OUR WORK AND WORKERS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 13, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 37.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

By Editor

WE note a statement in the News that "the church-school question is receiving much consideration in the Chesapeake Conference, and most churches will arrange for schools."

THE Tennessee River Conference will hold a camp-meeting at Paris, Tenn., from the 14th to the 24th of the present month. Efficient ministerial laborers will conduct the services.

A BAKERY is being constructed in connection with the Walla Walla (Wash.) College, and it is announced that the manufacture of health foods will be commenced about the middle of this month.

DR. W. H. RILEY, president of the Colorado Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association and medical director of our sanitarium at Boulder, holds the chair of nervous and mental diseases in the University of Colorado.

THE testimony to the church to-day is: "Were every one of you living missionaries, the Gospel would be proclaimed speedily in all countries, to all peoples, nations, and tongues. This is the work that must be done before Christ shall come in power and great glory." Also this admonition: "The Lord God of heaven would have the entire church devising ways and means whereby high and low, rich and poor, may hear the message of truth."

THIS testimonial to the utility of the church-school movement is from the Reaper, organ of the Upper Columbia Conference: "Recent word from the church school at Swauk Prairie informs us that they have decided to continue the present term two months more. An item in the same letter states that four of the students have been baptized, and that three more will be baptized soon, while others manifest an interest in their soul's salvation. This is good news, but it is the principal object of our church schools, namely, the conversion of the children who attend."

"WHY circulate so much and such varied literature?" we are frequently asked. It is because this is a reading age, and the enemy is taking advantage of it. Shall the truth be withheld, and rank error be allowed to overspread the entire field? The enemy of souls is filling the world with great libraries of fiction in all its foul forms. Then there is the growing literature of Spiritualism, of Theosophy, Christian Science (so called), Higher Criticism (infidelity in a cloak of wisdom), National Reform (Church and State union), and many other isms designed to parry the force of the plain Word of God. All these things have to be met in a special manner, in order to call the attention of the confused masses to the Scriptures of truth, wherein is all wisdom. See Col. 3:16; Deut. 4:5, 6; 2 Tim. 3:15, 16. The object of our literature is to direct the wandering minds of the people to Jesus Christ, the "Light of the world," and to the "sure word of prophecy," which is "a light in a dark place." Through this literature we give the message as "ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

FROM the Wisconsin Reporter we take these excerpts from a letter written by Sister Elsie A. Strong, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 27, three weeks after her arrival: "I will have to learn to speak Portuguese before I can do very much. . . . The Portuguese language seems to be quite difficult to learn, and the most of the workers have been here several years, they complain of not knowing the language well enough to do efficient work for the natives. Most of the work done is for the Germans, of whom there are a great many. There are four large church schools for the Germans, and one Portuguese school will soon be started by Brother Stein, who is well educated in the language. We are talking of having a teacher, for then we will be sure to learn the language correctly, and will learn rapidly. There are really two languages—one for the upper class, and another for the lower class. . . . There is so much suffering, want, and crime here, that I feel so anxious to be able to work for the natives who are so sorely in need of help. I think the church-school teacher and the medical missionary are the classes of laborers who are needed most, for the people are mostly ignorant, and can neither read nor write. . . . The people do not seem to have the least idea of how the human body should be treated. They think that eating fruit will surely bring on the fever, and to avoid it one should eat freely of meat. When the cool weather of the rainy season comes on, instead of dressing warmer, they take to drink to counteract the cold. They say tobacco must be used to kill the yellow fever germs in the system. The there are so many deaths from yellow and malarial fevers, by far the greater number of deaths are caused by consumption."