A star preceding the name of a conference, indicates that that conference has paid its membership share of the fund.
District of Columbia
*Washington churches ...... 1,406.54
Lake Union Conference
East Michigan ............. 3,212.38
*Indiana ................... 5,250.52
*North Michigan ............ 2,074.00
*Northern Illinois ........ 3,013.86
*Southern Illinois ........ 1,652.50
*West Michigan ............. 8,782.70
Wisconsin .................. 6,587.13
Total ...................... 30,573.09
North Pacific Union Conference
*Montana ................... 1,085.37
*Upper Columbia ............ 3,036.43
*Western Washington ....... 3,371.03
Idaho ...................... 1,049.95
Western Oregon ............. 3,083.91
Hawaii ..................... 21.05
Alaska ..................... 20.00
Total ...................... 11,667.74
Southern Union Conference
*South Carolina ............ 315.84
*Alabama ................... 625.04
*Tennessee River ........... 1,408.84
*Florida ................... 997.98
*North Carolina ............ 966.95
*Cumberland ................ 1,360.99
*Louisiana ................. 572.54
Mississippi ................ 413.33
*Georgia ................... 491.55
Conference not specified ... 97.41
Total ...................... 7,250.47
Northern Union Conference
*Iowa ...................... 9,761.86
*Minnesota ................. 5,838.69
*South Dakota .............. 2,701.17
*North Dakota .............. 2,247.03
Conference not specified ... 73.82
Total ...................... 20,622.57
Pacific Union Conference
*Southern California ...... 5,010.92
*Arizona ................... 474.39
*California-Nevada ........ 10,373.03
*Utah ...................... 449.08
Total ...................... 16,307.42
Southwestern Union Conference
*Arkansas .................. 949.90
Oklahoma ................... 4,266.59
Texas ...................... 3,076.20
New Mexico ................. 2.00
Conference not specified ... 22.82
Total ...................... 8,317.49
Western Canadian Union Conference
*Alberta ................... 1,217.35
*British Columbia .......... 405.37
Manitoba ................... 350.76
Saskatchewan Mission Field . 199.90
Total ...................... 2,173.38
Unknown
Unknown .................... 161.70
Foreign
*Algeria ................... 13.33
Australia .................. 217.70
Bermuda .................... 36.00
China ...................... 227.11
South Africa ............... 439.02
Jamaica .................... 73.86
Yukon Territory ............ 20.00
England .................... 285.21
*West Africa ............... 50.00
Mexico ..................... 65.97
India ...................... 418.25
South America .............. 82.81
Switzerland ................ 9.69
Central American Mission ... 26.00
Trinidad ................... 28.60
Norway ..................... 25.00
Japan ...................... 17.50
Haiti ...................... 5.00
*Egypt ..................... 51.55
Palestine .................. 2.00
Tobago, W. I. .............. 1.22
Cuba ....................... 9.00
Hungary .................... 3.00
Tahiti ..................... 17.83
France ..................... 6.80
Philippine Islands ........ 1.00
Samoa ...................... 8.00
Barbados ................... 5.00
Portugal ................... 6.00
Straits Settlements ........ 10.08
Pitcairn Island ............ 20.00
New Zealand ................ 3.47
Fiji ....................... 4.87
St. Kitts .................. 7.51
Ireland .................... 25.56
Russia ..................... 5.00
Denmark .................... 14.59
Santo Domingo .............. 2.50
West Caribbean ............. 96.35
Total ...................... 2,342.47
Grand total ................ $148,010.08
I. H. EVANS, Treasurer.
Field Notes
As a result of meetings held at Beloit, Kan., two persons have begun the observance of the Sabbath.
EIGHT persons, five of whom are young people, were added to the church at Feeley, Minn., recently.
FIVE converts to the truth were baptized by Elder U. S. Anderson at North Vernon, Ind., on Sunday, January 24.
THREE have taken their stand for the truth at Madge, Tex., as a result of a series of meetings held at that place.
THE meetings held at Croton, Iowa, have brought five persons to an acceptance of the truth, and others are interested.
THE success of the effort made by Elder M. H. Serns in Sparta, Wis., was very encouraging. Several were added to the church.
SABBATH, January 2, the little company at Perth Amboy, N. J., was organized into a church of twelve members, five being recent converts to the truth.
BROTHER JOHN E. HANSON, reporting from Shreveport, La., says: “Five were admitted to the church last Sabbath (three subject to baptism), and three more will follow by letter.”
JANUARY 9 nine members were added to the church at Charleston, W. Va. Since that time three others have begun to observe the Sabbath, and will unite with the church in the near future.
BROTHER C. L. TAGGART, writes: “At Kerman, Cal., Sabbath, January 9, I baptized five, and organized a church of nineteen members. Most of them were accepted upon profession of faith, but some of them had belonged to companies now dissolved. Others are interested, one having already expressed her intention of uniting with us.”
The “Civil Sabbath” Plea Exposed
The folly and insincerity of the civil sabbath plea, and the claim that a day of rest for the laboring man is all that is desired or intended by the advocates of Sunday legislation, were well exposed in an address delivered by Rev. Jacob W. Kapp, pastor of the First Lutheran church of Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Sunday Rest Convention held in Pittsburg, Pa., Dec. 1-3, 1908. The address in full appears in the Christian Statesman for February, 1909, under the heading, “The Sacredness of the Sabbath the Key to the Problem.” The following are a few extracts taken from the address:—
“In this conflict with the forces arrayed against the Lord’s day, my contention is that the sabbath must be maintained on the ground that it is a command of God. Our contention is that it is absolutely necessary to maintain the sacredness of the day in order to maintain the sabbath. If we should divest it of this idea, we should then leave it with no meaning except that of physical rest.”
“No less an authority than Montalembert says that ‘the result of taking away from it the idea of its sacredness was so disastrous that it ceased to be a day of rest and a day of worship, and that it became the occasion for the ruin of the moral and the physical health of the people, that the worship of God was abandoned.’ This, too, was the position of Dr. Dwight, who said, ‘Where no sabbath is, there is no religion.’”
“It is the sabbath as a religious day, as a day of worship, that stands as one21of the strongest citadels of our liberties. It comes to every man, and says, Cease your labor; and the open church door bids all to come into God’s house to worship, to receive instruction how to be a citizen of two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly. The very fact that this is a Christian country makes it needful that the principles of Christianity be made familiar and incorporated into our life. Whatever view, therefore, eliminates its sacredness, in so far perverts it from its splendid mission to the manhood and womanhood of our country.”
“We protest against the efforts to secularize the day, which means that it is not a day in which worship and the teaching of the Bible are the chief things, but pleasure and recreation. That is to say, hold to the sacredness of the day, and you give the church a strong ally in its work of bringing the people into the house of God; secularize it, and you turn the whole thought of the people away from worship, and you will empty the church and destroy its power.”
“We would not be understood, however, as not in accord with the efforts that are being made by labor organizations and other associations of various kinds to secure the closing of the shops and places of business on this day. On the contrary, we welcome most cordially all these efforts. We give all of them the most hearty support and encouragement. We give all of them the right hand of fellowship, and consider them allies in this battle. At the same time, we are not to lose sight of the fact that all these efforts are futile without religion. Make prominent the sacredness of the day in law and literature and in the thought of people, and we shall secure the day as a day of rest.”
“It is the business of the church to supplement the idea of rest with that of worship.” “We must see to it also that the sabbath laws are enforced. With but few exceptions the States have expressed the importance of the day in the laws put upon the statute-books. These laws should be enforced in the spirit of Christianity, always with the end in view of serving the highest interests of the community. Always there will be strenuous opposition to such enforcement; but when it is remembered that this day has a most important part in our national life, there is but one course open for Christian citizens. It is well that these persons who oppose all Sabbath laws should be reminded of two things: that American life and institutions can not be Europeanized, and that it is the business of all citizens to conform themselves to American ideas and institutions.”
No one can mistake the meaning of these utterances, or fail to see the real object the religious Sunday-law advocate has in mind in demanding such legislation, or the “end” he has “in view,” in seeing to it that “the sabbath laws are enforced.”
There is little danger that these laws will be enforced “in the spirit of Christianity.” That spirit which demands that all citizens shall by law be made to “conform themselves” to the religious “ideas and customs” of any country is the spirit that whipped the Quakers, drove Roger Williams into exile, imprisoned John Bunyan, persecuted the Baptists and other non-conformists, and sent to the dungeon, put to the rack, and burned at the stake the millions of the holy martyrs of the Dark Ages. May the Lord deliver us from any such “spirit.”