There are fifty treatment rooms operated by our people, most of them under private ownership and management. These are usually located in cities of some size. As a rule, they give a good representation of our denominational work. In some instances they are conspicuous for their missionary work.
Our department correspondence gives us some very encouraging items concerning this phase of our work, and shows that we have some earnest workers connected with it who are anxious to do their part in giving the truth for this time. A few items and quotations may be of interest to all those who are glad for the various means of advancing the cause of truth.
From two nurses in Illinois we received a good long letter. They say: “Our work has won the confidence of the people. We are in position to speak to persons in a way we could not if we were in the evangelistic work only, and, of course, this is the paramount reason for our doing this work. We have not been here a full year, and cannot say we have been successful in winning souls to the truth, but we know we have helped many to live more useful lives. We have taught them a better way of living, and have also shown them how to take care of themselves. Some think it strange that such young people as we are should have such a ‘peculiar doctrine,’ but we are glad that we have this message to give others.
“We keep reading matter on hand all the time, and point out certain articles to individuals to read. We have used over one thousand copies of the War Extra of the Review, and about one hundred copies of the Signs, besides our other publications. We keep reading matter in the waiting rooms of the physicians here in the city.”
A man and his wife in a Southern city have many good experiences. He writes:—
“We find treatment room work unexcelled as a medium for presenting our special truths. It reaches people at home and in the home, right where they live for most of the twelve months. It reaches the entire family; not only the sick one that might be reached by the sanitarium plan, but all the members.
“My own heart is so full at this moment over a recent experience that I can scarcely write. A very exclusive lady of wealth came to us a week ago for treatment. While waiting her turn she engaged me in conversation. As she first entered, she noticed one or two Bibles and some other books and papers on the table. She remarked pleasantly, ‘You people are Christians, are you not?’ I answered that we were, and soon we were talking on the second coming of the Lord. She asked, ‘Do you actually believe that he really is coming again?’ Then I told her of the precious hope, and of the indications of the early realization of this hope. She seemed so happy. She had never heard of this before, and drank it in. The other day she told my wife she never would forget that first day and the blessing she received. ‘God sent me here,’ she said again and again.”
One man in the Central West says: “There is always opportunity to bring in different phases of the message in a way not to offend, and we meet with a class that could not be reached with any other means. It is not so much what we say, but it is what we do and the way we live that has the greatest influence with the people. Our door being closed every Friday night, with a card in the window, is a constant reminder of the true Sabbath. A Baptist minister has tried to show me the error of my way. We have some very interesting talks sometimes, but we always avoid arguing. One patient asked me, ‘Why do you keep Saturday?’ I replied that the Lord required it, and asked, ‘Why do you keep Sunday?’ He said he had never thought of that.”
Another man, in the Far West, writes, “I have always found openings for planting gospel seed among every class and caste of people. I always keep a good supply of literature upon present truth in the office or near at hand, and pass it out at every opportunity. Our work is largely among the wealthy class, and I must say I have never had such experiences in all my years of work. Many precious blessings come to me through the work in the treatment rooms. I believe if this work is properly carried on, it can never fail of having a good influence for the message. And why not? It is a part of the message.
“While in a foreign field I knew a man who saw the sign ‘Closed on Saturdays,’ on our door, and upon learning why we closed on Saturday he gave us a liberal donation, to be used in the treatment room work and in carrying forward the message. I could mention many other instances where help has been given the cause by strangers who were influenced by this work.
“In our work here we have trusted to the Lord to open the way and bring us in favor with the physicians and people. Some of the doctors opposed our work for a time, but the tide soon turned in our favor, and now a great deal of our work is sent to us by the leading doctors of the city. Some of them speak highly of our work. We spend much time in prayer that we may be guided aright.”
A gentleman was taking massage in one of our treatment rooms, and engaged the attendant in conversation, asking a number of questions concerning Seventh-day Adventists and their work. The worker felt the need of special help in answering the questions, and silently prayed for it. He was enabled to give the inquirer much information concerning the various phases of our work and special points of truth. At the close of the treatment the gentleman doubled the fee asked for the treatment, saying that it was the best treatment he had ever received, though he had taken massage in every country in the world, and probably in every State in this country. His card showed him to be a leading minister of one of the large denominations.
Experiences of this kind might be multiplied. This may be sufficient to indicate that the band of workers in these treatment rooms are deserving of our prayers. They should have the hearty support of their brethren and sisters, and every help needed to assist them in rightly representing our message.17
L. A. H.
Cedar Lake Academy
By Fyrnn Ford
CEDAR LAKE ACADEMY opened September 9, with a higher enrollment than any previous year, there being 51 above the seventh grade, and 36 in the primary department. At present writing, the attendance as well as the enrollment exceeds any corresponding months of former years. The majority of the students are new ones, who have come to a Christian school for that which other schools cannot give. The Bible classes are well filled with students who are enthusiastically entering upon this school year.
Repairs and improvements are being made for the benefit of the school. The printing press recently purchased, has been set up in a room partitioned off from the carpenter's shop. Some of our boys have already begun to learn the printer's trade.
The past summer has been exceptionally favorable to the prosperity of the farm. The boys are now busy outside of school hours, gathering an abundant harvest.
Cedar Lake Academy is anxious to give her students the training that will best fit them for useful places in our Master's service. FYRNN FORD.
Contemplating Christ’s Character
“A PAINTER in Rome was forbidden to copy a famous picture. Determined not to be balked, he sat down in front of the painting, and looked closely and steadfastly at it for half an hour every morning. He then hurried home, and transferred one line of feature to his canvas. So he attained his object. If we would spend but half an hour each day in contemplating the grace and beauty of our divine Redeemer, by a natural process there would be a transference of these attributes into our characters.”
The Rest of Heaven
By Reuen Thomas
THERE is a deep, unruffled rest, which is perfect in its consistency with the most tireless activity. That is the rest of heaven. Heaven's rest will be that undoubting rest in God's goodness which will make it bliss to serve wherever serving is needed.—Rev. Reuen Thomas.
Medical Missionary Department
W. A. Ruble, M. D. - - General Secretary
L. A. Hansen - - Assistant Secretary
H. W. Miller, M. D. - N. Am. Div. Secretary
Mountain View Church School
By W. E. H.
ONCE before in these columns I had occasion to mention the plan of the Mountain View (Cal.) church for strengthening their local day school. Their plan, which involved some building and the extension of the work to ten grades, has been carried into effect, in harmony, if our understanding is correct, with a resolution passed at the last session of the Pacific Union Conference. That resolution reads as follows:—
“That we advise churches calling for tenth-grade work to secure the approval of the local conference committee, church school superintendent, and union educational secretary, requiring, further, the employment of three or more teachers, the one carrying the tenth grade to bear a professional certificate.”
It is a pleasure to give herewith a picture of their neat, serviceable building, dedicated free of debt a week before school began.
Concerning the school and its opening, the chairman of the school board, Brother C. H. Jones, writes:—
“The Mountain View school opened on September 14, in their new school building, with an enrollment of 67; three have been added since, making a total of 70 pupils. Ten grades are being taught this year, and three teachers are employed. Brother F. A. Lashier, Jr., is principal, and instructor in grades 9 and 10, with eleven pupils. Mrs. Lashier has grades 5 to 8, with nineteen pupils, and Miss Pearl Smith grades 1 to 4, with forty pupils. This is Brother and Sister Lashier’s first year with the Mountain View school. They have taught a very successful school at Healdsburg for the past two or three years. Miss Smith has taught at Mountain View for the past two years.
“The new building has five rooms: three classrooms, two 20 x 27 ft. and one 20 x 33 ft.; a library and experimental room, 8 x 24 ft.; and a domestic science and manual training room, 12 x 24 ft. The latter room will also be used by the ladies of the church as a sewing room in connection with their missionary work. The building is lighted throughout with electricity, and is heated by a hot-air furnace. The building was dedicated free from debt the week before school began. Every pledge had been paid. We pray that the Lord will greatly bless the efforts of this school, not only in holding the children to this truth, but in fitting them for active missionary work.”
W. E. H.
Our School Homes
Do you want to know the high ideals of domestic life set before the teachers and students in our school homes? Do you want to know how the faithful managers of our school homes are endeavoring to put these ideals into practice?
“Christian Education” for December tells you some of those ideals in its leading article, by Mrs. E. G. White.
In this number the preceptress of Emmanuel Missionary College reveals how the spiritual interests of student life are cultivated in their school homes.
Associate Editor Shaw gives his estimate of the influence of the home life upon the work of the entire school, and upon the afterlife of the student in the mission field and elsewhere in the work.
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CAL.) CHURCH SCHOOL BUILDING
The editor points out some of the merits of the daily program in our school homes in its bearing on the mental and physical vigor of students, giving a suggestive typical program.
In the Home Education department of the magazine, Mrs. Allen, a former student of Battle Creek College, tells of the successful home school she has carried on for three years in their country home. Mrs. Washburn relates in her sunny way how the home school has turned “Blue Monday” into “Sunny Monday” at their house on wash day. Mrs. White gives valuable instruction on teaching children to be useful.
The Normal department contains good suggestions on the homely but essential duties of caring for the teeth, sewing, and teaching the Bible to children.
Members of the Ministerial Reading Course will be much interested in, and profited by, a full-page cut of the tablet recently discovered near old Babylon, containing an account of Paradise, the fall of man, and the flood; together with a synopsis of the account, and important notes on the fall of Babylon, the River Chebar, Darius the Mede, and other points of interest in the course.
Every issue of Christian Education is full of helpful information for all its readers. It is a very practical educator, visiting our homes each month for only $1 a year.
News and Miscellany
Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press
— It is reported that night riders are again active in Kentucky, and the situation is so serious that State troops may be ordered out.
— It is reported from Madrid that the council of ministers has fixed the strength of the Spanish army for 1915 at 140,763 men. This is an increase of 18,000 over the present peace footing. The naval strength for 1915 was fixed at 15,000 men.
— Mr. F. E. Smith, who since the outbreak of the war has been censor for the British Press Bureau, has resigned his office and gone to the front. His successor as censor is Sir Stanley Owen Buckmaster, who, like his predecessor, is one of the foremost lawyers of England.
— On November 7 it was officially announced that the German fortress of Tsingtau had surrendered to the Japanese and British forces. The capture of Tsingtau loses to Germany her last foot of possessions on the Asiatic mainland, as well as her last strategic position outside of the German Empire in Europe.
— The United States Treasury Department reports that the customs receipts for the month of October were $14,000,000 less than for the same month a year ago, and the internal revenue was $6,000,000 less, making a total falling off of $20,000,000 in the revenue of the government for that month. This decline is attributed to the conditions brought on by the outbreak of the war in Europe.
— Battles of the Panama Canal builders against the earth slides, and the construction of fortifications to guard the great waterway, are described in the report of Col. George W. Goethals, U. S. A., governor of the Canal Zone, to the Secretary of War, made public recently. The report shows that the canal’s cost so far has been $353,559,049.69. Of this amount more than $12,000,000 has been appropriated for fortifications.
— Westminster Abbey has been insured against air craft risks for about $750,000 by the famous Lloyd’s. No amount of money can be made to represent the real value of this historic shrine. There would be no possibility of restoring its treasures, if they were once destroyed. London is on the constant watch for a Zeppelin raid, a peril which has long been threatening.
— The English ship “Discovery” is preparing for a long search for uncharted rocks and a new and special study of the perils of the sea. Foster Slackhouse, who will command the expedition, will chart the islands and rocks in every sea and ocean, and give the exact location of each which is now in doubt. The ship “Discovery” was built by the British admiralty. The project is commanding world-wide interest, and it is said that some of our American scientific societies will offer to share in the expense of the seven-year cruise. The expedition is regarded as one of the most important ever undertaken.
Educational Department
J. L. SHAW - - - General Secretary
F. GIBSON - - - N. Am. Div. Secretary
W. E. HOWELL - - - N. Am. Div. Asst. Secretary
True Courage and Duty
By J. D. Jones
TRUE courage will keep away from danger, true courage will only incur risk and peril when duty demands. Let us learn this lesson.—J. D. Jones.
God Directs Our Paths
“IN all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
† Multiply number of magazines in any month by ten cents to get value.
How God Works in War Time
By N. Z. T.
In the time of Elisha the prophet, when Ben-hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria, the famine became so great that “an ass’s head was sold for four-score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.” It was even worse than that. One day, “as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. . . . And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.”
But throughout this dire extremity the faith of Elisha in God’s resources remained firm. When the king of Israel sent to slay him, believing him to be the19cause of all the trouble, Elisha in his confidence replied to the messenger from the king: “Hear ye the word of the Lord; . . . Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” To this “the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered, . . . Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?” For a man unacquainted with God, this doubtful questioning of the captain was logical and reasonable. From all human standpoints such a thing as Elisha had declared would take place was impossible, but Elisha entered into no argument to try to convince this doubter how the thing would be done. He simply replied, “Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.”
As the twilight of the evening came on, the Lord began to work out in his own way the prediction given through Elisha. In the gate of Samaria were four lepers. The famine was so great that they could get nothing from begging. They therefore decided to throw themselves upon the mercy of the Syrians. But when they arrived at the camp, “there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. . . . Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.” The lepers returned and reported to the king what they had found, and the king sent his servants to see whether the Syrians had really fled or had set a trap for the Israelites. “And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste.” The large quantities of food supplies which the Syrian army left were just what the people of Samaria sorely needed, and arrangements were at once made for distributing these supplies among the people. The king appointed the unbelieving captain to make the distribution. And “it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall he be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria.” But the doubting captain received the reward for his unbelief. The people in their hunger and haste trod upon him “in the gate, and he died,” as the man of God had said.
The reports from our colporteurs who are working in the countries that are especially afflicted by the European war remind one of this experience of Elisha. Nearly every mail brings new evidence of how God is manifesting his power in behalf of his people in this time of crisis.
Germany
Through the newspapers we have become familiar with the regions along the Vistula and Warthe Rivers in East Prussia and Poland. Along these rivers the contending forces have fought some of the very fiercest battles. But now our hearts are cheered to see by the reports from the East German Union that our colporteurs are selling hundreds of dollars’ worth of literature in the Vistula and Warthe Conferences as well as in other parts of the union. Believing that the readers of the REVIEW would be especially interested in this report, it has been photographed and presented in connection with our summary this month. The report from the West German Union for September shows a total of $4,400 as against $4,200 for the same month last year. The German evangelical paper published in Hamburg is having an average circulation of over 100,000 each issue. This is more than double the circulation of any missionary paper published in America. They are now circulating a 500,000 edition of a special War number.
Great Britain
In Great Britain our colporteurs are also having remarkable success in view of the conditions which exist. For the month of September, 1913, their total sales amounted to $6,800, while this year for the same month the total is $5,000. Brother Boex, in Germany, and Brother Joyce, in Great Britain, are spending their time right in the field with the canvassers, showing their faith by their works.
Spain
Our brethren in old Spain have also demonstrated that the large book work was not so hard hit by the war as they at first thought. At the beginning, they were somewhat tempted to give way to the general depression which the war seemed to bring, and nearly all the colporteurs turned their attention to selling papers. But the tide has turned.
A few weeks ago Brother John Brown, the general agent, entered the province of Galicia, and he sends the following report for the week ending October 15: 46 hours, 81 orders; value, 800.50 pesetas, or $160. Concerning this experience Brother Brown writes:—
“The Lord helped me in taking orders from the governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, inspector of police, mayor of the city, the municipal secretary, postmaster-general, superintendent of telegraphs and telephones, and a number of lawyers. I obtained a good recommendation for the book from the best doctor in town, also orders from three other doctors, and orders from the two bank presidents in the town.”
Porto Rico
In a letter just received from Elder Wm. Steele, he gives the following good word:—
“Inclosed you will find our report for October, which is the best one we have sent thus far from this field. The war is working hardships to our canvassers, but they are persevering with a determination to win, and the Lord is blessing them. At our institute last January we set our goal of literature to be delivered during 1914 at $6,000. We are already $500 past this mark, and we hope to add to it from $1,000 to $2,000 more before the year ends.”
The God of Elisha still lives. He is as ready and as able to turn famine into plenty, and defeat into victory, as in the days of Elisha. The end is rapidly nearing; but before it comes, the message must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and it is to go largely through the printed page. The Testimonies tell us that as long as probation continues, the colporteur will be able to carry on his work. Let none therefore lose heart or think he must leave the field. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. He delights in doing hard things for us. Let us take hold of his arm of strength anew, and press forward in the work until it is finished. N. Z. T.
The Summary
By W. W. E.
It will be noticed that quite a falling off is shown in our summary for October as compared with the corresponding month of last year. However, when it is remembered that last year our report was for five weeks, while this year it is for only four, at least a portion of the loss is accounted for. But even though we add another week to our report, still we are behind our last year's record, a fact which we very much regret. Let us hope to make a better showing for November and December, and work to that end. W. W. E.
Comparative Summary of Foreign Periodicals
JANUARY, 1913, 402,908 copies, value $10,301.63; 1914, 485,968 copies, value $19,795.36.
FEBRUARY, 1913, 394,257 copies, value $12,342.06; 1914, 372,235 copies, value $10,739.70.
MARCH, 1913, 395,933 copies, value $12,987.49; 1914, 381,017 copies, value $11,168.35.
APRIL, 1913, 630,998 copies, value $17,795.92; 1914, 375,140 copies, value $11,686.31.
MAY, 1913, 481,712 copies, value $15,547.70; 1914, 297,877 copies, value $8,249.90.
JUNE, 1913, 331,775 copies, value $13,610.33; 1914, 301,582 copies, value $9,509.79.
JULY, 1913, 335,770 copies, value $10,330.02; 1914, 380,246 copies, value $10,155.83.
AUGUST, 1913, 313,746 copies, value $9,999.28; 1914, 196,328 copies, value $5,502.00.
SEPTEMBER, 1913, 285,257 copies, value $9,537.95; 1914, 300,761 copies, value $8,336.88.
OCTOBER, 1913, 303,818 copies, value $9,824.08; 1914, 445,629 copies, value $11,703.18.
