To All Nations

“To every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,“—these are the marching orders of the prophecy. Swiftly has the movement followed the course marked out. Let a special writer in the Washington Post visualize the wide-spreading work in a single paragraph:SPIAM 17.4

“Washington has two institutions that cover, with their enterprises, the entire world to its remotest sections. Everybody knows about the Department of State and its affairs with every nation. Comparatively few people, however, realize that Washington has another institution [the world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventists] that is just as international. In fact, this institution does not confine its activities to the ‘beaten paths,’ but has representatives in the little specks of islands that dot the seven seas.”—August 6, 1933.SPIAM 17.5

This writer in the Washington Post speaks of the languages used by Seventh-day Adventists in their work, and adds: “The Department of State has no use for such an array of languages.” It is of no use to state the number of tongues in a book. The facts belong in annual statistical reports. The number in recent years has been increasing by one new language every twelve days. The last list I saw counted 578 languages. To every “tongue” was the message to be carried. One need not count every dialect, as many peoples understand related tongues. It has been estimated, roughly, that the tongues already in use would reach about ninety per cent of the peoples of earth; and away beyond the written and spoken word, we know, the Spirit is preparing hearts to heed the full gospel message. (See Joel 2:28-32.)SPIAM 18.1

In 1844 the judgment hour began in heaven. In 1844 the advent movement of the prophecy began to rise on earth. A people keeping the commandments of God are hastening into all the world with the last message of the everlasting gospel—in the terms of the vision of Revelation 14. And that gospel is still “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” On every shore it brings forth a people of whom it may be said, in the words of the angel: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”SPIAM 18.2

What the prophet John saw in vision, on the Isle of Patmos, we see fulfilling before our eyes today in all the world.SPIAM 18.3