Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists

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PREFACE

AT the annual meeting of the European Council of Seventh-day Adventist Missions, held at Basle, Switzerland, in the fall of 1885, a request was made for the publication of a work to contain a brief history of the three European missions, a report of the proceedings of the Council of 1885, and a record of the visit of Mrs. E. G. White to the principal churches in these missions. It was then thought that a few pages would be sufficient to record the establishment and progress of these missions, and that the report of the Council would be the leading feature of the work. But as the preparation of the sketches has gone forward, many interesting incidents have been found in the experience of the pioneers in the missions, which deserve to be recorded in such a work as this, and many facts that are of value as showing the character of the work that has thus far been accomplished, and the nature of the efforts that will be required to secure future prosperity. HSFM 3.1

Since the publication of these sketches as at first planned has been unavoidably delayed, the publishers have been enabled to add a full and interesting account of the establishment of the mission in Australia and New Zealand, and at the last moment before going to press to obtain a sketch of Eld. L. R. Conradi’s visit to Russia, with the facts concerning his arrest on the charge of teaching Jewish heresy, his prison experience, and his final release through the intervention of the American Minister at St. Petersburg. HSFM 3.2

In the “Historical Sketches” it will be found that the writers have not only recorded briefly what has been accomplished in these missions, but they have presented, in connection with the narrative, many facts pertaining to the countries already entered, and those adjacent to them which present equally promising fields, showing the extent of the work yet to be accomplished before the warning messages brought to view in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation shall have been proclaimed to all the nations and peoples of the world. To aid the reader in the study of these fields, and to show what has thus far been accomplished, four full-colored maps have been added to the book, showing Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and, in the large folded map, all of Europe. On each of these maps, the location of churches and small companies of Seventh-day Adventists is plainly marked. HSFM 3.3

In the “Practical Addresses” of Mrs. White, given at the Swiss Conference and the Missionary Council at Basle, there are many words of instruction and admonition that may be studied with profit by home missionaries as well as those laboring in foreign lands, and there are also many thoughts for the encouragement of those who would be helpers in the great work in its various branches, according to their circumstances and ability. HSFM 3.4

The “Notes of Travel,” giving a brief account of the journey from California to Switzerland, with a fuller account of Mrs. White’s labors at the various places visited in England, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Italy, present many items of interest about the places visited, the habits and customs of the people, their religious beliefs and practices, and their present attitude toward religious reform, with frequent references to the part which their ancestors acted in the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. HSFM 4.1

The illustrations that have been obtained for the “Historical Sketches” and “Notes of Travel,” especially those of the buildings just erected for our missions at Basle and Christiania, will, we are sure, be appreciated by the reader. These, with many of the other cuts, have been made especially for this work. HSFM 4.2

In the closing pages will be found appeals for a more general and thorough system of educating and training men for mission work, a discourse on the duty of parents to train their children to have a missionary spirit, and an appeal for means to carry forward the work in the missions that have already been established, and that could do a much greater work if they were better supplied with men and means. HSFM 4.3

We believe that our readers will find a study of the experience of those who have entered these different mission fields to be both entertaining and instructive; for as we note the difficulties which these men have met, and the means by which they have surmounted them, we are brought in contact with those circumstances, customs, and prejudices which the laborer in these countries must meet and become accustomed to. By this means we are brought more in sympathy with the missionary and his work; and those who may sometime be called upon to share the burdens and perplexities of these labors, may gain valuable ideas as to the preparation that is necessary to fit one for this work. HSFM 4.4

If this volume shall be the means of arousing in the hearts of some a deeper interest in the salvation of their fellow-men, if it shall lead some to ask themselves whether they are using to the best advantage the talents of means which the Master has intrusted to their care, if it shall encourage some to become laborers in missionary fields, the design and wish of its publishers will be fully realized. Publishers. HSFM 4.5