p. 14 | General Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1902

General Notes

IN a recent letter Brother J. A. Leland, of Guadalajara, Mexico, reports that five persons have begun to attend their services as the result of the mission work in the city.

BESIDES the opportunity to circulate much literature in the Boer camps in South Africa, our brethren have had the privilege of sending quantities of papers on the transports to the island of St. Helena; and when they last wrote, they were planning to send a quantity to Ceylon. Truly, this is sowing beside all waters.

THE situation in Colombia still is such that Brother Hutchins can do but little work outside of Bocas del Toro. In his last letter, written May 28, he stated that it was expected that the decisive battle would be fought that day, and matters would then be settled. They are well, and are enjoying much of the blessing of the Lord in the midst of trying times.

WE have received an interesting program of the closing exercises of the little industrial school at Karmatar, India. In addition to the native orphanage school, a boarding school has been conducted for the children of our own people, most of whom are of Calcutta. Karmatar is a beautiful and healthful location for a school. It is here that Brethren Robinson and Brown are buried. The premises are rented for a series of years.

IN 1859 one native in the Fiji Islands could buy another for seven dollars, and then butcher him and eat him without molestation. To-day the Bible is in nearly every house, and nine tenths of the people assemble every week in churches for worship.

A MEETING for the workers was held in Georgetown, British Guiana, the latter part of May. Elder Babcock writes that their workers’ meeting in the city was followed by meetings for the public, which created quite an interest, several having decided to obey the truth.

MISSIONARIES in India bear united testimony to the fact that the country is ripe for evangelistic work of the most aggressive kind, but laborers and the means to keep them in the field are needed to bring about a religious movement that shall have the most marked influence on the whole country.

THE gospel has made remarkable progress in Corea during the past year, judging from the fact that of the five thousand baptized members of the church not one half were professed Christians a year ago. Both teachers and medical workers are sadly overworked in this field, as they have far more to do than they are able to accomplish.

BROTHER W. G. KNEELAND reports two baptisms at Erin, in the southern part of Trinidad. One of the converts was brought into the truth through the efforts of a canvasser who was sent there a few months before. The interest is increasing in the Port of Spain church. They are now doing twice as much missionary work as they were a year ago.

MISSIONARIES of different denominations agree in the one fact—that there never was a time in the history of missionary work in China when openings were multiplying faster and as extensively as at present. The American Bible Society agent in China reports that the Chinese manifest an extraordinary eagerness to have the Bible. He writes that “there seems to have been a wonderful reaction all over the empire from the bitter persecutions of last year, and in no part is this more apparent than in many districts where the disturbances were the greatest. The call for the Scriptures is unparalleled. On the last steamers which left for the north before the close of navigation for the winter, we sent the largest shipment we ever made to Tientsin and Peking. The demand for Scripture is something marvelous, and every one thinks we are only at the beginning of a great movement.” A similar report comes from the British and Foreign Bible Society. They write: “The brightening prospects of Christian missions in China may be judged by the following facts: During the first eight days of the present year orders were received at our Shanghai depository for upwards of 150,000 copies of Scripture, of which about 15,000 are Bibles and Testaments.”