Earlier text: THE OBEDIENT AND THE DISOBEDIENTTHE HYDRA-HEADED MONSTER.
By Editor
The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics has just completed, the Homiletic Review tells us, an important series of investigations, for the year ending Aug. 20, 1896, on the relation of drink to poverty, crime, and insanity. Of the 3,230 paupers cared for in the State institutions, 2,108 were addicted to liquor. Of the adults 75 per cent. were users of liquor. Nearly 40 in every 100 admitted that their pauperism had been brought on by drink. Of the 26,672 convictions for all crimes during the year, 17,575 were for drunkenness alone; and 657 for drunkenness in connection with other crime; while 22,514 were those whose drinking habits brought about conditions and associations which led to the crime. This is 84 per cent. of crime due to drink. It was ascertained that 94 per cent. of the criminals used liquor; and excluding those under 21 years of age, 96 per cent. were liquor drinkers. Out of 1,836 cases of insanity 661 were liquor users. In such adult cases as were learned with certainty it was found that 54 per cent. used liquor, and with 25 per cent. liquor drinking was the direct cause of the insanity. Only one person in each 100 was considered insane because his parents were intemperate, but 52 in every 100, where definite data could be obtained, became insane through the intemperance of grandparents. The evil fell upon the third generation. This is an indication of the work of the hydra-headed monster intemperance. How Does the Court Know?—The Pacific Ensign of December 31 has the following:— “The Sabbath Protective League claims that Eugene Tompkins, proprietor of the Boston theater, and all who attended as well as who took part in the grand concert in Boston Theater, last Sunday evening, for the benefit of Colonel Mapleson, are law-breakers. The law provides that if a concert on Sunday where an admission fee is charged is not sacred, or if the entertainment is not given by a charitable or religious society, then not only are the promoters guilty of a breach of the law, but those who attend are also guilty, and liable to a fine not exceeding five dollars. Among those who attended Sunday night was ex-Queen Liliuokalani, who occupied a box, and under the law she would be equally guilty with the performers in case it was found that the concert was not sacred. The program has been submitted to the court, but there the matter rests for the present.” The court is to decide by the program whether the concert is “sacred”! If it is phrased in pious terminology, presumably it will pass, though every note were mockery. On the other hand, it might not contain a religious term from beginning to end, and yet be as “sacred” in God’s sight as the services in many churches. “Well, what would you do about it?” says an objector. We would have the civil laws, legislators, executors, and courts attend to matters within their own sphere. They would then never have to be called upon to go through the farce of deciding what is “sacred” or what is “profane.” The above is a faint illustration of the reality when Church and State union is more fully developed.9 “Shall I Pay for My Neighbor?”—That is, shall I be compelled to pay for my neighbor’s religious instruction? It seems to us that every man who desires freedom in religious matters should at once say, No, most emphatically; but Rabbi M. S. Levy, of San Francisco, is reported as answering in the affirmative (daily Examiner of January 9) in a lecture given the evening of January 8, in Geary Street Temple. He said:— “Why pay to the support of religion?” urges the one who does not believe in synagogue or church. Why not? We think all of these arguments both false and ruinous, for as soon as the want is that of the community, every individual ought to feel it a high and patriotic privilege to contribute his quota, each according to his ability, according to the blessings with which God has blessed him, since no community can suffer without more or less affecting every member thereof.” The rabbi puts the support of religion upon the same basis as the taxes for illuminating the streets, furnishing water, supporting public schools. It is strange that he does not see the difference. All these other matters in a general way bear upon individuals equally according to amount of property involved, without in any way contravening the rights of conscience. But religion in its myriad forms and different kinds is a matter which lies between man and the object of his worship, whether that object be the God of the Bible, the Chinese Joss, the Virgin Mary, or Buddha. Compulsory taxation is decided and enjoined by a majority. Admitting the principle in his lecture, the rabbi should find no fault when he and his people are called upon to support Roman Catholic priests and institutions. The only consistent position for a patriot and lover of liberty to take is that the support of religious teachers and institutions, moral or financial, shall be wholly and absolutely voluntary on the part of him who contributes. Elsewise is slavery. STEPS TO HEALTH.
By E. H. Mathewson, M.D.
It is literally true that we are made of what we eat, and our food is therefore an important consideration and should receive its proper attention. The organs of digestion prepare the food so that certain elements can be absorbed, and converted into bones, muscles, nerves, etc. If one goes without food, we can easily see that there would be nothing with which to build up these structures; and it is just as true that if the food is deficient, or of poor quality, we can only get the same kind of nourishment which we give the organs to work upon. Some green foods require cooking before they can be properly digested, while other foods are deleterious on account of injurious substances which they contain. We should therefore in studying this question consider the kind of foods, preparation of foods, the amount to be taken, and the part we can act in having it properly digested for our use. The greatest number of the people of this world are really vegetarians, altho many of the most civilized of the earth's nation eat a mixed diet, partaking more or less largely of flesh. There are many advocates of both diets, and for different reasons, two only of which I will mention, and these in favor of the former, because I believe if we can have our choice, these reasons are sufficient to convince at least every Christian as to the best kind of food. Life is considered sacred by the nations of India and China, and I trust at least by every true believer in God; for how can we take that unnecessarily which God gives and which we are unable to supply. It is certain God never intended the flesh of animals for food; for in the beginning he directed him to eat of the fruit of the trees and of other fruits of the earth. Can the one with feelings of pity and tenderness which Christ enjoins, freely take the life of animals unnecessarily for food? Will taking the lives of lower animals harden one's feeling or make him less sensitive in dealing with mankind? We all know that the former is the case. I believe we would have far less of this cruel practice if the housewife rather than the butcher had to do this disagreeable task. The other objection to a diet of meat is the danger of its being diseased, and its injurious effects as a diet. At the present time diseases are increasing among both animals and man. The really healthy man is hard to find. This is also true of those animals used as food. This may result largely from the manner of fattening them for market, and the excitement and damage received during transportation. Besides, all meat contains more or less matter ready for excretion, and other poisons which have a so-called stimulating effect upon the system. If one accustomed to such diet would discontinue the same, he would feel the lack at once, and he would feel less able to do a hard day's work. This shows meat to be a stimulant. Beef tea contains all the stimulating properties of the meat, and will produce its invigorating temporary effect, but it has been found that a dog fed upon beef tea will starve sooner than if not fed at all. The so-called stimulation, then, has been of no real benefit, but has simply covered up the feelings of hunger or fatigue which were present. For the above reasons, therefore, we should prefer a diet of fruits and grains, with other vegetable foods so plentifully provided for our use. If meat be used at all, the very best should be obtained, and then used but sparingly. Certain kinds of meat are positively unfit for food, such as the flesh of swine, and any animal, in fact, fed upon garbage and refuse. It was certainly a wise purpose which directed the Israelites in selecting their meats. The fat of animals is also an objectionable part, as the bodily excess of material is laid up in this way; and when one is taken sick, this part is the very first to break down. The preparation of foods will be next considered. E. H. MATHEWSON, M.D. EMPTIED FROM VESSEL TO VESSEL.
The following bit of heart-experience given to the writer years ago, is well worth repeating for the benefit of other tossed lives, and their number is legion. “It is the queerest thing.” “Well, then, it must be very queer,” said grandmother, with a twinkle in her deep-set eyes. “It is. Just as soon as I get settled comfortably anywhere or in anything, I have to be jostled, upset, tumbled out; I have not felt at home for a day and a night for seven years. If I am being punished, I am being dreadfully punished.” Grandmother peered at me over her glasses, but said not a word. I felt rebuked, but went on grumbling. “We thought we were settled in that lovely home in the country. John’s health was good there, and the children frisked like lambs; then that mortgage had to come, and it had to be paid off, and the lovely place had to be sold for three-quarters of what we paid for it, and we boarded awhile and were homeless. “I came nearer ‘nestling’ there than I ever did anywhere; then John exasperated me by quoting some old saint’s prayer: ‘Lord, when thou seest I am about to nestle, put a thorn in my nest.’ I told him that was the spirit of Pascal, who thrust iron spikes into his naked flesh; and I would none of it. Yet I did try to be thankful and humble, and then had to have my roof taken away from me. O, how it hurt; while I thought of the old saint’s prayer, and wondered if I had ‘nestled’! “And now this! We must give up this home. This is the third satisfying home I have had to give up in less than seven years.” I was not grumbling now; I was penitent and in tears. Grandmother did not look sharply at me; she kept her eyes on her darning. “Do you know what the Lord said about Moab, once?” About Moab! How she lived among those old names! The name suggested Ruth, nothing else.10 “Is he saying about me what he said about Moab?” I queried incredulous. “I will tell you and you can judge. It was my portion this morning. You know how full my life has been of changes. Your life reminds me of my own. If this truth may only mean to you what it means to me!” “I think I am ready for it, grandmother,” I said, touched by her voice. “I know you are. The Lord said this about Moab: ‘Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel.’” With what a light shone grandmother’s old eyes! “Now do you want to know what happened to him because he had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, because he had not been ‘jostled, upset, and tumbled out,’ like you? ‘Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.’ Do you want your natural ‘taste’ to remain in you, your natural ‘scent’ not to be changed? Do you want to be at ‘ease’ and not have the best blessings?” “But is it doing me good?” I murmured, remembering my discontent. “I am sure you love heaven as you never would do if earth were one unchanging comfortableness.” “I know it. I went to sleep last night glad that heaven would be a resting-place, even if earth pushed me about so.” “God has work for you to do in each place that he empties you into. He knows your tendency to ‘settle down.’ He knows how your heart needs to be uprooted, that it has a natural clinging to old places and old friends. He wants you to have a new taste and new scent. He sees some taste and some scent in you that he wants to change, and nothing but stirring you up by emptying you out will make that decided change. You will be pure and strong with his taste, if you let him work his changes in you. Isn’t it worth it?” It is worth it, yes. But, O, how hard it was to leave the home we had planned and builded, my sunshine-chamber, the family room, the garden we had planted, and the flowers that would bloom next year, when we were not there to see them! Such sunrises and such sunsets! Would the morning-star ever shine so golden through the rosy light anywhere on earth as I saw it this morning from my chamber window? But there was Moab with the unchanged scent and taste; and there would I be, with something in me that God did not love, something that stopped short of his idea of what he would make of me and with me, if he did not empty me from home to home. That was his way of changing me. “Yes,” was all I said, and then I went out into my pretty kitchen to get tea, and to hope that I would do God’s work more faithfully in my next new home. This is the story for the wanderers who “have here no continuing city.”—Cumberland Presbyterian. THE CONDITION OF CITY CHURCHES.
THE following is from the report of a sermon by W. A. Gardner, pastor of the West Side Christian Church, San Francisco, as reported in the daily Examiner, some months ago. The subject, we gather, is on how to reach the masses in our cities. Certainly, the picture drawn by Mr. Gardner does not argue converted cities or a converted world. He said among other things:— “Thousands of our modern churches are costly club houses, which serve no earthly or heavenly purpose save for three hours on one day of each week. “The spirit of the modern church is not Christ-like, and it has developed a class of Sunday Christians,” he continued. “There is no doubt that modern Christianity is suffering from dry rot. We have Sunday churches devoted to a sermon, earnest and polished, to singing, artistic and cultivated, and that is all there is to it. In San Francisco, at an expenditure of $118,700, our 15 leading churches have made 385 conversions annually. Our 4,161 operating saloons have an annual revenue of $14,500,000. There are, as a direct result of these saloons, 13,363 arrests for drunkenness. “Conceding that all crime is the indirect result of drink, we have 8,000 annual converts to the saloon, 385 to the church. My figures I quote from Chief Crowley’s report.” “Decent” and “American.”—In the Record-Union’s report of the Sacramento Sunday-law convention, issue of January 21, it is said:— “Dr. Cantine, who was the next speaker, thought there ought to be State pride enough in California for its people to be decent, and to be American. California was the only State in the Union of any prominence that had no Sunday law.” It might be well to inquire as to what is “decent” and what is “American.” Is it “decent” for a certain number who happen to be in a majority to compel a certain other number who happen to be in a minority, to observe a religious institution just because the majority hold it? Is it “decent” or Christian to adopt in practice the rule, Whatsoever ye would not that others should do to you, do ye even so to them, while at the same time professing the Golden Rule? Would these earnest Sunday-law makers agree to submit to a majority who voted for the Mohammedan sixth day? Is it truly “American” to legislate on religious matters, enforce religious dogmas by law, and thus unite Church and State? California is the only great State which is in respect to Sunday laws truly “decent” and truly “American.” Let her so abide. SOME PLURALS.
By The Commonwealth
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes;
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine. If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of both be called beeth?
If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But tho we say mother, we never say methren;
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim. So the English, I think you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see. MILK is apparently a whitish, opaque liquid. In reality it consists of a clear, transparent fluid, containing many minute globules of various sizes. The fluid part is called the milk serum, and consists of water and a number of dissolved solids. Suspended in the serum are little globules of pure fat, which are semi-solid, and form with the serum a mixture called an emulsion. The solid constituents present in the serum in largest quantities are sugar and casein, albumen and mineral matter in small quantities, and also a little fibrin, resembling the fibrin of the blood. There is more sugar in milk than any other solid component. Milk sugar can be separated and brought into solid form, and resembles powdered white sugar. Its chief use is medicinal. It is the sugar which undergoes the greatest change when milk becomes sour. Fat globules of different size are found in the milk of any cow, but with certain breeds the size is uniformly larger than with other breeds. The milk of Jersey and Guernsey cows has globules of the largest form, which explains why the cream rises so rapidly on it. One hundred pounds of good milk contain 87 pounds of water, 4 of fat, 5 of milk sugar, 3.3 of casein and albumen, and .7 of mineral matter or salts. The proportion of fat varies more in milk than any other constituent; the larger the proportion of fat the richer the milk. In most States and many large cities the standard of milk is maintained by law, which requires three or three and a half per cent. of other solids. It is the solid matter in the milk that gives it its value. In well-regulated dairies each cow is milked about ten months a year; the remainder of the year she is said to be “dry.” The souring of milk is due to the presence of bacteria. Milk from healthy cows is a naturally pure article, but it may be contaminated after milking, with germs of typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis, and these diseases have been thus transmitted to man. Odors and peculiar flavors are due to bacterial action or to the volatile oils of some foods; onions, turnips, cabbage, and certain weeds, as garlic and wormwood, give characteristic odors and tastes to milk.—Public Health Journal. THE TRUE BASIS OF PROHIBITION.
By Gerrit Smith
The friends of temperance—I mean of prohibition—can not be at too great pains to disabuse the public mind of the impression that they are in favor of sumptuary laws. I would that they all confined the province of government to the sole duty of protecting persons and property, for then they would be able to argue the rightfulness of prohibition. How clear is it that the government which licenses or tolerates the dramshop grossly and wickedly fails of protecting the persons and property of its subjects! The dramshop—call it hotel, or by any other name—is a manufactory of paupers and madmen. A heavy burden for the sober to bear are these paupers. And what vessel, or car, or stage-coach, or building, or precious life is safe from the destructions which rum-made madmen are dealing so constantly and thickly all around them? It is not alone when they have drunk enough to stagger that men are dangerous. The preternatural excitement which the captain, engineer, or driver derives from but a single glass may be sufficient to peril all the lives intrusted to his care. Now, to say nothing of the duty of government to shield the industry of the sober from this burden of pauperism—how manifest its duty to suppress this manufacture of maniacs! Were shops to be opened for making madmen with exhilarating gases, or by means of some other temptations, government would promptly shut them up. Why then does it not shut up the dramshops?—Because it is accustomed to protect them, and the people are accustomed to the protection. Nothing so much as custom has the power to sanction and to blind.—Gerrit Smith, 1854. IN harmony with a widely-observed New Year's day custom, several young men called upon a young lady. Her father was also present to assist in entertaining the guests. He did not share his daughter's scruples against the use of spirituous drinks, for he had wine to offer. This was poured out, and would have been drunk, but the young lady asked:— “Did you call upon me or upon papa?” Gallantry, if nothing else, compelled them to answer:— “Then you will please not drink wine. I have lemonade for my visitors.” The father urged the guests to drink, and they were undecided. “Remember, if you call on me, then you drink lemonade; but if upon papa, why, in that case, I have nothing to say.” The wine-glasses were set down with their contents untasted. After leaving the house, one of the party exclaimed:— “That was the most effectual temperance lecture I have ever heard.” The young man from whom these facts were obtained broke off at once from the use of strong drink, and holds a grateful remembrance of the lady who gracefully and resolutely gave him to understand that her guests should not drink wine.—Selected. LANDSEER began his study of dogs at six. Handel had produced an opera before he was fifteen. Il Perugino had finished an altar painting at fourteen. Auber wrote an operette for the stage before fourteen. Claude Lorraine began landscape painting at twelve. Corneille had planned a tragedy before he was ten. Moliere finished a comedy, one of his best, at seventeen. Rembrandt had finished a portrait before he was twelve. Lessing is said to have begun “Sarah Sampson” at eighteen, and to have finished it before twenty. Shelley produced all his wonderful works of imagination before the age of thirty, at which he died. Goethe had produced a considerable number of poems and several dramas before he was twenty. Wagner planned a series of German operas by the time he was twenty-three, altho his design was not carried out for many years. Cæsar was not twenty before he became prominent in Roman politics, and was the leading spirit in Roman affairs before thirty. Burke was twenty-six when the “Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful” was published. It is said that he began it between twenty and twenty-one.—Selected. THE VALUE OF PRESENCE OF MIND.
SIR ANDREW CLARKE, while traveling in Italy, says a medical journal, ascended a high tower one evening, and found at the top another tourist, an Englishman. They chatted pleasantly for a few minutes, when suddenly the stranger seized Sir Andrew by the shoulders, and said quietly, “I am going to throw you over.” The man was a maniac. The physician had only a moment in which to gather his thoughts, but that moment saved him. “Pooh,” he replied unconcernedly, “anybody can throw a man off the tower. If we were on the ground, you could not throw me up. That would be too difficult.” “Yes, I could,” retorted the maniac, “I could easily throw you up here from the ground. Let us go down and I will do it.” The descent was accordingly made, during which Sir Andrew managed to secure help, and released himself from his perilous situation. “TORFU.”—In Japan, that land of gentle manners and other queer things, notes the Thrice a Week World, they have invented vegetable meat. The substance is called in the vernacular, “torfu.” It consists mainly of protean matter of the sayo bean, and is claimed to be as easily digestible as meat. Torfu is as white as snow, and is sold in tablets; it tastes like fresh malt. What with mineral wool, wood silk, and vegetable meat, and other articles of food and wear made by science, nature may as well go out of business at once. NOTES FROM EUROPE.
By H. P. H.
- (From our own correspondent.)*
SINCE my return from Turkey in October, I have briefly visited our work in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. My first stop was at Genoa, where a ship missionary is engaged. Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, has become an important seaport. Besides large numbers of Italians, many Russians, Poles, etc., migrate from this port, mostly to South America. As far as possible, publications in the various tongues are supplied them. The next visits in Italy were at Turin, the former capital, and at Torre Pellice, the town situated at the opening to the Waldensian valleys. A church has been gathered from this interesting historic people, and one laborer is still maintained among them. Many publications have been here circulated, and it is believed that many of this people will yet embrace the present truth. Returning to Switzerland, via the Mount Cenis tunnel and Geneva, I visited our French churches, mostly situated in the Juras. The work here is onward. Where our last camp-meeting was held, a nice church has been established. Before the meeting in August, nothing was here known of the message. A few days were spent at our children's school in the canton of Bern, where some fifty children enjoy the benefits of a Christian home school, situated at the foot of the Juras in a pine and beech grove. The school is doing good work, and is a blessing to many families. During the latter part of 1896, Switzerland was greatly agitated over the Armenian question. Many meetings were held, and much money collected in behalf of the Armenians. The people became greatly excited over the matter. Taking advantage of the situation, I delivered lectures at several centers in the Juras on the Eastern Question, to show the people the meaning as expressed in prophecy, of the situation in the east. For years it has been the general sentiment in Europe that the integrity of the Ottoman Empire must be maintained; but this sentiment has now largely given place to the feeling that at all hazards the Turks should be severely chastised. This change is but another decided step in advance in the fulfilment of Dan. 11:45 and Rev. 16:12–15. The early part of December was spent at Basel, at our new sanitarium. Our health work in this field is gaining steadily, and gives promise of becoming a powerful factor in the advancement of Gospel truth. Altho battling with strong prejudice and many errors, our young institution has already made itself known as a true friend of suffering humanity. A short visit at Hamburg, the center of our work in the German mission, revealed new tokens of the advancement of the message in this field. Altho but seven years old, our work in this field has taken deep root in the majority of the large cities, and has extended to Holland, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Roumania. From about 40 our membership has in this time increased to 1,000. Many books and tracts are being circulated in ten or more languages, and the circulation of the German paper has, some time since, passed the ten thousand mark. Native laborers are being developed to an encouraging extent; and the German mission is fast becoming a center for developing mission work in surrounding nations. After a brief visit in Holland, where the message has made decided advancement of late, I came to London, where our annual general meeting for Great Britain was held, December 31 to January 6. This gathering was attended by the preachers, Bible workers, and a number of the canvassers. Reports showed that every effort put forth during the past year had been fruitful. For both the Present Truth and books, about 80 canvassers were in the field the past year. The Present Truth is doing a good work, evidence of which is frequently seen in fruit resulting from its circulation. For 1896, the average weekly circulation was 12,856, an increase over the previous year of more than a thousand. Gradually the truth is taking root in the large cities; new laborers are developing; and with the present working force, the means raised in the field meet running expenses. This is good evidence of the substantial growth of the work in this field. A special feature of the general meeting was the work of Elder Loughborough, who delivered nine discourses on the rise and experience of the Advent people, much to the encouragement of all present. The sentiment prevails in this field that the work is the Lord's, that still greater blessings await our demand and reception, and that the Lord will speedily do a great work in this field, as in all the world. H. P. H. On the Atlantic, January 14. EASTWARD BOUND.
By W. C. White
[A few notes by the way from the district superintendent of General Conference District No. 9, embracing Australasia.] At the Sydney Australia Conference, it was decided that I should attend the General Conference, appointed to convene in Lincoln, Nebraska, Feb. 19, 1897. For five years we had been in Australia, and the matter of a visit to the United States was freely discussed. Both my mother, Mrs. E. G. White, and myself had received urgent invitations to attend this conference. While mother advised me to attend, she said that she did not think it her duty to cross the Pacific Ocean again, and again engage in active labor, where there were so many calls that would take time and strength from the work of writing, which she felt to be of first importance. The days allotted to preparation for the journey soon slipped away, and December 20 I bade farewell to my family and friends in Cooranbong, and the following day boarded the Monowai, the most comfortable of the five ships sailing between Australia and America. Sister May Israel, going to join her family in California, was also a passenger on the Monowai. Four days and five hours’ sailing brought us to the Auckland pier, at 10 P. M. December 25. We looked in vain for a familiar face, and the next morning early, started out to find our friends. The first suburban train took us to Remuera, where we found Elder Steed and family, who gave us a hearty welcome, and told us that Elder S. N. Haskell was in Auckland. Brethren Geo. Teasdale and Thomas Skinner, with whom I wished to confer about the educational work, were also there. Here we learned that the recent general meeting in Auckland, and the conference session, held in Napier, were occasions of great encouragement to our people. Reports from the field showed that interests were springing up in various places, and it was ascertained that during the last twelve months, forty persons had embraced the Sabbath truth, who had never seen a Seventh-day Adventist minister. This was largely the result of the faithful circulation of our religious books and periodicals. A decided thrill of encouragement passed through the conference when it was ascertained that Elder E. W. Farnsworth would spend most of his time in New Zealand, and fully identify himself with that conference. His first work will be to organize a corps of workers, and open up a mission in the important city of Christchurch. After brief interviews with our friends, we attended the regular Sabbath meeting, where Elder Haskell spoke with great clearness on the Judgment. Altho sometimes suffering from physical weakness, Brother Haskell presents the precious and thrilling truths of the Gospel with even greater power than in former years. He was going north to visit old friends at Kaeo, after which we hope he will spend some time in Sydney and Brisbane. We left Auckland at two o’clock Sabbath afternoon, and six days and three hours brought us to Apia, Samoa. Immediately the anchor dropped, Dr. M. G. Kellogg was on board, and in ten minutes we were on shore. What a delightful sensation, to walk on solid ground, surrounded by the most delightful tropical scenery in the midst of our sea voyage. At the landing we were met by Mrs. Dr. Kellogg, Miss Emily McCoy, and Miss Louise Burkhardt. Leaving the boat, we crossed Apia’s one principal street, which skirts the beach of the semicircular harbor, and, taking a path which led straight into the thick groves of tall tropical trees, we found that this thick forest was everywhere intersected with these narrow paths, along which were built the native houses. Ten minutes’ easy walk brought us to the Samoan Medical Mission and Hospital. On a gentle rise of ground stands the mission house, a good wholesome-looking structure, with fourteen rooms, and a two-story veranda all around it. I call it a house of fourteen rooms, because that is the plan. When we were there, some of the board partitions were not yet built, and heavy canvas served as partitions till the two faithful workmen could complete the subdivision. Dr. Kellogg estimated that he and Brother D. A. Owen had earnest work for six months yet to complete this large house. The hospital was a three-roomed cottage standing just across the way, which had been rented for the use of natives and their friends and attendants, when recovering from surgical operations. At the mission we met Dr. and Mrs. Braucht, Brother Owen and a younger daughter, and Brother Flooding. Here also we met Elder E. Hilliard, of Tonga, who had come to have some much needed dental work done by Dr. Braucht, who is dentist as well as physician and surgeon. After a careful inspection of the grounds and buildings, during which I was convinced that the location was well chosen, and that the buildings were well planned, and would be very suitable for the work in hand, we devoted three hours to conversation about the work. How glad I was of the captain’s assurance that the ship would not sail before ten o’clock! We talked fast and faithfully, stopping only for refreshments, where an ample table was profusely spread with both tropical and American products. Fresh young coconuts served for milk, breadfruit boiled, for one of the vegetables, with German lentils and Michigan sweet corn, California nuts and raisins, and then native pineapples, oranges, bananas, guavas, and other fruits whose names I have forgotten, composed the supper. We learned that on first coming to the island, the doctor had been thronged with patients, some really sick, and some curious to see his new instruments, and try his new medicine. After the curious were disposed of, and12 departed with the bottle of medicine which they insisted on having, there were numbers needing skilful attention, and many who required serious surgical operations. Success has attended all lines of work, but that which has caused the greatest surprise, is the rapid recovery of the severe surgical cases. Each patient undergoing an operation, brings three to seven friends and attendants, who stay with him, day after day, till he goes home. Right here, with these waiting friends and attendants, is a most excellent opportunity for evangelistic work. The doctor is too full of his medical work to learn well the language, and this grand opportunity goes unimproved. His only male attendant, Willie Flooding, is too young to bear this responsibility. The work here calls for an energetic evangelist, a graduate from one of our colleges, quick to learn language, and full of energy. I plead for such a man for Samoa. Island work calls for a large proportion of educated men. There were twelve of us to unite in praise and prayer, after which they loaded us with hampers of choice fruits, and bade us good-by. Drs. Braucht and Kellogg and two of the ladies accompanied us to the boat landing. There we learned that over seventy-five tons of copra were going on board, and the steamer would not sail till after one. So we found shelter from the rain, and continued our visit. At half past ten our boatmen called us, for others were ready to go. We said, “Go, and return for us.” They returned in thirty minutes, and soon urged us to go, as others were ready. We said, “Go, and return for us.” Then we visited on, uninterrupted. Twelve passed, and half past, but no boatmen. At one we began to be uneasy; at half past one, anxious. Finally the whistle of the Monowai told us to come on board, but yet no boatmen. The boatmen were all engaged in a dance on the deck of our steamer, at the close of which they collected about $3.00. We began to think how it would seem to spend a month in Samoa, when we were expected in California. Dr. Braucht rushed into the forest, and soon found a boatman. He came out very sleepy, and we helped launch a clumsy boat. Then our boatman discovered that he had no oars. We sent him off for oars, and were just ready to start when the other boatmen came, and began quarreling about our patronage. We pushed them aside, entered the clumsy boat with the single oarsman, and scarcely breathed for anxiety, during the fifteen minutes he was rowing us to the steamer. At last we were there, and in less than five minutes the great steamer was moving out of the harbor. W. C. WHITE. YESTERDAY now is a part of forever,
Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight,
With sad days and bad days and glad days,
Which never shall visit us more with their bloom,
or their blight;
Their fulness of sunshine, or sorrowful night. Every day is a fresh beginning;
Every morn is a world made new;
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you,
A hope for me and a hope for you. Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain;
And in spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And troubles forecast and possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.
Let them go since we can not relive them,
Can not undo and can not atone;
God in his mercy receive them, forgive them,
Only the new days are our own.
To-day is ours, and to-day alone.