THE note struck then is likely to give tone to your spirits all the day. Redeem it. Redeem it as much as you can from family duties. Redeem it wholly from "plaiting of the hair and putting on of apparel." Redeem it wholly from vain conversation. How very much the power of the minister's preaching depends on the preparing of the hearer's heart! If you come up to the church with your mind crowded with trifles, and puffed up with vanity, what can ministers do? They can do nothing but beat the air. What else can they do if there be nothing before them but air to beat at? It will make a sound, and that is all. I fear that many dear people spend more time on the Sabbath morning in putting veils on their faces than in taking the veil off their hearts; more time in trying to make themselves appear before men what they are not than in trying to make themselves appear before God what they are.—W. Arnot.
Christ’s Divine Person
Paul, in closing his introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, said to them: "Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." This passage, like many others, shows how thoroughly familiarized was Paul's mind with the idea that Christ is a divine person. He connects God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as if both were equally divine.
A MISSIONARY PEAR.
It was a Bartlett, color light yellow, slightly tinged with red, large size, weighing nearly eight ounces, smooth as a baby's cheek, and tapering gracefully at the top into a stout stem of twice the usual thickness. It was exhibited at the agricultural fair, standing alone upon a plate, the perfection of its kind.
'I am going to send this pear to your wife, Colonel,' said the owner, on the morning of the second day of the exhibition. 'Tell her it has taken the premium, and is the finest specimen that I ever had the pleasure of raising.'
'Or seeing, either,' replied the Colonel. 'My wife will appreciate the honor, I assure you.'
So home it went with him to dinner; and Mrs. Colonel thought she could not admire it enough, and, instead of giving it a place with the other fruit, brought out a china dish and embroidered doily for its reception.
'But we must never eat it ourselves,' she said. 'Such a pear as this ought to have a mission. What do you say to my sending it to old Mr. Swallow?'
Of course the Colonel assented.
A few streets farther on Mr. Swallow was found, sitting by the window of his farmhouse. On one side was the sunny orchard; on the other the barn that the old gentleman, now a cripple, liked to keep in view. The Colonel's little daughter brought in the pear.
'Your mother was very kind to send me such a present,' he said, putting it down on the window-sill before him. 'It beats any that I ever saw raised.'
'But I won't eat it,' he added to himself, after the child had left. 'It was a mighty kind thing to spare one so nice, and I'll do the same by somebody else. There's Jimmy's school-teacher. She's another kind one, and she shall have it.'
When Jimmy ran home at recess, he was greatly delighted by his grandfather's commission to take the pear carefully in a box to Miss Brown.
Miss Brown placed it upon her table, and allowed the whole school to look at and admire without handling. Into the exercises of the afternoon she introduced an object-lesson upon fruit, and, after school was dismissed, she sat down to decide upon what should be done with her gift.
'I couldn't have the heart to cut such a wonderful pear. How kind in Mr. Swallow to send it to me! There's Mary Burch just getting over a fever. How pleased she'd be to have it!' And so again the pear found another resting-place.
'I won't ask to eat it, mother, if you'll just let me hold it and smell it. Oh, what a beauty!'
Mary's eyes sparkled; and she took, figuratively speaking, a long stride toward health from the vision of green fields and shady roadside brought to her by its mellow fragrance.
'Now, mother, who shall have it? for I wouldn't eat such a beauty, if I could. Perhaps Mr. Jules will paint it. Let me send it to him.'
Mr. Jules's studio was a pleasant place; but its owner was a little too fond of being engrossed by that fascinating easel, and a little too forgetful of other people's comfort. An invisible influence from the pear before him, began to make helpful suggestions.
'Very kind of that young lady. I'll sketch and paint it for her. I'll do it at once, before it grows dark; and I'll not eat such a present either.'
About eight o'clock that evening the minister, who had entered into an argument with the artist the day before, and had left a little wounded and sore in feeling, was surprised and pleased by the present of an uncommonly fine pear.
'So kind in Brother Jules to take such a pleasant way of assuring me that he wasn't offended, and such a magnificent specimen! If Catherine agrees, we'll pass it along to-morrow for somebody else to enjoy. How much comfort there is in kindness!'
One might begin to wonder by this time, how the pear escaped bruises; but each owner had held it so carefully and admiringly, that not a pressure was to be seen upon its surface.
In a doctor's office, the next morning, a young man sat reading, when a tap came at the door and the minister entered.
'I was just going by, and thought I'd step in a minute, and show you what New England could do in the way of raising pears.'
Half an hour later, and the young doctor stood alone with the fruit in his hand.
'Well, I'll hire a seat in his church before next Sabbath,'—see if I don't. I won't neglect it any longer. I didn't know before that ministers could be so friendly. Now what shall I do with this beauty? It has helped me enough already. Somebody else must have it, to be sure.'
Now, Mrs. Colonel B., its first owner, was blessed with excellent health. To use her own words she was 'never sick.' But this particular morning she awoke with a headache. The pain became so intense that she sought a lounge and a darkened room, and the Colonel went down town with an anxious face. Meeting the doctor's clerk and knowing him well, he mentioned the fact of this unusual illness.
'Just the time,' said the young man to himself, as he hurried home, 'for a chance to send her my splendid pear. She has been so kind to me, I wonder I never thought of such a thing before.'
Biddy, the maid at the Colonel's, answered the bell, and took the message and plate to her mistress's room.
'The gentleman has called, mum, to say he's sorry you're sick; and he's lift the finest pear that was ever seen.'
'A pear! Roll up the curtain, Biddy, and let me see it.'
Then, greatly to Biddy's surprise and even terror, as she turned to leave the room, Mrs. Colonel began to laugh.
'Sure, I believe she's losin' her sinuses. I wish the Colonel would come;' and when he arrived an hour later, she sent him hastily up to the room.
Mrs. Colonel was sitting up in her rocking-chair as bright as if a headache had never troubled her.
'Look here, Ben. See my present.'
'Why, it's our very pear again! Where did you get it, wife?'
'Charley Hadley brought it, and there's no guessing where it may have traveled. It's so funny to have it come back to me; and I've enjoyed thinking about it so much that my headache has all gone, and I'm going down to dinner.'
Mrs. Colonel decided to take a walk that afternoon and trace the pear's wanderings. Being of a cheerful turn herself, she brought a gleam of sunshine into every call. Old Mr. Swallow told his part, and he hadn't felt so merry or laughed so much for a long time. The teacher, Miss Brown, wished she could put it into a story. Mary, the sick girl, was sure she could go down-stairs the next day, the pear had been such a strengthener; and 'Just look,' she said, 'at my present,' and there it was in a lovely painting. Mr. Jules put on his hat to walk over to the minister's with her. At the parsonage, they only wished the pear could have gone all through the town; and the young man who gave it away at the last decided that his move was the best of all.
The pear was finally cut into seven pieces, one for each stopping-place, and, of course, was delicious. The decision was made that its history should be written out for a suggestion to all holders of fruit in the season of abundant harvest.—Christian Register.
RELIGION IN RUSSIA.
The Greek church is a very dead form of faith, and the worship of saints of every degree of power "amounts to a fetishism almost as bad as any to be found in Africa." I myself am the happy possessor of a little rude wooden bas-relief, framed and glazed, of two saints whose names I have ungratefully forgotten, to whom if you pray as you go out to commit a crime, however heinous, you take your pardon with you—a refinement upon the whipping of the saints in Calabria, and Spanish hagiolatry. The icons, the sacred images, are hung in the chief corner, called "the beautiful," of a Russian isba. A lamp is always lit before them, and some food spread "for the ghosts to come and eat."
The well-to-do peasant is still "strict about his fasts and festivals, and never neglects to prepare for Lent. During the whole year his forethought never wearies; the children pick up a number of fungi which the English kick away as toad-stools; these are dried in the sun or the oven, and packed in casks with a mixture of hot water and dry meal, in which they ferment. The staple diet of the peasant consists of buckwheat, rye meal, sauerkraut, and coarse cured fish" (little, however, but black bread, often moldy, and sauerkraut, nearly putrid, is found in the generality of Russian peasant homes).
No milk, butter, cheese, or eggs are allowed in Lent, all of which are permitted to the Roman Catholic, and the oil the peasant uses for his cooking is linseed instead of olive oil, which last he religiously sets aside for the lamps burning before the holy images. "To neglect fasting would cause a man to be shunned as a traitor, not only to his religion, but to his class and country."525In the little church (generally built of wood) there are no seats, the worshipers prostrate themselves and knock their heads two or three times on the ground, and must stand or kneel through the whole service.
The roof consists of a number of bulbous-shaped cupolas; four, round the central dome, in the form of a cross, are the complete ideal, with a separate minaret for the Virgin. These are covered with tiles of the brightest blue, green, and red, and gilt metal. The priest is a picturesque figure, with his long, unclipped hair, tall felt hat largest at the top, and a flowing robe. He must be married when appointed to a cure, but is not allowed a second venture if his wife dies.
The drunkenness in all classes strikes Russian statesmen with dismay, and the priests, the popes, are among the worst delinquents. They are fast losing the authority which they once had over the serfs, when they formed part of the great political system of which the Czar was the religious and political head. A Russian official report says that "the churches are now mostly attended by women and children, while the men are spending their last kopeck, or getting deeper into debt, at the village dram-shop."
Church festivals, marriages, christenings, burials, and fairs, leave only two hundred days in the year for the Russian laborer. The climate is so severe as to prevent out-of-door work for months, and the enforced idleness increases the natural disposition to do nothing. "We are a lethargic people," says Gogol, "and require a stimulus from without, either that of an officer, a master, a driver, the rod, or vodka (a white spirit distilled from corn); and this," he adds in another place, "whether the man be peasant, soldier, clerk, sailor, priest, merchant, seignior, or prince." At the time of the Crimean War it was always believed that the Russian soldier could only be driven up to an attack, such as that of Inkerman, under the influence of intoxication.
The Russian peasant is indeed a barbarian at a very low stage of civilization. In the Crimean hospitals every nationality was to be found among the patients, and the Russian soldier was considered far the lowest of all. Stolid, stupid, hard, he never showed any gratitude for any amount of care and attention, or seemed, indeed, to understand them; and there was no doubt that during the war he continually put the wounded to death in order to possess himself of their clothes.—Living Age.
The Home Circle.
By Emily J. Bugbee
"COME."
"Come unto Me." We hear the invitation,
In ceaseless echoes down the ages roll;
It is no mocking hope of consolation
He offers those who listen to His call.
Yet ah! so oft forgetting and forsaking,
Bewildered and dismayed, we wander still,
Such crooked pathways for our footsteps making,
Such wayward wandering from His loving will.
"Come unto Me," forever gently calling;
Dost Thou not weary that we come so slow?
A little onward, and then backward falling,
Lured by some mirage that hath mocked us so.
Alas! the long, sad wilderness of travel,
When straight before us lies the happy land,
Who shall to us the mystery unravel,
That thus we cleave unto the arid sand?
Oh! if at last we reach the promised Canaan,
And find its purling streams and fruits so sweet,
How shall we marvel that our eyes were holden,
And could not see the way to set our feet!
Be patient still, O wise and tender Shepherd,
And teach the wandering sheep thy voice to know,
Calling so clear, amid life's falling shadows,
That we may fail not in right paths to go.
—Emily J. Bugbee, in Christian Advocate.
TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS.
TOBACCO is an aromatic plant and leaf, and probably its sweetness and slight acrid taste, its stimulus and its power to appease hunger, had at first more to do with its use than any other cause. It has been variously claimed to be a food, a tonic, a condiment, a stimulant, a nervine, and an intoxicant. It is when we turn to a materia medica, or to some work on toxicology, that we find the fullest account of it. Its first free use generally causes giddiness, trembling of the limbs, faintness, depression, sickness of stomach, and cold sweats. The pulse is weak and quivering, the breathing hurried or embarrassed, and the vision impaired. In toxic doses, the action is on the central nervous system, producing failure of respiration. If the chewing or smoking has not been very excessive, the ordinary symptoms soon pass off. If its use is much less, or if a toleration of it is acquired, it acts as a pleasant sedative.
Whatever may be the ultimate accommodation of the system thereto, as with alcohol, a class of symptoms very different from those from the use of milk or meat or cereals or fruits tells us that it rightly finds its classification among articles unfriendly to the best health or to the nourishment of vital forces. Its most decided effect is upon the functions of organs rather than upon their structure. As a rule, it is not near so apt to make change of structure as is alcohol. Yet permanent changes, especially to blood-vessels and the nervous system, result therefrom. Woodman and Tidy, in their volume on "Forensic Medicine and Toxicology," speak thus: "Excessive smoking has proved fatal, as in the cases recorded by Gmelin, when two men smoked seventeen and eighteen pipes respectively at one sitting. Mr. Smith, of Sheffield, records two cases of paralysis of the porta dura directly caused by hard smoking."
There is a general testimony that dyspepsia, heart palpitation, and nervous symptoms often result therefrom. Its evil effect upon young persons has been accurately set forth by Dr. Decaisne, and Dr. A. C. Gorgas, Medical Inspector U. S. N. This testimony is the more significant because there was a return to the use of tobacco on the part of the students of the Naval Academy, but the contrasted facts caused a subsequent renewal of the order to desist from its use. The evidence has been such from other sources that a prohibitory law applicable to youths has been enacted in Germany. While during the growing period of life all are more susceptible to the evil effects of tobacco, those of full age are affected in a milder degree. There is a constant tendency of the habit to increase.
Even among those who have the belief that the moderate use of tobacco does not injure all persons, there is such agreement as to its effect upon the young, that most of them favor laws which make it a punishable offense for those under age to use tobacco in any form.
There is reason to believe that our young population is being greatly injured thereby, and also that the use of tobacco has become so general, and often so excessive among adults, as to be traceable in special injurious effects upon them and their descendants. Tobacco smoking increases pulse rate. Both in chewing and smoking there is an unnatural stimulus of the salivary glands. Their office as aids to the first process in digestion is interfered with. While it is true that the evil effects of very occasional smoking are transitory to many, it is equally true that, the excess in the habit which generally occurs makes in time a permanent impression upon the nervous system.
Its effect in checking growth is unmistakable. So far as the young are concerned, it is doing more harm to bodily health than alcohol. A substance which will produce such profound impression as it does when first used, and which has caused death when applied for a long time to the raw surface on the body, and which has by its irritation induced cancer, surely ought not to be in ordinary use among mankind.
The cigarette has been found to be even more harmful than the other forms of smoking. Besides many evils which its use involves, not the least is one already noted as to alcohol. It not only becomes a habit that it is hard to abandon, but the very failure which so many make in their efforts to quit its use shows too plainly that it undermines the power of self-control, and so is a weakening of that vigor of trained will, of that mastery of self, which is a part of the physical as well as of the intellectual welfare and prowess of manhood. As an interest both of the individual and the State, the use of tobacco in any form by children should be prohibited under proper penalties. As a matter of public and personal health, and in the interests of the vigor of the coming generation, this restraint is demanded.
Some of the States have already passed laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to those under sixteen years of age.
There seems to be good evidence that modern modes of life, and the pressure of excessive business, incline many to indulge in that class of substances which produce a slight exhilarating effect, followed by a calm such as occurs in the first stages of narcotism. There is great occasion for the young to guard themselves against all plausible excuses for any of these indulgences. We have never known anyone to regret abstinence from them, and have known very many, in the moderate use of some of the milder forms of excitants and sedatives, to be earnest in advising against the acquirement of such habits.—Independent.
Health and Temperance.
A TRUE STORY.
"Papa, can you please give me fifty cents for my spring hat? Most of the academy girls have theirs."
"No, May, I can't spare the money."
The above request was persuasively made by a sixteen-year-old maiden as she was preparing for school one fine spring morning. The refusal came from the parent in a curt, indifferent tone. The disappointed girl went to school. The father started for his place of business. On his way thither he met a friend, and being hail-fellow well met, invited him into Mac's for a drink. As usual, there were others there, and the man who could not spare his daughter fifty cents for a hat, treated the crowd. When about to leave he laid half a dollar on the counter, which just paid for the drinks.
Just then the saloon-keeper's daughter entered, and going behind the bar said:—
"Papa, I want fifty cents for my spring hat."
"All right," said the dealer; and taking up the half dollar from the counter, handed it over to the girl, who departed smiling.
May's father seemed dazed, walked out alone, and said to himself, "I had to bring my fifty cents here for the rum-seller's daughter to buy a hat with, after refusing it to my own daughter. I'll never drink another drop!"
And he kept his pledge.—Selected.
The Christian Ideal Household
By McDuff
THAT household is nearest the Christian ideal where are studied most minutely those delicate offices and interchanges of kindliness, which, like golden threads, run through the warp and woof of every-day life.—McDuff.
The Cost of Strikes
It is a good thing to figure up the cost of strikes now and then and see how it pays to force the capitalists to the wall. The strikes in the shoe trade during the last year are footed up by the Shoe and Leather Reporter as costing in wages from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000. The Chicago builders' strike last spring cost $2,500,000 in wages, which would have been paid to 38,000 workers. This strike was a failure, so that no increase of wages can be counted as an offset. The strike of the coke workers in Pennsylvania down to June 25 had caused a loss of $688,820 in wages and about 10,000 men are still out. The recent strike of the elevated road employes in Brooklyn was a total failure, and has cost the men engaged in it their positions, worth altogether about $1,200 a day. When the Knights of Labor hold their next convention in Minneapolis, they may profitably devote a part of their time to the study of figures like these.—Sel.
SECULAR.
—Prof. O. S. Fowler, the famous phrenologist, is dead.
—A terrific hail-storm did considerable damage at Atchison, Kan., August 20.
—The Chicago canned fruit trade is overwhelmed with orders that cannot be filled.
—On June 30 the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, was almost destroyed by earthquake shocks.
—One person was killed and several injured by a railroad accident near Alliance, O., August 18.
—It is expected that over five thousand doctors will attend the Medical Congress at Washington.
—Three men were drowned at Cincinnati, August 17, while trying to cross the Ohio River in a skiff.
—A slight shock of earthquake was felt in Oakland and San Francisco early on the morning of the 17th.
—A young Catholic priest has recently rediscovered the art of making Greek fire, which was lost about the year 1250.
—Not long since a fire destroyed the town of Sassawa in Galicia. Fifteen bodies have been recovered from the ruins.
—The settlers in the vicinity of Parkfield, Monterey Co., Cal., have discovered large petroleum wells in that district.
—An estimation of the population of China based upon official data, puts it at 382,000,000 as against 415,000,000 in 1842.
—The city of Bordeaux, France, was visited on the 16th inst. by a hurricane which destroyed a great amount of property.
—Medical returns show that 70,000 persons have died of cholera in the northwest provinces of India during June and July.
—Over one thousand lives have been lost and enormous injury done to crops by a freshet in the Menchow River in China.
—It is stated that 150 or more members of the British House of Commons are directly or indirectly connected with the liquor traffic.
—From January to June of this year there were 10,336 deaths from cholera in Chili, and the Government spent $1,000,000 in fighting the pest.
—The large Inman steamer City of Montreal was burned at sea last week and thirteen persons are reported missing. The steamer was worth $500,000.
—Crop reports in London say that the yield of wheat in Great Britain will be above the average, and in France and Italy a decided increase over last year.
—A terrible cyclone passed over the town of Calabasas, A. T., August 17, which damaged a number of houses. One child was killed and several persons injured.
—An earthquake shock which passed over New Mexico on the 12th inst. did considerable damage to the Mexican village of La Joya, twenty miles north of Socorro, N. M.
—An attempt was made at St. Louis on the night of the 17th inst. to wreck an outgoing passenger train on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, by driving two coupling-pins into the frog.
—A fire at Scutari, Turkey, August 15, destroyed about one thousand houses and two churches. Two women and a child were burned to death. Hundreds of people are homeless.
—Last month 27,844 immigrants arrived at Castle Garden, a greater number than any previous month, with a single exception. Since January 1 the arrivals have aggregated 240,499.
—The British Government has made arrangements with the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company by which the latter will have ten steamers ready for use as armed cruisers.
—The ancient and famous city of Damascus, which was a place of importance 1900 B. C., is busy with plans for laying railroad lines through the streets. The place has 120,000 inhabitants.
—The Rev. Dr. William H. Hall, who has been chaplain for six years at San Quentin Prison, speaking on convicts, in San Francisco, a few days since, said, "The saddest fact, though, is the growing taste for crime among boys."
—The Labrador fisheries are almost a total failure. The outlook for the coming year is consequently worse than it was last year. It is said that nothing but the transportation to the United States or Canada, or subsistence at the entire cost of the Government, will save the population of Labrador from starving to death.
—During a sham battle at Enfield, Ill., August 19, a cannon was discharged prematurely, killing one man and wounding four.
—The citizens of Tucson, A. T., are anticipating trouble from the Apaches of the San Carlos Reservation. The Indians who committed the last depredations are in jail at San Carlos, and the others on the reserve are evidently contemplating a rescue.
—The Ameer of Afghanistan was lately afflicted by a boil on his arm. The court physician at Cabul applied an ointment which no doubt would have been highly efficacious in its ultimate results, but at first it considerably aggravated the Ameer's anguish, causing him to order the instant execution of his medical adviser, who was forthwith beheaded.
APPEARANCES.
By S. S. Times
How willing men are to be deceived by their eyes! As a rule, men care but little to get back of the outside appearance of that which they are called to pass upon. Here in the city of Philadelphia, for example, it has been recently shown that bakers were in the habit of coloring buns with poisonous chrome yellow, in order to make them look as if they were rich with eggs. The buns were for eating, not for show; and the chrome yellow gave them no taste of eggs; yet men, women, and children, by the thousand, would buy the rich-looking buns in preference to those of a lighter color, thinking that that which looked better must be better. Scores, if not hundreds, of deaths were a result of the over-valuing of appearances in this instance; and in many another sphere a like fatality attends a corresponding regard for mere outward show. Cream and butter and cakes and confectionery must be poisoned in order to present an attractive exterior to the average purchaser. Men poison themselves by coloring their hair, and women poison themselves by "improving" their complexion. Conduct and character are usually judged by their surface color. So, also, are creeds and doctrines. And poison lurks in all deceptive coloring. He who gives the first place to appearances does so at a fearful risk; for the face of death may be covered by a mask of health, as when the hectic flush seems but a ruddy glow on the cheek of bounding youth.—S. S. Times.
News and Notes.
By Editor
RELIGIOUS.
—The English Church Missionary Society purposes, during the coming winter, to send to India a body of carefully selected evangelists.
—It is said that the Sunday-schools of the Presbyterian Church, on Children's Day, 1887, contributed to the Sunday-school mission work $20,423, which is nearly sufficient to clear off the debt resting on that board.
—A new religious sect has been discovered in China, called Kam-tah or Golden Elizir. The members of this religion profess to select and combine whatever is good in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
—Pope Leo XIII. has published a letter in the organ of the Vatican at Rome, in which he says that his mission has been that of reconciling the Papacy with the governments of civilized States. He has succeeded admirably.
—An invitation has been issued to all German-American Catholics to meet at Chicago September 6. The object is to demonstrate the strength of the German Catholics. It is claimed that there are about two million of them in the United States.
—The New Testament, which was translated into Hebrew by the late Isaac Salkinson, has been reprinted at Vienna in a second edition of 120,000 copies. Copies to the amount of 100,000 are being distributed free among the Hebrew-reading Jews all over the continent.
—Judging by the number of new societies, etc., that are now springing up, it would seem that professed Christians of to-day, like the Athenians of old, spend their time "in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." One of the latest of these societies is called "The Christian Kingdom Society," and its object is to unite its members in an "endeavor in all things to render faithful and loyal obedience to the Spirit of Christ." Well, such a society is badly needed.
—The Advance says that "Sunday-school missionaries need tact as well as wisdom and grace." It then gives the following, illustrating the kind of tact required to organize a Sunday-school: "Superintendent Ewing, of North Dakota, entering a new town one day, and finding little response to invitations to a religious service, secured the services of a colored man with a banjo and a white man with a violin, and with this orchestra gathered nearly the whole town into an evening audience, to whom he preached; and at the close of service secured the organization of a Sunday-school."
Appointments.
NEBRASKA CAMP-MEETING.
It is now decided that this important meeting will be held September 13-20. The place selected is Grand Island, which is easy of access for our people from all parts of the State. This being the only camp-meeting held in this State the present season, it will, no doubt, be the largest we have ever had.
This has been a very prosperous year for the work in our State, and we believe that both workers and people will come up to this annual gathering with hearts filled with courage and gratitude to God. In connection with this meeting
A WORKERS' CONVENTION
Will be held, commencing Tuesday, August 30, and continuing till the close of the camp-meeting. Special instruction will be given, during this time, in the canvassing and Bible-reading work. We hope to see a very large attendance during this drill, as the opportunity for learning to engage in the work will be excellent. Elder Geo. B. Starr and F. E. Belden are expected to give instruction in these two very important branches of the work.
About the same programme will be followed at the workers' meeting as is observed at our city missions. The forenoon of each day will be spent in class drill, while the afternoons will be spent in actual work among the people.
Tents will be pitched to accommodate all who may attend. Those attending may bring their bedding and board themselves if they choose, or several can club together and board the same as at the mission. In either way the expense will not exceed $2.00 per week, and may be made less. Come, brethren, and let us keep pace with the message, let us learn the best and most approved plans of advancing the truth. More particulars will be given soon.
J. P. GARDINER,
A. J. CUDNEY,
L. A. HOOPES.
} Conf. Com.
NEVADA CAMP-MEETING.
By California Conference Committee
THE camp-meeting for the Seventh-day Adventists of the State of Nevada will be held in Reno, commencing Thursday evening, September 1, and closing on Monday morning, September 12. A restaurant will be conducted on the mutual benefit plan the same as last year. We hope to see a full attendance of all our people in the State. Come praying that the Lord may meet with us. Come bringing your friends with you to enjoy this feast of tabernacles.
Those wishing to rent tents, or those who have tents of their own to pitch, are requested to write at once to Elder J. N. Loughborough, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal. The price of tents is the same as last year. The rent of 10x12 tents for the meeting, $4.00 and of 12x16, $6.00. All money received for tent rents goes into the tent fund, and is used for the purchase of meeting and camping tents.
CAL. CONF. COMMITTEE.
Churches and Meeting Schedules
Oakland.—House of worship, southeast corner of Jefferson and Thirteenth Streets. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:30 A.M. Preaching at 11. Prayer and missionary meeting every Tuesday evening at 7:15. Seats free.
East Portland (Or.)—House of worship on G Street, between Tenth and Eleventh. Sabbath-school every Sabbath (Saturday), followed by services. Preaching or Bible-reading Sunday evening. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. The public cordially invited.
San Francisco.—House of worship, 914 Laguna Street, between McAllister and Tyler. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:45, and preaching at 11 A.M.; also preaching every Sunday evening at 7:30. Sabbath-school classes in the English, German, and Scandinavian languages. Prayer and missionary meeting every Wednesday evening at 7:15.
SENTINEL TRACTS.
By Editor
THE Pacific Press has already printed two large editions of Sentinel Tracts, and the orders have come in so rapidly that some orders have been delayed. Another and larger edition is now being printed, and all orders will receive prompt attention. Let the orders come in.
A set of these tracts should be placed in the hands of every thinking person in the land, that all may be well posted on the National Reform movement. These tracts ably set forth the true animus of this movement.
The tracts are 12 in number, and will be mailed, post-paid, at 15 cts. per package, or 12 packages for $1.00. The usual discounts will be given when ordered in large quantities. For sale by any S. D. A. City Mission, State T. and M. Secretary, or Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.
CANVASSING FOR GREAT CONTROVERSY, VOL. 4.
By Editor
MANY who have in the past thought that they could not sell "Great Controversy," Vol. 4, but who have successfully handled other of our denominational works, have recently given "Great Controversy" a trial, and are surprised that it is such an easy book to sell.
It seems that our people in the various Conferences are awakening to the importance of this valuable work, and several of the States east of the Rockies, which have not formerly sold many copies of this book, are now ordering largely. It is hoped that every State will give "Great Controversy," Vol. 4, its share of attention and encourage its sale. We give below a few extracts from recent letters:—
"Am taking orders from nearly everyone canvassed; 104 books sold the past week."
"The Lord is blessing me on every hand."
"Sold 113 books in week ending August 5."
"I took 8 orders yesterday." (A beginner.)
This column could be filled with such extracts, but the above will suffice to show how the work is going.
This is a business that all can engage in. The devoted, consecrated one employed as a canvasser can scarcely fail to succeed. Who that reads this will decide to engage in this branch of the Master's work?