SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 8, 1880

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND.

By John Norton Loughborough

Our cause, in this mission, is advancing in its various branches not only here in Southampton, but in other parts of the kingdom where we are making efforts by distribution of reading matter and correspondence.

Another sister took her stand last week to keep the Sabbath with us, and some who have ability to defend the truth have written favorably, and think of taking their stand with us soon.

The work of placing our publications on ships has been increasing in interest and importance every week. England is an important point from which to distribute reading matter all over the world; being the mother country, or home port, of a kingdom "on whose soil the sun never sets." As one English writer says: "Before the sun's evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, (Port Jackson, near Sidney, New South Wales, Australia.) and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eyes open upon those of the Ganges. (Ganges, in India.)"

There is a constant passing and repassing of ships from England to all the numerous branches of this vast kingdom, which embraces possessions in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as America and numerous islands of the sea.

Since the completion of the Suez canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, transit is rapid and more frequent to the East Indies, Bombay, Calcutta, etc. Before me is a table making a comparison of the ships of all nations that passed through the canal from May 1, 1878 to April 30, 1879. In that time there was just one solitary American vessel of two thousand tons burden passed through the canal while of English vessels there were 1,173 bearing 1,686,239 tons of freight. The highest number from any other nation was France, which passed through only ninety-two vessels. It is true Southampton is not the best port in England from which to reach all parts of the dominion by sea, but it is second only in importance—standing next to London and Liverpool.

We could have done more in ship-work than has already been done, but we have lacked material in the different languages with which to work.

Just at present there is a great German emigration to the United States. The North German Lloyd Line of steamers from Bremen to New York stop at Southampton several hours every Tuesday. Of late they have had from two to four hundred passengers each week going to all parts of the United States. What an excellent chance to introduce Stimme der Wahrheit into the various German communities in the United States. Then again on returning steamers to send some copies into all parts of Germany. We have ten copies of the paper that Bro. Ings paid for, and have been obliged to make up the rest of the scanty meal for the hungry passengers with a few copies of German tracts. If some who are interested to spread the German paper could furnish us clubs to the amount of 50 or 60 papers post prepaid at the rate of two cents a number, we will see that they are judiciously distributed.

Again there are a great many ships from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, that come into this port, some return to various parts of their native country, some go to the United States for grain, and some have sailed to Russia. To supply these clear headed sailors that come into port we have had five copies of Tiderness Tegn, and a few Danish and Swedish tracts. Bro. Ings came across one man the other day who had read, in Norway, the false reports against Bro. Matteson. He was much pleased to learn that Bro. Ings was acquainted with him. Conversation removed prejudice. He read tracts and papers, and is now reading with interest Bro. Matteson's "Sabbath in the New Testament," which he purchased. We must have more papers in Danish and Swedish from some source to help in that work from this port.

The branch in which most has been done here is with our American Signs of the Times, and as the time for the subscription of many of these clubs has nearly expired we would say, we know the Signs distributed by sea and land have done a great work, not only in calling attention to our work, but in deciding many on the truth. We hope our friends in America, who so kindly sent us clubs last year, will fit to continue them, and that they have clean papers; either Signs, German, Swedish, or Danish, that they would like distributed, to please mail them to J. N. Loughborough, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England, prepaying postage at the rate of two cents for each and every number, we promise you on our part, that they shall be judiciously distributed.

Our ship work has been in operation long enough for many of the ships to return a second and third time. They not only report that the periodicals and books in the various languages are read with interest on the ships, but after being thus read have been scattered at the various ports where the vessels called. In some instances, stewards and captains have themselves become so interested as to purchase our large works. One steward of a steamer, last week, bought six of our $1.00 volumes to put on his own table at his home after he had read them.

These ship-officers not only request more reading matter, but kindly offer to do all they can to help us in distributing our publications. One who had read our works said to another ships crew who had just received the papers and tracts for the first time, "Now you have some reading matter that amounts to something."

We were never of better courage to labor in all these branches of the work. While we work, we are praying, hoping, and waiting to see the salvation of God. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.