located, a meeting having been appointed for 9 A.M. the next day. The drive through the groves of coconut palms and the vanilla and coffee plantations, in the cool night air, was most refreshing. After reaching the home of Brother Adams at Arue, we lost no time in retiring; for it was essential, if we desired to see Tahitian life on market morning, to arise about 4 A.M.
It was still dark when we reached Papeete next morning, but the Tahitians are wise in preferring to do their shopping by electric light, before “old Sol” throws his tropical rays into their humid atmosphere. The scene presented in the market-place beggars description. It must be seen to be appreciated. One thing noticeable is the entire absence of that bustle which characterizes Australasian markets, the climate of Tahiti not conducing to the development of that trait. But while business proceeds leisurely enough, yet as there were multitudes of housewives to purchase the wide range of products marketed, the venders gradually disposed of their wares.
The Tahitian women dress in the very lightest cotton prints, the garment being loose from the shoulders, and reaching to the ankles. As they walk they usually hold up one side of their skirts very gracefully with their left elbows pressed against their sides, leaving the right arm free. Very few wear shoes, but they all wear hats. At the early morning market many of them wore also light silk shawls of various tints thrown about their shoulders. Some of them imitated their brothers and husbands by indulging in smoking cigarettes. While they purchased or sold their foodstuffs, they would leave their infant children lying asleep in any convenient spot. Evidently children do not cause Tahitian women the same anxiety that white women show for their offspring. In fact, no one need be without children in Tahiti, for the Tahitian mothers are always ready to find good homes for their babies. The writer’s wife was offered one of the first native babies she saw; but apart altogether from other valid objections, the “white Australia” policy of the commonwealth would not permit her to accept the valuable gift that was proffered.
A scene in Tahiti, coconut palm in the foreground
A home of our missionaries in Tahiti, Brother and Sister Thomas, just now in Australia
Our return drive to Arue along the dustless road in the fresh, early morning air was delightful. The narrow road was fringed with magnificent tropical trees on either side, many of which, being fruit-bearing, reminded us how wonderfully the Lord had provided for the wants of the natives of these islands. Not only are luscious and nutritious fruits to be found in profusion, but Tahiti abounds in rivers and streams. As we drove along the road, we crossed numbers of little creeks and swiftly flowing rivers whose clear, sparkling waters rushed over their rocky beds to the ocean below. In addition to a good water supply, the native can always quench his thirst with the milk of the ubiquitous coconut.
Half an hour’s drive through this delightful avenue of tropical trees brought us back again to Arue. After watching for a little while the mighty ocean rollers break with thunderous roar on the rocks just below the mission house, we partook of breakfast, and then repaired to the church about three quarters of a mile away, where we expected to meet some of the native converts.
The church is a very neat building indeed, and great credit belongs to the native deacons for the care that they exercise in keeping the grounds and general surroundings of the Lord’s house in such neat and excellent order. A large bell rang out its call to meeting, and the congregation assembled for worship. Pastor Lyndon took charge; and as the natives are particularly fond of music, a considerable part of the service was devoted to singing, all the hymns being sung by the entire congregation, in the Tahitian tongue, with organ accompaniment.
Short addresses were delivered by Pastor Fulton and the writer in English, Pastor Lyndon translating their remarks to the natives, who showed a most intelligent appreciation of all that was said.
After further singing, a few words were spoken by each of the other visitors from Australia and New Zealand, as the natives had expressed a desire to hear, from the lips of each one, who they were, whence they came, and whither they were going. In a few brief sentences, which were translated by Pastor Lyndon, the visitors appeased the curiosity of the natives. At the request of Pastor Fulton, several hymns were sung by the Tahitians, without organ accompaniment. Their rendering of these hymns gave unmistakable evidence that they possessed considerable natural musical ability, for they commenced to sing at a suitable pitch without the aid of organ or tuning-fork. They also kept excellent time and sang in tune together, and where any difficulty arose through the irregularity of the rhythm, they were always equal to the occasion, introducing little changes into the time and melody wherever they were demanded through exigencies of translation from English into the Tahitian language. Moreover, they sang in good three-part harmony, much of which was quite original, differing in many important features from the harmony we are accustomed to use for the same hymns in English.
The visitors were then called upon to sing some pieces with organ accompaniment, which they gladly consented to do. As all four parts were represented, we were able to give the natives a little idea of the beauty of English choral music.
At the termination of this most enjoyable meeting, the visitors were treated to a unique luncheon. In addition to the excellent
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Do you like a good story? The new home workers’ booklet gives several intensely interesting true stories of children and young people who have been influenced by reading good books. “New Testament Primer,” “Best Stories,” “Steps to Christ,” “Our Paradise Home,” and the other beautiful small books shown in the handy prospectus and sold successfully by home workers, are wielding a mighty influence in saving boys and girls from evil. They cultivate an interest in the Bible.
The books shown by the prospectus are:
Advance Guard of MissionsBest StoriesChrist Our SaviourElo the EagleHis Glorious AppearingHouse We Live InLittle Folks’ Bible NatureMaking Home HappyMaking Home PeacefulMount of BlessingNew Testament PrimerOur Paradise HomeSteps to ChristStory of Pitcairn IslandThose Bible ReadingsUncle Ben’s Cobblestones
The prospectus, which contains samples of all the books, is so arranged that as many or as few samples may be carried at one time as you desire. The commission (40% or 50%, according to the book) is extended alike to the person who can put in only a small amount of time near home, and the one who can spend full time in this work. In either case the sales usually average at least $1.50 an hour. The work is pleasant and profitable, and one in which the possibilities for good are unlimited.
Ask your tract society (or the publishers) to send you free copy of the new home workers booklet. It gives full particulars regarding prices, bindings, discounts, and contains descriptions, talking points, and canvasses, to assist you in successfully introducing these beautiful books into the homes of the people.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATIONMountain View, California
NOTICE
By H. W. Cottrell; C. E. Olcott
Western Oregon Conference Association
The Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, a legal corporation, is hereby called to meet on the camp ground in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, June 26, 1913, at 10 o’clock a.m., for the purpose of electing a board of five trustees, whose offices shall continue for one year, or until their successors are elected and are qualified, and of transacting such other business as the delegates may desire. The accredited delegates to the religious body are the delegates to the association.
By order of the Board of Trustees.
H. W. COTTRELL, President.
C. E. OLCOTT, Secretary.
WESTERN OREGON CONFERENCE
By H. W. Cottrell; J. L. Kay
The eleventh annual session of the Western Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is hereby called to be held at Portland, Oregon, in connection with the annual camp-meeting, June 19-29, 1913, to enjoy a spiritual feast and to transact such business as may be the pleasure of the delegates. Conference will organize for work Friday, the 27th, at 9 a.m. Each church is entitled to one delegate for the organization and an additional one for every ten members.
H. W. COTTRELL, President.
J. L. KAY, Secretary.
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"THE NAKED TRUTH IS STRONG ENOUGH"
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"Truth Is Here Stranger than Fiction!" "The Most Amazing Thing That Has Ever Come Under My Eyes!" Say Our Readers
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Beautiful Double Frontispiece; A Convent Tragedy—Part IV; The Priest as God; One Phase of the “Falling Away;” Persecution in Peru To-Day; The Extermination of “Heretics;” True Idea of Sacrifice; Melchizedek and the Mass; Dr. Pierson on “Apocalyptic Crisis:” Preach the Word; The Priest as “Creator of His Creator.”
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LIBERTY MAGAZINE
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SPECIAL “CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP,” “LEGISLATIVE,” AND “INAUGURATION” NUMBER
It will tell you of the “Second World’s Christian Citizenship Conference,” Portland, Oregon, June 29 to July 5. Keep your eye upon that National Reform Association movement!
Partial Contents
Frontispiece Cartoon—“Turning to Caesar;” World’s Christian Citizenship Conference; Civil Citizenship and Christian Citizenship; Religious Legislation in Disguise; Fifty-Three Religious Measures in New York and New England; Religious Liberty Survey of the World; Federal Council of Churches and President Wilson; Mayor Gaynor on Sabbath Legislation; Rome Backs Protestant Federation Sunday Law; Defeat of Religious Legislation on Pacific Coast; Pictures of President Wilson in Inaugural Procession, Balkan-Turkish Peace Plenipotentiaries, President’s Cabinet, etc.
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Babylon’s Ruins and Bible Prophecy
The illustrations of the ruins of Babylon found on pages three and ten of this issue are intensely interesting. Some two thousand five hundred and twenty years ago the prophet Daniel and his three distinguished young companions, together with a host of other Israelitish captives, were marched within the magnificent walls of which these are the ruins. It is easy for one to imagine the prophet viewing these very walls and being stirred with appropriate indignation at the evidences of cultured and seductive idolatry. The animals that are still so conspicuous in relief on the ruined walls, and which stood for so much in the idolatries of Babylon, have, no doubt, many a time met the earnest disgust of Daniel while he was compelled to mingle among the most talented of the historic empire, a leading characteristic of which was its devotion to its senseless gods. Divine providence has permitted these ruins to remain, and men have been led to spend time and money in uncovering them, so that this skeptical age may have the great object-lesson that the Bible is dealing with fact, and not fancy or fable. The book of the Bible that Daniel wrote, through its sublime prophecies, points us to the time when the Lord Jesus Christ will come to this earth the second time. The second coming of Christ, and the culmination of all earthly dominion, is the sublime climax of the prophet's vision. We are living in the days when the great event is hovering over the world, ready to burst forth with all the glories of eternity and immortality. Daniel was one of the leading characters chosen of God to write the prophecies that forecast the glorious culmination of events that reach forward to the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. It is very fitting that the God of Daniel should providentially work to save the ruins of the place where the prophet lived and labored, and to have them disclosed to us in this momentous time.
The Witnessing of God (I. God’s Law of Witness) — 5
Christian Duty—The Gathering of Israel — 8
A Curious Sort of Sabbath-Keeping — 8
Studies in Ephesians (Reformation in Life) — 8
A Wrong Conception of True Reform — 9
The Outlook
The World as One — 10
Courts a Disgrace — 10
Changing the Name to “American Catholic Church” — 10
Crooks and the Police Force in San Francisco — 11
The Chinese Republic — 11
Notes — 11, 16
Missions
A Sunday in Tahiti — 12
Poetry
Progress—The Goat of Azazel—Who Will Go? — 7
Pastor Anderson’s Stop at Tahiti
By Editor
We omit our Home Department this week in order to give space to the excellent article of Pastor Anderson, giving an account, in word and illustration, of his stop at Tahiti on his way to General Conference.
The Growth of the English Language.—
Probably nothing has contributed more to the growth of the English language the last few years than invention. Take, for instance, the words that have sprung up around various methods of locomotion,—taxi-cab, taxi, taxi-meter, motor-boat, motor-bus, motorcycle, chauffeur, garage, speedometer, etc.; and then around wireless telegraphy, we have aerogram, Marconigram; we have lettergram and day-letter and night-letter; and many more about the various means of air passage, from dirigible to hydro-aeroplane. All these will be found in the Funk & Wagnalls new “Standard Dictionary,” which is announced to embrace the living language.
The Balkan War and Missionary Opportunity
In the beginning of the Balkan war we made this remark: “Turkey’s defeat will for a time—God’s time—give a freer field for God’s last gospel message; and when that goes to all the world, then the end will come.” The Missionary Review of the World, in its last issue, for May, asks what the probable effect of the war on Moslem work will be, and quotes a missionary thus: “It will probably mean the opening of doors which have never been opened in the lines of approach to the Mohammedan people.” “I think our opportunities for approach to the Mohammedan people will be immensely increased as the old-time position held by the Turkish Empire in regard to missionary work for Mohammedans will give place to one of toleration.” The same number tells us that there will be a much wider open door in the Balkans themselves now that Turkey’s hand has been removed from them. This was the result which we predicted at the beginning of the war, and thank God it is coming.
The Catholic Marriage Controversy
The California “Christian Advocate” and the Roman Catholic Monitor have been having almost anything but a pleasant exchange of civilities of late, the Advocate contending that “marriage was an inherent right, and could not be set aside by ‘Ne Temere’ decrees, while the Monitor contends that the statement of the Methodist paper and its inference are both barefaced lies. The Advocate had been saying that in Roman Catholic countries, where the people were not allowed to marry freely and naturally, the number of children born out of wedlock was almost equal to the number born in wedlock, and that ‘certificating’ marriages was essentially inadequate.” The Advocate continues: “The Monitor must be a little patient with us. We should have said that in Austria, in 1905, there were born out of wedlock 118,110 children, in Hungary 67,480, in France 71,500, and in Italy 58,850. In Mexico, the same year, 184,974 children were born out of wedlock.” And then the Advocate touches upon the illiteracy question, and says: “In Austria 26 per cent can neither read nor write, in Mexico 82.9 per cent, in Peru 86 per cent, in Brazil 85.2 per cent, in Chile 49 per cent, in Bolivia 82, in Spain 57.7, in Portugal 73.4, in Hungary 40, etc. There is no need of quarreling with the California Christian Advocate and calling us bad names when the statistics are at hand. We hope on this showing the Monitor will take us out of the Ananias club, but we expect it won’t.” The Advocate has acted about the same with reference to the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and the Sunday law it so much desires.
Austria and the Future of Europe
An article in the April North American Review, by Mrs. Bellamy Storer, who has resided some years in Austria, and made famous by the differences between her and Ex-President Roosevelt, declares that there is a great awakening in Austria, and that the hope of morality and religion in Europe lies in the union of Catholic Austria and Protestant Germany, but more especially she places it on the side of Catholicism, and notes the friendliness of the emperor of Germany to the Catholic party. Last year the emperor William presented the Cologne Cathedral a stained glass window, representing Pope Leo III appealing for protection to Charlemagne. The archbishop of Cologne expressed the hope that Emperor William would extend to the subjects of the Catholic Church the same gracious favor which Charlemagne had given, and in his reply his majesty assured the archbishop of his “royal favor and benevolence.” Instead of the belief that the Austrian empire is going to fall to pieces as soon as the old emperor dies, Mrs. Storer declares that the empire of Austria is great and growing, “whose duration and strength shall be based upon the foundation pillars of religion and morality.” She feels that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, is one who is able to bring about a strong empire.
A Sumptuous Railway Train
It used to be thought and said that the finest railway trains were in the East, but the Overland Limited Train de Luxe of the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and Chicago and Northwestern surpasses them all. It is a hotel on wheels, and more. In the first place, the train is all of steel, latest model, having a two-drawing-room, four-compartment observation-car, with ladies’ parlor; two Pullman sleeping-cars with ten sections, drawing-room, and two adjoining compartments; a sixteen-section Pullman sleeping-car. dynamo-baggage composite club room car and dining-car. The drawing-room and compartments have individual lavatories, complete privacy assured, or these rooms may be opened into suites of three or more rooms for families. On this train are stenographer and typewriter, writing-desk and stationery, weekly and monthly magazines. Telegrams and stamped letters sent or mailed at first opportunity; barber and shower bath, ladies’ maid and valet service; stock quotations and news items posted daily; electric lights in each berth, upper and lower, for writing or reading in your berth, etc., etc. The fare on this train is extra, but it is indeed an extra train; we know of none that equal its all-around conveniences, comforts, and luxuries.
A Church Without Convictions.—
The New York Independent says that “the Protestant Episcopal Church ought to be broad enough to hold all sorts in agreement or debate, high and low, ritualist and evangelical. So ought all other denominations to be equally broad.” All of which is liberal nonsense. A Protestant church, if it is a truly Protestant church, ought to hold those who are of truly Protestant principles; and how a truly Protestant church could hold within its communion those who had utterly repudiated the name of Protestant is more than we can see. If Protestantism is based on a principle, it ought to stand by the principle; if it is a mere name, that is another thing. A church without convictions is little better than a mass of protoplasm.
