Earlier text: PREACHING THE LAST MESSAGE UPON MOUNT CARMELThe Interpretation of a Controverted Text
By William Warren Prescott
IN attempting to give a consistent exegesis of some controverted passages in the New Testament, it is well to remember that these later writings are simply the unfolding of the earlier writings, which have been collected under the name of the Old Testament. Sometimes this is the only way by which the meaning of a statement can be determined, since, when taken by itself, it is either uncertain or does not convey to the reader any clear idea at all. As an illustration we refer to the statement of Jesus, “If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” The real force of this statement can only be apprehended by reading Isa. 43: 10-13 and the related passages. The principle of interpretation here laid down needs to be applied in determining the correct punctuation, and consequently the correct meaning of a scripture. It should, of course, be remembered that punctuation is a comparatively modern invention, designed to aid the reader in understanding the true sense of the printed matter. If it is found, however, that the punctuation obscures the true sense, or if a further examination of the original manuscripts indicates that a change ought to be made, there should be no hesitancy in doing so, although the greatest care should be exercised in the application of this rule. An example of the transfer of a clause from one sentence to another by a change in punctuation is found in Rev. 22: 1, 2, where, in the revised version (both English and American), a comma takes the place of the period after the word Lamb, and a period is put in place of the first comma in the second verse, making it read: “Proceeding out of the throne of God8 and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof.” It is therefore permissible to suggest a change in the punctuation adopted by the translators of the English Bible, when such a change is absolutely demanded in order to bring any particular passage of scripture into harmony with the plain teaching of other scriptures. There is no truth more clearly emphasized in the Scriptures than that it was the purpose of the incarnation of Christ to give life to those who receive him. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.” For this gift we are wholly dependent upon Christ “who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Those who thus accept Christ as their life fall asleep in Jesus, to be awakened by the voice of the Son of God, and will then put on immortality. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” There is much positive teaching in the Scripture that emphasizes this phase of the gospel. There are many, however, who have either adopted or inherited the doctrine, of wholly pagan origin, that man is immortal by nature, that he is consequently conscious in death, and that he spends the time between death and the resurrection in a state of conscious suffering or happiness. Those who attempt to establish such an interpretation of the Scriptures are accustomed to lay great stress upon the words of Jesus to the thief on the cross, found in Luke 23: 43. As punctuated in both the authorized and revised versions, this passage reads: “Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Comparing Rev. 22: 1, 2, with Rev. 2: 7, it is clear that the throne of God is in paradise, and that to be in paradise is to be with God. But after his resurrection Jesus declared to Mary that he had not yet ascended to his Father, and it is therefore plain that he had not, up to that time, been in paradise. This indicates that the interpretation of Luke 23: 43, which would place both Jesus and the thief in paradise on the day of the crucifixion, can not be correct. Much depends upon the construction given to the word “to-day.” In Rotherham’s translation of the New Testament this passage reads: “Verily, to thee I say, this day, with me shalt thou be in paradise.” In an appended note the translator makes this explanation concerning the punctuation: “It is left for the reader to determine whether the words ‘this day’ should be joined with the former part of the sentence, or with the latter.” To assist the reader in arriving at the right conclusion, we call attention to the fact that this word “to-day,” or the words “this day,” is an Old Testament idiom of frequent occurrence. One example of this in a passage quite parallel with Luke 23: 43 is found in Deut. 8: 19: “And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.” This is “a solemn idiom, used for great emphasis,” which occurs forty-two times in the book of Deuteronomy alone. The passages are these: 4: 26, 39, 40; 5: 1; 6: 6; 7: 11; 8: 1, 11, 19; 9: 1, 3; 10: 13; 11: 2, 8, 13, 26, 27, 28, 32; 13: 18; 15: 5, 15; 19: 9; 26: 3, 16, 17, 18; 27: 1, 4, 10; 28: 1, 13, 14, 15; 30: 2, 8, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19; 32: 46. A reading of these passages will show that the words “this day” are so often used in connection with some verb of assertion as to establish an idiom characteristic of solemn statement. Following this Old Testament idiom, Jesus, who himself inspired the Old Testament, used the similar form of expression to emphasize his promise to the thief. When punctuated so as to bring out this meaning clearly, the passage may be read thus: “Verily I say unto thee to-day, Thou shalt be with me in paradise.” This statement is in perfect harmony with the general tenor of the teaching of the Scripture concerning the condition in death and the time of reward in paradise. “I AM the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” “I COUNT all things but loss, . . . that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” “BUT this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Who Hath Done This?
By C. M. S.
THE time is drawing near when God will put an end to conditions that have cursed humanity, and misrepresented and reproached the government of heaven and the love and wisdom of the Almighty. Infidelity has loudly charged the God of the Bible with responsibility for most of the sad, unfortunate, and wicked conditions that exist in the world to-day. They are here, we know; but how unjust to blame the one who is most injured by them with responsibility for their existence and continuance. A power has been busy from the dawn of time turning God’s blessings into curses. Blessings misused are always curses; and hearts in rebellion against God will always misuse his blessings. Running water brings life and happiness; stagnant water is perverted water, and its depths are full of death. So with every purpose of God that sin has put its hand to. God designed that water should bless the earth; but sin and the curse that came in consequence of sin have frequently turned that blessing into a curse, and floods and waterspouts have wrought death and ruin. There are deserts in the world, but not by God’s design. Had man been obedient, the whole earth would have been praising the Creator, blooming and fruiting from pole to pole. One day, when the burden of sin has been removed, this old earth will be in that condition. Then the streams will bring down only blessings from the hills, and the sun and dew will nurture the fruits and flowers. Now the breezes, which God designed should bless the earth, are often turned into tornadoes, which devastate the land and kill the inhabitants. This is not God’s purpose, and is not to continue forever. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” is as truly and literally applicable to the forces of the elements as to the beasts of the field. The waters of the sea rage and swallow the ships, or roll their ponderous tidal waves beyond the boundary of the shore to scatter death and ruin. Not so will it be in the earth made new, for all such things are outside the purpose of God. His thoughts toward his creatures are “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.” Jer. 29:11. Whence, then, all the evil, all the turmoil, all the strife and confusion, all the wars and jealousies, all the robberies and murders? As the sower of the good seed declared, “An enemy hath done this.” And he was and is the enemy of both God and man. That enemy sowed that seed, and man and the earth are reaping the fruit of that sowing. There is nothing that our hands touch or our eyes behold but carries the scars of the curse. As the prophet Jeremiah declared of his day so it is now: “We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. . . . We labor, and have no rest. . . . We got our bread with the peril of our lives.” Men have built great dams and irrigating ditches to bring water to their thirsty ground; and they have seen their fields barren, their crops withered, and the sky giving no rain; and in earning a livelihood for themselves and their families to-day hundreds of thousands are continually taking their lives in their hands. But when this old world is done with sin, there will be an end of these experiences. The Lord declares: “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” Isa. 35:6, 7. God’s purpose will be accomplished, even though the long night of sin has come between its expression and its fulfilment. But we must bear this in mind, that9 is to be carried out. The plans of the human have always had running through them the base alloy of Satan’s designs. As those designs made trouble in heaven, so have they always, and so will they always, on earth, till they and their author cease to be, as the result of the final purifying process of the Almighty. God has permitted the sorrowful experiences of this earth to go on, he has permitted Satan to carry on his dark and wicked work through all the history of this world, not because he takes pleasure in the plans and work of Satan, but because he has promised the whole universe that “affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9. How could the Lord make sure that affliction would never arise again in the universe? There is no other way than to permit Satan and sin to demonstrate themselves. They are doing it now; and that great object-lesson, which will never need to be repeated, is fast drawing to a close. Soon God will write “Finis” over the tragedy of sin. The enemy that has sowed the earth with trouble, discord, greed, distress, untruth, disobedience, hatred, and death will be eliminated with all the terrible fruit of his work, and the universe will be clean again. Toward that glad consummation we are hastening now, and the hour of our jubilant release from the woes and strifes and threatenings and fears of this doomed world is drawing nigh. Soon, if faithful, we may look up into the opening heavens, and say with the company of the redeemed, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa. 25:9. The Responsibility of Public Teachers
By F. M. W.
The one who occupies the position of a public teacher bears a great responsibility. He exerts a double influence, (1) in his public capacity as a teacher, and (2) in the influence attending his personal life. How important it is, if his work is to be truly effective, that the influence of his life shall supplement and enforce the influence exerted by his teaching. Otherwise his power with his associates will be materially lessened. This is true with leaders in the political world; it is true with teachers in the school; it is doubly true with the one who stands as the exponent of religious truth and the representative of gospel principles. The apostle Paul recognized this. To Timothy he wrote: “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” The minister of the gospel must be all this if he expects power to attend his ministry. To the extent that he fails will his labor be fruitless. It is openly advised in many religious quarters to-day that the gospel minister should widen his field of operation; that he should be a man of affairs; a student of, and a leader in, the questions of state; a strong factor in society, as well as an exponent of religious truth. This so-called wider sphere is fraught with many dangers, and to the extent that the minister of Christ fully enters it does he lower the character of his sacred calling in the estimation of his fellows. He may shine as a brilliant center of influence at the social function; he may excel as an orator in religio-political discussions; he may circulate among men as a half-fellow-well-met, a man of affairs and of the world; but when he does these things, he loses out of his life, in a large measure, that holy influence that should make Christ’s representative. When we consider the simplicity of life and the carefulness of living that actuated the men of God in the past, it is painful to recognize to what extent the world-wide gospel ministry of to-day has departed from this high standard. The spirit of the world has invaded the church of God. Pride, fashion, love of display, show, and ostentation are all too plainly manifest among those making up the congregation, and in many instances the one who occupies the pulpit has partaken of the spirit surrounding him. The fear of men has taken possession of his heart. In consequence his arm is palsied to strike against sin, and his tongue dumb to give the warning. We find a growing tendency with some professed ministers of the gospel to attend the theater and other places of questionable amusement. Indeed, in some communities it is no uncommon thing for them to be recognized as baseball fans. They are leaders in social parties of pleasure and entertainment. They foster raffles and other questionable forms of church amusement for the purpose of raising money. They may be found at the political primaries electioneering with all the fervor of regular ward politicians for some favored candidate. They are lobbyists in legislative halls in urging through some measure that they feel will aid their cause. Such was not the work done by the ministers of God in the ages of the past, and in direct proportion as the ministers of the gospel have yielded to these influences in their lives has the power of the Spirit departed from their labors. The apostle Paul knew but one thing, and that was “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Of his own experience he says that he kept under his body, and held in check his own natural desires and inclinations, lest while preaching to others he himself should become a castaway. This same spirit of high and holy regard for the gospel cause actuated the men of the Reformation. It inspired John and Charles Wesley, and hosts of other Reformers who might be mentioned. There is no place in the gospel ministry for milk-and-water men; for men who will play to the galleries and at the same time pose as teachers of divine truth. God can not work with power through men who call good evil and evil good; who tell the people they can live as they list and reach heaven at last; who by their own lives set the example of carelessness, indifference, and pleasure-loving. Those who are giving this message to the world need to be on their guard lest this spirit unconsciously pervade their lives. Without God’s keeping power Seventh-day Adventist workers stand in just as great danger from these worldly influences as do those of other denominations. We can not take their standard as our standard. We must not take the standard even of our own churches as the gage of our lives. It is for the workers of every class in this denomination to recognize that God has set them as watchmen over his people. It is for them to exalt the standard, and to call the people to a higher plane of Christian living. But this can not be done by them unless their own lives are in harmony with their teachings. The leaders in this church, whether ministers, teachers, or church offices, can not sound the warning that should be given against the great evils of worldly pleasures, with which our people are threatened on every side, if they themselves are not casting the influence of their own example against these things. They can not safeguard the young men and women against the demoralizing influence of the cheap moving-picture show if they themselves are attending such shows. They can not hold our young men back from being carried away with the wild gambling spirit connected with the great national games of football and baseball if they themselves patronize these sports. They can not bear effective testimony against questionable speculation or wild investment if they are connected with such enterprises, or are promoting them. They can not sound a true warning cry against the evil influence of pernicious literature, as found in story-books and novels, the sporting page and the comic-picture section of the newspapers, if they themselves greedily feed upon this mental food from week to week. These things are of the world, worldly. God calls his remnant people, he calls his workers, to a better heritage. He asks us to cast aside every weight that holds us back, and to arouse ourselves for the conflict in which we are engaged. God does not want us to take a gloomy10 outlook, to go about with solemn, long-drawn faces, or cherish pessimistic and morose dispositions. But O, he does want us to lay aside the foolishness of the world! He wants us to become examples “of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Says the apostle Paul, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” A solemn responsibility rests upon the teachers and leaders in this last great movement. To them the believers have a right to look for an example. It is but right that they should expect that the lives of their teachers should conform to their teaching. O, let us seek as ambassadors for Christ to do this in so far as it is possible through divine grace! We may fail and come short of the perfection of the standard which we present; but we can at least demonstrate that we are aiming at the ideal, and that our failure is of accident and not of purpose. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.” F. M. W. Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee
By W. A. Spicer
REPRESENTATIVES in attendance at the council, in addition to those listed in the opening report, were: S. N. Haskell, J. W. Lair, H. W. Carr, G. B. Starr, T. M. French, W. A. Colcord, J. N. Anderson, Mrs. L. F. Plummer, C. Sorenson, L. H. Wood, Dr. H. N. Sisco. The time of the next union conference sessions, which come once in two years, was agreed upon as follows:—
Southeastern Union . . . . . . Jan. 8 to 18
Atlantic Union . . . . . . . . . Jan. 8 to 21
Central Union . . . . . . . . . Jan. 16 to Feb. 4
Northern Union . . . . . . . . Jan. 16 to Feb. 4
Southern Union . . . . . . . . Jan. 18 to 28
Southwestern Union . . . . . . Feb. 1 to 11
West Canadian Union . . . . . March 6 to 19
Columbia Union . . . . . . . . April 4 to 14
Lake Union . . . . . . . . . . April 16 to 28
Canadian Union . . . . . . . June 27 to July 8
Pacific Union (date not fixed) Recommendations as to general help to attend these meetings were also adopted. Estimates and Appropriations
Heretofore the appropriations have been voted in the spring councils, after the reports for the previous year were received. The work is so rapidly spreading out, however, that it seems essential for the General Conference and the mission fields to know in advance what the demands may be; hence in accordance with the decision of the biennial council held in Europe last summer, the fields sent in their estimates this autumn, and much time was spent by the council in going over the calls, country by country and item by item. First, the work in the mission fields was considered as it stands to-day; next, it was reviewed to see how much additional work could be authorized in view of the probable income for missions. The council made total appropriations of $450,000, for general denominational work and mission work in all the world, report of which will be made by the treasurer. In considering the need of a constant flow of means into the mission treasury, the following recommendation was made relating to the transmission of funds:— That all union conferences be urged to continue to extend to the General Conference hearty cooperation in their efforts to secure donations for the proper prosecution of its work. That the local conference be requested to remit the tithe regularly each month to the union, and that each union conference be requested to remit regularly to the General Conference treasury a tithe of its receipts, and at suitable times to donate such portions of its funds as can be spared after provision has been made for the necessities of its own field. Local church, conference, and union treasurers were urged to make sure of regular and prompt remittance of mission funds at the end of each month, so that no tardiness in this respect may bring hardship to the workers in the fields. Some of the actions relating to appointments and transfer of laborers can not be reported until those concerned have been consulted. The following may be announced:— Elder N. Z. Town to spend some time in the interests of the book work in Cuba and Jamaica, on his return journey from Mexico. Brother C. N. Woodward, auditor of the North Pacific Union Conference, to Shanghai, China, as treasurer of the China Union Mission. Elder M. H. Brown, of North Carolina, to Alabama, as treasurer of the Oakwood school. Miss Ida Thomason, of New Jersey (on furlough), to return to South Africa. Dr. W. Ingle, of the Chicago Northwestern University (formerly of Cape Town), to qualify for medical practise in Great Britain, and to return to South Africa. Miss M. M. Osborn, Bible worker, of Nashville, to the West Virginia Conference. Elder W. A. Spicer, of the General Conference Office, to attend the union conferences and general meetings to be held the coming winter and spring in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, South America. Elder J. H. N. Tindall and Brother C. E. Garnsey, of Indiana, to Virginia. Brother E. M. Oberg, general field agent of Nebraska, to China, to take charge of the distribution of literature. Brother Floyd Ashbaugh, of Southern California, to the Philippine Islands, to engage in the book work. Brother Lynn Bowen, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to Rhodesia, South Africa, to join the Tsungwesi Mission (Elder Sturdevant in charge). Miss Cassie Wilson, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to Buenos Aires, South America, to engage in Bible work. Elder G. W. Pettit, of Western Oregon, to India, for English evangelistic work. Elder Mark Comer, of Southern Oregon, to India, for English evangelistic work. Miss Belva Vance, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to India, to engage in Bible work. Brother B. B. Aldrich, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to the Canary Islands, to labor in general work and to establish a health base, to which missionaries on the unhealthful West African coast may go when requiring a change. Other appointments must be deferred to the next report, or later. The following actions were taken relating to West Africa:— That we request the West African Mission to arrange furloughs for its workers every other year, by turns, of such length as may be necessary to maintain health and efficiency in service, the selection of the Canary Islands as a healthful and economical furlough base for West Africa being made with this need in view. That we approve of the plan outlined by T. M. French, of a proposed station in the Gold Coast, which he would be glad to establish, but that in view of the need of further help at present in Sierra Leone, and the lack of means, we recommend Elder French to join the workers for a time in Sierra Leone, when his furlough from Africa is concluded. Sanitarium Relief Campaign
The following actions were taken with reference to the sale of “Ministry of Healing,” for the blessing the work will be to the people, and as an agency to bring help to the sanitariums:— 1. We would recommend that this campaign be prosecuted by our people with renewed vigor and earnestness until complete success shall crown our efforts. 2. That success may be attained, we11 would strongly urge that the officers of the General, union, and local conferences take an active part in the campaign, giving it their attention and effort as other General Conference plans. 3. We would recommend that the Medical Department of the General Conference take an active part in the campaign, urging our sanitariums to join in this earnest endeavor to achieve success, and to impress our people generally with its importance. 4. We would further urge that the General Conference Publishing Department, through our offices of publication, union and State missionary agents, cooperate heartily with the campaign, and assist our union and local conferences in making it a success. 5. We would recommend that the week following the week of prayer, December 18-25, be set apart by all our people for placing “Ministry of Healing” before the people, and we would recommend that during this time other matters, as far as possible, be laid aside, and our efforts given to this work. 6. We also recommend that the General Conference appoint a season of time for next year as a special rally effort in behalf of the campaign, at which time this work shall be made the special object of effort by workers and people, and that in the meantime our publishers be asked to provide a suitable and ample supply of books to meet the special needs of such an effort. 7. We would further urge that our leading denominational papers and our union and State papers be freely used to assist in making this campaign a success. 8. We would urge that our people earnestly pray that God may add his blessing in this united effort to place “Ministry of Healing” in thousands of homes that greatly need the light this book contains. The following recommendation was adopted:— That J. H. Schilling take the superintendency of the German work in the East, and G. F. Haffner the superintendency of the German work in the West, the Mississippi River forming the boundary line; these brethren to plan and counsel together for the mutual upbuilding and development of the work among the Germans, East and West, uniting at times in general and important meetings, as may be arranged. Further report of actions must be deferred until next week. The Spirit of National Games
SATAN cares not how he may turn men to destruction, provided only that he accomplishes his purpose. Different means are employed to attract various minds. He fills the hearts of some with the love of money. Everything else is forgotten in the wild scramble for worldly wealth. With others it is the desire for position. Fame is the desired goal, and no effort is spared in order to achieve it. Questionable means are employed, and God is forgotten. With others it is the pleasures of the world. There are scores of men and women whose chief pleasure is found in races and other great national games. This spirit amounts to a sport-loving madness. Men and women lose their reason. They are carried away by the spirit of the occasion. Of the spirit attending some of the great national baseball games, the following, taken from a Philadelphia daily, is a good illustration:— As the swift-running second baseman preceded Baker across the plate, a roar from twenty-six thousand throats rocked the steel cantilever on its concrete foundations. The vast throng literally went mad for the nonce. Facile pen is entirely inadequate to fittingly describe the wild, barbaric scene that was enacted in all parts of the huge baseball arena. Men were at a loss for ways and means to express their violent emotions. For the instant, women forgot the gentleness of their nature. All was a babel of confusion. Thunder reechoed thunder, scream followed scream, hats were tossed high in the air, never to be returned to their owners. Men actually fought each other in the ecstasy of the frenzied minute, women clutched and hugged their escorts in an instant of pardonable impropriety. It seemed as if the human reason had been dethroned. Great was the hit, cyclonic the ovation. Atlantic Union Conference
By W. T. Knox
Statement of $300,000 Fund
Atlantic Union Conference
Central New England ........$ 3268.08
Greater New York .......... 3199.15
Maine ..................... 397.61
New York .................. 1798.68
Northern New England .... 1061.53
Southern New England .... 519.29
Western New York ........ 1404.65
Total .................... 11639.99 Canadian Union Conference
Maritime .................. 288.12
Ontario .................. 1706.73
Quebec .................... 546.10
Total .................... 2540.95 Colorado .................. 720.53
East Kansas .............. 1875.54
Nebraska ................. 9076.03
North Missouri ........... 1087.32
Southern Missouri ........ 435.94
Western Colorado ......... 699.81
West Kansas .............. 768.39
Wyoming .................. 1276.14
St. Louis Mission ........ 103.50
Total .................... 16043.20 Columbia Union Conference
Chesapeake ................ 850.49
District of Columbia .... 1259.47
Eastern Pennsylvania .... 1843.51
New Jersey ............... 1758.45
Ohio ..................... 3945.06
Virginia .................. 413.35
West Pennsylvania ........ 938.26
West Virginia ............. 410.00
Total .................... 11418.59 East Michigan ............ 4739.38
Indiana .................. 3994.08
Northern Illinois ........ $ 2241.36
North Michigan ............ 705.24
Southern Illinois ........ 1807.72
West Michigan ............ 5198.51
Wisconsin ................ 2247.76
Total .................... 20934.05 Northern Union Conference
Iowa ..................... 5716.05
Minnesota ................ 4286.94
North Dakota ............. 2069.13
South Dakota ............. 1534.83
Total .................... 13606.95 North Pacific Union Conference
Montana .................. 1573.15
Southern Idaho ........... 1950.65
Southern Oregon .......... 3432.59
Upper Columbia ........... 3226.66
Western Oregon ............ 979.15
Western Washington ....... 3465.61
Alaska ...................... 7.15
Total .................... 14634.96 Arizona ................... 692.26
California ................ 5988.10
Southern California ...... 6466.32
Utah ...................... 147.65
Central California ....... 1008.10
Northern Cal.-Nevada ..... 1419.78
Total .................... 15722.21 Southeastern Union Conference
Cumberland ............... 1549.30
Florida .................. 1817.90
Georgia ................... 690.37
North Carolina ............ 502.95
South Carolina ............ 333.54
Total ..................... 4894.06 Southern Union Conference
Southern Union ............. 70.66
Alabama .................... 191.81
Kentucky ................... 255.50
Louisiana .................. 214.75
Mississippi ................ 343.03
Tennessee River ............ 531.72
Southern Union Mission ...... 5.00
Total .................... 1612.47 Southwestern Union Conference
Arkansas ................... 201.31
New Mexico ................. 189.14
North Texas ................ 668.37
Oklahoma .................. 2156.82
South Texas ................ 216.86
West Texas ................. 128.60
Total .................... 3561.10 Western Canadian Union Conference
Alberta .................... 671.20
British Columbia ........... 719.98
Manitoba ................... 720.10
Saskatchewan ............... 973.50
Total .................... 3084.78
Miscellaneous ............. 5028.44
Grand total .............. $124721.75 Boast Not Thyself of To-morrow
“Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” One View of the Sad Problems
It is not always best to pass over the sad side of the missionary’s problems. Here, for instance, is a somber view given by our Nyassaland superintendent, along with his glad story of a thousand students in our main station and out-station schools:— “We required a native overseer for our new industry—cotton growing. On request from a planter, a man of fine physique and quiet manners came. Soon a wife and child followed, and they were given a house in our main mission village. After three months, the man came one day apparently with troubled heart. He had attended our Sabbath-school and services. Having once been a soldier, he had fallen in with Mohammedanism. And this is one great bane and blight upon all evangelizing effort in Africa. Islam allows polygamy, and this is doubtless (with its attending vices) the greatest single obstacle to the progress of missions in Central Africa—one might say in all Africa.” “Polygamy was the cause of our overseer’s heavy heart. The wife who came here with him is his second one. He said to me, with tear-filled eyes: ‘I have heard here that Jesus teaches that a man may have only one wife. I have two. The one now with me is not my lawful wife. What can I do?’ Then the story came out that this later wife did not at first want to live with him. He practically took her against her will, as is commonly done with consent of the woman’s chief. But now she loves him and her children. I soon learned that she was a sort of ‘Dorcas’ in her way, and all her neighbors loved her. The man told me he knew he must send her away, and get back his first wife. He was doing this as the first step toward becoming a Christian. What could I answer?—Only that he must provide for her and his children, as a first condition. But I must call the woman, and hear her story. Fortunately, my wife had already learned this in detail through one of her faithful native girl helpers. The story is too long and painful to tell here. But the end of it is that the woman went away amid the mournings of her many friends made during her short stay at the mission. The man seems deeply affected by the truth heard here. How the matter will end in his case, I can not say. He will require thorough instruction, and the question of his baptism will be answered in not less than a year, possibly two.” “Many instances might be related of the great obstacles which we constantly meet in polygamy and vice. But this is heathenism, and we must expect vice where that is. A young girl of about fourteen, having been in the mission three years and baptized last year, was called home recently by her father, a heathen chief, and sold to a corrupt European because he was the highest bidder. We are told that she tried bravely to resist being sold without any marriage, but was carried off against her protests while trying to escape.”