p. 13 | Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 8. (2/25/1904)

Earlier text: Funds for Our Washington Enterprises

Is It Right?

By Mrs. E. M. Peebles

MRS. E. M. PEEBLES

We believe that we have a special message for this generation, the most solemn one that has ever been given to man, even that “the hour of his judgment is come;” and that just as John the Baptist was forerunner of Christ’s first advent to this world, so this people carrying this message is the forerunner of his second coming; and that John’s message was a type of ours, and just as surely as John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isa. 40:3), so we are to be a voice in this wilderness of sin, a voice calling the people away from the world, with its tumult and folly, away from the crowds who are going downward to destruction. We are to call them into the only safe place, “the secret place of the Most High,” to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty when the storm of his wrath shall burst with unrestrained fury upon the unprepared. We believe that we are in the watching time,—a time corresponding to that just before the crucifixion, when our Saviour begged the disciples to watch with him one hour while all the powers of darkness were arrayed to overthrow the plan of salvation, or else to cause that even the very closest of his followers should sleep at their post of duty, only now such a sleep would prove fatal, the waking only to be in eternity; then, there was time for repentance.

We know that we are in the great antitypical day of atonement, when every Israelite was to “afflict his soul,” and if he neglected to do so, he was cut off from his people. We read in Joel 2: “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,” and both ministers and people are called upon to turn to God “with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

We can see the terrible judgments of God being visited upon the world, hurling thousands into eternity unprepared. These things tell us plainly that mercy is being withdrawn from the sinner. We see the forces of evil carrying the multitudes along, all either giddy with their downward flight or else wailing and moaning with a weight of sorrow which is too great to be borne, so that death by their own hands seems to them the quickest and easiest way to end it all; and is even advised by some of the leaders of the people.

We see “Ethiopia stretching out her hands to God,” and millions of her sons and daughters—the colored people of the South—are our near neighbors.

We hear heart-rending stories of suffering from famine in different parts of the world, of a “million a month in China who are dying without God,” of India’s child widows and wives who need scores of our sisters to tell them the gospel.

Without asking again the question, Is it right? we ask another: Can we enter even the outer circles of this great maelstrom (which is simply made up of independent and yet connected smaller circles, all sweeping on together with overwhelming power) to find for a few moments enjoyment and rest?

Can we find there an inspiration to the voice we must be in the world or else fail of our mission? Do we say we are tired and need a good intellectual treat, which, by the way, usually turns out to be mostly foolishness, and entirely of the world? When the disciples were weary, Jesus said to them, “Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest awhile,” but we do not read that he went somewhere to be amused, but on the contrary—

“Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervor of thy prayer, The desert thy temptation knew, Thy conflict and thy victory too.”

Is he less anxious now than then for the salvation of souls? He partook of the hospitality of the rich, but it was to preach his message; and he was present at the marriage at Cana, but to manifest his saving power, and bear witness to the “present truth;” and “as he is, so are we in the world.”

We believe that even now “the roll is being called up yonder.” When they come to my name, shall it be said, She is in such or such a place to be amused? Would not my Saviour have reason to be ashamed of me before the Father and the holy angels? The circus or the theater, the social game of cards or the dance, or even the worldly musicale and declamatory entertainments can not give the peace of mind and the spiritual rest and strength that are to be obtained by communion with God. How, then, can Christians go to the world for rest? Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Again: if it is right for one to gratify his desire to be amused and entertained as his taste indicates, is it wrong for another? Where shall the line be drawn? And if one Sabbath-keeper pays fifty cents in one year to see the show or to hear the declamation, fifty thousand Sabbath-keepers would pay two million five hundred thousand cents—and what a help that would be in finishing our work!

Are not these things worth thinking of? Christ says, “I have chosen you out of the world,” and so let us go into it only to carry the message he has entrusted to us, but not to partake of its spirit.

How Little It Costs

How little it costs, if we give it a thought, To make happy some heart each day! Just one kind word, or a tender smile, As we go on our daily way; Perchance a look will suffice to clear The cloud from a neighbor’s face, And the press of a hand in sympathy A sorrowful tear efface.

One walks in sunlight, another goes All weary in the shade; One treads a path that is fair and smooth, Another must pray for aid.

It costs so little! I wonder why We give it so little thought; A smile — kind words — a glance — a touch! What magic with them is wrought! — Somerville Journal.

A Modern Parable

By Mrs. A. C. Ames

MRS. A. C. AMES

There was once a rich man who thought he would help some extremely poor people, so he said: “I will give these people a good house to live in, and will furnish them means with which to buy what they need. I will also keep their house in good repair, see to the plumbing, heating, and lighting, and all I will require of them is that they take good care of it. Of the money and other things I shall give them, I will require that they return one tenth of the increase to me. This I will do to test their devotion and appreciation. They surely will be only too glad to do that much.”

But A said: “I never was used to taking care of a house in this way; it is so much trouble, and really I can not see that it makes much difference anyway. I know the man who gave it to me asked me to ‘take good care of it,’ but I do not know just how he meant, and I guess I’ll let it go. It is so much bother to find out about so many little things; and as to the tenth being returned to him, it seems to me I can not spare that. I believe I will let that go, too.”

B said: “There is neighbor A over there, he does not seem to appreciate what has been done for him; he does not pay any tithe at all. Nobody can say that of me, I pay my tithe faithfully;” and he looked about him with an air of complacency, but a shade passed over his face, and he continued: “I don’t know whether I take as good care of the house as the owner would like. It is wearing out faster than it would if I took better care of it, but it does not matter so much as long as I pay my tithe.”

So it went with one after another, until we come to F (faithful). He said: “My house is not so good as some have, but it is much better than I could ever have hoped to have if it had not been for that rich man’s kindness, and then, too, he told me just how to take care of the house. I do not understand all about it, but I will do the very best I can to learn. He asked me to return to him a tenth of the increase of all he gave me. What a little thing to ask in return for all the good things he has given me!” So with a happy heart he went on his way.

By and by the rich man came to see how his tenants were getting on. What did he see? What did he hear? What were his feelings as he witnessed the ingratitude of those he thought to benefit? We leave it to you, dear reader, to finish the little parable.

The houses the rich man gave to those poor, miserable people are the bodies the Lord has given us, and the care of them is healthful living in its truest sense. The money and goods are our possessions. The rich man’s return is the coming of our Lord. O, may we, none of us, be “weighed and found wanting” in that great day!

Method in Housekeeping

By Mrs. F. M. Colby

MANY housekeepers fail, there is no doubt, more from lack of system than anything else. Lack of early training and experience in most cases accounts for this failing. By far too large a number of housekeepers have little knowledge of the business until they marry.

Few girls take kindly to the kitchen; they prefer to do fancy work, play on the piano, or sit in the parlor with their best finery on, rather than soil their delicate digits with flour, dust, or dishwater. When at last they “get a man,” they hurry into the kitchen, take a few lessons in concocting nice cake and cookies, and baking pies, and graduate full-fledged cooks. The fact is they have not learned to cook at all, and know nothing of housekeeping. As a result the first years of their married life are rendered more or less miserable by this want of knowledge. The many perhaps succeed in a measure in the end; some never learn.

They do things better than this in Germany, and the new world is not so old but that it can learn something from the very old. German cooking and German habits of eating are very unlike ours. Many of their dishes would be repulsive to us, but it is a good custom among the German girls that all must learn how to cook. In that country there is a department of industry designed especially for women, and it constitutes the chief glory in that land of scholars and scientists.

No young lady is regarded as having a finished education unless she has spent at least one year in the house of some good family learning the art of housekeeping. If you understand things and have a method yourself, you can soon teach a competent, tractable servant. No woman can teach what she does not know, so every young housekeeper must perforce learn to teach; that is, to keep house.

The selection of food itself is a vast subject, and an interesting one, too, and to be able to get the best results from the raw material must of necessity be an art. The housewife always should have a threefold aim in her culinary method—economy, palatableness, and wholesomeness. In families where the income is limited, and only a small sum can be devoted to the cuisine, it is something of an art to keep the table expenses within that limit. The great secret is to have the principal dishes of comparatively cheap materials. Thus if you are obliged to indulge in an expensive dish, make the others in use the same day less than the usual cost, in this way averaging the daily expenditures.

A friend of mine, who has a servant, and insists upon having her routine followed, has the order in which the work is to be done written on a card, and hung in a prominent place in the kitchen. This helps to jog an irregular memory. First, after the girl has dressed herself and aired her room, she is to open the house; secondly, clean the steps and walks; thirdly, light the fire, sift the ashes, and bring in the day’s supply of coal and wood; fourthly, dust the rooms, and set the table; fifthly, get breakfast and serve.

After breakfast comes the dishwashing and the tidying up for the day. Then the regular work of the day follows. Of course, this order is optional and can be varied, but have a system of some kind, and do not trust to haphazard. Order is heaven’s first law, and nowhere is it more necessary than in housekeeping. Order is thrift, economy, health, happiness; lack of system is waste, hurry, unthrift, unhappiness.

There is no doubt that many homes are broken up by a want of system on the part of the housewife. More depends upon this than one may suppose at first thought. Home making is pre-eminently woman’s work. In order to best succeed there must be method and thrift. This much depends upon the bread giver, that is, the lady of the house, man’s helpmeet. If you had lived in the days of chivalry, and were to send your husband to the wars, you would have laced on his armor tightly, not loosely. Man, to-day, does not march off to a crusade, but every day he goes forth to struggle among his kind in the world’s battle. His house is his armor. See to it that it is kept polished and free from any specks of rust, and its rivets all tight. Do not suffer the honor of manhood to fall by any weakness, any carelessness, of your own. It is best to learn early that while your picture, or song, or story may prove

a failure, a dainty, cheerful home is a continual poem that will attract and charm even the rudest and most ignorant of men.—Mrs. F. M. Colby, in the New York Observer.

The Work-Cure

ONE of the last of modern devices for physical betterment is the so-called rest-cure, a retreat within whose outermost gates no form of bodily exercise can penetrate. The patient, presumably suffering from muscular or nervous exhaustion, is put to bed, and rigorously kept there. “His strength is to sit still.” Absolute inaction is held to be “tired nature’s” best physician, and the only prescription which the superintendent writes for the benefit of the invalid is, “Dolce far niente: ad lib.” Give body or mind opportunity to recover its lost tone, and unless the physical or mental strain has produced some serious lesion, nature will restore the exhausted energy, and send the patient back to his usual round of activities thoroughly renewed.

But even a very slight acquaintance with modern life reveals the fact that if some persons need the rest-cure, as many, or perhaps more, need the work-cure, a remedy far more difficult to administer. Notwithstanding our asserted strenuousness, it is open to question whether we do not as a people suffer more physically, mentally, and spiritually from idleness than from exertion. The many wrecks of nervous exhaustion are deplorably evident, yet it is not to be denied that all about us are valetudinarians whose ills are simply the results of ennui.

Some years ago we were called upon to sympathize with a neighbor who had suddenly been left a widow by the death of her husband, a death which, occurring from natural causes, came nevertheless with tragic unexpectedness. What his “poor invalid wife” would do nobody knew. For years she had hardly been able to comb her own abundant locks. Despite the fact that she possessed the physical proportions of a Venus of Milo, she had been carried up and down-stairs with tender care by a devoted spouse. But at his sudden death it was found that with him ceased his income, and with him had disappeared the family capital. She was not only a widow, but bedridden and penniless. It was a situation of which she had never dreamed. Manifestly something must be done. Within forty-eight hours the widow was on her feet; within a week she was “taking lessons,” and in ninety days was not only “healed,” but earned a competence as a “healer.”

Sickness and pain are real evils. God knows. But every honest physician tells us that he has a multitude of patients who will never get well unless some emergency arises in which they must “either fish or cut bait.” The drug store flourishes, and the patent-medicine man gets rich out of a class fretting themselves to death because without household tasks to engage the mind and supply physical exercise to muscles threatened with atrophy. Dumb-bells and golf-sticks only partially and for a brief season relieve the situation. They poorly take the place of those household industries which once kept both mind and body normal, but which now bestow their blessings on our domestics alone.

Modern essayists and preachers are wrestling again with the old-time problem of pessimism; nevertheless, there never yet was any real remedy for melancholy but work. There are more suicides in the palace than in the tenement. . . . Some years ago we received a letter from a friend, now dead, written from Paris, and complaining that with abundant wealth, agreeable social connections, and an untroubled faith in the gospel, she was, on account of certain past experiences, “the most unhappy woman on the Continent.” In a spirit of utmost friendliness, but with perfect plainness, we replied that the remedy for her unhappiness lay close at hand. She had been seeking in prayer the help which she should have sought in labor. We called her attention to the sufferings of the poor in that city,—to their insufficient wages, their unsanitary homes, their defective instruction in morals and religion. There was, we said, only one cure for her sorrow, and that was work. She took the advice in serious earnest; and having organized a charity for a distinct class among those of her own sex, she wrote within a year letters full of sunshine, because her life was now sweet with service.

It is not less true that the only cure for that spiritual valetudinarianism from which the church suffers to-day is work. The Chinese have a homely proverb to the effect that “the dog in his kennel barks at his fleas; but the dog that hunts doesn’t feel them.” We have too much barking to-day from those in the kennels, and too little of the happy forgetfulness of those in the field. . . . Half the ills from which we suffer to-day in body, mind, and soul, as individuals or as a church, can only be relieved by a prayerful use of the best of all remedies, and that is the work-cure.—The Interior.

A Sunshiny Husband

A SUNSHINY husband makes a merry, beautiful home, worth having, worth working for. If a man is breezy, cheery, considerate, and sympathetic, his wife sings in her heart over her puddings and her mending-basket, counts the hours till he returns at night, and renews her youth in the security she feels of his approbation and admiration. You may think it weak or childish if you please, but it is the admired wife who hears words of praise and receives smiles of commendation, who is capable, discreet, and executive. I have seen a timid, meek, self-distrusting little body bloom into strong, self-reliant womanhood, under the tonic and the cordial of companionship with a husband who really went out of his way to find occasion for showing her how fully he trusted her judgment, and how tenderly he deferred to her opinion.

In home life there should be no jar, no striving for place, no insisting on prerogatives, or division of interest. The husband and the wife are each the complement of the other. And it is just as much his duty to be cheerful as it is hers to be patient; his right to bring joy into the door as it is hers to sweep and garnish the pleasant interior. A family where the daily walk of the father makes life a festival is filled with something like heavenly benediction,—Selected.

Temperance in Sweden

THE working men of Sweden are forming strike unions to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquor. The duty on spirits has been raised by the government in order to raise more revenue. The laboring men assert that the tax falls too heavily on their class. The members of the labor unions are binding themselves not to touch spirits for a year, and are contributing sevenpence a month to a fund which will be divided among those who have kept the pledge. The temperance leaders are greatly elated, and hope that the proposed strike will spread throughout the nation.

The States railways of Sweden have adopted a most exemplary measure in the interests of temperance. During the winter they supply at several stations on the different lines warm milk free of charge to the enginemen and guards.

One year ago twenty railroad men of Sweden organized a total abstinence club. The membership now numbers thirteen hundred, and they have started district traveling libraries and courses of temperance study.

King Oscar, in response to petitions from his temperance subjects, has ordered that henceforth no champagne is to be used in the christening of battleships.—Selected.

Discontent With Work

THAT there is much discontent with work among the so-called middle classes in America is due in a large part to the pampering of children, to the supplying of their natural and artificial wants, and to the sentimental idea that “their day of toil will come soon enough.” In general, work is not a curse, but a blessing — a positive means of grace. One can hardly begin too early to impress upon children lessons of self-help by tasks appropriate to their age and forces, and to beget in them scorn of idleness and of dependence on others. To do this is to make them happy through the self-respect which comes with the realization of power, and thus to approximate Tennyson’s goal of man: “Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”—The Century.

Walking the Rugged Way

“I CAN not say, Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I can say That I had rather walk this rugged way, If Him it please.”

Mission Work in Samoa

By W. E. Floding

W. E. FLODING

Our work in Samoa was first established in the fall of 1895, as the Samoa Medical Mission. But since the Lord blessed us with grounds and building, it has been called the Samoa Sanitarium.

Hundreds and thousands of patients have visited our sanitarium,—many from mere curiosity, and many to receive help for their physical ailments.

When Dr. Braucht, with his helpers, began the pioneer work in Samoa, the natives came in such large numbers that it was impossible to attend to all who would come every day, so numbered tickets were given, that he might do justice to all. The work had not been going on very long till the doctor was looked upon by the Samoans as a wonderful man, and of great wisdom. He was known all over the islands as the Fomai Jutaia (the Jew doctor). This name was given to him by the missionaries, because the doctor was an observer of God's Sabbath. And ever since, he is known to all Samoans by that title.

A few who have asked if it was his people who killed Christ have learned different. Many, when asked why they call him a Jew doctor, have no special reason, only that that is the name by which they first learned to know him, and which designated his peculiarity as a Sabbath observer.

All work in treating the sick not absolutely necessary was discontinued on the Sabbath, that the workers might have a day of rest unto the Lord. This always required more or less explanation,—that Saturday is the seventh-day Sabbath, and that they as observers of God's law were keeping the wrong day. To this they would reply that that was the day they used to keep, but the missionaries changed it, on account of the steamers coming in on Saturday, then called Sunday. The arrival of these steamers always meant a great deal of excitement on their sabbath. It afforded opportunities to the Samoans to earn some money by taking passengers to and from the steamer (as they have no wharves in our harbor), selling curios, and giving heathen dances, and diving for money thrown overboard by the passengers. The Christianized Samoans were not supposed to take part in any of these things, but among them, as well as among civilized nations, the majority take the name of Christ that they may have a good name and be trusted more.

That they might not have so many temptations on Sunday when the steamers would come, it was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week—not for Sunday's sake, but because the steamer came on that day. The first people coming to the island, in crossing the day-line had not skipped a day to be in harmony with the rest of the world, so Sunday came on the seventh day of the week, instead of the first, until it was changed by the missionaries.

Our mission has been a standing testimony to all the people, of the seventh-day Sabbath. Every Sabbath intruder, unless an emergency case, has been sent away, and has been told to wait. And those coming for consultation, to buy medicine, pay bills, or for any other business for which the first six days of the week were created, were never received on the Sabbath.

All Samoans know that tobacco, tea, coffee, kava, salt meat, fish, canned meats, shell-fish, etc., are forbidden when they come to the sanitarium for treatment, and they never forget to ask what is forbidden, but often appear to forget when they are eating, and thereby some have passed through dangerous experiences.

There are enough schools and opportunities to give every Samoan an ample education. There is every chance for them to be taught the Word of God and to know him. But where Satan has succeeded so well in blindfolding, there is need of much hard work and persuasion, to dispel the darkness. They quickly acknowledge the truth, but it is very difficult to get them to apply it to themselves. There are few who have any stability of character. Where life comes so easy, there are not those experiences that develop thought and an appreciation of God's goodness and mercy and a desire to grow in grace and a knowledge of the truth. Days come and go, time is no question; so they can follow the customs and traditions of their forefathers. The gospel is accepted as a matter of convenience.

The Samoan will acknowledge the truth, and that he ought to do differently, but he has not the power to do so, because of the customs which he permits to stand in the way of God's commands. God's law and the Lord's prayer are memorized, and repeated every Sunday with a breath foul with tobacco. Those who do not smoke are very few.

They live together in villages varying in size. Each village has its chief, and everything is held in common. As a rule, they all work, worship, and play together, making it very hard for any one who wishes to do differently. They think a great deal of their customs; this is anything but a help to them spiritually. Often the most trifling disregard of custom will cause enmity. The Bible has to be secondary when Samoan customs stand in question. But when the natives are sick, their cry is, “God overrules.” Most of the time they do what in their judgment ought to be done, thereby often killing a person who would live if left alone. Whatever happens, “God overrules.” Satan gets the blame if the patient dies. Of every death that I remember, the spirits of departed friends carried off the souls of the deceased. The spirits are called devils, and it seems they are always associated with sickness, and the native doctors give treatments with leaves, poultices, and massage, by which these devils are charmed or expelled, I do not know which. They catch them at the tip of the ear, the big toe, or some point. The doctor picks them off, and the patient gets well. The Samoan pastors do a great deal of praying for the sick, but their actions make it impossible for God to answer prayer.

Nearly every village has a nice large stone church, where all go to worship, unbelievers as well as believers bow reverently upon entering the house of God, and offer a silent prayer. All take a hearty part in singing, praying, and saying the ten commandments. They all look alike, and act alike, so it is pretty hard to tell the pious from the wicked. And it is a common thing for church-members, if they have a grudge against their pastor, to hurt him by joining the Catholic church, or one of some other faith.

At the same time, there are some nice people among them, taking into consideration

their environments and race. There are many who know they are doing wrong, and have expressed themselves as wishing to do better, but a lion is in the way.

With the Samoans, the missionaries who have the greatest following have power something like a chief. Whatever they say is done in a way. If you prove to the natives from the Bible that they err in something, they can not change, unless the missionaries say, “All right,” and then the whole church changes. Nevertheless, I know the Lord has honest souls among the Samoans, and that some will be ready to meet him when he comes.

As soon as we get some literature to work with, I believe we shall see good results. Being so far from civilization, a great deal of time is consumed by having our literature published several thousand miles away. We hope in a short time to have the book “Christ Our Saviour,” printed in Samoan, and we expect some tracts as soon as there is opportunity for them to come, which we believe will be a help in finding those who shall be ready to stand before God and rejoice to see him face to face.

Thus far all I have been able to do has been to reason with the people out of the Scriptures, and help the sick, of whom there are so many that a person's whole time could easily be occupied doing nothing else, especially by giving free treatments. As it is, the doctor has his hands full.

When I think of the millions who have not heard of the Word of God, and where missionaries have not yet been, I feel that the young people who have a burden for souls ought to make an earnest effort to reach such fields. There are great opportunities and advantages in being the first, or among the first, to enter. I believe the heathen who have not heard the Word of God will be more ready to accept the truth as it is in Christ than so-called Christianized heathen, who have been preached to death, and to whom the Word of God apparently means so much talk. Furthermore, the missionaries of other denominations can not then tell our missionary to enter some new field, and not come following after them. It is a splendid thing to know how to take care of the sick people, and not to be afraid of losing respect by doing work that requires a pair of overalls or an apron, when circumstances so demand. Above all, do not forget the object of your labor. Pray for Samoa.

The Latin Union Field

By Benjamin George Wilkinson

B. G. WILKINSON

Since the Lausanne camp-meeting in July, the work in the Latin Union Mission has given many signs of progress. At that meeting resolutions were passed which have demanded arduous labor for their realization.

In the first place, the resolution which voted the location of the office of the French-Swiss Conference at Geneva, has found a favorable realization. A good, well-situated, and convenient location was found at Rue de la Synagogue 29, almost in the center of the city of Geneva. Here was placed not only the office just mentioned, but also the branch office of the International Tract Society.

It is our plan in the Latin Union Mission not to form local tract and missionary societies, which spring from the local conference, but, according to the resolution of the Lausanne camp-meeting, the union will have a central publishing house, whose headquarters are at Paris. Then all tract and publishing work done in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, French-Switzerland, and the other fields of the Latin Union, will be regarded as branch offices of the central office at Paris.

To find and put in running order this central office at Paris was another task. Especially so, since all the stock of the union was at Basel, Switzerland, at which place it was necessary to divide the stock and ship it to the first two offices already chosen,—those at Geneva and Paris. However, suitable quarters were found at Paris, rue de Vaugirard 108, which will answer our needs for a time.

Another task devolved upon the workers at Paris. The store which had been rented as a meeting-hall at the beginning of the year 1902 for a term of one year, had already in the spring of the same year been rented out from under our feet by the proprietor, to a carpenter. This involved the search for a new hall, which is not very easy to find in Paris. The plan of holding meetings in a hall is little known in this city, except in connection with the Socialists and Salvation Army, whose noisy and clamorous meetings have prejudiced hall proprietors against the idea.

This change was all the more disagreeable, since the meetings begun this fall have obtained a serious and growing interest. After a long search, another hall was found, which we hope is not so far away that the interested ones can not attend. At present there are six or seven who are keeping the Sabbath,—two as a result of the work done in Paris the past spring and fall. Some have made application to receive baptism, and we hope that soon all may be prepared to join the church.

The preaching services are conducted by Elder John Vuilleumier and the writer, assisted by Brother Fred Robert, who is visiting and giving Bible readings. Brother Vuilleumier’s time is largely occupied in editorial work on Les Signes des Temps; and the writer, on account of his general duties as director of the field, is often called to leave Paris. So we at times seriously feel the need of more permanent help for the large city of nearly three million inhabitants, the spiritual Sodom of the Bible. However, the work in Paris has a brighter future, if liberal measures are taken to sustain it.

There is another resolution from the camp-meeting which awaits solution—the one which looks toward the establishment of the health and educational work in the French field. As efforts are now being directed to accomplish this, we hope that the first few months of the new year will bring about the solution of this resolution.

For the first three quarters of the year 1903 our church-membership has increased fifty-two, forty-two having become members by baptism. During the same period the number of regular subscribers to our French paper, Les Signes des Temps, has increased from one thousand to eighteen hundred. And whereas in January last we printed an edition of twenty-six hundred, at the present writing we can state an edition of eleven thousand for September and of nine thousand for November, these editions not being special, but from regular growth of demand.

I must add a word in reference to my visit to Spain in November. We found that the gentleman at Barcelona, whose acquaintance we had made at the time of our visit to Spain last spring, had opened his door to the Brethren Bond upon their arrival in that city. Subsequently, after studying with these brethren, he and his family accepted the truth. As he had previously been an evangelical worker, he had a little flock at Sabadell, about fifteen miles from Barcelona, who looked to him as their spiritual leader. This little band of Christians now invited the Brethren Bond to teach them the truth. As a result of this effort, I found upon my arrival that already two of them had begun the observance of the Sabbath, and that the other members were seriously stirred over the question. I am expecting to receive a call at any time to baptize several members of this group. Arrangements were also made with the new brother, whereby he can gradually withdraw himself from his present occupation, and prepare to become a worker for Spain.

At the present time, Belgium, France, French Switzerland, Spain, and Italy have been in some measure provided with workers. But there remain two more fields of the Latin Union in which nothing has as yet been done—Portugal and Algeria. In these two countries ten million souls wait to hear the proclamation of the last message of warning. Shall these countries hear the trumpet of the watchman? We pray that soon in these fields the mountains shall be brought low, the valleys exalted, and a highway prepared for our soon-coming Saviour.

Paris, France.

Chinese Congregation Gives to Missions

A CONGREGATION of one hundred and twenty-five Christian Chinese gave two thousand dollars to foreign missionary work in one year.—Selected.

Growth in Missionary Contributions

The average contributions to the American Board for missions during the last ninety years is an interesting study. The offerings by decades have shown healthy growth. During the first ten years of their missionary efforts abroad, the donations amounted to $16,000. The report for the years 1890-1900 shows gifts aggregating $701,000.

California

By F. J. STEMPLE

RIVERSIDE.—A Young People's Society has recently been organized here, and our first work has just been finished. We sent three barrels of food and clothing to Brother C. A. Watkins, at Baton Rouge, La., for the poor there. Our membership is small, but we all engage heartily in the work. We have been holding our meetings in private houses, but our new church will be nearly finished by next Sabbath.

Elder Simpson will continue his labors here. Many come to hear him speak. There were about fifty converted in the tent effort. F. J. STEMPLE.

Continue reading: F. W. FIELD