Earlier text: Mission Headquarters Buildings in Japan“As It Is in All the World”
By William Ambrose Spicer
LANDING for the first time in South Africa, I hear from the lips of the brethren the same note of courage and devotion that rings in the testimony of believers in “the blessed hope” in all the world. With us in America, these earnest times had led to increasing missionary activity and a revival in every department of soul-winning work. In passing through England I saw evidences of the same experience there. Now, after a ten-thousand-mile journey, I find exactly the same awakening blessing from God, and a feeling among the believers that the Lord is hastening his coming. Plainly the great Captain of our salvation is moving the world-wide ranks forward in close step with one another. The call of his providence that stirs our hearts in America is sounding in the hearts of the brethren and sisters here. As I have mingled with them these few days at the Cape, the words of the apostle have come again and again to my mind: “The word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it.” Col. 1: 5, 6. Wherever one finds the remnant church, keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” it is one folk—“our people”—the same people the world over. This region of the Cape peninsula, as we have all known by report, is truly a beautiful spot. Within a few hours of landing I had looked down from the slopes of Table Mountain upon one of the most beautiful scenes the earth affords. But to me the most beautiful sight of that first landing day was the view of the faces of the brethren and sisters in their Wednesday night prayer meeting, glowing with love and devotion to the Lord Jesus, as some of the earlier believers told of the ever-increasing preciousness of “the blessed hope” to their hearts. True, it was the same scene presented wherever those of “like precious faith” come to the prayer meeting, with the promised Presence “in the midst,” and that is why it was so glad a sight at the end of a long journey. It is a reminder of the meeting that will come at the end of the journey of the Advent people. In the words of old Samuel Rutherford, we may voice the bright anticipation and determination of our hearts,— “The King there in his beauty,
Without a veil is seen;
It were a well-spent journey,
Though seven deaths lay between.”
The faces of our brethren and sisters in South Africa are set Zionward, and they send their greetings to the believers in other lands. Speaking to the Heart
By Francis M. Wilcox
WHEN God speaks, he speaks to the hearts of his children. He declares: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” This door is the door of the heart. Christ knocks for entrance by his Holy Spirit. The heart is opened by its possessor’s willingness to open the door. He places his will on the side of God, and then God is able to possess the heart and control the life. Christ speaks from the heart to the heart. His great heart overflows in love for the impenitent, and yearns for his salvation. In this way only can the child of God do effectual service for his Master. He must speak from his heart to the heart of the one for whom he labors. Appeals may be scholarly and logical; they may reach the intellect and convince the judgment; they may win for themselves praise as masterly addresses or as literary productions; but unless they come from the heart, they will fail to reach the heart, and thus their power and force will be spent in vain. We need to cherish higher conceptions of the exalted character of the work of God. We need in our ministry higher standards of educational attainment. We need to have ideals so high and exalted that we shall never be able to reach them. But let us remember, however important is this intellectual attainment and material preparation, that overtopping all this in importance is the need of the Spirit of God in the heart, the need of that connection with the Lord Jesus Christ that from our hearts we shall be able to speak to the hearts of the people. In this is the great power of the gospel ministry. F. M. W. Breaking the Chains of Slavery
By C. M. S.
THERE has never been any other such dreadful slavery as the slavery of the liquor traffic. The people of every land have felt the merciless grip of its shackles. It has respected neither age, sex, nor condition. It has dealt with the world more pitilessly than the fabled monster of ancient Crete, which devoured his annual tribute of seven youths and seven maidens exacted from Athens, until a Theseus arose and slew the bovine-human monster. That was the ancient Minotaur. But every nation in the world is today paying tribute to a modern Minotaur, less discriminating but far more exacting than anything recorded in ancient legends. Many of the brightest minds of every nation, state, and municipality have been blighted and destroyed by the exactions of that merciless Minotaur that tramples and devours and destroys, but never heals or benefits or restores. The human race has been long tolerant of that death-breathing and ruin-wielding offspring of covetousness and appetite. Is there no Theseus for these days to slay the monster and free the world from its tribute of human beings? They are marching in unbroken lines by day and by night to their doom, thousands on thousands, a fearful array of idiots, imbeciles, lunatics, fratricides, parricides, homicides, tattered tramps, and worthless wrecks of humanity. That is the tribute which this generation of ours is paying to the Minotaur of drink. But it is not the whole tribute; for there is left behind another army whose pitiful condition should excite the sympathy of a Moloch. It is an army in tattered garb, whose eyes are red with weeping, whose cheeks are sunken with want, and whose bodies are wasted with fasting. There are widows with orphaned children, crying for bread and shivering with the cold; there are mothers and fathers with bowed heads and aching hearts, sorrowing over the ruin of their children; there are children shuddering in grief and terror over the loss of a mother slain by the hand of a drink-crazed father; there are defenseless households turned into the7 street when drink has sent the wage earner to prison, or robbed him of his ability to earn a living for his family. Who has the right to license such an insatiate monster and turn him loose in the streets of our cities and villages to despoil the people and ruin our loved ones? Is there any price that can compensate us for what we lose? What can rum bring us as an equivalent for what it demands of us? It pours into our laps a few dollars, wet with tears and stained with human blood; but those same dollars were wrung from the people who sought by turning them over to the liquor demon to satisfy an appetite which could not be satisfied—and liquor had created the appetite. Liquor created the appetite, then pays for a license which will permit him to attempt to satisfy it. In the attempt he burns that appetite into the human system deeper than ever, and leads its owner a cringing slave at his chariot wheels. He pays his license, and then flings in our face the wrecks of manhood, womanhood, and childhood which his activity was certain to create. The proposition to license the sale of liquor is the most monstrous proposition that has ever been put before the human race. The cannibal feeds upon human flesh; but the liquor demon devours human souls. We think cannibalism is barbarous; but the licensing of the sale of strong drink by civilized and Christianized communities is worse than barbarous. It is so illogical, so inconsistent, so out of harmony with everything that is true and just and sensible and reasonable and appropriate, that there is no adjective which can adequately describe it. It is the greatest anomaly, the strangest paradox, of modern times. What could a poisonous serpent pay us that we would consider an adequate compensation for the privilege of striking its deadly fangs into the flesh of our son or daughter? But that is exactly the bargain one makes with the liquor demon when he votes to license the sale of strong drink. What could a leopard give us that we would consider a sufficient balm for our conscience in granting it the privilege of springing through the door of our neighbor’s house to slaughter the members of his family? But that is virtually what one does who votes to license the liquor business in any community. As liquor is the instigator of crime, licensing its sale is only another method of licensing crime. As liquor robs men of their efficiency, no matter what their calling, to license its sale is virtually to put a premium upon inefficiency. As liquor brews domestic discord and the severing of family ties, to license its sale is to encourage such discord and put a premium upon divorce. In all the history of its existence, liquor has never touched anything that it did not mar and contaminate and debase. If the genius of the liquor traffic could be shaped into a living creature and made to stalk through the nations with every characteristic faithfully portrayed in soul, in face, in figure, and in purpose, we should see a monster that would strike terror into the souls of men. His eyes are glowing dollars; his heart a festering nest of corruption and greed; his face hideous in every feature, as expressing the debased workings of his intriguing brain; his arms the arms of the devilfish equipped to extract the manhood, the money, and the lifeblood from his victims; his fingers cruel and poisonous hooks to hold and to benumb whomever he may capture; and his breath a blast of flame, withering and burning and destroying everything before him. And if he must tell his name as he strides through the world, we can hear him say: “I am ruin; I am desolation; I am greed; I am dishonor; I am anarchy; I am death.” Could the people see some such demonstration of what the liquor business truly is, they would find some way to put an end to its cruel activities. Some are beginning to see it, the light is beginning to break into many minds, and a way is being found. A State governor with a conscience, when he begins to look upon the wastage and wreckage caused by liquor in his commonwealth, is bound to consider the inconsistency of taking its blood money and permitting the continuation of its ruinous operations. That is why we hear Governor Hanly’s eloquent denunciations of the liquor business. That is why Governor Patterson has joined the ranks of the abolitionists. That is why Governor Foss is a convert to prohibition. That is why eighteen States are now in the “dry” column, and why the leaves of the liquor plant are curling and drying up in many other States. The people are seeing the wicked folly of selling their generation and their own children into the merciless power of a combine that has no other business than to debase and destroy for gain. The New York World, under the heading “A Spreading Drought,” speaks thus:— The “dry” area of the country was appreciably enlarged in the Western local elections. A net gain of three counties in Illinois puts more than half the counties on the side of prohibition. No fewer than thirteen of the sixteen counties voting on the question in Michigan went “dry,” and reduced the “wet” territory to less than half the counties in that State. In Wisconsin the gains were all on the side of no license, the losses all on the other side. Prohibition is now a movement of few setbacks and many advances. Locally it has expanded from town-wide to county-wide decisions, and from county-wide decisions State-wide action is a logical step made the more easy to take. Never before in the United States has the liquor traffic been so widely illegalized as it is today. Where the movement will stop, it is too early to predict. Heretofore prohibition has had many promising starts, only to meet later on with equally strong reactionary forces. But heretofore it has been a movement of impulse and emotionalism, while now it has an increasingly powerful industrial backing, which is mightily strengthened by the war test of Russia, the action of France, and the testimony of official England to the alcoholic impairment of industrial efficiency. A prohibition which is born only of the stress of war may not long outlast the war. But there runs with or without it all a growth of individual temperance which will abide whatever becomes of the effort to impose abstinence upon the unwilling by mere fiat of law. There is a dogged persistency about the present temperance movement that foretells success. The liquor forces take little comfort now in the slogan that “Prohibition does not prohibit.” They never did believe it; and while declaring that “prohibition does not prohibit,” they were fighting it in every locality where they could find it, for fear it might do the thing they declared it could not and would not do. If prohibition is not prohibiting in the districts where it is in force, it is doing something that makes the liquor interests feel just as bad as prohibition would; and the appointment of receivers for breweries and distilleries that are closing down for lack of business shows that something is happening that makes the liquor business feel uneasy. The people are coming to realize that they have been “paying too much for their whistle.” Gov. Eugene Foss of Massachusetts has well expressed it in the following testimony given at a temperance rally in Brookline, Mass., on April 14:— I came to see the necessity for absolute prohibition at the time I was governor of this commonwealth. It was part of my duty to visit the insane asylums. I learned that the State had about 20,000 of such State wards, and for their needs the State had to pay $5,000,000 a year. I came to know that nine tenths of these cases were due to the direct results of alcohol. Then in my industrial plants I found I had to discharge drinking men because there was no possible hope of their ever being able to make good. Night after night their women and children came to my home and begged that the men be reinstated into their jobs. I examined myself. I found I was going out and8 voting for the saloon around the corner where these men went to get drunk. I was the one who was indirectly to blame; and I became a convert to the theory and practice of prohibition. I tell you here and now I shall do everything in my power to help make this State prohibition, and this nation prohibition from coast to coast. The nations of Europe are outlawing the drink traffic or curtailing its activities in order that liquor shall not reduce the efficiency of their men in the business of war. Americans are pushing on toward the same goal in order that liquor shall not reduce the efficiency of men in the more helpful and profitable activities of peaceful industry. But from both standpoints the liquor business is a common enemy. And if a period of peace should come to distracted Europe, may it not be that they who have found liquor to be their enemy in war may recognize it also as an enemy in peace, and so outlaw it in peace as well as in war? The Sure Word of Prophecy
By W. A. S.
Synopsis of Present Truth — No. 4
The Sure Word of Prophecy
TYRE was the greatest maritime city of antiquity. The Phenicians traded in the ports of all the known world. The prophet Ezekiel describes the heart of the seas as its borders. “Thy builders have perfected thy beauty,” he says. He tells how all countries traded in its marts and contributed to its wealth. And then obeying the word of the Lord, the prophet bears a message of rebuke and warning, and pronounces the coming judgment. The burden of Tyre was:— “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee. . . . And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.” Eze. 26: 3-5. The accounts of travelers bear witness that the prophecy has been fulfilled. As to the site of the island city of Ezekiel’s day, Bruce, nearly a century ago, said that he found it a “rock whereon fishers dry their nets.” See “Keith on the Prophecies,” page 329. In more recent times, Dr. W. M. Thompson found the whole region of Tyre suggestive only of departed glory:— There is nothing here, certainly of that which led Joshua to call it “the strong city” more than three thousand years ago (Joshua 19:29),—nothing of that mighty metropolis which baffled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and all his power for thirteen years, until “every head” in his army “was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled,” in the hard service against Tyrus (Eze. 29:18),—nothing in this wretched roadstead and empty harbor to remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing in her markets; no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so long resisted the utmost efforts of the great Alexander. All have vanished utterly like a troubled dream, and Tyre has sunk under the burden of prophecy. . . . As she now is, and has long been, Tyre is God’s witness; but great, and powerful, and populous, she would be the infidel’s boast. This, however, she cannot be. Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of prophecy. “Dim is her glory, gone her fame,
Her boasted wealth has fled;
On her proud rock, alas! her shame,
The fisher’s net is spread.
The Tyrian harp has slumbered long
And Tyria’s mirth is low;
The timbrel, dulcimer, and song
Are hushed, or wake to woe.” — “The Land and the Book,” Vol. II, page 627. Yet another city of ancient times there was, the mightiest of them all, whose fate was a subject of prophecy, and whose history bears special testimony for us today; for, more than any other, the Lord used that city as a symbol of the pride of life and the exaltation of the selfish heart against God. We must study briefly the desolations pronounced upon Babylon of old.
W. A. S. Students and the Vacation Period
By F. M. W.
It has been most gratifying to witness the large and growing number of students who every vacation period are devoting their time to the sale of our denominational literature. Through their efforts a large number of our books and papers have been placed in the homes of the people. The blessed results of this work will be known only in eternity. We may be assured, however, that the Lord of the harvest will not permit the gospel seed sown by these workers to lie dormant, but will cause it to germinate and bring forth fruit to his glory. In addition to the large amount of good which has been accomplished in the salvation of others, the students themselves have gained an experience in God which has helped to fit them for lives of usefulness in coming years. How many of our successful ministers today have spent more or less time at some period of their lives in selling our publications? Without exception they will tell you they regard this experience as a stepping-stone to the larger field of usefulness upon which they entered later. Then, too, the students have obtained a very material benefit from their work. A large number of them have earned scholarships by which they have been enabled to continue their school work. Indeed, no other line of employment open to our young people at the present time is so remunerative as this particular class of work. We hope that a larger number than ever before will go out from our schools during the present summer vacation. In our larger schools classes will be organized in which free instruction will be given for the purpose of fitting workers for this line of effort. We earnestly urge our young men and women to give careful consideration to taking up the sale of our publications during the summer. Naturally with those who have never attempted the work there is more or less hesitancy; but let them be assured that what their friends have done, with the blessing of God they can do. Heaven stands ready to help the man who has the spirit to help himself. Let those of us who are older grown, or who are engaged in other departments of the work, remember our boys and girls as they enlist in this service for the Lord. If we live in communities which are to be canvassed, let us open our hearts and9 homes to these young workers. Let us speak to them words of courage and hope. Let us hold up their hands in prayer, and the Lord will bless us and them in this united service for him. THIS is the season for vacations in many sections of the world. During the hot months of summer many business houses run shorter hours; many living in the crowded city centers seek rest and refreshing in cooler climates. This custom we believe is a good one. We believe it is proper for every one engaged in wearing toil to take a little time for rest and recreation. But too many, it is to be regretted, not only take a vacation from physical labor and mental toil during the summer months, but excuse themselves from active religious service. Many a professed Christian has dated the beginning of his separation from God to his season of physical relaxation. His hours of profitless leisure afforded Satan opportunity to engage his mind and engross his attention with things which alienated him from God. We need to guard our own spiritual lives against the demoralizing influences which come in connection with this season of the year. Shall we spend little time in prayer, in the study of the Word of God, in personal Christian work? Shall we permit the enervating influence of the warm season to deaden our enthusiasm and weaken our endeavors? Surely we cannot afford to do this. Not for a day, an hour, or a minute can we afford to relax our vigilance in the service of God. We are living in times when we know not what a day may bring forth. We need constantly to watch unto prayer; to be ready at any moment for anything that the providence of God may permit to enter into our experience. Let us be careful not to take vacation from Christian service during the months to come. Our Educational and Missionary Volunteer Council and Conventions
By I. H. Evans
At the fall council of the executive committee of the North American Division Conference, held in the autumn of 1914, the following actions were taken:—
1. That a council of the Educational and Missionary Volunteer Departments be held this winter at some central location, the place and time to be determined by the departments.
2. That in general the delegation be made up of two from each union conference having no training school of its own, and three from each union conference having a training school of its own. This list includes all members of the department and a few others.
3. That the traveling expenses of the delegates be pooled.
4. That a convention of ten days’ duration, conducted by the secretaries of the Educational and Missionary Volunteer Departments of the Division Conference, be held in connection with the summer school of each of the five colleges in the United States, and that an effort be made to bring together at these conventions all the educators and the Missionary Volunteer secretaries in the territory tributary to each college. This council and the conventions which will follow, are of great importance to our educational and young people’s work. It has been a number of years since such a council was held in this country, and it is hoped that these meetings will be appreciated and bring a blessing to both educational and Missionary Volunteer workers. Plans, textbooks, curriculums, and policies which will have a molding influence on these departments of the work must be discussed and adopted. These plans will shape the work in the years to come. The programs for this council and the conventions to follow are in the hands of the departmental secretaries of the Division Conference. These secretaries have tried to make such a program that both the council and the conventions shall produce the best possible results. It will be seen that the delegation to the council is limited, but includes representatives of the two departments, whether union or local conference, academy, or college; while at the conventions to follow there is to be a full delegation. These conventions are to be held in connection with the summer school in each college territory. This will minimize the traveling expense, and the benefits received will be in proportion to the attendance and interest. It is very important that the conventions be well attended. Of course this will incur some expense, but it is believed that the blessings and strength to the work, to be derived from these conventions, will more than compensate the monetary outlay. All who attend either the council or the conventions should be present from the first day until the close. It means much to the future of these departments that those who are to lead in and be responsible for these departments, attend the council, and that all workers in both departments, whether conference or school, attend the convention in their territory. We bespeak for the educational and Missionary Volunteer council and conventions the prayers of God’s people, and the same hearty sympathy and cooperation that has been given to the publishing and medical conventions. We expect that great good will come to those who attend these meetings, and that the work in the field will be much strengthened thereby.
I. H. EVANS. The North India Mission
By Arthur G. Daniells
FROM Bombay we journeyed north to Lucknow, a distance of eight hundred and eighty-five miles. Here we had the joy of meeting old friends and fellow workers whom we had known in the homeland. We found Sister Salisbury looking well, and deeply interested in her language study preparatory to active work in India. She had just passed her first year's examination with success, which gave courage to press on with the second year's work. We were glad to find Brother and Sister S. A. Wellman looking so well and strong for their work. He had recently been down with enteric fever, but had fully recovered. Brother Wellman is kept very busy with his editorial work on the Oriental Watchman and the Herald of Health, and also the work required of him as superintendent of the North India Mission. Brother and Sister W. E. Perrin, who came from Iowa, are located in Lucknow, Brother Perrin having the management of the printing office. They and their children have all been blessed with good health in this field. Here also we found Sister M. M. Quantock who came to India twenty years ago. She was then Miss May Taylor. In all these years Sister Quantock has gone back to the States but once, and then to accompany her husband, whose health had entirely failed, and who lived but a short time after reaching home. She soon returned to India, and has been working hard in the office of the India Union Mission ever since. But she now finds it necessary to leave this field permanently. As the work here has grown year by year, it has so twined around her heart that she finds it painful to go away from this field. She leaves India with the confidence and love of all the workers, and with the gratitude of both the India Union Mission Committee and the Mission Board at Washington for the faithful, conscientious service she has rendered. Besides meeting these old friends, we had the privilege of making the acquaintance of workers whom we had not met before—Sister Vera Chilton and Sister Scholtz. Sister Chilton is devoting all her time to the zenana work, and Sister Scholtz is in charge of a dispensary in Lucknow. I was very much pleased with the property purchased by the brethren for the headquarters of our work in India. The location is excellent. The building is an attractive, creditable-looking structure, and seems well suited for our work. From Lucknow we visited the different mission centers in the North India Mission. At Najibabad we found an encouraging work in progress. Brother R. P. Morris is in charge of this station. I had known Brother and Sister Morris intimately during the years they spent in the Foreign Mission Seminary. They are in perfect health, and want all their friends and old classmates to know that they are glad they came to India, and that they intend to remain here while there is work to be done for the Master. Sister B. A. Kurtz, from Pennsylvania, has charge of the dispensary, which is operated principally for women. She is assisted by Sister Shoto Mitter, an Indian sister. From thirty to seventy-five patients pass through the dispensary daily, giving these sisters all the work they can carry. I was glad to find the workers in this mission very comfortably housed in the bungalow recently erected for them from funds sent out by the Mission Board. They are a mile and a half from the crowded part of the town, and have land enough to raise vegetables and fruits. There are thousands of persons living in the villages all about Najibabad. The workers in this mission will itinerate among these people, giving them all the help they can. Some of the natives who have embraced the truth in Najibabad are laboring with our European workers and rendering valuable help. At Mussoorie we were pleased to meet Sister Bruce, who came from the Iowa Circle Sanitarium (Washington, D. C.) seven years ago, and Brother and Sister R. D. Brisbin, who came from South Lancaster Academy a year and a half ago. As these workers are located in the hills away from the heat, they were looking strong and rugged, and able for any amount of hard work. They were in charge of a school which has been established for the children of our missionaries10 and our European and Anglo-Indian Sabbath keepers. Annfield House, which was purchased a few years ago for a summer hill station for our workers in the plains, is being used for the school. It was crowded to its utmost capacity when we were there. This enterprise means much to our people in India, and in the near future a permanent and suitable school building must be provided. The people of India will do their part as soon as this step can be taken. Brother and Sister Furnival, of South Lancaster Academy, have just reached India to connect with the school. Brother Brisbin has settled in Lucknow, as secretary of the union mission and private secretary of Professor Salisbury. During the hot season we operate what are known as the Kirkville House Treatment Rooms, in Mussoorie. These are under the supervision of Brother and Sister William Lake, who embraced the message years ago in India. The patronage is good during the summer, and by careful, efficient management this enterprise more than pays all expenses. This institution forms a center from which rays of light are received and taken to all parts of India. On arriving at Simla we were met by our dear friends, Dr. and Mrs. Menkel, whom many in the homeland will remember. Simla is located far up the Himalayan Mountain ranges. Our train had meandered around the mountains so long, and had traveled so far, that we really seemed to be going away off from everywhere; and when we saw the familiar, smiling faces of Brother and Sister Menkel, our meeting seemed unusually cordial. Every hour of our stay with them was appreciated. They are not so robust and strong as they should be to follow up the many avenues of service that are open to them. Simla is in some respects the most important hill station in India. It is the headquarters of the viceroy and his administrative staff during the summer months. Large departments of the general government are permanently located here, and this gives Simla a more permanent population than is to be found in any of the other hill stations. During the last two or three years some of our ministers have spent their summer vacations in Simla. While there they have carried on evangelistic work, and as a result a small but active church has been organized. Some of those who have embraced the truth hold important positions in government departments. Their applications to be exempt from service on the Sabbath have been considered by Lord Hardinge, and their requests granted. These members have a good, strong influence in Simla, and are earnest, active missionary workers. We found quite a number of influential persons deeply interested in the truth. Some of them, when at the station seeing Brother and Sister Menkel off to the Calcutta general meeting, asked for special prayer in their behalf. These requests were laid before the workers in our institute, and earnest supplication was made for them. A good, strong church in Simla will be of great value to our cause in India. Dr. and Mrs. Menkel are in charge of this station, and for a time they will devote their energies principally to evangelistic work. The Lord has blessed their efforts in this line since going to Simla. Of course they are very anxious to see sanitarium work established there; but while waiting for the funds necessary to do this, they will do all they can to win souls to the obedience of the truth. It is very evident that a sanitarium in Simla would be a great help to our work there, and that from it the light would radiate to all parts of India. We hope that some day a good institution may be opened there. After visiting Mussoorie and Simla, and reading about Darjeeling, Murray, and other towns in this great range of mountains, I am convinced that the providence of God has placed within our reach in India means by which we can live and work in this mission field a lifetime without breaking down. I believe we should give this problem more careful study, and provide the means necessary to take advantage of the provision within our reach. Schwartz, Judson, Carey, and other missionaries in the pioneer days lived here twenty, thirty, and forty years without returning home. At that time there were no railways, and hill stations were unknown. They were also deprived of many helps within reach at the present time. We are nearing the end. Millions are unwarned. Much work is to be done, and all our forces are needed in the field, preaching, teaching, preparing and circulating literature, and directing the native workers every day until the end. Our workers in India love the field. They want this to be their field of labor until the end. Why, then, should not we as a people take advantage of this great mountain range all the way from Assam to Afghanistan, working in the plains as long as we can stand it, and then going to the cool, refreshing, invigorating temperature of the Himalayas, and keep on working there? I am sure we have hundreds of brethren of means who would gladly unite in providing the money necessary to carry out a plan of this kind. May the Lord of the harvest direct his workers in all their plans for the finishing of his work. Waiting to Be Won
By G. B. Thompson
ALL about us are souls without God. They have no hope. Some of these are our own flesh and blood. Others are our friends and neighbors, whom we have known for many years. Perhaps we have reached the conclusion that they do not care for religion, and do not want us to speak to them about their souls. It is easier to reach this conclusion than it is to go to them personally and talk to them about being Christians, and giving their hearts to God. The following from the experience of another can be read with profit:— “He was a cold, selfish man. There was sarcasm in his voice and a sneer upon his lips. He was called a skeptic. Most of his neighbors belonged to the church. He was hard and grasping in his dealings. “‘The most overbearing man I have ever seen,’ said one neighbor. ‘He’d skin a flea for its hide,’ said number two. ‘One might freeze on his doorstep and he’d never open the door,’ added a third. “For twenty years he had lived among them, growing richer all the time. They called him ‘Old Skinflint’ or ‘Pinchback,’ and shunned him whenever possible. “A new minister came to the country church, one very much in earnest about saving souls. As he went about in his quiet, unobtrusive way doing good, he never lost an opportunity of persuading some one to turn from his evil way. “One evening as he stood talking with some of the brethren about the work, he remarked, ‘I am going over to talk with Mr. Harrington, tomorrow.’ “‘He’s sure to insult you,’ said one. “‘It will do no good; he’s a hardened infidel,’ said another. “He went. Harrington was sitting on the south porch reading as the minister came up. The pastor introduced himself, and offered his hand. The other shook hands with him and offered a chair. “‘I am a minister. I came to talk with you, if you have no objection.’ “Harrington looked at him strangely for a moment. There was simplicity and candor in his face, as well as in his words. There was no arrogance visible—only brotherly love. “‘Very well, sir. I have no objection,’ Harrington said frankly. “‘For hours they talked as man to man on the highest of all themes, the welfare of a man’s soul. At last they went in, and bowed together while the minister prayed. When they arose, Harrington held out his hand. ‘For twenty years I’ve longed to talk with somebody about religion and my soul, but they all shunned me, and I was too foolishly proud to go to them. You can hardly know how I11 have longed for human fellowship and sympathy, but my selfishness has kept me and my fellow men apart. I never knew how it was until now, but the message you have brought me makes it clear: I must love my neighbor as myself, and I will.’” It is the personal touch that wins. It is not enough simply to give out a tract or lend a book. We must get close to the individual. Heart must beat with heart. When Elisha was to bring to life the Shunammite’s son, he “shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.” 2 Kings 4:33, 34. This contains a lesson for us individually. We do not want to reach the conclusion too quickly that somebody has rejected God’s truth and has the mark of the beast. We must be sure we have personally done all we can for the salvation of others before we have any spirit to condemn. The World Is the Parish of Every Christian Worker
THE world is the parish of every Christian worker.