We have repeatedly said that the time would come that Protestants and Roman Catholics would unite. Hitherto the advances have been almost wholly on the part of Protestants. However, in the Catholic Congress at Baltimore, the Roman Catholic Church signified her willingness to coöperate with Protestants in securing such legislation as to her seems good, especially in the enforcement of Sunday observance. But in all this bear in mind Rome does not compromise. Protestantism has reached that place where Rome can begin to bid her mild welcome, and urge her onward. This is forcibly set forth in an editorial article in the Catholic Mirror, Cardinal Gibbons’ official organ, of August 10, which we quote in its entirety:—
“Working Together.”
“That it is possible for Catholics and Protestants to unite at many points and in work for the common good, has been more than once shown. Such spirit of intolerance as prevails in this country is certainly not entertained on the part of the former, for it is rarely that a Catholic is heard to say anything against Protestants and their religion, and such an expression is almost unknown in a Catholic pulpit. When a Catholic preacher, in course of his sermon, has occasion to allude to those who are separated from us by differences of belief, it is invariably in the kindest spirit; such tone of reference is the prompting of charity, and also of good breeding.
‘Would the same might be said of all Protestants, and especially of Protestant ministers in their discourses. There are many who show a strange and coarse delight in assailing the ancient church and ridiculing her institutions, and who never miss an opportunity to do so. Far better is the amicable spirit which characterized those who met recently at Ayer, Massachusetts, where was formed the United States Religious Association. Among those present were Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, German Evangelical, Unitarian, and Universalist clergymen, and the purpose of the meeting was to find common ground upon which they could stand and labor for the moral and social improvement of the community. In the statement of principles agreed upon, the object of the association is defined to be ‘fellowship and acquaintance with each other’s religious doctrines, local coöperation with each other on the basis of love to God and man, and to the furtherance of all social reforms, and the bringing in of the kingdom of God.’ This platform is broad, liberal, and, as generous minds will agree, in the right spirit.
‘That these clergymen could thus meet on this platform is both significant and encouraging. It shows that the Catholic craving for unity, voiced recently by the Holy Father, is not a feeling entertained by ourselves alone, but that there are others with us, at least in spirit, and who are willing to drop inherited prejudices and judge us for themselves. The meeting at Ayer also manifests how easy it is for those who believe in the Christian religion to come together and unite in a common purpose. And particularly it is a lesson to those Protestant ministers, some of whom we have in our own city of Baltimore, who seem to be doing all they can to foment discord between Catholics and Protestants.
‘The fact is noted that in the city of Cambridge, Mass., there has been for some years a union of Catholic and Protestant clergymen working together in an earnest and friendly way for the public good. They have met on the same platform at public meetings, have spoken there for the same cause, and have signed the same addresses. This certainly shows that there is no intolerance on the Catholic side.”
Among the “institutions” of the “ancient church” is that of Sunday, which a false Protestantism is putting to the fore. This is one of the things upon which union and coöperation will come, and woe be to the man who is found “assailing the ancient church and ridiculing her institutions.” The Catholic Total Abstinence Society held its twenty-fifth annual convention in New York City, August 7 to 9, of which the New York Voice of August 15 thus speaks:—
“Not least of the results will be the stiffening of public sentiment in favor of continuing the present policy of closing the saloons of this city on Sunday.”
In giving his report, Rev. Father Cleary, of Minnesota, the president, read with great applause these words:—
“The selling of liquor and the drinking of it desecrates the American Sunday. We are not to be ruled by the customs of other lands. The American is able to define his own sabbath and conduct his own country.”
It is over this Roman Catholic Sunday, this American Sunday, that the union between Protestantism and Romanism will come. In the same issue of the Catholic Mirror which we have quoted above we take the following:—
“The current tendency in religious matters is strikingly toward concentration, and it appears to be only a forerunner of the unity which is eventually to come. Protestantism has realized that its only hope lies in combination, and that the process of disintegration, which has been going on, if not arrested, must lead to the ultimate disappearance of Protestant Christianity. There is, then, the zealous cultivation of the various social agencies, such as the Christian Endeavor, the Epworth, the Baptist Young People’s, and other societies, and also the graver movements within the various Protestant bodies leading toward centralization, and which are so extremely significant of the recognition among the higher order of minds, that a system of Christianity without a head cannot survive.”
The head, it is safe to say, will be the supreme pontiff on the Tiber. But while Protestantism is running to socialism and politics, Catholics do not forget their religion. In the same article the Mirror says:—
“It is, in fact, the social feature among Catholics that needs to be particularly developed; this, indeed, is the very bulwark of Protestantism, to which almost everything else is made to yield. In truth, the leading Protestant denominations have grown of late years to be rather social than religious organizations, and the proceedings of the Christian Endeavor Society in Boston were really remarkable for the absence of religious tone; the society would hardly have been recognized by a stranger as of church origin.”
No; these societies are religio-political, and Rome will wield them to the advantage of “the ancient church” and “her institutions.” These utterances are most significant to the student of prophecy.
THE GREAT CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR MOVEMENT.
By H. F. Phelps
What of Its Future?
Just at this time the great religious conventions are calling forth considerable comment. This is especially so of the Christian Endeavorers. Great expectations are entertained of this organization of the flower and pride of America, upon whom the hopes of the future depend. But are these great organizations to become political, and thus religio-political? Are they organizing for a political purpose?
While hope is high with reference to the future in the minds of many as to the possibilities for good in religious and moral reforms that are centered in this body of young people, there are others, who are accustomed to look beneath the surface, and who usually think deeply, who express fear regarding the outcome.
It must be conceded that, as to the greater part of these young people, they are unaccustomed to deep and earnest thought as to logical results in any given course, or to wrestle with the great questions of the day, but, upon the whole, are actuated by the inspiration of the movement, and are following their leaders. The conclusion is at once logical that if these leaders are actuated by right motives, if they are thoroughly unselfish in their desires and designs, and if they are thoroughly acquainted with and recognize the underlying principle of all reforms—that of the equal rights of all men, and the individuality of all men—the very principle for which Christ and his apostles and the reformers contended; if they clearly recognize the fact that, as Herbert Spencer says, “every man has the right to do whatsoever he wills provided that in the doing thereof he infringes not the equal right of any other man”—then it may be that these leaders can lead these tens of thousands forward to the accomplishment of many good works.
But if, on the contrary, they themselves are not standing upon solid ground, or are actuated by selfish motives—motives that are prompted by a blind adherence to some ism—if they have reached the conclusion that their own methods and opinions are right and that all others are wrong, and that all these wrongs are to be righted according to their policy; if they forget that it is not possible for any moral reforms to be carried forward successfully except by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that this power is only to be manifested in and through the preaching of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Christians are not authorized to seek the aid of any other power in their work except that of the Spirit of God—then it is that this nation and the world have cause to fear, rather than to rejoice, in the possible outcome of the movement.
It is evident that they intend to become a factor in politics—a possible political organization—and to make their influence felt at the ballot box. If, then, as they now claim that their movement is in favor of religion, they are to become religio-political in their methods, what guarantee does the world have that they will not do as all other religio-political organizations have done in the past? How do we know but that they may become the very image of the despotism of the past in the enforcement of religious enactments?
Mr. Charles A. Dana, the keen-sighted New York editor, sees danger ahead, and speaks concerning it. He says in the New York Sun of July 15:—
“The speakers at the convention of fifty thousand Christian Endeavor delegates at Boston have given great prominence to the subject of ‘good citizenship;’ and their references to the services which the societies throughout the union should render toward the purification and elevation of politics, have excited much enthusiasm at all meetings. It is evident that a desire, if not a settled purpose, to make the organization a distinct political power has taken possession of many of its prominent members.
“We regret to see it, and are heartily sorry; . . . for the moral and religious purposes of the organization are worthy of encouragement and praise; and if the disposition to use its machinery for their accomplishment by political means shall be continued, they will be defeated, and politics will be disturbed by bitter religious strife.
“The Christian Endeavor enterprise as a moral enterprise is wholesome and beneficial; as a political movement it would be a curse to the country.”
The United States Senate Committee Report of 1829, Hon. R. M. Johnson as chairman, said:—
“Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. . . . All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.”
H. F. PHELPS.
INSTIGATED BY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE.
By Editor
In Maryland and other states the Sunday laws, which, like those of Connecticut, prohibit the kind of labor a person may perform on the first day of the week to works of necessity and mercy, are being used to persecute the Seventh-day Adventists and Baptists. These people are being arrested, fined, and thrown into jail on account of their belief. We have not reached a point of such injustice here, even if we have the legal power. There are many persons in Connecticut who labor on Sunday and refrain on Saturday. This is notably so in the eastern part of the state, where a large printing press concern in Southington is in full operation on Sunday, it being owned by devout and consistent Seventh-day Baptists. In religious matters, such as this, there should be wide latitude in the enforcement of old statutes, and each man should be a law unto himself. The most singular thing about the persecutions we have spoken of in other states is the fact that they are instigated by the members of other religious denominations.—Bristol, Conn., Herald.
KINDNESS TO THE HELPLESS.
By Sydney Dayre
BY SYDNEY DAYRE.
“Don’t do that, George,” said his mother, looking up from her washtub with a troubled face.
“Do what, mother?”
“Don’t torment that gopher.”
“Ho! What hurt does it do?”
“It hurts it and it hurts me, too. It ought to hurt you to give pain to such a poor little helpless thing.”
George laughed as he gave another jerk to a string which was tied in a slipknot around the neck of a ground squirrel.
“Why, mother, these things are regular pests and ought to be killed, every one of them. If I let them live and increase, we shouldn’t have a thing left in the garden.”
“Perhaps so. It is not wrong to kill anything that does mischief. But it is cruel and wicked to give them any more pain than can be helped.”
George stooped down and loosened the string around the gopher’s neck just enough to keep the little creature from choking, and thus ending its misery, as he went on:—
“I’m bound to clean out that gopher hole back in the brush lot. It’s ever so much fun to set a snare for ’em. You came to get a smell of fresh air, didn’t you, my hearty, and to nibble away at the beets and turnips, hey? And the first thing you knew you ran your nose into my snare, and found yourself whipped up—so! ”
Another jerk swung the gopher as high as George’s head, and his mother turned angrily from her work.
“George, make an end of that poor little thing at once.”
He always obeyed when she spoke like that. The gopher was mercifully set free from suffering, after which George set another trap and left it to take care of itself, while he came and emptied the wash water for his mother.
“If I only could get a good place to work, you wouldn’t have to work so hard, mother,” he said, in a softer voice than one would have thought him capable of. He looked pityingly at her as she sat down, with a weary look on her face, for a few moments’ rest.
“No, my boy, I’m sure you’d help me all you could.”
“Yes, I would. Get out of the way there, I say!”
He picked up a stone, and flung it at the head of a poor old cow as she tried to reach a few green leaves which hung over the garden fence.
“Jim Blake told me,” said George, sitting down by his mother for a moment, “that Mr. Russell’s been looking for a boy to help take care of his horses.”
“That would be a good thing for you,” said his mother eagerly.
“I guess it would. It’s a splendid place up at the grove. Why, the stable’s lots finer’n this house, and everything so nice and handy about it. And Mr. Russell’s easy on his hired folks, they say.”
“And it’s so near that you could be home nights.”
“Yes, I believe I’ll go up town now and find Jim Blake, and ask him if he won’t speak to Mr. Russell for me. Jim knows I can do stable work well.”
George strayed up the village street, keeping his quick eye on the alert for any odd bit of work which might fall in his way.
A gentleman rode up to the doctor’s office, and George walked toward him as he looked for some one to hold his horse.
“My horse is pretty warm and I don’t like to tie him,” said the gentleman. “Can you walk him about for a few minutes?”
George willingly took the bridle and walked up and down the block, greatly admiring the horse and his equipments.
“This is the kind of a horse I’m going to have when I’m a man,” he said. “Big and plump and plucky, and a fine fellow to go, if I know the look of a horse. My, what a fine saddle that is! Must ’a’ cost a lot o’ money. This horse is every bit as handsome as Mr. Russell’s span o’ grays, or handsomer—yes,” eyeing the horse critically. “I always did like sorrels better than grays because you can shine ’em up so. You never can get a real good shine on a gray. Get out, there.”
A large dog in running across the street came very near the spirited horse, which reared a little with a quick start backwards. George gave the dog a violent kick, sending the poor animal down the street howling with pain. The next moment he jerked cruelly once or twice upon the bit, saying impatiently:—
“Keep still there, will you? You don’t think I’m going to prance all over the street to hold to you, do you?”
The owner of the horse came out and released George with a fair payment for his trouble. He went on and saw Jim Blake, who promised that he would do all he could to induce Mr. Russell to hire him.
George was returning from his gopher trap the next morning, when he heard a call from his mother. As she came around a shed into the front yard, she met him.
“Mr. Russell is here asking for you,” she said in a tone of great interest. “He says he’s been spoken to about you and wants to talk to you about his stable work. I do believe he means to hire you.”
George was just coming into sight of a gentlemen who stood at the door of the house, and he flung a gasping, half-dead gopher into the bushes as he took off his hat and came near. Mr. Russell turned a pleasant face towards her, but as George advanced he looked keenly at him, and hesitated a moment before speaking.
“You are wanting a place to help about horses, I believe,” he said coldly.
“Yes, sir,” said George anxiously. “I’ll do my very best to please you, sir, if you’ll try me.”
“Well,” said Mr. Russell, “if I find that I need you, I’ll send for you. Good-morning.”
He walked away and mounted his horse, leaving mother and son gazing wistfully after him.
“Why,” said she, with a look of great surprise and disappointment, “I can’t understand him. He talked to me so pleasantly about you, and thought you’d do for the place.”
“See, he wants to speak to me again,” said George, moving towards Mr. Russell, who had stopped and was looking back.
“I think I might as well say what I want to say now,” said Mr. Russell, “although I did not think best to say it before your mother. I have a great many animals and birds about my place, for I am fond of such things, and I never could have any one among them whom I could not feel sure would be kind and gentle with them.”
“I always would be, sir,” said George.
“Perhaps so, but I want to have only people whose natural instinct would forbid their ill-treating a dumb creature, whether they were observed or not. You are the boy who was leading a horse in front of Dr. Harris’ office yesterday?”
“Yes, sir,” said George, his heart sinking as he realized that he had, while little dreaming that sharp eyes were taking heed of his actions, destroyed his chance of a good situation.
“I was in a store opposite and saw your treatment of the dog and of the horse. If I had known you were the boy who was recommended to me, I need not have come here to-day; but since I have, let me advise you to cultivate a spirit of kindness to animals. If you think a little, you will see that only a coward and a bully could ever take pleasure in giving pain to anything so helpless as to be unable to protect itself against him. Good-morning.”—N. Y. Observer.
HEART OF MINE.
By Gertrude Judson
BY MRS. GERTRUDE JUDSON.
The day is done; come thou, my heart,
And tell me how with time thou'st wrought,
Hast followed in the Master's step,
And learned the lesson he hath taught?
Thy words, as from thy lips they fell,
All winged were they by Satan's art?
Or did they please the dear Lord well?
And hast thou done with zeal thy part?
What burdens hast thou helped to bear
For weak ones toiling 'neath the sun?
What sorrows hast thou sought to share
Of stricken hearts with grief o'errun?
What stones removed that blistered feet
Might walk with ease life's rugged way?
Hast proffered water cool and sweet?
Hast sought for lamb of Christ astray?
O heart of mine, how hast thou wrought
In this fair day the Lord hath given?
Hast filled the golden moments full
Of meditations meet for heaven?
Fast falls the eventide; the sun
Triumphant sinks to glorious rest;
His long day's work he well hath done,
And thou, my heart, hast done thy best.
The darkness falls on wood and hill,
And shadows veil the valleys low,
But sea and lake and mountain rill
Gleam with a crimson afterglow.
So may thy life, O heart of mine,
Lend brightness to this world of woe,
Nor may its span in darkness close,
But leave a beauteous afterglow!
APPALLING HAVOC.
THE ravages of alcohol in Belgium are probably worse than in any other country in the world. A royal commission has been appointed to inquire into the causes thereof. This commission was rendered necessary by the following series of awful facts:—
First, the licensing system has proved utterly inefficient.
Second, the suppression of 38,000 public houses has resulted only in the creation of an equal number of clandestine establishments.
Third, the sale of alcohol has increased in alarming proportions.
Fourth, the poisonous nature of the liquor sold, said by chemists to be seven times more deadly in its effects than pure spirits, is an additional evil. Similar clandestine establishments exist in the United States, known as “Speakeasies,” “Holes in the Wall,” etc.
No license system in this country diminishes in any appreciable degree the opportunities or temptations of the people to debauch themselves with liquor, and intoxicate themselves. Increased attention should be given to the sowing of total abstinence principles in the minds of children.—New York Christian Advocate.
THE EXPERIENCE OF A JAPANESE CONVERT.
By Mattie E. Colburn
REPORTED BY MATTIE E. COLBURN.
August 9, 1895, was “Temperance day” at the Methodist camp meeting, held at Willimantic, Conn. I attended in the afternoon. After an address from Mrs. Ellis on the subject of temperance, a young man was introduced to the audience as a “brother from Japan, who is here in America striving to get an education, to go back to his people and tell them of Jesus.” He gave a short sketch of his life, which was very interesting. I will try to use his language in repeating it to the readers of this paper:—
A BUDDHIST TEMPLE.
“I will take my text this afternoon from Matt. 10:37, 38: ‘He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.’ People talk of living happy lives, but how many really know what true happiness is? Is it in having friends? I had plenty of them in Japan but was not happy. If happiness was to be found in riches, surely I ought to have been happy, for my father was very wealthy. We can only be happy when we have the love of Jesus in our hearts.
“As I said before, my father was very wealthy. His house is filled with servants. Every child had a servant, and I, being the oldest, had two—one to go to school with me, and one to wait on me at home. I never knew what it was to work. I was sent away to school to study to be a Buddhist priest. I was there three years. Part of my duty was to offer sacrifices to the gods in the temple. Sometimes I would eat the food instead of giving it to the idols, and tell the people that the gods ate it. I was getting to be an awful bad boy.
“One day while looking at all those idols, I discovered one without a head. Probably it had fallen sometime, and broken it off. I began to question like this: If these gods have the power to kill us and to protect us, why have they not power to keep their heads on? How can they eat without a mouth? Why don’t they have feet, hands, eyes, and mouths as we have? I wrote to father and told him I was tired of school. I didn’t want to be a priest, I wanted to go home. But I had to stay. After a while father wrote me that he had changed his mind, and I might come home and study for an American officer. As father was an influential man, he had started a private school, to which I was sent. I didn’t study much, I was a regular terror, and would tease the boys and girls every chance I could get.
“One day the professor sent for me to come to his room. I went expecting to get a lecture. After having some cake and tea (you know in Japan you must have cake and tea whatever house you go into), the professor said, ‘Let us pray.’ We knelt down, and I supposed he was going to pray the same as we did, for three hours steady, repeating the same old prayer until I was tired out. I thought first I’d try shaking him, but he was too big for me. Then I concluded I would hide away from him. As I got up to go and hide, I saw tears rolling down his cheeks, and I thought, That man must be in earnest; I’ll see what he has to say. He was praying that Jesus might come into my heart, that I might know of his love. In a few minutes he got up and asked me if I had knelt all the time. This bad boy said, ‘Yes, sir.’ Then he began to tell me about Jesus in heaven as being the only true God. He gave me a copy of the New Testament to read. I opened to Matthew about the genealogy of Christ. Those words were awful long and dry in our language. I told the professor I didn’t like that book. I turned the leaves to find some picture, but not a picture did I find. The professor told me to take the book home with me and read it. I didn’t read it very much at first.
“In our family was an idol that was supposed to protect us, especially my father. It was the presence of that god that made father influential. At his death the god would care for me. My father told me that 1,200 years ago this idol came down from heaven and rested on a rock three miles from home. It was taken and put in the temple. After a while a new temple was built, seven miles from home, and the idol removed from the old to the new temple. The god, being dissatisfied with its new home, went back to the old temple one night, and had stayed with us ever since. One morning after father had left the temple, I made up my mind I would find out if that god walked seven miles in one night. I went into the temple trembling (as I had been taught to reverence the idols), walked up to this god and said, ‘Excuse me.’ No answer. Then I reached out my trembling hand, took the idol, and laid it on the floor. I knelt in front of it and said: ‘O god, they tell me you walked seven miles in one night. Did you do it?’ Still no answer. ‘O god, I won’t ask you to travel seven miles, but if you have that power, go back to your place.’ But the god never moved. I entreated it to go back, telling it that I was the eldest son and had a right in my father’s absence to ask that petition. With all my talking the idol wouldn’t move.
“Then I began to lose my faith in the gods. I took a piece of chalk and drew a mark around the idol, so I could tell in the morning whether it had moved or not. The next morning father and I went to the temple. I looked for the god the first thing. There it was, within the circle; it hadn’t budged an inch. Father didn’t see it on the floor and almost stepped on it. I didn’t care if the old idol was used for a football, but out of regard for father’s feelings I said, ‘Look out, father, you’ll step on the god.’ He jumped back, lifted his hands, and exclaimed: ‘Mother is going to die. The god is leaving us. Something terrible is going to happen. Run for the high priest, that he may beseech the god to stay.’ I wanted to laugh, for I knew the god hadn’t moved.
“I ran for the high priest. When I told him what was wanted, he said: ‘What have you done to offend the god? Have you touched him? I wasn’t George Washington (O, I wished I was!) so this bad boy said, ‘No, sir.’ The priest and father prayed a long while to the idol; then the honor of putting it back in its place was given to me, as I had studied to be a priest. During the whole of it I had to bite my little finger to keep from laughing. My faith in idols then was gone.
“I studied the New Testament all the time. The professor introduced me to a missionary, and there I learned to love Jesus, and openly confessed him. Since that time I have had nothing but persecution. My father heard that I had confessed Jesus, and one night sent for me to come to him. He said: ‘Now I am going to ask you a question. Take plenty of time and think well before you answer. Have you accepted Jesus and the rest of that heathen doctrine?’ (You people12call us heathen; but in Japan we call you heathen). I would rather you would take that sword and pierce me through the heart than to have you say, Yes. If it is true, I shall have to disinherit you. To-morrow morning you must leave my house.’ Think of it, my friends. It was a question of life or death to me. Should I accept or reject Jesus? I asked father to give me the night to think of it. He seemed pleased at that, and said, ‘O my son, I know you won’t leave me!’”
“I went to bed but not to sleep. I prayed Jesus to help and care for me. I opened my Testament and read that Jesus had no home, no place even to lay his head; that if we loved father or mother more than Jesus we were not worthy of him. Again I bowed in prayer, promising my Master that I would be faithful to him, come what would. In the morning I told father that I loved Jesus more than my home. I never could believe in the gods again. I should go to America, and learn about the true God, and come back and tell my people about him.
“He took me by the hand and said, ‘O my son, how you pain me by your words! How it grieves me to send you from me, but I must!’ He led me into the temple, up to the very god I had moved, and prayed for me. Then he told me that the god had revealed to him that I was to go off in a great boat. I would get out to a certain place, where there were two rocks like horns. By these rocks was a great hole, where the boat would sink, and I never would live to get to land.
“So I left home and traveled 200 miles, where I became a servant for a missionary. I knew nothing about work, but was set to blacking stoves and scrubbing floors. All the time I prayed to Jesus to let me go to America, that I might learn of him. The missionary gave me Bibles to sell. In that way I earned money enough to pay my way here, if I would come in the steerage of the vessel, with other foreigners. Being brought up nicer than they, I didn’t like their company, so kept by myself as much as I could. I read my Testament in the dim light until I hurt my eyes and had to stop. Then I was taken sick. For two weeks no one came near me. I almost forsook God. I began to think perhaps after all my father was right, and I never should see land again. But the words of my Saviour came to me; I prayed and was strengthened.
“When I reached New York, I was without a cent of money, could not speak a word in this language, and so homesick. A man set me to work shoveling coal at the depot. At night he gave me a room, without a bed or a stove. It was cold, too, the 10th of January. I stayed there a year. God cared for me. No one in your Christian country asked me to go to church or Sunday school. Then I went to work for a farmer. He told me to milk the cow. We have cows in Japan, but do not milk them or make any butter, so I knew nothing about milking cows. I asked Jesus to help me, took the milking chair, and went on the wrong side of the cow and began milking. The cow was very patient with me, but not a drop of milk did I get. After a while she kicked me over. The boys began to laugh and swear. When the man came, he swore at me. Now in Japan boys never swear. As the man used one particular word very often, I thought he said, ‘Thank you.’ Soon I learned to say it.
“A missionary lady heard of me and one night invited me to come to her house and take tea at six o’clock. I thought they meant I needn’t get up until six o’clock the next morning, but I soon found out my mistake. Then they made me understand I was to eat supper that night with the lady at her house; so I went. When they passed the food to me, I wanted to thank her in English, and used the word I had learned. The lady said, ‘O! O!’ and tried to stop me. But I thought she was saying, ‘Never mind, never mind; we are too glad to do it for you,’ and used the word all the more. The gentleman took me into a room and showed me a dictionary in my own language and one in English. There I found that the word I thought was ‘thank you’ in your language was the name of God. My friends, I can’t tell you how grieved I was. I prayed to Jesus to forgive, and begged the lady’s pardon as best I could.
“The first words I learned in your Christian country were to swear. Did you ever thank God for the privilege you have to worship him? Did you ever consider it a privilege to worship him? My prayer is that I may get an education and go back to Japan and convince my father and my people that there is a true God. I feel that it was through the prayers of the people here in America that God touched my heart to enter into his work. I have taken more time than I ought. God has given you much, and much will be required of you.”
As he took his seat among the speakers on the platform, I thought, How many of us would have stood the test?
“I AM WITH YOU ALWAY.”
By Thomas Kelly
Speed thy servants, Saviour, speed them;
Thou art Lord of winds and waves;
They were bound, but thou hast freed them;
Now they go to free the slaves;
Be thou with them;
’Tis thine arm alone that saves.
Friends and home and all forsaking,
Lord, they go at thy command,
As their stay thy promise taking,
While they traverse sea and land.
O, be with them;
Lead them safely by the hand!
Where no fruit appears to cheer them,
And they seem to toil in vain,
Then in mercy, Lord, draw near them,
Then their sinking hopes sustain;
Thus supported,
Let their zeal revive again.
In the midst of opposition
Let them trust, O Lord, in thee;
When success attends their mission,
Let thy servants humble be!
Never leave them,
Till thy face in heaven they see.
—Thomas Kelly.
Publications on the Sabbath
THE LORD'S DAY, THE TEST OF THE AGES
Presents in the briefest, simplest manner a part of the Bible evidence concerning both sides of the Sabbath question. The subject is treated in a new and interesting way. Fully illustrated with diagrams and original illustrations. 128 pages, paper covers, just out, price 15 cents.
ABIDING SABBATH AND LORD'S DAY
A pointed review of two of the best recent productions for the defense of the Sunday sabbath. The best arguments in support of Sunday are undoubtedly presented in this book. 173 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.
CHANGE OF THE SABBATH
A brief treatise answering the question so often asked, “Who Changed the Sabbath?” 218 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.
NATURE AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
A candid and thoroughly scriptural treatise on this important question. 96 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.
THE SABBATH AND THE LAW
This work covers the Sabbath institution from Eden created to Eden restored, and its arguments are clear and forcible and convincing. 192 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.
THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH
An exhaustive treatise on the Sabbath question, in which every passage in the Bible which has any connection with the Sabbath, either in the Old or New Testament, is examined at length. It is a veritable mine of information, both Biblical and Historical, on this subject. Three volumes, paper covers. Price $1.00 per set.
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