p. 13 | Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 1. (1/7/1904)

Earlier text: The Work With “Christ’s Object Lessons”

Interesting Facts and Incidents

By A. SMITH

A. SMITH

It is a most interesting fact in our national history that the very first Congress of the United States performed the duties of a Bible society long before such an institution had an existence. In 1777, one year after the Declaration of American Independence, Congress appointed a committee on the subject of printing an edition of thirty thousand Bibles for the use of the people, our entire population then amounting to only three millions. Finding it difficult to procure the necessary material,—paper, type, etc.,—this committee recommended the importation of twenty thousand Bibles; to copy their own language, “The use of the Bible being so universal, and its importance so great.” Congress was advised “to direct the committee on commerce to import at its expense twenty thousand English Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different ports of the States of the Union.” This report was adopted, and the importation ordered.

“In 1781, when an English Bible could not be imported in consequence of the war with Great Britain, the subject of printing the Bible again was considered by Congress. Robert Aitken, of Philadelphia, had published an edition, and that body passed the following resolution:— “‘That the United States, in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudible undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interests of religion; and being satisfied of the care and accuracy of the execution of the work, recommend this edition to the inhabitants of the United States.’”—National Magazine, October, 1854.

The American eagle was just breaking the shell, as it were, of his incubation, and merging into national life, and had not yet developed the instincts that afterward characterized him as a bird of prey; or, as viewed from the standpoint of prophecy, a wild beast. Happy had it been for the nation had the innocence and excellence of early life permeated the physical and mental growth of advancing years. But a change came, slowly evolved, but suddenly manifested.

In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the nation to be Christian, basing the argument upon Roman Catholic premises. Congress having, in its early legislation, recommended the Bible to the citizens of the country, it now became an apparent policy to interpret the Bible in harmony with the avowed character of the nation. Accordingly, in 1892 Congress did assume the prerogative, and by act of that body declared that the first-day sabbath (the legitimate mark of a Catholic nation) to be the Sabbath in the meaning of the fourth precept of the decalogue. In this act the United States government became a false prophet, or teacher of religion upon a false exegesis of the Scriptures.

It is a significant fact, as claimed, that prior to 1892 some of the silver coins of the country (quarters and half dollars) had on one side the impress of a beautiful female head looking toward the west, indicative of progress; and on the reverse side an American eagle. But all coins minted after that date bear on one side a Roman head looking toward the east, or sunrising, and on the other side a Roman eagle. Thus the finger marks of Baal are upon the currency of the nation; and the mark of the beast has become a distinguishing token of his abettor, the two-horned beast of the Western hemisphere. The culminating tragedy can not long be delayed.

A Prayer

By Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer

SAVIOUR, thy love to me is more than life! Away from thy dear arms a constant strife Is waged with self, the world, and sin, And thy sweet peace dwells not within.

O holy love! that must my soul pervade, If like to burnished gold I would be made, And have thy blessed image shine In my poor life, with light divine.

Such would I be, dear Lord, so near to thee, That though thy hand should smite and take from me What now seems dear as life, I'd pray, Help me, “Thy will, not mine,” to say.

And though thou givest what I would not choose, And takest from me what I would not lose, In loving trust I'd say, “’Tis best,” And thus my stricken heart find rest.

Thy rest, how sweet it is! no anxious thought Need e’er disturb the soul by Jesus bought, If only on his breast, each day, Our burdened hearts we calmly lay.

So help me, my dear Lord, to come to thee, And bring my every want and every plea, And kneeling at thy cross, be blest With thy sweet peace and perfect rest.

—Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer, in New York Observer.

Smile Till Rainbows Span It

By Lucy Larcom

If the world's a vale of tears, Smile till rainbows span it! Breathe the love that life endears, Clear from clouds to fan it. Of your gladness lend a gleam Unto souls that shiver; Show them how dark sorrow's stream Blends with hope's bright river. — Lucy Larcom.

Some Objections to Vegetarianism Answered

By A. M. Winegar-Simpson

A. M. WINEGAR-SIMPSON, M. D.

“Vegetarianism does not give strength to the body as does meat, and causes a sensation of weakness.”

The use of flesh foods has become so common among civilized nations that the belief is quite current that meat eating is essential to life and health. Even people of intelligence are met who are surprised to learn that one may maintain superb health on a non-meat diet. It does not seem to be generally known in this country that whole nations exist with scarcely a taste of meat, and that the number of vegetarians in the world exceeds the number of meat eaters; that the peasant classes in many countries, who through choice or necessity subsist almost entirely on the products of the earth, are, as a rule, possessed of a better physique and greater endurance than their “more fortunate” neighbors, who can afford the products of the butcher shop and the cattle ship.

Rye bread, olive-oil, and vegetable soups furnish to the people of Southern Russia what potatoes, buttermilk, and oatmeal furnish to the Irish peasantry, and what oatmeal furnishes to the Scotch highlander,—physical strength and the energy necessary to cope with nature in a more or less inhospitable clime. Lentils furnished the immense muscular energy (they had no steam in those days) which erected Egypt’s vast pyramids.

It does not seem to be generally known that many of the athletic victories of the world, ancient and modern, have been won on a vegetarian diet.

Mr. G. H. Corsan, the champion swimmer of Canada, says that fast swimming tries the extreme limit of man’s physical endurance. To the question, “Is meat a good food to train upon?” he answers, “I say, most decidedly, No.” His diet consists of the natural products of the earth, fruit and nuts, in their natural condition.

Prof. Eustace Miles, of England, the tennis champion of the world, is an enthusiastic vegetarian.

Miller, the champion six-day bicyclist, trained on a vegetarian diet.

These facts alone should convince any one that meat is not necessary to a vigorous life.

“Vegetarianism may furnish muscle, but it does not furnish brains.”

Prominent among the adherents of vegetarianism is Daniel, whose loyalty to principle made him prime minister in two of the world-conquering monarchies. His wisdom, his executive ability, and his faithfulness were acknowledged, even by his enemies.

Cyrus, who led the victorious armies of the conquering Persian monarchy, and afterward administered its affairs as king during the zenith of its glory, was a vegetarian.

“Remenyi, the famous Hungarian violinist, at the advanced age of more than sixty-three years, still had a countenance as fresh as a man of thirty-five or forty, and free from wrinkles or other signs of old age, a fact which he attributed to his vegetarian habits and total abstinence from all liquors and tobacco.

“Edison, the greatest of modern inventors, is practically a vegetarian. Wendell Phillips, the orator and reformer, stated to the writer a few years before his death that he had been a vegetarian for forty years. Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Alcott were vegetarians, as were also Greeley and Dana in their early years.”

“The greatest philosopher of ancient time, Pythagoras, was a most earnest apostle of vegetarian principles.

“Isaac Newton adhered strictly to a vegetable regime while performing the prodigious intellectual work which made his name immortal.”

Professor Newman, of the University of London, who was active, clear-headed, and vigorous at the age of eighty, was a lifelong vegetarian.

Surely these examples are sufficient to refute the statement that “a vegetarian diet does not furnish brains.”

“The world-conquering nations are meat eaters.” “Beef and pork, no less than shot and powder, conquer in the bloody field of battle.”

The world-conquering nations of early time — Persia, Greece, and Rome — carried on their conquests on a simple vegetarian diet. Later on, the use of meat and the indulgence of luxurious habits brought on the degeneracy which resulted in the overthrow of these nations. “The men who bore the Roman eagle over all the known world were vegetarians. The men who made the name of Rome a synonym of tyranny and profligacy were flesh-eaters.”

“The American soldier has never entered into battle without the conviction that he was fighting for liberty. This constitutes his resemblance to the greatest soldiers of whom history gives us knowledge. The three hundred of Leonidas, the heroes of Marathon, the Ironsides of Cromwell, the ragged Continentals of Washington, the men of Gettysburg and Appomattox, the heroes of San Juan, and the burghers of South Africa are military kinsmen, because of their love of liberty rather than because of the quality of the provender that filled their stomachs.” Prof. William Lawrence says, “Vegetable diet is as little connected with weakness and cowardice as animal diet is with physical force and courage.”

Still we are willing to admit that, other things being equal, meat tends to make an animal or a man ferocious.

We are not prepared to deny that in every mob, whether for the purpose of compelling non-union laborers to quit work, or for the purpose of lynching negroes, the vegetarian is conspicuous by his absence.

We are not prepared to deny that vegetarians are not found among the cut-throats and other degenerates who live by crime.

We are not prepared to deny that butchers are ruled out of juries as unfitted to try a murder case.

We are not prepared to deny that anarchists whose religion consists in the subversion of government and the slaughter of rulers are invariably meat eaters.

“Vegetarianism necessitates the use of an excess of carbonaceous food in order to get sufficient nitrogen.”

This question may be briefly answered by asking one or two other questions. Where does the cow get sufficient nitrogen for her own body in addition to that which she stores up in milk for human consumption? Where does the hen get sufficient nitrogen for her tissues, besides storing up an immense quantity in eggs? The answer will probably be made that the hen and the cow have digestive apparatus especially adapted to extracting nitrogen from the vegetable kingdom.

But this is to admit that these creatures are able to eat sufficient plant food to much more than supply the nitrogen needed for the building of tissue. So, if man can not get sufficient nitrogen from plant food, the fault is in his digestive capacity, and not in the chemical composition of vegetable foods.

But man’s digestive apparatus is almost the counterpart of the anthropoid apes, who secure sufficient nitrogen from nuts and fruits.

Personal experience also furnishes an ample reply to this objection made on theoretical grounds. The vegetarians of splendid physique and great endurance, and those of brilliant intellect, all testify that the nitrogen is not lacking in their diet, and that their digestive systems have not been disordered by too bulky food.

We are free to admit that many people adopting a vegetarian diet do it unwisely, selecting too large a proportion of carbohydrate food instead of securing a fair proportion of foods rich in nitrogen, such as the nuts and legumes. Such may suffer from mal-nutrition, and from dilated stomachs, fermentation, and other dyspeptic symptoms.

Be Patient

Be patient When trials have clouded your day; Be patient When sorrows have saddened your way; Be patient, Though hopes have departed, though fortune has fled, Though storms have extinguished the stars overhead, Though life with its grief bids you long for the dead; Be patient, He understands all.

Be patient, Whatever the task he may set; Be patient, Remember he can not forget; Be patient, The day may be long, and the night may be drear, Your heart all bereft of its sunshine and cheer: Still, still in thy sorrow his love will appear; Be patient, he understands all.

Be patient, Thy God hath a star for thy night; Be patient, The end of all darkness is light; Be patient, Thy griefs, though their purpose be hid from thine eyes, Shall yet be revealed in the bliss of the skies When thou in his likeness at length shall arise. Be patient, he understands all.

— United Presbyterian.

California String Beans

THE largest string beans in the world may be seen growing in the gardens of Charles Richardson, in Pasadena, Cal. They range from thirty to forty-three inches in length, and average half an inch in width. They are not only enormously large, but they make a delightful table delicacy when cut and stewed and prepared with cream and butter. The commercial gardener would find them a most profitable production; for the vines bear profusely, and the beans are so large that one of them is more than a single person can comfortably manage.

These beans are of an aristocratic species, and do not claim alliance with the common string bean. California botanists class them as belonging to the genus Dolichos, but owing to their great length they are more popularly known as “yard beans.” The plants are natives of China and Japan, and the seeds were sent to Mr. Richardson from Japan.

Early in the spring he planted them in a well-spaded, well-fertilized trench, and put up a trellis seventeen feet in height to support the vines. The seeds sprouted quickly, and the plants began to grow with a vengeance. They climbed to the tops of the poles, and then turned around and began to grow backward. They are now twenty-five feet in length, and are still growing. The row is thirty feet long, contains fifty vines, and it has been estimated that the crop amounts to ten thousand yards of beans. The beans grow in clusters, and can be easily and quickly gathered. The fragrant lavender blossoms resemble those of the sweet pea. They are peculiar in their habits, living but for a day, opening with the sun, and dropping their petals when the sun goes down. The leaves are long and wide, and grow in clusters of three. The vines are very clean and attractive, and would be decidedly ornamental in any summer garden for either fence or trellis covering. The beans are best for eating when about twenty inches long. In flavor they excel that of the ordinary string bean.—Scientific American.

Circumstances Affecting Digestion

Reflex Disturbances

LONG hours at school, or other occupations involving close work, poor light, small type, poor printing, and eye defects, such as far sight, astigmatism, and muscular insufficiency, may result at first, not in headache, pain about the eyes, or disturbances of vision, but in dyspeptic symptoms; and physicians and friends of the patient, not discerning the cause, may attempt all sorts of dietetic experiments, and wear out the various forms of treatment for stomach disorder without producing any noticeable alleviation of the symptoms. Nothing is more firmly settled in medicine than that disturbance of the nervous equilibrium, however brought about, is often an important cause of disordered digestion; and often the first intimation of trouble comes from the stomach, rather than from the organ where the mischief originated.

In the July number reference was made to the evil effect of modern school life on children's eyes. Many cases of obscure stomach trouble can be traced to this cause. But the eyes should not be made a scapegoat for dietary errors, as is often done. A child can not stuff with candy, pastries, pickles, and other abominations, eat at all hours of the day, and otherwise violate natural law, and then escape digestive disturbance by being fitted with glasses. Some oculists (and they are apt to be men who stepped from the medical college into their specialty without a previous all-round experience in general practise) see in every dyspeptic a case of eye strain which must be fitted with glasses or have the eye muscles cut in order to obtain a cure. One writer on hygiene goes so far as to say, “Eye strain may be lessened or obviated by the wearing of spectacles that are made accurately and adjusted precisely; or by attending to the direction in which light enters the room, or, perhaps, by prohibiting the use of books printed with small, illegible type. Observance of these precautions may render it unnecessary to give special attention to his diet.” This is right if due emphasis be placed on the last may, for there are few cases in which the digestive function gives way as the result of eye strain or other reflex cause, where the diet is a matter of indifference.

In nearly all these cases it will be found an advantage also to place the patient on a more rational diet. That is to say, while eye strain or reflex from some other irritated organ may be an important cause of stomach difficulty, it is probably not the only cause in most cases; and though it may not be possible to effect a cure while overlooking the eye trouble or other reflex cause, the relief of these will not be sufficient, in themselves, to secure good digestion, without paying proper attention to the food and the manner of eating.—Pacific Health Journal.

Insanity Increasing in England

The annual report of the English Lunacy Commissioners shows an enormous increase in madness in England and in Wales. In 1859 the number of insane was 36,762, or one in five hundred and thirty-six of the population. There has been a steady increase from that time up to Jan. 1, 1903, when the number of insane was 113,964, or one in every two hundred and ninety-three of the population. The rate of increase since 1894 has been especially notable, the gain being from 92,067.

There was never such an increase in the number of insane as in the year ended Dec. 31, 1902, the increase over the previous year being 3,251. The number of persons who lost their minds in 1902 alone was 22,581, or almost five hundred a week. The increase was found almost entirely among pauper lunatics. The proportion of lunatics privately cared for to the population is about the same now as it was in 1859, whereas the pauper proportion is twice as high.

A carefully compiled table explains as far as possible the causes of lunacy. The list is headed by drink, to which 23 per cent of male and 9.6 per cent of female cases of insanity is ascribed.

Heredity accounts for the greatest number of women lunatics, the proportion being the high one of 24.6 per cent. In the case of men heredity accounts for 18.8 per cent of insanity. Previous attacks come next, with 23.1 per cent of women and 16.2 per cent of men. In cases of unknown causes men come first, with 17 per cent, and women follow with 15.4 per cent.

The general impression that the increase of lunacy is due to the mental wear and tear of modern life is not supported by the figures. Adverse circumstances, including business anxieties and pecuniary difficulties, account for the lunacy of 6.2 per cent of the men and 3.8 per cent of the women; mental anxiety, worry, and overwork, 5.7 per cent of the men and 5.9 per cent of women; love affairs, one in two hundred of men and three in two hundred of women. There is about the same proportion of insanity through fright and nervous shocks.

According to the figures of the commissioners, physical rather than direct mental causes are responsible for the great increase in insanity. One case in three can be traced to some disease or disorder.

One fourth of all those admitted to the asylums are found to have suicidal tendencies. Lunacy is increasing more in the country than in the cities. In Hereford and Exeter there is a higher percentage than in London, yet the average increase of insanity in the capital has attained the enormous figure of five hundred.—Current Literature.

A Review of the Field

By William Ambrose Spicer

W. A. SPICER

It has been a year of great blessing in the regions beyond. The growth in the mission fields, which has been large in comparison with the labor and the means expended, is plainly a signal to us that the way is all prepared for a quick work in the earth. The finger of Providence points toward the unworked fields, such as our own South and the populous continents over the sea. The blessings of this prayer season that must result in more earnest service at our own doors, must also press upon our hearts more heavily the burden of definite prayer and of giving for the regions beyond. A merely blessed time for ourselves alone would turn to a curse. It is a glorious thing to be alive and in this truth to-day; but it is an awful thing as well. There is a world to be warned. There is no use in merely talking. It is for us to rise up in the strength of God and do the work.

Now for a hasty glance over the field—the world that God still loves.

Europe

The work in Europe is forging ahead marvelously. In the first six months of this year they added a thousand souls to their membership. Yet that mighty field is so slenderly manned. We have fallen short by thousands of supplying the means our brethren expected to receive. They called for very little, too, compared with the magnitude and importance of their work. Think of it: they have sixty ordained ministers for five hundred millions within the territory of the European General Conference. It is as though we had only ten ministers in all America, posted from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Yet how the truth has gone! Europe shakes with the tread of armed men. There are thirty nationalities, with thirty languages to be reached. The conditions are often such that we in this land would think ourselves shut up indeed if we had to work under similar restrictions. But the message grandly wins its way. Compared with growth in our home field, the record is wonderful. Europe cut its needs down to the barest, and asked for twenty-seven thousand dollars for the current year.

The Mission Board later had to warn our brethren to count on no more than twenty thousand dollars from the Mission treasury. We are sure to fall several thousands below this mark unless God rolls the burden upon hearts to help in a special way. We owe it to that great field to rally to the help of our brethren with a mighty effort, so that once again and finally the reformation truth may flash over populous Europe. Already fruit appears in Spain, only just entered by us. As soon as we enter, the Lord leads souls to embrace the truth. The message is being preached in Rome also. But think of the situation,—one minister to eight and a quarter millions of people judgment bound,—and carry a burden of prayer for the unwarned millions of Europe.

Africa

A great missionary conference was once gathered in London. There came to it a message flashed thousands of leagues under the sea by a missionary bishop of Africa, bearing the words, “Africa Waiting.” The simple message thrilled to action as no multiplied words could have done. It is the same message that heaven signals to us from Africa; for it is God’s providence alone that has opened up that vast field just at this time, made known to us its needs, and given us a foothold there.

“They are waiting in the wild, Sick and weary and defiled, And the Saviour’s healing word They have never, never heard; Ever hungry and unfed, Left without the living Bread— Waiting! Waiting!”

Native kings have been waiting, inviting us to open up stations in their countries. Workers have been ready to go. But, friends, we have had to wait because there was no money to send the workers. The Mission Board had to cable the message to our brethren in Africa, “Postpone all new missions.” There is a brighter outlook for a strong work in South Africa than ever before. The cause is advancing on a sound basis in the colonies, and in the native missions it has been a year of distinct advance. From the new stations in Gwelo, Rhodesia, and Cholo, Nyassaland, the light is shining out. There is no romance about African missions. One worker has been forced to turn back from the Gold Coast by deadly climate, and the last word from Matabeleland, at this writing, is that friendly natives are warning our workers to get their wives and families into Buluwayo, as there is preparation on foot for a native rising. Yet, from the Cape to Cairo, Africa’s millions are waiting for the advent message. Our ministerial force in Africa numbers one minister to twenty millions of people. It is as though we had four ordained ministers in all the United States. Ought we not to make possible a better showing than that? Now the brethren at the Cape are calling specifically for one experienced preacher, a male teacher, and a lady teacher. We have to write that funds must increase ere it will be possible to send the workers, though support is ready for them in the field.

Africa is waiting, but it will cost sacrifice to respond. Yet think of the bright story of sacrifice in the opening of Africa,—of Livingstone, dying upon his knees at Ilala, praying for the land that he loved; of Hannington, laying down his life at the assassin’s feet, in order that the way into Uganda might be opened; of Wilmott Brooke, dying at the gates of Hausaland, the only missionary among thirty millions, and crying out, “The people are too many for me.”

Think of the martyr native lads of Uganda, only a few years ago burned at the stake for the word of God, singing amid smoke and flame as long as tongue could frame the words:— “Daily, daily, sing for Jesus, Sing, my soul, his praises due.”

There is no time to catalogue the precious gifts poured out to prepare the way for this final message in the great Dark Continent. It has cost something to purchase our opportunities for doing a quick work. Yes, and think of our own dear comrades who have laid down their lives in our short campaign for Africa. Can we expect the “Well done” at last unless now we are ready to do valiantly, to make sacrifices to help in pressing the battle of the Lord in Africa?

Asia

And here is Asia. Encouraging reports have come from India and Burma the past year. Early in the year several workers were added to the little force surrounded by three hundred millions. In China the Lord has wrought for us in a special manner. A native church is being built up in the interior, and converts are preaching the coming of the Lord in the regions round about. How can we forget that woman who put a sign over her door, “May the great truth come to this door”? And God brought our missionary to that door with the great truth—to that very door, among all the many, many millions of China. And we can understand this woman’s feelings when she lovingly stroked the New Testament presented to her to be her very own. Let this one case stand for multitudes waiting for us among the millions of Asia, where half the world lies in darkness. Japan has a little sanitarium started, and native workers are being trained for service. Counting the two medical workers just entering China as ordained ministers, we have in Asia one minister to each one hundred millions of people. It is as though there were one minister alone in all North America. Think of it, and pray for perishing Asia.

South America

South America has been organizing this year, as well as doing aggressive work. Local resources are being developed, and more is being done with the help sent from America. Some remarkable experiences have come to the field, a foretaste of the quick work under the latter rain. Yet we are saying “No” to all calls now from South America, the same as to all the wide world that calls for help. We are saying that new work can not be undertaken until the flow of means increases yet more. We are calling on our workers in the needy fields abroad to join in praying God to send forth the laborers and to supply the means. The Southern field has made steady progress, adding souls to the church, yet working with but a part of the appropriation expected from the Mission treasury. They have needed all that was hoped to grant them. They have a splendid field almost untouched, with thriving cities and communities, and the great colored population, whose speedy evangelization is a special legacy left to all our churches and conferences.

Do we speak too much of financial needs? It is impossible to do so. There is a world to be warned, and God has ordained that consecrated means shall be a weapon in the holy warfare. It is the ammunition, the powder and shot, for the battle. No people complain that their soldiers at the front keep calling for ammunition. Forge and factory and arsenal run day and night, if need be, to keep the ranks supplied. Brethren and sisters, our comrades at the front are out of ammunition. We must send more regular supplies, and keep a steady march of reinforcements moving to the fields. Success calls for advance. There must be a determined and steady pushing forward of our campaign. It is not too much, surely, for us to say that while we pray, we will hold subject to God’s call to-day every resource that we command. Is it too much to give dollars to this work? Ask some worker in the heat of the tropics who sees wife and children growing thin and pale, if he thinks it a great sacrifice to give merely dollars to this work.

Speak to that sister just returned for a short rest from one of the fields, leaving a husband in an island grave, and ask her if it is a hard thing to think of giving merely dollars for the love of Jesus and the carrying of this message to the world. Go to that aged mother in Israel to whom we sent word of the death of her only son in a far-away land, and ask her bowed heart if giving money for missions seems a hard thing to do. Why, we must give our lives and our all to this work.

It can be done so quickly just as soon as all the ranks rise up in the power of God and say, By his grace it shall be done. Just as soon as unbelief was shaken from Gideon’s army, and a band of men surrounded the field of battle whose hearts were ready to venture all, God gave the victory. They had but to show the light and give the shout of triumph. Now we must press out the line of advance until it surrounds the world, and witnesses are ready to show the light in every land. Then how quickly all can be finished, as the Spirit of God allows the crisis to come. What can we do but throw ourselves into this work with no reserve? The time has come for the witness to be borne. There is a solemn tone in the words of the Testimonies that have come of late. It is a tone that the ear of faith must hear ringing out the knell of the world’s end, and the call to the final work of witnessing. “Day by day,” says a recent Testimony, “I am impressed by the Holy Spirit that the very last messages of warning are now to be given to our people.” The day is at hand. The ranks must be aroused. We must speed through every land with the warning cry, and when this gospel of the kingdom has been preached as a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.

The Summer’s Work in Iceland

By Guy Dail

GUY DAIL

It may be remembered that last year one of our Scandinavian brethren went to assist Elder D. Ostlund, in Iceland, expecting to give special attention to the work of scattering literature there. The following selection from his letter written in Reykjavik, October 19, will, perhaps, be of interest to our people. After expressing his joy over the progress the work is making in Europe, he says:—

“With reference to the language, I would state that while I can understand the people, and they can understand me, yet Icelandic is such a perfect tongue that it needs not a little study to learn it. I can read Icelandic books; but as we have our literature to circulate, I prefer to be out among the people, taking subscriptions for our paper, and selling our books; and my time being taken up largely in this manner, I have not given much attention to mastering the niceties of the language. It is very fortunate that Brother Ostlund has so thoroughly learned Icelandic, as it is necessary for us to have publications in this field, and he can now easily prepare these.”

“From January to August I did much house-to-house work, in taking our paper and books from place to place. During that time I took seven hundred and thirty-eight subscriptions for our paper. In some parts of the island, I found the work very difficult. The houses are often from six to eight English miles apart, and I had to climb high mountains, and descend into deep valleys, and cross many swift-running streams that are unprovided with bridges. As a general thing, the people cross these rivers on horseback, but I have not had a horse, and seldom have borrowed one. The water is very cold, but I have often had to wade these mountain torrents. However, I am glad that thus far my health has been preserved, notwithstanding all this exposure. In some places the people were at first much afraid, as they

seldom see a stranger; but after they learned that there was no reason to be frightened, they treated me kindly and hospitably, asking me to eat and drink with them.”

“I am glad a beginning has been made here. The work is not easy. The people of the city are less willing to buy than those in the country, as they do not like to take time to examine the books. The Lord has blessed me very much. Brother Ostlund is working very hard. The people read the literature they buy, so we hope the seed sown is on good ground, and will spring up in due time. Pray for us.”

A letter from Brother Ostlund, written November 1, is also at hand. He says:—

“Our work in Iceland is not yet completed, and I shall rejoice to stay here as long as there is any need of my services in this field. Brother Andersson is a great help to me. He is a very diligent worker. I saw him in Reykjavik recently, and we had a few days’ council with reference to the work in Iceland. We now plan to get out a new book—that part of the ‘Prophecies of Jesus’ which treats of the Revelation. We hope this may be ready by spring. Our paper, Frækorn, will probably reach an edition of twenty-five hundred monthly, next year.”

“Since I left Reykjavik two years ago, two thousand men have moved into that city, and its population is constantly increasing, while the inhabitants of this place [Seydisfjord] are moving away; so it is now our plan to move back to Reykjavik in March.”

Thus goes the work in that far-off land; surely we should often remember the work and the workers before God in prayer.

Hamburg, Germany.

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