South Africa by I. J. Hankins

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

South Africa

By I. J. Hankins

MAY 28 I left Cape Town for Komgha, a little town near the Transkei, and about nine hundred miles by rail from the Cape. Here Brethren Tarr and Sates had conducted a series of tent-meetings, and eight adults had accepted the message. While further instruction was being given to this little company, the husband of a Catholic woman who had begun to keep the Sabbath, came to visit her. He attended all our studies, and decided to unite with his wife in obeying God. He had previously made no profession of religion.

It was during my stay in Komgha that a ten thousand edition of the Sentinel on the subject of religious liberty was circulated. It was sent to ministers, legislators, judges, city councilors, magistrates, lawyers, and other prominent men in all parts of South Africa. The subject was opportune; for in different places the question was in agitation. In Kimberley the city council had authorized the police to enforce an old “Lord's day act,” and thus put a stop to Sunday desecration and labor. Religious and secular papers are advocating a better observance of Sunday, and ministers are preaching the same needed reform.

After assisting Brother Tarr in Komgha for three weeks, I went to Rokeby Park, a country place near Grahamstown, where I conducted meetings and organized a church seventeen years ago. Little labor had been put forth in this place for a long time, yet nearly all were steadfast in the faith. For the benefit of the young people especially, I reviewed the evidences of our faith in a few weeks' series of studies. The young people have an organized society, and while studying for self-improvement, they are also circulating our literature. While I was there, they planned for a reading and study of “Great Controversy.” For eleven years one of our young sisters has been conducting a farm school in a room of her father's house, receiving partial support from the government. This school has been composed mostly of Seventh-day Adventist children, and though subject to government inspectors and examinations, it has been as near a church-school as the teacher could make it, and it has been a great benefit to our people. Before our series of meetings closed, seven of the dear young people consecrated their lives to the Lord's service, and were baptized in the Blaauw Krantz River.

This section has become noted in recent years for its production of pineapples. The yield has overstocked the local markets, and negotiations are now proceeding with London for the exportation of this excellent fruit. This comparatively new enterprise, together with ostrich farming, has helped to tide our brethren over the droughts, locust plague, and stock diseases which have been so prevalent in late years. At the July quarterly meeting, the Rokeby church paid nearly three hundred dollars in tithes and offerings. The Lord is blessing those who are faithful to him.

July 24 I came to the diamond fields. Here in Beaconsfield, seventeen years ago, Elder Boyd and I conducted our first general meeting in South Africa, and dedicated our first church building. Several of the charter members have given up the truth, and others are scattered in different parts of this land. A few accessions have been made from time to time, yet with constant removals and a few deaths, the present membership is small. Kimberley has not been as fruitful in souls for the Master's kingdom as in diamonds for wealth seekers. The Kimberley Baths have, by their Sabbath-closed doors, kept this feature of truth before the public for the last nine years. Under the careful management of Brother and Sister Willson, this work has grown in influence and efficiency, and, notwithstanding the war and the serious depression following, the institution has greatly improved its property, added necessary land, and steadily reduced its debts.

At first the resident physicians were averse to sending their patients to the Baths for treatment, but gradually as they saw obstinate conditions yield to the simple measures employed, they gained confidence, and now all the leading doctors in the city send patients for treatment; and some of them have sent members of their own families, and have been so well satisfied with the results that they have paid extra for the service. While in most cases the doctors prescribe treatment, some of them place their patients fully in Brother Willson's hands to use his own judgment in treatments. This shows confidence.

The good hand of Providence has directed the work, and has kept the workers from mistakes that might have been serious in their results. Brother Willson has treated many cases in the city hospital, and our methods are in favor with physicians and matron there. About sixty-six hundred treatments have been given during the past eight years, one third of these to ladies. Health foods have a fairly good sale, and health literature is being read with interest by our patrons. Our denominational literature is kept in a reading-rack in the entrance hall, and is read more or less. The work and influence of the Baths have resulted in the recovery of persons who were beyond help from the ordinary drug medication; in the disuse by many of tea, coffee, meat, tobacco, and spirituous liquors; in a better knowledge of the laws of health; and also in the sowing of some good gospel seed, which will doubtless yield its fruit some day.

Hard times, retrenchment, and bankruptcy have followed the recent war in this land, till men's hearts are failing for fear of what may yet come to intensify the situation. Strikes in the gold mines, dismissal of men from the diamond mines, and a rumor that the government is about to dismiss nearly three thousand railway employees,—these are the things that bring distress upon men, and lead them to acts of violence. These are among the evidences of the speedy approach of the “time of trouble,” and the consummation of the Lord's work. May the glad day hasten!

I. J. HANKINS.