In many ways the year 1908 has been a prosperous one for the work in our field. There has been a gradual increase in membership. Some who were indifferent to the truth have been revived, and all seem of good courage.
Our two academies are well equipped, and with the assistance rendered by the General Conference, and the efforts made in the conferences where the schools are located, we hope soon to liquidate the indebtedness. We have a good class of students in both schools, and the work is going on well. During the vacations our students go out into the field with books, and in this way, wholly or in part, pay their way through the school. We are looking to our schools for workers in the various departments of the conference, and we are sanguine that we shall not be disappointed. Already two have positions as conference workers, and others are preparing to enter the work. Some will, no doubt, make canvassing their regular work, some will take up Bible work, while others will go out as teachers, and some will prepare for the ministry. Our church-schools, though few in number, are being successfully carried on, and we hope to organize several more this year.
The publishing work has enjoyed a successful year, and we are organizing for still more aggressive work. Our sales for the year amounted to nearly eleven thousand dollars, a gain of about four thousand dollars over 1907. We have set our stakes for an output of twenty thousand dollars’ worth of literature this year, and we shall try to enlist everybody in its distribution. We are gratified to know that the reading-matter placed in the hands of the people is doing much good, and many will be brought to a knowledge of the truth, and saved in the kingdom of God, as the result of the work of our faithful canvassers.
We are pleased to report that we now have a provincial canvassing agent in the Maritime Conference, Brother G. W. Miller, who will give his whole time to field work. Brother Miller is a native of Nova Scotia, and has had several years’ experience in the book work. His headquarters will be at Moncton, New Brunswick, but he will work both in New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia. At the close of the school at Williamsdale, he will conduct an institute, and then place the canvassers in the field and join them in their work for the summer. We are also negotiating for a provincial agent for Ontario.
Our publishing house has been moved from Toronto Junction to Ottawa. We are well located here, and have put in a good stock of books for the summer trade. We are considering the question of buying a lot in Ottawa and erecting a building of our own for our publishing work, as we are fully convinced that Ottawa is the place for our headquarters and for our publishing house. The treatment-rooms at Ottawa and at Lindsay, Ontario, are prospering, and giving satisfaction to the public.
The program for the special REVIEW campaign was carried out quite fully, and considerable money was received. As a result of this effort, several persons became much interested in our work. We believe that number of the REVIEW is doing great good.
One church building has been erected; two others are under construction, and will soon be ready for dedication.
Our ministers are working mostly in the cities this winter, encouraging the believers, and holding public services evenings. Through sickness and removals to other fields our corps of laborers is somewhat diminished at present, but it will be reinforced soon.
From our mission field, Newfoundland, come interesting reports of the work. Several have been added to the number of believers, and others are interested in the truth. A goodly number of the special REVIEW were used in the island with good results.
Our tithes and offerings are gradually increasing, and our people are coming to realize more and more the importance of giving not only their means, but also their sons and daughters to the Lord’s work. We are pleased to report progress from our part of the field, and are claiming the promise, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
W. H. Thurston,
President Canadian Union Conference.
West Pennsylvania
By W. H. Green
PITTSBURG.—The second church of Seventh-day Adventists of this city is holding its ground in the midst of the difficult financial conditions through which the city and the country have been passing, as the following report will show: The church is about three years old. Starting with a membership of ten, it has grown to forty-one. Six, however, have been dropped for various causes—leaving thirty-five.
It has a live Sabbath-school, a growing Missionary Volunteer society, and a Dorcas aid society. The total offerings for the year 1908 amount to $1,082.32. The value of literature sold and given away by members of the church is nine hundred fifty dollars. Some of the members have been active in the distribution of literature, and much Bible work has been done both at the church and from house to house.
We hope to purchase, through the conference, a piece of property offered us, to use as a chapel and treatment-rooms. If any wish to help us, they may send their offerings to A. V. Williams, secretary and treasurer, Corydon, Pa., or to W. H. Green, 11 Conklin St., Pittsburg, Pa., for the work among the colored people. W. H. GREEN.
Nearing the Final Crisis
By K. C. Russell; W. A. Colcord
The times which we have long anticipated are now upon us. Prophecy is meeting such a rapid fulfilment in these days that even those who have clearly understood it stand all but amazed as they behold the wonderful events occurring in quick succession.
Instead of the year 1909 starting out as a “Happy New Year,” great gloom and sorrow has settled like an awful pall over the inhabitants of the world in consequence of the most appalling earthquake that has occurred since the flood. This calamity adds another to the already rapidly increasing list of catastrophes that show the nearness of Christ’s coming.
Another consideration in this connection, which is of intense interest to those who honor God’s Sabbath, is the fact that those who are maintaining the spurious sabbath will charge them with being responsible for all these great calamities that are coming upon the world, because they do not observe Sunday as a day of rest. The course that will be pursued by Satan and his followers against God’s commandment-keeping people has been clearly outlined by the spirit of prophecy, in the following words:—
“In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast.
“And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath, that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced, and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity.” — “Great Controversy,” page 590.
The frequent occurrence of these awful visitations of God’s wrath should arouse those who know what these things mean to greater activity in disseminating the principles of the third angel’s message. What is needed is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people, which will inspire them to more faithful service and to a life of self-sacrifice.
The Movements Stated in Brief
There were held in November and December of 1908, in three of the largest cities in the United States,—Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg,—three of the most significant gatherings which have convened in modern times. In Chicago, Ill., November 15-18, was held the great American Missionary Congress of Roman Catholics; in Pittsburg, Pa., December 1-3, the convention of the leading representatives of Sunday-law enforcement, for the purpose of organizing a National Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States; and in Philadelphia, December 2-8, the great Federal Council of the Protestant Churches of the United States.
These great movements are organizing so thoroughly that all those who do not yield to their demands will ultimately experience the intolerance and oppression that must inevitably attend the success of such movements. It is evident that Seventh-day Adventists, who refuse to join in these great movements, must, in the end, be regarded as a distinct, peculiar, and marked people.
The Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States
The Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States has secured the affiliation of both the Roman Catholics and the great federated labor organizations in their work of obtaining Sunday legislation. With these strong allies, it is not difficult to see what the practical results will be when once they have succeeded in districting the United States, and the work has been assigned to local Sunday Rest leagues for the rigid enforcement of the Sunday laws in the various States in the Union, as is now being done by the Lord’s Day Alliance in Canada.
Inter-Church Federation Movement
The great Federal Council of the Protestant Churches of America is organizing for as thorough and sweeping enforcement of Sunday observance by civil law as is the Lord’s Day Alliance. The intolerance and oppression that will ultimately attend this federation were clearly foreshadowed during the council in the discussion of Sunday observance, when that convention voted down a resolution according to toleration to those represented in the council who conscientiously observe the seventh day as the Sabbath—Seventh-day Baptists. The real reason toleration was denied the Seventh-day18Baptists was made plain by one of the delegates, who said that if they granted toleration to the Seventh-day Baptists, “the Seventh-day Adventists will take heart in their antagonism to many of the things which we hold sacred, in addition to their assaults upon the first day of the week as a day of rest and worship.” From this it will be seen that Seventh-day Adventists are the Mordecai in the gate to the Inter-Church Federation movement.
Surely no true Seventh-day Adventist can fail to see where this whole movement is aimed, and what the outcome must inevitably be. In view of the attitude that the Protestant churches of America are assuming toward those who conserve the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, how forcibly the following words from “Great Controversy” come home to God’s remnant people at this time:—
“As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law, they will long to silence those whose faith they can not overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal sabbath.”—Page 592.
The Roman Catholic Congress
Speaking of the Roman Catholic Congress recently held in Chicago, Elder Allen Moon, who attended it, says:—
“This Catholic congress was a wonderful revelation to me. If there is any doubt in the minds of the people that we are living in the last days, I am sure that this would have been dispelled could they have attended the meetings of the congress. It established beyond doubt the fact that we are in the time of the end; that the Catholic power of this world has decided again to assert itself. It is evident that the Catholic Church has fully reached the conclusion that Protestantism is a dead issue, and that the time has come for the mother church to re-establish itself upon the ruins. It was openly declared by the speakers on the platform that the Roman Catholic Church was now prepared to go forward and rebuild the mother church on the ruins of decaying Protestantism. I have not witnessed such enthusiasm in years in connection with any religious or political assembly. The leading men of the congress asserted that now the Catholic Church proposed to go forth to take possession of the world, and we have no doubt of their sincerity.”
A Catholic President
The suggestions so frequently made of late about a “Catholic president” for the United States are not a little significant. In his message to the pope, sent through Bishop Gabriels, of Ogdensburg, N. Y., just as the latter was about to set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, President Roosevelt said:—
“Tell the holy father that I send him my profound regards. I am most happy because of the good relations existing between the Vatican and this government. . . . This republic will, we may hope, stand for many centuries, and I hope there will be Catholic presidents as well as Protestant presidents.”
In his letter of Nov. 6, 1908, in reply to Mr. J. C. Martin, of Dayton, Ohio, a similar statement was made.
Archbishop Ireland, in a recent speech in St. Louis, said:—
“There are seventeen million Catholics in this country, and they are not represented in its great offices as they should be. Go to Washington, and you will find perhaps two or three Catholics in responsible positions. Wherever you go, you will not find Catholics well represented in public offices.”
“There is a chance for Catholics if they are worthy. I have heard the statement that there will never be a Catholic president of the United States. This is all nonsense. When the right man is presented, the United States will choose him, and not discriminate because of his religion, but elect him because of his fitness.”
From all this we can see that the time is rapidly approaching when we shall realize the fulfilment of what the Lord has told us through the spirit of prophecy:—
“Marvelous in her shrewdness and cunning is the Romish Church. She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the false sabbath, and that they are preparing to employ the very means which she herself employed in bygone days.”
“The Christian world will learn what Romanism really is, when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. Throughout the land she is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. She is stealthily and unsuspectedly strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is soon to be given her. In the near future we shall see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”—“Great Controversy” (edition 1885), page 397.
Sunday Legislation in Congress
The year 1908 has been a most remarkable one along the lines of religious legislation. During the first session of the Sixtieth Congress an unparalleled number of Sunday bills were introduced in Congress, and the United States Senate, for the first time in its history, passed a compulsory Sunday bill. This was made more significant by virtue of the fact that now it can be said that both branches of Congress are committed to the evil of Sunday legislation, the House having passed a similar bill on two previous occasions.
It will be remembered that the Johnston Sunday bill is now before the House of Representatives, and its passage may be forced through that body at any time. A letter has just been received by the Religious Liberty Department from a prominent congressman, who is opposed to Sunday legislation, in which he says that he has received a large number of letters from grocers in favor of the bill. It is also reported that the labor organization desire to have a hearing on this bill, that they may have opportunity to more strongly urge its passage.
Our Duty at This Time
In the face of these gigantic movements which are now in the field to abridge the rights of conscience, what shall we do to stem the rising tide of religious intolerance and oppression? Our answer to this question is that we should awaken now as never before to the importance of enlightening the millions who are being deceived by the sophistries of church-and-state and Sunday-law advocates. Among the most effective means by which this can be accomplished is the use of our religious liberty literature, public lectures, and the public press. But in order successfully to do this work, we must all unite as one grand army of soldiers in the sacrifice of both our time and means.
The Religious Liberty Department of the General Conference has been prosecuting its work by public addresses, correspondence, and the publication and circulation of a large amount of literature. During two recent religious liberty campaigns we circulated over one thousand dollars’ worth of literature. The department supplies Liberty regularly to every member of Congress, some five hundred in all, to all the colleges and universities in the United States, numbering over four hundred thirty, and to many others. To meet all those expenses we are dependent upon the one annual offering made for this department of the work.
Our funds are now exhausted, and the outlook for 1909 is that our expenses will far exceed those of the past year; hence we most earnestly urge that the offering this year be a very liberal one.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU,
K. C. RUSSELL, Chairman,
W. A. COLCORD, Secretary.
Field Notes
Field Notes
Five persons were baptized at Carthage, Mo., recently, and united with the church at that place.
As a result of work done during the week of prayer, eleven were baptized on a recent Sabbath at St. Helena, Cal.
Two persons have united with the church at Northfield, Ind., as a result of meetings recently held in that place.
MRS. ANNIE SUFFICool, of Madison, Wis., reports that she has eleven interested readers, and two have made a start to obey the truth.
FOUR have taken their stand for the truth at Arkansas City, Kan., since the organization of the church there, and as many more are arranging to do so soon.
BROTHER A. J. OSBORNE says: “The work at Fortuna (Cal.) is still onward. I assisted Brother Sims in his meeting there last Sabbath, and administered baptism to three persons who now rejoice in the third angel’s message.”
A REPORT from Brother Isaac Baker, says: “Elder W. A. McCutchen and I have been laboring together the past summer. We held our first meeting at Oplin, Tex. Only two accepted the truth there. From there we went to McCauley, and when I left, six or seven were keeping the Sabbath.”
BROTHER GEORGE REESE, who is doing house-to-house work in San Francisco, Cal., selling books and papers, found one English family who first read our books in West Australia. The man and his wife have now decided to keep the commandments; and another woman and her daughter have been baptized.
Christian Liberty
Reports, Notes, and Comments Pertaining to the Current History of the Rights of Conscience
Conducted by the Religious Liberty Bureau
K. C. RUSSELL Chairman
W. A. COLCORD Secretary
Religious Liberty Day
Program
Sabbath, Feb. 6, 1909
SINGING—“Hymns and Tunes,” 1397; “Christ in Song,” old edition, 617; new, 656.
SINGING—“Hymns and Tunes,” 854; “Christ in Song,” old, 637; new, 705.
READING FOR THE DAY—“Nearing the Final Crisis.”
ANNUAL OFFERING for the Religious Liberty Work.
PRAYER for God’s Blessing on Offering.
SINGING—“Hymns and Tunes,” 1379; “Christ in Song,” old, 402; new, 510.
Sunday-Law Agitation in Wisconsin
THE eighteenth annual convention of the Wisconsin Sunday Rest Day Association was held in Portage, Wednesday, November 18. Several papers were read pertaining to the violation of the Sunday law by Sunday ball-games, the open saloon, etc. Resolutions were adopted to urge pastors to instruct the public to bring about a sentiment to force Sunday observance, and to urge the legislature to pass a law requiring employers to give employees one day in each week for rest. In one of the speeches, this statement was made: “The sabbath-keeping nations from time immemorial have been the strong, progressive people of the day. We have the law, the government, to a large extent all, on our side against Sunday work or Sunday sport.” At the closing meeting Father M. J. Ward, of the Catholic Church of Beloit, spoke on the subject of “Closing Saloons on Sunday.” Among other things, he said: “It would seem that in this age no one could need any argument to prove the need of Sunday rest and worship, nor should any one need to be urged to love it. We greatly need good laws, and then to see that these laws are enforced.”
How Can Health Reform Be Taught With the Old-Time Enthusiasm?
By William C. White
(Concluded)
With many of our ministers there is a wisdom and power in their work of teaching temperance and hygiene that leads their converts to be intelligent and loyal health reformers. How can this good work be made more general? What can our physicians and nurses do to strengthen the hands of the ministers and Bible workers?
There needs to be a clearer understanding among us as to what health reform really is. What does loyalty to this part of our work really demand from us?
There needs to be a better understanding as to how the health and temperance principles can be most successfully taught, (a) by the pioneers who are carrying the message into new territory; (b) by our church-school teachers and leaders of Missionary Volunteer societies, to the children and youth; (c) by the true medical missionary to the members of our churches who need further instruction.
There needs to be provided a more complete literature on the various phases of temperance and health reform, (a) for the use of our church-schools and Missionary Volunteer societies; (b) for church-members who wish, by example and by word of mouth, to teach the principles to their friends and neighbors; (c) as pioneer literature to call the attention of the world to the value of these principles.
Compare the wealth of literature we have on the Sabbath question, the second advent, the prophecies, and the immortality question, and the perfect adaptation of this literature to the various needs of the field, with the poverty and lack of symmetry of our health literature. Many times physicians have asked me why it is that our publishing houses do not issue more health literature. In reply I have asked why our medical men do not furnish the manuscripts for the books that are needed.
Study the painstaking effort of the Sabbath-school Department in its perfect organization, its instruction to officers, and its publication of a journal for the help of its teachers, and note the satisfactory results.
There needs to be a renewal of the “forward movement,” a revival of the “Christian Help work,” an awakening of all our people to the fact that in our temperance and health reform principles we have a very precious talent that should be conscientiously put to use for the Master.
There needs to be a waking up of both our local and union conference medical departments to their responsibilities, and a more earnest, persevering work done by those chosen to bear responsibilities in these departments.
There needs to be organized and systematically conducted a work in behalf of all our graduate nurses that will be as skilfully and faithfully carried forward as is the work for the training and encouragement of church-school teachers and the work for the organization and furtherance of our Missionary Volunteer societies. Year by year, at great expense, we train a splendid army of nurses, and then we let a large number of them drift away into employments where they do not count as active workers for Christ.
True, it is not so easy to gather together the nurses for convention work as it is to assemble the teachers or the canvassers; but the difficulties of this work should not deter us from doing what we can to encourage the nurses, and to lead them on, step by step, to the accomplishment of the great work that they are fitted to do in building up the kingdom of the Master. We should systematically work for them by correspondence, by personal visits, and by conventions wherever possible.
There needs to be more heed given to the oft-repeated counsels that our ministers should study the principles of hygiene and simple nursing, so that they can work intelligently for the sick in connection with their gospel ministry.
There needs to be a more earnest effort to encourage young physicians and nurses to unite their labors with the gospel ministers, who are holding series of meetings in tents and halls, that they may be efficient helpers, and at the same time be learning to become competent medical evangelists.
There needs to be a greater effort on the part of our conferences and sanitariums to send out groups of trained nurses to sell health literature, and to conduct schools of health in many places.
When we have done our very best to strengthen the medical work by the conscientious use of every talent we possess, then we shall find among us an enthusiasm, born of the Spirit of God, that will exceed anything known either in the olden times or in the present.
W. C. WHITE.
Graduating Exercises at the Mussoorie Sanitarium
By H. C. Menkel
Nov. 1, 1908, marked an event of much interest in the medical work in India,—the graduation of the first class from our Mussoorie Sanitarium. The class consisted of one member, Mrs. J. Eaton. While the quantity seems small, we are happy to say that the quality of this class is very satisfactory. The exercises were conducted at the sanitarium in the presence of the workers and a few friends. An appetizing dinner was served, after which Dr. H. C. Menkel delivered an address on the object of our medical institutions in India, the work they are to accomplish in hastening the coming of the Lord, and preparing a people to meet him. At the close a diploma was presented to the graduating nurse.
The great need of the medical work in this country is workers. So long as our constituency is small, it will be difficult to secure suitable persons to train; and for some time to come, it will be necessary for us to look to the home land for medical workers, who must carry the burden of the work. But we are constantly praying that the Lord will raise up young people in this country to whom we shall be able to give a training to assist in this work. We hope to have two young persons to enter the class at the beginning of the next season.
The Mussoorie Sanitarium passed through a very prosperous season during its first year in the hills. This has been an experiment, and has proved successful. The hill station is the proper place for the location of our sanitarium, and in the future it is the policy of the Indian Board to conduct only treatment-rooms in the larger cities. We are receiving inquiries for the next season, and a promising year's work is before us. I trust that the results, both physical and spiritual, will increase year by year.
H. C. MENKEL, M. D.
Findings
Dr. F. M. Rossiter made us a short visit on his way to Germany, where he is to study for a time better to prepare himself for his work in the sanitarium at North Yakima, Wash.
Dr. R. S. Cummings, who has been spending a number of months in Vienna, Austria, in postgraduate work, made a short visit in Washington, D. C., on his return to his work in the Paradise Valley Sanitarium.
Medical Missionary Department
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference
W. A. GEORGE, M. D. ........................................ Chairman
W. A. RUBLE, M. D. ........................................ Secretary
Young People's Work
Conducted by the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Department of the General Conference
M. E. KERN Chairman
MATILDA ERICKSON Secretary
The Temperance Rallies
By M. E. K.
THE interest of our young people in the great temperance movement has been increasing with each Missionary Volunteer lesson published in the Instructor. These lessons furnish good weapons for use in the temperance warfare. The last of this series of lessons will be on “Our Duty and Responsibility,” and will probably be in the Instructor of March 2. When that lesson is given, every Seventh-day Adventist youth who has not already done so ought to sign the “Total Abstinence Pledge.” Be sure that the pledges are on hand. Then comes the special Temperance number of the Instructor, which is to be one of the finest numbers ever published, with respect to matter, illustrations, and workmanship.
With the materials of these lessons and the Temperance number in hand, it is planned that in all our churches a temperance rally shall be held about March 28. Let all, both old and young, begin to plan definitely for this. Extend the notice of the rally, so as to reach as large a number of the people as possible with these great temperance truths. Have on hand a number of the temperance lessons of the Instructor and other temperance literature to sell or give to the people.
Then let our young people take hold of the circulation of this Temperance number with vigor. “O, the good we all may do, while the days are going by!” but if we fail to work for the men and women who are tossed on the sea of intemperance, shall we be held blameless?
M. E. K.
Is It Worth While?
By M. E. K.
About fifteen hundred young people have enrolled for the reading course, and some are doing the work who have not enrolled. Is it worth while? Let the young people answer:—
“The course has been of inestimable value to me. From it I have learned to depend upon God for guidance and help, even in the little things of life. I have learned to pray more when difficulties and trials are hardest.”
“It almost makes me desire to become a foreign missionary.”
“Even though I am busy with my school work and daily duties, I do not feel that I can afford to miss the reading course. Although I did not finish the other course, I was greatly benefited by the part that I finished.”
“The lessons of the reading course have been a great help to me as a canvasser; also I have been doing some Bible and paper work from house to house, and by taking the reading course it has helped me to keep many points of doctrine in my mind, also many scriptures.”
“The reading course has helped me to gain a clearer view of the whole question of the great controversy between good and evil. One of the benefits which I have received is a knowledge of some of the skilful ways of Satan in leading people astray, and the means through which we can successfully withstand him.”
“The reading course has been a great help to me in seeing clearer the great controversy between good and evil. It has also been a help to me in remembering the scriptures and keeping many points of truth in my mind.”
“Indeed I am taking the course this year. I liked the other course so much I could not afford to miss this one.”
“The course has given me a broader, better view of the message.”
“A brother in one of our churches said that after the young people had started the course, there seemed to be a marked interest in the work among them. Several took part in prayer at the meetings who had not been in the habit of so doing.”
Some of the societies in one conference have decided to work up the reading course by giving about fifteen minutes of the Sabbath meeting for review of the past week’s reading.
M. E. K.
Items of Interest
By M. E. K.
A young lady in Georgia who has been engaged in selling Life and Health for the past quarter has disposed of about fifteen hundred papers. She expects to attend the training-school at Graysville, Tenn., next term.
Another young lady is selling the Signs, but I am not able to state just what success she has had. A sister in the South has been working among the prisoners in a federal prison, and the young people have planned to render a program in the prison soon.
A society in North Michigan has between twenty-five and thirty dollars raised toward buying a bell for their church. The young people and children are selling papers to add to this fund. Another society has taken upon itself the furnishing of their new schoolhouse.
Every Missionary Volunteer worker understands that one of the greatest needs in this work is well-qualified local leaders. The Missionary Volunteer secretary of the Southern California Conference writes thus of their efforts to train leaders: “Brother Luther Warren and myself are giving some time to holding institutes with our promising young people in various sections, for the purpose of giving them special instructions in how to work.”
The Missionary Volunteer Department of the Southern California Conference has published a twelve-page leaflet entitled “Missionary Volunteer Bulletin.” It gives a list of leading texts on some of the fundamental points of faith, to aid the young people in preparing for the Standard of Attainment. The secretary says: “We expect, before the end of the year, to have all our societies so familiar with the points of our faith that they can give the citation of the scriptures, and also repeat the scriptures bearing on the various subjects.” Other topics in the leaflet are the “Reading Course,” “The School at Rome,” “Fernando Academy,” “The Home or Conference Department,” and “Ammunition.”
In the Southern California Conference many of the young people are taking special interest in the reading of the Bible. A Bible Reading Band was organized at the camp-meeting, which has now grown to number nine hundred or more.
M. E. K.
Missionary Volunteer Councils and Conventions
By M. E. K.
For the upbuilding of this branch of the Lord's work it has been arranged to hold a series of union conference Missionary Volunteer councils. The meetings will be attended by the Missionary Volunteer secretaries, many of the conference presidents, and the chairman of the Missionary Volunteer Department of the General Conference. The schedule for these councils is as follows:—
Mount Vernon College, Mount Vernon, Ohio, January 13.
Lake Union Missionary Volunteer Council, Berrien Springs, Mich., January 14-18.
Central and Northern Union Missionary Volunteer Council, College View, Neb., January 19-24.
Montana Young People's Convention, Bozeman, Mont., January 28-30.
Spokane Convention, January 31 to February 2.
North Pacific Union Missionary Volunteer Council and Convention, Walla Walla, Wash., February 3-11.
Seattle Young People's Convention, Seattle, Wash., February 12-15.
Portland Young People's Convention, Portland, Ore., February 16-21.
California Young People's Convention, Sanitarium, Cal., February 24-27.
Pacific Union Missionary Volunteer Council, Fernando, Cal., March 3-7.
Southwestern Union Missionary Volunteer Council, Keene, Tex., March 10-14.
Huntsville School, Huntsville, Ala., March 16.
Graysville Young People's Convention, Graysville, Tenn., March 18-21.
Let those whose hearts are burdened for our youth pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these gatherings, that heavenly wisdom may be imparted to those who are planning for this important work.