p. 15 | Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 5. (1/31/1907)

Earlier text: The Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

Let It Go

By Robert S. Denham

Has a neighbor done you wrong? Let it go. Let his weakness make you strong. Help to cheer the world with song; Hatred never rights a wrong. Let it go.

Have you missed your heart’s desire? Let it go. Don’t lose courage, still aspire; Gold, you know, is tried by fire; Moaning ne’er will lift you higher. Let it go.

Do you differ with a friend? Let it go. Argue not, lest friendships end; Better far good-will to lend, Time the trouble soon will mend. Let it go.

In your past is there a stain? Let it go. If its memory gives you pain, Drive it out,—’twill be your gain,— Cheerful thoughts will banish pain. Let it go.

—Robert S. Denham.

Mr. Hubbell’s Conversion

By Lephia Bryant Larson

(Concluded)

LEPHIA BRYANT LARSON

“He ain’t said a thing that we can pick an argument out of, has he?” whispered Tom Sykes, nudging Mr. Offish, who sat with his head bowed on the back of the chair in front of him.

“Don’t, don’t drive the angel away, Tom! I’m done for. What a ‘brute’ I’ve been! Lord, have mercy on me, a poor, miserable sinner.” And Mr. Offish leaned against Tom’s shoulder and cried for the first time since twenty years ago, when his only son had been buried. Now, God’s only Son was speaking to him, to win him back so that he could see his little child once more, when those that sleep shall awake at his coming.

“I’m more miserable than you are,” stammered Tom. “I can’t seem to get hold of the truth. Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. What an ungrateful man I’ve been, and what a brute to Mary, and the children. I wish I could pray, John, I wish I could. I can—I will. I know that Jesus died for me, and I want to serve him!”

Tom Sykes got down on his knees, and John Offish knelt with him. Mr. Hubbell sat, looking up at the lamp, with tightly shut lips.

“There couldn’t any evangelist living get me to make such a show of myself,” he thought. “No, indeed! Never! Ask God to forgive me! Never!”

There was a slight stir at the back of the hall. Some one came quickly forward. A boy walked down the aisle, and stopped beside Mr. Hubbell’s chair.

Everybody knew that Jamie had been lame for over six years, and they wondered to see him without his crutches. He kissed his father, then walked up to the side of the three evangelists, where he gave his testimony to the healing power of Jesus.

“I wanted to come to these meetings every night, but father wouldn’t let me. I told Martha I was coming to-night anyway. I didn’t expect to see father here, but I’m glad he came, too. You’ll forgive me for disobeying you this time, won’t you, father?”

“While I sat back there by the door, listening to the reading, I heard something else. I heard the voice of Jesus speak to me, ‘Wilt thou be made whole?’ He spoke just as plainly as he did to those at Bethesda. Dear father, I don’t need my crutches any more,” and the happy boy ran about from friend to friend.

“Let us give thanks to Jesus, the divine Healer,” said Mr. Clonkey, reverently.

It was some time before Mr. Hubbell realized what had happened. He gazed at his son, then at the crutches which some one had brought and leaned against the platform, then his eyes came back to the bowed figures of his friends.

The singers continued:— “The waters are troubled, The angel still waits; He pauses in peril Who halts and debates: Give over your faltering, Your struggles within; The waters are troubled, Step in, O step in!”

Still Joseph Hubbell hesitated, though in his heart he knew what he ought to do.

A dozen people came forward and filled up the seats which had been vacated by those who had left the hall. Old Judge Brown was among them. He was the great freethinker of the community. He was seeking salvation through the name of Jesus. He was asking for prayer. He wanted to be baptized as soon as he could. Joseph Hubbell listened to the old man’s words: “I made up my mind that what time remained for me should be given to the Lord. I’ve fought his teachings and his followers for fifty years, but I have been thinking to-night that I’d die sometime; and I made up my mind that I’d get right with God.”

A few kind words to the kneeling ones, and the meeting closed. Seemingly there had been no impression made on Joseph Hubbell.

Mr. Offish and Tom Sykes went to the shed after the team, while Jamie and his father waited. It seemed strange to see the boy without his crutches, but the father said nothing about it.

The team was soon brought around, and Mr. Hubbell offered to assist Jamie.

“O, no, father,” said the boy, “I can climb in now. I’m as spry as anybody. Are you glad I’m well, father?”

A pressure of the hand was all that told Jamie that his father heard him.

“Pears to me the stars never looked so bright as they do to-night,” said Mr. Offish.

“And the moon! How grand it is!” said Tom Sykes. “And we were so foolish as to think all those stars and planets made themselves, and just stayed up there without anything nor anybody to keep track of them. It takes a master mind, John, to keep all those lights a-shining. There is a God, John, and I’m happier to-night than I’ve ever been in my life. Won’t my children be glad to have a real father? I’ve been anything but a help to my family. I never believed it when I used to hear any one tell how completely the love of Jesus could change one’s heart. And to think Jamie’s been healed! Hubbell, you ought to be the happiest man in seventeen counties!”

Jamie felt hot tears fall on his hand. “I am, God knows I am. I thank him from the depths of my heart;” and two weeks later Joseph Hubbell was baptized. Mrs. Clonkey was the seed-sower, and she rejoiced that so many sheaves had been gathered for Jesus.

Aberdeen, Wash.

MRS. S. N. HASKELL

By Mrs. S. N. Haskell

How to Enjoy Old Age—No. 1

MRS. S. N. HASKELL

THERE is perhaps no one thing more universally unwelcome than old age. The mass of the world try to evade it by the use of hair dyes and cosmetics, but old age creeps on just the same; no amount of deception will enable us to escape it.

Old age is sure to come, and why not welcome it as a friend, and make the best of it?

A very dear friend of mine once said, “Why should I be ashamed of any of my years? I have tried to improve them as they passed, and they have each brought me many pleasant memories. I should be sorry to part with any one of them.”

There are a few suggestions which, if followed, will help one to meet old age comfortably and cheerfully. In some respects old age is like childhood. Our physical strength increases from birth until the prime of life, and then it declines until death.

Every one knows that in order to have a well-developed, healthy, good-natured child, the child must sleep many more hours than an adult. In like manner, the one who would have a cheery, bright-tempered old age, with his faculties well preserved, must increase his hours of

sleep after he passes the prime of life in proportion as his years increase.

I am acquainted with a bright, active woman about sixty years of age. When asked how she retained her strength and youthfulness, she replied, “O, I always take a nap after dinner.” I have known this lady, when she had a busy afternoon before her, to excuse herself from company in the parlor and go to her room to take her after-dinner nap. She would say, as she started to her room, “I shall be dull all the afternoon if I do not have my nap.”

Many old people are unhappy and faultfinding invalids who might have been enjoying a happy old age if they had made a practise of taking a good nap every day after they passed their forty-fifth or fiftieth year.

Old age will come. Why not use the same good sense to preserve all the faculties that a wise parent uses to develop the faculties in the child?

The nervous system wears out in many individuals before the general health breaks; this is the reason our land is filled with insane asylums. The brain is the great nerve-center, and the only time of rest for the brain and nervous system is in sleep. If nervous people would study their own needs, and sleep more than other people, nervous prostration and many other troubles would be avoided. Many nervous people neglect taking a proper amount of sleep until they come to the place where they can not sleep, and nervous prostration or insanity follows. Sleep is the Lord’s remedy for many ailments.

Scores of overworked, tired housewives go to physicians for aid, and are given drugs or are operated upon, when a half-hour’s sleep in the middle of the day, every day, would rest the tired nerves and remove many a difficulty.

Many busy housewives say, “O I can never take time to sleep in the daytime!” Which is the wisest course, to lie down with the baby and sleep while he sleeps for a few minutes, or by and by spend weary months in the hospital away from your little ones, and perhaps be laid in the grave, and leave them motherless?

One noted physician has said: “If one would lie down and relax the muscles for fifteen minutes in the middle of the day, every day, even if he did not sleep, it would add many years to his life.”

Oakland, Cal.

Good Uses of Salt

If washing your table tumblers with cold water, dip your fingers in the salt, and see the result of it.

When rinsing your mouth after cleaning your teeth, put a little salt in the water. It will harden your gums and so prevent them from bleeding.

A little salt in your starch will prevent the starch from blowing out of your clothes on windy days, and will prevent the starch from freezing on cold days.

To sprinkle your carpet with salt before sweeping, not only gives it a bright color, but also prevents moths from getting into it.

Always wash the inside of your clothes-press with salt water. It keeps the moths out of the clothes.

Beeswax and salt will make your rusty flat-irons as smooth and clean as glass. Tie a lump of wax in a rag, and keep it for that purpose.

Salt will remove the stain from silver, caused by eggs, when applied dry with a soft cloth.

Lemon juice and salt will remove iron rust from clothes.

Hemorrhages of the lungs or stomach are promptly checked by doses of salt.

Salt and water is used as a gargle for a sore throat.

A strong salt-water bath to the feet will take out all tiredness.

A little salt put on a child's tongue when in spasms will give relief.

Salt and vinegar will clean copper better than anything else. It will also take spots off chinaware.—Selected.

The Pace That Kills

LAST week in this city the final act was played in a world-old tragedy. A young man, young at least in years, scarcely past the first flush of manhood, but old evidently in knowledge of evil ways, blasé and sated and hopeless at the time when life should have been blooming out into lofty ambitions and splendid imaginings, reckless with the recklessness that moral obliquity alone induces, in a moment of despair, or of shame, or of memory of what might have been, with a pistol in his own hand, took his life. It was a peculiarly sad case. Only a few years ago, how few it seems almost impossible to believe, he was a bright, attractive, beautiful little boy. Life was very full of promise, though the lad had a handicap in two particulars—he was an only child, and his father was rich. However, these were not serious disadvantages, as many in our time would view them.

Time went on, and the boy grew into young manhood. He was trained, as hundreds of others are, with little to do, little responsibility to bear, and little thought of life only as he might have a good time with it. The father died before he was of age, and left him and his somewhat indulgent mother with a fortune on their hands. He had not been trained to work, and there seemed no good reason why he should learn, for had he not plenty without it? But idleness is always the fruitful parent of greater evils. Young manhood must do something, and so he settled down to making a business of pleasure. Fast living makes terrible inroads even upon young and vigorous manhood; the pace that kills, kills with terrific haste sometimes. What he did, how many and heinous were his transgressions of the moral law, we know not. But the end of it all we know, and it was this—a suicide, and not yet thirty.

What a horrible tragedy, we say, even we who look at it from the outside. If we could take a glimpse into that home from which his body has been recently borne, or into the heart of that widowed mother, we might know more about it. And who was to blame for it all? That we may not say; in fact, the great pity of it would almost make it impossible for us to discuss that question. But we can not escape the conviction that this terrible tragedy has its message that ought not to be neglected; its message to young men, its message to parents; its message to all who have any responsibility in the training and guiding of the young. And what these lessons are each one may know for himself; they are lessons indeed that touch vitally the highest and holiest things that earth knows.

One thought specially may be emphasized. The father worked hard, early and late, was careful and shrewd and energetic and enterprising—what for?—To make money. That one thought was a great thought in his life. He succeeded, but having gained money in abundance, it turns out to be the great curse in the life of his boy. Has it often so proved itself?—Yes, times without number. Then what shall we say of the lust of money-getting? Is it a sane and wholesome passion? And are there any more of us who are jeopardizing high and holy interest, the concerns of life and of death, and of things even more important and sacred than these, on its account? Let each one answer for himself. This great and distressing calamity seems to say that it is possible for a man to pay a terrible price for the money he gets, and pay it in a way that he is little expecting.—The Christian Guardian.

A Mother’s Threefold Duty

Some people moan and groan over their toils or troubles, and sometimes over trifles. A lady not yet old used some language the implication of which was that she might as well be dead as alive. A sage happened to hear her remarks, and said to her: “Madam, you are a mother and a grandmother; those are two most important functions; so long as you can fill them, you should not wish your life to be ended.” A few minutes afterward as the sage was taking his departure, he happened to hear her say that she had just visited her mother. He returned and added: “You not only ought to live and rejoice to live and fill the parts of mother and grandmother, but you still have a daughter’s part to perform, which will never cease to be an obligation while your mother lives.”

The Way of Happiness

“If you wait for happiness to come to you,” said a shrewd observer, “you’ll wait till the last train has gone, and so you’ll miss your chance to reach it.” The way of happiness is not traveled by sitting still. Happiness is not a passive state, but the joyous activity of the best and highest powers of the soul.—American Church Sunday School Magazine.

Burma, India

By L. F. Hansen

L. F. HANSEN

As the rains set in this season, my climatic trouble of last year returned as promptly. I made straight for a dryer climate, and came to Sagaing, a station nine miles from Mandalay.

The temporary improvement from the change of climate was very slight. But I was at least able to be about most of the time, while last year I was confined to my bed for about ten weeks. This time, I was not confined to bed for more than six weeks at one time.

After I had been in Sagaing a few days, a young man came to my room one evening, and asked if I could baptize a young Christian convert. This call resulted in several studies with him, as well as with the candidate in question. After a few studies they came no more. My first caller, however, admitted that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Bible. In all, I met about twelve individuals, most of whom are students of the government school.

I believe here is material for work when we begin operations in Upper Burma. A Burmese worker would doubtless do well, for while the people here have a smattering of English, it is not sufficient to convey to them the great truths of salvation.

Sagaing is one of the four ancient Burman capitals. It is the oldest, having enjoyed that distinction from 1351-1380. Later, Ava became the capital, famous for the early experiences and long imprisonment and torture of Dr. Judson. It was to Ava that Judson and his fellow laborers made the memorable expedition which consumed several weeks, and no small amount of money. A river boat having been fitted up and manned by a crew of ten besides the missionaries, who with many presents to pave the way, and open the gates to the “golden feet,” and not without a magnificent present for the “Golden Face” himself, left Rangoon for Ava. The present for the king was the English Bible in six volumes, gilted entirely on the outside. Their purpose in this visit was to secure liberty to preach and make converts to the Christian religion, and liberty in particular for the converts to enjoy their religion.

Their mission proved a failure. The present to the king was spurned; a treatise on Christianity in Burmese was thrown to the floor by the king after the reading of the first sentence. And later, when the British entered Lower Burma, the missionaries were imprisoned, at first in Ava, for eleven months, and in Oung-pen-la, ten months; in both of these places they lay in heavy irons, and at night a bamboo pole was passed between their feet and hoisted up by ropes till only their shoulders touched the ground. Thus in filth, heat, and torture, twenty-one long and weary months at last wore away. Then the war ceased, and reluctantly the prisoners were liberated.

Directly opposite Ava on the Sagaing side is a hospital, where Mrs. Hansen was taken when she had the cholera. Together, we spent twenty-four days at this hospital, reflecting on the history of Ava.

Following the close of that war King Mindon Min, the father of Theebaw, built Mandalay, after having reoccupied Amarapura for a short time as capital.

Mandalay is a modern city, and during the twenty-five years of British rule has not lost much of its former glory. Indeed, the palaces of the kings and queens are very much as though the occupants had been absent for a time while the place was getting in need of general repairs. The “golden” aspect so inseparable from Burmese royalty is quite in evidence at the present time.

There are, however, many signs of Western industry; and there are mighty agencies slowly working and modifying the present generation. The gospel is meanwhile having its influence. For while old and established customs are remodeled, it is a very opportune time to also change religious opinions.

The Burmans seem to feel that the old ways are not able to keep pace with modern progress, and they are taking kindly to the new state of progress and speed. The situation for teaching the gospel to-day is a thousand times more favorable than in the days of Judson, a half century ago. One involuntarily exclaims, in view of all the forces working for the better, “What hath God wrought!”

After spending ten weeks in Sagaing, Mrs. Hansen was convalescing, and I was somewhat improved in health. Our trials and blessings while there were of an unusual kind, and will live while memory shall last. We hope that God will some day raise up reapers for Upper Burma, so that many of these much-blessed people may be looking with rejoicing for the King of kings.

At the time when our afflictions had reached the climax, we were much cheered by an unexpected visit from Brother and Sister Votaw, who were much in need of a little change. Their coming was evidently of divine order, for at that time we were at our wits’ end to find suitable food for Mrs. Hansen, as she was gradually recovering.

They were accompanied by Brother Parker, a Sabbath-keeping soldier. And as Brother Parker is very “handy” about the house as well as in the kitchen, his services were highly appreciated. And when he came to go down to Rangoon, the train ran over a bullock before it reached his station, which gave him time to get his train. For, disliking to crowd the departing Sabbath hours, he had but thirty-eight minutes to make six miles after dark. By the accident, the train was delayed long enough for him to reach the track, and signal to have it pick him up. He was the happiest man on that train, for this special blessing of God to him.

We have numberless reasons to be grateful for the goodness of God to our work and workers in this new field.

The “Malaysia Conference”

By R. W. Munson

R. W. MUNSON

The Malaysia Conference belongs to the Australasian Union Conference, and is, perhaps, as yet unfamiliar to the readers of the REVIEW AND HERALD. But although yet unorganized, it really exists in the plan of God for the extension of the work of the message to all the world.

If our readers could have been present at the late union conference, when the committee on the distribution of labor made its report, they, too, would have been bold enough to say, as was said by at least one delegate, “By faith I can see the Malaysia Conference already in sight.”

More than six years ago, when we had been but a short time in Padang, Sumatra, such a burden for the extension of the work in the East Indies rested upon me that I was groaning in spirit for weeks, and praying that the Lord would send forth laborers into that great and needy field. The burden became so heavy that I felt it would crush me if I could not get relief from it.

We had asked for workers, but none were forthcoming from the United States; and finally, when one did come,

broken health took that one from us, and left us all alone. Help was to come from Australia, just as the Lord had spoken in the Testimonies. When we heard through the brethren in Australia that definite action had been taken connecting the East Indies with this conference, we rejoiced, for we saw light in it, and hoped that now help would come. Brother Gates visited us in the latter part of 1901 and the early part of 1902. Our hopes for the work rose, and we thought we should see a definite beginning made. But God’s ways and man’s are not the same, and again, for, to us, inscrutable reasons, our hopes were doomed to meet with disappointment.

The anguish of spirit which we felt over these repeated disappointments, and the temptation to discouragement, were very great, indeed. Those were the darkest days of all our Christian experience, and many bitter tears were shed. But God was working behind the screen of the (to us) unknown, and in the fulness of time his purposes were revealed. I feel constrained to quote the words of Cowper’s beautiful hymn:—

“God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.

“His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

“Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.”

The second stanza seems singularly appropriate to the experience through which we were called to pass. Some of those dark and trying experiences seemed to us utterly inexplicable, and not only unnecessary, but harmful to the cause. But soon we began to see a wonderful design and great wisdom in all of them. Doubtless we shall see more and more in it all as time passes. This will be particularly true when we have reached the kingdom. We ourselves needed the discipline and chastening which only such trials could bring, and we have already begun to reap “the peaceable fruits of righteousness” which such chastening, we are told by the Word, always brings “unto them which are exercised thereby,” and for which we are devoutly thankful.

Two years ago Brother and Sister G. F. Jones and Brother Robert Caldwell reached Singapore. About two months later Brother G. A. Irwin, then president of the Australasian Union Conference, on his way to the General Conference visited Singapore, and held there a little council meeting, composed of himself, Brother and Sister Jones, Brother Caldwell, and the writer.

A few months later Brother and Sister Davey arrived, and opened the medical work. Then Brother Caldwell was transferred to the Philippines, and Brother Fred Parkin went to Singapore. A little more than six months ago Brother and Sister McElhaney went to Manila. All these reinforcements put great courage into our hearts, and made us rejoice.

At last, greatly to our sorrow, we were obliged to leave Sumatra and come to Australia, in order to save the life of our youngest son. The native (Chinese) brethren and sisters were left all alone, and it caused us much distress that no one could be found to go and take up that important work. But we kept on praying, and engaging the interest of as many as possible to pray that the Lord would raise up some one to enter that field. We wrote to the brethren there, also, to cry to God for help.

All these prayers were answered at the union conference. One day during the session a letter from Brother Jones, written from Java, came, which stirred the conference profoundly. The result of it was that action was taken before the close of the conference, appointing three laborers to Sourabaya, in eastern Java, to begin work. Immediately after the letter was read, a sister arose, and said, “I will give twenty pounds to send some one there to work for the women.” Soon after the close of that session, Sister Skadsheim offered herself for that field. It was finally decided that Brother and Sister Teasdale were also to be sent to Java, and Brother and Sister Wantzlick to Sumatra. Brother Joseph Mills, a teacher in the Avondale school, and Brother Fletcher, a young minister of the Victoria Conference, were sent to strengthen the work in Singapore.

Money was subscribed at this conference, also, to bring Bella Fox, the daughter of Sister Fox, of Sourabaya, to Australia, to attend school. I had expected that help would be sent to Singapore, but I was prepared to see Sumatra and Java wait another year or two before a start should be made, and my joy was unbounded when the committee on the distribution of labor read its report. I felt that I had no words with which to praise God sufficiently for thus early and fully answering my prayers. I have not yet ceased praising him, and I expect to continue doing so while life lasts.

Cooranbong, Australia.

A Bible Colporteur in an Austrian Prison

THE Bible Society of Scotland is doing a good work by employing Bible colporteurs to sell the Scriptures in Austria. Dr. Clark, of Prague, reports the following interesting experience of one of these agents:—

“Recently, in Lower Austria, he was followed by a policeman from village to village, and at last marched off to prison. On the way he faithfully conversed with his captor on the necessity of personal salvation, till the policeman exclaimed, indignantly, ‘And do you think that I am not a Christian?’ ‘Not such an one as you ought to be, or you would not be marching me to prison for trying to supply men with the Word of our Saviour.’ In prison he was as happy as Paul and Silas, so that the jailer wished he had his comfort and joy. While waiting for his case to be investigated, he obtained permission to write a letter to his wife. This, by prison rules had to be submitted to the judge, who, after reading it, sent for —, and, having talked with him for an hour regarding his faith and hope in God, said: ‘I am going to keep this letter. Here is paper; write another to your wife.’ Whereupon the colporteur wrote twenty pages, relating his religious experience.

“In each of two courts those twenty pages were read and discussed. His sanity was questioned, but after examination two medical men declared him to be as sane as any of his accusers or judges, and, in higher respects, ‘a much better man.’ After seventeen days in prison he was allowed to go free, an orderly, truth-loving, God-fearing man, but with the somewhat paradoxical sentence: ‘We do not fine you for selling Bibles. Go and sin no more.’”

In Austria-Hungary

By Ludwig Richard Conradi

L. R. CONRADI

AMONG the different countries belonging to the German Union Conference, the Austria-Hungarian empire is third, with a total population of forty-nine millions, and an area even greater than that of the German empire; it is also the third empire in Europe.

Austria-Hungary is indeed a conglomerate of nations and languages. About twelve millions speak the German; ten millions use the Hungarian; six millions are Bohemians; four and a half millions are Poles and Slavonians; the mother tongue of four millions is the Ruthenian, and of three millions, the Rumanian; there are about two million Servians, and a little less than two million Croatians, and one million Italians.

As to religions, thirty-three and one-half millions are Roman Catholics, seven and one-half millions belong to the various Greek Catholic denominations, over two millions are Jews, six hundred thousand are Mohammedans, while about four and one-half millions are Protestants.

The Lord’s providence first led us to Hungary, which has by far the more liberal government, and contains the larger number of Protestants. For a time the work advanced very slowly—until Elder Huenergardt entered the field, and began to master the Hungarian language, and we secured other help from Germany, and were also able to train several natives. Then steady progress began.

The message first took root in Austria in that noted city of the Reformation—Prague, Bohemia. Since then, our efforts have extended to Moravia, to Vienna, and to Gratz. As the total membership up to the present time in Austria is only seventy, we have not as yet held a general meeting in that country; but on our way to the Hungarian meeting, Brother J. T. Boettcher and the German

Union secretary and the writer spent Sabbath and Sunday at Prague, where most of the workers from the Austrian field had been called together. As Elder Mathe had been invited to take charge of the North German Conference, Brother Wolfgarten had lately been requested to settle in Vienna. It was our privilege to baptize one person at Prague, and to celebrate the ordinances with the church there. Most of the members speak the Bohemian, and our remarks had to be translated into that language.

The Bohemian brethren are happy because they now have a neat monthly paper in their own tongue, and they are doing what they can to increase its circulation. Wherever the Bohemian is understood, this paper, bearing the truths for the last generation, ought to be circulated.

While Brother Boettcher went to visit the company at Reichenberg, near the Silesian border, I went on to Vienna, to hold a Bible study with the believers there.

Our present force of laborers in Austria consists of one licentiate, five Bible workers, and one canvasser. If we think of the twenty-seven millions of people in Austria, we must admit that as yet we have made only a beginning in that field. Although we are hampered by unfavorable laws, yet we are glad that during the year 1906 there were about twenty additions in the Austrian field.

December 6-9 we had our general meeting for Hungary at Budapest, and we were happily surprised to see that, although the people in general are poor, and they were in some cases five hundred miles distant from the place of meeting, yet each church and company was represented among the eighty persons present at the conference. All seemed to take the deepest interest in the Bible studies and in the business sessions. Small as the company was, it was interesting to note that what was spoken in the German was translated into the Hungarian, and in various parts of the room were workers translating from the Hungarian into the Rumanian, or the Slavonian, or the Servian, to the small groups by which they were surrounded.

The reports of the workers showed that they were of good cheer. At the beginning of 1906 there were two hundred and thirty-one members in Hungary, and their report showed nearly one hundred additions for the year, bringing their membership up to about three hundred and twenty-five. They have a working force of two ordained ministers, one licentiate, six Bible workers, and four canvassers, and these workers are able to labor in the German, the Hungarian, the Servian, the Croatian, and the Rumanian,—five of the leading languages in Hungary.

For the meetings during the day, we used our regular meeting place in the city, while for the evening lectures, we were kindly granted permission to use the gymnasium in one of the city schools, free of charge. All considered, this was really remarkable. A few years ago we were scarcely tolerated.

The Hungarian paper (monthly) is steadily increasing its circulation, and the various nationalities represented are pleased to get the Sabbath-school lessons in their respective tongues.

The meetings passed off very harmoniously. Elder Huenergardt was again unanimously chosen director of the field.

An elder and a deacon were ordained for the church at Budapest, which is the capital of Hungary, and has about eight hundred thousand inhabitants. The membership of the church here is thirty-two. The elder of the church is employed by one of the Hungarian lords, and has charge of a number of flats (in all, about eighty dwellings). The brother’s employer had so much respect for him that when he accepted the truth, and could not therefore follow his former occupation, he gave him this work to do instead. Thus God always has ways to provide for his faithful children.

CHAIN BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE AT BUDAPEST, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

As we look at the Austria-Hungarian empire, and find that within its borders there are now about four hundred members, in spite of the hindrances and the small corps of workers engaged there, we feel grateful to God for what he has accomplished. The membership, number of workers, and native literature are increasing for Austria-Hungary, and a strong work is being developed there.

We feel also sure that much might be done in the States for many of these nationalities, for thousands and thousands are entering the American ports every year from the overcrowded centers of population in Europe. These people enter a new environment; they forget to some extent their former surroundings and associations; they are willing and often glad to accept new ideas. Why should not earnest efforts be made in their behalf, that they may hear the message God has given us? Those who take hold of the message in the States will help to strengthen not only the American field, but also the work in their native lands. We hope and pray that soon still greater efforts may be put forth in behalf of the hundreds of thousands that are streaming into America every year.

Hamburg.

Chinese News and Mission Errata

THE Chung Hua Pao states that its special correspondent at Fengtien writes that a few weeks ago a Japanese imported into China three thousand Japanese widows, whom he offered for sale either as domestic servants or as secondary wives. Photographs are first shown to intending buyers, who then make their selection, and the woman is weighed, and her value is calculated. The one condition attached is that she must be allowed to return home once every three years. They are sold at sixty cents a catty. A catty is one pound and three quarters, avoirdupois. The possibility of such things is one of the reasons why we send out missionaries.”

ERRATA.— In the mission notes on page 15 of the REVIEW for September 20, it is stated that “over eight million Chinese students are attending schools in Japan.” This number is no doubt a mere oversight. Instead of million, it should read thousand; and then the statement would be quite correct for the number that came last school year; and some gave the number as high as ten thousand. Now this fall the number of Chinese students in Tokyo alone is given as thirteen thousand, and by some as high as fourteen thousand. But it should be observed that nearly all the Chinese students coming to Japan to attend school come to Tokyo. The Chinese authorities are taking steps to reduce the number of students going abroad for their education. This is to be accomplished by providing schools in China for the greatest number of those now leaving the country, and by the granting of passports to study abroad only to those who are prepared to take up advanced courses.

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