General Conference Bulletin, vol. 6
Conference Proceedings. FORTY-FIRST MEETING
W. A. Spicer, C. P. Bollman, I. H. Evans, C. M. Snow, T. E. Bowen
June 5, 7:45 P. M.
Elder A. J. Breed occupied the chair, and prayer was offered by W. B. White. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.3
Italy
The evening being devoted to reports from distant fields, Elder C. T. Everson was invited to present a report from Italy. He said:— GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.4
I shall not refer to a great many statistics, but will refer you to the Year-book for these. Italy contains about 34,000,000 people, while its size is about two thirds that of California. When we think of the Northern California Conference, with a little over a million people, and then of a country of the same size containing 34,000,000 people, you can get some idea of what the situation is in Italy. Neither is Italy decreasing in population. Though we are sending out of Italy thousands every year to every part of the globe, still we have a healthy growth in the population at home. In population, our conference would equal the following union conferences: Lake Union, Central Union, Pacific Union, North Pacific Union, Northern Union, and the Southwestern Union. If five workers were assigned to these six large union conferences, you can imagine something of our situation in Italy. Perhaps the people at home sometimes marvel that the work does not go more rapidly in some of these countries. But if you think of the great population, and the few workers, you have the explanation. Then think of going right into the land of the papacy, and expecting to win large numbers to such an unpopular message. I do not say this to complain; but we have great need of workers in old Italy if we expect to finish the work in this land. I appeal to the young people who may be present tonight to consider that great field. We ought to have a great many more workers if we expect to finish the work before conditions make it utterly impossible to do anything. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.5
As I said in the Sabbath-school this morning, you may be sure that when the papacy regains its power in the world, it will be made very uncomfortable for those engaged in missionary work in Italy, and especially for those who are preaching the third angel’s message. So, brethren, I believe that we as a people who have committed to us the great message for these last days ought to do all that we can to hasten the message of the third angel into the home of the papacy. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.6
We ought to have some medical missionaries at work in Italy. The opportunities for such workers are very favorable. We have in Italy a privilege not granted in many other countries, the privilege of bringing in foreign doctors without their having to qualify in the schools of that country. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.7
An American doctor could enter Italy, and at once become a medical missionary. However, this situation may not continue very long, as the native doctors are not very favorable to this state of things, and there is an agitation for a law to shut out all foreign doctors. I believe, dear friends, that we ought to press in now, while the opportunity is so favorable, and make the most of it. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.8
You are aware of the fact that the papacy is very strongly in favor of medical missionary work for carrying on its propaganda. You know that one of its first steps in aggressive work is to found a hospital. If the Catholics have understood the importance of this work for a hundred years, isn’t it time that we wake up, and push this line of work? In these Catholic countries we must do something along the same line, and we ought as soon as possible to make an effort to found medical missionary work in Italy if we expect to reach the people. You can understand that if we start a public meeting in Italy, the people of the better classes, even if they do have an inclination to know something about the truth, will rarely come out to listen to the preaching. There is too much prejudice in these countries. We have our caste system there, although not so close or so radical as in some other countries. I believe the best way to reach that people will be found in medical missionary work. I wish some good doctor or some nurse would just note that down in his heart, and never forget it until he finds himself taking the steamship in New York for Naples. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.9
The work in Italy began years ago in the Waldensian valleys. The Waldenses are Italians, and they have been Protestants for almost a thousand years. They are the oldest Protestants in Europe. However, the fierce persecution that the papacy launched against these people of the valleys was so successful that the Reformation never succeeded in Italy, and Italy has always remained the home of the papacy. You can imagine that the work there is a little more difficult than in some countries that have been reached by the Reformation message. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.10
We have done some work in the Waldensian valleys. Brother Bourdeau, who is here present, was one of the early pioneers in the Waldensee work. Sister White also visited and labored in these valleys while in Europe. She stopped there several months while preparing that wonderful book, “Great Controversy.” GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.11
She spoke at some tent-meetings, and found that the opposition was very great. While there (in 1885), she made the following statement, which has given us a great deal of encouragement: “There will be many in these valleys where the work seems to start with such difficulty, who will recognize the voice of God speaking to them through his Word, and coming out from under the influence of the clergy, will take their stand for the truth. This field is not an easy one in which to labor, nor is it one which will show immediate results, but there is an honest people here who will obey in time.” GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.12
Our faith and hope have been encouraged by these words. For that reason also, while we have as yet but a small work formed in the Waldensian valleys, we believe and are anxious that more shall be accomplished. Our brethren in America have donated us a tent, and we hope to pitch it, and preach the truth in those valleys. I have climbed up the steep mountainside, and entered into the very caves where the old-time Protestants held their meetings, hiding from the Catholic persecutors. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.13
Seven years ago I was sent to Rome, to open work in that ancient city. We have to work against superstition and infidelity. Four years ago, one evening while I was away, a man came to our home, and inquired for me. My wife told him to come back again. He came, and I met a very intelligent-looking man, but whose face looked as if he was carrying the whole world on his shoulders. I asked him what I could do for him. He replied, “From what I know of this world, it is very beautiful, and I think that the next world will be exceedingly so. I have no hope of eternal life at all. GCB June 7, 1909, page 349.14
I do not expect to be saved; but if you can give me any hope of being saved in God’s everlasting kingdom, I do not want anything else.” I told him that he must believe in Jesus Christ. He said, “Yes, but there are so many Christs; there is the Methodist Christ, the Presbyterian Christ, the Baptist Christ, the Catholic Christ, and the Waldensian Christ, and all kinds of Christs. Which Christ shall I believe in?” I told him to believe in the Christ of the Bible. He said that they all say they have the Christ of the Bible. I told him that he must believe in the Christ of the prophecy. He said, “I like your way of telling things. I want to go ahead and study this matter.” I told him I would be glad to do so. I might say this man was a priest of the Catholic Church, and had been a professor of theology in one of their higher schools. But he had left the church, and wanted to find something better. We had Bible readings together, studying the evidences of prophetic truth. I led him especially to take up “Steps to Christ,” by Sister White. After reading this and studying other matter, he came and said, “I am ready to die. I believe in the Lord, I believe he has forgiven me, and has made me his child.” GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.1
He accepted the truths as studied, and applied to be baptized. I said, “That is all right; but you know we do not believe in tobacco, liquor, or any of those things.” He said, “What is the reason of that?” I explained to him. He had been used to smoking about twelve or fifteen cigars a day. He was then smoking one. He took it and cut it in two, throwing one half away and putting the other half in his pocket as a souvenir, and from that day to this he has never smoked nor drank. The Lord came into his life, and made him a new man in Christ Jesus. That was about four years ago. He is still faithful to the third angel’s message, having withstood many trials. This experience shows the power of God to convert even an Italian priest. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.2
Sometimes we look at a priest, and say, That is an enemy of the truth. We feel as if he was among our most bitter enemies; but we know not but that this very man may some time be laboring to advance the third angel’s message. We must not forget that young priest in the city of Rome many years ago, who heard the voice of God speaking to him, “The just shall live by faith.” And right there in the city of Rome began Luther’s work. I believe that in that same city many will arise in these last days to spread the message in the land of the papacy. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.3
I went down into the southern part of Italy not long ago, and held some meetings on the subject of the prophecies. The people were very much interested, and many attended. When the priests heard of it, they at once began to try to counteract my work. It was wonderful how earnestly they worked. They began writing in the daily papers, and sometimes had as many as three columns in their own papers. They sent ten priests into the place and held meetings for forty days. They even got the people to throw stones at us, and as we passed, the people would cross themselves. When one of their believers is converted, they use every means within their power to draw him back again to the Church of Rome. They make him all kinds of offers, they argue with him as long as there is any hope, and when that fails, they resort to threatenings. In spite of the opposition, we have a church of thirty members in southern Italy. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.4
I thank God for the experience that we have been having in Italy. I ask you, brethren and sisters, to pray for us in the city of Rome. We ask you who are thinking of foreign fields to consider the fact that there is a place waiting for you over in Italy. The work there is difficult, but when the work of earth is done, we shall forget the trials and difficulties that we have passed through, and be glad that we went at his bidding. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.5
Following Brother Everson’s report, Prof. W. E. Howell gave a report of his work in Greece, as follows:— GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.6
Experience in Greece
Greece is a name that is familiar to every Seventh-day Adventist, because of the prominence that country has in the great field of prophecy. It is also a familiar name to our college students, because of the remarkable place it has occupied in the field of history, art, and philosophy. It is a small country, but not of such a character as is generally believed in these times. I am surprised to find how general a lack of knowledge there is about this little country. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.7
The whole eastern half of the Mediterranean is essentially Greek. There are some ten or eleven million Greeks all together. The countries of Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, and the northern shores of Africa as far west as Algiers, are all familiar with the Greek language. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.8
But the Greeks are an easy-going people. They have few resources. Many have gone to other parts of the world. It may be surprising to some of you that in this country there are 200,000 Greeks. On the steamer on which we came were 1,000 more who landed in New York day before yesterday. The Greeks have also migrated to South America, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In this country there are few cities of any size where you do not find some Greeks. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.9
When we took up missionary work in Greece, we thought to use the Bible as a basis of that work. The Greeks pride themselves upon the fact that theirs was the prevailing language in the known world at the time that Christ was here. Our Saviour did his teaching mainly in the Greek language. The New Testament was written in the Greek language. The apostles did their work mostly in this language, and now the spiritual pride of the Greeks has grown to that extent that they regard everything as a false substitute that does not have the original text of the Greek New Testament. They consider that it is something that must not be tampered with in any way. And so, as there exists in Greece a close union of church and state, they have agreed that no translation of the original text of the Greek New Testament shall be made in other languages for circulation in that country. GCB June 7, 1909, page 350.10
The British and Foreign Bible Society had made a translation of the Bible into modern Greek some forty or fifty years ago, and for a number of years they had freedom in circulating that Word; but a situation developed in 1901 that led to the taking of this action by the Holy Synod, compelling the Bible Society to cease the sale of the Bible in the modern Greek. It is also forbidden to persuade any member of the Greek Church to join any other. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.1
Now just a word about the work we have endeavored to do in Greece. My family and I went there about two years ago. We studied the language and started the work. Greece is fallow ground, and has been so for centuries. We had a representative there years ago, who remained but a short time. There has been no other worker there, so far as I know. In printing our literature in modern Greek we take extracts from the Bible. We have just put through an edition of 3,000 of the tract, “The Way to Christ.” We have manuscript ready for several other tracts, and also the first two chapters of “Steps to Christ,” and part of the third chapter, and if God gives me strength, I shall not rest until the whole of “Steps to Christ” is in the modern Greek, and ready to be printed. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.2
After we had been in Athens for nine months, a letter came one day addressed “To the Seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Missionary in Athens,” and by God’s providence that letter came to me. It proved to be a letter from a Greek brother away up in the mountains of Albania, across the line from the independent country of Greece, yet in the old Greek territory. Albania and Macedonia are still largely Greek. This brother was seeking for light. He had learned some of the principles of Protestantism through the efforts of Brother Baharian and others. Through reading a small tract on the Sabbath question, printed by Brother Baharian in Constantinople, he had accepted the Sabbath before he knew that there were any other Sabbath-keeping people except the Jews. He said that for about two years after the truth came to him, he hesitated to obey it, but one Sabbath, when he was going out to his work, conviction fell upon him so strongly that he went back home, and told his wife that he could not work any more on the Sabbath. It was several years more, however, before he could convince her that Saturday was the Sabbath. I sat down and prepared by first Bible reading in Greek, and wrote my first Greek letter. We corresponded for some time, and finally I went up to see him. I had some very interesting experiences, I can assure you, but suffice it to say that I found this brother and his wife and five children observing the Sabbath faithfully, and willing to receive all the light we had time to give them. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.3
I might just add this: We have been accustomed to speak of the Greek language as a dead language. Brethren and sisters, don’t do it any more. The Greeks are not a dead nation, and theirs is not a dead language. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.4
Next, Elder J. A. Morrow submitted the following report:— GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.5
BERMUDA
Bermuda is unquestionably the smallest mission field represented at this session of the General Conference. We have only twenty square miles of territory, containing a population of eighteen thousand. On the maps of the world we are represented by a mere dot in the mid-Atlantic. But I thank God that even the lonely specks of land in the midst of the seas are being lighted up by this message. And as the light comes we see the same results as elsewhere. A few walk in the light, though to do so, old associations are broken up. Our believers are willing to give of their means, the funds raised in the field more than sustaining the work. The message planted here has not only held its own, but, in the providence of God, it has contributed to the strength and support of the cause in other fields. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.6
About the time of the last session of this Conference, four Boer prisoners of war returned to South Africa with the joy of new-found truth in their hearts,—a joy which fully repaid them for their three years’ lonely confinement on this island. Since their return to South Africa, others have been led, through their efforts, to accept the message. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.7
In 1905 an interest was awakened among the Portuguese. This interest deepened for over twelve months. Although our work among this people was carried on through an interpreter who was not familiar with either language, yet the message is so plain that eighteen heads of families, with a number of youth and children, began the observance of the Sabbath. One young man of this number was engaged in colporteur work in the Central New England Conference during the summer of 1908. He has attended South Lancaster Academy the present school year to fit himself for better work. Another young brother who accepted present truth at the same time is attending school in Loma Linda, Cal., to prepare himself to carry the message to the Azores Islands, his native home. This brother bought his first Bible after attending readings. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.8
A Soldier of the King
In November, 1906, a sergeant came out from England and was stationed at St. George as head storekeeper of all the military and naval stores at this place. Through one of our sisters, who sells cloth from house to house, we became acquainted with this family, and later he and his wife accepted the message. He had served nearly twenty years in his country’s service, and would soon have been promoted; but he asked for his discharge, that he might be free to obey all the commandments of God. His colonel tried to reason with him, and show him what a great loss he would sustain by taking his discharge. Brother Newbery’s reply was, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” His discharge came in a surprisingly short time,—three months from the time he made his application. Immediately after his baptism this family left for Canada. When I last heard from him, he was planning to enter the book work. Both he and his wife are having a growing experience in the message, in which they greatly rejoice. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.9
In this same year a woman from St. Kitts accepted present truth, and asked for baptism. Before it was administered, her husband sent for her to come to him in New York. This she did, uniting with one of our churches in Greater New York. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.10
A few months ago we became acquainted with a young man in His Majesty’s navy, who first learned of our people and work while stationed in Newfoundland. After leaving Newfoundland he visited Germany, Iceland, and England, and at each of these places came in contact with our work. Though not keeping the Sabbath, he hopes to do so soon, and has sold some large books for us. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.11
A Lighthouse in the Seas
I have mentioned a few of these cases to show that Bermuda is like a lighthouse station. There has also been a slow but steady work done in the hearts of the natives. We have one church organization, with a membership of thirty-three. The total number of Sabbath-keepers is fifty. These are scattered over the island, the greater number being in and near Hamilton. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.12
During the last four years we have built, in Hamilton, a neat church of cement blocks, at a cost of $2,073. There remains a debt of $775 upon this property, which would, no doubt, have been cleared by this time had we not met with almost entire crop failure for three years. Of the $1,300 raised and invested in this enterprise, we received only eighty-five dollars from brethren outside the island. Bermuda’s offerings to enterprises outside her borders have been several times this amount. Notwithstanding the financial depression through which we have passed, owing to crop failures and the reduction of laborers employed in the naval dockyard, it is with profound gratitude to God that we note the steady flow of tithes and offerings to support this work. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.13
The columns of the public press have been open to us, and Brother M. Enoch has frequently written articles upon present truth and religious liberty, which have been read with interest by many. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.14
For three years we have conducted a school for the benefit of the children of our brethren. This has proved a blessing to those who have attended. Owing to the scattered condition of our people, the attendance has never been large. At present we have twelve children of Sabbath-keeping parents, and fourteen others. This school has been conducted in a part of the house which we rented for a dwelling. To provide for the continuance of this school is one of the pressing needs of this field, and one which I trust this Conference will take under consideration. Our Portuguese brethren have contributed liberally to the cause. They can not teach their children at home. Therefore some provision should be made in order that these children and others need not return to the public schools. GCB June 7, 1909, page 351.15
Our position is one of isolation. We are seven hundred miles south and east of New York, and eight hundred miles from the West Indies. We can get a steamer direct to Jamaica, but if we wish to return, we must take passage by way of Trinidad or New York. For these reasons it would seem that the General Conference should continue its supervision of this field. Four years ago Elder George F. Enoch and wife, with Brother C. W. Enoch and wife, made us a five days’ visit on their way to the West Indies. These are the only workers we have seen during our six years’ continuous labor on these islands. The joy of seeing souls accept this message has caused the years to seem but a few days. GCB June 7, 1909, page 352.1
The distribution of our literature has been an important factor in our work. The first two years we were able to sell thirteen hundred dollars’ worth, though during the last four years we have not reached this mark. It is very difficult to get the people to attend public meetings away from their accustomed places of worship until after an interest is awakened. By diligently working the island over and over again with our papers we have been able to create such an interest. Public meetings have been held in Hamilton, Paget, North Shore, Crawl, Somerset, Herrington Sound, Flatts, and St. George. In what has been accomplished we can but see the evidence of the good hand of God over his work. GCB June 7, 1909, page 352.2
The meeting adjourned.
A. J. BREED, Chairman,
T. E. BOWEN, Secretary.