Review and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 20.
GROUP OF WORKERS AT NAZARETH MISSION STATION, SOUTH INDIAPage 1
Earlier text: The South India Mission“I WONDER if this dress is clean enough to wear?” mused Edna, as she held up a rather mussed white dress. “I think I can wear it just once more; it doesn’t look so very bad.” So she slipped it on. But when she went out among the other girls in their snowy, immaculate dresses, it looked very “bad” indeed, and the afternoon’s pleasure was completely destroyed because she had not recognized the dividing line between cleanliness and the other extreme. “I guess I will take old Mrs. Tyner some flowers,” said Robert, going into his garden with the shears. “She is sick and would appreciate them, I think.” “I am sure she would,” said his sister. “She is crazy about flowers, and she has always thought so much of you.” But when Robert came to cut the beautiful roses, he could not bear to clip off the buds. “These others are not so fresh,” he said to himself, “but I guess they will do. I am sure they will be nice for a day or so, anyway.” He wrapped the roses and carried them to the house of the invalid. As he was ascending the steps, something made him glance into the package. The journey had jolted the overblown flowers until within remained nothing but a mass of loose petals and naked stems. With burning cheeks and a feeling of thankful relief that he had not presented the sorry bouquet, he hurried home and culled the choicest buds in his garden. “It is rather loose,” said Bertha, as she fingered a large and expensive button upon her new coat, “but I guess it will hold another day. I don’t like to stop to sew it on now.” “It will take but a minute,” said her mother; “it is a beautiful button, and I doubt if you could ever match it.” “But I see the girls coming, and I haven’t time. Anyway, I guess it isn’t quite to the point where it will drop off. I’ll sew it on as soon as I get home.” But when she came home, only a long black string hung there to mutely testify that once again the dividing point had passed unrecognized. “It doesn’t seem really wrong,” we often say. “I guess I will do it just this once.” There is no dividing line upon which we may poise safe from either extreme, as we often like to think. The dividing line does not always seem sharp and distinct because our mental and moral eyesight is poor, but it lies there just the same, as thin and fragile as a thread and as sharp as the edge of a sword, but unmistakable. And whenever we have doubt about an action,—if we have to argue with ourselves concerning it,—it is an unfailing sign that the danger line has been reached.—Selected. “THERE are ways and ways of eating an orange,” remarked a New Yorker who had just returned from a trip to the West Indies. “Before I went to Jamaica and Porto Rico, I used to strip off the rind, break up the fruit, and put the different sections into my mouth, pith and all; but down in the islands where they raise oranges, I learned some better ways of doing. “I was a guest one evening at the table of a planter in Jamaica. When dessert time came, the hostess asked me if she might peel an orange for me. She took a sharp knife and deftly removed16 the outer skin only. She began at the top and worked her way to the bottom, throwing the skin aside in one unbroken strip about twelve inches long. This left the orange still covered with the spongy white pith. She then sliced it across horizontally, and handed me the two sections. I watched what the other guests did, and bit into the expanse of golden fruit that was temptingly exposed. I found that the outer pith prevented any of the juice from escaping, while, the orange having been cut across, it was possible to get at all the meat and leave the worthless portion behind. There was no acrid rind to burn my lips, and I realized I had never fully enjoyed an orange. “This same woman called my attention to the fact that she had not divided the fruit into equal portions, and that the smaller portion had been the sweeter. I asked for an explanation, and she told me that as soon as an orange begins to ripen on the tree, the sweetening matter sinks to the lower end, away from the stem. For that reason they always cut the sweet end smaller in Jamaica. They eat the larger portion first, reserving what they call the head as a titbit. “A lady in Porto Rico showed me another way. She began to peel an orange as the Jamaica woman had done, but stopped about one quarter of the way down. She then ran the knife into the peeled end and cut away a conical section of the fruit. “The hole that resulted became rapidly filled with juice, and, following her directions, I sucked it, squeezing the orange as I did so. I had it squeezed dry in no time, getting only the pure juice into my mouth. “Then again, I was introduced to what the West Indians call the nannie orange. A nannie is one that has been allowed to remain on the tree until it is wrinkled and withered, almost dried out. Such an orange is ten times as sweet as any other. They’re not sold in New York because the dealers think they are spoiled. They’re right, of course. If the fruit withers after it is plucked, it is no good. But the next time you see a wrinkled old orange on a stand, buy it just for luck. It may be a nannie.”—The New York Sun. Straw Hat Economy
By MRS. D. A. FITCH
Often soiled but otherwise good straw hats may be so cleaned at home that no expense for the work need be incurred. I give my own recent experience. The band was removed, and the hat made as clean as dry brushing would make it. A vegetable brush was used to apply a strong suds of Ivory soap. Clear water rinsed this off, and when the hat was well drained, lemon juice was applied with the brush. Again the hat was rinsed in clear water and allowed to drain. Having no hatter’s block on which to shape it, and nothing else to fit inside the crown, I used a can opener to divide a 'gallon tin can, and used the whole half for my purpose. With this inside the crown, the hat was laid on a thick, smooth cloth on a flat surface. Another thick cloth was laid over the hat, and heavy weights were placed on the crown and rim until the hat was dry. The result was a clean hat appearing nearly like a new one. If an otherwise than perfectly flat rim is desired, it may be shaped by hand just before the hat is dry. Position at Table
By MRS. D. A. FITCH
When we see a boy or a girl sitting with forearms glued, as it were, to the table, carrying the head to the hand for each mouthful of food, instead of the hand to the mouth, with the body in a somewhat erect position, we overlook the matter because it is done by a child. But when we see the same attitude taken by an adult, the conclusion must be that he is either sick, tired, or lazy. It may be neither of the three, but the appearances are in no wise in the individual's favor. Reading the Other Side
By Jim Burwick
GOING along the street in Logansport one morning, a business man from the other side called out to me: “Good morning, Jim!” and crossed over to where I was. After the usual greetings, I said to him, “Are you saved yet?” Laughing, he said, “There you go again!” Then he said to me, “Jim, you ought to read the other side.” I asked him what the other side was. He answered, “Did you ever read Socrates?” Calling him by name, I said: “No, I haven’t read Socrates; but, honestly, now, did you ever see a man on his knees thanking Socrates for all that he had and was?” “No, Jim,” he replied, “I never did.” “Did you ever see a good old woman on her deathbed calling her children about her and telling them that whatever they did, to stick to Socrates?” Again he answered, “No, I never did, Jim.” “You knew old Jim Burwick, didn’t you?” “And you know the new Jim? Well, did you ever see such a change made in a man in all your life by reading Socrates as has been made in me?” “No, Jim, I really never did.” “Say, man,” I said, “you’d better read the other side!”— Jim Burwick. The Coming of Spring
By Martha Haskell Clarke
HERE in the town the gypsy spring comes slowly,
Creeping along with pavement-tired feet,
Leaving woodland blossoms in the venders’ grimy baskets,
And weaving April sunbeams across the dingy street. But out on the hillside, she passed me like a shadow,
Arbutus at her girdle, and its fragrance filled the air;
And I heard her laughing softly by the ice-imprisoned waters,
With silver pussy willows in her blossom-scented hair. Low o’er the hillsides, before the twilight’s falling,
She swung her silver lantern through the smoke-filled sunset haze;
And through the budding birches where her vagrant footsteps wandered,
The first shy windflowers nodded white beside the woodland ways. — Martha Haskell Clarke, in Hampton Magazine. The Swedish Seminary
By L. H. Christian
The first angel's message, or the 1844 movement, was preached in Sweden with wonderful power and results. Even children proclaimed that the judgment hour had come. In many parts of the country there was a mighty awakening and revival. But this led to a most severe persecution. There are Swedish Adventists in America who can tell of almost unheard-of cruelties inflicted on God's people in the Swedish state church. To escape these perils nearly a thousand believers in the soon coming of Christ decided to leave Sweden in 1845. This was no small task. The preachers taught that to emigrate from Sweden was a transgression of the fifth commandment; people should dwell in the land the Lord had given them, which for the Swedes was Sweden. The government, too, prohibited any emigration, and no one could leave the country unless he paid a large sum of money. The thousand Adventist believers secured about twenty small sailing vessels, and after many trying hardships, set out for America. One of these boats was lost at sea, or at least was never heard of again. The nine hundred and fifty men, women, and children who arrived in the United States and Canada in the spring of 1846 decided to settle in northern Illinois, about one hundred and seventy-five miles west of Chicago, where their descendants, now wealthy and prosperous, still live. This so-called Bishop Hill colony was the beginning of a strong Swedish immigration to the United States. Today there are more than 1,800,000 Swedes in America. Our work among this people has had many difficulties to overcome, but owing to loyal leadership it has made very substantial gains in recent years. Yet there is still a sad dearth of laborers. To meet this great need the Swedish Seminary was established. Every passing year demonstrates that we ought to have had this school long ago. Since coming to this union I have made several visits to the Swedish Seminary, and have become quite well acquainted with its work and needs. This institution is twelve miles west of Chicago. It owns seventy-eight acres of land, and the land is as good as any in America. Owing to the liberality of our Swedish brethren the farm is equipped with a good herd of cows, some large, strong horses, machinery, and other necessary things. Last year the farm cleared more than one thousand dollars. When this land was bought, there was only one farmhouse on the place, but several buildings have been erected since, and the school is now furnished with substantial, healthful, and comfortable buildings. These are large enough to accommodate seventy-five students. We have a faculty of experienced, well-qualified, and godly teachers at the Swedish Seminary; and at none of our schools are the youth more mature, devoted, and promising than the Swedish Seminary students. Several of them are ready to enter the ministry and other lines of Christian work this year. Our Swedish brethren have every reason to be encouraged over this institution. The Swedish Seminary greatly needs two things: first, to secure a larger attendance, and second, to pay off all its indebtedness. While the school has room for seventy-five students, the attendance is but little more than half this number. We ask for the assistance of our brethren throughout the North American Division in order that we may gather a large group of Swedish young people in the school. There are Swedish students at many of our academies who ought to be at the seminary, and there are very many Swedish young people here and there who would come to the school if they were properly encouraged to do so. While our brethren have done well in helping the seminary, there is still a debt on the school of about $13,000. The Lake Union Conference promised $7,000 to the school when it was first started. All this money has now been paid in, and the Lake Union Committee has voted to donate at least $1,000 in cash to the school by the end of 1915. Our brethren in this union have done this on the condition that a strong effort be made to bring the school entirely out of debt. The Swedish Seminary Board has voted to ask Brother Nord, the principal of the school, to spend a good share of his time this coming year in visiting our people and in securing funds for that institution. We hope that our Swedish workers will take hold and help so that the heavy load of debt which is now resting on the school may be removed. We believe, too, that many of our American brethren who have an interest in the Swedish work will be glad to assist in this important enterprise. All gifts to the school should be sent to the treasurer, G. E. Nord, R. F. D. 1, La Grange, Ill. Surely it is the will of God that this seminary, which has a work to do for the 1,800,000 Swedes in America, should stand clear of the heavy debt which is hindering its work at present. FITZGERALD.— This place was organized as a soldiers’ colony about nineteen years ago, and since that time has grown to be one of the most enterprising little cities in the South, being a railroad and manufacturing center. Fitzgerald was my boyhood home, and when in later years I went West and found the light of present truth, my mind turned to the old friends in longing that they might share these new-found blessings. On coming back some years ago, I found that very little had been done toward giving the17 third angel’s message to the people here. For three years my wife and I prayed for a competent worker, realizing that because of the mixed population the conduct of a successful series of tent meetings would take the best the denomination afforded. Last fall our prayers were answered, and Elder J. A. Strickland, of Canada, was sent here. Although in the meantime we had moved to North Carolina, we could not resist the thought of coming back and enjoying the privilege of seeing a church raised up in Fitzgerald. An excellent interest has been shown in the meetings throughout the winter, and it is still growing. Our services have an excellent attendance, and a church of twenty members has been organized. Many others are in the valley of decision. We have a good Sabbath school, and an active Missionary Volunteer Society. Surely the Lord has richly blessed the work here, and we hope soon to have a good church building, one that will be a credit to the cause we love. The harvest in the Southland is surely ripe; the fields are white for the harvest, but the laborers are few. Pray for us.
A. E. DEYO. The Influence of Bad Company
“A MUDDY stream, flowing into one clear and sparkling, for a time rolls along by itself. A little farther down they unite, and the whole is impure. So youth untouched by sin may for a time keep its purity in foul company, but a little later and they mingle.” PRAYER is the most practical thing in the world. If God is pledged to anything, he is pledged to answer prayer; and all the great reforms in the world have been accomplished by praying people.—Bishop of London. THE best-regulated home is always that in which the discipline is the most perfect, and yet where it is the least felt. The Third Angel’s Message to the Jews
By F. C. GILBERT
The Third Angel’s Message Must Be Given to the Jews — No. 2
IN laboring for the Jews we must remember that they are different from other people, and we must use discretion in our efforts for them; then we shall find that the message which God has given us for the present generation is suited to them as well as to all others. In the previous article we quoted from the servant of the Lord the following statement: “The Lord wants us to encourage and sustain men who shall labor in right lines among this people.” We who are laboring for the Jewish people know what that means. We cannot deal with them in the same way that we deal with the Gentiles. As surely as we do, we are repulsed by the Jews, instead of drawing them to us. As an illustration:— In the Harvest Ingathering campaign a year ago last fall, one of our brethren who was soliciting means for missions went into the business house of a Jew, and represented himself as soliciting money for missionary work being conducted by our people. To most persons of Gentile birth the word missionary and the words missionary work mean something altogether different from what they mean to a Jew. Instantly the Jew seemed displeased, and ready to tell our brother to go about his business. And why?—Because to the Jew the idea of missionary work is repulsive. To him it means massacre, brutality, or else it means one of his own countrymen becoming a turncoat and apostatizing from the faith. It dawned upon the mind of the brother who was soliciting, to tell the Jewish merchant that he is associated with a class of people who are doing the very work that the Jews ought to do,—a people who are keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, believe in the law of Moses, and do not eat swine flesh; and that while they are believers in Christ as the Messiah, they are endeavoring to tell all people everywhere that every class of persons ought to observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord. This at once interested the Jew, and he wanted to know more. After further conversation, he gave our brother a donation, and bade him Godspeed in his good work. But this was not enough. He had this minister brother go with him to his next-door neighbor, a brother Jew, and this first Jew became the solicitor. He told the neighbor about the good work this brother was doing, and of the work being done all over the world by this people. He told him that he should help this man of God, and the man was glad to help such a work. This is working in right lines among the Jews. The Lord is able to do great things among the Jews, but it is absolutely necessary that the Jew learn what Christianity is. He does not know anything of the gospel, only as he has seen it misrepresented in Rome, Spain, Portugal, and Russia. It is hard for the Jew to understand that Christianity is anything better than what he has seen during the last fifteen hundred years in those who professed to have it. He has seen its followers hating Jews and slaughtering them. Only the other day one of our Jewish brethren who recently accepted the truth and is at present attending the South Lancaster Academy, received a letter from his father in Russian Poland. He had written to his father, telling him of his faith in Christ, and of the godly Christian people he had found, and how kind they are. The reply of his father I here insert in part as I translated it:— “To my dear, respected son, Ben Zion: Your letter, dear son, I have received, and I would have been pleased with it if you had been what I hoped you would be. I would be inclined to thank God that you are in America; but since you have left the faith of your fathers, it is immaterial to me whether you are there or in a real fire. “You write to me about your Christians, how good they are. Well, I will write to you about the same kind of Christians who believe the same as you do, the good kind that they are.” He then relates a terrible persecution which some of the Jews had suffered from the hands of professed Christians, and concludes:— “If, my dear son, you believe in the same God that these do, then you should have been killed before you had grown to young manhood. O that your mother had suffocated you before she gave you birth, rather than that you should belong to such people who hate your own Jews. “I do not care to write you further. My heart bleeds when I think that I am obliged to write in this manner to my only son. YOUR FATHER.” Now, dear brethren and sisters, this is cruel, is it not? It certainly is dreadful to think of a parent’s writing such a letter to an only son. Yet from the parent’s viewpoint it is not to be wondered at; for to him the Christian religion is a terrible thing. But, thank God, when the Jew sees the beauty and harmony and loveliness of the third angel’s message, what a different aspect it presents to him! This dear father had not yet learned much of the kind of Christianity his son believes in, as this brother thought he would unfold to his father the truth gently. It is not surprising that Jews will not come to Christian services. They think they have no reason to go to hear the gospel. But when the children of Abraham learn of a people who keep the Sabbath, who believe in the law of Moses, and who live up to the teachings of the prophets, then their interest is aroused, and there arises in the hearts of many of them a desire to learn more about this people and their religion. It is interesting to us, as we visit some of the large cities, to note one or more Jews in nearly every congregation. These have heard of Seventh-day Adventists; and when the Jews hear about this people and their teachings and beliefs, they want to come to our places of worship to learn more. We must work in right lines for this people. To work for them as we work for others is to throw away our time, our money, and our energy. If we can present to them the peculiar features of our message from their own standpoint, namely, from Moses and the prophets, and then show them that all these things have a definite application in the Messiah, as taught and believed by these Sabbath-keeping Christians, it will create a desire in their hearts to know about their own Messiah and the truths of the Bible they have been brought up to believe. Virginia
By J. W. HIRLINGER
I CAME to this State about eight months ago. It was with considerable reluctance that I responded to the urgent call which came from Virginia, as it took me from Pennsylvania, a State in which I had labored for almost twenty years. But God has richly blessed in the work here, and thus far it has been my privilege to be associated with efforts in which seventy-five or more new believers have taken their stand for the Sabbath and kindred truths. During the past eight months more than one hundred and thirty persons have united with different churches throughout the conference, and more than seventy are observing the Sabbath and expect to become church members soon. Calls for meetings are coming to us from all parts of our field. In fact, they are so numerous that it is18 quite impossible to answer all of them. There is an excellent spirit of love and unity among the workers and churches. This harmony and general good will is of Heaven, and is truly yielding the peaceable fruits of righteousness in the salvation of souls. For these and other manifest tokens of God's grace and approval we are sincerely thankful. Marked evidences on every side show that we are living in the very day of the latter rain. It is a real satisfaction to know that we are working in the place where God would have us. We are just closing a series of meetings in Portsmouth. Twelve have taken their stand for the truth, and others have been reclaimed. Still others are about to decide regarding these important truths. All the members of the church are cooperating in the work, and distributing hundreds of thousands of pages of our literature. Last year the Portsmouth church gave more than its quota on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. It also supplied the church with new pulpit furniture, and is paying off the indebtedness on the church building. This demonstrates what active missionary work will do for any church in helping to reach the goal in gifts to missions and in accomplishing other desired ends. But above everything else we rejoice in the salvation of souls, and ask you to pray that we may be even more diligent as we go about the King's business. J. W. HIRLINGER. Every One a Light Bearer
By D. T. Shireman
My heart was made sad as I read recently of the death of Elder O. A. Olsen. How we shall miss him! Thus another of the old pioneers has dropped out of the work, and few of us are left who embraced the third angel's message fifty and sixty years ago. But thank the Lord, he has raised up thousands of willing workers who are going into the dark corners of the earth with the message. My dear reader, are we doing all we can to help finish the giving of the gospel of the kingdom in this generation? We are living in a most favorable time. At our hand are tracts and papers, magazines and books, containing the third angel's message. The coming of the Lord is drawing near, and there is no time to lose, for the masses are still in darkness. Every child of God should be a light bearer. O, let us be faithful to God and to our fellow men! Let us gird on the armor of God, and faithfully do our part. Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for soon the Master will call us home. May we all be ready is my prayer
D. T. SHIREMAN M. E. KERN General and N. Am. Div. Secretary
C. L. BENSON Assistant Secretary
MEADE MACGUIRE N. Am. Div. Field Secretary SONG: “Christ in Song,” No. 480. READING: “Responsibilities of the Church for the Youth,” by G. B. Thompson. READING: “The Purpose of the Missionary Volunteer Movement,” by C. L. Benson. SONG: “Christ in Song,” No. 531. TALK: “The Missionary Volunteer Goal for 1915,” based on article by M. E. Kern. SONG: “Christ in Song,” No. 552. NOTE TO ELDER OR LEADER.— Sabbath, May 1, appointed by the General Conference Committee as Young People’s Day, should bring a great blessing to your church. The work to receive special attention upon this day is an important one, and grows more and more interesting as it spreads over the world, gripping the hearts of thousands and thousands of young people and children and leading them forth in Christian service. The parts on the program should be assigned at once to insure careful preparation. Time is short. Only a few years remain in which to save our children and young people, whom Satan is working so hard to destroy. Will not you and the fathers and mothers in your church join us in making Sabbath, May 1, a day of fasting and prayer for the salvation of the youth? See Mark 9: 29. Pray that God will greatly bless this special program to the good of all. In connection with the Scripture reading call attention briefly to the fact that it was a lad’s lunch (small though it was) which the Master used that day to feed the multitude. Let some one study the article, “The Missionary Volunteer Goal for 1915,” and make a short talk on that subject. It would greatly increase the interest if the 1914 goal and the results obtained, the 1915 goal, and what the $25,000 will accomplish, where placed on large sheets of paper or a blackboard so all could read them. The offering should be devoted to some phase of the Missionary Volunteer work,—to purchase a young people’s library for your church, to use in home missionary work, or to help the young people of your church reach their goal of $2.50 for every member, outside of Sabbath school offerings. (The Missionary Volunteer goal counts on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund.) Decision days often have brought very good results. Then why should not Missionary Volunteer Day be a time when our young people should be invited publicly to give their hearts to the Lord? And would it not be well to invite all the members of your church to pledge themselves upon that day to work as never before for the salvation of the boys and girls, the young men and the young women, in your midst? We are praying that God may give your church a special blessing upon Young People’s Day. Responsibilities of the Church for the Youth
By G. B. Thompson
As the dark, muttering clouds foreshadowing the world's doom become darker and more threatening, great earnestness should characterize the lives of God's people, and great activity be seen in the work of saving lost souls. Your ability is the measure of your responsibility at this time. To whom much is given of him much will be required. It is not sufficient now to be a nominal church member, lukewarm and faint-hearted. We must be in earnest, ready to spring into the battle at the sound of the trumpet. The trumpet call of Moses, “Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me,” is the call to us to take our stand on the Lord's side. It is no time to dance around the golden calf while souls are being lost. If we saw a person in a burning house, stupefied by the smoke, or saw him wandering on the brink of a precipice, blind to his peril, and left him to perish, we should be held accountable for his death. Likewise, we will be held accountable if we neglect to warn those ready to perish. Within our ranks are many thousands of youth and children, a heritage of the Lord. Many of these are unsaved. The time for their rescue will soon be past. Surely we cannot sit indifferent and unmoved while they are without hope. The responsibility for their salvation rests with the church. Than this there is no greater responsibility. God will hold us accountable for the flock which he has given us. A preacher has said, “He who saves the children saves the church.” The work of saving the youth and children within our churches God has laid upon the older members of the church,—a work the magnitude of which can be measured only in the light of eternity. There is an hour coming when the question will be asked, “Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?” What shall we say when this searching question is asked, if we have allowed the youthful flock to be devoured by wolves? One day from the deck of an ocean liner a boat was seen drifting in mid-ocean. It had come from a sinking vessel. A boat and crew were sent in pursuit. In the bottom of the drifting boat a man was found, exhausted and unconscious. As he was lifted up and taken into the other boat, he partly revived, and the first feeble words heard from his lips were, “There's another man in the boat.” Saved himself, his first thought was to have another saved. This illustrates the spirit of the true Christian. One of the first evidences of conversion is an interest in some other soul. Surely this interest should go out toward our youth. The child who sits by your side in the church may not be your boy or girl, but he is somebody's child, and untiring labor should be put forth for his salvation. We must come into sympathetic touch with the young people. Much can be done by manifesting a warm-hearted, personal interest in them. Sociability will go a long way in winning their respect and confidence. Our teaching and admonition should not fall like hard gravel, but like the gentle rain. I sometimes fear our efforts are illustrated by the story of the man who was drowning in a pond on a cold day. One wishing to help him gave him the end of a plank which was covered with ice. The man tried repeatedly to get hold and save himself, but finally said, in despair, “For God's sake give me the other end of the plank; this end is icy.” We need to be sure in our efforts to win the young that we do not hold out to them the icy end of the plank, but get in close personal touch with them. Our work is to resurrect the dead; to bring life to those who are “dead in trespasses and sin.” The miracle wrought by Elisha throws some light on how this may be done. The son of the Shunammite woman was dead. In her sorrow and distress the woman laid him on Elisha's bed, and hastened to the man of God for help. “And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” 2 Kings 4: 32-35. Elisha had to deal with a dead child. So have we in many of our churches. He was not satisfied with merely cleaning the dead body, wrapping it in linen, and leaving it still a corpse. Neither was he satisfied when the corpse seemed to wax warm. The dead must live. He lay on it until life was restored. Our responsibility is to do likewise. It is not enough to teach the youth about the Bible, to instruct them with beautiful lessons drawn from Holy Writ, to inculcate ideas concerning moral duty. Our work is to bring life from heaven into their souls. If we fall in this, our work is a19 failure, and we have failed in the discharge of our responsibilities. In every church there are lost boys and girls who need some one to show them the way to the Father's house. Their condition is a mute appeal to us for help. I was on a camp ground once when the word went out that a little boy, who had been left in a tent while his parents attended the morning meeting, was lost. Soon the whole camp was astir. Anxiety was seen on every face; breakfast was forgotten; nobody cared to eat. The people were scattered in every direction, and continued their search until the lost child was found, then all rejoiced. But in every church there are lost boys and girls, and no such stir as this is made. Why is it, I ask? Can anybody give a satisfactory reason for this indifference? What can you say personally? A clergyman was once walking on Broadway, in New York. Noticing a crowd, he stopped. The people had gathered about a little stray child who had become separated from friends and did not know his way home. The child looked up, and seeing a look of sympathy on the gentleman's face, stretched out his hands and pleadingly said, “Won't you please show me my way home?” The clergyman says, “That cry has been sounding in my ears ever since when I find myself near a wandering soul like that boy in the city.” Would that this cry might sound in our ears until we take a personal interest in every boy and girl who does not know the way home, and labor unceasingly until he is restored to his Father's household. This work cannot be done by proxy. We must ourselves come into close personal relationship with the young. A visitor at a pottery observed a workman molding a piece. The process seemed very slow, and the visitor asked if there was no tool that could do the work. “No,” replied the potter, “we have tried several, but somehow in this work we must have the human touch.” So in molding the souls of the youth for the Master, there must be the personal touch. We must do the work ourselves, not through some other person. Have we discharged this responsibility in the past as we should? If not, what shall be our attitude in the future? It would help us, perhaps, to manifest greater interest in the youth if we could realize fully the value of even one child. How much are the children worth who sit in your church? What is each one of them worth? Who can tell? If one of them is your child, how much is he worth? What should you give to have him saved? How much would it take to reconcile you to have him eternally lost? The following incident will serve to impress this thought upon our hearts:— “A farmer in North Carolina once drove with two high-spirited horses into the town. Stopping in front of one of the stores, he was about to enter, when his horses took fright. He sprang in front of them, and heroically seized the reins. Maddened by strange noises, the horses dashed down the street, the man still clinging to the bridles. On they rushed, until the horses, wild with frenzy, reared, and, leaping upon the man, all came with a crash to the earth. When the people came to rescue the bleeding body of the man, and found him in death's last agony, a friend, bending tenderly over him, asked:—
“‘Why did you sacrifice your life for horses and wagon?’
“‘He gasped with his last breath, “Go and look in the wagon.”’
“‘They turned, and, there asleep in the straw, lay his little boy.’
“‘As they laid the mangled form of the hero in his grave, no one said, “The sacrifice is too great.”’” It was this little boy asleep in the wagon that caused the father to sacrifice his life. He was entirely oblivious to danger; willing, if necessary, to die to save his little boy sleeping in the straw. Did he make too great a sacrifice? Nobody would say he did. There are boys worth just as much as this boy, who sit unsaved in our churches every Sabbath. While we are doing splendidly in raising funds for Korea, China, and India, and other parts of the world, we must remember that our own children are just as valuable as any child in Korea or China, or any of the Hindu boys or girls; and while putting forth efforts for the salvation of those in distant lands, we must not neglect the salvation of those near us. The story is told of a famous statue in the Fine Arts Gallery in Paris. It was the work of a man who, like many other men of genius, had struggled with poverty. His room in a garret served for both studio and sleeping room. “One midnight, when the statue was just finished, a sudden frost fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay awake in his fireless garret, and thought of the still moist clay, thought how the moisture in the pores would freeze, and the dream of his life would be destroyed in a night. So the old man arose from his cot, wrapped his bedclothes reverently about the statue, and lay down to his sleep. In the morning the neighbors found him lying dead. His life had gone out into his work.” Such devotion to duty on the part of church officers, parents, teachers, and others will result in the salvation of many of the young within our reach, and make our churches all that they should be in saving the lost. This is our glorious opportunity, as well as our sacred responsibility. It is given us of God. Shall we be true to the trust he has given us? G. B. Thompson.