Mission Notes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 28, 1904

HUNDREDS of peoples and tribes still remain without a single Gospel in their own tongue.

BROTHER JOHN WOLFGARTEN writes from Duisburg, Prussia, that he and Brother Schubert have been holding meetings in several cities in the Rhenish provinces. A church of nineteen members has recently been organized in Duisburg, and ten or twelve more will follow in a few weeks. He also had the privilege of holding meetings in his native city, Cologne, where quite a number have accepted present truth.

FOR centuries a colony of Jews has been known to exist in China. In 1850 native messengers sent to ascertain something about them found them in Kaifongfu. Their ancient temple was in ruins. The messengers brought back many rolls of the law. Each of them contained a complete copy of the books of Moses, on white sheepskin, cut and sewed together, twenty or thirty yards long, and many smaller manuscripts. In 1868 the colony was found in a wretched condition, and in 1902 eight of the Chinese Jews made the long journey from their home to Shanghai. While they do not observe the idolatrous practises of the heathen, they do not observe any of the ordinances of Judaism. The whole number left in the seven clans is now one hundred and forty. Four of these eight Jews went back to their homes with copies of the Old Testament in Chinese.

THE story is told of an old Chinese woman who came into a missionary hospital, saying that she would like to see the doctor. On his asking what she wished, she replied that the mandarin of her town had lately been at his hospital. Before he came, he was a very bad man. He abused his children, wasted his money at play, and had so foul a mouth that all the waters of the world could not have made it clean. “But since he has been with you,” she continued, “the tiger is transformed into a lamb, and his wife is full of joy and astonishment. He no longer gives her an unhandsome word; and they live in peace together.” “Good news!” replied the doctor. “But what do you wish, my good woman?” “Well,” said the woman, “you are to tell nobody, but I, too, have an unhappy mouth, and I am afraid my daughters-in-law find it none too easy to live with me. Therefore, I have come to beg you to give me some of the medicine that has cured our mandarin.”

TO-DAY as of old, there sits One over against the treasury, who notes the gifts cast therein; and he has what to us is a curious system of mathematics. His reckoning defies all our rules; for with him two and two do not make four, neither is a penny less than a pound. According to his arithmetic, two mites, about one quarter of a cent in value, are more than the great gifts cast into the treasury by the rich. Comparing the widow’s quarter cent and the rich man’s great gift, he says: “They all did cast in of their superfluity; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” Applying to our time the same system of arithmetic, for Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” how he must reverse the judgments of earth. Men reckon gifts by their size, God reckons them by what it costs to give. Not the amount given, but the amount left, is what God looks at. This is why the quarter cent was more than the great gifts—they were given out of superfluity; it out of want.—China’s Millions.