Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents
General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    A PLEA IN BEHALF OF THE FRENCH IN NORTH AMERICA

    D. T. Bourdeau

    The three and a half millions of French in North America have claims upon this Conference. From a numerical standpoint, they have claims half as strong as that of the colored people in the Southern States; from that of ignorance in spiritual things and of spiritual bondage brought about by the clergy and by being deprived of the Bible, their claims (especially those of the French in the Province of Quebec) are stronger than those of the colored people.GCB April 25, 1901, page 477.26

    Nearly one million of the French in North America are providentially scattered throughout the United States, that they may come under the influence of the gospel. Am I out of place in asking the presidents of the Conferences and all our brethren and sisters in this great Republic, to institute a thorough and systematic search after the French that a wise Providence has placed among them, and to labor for them as never before, if for no other reason than for this that the French have done more to bring about the liberty of which Americans boast than any other nation under the sun? But here you will pardon me if I add that though our French converts in the States are not numerous, yet I am prepared to show that the heaviest donations to the cause that have been made by believers living in the States have been made by some of them. For example, three of these converts alone, whom the Lord gave me, and whose names I might easily mention, have already, to my certain knowledge, given in donations to the general cause, over $100,000. Most of this means has been used in building up the cause among the English-speaking people in the United States.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.1

    Are not the two millions of French in the country north of us, that has an area larger than was the territory of the United States before the annexation of Alaska, worthy of our special attention and of our means? I know that French-Canadians are looked upon as an inferior race by some on this side of the line, who, for this reason, sometimes nickname them Canucks. This is a great mistake which I feel it my duty to unmask. As one who has lived and traveled both in France and in Canada, let me say that Canadian French are an intelligent, strong, and hardy race (that their language is fully up to that of France). French, which is more or less corrupted by over forty dialects; that since I studied French in Canada nearly fifty years ago, a strong educational wave has come over the French in Canada, so that nearly everyone of the present generation can read and write the French language; that French Canadians have taken laurels in the French Academy of France, as poets, historians, and scientists, and that not a few of them are members of that learned and honored institution.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.2

    Recently it was a little French-Canadian girl aged 11 years who, as a pianist against seven hundred competitors, won a $22,000 prize in the city of New York. The intimate relations between Old and New France are a powerful argument in favor of doing more for the French in Canada than has yet been done for that fearfully neglected people.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.3

    Only a few days since, it was stated in General Conference by one whose testimony has weight among us, that “London ought to have one hundred more workers.” If London ought to have that number of workers, the French in Canada alone, ought to have one third of that number of French workers. You will ask where are they coming from? I answer, they will be produced if proper encouragement is given for young French laborers to enter into that field, which is, in some respects, as hard as Hindustan, China, or Japan, and that is right at our doors.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.4

    From the standpoint of population, and from that of the statement quoted above, Montreal alone, with its fifth of a million of French and its $100,000 of English, Americans, Germans, Italians, Greeks, Armenians, etc., ought to have at least four French workers and several English workers. Montreal and other places should be literally covered with small French tracts. And I never was in a place where English Protestant ministers were more friendly than in Montreal. I have visited, prayed with, talked the truth and sold literature to, English ministers of three Protestant denominations in Montreal, and they have treated me and our views with great respect.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.5

    In Montreal, if anywhere, the health branch of our work should take the lead. Never have there been so many fevers in Montreal as last winter. When I left Montreal to attend this Conference, there were 1,890 corpses in the vaults of the Catholic cemetery alone. This is largely due to the enormous amount of pork that is used there. Some of the leading physicians have been aroused on this point, and have lauded our health foods in Montreal dailies. This has caused sharp discussions. Our old copies of Good Health, which were almost regarded as a drug on our hands, have been in demand, and enough of them have been sold to meet quite a proportion of our expense in connection with our free French tract distribution. Our French nurse in Montreal, not being a recognized doctor, has had to move out by faith on the self-supporting plan, and God has blessed her by causing donations to come in quite freely, and by sanctioning the use of hygienic means and treatment, so that cripples and consumptives that could find no help in hospitals, and were pronounced hopeless by physicians, have been either restored or relieved. During my labors for Catholics in Montreal, I met a very sick French Catholic. I removed my outer garments and hastened to give him a thorough water treatment. He was restored, and united with his family in expressing his heartfelt gratitude, and in publishing to his Catholic neighbors that I had saved his life, and was not afraid to condescend to do the most humble duties, to save human life.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.6

    From these facts, and from my intimate relations with the leading physicians and managers of two Montreal hospitals and two medical colleges in Montreal, I feel free to recommend the metropolis of the Dominion of Canada as a good point for medical missionary work and for the establishment of a sanitarium. Montreal has as many inhabitants as the city of New York had when I studied geography.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.7

    From two impressive, symbolical dreams God has given me, the Lord has a great people in Montreal. Patience will be required, but glorious results will be realized if proper means are taken without delay. God has lately given me another dream to the effect that our nation will soon realize the horrors of war. I saw foreign ships making their way toward Washington, and great excitement was throughout this land. Canada will be involved. What a blessed thing it will then be to have a sanitarium in Montreal, to heap blessings upon all, irrespective of country lines and nationalities.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.8

    Brethren, we must hasten to do all we can in a time of comparative peace. It will not last long. God gave me a similar dream about the Franco-Prussian war shortly before it occurred. I saw such a fearful (symbolical) tempest in Paris! I saw Napoleon III, and even the disease of which he was to die was revealed to me. And my work was assigned me in France. I was there more than once. The thing was repeated to me in five very impressive dreams. One night God gave me three dreams, showing I must go to Europe, and presenting different phases of my work there. And I know God gave me those dreams, because every time I awoke, I was filled with his Spirit. And I have not paid the whole debt I owed France.GCB April 25, 1901, page 478.9

    If plans are not devised justifying my taking on the burden of the work in Canada, I shall conclude the time has come for me to return to the land of my fathers, to bear the glorious banner of the third angel’s message on to victory; and if I fall in the heat of battle, let me fall with the shout of victory on my tongue, with my face set Zionward, and with the cheering prospect of soon embracing Him who gave his life to save me.GCB April 25, 1901, page 479.1

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents