p. 17 | Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 9. (3/3/1910)

Earlier text: To the Highlands of Abyssinia

The College View (Neb.) Convention

By H. H. Hall

“IN every way the strongest, most practical convention we have ever had,” was the statement of all who attended the College View convention. Some of the reasons for this oft-repeated statement are as follows:—

1. Every field and union agent in the Northern and Central Union conferences was there.

2. Every missionary secretary and every tract society secretary, except two, in those union conferences was present.

3. The program was practical, and those having part in it had so thoroughly prepared that there was but little time lost.

4. The book studies and the selling points on “Great Controversy,” “Daniel and the Revelation,” “Heralds of the Morning,” “Practical Guide,” and “Home and Health” were all written out in advance, and copies were passed out in connection with each lesson.

5. The lessons on Christian salesmanship by Brother C. G. Bellah were so well illustrated by charts and diagrams as to make them highly interesting and instructive. They were afterward neostyled, and copies were given to each field agent.

6. The written reviews on salesmanship and selling points on different books helped impress what had been learned.

7. The stereopticon lectures given in the college chapel each evening presented sales charts for each conference in the two unions, the rise of the publishing work, the book work and workers in Spanish-speaking fields, views of our different publishing houses, glimpses of our leading periodicals, and many intensely interesting statistics.

8. The counsels of the last four days on home tract and missionary work, the sale of ten-cent magazines, etc., were in some respects the most profitable part of the convention, for this work has not received the attention in the past that it should. Brother A. J. S. Bourdeau, missionary secretary of the General Conference, led out in these subjects, and also assisted in the stereopticon lectures and chapel talks. His help was greatly appreciated. The magazine sales methods presented by Brother J. R. Ferren were very practical, and have been neostyled. Copies may be obtained by addressing him at Mountain View, Cal.

9. Brother Jas. A. Cochran had provided ample facilities and help for producing minutes and extra copies of selling points and some of the most important papers. As a result, about seventy pages of minutes and other matter were taken home by each person in attendance. A few extra sets of the following documents may be obtained by addressing the writer at Mountain View: “Heralds of the Morning” Selling Points, “Practical Guide” Selling Points, “Home and Health” Selling Points, and “Great Controversy” Studies.

10. And last, but by no means least, were a series of Bible studies given by Sister A. T. Robinson at our worship hour; a Sabbath sermon by Elder E. T. Russell, on “The Signs of the End;” and talks by Elder R. A. Underwood, on “Leadership” and “The Relation of the Evangelical and Publishing Departments.”

The hearty welcome of Prof. C. C. Lewis and his associates was greatly appreciated by all. The morning of the last day, our tract society men—eleven of them—were given the seats on the chapel platform, and the fact was referred to that they represented a company of one hundred sixty-seven such officers engaged in a similar work throughout the world, as we now have that many conferences and mission fields, in each one of which such an officer is essential. This fact, together with the many items of progress and experiences presented in the stereopticon lectures and chapel talks, served to impress anew the student body as well as our book men, with the remarkable growth of our publishing department, and with its close relation to all other departments of our work.

Our one great regret was the inability of the presidents of the local conferences to be with us; but the necessity of preparing reports for the Central Union Conference, which immediately followed, prevented.

All went home determined to put into practise the good things learned. The program on which they are working includes an increase of thirty per cent in subscription book sales for the Central and Northern union conferences for 1910.

H. H. HALL,

Results From Systematic Work

By V. O. Cole

When I began canvassing fifteen years ago, I kept the names and addresses of all who bought the large books, and later sent out by mail several hundred tracts to these old subscribers. Long after this, when I had almost forgotten it, one day I was going down a street in Memphis, when I felt much impressed to call at a house where I had sold “Prophecies of Jesus” and had sent some tracts. As soon as I opened the door, the lady recognized me, and asked if I had sent the tracts. She invited me in. A lady was visiting her; they were both hungry for the truth. The tracts had opened their minds, and prepared the way. We had a season of prayer together, and both began from that time to keep the Sabbath.

Last fall I stopped in Knoxville, Tenn., over the Sabbath. A man and his wife came to me, and he said, “I think you were the first one to direct my feet toward the truth. You sold me a copy of ‘Coming King’ about six years ago. We were convinced of the truth, but did not take our stand for it until about two years ago.”

After the camp-meeting at Athens, Brother W. A. Westworth and I were requested to remain to hold some meetings. We did so, and in about two weeks

twenty-five or thirty persons took their stand for the truth. We thought it quite remarkable, and made some inquiries. We learned that seven months before, one family had bought “Bible Footlights,” and were deeply stirred over the truth. A jeweler and his wife said that about five years ago they bought a copy of “Coming King” at Knoxville. I asked the woman if she thought she would recognize the one who sold her the book. She said, looking at me sharply, “Really, I believe you are the man.”

V. O. COLE.

The Hookworm Disease

By W. A. R.

What Are You Going to Do About It?

IN order to refresh our minds, let us rehearse a few of the facts about this disease:—

It prevails in sandy regions throughout the Southern States.
From twenty-five to eighty per cent of the people in these regions are infected.
Deaths from the disease are many; sickness, distress, and incapacity are appalling, and the monetary loss occasioned is enormous.
The disease is easily detected, and the diagnosis may be absolute.
Infection comes through insanitary habits.
It is easily preventable — hygienic cleanliness is the means.
It is easily curable — simple medication is the remedy.
The hookworm disease should and could be eradicated in a year. Shall we do it?

An Appeal

It is stated on statistical authority that four persons die of preventable diseases in the United States every time we breathe. Every year the sacrifice in this way through ignorance and neglect equals in number the population of such a city as Baltimore or St. Louis.

It is to our credit, however, that attention to hygienic living has resulted in diminishing materially the death-rate in many of our most common diseases. During the past thirty years the death-rate from typhoid fever has been reduced fifty-four per cent. The diphtheria death-rate has been diminished eighty per cent. Tuberculosis in the same time has decreased forty-one per cent in New York. Similar reduction has been accomplished in the mortality from other diseases.

From these facts we are led to believe that with proper regulations and education a much greater reduction could be accomplished in the death-rate in our country.

In no disease is there greater possibility for gratifying results than in hookworm disease. As pointed out, the disease may be eradicated entirely if all the people can be educated up to the point of effectual sanitation and proper treatment.

The appeal I wish to make is to our own Seventh-day Adventist people. We make high claims of holding advanced ideas in healthful living. In fact, this has been an important part of the peculiar message we bear to the world at this time. Health principles are a part of the everlasting gospel. It is our privilege to be the head and not the tail in advocating and practising these health principles. We have not been so active in this matter as we might have been in the past, but there is an opportunity within our grasp now to redeem the time, and to demonstrate our determination to set a right example, and to join this fight against this devastating disease. It is a case where the people must join the physicians in a united effort against a common foe. Little can be done unless the co-operation of all the people can be secured. I appeal to all our people to lend their efforts in every way possible to assist in this matter.

You will want to know how to do this:—

Observe sanitary rules in disposing of all excreta from the bowels. Use only the washout or dry-closet system.
Influence everybody you can to follow this rule.
Ascertain if you yourself or any of the members of your family have the disease, and if so, undergo proper treatment for it. Do not neglect this. It may mean a restoration to health to you or yours. Do it now.
Influence all others whom you can to do likewise.
Become as well informed on this disease as you possibly can.

A Proposition

I want to urge that every one of our people (1) shall present himself to a competent physician for examination for this disease. If for any reason you can not do this, or are too timid to submit to such an examination as is necessary, (2) write me particulars, with reasons for not seeing a physician, and I will tell you how to secure an absolute diagnosis as to this disease without inconvenience, embarrassment, or expense to yourself. If the disease is recognized, of course you will want to have treatment for the same. You can then consult your own family physician, or if you have no one of choice, I will recommend a reliable physician in your own locality, if you so desire.

I am much in earnest over this matter, and hope not a person of our membership in the Southern States will overlook this matter. You may be a benefactor by taking up the matter properly and promptly.

I trust that there will be a unanimous response on the part of our people in the South to this proposition. Any one desiring to write me should address me at 2 Iowa Circle, Washington, D. C.

W. A. R.

The Era of Health

By Maria Edwards, M. D.

In this era of awakening there is more serious thought and practical consideration being given to the regaining and preserving of the health than ever before. As an evidence of this fact we have walking clubs, cross-country runs on horseback, automobile trips, sleeping porches, physical culture clubs, numerous breakfast foods, health drinks, and hygienic clothing. So thoroughly recognized has the tendency become, that a manufacturer has but to name his article “health” or “hygienic so and so” to insure for it a ready sale, even though the thing itself may be anything but healthful.

This health fad has not only been used by the venders of really good and helpful things, but it has been abused by those who would make a market for things that are positively and always harmful; the “health corset,” the “hygienic cigar,” the “health-giving beer and wine,” “health candy,” are terms that are met with in the advertising columns of every daily paper.

Indeed, so much progress has been made in educating the public toward health, that we find many of our city workers are moving into suburban homes where they can have the benefits of air and sunshine and the home garden, from which they secure not only physical exercise to offset the hours of mental or indoor work, but they reap the fruits of their own sowing in fresh vegetables, choice fruits, etc.

Again: we note that in what is termed “modern conveniences” is invariably included the bath-room, supplied with hot and cold water, where the family can indulge in frequent bathing for health as well as for luxury. The vacation period from business has come to be an established custom, for the employer knows that the employed can do better work if allowed periods of relaxation; and one conspicuous and encouraging feature of this vacation is the growing tendency to spend that time not at fashionable watering-places and hotels or in railroad travel, where rest in the truest sense is impossible, but in camping in the mountains or by some favorite lake or river, where the life may be exceedingly simple, and the hours of sleep and recreation may be arranged to suit the inclination of the tired rester.

The increase of outdoor games, the sentiment in favor of living the simple outdoor life, “close to nature,” are all still further evidence that the minds of men are beginning to grasp, though perhaps to a very limited degree, the possibilities before them, if only they will and can conform their lives to the natural laws of their being. When it is possible for a person who has acquired so fatal a disease as tuberculosis to overcome it by being outdoor, clothing himself warmly, and eating simply, what might not be accomplished for health and strength by the individuals who have less with which to contend, if they would put forth a like intelligent and persistent effort toward perfect health?

In hygienic as well as all other reforms, the real basis of that reform lies in the education of the individual. So the work of agitating and educating must go on until the members of society have an intelligent understanding of the principles involved in that reform.

There is a phase of the health question—that of rightly clothing the body—which has surely been touched upon in the past, but for which it is very difficult to secure a due amount of favorable sentiment. This difficulty, no doubt, is due to the fact that radical changes are demanded. It really has called for moral courage to wear a short, sensible walking skirt when fashion demanded that it should be two inches below the feet, or to allow the waist to remain twenty-six or twenty-seven inches when it is counted a great virtue to have attained the twenty-two-inch measurement, or even to abstain from hoops, bustles, skin-tight sleeves, high heels, heavy hats, etc., when they in turn have been forced upon the oft-reluctant wearer.

Another difficulty that interferes with the popularity of healthful dressing, is that so few realize that there is any relation whatever between their clothing and their health. How frequently we see a family of boys and girls, born of the same parents, reared in the same home, fed at the same table, and taught in the same school, and yet with whom the results in health to the boys and the girls have been absolutely different. The former enjoy health, while the latter have come to almost enjoy sickness. The girls have been clad in clothing that would not prevent the brothers from freezing; they have restricted their time to be outdoors to the minimum; they have habitually ridden in the stuffy street-car when a brisk walk of a mile or two each day would have been their salvation. And as to walking, many wear thin, tight shoes, with high heels and lace stockings, and their poor little feet and ankles are so habitually cold and bloodless that they have long since ceased to feel cold, and the warm blood that should be sent to these parts, is congested in the centers; the arch of the instep is also broken down, so that exercise on the feet is painful and well-nigh impossible. The brothers have always in damp, cold weather, worn warm shoes with thick soles and broad, low heels, which properly support the weight and admit the natural poise of the body. The girls certainly need as much protection as their brothers, and why should not they have it?

Again: can any one believe that even for one day the boy would endure to dress as his sister does? The cramped ribs, the restricted stomach, and the immobilized lungs would all cry out against such abuse, and demand a return to the ample garments to which they were accustomed. Do not the vital organs of the girls need as much room accordingly as those of the boys? And why should not they have it?

If the members of the family could only realize that the same things that produce strong, robust boys would bring about the same results in the girls, how different the outcome might be!

Still another difficulty that makes healthful dress unpopular, as prominent perhaps as any mentioned, is that the popular ideas of beauty have been so molded and educated by the fashion builders that we have almost no appreciation of the beauty of the human form as designed by the Creator.

These times call for more definite reform, more courage and determination on the part of the women of the civilized world to keep pace with the other good reforms that are being carried forward by willing supporters, for thereby their health can be improved, and their lives made more useful.

“Our words, our actions, and our dress are daily living preachers, gathering with Christ, or scattering abroad.”

“In dress we should seek that which is simple, comfortable, convenient, and appropriate.”

“The principles of healthful dress should regulate every article of clothing worn.”

“Simplicity of dress will make a sensible woman appear to the best advantage.”

“Physical loveliness consists in symmetry—the harmonious proportion of parts.”

Disease of every type is brought upon the body through the unhealthful, fashionable style of dress; and the fact must be made prominent that a reform must take place before treatments will effect a cure. MARIA EDWARDS, M. D.

Michigan

By A. G. Haughey; C. A. Hansen

OTSEGO.— As a result of a series of meetings held at this place, fourteen adults joined the church, and others are preparing to unite with us. We are indeed thankful to God for his Spirit, which has given a desire to these dear hearts to live for him. A. G. HAUGHEY, C. A. HANSEN.

To Give God the Glory

In a recent letter, Elder G. M. Brown, of North Carolina, speaks of the healing power of the Lord experienced in the case of his mother, the wife of Elder M. H. Brown. A brief extract will not only gladden the hearts of friends of the family, but will help to increase faith in the power that saves. Elder Brown says his mother suffered from pneumonia, and was given up by the attending physicians, who left saying they could do no more. They were keeping the patient alive only by the use of oxygen, with continually increasing progress of the disease. Elder Brown says:—

“While we had continually made her case a subject of prayer, we felt that the time had come to unite in prayer for her in a more definite way; so the family—father, my sister and her husband, and myself—knelt at her bedside, committing her wholly into the Lord’s hands, and asking for her healing if it would be for his glory and her good.

“The best efforts of our medical advisers had proved unavailing, the physicians had given up the case. The experience of Israel at the Red Sea was brought forcibly to my mind, and it was impressed upon me that as God permitted his people to come into the strait place in order that their deliverance might be wholly a manifestation of his power and love, without opportunity for human boasting, so our Father had permitted this affliction in order that the community might see a manifestation of the power of the living God, and that we his servants might know that he was leading us.

“Mother had expected to die, and had arranged her business and made all preparations; but after our prayer season, although there was no special outward sign of healing, she said that she was going to recover. One time she said to me: ‘There is a power outside of me that is at work in my system, driving out disease. I can feel it.’ Her recovery was slow, but continuous, and she is now again doing the housework for father and herself.”

Medical Missionary Department

Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference W. A. RUBLE, M. D. - - - Secretary D. H. KRESS, M. D. } - - - Field Secretaries L. A. HANSEN } - - -

Fireside Correspondence School

By W. E. Howell

Some Motor Thoughts for Would-Be Students

We are continually surprised and gratified at what can be accomplished by correspondence study. Fifteen years’ previous experience in the school-room never produced as large a proportion of excellent papers as are coming in from our one hundred fifty-one students to our desk by every mail. Students who start with careless habits of thinking and expressing themselves, with slackness in spelling, punctuating, and choice of words, and with handwriting that is scarcely legible, show a remarkable readiness and facility in disciplining themselves on these points, at our suggestion or insistence, sometimes to the extent that we hardly recognize a new paper as being from the same person who had previously been prompted.

In truth, students are surprised at themselves, with a twofold surprise: first, they do not often sense how careless they are in these respects; second, they are astonished at what improvement they can make with painstaking effort. When a paper does not meet the standard we have set ourselves in this correspondence work, either in form or in content, it goes back to the writer by the next mail to be done over. Most of our students are glad for the chance when a few red markings show how faulty their work is; some have done their work over without being so requested, for the sheer pleasure of doing things better, and of keeping up their record to a high plane. Occasionally one thinks he is abused or rated too low, till we give him a few seed-thoughts, ask him a few questions about his aims and hopes for the future, when he falls in line gracefully, and thanks us for good counsel.

With a more substantial and appreciative class of students, it has never been our privilege to deal. They are saying nicer things to us than we deserve, but perhaps the reader would enjoy hearing the sentiments of some in their own words. A Bible worker writes:—

“I am glad your school was started. It gives me the privilege of improving each year, and staying in the work at the same time. I am working for others to take advantage of it also.”

A home missionary whose test papers are a delight to look upon, says:—

“I am much interested in my studies, and find that I am improving a great deal, even though I have had this course for only two months. I am truly thankful that some way has been provided for us who can not attend school to learn through correspondence.”

From a farmer’s daughter whose paper suggests a neat, well-kept home:—

“I am so glad I am one of the Fireside Circle. It seems to be just what I was looking for. I for one am enjoying my studies very much, and the grades on my test papers are much higher than I dared expect.”

From a nurse, aged fifty, whose aim is “improvement:”—

“I delight in the study of something definite, and can not understand why so many of our young people whose minds are yet so free and so susceptible to study should pass by such golden opportunities and not make more use of their time. I so often wish they could be made to understand what they might do if only they would try.”

From a young woman who broke down in health while taking a nurse’s course, but who is taking some work by correspondence to apply on her course:—

“I think the correspondence study is just fine so far as I have taken it. I sometimes think I ought to know my book by heart when I get through, for I study it hard enough to know it. I like the correspondence study better in some things than school, for in school we have to recite whether we have our lessons prepared or not. In correspondence study we have to have our lessons prepared, or we wouldn’t have anything to send in.”

From a farmer, aged forty-eight, whose aim is “to work for others:”—

“I do appreciate what you are doing for me, and begin to feel quite well acquainted with you. And while I don’t expect to get as much out of this study as younger, brighter minds would, I realize that I am getting something from it that will be a real help to me.”

From a student in bookkeeping who had to do the first two or three lessons over twice, but whose courage has never wavered:—

“I like studying by correspondence very, very much. I certainly have enjoyed these three months’ study around the Fireside, and mean to keep right on.”

There is nothing like making a beginning in what one wants or expects to do sometime, except to “keep right on” after he has begun. While quite a number who “expect to take up correspondence study a little later on” are still putting it off, some of our students are almost half through their course, and by the time summer is here will be ready to take up a new course. One of our very best students says she “hopes to have the privilege of being a pupil as long as there is a correspondence school.”

Dear reader, if you want to join the ranks of those who are earnestly seeking an education and are pursuing it every spare moment, enroll in the Fireside Correspondence School. You can prepare your lessons on time that others let run to waste. We find that the people who are really the busiest make the best students. Here is how a student in New Testament Greek, himself a burden-bearing foreign missionary, committed to memory a sentence in Greek:—

“Studied it carefully five minutes. Reviewed it while riding my wheel on business trip. Had it all but predicate. Looked that up on my return. Repeated it again and again while in barber’s chair, and found I had it.”

The sun did not set that day on “nothing attempted, nothing done.” This is the kind of snap that makes something in the world—makes headway in self-improvement; when he “hasn’t the time,” makes some; when he “doesn’t see his way clear,” clears it; makes positions seek him; makes dollars—incidentally; makes a successful missionary; makes his goal.

Let any who may want to make a beginning now, bear in mind that the doors of the Fireside Correspondence School stand wide open day and night, twelve months in the year; that there is no “set” time for you to enroll except in the ever-living present, big with promise; and that our address is still Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

W. E. HOWELL, Principal.

Knowledge and Duty

“KNOWLEDGE is a path that but few may climb, but duty is a path that all may tread.”

Christian Education

By Frederick Griggs

Conducted by the Department of Education of the General Conference

FREDERICK GRIGGS - - - - Secretary

Our Schools From the Student View-Point

By ROBERT M. GREY

WHAT do the students in attendance think of our conference schools? Why do they love them, and why attend them rather than the schools of the world?

The large majority of young men and women who enroll in our denominational schools come because they are actuated by a desire, and a firm determination, to fill a place in the grandest, broadest movement of our time. They believe that to do acceptable service in the last great work for the world, a wide education is needed. I do not speak of literary, scientific, or classical education, but of a broad and thorough training in those principles and truths upon which the work of God is based.

The third angel's message is the greatest educational reform that has ever illuminated the world. It educates for eternity. It fits men to live forever with the Author of all wisdom. Those who would handle its great truths intelligently, who would teach them successfully to others, must themselves be truly educated in the message. Where can we receive this education so well as in our colleges and academies?

Our young people look to the conference schools as to their best friends, because they are the means of fitting them for the one thing most desirable in the world to-day—a place in the great work of God. It is for this reason that the students love the schools and attend them.

Besides the mere course of study, are there any advantages that our schools afford and others lack?—There are indeed many. Let us consider some of them. When a young person from the world takes hold of this truth and decides to enter the service of God, no matter what his general education may be, he feels his insufficiency to take up the work without some special preparation for it. Then, too, he is confronted with this question: What department of the cause shall I enter? There is the medical department, the school work, the canvassing work, the ministry, and others. In which department can I best serve? and what field, home or foreign, needs me most? Very likely he can not answer these questions. He asks the advice of the conference brethren, and nine times out of ten they are not able to give him satisfaction.

The same is true of a young person brought up in the truth, who has received nothing but a public-school education. But let either of these young people enter one of our schools. What does he find there to help him in this choice? There are seminars for ministerial students, for Bible workers and teachers, and canvassers' societies, where the best talent among our book men conduct institutes and give instruction in salesmanship and field missionary work. The student may enter any or all of these societies, and there prove to himself where his talent lies. In the ministerial band, or seminar, he can develop his power for public speaking, and there also the Bible teachers give instruction in pulpit manners and the preparation of sermons. The teachers' seminars give opportunity for practise-teaching to those who have the school work in view. Among these many advantages a young person can soon locate his talent. Then, too, the teachers are in daily contact with the student and have a care for his interests, being always ready to advise him in the choice of his life-work. The school, then, besides preparing one for service in the cause, helps to locate him in that branch of the work where he is best fitted to serve.

Ask a company of young people just entering one of our academies to what special phase of the message they intend to devote their energies, and you may expect to learn that the large majority have not decided. But put the same question to a class of twenty-five seniors about to be graduated, and you may confidently expect a decided answer from every one of them. The school fits workers and locates them.

In the study of mission fields and their history, the student finds growing up in his heart a deeper love for the regions beyond and their many millions who must yet hear the gospel of the kingdom. Very often by this study in class-rooms where the Spirit of God is present, burdens for special fields are laid upon young men and women, who finally go forth from the schools to carry the gospel to those people whom God has laid next to their hearts. This fixing of definite burdens is one of the great achievements of our schools.

These thoughts are but as a bird's-eye view chosen from the great, broad panorama that presents itself to the student when he begins to think about the advantages of his school.

ROBERT M. GREY.

Nyhyttan (Sweden) Mission School

By S. F. SVENSSON

SCHOOL commenced October 20, and will continue until April 30, six months. There are thirty-seven students in attendance. We employ three teachers.

We are fortunate in having a good force of teachers. Brother Mattson, the principal, was brought up an Adventist. He was graduated as a civil engineer at one of our leading technical schools, and has had a good experience in teaching.

So far things have been moving along nicely. Some have already been baptized. With the exception of one, the students are all converted and in the truth. We have some fine young men training for the work.

At the present time I am holding a course of lectures at Gothenburg, the second city in size in Sweden. The interest is quite good, and with the Lord's blessing, we expect to see some accept the truth and join the ranks of those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

S. F. SVENSSON.

Our Sufficiency Is of God

“Ef-ficiency may go a long way, but only suf-ficiency can go all the way,— ‘our sufficiency is of God.’ 2 Cor. 3:5.”

Protestantism and Sunday Legislation in South Africa

By R. C. Porter

ALTHOUGH Africa is the Dark Continent, and the vast majority of her population are native heathen, yet she is abreast of the times in her demand for Sunday laws.

Rhodesia is thirteen hundred miles inland from Cape Town, yet she has felt the impulse of the Sunday-law movement, and has recently passed a Sunday law that is much akin to the Constantine Sunday edict of the fourth century.

The superintendent of the native mission at Solusi writes that they are located thirty-five miles out from Bulawayo in the midst of native heathen, yet a policeman was recently despatched to their station to order their mission store closed on Sundays in compliance with the new Sunday law.

About the same time, there was a vigorous attempt made to pass a drastic Sunday bill through the Orange River Colony Parliament.

Commenting on the bill, the editor of the Johannesburg Sunday Times of Oct. 31, 1909, made the following common-sense statement:—

“The real trouble is that the government is composed of men who were born back in the Middle Ages, and by some strange mischance find themselves ruling a supposedly free colony in what is widely believed to be the twentieth century. . . . To enforce the new law thoroughly it will naturally be necessary to establish the Inquisition; and to provide punishment fitting the crime, it will be essential to purchase a few racks, thumb-screws, and other instruments of medieval torture. In the case of hardened offenders an occasional auto da fé might have a deterrent influence. Of course attendance at the Dutch Church will be made compulsory, and the individual who has the indecency to smile on Sunday will be placed in the stocks. Therefore we say that from the view-point of the distant student of systems of administration, it is deplorable that the Union Parliament should come along and bowl out these legislating survivals from the Middle Ages.”

Similar editorials appeared in the Bloemfontein papers, in opposition to the passage of the Sunday bill. The church people were the chief promoters of the measure. Hon. Mr. Lyell, in introducing the bill, assured the House that it was supported by the Dutch Reform Synod and other religious organizations. He frankly admitted that it was an attempt to introduce religious legislation.

In opposition to his address the prime minister and the attorney-general made very strong speeches in condemnation of such legislation. The following are extracts from the address of the prime minister, as reported in the Bloemfontein Friend, Nov. 17, 1909:—

“The Honorable the prime minister, said he could not see the necessity of further legislation in regard to this matter. Legislation was in existence with regard to the observance of the sabbath, and then there was the Bible to serve for the people’s guidance. . . . A man who would be dissatisfied with the calm and peaceful appearance of the capital on a Sunday, and who would find anything objectionable to disturb him in his devotional exercises, was looking for evil and forgot the truth and beauty of ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged.’ The honorable member for Edenburg had hinted at their origin from the Huguenots, and why these forefathers had come to South Africa. He would also put this question, and his answer was that they were one with the great majority here, in that they were Protestants, which meant that they protested against oppression and wanted freedom of conscience. Let it rest between a man’s conscience and his God how he looked at these things, and let not a third interfere. The Huguenots had not come to South Africa because they differed in certain dogmatical questions of creed, but because they wanted absolute freedom of conscience, and because they would not be under the authority of the Pope. They had surely not done away with the great Pope in order that a number of small popes might be set up afterward over their heirs to interfere between them and their God. There was sufficient piety in the country and in the towns, and they should not forget that the Sabbath was instituted for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Every individual should foster his own opinion on these matters and be true to it. If a man thought that the sabbath would be desecrated by public recreation on Sunday, he must not take part in it, because it would violate his conscientious opinion, but let him not force his opinion upon others. If a man would be shocked and disturbed in the exercise of his devotion by the thought that one of his fellow men played golf while he sat in church, that man’s entire devotion and attention was not in the service, and his thoughts wandered from the right direction in which he could find peace and rest. This bill was only a clumsy attempt to make amendments on the eternal law of God. . . .”

“Now who should sit as an arbitrator to judge what might be done and what might not? . . . Let another and higher arbiter than mere man judge in these matters, and leave the responsibility to the individual as a matter between him and his Creator. . . .”

“There had been petitions before that House praying for legislation with regard to shop hours, but not a single petition had been handed in from cab drivers to ask relief from their arduous duties on Sundays. It was said that they were Christians, but there were various classes of Christians, some of them were the self-appointed judges over others, and others had freed themselves and resented every interference from without between them and their God. . . . Being a Protestant, he would protest against the bill now before the House.”

The bill was defeated on its second reading. The vote stood nineteen to seventeen.

In all parts of the world, under the mask of religious reform, Satan is seeking to lead the people to repeat the history of the great apostasy of the Middle Ages. The world needs to-day a revival of the Protest of the Princes at the Diet of Spires. R. C. PORTER.

The Johnston Sunday Bill Condemned

By R. C. R.

The Washington Herald of Feb. 9, 1910, contained a report of a meeting held the day before by the Washington Chamber of Commerce, and among other items of business that were reported, was an action concerning the Johnston Sunday bill. The report reads as follows:—

“A. Leftwich Sinclair presented a report from the committee on law and legislation disapproving of the proposed Sunday law, on the ground that it was in bad form and inimical to the best interests of the majority of residents of the District. Mr. Sinclair said his committee had the subject under discussion for several hours yesterday afternoon, at a meeting attended by twenty-five members of the committee, that it was animatedly discussed in all its bearings, and the sense of the committee was embodied in the resolution he presented. The report was unanimously adopted.”

It might be added in this connection that the writer had a few days previous to the meeting interviewed the chairman of the subcommittee of the Chamber of Commerce concerning this measure. R. C. R.

Religious Liberty Notes

ELDER L. S. WHEELER, the religious liberty secretary of the Central New England Conference, reports a lively interest in Worcester, Mass., among the Jewish people on the subject of religious liberty.

The religious liberty secretary of the Virginia Conference, Elder B. L. House, writes that there is at present a lively Sunday-closing crusade on in Richmond, Va., and that he contemplates holding a mass-meeting there soon.

Elder A. R. Bell, the religious liberty secretary of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, located at York, Pa., is succeeding in getting published in the local press excellent reports of his sermons. Now is the time to utilize the public press.

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