Every Member a Missionary

In some state churches overseas it is understood that the bishops, priests, and a few helpers do the missionary work the state pays them and the people pay their taxes. In the popular church of America a similar plan is in vogue. The members attend church and pay the pastor—and the pastor does the work of the Lord. The Spirit of prophecy messages have given Seventh-day Adventists a different ideal. “All who are ordained unto the life of Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their fellow-men.”—Testimonies for the Church 8:16. “Wherever a church is established, all the members should engage actively in missionary work.... If every church-member had sought to enlighten others, thousands upon thousands would to-day stand with God’s commandment-keeping people.”—Testimonies for the Church 6:296. The Spirit of prophecy volumes abound with sentences and even whole pages like those here quoted. These messages have not been without fruit. They have given us a spiritual propaganda urge in all lands to bring the Lord’s message to our fellow men. Our goal is that every member should be a witness for present truth.FSG 431.2

So fruitful has this instruction been that all, both members and ministers, are to do personal soul-saving work in individual witnessing for the advent truth, that our church has organized a strong, well-equipped Home Missionary Department to carry this out. The purpose of this important department is to recruit and train every member, young and old, as a soldier for the Lord. One of the means most helpful in making this witnessing effective is the circulation of our truth-filled literature. This tract and missionary activity was begun early in our history, and is today stronger than ever. But there are also many other lines of service. Other departments, such as the Young People’s Department of Missionary Volunteers, the Home Foreign Bureau, and the Medical Department, have also a large part in this personal effort for Christ. Even the messenger of God was busy all her life in such mission work, especially in the circulation of books and papers. It may interest the reader to know what she herself did in Australia though in feeble health and in her sixty-ninth year. In a communication dated Ashfield, New South Wales, November, 1896, she tells the story:FSG 432.1

“Our second conference meeting has just been held in New South Wales; and the blessing of the Lord rested upon those assembled. Many more came together than we supposed would come. The churches have all been represented.FSG 433.1

“We were rejoiced to see Brother Radley at this meeting. He came on Sunday, and remained until the meeting closed, Wednesday. We have felt great anxiety for him. His wife embraced the truth first, and he came along more slowly. He was very cautious in regard to committing himself. We visited him, and saw that he was a man of few words, and seldom attended our meetings. I talked with him personally in regard to his responsibilities as a husband and father. He has two boys, little lads, and three girls. All are interesting, and at an age when they need the leading and guiding of a father. The mother has done the best she could.FSG 433.2

“We held meetings at Brother Radley’s house, but he manifested so little interest in them that they were discontinued. His heart was not inclined to fully accept the faith. But I talked with him as though he was fully with us, presenting before him his responsibilities for his neighbors. I said, You have the light of truth, and you have a work to do to enlighten others. You love to read. Study, then, for time and for eternity. The time which any of us have to work is short. We must act our part in the service of God. I told him what he could do to advance the knowledge of the truth. He assented to it all by mere response.FSG 433.3

“This was in 1894. Brother Starr was with me. After we left he said, I was surprised to hear you talk to him as though he were fully with us. If he himself does not work on the Sabbath, his hired help works. I answered, I talked to him just in the right way. I presented to him his high obligations to God in point of influence, laying the matter before him as one who should stand in the gap and make up the hedge, and raise the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to its exalted standard.FSG 433.4

“He felt himself far from deserving the confidence I placed in him. We prayed with the family, and had the precious blessing of the Lord. Thus from time to time we visited him, and he always treated us courteously, but did not fully identify himself with us. Yet I always talked with him as one who knew and loved the truth, always laying out plans with him whereby he might be a laborer together with God. I told him that our responsibility and accountability to God was the strongest and most powerful of all motives that should lead us to obtain the very best kind of knowledge, the highest education. If he gained this, he could help other minds with a force proportionate to his intelligence and religious devotion, and be a bright shining light to his neighborhood.FSG 433.5

“I said to him, Brother Radley, the Lord wants you to co-operate with Him. You have a large orange, lemon, and peach orchard, and other fruit. You are giving these time and attention, that they may bear fruit, and not disappoint you. Well, you are God’s husbandry; you are God’s building; and He looks to you to be His human agent, through whom He can communicate truth to others. He will use you, through the strongest principles of your mental and moral capabilities, to reach other minds. At this period of your life, while your mind is yet vigorous and susceptible to the influence of His grace, God calls for you. Any selfish influence to which you give your mind will soon contract the intellect and harden the heart.FSG 434.1

“I begged of him to improve his talents. I asked him if he had ‘Patriarchs and Prophets,’ and ‘Great Controversy.’ He said, No, but that they were in the library, and he was intending to get them, and read them. Then I marked that I had never yet seen them on his table.FSG 434.2

“He lived eleven miles from Granville, and I seldom saw him at meeting in the little church at Castle Hill, which was about seven miles from where he lived.FSG 434.3

“One night the Lord gave me a message for him, and I arose at midnight, and wrote out page after page. I knew the Lord was calling for him. I sent the message to him, to be read to him and his neighbor, Brother Whiteman, who was in a similar position, tempted and allured away from the truth. Brother____, I think it was, read the matter to him, and he said, Why did she write such a communication to me? I am not a believer. I do not want to separate from my neighbors. I cannot displease those with whom I have lived for twenty years.FSG 434.4

“I told Brother____, to leave the message with him. His case was again urged upon me. I said, What can I do more, Lord; he will not receive the light. What can I do. I was directed to do one thing more,—to place my books in his hand as a gift, first, Steps to Christ, then Patriarchs and Prophets, then The Great Controversy. I did this and he read Patriarchs and Prophets through three times, and said that he could not find one sentence in it to criticize. It was all just as it should be.FSG 434.5

“When I placed The Great Controversy in his hands he objected to taking it, saying that there was one in the library that he could get. I said, Never mind. I want to place this in your family as your very own, that it may be a blessing to you, and to your children. The Lord has given me light, and I mean that all shall have that light, if possible. He accepted the gift.FSG 435.1

“I had been shown that we become too easily discouraged over the souls who do not seem to take hold at once. But those who minister must not fail nor be discouraged. Christian motives demand us to act with a steady purpose, and undying interest, and an ever increasing importunity for the souls whom Satan is seeking to destroy. No disappointment, no outward appearance, can chill the earnest, yearning energy for the salvation of others. The Holy Spirit’s efficacy will co-operate with human effort, and that love flows forth upon the soul for whom Christ has died, with an inexhaustible interest, for we have an inexhaustible source upon which to depend.FSG 435.2

“I have given Brother Radley Christian Education, and Christian Temperance. I sent to Battle Creek, and ordered the Review, Sabbath School Worker, Sentinel, and Youth’s Instructor, to be sent to Brethren Radley, Whiteman, and Thompson, and asked to have this charged to me.FSG 435.3

“It would be difficult for a mind to continue in resistance to all these efforts, and O how happy I am to state that Brother Radley has come out, decided, firm, and true. He is now one of the leaders in the_____Church, and is growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He enjoys the meetings. His heart, I believe, is warming to the enterprise of building up the work. With all his powers of soul and influence, he gladly co-operates in this great work of highest importance. We now expect that benevolence, and earnest desire to do good to other souls will take the place of worldliness and narrow selfishness.FSG 435.4

“As the love of God enlists all the energies and the stability of Christian principles on the side of unselfish, persevering work for the Master, Brother Radley will be an instrument in the hands of God for saving the souls of his children, and filing them under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, and their influence will extend beyond his own family to his neighbors. As he works, God will work with him, and furnish his soul with more than human efficiency. The mind will become inventive, vigilant, and a power to win others.FSG 435.5

“I have placed this case before you in full, in order that you may know the manner in which I have worked. This we have done in many cases, with the best results. We have kept reading matter before those who are unsettled. Yet temptations are so strong that they will not yield to truth.FSG 436.1

“Brother Radley has a large orchard, which is profitable to him. In this section of the country there is no one believing the truth who is so well situated as Brother Radley.FSG 436.2

“I have been giving reading matter to the postmaster in Cooranbong. In the absence of the minister he takes his place. During the Institute we held last April, he was convicted of the truth; but a minister who seems to be a second Canright came in with all his false statements and theories, and created such a state of things that those who had been interested, turned their ears from truth to fables. I have also given the stationmaster ‘Great Controversy,’ and some books for his children, and have supplied other families with books and papers. This reading matter may do them good sometime. The light must be introduced into families by reading matter, if we cannot get them to come and hear. I am glad to say that as a result of our labors in Cooranbong and vicinity, several families are now keeping the Sabbath. We hope to do more visiting when we return home.”—E.G. White, Letter 55, 1896.FSG 436.3

The many lessons taught us in this communication on individual missionary work among neighbors and friends need not be pointed out. The perseverance, tact, and wise methods employed, as well as a willingness to spend money to help others, are seen. Back of her skillful technique was a deep love for the lost and a burden to help them.FSG 436.4