Earlier text: Christ's IntercessionWar Inevitable
By F. M. W.
A GREAT world war is the inevitable historical climax of the future. We must believe this if we believe the evidence of our own eyes and ears. We must expect it as the outcome of the hard, stern facts of war preparation which we see in every nation. The war spirit is coming to be the predominant spirit of the age. It not only pervades the military camp, but penetrates into every avenue of business and industry as well; and its spirit is surcharging not only the heart and mind of the soldier, but even of the boy and girl. The organization of high-school cadets, the carrying forward of military parades in schools of various grades, the enthusiasm attending the extension and organization of the boy scouts movement,—these and scores of other movements and organizations which might be mentioned, show the extent and working of the spirit of militarism. As never before, the avenues of industry are taxed to support the department of war, and the nations of earth are groaning under the burdensome taxation imposed upon them by the continually increasing expenditure for new armament, larger battle-ships, and the general maintenance of the military organization. We must believe that a great world war in the future is inevitable from the statements of the prophetic word. Joel 3:9-16, Rev. 16:16-18, as well as other scriptures, clearly indicate that this will be the climax of the extensive preparations now going forward. Nor will the creation of peace treaties, the building of peace temples, or the adoption of resolutions by peace societies, prevent the predicted outcome. These things may check the rising tide for a little time, but they can not change the human heart, nor can they prevent the bursting forth of the pent-up passions of men. So long as human passion bears sway, so long as the nations of men are controlled by the spirit of pride and worldly achievement, so long as the governments of earth are bent upon national glory and expansion, so long as in the minds of the multitude might makes right, just so long will the nations of earth vie with one another, each seeking advantage over its fellows, and each determined to gain every possible advantage at any possible cost. These are the conditions which exist today, and they will continue to exist until the kingdoms of this earth are swept away, and righteousness covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. The nations of men are looking for this struggle. This is forcefully shown by the very fact that they are preparing for it. They may express pleasing sentiments and platitudes in favor of peace and arbitration, but the steady grind of war preparation goes on from day to day. Speaking of the present situation in Europe with respect to the controversy between Germany and France over the state of affairs in Morocco, the North American (Philadelphia) of August 30 says:— Conditions in Europe are grave. We do not foresee this year, nor next year, nor at any given time, the date of the Armageddon that will rewrite the map of the world. That map is bound to be rewritten, either by diplomacy or with guns. We hope for the former method. We see no present basic reason for the latter. But the conditions in Europe and Asia and Africa are such as to demand sober study by Americans, and the establishment of a sane estimate of the theoretically admirable folly of the Mohonk peace conference, the self-advertising silliness of an Andrew Carnegie undertaking to end war with a $10,000,000 check, and the dangerous nonsense of the Taft administration drafting treaties of universal peace, properly stigmatized by the United States Senate as “breeders of war.” There is much more than mere “rattling of sabers” in Europe. There is fire very close to the powder-magazines of England and Germany. France is just the stalking-horse. The truth about the critical diplomatic situation is revealed by the bellicose comment of the German newspaper, the Lokal-Anzeiger, which is commonly supposed to express the unofficial sentiment of the German government:— “The one important lesson which the Germans must learn from recent events is that our most incorrigible and most restless enemy is not France, but on the other side of the North Sea. Our real peril is in the policy of England, which misses no opportunity to embarrass us and to hinder our progress in every direction.” When, in connection with this, the German kaiser declares in public speeches that his royal sons are ready to sacrifice their lives on their country’s altar “if things become grave,” and that “if we understood the enthusiasm of the people of Hamburg aright, I think I can assume it is their opinion that our navy should be further strengthened, so that we may be sure that no one can dispute with us the place in the sun that is our due;” when French reserves are ordered to the colors, and England is warned by Lord Brassey that “contingencies may arise in regions of the world in dealing with which naval force might be necessary in support of diplomatic action,” it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that, in spite of Taft, Carnegie, and Mohonk, the war-cloud is rather blacker than in the days of Fashoda and Algeciras. The editor, while expressing his abhorrence of the thought of war, admits with reluctance “that there is historical basis for the reasoning of Harold F. Wyatt, in the Nineteenth Century and After magazine that”— it is only among decaying peoples that Christianity is discovered to be incompatible with the military spirit. When a nation is young and expanding, no such scruples are felt. But when its energies begin to wither, when self-indulgence takes the place of self-sacrifice, when its sons and its daughters become degenerate, then it is that a spurious and bastard humanitarianism masquerading as religion, declares war to be an anachronism and a barbaric sin. Efficiency in war, or rather, efficiency for war, is God’s test of a nation’s soul. By that test it stands, or by that test it falls. Speaking of Germany and Japan, the editor continues:— There are two rich, strong, virile nations, overpopulated, “cribbed, cabined, and confined.” The stars in their courses are not more certain than the expansion of Germany and Japan. Yet the elder nations “in their harness rise up against their path,” whenever a movement toward expansion is made by either of those bursting peoples. What can the answer be but war sooner or later—war of the minds of great diplomats, we hope, but always the possibility of the more horrid war. We are not alarmists. . . . Nor are we “seeing things at night”8 in the shape of Germany setting up an autonomous government in the province of Brazil, where three hundred thousand carefully colonized Germans are ready to act whenever the word comes from Berlin. That word can not come until England’s power is irretrievably diminished. . . . It seems to us that there is no need for a year or so for alarm about a war on the other side of the world, nor for a longer time about a war in which America would be concerned to the extent of shooting. We are just citing some certainties to-day to call attention to what we do consider a real danger. And that is the belief growing in too many American minds that a few well-meaning men can sit down in Washington or The Hague, move up the progress of the universe a hundred years in a day, and with pen and ink create an Elysium, with the possibility of war utterly and permanently eliminated. Again and again it has seemed that war is inevitable, as the war-cloud has hung dark and heavy over the European sky, but the nations have been held in check. Men of the world have marveled that again and again when an open clash seemed unavoidable, peace has been restored. The student of prophecy, however, knows that God is holding the winds. He has a great gospel message to go to earth’s remotest bounds. He has a work to accomplish among the nations of earth. The world is not yet ready for the final harvesting. Until this time has been reached, and the work of God has been accomplished, the angels of God have been commissioned to hold the four winds. Rev. 7:1-4. In the time of peace still allotted to us, may we make sure work of bringing our own characters into harmony with the requirements of God’s Word, and of doing all in our power to carry the gospel message to those around us. To engage in this double work for ourselves and for others, is the only way in which we shall be prepared to meet, by God’s grace, the things which shall finally come upon the earth. “PROCLAIM ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” A Record in Missionary Appointments
By W. A. S.
THE current number of the Missionary Review has the following note:— A Hundred New Missionaries
The largest number of missionaries ever sent out by one denomination in one year will be sent out by the Foreign Mission Board of the Northern Presbyterian Church during the present year. One hundred have already been accepted, and will sail in July, August, and September. This large number of new missionaries has been made possible by a recent bequest to the board. The regular income of the Presbyterian Board is about $1,300,000 a year. We are glad to hear of this large addition to the missionary force. Of special interest to Seventh-day Adventists is the statement that this one hundred new missionaries is the largest number ever sent out by one denomination in any year. Our own figures for recent years are as follows:— 1907 ........................ 58
1908 ........................ 140
1909 ........................ 134
1910 ........................ 61 This makes 393 missionaries sent out in the last four years, or an average of very nearly one hundred a year. No wonder our little mission treasury is pressed continually to the limit to supply the needs in the mission fields. But wonderfully God has blessed our brethren and sisters in keeping the gifts flowing in, and he has blessed our missionaries in the fields in developing local resources, and in economizing to make the appropriations go to the farthest limit. Now the encouraging growth of the staff of native workers in mission fields calls for continual and large increase, regardless of new missionaries; and it will require our united devotion in earning and giving to make ends meet in the fields, even though we reduce the number of missionaries sent out. Yet the call for new workers comes with compelling urgency. As we see what a small people are doing, with meager resources, we feel that truly the Lord, whose blessing multiplied the loaves and fishes for the hungry multitude, is giving power to the last gospel message. This should be added: Our list of missionaries includes those going out from Europe and the colonies. Our work is one the world over, and our denomination one in its activities. The figures from the Presbyterian Board represent the main American branch of that church. At the National Reform Convention
By C. M. S.
The Doctrines of the Association Demonstrate Themselves Un-American and Antichristian
As certainly and as persistently as ever the National Reform Association continues to press forward its campaign of denouncing our nation’s present form of government, and urging in its place a government modeled after Israel of old or the theocracies of the early colonies. The very arguments which the colonists used in defense of their frame of government and of their tyrannical activities under that régime, are being used now by that association in an effort to undermine the pillars of the republic and establish a theocracy upon its ruins. All the intolerant attitudes assumed by the association and all the efforts made to overturn the present basis of American government are predicated upon the fantastic and unreasonable idea that the state is a moral entity, a moral being, that a moral personality, accountable to God as an individual is accountable, and having a life to lose and a soul to save. From such an illogical assumption it is perfectly natural to run off from the plain track of reason into all sorts of curious and dangerous notions. For instance, this position was strongly urged by the general superintendent: “The state being a moral personality, accountable to God, it must have a religion of its own, which it must maintain.” It requires but little thinking to make it plain that if the state must have a religion of its own, a worship of its own, which it must maintain, there is at once an established religion; and the compulsory maintenance of that established religion requires that individuals maintain it by performing the worship prescribed. It is not possible for a state to maintain a system of worship without providing that the worship shall be performed and the established religion be professed and possessed by individuals. Otherwise the state might find itself in the peculiar predicament of being required to have religion without any possible way by which it could express that religion, or of being required to worship, and having no agency through which to perform it. The National Reform program, therefore, entails an established religion and compulsory worship, and proposes to bring this about in the United States of America. This is an interesting consideration in connection with what the revelator says in reference to the work of the image of the beast. When the Constitution was so amended as to declare that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” it was thought that the nation was forever protected from what had been the bane of every nation in Christendom,—the establishment of a national religion and compulsion in worship. But this most vital of the nation’s guaranties for individual justice is being attacked vehemently and systematically, by institutes, by periodicals, by books, pamphlets, and lectures; and a world congress with that as the basic idea in mind, is expected to accomplish great things in making the idea dominant at home and incidentally abroad. Said Dr. Martin: “We do not believe in a union of church and state; but that does not signify that there should not be separate religious functions in the state itself.” That means the adoption and practise of religion by the state; and that means the adoption and practise of somebody’s religion; and that means, further, that somebody must practise that religion whether he will or no, in order that the state may surely demonstrate that it has religion and performs worship.9 The world-wide influence of this arrangement was not lost sight of. In speaking of the maintenance of chaplaincies in the army and navy and in legislatures and the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations by governors and presidents, Dr. Martin said: “If it is proper to exercise these [religious] functions thus far, it is proper to exercise them so far that all the world will know that we are a Christian nation.” This purpose to have America lead the world in that particular direction is also significant when considered in connection with the prophecy above alluded to. He continued:— We felt the necessity of making America Christian before we could have the right influence upon the nations of earth. America has a world-wide influence. She is being looked to as an example. The whole world is waking up, and America is in the lead. These considerations caused us to desire to get missionaries together from all parts of the world, and to do our best to make their influence felt in the line of Christianizing the nations and governments of the earth. The kind of Christianizing that will be done there is the kind that is being attempted here; and that influence will pave the way for the complete fulfilment of that long-predicted decree of persecution and death foretold in Rev. 13: 15-17. Throughout the institute it was made plain that the state was the ultimate authority in all things in the earth. Said Dr. Martin: “The state derives its authority direct from God; it is a moral and accountable being; and it can not admit of any imperium in imperio.” That is, its ruling is final for the individual. He can not of right set up his conscience, for that would be acting according to a rule independent of the state — an imperium in imperio, which the state could not admit. And that idea of government puts us right back in Babylon. Babylon could not admit any imperium in imperio; so when the conscientious Hebrews followed the dictates of their own conscience in the matter of worship, they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. It is significant, however, that the form of a fourth, even the Son of God, was seen in their midst, and that God himself taught Babylon that there could be, in the state, a rule within a rule, a kingdom within a kingdom, an imperium in imperio. That rule is the rule of conscience; and that kingdom is the kingdom of God set up in the heart of his child, even though that child of God is a subject of the state. That lesson which Jehovah taught Nebuchadnezzar through his own fiery furnace, and taught King Darius and his counselors through the den of lions, is just as applicable here and now as it was then, and just as necessary. God holds each individual soul personally accountable to himself, without any regard to what decrees kings or governments may issue. Throughout the institute this thought was emphasized: “The chief end of the individual is to glorify God. The state being a moral personality, its chief end is to glorify God and labor for the upbuilding of his kingdom in the earth.” Such an arrangement would put the state directly in the place of the church, and rule out the individual entirely from responsibility in that great work; for if the state assumes the duty of upbuilding the kingdom of God in the earth, its authority being ultimate and absolute, it must exclude from that work all agencies save those which work under its direction. It can not admit of an imperium in imperio. What, then, becomes of the great commission which Christ personally gave to his followers? That would never do. The nation or state must do the work. But we look in vain through all our Saviour’s teaching for any account of his ever having commissioned a state, a nation, or a king to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel” even to one individual “creature.” In discussing the question of the rights of the individual in matters of conscience, Dr. Martin said:— The crux of the whole matter is right in this: the state or the nation has rights. It has a life of its own, a character of its own, and it is bound to maintain its own rights. As against the right of the state to maintain its own life and rights and character, no individual, no set of men, can step up and claim rights, because their rights are limited by the right of the state, which is supreme. If that be true, then every martyr that has died rather than violate his conscience has done wrong in the sight of God, and is guilty of his own death; for in standing true to his own conscience, he was opposing his state in the exercise of its just prerogatives and in the maintenance of its just rights. But to take such a position as that would be to accuse God himself, who stood among the Hebrew worthies and shielded them from harm, who shut the mouths of the lions that they should not harm Daniel, who opened heaven that Stephen, while being stoned to death for his faith, might see his face and the glory of the redeemed, and who comforted and upheld his tortured children through the dark ages. What a terrible anachronism it is that in this age of progress, of prosperity, of knowledge, of light and liberty, and with all the lessons and warnings of history staring us in the face, those principles which have ruined nations and spilled the blood of the innocent should be soberly advocated, and that, too, in America! Such a doctrine is essentially anti-christian, and such a political program is dangerously un-American. C. M. S. Finding What We Seek For
By F. M. W.
We may make our lives largely what we will. Under God our destinies are in our own hands. We may take large views of life and life's purposes, relating ourselves to life's experiences with hope and faith and courage; or we may narrow our view and circumscribe our vision, seeing only the lions in the way and the difficulties to be met. We shall see in our own experience, and in the lives of those around us, largely what we look for. If we look for evil, it will appear; if for good, it also may be found. There is no man in the world so good but that something wrong may be found in his life; and it has never yet been our fortune to meet one so evil but that some good was intermingled with the bad. The world at large, the members of the church, even the members of our own families, will be cold or cordial, interested or indifferent, hateful or loving, largely as we relate ourselves to them. Love will beget love, and coldness and indifference will bear as well their natural fruit. The Lord does not take out of our experience occasion for doubt if we wish to cultivate this negative quality. Even in his own relationship to man, he does not apparently remove10 all occasion for those who wish to find in his dealings something for criticism. Says the psalmist: “With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” God possesses nothing of frowardness. In him is absolute perfection, but the froward man, viewing the dealings of God through his own perverted vision, clothes his Maker with his own unstable attributes. The world to-day needs broad-minded, generous-hearted men and women. It needs those of warm hearts and generous natures and cheerful, optimistic dispositions. It needs those who look forward instead of backward, who look to the sunshine instead of the darkness, who will see the rift in the cloud and the rainbow of promise even in surrounding darkness. Let us cultivate this spirit, and see what response we shall find among our fellows. This old world, even with all its mistakes and sin and darkness, will appear more pleasant. Life will seem worth living. Our own hope in God will be brightened, and with stronger faith and courage we may take hold of all of life's conflicts, meeting them bravely, manfully, and cheerfully. The exercise of this spirit is well worth while; its fruit will be seen not only in this world, but in the world to come. “Do not look for wrong and evil,
You will find them if you do.
As you measure to your neighbor,
He will measure back to you.
Look for goodness, look for gladness,
You will find them all the while;
If you bring a smiling visage
To the glass, you meet a smile.”
For a Growing Work
By W. A. Spicer
By arrangement of the General Conference regarding the five regular annual offerings, Sabbath, October 7, brings again the offering for work among the colored people in the South. Our brethren may plan for the gifts this year with a knowledge that previous offerings have accomplished definite results. We rejoice at what we see. The organization of the General Conference Negro Department, at the General Conference two years ago, was expected greatly to strengthen and multiply the activities in this work. And the Lord has blessed our colored brethren as they have pressed forward. Some time ago the department reported that of all the believers among the colored people in this country, half of the number have accepted the truth during the last two years, or little more. This growth, as is always the case, brings only heavier pressure upon the department. On every side the workers hear calls for advance. More laborers are to be trained, more mission schools to be established, and newly opened doors are to be entered. The situation presses for a universal and liberal offering in the churches on October 7. Last year this offering brought in $10,720. The growth of the work and the increasing urgency of the need set the mark, surely, of $15,000, as the result to aim at this year by a united effort. W. A. SPICER, Gen. Conf. Secretary. The Religion of the Future
In the minds of some the standard of religion and religious faith and doctrine rests upon a sliding scale to be determined by the age of the world, the enlightenment of the people, etc. Consequently these theorists speculate upon what will constitute the “religion of the future.” The child of God does not need to spend time or worry in such silly philosophizing. The standard of religion to-day in God’s great plan is precisely what it was yesterday, one thousand years ago, in the days of the apostle Paul, in the antediluvian age. God has had one rule through all the ages by which he has measured right and righteousness; that is the law of the ten commandments. There has been one means, and one only, of salvation in every age of the world’s history, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Scriptures contain to-day, as in past ages, a statement of Christian doctrine. Thankful indeed may we be that this is so. Otherwise we would be left to the wild meanderings of human philosophy and to the finite standards which changeable men might erect. Speaking of this subject, the Western Recorder (Baptist) of August 3 says:— Of all senseless discussions none is ahead of that on the “religion of the future.” The true religion is as changeless as its God and his infallible Word. The errors and heresies no man can foresee. There may be another “dark ages” before us, when the true religion will hide away in valleys, caves, and catacombs. God is ruling. The thing for each of us to do is to seek the true religion here and now, and having found it, to take care that we do not build wood, hay, nor stubble on the true foundation. The chief concern of every child of God should be to know how rightly to apply in his own personal experience the principles of the Word of truth. Some Educational Statistics
UNDER this heading the United Presbyterian of July 13, 1911, furnished the following statistics regarding school work in the United States:— According to the Chicago Daily News Almanac, 1911, as quoted by Dr. Bryan, the school enrolment of the United States is as follows:— Teachers in public schools ... 496,612
Pupils in public schools ..... 17,061,962
Public high schools (professors and students) ........ 1,098,764
Private high schools (professors and students) .......... 102,360
Universities and colleges for men and both sexes:—
Professors and instructors .... 21,960
Students, preparatory ....... 65,026
Collegiate ................... 134,386
Graduate ..................... 9,449
Colleges for women (teachers and students) ............ 30,396
Theological schools (professors and students) .......... 11,568
Law schools (professors and students) ................. 19,806
Medical schools (professors and students) ............. 30,115
Special schools, such as evening, business, reform, deaf, dumb, and feeble-minded ........ 793,652
Total for the United States, 19,776,694 As indicating the educational work of the churches so far as reported, we give also a table prepared by the college board of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, giving, by denominations, students, property, and endowment:— Baptist: Institutions, 111; faculty, 2,310; students, 33,329; property, $25,476,000; endowment, $22,058,000. Christian: Institutions, 20; faculty, 415; students, 6,091; property, $2,170,000; endowment, $1,151,000. Congregational: Institutions, 42; faculty, 1,746; students, 21,769; property, $6,662,000; endowment, $24,394,000. Lutheran: Institutions, 47; faculty, 557; students, 8,842; property, $3,039,000; endowment, $767,000. Methodist: Institutions, 103; faculty, 3,171; students, 41,268; property, $23,206,000; endowment fund, $18,780,000. Presbyterian: Institutions, 77; faculty, 1,578; students, 19,796; property, $14,096,000; endowment, $18,688,000. Protestant Episcopal: Institutions, 10; faculty, 667; students, 5,744; property, $17,284,000; endowment, $18,970,000. Roman Catholic: Institutions, 61; faculty, 1,649; students, 16,278; property, $25,350,000; endowment, $1,517,000. This affords an interesting comparison of the school work carried forward by the various denominations in this country. It is stated that the endowment does not “provide income to cover the expenses,” thus making all of these denominations dependent upon public appeal. “Even these large sums,” says the Presbyterian, “do not reveal the full resources of the churches in America.” Disgraceful Methods of Money-Raising
SUCH indeed is the character of a matrimonial lottery held at a lawn party of Saint Michael’s parish in Avon, Mass., recently. According to the Christian Advocate of August 3, this lottery gave to a certain young woman the right to have a certain young man for a husband. “She also won a one-hundred-fifty-dollar diamond ring, and the privilege of a free marriage certificate and a free wedding by the rector of Saint Michael’s. Four Avon bachelors agreed to draw lots to see which one was to offer himself as the bridegroom of the lottery. This was conducted under the auspices of the rector.” It is not surprising that so little regard is placed upon the sanctity of the marriage relationship when professed Christians thus lower it to the scale of barter and trade. Commenting upon this incident, the Advocate says:— During the last twenty years in most denominations money has been made by a method whose essential quality is made a crime by the civil laws. We have heard of doings in Methodist churches that disgraced the denomination, and on several occasions we have exposed them. After one such disgraceful affair in a Methodist church, we were invited to go to the Christmas celebration of another church, by a lady not a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We went, and before the affair was half over, she mournfully confessed her surprise at the performance. At the close she acknowledged that that exhibition was on the same grade with the other. The law forbidding lotteries should be enforced against churches with at least as much vigor as against secular concerns. Surely if the professed Christian church hopes to raise the moral standard of living among the masses, it can not stoop to these methods of money-raising in order to catch the popular ear and draw worldly patronage. With the recognition of the Scriptural method of raising money for Christian work, there would be no temptation to employ questionable methods. How Long?
By WM. W. WORSTER, M. D.
How long, O my dear children,
Must I your crowns withhold?
My heart is growing weary,
And you are growing old.
Remember that the nations
Must each the gospel hear
Before in clouds of glory
I to the earth appear. How long, O precious children,
Will you remain asleep?
The judgment hour is closing;
The harvest soon I’ll reap.
The mansions long were finished,
The time is getting late;
The reapers now stand ready,
But I must bid them wait. Awake, my slumbering children!
Make all the earth resound,
Till every tribe and nation
Has heard the joyful sound.
Then faithful to the promise
Will come the great reward,—
Eternal life in glory,
And ever with the Lord. Count the Cost and Weigh the Reward
By Myrtle B. Cottrell
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” runs an old proverb, which is well worth heeding before making a change that will affect the whole of one’s after-life. It, therefore, seems that a few side-lights on missionary life in China might prove of benefit to those who are contemplating making this their chosen field of labor. Do not come to China unless you are willing to be separated for months at a time from all American Seventh-day Adventists except your immediate family who come with you; and, if the needs of the work demand it, even from them. Do not come to China unless you are willing to go without mail from home for weeks, though you may receive home mail weekly. Do not come to China unless you are willing to pass through riots and pestilences for “His sake.” Do not come to China unless you are willing to live amid unpleasant surroundings without giving up to homesickness. Do not come to China unless you are ready to have your patience tried in many new and unthought-of ways. The following are a few instances:— The construction of a cottage, chapel, or schoolhouse may fall to you. You should therefore be prepared, after having spent days with your Chinese contractor, planning most minutely every little detail until he says he understands thoroughly and agrees by written contract to all provisions, to see him use a slipshod native method. When you call his attention to his promise, he may say, “O, I can not do that way;” “I never agreed to that.” You turn to your written agreement for proof, only to find that the Chinese phraseology is such that it admits of either mode of construction. There will doubtless be not a few misunderstandings between you and your contractor. As Mr. A. H. Smith, in “Chinese Characteristics,” says: “All Chinese are gifted with an instinct for taking advantage of misunderstandings. They find them as a January north wind finds a crack in the door; as the water finds a leak in the ship, instantly and without apparent effort.” Although you may carefully teach your cook that the dish-towel is to be used only for the one purpose of drying the dishes, you may find him using it as a hand-towel, or a general cleaning cloth. In their own homes, the class of people who act as servants rarely have more than one cleaning cloth, which of course must be used for all general cleaning purposes. So it is not easy for them to see the necessity of having separate cloths for lamps, dishes, stoves, floors, etc. You must be prepared to see your cooking dishes rusty, because the Chinese never dry their own. You may think that you have thoroughly impressed your cook that your graniteware and ironware must not be treated that way, only to find the same thing repeated again and again. You must be prepared for all kinds of accidents to your food and your belongings. You must be willing to wait patiently for the Chinese to take their own time for doing things, no matter how urgent the immediate performance of a given task may seem to you. Other people of longer experience than you have learned that the East can not be hurried. You should not feel annoyed if, while walking along the street, a dirty beggar jostles carelessly against you, and then meets your inquiring gaze with a vacant stare instead of a “beg pardon.” When guests walk unexpectedly into your home, you should be prepared to meet them with a smile of welcome, no matter how busy you may be. It is not Chinese custom to knock at a door before entering, though a high-class guest will send in his card and await your invitation. If your patience is, or by divine help becomes, sufficient to meet these and many other annoyances, you will make a good worker, and, because greatly beloved by this people, will exert a strong influence over them. You may ask, “Will it pay to give one’s life to uplift such a people as this?” “Can the gospel principles ever penetrate through the thick crust of custom and tradition to work like leaven in transforming the heart and soul?” We unhesitatingly answer, “God’s two-edged sword is able; even as the lives of scores of our Chinese brethren and sisters daily testify.” Therefore, come, having your heart so filled with the grace of God that you will daily exemplify the “high calling” of your profession; and be assured that for you will be in waiting a crown of life, which will be forever resplendent with stars. C. L. BUTTERFIELD
By C. L. Butterfield
It was the writer's privilege, in company with Elder F. H. DeVinney, of Japan, to visit Elder W. R. Smith's station at Wonsan on the east coast, the last week in June. Wonsan is not quite two hundred miles from Seoul; yet to go there one must travel by rail to Fusan, 275 miles, and then by sea to Wonsan, a distance of three hundred miles. Boats do not go every day, and we could get only a small craft. This should have made the trip in thirty-six hours; but a storm arose when we had been out about ten hours, and the sea was so rough that the captain anchored in a little bay, where we remained forty hours, making us quite late in getting to Wonsan. We were glad to meet Brother and Sister Smith and the native workers and believers on the east coast. Brother Smith moved to Wonsan after returning from the last General Conference, and now there are two organized churches over there, one at Wonsan and one about two hundred miles north, at East Won. The membership of these two places is about thirty-five, and many interested persons are being labored for. Eight days were pleasantly spent with the company at Wonsan; then we returned to Fusan, from which place Elder DeVinney returned to his work in Japan. I then went on to Keum Chyon, 165 miles south of Seoul, to meet Brother R. C. Wangerin. Two days were spent in looking up a suitable place for another mission station. Three suitable places were found, and it is planned to buy a site, and build a house for Brother Wangerin soon. With three native helpers, Brother Wangerin remained in the south to work for a few days with the summer special magazine. I returned to Seoul just in time for the beginning of the campaign. Several companies of agents went to different parts of the field, and excellent sales are being reported; but the summer rains are early, and are somewhat retarding the work. One of the native Bible women sold sixty copies in one day. The price is five sen, or two and one-half cents.12 On my return to Seoul, after an absence of a few months, I was pleased to find a good company ready for baptism. Last fall the first baptismal service was held there, thirteen persons being baptized, and a church of thirty-two members organized. In October, Brother H. A. Oberg, who has charge of the work in Seoul, with Brother Wangerin and native helpers, held a series of meetings, at which time most of the nineteen just baptized began to keep the Sabbath. The Seoul church now has over fifty members, and others are preparing for baptism. If you could see the building in which they meet for worship, you would be surprised that anything could be accomplished in it. Buildings suitable for churches can not be obtained here, and we have nothing with which to build. A good building would be a wonderful help. Don't you think that you could help to win souls in Seoul, by helping to provide a place to hold meetings?