General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

THE NEED AND PROPER USE OF FUNDS

Talk by Elder I. H. Evans, 4 p. m., April 3.

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Christ was our pattern. What he did in body we are to do. We are not only to refrain from doing evil, but we are to do the good that Christ did. Christ was not only a pattern in not sinning, but he was the pattern in service. What he did for fallen man was an example that those who receive him should imitate. Christ gave himself for us. There was nothing left on his part that he did not give for man’s redemption. I understand that he who follows Christ is not simply to refrain from doing evil or to keep the Sabbath, but that he must follow Christ in all his self-denial, his abandoning of self for the service and love of others. I believe that the call of the gospel is not only for a man to give himself in a professional way to Christ, but that it embraces everything with which man is connected. All his business affairs, all his ambitions, all that there is, go with his consecration. Sometimes when we talk about the wants of men and the need of money, the people of God say, We have to give one tenth to God, but the rest is our own. My friends, if we hold to that theory, we are often misled. The fact is that the children of God have enough of their own. All that God is he gives to us. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.3

I am asked this afternoon to present some of the needs of the cause of God, and also the proper use of funds. The needs of the cause of God are so great that they can not be told. They are simply as great as the needs of humanity. It is impossible for any man to stand before an audience for a short space of time, and set forth the needs of funds to carry on God’s work. You who are connected with the work in an official way know to some extent how great are the needs in your own communities. Wherever there is sin, wherever man has gone into rebellion against God, there is need of some kind of work. I do not fancy that the great needs of the cause of God to-day are confined to America. I do not believe they are confined to Conferences nor to English-speaking peoples. The needs of the cause of God are world-wide; and if you take darkness and heathenism and sin as the criterion of the needs of the cause, you will have to go to the dark places of the earth, and there find them in the greatest measure. There is no place in the world where we can get along with less funds than here in America, where the truth has had so many years’ start and growth. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.4

In this room there are nearly half as many people as there are representatives of the third angel’s message in all the parts of the world outside of the United States. If you should go outside of our organized conferences, out into the world where there is heathenism, in South America, in Mexico, the West Indies, Africa, and all the countries of Asia, you would find that the Sabbath-keepers there combined are scarcely more than twice as many as there are in this house this afternoon. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.5

We have in the world outside of our organized territory in Europe and Australasia and America, about 465 Sabbath-keepers. That takes in our workers, our canvassers, and our professional men. That takes in every Sabbath-keeper that belongs to the church. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.6

Now, if there are great needs in America, it seems to me that the millions of people outside of America must appeal to us for tremendous obligations. In Africa we have over ninety-five millions of people, while in South America there are thirty-six millions of people; Here in Asia we have over eight hundred millions of people, and not more than twice as many Sabbath-keepers in all this country as there are in this room. And I want to know if it does not appeal to you that there is great need of funds to carry the truth to the regions beyond. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.7

In this United States we have about nine hundred workers; but in all these scattered regions, with nearly fourteen hundred millions of population, we have only about 284 workers. And nearly half of these are native workers. GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.8

During the last two years we have expended in these fields $150,000. But we have used in America over $900,000. You see the contrast is tremendous. If our home fields are not having sufficient attention, if they are not having the funds they need, then what about these great numbers of humanity, who do not have more than one sixth or one seventh part of the money we use on ourselves? GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.9

It seems to me that with such a necessity as that, we must certainly see that there is a great need of funds to carry God’s work forward. In this home field we have every institution we need, comparatively speaking. We have large sanitariums in the East, the West, and in the Central States. We have our colleges and our training schools. We have our printing presses, and our branch presses; but in these fields outside of America we have comparatively nothing. Go down to South America, and what have we in this great field of thirty-six millions of people—half the population of the United GCB April 5, 1901, page 75.10

States. Have we one strong organized training school?—Not one. In Argentina they have established one little school, and are working with might and main to sustain it. The ministers in the field go and conduct it for a time: they call in this worker and that, and do their very best. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.1

In this country we have such a surplus of schools that we do not fill them. We have great brick walls, we have faculties that are not fully engaged. They do not have students to teach. Down in those schools we are wholly unable to get teachers to conduct the schools. There ought to be, I believe, in each one of those countries a sanitarium started, something that the brethren can tie to, something that they can build upon, a solid foundation, something that Brother and Sister White worked for in the early history of this work. They ought to have centers where they can send their young men and young women and give them a training; where they can take the workers on the ground, and train them for field service right there. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.2

What they need in Argentina, they need in Brazil, Chile, and the West Indies. It is known to most of you that to take the natives from those countries, and send them here, where our habits are extravagant, our tastes are so expensive, that those native workers are spoiled in coming in contact with home life in America. They are filled with pride and ambition, and are not satisfied, and when they go back to their native land, to put up with hardships and poverty, they say, America is the place for us. So to send workers from those distant lands to America to educate and train, dissatisfies and disqualifies them for actual service in their home field. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.3

I believe, therefore, that in every country, just as soon as we get a constituency of numbers brought to our faith, they should have the privilege of starting schools, and should have money sent to them, that they may start in a simple way, and plant institutions upon a solid basis, to be training schools for workers. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.4

The best workers that we can get for these foreign fields are native trained workers, who have never come in contact with our American civilization. What we need in South America, we need in the West Indies. We need the same, just as soon as we get a start, in Africa. We ought to have a place in every country wherever we go, to train our workers. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.5

But the Foreign Mission Board can never pay this expense out of its present fund, out of only $75,000 a year, with over 280 workers in these distant fields, besides the home expense. It is utterly impossible for the Foreign Mission Board to start these training schools, or equip them, or carry their expense. It therefore seems to me that somehow there ought to be a readjustment of funds. There ought to be an equalization, so that the money that the people of God pay into his treasury may be used where it is most needed. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.6

Where do we most need money? I do not know. Sometimes it seems that we could use right in our home field every dollar that can be raised. We could. It certainly is a fact that we could. But isn’t it a fact also that Seventh-day Adventists ought to be just as much interested in one field as in another? Why should there be boundary lines with Seventh-day Adventists? When the people of God hear the trumpet sound, there will be no boundary lines to us then. There will be no State lines, there will be no Conference lines, nor Foreign Mission Board lines: but the saved will come from all nations of the earth. Why should not every loyal Seventh-day Adventist be as interested in one field as another? GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.7

We talk about the great indebtedness in America. We have large debts. We owe in America $1,250,000 on our institutions. That is a large indebtedness, we say. And we have been very prone of late to feel ourselves crushed with this tremendous load. Did you ever stop to think, however, that if the brethren in America should give $20 apiece, we could pay every debt that is owing in all this world by Seventh-day Adventists and have money left? Twenty dollars for every Seventh-day Adventist would pay every debt that we owe in the world! Leave every institution, every Conference, free,—free—everything that pertains to God’s work free from debt. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.8

I was thinking this morning, Would it be possible to raise $20 per capita, if every Seventh-day Adventist should willingly come together in every church and every Adventist in the land were asked to lay down $20. If we should ask them to do it, would it be a possibility? I believe it would. [Voices: “Yes.”] I do not believe it would break us. I admit there are many poor people who could not do it at once: but I believe that this idea that our debts are going to crush us is all talk, and not a fact at all. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.9

This money that we are owing is all invested in institutions—sanitariums, and colleges, and in what we ought to have to train workers. We owe this, and I ask, Are we going to fold our arms, and say that it can not be paid? [Voices: “No, no.”] I do not believe that is necessary. I think that had we got at this question three years ago, we could have had the whole thing all raised by this time, and been free. I have always believed we could raise it if we got at it. I thank God that there is something coming into this Conference that is going to reconstruct us, and help us to lift this burden, and we stop talking about debts. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.10

You say, Can we pay a million dollars?—Yes. If the tithes of this denomination for two years equal $1,900.000, I say that Seventh-day Adventists can double their tithe, and not go to the poorhouse. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.11

Another thing: I do not believe that the tithe that Seventh-day Adventists pay gauges up to the Bible standard. Do you? [Voices: “No.”] If I should ask how many in this audience believe to-day that we are actually gauging up to the Bible doctrine of paying tithe, how many would raise the hand? I do not see a hand, not one in the audience. How many believe that if Seventh-day Adventists throughout the country would pay an honest tithe, a Bible tithe, we would nearly double the tithe in one year? Let us see your hands. [Many hands were raised.] I believe it. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.12

Now, brethren, if we paid an honest, straight tithe (and that would double the amount now received), just think what a tremendous amount of money that would turn into the treasury to carry on God’s work. That would give us, instead of $151,000, $500,000 a year. Can paying a tithe be said to impoverish a man? Every minister here teaches the people that to pay an honest tithe is only a duty to God. You are not giving God anything when you pay the tithe. But God talks about donations. He says, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. He says we have robbed him in offerings as well as tithes. GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.13

Now if we could double our tithe by paying an honest tithe, don’t you believe, brethren, we could double the offerings too? We think we are giving liberally in America; but while I was sitting here this morning, I figured up how much America to-day is averaging per capita in donations to foreign missions. How much are we giving from month to month, and year to year in donations? Take the largest donation this year that we had, and deduct from it the donation for foreign fields, and the donations from Conferences, which is not donation from the individual member, because the tithe never belonged to him,—and we are paying a trifle over eighty cents per capita to foreign missions every year. That is a little over a cent and a half a week. Not very large, is it? Is a cent and a half a large donation for Seventh-day Adventists to give to foreign missions every week? GCB April 5, 1901, page 76.14

Why, brethren, don’t you believe that if we would get our hearts all warmed up with the spirit of this message, we could more than treble our donation? Don’t you believe that if our hearts were kindled with the love of Christ, who gave all for us, we could reach the standard of ten cents per capita a week in donations to foreign missions? That seems but a mere trifle, individually; but when you take it collectively, when you take the whole denomination together, it means that we could raise $350,000 in donations in that way. By paying an honest tithe, and giving a donation of ten cents a week, we should have all the money for foreign missions that we could use at present. It would give us a million dollars a year for foreign fields. Brethren, should we not have it? If we have used almost a million dollars in the United States alone, don’t you think we ought to have it in all the world beside? Let us be honest. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.1

You say: “But the brethren are poor; you don’t know how poor they are.” I think I do. I have been in many Sabbath-keepers’ homes in Michigan, and have visited many other places in America, and I note that many of our brethren have an abundance; so that if our hearts were united together as one man, we are abundantly able to carry forward this work with a greater degree of prosperity than is now attending it. I do not believe the trouble lies in the fact that there is not means, but that there is a lack a confidence on the part of those who are leading, and of consecration on the part of those that have the money. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.2

I do not blame the laity. Brethren, it is we who are at fault,—we who are assembled here as delegates. I do not believe we can throw out the charge to the laity that they lack consecration. The trouble lies in these hearts that are beating in this room to-day. Our doubts have been spoken out, our unbelief, our lack of faith and confidence,—and we have sown the seed that is bearing the fruit, and the people are withholding means from the treasury of God. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.3

But you say: “Brother Evans, don’t the figures show a marvelous increase during the last two years?”—Yes, they show a growth, a betterment, but what is the present to what there ought to be? Let us not be satisfied with the present. No man can flatter himself, and say, it is well to-day. It is not well. As long as the people of God are withholding tithe, withholding offerings, there is a lack of confidence, and it is not well with the people of God. Brethren, until every man and woman has a heart that beats in sympathy with the work—that has confidence in the work, that believes in God, and is willing to push the work forward, there cannot be a healthy condition among us. Somebody may say, we are afraid of what is going to take place. I am not afraid. I thank God that something has struck us. We speak of forward advancement, brethren. I am glad that this dead calm bids fair to be broken. I welcome it by whatever means it may come, by whomsoever God may send it—something that will shake this people from their lethargy, and awaken us to actual service for God. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.4

We have abundance. Go where you will, we have farms, fair homes, and many of our people are thinking of buying more land. They are studying what to do with their money. They hardly dare to give it. They are waiting to use it. I believe that as soon as we set this denomination to work,—as soon as we set in operation aggressive plans, that will call for men and money, and the people see that something is going to be done,—they will just step to the front, and come to the relief; but as long as they see stagnation, as long as they see the foreign missionary work only dabbling with its finger ends in the work, sending just as few men and spending just as small a sum as they must, they never will sustain the work liberally. I say, therefore, at the beginning of this Conference, brethren, we have the best omens and signs of triumph that I have ever witnessed in the General Conference. I am glad of it. I welcome it. I only pray that God will give us wisdom to guide it, that his Spirit may attend it, and give us success wherever we go. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.5

Now if every one of the brethren, Conference men, ministers, and workers, individually take right hold of this thing and pledge ourselves to stand by God’s work, and stop our wicked criticisms, stop fault-finding, our brethren will have confidence in God and confidence in the vigorous work. I believe we ought to give ourselves anew to God, and promise him that we will renew our covenant with him. We do not ask that the Conferences shall give all their tithes to foreign fields; but I do ask, Why not every State Conference consider if they ought not to have as deep an interest in the foreign field as in the home field? Why should I to-day, if I am located in Iowa or in Michigan, surround myself with a strong constituency and let the work in Mexico be barely started? GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.6

Is it right? Ought not such great Conferences as Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan, and all these Conferences, say, That territory is ours? Why, our tithe is just as sacred to that field as it is to Iowa, or to Michigan, or to any of our home Conferences. Ought not that to be so, brethren? Now I do not say, Send every worker to foreign fields. I do say, Let there be an adjustment; let there be an equalization; let there be an equality of interests, and then let there be absolute co-operation and mutual confidence, and the whole problem is solved. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.7

Brethren, God never had a people in the world, nor a work in the world to be done, that he did not have the means to accomplish it. God never put a message forth to go to the nations of the world, that he did not have the means of accomplishing that purpose, and the work of God can not be stopped by poverty in these last days. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.8

It is not poverty that ails us; it is not poverty that distresses us; it is simply a lack of confidence,—A lack of hearty co-operation, and mutual sympathy. God says, All the gold and silver is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills are mine the earth is mine, and the fullness thereof. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. God owns it all. God wants every one of us to have a broad view of his work, and to take the means God gives to advance it, and apply it, justly, to one land as well as to another. If that is done, a start must be made at this Conference. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.9

I bring you, brethren, my own faith to-day, and I say that we are abundantly able to go up and possess the goodly land. The God that led Israel out of Egypt, and that opened the Red Sea, and crossed the Jordan, and led his people all those years is our God to-day. God owned that people; and when impossibilities, as far as his people could see, confronted them, he always brought them out triumphant. But God had to say to Joshua, when the Jordan waves were swelling, Go forward, and the Lord did not dry the Jordan until the priests put their feet in the water. And so they stepped forward. It may be that it will seem to us to-day, if advanced steps are taken and large plans laid, that they will ruin God’s cause. Brethren, we need shaking up, we need an arousing. We need somebody to come to the front, and command the people of God to go forward. If God commands us to open up the work in these fields, he has the means to do it. If he says the work ought to be strengthened in Europe, it is our duty to come to the front, and furnish the means. My soul was stirred this morning as I heard Brother Daniells present the needs of these countries. GCB April 5, 1901, page 77.10

Look at the great center of the world—the islands of Great Britain, where civilization has attained its height, and where the world is looking for advancement and progress and actual development, and what have they over there? A sanitarium?—No. A school?—No. They have not a good start, my friends, in one line of work,—hardly a beginning. If ever there was a country that needed help to be built up and strengthened, it is Great Britain. We ought to think of these fields as they are, and present them with faith to God, and then do something, that every one of us may have the spirit of sacrifice and devotion. Brethren, when we begin to do something in foreign lands, the difficulties at home will disappear. There is nothing in the world that is so dangerous as sitting inactive when we should be doing the work of God. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.1

If we had more actual work for God in foreign fields, and if the brethren here in America were more in touch by correspondence with the needs of these distant countries, there would be much less need of ministers acting as pastors of our churches, and we could have many men in America go out to these distant fields. Our people need to go out in their own community, pray with the people, distribute tracts, and actually pray and work for souls. When this work shall be done, we shall have solved almost all of our difficulties. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.2

My soul was never more full of faith and confidence in the progress of this work than at the present. Brethren have come to me, saying, “Well, now, don’t lose your courage.” I never had so much courage as I have now. I am not losing my courage; but I can see the movings in the mulberry trees, indicating what God is going to do. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.3

Let every man set aside his fears. God lives, and he has put his hand to this work to set it in operation, to give new life, new spirit, new courage. He wants us to use good judgment and sound sense; but instead of our criticisms, let us pray. Instead of faultfinding, let us as brethren consecrate our hearts anew to God for service. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.4

The foreign field could take every worker present to-day, and scatter them so far apart that they never would come in touch or contact one with another. All the workers present here to-day could be placed in India, and would be so far separated that they never would cross one another’s territory. Adjoining India is China, with four hundred million souls. Scarcely a worker in either of these vast countries? O, I pray that God may continue the good work begun. I trust this beginning made is only the opening up of a way which will lead to the baptism which God is waiting to give us; and now as he has breathed upon us, let us pray for the fullness of the grace of the baptism; and as we are praying, let us consecrate these lives to God where he calls us. Let no man be afraid of losing his position. Brethren, what we want is service for God. Where God calls, let us go. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.5

I repeat, my heart is full of hope and courage in God. Let us look for progress. Let us seek for advancement. Let us not clog the wheel. Let us not hold back, and say, It is too much, and, It is too fast. Jesus Christ, our Great Example, gave himself and all he had. The Son of God beggared himself to enrich us. Let us give ourselves in service to help these poor, benighted souls in these dark regions. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.6

You inquire, What are the needs to-day?—I answer, men and consecrated hearts. Let us select (using this term in the proper sense) wise, judicious men, men who hate covetousness, who fear God, who will not run us into debt and plunge us into ruin; men of faith and hope in God, who are loyal to the cause, and will do right in God’s sight. Then there will be progress. Let us all pray for it, and that God shall lead and guide and baptize us to his glory. Amen. GCB April 5, 1901, page 78.7