Earlier text: SATAN’S POWER TO RULEIt makes us sad at heart to see the enthusiastic, bright-minded youth composing the Christian Endeavorers of California turning their energies, or allowing their energies to be turned, into a decidedly downward, retrogressive movement. This movement is in favor of a Sunday law for California. The poison of lying words has led them to believe that California is disgraced because she has no Sunday law; and they are turning their energy and enthusiasm in the “National Reform” channel to wash out the “disgrace.” Would to God that they might see the deception. Such a work is neither Christian endeavor or American endeavor, as Americanism was understood by its founders. The motto on the Great Seal of the United States, Novus Ordo Seclorum, stood indeed for a “new order of things,” different from governments of the past, in which Church and State, religion and politics, could each pursue its legitimate way alone and in peace, free from all the bitterness, broils, battles, and bloodshed, which for ages had cursed the world. Below is a call by the State secretary of the California Endeavorers, taken from the Pacific Coast Endeavorer, of February 6:— “Probably no more important step has ever been taken by the California Union than that embodied in a motion carried at the recent State Executive Committee meeting. The decision to compete for the banner to be given at the ‘97 convention to the State reporting the greatest amount of work accomplished along the lines of sabbath observance means much more than a simple effort to carry off a trophy. It means the inauguration of a new movement among California Endeavorers. It means that the 40,000 or more Endeavorers in the State are to be enlisted in a definite campaign, lasting for years if necessary, and having for its object the education of the people required to secure sabbath reform. It means that this is to be the rallying point around which all Christian people shall gather. It is to be the nucleus of the Good Citizenship movement already so strong in our societies and Christian communities. It means the securing and enforcing of sabbath legislation. It means a definite, enthusiastic, untiring, enlightened, overwhelming movement to maintain the proper observance of God’s holy day. Its rallying cry will be, ‘Victory—and no quarter!’ Its motto, ‘We propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer’. “Such is the movement now supported by the California Union: the next thing is for every society in the State, including the Intermediates and Juniors, to come to our assistance with a rush. The time for work before the convention is very short. So enthusiastic has been the reception of the idea of this campaign, that a number of societies have not waited for invitation or instruction, but have organized their committees already and are clamoring to be set to work. Let every society do the same. We want 1,000 ‘Lord’s Day Committees’ formed within the next month. Organize with five (or three) members, and report the name and address of your chairman to me at once, with the name of your church. In selecting committee get workers. Suggestions as to work to be done will be sent as soon as the State is organized and ready for action. The badge adopted by the Reform Bureau of Washington, D. C., and sabbath reform literature, will be sent free to the chairman of each Lord’s Day Committee. “Now, to the work. California has an unenviable reputation for excessive sabbath desecration. Let us remove the stigma in the presence of our visitors next July by carrying off in triumph the sabbath observance banner.” “Gen. Sec. Cal. C. E. Union.
“Oakland, Feb. 1, 1897.” Let them work for the Sunday, the Lord’s day, or the Sabbath, in the Lord’s way; but His day needs no human legislation. Its observance can not be enforced by law. Men may be forced to observe a form; God only can give the kernel, the life. Let the friends of liberty awake. STEPS TO HEALTH.
By E. H. Mathewson
FOOD is cooked to either assist in preparing it for digestion or to make it more palatable. Probably starchy foods require more cooking than any other class. The saliva can only digest starch which can be dissolved, and it must be cooked artificially or so changed in the process of ripening, as in fruits, to make digestion possible. We find the starch granules inclosed by little wrappers, which must be broken and softened by the cooking. The grains should be cooked from one to four hours, that this process may be completed, altho the claims of certain grain-food manufacturers are to the contrary. Green fruits should for the same reason not be used, especially if not cooked. After selecting the best food and seeing that it is properly prepared, the first part we have to perform as a matter of course is mastication. Good teeth and a clean mouth are essentials. Germs, in order to grow, require a warm, moist place, with some small amount of food to live upon; and there is no better place adapted to this than an unclean mouth. Should we masticate food while the mouth is swimming with germs, we can easily see how the germs become mixed through all the food we take into our body. Mastication is for some reasons one of the most important of the digestive functions. The thoroughness of the work of any and all of the other organs will depend on the quality of the work done in the mouth. All food entering the mouth should be divided as finely as possible, that the different digestive fluids may do their part in fitting it to be absorbed, and so nourish the body. If the food enters the stomach in masses, the gastric juice can only digest the outer portions, and the digestive work is either delayed, or the food passes on to tax the other organs, which already have their appointed duties. The first digestive fluid is the saliva, and its function is to digest cooked starch. Any food, therefore, which contains starch not thoroughly cooked is not affected by it. If starch thoroughly cooked comes in contact with saliva, it is changed into a form of sugar, which is then nearly ready for absorption. Cold substances, vinegar, and alcohol, either wholly impede this action or make it imperfect. Such liquids should not be used, and more especially at meals. The food mass is also mixed with the mucous secretion of the mouth so as to make the food pass easily along the digestive tract. If, therefore, the food is of the proper kind, thoroughly cooked, and then well masticated, it is in proper condition to be digested in the stomach. As mentioned before, good teeth are essential for dividing the food, while decayed teeth are generally swarming with living germs, which increase rapidly in the mouth, giving an offensive odor to the breath, while all the food that passes into the stomach is infected by them. Some who are very cleanly in other ways are very careless with the mouth and teeth. These need to be kept clean. WHO WAS THE MOST GUILTY?
By Irene Wildemer Hartt
“Mattie, is that you?” called Mrs. Nash from the kitchen, where she was baking pies. “Yes’m,” came in low, reluctant tones. “Well, what have you broken now? We won’t have a dish to our name, the way you break and smash. What have you broken, I say?” “Nothing of yours this time,” returned Mattie. “It’s the bowl Mrs. Weaver sent over with the broth for Jennie.” “She didn’t give me the bowl, and it should have gone home long ago.” A critical ear, and Mattie’s were very critical where mother’s tones were concerned, could have detected a shade of relief as Mrs. Nash said that. It was not her bowl. Mattie was openly glad it was not a dish from their own poor stock. Mrs. Weaver was well off, and even if she had not given the bowl with the broth, she would never miss it. Mattie took a glass from the pantry more carefully this time, and went into the kitchen for a drink. “It’s a shame,” her mother said, opening the oven door to see if it was at the right heat, “that you never took that bowl back. What with Jennie being sick, and the men boarding here, I don’t have time to think of anything. Hurry now, and get to school, or you’ll be late. You better stop at Mrs. Stowell’s as you come10 back, and ask her to lend me her wrapper pattern.” Mattie took her straw sailor, trimmed with faded ribbon, from its nail behind the door, and ran out. School was out a long time before she returned. “Mrs. Stowell wouldn’t let you have the pattern, ma,” she cried, as she burst in. “She said you never gave her back her sleeve pattern.” “Well, she is mighty particular about a little thing. There, take that thickened milk to Jennie. She feels as if she could eat a bit. I’m clean tired out with the baking and ironing and waiting on Jennie. Humph, Mrs. Stowell is particular!” “O ma,” Mattie called from the dining-room, as she carried the thickened milk carefully to Jennie, “what do you think? All the wood’s been stolen out of the schoolhouse shed, and they think that Fred Carleton did it.” “I’ll be bound he did. Those Carleton boys are born thieves. Is he in jail?” “No, but they are going to arrest him. O, Miss Wade is in such a state of indignation! Are you awake, Jennie?” as she softly opened a door the other side of the dining-room. “Yes,” returned a low voice, “and with a little bit of an appetite.” “I’m so glad. Maybe you are getting better. This is only thickened milk, but it is nice, and I am sure you will relish it,” said Mattie, as she sat down by the bed. “It is very nice, thank you, and all ma can afford. When I get well, and get my school back, she shall not work so hard. What were you saying to her about wood being stolen?” “O, all the wood has been stolen from the schoolhouse shed! It has been going gradually, and Miss Wade has just found out that Fred Carleton is the one who has been taking it. Those Carleton boys are regular thieves, every one knows.” “Why? Because they take what does not belong to them?” “Why, of course. Don’t you call that stealing, and isn’t it wrong? What are you talking about, Jennie?” “Certainly it is wrong. No one says it isn’t. I wonder how many ways there are of breaking that commandment, and who are the most guilty.” “What do you mean? You say such queer things since you were sick.” “Do I? Well, you know I lie here and think and think. I have nothing else to do. One thing I have thought of, often and often, is that ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ Miss Green loaned me. You remember I mislaid it, and when I found it again, it was so torn I did not like to return it.” “Why, Jennie, Miss Green’s gone away long ago, and likely has forgotten all about it. Don’t worry about that.” “I am not worrying. I am regretting my carelessness and dishonesty.” “Yes, just that. She did not give me that book. She loaned it to me. She did not tell me to keep it. I kept it, doubtless, against her wishes. Was not that dishonest? I might just as well have entered her library, and secretly have taken that book from her shelves, as have kept it without her permission.” “O Jennie, I am sure you are mistaken! You can not mean what you say. You look at it too seriously.” “No, Mattie, I am not mistaken. Neither am I too serious. It is really a great wrong to keep or destroy anything that is kindly loaned us by a neighbor or friend. It is keeping what is not ours. O, so many are careless about this! I have been very careless myself. Don’t you remember when I spilled that ink on the dining-room wall, I said, ‘No matter, the house don’t belong to us’?” “How could that be wrong? You couldn’t help spilling the ink.” “It was the spirit, not the act. Another thing, if the house were ours,” returned the elder sister, “I should have tried to get the stains out. There they are, to this day, a living witness against me, that I did not mind breaking the eighth commandment. You know it is the spirit always, the heart, that the Lord cares about. The act is secondary.” “Jennie, eat some more, won’t you?” “Thank you, I can not. Tell ma it was very nice. When I am up, I shall have more appetite.” Mattie sat still with the half-filled bowl in her lap. “I suppose that bowl cost ten cents,” she said after a while; “and Mrs. Weaver loses that much.” “You wouldn’t like to take ten cents out of her pocket, would you?” “That’s putting it pretty strong.” “Maybe it is; but just look at it. Mrs. Weaver needs her bowl. She will have to spend ten cents for another one. Isn’t that taking money from her?” “No,” Mattie burst out. Then she added, “I’ll take ten cents out of my bank, and buy a new one for her. I’ve got just twenty-five pennies. I am saving money to buy a book.” There was a bit of entreaty in her tone, as if her sister might be won to take pity on her small possessions. Jennie was strong in her convictions, and immovable. “I would, Mattie,” she said simply. Mattie took the remains of the thickened milk back to the kitchen. When she returned to Jennie’s room, she carried three books. Two of them were decidedly worse for the wear. “These were new books when Miss Trowbridge loaned them to me,” she said. “Look at them now. I’ve read them to pieces. This one tumbled down, and the back got loose. I am ashamed to take them to her. What shall I do?” “I don’t see what else you can do. She doubtless would rather have them in that condition than not have them at all.” “I would rather buy her new ones, if I had the money.” “But you haven’t, you know, and maybe I shall not be able to teach all winter. So I’ll have none to give you, else I would. I’m sorry, Mattie.” “Well, no one is to blame but myself.” Nevertheless, Mattie looked at the books as if, in some way, they were to blame. “I have been just as careless of my neighbor’s property. I have put my hand into the pocket of many a person, and have taken out money.” “O Jennie, don’t say that!” “Well, here goes. I’ll go buy the bowl, and I’ll take these books back with the best apology I can make. You may rest assured, I’ll do no more of what you call stealing. I don’t care to be on a level with Fred Carleton. Jennie, you are right,” she added gravely, standing with her hand on the doorknob. “Suppose we form a society, you and I, that we will respect the property of others, and care for it as we would our own. You be president, and I will be vice-president. Good-by. I’m going to buy the bowl.”—Irene Wildemer Hartt, in S. S. Times. A FITTING REBUKE.
By Editor
WE are glad to chronicle the good words of our contemporaries when space permits. We must refer to the deserved rebuke of the Advance against those ministers who make light of portions of the Word, such as the book of Jonah. After referring to a case of that kind in which the story of Jonah and the whale is spoken of as a parable by a prominent preacher in so trifling a way as “that guffaws of laughter shook the building,” the Advance proceeds to make application of the parable:— “First, that ministers are sometimes seized with a strong desire to escape the unpleasant duty of facing the inhabitants of a wicked city with a stern message against their sins and a denunciation of impending wrath. It is easier to dodge off to some other kind of preaching than to face wealth, fashion, power, and luxury with a call to repentance. In these days of criticism of everything from Moses to Malachi, it requires no moral courage to slash into Jonah and the whale, but it does require more old-fashioned grit to stand up against the real sins of the day than four out of five of these critics are showing.” “In the next place, these ministers who keep denominations stirred up by attacks on things believed may learn a parabolic lesson from the story on methods of keeping the peace. When the sailors threw Jonah overboard, the storm ceased and they got on to their destination. . . . The men who want to go to Joppa should not take ship with a church which is going out to save the lost Ninevehs of the world.” “Still another lesson: Jonah was made better by being swallowed by the whale. Short rations and dismal surroundings for three days and nights worked a radical change in his feelings and purpose. There are men in the ministry who would be much more benefited by three days and nights in the cavern of a whale than by three years in a theological school where criticism is standing diet.” The Hermit Nation seems more and more of late to be getting into public life. A recent despatch from Tokio says that two English officers—Captain Welby, of the Eighteenth Hussars, and Lieutenant Malcolm, of the Twenty-third Highlanders—who left Leh in Ladakh last April to travel through Thibet to Peking, reached the Chinese capital on the 2d of December, having been eight months en route. At starting they had a retinue of twelve Arganns, and their equipment was packed on thirty-nine mules. On arrival in Peking they had three Arganns and three mules, the men having deserted or died and the animals perished. They passed through western and northern Thibet, and met with much kindness and hospitality at the hands of the Mongolian tribes. It will not be long ere Thibet is opened to the Gospel. A THANKSGIVING SONG.
By R. A. Young
For what shall I thank Thee, my Lord and my King,
As for Thine acceptance my praises I bring;
My thoughts rise in gratitude, rapture, and song,
And praises I offer, where praises belong. I thank Thee for life, and I thank Thee for breath,
For the love that preserves me and keeps me from death;
I praise Thee for rest when I'm weary and worn,
For Thy mercies that fail not, but are new every morn. I thank Thee for food, for my raiment and health,
For peace and contentment, more precious than wealth;
I thank Thee for friends that to me have been given
As some of the choicest of gifts sent from Heaven. For the sunshine I thank Thee, whose bright beams impart
Warmth, cheering and gladdening—it bids gloom depart;
For the air pure and bracing, the skies calm and blue,
That all tell Thy goodness, so perfect, so true. I thank Thee for nature, so lovely, so fair,
For the works of Thy hand that I read everywhere;
The flowers rich in color, and in fragrance so sweet,
That rear their proud heads, or lie low at my feet; For the birds that pour forth from their innocent throats
Their songs so entrancing in clear, liquid notes;
For the joy that is mine when I list as they sing,
Or watch their quick flight as they rise on the wing. I thank Thee for clouds, for the shadows and rain,
For the gladness that comes when the sun shines again,
For the moonlight so tender, the bright stars that shine,
Bespeaking the care of a Father divine. I thank Thee for sorrow, for the pain I may bear,
The woe I may lighten, the grief I may share,
The cares I may soothe, as some sad heart I see,
This makes my heart tender, and so more like Thee. I thank Thee for all that this world has to give;
Abundantly I its best blessings receive;
But for far more than this my thanksgiving ascends,
For more than earth's pleasure, enjoyments, and friends. Above all, I thank Thee for Jesus my Lord,
For what sin had lost, and His grace has restored,
For His precious salvation, so boundless, so free,
That pardons and saves a poor sinner like me. For Thy wonderful patience that still with me bears,
Tho tried was that patience through long weary years,
For hope for the future, for help in the past,
And for the bright promise of heaven at last. And there in that city whose streets are of gold,
Whose radiance and splendor can never be told,
I shall render Thee thanks with unfaltering tongue,
And through boundless ages Thy praises prolong. Sanitarium, St. Helena, Cal.,
Thursday, Nov. 26, 1896. WOULD NOT DRINK BRANDY.
By V. G. Ramsey
THE following true incident is related from the lips of Capt. Henry H. Ayer, of the Third Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers:— “We were lying on Morris Island, that God-forsaken place, digging trenches, watching, fighting, taking our chances from bullets, shells, and fever; but our men were patient and brave, heroes every one of them, with the granite of their hills in their blood. To show you what stuff they were made of, I will tell you of one of the boys, a member of my company. “One day this fellow, not more than nineteen years old, was brought in from the picket line, badly wounded. A painful surgical operation was necessary. The surgeon examined him, and prepared a glass of brandy, which he offered him. He refused to drink it. The surgeon appealed to me, saying: ‘He has lost much blood, and his vitality is low. If he does not take this, I can not answer for his life.’ I said, ‘Frank, to oblige me you will drink this brandy.’ “He said, ‘Captain, I would do almost anything to oblige you, but not this.’ “Frank, you have never disobeyed me. You must not now. I command you to drink this.” “He looked up to me, his blue eyes dim with the anguish he endured, and replied, ‘Captain, when you command me to go to the cannon’s mouth, I will do it if I can, but this I will not do.’ “I was getting excited, for I loved this boy as if he had been my brother, and tears I could not restrain began to flow. I cried: ‘Why do you pain me so? You are putting your life in peril. You have no right to do it. Drink this for your mother’s sake.’ “He trembled, and tears his agony had not wrung from him, came to his eyes as he replied: ‘Captain, it is for my mother’s sake that I will not drink this brandy. My father died a drunkard, and she has told me I may have inherited his terrible appetite, and I promised her never to taste the deadly poison that made her a widow, and me an orphan. If I die, tell her I kept my promise.’ “By that time we were both crying like girls.” “O, no, he made a rapid recovery! From that time my faith in brandy has been growing less.”—V. G. Ramsey, in N. Y. Voice. The Public Health Journal of December, in speaking of the investigations of the New York Board of Health, says:— The discoveries thus far, when only about 700 of the 2,500 cows within the limits of this city have been examined, with a result of finding about 15 per cent. infected, has, it is admitted, made a deep impression upon the members of the Board of Health. The conclusion was forced upon them that the narrow limits of this city were by far too small for the operation of such a beneficent examination, and that a law should be passed making compulsory the examination of all cows in the State. Such a law now prevails in the State of Massachusetts, which stands as the pioneer in the movement. An ordinance, which has a similar effect also, is on the law books of the city of Milwaukee. Dr. E. W. Martin, of this city, who probably stands near the head of the list of original investigators of milk in relation to health, remarked only the other day that it seemed strange that the human animal could go on using cows' milk as a chief article of diet from time immemorial and not discover that it might, under certain conditions, become a vehicle of disease. That such is the fact, and that consumption may be transmitted from tuberculous cows, has been made very clear in the last five years—a result of the unfailing method of diagnosing offered by Prof. Koch's discovery of tuberculin. Under proper scientific methods it has been found possible to find out positively whether a cow is tubercular or not. The diagnosis by this preparation has never been known to fail. James Harper, of the publishing firm, had a fund of droll wit which is well illustrated by the following incident:— On a certain occasion a clergyman, who had consumed an hour of his time in small talk, said to the publisher, “Brother Harper, I am curious to know how you four men distribute the duties of the establishment between you.” Mr. Harper replied, good-humoredly, “John attends to the finances, Wesley settles all the correspondence, Fletcher attends to the general bargaining with authors and others, and—you need not tell anybody,” he said, drawing his chair up closer and speaking in a lower tone of voice, “I entertain the bores.”—Ex. WE needs must love the highest when we see it.—Tennyson. There are ten Scandinavian churches in the Iowa Conference. Kansas Conference has located two Bible workers in Leavenworth. A church was organized at Beaver, Ohio, January 11, by Elder O. F. Guilford. A new house of worship was recently dedicated at Dayton, Ohio, Elder I. D. Van Horn officiating. A house of worship is in process of erection at Binghamton, N. Y., where a church organization was effected last fall. Elder S. M. Cobb is in charge of the work in that city. The Biblical Institute which precedes the General Conference is now in session, having commenced on the 9th inst. The Conference proper convenes on the 19th, to continue till March 6. Brother C. T. Shaffer reports eleven converts at Jefferson, Mont., with an increasing interest. A lot has been donated for a house of worship, and some cash subscriptions towards a building. Large audiences, with some additions, is the report of meetings held at Blossburg, Ala., by Elder Wm. Woodford. He attributes the interest largely to books sold in the community by canvassers. As a result of labor by Brother H. E. Giddings at Tarsney, Mo., eight persons were baptized February 2, by Elder W. A. Hennig. A place for baptism was prepared by cutting through the ice in a neighboring creek. The house of worship at Kansas City, Mo., was dedicated Sabbath, January 30. There were about 300 people present, and the services were conducted by Elders W. A. Hennig and H. K. Willis, of the Missouri Conference, and Elder E. W. Fortner, of Kansas. Elder C. L. Boyd has commenced meetings in a hall in Paducah, Ky. Although Paducah is a city of 20,000 inhabitants, he found but one person keeping the Sabbath of the Lord. Such facts show the urgent necessity of increased efforts in the spread of the message of truth.12 Meetings held at Half Rock, Mo., January 22–24, by Elder W. T. Millman, were fraught with unusual interest. A report in the Workers’ Record says: “Among the prominent ones that studied with us was the U. B. minister and members of his family; also one of the most accomplished schoolteachers in the county. The Baptist brethren postponed their regular meeting to be with us.” The brethren in charge of the Colorado Sanitarium, at Boulder, Colo., are determined to let the public know of that excellent institution. Their latest advertising enterprise is a beautiful souvenir of thirty-eight pages, containing a number of artistic views of the institution and scenes in the vicinity of the grounds. It is a credit to the sanitarium and to the printers, the Review and Herald Publishing Co., Battle Creek, Mich. It is encouraging to note this evidence of prosperity on the part of our Colorado institution. From Elder R. C. Porter’s report in the Review we cull the following: “The Christian help work in Boston is doing much good. Brother Charles Palmer, assisted by the poor, has worked twenty-four missionary gardens in Everett during the past summer, the proceeds being used by the poor. Although he had to agree to pay rent for the land, in order to secure it, it was all donated by the landlord when he saw the use to which it was really put. The workers here, as in Chicago, find open doors everywhere, and the Lord is greatly blessing the work. A few of the thousands of the hungry in this great city are being fed, and a few of the half clad are being clothed.” HAUSALAND AND ITS PEOPLE.
[From a report of a lecture by Rev. C. H. Robinson, M.A., in African Times.] AFRICA has been crossed and recrossed so often that it is hard to realize that there is still a people (forming one per cent. of the entire population of the world) about whom we know practically nothing, and whose country is equally unknown. The Hausas are in every way the most highly civilized and remarkable people which central Africa contains. One reason that so little is known of this country is the difficulty of access. One has either to cross the Sahara or be prepared to travel some hundreds of miles through malarial swamps. In his own case, after spending a year in north Africa, learning the language, the Turks refused him permission to start from Tripoli, and the French from Tunis. In consequence, he went out two years ago to west Africa with two English companions, determined to reach the country by ascending the Niger. The peculiarity about the roads in this region was their narrowness; the average road was six or eight inches wide, just room enough to place one foot in front of the other. The Hausas were the strongest race in Africa, and the English offered them every inducement to enlist. One of the men in his presence carried about a mountain gun on his head, and an English officer had told him that the man had carried it for twenty-two miles. The town of Kano was the most important, and was known throughout the whole of the northern part of the continent. Its population might be anything over 100,000, the great mass of whom were engaged in the manufacture of cloth; and if their written history was to be believed, they were engaged in it at the time of the conquest of England. Tens of thousands of pounds worth of this cloth was woven every year, and it could be obtained at Suakin, Tunis, Tripoli, or on the west coast, so extensive were the tradings with outside tribes. The market place at Kano was probably the largest in the world, and often from 20,000 to 30,000 assembled there. Education had reached a fairly high level; there were thirty or forty schools, all of which were Mohammedan. One-third of the people professed to be Mohammedans, but they had no public worship, and there seemed to be an absence of the bigotry which usually characterized Mohammedans. There was no part of the world where slave-raiding went on to such an extent, and at a low computation there were 5,000,000 slaves in the country—or, to put it in another way, one out of every three hundred people living in the world was a Hausa-speaking slave. When they remembered that the whole of this was in British territory, or, at any rate, within the sphere of English influence, they realized the greatness of the responsibility that rested upon the English people. If a king wanted money, all he had to do was to make a slave-raid. If the English Government was prepared to spend one-half or a quarter of what they spent on the east coast to put down slavery, it could be entirely put down in Hausaland. One of the most obvious ways was by making a railway into the heart of the country, and he was glad to know that since the present government came into office Mr. Chamberlain had authorized the construction of the first hundred miles. If a railway to Uganda could pay its way, a railway to Kano, with all the resources of the country, ought to pay three or four times over. The Hausa Association was not entirely a missionary society; they desired to open up the country and promote its civilization. One of their chief objects was to make the introduction of Christianity possible, and having regard to the climate and the fact that a white man ought not to remain there for longer than two years at a time, it was essential that any missionary should be able to learn the language before he went. The Hausa Association hoped to be able to open a training school at Tripoli. They were now publishing portions of the New Testament, a grammar, a dictionary, and other literature in the Hausa language. The Hausa people are practically vegetarians and were all teetotalers, the Royal Niger Company refusing to allow any spirits to be imported into the country. A HERO IN AFRICA.
By Wm. T. Ellis
DEEP in the heart of the “Dark Continent” there lived not long ago a mighty hero. Like so many of the world’s greatest heroes, this man was a missionary. Alexander Mackay was his name, and it was in the year 1876 that he first set foot on the shores of Africa. Mackay was not a clergyman, but he was a wise and skilful engineer and mechanic, and a fine student. He knew, did this loyal young Scotchman, that God could make use of the talents he possessed, and it proved that his training was just the most needful thing for the missionary work in far-distant Uganda. The story of Mackay is too long to tell here. How he was deprived of his white companions by sickness and death, and how, altho stricken with fever himself, he persisted in his attempt to reach the interior, is told most interestingly in the life of Mackay, that I hope you all may read. There were dangers from flood, fever, robbers, and animals. But through them all he came safely to the king in whose country he was to labor. Can you imagine how hard it must have been for this companion-loving young man to be left alone, amidst wild savages, and far away from the reach of white men? And then the work he had to do! He must be builder, machinist, boat-builder, undertaker, teacher, preacher, and statesman. Savage slave-traders plotted against his life, because he was hurting their business. His goods were stolen, and he was left in abject poverty. The king turned against him, and it seemed as if all his work had failed completely. There was a time when he appeared to have not a single friend in all Uganda. Even his pupils, whom he thought were learning to love Jesus, turned again to the wild, heathen life of murder and torture and pillage. A new king came to the throne, and he was worse than his father. A party of missionaries that set out for Mackay’s relief were butchered in cold blood. A great slaughter of Christians took place. Wherever a native was known to be a follower of Mackay’s religion, he was burned alive. Again and again plots were made against Mackay’s life, but God preserved him from them all. In the midst of all this fierce persecution the poor black savages turned to Christ in numbers. What heroes they were! Many had to die for their faith, but they sang the songs of the Gospel even while the flames were roasting their bodies. After a dozen years of glorious heroism in the land of his choice, after terrible persecution and poverty and all kinds of bodily distress, Mackay was stricken with fever and died. As for his work, it then seemed almost a failure. But was it? Henry M. Stanley, the great explorer, has just heard from a great chief in Uganda, and in a letter to this country he says that there are now two hundred churches in Uganda, and the number of professing Christians is fifty thousand. The natives are becoming educated, and thousands of Gospels are sold each year. Think of that, six years after the death of Mackay! Surely, this hero did not live and die in vain.—Wm. T. Ellis. THE WORK THAT LIES NEAREST.
By MINNIE EMBREE
I PLANNED how my life might be useful
In working abroad for the Lord:
I would first go away to some college
And learn a great deal of His Word;
Or go to some good sanitarium,
And learn how diseases to treat,
Then out in the world I might lecture
On how we should dress, and should eat. I would love to go far to the southward,
Where we learn of there being such need
Of people, with love for the Master,
To teach the poor negroes to read. Yet just where I am I am needed;
At home there are duties to do;
And I haven't the money sufficient
To take me to college, and through. But I find there is work right around me;
For just a few blocks from my door
Lives an old, almost blind, colored woman,
I ought to have read to before. Shall I wait for the way to be opened
For me to the helpless to go,
When here they are brought to my doorway
For help in my power to bestow? And, near me, at least one poor woman
Has fallen to sickness a prey;
Some aid I may possibly give her;
Why wait to go farther away? And yet my fond hopes are not blasted;
Of going abroad I still think;
Hoping sometime on health I may lecture,
I'll cleanse out my own kitchen sink. The National Armenian Relief Committee recently forwarded to Turkey $35,000. They have just received a cable message from the International Committee at Constantinople, of which the British ambassador is chairman, acknowledging the remittance, and stating that the funds in hand are entirely inadequate to meet the awful suffering and destitution, and that careful investigation has shown that not less than 40,000 children have been made orphaned by the late massacres. These “wards of Christendom” can be easily saved from starvation or debasing enslavement in Moslem homes, and can be cared for at the rate of $1.00 a month; but thousands will perish before spring unless generous gifts are sent at once to Brown Brothers & Co., 59 Wall Street, New York, who are the authorized treasurers.