The Message in Alexandria, Egypt.
By H. P. Ribton
I FEEL I am a debtor to my dear brethren in America, not having for some time sent any accounts from this most interesting country. The Work has so crowded upon me that I have been obliged to steal hours from the night, even for the necessary correspondence with the churches in Italy, every hour in the day and evening being occupied in the labor of preparing souls for the coming kingdom. Our hall is most invaluable for the work of the Lord; all day long we hold school in it, and in the evening we have either Bible-class or preaching of the present truth. I have now been here three months, and although Satan has used mighty efforts to overthrow us, my encouragement is great. This town is crowded with people from every nation of the three continents (even from Sweden, China, and Madagascar), and perhaps no other town offers such facilities for the wide diffusion of the message which it is our all-important duty to announce. It is time that the truth should flow forth from Egypt. From Alexandria were poured into the early Christian church the anti-biblical doctrines of the school of Plato; and now in Alexandria we have firmly established a school which teaches in five languages that immortality will be the gift of Christ at his coming, and that the wicked will perish from off the new earth. I have sought in the beginning to consolidate our center, before laboring to increase our circle. It is necessary that our fortress should be firmly established, and provided with spiritual armor both defensive and offensive, before seeking to extend our lines. And this object is already nearly accomplished; for I have now around me several brethren well grounded in present truth, whom I have labored to instruct in the deeper subjects of the advent announcements given us by Daniel and John, and especially to show them the importance of the Sabbath as the seal of God. I have witnessed with pleasure their increasing fervor, and their desire to impart these truths to others. They have already voluntarily adopted the custom of opening and closing the Sabbath with prayer; and have begun to hold meetings from house to house in the houses of brethren who are prevented by illness or other causes from attending at the hall, thus increasing prayer and opening new centers in distant parts of the town; and having thus employed our first quarter, during which God has increased our number to double what it was when I came, we are now prepared to announce the truth in five languages to all who will come. For this purpose I have announced a series of lectures on prophecy in English next month, and requested our sisters in Bale to print the announcements, as printing is enormously expensive here. I have already found several English friends who read our tracts with interest, and have also, through them, sent several addresses of influential people to Bro. Loughborough in England. I have found among others a Scotch lady who has for several years observed the Sabbath alone, having recognized it as God's day from reading the Bible. I must make special mention of one brother whom the Lord has given us. He is of the house of Israel according to the flesh. His father still reads Moses in his native Hebrew, with the veil upon his heart. But God has taken the veil from before the son. I have found in him a very valuable assistant in the school, and being well acquainted with Arabic and modern Greek, he labors much at evangelization in both of those languages, as well as in Italian. He has also brought his sister and his younger brother to our school, where both have learned of Christ, the promised Messiah. Our school is by far the most important work that we have yet undertaken. The chief schools here are that of the Roman Catholic Church, an immense establishment, where some five or six hundred children are brought up under the banner of antichrist; the Greek school, overflowing with saint worship; the schools of the German and Scotch churches, where the children are brought up in Platonism and in the veneration of the day of the sun; and the Italian public schools, where atheism is openly taught. Our brethren could not educate their children save by sending them to one of these roads to soul-ruin. It was urgent in the extreme that we should open a school where the children of our brethren might learn the truth as it is in the Bible. But how was it to be done without teachers and without means? Well, we thought we would begin in God's name and look to him for help, and so we opened a school in our hall on the first of February, and have undertaken to do the teaching until help comes. And now we have already four or five precious little souls that give marked tokens of birth in Christ, who scarcely knew the existence of a God two months ago. They can now find chapters and verses in the Bible, and with their little lips they express their hope in the resurrection, and their esteem for God's day. Our situation, however, is difficult in the extreme. The number of our scholars is increasing rapidly, the hall will soon be too small to contain them. I have the whole burden of the school on my shoulders; and unless I can soon employ some experienced Italian teachers, I know not how we will be able to get along. We have a very experienced master in the number of our Sabbath-keeping brethren at Naples; I hope we may be able to employ him. I ask most earnestly the prayers of our brethren, and the help of all who can help us; for I have already been obliged to refuse several children from not having the means or accommodations for taking them. Our sister churches at Bari and Naples in Italy are holding firm in the Sabbath. Our brethren there are still firm in their zeal to announce the truth. Two or three new brethren have joined our meetings at Naples since I left. Bro. Bertola writes that in Greece there are many who observe the Sabbath, and gives us hope that there also we may obtain fruit in the preaching of the commandments. I still keep up correspondence with Malta, where, although it is a most worldly and bigoted place, there are a few who take an interest in the Sabbath and advent questions. Our tracts have also gone to Cyprus, and I have obtained a correspondence with Melbourne in Australia. I have recommended friends there to write directly to California for tracts, as it is nearer to them. The time has now come when we require tracts in modern Greek. We have had much discussion already upon the Sabbath with Greek friends, of whom there is a great number here, but many of them do not understand any language but their own. I find I can acquire their language easily, and hope to be able to preach in it shortly. They are a very interesting people, and there is much encouragement to work among them; for their church, unlike the Latin one, favors the reading of the Bible, and many of them are well versed in the Scriptures. Moreover, many of them recognize the Sabbath, and as for baptism, it would be impossible for them to read the New Testament in their language and sprinkle infants. It is true, they immerse them, but they are very open to conviction on the subject, and their word baptisma has already gained half the argument. I remain with Christian love, Yours sincerely in the Lord, H. P. RIBTON.