Earlier text: Canvassers’ Summary for October, 1910

Death of Elder E. R. Williams

THE cable last week brought the sad news of the death, in South Africa, of Elder E. R. Williams, stricken down with apoplexy in the midst of his work. Our sympathies go out to Sister Williams and the children in their deep affliction. Elder Williams was president of the Cape Colony Conference, and the loss of his services to the cause will be keenly felt by the believers in South Africa.

THE General Conference Committee

Council is in the midst of its session as we go to press. Quite a number of conference presidents are joining in the conference, and a number of ministers from Eastern cities. Along with the general problems, the city work has been before the council daily. The papers read, and the discussions, have been very profitable, and will strengthen the hands of the conferences and laborers in working for the great centers of population. The Lord is blessing in the council.

World's Christian Citizenship Conference

The first session of the World's Christian Citizenship Conference convened at Philadelphia, Pa., November 16-20. Representatives were present from nearly all the great mission fields of the world—earnest, enthusiastic men and women. The purpose of the convention was to indoctrinate the missionaries on all the foreign stations with the ideas of National Reformism, so that the work of bringing in the kingdom of Christ through the function of the ballot-box might go on simultaneously in all corners of the earth. It was evident from a number of the speeches made by those who had been laboring in countries where religion and the state have been united, that the National Reform Association has a considerable task on its hands to make these missionaries believe that the system of state-churchism is a commendable one. Some of these missionaries have seen that system at work, and condemned it unstintedly as an oppressive and persecuting one. It was claimed that there were about fifteen hundred delegates in attendance. C. M. Snow, of the REVIEW editorial staff, attended the convention, and a report of the proceedings will appear next week.

Educational Convention Report

Every teacher should have a copy of the sixty-one resolutions passed at the educational convention at Berrien Springs, Mich., in June. They are published in the Convention Report, which also contains the outline of study for the academies, collegiate, business, commercial, and normal courses, together with twenty-six papers and the discussions. Price, 25 cents. Order from Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Young People’s Missionary Work

In many parts our young people's societies are lifting at this and that missionary undertaking. Last Sabbath afternoon the society in Baltimore presented a missionary program on Japan, bright and instructive, ending with a Thanksgiving-week gift of ten dollars for Japan's church building fund. At the forenoon service, after a sermon by Elder M. Lukens, some of these same young people, with older ones, had made a definite surrender to God of their own hearts, some for the first time.

A Sabbath of Prayer in Washington

LAST Sabbath was a good day for our people in and about Washington. Visiting ministers attending the General Conference Council occupied the pulpits of the several churches in the District. Elder J. O. Corliss preached in the Takoma Park church, Elder E. E. Andross in the Memorial (Washington) Church, Elder R. D. Quinn to the Seminary church, Elder Allen Moon at the Eighth Street church, Washington. The delegates to the council, numbering some sixty, met by themselves for Sabbath-school in the Sanitarium gymnasium. Prof. H. R. Salisbury conducted the general study of the lesson. Following this, Elder A. G. Daniells presented the subject of prayer, emphasizing its great need in the work of the gospel ministry. Throughout the history of the church, the men of power have been men of prayer, and the power of the ministry of this church will be increased in direct proportion as our workers cultivate communion with God, and lay hold of his strength. This subject touched a responsive chord in the hearts of the workers. Many felt that the time of crisis had been reached in our work and in personal experience, and that the call of God for this hour was to move forward with a new endowment of power from his Holy Spirit. Hearts were made tender, and many expressed themselves as believing that from this time forward we shall enter upon a new experience in connection with this closing work. This good meeting was continued in the afternoon. The council has many perplexing problems before it in relation to the future of the work; but while the problems are great, all realize that God is over all, and that as he has committed to his people the Herculean task of warning the world, he of his abundance will supply the needed power and resources to carry forward the work to a glorious completion.

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