FORTY-FIVE years ago California was nearly as far removed from our general headquarters, so far as reaching it is concerned, as China and India are now.
THE first report from the Pacific Coast concerning this advent message was in the REVIEW of Feb. 9, 1864. Brother M. G. Kellogg, formerly of Michigan, who had then been living in California four years, wrote from San Francisco:—
We now number twelve that are fully established in the Sabbath and the soon coming of the Saviour. There are several others who are interested, and believe the truth in part. We have prayer and conference meetings every Sabbath, and Bible class at commencement of Sabbath.
THESE few believers kept appealing earnestly for a minister to preach the message in California. In the REVIEW of Dec. 11, 1866, the General Conference Committee sent this message “to the brethren in California:”—
We appreciate your situation and your wants; but see not how we can at present comply with your request. Never did we feel more forcibly the truth of our Lord’s declaration, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers few.” Yet we would say to you, Do not be discouraged. We believe that in due time the Lord will provide men and means for the proclamation of this truth in California.
THEN, on June 2, 1868, Elder James White made this announcement through these columns:—
After much prayer and counseling with fellow laborers, Elders Loughborough and Bourdeau decide to leave in a short time on a mission to California. They now design to take with them a new tent, in which they can hold meetings in that climate eight or nine months in the year. The expenses of such a tent, its transportation, and other extra expenses of this mission, will not be far from one thousand dollars. I suggest that this sum be raised by donations from the friends of the cause everywhere. Brethren, the Lord does not rain down upon us temporal blessings for us to collect in reservoirs and pools to remain stagnant. A proper and healthful circulation of these blessings will save souls, and glorify God. Who will take stock in the California mission?
IN response to this call, believers eastward began to “take stock,” and the new mission was launched. In the paper of August 11, following, appeared a report from Elder J. N. Loughborough, dated San Francisco, July 23, saying: “Here we are in California.” The journey had been made by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in twenty-four days from New York. The brethren at once opened meetings, and the cause in California immediately began to gather strength.
IT was forty-two years ago that the believers in the East invested in the “California mission.” Now the two California conferences (including Nevada) have a constituency of 7,606 Sabbath-keepers, and an annual tithe of $110,539. That early stock in the California mission has multiplied manyfold. And until the end, California’s resources of men and means will help to spread the message still beyond.
How Tradition Makes Void the Word
By W. A. S.
WE go to the world with a message that is founded on the unchanging Scriptures of truth. It can all be stated in the plain terms of the written Word. For every religious practise we can say, “Jesus Christ did this as our example; where he walked, by his grace we will walk.”
There is safety and security in holding to the sure foundation of Holy Scripture. Christ is the one foundation; and he, the living Word, is revealed in the Book. It was his desire that even the disciples, who knew him by his bodily presence, should know him chief of all by the revelation of the Word. That evening on the way to Emmaus, the eyes of the two disciples were “holden that they should not know him,” evidently in order that before ever their attention should be absorbed by the view of his bodily presence, they should see him in the written Word, as, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” His bodily presence was soon to be removed from their sight; but once they saw him in the Scriptures, they had the lasting view, ever to be with them, and to be passed on to others by the preaching of the Word.
All the history of the church, ancient and modern, shows how persistently the enemy of truth has worked to undermine the sure foundations.
In the days of Christ the Jewish teachers had set the traditions of the elders before the Word of God. This was not at all as an attack upon the Scriptures, or with the idea of setting them aside. They professed to revere the Word, and read and expounded it to the people; but it was the Word as interpreted by the elders. To justify their course, and give the force of divine authority to their traditions, they had developed the theory of—
Oral Tradition
They held that when Moses was called into the mount to receive the instruction which he wrote in the “book of the law,” he had also committed to him important teaching concerning the law, which was not written. This he transmitted to Joshua, and Joshua in turn to the elders, and they passed it down to the men of the Great Synagogue, the doctors of the law.
By this theory the rabbis claimed divine sanction for the oral traditions which had accumulated from generation to generation. By degrees these traditions were given equal place with the Scriptures, and by the time of Christ they had displaced the Word of God.
Thus the scribes and doctors of the law were able to claim to be the sole guardians of truth, and the people were not supposed to know the Scriptures, except as the priests taught them. “This people who knoweth not the law are cursed,” said the Pharisees when the common people gladly heard the gospel.
The Jews had reached the point of apostasy which the Lord rebuked through Isaiah, saying, They “have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” Isa. 29:13. For this Christ repeatedly reproved the scribes and teachers. The main ground of their opposition was that he did not follow tradition and the teachings of the fathers. He taught the people what the Word of the Lord said. When the Pharisees complained to him that his disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders, he replied: “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”
The Same Thing Over Again
Since the days of Christ we have had an exact parallel to this history. Again the religious world is following many practises received by tradition and not founded on the Word. The Spirit of God, the Author of all truth, declared by the apostle that the Holy Scriptures are able to make the man of God “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:17. Yet when doctrine and practise are tested by the Word, and found wanting, the reply is13that these things are established by the common usage or interpretation of the church from earliest times. And regardless of the Word of God, the easier road of tradition is followed.
In order to give authority to its whole system of unscriptural practises, the Catholic Church has invented the theory of apostolic tradition. The apostles, it is said, received instruction which is not recorded, which they passed to their successors; and so it has come on down through the centuries. True to its very nature, tradition makes void the Word, and hence the people are taught not to follow the Word but to come to the teachers who are able to interpret it by the aid of the traditions of men.
And not Roman Catholics alone, but the greater part of the professedly Protestant peoples, in some particulars, cling tenaciously to doctrines and practises which are unknown to the Scriptures. In the matter of Sunday observance, almost the whole of Christendom follows the path of tradition, which fully makes void the Sabbath commandment. It is often said that this is one of the things that Christ said, the which, if they were written, “the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” One grave Protestant bishop has said that Christ instructed the disciples to change the day, and for some wise reason told them not to say anything about it. It is the old tradition of Moses and Joshua and the elders over again; and again it is shown that the Catholic rule of faith, “The Bible and tradition,” inevitably becomes, “Tradition instead of the Bible.”
The Lord is a jealous God. He admits no rival. As he only hath immortality, so also his Book alone is the infallible rule of life and doctrine. This Word is the lamp to our feet and the light unto our path.
The advent message is God’s last call to men to take their stand on the everlasting foundation of his Holy Word.
W. A. S.
Hope Thou in God
By C. M. S.
THERE is no purpose of our Maker that can not be fulfilled in us to-day. We have only to let him take the helm, and he will steer our bark out of every storm that rages around us. “Without me,” said he, “ye can do nothing.” But men to-day are saying in their hearts and by their acts, “I can do all things through my own self;” and when the storm comes down, the source of their power, the fountain of their dependence, is shaken and shattered, storm-tossed, engulfed; and with that gone, their all is gone. Like the ships upon the sea, their only dependence is in themselves, and the storm is stronger than the ship.
There is a better source of strength and protection than self,—a source which no storm can shake, no power of earth destroy,—and it is open to every voyager upon the sea of life. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isa. 41:10.
There is no necessity for the wrecks that strew the shores of the sea of life. There has been ample provision made for the safe voyage of every soul that has set out upon that sea. God can not save the soul that flees from his power and protection, and binds its hope to the flimsy fabric of its own protection. Such a soul must go down; for the powers that wrestle for its ruin are greater than the powers to which it looks for succor.
There is a chart and compass for every voyager, and a light to dispel every fog, and shine through the darkest night that shuts its curtains down upon the sea. That chart and compass are found in the Word of God, the Bible. But in the confidence of self, men have chosen to trust to the will-o'-the-wisp of their own reason, have set their course into the fog-bank of doubt, and so crashed upon the rocks of eternal ruin. These are the saddest wrecks that strew the sea of life to-day, and they outnumber a hundred to one the wrecks that stud the bottom of the sea.
The shipwrecks of the sea are sad events. But how much more sorrowful than the wreck of a ship, how much more terrible, is that life, loaded with a perfect wealth of possibilities, that lies mangled upon the rocks of unbelief, or lies loaded with the seaweed of miscarried purposes on the shore of life's sea—all because unbelief was at the helm and self upon the bridge, and God and his great purpose were shut out of the mind and heart.
There is hope for every voyager upon life's sea; but that hope is not in self. God must be the pilot; God the protector; God the helper and refuge in every stress of trial, the comforter in every sorrow, the power that wafts the vessel onward and homeward, and his Word the light to dispel every cloud of gloom and every fog that would enshroud the ship. He will do all that for you; his Word will be all that to you. Take him, then, for all that he has promised to be, and let his purpose be wrought out in your life, and your destiny be wrought out in his hand. There can be no sad wreck in such a life; but the light of God's blessing will shine out through the windows of the soul, and his glorious purpose concerning man will be worked out before the world in you.
C. M. S.
In India
By William Warren Prescott
The Conference at Lucknow
In harmony with the request of the General Conference Committee, made about the middle of August, I made arrangements to visit India and attend the biennial conference to be held in October. After a voyage of exactly one month, stopping only one night in London, I landed in Bombay on the twenty-first day of October, and proceeded at once by rail to Lucknow, where I arrived on the following evening. I was given a cordial greeting at the station by Brethren J. L. Shaw, W. W. Miller, H. C. Menkel, and Geo. F. Enoch, and was taken at once to the mission headquarters, 19 Banks Road, where the conference was already in session. Practically all the foreign workers and some of their native helpers from the various parts of India were assembled, and the welcome which they extended to me was a very hearty one. It was a pleasure to me to meet them all. Some of their faces were familiar from an acquaintance in America, and I was glad to find them in the mission field.
A report of the conference has already been furnished for the REVIEW by Elder Shaw, the superintendent of the India Mission, and I shall therefore deal only with some special features of the meeting. Those who have the privilege of attending frequent gatherings of the workers in America can hardly appreciate the feelings with which a mission worker looks forward to a biennial conference. After many months of trying labor, much of the time entirely alone and in any case with only a short visit at long intervals from a fellow worker, facing with but little outside help the perplexing problems peculiar to the field, having many drawing upon him all the time but with little opportunity to draw help from others, he longs for the spiritual uplift which results from association with other workers, and from the concert of prayer and the study of God’s Word. For this reason a conference, in order to meet the demands of the situation, must be more than a time for discussing and passing resolutions; it must be, what all conferences ought to be, such a season of personal fellowship with God and revival of spiritual life as will place one upon vantage-ground for future victories in the work.
The Lucknow conference was planned and conducted on this basis. I held a Bible study every morning, in which I endeavored to lead all into a prayerful study of the vital features of the gospel message which should be proclaimed in this last generation to prepare a people for the coming of Christ. Familiar truths, as presented in familiar scriptures, were viewed again from the standpoint14that all truth centers in Christ, and that such a fulness of knowledge of Christ is found in the threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12 as will make believers complete in him, and enable them to stand before the world as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. In addition to giving these Bible studies, I spoke each evening in a tent which had been pitched in the same compound. Quite a number of strangers attended each service, and manifested a deep interest in the things which were presented. So many of the native people have learned some English, that there was always a sprinkling of them in the congregation, and yet an interpreter was not required.
We all felt greatly blessed in communing with God through his Word and in meditating upon the wonderful fulness of the present message and its adaptation to the needs of this last generation. Some had come to the conference with questions to be answered, as to the way to present the truth to the native people, but their questions were answered when they saw that to preach Christ to this generation is to proclaim the threefold message. Such a view of Christ and his work strengthened the hope and courage of all.
The needs of the field were considered, and such calls for help were made as seemed actually demanded in order to maintain the present work, and to meet the most imperative requirements. These calls seemed pitifully inadequate, as compared with the needs of a field containing about three hundred millions of people who speak a large number of different languages and scores of different dialects. One is almost overwhelmed with a sense of the magnitude of the undertaking to give the message in such a country, but our reliance must be upon a God of infinite power and resources. On no other basis can we hope to accomplish the work.
While our hearts were burdened with the desire to extend the truth in India by taking advantage of every possible opening, it was saddening to receive word from America that the funds were very low, and that it would be impossible to open up new work until the treasury was replenished. There is nothing more distressing to the worker in these far-off fields than to be compelled to turn a deaf ear to earnest calls for the gospel message. His heart longs for the rapid extension of the work, and he sees many opportunities for entering upon new ground. It is hard to be compelled to defer and defer and defer. I have encouraged our laborers with the hope that the Harvest Ingathering and the annual offering would supply needed funds, and that they might look forward to further development of their plans somewhat later. If our people in the home land could only have a real understanding of the situation in these countries, I am sure that they would rally to the support of these missions.
Immediately at the close of the conference, I commenced a tour among the various mission stations; of this I will try to write in future articles.
W. W. P.
The Morning Cometh
By F. M. W.
ANOTHER year has passed away. As we stand in the doorway of 1911, what emotions thrill the heart, and what thronging queries present themselves for solution! What will 1911 bring to us? What will it bring to us as a church? What will it bring to us as individuals? These are the queries which force themselves upon our attention as we enter the portals of this new division of time. But resolve the problems as we may, no answers can we present as solutions. As, in the past, time has worked out its own problems, so must it continue to do for the future. It is for us to stand patiently by and watch the process, committing in faith and trust our ways to Him in whose hands is the adjustment of all questions and the molding of all destinies.
We know this, that we are living in the most solemn, and yet withal the grandest and most inspiring age of the earth's history. Every moment is fraught with solemn emphasis and import. Prophecy is rapidly fulfilling, history is rapidly making. The coming of the Lord, for which we have so long watched and waited, is now at hand. The horizon, which before was dim and hazy, is now beginning to gleam and brighten with the rising rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
The rapidly shaping events of the past few months are but premonitory of the rapidity with which future history will be made. In the religious, political, social, and physical worlds we see that which indicates the close proximity of the end of all things. Disturbances by sea and by land, in earthquakes, tornadoes, shipwreck, and disaster, indicate that the old earth is groaning under the curse, and that these are but the death-throes of speedy dissolution. The nations are rife for conflict, and every month makes more tense and taut the cords whereby they are held back from actual strife. In the religious world, stir and activity are apparent everywhere. The changing emphasis in religious thought and teaching marks a crisis in the great church bodies. New Thought, Higher Criticism, and other theosophical teachings are rapidly leavening the minds of men. Church federation is eagerly sought by many. The “confederacy” of Isa. 8:9-12 seeks to embrace in its folds the great mass of professed Christianity. Power from the state is now greedily desired and sought for.
What developments 1911 will bring to us, it is not ours to predict. We know, however, from the revealings of the Spirit, that startling things are before us.
But while the power of evil has increased, the truth of God is correspondingly moving forward. Light and life and power from above are descending upon God's people. The loud cry of the third angel has begun. The message is sounding, and going with an energy and power never before witnessed. God is fitting his people to stand in the time of trouble just ahead. The watchword now is “Forward.” Pass it down the line. Let it ring in clarion tones in the ears of every soldier of Jesus. A fierce battle is just ahead. But thanks be to God, victory is already assured through faith.
There should be no wavering nor faltering now. Let none hang back in coldness or indifference. Let ease give place to energy, coldness to warmth, hate to love, cowardice to courage. Self must die. Envy and strife must be suppressed. Brotherly love, unity, harmony, faith, courage, and zeal must now characterize our every action. The question that confronts us is one of life or death to every soul. From a finite standpoint the outlook is most gloomy; but in God it is all light, victory, and triumph.
What will 1911 bring to you, dear reader? Will it bring failure and defeat? In God's grace it may be a year of consecration, a year of victorious achievements. Dedicate your all to him. Live for him and through him day by day and moment by moment, and fear not for the outcome. Victory will turn on Zion's side, and a daily walk with Jesus will insure your triumph with the truth of God a little way ahead.
“He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.”
F. M. W.
A New-Year's Greeting From the Abyssinian Border
IN sending to our office a renewal order for periodicals, Elder Anol Grundset adds these words, closing with a greeting to the believers, which we are glad to pass on:—
We are denied in the Dark Continent many of the comforts and pleasant things so abundant in the home land; but the papers we must have, to keep posted and abreast with the message, so rapidly progressing to every nation, tongue,15and people, hastening to its final triumph. The thought cheers us that soon will take place that great reunion of God’s dear people, from the north and the south, the east and the west, sharing the blessings of the eternal home.
With the thought of a real God, who “so loved the world;” a real Jesus, who loved even to the giving of his life, promising, I’ll be with you, even unto the end of the world; with a saving message full of hope for the world, and the future realization of God’s endless promises,—with these thoughts vividly before us, and the spirit of them imparted, we can more than cheerfully “toil on” even in benighted Africa.
Dear brethren and sisters in the home land, shall we not all with the Lord’s help make the year 1911 the banner year in our experience,—first, by drawing near to God and accepting every ray of light and truth entrusted to us; and second, by every possible effort doing faithfully our part to speedily carry the saving truth of the third angel’s message to all nations?
Note and Comment
“Other Foundation”
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE clearly lays another foundation than the Word of God. This of itself should teach all who believe in the Bible that the cult is not of God. It centers in one human personality, and rests upon the teaching of that person. As the Outlook says:—
The demands which Mrs. Eddy made upon her followers were, on the whole, cheerfully, even eagerly, complied with; they involved the purchase of her book, “Science and Health,” at a high price, with the issue of each new revision, the singing of hymns composed by her, the substitution of the public reading of her writings in place of a sermon, the elimination of ministers and pastors from the church organization, and the subordination of all important executive action to her personal approval. So complete was her domination of the organization that, now that she is dead, it is not clear just how the Christian Science Church can legally manage its affairs. So thoroughly did Mrs. Eddy act upon the doctrine that disease and death are nonexistent, that apparently she made no provision, and her followers looked for no provision, for the performance by any one else of the functions which she had reserved to herself.
A Military Public School
THE editor of Collier’s Weekly, in the issue of Dec. 10, 1910, declares that one of the highest duties of the American citizen is being neglected,—the duty of preparing himself for war. The editor quotes approvingly the following from Major General Leonard Wood:—
The question arises as to what we can do, through the public schools, better to prepare our people for war,—war which will be as unavoidable in the future as in the past, and which will come upon us much more suddenly, and with greater force and power. We can, through a proper use of the public schools, do a great deal; we can teach our boys and young men to shoot straight.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the suggestion of General Wood should be adopted. America’s larger entrance of recent years into the arena of world politics will quite naturally lead her to feel the necessity of all the equipment possible to maintain the positions she may assume with reference to questions that are absorbing the attention of the greater world powers. Other nations are training their youth in the manual of arms and the tactics of the battle-field. How natural, then, that this nation of a hundred million souls should feel that she must not permit herself to be humiliated in the face of the world by any power great or small! We may expect that national pride and the instinct of self-preservation will, ere long, lead America to take steps to fit herself adequately for war,—for that universal war which the prophet foretells.
Serving Notice on Office-Holders
THE influence of the boycott is to play an important part in the work of the image of the beast. According to the prophecy, those who fail to pay homage to the church and state power, which will be formed in the United States in the future, will be permitted neither to buy nor to sell. Rev. 13:17. That this influence is already operating in the efforts which are being made in the bringing about of a church and state union, we see growing evidence. Indeed, many so-called reformers openly teach that the men occupying positions of trust in the state who refuse to accede to their demands, should be politically boycotted. One of the latest utterances of this character is found in the words of Dr. David J. Burrell, of New York, at the recent World’s Christian Citizenship Conference in Philadelphia. According to the United Presbyterian of December 22, Dr. Burrell says:—
The American sabbath is the seal of divine franchise and the token of our covenant with God, who has made us a nation; and when the Sabbath ceases to be a day of rest, not all the people in the country will be able to restore our great republic. There are grave dangers confronting us. We have been hurrying on at an automobile speed compared with our pace of fifty years ago. I want to point out a few dangerous tendencies with reference to the disregard of the rest day. First, we will begin with the White House. I have never mumbled nor chewed up my words, and I do not intend to do so now. We want to serve notice on our public officials that functions on the sabbath must cease. They would have ceased long ago if we had sounded the trumpet in some such way. I saw a list of such functions within the last few days,—functions held in the homes of the leading public officials. It is time we let these gentlemen know how we feel about this matter. I for one will never vote for a desecrater of the sabbath.
These arguments, which will be brought to bear more and more upon our lawmakers, will prove to them a genuine test of integrity in the crisis before us, which must determine whether the man in public office will stand for the great fundamental principles of justice and equality upon which this government was founded, or whether he will pander to the lust for political office and official position, and so compromise the principles of truth. In the coming conflict no one will be able to occupy a neutral position. These are times which will test every soul, and will make apparent to all the world whether men stand for God and truth, or whether they are governed by principles of selfish interest.
The Glory of Americans
THIS glory, according to the Western Recorder of December 22, is in their freedom and their right to do their own thinking. The Recorder says:—
If Americans glory in anything, it is their freedom and their right to do their own thinking, and these rights they propose to perpetuate by a process of elimination and cancellation, and that, too, at all costs. Strangely enough, some of our preachers are trying to establish, in the religious realm, the very thing that statesmen are striving to destroy in secular life. It may be well for us to remember that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” in spiritual as well as in temporal affairs.
Co-operating With God
WE need to co-operate with God in bringing about an answer to our petitions. Speaking of this question, the Sunday School Times says:—
When a prayed-for blessing, for ourselves or for others, is greatly delayed in coming, the delay is not always God’s delay. It may be caused by our own sin. A father prays earnestly for the spiritual life of his son, that he may receive Christ into his life, and live the life that is Christ’s. Time drags on, with no evidence of any response, from either God or the boy, to that prayer. Why does God so delay the blessing? the father asks; and he entirely misses the fact that it is not God, but himself, who is delaying the blessing; in that he has not yet allowed Christ to have such a complete mastery and infilling of his own life that, through him, Christ can reach his boy. Every act or word of unlove or impatience in our lives is a blocking of God’s answer to our prayers for others: in these failures we prevent Christ from testifying of himself, in our lives, to others. So his work in their lives is hindered and delayed; but it is not fair to think of the delay as from God.
Report From Elder J. N. Loughborough
By John Norton Loughborough
“THEN they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” Mal. 3: 16. I have been much interested in reading the reports in the REVIEW from our brethren in all parts of the world. We like to hear from them often. I find, however, by reference to my diary, that I have not reported since July 26, but I have not been idle by any means.
Since that date I have attended three camp-meetings in California,—San Diego, Berkeley, and Visalia,—and, in company with Brother and Sister S. N. Haskell, have taken part in three institutes,—Reno and Fallon, Nev., and Turlock, Cal. I also spent two days with the Woodland church, which I had not visited before for twenty-two years. I have also had opportunity to speak several times in Lodi, my home church. I thank the Lord that notwithstanding in about one month (D. V.) I enter upon my eightieth year, he still gives me strength to labor in this precious cause, in which I have spent the most of my life. How evident it is that this message is rapidly drawing to its close! May we all be found in just that place and condition that the light which “has risen upon” us may shine out in heavenly rays. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Switzerland
By O. E. Reinke
We are having good experiences here in Switzerland. This winter we are starting the work in the Catholic city of Lucerne. Of its thirty-three thousand inhabitants, only one fifth are Protestant; and so far we have not a single believer in the message. Oct 1, 1910, Elder K. Untermaier and his family moved to Lucerne from Bern, but he and his wife were shortly taken very ill. Both are improving at present, and we hope for their speedy recovery.
We are working this winter in eight cities, with but seven workers, two of whom are Bible workers. Two local elders are assisting us in holding lectures in Borpal and Zurich; this enables the workers to press into the southern part of the Catholic center.
The Missionary Advent issue of the Herold der Wahrheit is being subscribed for freely, twenty thousand copies having been asked for to date by the different churches, and still more orders are coming in.
We are planning to hold Sabbath-school conventions this winter in the larger churches, to strengthen this part of the work.
Our young men are going through a hard test in their military experiences. Last year two brethren were imprisoned, one for ten days, the other for six weeks. This year one brother was imprisoned six weeks, and another four months. In each case an account of their conversion and of the principles of present truth was set forth by them before the court, and was printed in the different newspapers in Switzerland.
Missionary work with our periodicals, in the sense of receiving gifts, is prohibited in Basle. One sister was arrested and fined because she received a gift of twenty centimes, or four cents. We appealed to the supreme court, but without avail. We realize that true freedom is only in Christ, but nevertheless our work is going onward. We are all of good courage in the Lord, and our prayers unite with yours for the speedy finishing of the work of Jehovah on this sinful earth. O. E. REINKE.
Along the Zambesi
By J. R. Campbell
AFTER spending a little more than two years and three months up-country in mission work,—more than half the time in northwest Rhodesia,—Pastor W. H. Anderson kindly gave me a holiday.
In order to make the journey as profitable as possible, it was decided that I should make a part of it on foot, and locate out-station sites in a district not yet entered, and then take the train at Wankies for the south.
September 20, with three of the mission boys as carriers, I set off through the hills east of the mission for the Zambesi River. The country is extremely rough, many of the hills almost reaching the distinction of mountains. The natives in this region live along the rivers in the narrow valleys. The villages are small, and with few exceptions, scattered. The natives living in the scattered, mountainous districts usually live thus to avoid paying taxes. I found two very good sites for out-stations before reaching the Zambesi.
After traveling a little more than one hundred miles, I stood upon the banks of the mighty Zambesi, just about three hundred miles below the point where David Livingstone first stood. For the first fifty miles along the river I found the hills extending almost into the river, leaving a very small margin for farming. Consequently, the villages are not numerous, but the people must have an opportunity of hearing the world-wide message in this generation. They will not go to find it, so we must take it to them. I pegged two sites in this district.
The next eighty miles along the river is densely populated, making it difficult to find locations near the water. Native villages and gardens greet the eye on every hand. Almost every inch of available land is taken, and if the Lord had not answered my prayers, and plainly directed me where to find a good location, I should have been baffled many times. But with his help, I was enabled to peg out five more good sites along the Zambesi.
The people are anxious for schools. The young men asked, “Are you coming back soon?” and will you open school next year? Come as soon as you can, and we will all come to school.”
Surely this is a time to work. The black man is thirsty for something he has not,—he knows not what,—and we should be on hand to draw for him living waters from the fountain of life. Other denominations are pressing down the Zambesi, one mission station having been opened there within the past four months. There is no time like the present to work for the emancipation of the black man from the slavery of sin.
Wild game throughout this region is very plentiful. Every morning and evening the snorting and bellowing of the hippopotamuses may be heard almost anywhere along the river. Every garden owner along the bank has a hut built upon poles about twelve feet above the ground, and here the women sit all night long, shouting and drumming to keep these great beasts out of their gardens. Elephants, buffaloes, and especially rhinoceroses, are very numerous in some localities, but difficult to see in the almost impenetrable bush.
How I did long to take a plunge in the cool waters of the Zambesi on those hot days; but one look at the sand-bars was sufficient to decide me as to the advisability of such an act. There great crocodiles lay, their mouths open, basking in the sun, or at sight of me slipped noiselessly into the water. The natives have built a fence of poles in the form of a semicircle extending out into the water from the bank, for the protection of cattle and sheep that come to drink; also for the natives who wish to drink or bathe.
October 8, I boarded the train at Wankies, about sixty miles south of the Zambesi River. I met my wife and daughter at De Aar, looking well and strong, for which I feel very thankful to our Heavenly Father. We are enjoying our stay in Grahamstown. J. R. CAMPBELL.
Washington, D. C.
By W. H. Green
THE writer has been in the work of this conference for more than a year, connected with the Fifth Church and working in general among the colored people.
The efforts of the leaders as well as of those in the ranks have been twofold,—striving to bring the message before those professing the truth, in order that they might receive a clearer understanding of the teachings for this time and be more firmly settled in the third angel’s message; and presenting the truth to strangers, so that they may be converted, and accept the message. As a result, the Fifth Church has been aroused to greater activity, and a sound growth has been made in all departments of endeavor.
When it is remembered that there are about one hundred thousand colored people in Washington, most of whom know nothing of the truth, one can appreciate the task before us. Yet in spite of many obstacles, progress has been made. The membership of the Fifth Church has grown from about thirty-two to fifty-two since the middle of November, 1909. Most of these are newly converted to the faith. Over eleven hundred dollars has been raised by this church during the past year in tithes and missionary offerings.
Tent-meetings were held last summer for about three months. Though the17visible results were small, it is hoped that good will yet be seen from these meetings. During the past year an effort has been made to get our books and periodicals before the people, and we trust this year will show a marked increase in this work.
The church is in need of a suitable place of worship, in keeping with the great message that we are proclaiming; and it is hoped that this year this need will be supplied.
We trust that the brethren and sisters will remember this department of the work, and that we may have their sincere prayers.