There are at least three things that are essential in prevailing prayer. The first of these is faith; for it is written, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” We do not expect anything from that in which we have no faith; hence if we do not believe in a personal God, one who rules over the kingdoms of men, and who has a personal interest in everything that pertains to our individual well-being, both temporal and spiritual, however often we may go through the form of prayer, the one thing that makes prayer “the breath of the soul” is lacking.
It is only when we, in childlike simplicity, open our hearts to God as we would to a dear friend, believing that He is interested in the minutest details of our everyday life, that we realize the real value of prayer. By such faith, exercised through the medium of prayer, every blessing has been brought to the human family, every victory gained that is chronicled in the pages of sacred history, from the days of Abel down to the death of the seer of Patmos. Faith is the victory, prayer the channel through which it comes.
In the book of James we read: “If any of you lack wisdom,”—and all of us do; for wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge,—“let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” If our faith is of the wavering kind,—for a time believing or pretending to believe, then again doubting and being driven to and fro by the various winds of doctrine and opinions of those around us,—we need not expect anything from the Lord. Our hearts must be grounded in the truth, our minds stayed upon God; for only such can claim the promise, “It shall be given.”
The Son of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has lived the human life, has felt the power of temptation, has experienced the sorrows and heartaches, of every person in his struggle against heredity and environment; so there is nothing, either great or small, that can befall us that He himself has not passed through, and all without sin. Therefore this same Jesus, having passed into heaven and become our High Priest, sends back the encouraging invitation for us to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
This brings us to our second point,—to feel our need. Without a keen sense of our need, our prayers will be few and feeble. He who is well fed daily, and has an abundant supply of food for the future, gives little thought to the ever-recurring demands of the physical man. But let circumstances change, the supply become exhausted, and hunger begin to gnaw at his vitals, with no prospect that its demands may be met, he feels his need, and will be earnest and importunate in his petitions until aid comes,
The same principle is applicable in the spiritual life; for when we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, no effort will be put forth to change our condition. It is only when we feel our utter helplessness and inability to meet the duties and responsibilities of life in an acceptable manner in our own strength, that we turn to the Lord with that earnestness that moves the arm of Jehovah in our behalf. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Sincere prayers that come from a heart burdened with its need are never lost. The answer may be delayed by earthly circumstances, as was the answer to the prayer of Daniel; but the prayer is recorded, and will receive an answer in that way and time that an infinite and merciful Heavenly Father sees is best for the petitioner.
There are several illustrations of this principle in our Saviour’s teachings, the most prominent one being the man who went to his friend at midnight to request the loan of three loaves because a friend of his had come to him in his journey, and he had nothing to set before him. In this case, friendship, although one of the strongest of human ties, did not avail; but when the man’s need was made apparent by his persistent pleading, the request was granted.
This parable is significant in that it immediately follows the Lord’s Prayer, which was given at the request of one of His disciples, and also in that the parable is directly followed by the words, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”
We are not to understand by this lesson that our Heavenly Father is to be compared to a man who needs to be persistently entreated before he will deign to hear us and grant our requests; but it is designed to encourage us to make our wants and wishes known to Him, with the assurance that He will hear and answer our prayers. It is also to encourage us to “pray without ceasing,” although an answer to our prayers may seem to us to be delayed. An important part of every petition should be that the Holy Spirit might reveal to us our need in this time of peril.
While a special time has been set apart as a week of prayer, when all are expected to seek God in a special manner, we need not wait for that time, or feel that only then and there will the Lord be entreated of us; but even now, wherever we may be, feeling our need, we may lift our heart to God in prayer with perfect assurance. The following beautiful thoughts from “Christ’s Object Lessons” should prepare our hearts and minds for our third point: “Never is one repulsed who comes to Him with a contrite heart. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. We pour out our heart’s desire in our closet, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they can not die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on. It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.”
“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Thanksgiving is defined as expressing gratitude for favors or mercies bestowed upon ourselves or others. War, pestilence, and famine, with disasters by land and sea, have swept away thousands of our fellow creatures
during the last year, while we remain as monuments of God’s mercy. However hard our lot may seem to us, when we come to look at it from the Godward side, we shall find abundant reasons for thanksgiving. It both dishonors and displeases the parent for the child to be constantly complaining of its home and surroundings, finding fault with every effort upon the parent’s part to make life desirable and pleasant for the child. Such conduct is an imputation against the parent’s love and affection. The devil charges God with being unjust and arbitrary, devoid of love and consideration for the beings He has created; so when we fail to appreciate the mercies and blessings of which we are the daily recipients, and murmur and complain at God’s providences, we are aiding and abetting the enemy, and dishonoring God, our loving Creator and benefactor.
Thanksgiving has been the means of utterly defeating vast armies arrayed against God’s people, when all other means seemed futile. It is a noteworthy fact that sixty-two out of the one hundred and fifty Psalms are almost entirely devoted to thanksgiving and praise. Many times in the Psalms occurs this exclamation: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” Instead of constantly looking at the dark side of our life, as the devil would have us do, let us begin to count up the things we may be thankful for. When we do this, we shall find to our surprise that our mercies and blessings are largely in excess even of our seeming calamities; but when we call to mind what our Saviour has said to us through the apostle Paul that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,” we can set all life’s experiences to the Lord’s account, and rejoice always. What may seem to us as afflictions are only the agents God employs, or permits, to work out for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” and when they shall have accomplished their purpose, we have the blessed promise that they “shall not rise up the second time.”
So let come what He permits, even though it be the loss of time, property, and loved ones, and though our bodies be afflicted with pain, let us honor and glorify God in the language of the patriarch Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
“Let good or ill befall,
It must be good for me;
Secure of having thee in all,
Of having all in thee.”
“Notwithstanding the fact that there is war and bloodshed, and nations are preparing for battle, thanksgiving should arise from our hearts because the sun of righteousness never sets. The mightiest earthly potentates may be engaged in battle for the supremacy, but the children of God, whose life is hid with Christ, have nothing to fear. Their refuge is safe and sure.” While we honor God by expressing our gratitude for mercies and blessings in words and song, and by a cheerful and happy demeanor, let us not forget to bring a generous thank-offering during the Week of Prayer to help sustain the cause, and carry a knowledge of His saving truth to bless other souls.
GEO. A. IRWIN.
DOES THIS MEAN ME?
By E. A. Sutherland
“He is testing His people and institutions in this thing, to see if they will work together and be of one mind in self-denial and self-sacrifice. Carry forward this work without flinching, in the name of the Lord.”
These words suggest very much to the earnest Christian. We are being tested, not only on the point of selling “Christ’s Object Lessons,” but to see if we are willing to lay aside all worldly plans and receive a preparation to enable us to work in the vineyard.
Young men and young women never have had so many temptations to work and live for self as at the present time. There are many who desire a training for the Lord’s work; but they have not learned to deny self, to economize, that they might have money to pay for the needed preparation. There are others who have not fully given themselves to12God, and they find themselves so weak in spiritual things that they can not accomplish much.
Has not the time fully come for our churches and leading brethren everywhere to stir up the young men and young women to enter at once upon a training for the Master? Is it not dangerous to stand by and see such persons lose their spiritual life when we might save them for the Lord? Never will there be a more favorable time to prepare for this work. There are more calls now for consecrated, trained workers than can be filled.
The Battle Creek College will make a special effort to help young men and young women to get ready for the work. There are some who can spend a number of years in school. We make provision for such in the college, but we recognize the fact that the great majority of men and women of mature age who know this truth can not spend many years in receiving a preparation for the work. We have many classes which are being conducted to favor this great majority of students.
If you have not dared to think it possible for you to attend school, but have a strong desire to do so, write us, telling us your wishes, and we will do all in our power to assist you. But remember that earnest prayer and faith will work marvelous things. Send at once for the winter announcement.
E. A. SUTHERLAND.
AN IMPORTANT LETTER FROM SISTER E. G. WHITE
By Ellen G. White
St. Helena, Cal., October, 1900.
Dear ——: I can not at this time write much. I do not feel it my duty to write all that I could write in truth; for it would not be the best thing to do. I must wait and watch and pray. I feel that the Holy Spirit is working for you who are on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. But I have not light now that I should visit Battle Creek, and I shall not do this without a plain “Thus saith the Lord.” When God sees that the work He has given me will not be refused, and rejected, and His instruction misstated and misappropriated, then I shall have a work to do in connection with those who will co-operate with me in the last great work before us.
Calamities, earthquakes, floods, disasters by land and by sea will increase. God is looking upon the world to-day as He looked upon it in Noah’s time. He is sending His message to people to-day as He did in the days of Noah. There is, in this age of the world, a repetition of the wickedness of the world before the flood. Many helped Noah build the ark who did not believe the startling message, who did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, who did not overcome the temptation to do and say things that were entirely contrary to the mind and will of God.
Have faith in God. He gave me the idea of giving “Christ’s Object Lessons” for the relief of the schools. He is testing His people and institutions in this thing, to see if they will work together and be of one mind in self-denial and self-sacrifice. Carry forward this work, without flinching, in the name of the Lord. Let God’s plan be vindicated. Let His proposition be fully carried out and heartily indorsed as the means of uniting the members of the churches in self-sacrificing effort. Thus they will be sanctified, soul, body, and spirit, as vessels unto honor, to whom God can impart His Holy Spirit. By this means they will accomplish the work God designs to have done.
Stir up every family, every church, to do the very utmost of their power, every one consecrating himself to God, putting the leaven of evil out of his heart, out of the home, and out of the church. Let every family make the most of this, the Lord’s opportunity. Let self-denial and self-sacrifice be revealed. Let the teachers in the school do as others of God’s servants are doing,—cut down their wages. This self-sacrifice will be required of us all. Let all place themselves where they will be sure to receive the answer to their prayers. It is the cause of God which is at stake.
The preciousness of life is to be appreciated because this life belongs to the Master. As long as we live, we are ever to bear in mind that we are bought with a price. Christ made of himself a whole and complete sacrifice for us, to make it possible for us to receive the gift of everlasting life. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” We have enlisted under Christ’s banner for life service, and great responsibilities and possibilities are within our reach.
There are, in the providence of God, particular periods when we must arise in response to the call of God, and make use of our time, our intellect, our whole being, body, soul, and spirit, fulfilling to the utmost of our ability the requirements of God. Just now let not the opportunity be lost. Let all work together. Let children act a part. Let every member of the family do something. Educate, educate. This is an opportunity which God’s people can not afford to lose. God calls. Do your best at this time to render to Him your offering, to carry out His specified will; and thus make this an occasion for witnessing for Him and His truth. In a world of darkness let your light shine forth.
Let canvassers do their best in canvassing for the book, “Christ’s Object Lessons.” Their work will serve a double purpose. They will place in the homes of the people a book containing most precious light, seed sown to bring to souls ready to perish. In receiving this seed into their hearts, they will save their souls through belief of the truth. At the same time means will be gathered for the relief of the schools. Twofold good will thus be accomplished in this work. Let it be done heartily, as unto the Lord.
Let all think soberly; for it is a solemn thing to live. Your life is not your own. You are kept by the power of God, and Jesus Christ desires to live His life in you, perfecting your character. He desires you to work to the utmost of your knowledge and power to carry out the purpose for which He gave you life. Use every capability as His.
My brethren, after you have done all you can do in this work for the schools, by sanctified energy and much prayer, you will see the glory of God. When the trial has been fully made, there will come a blessed result. Those who have sought to do God’s will, having laid out every talent to the best advantage, become wise in working for the kingdom of God. They learn lessons of the greatest consequence to them, and they will feel the highest happiness of the rational mind. This is the result that will surely come if you fulfill the purpose of God. Peace and intelligence and grace will be given. It is the design of God that we should all glorify Him, regarding His service as the chief end of our existence. The work that God calls you to do He will make a blessing to you. Your heart will be more tender, your thoughts more spiritual, your service more Christlike. “If ye abide in me,” Jesus said, “and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” In considering these things, my spirit rejoices in God.
I could not sleep past two o’clock this morning. During the night season I was in council. I was pleading with some families to avail themselves of God’s appointed means, and get away from the cities to save their children. Some were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by taking hold of their hands. Had Lot hastened as the Lord desired him to, his wife would not have become a pillar of salt. Lot had too much of a lingering spirit. Let us not be like him. The same voice that warned Lot to leave Sodom bids us, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean.” Those who obey this warning will find a refuge. Let every man be wide awake for himself, and try to save his family. Let him gird himself for the work. God will reveal from point to point what to do next.
Hear the voice of God through the apostle Paul: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Lot trod the plain with unwilling and tardy steps. He had so long associated with evil workers that he could not see his peril until his wife stood on the plain a pillar of salt forever.
There is to be a decided work done to accomplish God’s plan. Make every stroke tell for the Master in the work of canvassing for “Christ’s Object Lessons.” God desires His people to be vitalized for work as they have never been before, for their good and for the upbuilding of His cause. Ministering angels will be round about the workers.
Let our institutions make every effort to free themselves from debt. Let every family arouse. Let the ministers of our churches and the presidents of our Conferences awaken. Then He will tell you what to do next.
You will need to have patience with the tardy ones, who do not feel the necessity of doing anything promptly, thoroughly, earnestly. They have so much to say, so much unbelief to express, and so much criticising, that they lose the peace and joy and happiness in the purposes of God, before they can decide to move. We must become men and women of God’s opportunity. I am indeed glad that so much harmonious action has been shown in striving to carry out this purpose of God, and to make the most of His providences.
[Signed] Mrs. Ellen G. White.
Educational Bureau Contributions
THE following contributions have been received, for October and November, 1900, by the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Bureau:—
A. P. Van Syoc. $ 20 00
S. W. Hastings 25 00
Geo. M. Atkinson 50 00
Samuel Welch. 50 00
Mary A. Grounds. 5 00
A friend. 1 50
Katie Larson. 25 00
Mrs. Kate G. Boone. 5 00
Mrs. G. W. Howland. 5 00
E. H. Root. 100 00
A friend. 1 00
Effie McQueen. 10 00
Collections at Iowa camp-meeting, by L. Johnson. 49 00
Mrs. Geo. Ramsey. 5 00
Mrs. A. S. Baird. 10 00
W. J. Robson. 1 00
Mrs. J. Egolf. 5 00
Albert Anderson. 25 00
L. Plumb. 100 00
G. P. Lay. 5 00
Ella Anglebarger. 5 00
A friend. 2 00
Etta Dwight. 5 00
H. A. Stephenson. 3 65
L. Johnson. 28 00
W. L. Payne. 50 00
Harrie L. Kirkendall. 2 00
E. E. Brink. 50 00
C. N. Sanders. 25 00
A. M. Hills. 100 00
A. M. Hurd. 25 00
Mrs. H. E. Blakeslee. 5 00
John P. Glembin. 100 00
Mrs. Prudie Worth. 10 00
M. C. Wilcox. 40 00
Joseph Smith. 25 00
Peter Enervldson. 25 00
Geo. Swift. 100 00
J. E. Richardson. 25 00
H. C. Mailing. 4 00
Mrs. Sarah McQueen. 5 00
Jas. A. Morrow. 50 00
Mrs. K. V. Temple. 3 00
M. G. Gotham. 10 00
H. L. G. 1 00
Mrs. Margaret Boys. 1 00
D. E. Cole. 10 0013M. V. Boyd. 8 75
Mary L. Zener. 50 00
Wm. E. Crandall. 25 00
Mrs. Elizabeth Brown. 10 00
Miss Annie Brown. 15 00
Mrs. Mary L. McCabe. 5 00
Ralph Gieffe. 100 00
G. F. Evans. 50 00
A. R. Evans. 25 00
Sylvia Evans. 10 00
W. M. Graves. 2 50
Mrs. N. Reynolds. 5 00
Marie Jensen. 50
Henry and Jane Ferrell. 10 00
Miss Eliza Rundle. 5 00
Mrs. C. S. Merrill. 10 00
Ellen Peterson. 50 00
Laura Porter. 20 00
Robt. Conray. 25 00
Louie Rinchard. 3 00
C. A. Washburn. 5 00
C. W. Neal. 5 00
Mr. and Mrs. M. M. Adams. 5 00
C. A. Hansen. 10 00
E. G. Olsen. 10 00
Lizzie Neal. 2 50
Henry Johnson. 1 00
J. O. Beard. 10 00
Chas. Heald. 2 00
Mr. and Mrs. U. P. Long. 2 00
M. N. Jorgensen. 5 00
W. E. Frederick. 2 00
Miss M. Lenz. 5 00
Carl Jensen. 5 00
Chas. E. Graham. 2 00
H. Englund. 10 00
J. W. Dorcas. 9 00
P. L. Hoen. 8 00
John P. Frederickson. 3 60
John Walker. 25 00
Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Allen. 10 00
Effie Bigelow. 3 00
W. J. Hall. 5 00
Mrs. N. L. McMillan. 3 00
Ann E. Crane. 50 00
Livina Howe. 8 00
Mrs. F. H. Wendle. 5 00
Henry Seath. 10 00
Geo. and Tillie Houck. 10 00
C. E. Brink. 1 00
Mrs. Ira Hilliard. 1 50
Frank Whitgrove. 1 00
C. H. Bates. 5 00
Help Relieve the Schools
By Editor
We earnestly request all our kind friends to remember that FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS is needed to pay for the material in “Christ’s Object Lessons.” We ask for large contributions from the rich, and small gifts from the poor. Money for this purpose should be sent to the treasurer of the General Conference Association, care of Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; and be sure to state that it is for THE RELIEF OF THE SCHOOLS.
News and Notes
— Queen Victoria’s silverware is valued at $12,500,000.
— President Diaz, of Mexico, was inaugurated December 1.
— Boston bootblacks are forbidden to do business on Sunday.
— The Rogers Locomotive Works at Paterson, N. J., have closed.
— The books of the late George Griffith, clerk of the Cincinnati board of education, show a shortage of $100,000.
— The Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, of Scranton, Pa., have started their furnaces, thus giving employment to 1,100 men.
— The Indians in western North Carolina have been offered $40,000 by a lumber corporation, for timber rights on their reservation.
— The British sloop of war “Icarus” has been ordered to Panama “to inquire into the seizure of a British steamer by the Colombian government.”
— It is said that “of 700 ten-dollar marked bills paid on a Saturday night by a Massachusetts manufactory to its hands, 400 by the following Tuesday were deposited in the bank by the saloon keepers.”
— The decision of the Swiss government in the dispute concerning the Franco-Brazilian boundary, gives Brazil 147,000 square miles of the contested territory, while France gets about 3,000 square miles.
— A Detroit (Mich.) exchange says that “many chewing-gum penny-in-the-slot machines have disappeared from Detroit since the food commissioner took samples for analysis, to see if they contained cocaine.”
— Standard Oil shares originally worth $100 are now quoted at $828.
— About 1,200 Filipino bolomen have surrendered to Captain Green, at Luzon.
— The Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States opened Monday, December 3.
— By cornering 550,000 cases of eggs, some Chicago dealers recently made about $480,000.
— The Italian Chamber of Deputies recently adopted a socialist motion to abolish court-martials.
— The live-stock show opened December 5, in Chicago, is the greatest ever held in this country.
— Queen Victoria’s fifteenth Parliament opened Monday, December 3. Speaker Gully was re-elected.
— November 30 the French Senate unanimously adopted a resolution of sympathy with Mr. Kruger.
— Fire completely destroyed the Chattahoochee Brick Company’s plant, near Atlanta, Ga., December 3. Loss, $60,000.
— Helen Keller, the famous blind, deaf, and mute student, has been elected vice-president of the freshman class at Radcliffe College.
— The government of Honduras recently paid this country an indemnity of $10,000 for the killing of an American citizen in 1899.
— Last year about 600,000 acres was sown to flax, in North Dakota, and the yield was in the neighborhood of 7,200,000 bushels of seed.
— General C. H. T. Collis, of New York, secured $25,000 damages, through the Supreme Court, against the publishers of the New York World, for libel.
— Dispatches state that “nearly all manufacturing plants at Pittsburg (Pa.) and vicinity are closed, on account of floods. Great damage is being done, and hundreds of families are homeless.”
— United States Senator Cushman K. Davis died November 27, at St. Paul, Minn. He was born June 16, 1838, and at the time of his death was chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations.
— The twenty-seventh annual convention of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union opened in Washington, D. C., Tuesday, December 4, with “the largest delegation in attendance in ten years.”
— A treaty has been signed by Secretary Hay and Senor Correa, the Nicaraguan minister, “conceding to the United States the necessary rights and privileges within the bestowal of Nicaragua, for the construction of the Nicaraguan canal.”
— During the progress of a football game in San Francisco, thirteen spectators were killed and over eighty injured, by the collapse of the roof of the Pacific Glass Works. “Many fell into the furnaces and glass vats, and were horribly burned.”
— Mr. Ernest Seton-Thompson, author of that excellent book of true and tender stories, entitled “Wild Animals I Have Known,” has purchased eighty acres of woodland in Cos Cob, Conn., which he will lay out as a park, and where he will live.
— Dispatches state that “Christians in the province of Canton (China) have been escorted back to the towns they formerly inhabited, by French and Chinese troops, and the Chinese authorities notified that they will be dismissed in the event of renewed trouble.”
— A Washington dispatch, dated December 4, states that “the Kentucky State law requiring railroad companies in that State to provide separate coaches for colored passengers was made the subject of an opinion in the United States Supreme Court yesterday, and the law was sustained.” However, it seems that “Justice Harlan dissented, stating his opinion to be that the Kentucky Legislature has no right to classify citizens by color, in railway coaches.”
— The people of England and America are great novel readers. Proof of this may easily be gleaned from the following statement, which recently appeared in the New York Times: “On the 2d of October, just two weeks after its publication, 40,000 copies of — had been sold. The publishers report that they are sending out a steady average of 3,500 copies a day. It is now a brief month after publication, and the book has passed its 70,000.”
— There will soon be a call for more men in the United States navy; for, in his report to Secretary Long, Admiral Crowninshield, chief of the Navigation Bureau, states that “the navy has not enough officers and men available to man the ships on the various stations, and when the new ships provided for are completed, the force will be entirely inadequate to even handle the vessels properly. The present complement is 1,340 commissioned officers, 177 warrant officers, and 14,603 enlisted men. This is apart from the marine corps of 201 officers and 6,000 men.”
— It is reported that Winona, Minn., has 400 cases of smallpox, though no deaths have occurred thus far.
— The cost of extending rural free delivery of mail throughout the United States will be between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000.
— A Canadian mint will be established, and Canada’s gold coin will hereafter be made at home, instead of in England as heretofore.
— Lord Roberts has asked for 8,000 fresh troops for service in South Africa, “to replace battalions incapacitated for duty at the front.”
— Rear Admiral Rodgers has been “ordered to join Rear Admirals Remy and Kempff, in Asiatic waters. He has selected the armored cruiser ‘New York’ for his flagship.”
— It is stated, by the National Watchman, that “England has $90,000,000 invested in breweries in the United States,” and that “last year she took out of the country, as beer receipts, $8,100,000 in gold.”
— The United States Navy Department has received word that “during a typhoon, November 13, the auxiliary cruiser ‘Yosemite’ was wrecked on a reef about seventy miles from Guam.” Five of the crew were drowned.
— Emperor William has informed Mr. Kruger that he will be unable to receive him just at present, “in consequence of previous engagements.” This is simply a polite way of telling Mr. Kruger that he is not wanted at Berlin.
— The astronomical instruments of the Peking (China) Observatory were stolen by French and German generals, and are to be “divided between Berlin and Paris.” The instruments were “made by the Jesuits more than two centuries ago.” Representatives of the Powers have protested to Count von Waldersee against such a removal of the instruments.
— It appears that on November 12, half a dozen able-bodied white men were sentenced, by the mayor of Macon, Ga., to work from ten to thirty days in a gang, “for no other crime than that of passing through Macon on foot instead of traveling in carriages or railroad cars.” Commenting upon “the growing disposition in this country, for it is not confined to Georgia, to revive those persecutions of the poor which so disgraced British law even in the present century,” the Public, a Chicago weekly, says: “The report calls them ‘tramps,’ and the reporter tells of their plight as if it were a most excellent joke. If persons supposed to be tramps can be treated in this way, without evidence of any criminality on their part, the time is not far distant when the persecution will reach to classes higher up than tramps.”
— In a letter addressed to the Havana (Cuba) papers, General Maximo Gomez recently stated that he would refuse to accept any office under the Cuban Republic. He said: “As a revolutionist, I have always understood that from the moment the revolution was ended, my mission will be terminated. What remains to be done to attain the felicity of the land is not a matter to be decided by cavalry charges. The problems pressing for solution must be solved with prudence and calmness, and without the ardent patriotism that might have been necessary at other times. Cuba now presents a great field for improvement, which must be carried out judiciously. It is a field where all her children can work. My retired life and my persistent refusal of the positions that have been offered me, should be sufficient proof that my determination is irrevocable. I firmly believe that the highest distinction which a man who has fought so much can take with him to the grave, is the esteem of all, and this can only be attained by not governing anybody or anything.”
— Under the heading, “An Ecclesiastical Marriage,” the Christian Advocate says that “the formal union of the Free and United Presbyterian churches of Scotland has been accomplished. On October 30 the Free Church Assembly and the United Presbyterian Synod respectively decided to unite, which was consummated on the morning of October 31, in Edinburgh. The ministers marched from their respective halls to the Royal Institution, and then proceeded to Waverley Market, and held the first meeting of the United Free Church of Scotland. Three thousand ministers took part in the procession, and dense crowds along the road cheered them repeatedly. The Earl of Aberdeen; Dr. Joseph Parker, of London; the Rev. John Watson, of Liverpool, and delegates from Canada, Australia, Jamaica, Africa, and France, participated in the proceedings. The Rev. Robert Rainy, the principal of New College, Edinburgh, of the Free Church of Scotland, who has been in the ministry forty-nine years, and is well known as an author, was elected the first moderator of the United Free Church. Notwithstanding this union, there are as many sects as there were before; for a small minority, opposed to the union, assembled in a separate hall, and constituted themselves a Free Church Assembly.”
