p. 16 | Mission Notes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 18, 1907

Mission Notes

ANOTHER Central American field is to be entered. Elder U. Bender, who is visiting that region, writes that he has just accompanied Brother C. A. Nowlen to Guatemala, where the latter hopes to introduce our Spanish literature. In Spanish Honduras, where Brethren Allen, Peebles, and others have been laboring, some earnest Spanish-speaking believers have been raised up to join in the work.

THE people of Italy are simple-hearted and religiously inclined. Though lying under the dark shadow of Rome, yet perfect freedom for the preaching of the gospel exists. This country is a stronghold yet to be won from the enemy. The government, like a great river, is draining the resources of the people for its military prowess. Therefore, the people are poor. But it is a mistake to believe all Italians to be like the emigrants who arrive in America. There are many men of ability, whose fame has not journeyed so far as that of Marconi, but who have raised Italy to merit being esteemed a great nation. And what has been done shows what can be done.

AMONG other places recently visited in China by Brother and Sister P. J. Laird was a large tea-garden. This was a large, open space, of about twenty acres. The tea-house is not large. It contained two rooms, with etched glass windows on all sides. The first was a reception-room, with fine carved chairs, rich silk tapestries, and other seats. The next was a tea-room, furnished with lacquered tables and chairs of foreign style. The outlook from this place was very pleasing, over an artificial lake, skirted with trees and shaded walks. We were reminded of the lines—

“Where every prospect pleases, And only man is vile.”

Here the wealthy come to hold their wine parties. In the lake is an island with a miniature mountain upon it, and a picturesque bridge crossing to it from the mainland. A host was there, awaiting his guests for a tea party. He insisted that we come and sit with them, and have some cakes and sweets. They had heard of our work from some young men who are attending our classes, and seemed pleased to meet us. Japan is famed for its beautiful tea-gardens; but we saw nothing there that could begin to compare with this, in its large dimensions and in the amount of money spent in beautifying the place.