p. 12 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 16. (4/22/1897)

PROGRESS IN CEYLON.

By Mary and Margaret W. Leitch

CEYLON, the "Pearl on the brow of India," occupies a strategic position both from a political and a missionary point of view. The first missionaries to Ceylon chose it as a point from which to evangelize India. They realized that, if the people on this island could be won, they in turn would take a share in the work of winning India for Christ. Their expectations are beginning to be realized, for already scores of the brightest Christian young men of Ceylon can be found in many parts of India, as well as in Burma, Singapore, Penang, the Straits Settlement, and Borneo, doing noble work for Christ. They are employed as helpers by twelve leading missionary societies. Not a few have turned away from government service with its offer of a large salary, prospect of promotion, and retiring pension, and have chosen Christian work with barely a living salary. They have learned that there is something better worth living for than merely making money.

Christian Education.

Ceylon is a unique educational center. When the missionaries went to Ceylon, early in this century, they found the great mass of the people sunk in ignorance and superstition. The Buddhist and Hindu priests and a few others could read, but the majority of the people were entirely uneducated. It is probable that there was not then one educated native woman on the island.

When the missionaries began to open schools, the people willingly allowed the boys to attend, but they ridiculed the idea of giving an education to girls, saying: "What would be the use of sending a girl to school? A girl could never learn to read any more than a sheep." On one occasion a missionary was urging a native gentleman to allow his daughter to attend school. The native, pointing at a horse by the road side, said, "Sir, could that horse learn to read?" The missionary replied in the negative. "Well," rejoined the native, "if an intelligent animal like a horse could not learn to read, how do you think a women could learn?"

This was the low ideal which Hinduism had given of the capacity of women. In a Hindu home a woman is never, as a rule, allowed to eat with her husband. He and the sons eat first, the mother and daughters eat afterwards. The term which even a small boy uses in addressing his mother is a term used for an inferior.

The missionaries labored earnestly for two years before they were able to induce even one girl to attend school. The first who came committed to memory the 240 letters of the Tamil alphabet and began to read. When the people saw that a girl could learn, they were surprised, even pleased. At present, in connection with the five Protestant missionary societies at work on the island, there are nearly 50,000 children in mission schools, about one-third of whom are girls. There are not only primary and middle schools in the villages, but girls' boarding schools, at the mission stations, also normal training and industrial schools, colleges, and theological schools, for young men. Fully 5,000 young men and women are receiving a higher education under mission auspices. Many of the brightest of these are becoming teachers, evangelists, and Christian workers in Ceylon and India.

Self-Support.

The expense of the educational work to the mission board is very slight. For example, in the American Board's mission, only four per cent. comes from the home board, ninety-six per cent. being secured through fees from pupils, the income from various endowments, and liberal grants from the government, Ceylon being a British crown colony.

There are nearly 12,000 Christian communicants in the Protestant churches in Ceylon, and more than twice that number of inquirers and adherents. The majority of the churches are self-supporting, and have native pastors ordained over them; the others are aiming at self-support. In the American Board's mission only ten per cent. of the whole expense for church work is met by the home board, ninety per cent. being raised in Ceylon.

Proportionate Giving.

The native Christians also contribute very liberally to the native Bible and Tract Societies, and to their own native missionary societies, in connection with which they are supporting a considerable number of native workers.

In Ceylon, as in most heathen lands, the majority of the people are poor. The ordinary day wage of a working-man is equal to eight American cents. On this sum a man must support his wife and children, and sometimes one or two aged relatives. The average income of the working people per man, woman, and child, is not more than a cent a day! The majority of these do not have more than one meal of solid food a day, and their expense for luxuries does not exceed per individual more than three-quarters of a cent a month.

Nevertheless the poverty of these poor people abounds to the riches of their liberality. It is a rule among the native Christians to give a tenth of their income to Christ's work. Those who are in receipt of salaries, give a tenth of their salaries; those who are farmers, give a tenth of their crops, and those who have fruit trees, give the fruit of each tenth tree. They have found by experience that nine-tenths, with God's blessing, goes as far as ten-tenths used to go. The Christians are not impoverished by this giving. The Christian community is the most prosperous, the most educated, the most respected community on the island, and presents a striking contrast to the heathen community. Altho the native Christians begin by giving a tenth, they do not always stop there. That is the standard below which they do not intend to fall. Many of them, especially those who are prosperous, give more than the tenth.

Self-Sacrifice.

The principal food of the country is rice and curry. Each morning when a Christian woman measures out the rice for the family for the day, so many handfuls for her husband, for each child, and for herself, she takes one handful or

more and puts it into a box marked "The Lord's Box," thus diminishing by a little the amount the family would have eaten. This custom is almost universal among the Christians. From time to time the church treasurer of each church visits all the Christian homes, collects the rice from these boxes, sells it, and sends the money to the native missionary society.

A Worthy Example.

The native Christians in Ceylon can not enjoy many luxuries. They have no stained-glass windows in their churches, no paid choirs, and no church debts, but they enjoy one magnificent luxury. Many churches numbering not more than a hundred members, not only support their own native pastor, but support as well each their own native missionary in some outlying district in which there is no resident foreign missionary. If the weak, struggling churches in Ceylon can do this, could not the strong, wealthy churches in America each enjoy the luxury of supporting its own foreign missionary, through the channels of its own denominational board?

Work for the Masses.

Not only do the Christians of Ceylon give money, they give themselves to Christ's work. In connection with most of the churches large Sunday-schools are held on Sunday morning, when the children of the outlying village schools are brought together. Nearly all of the church-members may be found teaching in these Sunday-schools, after which comes the morning service, when the native pastor gives to his people good plain Gospel food. Then, instead of attending a second service, and getting spiritual dyspepsia by eating too much Gospel food and doing too little Christian work, the native Christians are accustomed to go out into the villages in groups for work among their heathen neighbors.

Early in the afternoon one may see bands of Christian women and girls starting out in different directions to hold cottage meetings among the women, and Christian men and boys going to villages one or two miles distant to hold village Sunday-schools or open-air preaching services. In this way the Gospel is being widely disseminated. If Christians in America would pursue a similar plan, giving up their Sabbath afternoons or evenings to work among the un-evangelized, one would not much longer hear the old cry, "There are so many heathen at home!"—Missionary Review.

HEAVEN.

By A. R. Wilcox

BEYOND this changeful life, Afar from earth, There is a brighter land, Untold in worth.

O, let me haste away To that blest home, And o'er this desert waste Let me not roam!

O, feed me living bread, Give waters sweet, In Thine own way O guide My wayward feet!

A. R. WILCOX.

Athens, Vt.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

By Editor

ELDER A. J. BREED, superintendent of General Conference District No. 6, arrived in this city on the 13th inst.

THE Bulletin notes the dedication of a new house of worship at Bladensburg, Iowa, on the 18th inst., Elder C. A. Washburn officiating.

EIGHT new members were added to the church in San Jose, Cal., in connection with the quarterly meeting services on the 10th inst.

AT Brittain, Iowa, a Sabbath-school of twenty-three members was recently established in connection with meetings held by Elder H. M. J. Richards.

IN Cardiff, Wales, Elder J. S. Washburn and company have changed their meeting place to the largest hall in the city, and their contributions more than pay the rent.

WITH the arrival in Calcutta of Dr. O. G. Place and wife, Brother Edwards and wife, Miss Whiteis, and Miss Green, preparations are being made for medical work in that city.

OUR girls’ school in Calcutta is reported as doing well, and numbers seventy pupils. The Hindus in other neighborhoods are asking that schools be established for their accommodation.

A BOX of books and tracts has been sent to the island of Tristan d’Acunha, southeast of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean. This island is a kind of hermitage, containing some threescore people, who get mails from the outside world about once a year, more or less, by means of British naval vessels. The population has grown up from shipwrecked sailors and other stray people. The island belongs to Great Britain.

A LETTER signed by Bernard Schuer states that a Seventh-day Adventist minister is wanted to hold meetings in Regina, Jefferson Co., Mo. There is one family of believers, and a good opening.

AT Collins Center, N. Y., recently, Elder W. A. Westworth spoke on a Sunday forenoon in the M. E. Church, by invitation of the pastor. In return many of the congregation attended Brother W.’s meetings in the afternoon and evening.

WE learn from the Review that “Elder J. O. Corliss has gone to Chicago, by special invitation, to give a series of discourses on the subject of the prophecies and the Sabbath, in Willard Hall, of the Woman’s Temple.” This is the W. C. T. U. Building.

OF the Religious Liberty Library, No. 46, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, of Lynn, Mass., says: “Having carefully read your brochure on ‘Baptist Principles of Religious Liberty,’ I can but wish that every preacher in the land would read the same. It is a true note at the right time.”

ELDER D. T. Fero reports as follows of the work at Ashland, Oregon: “Six have begun Sabbath observance during the meeting. Five others have been added who were keeping the Sabbath, but never were members of the church; three of these by baptism. Three more were added by letter, making eight in all, with six prospective ones.” He also reports substantial improvements in the church building, and “the cause is onward.”

“It is possible,” says the Indicator, “that Brother F. H. Hicks, of Salamanca, N. Y., who for some time has held a very responsible position with the Erie Railroad, will be promoted to a higher position and located in New York City. He has been true to the Sabbath of the Lord, and all the officials of the road know that he keeps it, and the only conditions on which he would listen to the proposition of the promotion was that he should still be left free to hold to his faith and live it in his life.”

OF the work in Christchurch, N. Z., Sister Vesta J. Farnsworth writes, under date of March 16: “We are about to begin the erection of a meeting-house. Usually we wait till we have a church organized before such an enterprise is entered upon, but here it seems best to build first. We have had some precious victories in the work in this city, and expect the Lord to gather out a people who will be an honor to his name. We are having about one hundred children now at our children’s meetings, and they seem deeply interested.”

The Sabbath School

International Series.

LESSON VI.—SABBATH, MAY 8, 1897.

THE PRAYER OF CHRIST—CONTINUED.

Lesson Scripture, John 17:14–26, R. V.

14 “I HAVE given them thy Word; and the world hateth them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. 18 As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in me; that the world may believe that thou didst send me. 22 And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me. 24 Father, that which thou hast given me, I will that, where I am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me; 26 and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.”

QUESTIONS.

What did Christ say that he had given to his disciples?
What feeling had the world displayed toward them? Why?
What experience did Christ not ask for his disciples?
What did he desire for them?
What did he say of them?
What petition did he offer in their behalf?
How did he identify their experience with his own?
Through what experience had he passed? For what purpose?
How many are included in Christ’s prayer?
What was his desire for all? What kind of unity did he have in mind? What effect would this have upon the world?
What had he given to his disciples? For what purpose?
How is such unity secured? What would the world thus be led to acknowledge?
What was Christ’s wish? What privilege would thus be conferred? Since when did God love his Son?
Who did not know God? Who did know him? What did the disciples know?
What had Christ done? What would he continue to do? With what purpose in view?

NOTES.

1. “It is the will of God that union and brotherly love should exist among his people. The prayer of Christ just before his crucifixion was that his disciples might be one as he is one with the Father, that the world might believe that God had sent him. This most touching and wonderful prayer reaches down the ages, even to our day; for his words were, ‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.’ While we are not to sacrifice one principle of truth, it should be our constant aim to reach this state of unity. This is the evidence of our discipleship. Said Jesus, ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.’”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 520.

2. “THE children of God are those who are partakers of his nature. It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love,—a love that embraces all humanity. Even sinners, whose hearts are not utterly closed to God’s Spirit, will respond to kindness; while they may give hate for hate, they will also give love for love. But it is only the Spirit of God that gives love for hatred. To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good, hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate.”—Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 105.

3. It is a most encouraging and comforting thought that the Father loves us the same as he loves his only-begotten Son. This is clearly stated in the Saviour’s prayer. See verse 23. But this is not all; the same love which God has for his Son and for us—the love of God—is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) if we are true believers,

and Jesus reveals the Father to us that this experience may be ours (Rom. 5:1). He says, “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Verse 26.

Suggestions for Further Study.

Study Christ’s manner of living in this world (see Matt. 8:20; and 10:25), and read again verse 18 of our lesson. Are we content to be as our Master?
By what means can the union for which Jesus prayed be secured among God’s people?
Since God loves me as he loved Christ, and since he loved him because he “lay down his life for the sheep,” what ought to be my attitude toward the sheep? See 1 John 3:16.

LITERATURE WANTED.

By Editor

SEVENTH-DAY Adventist literature and Bibles are wanted for missionary work in Waco, Texas. Address, post-paid, Miss M. A. Brück, 700 South 4th Street; or Mrs. Travers, 115 North 8th Street.

CLEAN copies of the SIGNS are wanted for missionary work by Mrs. V. O. Cole, 7 Shaw Avenue, Memphis, Tenn.

RURAL HEALTH RETREAT ASSOCIATION.

THE annual meeting of the Rural Health Retreat Association Corporation will be held at the Rural Health Retreat, near St. Helena, Napa Co., Cal., Thursday, April 29, 1897, at 2:30 P.M., for the purpose of electing seven directors for the ensuing year, and transacting such other business as may come before the meeting.

N. C. MCCLURE, President.

J. A. BURDEN, Secretary.

PACIFIC SABBATARIAN ASSOCIATION.

THE annual meeting of the stockholders of the Pacific Sabbatarian Association, a corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of California, will be held at the office of the company, corner of Twelfth and Castro Streets, in the city of Oakland, county of Alameda, State of California, on Tuesday, the 27th day of April, A.D. 1897, at 9:30 A.M., for the purpose of electing a board of nine directors, and transacting any other business that may properly come before the meeting. By order of

WM. SAUNDERS, President of Pacific Sabbatarian Association. E. A. CHAPMAN, Secretary of Pacific Sabbatarian Association.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

THE annual meeting of the stockholders of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, a corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of California, will be held at the office of the company, corner of Twelfth and Castro Streets, in the city of Oakland, county of Alameda, State of California, on Monday, the 26th day of April, A.D., 1897, at 9:30 A.M., for the purpose of electing a board of seven directors, and transacting any other business that may properly come before the meeting. By order of

C. H. JONES, President of Pacific Press Publishing Company. S. C. STICKNEY, Secretary of Pacific Press Publishing Company.

The Sunday School

International Series.

LESSON VI.—SUNDAY, MAY 9, 1897.

PAUL PREACHING TO THE JEWS.

NOTE.—Paul now begins his work in new and untried fields, and we have in this lesson his first reported missionary address. He follows his usual custom of preaching first to the Jews. A close study of the text will show how Paul adapts himself to his surroundings and circumstances. Compare this sermon with others given on other occasions, as in Acts 2: 14-36; 21:40 to 22:21; 26: 1-29. Read Acts 13: 14-43.

Lesson Scripture, Acts 13: 26-39, R. V.

26 "Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to us is the word of this salvation 27 sent forth. For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning 28 him. And tho they found no cause of death in him, yet asked 29 they of Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him, they took him down 30 from the tree, and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him 31 from the dead; and he was seen for many days of them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his 32 witnesses unto the people. And we bring you good tidings of 33 the promise made unto the fathers, how that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day 34 have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he hath spoken on this wise, I will give you the holy and sure blessings 35 of David. Because he saith also in another psalm, Thou wilt 36 not give thy Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell on 37 sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption; but 38 he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Be it known unto 39 you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins; and by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."

Golden Text.—"Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts 13: 38.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

(1) How extensive did Paul consider the invitation to accept of salvation? Verse 26. Note 1. (2) What reason does Paul give for the action of the rulers at Jerusalem? Verse 27, first part. Note 2. (3) To what did this lead them? Ib., last part. (4) How does Paul picture the unreasonableness of their course? Verse 28. (5) What work were the Jews themselves unconsciously doing? Verse 29, first part. Note 3. (6) When this work was finished, what was done with the Saviour's body? Ib. Note 4. (7) What was the crowning act of this great work? Verse 30. (8) By whom was he seen? Verse 31, first part. (9) What responsibility did this place upon them? Ib., last clause. (10) What was the mission of the apostles to these Jews? Verse 32. (11) In what way was the promise to the fathers fulfilled to the children? Ib., and verse 33, first part. (12) What expression of the Psalmist does Paul apply to Christ? Verse 33, last part. (13) What promise is made in view of Christ's resurrection? Verse 34. Note 5. (14) What assurance was given of a speedy resurrection? Verse 35. (15) What is recorded of David in this connection? Verse 36. (16) Why is his case brought into the discourse at this place? Note 6. (17) How are Christ and David compared in this particular? Verse 37. (18) What great truth did Paul then make known to his hearers? Verse 38. (19) What was a true belief in this sacrifice of Christ able to do for them? Verse 39. Note 7.

NOTES.

1. Men and brethren.—And the invitation is not restricted to these, but whosoever feareth God, whether he be Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. Now, for the first time, it was being made known to these people that the salvation for which they had looked and waited had come; that Child, of which many a Hebrew woman had craved the motherhood, had been born, done his work, and been offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The salvation Christ had purchased, Paul was now offering to the waiting people. This is a similar invitation to the one found in Rev. 22: 17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

2. Because they knew him not.—They had seen Christ, had heard his wonderful teachings, knew his name, his birthplace, and his kindred; and yet they did not know him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world, the One in whom alone their salvation lay, the One who had plucked the sting from death and from the grave had snatched its victory. Likewise they had heard the prophets, whose writings were read in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath; yet they did not know them as it was their privilege to know them, or as they would have known them if their own imaginations had not painted these prophecies in an unreal light. They had pictured the coming of their Deliverer in a grand, majestic demonstration; so that they could not see him at all in the humble garb in which he did present himself to them.

3. Fulfilled all that was written of him.—The sacrifice of the Messiah for the sins of those who were to be redeemed was a necessary part of the plan of salvation. In rejecting this work which Christ was doing for them, they were proving the authenticity of Christ's claims. The sacrificial offerings since the time of Abel had pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice.

4. Laid him in a sepulcher.—The work of Christ on earth was now complete. His mission was ended, so far as it related to his visible presence on earth. He had submitted to the penalty of the broken law, and with the hand of death upon him he was laid away to await the summons to life which would make his sacrifice a success. His restoration to life was a warrant of his acceptance with God.

5. The sure mercies of David.—"The holy and sure blessings." "These holy things of David are particularly the eternal reign of righteousness set forth in the latter part of the 22d, and the 72d, and 132d Psalms. These promises, in anything like fulness, could not have been fulfilled without the Lord's resurrection."—Saddler.

6. For David . . . saw corruption.—The argument of the apostle was to show that this quotation referred not to David (who saw corruption), but to Christ, who was raised from the dead before corruption had taken hold upon his body.

7. Could not be justified by the law of Moses.—To be justified is to be completely forgiven for the transgressions of the law; to be made as tho no sin had been done. No law can justify its transgressor. It is not the province of the law to do this. A law that could both condemn and justify would be without force in either particular. In fact, the justification clause would kill the law itself. The worth or value of law lies in the fact that it can not justify those who transgress it. The death which is ours because of our transgression of the law was paid for us by Christ, the Author of the law, if we accept him by faith. Thus the dignity of the law is upheld, and we are free from the penalty which it pronounces upon us.

Continue reading: News and Notes