Editorial Letter

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 27, 1906

Jottings from the Editor's Note-Book on a Trip Around the World

It is my purpose to relate in a simple manner some of my experiences on this my second missionary journey around the world. The circumstances and reasons which have led to this trip have already been stated by Brother Daniells in a recent issue of the REVIEW, and therefore do not need to be repeated here.

It is just ten years this month since I arrived in America from my first round-the-world journey. Then I spent nearly all the time in the southern hemisphere,—in Australasia and South Africa,—but my visits this time will be confined wholly to the northern half of the globe. A brief statement of my proposed itinerary is as follows: about three weeks in Japan, a week in Korea, two months in China, calls at Manila and Singapore, a few days in Burma, and about two weeks in India. With between two and three months spent on shipboard to cover the long distances, these visits will occupy about six months. This is a very short time in which to become acquainted with the work in these important fields, but it seems necessary to reach Switzerland in time to attend the council of the General Conference Committee, which will be held there in May, in order that a report may be submitted at that time, and intelligent plans laid for the more rapid advancement of the message in the far East. The reason for the short stay in India will be clear when it is remembered that Brother G. B. Thompson is now on his way to that country with Brother J. L. Shaw and his party, where he will spend nearly all the time until the meeting of the council in May. As I must necessarily go to Europe via Colombo, it seemed better to journey through India rather than to sail by it, and thus to get at least a glimpse of that field.

The next day after leaving Washington I spent at Mount Vernon, Ohio. Here I met Brethren Miller and Gibson, whose sons, Dr. H. W. and Esta Miller and Orva Gibson, are now in China. It was a privilege to carry a breath of the home atmosphere to these young men in a far country, for however intense the missionary zeal may be, we ought never to forget the fathers and mothers who toil and pray in the home land, and thus sustain the workers at the front. In the afternoon a good audience gathered in the college chapel, and I spoke for an hour concerning the extension of our work in all lands. Mount Vernon is well represented in “the regions beyond,” and the brethren and sisters take a lively interest in the progress of the message throughout the world. They think of Brother and Sister Field in Japan, of the Brethren Miller and Gibson in China, of Brother Wakeham in England, and of others in other places as their personal representatives, and this stimulates their own zeal for the furtherance of the closing message both at home and abroad. A missionary meeting is a good place to such a church.

As a companion on the journey from St. Paul to Vancouver I had a missionary to China who is returning after a furlough. He is connected with what is known as the China Inland Mission,—the movement organized by Hudson Taylor,—which has about six hundred missionaries and nearly a thousand native workers scattered through fifteen provinces. This brother and I have been assigned to the same room on the ship to Japan, and I hope we may have a profitable time together. Two missionaries—friends of his—are also going on the same ship with us.

Sister Schaffenberg, of Wisconsin, who goes out as a Bible worker for Korea, and Sister Hattie Harriman, who goes to Japan as a nurse from the Boulder Sanitarium, have joined me at Vancouver, and so we shall have quite a band of Christian workers on the ship. I hope we may have opportunities to witness for the truth.

This letter is written on the morning of the day of sailing, and my next letter will be sent from Japan, as there is no port of call between this place and Yokohama. I invite all the readers of the REVIEW to pray for the work in the fields to which I go.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 5, 1906.