UNDER this heading the New York World has this to say, the facts of which throw a lurid and sinister light on the claims of prospective peace when all "war drums are muffled":—
"The scent of battle in South Africa fills the air of civilization. A world that was talking of and hoping for universal peace only three months ago is sharpening the sword and unlimbering the gun in preparation for universal war.
"The South African war has lowered the moral tone of Europe. The imitative continental nations feel that England's rulers were laughing at them at the Peace Congress last summer, and were merely trying to tie their hands, that England might be the freer to pursue a policy of aggression and forcible annexation.
"These facts stand out in the cable despatches. Mr. McKinley, with all his secret channels of diplomatic information, knows even better than the public how surcharged the atmosphere of Europe is.
" 'Even during the course of hostilities,' says the plan adopted at the Peace Congress. And a year before that Peace Congress met, on April 27, 1898, Sir Julian Pauncefote, the ambassador of Queen Victoria, appointed by the present prime minister of Great Britain, presented to Mr. McKinley 'a pressing appeal to the feelings of humanity and moderation of the President and the American people.' Sir Julian Pauncefote happily called that appeal 'a message of friendship and peace at the present critical juncture.'
"The British people are realizing into what a melancholy position Mr. Chamberlain has brought the affairs, not of England but of the whole civilized world. The British people see the great storm gathering, the storm which in its breaking would bring death to scores of thousands, misery to unnumbered millions. A lighted match has been thrown into the vast powder magazine."
And just as long as men are unreconciled to God, are carnal of heart, there will be war. All the Peace Conferences in the world can not prevent.
UNWORTHY ARGUMENTS.
THE New Voice has a department which it calls "Forts of Folly." In this, from week to week, the editor sets up various fortresses, in words, imaginary and otherwise, for the purpose of demolishing them. One of these forts in a recent number is, "You can't make men moral by law," and two of the editor's fusillades upon this fort are: "No! but you can make immoral men less respectable, and therefore less influential, by law." "You can make morality respectable by law." The reply is a boomerang in the hands of an unskilled thrower. It is as likely to hit him as the fort. Morality in the Christian sense is conformity to God's law, agreement with God. It exists in the heart and the motive; so it is, of course, true that "you can't make men moral by law." Men must voluntarily choose to be moral. But there are thousands of men living humanly "respectable" lives, church-members in good standing, who are covetous, and are therefore immoral, the Bible says guilty of idolatry. There are laws which are wholly in the interest of covetous (immoral) men. Of course, also, they will abide by the law. Does this make them less respectable? If a man transgress such a law, he is adjudged guilty of crime. Does such a law make "morality respectable"?
A Sunday-closing law passed by the "moral and respectable" portion of a community clearly implies that it is legitimate to sell intoxicating liquors on six days of the week, and the saloon-keeper who abides by the law is counted "respectable." According to the same law it is wrong to sell liquor on Sunday; the man who does it is "less respectable and therefore less influential, by law." Yet, after all, there may be more real principle in the latter than in the former. The man who closes his saloon does so to a bogus respectability and public influence, while the man who sells all days knows that liquor sold on Monday is just as bad, just as evil in its consequences, as liquor sold on Sunday.
"Right law" may help to make criminality less respectable; but it is not the object of law to make men right. Civil law has only two objects—keeping men civil, and protecting all men in their natural rights. When it gets outside of these it becomes a weapon of evil, a shuttlecock of politics.
All the great religious persecutions of the past have been carried on under the cover of civil law, designed to make "morality" "respectable and "immoral men less respectable." "We have a law, and by our law He ought to die," said a "respectable" member of society concerning Jesus of Nazareth.
Let prohibition, as it may, find a basis for its existence in law on a better foundation.
Russia’s Financial Crisis
The czar of Russia has been seeking to borrow money in the various countries of Europe, but so far has been unsuccessful. It is believed that a financial crash in Russia is not far off. War and finances seem to be the leading topics all over the world.
Russian War Ships Join French Squadron
A Sun cable from Paris says: "It is confirmed that Russian war ships have been ordered to join the French Eastern squadron for the purpose of compelling recognition of French rights in China."
INCREASE OF CANCER IN ENGLAND.
"IN England four and a half times as many people die now from cancer as half a century ago, and no other disease can show anything like such an immense increase," W. Roger Williams says, in the Lancet. "Probably no single factor is more potent in determining the outbreak of cancer in the predisposed than high feeding. There can be no doubt that the greed for food manifested by modern communities is altogether out of proportion to their present requirements. Many indications point to the gluttonous consumption of meat, which is such a characteristic feature of this age, as likely to be especially harmful in this respect. Statistics show that the consumption of meat has for many years been increasing by leaps and bounds, till it now has reached the amazing total of 131 pounds per head per year, which is more than double what it was half a century ago, when the conditions of life were more compatible with high feeding. When excessive quantities of such highly stimulating forms of nutriment are ingested by persons whose cellular metabolism is defective, it seems probable that there may thus be excited in those parts of the body where vital processes are still active, such excessive and disorderly cellular proliferation as may eventuate in cancer. No doubt other factors co-operate, and among these I should be especially inclined to name deficient exercise and probably also deficiency in fresh vegetable food."
THE STONE COMBINE IN CHICAGO.
By T.
THE combine that has been formed in Chicago to control the sale of building stone in that great city, has been able to make itself felt, as the following letter, addressed by a contractor to a firm that was not in the combination, will show:—
"GENTLEMEN: We hereby confirm our verbal notification to you of some days to cease sending stone to Ninety-fifth Street job, and we insist on this formal notification being regarded, as our Mr. Evans was notified by the Chicago Mason and Builders' Association of being fined $1.00 a cord for buying stone from you on account of not being members of the Chicago Stone Dealers' Association. "Yours truly, _________."
There can be no question as to the natural rights of men in associating themselves together to assist each other in trade. But when they so combine as to drive a fellow-man out of business unless he will deal with them and nobody else, they have transcended the bounds, and are on very dangerous territory. There must come a reaction. And when the complaint is quite general, and very bitter, the reaction will be a riotous revolution. And those who would like to read a graphic and perfectly true description of the revolution that is soon to overspread this world because of this present-day greed for wealth, should read the first part of the fifth chapter of James. The revolution that James describes will not cease, once it is started, until Jesus shall appear in person to put an end to it. How dark the prospects in this world would be were it not for the well-founded hope of the soon coming of Christ!
T.
Paternalism in Guam
GOVERNOR LEARY, whom the United States Government has placed over the newly-acquired island of Guam, says in a recent report that he finds the natives very indolent, and the most of them are living in a state of concubinage. Mr. Leary has required all those living in concubinage to get married without delay. In his proclamation the governor said to the natives that "the existing custom of raising families of illegitimate children is repulsive to ideas of decency, antagonistic to moral advancement, incompatible with the generally-recognized customs of civilized society, a violation of the accepted principles of Christianity, and a most degrading injustice to the innocent offspring, who is not responsible for the conditions of his unfortunate existence."
Governor Leary has further required that all who have no trade shall plant cereals, vegetables, etc., that each citizen shall keep at least a dozen hens and one hog. And they must bring eggs, chickens, and vegetables to the governor's house and the barracks at stated intervals for sale. The very innocence with which such a course presents itself to most people is one of its chiefest dangers. Such a thing as this is merely the primary school in which the people are being educated to look upon such matters with indifference. And in this case the natives may really seem to be helped rather than worsted. But the paternalism in that little island establishes a precedent, and from its seemingly harmless application in Guam it will gain strength and favor, so that it may be applied in more pernicious ways elsewhere.
The Real Christ for the Filipinos
W. D. McKINNON, a Catholic priest who has served as chaplain in the United States Army in the Philippines, in a recent speech in Washington, D. C., said, "Little material progress has been accomplished [in the Philippines] since the time of the complete Spanish occupation to the present day, except the Christianizing of the greater portion of the natives." Any one who knows the degraded and barbaric condition of the natives of the Philippine Islands, and who also knows the real Christianity of the true Christ of God, can appreciate the deplorable misconceptions of a man who will say that such creatures as the Filipinos are Christianized. And yet this same Mr. McKinnon is appointed by the President to serve still further in the Philippines as a chaplain. Under such circumstances as these, are there not those who really know Christ and His uplifting purity, who feel constrained to go to those darkened islands and reveal to the poor natives the real Christ of God in all His living power? O, that all such would speedily yield to the heavenly drawings! Christ is not in forms and ceremonies; He is not in superstitious rites. He is both life and power and joy and peace to the soul as soon as he is accepted as our Redeemer.
The Trust System and Divine Judgment
By Editor
The editor of the New York World says the "tendency to consolidate interests, to combine capital in manufacturing and commercial enterprises, to eliminate competition, and to control markets by various devices, which we loosely classify as the trust system, is the most marked phenomenon of our time." A great many theories are being advanced in regard to the probable outcome of this unprecedented amassing of wealth. But whatever these theories may be, any one may know the truth in the matter if he will. For God's Word says: "Wo unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! In Mine ears saith the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant." Isa. 5:8, 9. The Lord has pronounced a "wo" upon the greed that leads men to seize the wealth of the world for themselves. And the evil is becoming so great that the time for divine justice to strike can not be long delayed.
Aguinaldo’s Escape from the Philippines
AGUINALDO, the Filipino leader, through a secret agency has purchased a launch, and it is believed that he may have already made his escape from the Philippine Islands.
The Money Power and Coming Trouble
The people of Havana, Cuba, are quite a little disturbed over the price of meat. Thirty-five thousand head of cattle were imported during September, but there is no reduction in prices. Much of the meat is sold at forty cents a pound. Mayor Lacoste said this trouble is due to the fact that as soon as the heavy tax imposed by the Spanish Government on beef was removed, the importers made a ring, raising the price of live stock, and thus actually raising the price of beef. How significant and impressive are the well-nigh superhuman efforts that the money power is making to control everything in the world! Are you prepared to stand in the crisis that these relentless deeds of covetousness are about to produce? This inhuman greed for money is one of the leading factors in preparing the way for that great time of trouble that the prophets have told us is about to engulf the whole world. And this is no time to be found fighting the men of wealth; for that will do no good. Give all your time and energies to making it clear that the second coming of Christ is right at hand.
Wrongful Imprisonment in Germany
A CASE of peculiar hardship has recently attracted attention in Germany in connection with the enforcement of the laws forbidding disrespectful references to the emperor. One of the editors of a Socialist newspaper is serving a four years' sentence for lese-majeste, in the publication of an offensive article. It appears that he had nothing to do with editing the issue which contained the article, and that his name was given to the authorities by the publisher as responsible, through some mistake. The editor really responsible, who is a member of the Reichstag, has waived his preliminary privileges in order that he might be tried for the offense; but the imperial court at Berlin, with all these facts before it, has refused to reopen the case, on the ground that the first sentence contained no error of law. The fact that the wrong man is in prison does not count. — Ex.
The Discouraged Sailor’s Suicide
By Editor
WILLIAM ANTHONY, one of the survivors of the wreck of the battle-ship Maine, and one who distinguished himself for his "cool-headed" bravery at that time, committed suicide in Central Park, New York, on November 24. He had been discharged from the navy and said he could not find anything to do, and was "discouraged and disconsolate," and so he took his life. There is a Master whose service we may enter who never discharges us. We may voluntarily withdraw from His service, but He discharges us never. And He not only employs us for all time, but also for all eternity. No one who faithfully serves Him ever feels like committing suicide. Life's joys become so sweet that we are constantly thrilled by the thought of an uninterrupted eternity of existence.
United States Naval Expansion
The United States Naval Board on Construction have adopted a program of naval increase which is numerically greater than any heretofore entered upon by this country. The program is as follows: Three armored cruisers of about 13,500 tons displacement; three protected cruisers of about 8,000 tons displacement; six light-draft gunboats of about 1,000 tons displacement; and six light-draft gunboats of about 800 tons displacement. The three armored cruisers recommended have a greater displacement than the battle-ship Iowa, the largest vessel in the American Navy during the recent war with Spain. The report says, "The board's object is to have a trio of vessels second to none in the world in respect to speed and armament."
Bubonic Plague Reaches New York
By Editor
The bubonic plague is still making its ravages in Oporto, Portugal, from which place it was carried to Brazil. From Brazil it has at last reached New York City, at least so says an editorial in a recent Chicago Times-Herald. The dreaded plague seems to be determined to make its circuit of the entire globe.
Cuban Plans for Uprising
It is reported that the Cubans are recruiting for an uprising against the United States. The leaders say they will wait awhile to see what action the American Congress will take, and then if Cuba is not granted her freedom they will start a rebellion.
Russia-Japan Friction Increasing
A SHANGHAI correspondent of the London Times says: "There is every indication of increasing friction between Russia and Japan, owing to the latter's activity in Corea and the northeastern provinces of China."
Fire at J. B. Lippincott
The well-known publishing firm, J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia, had a $600,000 fire in their place of business November 29.
THE PAPAL SHADOW IN CHILE.
By C. M. Snow
MRS. LULU M. LA FETRA gives, in a late number of the Converted Catholic, a striking setting forth of what might be called the social and religious conditions of the people of Southern Chile. At least the conditions which she describes in the vicinity of Yumbel, province of Conception, are a fair portrayal of the conditions that exist throughout that country and in all countries that have been long under the dominating sway of the Papal Church. Once each year, on the 20th of January, a pilgrimage is made by the superstitious peasantry of Conception to the shrine of St. Sebastian, at Yumbel, where each penitent deposits a liberal contribution or performs some act of penance, or both. The following is Mrs. La Fetra's description of the doings of that day, and the carousals at night:—
"From the first light of dawn all the roads that lead to Yumbel are filled with carts and rickety carriages which creak and groan frightfully. All are covered with a cloud of fine dust, raised by the caravan, which trots or gallops quickly along, in order to gain the first place at the church door, where is consummated to-day the wholesale robbery tolerated by our laws and blessed by Catholicism.
"In these tumble-down carriages ride the ragged and dirty children, among baskets of lunch and demijohns of wine and brandy, together with the harp, which later will help to celebrate the carousals and drunken revels which will follow the fulfillment of vows, the mass, and the procession.
"There are also many perspiring fanatics who came barefooted and weary, expiating—so they say—sins they have committed. Perhaps among them are those who expect to be forgiven for the sins they will commit when the orgy is at its height and the liquor—the bad liquor—has risen to their heads.
"There are some who make the pilgrimage in all good faith, conscientiously, pitifully so. At the beginning of the mass many of these may be seen several squares away painfully advancing on their knees, prostrating themselves and almost fainting on account of the rough pavement, which tears the flesh, causing so much blood to flow that one truly pities them.
"And these poor deceived ones, who are for the most part women, as they touch the threshold of the temple door, light bits of candles and penetrate within, always sadly prostrating themselves, until they go to leave at the money box, over which a priest stands guard, the money which they have saved after working like animals on the farms. Much of it, too, has been saved by living on half rations for days and weeks.
"During the mass and long afterward the pilgrimage to the money box, which receives the offerings, does not cease for an instant. It is a stream of money which falls drop by drop before the impassive image of St. Sebastian, who stands over the altar, protected by an iron fence. It is an awkward, repugnant figure. One searches in vain to find a harmonious line or a trace of art. It has the expression of a bandit arrested by justice in punishment for some low crime.
"What is most worthy of attention at this saturnalian feast of St. Sebastian is the grimace which the priest or sacristan who guards the coffer puts on as the money is deposited. If it is a little, his expression is sour and hard; if the amount is satisfactory, he laughs lightly, with a patronizing and benevolent air.
"Meanwhile the atmosphere has become heated and vitiated. It is heavy and nauseating from the heat of the tall wax candles, from the smoke of the incense, and all the bad exhalations of the sweaty and unclean crowd. There is a continual murmur and noise of prayers, disturbed every moment by the harsh, strident accents of the priests who officiate.
"The sum of money obtained to-day assumes almost incredible proportions. One is safe in saying that the average amount never falls below $50,000 even in the worst years.
"Once the carnivalistic ceremony is concluded, the faithful and those carried away by fanatical fervor disperse through the city and give themselves up to frightful excesses. It is not rare to find numbers lying in the street, sleeping off their drunkenness. The sound of the harp and guitar and the songs of women last till late at night, disturbing the peace and quiet of Yumbel, which is usually calm and orderly. All the thieves are present at the feast, and there is no watch nor pocket safe from their depredations. At night it is dangerous for a peaceable citizen to walk through the streets.
"Such are the ceremonies celebrated at Yumbel by the clergy of Conception on the 20th of January."
If, as a result of the Spanish and Filipino war, those fields over which the shadow of papal darkness has hovered so long, are opened up to the liberty-giving light of the Gospel, it will be but another illustration of that scripture, "All things work together for good to them that love God"—an illustration of God's power to make the wrath of man praise Him. C. M. SNOW.
THE PRICE OF MISSIONARIES.
THE market price of missionaries is rising in China. Germany sent up the rate at a bound a year ago, when one of her proselytizing subjects was murdered in Shantung. France has now outdone all other nations by presenting the Chinese Government with a demand for enormous compensation for the prolonged imprisonment of Father Fleury, who was seized last year by the rebels in Szechuen. Father Fleury escaped with his life, tho he was rather11roughly handled by his captors. But France is so concerned at the treatment he received that she will only consent to be pacified for the insult offered through him to the French nation upon payment of a sum equivalent to £200,000 sterling ($1,000,000), together with a concession of certain mining rights in Szechuen. If that is her assessment of the injury involved in the case of simple capture, what will be the size of her bill for the murder of Father Victorin, a French subject, who was killed a few weeks ago in the interior of China under circumstances of revolting barbarity? Surely nothing less than a million pounds and the cession of a couple of provinces will suffice to assuage her wrath.
By their extravagant demands France and Germany have reduced the whole system of claims for compensation for missionary outrages to a flagrant absurdity. The cynical use of the bodies of slaughtered missionaries as pawns in the great game of international intrigue in China is a scandal to the churches and to all Christian nations. Missionary enterprise in the far East is being brought into unmerited contempt in the eyes of the people. If the blood of marted pioneers of the faith is to be shed for no better purpose than to open a protected path for mine exploiters and stock-jobbers, it were far better to leave China to her ancient creeds. . . . The cross was not raised in China in order that the nations of the West might fill their coffers and seize harbors and extort mining concessions whenever one of its bearers was struck down by the hand of fanatical hatred. Nor do the earnest men who are working in China to-day for the Christian religion—with certain notable exceptions, which need not be specified here—desire that if they meet with an untimely end their fate shall be made the pretext for the material aggrandizement of the country to which they belong. Going forth, as they do, in a spirit of self-abnegation, they bitterly resent the mockery now being cast upon the holy cause which claims their devotion. But that the governments of France and Germany have come to look upon their labors and their sacrifices from a very different standpoint, is clear from an examination of the compensation claimed for various missionary outrages during the last sixteen months. The following table is incomplete, but it gives the principal cases during that period, with details of the "recompense" obtained:—
HOLLAND.—Mr. Peter Rijnhart, murdered on the borders of Tibet. No compensation claimed.
UNITED STATES.—Native medical assistant murdered at the Chungking Mission. Small indemnity paid, two prominent officials dismissed, building granted for use as hospital.
GREAT BRITAIN.—Mr. Fleming and native Scripture reader murdered. Indemnity of about £2,750 granted, murderers executed, prominent local officials degraded.
GERMANY.—Missionary murdered in Shangtung. Substantial indemnity granted, officers concerned in outrage punished, promise given to build a cathedral at cost of Chinese Government, monopoly of railway and mining rights in province of Shangtung granted, and port of Kiaochau leased for ninety-nine years.
FRANCE.—Father Fleury imprisoned by rebels. Sum equivalent to about £200,000 demanded, together with mining rights in Szechuen. Father Victorin murdered; no claim yet presented.
—Times of India.
A PART IN THE PLAN.
By Anna J. Granniss
Because my life is what it is,
Shall I despair,
And offer up bitter complaints
Instead of prayer?
Because my life is what it is,
I may instead
Be drawn the closer unto God,
And comforted.
And the comfort wherewith He comforteth,
Makes precious every need,
And life as it is, if He wants it so,
Is precious to me indeed.
Because my life is what it is,
Heav'n seems more sweet,
And ev'ry joy that finds me out,
I rise to meet
With keen surprise, because my life
Is what it is,
The least in that stupendous plan
Of Deity's.
For my part in the plan is but weakness,
My place in the structure small—
But what a thing for a worm of the dust
To be in the plan at all!
—Anna J. Granniss.
MISSIONS
MEDICAL MISSION WORK IN MEXICO.
UNDER the heading, "Medical Missionary Work in Roman Catholic Countries," in the Missionary Review, Rev. Levi B. Salmaus, M.D., of Guanajuato, Mexico, writes:—
"In part through the encouragement furnished by our work here, three sister denominations have entered this field with medical missionary work. First came the Seventh-day Adventists. Almost from the very start they employed a force of twelve or fourteen Americans as doctors, nurses, teachers, and so forth. Their work was then supported with funds from the United States. They have pressed on from dispensary and visiting work, to the construction of a sanitarium in Guadalajara, upon which they have spent thus far seventy-eight thousand dollars, and their work has come to be mostly self-supporting. The Methodist Episcopal Church South in San Luis Potosi have also been carrying on dispensary work for about two years, and have a five-thousand-dollar hospital now in operation. The United Presbyterian Church have had their first medical missionary in this country for nearly a year, and she is beginning to get such use of the language as to enable her to put their work into a more formal shape; thus far she has had to work through interpreters, and has been really but preparing for the greater work which she will soon undertake in some city yet to be selected. . . . How is it that some still insist that in the mission field a doctor must not be a preacher, and that a preacher must not be a healer of the body? Christ associated the two operations in one person when used for convincing and converting unbelievers. All this shows that the church in our day is yet in uncertainty and confusion about the nature and uses of this great 'gift.' In our times the usual way out of such dilemmas seems to be discussion. May it come and do its work quickly, that we may see the blessed fruits of a perfectly understood and faithfully used 'gift' of God for reaching all hardened unbelievers, whether in Catholic countries, or pagan, or in our own city slums."
Guadalajara Sanitarium, Mexico.
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OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
By Editor
CHESAPEAKE CONFERENCE reports seven church schools, one of which is in Baltimore.
AMONG the recent recommendations of the General Conference Committee is that the committee for the Southern field be enlarged to five members, and consist of the following-named persons: N. W. Allee, S. H. Lane, S. M. Jacobs, J. E. White, and Smith Sharp.
AT Russell, Warren County, Pa., Brother Morris Lukens has been granted the use of the M. E. Church four nights of each week as long as he wishes to use it.
ACCORDING to report from Brother S. N. Curtiss, manager of the New York branch of the Pacific Press Publishing House, “work all along the line is encouraging” in that field.
THE religious liberty work in Washington, D. C., will be supervised by Brother Allen Moon during the session of Congress. Brother A. F. Ballenger is also located in Washington, doing evangelistic work under the auspices of the Chesapeake Conference.
OUR brethren in Cape Town, South Africa, have been taking advantage of the war excitement in selling literature pertaining to the signs of the times. Special war editions of the South African Sentinel and the Wachter were issued and sold very rapidly. Our pamphlet “The Alarm of War” also finds a ready sale.
IN Allegheny, Pa., Brother Lee S. Wheeler has secured the use of the lecture room of the Carnegie Free Library for Sunday-night meetings until May 1, 1900, free of cost. At his first meeting “the hall and gallery were full, and a deep interest was shown. At the close, when the SIGNS OF THE TIMES was offered to those who desired copies, the people crowded around with outstretched hands, like hungry men for bread.”
WORD has been received by the Foreign Mission Board that on September 27 the house occupied by Brother Anderson and Dr. Green, at the Central African Mission, near Buluwayo, took fire from the stovepipe, and burned, being a total loss. The thatch roof fell within ten minutes after it took fire. All their possessions, clothing, bedding, surgical instruments, mission sewing-machine, food, books, keepsakes, and watches were burned.
IN the Kansas Reporter is a note from Brother N. P. Nixon, stating that the brethren at Iola decided to send the SIGNS to 132 families for six months. Those at Thayer voted to send to 53 families for six months. At Columbus they are sending to 150 families for six months. At Galena they send to 180 families, and at Altoona, to 100 families, all for six months. There is no doubt that this will prove the cheapest and most efficient work that these brethren and sisters could do to bring the truth for these times before the people. Nor is this plan merely an experiment, for it has been tested in other places with satisfactory results.
IT is often supposed that mining communities are almost inaccessible to the Gospel. But Cripple Creek, Colo., is one of the very extensive and prosperous mining regions, and we have had some excellent reports from that place. A recent report from Brother B. W. Marsh, in Echoes from the Field, says: “It is difficult to tell the number that have taken a decided stand for the truth; the number has so increased by brethren moving in, and others accepting the message, that we have found it necessary to enlarge the church. We are now engaged in raising the building up in order to place a basement under it for the church school, which is in successful operation, and in putting an extension on the end, which will give more room in the chapel. All the means necessary for the work have been subscribed, so that we do not have to go in debt to do this work.”
