The Southern field is a hard field, a very unsightly field, because it has been so long uncultivated. All who take hold of the work in the cause of God and suffering humanity will have to change their designs and plans. They will have plenty of trials and discouragements to meet, but they must not allow these to hinder, to dishearten, or to handicap them in their work. In love to Christ who died to save this poor, downtrodden people, in love for the souls of the perishing thousands, they are to labor for this worse than heathen country.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 1

Brethren, you have a work to do which you have left undone. A long-neglected field stands out in plain view before God to shame the people who have light and advanced truth, but who have done so little to remove the stones and the rubbish that have been accumulating for so long a time. Those who have enjoyed every privilege and blessing have passed by on the other side. As a Christian people, God has called you to prepare the way of the Lord in this unpromising field.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 2

You have not done this work, notwithstanding the light that has been given you and kept before you. Not only did the design of this work originate with God, but the facilities were his, and were to be found in his treasury. God will reward according to the measure of the neglect shown for his purposes and specified methods. He designs that we should educate the people how to work to sustain themselves. The insignificant measures employed in their behalf come up before God in the destitute, corrupted state of humanity. The apostle Paul could say of the primitive churches, “They glorified God in me.” There are many souls in the South who through well-directed labor may be converted, but the work must be conducted on different lines than in any other field in the United States.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 3

There need be no dearth of means today for the advancement of the work, but the Lord has no pleasure in his people, because pride and selfishness have expelled mercy and the love of God and their fellow men from their hearts. Wrong actions are clothed with a pretense of righteousness, which the Lord calls dissembling, false weights, unjust balance, and fraud. This is the iniquity of the people of God. They have not restored the pledge, nor brought back that which they have taken away. “Truth has fallen in the street; and equity can not enter.”Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 4

The deepest humility should be felt by those who have the privileges of enlightenment and education in missionary lines. The Lord God of heaven, by whom all actions are weighed in the golden balances of the sanctuary, looks upon the thousands of colored people, our neighbors, who, in their destitution, are spreading their cases before the Giver of all mercies and blessings. These people are perishing in their sins. As a people they are ignorant; many know nothing of purity and godliness and elevation. But among them are men and women of quick perceptions, excellent talents, and these will be revealed when once the Spirit of God shall turn their attention to the Word. But they need ministry not in the Word alone. Those who would do God's service in this field must go among the people.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 5

There are those, who, while they profess godliness, are not pure. They have corrupted their ways before God. And when these people meet those who have no disguises for their corruption, they have so little sense of what constitutes a high and holy character that they are in danger of revealing that they are of a class as degraded as their fellow beings of the Southern States. The people of the South do not need those to go among them who have not the love of the truth in their hearts, and who will easily yield to temptation; who, with the light they have, will descend to the low level of the moral corruption of those they are professedly trying to save. This will be the danger of those whose minds are not pure; therefore be sure that men of steadfast principle be sent to work for God in this field.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 6

In his providence, God is saying, as he has been saying for years past: Here is a field for you to work. Those who are wise in agricultural lines, in tilling the soil, those who can construct simple, plain buildings, may help. They can do work, and at the same time show in their characters the high morality which it is the privilege of this people to attain. Teach them the truth in simple object-lessons. Make everything upon which they lay their hands a lesson in character building.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 7

The South is calling to God for spiritual and temporal food, but it has been so long neglected that hearts have become as hard as stone. God's people need now to arouse and redeem their sinful neglect and indifference of the past. These obligations now rest heavily upon the churches, and God will graciously pour out his Spirit upon those who will take up their God-given work.Advocate April 1, 1899, par. 8

March 1, 1899

May 1, 1899