Missionary Magazine (1898–1902)

The Missionary Magazine (1898-1902) and its antecedent, the Home Missionary (1889-1897), were vehicles for promoting homeland and foreign mission endeavors and informing the church constituency of advances made in these fields.

Antecedent

At the 10th annual meeting of the International Tract Society (ITS), 1885, it was voted to make the fourth Sabbath of every month a time for the promotion of tract and missionary work. At the time the focus was on American homeland mission work. However, attention to overseas foreign mission work rapidly emerged as another important field for evangelism. For some time the ITS had communicated with the constituency but it was found that a cheaper way of doing it was to register a periodical in order to take advantage of better postage rates. For that reason, in January 1889, the ITS launched a registered monthly periodical to promote its cause. It was originally titled the Home Missionary, published at church headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan. Each issue was a modest eight pages with no illustrations and an annual subscription rate of 10 cents. The first issues included Bible lesson studies for both children and adults.¹

In the second year of publication certain changes were made. The periodical’s size was increased to 20 pages for an annual subscription of 25 cents.² It adopted the motto “He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit to life (John 4:36).”³ Its general editors were made known: Dan T. Jones, chairman of the Publication Interests Committee at the General Conference and L. C. Chadwick, a member of the Book Committee.⁴ A column for canvassers was introduced⁵ and another was reserved for reports from overseas missions.⁶ It was also suggested that local tract societies follow a rotating schedule for their weekly meetings, devoting the first Sabbath to foreign missions, the second Sabbath to religious liberty, the third to home missions and the fourth to health and temperance.⁷ These four divisions each had their own contributor: Foreign Missions, originally W. C. White⁸ but later W. A. Spicer;⁹ Religious Liberty, originally A. F. Ballenger but later W. A. Colcord; Home Missions, Maria Huntley followed by Jennie Thayer;¹⁰ Health and Temperance, first Mrs. C. E. L. Jones¹¹ followed by Laura C. Bee¹² and W. H. Wakeham.¹³ From the beginning of 1891 the children’s column was discontinued because a special periodical, Our Little Friend, was initiated for their benefit.

The periodical began to accept advertisements in 1897, initially for denominational products such as Battle Creek Health Foods.¹⁴ Several different general editors followed each other in the 1890s, including Francis M. Wilcox, with Jennie Thayer as a long-term office editor.¹⁵

The Missionary Magazine

With the January 1898 issue the periodical presented an exciting new face under a new name, the Missionary Magazine. The Foreign Mission Board, with an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, assumed responsibility for its production.¹⁶ The business manager, W. H. Edwards, was named as the producer of the periodical.¹⁷ A portion of the columns were still devoted to homeland missionary work but the emphasis was shifted to overseas missions. Its pages were well illustrated with photos of departing missionaries, foreign mission outposts, overseas maps and pictures of exotic countries and cultures. The reports from foreign fields were suitable for reading to Sabbath Schools, or could be abbreviated, or several stories could be combined for a general missions promotion. The periodical was undoubtedly an inspiration for many adventurous young people who aspired to serve overseas.

With the issue of July 1899 the periodical was published from New York.¹⁸ Editors were not named but it maintained its emphasis on foreign missions. Informative reports from overseas missionaries continued with the addition in 1900 of a column containing excerpts from their letters received from around the world.¹⁹ By January 1902 the periodical had merged with The Medical Missionary and Gospel of Health and the office of publication had transferred back to Battle Creek.²⁰ Still no editor was identified. Advertisements on behalf of the Battle Creek Sanitarium appeared regularly. This phase was short-lived. In the May 1902 issue readers were notified that mission reports, both home and foreign, would be directed to the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald from that time onwards. The given rationale was that a greater number of readers would gain access to the articles about missions and missionaries.²¹

Sources

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Company, 1890.

Home Missionary. General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research Online Archives, https://www.documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/Forms/AllItems.aspx?.

Missionary Magazine. General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research Online Archives, https://www.documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/Forms/AllItems.aspx?.

Notes

1. “The Home Missionary and Fourth Sabbath Exercises,” Home Missionary, January 1889, 3-4.↩

2. Masthead, Home Missionary, January 1890, 20.↩

3. Header, Home Missionary, January 1890, 1.↩

4. “General Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Company, 1890), 19-20.↩

5. “Canvasser’s Department,” Home Missionary, January 1890, 16.↩

6. “Foreign Reports,” Home Missionary, January 1890, 17-19.↩

7. “The subjects for the weekly missionary meetings . . . ,” Home Missionary, January 1890, 20.↩

8. W.C. White, “Foreign Missions,” Home Missionary, January 1891, 8.↩

9. W.A. Spicer, “Foreign Missions, Home Missionary, January 1893, 8.↩

10. D.T. J[ones], “The Home Missionary for 1891,” Home Missionary, January 1891, 1.↩

11. C.E.L. Jones, “Health and Temperance,” Home Missionary, January 1891, 16.↩

12. Laura C. Bee, “Health and Temperance,” Home Missionary, January 1892, 16.↩

13. W.H. Wakeham, “Health and Temperance,” Home Missionary, January 1893, 8.↩

14. See for example Home Missionary, July 1893, 158.↩

15. Masthead, Home Missionary, January 1897, 1.↩

16. “The tenth volume of The Home Missionary,” Home Missionary, December 1897, 255.↩

17. “With this number we begin . . . ,” Missionary Magazine, January 1898, 31.↩

18. Masthead, Missionary Magazine, July 1899, 283.↩

19. See for example, “Letters,” Missionary Magazine, April 1900, 178-180.↩

20. Masthead, Missionary Magazine, January 1902, 3.↩

21. “This Magazine to be Dropped,” Missionary Magazine, May 1902, 196.↩