Times of Volume Six
ix
and focused attention on an around-the-world mission program. The
reports of the voyages of the “Pitcairn,” as it pioneered mission work
in the South Sea Islands, were eagerly watched by all
.
It was not long until colporteur evangelists entered India with
our literature, and in 1894 our missionaries in Africa pushed up into
distinctively native territories and established the Solusi Mission, our
first foreign mission among heathen peoples. Ministers were also
soon sent into South America. Then, too, Mrs. White’s presence
in Australia for nine years as a pioneer worker helped to keep the
eyes of Seventh-day Adventists on the ends of the earth and to place
emphasis on the admonition given on page 31 of this volume: “It
is our work to give to the whole world,—to every nation, kindred,
tongue, and people,—the saving truths of the third angel’s message.”
Throughout the volume various mission fields are mentioned by name,
and appeals for men and means are presented, together with counsel
and encouragement concerning the work in different lands
.
A number of colleges and worker training schools were started
during the times of volume 6. Early in the period Union College
at Lincoln, Nebraska, was opened in 1891 and Walla Walla College
in the state of Washington in 1892. The others were in Australia,
South Africa, and Denmark. Sanitariums were also opened at Boulder,
Colorado, in 1896, in Denmark and South Africa in 1897, and at
South Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1899. Two new publishing houses
[6]
were added to the list of institutions, one in Hamburg, Germany, in
1895, and the other in Buenos Aires, South America, in 1897. Church
schools presenting elementary work were also begun in several places
.
Though many warnings were given against large denominational
centers and centralizing tendencies, the steadily growing work seemed
to require more people and larger facilities at our denominational
headquarters at Battle Creek, Michigan, and plans were even initiated
to bring certain lines of denominational work under central control
at Battle Creek. Thus instead of the plans for the work of various
sections of the field being laid by those on the ground, they were
directed largely from the home offices in Battle Creek. This had the
appearance of business efficiency, yet it actually was a serious menace
to efficiency and vital leadership in the work of God. Through the
nineties these tendencies developed rapidly, but in God’s own time
and in his own way they were checked
.