While thus far we have only a nine months' report for 1904, yet everything seems to indicate that this will be the best year we ever had. We see that already there have been 1,186 additions throughout the field, and our membership has risen from 5,156 at the beginning of the year, to 5,966 at the close of the third quarter. We are glad that the tithe has also increased during this time. In 1903 our German Union tithe was $35,640; thus far during 1904 it has been $31,699, within four thousand dollars of last year's tithe. As the tithe for last quarter was $11,409.76, we expect there will be an increase of six or seven thousand dollars in 1904 over 1903. The same kind of growth is even more true of the Sabbath-school and other offerings. Already the Sabbath-school donations have been $2,880 this year, against $3,007 in 1903; and the First-day offerings for the three quarters of 1904 are $1,137, whereas they amounted to but $1,075 during the four quarters of 1903. This shows the deep interest the brethren in the German Union take in our recently opened German East African Mission; for the First-day offerings have been dedicated to that purpose.
We had a most excellent union meeting at Friedensau last summer, in connection with the General European Conference. Our people went forth from that meeting with new courage in the Lord's work. Since that time we have had excellent general meetings in South and North Russia, Brethren Schuberth and Erzenberger attending them. The South Russian Conference has decided to pay a second tithe to the union for advancing the message in the union mission fields. Thus each of the seven conferences in the union, although they have within their combined territory about sixty millions of people, a membership of forty-five hundred, and a tithe of only thirty-six thousand dollars at their disposal, still assists in devoting the sum of seven thousand dollars out of the thirty-six thousand dollars, to the missionary purposes of the German Union, leaving them about twenty-nine thousand dollars for their own work, a sum which is spent annually by some of our larger State conferences in America, on perhaps not more than two millions of people. It is only through the noble liberality of our brethren in gifts and offerings, and their faithfulness in the payment of their tithes, that we were able to work a tremendous mission field containing two hundred millions of people (about half as many as there are in China) with only seventeen hundred dollars on appropriations from America last year; and we have been blessed of God in the results that have attended our efforts.
In Germany proper our membership is increasing, as we now have 3,235 members here. The net increase has been13two hundred and sixty-five during the nine months. We expect to see quite a number baptized during this quarter as the result of the fall campaign.
We have this year been able to dedicate a new chapel of our own at Vohwinkel, Rhenish Prussia, where present truth was first presented about forty years ago. We also have rented a good church building in the center of the city of Berlin. It will hold about four hundred, and it costs us one thousand dollars rent annually. Naturally, our brethren in the great capital city of the German empire are beginning to think that the day must come when they will have their own chapel there, instead of paying so much money for rent. There are now two hundred and fifty Sabbath-keepers in Berlin.
Russia
By far our best increase has been in Russia, where, during the nine months, the membership has grown from 1,497 to 1,920, a gain of four hundred and twenty-three. Of this number, two hundred and seventeen have been brought in among the native Russians, while the others have been added mostly in the German-speaking fields. Just now there is quite a forward move among the Esthonians and Lettonians in the Baltic provinces. We are thankful to God that we enjoy more liberty in this great empire than formerly. The other day we received the welcome news that “Steps to Christ” in the Russian language had passed the Russian censorship; and as the plates for this book are already on the press, it will not be long before we shall have this good book for the millions of Russian-speaking people throughout the world. Thus far, we have had only one other book in this language, “Christian Temperance.”
To be sure, the financial condition of the Russian field is such that it still must receive financial help from without, and much needs to be done in order to develop this vast field, which includes both European and Asiatic Russia. We now have several German nurses working in Russia, and they are doing reasonably well. The Pampaian brethren, who went to Tiflis, have as yet not been able to do much as medical missionaries; but they are learning the Russian language, and we feel hopeful that such arrangements may soon be made as will enable them to render more active service in the work for which they have prepared themselves.
Austria-Hungaria
We are also thankful that the cause of God in Austria-Hungaria is onward. At the beginning of the year Hungaria had one hundred and seventy-one members, but it now has two hundred and twenty-two, a net increase of fifty-one. We had a good general meeting in Hungaria, at Budapest, the capital city, December 1-4. This place has a population of about seventy thousand. Brother Erzenberger was with me. We are glad that a good church is being developed in Budapest. At the meeting, Brother K. Reifschneider was ordained to the ministry. We also secured an additional native worker in the Hungarian language. One Slavonian sister has gone to Friedensau to attend the school. We have quite a promising company among this nationality now, and also quite a number of Servians have recently accepted the truth. Thus the work to-day is going forward among five nationalities in this field. We have some difficulty with our canvassing work. As soon as a canvasser engages in preaching or Bible-reading work, he forfeits his government permission to canvass. To secure this permission is quite a complicated affair.
German-Switzerland
The German-Swiss Conference is also growing constantly. They had a good camp-meeting at Sissach last summer. The reports show that their membership has increased from three hundred and sixteen to three hundred and seventy-four. Brother Boettcher has lately had well-attended meetings at Bern, the capital.
NEVSKE PROSPECT, THE WIDEST STREET IN ST. PETERSBURG
Holland Mission
As to the work in Holland and Flemish Belgium, there is also some growth; for their membership has increased from seventy to ninety-nine. We hope by the end of the year that this membership will be considerably increased.
German East Africa
The work in our recently established German East African Mission is doing well. The buildings at Friedenstal, the head mission station, will soon be finished. We have about twelve young people there under instruction, and the attendance at our Sabbath meetings varies from two hundred to three hundred. The leader, Brother J. Ehlers, has suffered more or less from fever contracted during his visits to the plains below. About twelve miles from Friedenstal, we have put up a school building, in Kihuiro, on the main caravan route to the Kilimanjard Mountains, and we expect to open a school there in the near future. The two young men who are attending the Oriental seminary in Berlin are doing well, and they expect to make such good headway in learning the Suaheli—the language most commonly spoken in German East Africa—that they can leave for their field of labor by next spring.
Friedensau
Our colony in Friedensau is continually advancing. Our new chapel there was dedicated November 20. A large number not of our faith attended. The seating capacity of the chapel is about four hundred, but five hundred can easily be seated in it, if necessary. Beneath the chapel are four schoolrooms. The ladies' new dormitory is now also being occupied. We can accommodate about one hundred and sixty students. The food factory and sanitarium have done fairly well the past three quarters. At present we are putting up a good steam laundry for the school and sanitarium, and a power plant to furnish electricity. The school building, equipped, will cost us about thirty-five thousand dollars. We have received five thousand dollars from the sale of German “Object Lessons” in America, and in this country we have sold about eight thousand dollars' worth of the book, giving us an income of thirteen thousand dollars from this source. We have still about seven thousand copies of the book on hand, so that we hope to realize at least twenty thousand dollars14from the sale of this work. By the time the books can be sold, we hope the school may be out of debt.
In the German field we have had some very interesting experiences with our young people who had to enter the German military service. At first it seemed impossible for any one to get the Sabbath free; but as the faith of our young men has increased, we find that, one after another, they gain the victory.
Publishing Work
The publishing work of the Hamburg house is growing. In the autumn of 1903 we added one new press, but we find that we still do not have enough press capacity to print all our periodicals and smaller publications. We therefore plan to replace an old press with a new one, soon. Our German paper has a regular edition of thirty thousand bimonthly. We lately got out a special Advent issue, printing fifty thousand; but before the paper had been off the press ten days, we had orders for seven thousand more than we had printed, and could have delivered seventy thousand had we printed that many. The German Good Health has a circulation of nine thousand five hundred monthly. It is our only health publication in this language. Our German Little Friend is also to be enlarged, and its subscription list is growing rapidly. It is the only child's paper we have in the German language. We are increasing our stock of foreign publications, and of course this calls for more workmen in the publishing house. We have sold through our canvassers nearly thirty-seven thousand dollars' worth of books the past three quarters. We hope our sales will be considerably above fifty thousand dollars for 1904. We have added to the list of our periodicals a Hungarian quarterly, which contains the Sabbath-school lessons, and good general articles on present truth. We expect to begin a Russian quarterly early in 1905. We publish literature in fifteen languages, and are continually adding to the list.
The ship mission work is prospering. Formerly, Brethren Christiansen and Fintel both worked in the Hamburg harbor. Now, Brother Christiansen is working in Stettin, on the Baltic, while Brother Fintel remains here. Both are doing well, selling hundreds of dollars' worth of our literature to the seamen. Already some fruits have been seen. Last summer a very promising mate on a ship accepted the message.
While the enemy is not asleep, and we have many difficulties to meet, yet we are thankful to God, who giveth us the victory through faith in his name, and we praise him for the bright prospects we see before us in this large field. May the brethren and sisters remember the work and the workers in the German Union Conference, with its large mission territory, and its constantly extending sphere of influence in Asia and Africa.
