Earlier text: Special Club Rates“A Little Child Shall Lead Them”
By H. S. Anderson
MANY are the ways by which our dear Heavenly Father seeks to arrest the attention of the subjects of his grace, and to attract them away from themselves to the eternal riches in Christ. Very often he uses the weakest instruments in disarming the mighty, and by the revelation of his matchless love he leads the soul captive, and binds the hearts of the children of men to his bosom with cords that even bitter persecution, poverty, suffering, or death cannot sever. Being transformed by his power, they become willing, and love to serve their beloved Master and to bear his cross, because he has wooed them to himself by his grace, and they follow in his steps. The following incident will show how God can and does use little children to do a work which sometimes seems impossible for the older ones to accomplish. It was at the recent encampment, a little girl seven years of age, whose mother was a member of the Methodist Church, had come to the camp meeting with her aunt, a believing sister. The girl's mother knew something of the truths for this time, but decided to maintain her present affiliation with her church, and was thus kept from making the investigations of God's Word that would have enabled her to see the light which God has caused to shine upon our path at this time. The little girl's father being confined by severe illness, it devolved upon the mother to meet the stern necessities of life by working early and late to win bread for herself and her three small children. Thus it usually happened that when Sabbath came, the children attended Sabbath school with their aunt; and as a result of their study of God's Word and the example of believers, the children came to love and reverence the Lord's Sabbath. As the time for the encampment drew near, the mother, as usual, was invited to attend, but with no definite promise as a result. The day came when the great camp was in session, and as time passed by, small companies met for special prayer to God for loved ones and friends, among whom was this little girl's aunt praying that her sister might be led to come to the camp; and she was rewarded of God, for toward the close of the meetings the sister-mother came to the tent. We now come to the very interesting part. It was in the evening, bedtime for the little one. The mother, hearing a voice with which she was so well acquainted, stepped over to the curtain to listen. It was her little girl praying her usual prayer of thanksgiving to God, and interceding for his watch care for the night. But she had found a sweet peace in keeping God's Sabbath, and not being content to share it alone, she prayed, “Dear Father, help my mamma to accept the truth.” It was these words, the natural longing of a heart touched by the Spirit of God, that burned their way into the inmost soul of the unsuspected listener, her own dear mother. That prayer was registered in heaven, for later when the plea was made at the big tent that men should lay down their arms of rebellion, and take up the cross, this mother yielded to the call of God's Spirit, and is now rejoicing in a newfound experience and hope, which is manifest by a willingness to make the sacrifices called for by the Word of God as the natural result of a life renewed by the Spirit and grace of Christ. Truly “there is a God in heaven who does things,” and well may we sing,—
“Not to the strong is the battle,
Not to the swift is the race,
Yet to the true and the faithful
Victory is promised through grace.”
“And a little child shall lead them.” Isa. 11: 6. Setting a Good Example
By E. V. Benedict
EVERY day we live we are setting examples, be they good or bad, that others are prone to follow. These examples are the footprints which we leave behind us in our progress along the sands of the river of time. By setting good examples we benefit not only ourselves, but also others who may follow in our footsteps. How important, then, that our footprints lead only where we should be glad as well as proud to have others follow! To preach morality is a very good thing; but to practice what we preach, and to teach by setting good examples, are still better. Naturally we are all more or less inclined to do the preaching and at the same time prone to let the other fellow do the practicing; though to be most effective the preaching and the practicing must go hand in hand. The preacher and the farmer alike are learning to practice just what they preach and teach. Often by the right kind of practice a real good thing may be suggested which will carry more weight and influence for good than any amount of mere talk. And, in fact, there are times and places when it would be best for us all to do a little practicing before we begin to preach. The moral is, Set a good example. An Individual Soul Winning Campaign for 1914
By Editor
An Individual Soul Winning Campaign for 1914
God has opened before us a new year. It ought to be to every Seventh-day Adventist the most important year of his life. We are one year nearer the finishing of the work, the close of probation, the judgment, and the coming of our Lord. What can we do to make this year the most blessed year of our experience and the most glorious year in the history of this message? We can set for ourselves the definite aim of winning at least one soul for Christ and for his cause. Let every member of this denomination make this his aim for this new year. We love this cause, we love the message committed to us, we love the souls for whom Christ died. And now to us who own him as our Saviour, he has committed the work of bearing his final witness to the last generation of men. Can God expect less of us than that we win one soul for him during the year? If each Seventh-day Adventist will take that as his or her aim, laboring and praying earnestly to that end, we shall double our membership within the year. Such a consummation would bring joy to each individual in the denomination, and to heaven itself. And if we, by God's help, can do that during 1914, we can do it again in 1915, and so on till the work is finished. There is absolutely nothing impossible or visionary about the proposition. To double our denominational membership within the year means only that each member shall win one soul to the truth in twelve months. Is that impossible with all heaven interested in our success and with the unlimited power of God behind us? — Surely not. It is possible, and if possible, should it be considered unreasonable for us to set it as our aim? When Jesus commissioned his disciples to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” he was not speaking to ministers only. He was speaking to every individual member of his church. It is true that each individual Christian cannot go into all parts of the world to carry the gospel in person. But he can carry the gospel to all parts of the earth without going in person. He can carry it there by his letters and by the printed page he sends. The great commission is therefore to every individual that has accepted Christ as his Saviour. It is to me who write these words, and it is to you who read them. When God looks upon the record of our lives, he will look for fruit — for souls saved through our instrumentality. If we have no such fruit to show in the record of our life work, it is certain that we shall be classed among the barren, unfruitful, and unprofitable. When salvation came to us and we accepted it, all heaven was rejoiced; but it was not in God's purpose that it should stop with us. There is no such thing as stagnant Christianity. Health-giving water always flows. The lamp that is fulfilling the purpose for which it was made is the lamp that shines. It is God's purpose that each soul to whom the light of truth comes shall pass it on to another, and that other to another, and so on. We love the truth; but do we ever think what it would mean to us if the one who brought us the truth had done as so many of us are doing, and had not passed it on? We would still be in the world, and perhaps of the world. But if the denomination, as a band of individual workers, will move forward in unbroken rank in this matter, the year 1914 will be the most glorious year in the history of this message. We accepted the truth with glad hearts and rejoice in it today. Others will receive it as gladly as we and rejoice in it also. Let us consider for a moment what this will mean. We have been struggling with our institutional and denominational debts. We have found ourselves face to face with a perplexing situation; with a depleted treasury; with as many missionaries in the field as we can support; and have actually found it necessary to put a brake on the wheels of progress in all our mission fields lest we should incur debts that would swamp us. In the effort to relieve the financial situation, we have tried to spring the Fifteen-cent-a-week Fund to twenty cents a week, and have been only partially successful. But if every member of the denomination will determine at once that he will be a part of the new program, the financial problem will solve itself automatically. That means more than a mere matter of finance. It means that the entire organization will spring free from its handicap and go forward not only to fill present openings, but to invite new ones. And we shall always find God ahead of us. Then, instead of having something behind us holding us back, we shall cut loose from that and have something ahead of us drawing us on. If we take up this work now and carry it through to success, it will mean the doubling of all our receipts. There will be twice as much tithe turned in to our treasuries, twice as much Sabbath school contributions, twice as much for foreign missions, twice as much for home work, twice as many to support the cause, twice as many to enter our schools to prepare for the work, twice as many to draw from for foreign mission recruits, and twice as much to support the work at home and abroad. It will mean also the doubling of the work of all our institutions. This will be most quickly noticeable in our publishing houses; but our sanitariums and our schools will also know of it without delay. But it will mean more than this. It will mean that soon the work will be finished, and our blessed Lord will come. How Shall We Go About It?
In the first place, every person who reads these lines should become a center for the propagation of the idea, and should agitate the program among his associates, and go to work at once to put the program into operation. Every conference officer should adopt it, and pass it on to every minister in the conference; every minister should adopt it, and faithfully set it before every individual member with whom he comes in contact, and before every church he visits. Every church elder should adopt it, and by example and precept and influence secure its adoption by every member of his church. Every school should adopt it, and leave no effort untried until every converted attendant is doing his part. Every sanitarium and every publishing house should adopt it, and seek to induce every member of its company of employees to enter wholeheartedly into the campaign. We have done much missionary work in the past, but a great deal of it has been done in a more or less haphazard manner. In this campaign we set before ourselves the definite aim of at least one soul for this message during the next twelve months. We will work for that, we will pray for that, and we will hold on for it until we get it. We will have to make more than one person the object of our endeavors, and we will have to follow up our work with earnestness and with much prayer. But if we do, God will give us the victory, and we shall have souls for our hire. Let no one fall back in the harness now. Whoever does so may know that to just that extent he is interfering with the success of the whole undertaking. But whoever, in this matter, comes up to the33 help of the Lord may have the satisfaction of knowing that the success of the undertaking is due in part to him. One soul for this message during 1914! No one will say that is too many. May God depend on you to do your part? What do you say? C. M. S. How God's Providence Guided
By W. A. S.
It is a wonderful work that the Lord is doing among the Indians of our Lake Titicaca Indian mission. In that wild region, the cradle of the ancient Inca Indian peoples, scores have yielded fully to the truth, and hundreds are recognizing the power in the message for this time. Our station is at Plateria, a little beyond the town of Chaucuito, on the southern shore of the lake, on the Peruvian side. It was a strange providence that carried the seeds of truth into that far region. Years ago an Indian lad of this high Andean village, Camacho by name, was taken from his home to act as servant to a Peruvian family in the town of Moquegua. While there he learned to read the Spanish language, and some time later returned to his home country. Desiring to help his wholly illiterate people, he opened a school there by the lakeside. About this time Camacho became the possessor of a Bible, and then some copies of our South American missionary paper came into his hands through a friend in the city of Puno. Soon after, Camacho was rejoicing in the light of the gospel, and was teaching it in his school. So great was the interest among the Indians in the way of salvation that the priests were stirred up to stop the teacher's work. They got the authorities to put Camacho in the jail at Chaucuito; but in a little time his friends secured his release. About this time our brethren in Peru came in touch with the Indian teacher by correspondence. Elder A. N. Allen tells how our Peruvian workers met this brother:— In December, 1909, in company with Elder W. R. Pohle, I visited Puno, the Peruvian port on Lake Titicaca. Having had correspondence with Camacho, and knowing that he had quite a following among the Indians interested in the gospel, we made every effort to secure animals to ride out to his home, some twenty-five miles distant. But all our efforts to obtain animals failed. Then we tried to send a message telling of our presence in Puno, and asking for an interview. In this we were no more successful. Feeling that we could not leave without seeing Camacho, we made it a special subject of prayer that night, praying earnestly that God would overrule in the matter, and in some way bring it about that we might meet this Indian brother. Next day, about noon, while still we waited on our quest, word came to us that the Indian Camacho had come into Puno. We found him; and after talking with him for some time regarding his experiences, and the way the truth had come to him, I told Camacho that without doubt God had chosen him as an instrument for introducing the gospel among his people. Then he related to us a dream that he had had the previous night—the night of our prayer season. It was this that had caused him to come to Puno. He said that in his dream he was in Puno, and there he met two strangers, foreigners; these men, in the dream, had told him that he was to teach the gospel to his race. This direct answer to prayer and the evident spirit of the man, encouraged Brethren Allen and Pohle to believe that God had indeed begun a good work among the remnant of the old Inca race, those “children of the sun,” whose empire was overthrown by the Spanish conquerors under Pizarro. And so it has proved. Brother Camacho later attended an institute in Lima, and has been a trusted helper to Brother F. A. Stahl and others in the Indian work. That work—as far as converts are concerned—has now grown to be probably the largest missionary enterprise among the Indians in South America, though our workers have been few and our resources so small. It shows how truly God's hand is guiding in spreading the advent message through the darkest and most out-of-the-way places of the earth. Where human resources fall short, the living God is able to supply the means; and he is doing it before our eyes continually. W. A. S. What Experience Awaits Us?
By Francis M. Wilcox
WHAT experience awaits the Seventh-day Adventist Church in coming months? What experience awaits the individual members of the church? What experience awaits you, dear reader? For a long time this people have been expecting the coming of the Lord. In this hope many have grown old and gray. For the promulgation of this hope many have given their fortunes and their lives. It must be acknowledged, and that, too, with thankfulness to God, that all this sacrifice and toil has not been in vain. From a small and feeble beginning several decades ago, this movement has increased in volume and power until the message of the second advent has encircled the earth. Missionary stations have been planted in practically every land, and the sound of this message has gone out to all the world. There have grown up in connection with this forward movement a splendid organization and large and influential institutions. Has this movement reached the zenith of its power? Do we now see in its operations all that we may expect to see?—No, indeed! For many years the adherents of this movement have confidently looked forward to the time when there would come to this people a mighty revelation of heavenly power which would give a new impetus to the third angel’s message, and which would enable it to do that which it never can hope to do without such divine unction. Rev. 18: 1-4. Never has the need of this heavenly refreshing been sensed so deeply as at the present time. As never before in the history of this denomination we face tremendous issues. The last few years have created conditions in the church and situations in the field which cannot be met by human power. Those who recognize the trend of events and all that is involved in the general situation appreciate as never before that a time has been reached when there must come a new revelation of God in order to complete the work which is to be done. In this situation organization alone is powerless. Human planning and devising and ingenuity are of no avail. The measure of the blessing of God which has been enjoyed in the past will not suffice. A new experience must come to this church and to the individual members of this church. How shall this vital connection with divine power be made in our experience? Do we need to convince God of our great need? Is it necessary to persuade him in order that he may bless us?—Nay, verily. All heaven is waiting to bestow the necessary grace and strength. Prayer is the great key which opens the door of heaven’s blessings,—humble and submissive, earnest and prevailing prayer. It was this experience on the part of the early disciples that led to the Pentecostal occasion. In accordance with Christ’s instruction they waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the fuller outpouring of the Spirit before going out to take part in the gospel proclamation. As the disciples waited for the fulfillment of the promise, they humbled their hearts in true repentance, and confessed their unbelief. . . . The disciples prayed with intense earnestness for a fitness to meet men and in their daily intercourse to speak words that would lead sinners to Christ. . . . Putting away all differences, all desire for supremacy, they came close together in Christian fellowship. They came nearer and nearer to God. . . . Those days of preparation were days of deep heart searching. The disciples felt their spiritual need, and cried to the Lord for the holy unction that was to fit them for the work of soul saving. They did not ask for a blessing for themselves merely. They were weighted with the burden of the salvation of souls. They realized that the gospel was to be carried to the world, and they claimed the power that Christ had proclaimed.—“Acts of the Apostles.”34 This experience of the first-century believers will be duplicated in connection with this closing work. Of those who will obtain this blessing the servant of the Lord says:— I saw some with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale, and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness were expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them. Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over his people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness. As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances. These earnest prayers will bring the long-looked-for blessing. Of this same company the servant of the Lord bears further witness:— I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. It had effect. Many had been bound; some wives by their husbands, and some children by their parents. The honest who had been prevented from hearing the truth now eagerly laid hold upon it. All fear of their relatives was gone, and the truth alone was exalted to them. They had been hungering and thirsting for truth; it was dearer and more precious than life. I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, “It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the loud cry of the third angel.” Of their experience in the sounding of the loud cry this testimony is borne:— Mighty miracles were wrought, the sick were healed, and signs and wonders followed the believers. God was in the work, and every saint, fearless of consequences, followed the convictions of his own conscience, and united with those who were keeping all the commandments of God; and with power they sounded abroad the third message. I saw that this message will close with power and strength far exceeding the midnight cry. The servant of the Lord declares that some “did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these, and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones.” See “Early Writings,” chapters entitled “The Shaking” and “The Loud Cry.” This is the experience which awaits the faithful children of God. This is the power which will attend this movement in coming days. Dear reader, will this experience be your experience? Will you be found among those who will seek by the putting away of sin, by banishing all spirit of envy, malice, and discord, to obtain the blessing promised? Will you seek earnestly for this blessing till it is obtained, or will you be among the careless and indifferent? All heaven desires you to seek and to obtain. We believe that great things await this people in the future. Bright experiences are before them. Already our brethren from different parts of the field tell of the gracious refreshing from the presence of the Lord in connection with the recent week of prayer services. Pentecostal seasons were experienced, sinners were converted, the sick were healed, and God manifested himself graciously to his praying children. These experiences will be duplicated many times before the message closes. Dear reader, what will be your experience? Where will you stand? To which company will you belong? It will be a personal work, an individual experience. Although Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land, they could deliver only their own souls in that day. We cannot enter heaven through the experience of our brethren. We must seek and find for ourselves; and this is the blessed privilege which God grants to each one of his children. A Spiritual Revival in Progress
By Arthur G. Daniells
With the psalmist we can say, “God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.” Ps. 74:12. A deep religious revival and reformation are in progress among our people. Sin is being made to appear exceeding sinful, and in the name of the Lord it is being renounced. Hearts are being given a hunger and a thirst for the righteousness of God, and it is being laid hold of by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A full surrender of the whole life—heart, body, time, talents, and means—is being made to God for the finishing of his work in the earth. It is difficult to tell just when and how this revival began; but it is here, and there is great rejoicing over the glorious results it is producing. It seems to have begun in the very earnest appeals of the spirit of prophecy during 1909 in behalf of the millions of lost souls in the great cities. In response to these appeals a convention of our city workers in the East was held in New York City in July, 1910. Our study, in this convention, of the city problem revealed to us that we were utterly unprepared for the great work to which we were called. This led to the appointment of a day of fasting and prayer for help from God. It also led to the decision to hold a ministerial institute for the workers in the Atlantic and Columbia Union Conferences. From this came the ministerial institute movement that has been going on during the last three years. These institutes have been far more to our ministers and Bible workers than conventions for the study of our message and of the most successful methods of work. They have been attended by deep conviction of the sinfulness of sin, by deep repentance, by the renunciation of sin, and by the surrender of the life to God. In these institutes ministers and other gospel workers have not hesitated to do exactly what they teach all sinners they must do to get right with the Lord. In this they have found pardon, cleansing, righteousness, peace, and power. And now this experience is being extended to the teachers and students in our academies and colleges and to our dear people in the churches. A revival is in progress. A new vision of things is being given to many. A new life and a new experience are coming to men and women who fear God. The latter rain is falling upon those who are earnestly praying for the showers of blessing. Here are a few statements from some who are receiving help. A physician in one of our sanitariums writes:— We have had a most wonderful week of prayer here. Some of us who felt that we were really enjoying the blessing and favor of the Lord were especially led to take longer strides and do deeper work, and the Lord has not disappointed us. As a family, I believe we have never had a week like it, so many have come out with real victory, and somehow we all feel that this is different from any previous experience, that it really is an evidence that the Lord is doing a special work for his people now, that his work may be finished quickly. I can assure you that my heart is in this work until it is finished, and my faith in the message and all that that involves grows brighter every day. The president of the Atlantic Union Conference says:— The Lord has certainly gone before us, and I have never witnessed anything like it before. We have arisen at four-thirty nearly every morning in order to call together for study and prayer all members of the sanitarium faculty, and often we have not been able to close these meetings until well toward noon. Besides this, several meetings have been held each day with the family, and between times we have done personal work and prayed for the sick, and they are being healed. Then, in the evening, we have scattered out to meet with the different churches and companies in and around Boston. Our meetings with the sanitarium faculty have been seasons that will not soon11 be forgotten. One by one, we got a vision of ourselves according to Rev. 3:14-22. Deep repentance and heart-broken confessions followed. None of us had witnessed anything like it before. We must be in the times to which we have looked forward so long. One peculiar feature of the meetings is the absence of emotionalism. Our experiences are best described in the chapter on the “Shaking Time,” in “Early Writings.” A most solemn conviction seems to be resting on every one who is earnestly seeking God that we have now come to the finishing of the work, and that the message calls for an entire consecration of ourselves to God and his work. The movement that began with the institute and union conference is genuine. It is not merely a revival, but it is a reformation, and it has in it all the features and elements of a sane and solid work, such as is foretold in the Scriptures and in the spirit of prophecy. I haven’t a doubt but that a great wave of spiritual power and blessing is sweeping over the East and that what we are witnessing is the beginning of the great outpouring of the Spirit in the latter rain for the speedy finishing of the work. The Spirit of God is calling upon us all to die a greater death to self, to surrender self for a complete crucifixion, to get off the last shred of self-righteousness, pride of opinion, and self-justification in all its forms, which leads to severe criticism of others, and receive in our hearts, instead, warm, deep love for God and our brethren. We do not feel like thinking of past mistakes and failures now, nor of knowing any man after the flesh. We have new men in our midst, newly inspired and newly anointed for their work. The sword of the Spirit has a new edge to it, and I wish you were here to share with us and know by experience what I am writing. The Spirit of God seems to be emphasizing the fact that the coming of the Lord is drawing very near, and that now is the time to arouse and finish the work. The word finish sounds wonderfully sweet in our ears. We have long worked at the work and in the work, but now to feel the inspiration of “finishing” the work is a new and precious experience. . . . Wonderful victories are being won over inherited and cultivated tendencies to sin. The same power to deliver from sin that attended the first proclamation of righteousness by faith is attending it now. Men and women are shouting victory over the breaking of chains that have long held them in cruel bondage. O, I wish you could hear the shout of the King in our camp! The institute just held in Graysville for the workers of the Southeastern Union Conference was a great meeting. On our arrival we found a remarkable movement in progress among the students of the academy. Some idea of this glorious revival can be gathered from the report given by Elder L. A. Hoopes on another page. It should be read by all. Words cannot express the value of such a spiritual awakening and transformation as are now taking place in the hearts of our young people. This change must come to all of us, it is the greatest need of the world today; nothing can take its place. And now let all pray for a personal share in this movement. This good work must go on until all sin is renounced, and the whole life is surrendered to God. Then the Lord will fill us with his Spirit, and use us for the speedy finishing of his work. A. G. DANIELLS. The Influence of Football
In the Standard of Dec. 27, 1913, Wallace N. Stearns, a college man, brings serious charges against this national game in its influence on student life. He claims that it transforms men into machines, leading them to “play the game” under any and all conditions, regardless of danger to life or health:— The game as now played transforms a man into a machine. The day of the game may bring rain, hail, snow, or tornado. That game must be played. A streak of yellow is most to be dreaded, and more than one lad has gone to his death rather than incur the suspicion of being yellow. It is worthy of being learned that we should “hit the line hard,” but to prepare a head-on collision of two sausage grinders is no better, and far less refined, than the medieval tournament, or even the German student duel. The latter mars and disfigures; it does not cripple nor dig a premature grave. The number of victims of American football already mounts up into the hundreds, enough, in fact, to provide casualties for a South American revolution. This is not emotion nor a spasm of reform, but a statement of figures. He charges further that the game fosters the betting spirit among students:— College football has ceased to be a sport, and has become a betting occasion. On a recent occasion a heavy ground rendered a game a mere wallow in the mud. The fans howled for another game, were loud in their denunciations, called loudly against the yellow streak—because college faculties thought that time had come to study, and that study is the chief end of a college. Who were the fans?—Men with bets on the game, who were anxious to win. Their interest in the game was an interest in the sesterces they hoped to win. The barber’s shop, the lobby, the street corner, and wherever men and boys were wont to gather were de facto meeting places for putting up and arranging chances. Racing books and pools are forbidden; why should boys and young men, and even girls, banter and bet, and publicly, though it be even in entire good humor? The game depletes physical energy and leads to a lowering of class standards:— Every leading game brings on a period of unrest. The teacher feels interest in study slackening, there is a growing quiver of excitement, to be followed after the game by a more or less complete relaxation or a bedlam of triumph. Two or three days prior to the game and as many days after are practically useless, because attention is essential to study and classroom work. The heart is with the treasure, the thought follows the interest, and attention is dead. There is just so much vitality in a man’s body. Strenuous practice and grueling play must be followed by listless recitations, drowsy evenings, and sleepy nights. Every teacher has the annual problem of the football player—extra hours, low marks, and of students half tugged, half carried, through the fall examinations. The boy’s will is good: he is not depraved. But his vigor has been burned up in the game. THERE is a great field for missionary work among nominal Christians who do not now make a practice of regularly attending church services. This is the view taken by Zion’s Herald of Dec. 24, 1913. It is stated that “there are thirty thousand nominally Protestant persons in the city of Lowell, Mass., who never or very seldom attend church. . . . The exceedingly significant thing about these figures is that they far outnumber those who are now counted as the regular attendants.” And these conditions, the editor claims, are not found among foreigners, but among those who have been brought up in Protestant families, and who naturally turn to Protestant churches for whatever spiritual ministry they receive. “The field—the legitimate field—of Protestantism in this section of the country is literally white unto harvest. For every man, woman, and child who attends church, there is another and more on the outside to be reached.” Navy Warships Become School Ships
EVERY American warship became a school ship with the advent of the new year. Secretary of the Navy Daniels promulgated an order putting into effect his new educational system in the navy January 1, and thereafter for an hour and a quarter each afternoon every enlisted man on the warships will be engaged in self-improvement under the watchful eyes of his commanding officer. Commissioned, warrant, and petty officers will be designated to act as pedagogues. Enlisted men now taking correspondence courses with outside institutions will receive assistance and encouragement, and those chief petty officers who are seeking promotion to warrant rank and the warrant officers who are trying for commissions will be formed into classes for special instruction to encourage those who are ambitious. Every detail of this plan has been worked out, and the order expresses the hope that the men will fully appreciate the zealous interest of their officers, so that there will be increased efficiency in the fleet in all practical directions.