Prospecting: for Souls in Alaska

When my wife and I went to Fairbanks, Alaska, in September, 1938, as self-supporting physicians, there was only one church member. He was very aggressive in talking to others about their souls and spent a great deal of money on literature, which he distributed wherever he went. He seemed to be well liked by the people in general, but carried his quest for friends so far that he did not re­fuse to play his violin in the local liquor "joints" on frequent occasions. I had not been in the Advent faith very long myself, and deeply re­gretted that our good medical school had not given us a short course in how to deal with church affairs when we went to isolated sec­tions.

After giving this brother several fair chances to change his ways, without success, we were forced to take the only logical step and report him to headquarters. We asked that his church membership be dropped. By this time he agreed that he could not remain in the church, and although we• tried often and earnestly to per­suade him to reform, he left the church and walked with us no more.

I. Do Not Compromise With Error

We could not help but wonder what this would do to our reputation as a church, for by this time we had half a dozen interested people coming to our little meetings. We learned one thing from this experience which I shall call my first point :Never compromise with error. If you do you will not hold your interested people, and you will lose your own soul. The church was strengthened by the fact that we, as its leaders, refused to allow hypocrisy to be so fla­grant. The people in Alaska now know that Seventh-day Adventists have a platform of standards and try to adhere to them, and they respect us for it.

As a word of caution in this respect, I want to emphasize that we must not be harsh in dealing with error. We must be fair and kindly, but also be firm. In my travels through the States I believe that the churches that are weak are those that allow their, members to eat and drink and dress as they please, and say nothing for fear of offending. Adherence to God's prin­ciples will bring God's help and power. When we left Fairbanks four years later, there were from twenty-five to thirty in attendance at our church, most of them church members. We do not deserve full credit for this work, as the Alaska Mission supplied us with a good pas­tor, Fred Wagner, who deserves most of the credit. But we did win a few, and they have remained faithful.

II. Work, Pray, and Keep Clean

Another thing which I would emphasize is the necessity that the Seventh-day Adventist church be a "clean" church. The members at Fairbanks had disbanded, and I regret to say that the condition of the church building was very poor when we arrived there. Again this was due to the one church member who lived there, and he was the one upon whom the peo­ple looked as a Seventh-day Adventist.

My first childhood memory of Seventh-day Adventists was some neighbors who were very aggressive in preacriing and handing out liter­ature, but who had a run-down farm, full of weeds, with poorly constructed buildings and rickety fences. They were the type of people who did everything "just for now" and were going to do it better "some other time." I re­call how many times my father referred to them as typical Seventh-day Adventists, and how we as children resolved that we would never belong to that church.

Our own farm was always well kept, and we did not appreciate the mustard and thistle seed that drifted in from our praying neighbors. My father frequently told them that if they would pray less and work more, he would think that their church might be worth something. Here I make a second point : ,Work and pray. I am glad that the Scripture put these words to­gether, and I am hopeful that those who are inclined to pray only will realize that the Lord's way is to do both.

I find it hard to believe in the sincerity of a praying nurse who leaves the surgical instru­ments half clean, who lets them rust, and does not observe sterile technic while in the oper­ating room. Perhaps I am being too practical, but I believe that a clean operating room is as pleasing to God as a prayer. I speak from experience. During my "co-op" days in medical school I held the job of surgical orderly in a hospital that was famous for firing their help. I did my six months without any censure from the supervisor, and we are friends to this day. In fact, she is now a Seventh-day Adventist. But I believed then, and still do, that work well done was acceptable to the Lord, and was a witness to man.

When we cleaned out the rubbish from the church in Fairbanks, sanded and waxed the floors, painted the interior, and generally cleaned the place up, we were surprised to find that there were several people who had lived there for years who suddenly wanted to come to church. They were not attracted by the lit­erature or Bible studies, but by the use of soap, water, and elbow grease applied to God's house.

I was told that one of our evangelists had been there a few weeks before we arrived and had stirred the town mightily by his forceful preaching. For many months afterward people told me how wise and forceful he was, and how nice he was to talk to, but—always that but—the church was never clean. The garbage was simply thrown out the back door (I can verify that, for I cleaned it up), and their chil­dren not only were dirty but were expelled from school because they were so dirty. Can you guess how many converts he had? None ! In fairness to this man, I realize that his days were full, and that he lived in a very poor build­ing, without modern facilities, and that pos­sibly it was not his fault. But I got in on the "backwash," and use this as an example. Let's keep our churches and churchyard, as well as our own dwelling places and premises, at least reasonably clean. Pm no stickler for being spot­less and fastidious, but let's have our places comfortably clean—casual enough to enjoy liv­ing in them, but clean enough to escape the censure of onlookers. Cleanliness not only is beneficial to us but exerts an influence that will lose or win souls.

Psalms 18:20 says, "According to the clean­ness of my hands had the Lord recompensed me." I believe this means physical cleanness as well as spiritual. Those who go to mission fields will find that there is reason for this emphasis on cleanliness. It caused us real concern in Alaska, for we had several church members who apparently came there to get away from "civilization," and their effect was disastrous every time. People started calling them typical Adventists when it suited their purpose to do so, and their adverse influence was very notice­able.

III. Be Consistent With Your Profession

As point number three I would say: Try to be consistent with' your profession. Easier said than done, to be sure, and all of us can point a finger at some weakness in each other. But what we do has a great influence on other peo­ple, and we must try to live above reproach. You will be surprised at how much the stran­ger knows about your church's teachings. He may consider himself a Christian, and smoke, dance, go to movies, and so on, but if you do it only once, he will put you clown as a hypocrite forever. I know it isn't fair—God hasn't set up one standard for Seventh-day Adventists and another for those of other churches—but man has, and it works that way every time.

Memory reminds me frequently of a fine Protestant woman who told how she went to our evangelistic meetings and was very much moved by what the "minister" (a lay preacher) said, but stopped attending when she met him leaving a theater one night. Yes, she went to the theater, and she didn't see anything wrong in it, and only wished that the little town had more shows than once a week, but he was a hypocrite in her mind, and she never wanted to hear any more about those Seventh-day Ad­ventists. Thus we have to be careful, and try to live up to other people's expectations, lest we cause someone to stumble.

Those of us who are in the public eye, who enjoy the praise of the multitude for the lives we save and the good we do, must also bear the responsibility of living in such a way that we shall not cause souls to be lost. What good is it to save lives and lose souls? It may be an un­fair standard that the world sometimes sets up for us, but it is a very real one. For that reason, even though we cannot see that it is a sin to eat "clean meats" or go to "good" movies,, or do some other things, we must abstain from those things for our neighbor's sake. And sur­prisingly enough, after a while we'll find out that it did our own soul good, too. A double reward!

IV. Ways of Winning Patients

The Spirit of prophecy tells us, in Ministry of Healing, to be careful in speaking to patients about religion, and not enter into controversy with them while they are ill. I believe that this is needed advice, for I have seen some nurses and other workers who were too eager to make Adventists of their patients. A nurse who does good efficient work, who makes her patient comfortable, speaks words of faith and courage while he is sick, but leaves the Bible studies and doctrinal points to be studied after he leaves the hospital (unless the patient requests other­wise, or is ready), will find that she will have more souls to show for her work than the nurse who wants to "argue" (that's what the patients call it), and who forgets to smooth the sheet and turn the pillow.

I recall one nurse who always tried to read from the Bible to her patients but who forgot to change the drinking water and attend to other duties, and who always wondered why they did not ask her for more studies. They did not like her, although they invariably said that she was a good Christian. They did not want to be Christians, as she somehow did not inspire them to be such. The nurses who did not say much about spiritual things, but who worked as though they loved their patients and were inter­ested in their comfort and welfare, were able to give real spiritual help to them in a way that lasted.