The South Pacific Islands
By J. E. Fulton
THE readers of the REVIEW are always glad, we feel sure, to hear of the progress of the cause in this far-off land. The blessed message for these last days is to go to every island tribe, as well as to the more intelligent peoples in the home land. The torchlight of truth has already been set up in many islands of the South Pacific, but we can never rest satisfied until every unentered field has been annexed to our mission territory, and souls won therefrom as trophies for the Lord of missions. It is his command. The work of translating and printing literature in the different languages of these island tribes is going steadily forward. Our press at Avondale has been very busy of late in this good work. A book of Bible readings in Fijian has just been completed and sent on its mission. The same work in the Rarotongan language is at present on the press, and will be ready in a few weeks. A translation of "Thoughts on Daniel" is being pushed forward at the present time. Monthly papers for five different island fields are being printed at Avondale. Besides these, a large number of tracts, also lesson pamphlets and other island literature, are being produced at this office. Penisemani Tavodi, our Fijian brother who has been three years in New Guinea, working with Pastor S. W. Carr, has been on furlough to his native land for a few months. He has recently been married, and the last mail brought us word that he and his wife are to arrive in Sydney next week, en route to New Guinea. May the Lord bless this devoted young couple, and use them as they give their lives to gospel work for the savages of Papua. Letters from Pastor C. H. Parker tell of a successful effort on Norfolk Island. Brother Parker and mission party, who are on their way to the New Hebrides, were advised to remain two months on Norfolk, laboring to help the church in that place, until the very hot season is over in the New Hebrides. As the two months' term drew near to a close, we learned that the interest was growing, and that the workers were loath to leave. We accordingly cabled them to remain another month, and also delayed the shipping of the portable mission house we were to have sent to the New Hebrides. We are glad, now that the third month is almost up, to hear that several have come to the light, and have decided to throw in their lot with God's remnant people, and there are some others who are apparently on the dividing line. Since the letters giving us this information arrived, we have received a cable from the members of the Norfolk company, asking for our workers to remain another month. Evidently the interest is good, and we thought wise that the workers should not hurry away to their work in the New Hebrides, especially since the hot, malarial season is not well over yet; so we cabled them to remain for one more month. While we are anxious to hear of the opening of the work in the New Hebrides, yet we all rejoice to know that God is using our workers on Norfolk. While our New Hebrides workers have been carrying on this good work on Norfolk, Brother A. H. Ferris has been relieved to look after an interest that he much desired to follow up on Lord Howe Island. This small dot in the Pacific of five square miles of land, supporting a population of about one hundred, lies almost equidistant between Norfolk and Sydney, or about five hundred fifty miles from Australia. We understand that all the people on the island are Europeans, Brother Ferris had a good reception, and writes that he is having excellent meetings, with an attendance as high as sixty-five at times. We are all glad for the good report. We regret that it will be necessary for15Brother Ferris to return so soon to Norfolk, but no doubt he will be needed to look after the new converts there, as the burden of the work there rests upon him and his wife. It therefore seemed advisable for us to secure, if possible, the services of a laborer for a few months from one of the local conferences, to go to Lord Howe Island to carry on the work. We were pleased that the New South Wales Conference could spare Brother and Sister Meyers for this important work, and they will probably be on Lord Howe Island before this reaches our readers. Brother and Sister Ephraim Giblett, both former students of the Australasian Missionary College, are soon to enter the training-class for nurses at the sanitarium, to obtain a short course in nursing before going to Niue Island, a lone island in the Pacific. How good it will be to have a beacon light shining from this place! Some years ago, a young half-caste woman, whose father is a Niue Islander and whose mother is a Samoan, accepted the truth in Samoa. She is now in attendance at the Australasian Missionary College, and is assisting in the work of translating for both the Samoan and Niue fields, as she understands both these languages. God has certainly gone before us in this matter. He is raising up laborers. We hope that the time is not far distant when more of these islands will hear the truth for this time. The Bible tells us that the isles shall "wait for his law." The message is to go to every tribe, and kindred, and people. The Gentiles will come to the light. The time has now come to push the preaching of the message to every island of the heathen world. It has long been given in the home fields, and while there is much still to do, we know that "now, just now, is the time to work in foreign countries." "The light is to shine to all lands and to all people." "The Day-star is risen upon us, and we are to flash its light upon those in darkness." "God's people are not to cease their labors until they encircle the world." "The work in foreign fields has not been advanced as it should be advanced." "Our General, who never makes a mistake, says to us, 'Advance.' Enter new territory. Lift up the standard in every land." "Our burden to the 'regions beyond' can never be laid down until the whole earth shall be lighted with the glory of the Lord." "Scarcely a thousandth part of the work is being done that ought to be done in missionary fields. God calls upon his workers to annex new territory for him. There are rich fields of toil waiting for the faithful workers." "The vineyard includes the whole world, and every part of it is to be worked. There are places which are now a moral wilderness, and these are to become as the garden of the Lord."