Some Interesting Items of Progress
By W. H. Spicer
The first issue of our new Yiddish magazine is lately from the press. It is intended for circulation among the Jews of this country. Many Jews are delighted to find that there are some Christians who honor the Bible Sabbath and worship the God of Abraham, and are made ashamed at the thought of how many of themselves have ceased doing these things. Some Roumanians who accepted the advent message in Ohio have had to face severe opposition. One was badly beaten by a relative, and windows of another's house were broken by former friends. Still another was threatened with shooting. ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR BAPTIZED
During the summer, reports have come of 1,294 new baptisms and new Sabbath keepers in the United States, distributed among thirty-seven of the states. Michigan has the largest number, reporting two hundred four; and California the next largest, one hundred forty-four. The largest number of baptisms in any one place and at about the same time was in North Dakota, during the camp meeting at Jamestown, where seventy-five, mostly young persons, went forward in this rite. The next largest report is from near Cedar Lake, Michigan, where over sixty took their stand for the truth of God. A camp meeting in western Oregon was the occasion of forty-eight baptisms; another in South Dakota, of thirty-three. Twenty-eight new members were baptized in St. Charles, Michigan, May 29. An effort among colored people in Grove, Kentucky, resulted in the winning of twenty-three. In Canada, meanwhile, one hundred thirty-nine accessions were reported. In Saskatchewan alone, over sixty came in during the first quarter of 1915, as the result of ministerial labor. Most of these new believers are English-speaking whites. Some of the native French are included, however, as well as over one hundred colored people, and numerous immigrants. Of the latter, there were some twenty Germans, four Russians, four Roumanians, two Galicians, three Italians, and an unspecified number of Scandinavians, Portuguese, etc. DEVOTION AND SUCCESS IN MAURITIUS
The message for the last days was first brought to the French-speaking island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, through the efforts of a believing sailor, employed on a ship voyaging between there and Australia. After a time, three sisters went there from Switzerland; and later, at their request, Pastor Badaut was sent out. Under his ministry, a small church was organized, which has since been growing. Early in the year, eight baptisms of adults were reported. One of these converts came in through his zeal to convert Pastor Badaut. A first attempt, in company with friends, to confound the pastor in street-corner debate, met with defeat; and a second attack, well munitioned with arguments from the priest, also failed to overthrow the defense founded on the Scriptures. After that, he adopted the attitude of a learner, and is now in the church. Another recent convert of this island, though blind, so desired to help give the truth to his neighbors, that he committed to memory the contents of a little book of Bible readings, and has developed the power of remembering almost perfectly the discourses that he hears in meetings. Last fall, J. J. Hokland, a young Norwegian missionary to the Laplanders, had a remarkable experience. In a journey in Lapland, he had to pass over a mountain trail that was very dangerous. In order to be safer, he went barefoot, and further committed himself to God in prayer. He reached the valley in safety, and there met a couple who had been journeying on the opposite side, in view of him. Their first question was, “Where did your companion go?” They could scarce believe his assertion that he had been alone, as they thought they saw another with him. It recalled to his mind, he said, the verse, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.” In British Guiana, not very long ago, a young man who had previously heard the gospel through an Adventist missionary, contracted leprosy, and was sent to the leper colony on the island of Mahaica. Here he turned to meditate on the message he had heard before, but had rejected at the time. He not only accepted it to his own salvation, but preached it to his fellow sufferers, so that before long, thirteen of their number put on Christ in baptism.