Simla, India by W. A. Barlow

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 21, 1915

Simla, India

By W. A. Barlow

W. A. BARLOW

DURING the past two hot seasons, special Bible lectures have been given by Elders H. H. Votaw, S. A. Wellman, Dr. H. C. Menkel, and Brethren W. S. Mead and L. G. Mookerjee, in Simla, North India. I have attended many of these lectures this season, and have been much encouraged and cheered to see the honest in heart attending the meetings. Each season, both last year and this, some have been won for God and present truth and baptized, uniting with the Simla church. The church was first organized last year.

Only a few days ago four persons were baptized by Dr. Menkel and received into church fellowship. The government officers are leaving now, at least a large number of them, for the plains of India, where they will remain until March. Dr. Menkel will remain here nearly all winter and prepare for his medical work, which we hope may be well organized by next season. I have reference to the new treatment rooms. The doctor has been doing much real medical missionary work since he arrived in Simla from Bombay. God has been with us, and will continue to bless the work begun here.

We have a number of earnest, working members in the church and Sabbath school. They are doing their very best in winning souls for the Lord. Quite a stir on the Sabbath question has been made here by a Calcutta Baptist missionary, who, on coming to this place for a change, used his pen freely in one of the weekly papers of Simla. Dr. Menkel, Brother Mead, and also others were allowed to publish articles on this and other important subjects, doing so in a courteous and Christlike way, and these articles have been freely circulated throughout the station. The rich and poor alike have had their attention drawn to the Sabbath, the second coming of Christ, and other important subjects for this time, as never before. Literature has been circulated freely,—tracts and papers on the signs of the end, the great war in Europe,—and I feel certain that God’s Spirit is working in the hearts of many in this place. Let me give you a few lines just in hand from an anxious inquirer, who is head master of the Collegiate School, Serampur (Carey’s college):—

“Please do not forget to let me know when you go down to Calcutta, for I want to have a free and full talk with you about some of your doctrines—observance of the Sabbath, etc. Could you not send me a small treatise on these doctrines? I wish to study the question and know the truth.”

This is the kind of letters some of us receive in these days from the honest-hearted among the people of India. Pray for these inquiring ones.

A GENERAL VIEW OF SIMLA, THE SUMMER SEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

owing to financial conditions, but we desire to be ready to go forward as soon as the means will allow.

This is the rainy season, and rivers and streams are much swollen. Sometimes we had to strip and go through water to our armpits; at other places we were carried on men’s shoulders; and the wide rivers we crossed in dugout canoes. At one of these rivers there