p. 907 | NOTES by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 57.

NOTES.

By Editor

THE chargé d'affaires of the legation of the United States in Pekin issued, on August 4, the following: "This legation is in receipt of a dispatch from the Tsungli Yamen, dated August 3, stating that the merchants and missionaries of foreign countries, wherever residing in China, will be protected, and that the high provincial authorities have been ordered to issue proclamations warning the people in no manner to disturb them. The Yamen asks this legation to inform the American merchants and missionaries that they are at liberty to pursue their avocations as usual, and requests them to be under no fear or anxiety because of the hostilities now being carried on against Japan."

DR. J. H. DE FOREST writes from Japan: "While there are Japanese who hate foreigners, there is as yet no such national anti-foreign feeling as exists in China. If the present government should announce that the treaty had been revised with any one of the leading powers, and that the honor of Japan was guaranteed, the anti-foreign feeling would disappear largely within a week. It is more accurate, therefore, to speak of the so-called anti-foreign sentiment, since it is as yet superficial."

MANY of the Japanese Christians are saying: "We have learned to distinguish between missionaries. We want no more missionaries to come to Japan with the purpose of showing us how to do it, and of assuming authority over us in any way. But we do want many more broad-minded men and women who understand how to see things from our standpoint, how to sympathize with our ideas, and who are willing to work with us instead of over us."—Gospel in All Lands.

IN some places a feeling seems to exist that gifts to foreign missions mean so much less for home work. Even if this were so, it would be no excuse for neglecting the plain command of Christ; but, so far from this being the case, the actual result is usually found to be exactly the opposite. It is a general rule, of which we could give many instances, that earnest support to foreign missions is usually accompanied by increased gifts to home work. The reason of this is the fact that a real interest in foreign missions stirs up the heart, enlarges the sympathies, fosters gratitude for our blessings in a Christian land; and the result is increased liberality towards all God's work, whether at home or abroad. The more people feel their Christian privileges, the more they are inclined to give for them; and there is no better way to make people feel their privileges than by frequently reminding them of those who have them not,—of those who have the same trials and troubles as ourselves, but are "without Christ," and, therefore, without that blessed hope of eternal life which he alone can give.—Selected.

A MISSIONARY in India writes to his home society: "There is one thing which education does not seem to bring to India, and that is moral stamina. The ability to accept and harbor the most debasing social customs of this land is found among Hindus almost as frequently, if not as fully, under the university cap and gown as under the unkempt hair and rags of the village plowman. This is a vast and ghastly factor in the great problem of India's social and religious renovation."

DR. DENNIS says that "the Arabic language is the medium for reaching 40,000,000 souls. It is the spoken tongue of Northern Africa to Eastern Soudan, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. It is the sacred language, although not necessarily the vernacular, of Mohammedans everywhere throughout the world. Consider what Christian missions have put into this one language within a half century. There is the Bible in thirty editions. There are 500 distinct volumes of religious, educational, scientific, historical, and popular literature, issued from the Beirut press of the American Presbyterian Mission. An average of 25,000,000 pages is printed at that press annually, and the total of pages printed since its establishment is slightly over 508,000,000. The Beirut Mission press has become a distributing center for Arabic literature throughout the world."—The Occident.

CONCERNING the provinces of Hunan and Kwong-Sai, China, Rev. W. H. Lingle, Presbyterian missionary, says: "It is well known that these two provinces contain the largest solid mass of heathen in the world to-day untouched by Christianity. It is also known that with their more than 20,000,000 of people they have been the most hostile to Christianity and modern civilization. The most of the vile and slanderous placards and literature issued in recent years against Christianity and Christians have come from Hunan." The Presbyterians have a mission in the province of Canton, on the borders of the provinces above mentioned.

CHRIST AND THE SABBATH: Or Christ in the Old Testament and the Sabbath in the New, by Elder James White. Paper covers, fifty-six pages, sent post-paid for ten cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

THE SECOND ADVENT.—Assorted Tract Package No. 3, contains 96 pages; price, 10 cents. Subjects considered—The Coming of the Lord, Is the End Near? Can We Know? The Signs of the Times, The Judgment, and The Second Advent of Our Lord. Address, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.