Maud Sisley Boyd
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The name of Maud Sisley Boyd is indelibly connected with early Seventh-day Adventist foreign missions. Her world was to include not only the land of her birth but was to reach out to include America, Switzerland, Africa, and Australia, where she spent her last days.

Little did John and Susannah Sisley dream of the romance that was to color the life of their youngest. She was a squirming infant, only a few hours old, when the sun rose on Kent, England, November 24, 1851. With seven older brothers and sisters to amuse and tease her, Maud had every opportunity from that day forth to develop into a capable, independent young woman. Mother Sisley saw to it that her daughters learned the rudiments of capability and reliability.

Her brother John had come to America as a youth, and his letters descriptive of this land of plenty, stirred the family to emigrate to Michigan when Maud was only eleven years old. To their surprise he was keeping the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, but after his earnest teaching of this Bible truth, the family became pioneer Sabbath-keepers in this Midwestern State.

Although in point of birth she was last, Maud Sisley was destined to be first, or one of the first, in some of the most important incidents connected with the development of Seventh-day Adventist denominational work. She was among the first to enjoy the benefits of Christian education. It happened this way: Elder White and his wife visited her home on the farm, far removed, educationally, from other than the three R's, and recognizing the possibilities in these young people, urged that their property be disposed of and that they move to Battle Creek. There the children might find employment. This last was an inducement, for it was very hard work making a living for such a large family. The farm was sold when Maud was fifteen, and she entered the Review and Herald Publishing Association, beginning work in the composing room.

About this time Mrs. White was shown that the young people engaged in the office work should have an opportunity to improve their education. The hours were long and the work was taxing, but there must be opportunity for these faithful workers to improve their time. A patient in the Health Reform Institute, who was actively interested in educational projects, had accepted the Advent doctrines, and he organized a grammar class, which met at six-fifteen in the evening. Here was a class, and a teacher, but there was no classroom. However, there was a way out of this difficulty, and Maud Sisley was among that group who, until the cold weather came on, had oral lessons under the friendly trees on Professor Bell's front lawn. Then this embryonic college was invited to transfer all its properties into an unused portion of the carpentry shop, where there were homemade desks and a painted plank for a blackboard.

Nor were the spiritual graces forgotten or neglected in favor of the scholastic. After the denominational college was opened, this same little group were permitted to leave their work long enough to attend Uriah Smith's Bible lectures. And valuable help was given by Elder and Mrs. White in the Sunday morning talks in the editor's office.

It was in one of these Sunday morning services that attention was first drawn to the tithing system. The work of God must be supposed. The Sabbath-keepers had practiced "systematic benevolence," but "all the tithe of the land . . - is the Lord's." "Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase."

The plan of systematic benevolence was good, but the difference between that plan and the tithing system was that the latter was God's plan, while the former was man made. On the day when this was brought to their attention, they studied every text referring to the support of the gospel, and accepted the Bible teaching. Thereafter, a collector came around every Sunday morning, to receive the tithe, which was gladly returned to God. And again Maud Sisley was a first, this time a first tithe-payer.

And she attended the first Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting too. This was held at Wright, Michigan, in September of 1868. The sun shone brightly on a wagonload of young people from the Review and Herald office, among whom was Maud Sisley, as they started for the campground. They could not cover the distance from Battle Creek to Wright in one day; so when night came, they camped in the friendly woods by the roadside. Tents were pitched, a lunch was eaten, and then they prepared themselves a place to rest on the grass. During the night a heavy thunderstorm burst upon them, thoroughly drenching all their belongings. When it cleared away, a bonfire was made, and they spent the rest of the night drying their clothing. The next day they arrived safely at the campground.

This first campground did not very much resemble the great tent cities or permanent campgrounds of today. Those attending did not rent tents from the conference. Rather, they were advised to buy new sheeting out of which to construct them, so that later the material could be made into sheets for family use. There was no fine pavilion with a commodious speakers' stand neatly carpeted and decorated with flowers and plants, and furnished with electric fans to keep the speakers comfortably cool.

Instead, a small structure made of rough boards accommodated the few ministers present. The congregation sat on unplaned boards from the mill, placed on risers, without backs. The friendly trees and the blue sky formed the only covering. There were no musical instruments with which to lead the congregational singing. There was no special tent for the young people, or for the juniors, or for the children. To begin the singing, someone would strike the pitch of the first note on a tuning fork, and then all sang together the good old hymns of the message. The children sat with their elders, dangling their feet, because they were too short to reach the ground, and listened with awe to the solemn messages of the speakers.

There was no grocery store or dining tent where food could be obtained, for this camp was in the woods. All supplies had to be brought from home. The meeting lasted only a few days, but the length of it, or the inconveniences, did not interfere with the outpouring of the rich blessings of God. Not being confined to time or place, His Spirit in great measure rested upon them, and all agreed that He had been in that place.

When the first tract society was organized in Battle Creek under S. N. Haskell, Maud Sisley became a charter member. She was so fired with enthusiasm that she asked for a six months' vacation, so that she might join Elsie Gates in self-supporting missionary work in Ohio.

Fifty cents a month for a small attic room would not seem high today, but to Maud Sisley and her companion it was dear, for their money was saved out of a ten-cent-an-hour wage. Economy became their watchword. These two enterprising young women spent only 25 cents a week each, and, since they could not afford to pay streetcar fare, their food had to be of such a nature as to give strength for walking. They traveled long distances, lending many books, giving away tracts, and talking with people concerning the truths of the gospel.

Suddenly there was brought to Maud Sisley an opportunity for adventure and romance. In 1874 a missionary family, that of J. N. Andrews, had been sent to Switzerland. The progress of their work was impeded by a lack of literature for distribution. They must have literature, and the best way to get it was to print it. But how? The small company could not operate a printing press in addition to preaching the gospel, giving Bible studies, and ministering to the sick. Maud Sisley had been in the editorial office back in Battle Creek. Why couldn't she, as well as, or perhaps, better than, anyone else, come to Switzerland for the work there? The request for her services was made of the General Conference and granted, and in November, 1877, the intrepid young woman made her second voyage across the Atlantic, this time in company with Elder and Mrs. William Ings. Elder Andrews met them in London, where purchases were made of material. with which to begin their work. Thus, although not the very first missionary sent out, she was the first single woman missionary to go, and that only three years after the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary had gone from the United States.

A room about twelve feet square in the house in which the mission family resided in Basel, was set apart for the office. And here was an example of rugged individualism. No presses were owned in this publishing house, so the type was set in the office. When the forms were locked up and ready for the press, they were taken in the handcart to the city, where the printing was done. The sheets were brought back to the house in the same vehicle, and folded and addressed on the dining-room table. Thus was the first Seventh-day Adventist French paper, Les Signes des Temps, printed, as well as various tracts in German and French, and sent out to the people.

Mrs. Ings, of German parentage, had been employed in the Review and Herald in Battle Creek to set German type and read the proofs, and this experience made her a valuable assistant in the little publishing house in Basel. But again Maud Sisley was to be a first. There was need for literature in the Italian tongue, on the second coming of Christ. In telling of their experience in printing it, Miss Sisley said, "As we had no compositor who understood the language, Brother Ings urged me to try to set the type for the tract which he had had translated, and offered me a bonus of ten dollars if I would do it. It was no easy task to set it from the manuscript-there were no typewriters then-and as I did not have a very clean proof to read, I fear some mistakes slipped by. But I hope that with God's blessing it accomplished good." Later the situation was somewhat relieved by the addition of an Italian youth to the little force.

Elder Andrews' daughter became very ill, and it was necessary for him to return home with her. He left a "league of nations" at Basel, eight in number, no two of the same nationality. But they carried on successfully.

The next year the land of her birth, England, again became home to Miss Sisley, and she lived there for six months. Elder Ings had awakened an interest among his own people in Southampton, and J. N. Loughborough was sent there to follow this up. Miss Sisley assisted him.

But cupid shot an arrow all the way across the Atlantic, and Miss Sisley returned to America, added Boyd to her name, and with her husband, C. L. Boyd, spent four years in Nebraska, where he was the conference president. Most of the churches were in the country, far from the few railways then in existence, and, since other means of transportation were sadly deficient, Elder Boyd traveled in his private conveyance, a covered wagon. Sometimes Mrs. Boyd accompanied him on these long trips. Later they pioneered in the great Northwest, where Elder Boyd was president of the North Pacific Conference.

But oceans away there was work for these two young people. Two South African brethren had joined in sending a call to the General Conference for a worker. With their request they sent $250 to aid in paying the transportation of the one sent. These men had been led into the Sabbath truth independently of each other, and by their own study of the Bible.

One Peter Wessels had some years before experienced the special blessing of the Lord in being healed of illness, and in new devotion he was troubled about the question of healing in the church. His brother, a deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church, whom he consulted, said that if the Bible were to be taken literally, the seventh day is the Sabbath and should be observed as such. This started Peter Wessels to thinking, and after diligent study of the Scriptures, he soon began to keep the Sabbath.

About this time, G. J. Van Druten, in the Orange Free State, was somehow led to study the Bible on this question, and began to honor the Sabbath, not knowing others were doing so. Providentially Brethren Van Druten and Wessels met and learned of each other's experience. Through some publications that had fallen into their hands they learned of the work being done by Seventh-day Adventists. Then they sent the call to America, and invited others to join them.

Our "first lady," her husband, and Elder and Mrs. D. A. Robinson were called to go to Africa, and thus became the first missionaries to enter the Dark Continent under the direction of Seventh-day Adventists (1887). Much might be written of their experiences in opening up mission stations. Strict economy had to be practiced, but Maud Sisley Boyd had trained for this when she lived on 25 cents a week back in Ohio. With the exception of bedsprings, a folding organ. and chairs, their furniture consisted of kerosene boxes-wooden crates in which five-gallon cans of kerosene had been shipped-but the ingenious work in making attractive and suitable coverings for these boxes created a neat and cozy home.

The ten years spent in South Africa were marked by two sorrows. One was the death of little Ethel, the younger of the two precious little girls born in Africa. Then, the privations endured in exhaustive pioneer work brought about a complete breakdown in Elder Boyd's health, and he found it necessary to return to America. His life was one of accomplishment for God, and his work was greater because of the loving devotion of his wife. But his labors came to an end soon after they arrived in America.

Although bereft of her loved companion and one child, there was a place in Avondale, Australia, where her services could be used to great advantage. Her background of experience would be an inspiration to the young people attending the college.

Nine busy and happy years were spent by Mrs. Boyd at Avondale as preceptress, matron, and teacher. Three years were devoted to Bible work in New South Wales and Victoria. The illness of Mrs. Boyd's sister, Mrs. G.

B. Starr, necessitated her return to the United States, and for seventeen years, while caring for this dearly loved sister, she labored untiringly as Bible worker in the sanitariums at Loma Linda and Glendale, in California.

In a message to her friends through the Austra'asian Record, written a short time before she laid down her work in 1937, Mrs. Boyd sketched briefly her life in connection with denominational work, closing with these paragraphs:

"As I look back I can but exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!' When my family connected with this message there were only about 5,000 adherents. There was but one publishing house, printing only three papers and a few books and tracts in English. We had no denominational schools, no sanitariums, no treatment rooms, city missions, or tract societies. There were no Bible workers or large public efforts, and the work had been done principally in the country districts. There were no canvassers or layman's movements. There was no work being done among the foreigners or the colored people in the United States."

Her heart was ever filled with gratitude to the heavenly Father for permitting her to have what she considered a small part in spreading this glorious message of the soon-coming Savior, and all the associate truths that cluster around. "That God may keep us all faithful is my prayer," was her last message to the public.

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