughes. India: J. L. Shaw, H. H. Votaw, L. F. Hansen. West Africa: D. C. Babcock. Hawaiian Islands: C. D. M. Williams. Mexico: G. W. Reaser, G. W. Caviness, G. M. Brown. China: J. N. Anderson, Dr. A. C. Selmon. Japan: F. W. Field, H. Kuniya. Bermuda Islands: J. A. Morrow. DELEGATES AT LARGE.—A. G. Daniells, G. A. Irwin, L. R. Conradi, I. H. Evans, W. A. Spicer, W. W. Prescott, F. Griggs, H. R. Salisbury, Dr. W. A. Ruble, K. C. Russell, G. F. Haffner, Geo. I. Butler, Mrs. L. Flora Plummer, C. M. Snow, Mrs. Fannie D. Chase, M. E. Kern, T. E. Bowen, D. W. Reavis, S. N. Curtiss, Dr. D. H. Kress, Dr. G. H. Heald, F. M. Wilcox, Matilda Erickson, A. J. S. Bourdeau, W. A. Colcord, O. E. Reinke, S. Mortenson, L. H. Christian, A. Boettcher, Guy Dall. Total Number of Delegates
North American Union Conferences . . . . 183 Australasian Union Conference . . . . . 9 European Union Conferences . . . . . . 46 South African Union Conference . . . . 3 South American Union Conference . . . 7 West Indian Union Conference . . . . . 12 General and Miscellaneous . . . . . . . 44 Grand Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Seventh-day Adventists and the Haskell Home
[Soon after the burning of the Haskell Orphans' Home at Battle Creek, Mich., there appeared in one of the local papers, the Battle Creek Enquirer, a communication from Dr. J. H. Kellogg, in which he made certain statements concerning the relation between the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and the management of the Haskell Home, and concerning the attitude of Seventh-day Adventists toward philanthropic work in general. The claims made and the charges preferred were so out of harmony with the records that it seemed only just both to this denomination and to the public that there should be a presentation of the actual facts in the case. Accordingly a letter was prepared by Elder A. G. Daniells, the president of the General Conference, which appeared in the Battle Creek Enquirer of April 25. Believing that the information found in this letter ought to be placed before all our people, we reprint the letter in full herewith.—ED.] “Editor Enquirer,
Battle Creek, Mich. “SIR: There was published in the Enquirer of February 5, a letter written by Dr. J. H. Kellogg concerning the Haskell Home. In this letter Dr. Kellogg endeavors to change the general impression which seems to prevail that the Haskell Home had been founded and supported by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. His statements regarding this point are misleading to the public and unfair to Seventh-day Adventists. He says:— “‘The Haskell Home never was owned or controlled by the Seventh-day Adventists or any other church organization. The money with which the home was built was given to me personally by Mrs. Caroline Haskell. . . . The leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination were never much in sympathy with the Haskell Home enterprise, nor for that matter with any other line of philanthropic work. . . . Mrs. Haskell came forward, and voluntarily presented me with thirty thousand dollars, which was afterward supplemented by her with ten thousand dollars more. It was with this money that the Haskell Home was built. The money raised by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination was used in purchasing, equipping, and carrying on the James White Memorial Home, which has been a refuge for the old people of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.’ “The only conclusion to be drawn from these statements is that Seventh-day Adventists never contributed anything toward either the establishment or the maintenance of the Haskell Home. The only credit given to any one for contributions to that institution is the acknowledgment of Mrs. Haskell's gift of thirty or forty thousand dollars. This was certainly a generous contribution, and we are glad to have this estimable lady receive due credit for what she did. But with all the facts before us, we do not think it is a gracious thing to hold the Seventh-day Adventists up to contempt by representing them as being so unsympathetic with philanthropic work that they would contribute nothing to the Home for helpless orphans for which Mrs. Haskell gave so generously. The only contributions the Adventist people are credited with having made were to the James White Memorial Home, where, we are told, some of the old people of the denomination found refuge.” “This representation is not borne out by the original records and accounts which were kept by the founders and managers of the Haskell Home enterprise. In these records may be traced every step that was taken in establishing the Haskell Home. The names of the parties who took part in the movement, the purpose they had in view, the discussions and decisions of the committees and trustees that were appointed, the amount of money secured, and the sources from which it came—all these facts are given in these records. “In view of the wide difference between Dr. Kellogg's statements and the original records signed by himself as chairman, I consider it only fair to all parties to give the facts in this case as we find them recorded in the documents which have been preserved. “These records show that the Haskell Home came into existence as a result of resolutions passed by the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference, March 22, 1891. Here are the resolutions:— “‘Resolved, That we believe a home for orphans and destitute persons, to be called the ‘James White Memorial Home’ should be established by this denomination, and further,—
“‘Resolved, That we recommend the General Conference to select a committee of seven to take this matter under consideration immediately, with power to act, in conjunction with the General Conference Committee.’” “These resolutions were presented to the conference by Dr. Kellogg himself. They provide for the founding of a ‘home for orphans and destitute persons.’ They ask for the appointment of a committee ‘with power to act’ to establish this home. The committee was appointed, and that committee took the steps which resulted in the erection of the Haskell Home. “The original resolutions provided for but one home for both orphans and old people, and suggested that it be called the James White Memorial Home. But as the committee developed its plans, it was decided to establish two homes—one for orphans and the other for old people. “The gift of thirty thousand dollars by Mrs. Caroline Haskell on condition that it be used for the erection of a building which should be named the Haskell Home for Orphan Children, led to the adoption of the name Haskell Home. But the founding of17the home was the work of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. The first step taken toward it was taken by the denomination. The entire work was carried on by the denomination, and by far the larger share of the money used in the enterprise was supplied by the denomination. Mrs. Haskell was but one of many donors, and the only specification set out in the resolution accepting her offer was that the ‘building to be erected shall be named and known as the Haskell Home for Orphan Children.’ Mrs. Haskell was not the founder. She was a generous donor. “‘Now a word respecting the ownership of these properties. The records show that it was the intention of the committee appointed by the General Conference to look after the affairs of this home, to incorporate it under the laws of Michigan. Upon investigation they found that the act then in existence was not well suited to this purpose, so they began to take steps to secure a better act from the Michigan Legislature. But instead of doing this they organized and incorporated what was named the ‘Seventh-day Adventist Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association.’ This name was subsequently changed to International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. The purpose of this association was to take the special oversight of the organized medical missionary and philanthropic work of the denomination. As the work of the Haskell Home and the James White Memorial Home was of this kind, it passed into the hands of the association. The properties of both of these institutions were conveyed by deeds to the Seventh-day Adventist Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, and their value was placed on the books of the association as an asset. But the institutions belonged to the denomination; for it had founded them, and had supplied the bulk of all the funds used for both construction and maintenance. “‘In the latter part of 1898 either the trustees or the officers of this Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association formed a separate corporation for each of these two institutions. The records state that the reason for doing this was to place each institution on a basis which would enable it to receive legacies, but it is expressly stated in the minutes that the deeds of these properties should still be held by the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. This arrangement continued for six years, when, on April 18, 1904, the trustees of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association ‘authorized, empowered, and directed’ the president and secretary of the association to deliver to the Haskell Home and the James White Memorial Home the deeds for these respective properties. This was done without the approval of the constituency which the trustees represented. It was done without even the knowledge of the denomination that has established and maintained these institutions from their inception to that time. Furthermore, this was done a few days after the trustees of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association had been notified by their chairman that the association was facing a ‘very critical situation,’ that the only way he could see out of the difficulty was to ‘place the corporation in the hands of a receiver,’ and that they would have to place the James White Memorial Home and the Haskell Home on such a basis that they would not be involved. It was at this time and in this way that the Haskell Home and the James White Memorial Home passed from the ownership and control of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Seventh-day Adventists have never felt that this transaction was right, and since then have declined to render the institutions the support they had previously given them. But they have not ceased to care for the dependent aged nor the orphans among them. They are securing excellent homes for their orphan children among the members of their churches, and are having these children brought up on farms. This arrangement we consider far better than the large orphan asylum plan. “‘In his letter to the Enquirer Dr. Kellogg conveys the impression that Seventh-day Adventists never contributed anything to the Haskell Home. He says that the money the denomination raised was for the James White Memorial Home. But this is not what the books show. The accounts of these institutions were kept by the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. They show that from the beginning of these enterprises in 1891 to 1906, there was received for them the sum of $243,916.37. Of this amount $81,753.27 was for the building fund. Mrs. Haskell is credited in the books with having contributed thirty thousand dollars of this sum, leaving $51,753.27 given by Seventh-day Adventists and friends in sympathy with their work. The James White Memorial Home received only about ten thousand dollars of this, making the contribution of Seventh-day Adventists to the Haskell Home building fund over forty-one thousand dollars. (We place Mrs. Haskell's contribution to the building fund at thirty thousand dollars, no trace of the further ten thousand dollars given by her appearing in the accounts.) “‘Taking the building fund receipts from the total receipts, there is left $162,163.10 for the maintenance of these homes. By far the larger part of this amount was used in supporting the Haskell Home. This money was contributed year by year from the limited resources of Seventh-day Adventists, who were appealed to through their papers, at their summer camp-meetings, by circular letters, and by personal solicitation on the part of the officers in charge of the institutions. For years two general collections were taken in all the American churches of the denomination for the support of these institutions. “‘Seventh-day Adventists have not forgotten these appeals and their generous response, and they consider it unkind and unjust to them to be represented as they are in this letter to the Enquirer by one to whom they showed such loyalty for so many years. They feel that the gift of over two hundred thousand dollars for the benevolent work of these institutions entitles them to better treatment. And we believe that the fair-minded readers of the Enquirer will agree with us when they know the truth of the matter as we know it.