Earlier text: EASY STEPS IN THE BIBLE STORYThe Greatest Power to Move the Message On
By W. A. S.
If prayer is the power that moves the arm of Omnipotence,— and it surely is, — the greatest factor in the missionary advance that the believers can supply is universal and importunate prayer. The Bombay (India) Guardian said not long since:— A Christian girl, who was very fertile in her methods of helping to advance an interest in the cause of missions, on one occasion, after she had made a suggestion as to overcoming some seemingly insuperable difficulty, was answered by her friend with the remark: “Bessie, I believe that if you were put on an island alone, shut in a solitary cell, debarred from communication, a solitary person, you would contrive to do something for missions.” “Certainly,” said Bessie, “I would do there the greatest thing possible for missions: I would pray.” Not as a matter of method, but as the first and last and supreme resource of the believer who has laid his all on the altar, may the week of prayer lengthen out into a year of prayer for the cutting short of the work. At a hundred points to-day the two’s and three’s of our missionary force are hearing calls to which they can not respond. More workers are needed. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers.” The united prayers of thousands of believers will increase the ranks of workers during 1912. The Lord is able to save with few as well as with many. All success in winning souls comes from God. Then may the prayers of the world-wide circle help the few to do the work that we might expect could only be done by a much larger force. We shall pray for more workers, but we shall pray that even the few workers may win the victories that need to be won in 1912. There are heavy burdens borne where, isolated from association with fellow workers, one or two missionaries are facing the needs of millions of souls, needs that press day and night for an extra exertion to accomplish yet a little more—just to respond to one more call, to enter yet one more open door. It is perhaps more than a tradition, that story of Columba (the Sabbath-keeping apostle to Scotland whom the Catholic Church has made a “saint”), that when his fellow workers came to a steep hill as they were carrying stones for the church and school on Iona, they found their burden lighter because of the prayers of their aged leader. United prayer at home will help to bear many a burden in lands far away. “The weary ones had rest, the sad had
joy that day; I wondered how:
A plowman, singing at his work, had
prayed, “Lord, help them now.”
Away in foreign lands they wondered
how their single word had power:
At home, the Christians, two or three,
had met to pray an hour.
Yes, we are always wondering, wondering
how, because we do not see
Some one, unknown, perhaps, and far
away, on bended knee.”
There was a call for importunate prayer in the statement from our General Conference treasurer the other week, showing the barest needs of the world-wide general mission work, at home and abroad, calling for $476,000 for 1912, with a $20,000 deficit in the treasury at the end of November. Only by the special grace and blessing of God have the loyal, truth-loving believers been able to keep the gifts for missions increasing year by year. But they have done it, and added a little more, and again a little, to the previous record. Some parts of the States from which large gifts have always come, report drought during the past year. Increased sacrifice there, to reach or pass the usual mark, and increased giving elsewhere, will be necessary to come out even with the enlarged requirements for 1912. It is a call to surround the throne of grace in united, earnest prayer that the Lord may open new springs of mission resources, to bring the waters of life to thirsty peoples from whom we are actually holding back, in plain sight of them, because of the lack of means. Plead the promise:— “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
Would God that the wilderness of eighty million Hindustani-speaking people in India, without one ordained minister to devote his full time to the field work among them, might see just a little pool beginning to form within its borders. What a joy to all hearts would it bring if in that dry land of the Karen field of Burma, a spring of living water would burst forth before the end of 1912! What a blessing just six new evangelists would be for China’s waste places in 1912, or only two or three landed in Japan and Korea, or in the new Malay Mission, or in Africa. Our work is to “build the old waste places.” Our only hope, as the field extends and the calls increase, is in the living God, who opens streams in the desert, and makes the dry land a pool. Continuing in the Lord
By Francis M. Wilcox
WHAT will be the results of the week of prayer for 1911? Will the blessing obtained be abiding? This, of course, is a question which every one personally must determine for himself. In each individual case it will depend on how deeply the conviction of sin takes hold of the heart, how sincere is the repentance, how thorough and far-reaching is the consecration, and how resolutely this consecration is maintained upon the altar of God’s service. Says the Word of the Lord: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” The blessing of the week of prayer came into our hearts through giving ourselves as little children to the Lord Jesus Christ, and receiving by faith forgiveness of sins and his blessed presence in our hearts. By these means we have received the Lord, by these means we are to walk with him in the future. The experience of daily Christian living is not one difficult to understand. It is all involved in daily surrender to God, daily feeding on his Word, continual faith in, and application of, his promises to daily need. It is the continual maintenance in our experience of that spirit by which we received him into our hearts at the first. Our lives should show continual growth in grace. We should grow up to be strong men and women in Christ Jesus. We should develop an experience which will enable us to partake of the strong meat of the Word instead of being always fed with milk. But even in this larger and broader Christian life we can not get away from the simplicity of faith, the simplicity of daily receiving Christ Jesus the Lord. When we do this, we begin to wander away from God, and the end is defeat and failure. O, let us in the year to come maintain our simplicity! Let us keep humble and lowly at the foot of the cross. Let us keep our consciences tender, our hearts open, our spirits willing to hear and receive and obey all that the Spirit seeks to teach us. If, in an evil hour, we fail, let us hasten to renew that sweet, intimate experience which we had with the Lord Jesus when we received him at the first. We should leave no sin unconfessed, no wrong unrighted for a single day. Every nightfall should find us at peace with God and with all our fellows so far as we can control our course of conduct. God calls us to victory over sin. He gives us the power whereby this is made possible. O, let us not live down in the valley of defeat! In Jehovah’s strength let us rise above those things which would pull us downward, triumphing over the weaknesses in our lives.8Keeping ourselves upon the altar of service will enable us to do this in the year to come. The coming year may be one of glorious victory, one of walking with God. Shall we not make it so? Greetings from Chile Through Brother Westphal
GREETINGS come from Chile, through Brother F. H. Westphal:— The Chile Conference sends greetings to the brethren in the United States. The work is progressing steadily in our field. There are words of good cheer from the north and from the south. Persons are accepting the truth, so that baptisms take place every week. Be of good cheer. Servants in Disguise
By C. M. S.
SERVANTS in disguise we all have. We are very prone not to recognize them as servants at all. The great question for us is whether or not we will allow them to accomplish for us what they were appointed to accomplish; in other words, whether we will permit God’s purpose in giving them to us to be wrought out in us. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 4:17 who these servants are, and what they are doing for us. He says: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us.” We too often read right on to the conclusion of the verse, overlooking the fact that these things are our servants, and are working for us; that they are working for us to an end; and that that end can be frustrated by us in our neglecting to see, or refusing to see, or being unable of ourselves to see, that they are our servants. When the affliction comes, we are prone to look upon it as a hardship, and we ourselves as subjects for sympathy; but that very thing which we seem to think against us and our interests, will work for us if we will only let it work. God has sent it. Look upon it as a godsend, and it will prove to be one. Look upon it as a calamity, and we have given Satan vantage-ground, and made it easy for him to triumph over us, to accomplish his purpose concerning us. The trial that comes is designed to perfect us, to polish us, so that we may shine as a beautiful stone in the heavenly temple. It comes as a fire to burn the dross out of our character, so that we may stand perfect before him. It comes as the fuller’s soap to remove impurities from the delicate fabric of our soul, so that we may be “without spot.” It comes as the ironer to smooth out the character so that it may be “without wrinkle.” If we refuse to look upon it as our servant working for us, then that part of our character which this was designed to strengthen or beautify, remains weak and unlovely. The stone remains unpolished; the dross still pollutes the metal; the impurities remain in the fabric; the wrinkles will stand out in all their ugliness. But what do these afflictions accomplish for us? “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Men sometimes look upon their best friends as their worst enemies; but we have been looking upon our servants as our oppressors. They would have worked for our eternal glory; but we have allowed self to stand between us and their service for us; have allowed Satan to rob us of that “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” which “our light affliction” was designed to bring into our possession. Let us allow them to accomplish God’s purpose in us; allow them to work for us in the purifying and refining and strengthening process which will make it possible for us to be sharers in that inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Our light afflictions,— they are our servants. Let us recognize them, and work with them, and permit them to work with us, that the glories of the eternal may be ours. C. M. S. Let Us Hold Fast
By F. M. W.
THE apostle Paul exhorts the believers to hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering, knowing that he who has promised is faithful and will fulfil all his word. We who are living in this day of earth’s history need to heed this admonition. We have reached the time when men are letting go of the things of God, when the Scriptures of truth and the foundation doctrines of the Christian faith are being repudiated. On every side we see those who have made shipwreck of their faith, and who are drifting on the great sea of theory and speculation. Voices are sounding from every quarter, claiming to be the exponents of the truth, and inviting a following. The darkness of error and unbelief is growing more and more dense. All that can be shaken will be shaken. Only the pure gold and sound wheat will stand the test and trial. The dross and chaff will be swept away. In these times it is well for us often to recount the evidences of our faith, and to realize constantly that it is not founded upon the word of man, that we have not followed cunningly devised fables, but that our hope is anchored to the everlasting Scripture of truth, the eternal Rock of Ages. How the evidences of the heaven-born origin and the divine character of this great movement in which we are engaged, have multiplied! Where we possessed one evidence twenty years ago, we have one hundred to-day. The progress of events in our own country alone is sufficient to demonstrate to every candid mind that our hope in the coming of the Lord is well grounded. Years ago when we first taught that there would arise in this country a union of church and state, and that the United States, the ideal of the world in free and enlightened government, would turn its back upon the great principles which gave it birth, and, following in the path of old-time church and state nations, would lead the world back again to the fold of Rome, and unite with that power in bringing persecution upon those who stood for the truth of God, the position was regarded by many as utterly untenable—the wild speculation of fanciful minds. But how truly have the positions taken back in the early days of our work been verified by the onward march of events. We can see influences on every side whose working shows how strongly the tide of reaction is setting in. The old-time spirit of true Protestantism, with the Protestant principles which once actuated the Protestant churches, is rapidly passing away. In its place we see the spirit of compromise, of trucking to Rome, of joining hands with her in the accomplishment of her purposes. In State legislatures and in the federal Congress we see repeated efforts in behalf of Sunday legislation. The general favor with which these measures are regarded by strong organizations and federations and unions, embracing the leading religious denominations, shows the evil work of education which has been carried forward, and the extent to which these principles are received by the multitude of the people. But we are not confined to these evidences alone to verify our position as a denomination. Fulfilling conditions in the social, political, religious, and commercial worlds all point out in no uncertain manner the fulfilment in our own day of the prophecy which sets these conditions forth as signs of the day of God. Progressive steps in European history which are clearly bringing nearer and nearer the time when in fulfilment of Daniel II Turkey shall be driven out of Europe, may be witnessed from day to day. But the working of the elements of evil by no means furnishes the only proof that the coming of the Lord draweth near. Striking evidences may be seen in the message of warning and the reformation now hastening to earth’s remotest bounds. God does not leave man without warning of approaching evil. In every quarter of the earth the proclamation of the judgment hour is now being sounded. Everywhere men are being warned against the work of the beast, against the worship of his image, and the reception of his sign of authority. We are forced by the logic of the facts, by the striking fulfilment of history, by the fulfilment not only of one sign but of hundreds, to reiterate as a people more emphatically than ever before the Scriptural authority and foundation of the principles and doctrines which have given us an existence as a denomination. There can be no mistake. We do not mean by this that the system of doctrine held by Seventh-day9Adventists amounts to an infallible creed. We do not mean that the canon of Scriptural truth is closed to investigation, and that the future holds nothing in store for the earnest seeker in the great mine of truth. God forbid. On this doctrine the denominations of the past have made shipwreck of their experience. The Scriptures of truth still hold untold wealth inviting the earnest seeker. There are still heights and depths to which we have not yet attained. But we do mean that as the blessed Scriptures of truth are true, and as they mean what they say, our faith in the coming of the Lord and in the doctrines which we hold as a people is well founded. We know in whom we have believed. We can declare with positive assurance that “we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This system of belief which we hold as a people is the everlasting truth of God. It is founded upon his infallible Word, and will triumph in the end. And those who take these principles into their lives and are transformed by them will triumph with them at last. Let not Satan by any argument of sophistry or deceit draw any away from this position. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.” “Cast not away therefore your confidence, . . . for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” We are in that period of darkness which just precedes the dawn. The east is already lighted up with the first rays of approaching day. The glorious city of our God, the haven of eternal rest, is almost within view. Let us not grow weary nor become disheartened. Let us hold fast, that no man take our crown. The conflict from now to the close of earth’s history will be sharp, but it will be short. Our Captain is leading; let us be faithful to keep step with God’s advancing hosts. World Evangelization
By C. M. S.
THIS world has never seen an age like this. “Intensity is taking hold of all things earthly.” While the world has practically gone mad over the matter of war preparation; while the nations are taxing their people to the farthest possible extent to equip armies and build and equip battle-ships and aeroplanes; and while men are piling millions upon millions in the wild race for wealth, there are movements on foot in the religious world which are as determined and as vigorous in that field as these other movements are in their fields. No such paradoxes and anomalies have been produced in any other generation. While the cost of living has been increasing, we note also a large increase in offerings to foreign missions, and that, too, at a time when no inconsiderable portion of the professed church of Jesus Christ is advocating the withholding of funds from missionary operations abroad and the using of the people’s gifts in such work as they consider is in need of being done at home. It is another striking paradox that this increase in offerings to foreign missions comes at a time when from thousands of pulpits dedicated to the promulgation of the gospel of salvation there is dispensed the faith-killing tenets of the higher criticism and a false science’s contradiction of heaven’s record of creation. It is therefore apparent that while Satan has invaded the church to work its ruin and set it against its Founder, God is inspiring faithful hearts to greater liberality, and in all churches he is carrying on a work of conviction and consecration and loyalty in the hearts of honest and sincere men and women, preparing them for the reception and acceptance of his last message when it shall reach them. God has yet his jewels in all parts of the world. The general secretary of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement, Mr. J. Campbell White, has issued a message to the churches of the United States and Canada, in which he makes public some interesting information. That movement is now five years old, and Mr. White declares that these five years have witnessed the most extensive and inspiring increase of missionary interest during modern times. He makes plain that intelligent enthusiasm for the carrying forward of foreign mission undertakings is not a hindrance, but rather a help, to the work in home fields. Concerning the actual gain in donations to foreign mission work, Mr. White states that financial gains to missions during the five years have been the greatest ever made during a similar period by the churches of entire nations. The churches of Canada have increased from $1,492,300 five years ago to $2,216,000 last year. Taking the United States and Canada together, the increase for foreign missions alone has been from $8,980,000 to $13,350,000 annually, or a gain of about fifty per cent. The secretary states, further, that the movement expects to cooperate with the missionary agencies of the churches until the work of world evangelization is actually accomplished. If God will make even the wrath of man to praise him, surely we may know that he will use such a movement as that and the Students’ Volunteer Movement to advance the interests of his kingdom. And certainly they who, in other churches, stand against the great drift of the times toward doubt and infidelity and commercialism, will have an opportunity of receiving the testing message and the last message for this generation. Their zeal in such a movement should be an inspiration and an incentive to us to increase our diligence in carrying on effectively the great work that God has given us to perform. C. M. S. Our Press Bureau
By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
THIRTY years ago Elder James White felt a great burden pressing upon his heart to make use of the public press in giving publicity to our message and our movement. Just before his death he made a great effort to awaken our conference leaders to the importance of training persons to prepare suitable reports for the press. For a time there was considerable activity in this line; but the effort was not carried far, and for years we have done but little efficient work in getting our message before the public through the newspapers. However, during the last three or four years the importance of this kind of work has been pressed upon the hearts of many of our ministers. The General Conference Committee has made a number of efforts to establish a Press Bureau, and has at last succeeded. This was taken up at the recent fall council, and the officers of the committee were requested to secure an experienced newspaper man to take charge of this work. Accordingly, arrangements have been made with Brother W. L. Burgan, of Baltimore, to engage in this line of work. During the last twelve years Brother Burgan has been connected with the Baltimore American and the Baltimore Sun. He is an experienced reporter, and now severs his connection with the American to become secretary of our Press Bureau. During the coming winter he will conduct classes in newspaper reporting at as many of our union conferences as he can attend. This, we feel sure, will be of great value to our ministers and workers who are engaged in public work. While Brother Burgan is conducting classes in the union conferences in the North, Elder C. B. Haynes will do the same kind of work in the union conferences in the South. Brother Haynes has been under Brother Burgan’s training in Baltimore for two or three years, and has had excellent success in getting a large amount of valuable information into the public papers. We believe that our present bureau will prove to be of inestimable value to our cause, and it is the desire of the General Conference Committee that all our ministers and workers who can profitably do so will take advantage of the instruction to be given this winter in10the union conferences. We are hoping that this will enable us to report our tent-, hall-, and camp-meetings another year through the public press so that people in all the States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will have their attention frequently directed to both our message and our work. Brother Burgan will enter upon his duties as secretary of the bureau the first of January. Any information desired from him may be obtained by addressing him at the General Conference Office, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. $300,000 Fund: Receipts and Use in Korea
By W. T. Knox
Below appears the statement of the receipts by the General Conference treasury on the $300,000 Fund during the month of November. This shows but slight increase over the last report, but indications are that there will be a material gain during the coming month. This should be the case in view of the action taken by the General Conference and by local conferences toward the closing up of this fund during the present year. It will be of interest to those contributing to the fund to know of the use to which this money is being put by some of the fields receiving benefit from it. A letter recently received from Elder C. L. Butterfield, says:— We in Korea are indeed thankful for the help received through the $300,000 Fund. Up to the present we have been able to get the following through this fund:— A house at Soonan for Prof. H. M. Lee. A house at Soonan for Dr. Riley Russell. A house at Keizan for R. C. Wangerin. A dormitory at Soonan to accommodate forty boys. A house for girls’ school at Soonan. Thirty-five acres of good farm land at Soonan. Three acres of land at Chinnampo. A church building and lot at Piengyang. A new printing-press and other machinery in our printing-house at Seoul. The above items mean much to the work in Korea, and we trust that God will bless us in the use of these helps to the salvation of many souls. Statement of $300,000 Fund
Atlantic Union Conference Central New England ..... $ 3509.73
Greater New York ........ 3267.40
Maine ................... 397.61
New York ................ 1798.78
Northern New England .... 1073.53
Southern New England .... 630.69
Western New York ........ 1440.40
Total ................... 12118.14 Canadian Union Conference Maritime ................ 301.61
Ontario ................. 1734.73
Quebec .................. 599.60
Total ................... 2635.94 Colorado ................. $ 1271.08
East Kansas .............. 813.54
Nebraska ................. 9246.77
North Missouri ........... 1092.32
Southern Missouri ........ 494.95
Western Colorado ......... 699.81
West Kansas .............. 1980.93
Wyoming .................. 1276.14
St. Louis Mission ........ 103.50
Total .................... 16979.04 Columbia Union Conference Chesapeake ................ 1060.99
District of Columbia ...... 1285.72
Eastern Pennsylvania ...... 1986.40
New Jersey ................ 1769.45
Ohio ...................... 4033.05
Virginia .................. 443.35
West Pennsylvania ......... 957.76
West Virginia ............. 410.00
Total ..................... 11946.72 East Michigan ............. 4834.78
Indiana ................... 4152.47
Northern Illinois ......... 2475.76
North Michigan ............ 724.24
Southern Illinois ......... 1929.87
West Michigan ............. 5493.71
Wisconsin ................. 2303.57
Total ..................... 21914.40 Northern Union Conference Iowa ...................... 6005.53
Minnesota ................. 4286.94
North Dakota .............. 2177.71
South Dakota .............. 1534.83
Total ..................... 14005.01 North Pacific Union Conference Montana ................... 1573.15
Southern Idaho ............ 1950.65
Southern Oregon ........... 979.15
Upper Columbia ............ 3226.66
Western Oregon ............ 3432.59
Western Washington ........ 3465.61
Alaska .................... 7.15
Total ..................... 14634.96 Arizona ................... 692.26
California ................ 7054.73
Southern California ...... 6562.80
Utah ...................... 147.65
N. Cal.-Nevada ............ 1801.53
Central California ........ 2442.90
Total ..................... 18701.87 Southeastern Union Conference Cumberland ................ 1589.40
Florida ................... 1844.90
Georgia ................... 699.07
North Carolina ............ 503.35
South Carolina ............ 355.04
Total ..................... 4991.76 Southern Union Conference Southern Union Conference .. 70.66
Alabama ................... 201.31
Kentucky .................. 282.25
Louisiana ................. 214.75
Mississippi ............... 616.03
Tennessee River ........... 630.07
Southern Union Mission ... 6.15
Total ..................... 2022.12 Southwestern Union Conference Arkansas .................. 290.91
New Mexico ................ 189.14
North Texas ............... 864.77
Oklahoma .................. $ 2241.79
South Texas ............... 216.86
West Texas ................ 163.35
Southwestern Union Mission 3.05
Total ..................... 3969.87 Western Canadian Union Conference Alberta ................... 671.20
British Columbia .......... 719.98
Manitoba .................. 743.10
Saskatchewan .............. 973.50
Total ..................... 3107.78
Miscellaneous ............. 5042.04
Grand total ............... $132069.65 Two Excellent Journals
By F. M. W.
THERE are many excellent journals in the world, but we refer to two particularly, which we believe should be carefully studied by every Seventh-day Adventist; namely, Liberty and the Protestant Magazine. We have reached a time in the history of the world when the principles for which these magazines stand need to be understood. A strong, determined effort is being made in this country to secure religious legislation. The halls of Congress and our State legislatures are besieged by men representing strong combinations and federations which are clamoring for religious legislation. Liberty is the one journal published by this denomination which deals specifically with these questions. We should read it in order that we may be acquainted with the progress of this agitation; we should read it in order that we may understand how to relate ourselves to this agitation; and we should read it in order that we may properly represent to our friends and neighbors the principles for which it stands. We should take the journal to them, and induce them to read it, that they shall stand on the right side of the great closing controversy of the ages. All this is true likewise of the Protestant Magazine. We have come to a time when true Protestantism is rapidly growing decadent. Rome recognizes this, and sees in the situation her golden opportunity, the one for which she has patiently waited and labored for years. Of late the attitude of Rome has materially changed so far as her outspoken policy is concerned. She flaunts in the face of Protestantism its growing weakness and her growing power. She invites Protestants to leave what she calls the wrecks of their faith, and find an asylum in the true church. The Protestant Magazine discusses this present situation, showing the principles that have actuated Rome all through her history, and what the outcome of the present situation will be. The Protestant Magazine gives information which every Seventh-day Adventist should possess, and which11should be placed before every thinking man and woman. We earnestly urge our people everywhere to acquaint themselves with these two journals. At the recent General Conference Committee Council it was felt by the brethren present that these two quarterly magazines should be given a circulation of one hundred thousand copies each. This may be made possible if all will cooperate in the movement. Let us rally in giving these two excellent journals the wide circulation which their importance demands.