We will consider one more testimony before, like Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit, we come to the end and then stop. It is a letter Ellen White wrote from Australia to the 1893 General Conference session, in which she challenged those attending the session to think beyond their relatively comfortable situation and their wants, in order that the gospel and the third angel’s message be proclaimed across all the world. The reluctance of early-American Adventists to see the rest of the world as being their concern had lingered for several decades after the dispatch of J. N. Andrews to Europe. North American Adventists were very active in outreach to immigrants to the United States and Canada from other countries, but many continued to feel little responsibility for sharing the truths they held so precious with people outside North America. Ellen White addressed this parochialism on several occasions, but in particularly stark terms in 1893. GOP 355.1
Her words can be applied to us today, for increasingly there is talk—not least, but not only, in North America—that Adventists here (wherever here may be) don’t need to worry about the rest of the world: that we can leave to fend for themselves Adventists in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Azerbaijan, in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, and Burkina Faso, in Cambodia, China, and Chad, in Iraq, Iran, India, and Indonesia, in Kuwait, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, in Libya, Lebanon, and Laos, in Mali, Mauritania, and Morocco or in Malaysia, Mongolia, and Myanmar, and in Senegal, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Sri Lanka—or even in the great cities of Western Europe, where the ratios of Adventists to general population are similar to those in the 10/40 window. So Ellen White’s challenge to American Adventists in 1893 is, I think, still relevant and salutary for us today. GOP 355.2
“Brethren and sisters in Battle Creek, who have had those precious truths set before you,” she wrote, GOP 355.3
I ask you to think of the many, many souls who need to hear the message of redeeming love. . . . While you . . . have the privilege of receiving from Jesus the living water, will you . . . feast your souls upon the riches of his marvellous love and grace, and yet feel no special burden for those who are still in darkness and error? I ask you to present some tangible proof that you appreciate the love of God in sending his Son into the world, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. GOP 355.4
We want to know if you will love your neighbor as yourself? Will you make any personal sacrifice that these saving truths may go to the destitute regions, where the people are perishing for the bread of life? Are you disciples of Christ? . . . Will you cooperate with Jesus? If you appreciate the truth, wherein do you earnestly labor that it may be carried to others? 76Ellen G. White to “Brethren and Sisters in Battle Creek,” Dec. 21, 1892, read by W. W. Prescott to the Sabbath Service at the Ministerial Institute preceding the 1893 General Conference session, Jan. 28, 1893 (text in General Conference Daily Bulletin, Jan. 27, 28, 1893, 12-16, quoted on pp. 14, 15). GOP 356.1
She then reviewed certain particular issues in Battle Creek and reproved the church members’ collective self-regard, rebuking what she described as their “pride,” before returning to the theme of worldwide mission. GOP 356.2
Our people are not half awake to do all in their power with the facilities within their reach, to extend the message of warning to the world. New churches must be built, new congregations organized. Let the light shine to all lands and all people. GOP 356.3
The whole earth is to be lightened with the glory of God’s truth. The Lord will not close up the period of probation until the warning message shall be more distinctly proclaimed. The trumpet must give a certain sound. The law of God is to be magnified [in its] true sacred character [and] the message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the world to the other. This is the glory of God which closes the work of the third angel. GOP 356.4
Are the people in Battle Creek asleep? Are they paralyzed? . . . You have long expected the wonderful startling events that are to take place just prior to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now I ask, Are you prepared to give the trumpet a certain sound? . . . Who feels day by day that he belongs to the great co-partnership for honoring Christ by working out the Lord’s plan for the redemption of men? The best way to keep your own souls in the love of God is to become diligent workers for the salvation of others. GOP 356.5
The Lord is coming; the scenes of this earth’s history are fast closing, and our work is not done. We have been waiting in anxious expectancy for the cooperation of the human agency in advancing the work. All heaven, if I may use the expression, is impatiently waiting for men to cooperate with the divine agencies in working for the salvation of souls. . . . Who will arise and shine because the light has come, and the glory of the Lord hath risen upon them? Who have joined themselves to the Lord in holy covenant to become channels for the communication of heaven’s light and grace to our world. 77Ibid., 16: in the original there is no question mark at the end of the final paragraph, presumably a printer’s error. GOP 356.6
We have seen that Ellen White set out powerful principles for foreign mission, but she had one overarching principle and overriding concern for foreign mission: that it be done! That people whose lives have been transformed by Jesus Christ tell the world about Him and the good news of wholeness in this world and hope for the world to come. The world church collectively is responsible for the whole world. GOP 357.1
Ellen G. White was instrumental in our denomination’s transition from North American sect to worldwide movement. Yet, a century after her death, “our work is not yet done” and one cannot help wondering whether “all heaven” is still “impatiently waiting for men to cooperate with the divine agencies in working for the salvation of souls.” Despite dramatic church growth in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, there are billions of people in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Western Europe, captivated by Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Asian traditions, by Islam, and by secular postmodernism, who have yet to hear “the everlasting gospel.” Might not Ellen White’s question to “the people in Battle Creek” still apply to those in Berrien Springs, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Deer Park, Stanborough Park, Salisbury Park, Solusi, Somerset West, Fox Valley, Loma Linda, and other famous historic centers of Adventism? Are we sleeping? The need that Ellen White wrote about repeatedly and passionately in her lifetime is still with us: for all Seventh-day Adventists, everywhere, today, to be part of “the great co-partnership for honoring Christ” and to “have joined themselves to the Lord in holy covenant to become channels for the communication of heaven’s light and grace to our world.” GOP 357.2