MY SWISS MISSION.
BY WILLIAM BUDGE.
CHAPTER I.
MANNER IN WHICH THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED—MY LABORS IN ENGLAND—CALLED TO SWITZERLAND—JOIN MY COMPANION AND TAKE PASSAGE TO FRANCE—PROCEED TO SWITZERLAND—MEET ELDERS IN GENEVA—OUR FIELDS OF LABOR ASSIGNED US.
In presenting a sketch of missionary experience as reading matter for the young people of modern Israel, I am aware that they may have read many such before; but there is so much variety and interest connected with the means and methods which have been, and are, used in the extension of the latter-day work, that I need not apologise. So singular and diversified have been the circumstances surrounding the Elders, that there is a peculiar interest in all their narratives.
Some of the peculiarities of God's work are very prominently manifested in the missionary department. The Elders are sent without purse and without scrip, and the closer they live to this requirement, the more successful they are likely to be. It requires, however, much faith to do this, and it brings us face to face with many trials, temptations and inconveniences; but it also brings us nearer to God, as our condition requires the help which He alone can give, in blessing us with His Spirit, raising up friends and opening up the way before us.
The Elders in modern times, like those of ancient days, have generally been unlearned, which, according to human wisdom, would be a very serious drawback in teaching a new faith. In addition to this, the faith the Elders have been sent to teach is not only strange, but unpopular in the world. The sending of men, without money or learning, to establish a new religion, almost wholly in its nature opposed to the views of the people among whom they are sent, seems a strange thing. We confess it does; but God's ways are not like our ways, yet they are the best. His way of having the gospel preached serves other purposes as well as accomplishing the main object. It proves the integrity of the preacher, as there are no worldly benefits attached to the work; and it proves the sincerity of the believer, as there is no prospect of gain held out, but the truth itself. There must be earnestness and faith on both sides.
The gospel has been carried to many nations, and will be preached to all nations before the end comes. It will be readily understood that the difficulties of missionary work are much increased when the gospel is sent to nations where a foreign language to that of the preacher is spoken, even if the laws are liberal enough to permit the Elder freely to do his duty.
I labored in the Southampton (England) conference, as a traveling Elder, in the years 1852 and 1853. I had labored in the north of England and in the west of Scotland previously, and had seen hard times, endured much and been the means of bringing a number to the knowledge of the truth. The Southampton district, to which I had been appointed when this brief history begins, consisted of the town of Southampton and several smaller places convenient to visit, and containing a number of faithful Saints.