It is one thing to recognize the weaknesses of our fellows; it is another thing to undertake a campaign of agitation and criticism regarding those weaknesses. The first is necessary in order that we may know how rightly to relate ourselves to humanity, but the second shows a weakness on our part, and places us in the same category as those we criticize. It makes very little difference whether we spend our time tanning the hide of a mosquito or criticizing the man who does do it. In either case we waste our time, and the good we might do is left undone.
Christian believers, in common with Thomas Paine and Robert G. Ingersoll and a host of other Bible critics, recognize the mistakes made by Bible characters, the human element existing in the church of God, and the weaknesses connected therewith throughout its history; but unlike these opposers, Christian believers do not spend their time in a campaign exploiting the mistakes of these men or attempting to make a gospel or a message out of human frailties and weaknesses.
There are many things in the Scriptures of Truth and in God's dealing with the human family which will remain a mystery while the world stands. The study of eternity will not suffice to penetrate the boundless depth of infinite wisdom. The Word of God, as the apostle Peter declares, contains "some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, . . . unto their own destruction." In this world the Lord has not afforded us an undimmed view of many of his designs and purposes. We cannot explain the mystery of iniquity, nor can we explain the mystery of godliness. The prophets themselves "have inquired and searched diligently" the Word of God revealed through their agency, in order that they might understand its meaning. Even the angels "desire to look into" those things which have come to us through the ministry of fallible man.
Why should we marvel because God, in his infinite wisdom and compassion, speaks through an instrument of clay, — an erring man or woman whose life does not fully express the principles enunciated? The encasing of priceless gems in humble caskets does not lessen the value of the precious treasure; and because God chooses sinful, erring humanity through whom to make known his word, the revelation is none the less his word.
We read of the mistakes of Moses, the great sin of David, the failures of the apostle Peter, and the personal differences existing between Paul and Barnabas. However, we recognize these as belonging to the human element rather than to the divine; and the more glory redounds to God that he can take poor, weak, feeble men such as these were, and speak through them the words of eternal life. If we fasten our eyes upon their frailties and weaknesses, then we shall lose the blessed message of God which has come through them.
This principle is just as true when applied to the manner in which God uses men and women at the present time. We may listen to the warning words of truth which fall from the lips of some minister of God, and accept them as God's message to our souls and be transformed by them; or we may fasten our eyes upon the weaknesses of the human instrument, and so magnify these that the message will lose its effect.
And after all, from our viewpoint we shall find in our fellows largely what we look for. To the froward man the ways of God appear froward, but to the righteous man those same ways appear right and just. The psalmist says: "With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward." The Lord in his wise purpose has not removed from his dealings with mankind occasion for doubt if the human heart is determined to find occasion. The determination of our destiny, under God, is largely in our own hands. We may cherish and build up in our experience faith and hope and confidence, or we may incite criticism and unbelief among our fellows. We may speak the word of cheer and courage, or we may sow the seeds of unbelief and discord. We may act the part of Korah or of Moses, of Sanballat or of Nehemiah, of Shimei or of David, of Judas or of Jesus. The times before us will try our souls. May God grant that we shall strengthen in our own experience and in the experience of others the things which remain.
F. M. W.
Directions From the Lord
We have met many persons who claimed to be led by the Spirit of God, but who were refusing to follow in their lives the plain directions of the Word. They claimed that they were led by an inner voice or consciousness. This is a very dangerous doctrine. The Spirit of God inspired the Scriptures of Truth. The prophets of God wrote as they were8moved by that Spirit. When that same Spirit exists in the heart of one of God's children, it will bring about unity between him and the Word. He will not regard these impressions and imaginations as the leadings of the Spirit unless he tests them by the Word of Truth.
Into what perplexity the church of God would be plunged if there were no standard by which to determine the character of the spirit inspiring men's minds! Every one would have a standard of his own. The great safeguard is the Scriptures of Truth; and if there comes to us an angel and declares to us any other doctrine than is contained in the Word, we are to reject him as a deceiver. See Gal. 1:8.
Fast and Loose With the Word
By C. M. S.
IN the issue of the Outlook dated February 14, the editor publishes a letter from one who has a very firm conviction that God's Word cannot be trifled with, and that God will hold men very strictly to account for the attitude which they maintain toward his law, the ten commandments. This letter the editor, Dr. Lyman Abbott, calls "The Law," and his reply to it he denominates "The Gospel." The position which the writer of the letter takes is impregnable, and the arguments are unanswerable. It is always true that when one attempts to answer an unanswerable argument, he plunges himself into dilemmas from which he cannot extricate himself as long as he clings to his position. This Dr. Abbott has done. The letter referred to is worthy of reproduction, and we therefore give it here entire:—
When I went to Sunday school, I was taught the ten commandments, and one of them declared that "the seventh day is the Sabbath." I was taught that this is a divine command, like all the others of the ten commandments. But I find that, three hundred and twenty-five years after Christianity was born, a council of human beings, called the Council of Nicæa, convened by a human being named Constantine the Great, instituted the first-day sabbath to displace the seventh-day Sabbath. Even if the members of that council, and Constantine also, were saints,—and they were not, for the clergy in those days were ignorant and immoral, and Constantine was the murderer of his wife, son, and nephew, and was a political weathercock,—even if they were saints, they were all human beings.
Why shall any Christian keep a sabbath which is man-made, when the seventh-day Sabbath, which is God-made, is set aside? And why need any Christian show any respect for Christianity when the personal example of Jesus is deliberately disregarded? He kept the seventh-day Sabbath. His example is, or ought to be, surely good enough for his followers. He would keep the seventh-day Sabbath if he were alive today.
A yet deeper subconscious thought is this: If religion can be altered by human beings, why respect religion? I believe that the falling off in church attendance, the growing disregard for the Sabbath, and the gradual permeation of society with unreligious and irreligious poison is due to the subconscious thought that human beings may interpret even the plainest and most direct and most unmistakable divine declarations as they please.
The Protestants declare that they are not bound by the declarations of certain councils. Therefore they revolted from Catholicism. Why, therefore, do they not refuse to be bound by that Council of Nicæa?
I believe that Christianity would be all the stronger if it returned to Bible teachings. I believe it would be considered more binding if it did not set aside divine commands by human councils. I believe that numberless Christians feel that they can take any liberty they please with what is called religion if human beings in council assembled may refuse to follow the highest example of implicit obedience, and may, besides, set aside by human reasoning a divine command.
"Back to the Bible!" I say. "Back to first principles!" "Back to the seventh-day Sabbath!" It required moral courage for Wyclif, Luther, and Calvin to declare themselves against council-made or man-made doctrines and innovations. Is there no modern Wyclif or Luther or Calvin?
One other point. If Sunday is the Sabbath, then, to follow the precedent of those days, Saturday night after sunset should be observed as a Sabbath in every Christian city. Is it? It is these inconsistencies, these human settings aside of divine commands, this unchristian refusal to follow the personal example of the very Founder of Christianity, that make us subconsciously reflect that we need not trouble ourselves with the demands of Christianity as now interpreted. That is to say, all that we need do is live a moral life, and, if we choose, never set a foot in church, disregard the Sabbath, and observe only those social amenities which we, in our human, and therefore superdivine(?), reason approve.
May I ask for an expression of your own opinion on the restoration of the seventh-day Sabbath?
It is indeed refreshing to read such a setting forth of truth, and to know that this has passed under the eyes of the many thousands of subscribers of the Outlook. The writer of that letter was God's messenger, crying out in that wilderness of higher criticism, "Back to the Bible!" "Back to first principles!" "Back to the seventh-day Sabbath!" It is, as that writer declares, the inconsistency of professing to follow God while actually following man and rejecting God that is disintegrating the influence of the church, quenching the fire of its zeal, dissipating its energies, and making a mockery of its pretended power for accomplishing the work of God in the world. To attempt to accomplish God's work by turning our backs upon God's law and following a course of our own making, is to build another tower of Babel, and to have our work smitten finally, as ancient Babel was, by the lightnings of God's displeasure.
It is with great disappointment, therefore, that we read Dr. Abbott's reply to the letter — and he calls it "The Gospel." It is too long to reproduce, and its reproduction could accomplish no good. He scouts the idea that the strict keeping of the law of God will produce either a good Christian or a good citizen, and appears to try to put his correspondent in the attitude of one who would achieve eternal life by his own doing of the law. While that cannot be done, neither can that man be accounted righteous who turns his back upon that law and seeks to annul its eternal principles by turning them into generalities that vanish into nothingness.
How completely the editor of the Outlook fails to understand the law of God and what is involved in its keeping, is shown by his declaration that a man may keep all the ten commandments and yet not be humane, not be pure, not be honest, not be truthful, and not keep the Sabbath. Jesus himself showed what is involved in keeping the law when he declared that to keep the seventh commandment one must be pure, and that to keep the sixth, which says, "Thou shalt not kill," one must not even harbor hatred in the heart. So the statement that one can keep the law of God and not be humane, not be pure, not be truthful, is not true.
Dr. Abbott says: "The ten commandments are not ten statutes which must be carefully studied and strictly construed and literally obeyed. They are concrete illustrations of general principles in accordance with which one should regulate his conduct. . . . The general principle involved in the fourth commandment is the necessity, for the welfare of the individual and for the welfare of the community, of keeping some stated time free from the toil and drudgery of the world for rest, recreation, and ministry to the higher life. . . . The particular hour of the day or day of the week is of no importance."
The editor of the Outlook takes direct issue, in this, with the One who gave the commandments. The editor has given his reason for the fourth commandment, and God has given his. They do not agree. Dr. Abbott says the reason for the commandment lies in the necessity for keeping some stated time free from toil and drudgery for the welfare of the individual and the community, for rest, recreation, and ministry to the higher life. God says he gave the commandment because that "in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Again: "And God blessed the seventh day, and9hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made." Gen. 2:3. Surely, if we are to be followers of God, we must take his reason in preference to that given by Dr. Abbott. God set his Sabbath in the heart of his law and in the heart of his people to be a perpetual memorial of creation, whose true observance would keep God constantly in the minds and hearts of his children. Had it been kept faithfully as he designed it should be, we should not read in the first chapter of the book of Romans Paul's terrible indictment against that people and all others who forget God. The true keeping of God's memorial Sabbath would make it impossible to forget him.
Dr. Abbott declares that "the particular hour of the day or day of the week is of no importance." So reasoned that man who went out on the Sabbath day to gather sticks and was stoned by order of the Lord for so doing. So may have reasoned the children of Israel who went out on the Sabbath day to gather manna against the explicit order of the Lord. They may have even wondered why they found none. But they found that Jehovah himself was still keeping the day he required them to keep, and therefore the manna did not fall upon that day. God was particular, and still is particular, and they who really care more for pleasing him than for pleasing themselves will obey his commands.
Dr. Abbott's idea is that the law is to be obeyed in principle, but not "strictly construed" nor "literally obeyed." What a harsh and ungenuine ring such a statement has when compared with God's own estimate of his law and with our Saviour's statement of its integrity, its perpetuity, and its great importance. God declares, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony [law] of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Ps. 19:7. That being true, how can it be considered unessential to construe it strictly and obey it literally? If that law is perfect, it cannot be altered without being made imperfect. If it is not strictly construed, it is misconstrued; if it is not literally obeyed, it is disobeyed.
Said our Saviour: "In vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men." Mark 7:7. And again: "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:18-20.
Our Saviour "strictly construed" the law of God, and in this scripture teaches us the importance of doing the same. He "literally obeyed" the law, and by his obedience and by his teaching admonishes us to do the same. He was our example, and we are admonished by the written Word of God that we ought to "walk even as he walked." Dr. Abbott himself admits this. His closing paragraph reads: "The whole of Christianity is summed up in the two words, Follow me." But to follow him is to do as he did, and he kept the seventh-day Sabbath. To follow him is to teach as he taught, and he taught the integrity, the perpetuity, the unchangeableness, and the infinite importance of God's law.
With Dr. Abbott's correspondent we say, "Back to the Bible!" "Back to first principles!" "Back to the seventh-day Sabbath!" John, "the beloved disciple," sums up the whole matter and answers Dr. Abbott's arguments in these words: "Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked." 1 John 2:3-6.
An Ever-Abiding Companion
By George Washington Amadon
It is a blessed thing for one to feel that he is not alone. To know that there is some one who will walk by his side, who will give him counsel in times of perplexity, who will comfort his heart in sorrow, who will sustain him in his weakness, who will walk with him in the darkness as well as in the light, and who will never forsake him when the load is hard to carry and when the road is rough and uneven,—the consciousness of such companionship gives assurance to all the life. This companionship is denied us as far as our association with our fellows is concerned. There is no earthly friend, however true, who can quite meet all these requirements, for at best we are oftentimes separated from our earthly friends.
Particularly is this true of those who go forth to labor for the Master. In every age men and women have forsaken home and loved ones; associations which had become a part of their very lives have been sacrificed, and they have gone forth to labor for the Master, largely deprived of human friendship and sympathy. Gospel workers are doing this today. The ministers, the Bible workers, the canvassers, connected with this movement are going through this very experience. How many devoted brethren and sisters have left wives or husbands, parents or children, fathers or mothers,
brothers or sisters, and have forsaken the comforts of home and association with friends, and are out in the great world endeavoring to win strangers for Christ.
But if human companionship is largely denied these workers, they may carry with them every day the assurance of divine companionship. He who gave them the gospel to carry to the world has promised: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” In this blessed companionship we may walk day by day. In this communion we may joy and rejoice continually. We have in Christ a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, one who comes nearer to us than any kith or kin, one who can enter more fully into our hearts than the dearest earthly friend we have ever known.
This blessed companionship we need to cultivate, and we shall find this heavenly Friend more responsive to our effort than we can imagine. He desires to unite his life with ours, to live with us, to abide with us in every experience and on every occasion. In him, dear lonely worker, is your comfort. He marks your labors from day to day. He takes account of your trials. He notes your burden of heart, your anxiety, your hours of loneliness, your moments of depression. His blessed presence can fill the void left by earthly associations from which you have parted. “Acquaint now thyself with him.”
F. M. W.
Note and Comment
Eight Thousand Islands Under the Stars and Stripes
It will be news to many Americans that the rule of the United States now extends over eight thousand islands of the sea. This is the statement made in the recent report of the National Geographical Society. These islands possess a population of ten million. Epitomizing the report and speaking of the development of these islands under the American government, Zion's Herald for Jan. 21, 1914, says:—
The development of these islands since coming under the Stars and Stripes has been truly remarkable. Their commerce exceeds $300,000,000, and the American capital invested in them approximates $400,000,000. The development of Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Alaskan islands has been especially noteworthy. When Porto Rico came under American rule, there was but one school building, while today there are 1,200, with 175,000 pupils, as against 25,000 in the first year of American administration. Then the foreign commerce was about $20,000,000 a year; now it is nearly $100,000,000. In Hawaii the value of property has increased one half, the sugar crop has more than doubled, and deposits in banks are greatly enlarged. The island has a marvelous irrigation system, and produces more sugar per acre than any10other spot on the globe. The report goes on to say that, while Alaska cost the United States $7,200,000, an expenditure believed by some to be unjustifiable, the annual value of the sealskins alone for many years was approximately large enough to pay its cost, and at the present time the value of the canned salmon sent to the United States is twice the entire cost of the islands.
War
By James Logan Mosby
THE journal Life recently offered a prize of three hundred dollars for the best essay on "War." This prize was won by the following essay, written by James Logan Mosby:—
I was conceived in passion, hatred, envy, and greed, born in the morning of antiquity, and have a genealogy whose every page drips with the red blood of murdered innocence. I respect neither the feebleness of gray hairs, the helplessness of infancy, nor the sacredness of virtue, and walk, iron-shod, ruthlessly and impartially, over the form of the weakling or the form of the giant.
I paint the midnight skies a lurid glow from the burning homes I have ravaged, and I turn peaceful scenes of rural beauty, where God's own creatures dwell together in amity, into a raging hell. I set neighbor against neighbor in deadly combat, and I incite the brother to slay his brother.
I make puppets of kings, princes of paupers, courtiers of courtesans, and thieves of respected subjects; and empires melt before my breath as does mist before the morning sunlight.
I make of religion fanaticism; the heathen I make a fiend incarnate; and of all men I make playthings devoid of reason and justice. Through intrigue I make the intelligent powerful, the unscrupulous wax fat on the spoils of blood-won victories gained by others, and the less learned suffer for their own ignorance.
Famine, want, and misery follow in my path; I lay waste green fields, and still the hand of industry. I pillage the land of its resources, but contribute nothing of benefit to mankind, leaving pestilence to stalk ghostlike in my wake and complete the work of destruction. I lay a heavy tribute upon my most loyal subjects for the maintenance of my establishment; I squander the vitality and lives of those who serve me faithfully, yet return to the world nothing but ruin and ashes. The baubles of fame I confer on some are the empty shells of false standards wherein the license to commit murder and rapine is held to be the insignia of glory by a mistaken civilization.
I can offer no excuse for my having come into existence, nor can I give one plausible reason why I should not cease to be, other than that so long as men who wield influence are permitted to gratify their selfish desires and ambitions at the expense of the many who must carry the burdens and endure the suffering, so long will I continue to exact my toll of sorrow, devastation, and death. For I am pitiless—devoid of all feeling; I fear neither man nor God; I am amenable to no law, and I am in myself the Law and the Last Resort.
I AM WAR!
South America Still Needy
REV. E. F. COOK, secretary of the Foreign Department of the General Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, recently made an extensive tour of the Brazilian conferences of that church and reports his experiences through the Nashville Christian Advocate. In this report are given a number of interviews with both native-born and foreign residents of Brazil in reference to religious and moral conditions in that country. From that report we reprint the following excerpt:—
Next I give the questions and answers in an interview with a Brazilian professor in one of the oldest and most successful educational institutions in the republic.
Is the Roman Catholic Church answering the moral and spiritual needs of the people?
The Catholic Church has signally failed to establish moral ideals, hence the people are morally adrift. The church has pitifully failed to supply the spiritual needs of the people. If it failed to establish moral ideals, it could hardly be expected to present spiritual truths and maintain spiritual standards. The people are without spiritual food.
Does the church encourage moral reforms and the progress of the nation?
No, no. The church is reactionary and obstructive.
Are the priests as morally impure as they are reputed to be?
The priests have not been misrepresented in this regard. As a class I fear they are morally corrupt. Now and then you meet a good man among them, but it is the exception.
After speaking of his conversations with scores of men in all walks of life, representing various nationalities, faiths, and no faith, the secretary says:—
The unvarying testimony is that the Roman Catholic Church in South America is unable to meet the moral and spiritual needs of the people; that it impedes rather than promotes the moral and intellectual uplift of the people; that the priests are immoral and unfit to lead in spiritual things; that men of Brazil are indifferent toward religion, and are deserting the Church of Rome with contempt for her priests and scorn for her institutions.
And this is the field that Protestants have been urged so long to leave alone because it has been so completely dominated by a Christian church, and because so large a percentage of the people are known as Christians. The Neglected Continent is still getting but a small portion of the evangelical attention which its condition is really calling for, and no one feels this more than the missionaries who are now in the field and in immediate contact with the conditions.
What Must I Do to Be Saved?
ACCORDING to a representative of Zion's Herald, the seeker after God would find no answer to his soul's inquiry in visiting some of the leading churches of Greater Boston. We quote from the issue of the above-mentioned paper for January 7:—
The striking facts noted were that the young were not present, that the gray-haired and bald-headed listeners predominated, and that the sermons in every case were addressed to the church. Not a single minister, by Scripture reading, sermon, or prayer, made any reference whatever to the non-Christian contingent. "If," says our reporter, "any one had gone to any of the churches visited with the burning inquiry upon his lips, What must I do to be saved? he would have been sent away unanswered."
What is the explanation of the strange fact thus revealed? Are our ministers drifting unconsciously away from their chief business, "to seek and to save that which was lost," and are the churches thereby losing their grip upon the younger generation? If so, what is to become of the future of the church? Where will its membership come from?
Not All Asleep
THERE are some in this world who see the approach of earth's culmination in the signs which God has hung out in earth, sea, and sky. In one of our exchanges appear the following striking utterances over the signature of Geo. A. Carroll:—
In spite of the warning voice of the prophetic word, in spite of the ominous voice of the signs of the times, the world is slumbering on the brink of one of the greatest events that shall ever transpire in the history of this planet. The governments of the world are unconsciously preparing for a momentous change; the deep mutterings of the coming tempest of war which shall sweep over the nations are already heard, and the heart of man is filled with fear, lest the pent-up billows of jealousy and wrath shall suddenly burst forth with resistless fury, sweeping nations and kingdoms into the dark abyss of anarchy and destruction. The maudlin cry of "peace and safety," the declaration that "the world is growing better," and that "all things continue as they were from the creation," are sternly contradicted by the rapid fulfillment of the prophetic word, while the voice of true science repeats the solemn truth and casts the shadow of great and eventful change over all the earth.
Now is the time to heed the warning of the prophetic word: "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction." Micah 2: 10.
Those who are looking for peace and safety and rest in this present world are truly pinning their faith to a false hope; and the fact that such a hope exists and is being made so much of is in itself a sign of the end.
Faith Gives Courage
For the business and battles of life, we need nothing so much as a stout heart and brave courage, and I venture to assert that the secret of that courage is faith.—Bishop Brewster.
Missionaries on Their Way to Brazil
By Henry Haefft
HENRY HAEFFT
THE readers of the REVIEW no doubt have been looking for a report from the new recruits who were sent to Brazil. Our little company of workers left New York on September 6 and arrived in Santos, Brazil, September 25. We were met by Brother Spies, Brother and Sister Boehm, Brother and Sister Brown, and Brother John Schmidt. These brethren gave us a hearty welcome, which made our hearts rejoice.
LANDING OF THE MISSIONARY RECRUITS AT SANTOS, BRAZIL
As soon as we left New York, we organized our company into a church, elected an elder, Sabbath school superintendent, and a secretary, and had our regular meetings as if we were on land. Besides our Sabbath services, we had public meetings. These consisted of preaching and Bible studies. Mornings and evenings we had song services, using our little organ. These services seemed to be much appreciated by the people, and we believe our singing made a good impression upon them. Through all our journey we felt the presence of God with us. The Spirit of the Lord worked mightily upon the hearts of the people on the ship. They all respected us as missionaries.
We were favored by the leading men on the steamer. For example, there was a doctor from New York on board. Although not a vegetarian, when he learned that we were vegetarians, he got up a petition and circulated it, getting all the signers he could, then presented it to the captain, asking him for a vegetarian diet. It seemed that the Holy Spirit had been working upon his heart. We thank God for his goodness. Others became much interested in the truth. They attended
our meetings, and as we separated from them, they took our addresses, promising to keep in touch with us. May the Holy Spirit abide with them and lead them on, that they may be saved in the kingdom of God. I am sure that these experiences will be long remembered by us and by those on the steamer.
Our little company was made up as
follows: Professor Hennig and wife, from Clinton, Mo.; Brother Carter and wife, with their two children, from Washington, D. C.; Brother Specht and wife, from Clinton, Mo.; Brother Peters and wife, from North Dakota; Brother Reidt and wife, from Brooklyn, N. Y.; Miss Louise Wurtz, from Pennsylvania; Miss Sarah Kinner, from New Jersey; Miss Corinne Hoy, from Pennsylvania; and the writer and his wife, from Portland, Oregon,—making a company of seventeen. Brother Specht and wife, also Brother Peters and wife, got off at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The rest of us are all at Santo Amaro, Brazil.
MISSIONARIES "AT HOME" PURSUING LANGUAGE STUDY, PREPARATORY TO ENTERING THE FIELD IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF BRAZIL
We have been here over two weeks. We have a beautiful home, which it seems to us was got especially for us. It is an ideal place. The house has a large dining room, reading room, six bedrooms, a kitchen, and a storeroom; besides, we have a large bake oven made of brick, and a well with plenty of water. We also have a good garden,—about an acre of ground,—and have planted many things already, the seed coming up very nicely. Soon we can eat that which we have raised ourselves.
Our teacher comes to our home and gives us two hours' instruction daily. He takes much interest in us. We all like him, and soon we shall understand the language well enough to have an interview with the Brazilians, for which our hearts are longing. Though we are not able to speak the Portuguese language, still we have access to the German-speaking people. So we began to labor for them, and our hearts rejoice as we see them drinking the water of life. We hope that a greater interest may be awakened among them, and that many may be saved in the kingdom of God through our efforts.
We are glad to hear from our home friends, and so give the address which applies to all of us: Estacao Sao Bernardo (S. P. R.), Sao Paulo, Brazil, care of F. W. Spies.
