THE world's Sunday-school Association is twenty-one years old. It is inter-denominational in character, and is pledged to work especially to extend the influence of the Bible, through the medium of the Sunday-school, in those regions of the world most in need of help.
The first World's Sunday-school Convention was held in London in 1889; the second, at St. Louis, Mo., in 1893; the third, in London in 1898; the fourth, at Jerusalem in 1904; the fifth, in Rome in 1907; and the sixth, in Washington, D. C., May 19-24, 1910.
The Seventh-day Adventist denomination had been courteously invited to send representatives to this convention, and your correspondent felt it to be a great privilege to be in attendance at a meeting representing such world-wide missionary interests. Twenty-five hundred delegates were in attendance from North America, and five hundred others wore badges indicating their connection as missionaries with about fifty different nations. Seven thousand visitors, or unofficial delegates, were present. This convention stands unequaled in the magnitude of its constituency.
The convention sat with a gigantic map of the world before its eyes. The official button showed the globe with a red cross superimposed thereon. Part of each day was given to a "roll-call of nations." In this meeting the ends of the earth came together at Washington.
It is claimed that this is the world's largest organization. The latest reports give 27,888,000 members, of whom 16,000,000 are in the United States and Canada. The number of Sunday-schools is 285,842.
The strength of this movement in non-Christian countries is well indicated by the following items: China has 1,800 Sunday-schools with a total enrolment of 73,000 members; Japan, 1,500 schools with an enrolment of 104,000; Korea, 1,847 schools with a total of 142,000.
We should be narrow indeed did we not appreciate the tremendous influence for good which the World's Sunday-school Association, and all that it represents, is having upon the world at large. Self-sacrificing, faithful, tireless efforts are being made by the representatives of this organization in all parts of the world to place the Bible in the hands of those whose minds are clouded with the darkness of heathenism. A great army of workers are battering against the walls of superstition and ignorance which have made impossible the entrance of the light of the Gospel into the hearts of millions of people.
The convention in Washington was distinctively missionary in spirit. It was repeatedly set forth that the agency which deals with childhood is the most potent evangelizing force in the world. The experience of these workers confirms the wisdom of our own denominational efforts to establish schools for the training and education of the children in heathen lands as the only possible way by which the establishment of the truth can be made possible and permanent. There is no question but what this Sunday-school organization is doing to circulate the Bible in all languages throughout the non-Christian world, will hasten the footsteps of the coming King.
The new Brazilian Dreadnought, "Minas Geraes," with her mighty armament, as seen from the bow looking aft. The view shows eight 12-inch and four 4.7-inch guns trained directly ahead. This is the first ship to carry 12-inch guns, and is the most powerful vessel in commission at the present time. (From the "Scientific American" of March 19, 1910.)
