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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
A Representative Gathering
The General Conference of 1909 was attended by representatives
from many lands. The delegations from abroad were unusually large,
nearly if not quite a full quota being present from the conferences and
missions across the seas. The attendance from the home field also was
large.
From the opening day of the session, Mrs. White bore a heavy
burden in behalf of the spiritual interests of the various classes of
believers encamped on the grounds. In several of her public talks
she urged the brethren and sisters to lay hold on God, and to seek
Him most earnestly for guidance and blessing. Those in attendance
were to gather courage and inspiration for the carrying forward of a
mighty work throughout the world. In all their planning, they were to
keep constantly before their minds the needs of the perishing, and the
importance of occupying places where God is marvelously opening
the way for the entrance of present truth.
The Work in the Cities
Particularly was this pointed out to be the case with the great cities
of the nations. “Behold our cities,” she urged, “and their need of the
gospel. The need for earnest labor among the multitudes in the cities
has been kept before me for more than twenty years. Who is carrying
a burden for our large cities? Some will say, We need all the money
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we can get to carry on the work in other places. Do you not know
that unless you carry the truth to the cities, there will be a drying up
of means? When you carry this message to those in cities who are
hungry for truth, and they accept the light, they will go earnestly to
work to bring that light to others. Souls who have means will bring
others into the truth, and will give of their means to advance the cause
of God.”
The General Conference Bulletin, May 24, 1909
.
The necessity of planning in an extraordinary way for the preaching
of the third angel’s message in the crowded centers of population, con-
stituted one of the chief burdens of Mrs. White’s discourses throughout
the Conference.
“A little is being done in our world,” she declared; “but, O that the
good work might spread abroad and reach every needy soul! O that