THE religion of Christ and worldly commercialism have nothing in common. The spirit of the one is that of self-seeking and concentration; the spirit of the other is that of self-sacrifice and generous diffusion. One gives in order to receive again, the other dispenses with no hope of reward.
The gospel was conceived in the spirit of sacrifice. God "gave his only begotten Son." "Christ gave himself." And to his followers he says: "Freely ye have received, freely give." The spirit possessing the early church was in hearty accord with this divine example. The believers at Jerusalem had all things in common. Those who had possessions sold them, and brought the price thereof to the apostles to be used for the necessities of the gospel cause.
As the church departed from the principles of the gospel, this spirit of Christian simplicity and sacrifice became corrupted. Worldly methods were introduced. The spirit of commercialism began its leavening work. The cause of God was exploited for money and for personal advantage. The church trafficked in the souls of men. God's grace was made an object of barter. His professed ministers preached for hire instead of for love of souls. In the church there was formed an aristocracy based on wealth in material things. This sad condition is graphically pictured by the inspired penman in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation.
It was largely because of the employment of these worldly, commercial methods in the matter of indulgences that the church of the Reformation period separated from the Roman communion. Well would it have been for Protestantism if it could forever have remained free from these corrupting influences. But as the membership, wealth, and popularity of the Protestant churches increased, the same principles of worldly policy and method have permeated them. In high-salaried preachers and choirs and rented pews, in magnificent church edifices, and in worldly methods in money raising,—in these and other ways the Protestant churches have simulated the spirit of the Church of Rome in her methods of obtaining money through the worship of relics, prayers for the dead, masses, indulgences, etc.
It is comparatively easy for Seventh-day Adventists, who are so far removed from the great popular churches in religious belief and practice, to recognize as applied to them the operation of these worldly methods. But do we not need to consider our danger of adopting the very spirit of these principles in our own work? True, we celebrate no masses; we have no high-salaried preachers, no paid choirs, no church raffles or grab bags for raising money. But is there not danger that this spirit of worldly commercialism will enter our hearts in the carrying forward of the various departments of our work even by the employment of legitimate methods?
We may push the sale of our publications from motives of monetary gain, instead of from a desire to minister light and blessing to those in darkness. We may conduct week of prayer meetings and revival services in order to secure at the close a large donation for the work, instead of to lead sinners to Christ. Our chief purpose in securing students for our schools and guests for our sanitariums may be primarily to increase the revenues of these institutions, rather than to save those whom we are seeking to induce to go to them. These motives are purely commercial in their character, and widely separated from the spirit of the gospel.
We recognize the need of money even in the work of God. Money is required for the maintenance and extension of every phase and feature of the gospel. As some of the devoted followers of Christ in the first century "ministered unto him of their substance" (Luke88:3), so there must be the ministry of substance to the Master's cause today.
But some there were in the days of Christ's earthly ministry who followed him for the loaves and fishes. They hoped that discipleship would bring temporal as well as eternal gain. They knew but little of sacrifice, and were unmoved by the spirit of unselfish benevolence. But there were others who gave up all for Christ. They counted dear unto themselves neither possessions nor life if by their sacrifice souls could be saved for the Master. This spirit should possess the believers today. They should not seek in the work of God opportunities for personal advantage, but rather avenues for the use and exercise of every talent in the true spirit of the gospel.
Many faithful believers in this movement have come forward in times of crisis and lent to church enterprises money which they could not afford to donate. Heaven has accepted their service. Many others have brought their gifts, small and great, and placed them on the altar of sacrifice, and some have given their lives as well as their means, an offering of a sweet savor unto God.
But the exception should not become the rule. The cause of God should not be made dependent on borrowed money. Indeed, no policy of operation creates and fosters so fully the spirit of commercialism in religious work as does the practice of carrying on such work with borrowed capital. So far as the Bible record goes, we recall not one instance where this was done. Repeatedly are the believers in various ages of the church exhorted to give to the support of God's work, to sacrifice their all, if need be, for its prosecution, but never were they asked to lend money.
The gospel work was conceived in sacrifice; it can be carried forward successfully only in this spirit. And the call to the people of God today, as in the days of the past, is a call to sacrifice. Our institutions may continue to need loans, but above loans they need gifts. When once the spirit of generous Christian benevolence takes possession of this people, the question of denominational indebtedness will be easily solved. Much of the money now lent to the cause will be donated to it. Money now invested by believers in stocks and bonds will be turned into the treasury of the Lord. Money deposited in banks will be donated in whole or in part to some branch of the work, or if the possessor is unable to do that, it will be deposited without interest in some of our institutions. Lands and houses and herds will be sold, and the proceeds devoted to the needs of gospel work.
By this means our institutions, rendered able to pay their interest-bearing indebtedness and refusing to contract new obligations, will be placed in a position to do the work which God would have them accomplish.
We need to recognize that God's work can never be carried forward successfully on a commercial basis or with commercial methods. We need to cease forever our debt-making policy, resolutely refusing to make extensions to existing enterprises or to enter upon new ones on borrowed capital, but wait until the providence which points the way shall provide the means for the undertaking.
It is possible for an institution, even though well managed, to be so embarrassed by a burden of indebtedness created in its establishment that without special help it is unable to check its increasing obligations. It has a heavier burden than it can ever bear alone. These conditions afford opportunities for liberal gifts and donations, or for the lending of money without interest, in order that its great interest-bearing burden may be lifted. If this were done in the case of several of our institutions today, they would be enabled to sing the song of jubilee, and expend their energies in real soul-saving instead of debt-paying service.
Israel today need to retrace their steps as did Israel of old. We need to return to our first love, to gospel methods of finance, to the spirit of labor and sacrifice which prompted the Master and his disciples, which actuated the pioneers in this movement, which must possess those who in this day truly make a covenant with the Lord by sacrifice. Doing this, God will bless the labor of our hands, he will open doors of deliverance from every embarrassment, and we shall see the mighty revealings of his power in the speedy triumph of his message of salvation. F. M. W.
Spiritualistic Demonstrations
By Uriah Smith
While we may not hear quite as much as formerly of the Spiritualistic séance with its demonstrations, this great deception is manifesting its powers and snaring souls in every land, and the Spiritualistic doctrines are permeating everywhere, taking on generally a more refined and cultured and religious form, so that they may only the more effectually leaven the religious ideas of those who are not instructed in the Word of truth for this time.
One of the European colporteurs tells in the German paper of an experience that came to him in one of the mountain districts of Austria, we believe. The colporteur says:—
In one place I had a remarkable experience which greatly strengthened my heart in the present truth. In the inn where I secured a lodging I found myself unexpectedly in a room where a Spiritualistic sitting was in progress. Five persons laid their hands upon a table, and a sixth began to ask questions, while the table began to give out the noise of rappings.
The man asked the table if the books that I was showing them contained the truth. The table lifted itself up and remained standing, which they said indicated "no." The man asked further if I were a deceiver, and there followed a rapping which they said meant "yes."
Now I called out: "In the name of Jesus Christ, speak the truth. Is this the fulfillment of Matt. 24:24 and 1 Tim. 4:1?" After a long delay there followed a knock heavier than before, which meant "yes."
I said nothing more, for I feared to misuse the holy name of Jesus. With hand upon the Bible, I showed those present with whom they were dealing in these manifestations, and the truth gained a victory there. I thank God that his Word is the truth. It seems that in this place he has given me more than natural strength in selling the publications. In a village in the same region I stopped overnight with one person who had heard of the Adventists before and had sworn he would kill any Adventist that came into his house. This man bought nine crowns' worth of books, and invited me to stop with him when I came again. The people of the mountains are very wild and fanatical, and I thank God for his protecting hand and for the power of his truth.
It is instructive to recall the fact that just as this message was rising in the days following 1844, Satan brought into the world his great deception of modern Spiritualism; and while the deception is traversing the earth and penetrating every remote region, so the Lord's truth is pressing its way to and fro through all the earth, winning victories over all the power of the enemy. w. a. s.
A Divine Indictment
By C. M. S.
THE Word of God gave Divinity's estimate of the drink traffic many centuries ago, and specified its three distinctive features. We read:—
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. 20: 1.
Those distinctive features are: It is a mocker; it is a rager; it is a deceiver. Through all the centuries of human history since men began to drink fermented beverages, liquor has been demonstrating the truth and the justice of that divine indictment.
As a mocker, strong drink has no equal in the world. Men have taken their first taste and loathed it. They have said liquor never could gain a hold upon them. And then they have drunk it to show their contempt for its power, to show themselves stronger than the drink demon. They have declared they could drink or they could let it alone; and hugging that delusion, they have9continued to drink instead of letting it alone.
With the drink inside, they were surer than ever that they were strong enough to let it alone, and would do so when they found that it was injuring them.
Then one day, to prove their power to their friends and show their worrying and sorrowing relatives that there was no danger, they determined to leave it off. A day passed, and there was a craving they could not satisfy; two days passed, and the craving become a demand that grew persistent and insistent and peremptory. Three days passed, and the craving and the demand began to smolder and a flame began to burn at the very root of the soul, and no amount of water would quench it.
Then these victims, with their backs against the wall, fighting for their honor, fighting to preserve themselves from complete overthrow and their families from ruin, pleaded with themselves for the sake of their manhood, for the sake of their loved ones, to refuse to yield. Then, with nature exhausted and with their first horrible realization of the strength of the furies they had tampered with, they ceased to boast, and began to plead with the drink demon itself. But it mocked them, and shouted in their ears, "Drink! Drink!" "But," pleaded the victim, "I have boasted I could leave it alone." "Never mind your boast; drink!" "But I have said I was stronger than you, and if I drink it will prove me a liar." "Never mind that; drink!" "But I have promised my loved ones I would stop it. If I can't, I am ruined, and they are ruined." "Never mind what you promised; drink!" "But if I go back to this, I am lost, eternally lost. The hopes of my wife and my children will be blasted, and I doomed to shame and contempt." "But what do I care for that? Drink!"
He drinks. And that struggle has gone on in the breasts of millions of human beings who have been startled into the realization of their terrible condition when they have sought to break away from the invisible tentacles which the drink demon has wound around every fiber of their being. It has led them on to scout the fears of their friends, and when it has been sure of its power, it has mocked them in their weakness. It has mocked at their pleadings, mocked at their ambitions, mocked at every desire they had for good, and has burned its mockery into their souls when its victims have found themselves going down into the vortex of utter ruin and taking their loved ones with them. Truly "wine is a mocker."
In the causation of brawling and strife, discord and contention of every kind, the liquor business has no equal. The inspired writer says: "Strong drink is raging." We see this verified wherever liquor is sold. Neither land nor climate alters its characteristics in that particular.
The royal prosecuting attorney of Italy declares that three fourths of the crimes committed against persons in Italy are committed by the intoxicated. Similar declarations have been made by public officials of other countries. Think what it would mean to Italy to have three fourths of her crime wiped out. It would mean four times as much peace as she has at the present time. It would mean only one fourth as many criminal prosecutions, one fourth as many assaults and murders, one fourth as much taxation for the support of courts and jails and penitentiaries. If it were not for liquor in Italy, three fourths of those now serving time in penal institutions would be engaged in some kind of gainful pursuits. And yet Italy continues to license that business which increases her people's taxes and decreases their productivity.
What is true of Italy is true of every other nation in the world in varying degree according as the people are more addicted or less addicted to the use of strong drink. If this world should stand a hundred years, or two hundred years, our posterity would look back upon the dealings of the nations with the liquor traffic as the monumental folly of the age.
The raging of men is increased wherever the footprints of the drink demon are found. The records of the courts of the nations, the states, and the municipalities prove that there is no stirrer up of rage like the demon of strong drink; and it has never entered a home in the world that it has not left it worse than it found it, or wrecked it and scattered its members to the four winds. Strife, discord, dissension, disunion, wrath, and rage,—these are the thorn seeds the liquor traffic sows in the path of humanity wherever it goes.
The third leg of this tripod of misery and wickedness is deception. The liquor business has deceived nations and states and municipalities and individuals. It has made nations, states, and cities believe that they could not maintain the various departments of government without the revenue derived from licensing the liquor business. But it has taken out of the people from five to ten dollars for every one that it has paid in revenue. Thus has it deceived the people. But in addition to extracting from five to ten dollars for each one it has contributed, it has besotted men and women, reduced their earning capacity, and filled their homes with discord, misery, and want.
An English Parliamentary investigating committee declares that on account of the liquor business England is robbed of one sixth of the possible product of her laboring population. This in one year means a loss of $633,000,000. During the same time the liquor business paid to the government in revenue $171,000,000. Thus the nation lost $462,000,000 in one year on that one item alone. Add to that loss Great Britain's two-billion-dollar drink bill and the cost of three fourths of the court trials and three fourths of the cost of maintenance for the inmates of England's penal institutions, and what the liquor traffic pays over to the government for its license to do business dwindles into insignificance. It is the most peculiar kind of finance that is seen anywhere in the world. In no other department of human affairs do men pay out ten dollars, or even five dollars, to get one in return. But that is what is done wherever the liquor traffic is licensed to carry on its business. In causing nations, states, and cities to think they must have the liquor revenue in order to operate their departments, the liquor business has demonstrated that God's Word is true when it calls strong drink a deceiver.
On every count, then, it proves itself to be what Heaven declares it to be. It has mocked humanity for ages; it has stirred up strife, hatred, and murder for ages; it has deceived the race for ages. It is high time that men everywhere should rise up and say, It is enough. No other such devastating agency ever came into this world. It is Satan's right-hand supporter. It has written a history that drips with blood and tears from its first chapter to its last. It has fostered and nourished and propagated every crime that is known to man; and to license it to continue its operations for a few million crime-stained and blood-wet dollars in revenue is the most stupendous folly the book of history records.
C. M. S.
One Latter-Day Agency for the Spread of Knowledge
By W. A. S.
THE Springfield Republican reminded us the other day that the seventieth anniversary of the introduction of the electric telegraph in America had just been passed. The article (in the issue of May 28) gives an interesting review of the facts:—
It was just seventy years ago Sunday that the telegraph was formally introduced. Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor, who had worked for twelve years on electro-magnetic communication, and his associate, Alfred Vail, had strung the first line between Washington and Baltimore. On the morning of May 24, 1844, Annie G. Ellsworth, daughter of the then Commissioner of Patents, burst into the United States Supreme Court chambers in Washington, where men were gathered around his telegraph instrument, and brought the news that Congress had appropriated $30,000 for official tests of the invention, after a disheartening series of refusals. Morse reached for the sending key and ticked off the historic message, "What hath God wrought!" Vail, in a10station at Baltimore, surrounded by another group of distinguished men, read the message upon a paper tape. Two days later the telegraph gave out its first public news by announcing that Polk had been nominated for the presidency in the Baltimore convention.
Today the telegraph is one of the most important strands holding modern civilization together. It is estimated that something like half a billion news dispatches, business communications, and social messages are transmitted every year over the 6,000,000 miles of telegraph wire connecting practically all the important settlements in the world. Nearly 300,000 miles of submarine telegraph also have been laid. One invention after another led to the reading of messages wholly by sound, to the sending of as many as a dozen messages simultaneously over one circuit, and in a crude form the sending of pictures over the wire by intermittently flashing beams of light. In its most advanced form the telegraph has eliminated wires altogether, and from hundreds of stations ashore and from the masts of almost every large ocean-going vessel, the exchange of messages through the air has lately become almost as commonplace as ordinary wire communication.
Thus the world is brought closely together in these days. All peoples are watching the unfolding of world events day by day as the history is made. It was never so in any former generation. With the coming of the generation that is to witness the events that betoken the very end of time, the agencies have come into being by which all mankind may watch the closing drama of earth's history as one vast audience together. And all these facilities are pressed into service in hastening on the message that is to be carried to all peoples. Who can fail to recognize the providential timeliness of the arrival of these agencies as the last generation came upon the stage of history?
W. A. S.
The Midsummer Offering,
By W. T. Knox
Sabbath, July 4
During the past ten or twelve years the work of God has been rapidly expanding throughout the earth in both Christian and heathen lands. The messengers of truth, notwithstanding the many difficulties that have beset them, have met with encouraging success. During that period the Lord has opened the doors of many nations to the truth, and as rapidly as our limitations would permit, these openings have been occupied.
In 1900 the denomination had really only begun its work among the heathen. Today the work is well established in sixty-eight non-Christian and Catholic lands, and the record of each year has been one of steady and gratifying progress. This constant expansion has created a constant demand upon us for a corresponding increase in workers, resulting in a continual exodus of our young men and women from America to China, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, India, Africa, and in fact to every portion of the earth. Their labor, blessed by God, is in turn creating new demands upon us. From an ever-increasing territory the Macedonian cries are coming to us, but for the past year the condition of the General Conference treasury has been such that the committee has been obliged to turn a deaf ear to all these appeals, for only such advancement can now be made as will be warranted by the gifts of the people.
Encouraged by the steady and rapid increase in the gifts of the denomination to foreign missions during recent years, the General Conference has greatly increased its work in foreign lands, until its responsibilities now call for an annual outlay of $500,000. Much anxiety and perplexity has come to the Mission Board this year on account of the serious shrinkage in our mission receipts, the first four months of the year showing a deficit of about $110,000 on our Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. This shortage affects the foreign mission funds to the extent of $53,000. This, if permitted to continue through the year unchecked, will mean a deficit of $160,000. The seriousness of this outlook can be appreciated fully only when it is understood that our present volume of work requires the full amount asked for in the appeals of the General Conference. Any shortage, therefore, can only result in suffering and distress to our brethren whom we have sent out to these distant lands, and unless corrected, eventually curtailment of our work.
This condition is not one that is peculiar to our denomination, as is shown in the following clipping taken from a recent publication:—
The New York Sun has been gathering some statistics and information as to the condition of the treasuries of the missionary boards and societies, which are not entirely cheerful. They reveal large shortages in not a few instances. The total of deficits will not be much below one million dollars if the information had is reliable. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions began the year with a deficit of $65,300. It fell short this year $226,800 more, making a total deficit reported at Chicago this month of $292,100.
The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions fell $138,000 behind its appropriations. This is its first deficit in fifteen years.
The Episcopal General Mission Board has a deficit approaching $300,000. The board began the year $197,000 behind. Ten years ago the board appropriated to its fields $676,000 a year; last year, $1,333,700. The Baptist Foreign Missionary closes the year with a debt of $182,000, the sum being an accumulation of previous years. The Home Society began the year $31,000 behind and ended it with a deficit of $72,000. Presbyterians South, handling about $800,000 a year, come out more nearly even; but the Congregationalist is the only denomination closing its year of home work without debt. It did so because of large personal gifts obtained at the last moment. The Reformed Church boards, both Dutch and German, are closing the year about even.
The general financial conditions prevailing throughout the country doubtless have to some extent contributed to this situation, but this or any other explanation fails to relieve the situation in which we find ourselves. But the church should arouse to instant action looking toward remedying the unfortunate condition. We have asked our brethren to go in our stead to preach to the nations this gospel of the kingdom. We are in duty bound to properly sustain them. In "Acts of the Apostles," pages 338, 339, we have the following:—
As God's work extends, calls for help will come more and more frequently. . . .
Men are tempted to use their means in self-indulgence, in the gratification of appetite, in personal adornment, or in the embellishment of their homes. For these objects many church members do not hesitate to spend freely, and even extravagantly. But when asked to give to the Lord's treasury, to carry forward his work in the earth, they demur. Perhaps, feeling that they cannot well do otherwise, they dole out a sum far smaller than they often spend for needless indulgence. They manifest no real love for Christ's service, no earnest interest in the salvation of souls. What marvel that the Christian life of such ones is but a dwarfed, sickly existence!
He whose heart is aglow with the love of Christ will regard it as not only a duty, but a pleasure, to aid in the advancement of the highest, holiest work committed to man,—the work of presenting to the world the riches of goodness, mercy, and truth. . . .
The spirit of liberality is the spirit of Heaven. This spirit finds its highest manifestation in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. In our behalf, the Father gave his only begotten Son; and Christ, having given up all that he had, then gave himself, that man might be saved. The cross of Calvary should appeal to the benevolence of every follower of the Saviour. The principle there illustrated is to give, give. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."
Sabbath, July 4, the day set by the General Conference for our Midsummer Offering, is an occasion when vast sums of money are foolishly spent, much of it literally burned up. It is a day, also, given over to pleasure seeking of every conceivable kind. The people of God should at this time remember his needy cause. They should place restraint upon the desires of self, and show their appreciation of God's blessing, and their responsibility, by making this by far the largest Midsummer Offering in the history of the denomination. The heavy deficit in the mission funds demands that this should be so.
The Tsungwesi (Africa) Mission
By F. Burton Jewell
F. BURTON JEWELL
ALL who love this message enjoy the mission reports, and rejoice to learn of the advancement being made in all lands. The work has made progress here.
It has now been some time since we left America. We were privileged in having Brother and Sister Sturdevant's company the entire distance from New York to the Tsungwesi Mission. Before reaching this mission we were thus enabled to gain some knowledge of the language, habits, and customs of the people. The work at this place was started three years ago, and each year has been successful both in the operations of the school and in the productiveness of the land. There is at present two hundred and twenty-five acres under cultivation, and the crop outlook for the present year Brother Sturdevant declares to be more flattering than was that of any previous year. This, too, is remarkable, inasmuch as there is a short crop this year in the greater part of South Africa.
The daily attendance at school averages about seventy. On a recent Sabbath there were twenty-four young people baptized in the Tsungwesi River. This makes thirty-five persons who have come out from heathenism at this station since the work began. They are appreciative of what is being done for them. Frequently we hear them remark, "I knew nothing before I came to the mission."
Upper — View at Tsungwesi Mission. Young fruit trees at right; Brother Sturdevant's house in background; F. B. Jewell and family in foreground. Lower — Preparing ground for mealies (corn).
Those living in the kraals are captives of the drink demon; yet the work of the Holy Spirit is able to break this power in their lives. The Friday evening meetings are seasons of great refreshing with us here at the mission. There is great freedom manifested in these services. Many are on their feet at the same time, waiting their turn to testify.
We are very thankful to be here, and hope to be faithful in all our service to God for this people who have waited so long for the gospel. There are yet many honest hearts to respond to the call of the third angel's message. The Lord is blessing us, but we crave more power in our lives to hasten on the glad tidings.
An Advance in China
By C. N. Woodward
C. N. WOODWARD
For more than two years it has been the earnest desire of the committee and workers in China to make an advance move into new territory, but until last autumn our small force of laborers, which seemed by reason of deaths and furloughs to be decreasing instead of increasing, forbade such advance. To furnish foreign supervisors for the provinces already entered, seemed almost more than we could do at times. In the meantime some of the most populous provinces of China awaited our coming with the last message of warning.
With the strong force of new workers sent us by the last General Conference, and our workers returning from furlough, it was thought we were strong enough to make an advance. Accordingly the South China Mission rearranged its forces, and in January of this year Dr. Law Keem and his family went to the province of Kwang-si. His reports thus far show that the Lord had already gone before him, and he found some keeping the Sabbath and waiting for further instruction.
For several years it has been the dearest wish of Elder Allum's life to be able to go to the rich and populous province of Szechuen, in western China, and open up the work of the third angel's message there. On his return from furlough the first of the year, the Central China Mission agreed to release him for Szechuen. The Asiatic Division Committee arranged for Brother M. C. Warren to accompany him. It was quite a trial for these dear brethren to leave their families in Shanghai while on this trip, but it seemed best, and they bravely set their faces westward.
A short time was spent in Central China to secure some trusted Chinese workers to accompany them, and they continued on up the great Yang-tze-Kiang River to Chunking, which will be their headquarters for the present. We could well imagine their feelings when we received a telegram from them on April 2 reading: "Entered Szechuen twelve forty; all well."
This is the first time any of our people12have set foot in that province, so that the ground must be thoroughly looked over before any permanent move is made. This they intend to do during the coming summer.
But this is not all. The East China Mission brethren have for a long time had their eyes fixed upon the most northern province of their territory, Shantung. This is considered the most healthful portion of China, and is often called the "health resort of China." Usually all the workers who could get away have gone to Mokanshan or some other mountain resort to spend the hot months, but this year Elder O. A. Hall and Brother F. E. Stafford expect to take their families and spend these months in Shantung, where aggressive work can be carried on all the time. Brother Stafford spent the summer in Cheffo last year, and found a real interest to hear the truth. It is hoped that a good beginning can be made this year; and when the brethren return in the fall, one of their most experienced Chinese evangelists will be left in charge of the work.
It has been said that the third angel's message has never retreated from any position taken, and it is earnestly hoped that the close of 1914 will record three new provinces entered during this year, and the work firmly started in each.
All Faithful Souls
By Edward Everett Hale
WHAT was his name? I do not know his name.
I only know he heard God's voice and came;
Brought all he loved across the sea,
To live and work for God—and me;
Felled the ungracious oak,
With horrid toil
Dragged from the soil
The thrice-gnarled roots and stubborn rock;
With plenty piled the haggard mountain side;
And when his work was done, without memorial died.
No blaring trumpet sounded out his fame;
He lived, he died. I do not know his name.
No form of bronze and no memorial stones
Show me the place where lie his moldering bones.
Only a cheerful city stands,
Builded by his hardened hands;
Only ten thousand homes,
Where every day
The cheerful play
Of love and hope and courage comes;
These are his monuments, and these alone;
There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone.
And I?
Is there some desert or some boundless sea
Where thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?
Some oak for me to rend, some sod for me to break,
Some handful of thy corn to take
And scatter far afield,
Till it in turn shall yield
Its hundredfold
Of grains of gold,
To feed the happy children of my God?
Show me the desert, Father, or the sea,
Is it thine enterprise. Great God, send me!
And though the body lie where ocean rolls,
Father, count me among all faithful souls.
— Edward Everett Hale.
Isaac Xiba
By MRS. T. J. GIBSON
MRS. T. J. GIBSON
It is wonderful how God has led in the life of one of our Matabele boys, Isaac Xiba, even from childhood. As a small boy he was of a thoughtful disposition and inclined toward the religious beliefs of his nation.
One of their beliefs is that the spirits of their dead friends reappear in the form of snakes, and hence they worship them and offer sacrifices to them.
Isaac was very fond of his mother, who died when he was quite young. At one time when he was very ill, he saw two large snakes near the hut. He was told that one was his mother. He was so pleased to think she had come to see him that when he recovered he sacrificed a goat to her spirit.
When Isaac was still small, his sister went to visit a mission near Bulawayo. There she learned something about God, and one song she taught Isaac he always remembered, "Shall we meet beyond the river?" She told her people that if they did wrong, the white man's God would destroy them. Isaac at once determined to find out more about that God.
As soon as he was old enough, he went to Bulawayo and secured a place to work. Then he bought a book and began to learn to read. Later he attended a mission school, and a few years ago came to our Somabula Mission. Here he was baptized and united with the church. His thirst for knowledge made him an apt pupil, and he soon became our head teacher and interpreter. His faithful, earnest life is an inspiration to us to press on in giving the gospel to the heathen, for we know there are many others who want to know more about the true God.
Glendale Mission, Rhodesia:
Led Out of Darkness by Attending a Protestant School
The head master of our school at Nazareth, South India, Brother A. Gnanasigamoni, tells this interesting experience of how he came to love the Bible:—
"Again and again I think of the wonderful way in which the Lord prepared me to receive the pure Word of God. Having been born of Roman Catholic parents, and educated in one of that church's institutions, I should have had no chance of becoming a convert if it had not been for the fact that while I was yet a boy I studied awhile in a Protestant school. The impression I received there about the Bible has never been fully effaced. Though I was instructed to hate the Protestants and not have any intercourse with them, I could not bring myself to do it. Having come in contact with several Protestants whose lives were better than most of the Roman Catholics I had known, such doctrines as 'There is no salvation out of Rome' did not satisfy me. With all my belief in the Roman Catholic Church, I could not help questioning some of its ways, and these became clear to me when I accidentally read some Protestant literature, which a 'true child of the church' would not do intentionally for anything in the world. I was shocked to find all the cherished dogmas of the Romish Church tottering and falling one by one in the light of church history, and finally the study of prophecy removed even the atom of faith I had in that church. In spite of the anguish and trials I had to undergo by separating myself from my family to follow the truth, I have found peace of mind, which the world could not give me. I thank the Lord, who has 'taught me from my youth' to 'forget not all his benefits.'"
