Growth in Catholic Countries
By T. E. Bowen
GROWTH in Catholic countries must necessarily be slow. It is like fishing with a hook and line as compared with taking fish in a net. Patiently our workers must labor on in these difficult sections where the darkness is so dense, and people for many generations have been held practically in slavery to the dictates of the papal hierarchy. Think of working for people who are forbidden to read the Word of God, and who find it difficult even to procure a Bible. To illustrate this dense darkness, here is an incident:— "On the French shore of the beautiful lake of Geneva lies a district in scarcely less than heathen darkness, where gospel truth is unknown, the Bible being a forbidden book. Some rays of light, however, are beginning to penetrate the gloom, and to one of the workers of the Mission Evangelique at Thonon, came the touching request from a poor village innkeeper for a large-print Bible to supply the place of one confiscated by the priest. To buy one at a shop was impossible, for no bookseller in Thonon dares risk his trade by exposing Bibles for sale. After two unsuccessful attempts the worker found the man at home. He told how four years ago he had been robbed of his treasure; and his gratitude at again possessing a Bible was extreme. He said he had now found a safe hiding-place for it, and that he intended to read it with two or three comrades." Such persons as these are the ones our brethren must be directed to by the Lord's providences in introducing the third angel's message. Such circumstances make the figures presented below representing the growth of our work in the Catholic countries of Europe stand forth with a peculiar luster, especially when we take into account the fact that there is a constant emigrant tide out of these lands, and that our own brethren and sisters sometimes leave for North or South America. Let us truly pray for our workers in the Catholic countries of Europe. TOTAL NUMBER OF SABBATH-KEEPERS |
1908 |
1909 |
1910 |
1911 |
|---|
| French Conference |
260 |
241 |
248 |
216 |
| Roman-Swiss Conf. |
564 |
562 |
564 |
600 |
| French Belgian Miss. |
40 |
50 |
. . . |
. . . |
| Italian Mission |
44 |
42 |
52 |
72 |
| Portuguese Mission |
13 |
24 |
21 |
22 |
| Spanish Mission |
35 |
51 |
69 |
91 |
| N. France Mission |
. . . |
56 |
16 |
23 |
| Latin Union District |
. . . |
. . . |
73 |
62 |
| Ireland |
86 |
106 |
116 |
121 |
| Totals |
1042 |
1132 |
1159 |
1207 |