Untitled article by Merritt C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 19, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 38.

NOTES BY THE WAY. No. 3.

By Merritt C. Wilcox

WE arrived in New York City from the Richmond camp-meeting August 17. Here I met Mr. W. A. Reaser and planned the illustrations for the World's Outlook number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. These illustrations are not yet drawn, but we know that they will, in striking originality and object lesson, exceed anything we have hitherto presented to our readers.

SABBATH DAY, August 18, we met in the forenoon with the First S. D. A. English Church of Brooklyn. The weather was extremely warm, and the attendance was therefore not large. Nevertheless, a goodly company of about seventy-five assembled for the study of the Word in Sabbath-school and sermon, followed by a social service. We spoke from John 10:1-16 as to how we may know the true Shepherd's voice, and the importance of knowing it. After the good social meeting which followed, the papers for missionary work were laid before the Lord and His blessing was asked upon them.

In the afternoon, eleven miles away, we met with the New York church. Here the attendance was considerably larger, and excellent attention was given, as the practical, positive truths of the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12 were presented. We were not in time to be present at the interesting Sabbath-school here, but it is a live, working company, and we are sure the Sabbath-school must be of interest.

WE were in New York City in 1884. It seemed then and for some time after that it was well-nigh impossible for the truth of the last message to get a foothold in this great rushing, driving, hurrying city. But it was good now to find five churches in this great city. The one in New York numbers about 200 members. The First Church of Brooklyn, about the same. Besides this there are the Second Brooklyn English Church, a German and a Scandinavian Church, and the work is onward. We praise God for what He has wrought through His servants in this great city. These churches are called to great responsibility. God has set them as lights in that great, dark city. They will meet this responsibility by unitedly seeking God's glory, and laboring with singleness of heart to bring souls unto Him.

WE visited our brethren of the Foreign Mission Board and International Tract Society, who are putting forth earnest effort not alone in their own work but locally. The two days we were in this great city, which now numbers its population as over 3,437,000, we were glad of the privilege of stopping at the hospitable homes of Brethren Place and Curtiss, old co-laborers in the work—the former now president of Atlantic Conference; the latter, manager of the New York branch of the Pacific Press. Great burdens rest upon those bearing responsibilities in this important center. They need our prayers and our hearty support.

THE city life is seen in New York in all its fulness of evil. The present census shows that within a radius of twenty miles from the city hall, the distance which the city now extends in some directions, there are four and one-half million of people. Some of these live under conditions which are almost insufferable. For instance, one block of the city contains over 3,900 inhabitants. In some cases whole families live in one room. In the great, hot, over-crowded tenement houses, the inner rooms of which receive no light or ventilation, save by inner air-shafts, the atmosphere becomes indescribably foul and unwholesome; and during the intensely-heated term through which we have just passed, hundreds of little ones sickened, and many died. The nervous wear of city life here is terrific. It is one continual rush all the time. The street-cars run for twenty-four hours, and are nearly always crowded by people going—where? The cost of living is increasing as the commodities of life are controlled by the great trusts. The spirits of the people continually grow more and more intense and mercurial, and the merest pretext excites the mob spirit, as was manifest a few days since. How one's heart goes out for this great seething, unrestful mass of humanity, that they may know the rest there is in Christ Jesus! M. C. W.