Notes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 27, 1910

THERE are more than one hundred twenty boarders in the Barotseland Mission schools at present, with the prospect good for an increase to two hundred soon. Students have been coming at the rate of five a week for more than a month at the main station. They number more than ninety at present.

ELDER W. H. ANDERSON reports the fruit-trees doing well on his station in Barotseland, South Africa. Lemon trees and orange trees are so filled with fruit that it is necessary to prop up the limbs to keep them from breaking. Some of the berry bushes have made a growth of fifteen feet in a year. The workers at this mission are setting out a thousand blackberry plants this year, besides many other kinds of fruit, and with the present prospects they hope to have fruit for the market erelong. Elder Anderson took with him two hundred seventy fruit-trees from the Cape on his return to the mission.

THERE was once a pendulum waiting to be fixed on a new clock. It began to calculate how long it would be before the big wheels were worn out, and its work was done. It would be expected to tick night and day, so many times a minute, sixty times that every hour, and twenty-four times that every day, and three hundred sixty-five times that every year. It was awful! Quite a row of figures, enough to stagger you! Millions of ticks! “I can never do it,” said the poor pendulum. But the clockmaker encouraged it. “You can do one tick at a time?” he said. “O, yes!” the pendulum could do that. “Well,” he said, “that is all which will be required of you.” So the pendulum went to work, steadily ticking, one tick at a time, and it is ticking yet, quite cheerfully.— D. L. Moody.

JULY 8, 1853, Commodore Perry dropped anchor in the bay of Yeddo, Japan. He was sent by the United States government with a message from the president looking toward a treaty opening up to the commerce of the world this hermit nation. The message was delivered. Seven months later, Feb. 13, 1854, Perry cast anchor once more off the shores of Japan. He was not a welcome visitor to many by any means, but on March 31 his purpose was realized in the signing of a treaty between the two nations. Thus a way was prepared for Japan to later receive the gospel.

HERE is a bit of experience that came to one of our missionaries in Africa, Brother J. R. Campbell. He says: “As I was walking through the tall grass the other day, I suddenly found myself facing a lion and a lioness about twenty-five yards distant. The lion only disclosed his teeth, when both slunk away in the grass.” Again the promise of God was proved: “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Brother Campbell says the last two years, spent in Africa, have been the most pleasant of his life, adding, “True, trials fall to the lot of the missionary, but what are they when compared with the blessings received?”

I CAN not but think that the world would be better and brighter if the teachers would dwell on the duty of happiness as well as on the happiness of duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only to be happy ourselves as a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others. Every one must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, shedding brightness on all around; and most of us can, if we choose, make of the world a palace or a prison. To be bright and cheerful often requires an effort; there is a certain art in keeping ourselves happy; and in this respect, as in others, we require to watch over and manage ourselves almost as if we were somebody else.— Lord Avebury.

“WHEN Livingstone went to Africa, Mrs. MacRobert, quite advanced in life, who had saved thirty pounds, gave it to the great missionary, saying: ‘When you go to Africa, I want you to spare yourself exposure and needless toil by hiring some competent body-servant, who will go with you wherever you go, and share your sacrifices and exposures.’ With that money he hired his faithful servant known as Sebalwe. When a lion had thrown Livingstone down, and crushed the bones of his left arm, and was about to destroy him, this man, seeing his critical condition, drew off the attention of the lion to himself, thinking that he would save his master at the cost of his own life. The lion sprang at him, but just at that moment the guns of other companions brought him down, and Livingstone’s life was prolonged for thirty years.”