FORTY or fifty years ago the subject of health reform among our people had never been thought of. In 1860 my parents lived two miles out from Battle Creek, and our leading ministers used to come out and visit us. On such occasions mother always tried to have some “nice fresh pork” to set before them. If we had just butchered, she generally had them take some home for their families.
One of our pioneer ministers who used to visit us, did not eat meat, and was quite careful of his diet. That was Father Bates. He seldom said much about his diet, and then only when questioned. He was very careful about urging his views upon others. As I compare those days, with these, I am certain the Lord has led in this matter of health reform.
In the early days of this message there were some who tried to crowd their views faster than the people were ready for them. When Elder Bates accepted the truth, he was at first skeptical regarding the visions; but he became convinced that they were the work of the Spirit of God, and from that time to the day of his death he always stood firmly for them.
In a Testimony written Oct. 21, 1858, is the following: “I saw that your views concerning swine’s flesh would prove no injury if you have them to yourselves; but in your judgment and opinion you have made this question a test, and your actions have plainly shown your faith in this matter. If God requires his people to abstain from swine’s flesh, he will convict them on the matter. He is just as willing to show his honest children their duty, as to show their duty to individuals upon whom he has not laid the burden of his work. If it is the duty of the church to abstain from swine’s flesh, God will discover it to more than two or three. He will teach his church their duty. God is leading out a people, not a few separate individuals, here and there, one believing this thing, another that. Angels of God are doing the work committed to their trust. The third angel is leading out and purifying a people, and they should move with him unitedly.
“Some run ahead of the angels that are leading this people; but they have to retrace every step, and meekly follow no faster than the angels lead. I saw that the angels of God would lead his people no faster than they could receive and act upon the important truths that are communicated to them. But some restless spirits do not more than half do up their work. As the angel leads them, they get in haste for something new, and rush on without divine guidance, and thus bring confusion and discord into the ranks. They do not speak or act in harmony with the body.
“I saw that you both must speedily be brought where you are willing to be led, instead of desiring to lead, or Satan will step in and lead you in his way, to follow his counsel. Some look at your set notions, and consider them an evidence of humility. They are deceived. You both are making work for repentance.”
I never learned who the brother and sister were to whom this Testimony was given in 1858, but when Elder Bates learned what the Lord said regarding the matter, he did not crowd his opinions upon this point.
As I think over this matter, I can see how good the Lord has been in giving important light. Back there his people could not stand the light, and so he permitted us to continue eating swine’s flesh for the time being.
Truly the Lord is good to his people, and leads them step by step, as they are prepared to receive light. I love to pray to such a God, and I do not wonder that the psalmist, in thinking over the goodness and mercy of the Lord, says: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”
The Seventh-day Adventists are recognized the world over as leaders in the matter of right living. Surely his word is fulfilled: “And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.”
In our next article we will show how the Lord revealed the light on the health reform.
Cedaredge, Colo.
Bible Study
EVEN Jesus found it necessary to study the Bible. As he had divine intuition of the truth, one might have supposed that for him Bible study was not imperative. But we must conclude from the Gospels that he not only studied the Scriptures, but that he mastered them thoroughly. None understood their real spiritual import as he. None, too, set a higher value on the divine word and its function in religion than he. “It is the spirit that giveth life, . . . The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.” “Ye are [spiritually] clean,” he said to his disciples, “because of the word which I have spoken unto you.” He made the indwelling word a condition of answered prayer. “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask,” etc. John 15:7. In his last great prayer one of his petitions is, “Sanctify them through [or in] thy truth: thy word is truth.” The same high sense of the value of the divine word is shown when he made it the chief business of his disciples to teach it and preach it. It was not by the power of armies, nor by the edicts of rulers, nor the terrors of law, nor by any outward compulsion, but by the heart-searching prosecution of the divine word that his kingdom was to be built up. He thus laid it upon all who would become his devoted followers to search the Scriptures.
In this high estimate of the importance of the divine truth and the study of it the disciples were close followers of their great Teacher. When John, near the close of the first century, sat down to write the Gospel that bears his name, after long years of meditation upon the gospel message, Jesus stands before him pre-eminently as the incarnate Word. “In the beginning was THE WORD, and THE WORD was with God, and THE WORD was God.”
When the seer of Patmos sees the Son of man coming forth to war, the name that he bears is not “general,” nor “commander-in-chief,” nor any high-sounding military title, but “The Word of God.” Rev. 19:13. And though represented as a soldier, the only weapon named is a sharp two-edged sword, and that not wielded in his hand, but proceeding out of his mouth, for it, too, as well as himself, is the mighty word. And it is with it that he should smite the nations.
In Paul’s aggressive warfare for Christ the word of God is the ever-present weapon. Not only by numerous and apposite quotations, but by well-knit argument he shows a marvelous grasp of Scripture. It is the means by which the church is to be cleansed and sanctified. Eph. 5:26. It is interesting to observe that in his description of the Christian soldier (Eph. 6:17) the only offensive weapon named is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; and of the other things necessary, one is that we should be girded with truth, and another, that we should be shod with a readiness (for the battle) made by the gospel. Paul’s ability to use the word of God mightily was doubtless one of the chief factors in his success as a preacher and missionary. No wonder he exhorted the fickle Colossians to let the word of God dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing one another.
Paul strove hard to make young Timothy a first-rate Christian worker, and in doing so he could do no better than exhort him to abide in the Sacred Scriptures, which he had known from early childhood. These God by his own inspiration had made profitable (1) for instruction, (2) for reproof, (3) for correction for improvement, (4) for education in righteousness. And this fourfold profitableness had for its end that the man of God, the Christian worker, might be thoroughly furnished for every good work.
Peter, too, both in his addresses and epistles, reveals a mind deeply imbued with the Scriptures and facile in their application.
Of Apollos almost the only facts deemed worthy of record were that he was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures. Doubtless his eloquence, as in the case of many great preachers, was due mainly to his commanding knowledge of the word of God.
If we turn from the apostles to the great leaders of the church in the post-apostolic times, the importance of a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures finds added proof and illustration. It was by this two-edged sword of the Spirit that Justin Martyr, Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, and other heroes of the faith were able to smite the polytheism in their times.
The men, too, most eminent in the church’s annals for saintliness drank continually at this fountain. Thomas a Kempis, the venerable Bede, Jeremy Taylor, Richard Baxter—whence came the rich aroma of their lives but from the flowers gathered in the garden of God’s truth?
Every onward movement of the church has sprung from a fresh study of the word of God.
All the reformers without exception were profound students of the Scriptures, and from that inexhaustible source drew their inspiration: Wycliffe, Erasmus, Melanchthon, Huss, Zwingle, Savonarola, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Comenius—great reformers and great Bible students, and the former chiefly because they were the latter.
The same has been and is true of the church’s great revivalists—the Wesleys, Whitefield, Finney, Moody, and many others. It was a fresh, ardent study of God’s message that filled their hearts with a glowing enthusiasm for the salvation of souls.
It would be easy, too, to show that many of our greatest statesmen have drawn their best guidance from the Book that excels all others in political wisdom. The great Gladstone was from early life a diligent student of the Bible, and with what profit he sets forth in this testimony: “What crisis, what trouble, what perplexity, has failed or can fail to draw from this indescribable treasure-house its proper supply? What profession, what position, is not daily and hourly enriched by these words which repetition never weakens; which carry with them now, as in the days of their first utterance, the freshness of youth and immortality?”—James Wallace, Ph. D., in The Bible Record for October, 1907.
Facts About the Bible
[A correspondent of the Washington Herald wrote the following communication for that paper, and we pass it along for the benefit of the readers of the REVIEW.—ED.]
THE learned Prince of Granada, heir to the Spanish throne, imprisoned by order of the crown, for fear he should aspire to the throne, was kept in solitary confinement in the old prison at the “Place of Skulls,” Madrid. After thirty-three years in this living tomb, death came to release him, and the following remarkable researches, taken from the Bible, and marked with an old nail on the rough walls of his cell, told how the brain sought employment through the weary years:—
“In the Bible the word ‘Lord’ is found 1,853 times; the word ‘Jehovah,’ 6,855 times, and the word ‘reverend’ but once, and that is in the ninth verse of the 111th Psalm. The eighth verse of the 117th Psalm is the middle verse of the Bible. The ninth verse of the eighth chapter of Esther is the longest verse, and the thirty-fifth verse of the eleventh chapter of St. John is the shortest. In the 107th Psalm four verses are alike. No names or words with more than six syllables are found in the Bible. The thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah and the nineteenth chapter of Second Kings are alike. The word ‘girl’ occurs but once in the Bible, and that is in the third verse of the third chapter of Joel. There are found in both books of the Bible 3,586,483 letters, 773,693 words, 31,373 verses, 1,189 chapters, and sixty-six books. The twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is the finest chapter to read. The most beautiful chapter in the Bible is the twenty-third Psalm. The four most inspiring promises are in John, fourteenth chapter and second verse; twenty-eighth verse; and thirty-seventh verse; St. Matthew, eleventh chapter and twenty-eighth verse, and thirty-seventh Psalm, fourth verse. The first verse of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah is the one for the new convert. All who flatter themselves with vain boastings of their perfectness should learn the sixth chapter of Matthew. All humanity should learn the sixth chapter of St. Luke, from the twentieth verse to its ending.”
Aids for Bible Readers
Historical quotations and extracts from various writers which may assist the thoughtful student of the Scriptures.
The Pocket-Knife a Nuisance
By ARTHUR C. LOGAN
ARTHUR C. LOGAN
The ordinary pocket-knife may very readily become a nuisance. It is not only generally filthy, but is virtually an instrument of infection, and may very readily become a means of producing or transmitting disease, being used for first one thing, and then another, without disinfection or cleansing. Doubtless, few people have ever taken this into consideration, and yet the unclean pocket-knife is one of the agencies in the transmission of disease that should not be overlooked.
Think of a man’s using his pocket-knife to clean the finger-nails, that, perhaps, have been digging in the garden, or some pile of rubbish, containing disease germs; then he gives it to some other member of the household to pare an apple with, or to use for some other such purpose! Of course, it has been cleaned, apparently; that is, wiped off; yet the germs are there, which can not be detected with the naked eye.
Again, this same instrument, that has been used for some foreign purpose, will be used to extract a splinter, or to dissect some portion of the human flesh; thus lockjaw may ensue, or blood-poisoning may result.
The best way to cleanse a pocket-knife, that has been used indiscriminately, is to pass the instrument through a flame, ten or fifteen times. Another way is to boil the instrument a few minutes. Thirdly, it may be soaked in a disinfectant liquid. Of course, with an instrument that is delicate or easily marred, due caution will have to be used. The size of the flame may be regulated according to the proportions of the instrument to be cleansed.
If the knife has several blades, it is well to have the different blades assigned to different purposes.
The best plan is to have two pocket-knives,—one for the dress suit, and one for the working suit,—using the blades only for their special offices. Fruits or nuts should never be pared nor eaten with a knife that has been used to sharpen pencils, unless it has been thoroughly cleansed.
Deadly germs may lie concealed in the nail niche, used for opening the knife, or secluded about the hinges, or inside the slot. A good plan to get rid of the dirt and germs about such places, is to soak the knife in kerosene or benzine. Of the smaller blades, one may be used for cleaning and trimming the finger-nails, and another for extracting or removing foreign substances from the flesh.
Where skins are to be removed from animals, the domestic pocket-knife should not be used, if it is possible to use any other. Where the whole blade is utilized, greater care should be exercised to disinfect the whole knife after it has been used.
Fresno, Cal.
How God Helped Katie
“O KATIE, get up! get up! I am afraid mama is dying.”
Katie sprang out of bed at a bound, and it seemed that her heart stopped beating. The lamp held by Jean, the older sister, threw a very unsteady light in the darkened chamber, for the child was so frightened that she could hardly hold it, while poor Katie thought she never would get dressed—her fingers trembled so.
What in the world could they do? Two little girls, only ten and twelve years of age; no neighbors within half a mile; papa away from home, and poor mama lying there moaning, and unable to understand a word they said.
“Katie, there is no help for it; you will have to go over to Uncle John’s, and get some one to go for the doctor,” said Jean.
Katie’s heart sank in terror. There were those dark woods to go through, the corn-field with its dreadful shadows, and, at the very last, uncle’s cross dog to meet. How could she do it? The imagination of the sensitive child peopled the woods with dreadful shapes and dangers. She opened the door and looked out. It was so dark she could not see the fence. She shuddered as she thought of plunging into the dark alone. She could not do it. But mama was so pale, so horribly pale.
“Mama, you must not die!” cried the child, as she hung over her mother in an agony of grief and dread.
“If I were only converted,” she thought with a sob, “God would help me. I guess he will anyway. He knows I have been thinking about it, and want to be good. Then he is so good and kind, and always helps people in trouble. I will pray; I will pray every step of the way.”
“Get the lantern, quick, Jean!” What if mama should die while she was gone, with poor Jean there all alone! Surely the Lord must help them.
A strange courage took possession of Katie as she climbed the fence between the barn and the woods. The October wind moaned through the trees, and the leaves rustled loudly at every step; but the child sped on with a marvelous sense of deliverance from fear. She did not look back once, intuitively fearing that that would be opening the way to fear and to distrusting God. She did not know what an important lesson in faith she was learning. As she entered the backyard of the farmhouse she was approaching, the dreaded dog did not make his usual appearance, and even the noise she made to arouse the sleeping inmates did not bring him on the scene of action.
“You don’t mean to say that you came over here alone this time of night,” gasped her aunt in astonishment, as she opened the door; but so strong had been the sense of God’s protecting care that Katie almost wondered at their surprise. You may rest assured that some one went to call a physician, and that Jean was soon relieved from her lonely vigil. In a few hours Katie’s mama was out14of danger, but this was not the only cause of the rejoicing in her heart. She had trusted the Lord, and found him true. Katie is a woman now, and has praised the Lord for many a deliverance, but one of the sweetest memories of her life is this first hard place where the Lord helped her.—Sabbath Reading.
Only Wait
By Joshua Tappmeyer
Oft there comes a gentle whisper o’er me stealing,
When my trials and my burdens seem too great;
Like the sweet-voiced bells of evening, softly pealing,
It is saying to my spirit, “Only wait.”
When I can not understand my Father’s leading,
And his dealing seems to me but cruel fate,
Still, I hear that gentle whisper ever pleading,
“God is working, God is faithful—only wait.”
When the promise seems to linger, long delaying,
And I tremble lest, perhaps, it come too late,
Still I hear that sweet-voiced whisper ever saying,
“Though it tarry, it is coming—only wait.”
O, how little soon will seem our hardest sorrow,
And how trifling is our present brief estate;
Could we only see the light of heaven’s to-morrow,
O, how easy it would be for us to wait!
I have chosen my eternal portion yonder,
I am pressing hard to reach yon heavenly gate,
And though oft along the way I weep and wonder,
Still I hear that cheering whisper,
“Only wait.”
—Joshua Tappmeyer.
Seeing Joy in Religion
“To Turner, the artist, a lady remarked, ‘Mr. Turner, I can not see in nature what you put into your pictures.’ ‘Don’t you wish you could, madam?’ was the artist’s reply. And when the skeptic sneeringly says of one transported by the raptures of Christian faith and hope and love, ‘I can’t see any joy in religion,’ the fitting reply is, ‘Don’t you wish you could?’ Love gives one eagle eyes to pierce heights and depths unscanned by those of sluggish heart; but those who love him best are the very ones who cry, ‘The half was never told,’ of the unsearchable riches in Christ.”
North Brazil Mission
By F. W. SPIES
“The Lord Is Pleading”
F. W. SPIES
It is true that Catholics are in great darkness, but when they have come to the point to study the Bible, they accept its teachings more readily than many of those who for years have had the privilege of studying its pages, and who, too often, instead of accepting the Bible as their teacher, place themselves above it as a judge to decide what it means, or what it ought to mean.
So with our recent converts who were Catholics. When they had settled the question that the Bible is God’s Word, a revelation of his will to man, that it is our rule of action, and that as such it must be obeyed, there was no question whatever about Sabbath observance, the coming of the Lord, or other truths and duties, which the Bible teaches. When the Lord in his Word had said a thing, that settled it with them.
Recently one of these new converts from Catholicism, an aged brother who can not even read very well, had occasion to visit a leading member of one of the Protestant churches in Nichteroy, who invited him to attend their services. Our brother asked when their services were held, and was informed that they were held on Sunday morning. To this he replied: “What a pity! We keep the Sabbath and meet on the day the Lord sanctified and blessed, and of which he said we should keep it holy.” Thereupon the Sunday-keeper, knowing that our brother was new in the faith, tried to confuse him by saying many things intended to depreciate the Sabbath in his estimation. But the latter replied: “I am very sorry for you! The Lord says that we should keep holy his Sabbath day, and he beseeches us so much to obey him. I am so sorry that you, who want to be a child of God, and who claim to follow his Word, are not willing to obey the Lord, because he pleads so much that we should keep holy the Sabbath.”
This Sunday-keeper afterward confessed that the simple, yet earnest and fervent manner in which the aged brother spoke, made a strong impression on him. He did not present any labored argument, but simply told in a child-like way some truths which the other could not gainsay or readily forget.
These experiences certainly encourage us in our work, and they reveal that the word of God is indeed sharper than any two-edged sword, and that if we only let it, it cuts its way to the heart. People may not always yield to it, yet in that day they will be without excuse, for such can not then say, “Nobody ever has told me before.” Every one who has thus heard the message in a simple, yet fervent and decided way, will at that time, if he has not obeyed it, have his mouth stopped, and will find himself guilty before God. Let us therefore take courage and “preach the word.” It must win its way. The Lord will give his Spirit to all who want to obey it, and they shall “know of the doctrine.” Higher Criticism may deny the authenticity of the Word, may deny its inspiration, but every one instructed by the Spirit will know, and will find the goal of honest hearts, in spite of a thousand winds of doctrine that may be blowing.
“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,” and “preach the word.”
Rio de Janeiro.
Another European Conference
By Guy Dail
GUY DAIL
That which but a few years ago seemed a visionary dream, an illusion of the enthusiast, an utter impossibility, is now an accomplished fact—our largest field in the world has been organized into the Seventh-day Adventist Russian Union Conference, and seeks recognition among the sisterhood of union conferences that encircles the globe.
It gives us great pleasure to thank God for the manner in which his Holy Spirit has visited the sessions of that small body of delegates from all parts of Russia, assembled in Riga, October 26–29, where the most important meeting we ever had in the czar’s dominions has just been closed.
Riga is under martial law. Soldiers pace to and fro, or stand with planted bayonets upon the street corners. Every day we see well-guarded squads of arrested revolutionaries slowly and sorrowfully wending their way to prison—and to death. There are numerous reports of theft, of burglary, and of murder. The postal authorities employ armed men to protect the mails from organized bands of highway robbers. The people themselves, in their dealings one with another, often show the bitterest race and class feelings, which sometimes result in acts of open violence.
In the midst of such surroundings the Lord has mercifully protected us all from harm. He has made it possible for the thirty-three delegates representing the Caucasian, South Russian, and Baltic Conferences, and the East, Middle, and West Russian Missions quietly to come together each day, formulate and adopt their constitution, choose their officers, and lay plans for the prosecution of the work of God. Brethren L. R. Conradi, J. T. Boettcher, Fred Anderson, and H. Hartkop rendered valuable aid and counsel.15
We wish the readers could have been with us, and enjoyed making the acquaintance of Russia’s sons and daughters who have tasted the sufferings that come to the leaders of a reform movement in a land such as theirs. Here are those to whom Seventh-day Adventist literature, which had often been carried across the border at great personal peril, was forbidden. Here you could shake the hands of men and women who have been pierced to the heart by the sudden and unheralded entrance of the pettiest village police official into the overcrowded room whither they had stealthily assembled for prayer and to listen to the Word of God. At that time this might be the forerunner of arrest and imprisonment and exile.
But those days are no more. God has granted us religious toleration. Our publications may be freely circulated. Our ministers may preach the word openly. Our brethren can come together in peace, and pray, and sing, and study the Scriptures. How thankful the people are can be known only by those who have once been denied the blessings of liberty, and have afterward enjoyed them again.
GENERAL VIEW OF ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
As we have been granted the same rights as the Baptists, we have drawn up a constitution, giving the principles which we wish to govern the Russian Union Conference; however, before this is fully operative, it must first receive the sanction of the government. Elder Boettcher will avail himself of the earliest opportunity to present a statement of our desires to the authorities in St. Petersburg; but until the necessary legal acknowledgment is obtained, it will be impossible to transfer the Russian headquarters from Hamburg to Riga. This is a very important matter, and it ought to be continually remembered in the prayers of our people. The initial steps to securing the rights for a branch publishing house here have also been taken.
The question of finance received a great deal of attention. Russia—a land of wonderful resources—is poor, because its natural wealth is so imperfectly developed. Most of the people are indigent peasants. The majority of our brethren belong to this class, although there are a few well-to-do business men and farmers to be found among the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists here.
In 1906 the 2,281 members of Russia paid a tithe of $8,157—not four dollars per capita; and this is $2,572 more than was received in 1905 from a membership of 2,003. Heretofore, the German Union has made up whatever the Russian missions lacked in meeting their expenses; for 1905, when there were nineteen workers, it required an appropriation of $1,450 to cover the Russian deficits; in 1906 the sum rose to $2,500; we do not know what it will be for 1907, as the accounts will not be audited until the German Union Committee meeting in February; but there are now thirty-two ministers, licentiates, and Bible workers in the Russian Union,
and it is estimated that the General Conference will be asked to appropriate $3,000 toward their expenses for 1908. However, these are not large amounts, if we remember that this union embraces more than two and one-fourth times as much territory as there is in the United States with all its colonial possessions, and that its inhabitants number 146,000,000—a mixed multitude of over one hundred languages. What wonder is it that such a field as this should need more laborers and more means, if we consider that the entire Russian Union can muster only 2,558 Seventh-day Adventists! If the United States of America, including the Philippines, Alaska, Guam, Porto Rico, the Hawaiian, and all her other islands, were to have in proportion to her area only as many members as there are in this field, then we would have but 1,135 Sabbath-keepers scattered throughout all her territory—one representative of the message to every 3,283 square miles (seventeen square miles less than the combined areas of the States of Rhode Island and Delaware).
It is therefore easy to understand why one of the main issues brought before the Russian delegates should have been the consideration of ways and means to provide facilities for the education of native workers. The German Union has promised $2,500 toward their institutional enterprise as soon as the brethren in Russia have raised twice that amount for this purpose. The $1,900 they have secured in cash and pledges toward their material fund for “Ministry of Healing,” makes a nice beginning, and they expect to realize great benefit from the sale of the relief books in the immediate future.
The canvassing work and general circulation of our literature must also be energetically developed in this field. As about eighty per cent of the inhabitants of Russia are the ignorant, poverty-stricken peasants, few of whom can read, the colporteur has many difficulties to surmount. We now have twenty canvassers who are devoting their powers to the solution of this problem. They need encouragement. One way in which our people in other lands may encourage the workers in Russia, cheer their own hearts, and be a blessing to others, is to scatter our publications among their Russian, Lettonian, Esthonian, or Polish neighbors; for literature adapted to all these nationalities can now be secured from the New York Branch of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, 32 Union Square, E., New York City.
The following free rendering of a few of the resolutions and recommendations which were unanimously adopted after a careful and candid discussion of the meaning and breadth of each, will be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW:—
“Whereas, Notwithstanding tribulation, imprisonment, and persecution, God in his mercy and by his strength has made it possible for present truth to be scattered into all parts of the Russian empire, and has given us, in the six leading languages of the country, a number of workers, and many churches, with a membership of 2,558; and,—
“Whereas, It is now possible for us to take so important a step as that of organizing the Russian Union Conference; therefore,—
“Resolved, That we hereby express our deepest gratitude to the Lord for his compassionate help and kind providence during the past twenty-one years, and that we to-day reconsecrate ourselves to his service, and erect here our Ebenezer, that we may be empowered to continue successfully to its completion the work that is begun, to the honor of God and the salvation of many souls.
“Whereas, The General Conference and the German Union have in the past assisted us with means and workers: therefore,—
“Resolved, That we express our thanks for the help thus received, and ask God to give us a clearer understanding of the wonderful privilege he has conferred upon us as the bearers of his16message for this time to the people of the great Russian empire, that we may be worthy of the aid of our brethren in the future.
“Resolved, That the newly established Baltic, South Russian, and Russian Union Conferences, as well as the West Russian Mission, date from Jan. 1, 1908.
“Resolved, That we express our full confidence in the mission God has committed to this denomination, and assure the General Conference of our hearty co-operation in accomplishing his work.
“Whereas, More men and means are necessary for the effective spread of the message among the many millions of our great field; therefore,—
“Resolved, That we earnestly request all our brethren to heed the Holy Scriptures by being faithful in tithes and offerings, as only thus will it be possible for us properly to forward the work and keep step with our sister union conferences in the future.
“Resolved, That we empower the Russian Union Committee to place before the proper officials for their approval, the constitution that has been here unanimously adopted.
“We recommend, That, in harmony with the vote of the General Conference, only such be chosen for church officers and field laborers as are faithful in the payment of their tithe.
“Whereas, The government has granted us legal rights as a denomination; therefore,—
“We recommend, That all our churches, after conferring with the president of their field, apply to their respective governors with reference to the making over of the proper books of record.
“Whereas, The canvassing work is very important to the most successful dissemination of the precious seeds of truth; therefore,—
“We recommend, That all our fields select properly qualified persons who will devote their lives to the circulation of our literature, and that we pledge encouragement to such as thus engage in this branch of the message.
“Resolved, That we extend to our American brethren our most hearty thanks for their timely assistance during the recent famine, and assure the donors that the Russian Union will carry out their wishes in the disposition of the remainder of the fund.”
In closing this report, we can only wish that God will very richly bless in their future labors all the Russian workers, especially Elder J. T. Boettcher, the newly chosen president of the union, and the union committee (Brethren H. J. and H. K. Loebsack, D. Isaac, O. Wildgrube, D. P. Gaede, and J. Sprohge), together with Sisters S. Bojanus (secretary) and Emma Creeper-Fenner (treasurer) and Sabbath-school and missionary secretary). We believe that our brethren in more favored lands, including our Russian-American Sabbath-keepers, will pray for this new union and God’s children there, and esteem it a privilege to help hold up their hands in any way they can.
Riga, Russia.
A New Alaskan Race
DR. GEORGE B. GORDON, curator of the University of Pennsylvania’s archeological department, who returned to Philadelphia after a six months’ expedition through the wildest regions of the far Northwest, announces the discovery of a new race living along the Arctic coast on the Koskokwim River in Alaska. Dr. Gordon brings back a strange story of these people who had never before seen a white man, and who differ from all other tribes of Alaskan Indians.
Dr. Gordon heard rumors of the race in 1905, and after innumerable hardships reached the territory in which these aborigines live in Adamic simplicity. They are called by the Eskimos “Kushkwagamutes,” and show strong traces of Mongolian ancestry. Crime and vice are utterly unknown among them.
Dr. Gordon says they know absolutely nothing of the corruption and degeneracy with which the whites have infected the Athabascan Indians, and the Eskimos.
“Though they are dying out,” Dr. Gordon said, “they are strong and clean physically, and are intelligent. They have retained the most ancient characteristics of dress and speech. In clothing, instead of wearing furs, they sew skins of birds into robes, using the breasts of the loon and various species of duck which abound in the river.”
Of their clothing, utensils, arms, etc., Dr. Gordon gathered collections, and when they arrive, he and other ethnologists will try to discover whether the tribe is of Asiatic origin, or whether it emigrated from Lower California.
This new tribe is the only one in Alaska which makes pottery, Dr. Gordon says. All the others weave baskets.
They are monogamists, and no such thing as vice is known among them. They are permitted by their priests to have more than one wife, but never do so. They have no laws at all, but are governed by patriarchs. They are tall, and the women are graceful and beautiful.
“There are only four hundred of them left,” said Dr. Gordon. “It is to be hoped for their sakes that they die out before the white traders get to them. Then they can die as cleanly and happily as they live.”
Dr. Gordon and his helper traveled down the Koskokwim fifteen hundred miles in a small sloop. When they reached Behring Sea, they sailed for Nome, were caught in equinoctial gales and were adrift three weeks. Dr. Gordon was forced to throw his provisions overboard to save his specimens. He landed at Nome nearly dead with hunger and exposure.—The Idaho Scimitar.
