Secretary Willson, of our South African Union Conference, which is operating the mission stations among the natives, writes as follows of the Barotseland Mission:—
“About five years ago, Elder W. H. Anderson started out with three boys on foot to locate a mission in Barotseland, some two hundred fifty miles north of Victoria Falls. He traveled until he was overcome by the fever, and at night gave directions to his boys what to do in case of his death, and then lay down, not expecting to see the light of another morning. A kind white man found him, and took care of him till he recovered. A site for a mission farm was found,—six thousand acres, well watered by a river, a large creek, and a living spring of water. A grant was obtained of the government, and one year after, active operations were begun. There is now a well-built brick dwelling-house, a good brick schoolhouse, a dining-room, and huts for the boys, two hundred acres of land under cultivation, a fruit orchard of several acres,—containing oranges, lemons, guavas, papayas, pineapples, and other fruits,—and a prosperous school of forty pupils.
BELOW VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBESI RIVER
“The boys are taught in their native language and qualified to act as teachers in the out-schools. A circle of out-stations is now established, and further outer circles of stations are planned for, until the whole district shall be covered, and the message be brought to every native in that region. Brother Anderson has planned to become acquainted with every kraal in his territory, and to be able to converse with each induna (chief) in his native language this year.
RAPIDS NEAR VICTORIA FALLS
“Last year, when Brother Anderson was called on to part with his faithful companion, I asked him whether he would leave the mission and return to the home land. He replied, No; that he had so much more invested in that field now, and that he would go on and make the mission all that they had planned it to be.”
Putting the Gospels into a New Tongue
What Five Years Has Wrought in the Wilds
REPORTING a visit to our stations in the Pare Mountain region of German East Africa, L. R. Conradi, of Europe, writes:—
“Our head station, Kihuiro, lies at an elevation of eighteen hundred feet, at the foot of the mountains. The next station, Friedenstal, lies at an altitude of about thirty-five hundred feet, and it is three and one-half hours distant from Kihuiro . The third station, Vuasu, requires a ten-hours’ march up the mountains, where one has to cross a ridge as high as seven thousand feet, though the station itself lies farther below, at an elevation of about fifty-five hundred feet.
“On a clear day at Vuasu one can see the snow-covered peak of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain of Africa,—eighteen thousand feet. Away below in the plains are a number of villages.
“Five years ago, accompanying our first missionary party, I reached Kihuiro, where there was only a miserable hut to shelter us. What a change in five years! Now, a nice road leads up to the mission station, a mile from town. On one side is a beautiful ten-acre cotton field, and some good maize belonging to the mission station. At the station itself, we found a good dwelling-house and a number of good outbuildings , also a commodious school building, which serves as a chapel. This building will accommodate three hundred persons. It was packed full. The head chief of the town, and a number of his subchiefs, met us, clad in official attire. As we entered the house, we found one hundred fifty young people there, who are in regular attendance at our school. One of our familiar hymns was announced to be sung in the native language. Hundreds of voices joined in the praise to God. A convert prayed.23
“Mission work is slow work. It requires many sacrifices. It costs the lives of workers whom we dearly love. It costs money, and much patient labor. But the greater the sacrifice, the greater the final results. To see people who could neither read nor write, and whose language was not even committed to writing, who were bound in the darkness of heathendom, freed from all this thralldom, and enlightened by the gospel, praising God and worshiping him, is not only a sight to make the angels of heaven rejoice, but it is a sight that stirs our hearts.
“Brethren E. Kotz and A. C. Enns have translated the Gospels into the Chasu language, spoken in this region. They have thus far no printed books whatever. Our Hamburg Publishing House has prepared a small hymn-book for them, to the great joy of the natives, and would be pleased to help them also in getting the Gospels printed.”
VILLAGE SCENE, NEAR SIERRA LEONE, WEST AFRICA
Life Among the Kavirondos
By Helen B. Carscallen
[Two mission stations have recently been established among the Kavirondo people, on the Victoria Nyanza. Their language had never been reduced to writing when our missionaries went there. Of life in a Kavirondo station, the wife of one of the missionaries writes.—Ed.]
A FRIEND, who was going home on furlough, knowing that I am fond of animals, gave me his dog. But alas! I was not permitted to keep it long, for the other night, while we were sitting in the dining-room (the door being open), a leopard sprang onto the veranda and snapped up poor Mollie. When we heard the noise, we ran out, but it was so dark we could see nothing.
RAILWAY STATION, NAIROBI, BRITISH EAST AFRICA
CATTLE YARD,
OUR BAROTSE-
LAND HEAD-
STATION
Besides hyenas and leopards, we have a great many wildcats, which are constantly carrying off our hens. There are many hippopotami also, but they are too far off to trouble us. We hear them snorting at night quite plainly, but it is only the people who inhabit the villages near the lakes who suffer, as these great beasts come out of the water at night and destroy their gardens.
The black people are very fond of hippopotamus flesh. Some time ago, when the natives were short of food, my husband shot one of these huge animals, and it was a great sight to see them divide it. There were hundreds of natives around, every one with a knife doing his best to secure a piece. Many were cut in trying to carve the beast. At last my husband, thinking to put an end to the confusion, moved toward them; but when they saw him coming, they all ran to get out of his reach, with the consequence that I, who was standing behind the crowd, was knocked down. It was quite exciting. The natives are exceedingly friendly, and it never occurs to any of us to be afraid of them. When it has been necessary for Mr. Carscallen to go to Kisumu24I have been entirely alone on the mission, with no white neighbor nearer than fourteen miles.
We have three buildings on this station—a workshop, a schoolhouse, and a dwelling-house [all built by the missionary with raw native help only]. The dwelling-house is a long building containing six rooms. It is built to accommodate two families, each family having three rooms—a living-room, a bedroom, and a guest chamber. The kitchens, as is the custom in the East, are detached, and are situated at the back of the house.
Mr. Carscallen is working on a dictionary of the Kavirondo language. Some friends in America presented our mission with a typewriter, which makes this task much easier. We are comfortable and happy in our work.
HELEN B. CARSCALLEN.
Kisumu, British East Africa.
SCHOOL GROUP, AT OUR KIHUIRO STATION, GERMAN EAST AFRICA
Nyassaland
By Joel C. Rogers
ONE of the seventeen candidates baptized in a recent service at our Malamulo station was a chief of local prominence in the Angoni tribe. We have constant opportunities of opening village schools far and near.
A chief came to Malamulo from Angoniland, some two hundred miles away, begging us to send a teacher who would teach his people the Word of God. In conversing with him, I learned that other missions have schools not far from his villages, and they have asked his permission to open schools for him. He said he declined because he had been waiting several years for a teacher of the Sabbath truth. He heard this truth from a former Sabbath-keeping missionary, and has patiently waited for a teacher ever since. It was hard to put him off still longer, but we have not one teacher to spare from our schools already opened. May the Lord of the harvest soon give us more reapers!
Brother and Sister Konigmacher are now in charge of the Matandane out-station. The work there is growing, and we hope they will have health to gather many souls from that region. We need health for the work; we need money; we need men.
Malamulo, Chiromo. JOEL C. ROGERS.
On the African West Coast
By D. C. Babcock
I WOULD first of all disabuse any minds of a common impression that West Africa means a narrow strip of sparsely settled country along the coast. What is termed West Africa comprises thirteen countries, with a population of sixty-seven millions.
VIEW IN FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, HEADQUARTERS OF OUR WEST COAST MISSION
Our Freetown training-school has in attendance, I suppose, representatives of more than fifteen languages and dialects on the West Coast of Africa. We have a primary school at Waterloo, with forty-three attending, and one on the Gold Coast of about the same number. We have bright prospects before us for training native workers, and on the whole, we are greatly encouraged in our educational work.
Calls for help are coming to us daily. On a trip into the hinterland of Sierra Leone, urgent appeals were made on every hand for us to open our work. Owing to sickness, I was compelled to remain in one native village nearly two days. Here Chief Yamasu offered us all the land we needed, and to build us a suitable house, if we would open our work in his village, which is nearly two hundred miles from Freetown. The Niger Company in Northern Nigeria sent word to me recently that they would grant us all the land we need if we would open a station there. This is the home of the Hassa people, one of the high types of the Negro race. Calls come also from Gambia, where we have one worker, near Senegal, and from the Lagos country. A vast field lies before us, and there are millions to be warned throughout Africa during this generation.
GROUP OF WORKERS AT THE LAST SOUTH AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE, CAPE TOWN
I believe we can begin to see our Heavenly Father's plan opening before us. The Spirit of God is moving upon the hearts of young men from the many tribes to give themselves to this message, and they in turn can return to their people to tell the glad tidings. D. C. BABCOCK.
Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Ten Days in Fingo Villages
W. S. HYATT, of our Maranatha Mission to the Kafirs of eastern Cape Colony, gives a report of a ten-day tour among the Fingoes, who also live in this region:—
“We arrived at a village, and the head man welcomed us, and gave us the use of his best hut, which was nice and clean. The people were anxious to know our business, so we told them to gather as many people as they could, and we would tell them. When they came, we had our magic lantern prepared in the hut, and a bright picture on the screen. Perhaps their surprise can be better imagined than expressed in words. We told them that our mission was to tell the ‘old, old story of Jesus and his love,’ and the pictures were to help them to behold it. They said this was a great blessing sent them from heaven.
“During the trip we did what we could to help the sick and afflicted. People came with all manner of diseases.
“We visited eight villages and held eighteen services. God wonderfully blessed as we presented the Bible teaching regarding the soon coming of our Saviour. Fully one hundred fifty persons received assistance from various treatments.”
The Rule of Faith
It is “the Bible and the Bible only,” the Word of God that is able to make the man of God “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. It is the example of Jesus Christ, who left us “an example, that ye should follow his steps.” 1 Peter 2: 21. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2: 6.
Jesus says of his way of walking: “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” And the apostle John wrote: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Christ commended those who should “do and teach them” (Matt. 5: 17-19), and ever his steps lead us in the way of obedience. Christ kept the Sabbath, the day of which he declared himself to be Lord. Mark 2: 28. And he is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Therefore to-day increasing thousands in all parts of the world are following Christ’s example in Sabbath-keeping; and with one voice they testify to the spiritual blessings in keeping the day that God blessed and made holy. “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Isa. 56: 2.
BRIDGE ACROSS THE GOLDEN HORN, CONSTANTINOPLE
The Coming of Christ
By F. M. W.
CHRIST will come to this earth a second time:—
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”Heb. 9: 28.
His coming will be literal and visible, and will be heralded by notable signs, which have appeared or are now rapidly fulfilling:—
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”Luke 21: 25-27.
A warning message will proclaim his coming to the earth:—
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.”Joel 2: 1. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”Rev. 14: 6, 7.
This warning message will call for a great work of reform, the rejection of error, and obedience to the commandments of God:—
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. . . . Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”Rev. 14: 9-12.
Christ’s coming brings the resurrection of the righteous dead and the translation of the righteous living:—
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.
It will mean the destruction of sin:—
“When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”2 Thess. 1: 7-9.
His children will be glad in that day, and will hail him with rejoicing:—
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; . . . And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”Isa. 25: 8, 9.
F. M. W.
If They Only Knew
By Ella M. Robinson
ELLA M. ROBINSON
He is coming, we have heard it,
And our hearts throb with delight.
Soon will end earth's dismal story,
Soon will close her dreary night.
Then will dawn, in matchless glory,
Her eternal morning bright.
O that every one might know it!
Is the burden of my prayer.
O that men would pause to hear it
'Mid their ceaseless toil and care!
O that thoughtless youths might learn it,
And their careless hearts prepare!
Would the rich cling to their riches,
Would they hoard their gold away
While earth's weak ones cry of hunger
From the famine they might stay,
If they knew that when he cometh,
All their wealth would pass away?
And the ones who bear life's burdens,
Who are weary and oppressed,
Who must toil and plan and struggle,—
Would their hearts be cheered and blessed
If they knew the Heavenly Master
Soon would come and bring them rest?
To the suffering and the sick ones,
Who have sought for health in vain,
Carry quick the joyful message,
It will help them bear the pain—
This sweet hope of seeing Jesus,
And of being whole again.
Those who run the race for pleasure,
Who but chase a fleeting goal,
Tell them of the love of Jesus
That can satisfy the soul.
They may share heaven's purest pleasures
While eternal ages roll.
Tell them all the joyful tidings;
It will cheat earth of her woe,
It will fill all hearts with gladness—
Tell them all! O let them know!
Power of Choice in Religion
By J. A. Oppy
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”— Declaration of Independence.
Here are ten men, A, B, C, D, etc.
1. Every one of these ten men has a right to choose his own religion.
2. Every one of the ten has a right to refuse to make any choice.
3. As every one of the ten has a right to choose or not to choose, no one of the ten has a right to interfere or compel the choice of any one of the ten.
4. No one of the ten has a right to compel any one of the ten to abide by his own choice, for this would deny a man the right to change his mind, and so interfere with the right of choice.
5. No one of the ten has a right to compel any one of the ten to act as though he had made a choice; for this would make a hypocrite of him.
6. If any one man has no right to compel any one of the ten to act as though he had made a choice, then nine of the ten can not compel the tenth to act so.
7. If a majority of the ten persons should crystallize their choice into law, it would give them no right to compel the minority.
8. This forever denies the civil government the right to have anything to do with religion, save to protect every man in his choice or in his refusal of choice.— J. A. Oppy.
AUSTRALASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS
A Striking Providence
ONE of the darkest and most populous corners of the world is the region of the East Indies and Southeastern Asia.
Right alongside this most neglected of mission fields, the providence of God has placed the island states of Australia and New Zealand as a strong missionary base.
Our Australasian churches are every year devoting thousands of dollars to missions, and sending forth their consecrated young people as well. They have accepted the obligation of spreading the gospel message in this region as “Australasia’s burden.” Two publishing houses, several sanitariums, and a number of missionary training-schools are being operated in Australia and New Zealand, not only to build up the cause of God at home, but to set the lights shining all through the dark regions lying so near at hand. We in America must help them in the great task. But who can not see the plain guiding of Providence in planting these sturdy and prosperous Australasian states—English-speaking and predominantly Protestant—at the very doorway of Polynesia, Malaysia, and the East India Islands?
WEST AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
GROUP OF WORKERS WHO HAVE LABORED IN AUSTRALASIA, ATTENDING RECENT CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON
CHAPEL AND MISSION HOUSE, HONOLULU, HA-WAIIAN ISLANDS
AUSTRALASIAN UNION CONFERENCE GROUP OF HOME AND MISSION FIELD LEADERS
A divine hand has been guiding in human history for the evangelization of the world in this last generation of men.
From the Philippines
By L. V. Finster
THE thought that right around him in these islands are eight million souls that have never heard of the message of Rev. 14: 6-14, lays a heavy burden upon any man who believes that Jesus is soon coming. The task assumes much greater proportions when he realizes that there are a dozen languages to learn.
It is encouraging to know that the Lord has gone before us in placing these islands under the control of the United States, so that liberty and freedom, and the right to worship as they see fit, might be given to these downtrodden people who have been so long in the hands of Rome. The United States has also introduced the public-school system, which is doing much to enlighten the people, and make it possible for the truth to reach them, as the rising educated class is largely leaving the superstitious teachings of the Church of Rome.
We have tracts translated into the Tagalog and the Ilocano languages. We expect to get out literature in all the different languages as fast as we can find competent translators.
There should be many more workers sent at once to begin the study of the languages on the various islands.
