p. 769 | Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 48. (11/26/1901)

SERVANT-GIRLISM

By Wm. P. Pearce

From a Religious Standpoint.

WM. P. PEARCE.

AMONG the important, perplexing problems which confront household queens is that of “servant-girlism.” It has raised “a great cry in Egypt.” Theories have been advanced, advices given, treatises written, and though—

“The affair cries, haste And speed must answer it.”

yet unanswered and unchanged it still remains.

Unlike Continental conditions where caste has full sway and domestic service a premium, the madams of American homes find independence arrayed against real or imaginary exactions. The blame is not one-sided. The servant has conceived the idea that her position is degrading, while the madam and her young ladies believe her mission is to serve. Both are wrong.

The domestic department is as honorable as it is necessary. The apron and dusting cap are ensigns which speak of a laudable position and industry which as—

“Surely brings Reward of good, no matter what be done,”

as the crown which decks the brow of England’s queen, or the apron which distinguishes Persia’s royal standard.

Honor to the royal roasters and caterers. Blessings on the heads of those who make music out of a frying pan to the accompaniment of a gridiron. Success to the indispensable enemies of cobwebs and dirt, who have the ability to keep the house neat and their tempers sweet. Let not useless burdens be placed upon them, or their liberties unnecessarily circumscribed, or their position minimized. They are household indispensables, who emit sunshine in proportion as the madams smile upon them.

How to solve the problem in retaining servant girls, is a question frequently asked. Inasmuch as my work deals with the pen instead of the frying pan, books rather than brooms, I confess I do not know. Mrs. Eliza Stuart Phelps Ward thinks she has solved it by inducing a class of persons to enter it who had previously considered it degrading; and Inez Goodman has shown in her “Ten Weeks in a Kitchen” that mistresses could easily solve it, if they would hire out for that limit of time, as she did, without the application of the golden rule.

From a religious standpoint this problem may be solved. The story runs that a chaplain in the army, passing over the field, saw a wounded soldier lying on the ground. “Would you like me to read the Bible?” The wounded soldier said, “I’m so thirsty, I would rather have a drink of water.” As quickly as possible the chaplain brought it. The man said: “Could you lift my head and put something under it?” The chaplain removed his light overcoat, and tenderly lifting the soldier, put it as a pillow for the tired head. “Now,” said the man, “if I only had something over me; I’m so cold!” There was only one thing the chaplain could do, take off his coat and cover the man. This he did. The soldier looked into his face and said: “For God’s sake, if there is anything in that book which makes a man do what you have done, let me hear it.”

It is to this Book, which suits every person’s condition and every exigence in life, I turn for information in the solution of this problem.

Servants must not be too independent and imperative in their demands. They must not expect to “run things” to their liking, nor should they take advantage of any favors shown, but should be obedient, honest, and respectful to their superiors, as if such were to Christ himself. “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters” (Eph. 6:5); “not purloining, but showing all good fidelity” (Titus 2:10); “not with eyeservice, . . . but . . . with good will doing service, as to the Lord.” Eph. 6:6.

With such a spirit as this, every household task would be easy, service would be adorned by love’s coronet, and “servant-girlism” would be a term which would count for more than it does. In the beautiful lines of George Herbert—

“A servant with this cause, Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a room as for Thy sake Makes that and the action fine.”

Mistresses should not be too exacting and domineering. Time, health, comfort, and remuneration of the servant should be carefully considered. Denham thus expressed it all in a verse:—

“Expect not more from servants than is just; Reward them well, if they observe their trust, Nor with them cruelty or pride invade, Since God and nature them our kinsfolk made.”

Paul the apostle emphasized the reciprocal spirit. Madams should not expect a spirit in servant girls which they are not willing to show themselves. “And, ye mistresses, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening.” Eph. 6:9. “Give unto your servants that which is just and equal.” Col. 4:1. “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” Col. 4:6. Kind words, smiles of appreciation, and a few favors are not given in vain. “Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the soft-falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.”

Thus the problem confronts us. To reason is good, and she is “next to the gods whom reason and not passion impels.” To advise may be profitable, and she who accepts, whether serving or ruling, may be “superior to him who gives it.” She who loves the Master will consider the term “servant” as one of high honor, and with Him will be willing to serve; while she who rises in the consciousness of relation to God will stoop to make duty pleasant for that one who ministers to her.

THE SHADOW OF THE DARK AGES.

By L. A. S.

THE rapid spread of the spirit of lawlessness in this country within recent years is doubtless but slightly realized by the vast majority of the American people, but few of whom have opportunity to observe, individually, more than a minute fraction of that which constitutes the evidence on this subject. Here are some statements made by Booker T. Washington, in an article covering the first page of the Sunday School Times of November 2, which are worthy of note:—

“The average citizen may not appreciate the fact that a lynching has taken place within the last twenty years within every one of our States except five.”

“During the exciting days following the shooting of the late President McKinley, it was my privilege to mingle a good deal with the people in one of our Western States, and almost every other man who referred to the crime expressed himself as being in favor of burning, or the execution without trial, of Czolgosz. As I listened to these expressions day after day, it convinced me, as never before, that a spirit of lawlessness has got a hold upon the whole country that few of us realize.”

Years ago Seventh-day Adventists were told that “a new power is springing up from beneath, and taking fast hold of all Satan’s agencies,” of which fact a marked increase in lawlessness would be the natural indication. In this, as in other important matters, they were privileged to have the truth years in advance of other people. But do Seventh-day Adventists realize even now, as this observer does, the abnormal nature of the times we have now reached? Truly we, who have so long been told what these things mean, should not be behind any others in knowing that these things are so.

“Perhaps the most demoralizing and hurtful result of mob violence,” Mr. Washington says, “is the hardening effect which it has upon our youth. . . . One of the saddest remarks that I ever heard come from the lips of a child was when he said, in my presence, that he wished he could see a man burned.” This observer computes that “on an average fifty persons witnessed the execution” of every person lynched in this country, of which witnesses many were youth of tender age.

Do we ever stop to realize that while many years, historically, separate the world to-day from the Dark Ages, we are separated from them, educationally, by but a single generation? in other words, that the rising generation, educated as were the youth in those savage times, would bring the Dark Ages again as soon as they reached maturity. And just that education, in many places, is now being given.

But the hope of the world is the coming of the Son of man. * L. A. S.

PURPOSE OF THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.

By L. A. S.

WHY is a special proclamation necessary to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ?

Death, we are sometimes told, is the end of the world; and truly enough, to the individual overtaken by it, it is the end of all things until the resurrection. But the last message to the world is not to prepare people for death; for death has been busy in all ages of the world, and the grace of God has ever been the means, as it is now, whereby men might prepare themselves for the fatal visitation.

If, then, men do not need a special message from God to prepare them for death, why do they need such a message to prepare them for the end of the world? The end of the world will not more truly fix the destiny of any person than it is fixed by death. It is not more important to be prepared for the end of the world than to be prepared for death. Nor can we suppose that God is sending a special message to the world to-day because He especially favors this generation, and would provide them an extraordinary opportunity to secure eternal salvation in His kingdom.

The purpose of the Third Angel's Message is not to prepare people for death, or to confer upon them some special privilege not enjoyed by other generations, but to prepare the world for the judgment. The investigative judgment began its session, has been in progress, and will be finished, in this generation.

The proclamation of the first angel is, “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.”

It called for a great work of reform, for the Church as well as the world had been transgressing the Fourth Commandment, not observing the day sanctified by Him who made heaven and earth. This message to the world called upon men to show their loyalty to God by turning from the observance of an institution set up by the papacy, to the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord, which He has given to be the sign of His authority and power. It called upon men to separate themselves from the world and from the churches which retained merely a form of godliness, and make manifest the fact of their loyalty to the God of heaven. Thus this message brought to men a test by which it would be determined who were loyal to God, and therefore worthy of a place in the kingdom of God. It was a test which would lead men to take a decided stand for or against the truth of God, and thus draw a dividing line through the inhabitants of the earth.

The Creator set His hand to the work of gathering out a people loyal to himself; and the adversary, Satan, set himself against the work, and instituted measures by which he hoped to gather the inhabitants of the earth under his banner. The churches which rejected the message of the hour of God's judgment suffered thereby a moral fall, and placed themselves where they could be used to further the purposes of the enemy. As God had called upon the world to worship Him, Satan sought to bring the world to an opposite worship, whereby men would manifest that they were disloyal to God. He set about to revive the spirit and principles of the papacy. The “Beast” still survived in the Old World, and in the New he began the work of making an image, or likeness, of it, so that in all the world men might be drawn or forced to the worship of either the one or the other. And then came another message from the God of heaven, denouncing the worship of the Beast and his Image, and threatening the unmixed wrath of God upon all who should be guilty of such worship.

Thus with the proclamation of the hour of God's judgment and the call to return to the true worship of the Creator, intensity was infused into the conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan in the earth. New influences were brought to bear both for and against the truth, and men were moved by a new power both from above and from beneath, and upon both sides this power has been continually re-enforced. Upon the side of God it will culminate in the “loud cry” and the latter rain, and upon the side of the enemy it will culminate in the “working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” Thus the inhabitants of the world will be brought to take their stand upon the one side or the other. They will be brought to judge themselves worthy or unworthy of eternal life.

“All are now deciding their eternal destiny. . . . The law of God is to be magnified; its claims must be presented in their true, sacred character, that the people may be brought to decide for or against the truth.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI. “The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty; for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.”—Great Controversy, page 605. “By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.”—Id. page 612.

Thus the inhabitants of the world will be brought, one and all, to decide their own cases, to judge themselves. “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the papacy—the “Beast” or his “Image”], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Rev. 13:8. These facts have, we believe, a direct bearing on the question that is sometimes asked, whether at this time the judgment in heaven has begun upon the cases of the living. The cases of the living are not passed upon as are those of the dead, and cannot be, while probation lasts. But each person living is, by every act and by the decisions he now makes, no less surely passing upon his own case, and facing his final destiny. The influences which God has set at work in the earth, and which are continually increasing in power, are drawing each one of us nearer to God and heaven, or, if we resist them, leaving us further and further separated from Him and the happy destiny of the redeemed. And when the last message shall have done its work, the destiny of every living person will be as clearly decided as are the destinies of the dead; and the investigative judgment will be finished.

God is at this time sealing His servants with His seal. This sealing work goes forward, and the elements of destruction are held in check, until the last one who will accept the gift of eternal life has done so, and been sealed. Thus the case of every child of God is decided for a place in the family of God, and by the absence of the same token all other cases are marked for final destruction. Thus the purpose of the Third Angel's Message is to fix the eternal destiny of every person living, not by arbitrarily closing the probation of any, but by bringing each individual to make the final choice for himself.

L. A. S.

For all who are disheartened there is but one remedy,—faith, prayer, and work

THE KEYNOTE OF THE MESSAGE.

By Editor

In the stirring report of his experience, given in another column, Brother Washington Morse, speaking of the subject of the sanctuary, says, “Brethren, this is the keynote of the message.” And his experience on this trip, and the favor he met with from professors in other denominations, seem to confirm his declaration.

From our own point of view, this is emphatically true. The subject of the sanctuary is the keynote of the message we have to present. It dissolved the doubt and perplexity the Adventist body found themselves involved in at the passing of the time in 1844. It threw a great flood of light on the situation. It revealed clearly the position we were then in, in the fulfillment of some prophecies. It threw light on the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25. It explained the entering in with Christ to the marriage, the wedding garment, and the presumptuous guest who ventured into the marriage without that garment on (Matt. 22:12), and illumined the whole galaxy of truths that clustered around our then position, and which would have been involved in darkness without the light shed upon us by the subject of the sanctuary.

It showed us that we had not been wandering in the dark in making known the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, that there had been no failure; and so we were begotten again to a new hope and to lively faith and fresh courage.

And that light has followed us all the way along, shedding new luster on important truths.

It throws light upon the message to the Laodiceans, of Revelation 3, the last one of the seven churches which fill out and close the present Christian age. It reveals the final and closing work of the judgment, a period upon which we have now entered, and fifty-seven years of which have already passed.

The closing up of the work of our High Priest and Advocate on high is the finishing of the gospel, predicted in Rev. 10:7.

There is no more inspiring and important topic for our people at the present time than the subject of the sanctuary. It is the keynote of the Third Angel’s Message. Study it till you understand it, and become imbued with its spirit.

The Last Warning

“Now is the time for the last warning to be given. There is a special power in the presentation of the truth at the present time; but how long will it continue?—Only a little while. If there was ever a crisis, it is now.”

844.— BAPTISM.

When an infant, I was baptized by the Lutherans, but have been persuaded to be baptized by immersion. My friends tell me this is wrong, and I am in trouble about it.

Mrs. A. B., Greytown, Dunn Co., Wis.

ANS.— I do not think you need to give yourself any uneasiness about your baptism. As for your having been baptized in infancy by the Lutheran Church, that does not count anything in the Scriptures; for an accepted professor of religion has to first believe before he can properly be baptized. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Mark 16: 16. But infants cannot believe.

And as for your being baptized the second time, we have the warrant of the Scriptures for that, in Acts 19: 3, 5. The believers had received first John’s baptism; and when they were instructed in the new truth concerning Christ, they were baptized again, in the name of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing in the ordinance, nor in the instruction concerning it, which would prevent the repetition of the act, or make it blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to perform that rite a second time.

The prerequisite of baptism is death to sin; and the natural act to be performed in reference to a dead man is to bury him. This is why baptism is illustrated by the figure of a burial. And when a man backslides and becomes alive in sin, and afterward again dies to sin, as at his first conversion, there would seem to be nothing inappropriate in repeating the act of burial.

The doctrine and the teaching of the Scriptures on the subject of baptism are very clear and very simple. And if you will study the subject in the light of these suggestions, I think you will have your mind fully settled upon that point.

842.—THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.

WILL you please give an explanation of I Peter 3:18–20. Some say that Christ preached to those who had been drowned by the flood.

B. F. S., Howell, Mich.

ANS.—This question is fully considered, and answered, in the book “Here and Hereafter,” pages 93-100, to which the reader is referred. But a few points may be presented here, which will tend to help the mind of our correspondent:—

1. If the word “spirits” refers to the people drowned by the flood, their probation had ended, and according to the popular view, when a wicked man dies, he is immediately judged, and sent to hell.

2. Then, if this refers to the wicked antediluvians, they had been nearly twenty-four hundred years in hell when Christ in His disembodied spirit, while His body lay in the grave before His resurrection, went and preached to them.

3. But why should Christ go down to hell to preach to those judged and condemned spirits there? This question staggers the popular view.

When was the preaching done?—It was done while the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. How was it done?—By the Spirit of Christ through Noah. It was while repentance and salvation were possible to them; for this is always the object of preaching. But if the antediluvians could find repentance and salvation in hell, the Romish doctrine of purgatory is established. And a doctrine worse than the Romish purgatory,—namely, the modern heresy of a new probation after death,—is proved, which takes away every motive for repentance in this life. But if Christ preached to the antediluvians through Noah, how were they “in prison”? God had told Noah that a flood was determined, and that man’s days should be limited to one hundred and twenty years. Thus they were shut up in prison. But until the flood came and took them all away, the hope of salvation was still held out to them.

Week of Prayer Notes

By William Ambrose Spicer

The World's Cry.

“From India, from Africa, from China, from the islands of the sea, from the down-trodden millions of so-called Christian lands, the cry of human woe is ascending to God. That cry will not long be unanswered.” —“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 179.

All heaven is in earnest to give the answer soon. To us has been committed the work of going to the world with the message of preparation for Christ’s second coming, which is to be heaven’s final answer to the cry of woe. The Week of Prayer will give every soul a special opportunity to seek God to know what part in this urgent message each is to bear. The cry of woe is not an unreal one. It ascends to God from souls that suffer and long for deliverance. In assuming to be in any way connected with God and His work at this time, we face an obligation to do something very real and definite. It will cost money, and it will cost lives to go to all the world with this message. Are we laying all of life and all of means upon the altar at this time of preparation for the Week of Prayer and the annual offering for missions?

A CALL FROM THE AFRICAN GOLD COAST.

Here is a letter from the African Gold Coast that shows how very definite is the call. It is addressed not to the Mission Board, but “To the Brethren and Sisters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, United States of America.” First, it may be explained, we began work in the Gold Coast about seven years ago. The region is exceedingly malarious, and after starting a work and seeing some fruits, our missionaries were compelled to retire to recuperate. Other fields called for all the means available, and the work in the Gold Coast has not been taken up again. A few believers still hold on there, and at the recent autumn Council of the Mission Board it was voted to begin work again for the millions in West Africa, as soon as laborers and means will allow.

In the meantime this letter comes, with its apologies for ungrammatical language. We will not attempt to straighten it into proper English, as this native brother’s epistle goes straight to the point as it is. He says:—

“My elders and brethren of the Lord, can you be so negligent to constitute a corps of white laborers for the work to save we sinners? When I consider the mining people who are wasting their lives for the sake of gold, and how thousands of white people are still landing for an attempt to find gold, it makes with shame for the Adventists to delay God’s truth when a few workers suffered with a fever

and none sent out in substitute for their absence. Yet for our sins Christ, the Prince of heaven, came and died that through Him we might be saved. Laborers, captains, soldiers, who are still fighting for the Lord, are you afraid to die for the emancipation of beings, slaves to Satan? Can’t you volunteer yourselves to provide sufficient money to send laborers out here to save we lost sinners? The end is nearing; and if you do not make haste to save us, our responsibilities will be upon you Adventists. I beg to call your attention to this cry to appoint men at once.”

The Gold Coast is the key to a vast region, and native workers must be developed to carry the message right back through the coast provinces into the heart of the Sudan. Working such fields will cost money. After a few seasons workers may have to retire to some other locality, as to Europe or South Africa, to recruit. But by having a few laborers to relieve one another, and so keep a continuous and aggressive policy in operation, the work may be done. Of course every believer will say that where once the standard of the truth has been unfurled and souls call for help, there must never be retreat. Pray God to select the workers for this and a thousand other points, and plan for a gift to missions at the Week of Prayer season which shall partake of the spirit of Heaven’s own response to the cry of the needy.

W. A. SPICER, Cor. Sec. Mission Board.

THE LANDING PLACE—CAPE COAST CASTLE, GOLD COAST.

The Old Landmarks of Truth

“There is to be no change in the general features of our work. . . . No line of truth that has made the Seventh-day Adventist people what they are, is to be weakened. We have the old landmarks of truth, experience, and duty, and we are to stand firmly in defense of our principles, in full view of the world.”

THE FEAR OF GOD.

By L. A. S.

WHAT is the fear of God? God has answered the question himself. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Prov. 8:13.

The fear of God is a mark of the righteous person, and its absence is a characteristic of the one who is wicked. But the righteous person is not afraid of the Lord, as of one whom he would not wish to meet, or who would be likely, in his view, to perpetrate some injustice upon him. This kind of fear is felt only by the wicked. The unrighteous person fears that he will be overtaken by justice, and therefore does not wish to meet the God of justice. He knows God only as an avenger who has threatened punishment for every evil work in the day of final reckoning.

But by those who know Him aright, God is known as a Father, as the pardoner of transgression and the bestower of every good gift; as One at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The feeling which is inseparable from this knowledge of God is love. And “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.

The more one loves the Lord, the greater will be one's hatred of evil, since evil is the exact opposite of God's character. And therefore the greater the love of God in a person's heart, the more will that individual possess the true fear of God. God is averse to all that is evil. Not for all that there is in the universe, not for any consideration that could ever possibly be, would God commit an unrighteous act; and therefore God himself possesses the same “fear” which man is exhorted to have, and that in greater degree than man could possess it, as God is a being of higher attributes than man. It is the fear of God; not the feeling of being afraid of God, but the sharing of the feeling which God has for sin and evil. We must share this feeling with Him if we are to be like Him. This is the only fear of God that is known by the upright in heart.

L. A. S.

843.—TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR IN TESTIMONY.

Please notice in Vol. VI of the Testimonies, page 155, lines 19 and 20 from top read: “Opening their hearts to the precious rays of light wrong and dangerous conclusions.” How should it read?

W. W. W., Los Angeles, Cal.

ANS.—The words “the precious rays of light” are a typographical error. They should be omitted. Then the passage would read: “Plans and opinions that should not be entertained will imprint themselves, opening their hearts to wrong and dangerous conclusions.”

EN ROUTE TO CHILE.

By A. R. Ogden

Our company, Elders Westphal and Ketring, and myself, and our families, are having a very pleasant voyage, on the way to South America. The weather has been fine all the way. And all of our company have been comparatively well.

We are to reach Rio, Brazil, to-day, and Buenos Ayres the last part of the week. After the general meeting to be held in Argentine, Elder Ketring and myself and our families will go on to Chile, our appointed field of labor. A. R. OGDEN.

Sept. 24, 1901.

THE WEEK OF PRAYER.

By David Paulson

The real good to be accomplished by this occasion depends not so much upon how greatly our feelings will be stirred as upon how thoroughly we shall be filled with a determination to arise and recognize our God-given opportunities. We can all look back to some day in our experience when upon some special occasion we settled something,—we laid something deeply into the Rock. If we are ever to stand with the redeemed, we must have that experience repeated with reference to other things almost every day of our lives.

If this Week of Prayer shall enable us to become anchored to truth as we never have been before, if it shall water our hearts and souls with the dew of heaven to such a degree that our neighbors shall know that something has happened to us, then it will not have been in vain. Until our sympathies for others are thoroughly aroused, doing missionary work is merely a business proposition; we simply do it because we feel that we have to. Falling on the Rock during the Week of Prayer can take that feeling out of our hearts, and replace it by a tender, pitying love that will not lead us to criticise and condemn others, nor even waste precious time in arguing with them; but the persuasive power of love manifested in us will win those to Christ who can be won.

I recently heard Mr. Blackstone relate an incident that contains a great lesson. He told us of a business man who was trying to secure sleep in his berth in a Pullman sleeper, but was being prevented by the piercing cries of an infant in a berth almost opposite to his. By and by he became so exasperated that he shouted out in a rough, commanding tone, “Why don’t the mother of that child hush it up?” A trembling, half-broken voice answered back, “The mother of this child is in a coffin in the baggage car ahead. I am its father, and have tried for two nights to quiet it. I will do the best I can.” Immediately this gentleman jumped out of his berth, stretched out his hands, and begged the father to give him the child. Then he walked up and down the aisle, soothing it to sleep in his arms, meanwhile pressing it close to his breast; soon the motherless child dropped into a peaceful slumber, and was returned to its father. What had wrought this change? Simply this, the gentleman’s sympathies had been enlisted.

If this Week of Prayer shall serve to put into our hearts this kind of feeling for the sick, the suffering, the disappointed, and the distressed all about us, we shall have multitudes of opportunities to help others where we now do not in the least imagine that they exist. The Lord is not going to make such a mistake as to put missionary opportunities in our pathway simply for us to spoil by our coldness and by our feeble, waning piety.

I have heard Brother Daniells say, over and over again this year at some of our large camp-meetings, “It is no use playing with this question any longer.” Those significant words have left a deep impression upon my mind. Our responsibility to humanity is not going to be met by occasionally handing out a tract or a paper. Such a miracle of grace must be wrought in our lives that others will unconsciously be drawn to the same source to secure the same work. But this transformation will never be wrought for us until there is a hungering and thirsting for it; until it comes to mean more to us than our daily business. It was said of Christ that while He was praying, His countenance was changed. Those words were not written in vain. It means that something happens to us when we pray in sincerity, recognizing our deep need. “The self-sufficient worker may seem to be moving the world, but the humble wrestler moves heaven.”

This will be the first Week of Prayer after the most wonderful General Conference that this people has ever seen. Shall that same spirit be carried into every church upon this occasion, or shall we, like the children of Israel when they were about to pass into the promised land, have to turn our faces back toward the wilderness again? In this closing work is it too much to expect that God is going to raise up men like Joseph, Daniel, Stephen, and Paul? These men were often found upon their knees before God, and it was there that they received that inspiration which enabled them to move so marvelously the hearts of men.

With such wonderful possibilities before us, shall we drift along simply living cheap, ordinary, and next to useless lives? We are in the time when God has promised that “a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” None of us need imagine that the Lord is going to select us as object lessons in the fulfillment of this prophecy if we have so little interest in it that we are unwilling to prostrate ourselves before God, and have the rubbish and dross removed from our lives, and our scheme and plans brought to naught, so that it may be safe for the Lord to make of us an object lesson of what He can accomplish through human flesh when it is fully and unreservedly dedicated to Him. DAVID PAULSON.

GENERAL MEETING IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA.

By L. R. Conrad

FROM Helsingfors I went to St. Petersburg, the rapidly growing capital of the Russian empire, and spent Sabbath, October 5, with our church in that city. Our private rooms, where the meetings have to be held, were well filled during the three services we had, and five offered themselves for church membership. From this place some young people will go to our school at Friedensau.

Four nights on crowded cars brought me to Fürstenort, at the foot of the Caucasus, where our meeting for the South had been appointed, October 7-13. Elders J. T. Boettcher and D. P. Gaede, who had preceded me, had been having good meetings previous to my arrival. Although twelve had been baptized the two previous Sabbaths, yet over twenty others gave their hearts to the Lord before the close of the meeting.

When I visited Fürstenort three years ago, this German settlement was but just begun, and now it numbers forty families, the most of whom are Sabbath-keepers. They have erected a nice meeting-house. There were about eighty of our people from abroad, and an average attendance of three hundred taxed the capacity of the house to the utmost. Elder H. J. Loebsack could be with us, but his state of health would not permit him to take a very active part.

As the South is the oldest field in Russia, and contains over seven hundred members, it was thought best to organize it into a Conference. Since Northern Russia had been formed into a mission field, and the work among the native Russians had been organized into a third division, the brethren in the South felt willing to sustain the work in their field in the future, especially as the German Union Conference had freed them from one thousand dollars’ indebtedness left after settling with the workers. Elder H. J. Loebsack was chosen president of this young Conference, and there will be associated with him on the Conference Committee, Brethren Tetz, Schuerer, Fischer, and Lehmann.

The educational work received considerable attention, and about twenty-five dollars was donated toward a publishing fund for “Christ’s Object Lessons,” and all promised their co-operation in its circulation. Six young people will attend our school at Friedensau. Church-school teachers could do a good work in some places, but, as a rule, they would have to pass government examinations.

The last Sabbath was the best day. At noon Elders Boettcher and Gaede baptized twenty-two, and one followed in baptism that evening. In the afternoon Brethren H. K. Loebsack and J. Ebel were set apart to the ministry. The Lord came very near His people during this occasion. Sunday forenoon fifteen who had backslidden from God were again received into church membership, so that the church at Fürstenort had an increase of nearly fifty, and the meeting brought them new life and hope.

There are at present three ordained ministers and two licentiates, and four faithful canvassers, in the South Russian Conference. The prospects for the whole field were never so promising as now, and we all separated full of praise to the Lord, who had been our shield and buckler.

Elder Boettcher’s visit was much appreciated. On his way back to Switzerland, he spent a Sabbath in Western Russia. Personally, I reached Constantinople October 20, and am now departing for a general meeting in Asia Minor. L. R. CONRAD.

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