I WITNESSED yesterday from my Parisian balcony a sad case of a persecuted victim and of the tyranny of one in whose hands was apparently absolute, irresponsible power. The victim was a woman, and therefore worthy of some forbearance and pity, but there was no pity in the heart of the tyrant. And why?—That tyrant was a minute child who had learned the power of her own screams. The scene lasted so long that it seemed as if there would be no end to it. First the woman would take the child's hand and gently try to draw her along. Instantly the roars would break forth and fill the street, and the woman, either her mother or a governess, would meekly drop the hand, and the child, accepting the implied apology, would cease roaring. This was repeated over and over again. The passers-by every now and then stopped, and apparently tried to mediate between tyrant and victim. One woman went down on her knees and seemed to plead for some time. In vain. One lady, in passing, gave the child a poke with her umbrella, whether in wrath or in jest I do not know. Then a gentleman tried his powers of blandishment and persuasion. Still the child refused to stir. I think finally the matter was settled by bribery, for after some talk the child suddenly took the woman's hand and walked off as amiably as possible.
It is such scenes as these that you have before you, mammas and papas, of babies, if you are letting those babies, great or small, see that you are afraid to have them cry. Once give up to a child because it cries, and it will try again the recipe for getting its own way. Once let it get the habit of using the formidable weapon of lung power, and you are enslaved. There is no more helpless mortal on the face of the earth than a parent who must give up, for fear a child will scream. The child knows it, and "knowledge is power." The youngest babies are knowing enough to discover their power in this way. Mine discovered it when he was too young to move when I laid him on a sofa. He noticed that the servant was afraid of his slightest squeak. I was not. Consequently he bullied her, and was a model baby with me. By the time he was twenty months old, his behavior in this way was simply ludicrous.
Now and then a parent is absolutely obliged to be conquered by a screaming fit in public. A friend of mine was thus conquered, but a whipping, administered the moment the little rebel reached home, gave her a hint that she must not again attempt to manage her mother by lung power in a city street.
Some such penalty ought certainly to follow any such triumph on the part of a child who has thus temporarily conquered a parent, to take away the desire for future triumphs of the same description. Fortunately, a child who does not have such triumphs in the privacy of home, does not generally indulge its parents in such scenes in public as I witnessed yesterday under my windows.—Babyhood.
THE BOY AND HIS FATHER.
MANY men do not discover the true relation of father and son until it is too late to save the boy. But some who have been neglectful take warning in time, and apply that "love that covereth a multitude of sins"—in the boy. Not long ago a gentleman related his experience to me, as follows:—
"Once a friend said to me, 'Do you know that your boy is reading bad books?' I said, 'No, I don't believe any such thing.' My friend said, 'Perhaps you would better investigate.' I was inclined to treat the whole matter with contempt, for I did not think it possible for my boy to be reading bad books without my knowing it. Finally, however, I decided that common sense was better than pride, and that I would investigate. So I went to my boy's room, looked over his belongings, and at last, under the mattress, found the books. I put them back where I found them, and hunted up the boy. I said to him, 'My boy, what kind of books are those you have been reading lately?' He was taken by surprise, and did not know just what to say. So I said to him, 'I would like to see the books; I've made up my mind to read the same books that you do.' Finally he stammered out, 'Papa, I don't think you would like those books very well.' I said: 'I would like to look at them. I want your opinion of them.'
"That threw him into a very peculiar state of mind, but we went up to the room and he brought out the books. We sat down side by side; I put my arm around him, and as we turned the pages of the books I said to him, 'Well, what do you think of that?' as we looked at the pictures and I read here and there a sentence. His only reply was, 'Well, papa, I guess it isn't very good.' Then I said to him, 'Lay the books aside, and this evening762let us come up and read together; I have something I want to read to you.'
"My boy was delighted. The evening came, and we went to his room. I placed the lamp beside the bed and lay down where he had lain to read his book. I read to him a story; but before I had finished, he had crawled up and was leaning on my side. Then I read him a story with illustrations from Science. When I stopped, he laid his head on my shoulder, put his arms around me, and said, 'Papa, why can't I have such reading as that?' As soon as I could control myself—for he had shown me that I was the sinner—I said, 'My boy, you shall have all you want; let us go downstairs.' I led the way right down to the stock I had laid in, and put out my books and papers before him. He looked at them a moment, then picked them up and fairly hugged them. We soon decided what to do with the bad books; we took them out in the back yard and burned them.
"Then and there my boy and I started out on a new career. When I can I spend the evening with him; one reads and the other listens. Henceforth my boy and I are going to be confidential friends, even if it takes a little time from business."
That father discovered some very important and valuable secrets. Would that others would set about the same work. Usually when the Christian teacher approaches the wayward boy or young man, he finds the boy's father—by his neglect, or wrong example, or both—standing between him and the boy. Quite frequently the father is a professing Christian, and his influence decides the boy's case against religious influence. The question is often asked, Why does not the church reach the boys? and it usually suggests the still more perplexing question, How can we reach the fathers, and through them the boys?
The gentleman referred to above said: 'I believe God has forgiven my sinful neglect of my boy; henceforth my service of God will include a loving and watchful care over the precious soul he has committed to me.'—Michigan Christian Advocate.
MEMORIES.
By Rosa A. Young
BY ROSA A. YOUNG.
I sit in the fast-deep'ning twilight
When the work of the long day is done,
And there comes to my mind's inner vision
The faces of loved ones now gone.
We traveled life's pathway together,
Shared often its pleasures and pain,
But now they are silently sleeping;
We hear not their voices again.
We miss the bright smiles that would greet us,
The words of good counsel and cheer,
The hands that had oft eased life's burdens,
The burdens of toil and of care.
The places that once had beheld them
Shall see them forever no more,
And we, ah, we can but look forward
To meet them on heaven's blest shore!
Oh, sorely our saddened hearts miss them,
The parents, the kindred so dear,
And as some dear memory comes to us,
Would glisten the warm, silent tear!
The home, oh, how empty without them!
Their works, silent witnesses, stand
To remind us that earth joys are fleeting,
They pass as the wind o'er the land.
The cold, vanished hands, they are resting,
The oft-tired feet are at rest,
But soon, from their slumbers awaking,
They will soar to the land of the blest.
Night deepens, and out from the darkness
Their voices with mine once again
Seem mingling, as softly we chanted
The measures of this sad refrain,—
"Silently the shades of evening
Gather round my lonely door;
Silently they bring before me,
Faces I shall see no more.
"Oh, the lost, the unforgotten,
Though the world be oft forgot!
Oh, the shrouded and the lonely!
In our hearts they perish not."
Pitcairn Island.
Read the Bravest and Noblest Books
By George S. Phillips
READ only the bravest and noblest books, books forged at the heart and fashioned by the intellect of a godlike man.—George S. Phillips.
THE LEMURS.
By Christian Work
IN Africa and the Asiatic Archipelago these rare fourfooted animals that live in the solitary forests are for the most part creatures of the night. Unlike the lively squirrels and martin cats of temperate regions, they do not leave their hiding places till the tropical darkness has fallen on the forest, when they seek their food, not on the surface of the ground, but, imitating the birds, ascend to the upper surface of the ocean of trees, and at the first approach of dawn seek refuge from the hateful day in the dark recesses of some aged and hollow trunk.
There is nothing like the loris or the lemur in the fauna of temperate Europe. We may rather compare them to a race of aboreal moles, the condition of whose life is darkness and invisibility. But, unlike the moles, the smaller members of these rarely seen tribes are among the most beautiful and interesting creatures of the tropics, though the extreme difficulty of capturing creatures whose whole life is spent on the loftiest forest trees is further increased by the reluctance of the natives to enter the deserted and pathless forests.
The beautiful lemurs, most of whom are found in Madagascar, are further believed by the Malagasy to embody the spirits of their ancestors, and the weird and plaintive cries with which they fill the groves at night, uttered by creatures whose bodies, as they cling to the branches, are invisible, and whose delicate movements are noiseless, may well have left a doubt on the minds of the first discoverers of the island as to whether these were not in truth the cries and wailings of true lemures, the unquiet ghosts of the departed.—
THE PACIFIC OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND ISLANDERS.
By J. E. Caldwell, M. D.
BY J. E. CALDWELL, M. D.
[Medical Missionary to the Islands of the Pacific.]
WE often sing, "There is a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea," with only a slight appreciation of the meaning of the simile. Of the two hundred million of square miles on the surface of the earth, one hundred and fifty million of these are water. One-half of this surface, or seventy-five million square miles, comprise the Pacific Ocean.
If you should mass together all the known continents and islands on the earth in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, you would still have an area of water surface equal to the Atlantic Ocean, and, perhaps, water enough, on account of its greater depth, to make an Indian Ocean besides.
Notwithstanding the vast extent of this immense body of water, and though one might sail for weeks and months upon its billowy bosom in many directions without seeing land, it must not be supposed that the Pacific Ocean presents an unbroken surface of water. Nearly eight thousand islands have been described, with an area, exclusive of Australia (now generally rated as a continent), of one million six hundred thousand square miles, or more than one-half the area of the United States, excluding Alaska. These islands sustain a population of about seventy-five million people, equal to that of the United States and Mexico combined.
Notwithstanding this large population and vast extent of territory, but little is known of these islands and islanders, even by intelligent, reading people. A great many people have crossed the Pacific in steamers which ply regularly from continent to continent, but, stopping only once or twice on the way at coaling stations, they learn but little of the thousands of islands they may pass, some of them only a few miles away.
The greater number of these islands are of volcanic origin, though many are of coral formation. Most of them, especially in the tropics, even though of volcanic origin, are surrounded by coral reefs. In some instances these reefs surround single islands; again, immense reefs, many miles in extent, are found to surround whole groups of islands, furnishing the best of harbors for ships and boats of all kinds, in the very midst of the ocean. The reef around several islands of the Society group furnishes an example of this. Islands of volcanic origin are but the peaks of immense mountains that rise more or less abruptly from the bottom of the ocean, of unknown depth, some of them giving no anchorage763whatever for ships. Pitcairn Island, southeastward from the Paumoto group, may be named as a sample of this type. It is seventy-five miles from the nearest land, and more than three hundred miles from its nearest volcanic neighbors. Being but about one hundred miles outside the southern boundary of the torrid zone, it is an emerald gem in the midst of a wild waste of waters, but difficult to approach for want of good anchorage. The greater number of volcanic islands lie in groups. In its isolation Pitcairn is peculiar.
The volcanic region of the Pacific is circular, or, rather, spiral, forming a chain, or belt, with the Sandwich Islands as the center, or starting point. Here is situated Kilauea, the largest active volcanic crater known. From here you may pass southward to the Society group, thence in a westerly direction through the Friendly Islands, from here farther west and northward through Japan, thence across eastward to the Aleutian Islands, and southward along the western coast of America, and you will not have left the region of the volcanic islands of the Pacific.
Coral reef and islands are found in the Indian Ocean, also among the West Indies, and along the eastern coast of South America; but it remains for the Pacific to furnish the largest number of coral islands known to the world, as well as the widest distribution of reef-building coral polyps.
The insect lives only in tropical waters. More than sixty feet beneath the surface he becomes inactive, and when one hundred and eighty feet deep he dies. In view of this fact, the existence of islands resting on coral foundations more than a thousand feet below the surface, was quite inexplicable for a long time. Finally, after it became known that some portions of the sea are constantly settling, while other portions are rising (this is known to be true of land surface as well as of ocean bed), Professor Darwin suggested that these deep coral formations must have begun long ago, when the foundations, now deep, were near the surface. Gradually these areas must have subsided, while, at about the same rate, the polyps built their rocky foundations higher and higher, until lofty mountains of coral were formed under the surface of the water. In this manner atolls must have been formed. Atolls are circular coral islands, the circles, or bands, sometimes broken on the side opposite the direction of the prevailing winds. In the production of an atoll the coral formation is begun as a fringing reef around an island. Gradually the island sinks lower and lower, the coral reef being built up at about the same rate. Finally the island is entirely submerged, and the reef is left a circular island with a lagoon in the center where the island formerly stood, always quiet as a mill pond, though outside the waves might dash and roar as they would. The Paumoto Islands (or Low Archipelago, as they are called to distinguish them from the higher, volcanic islands) are mostly of coral formation, abounding in atolls. They lie between the Society Islands and Pitcairn, above mentioned. Blue mud, largely formed of scoria from volcanoes and pieces of broken coral more or less ground up by the action of the waves, forms a great portion of the bed of the Pacific Ocean.
The deepest sounding ever made, in which a specimen of the bottom was brought to the surface, was by H. M. S. Challenger, from the channel between the Caroline and Ladrone Islands. The bottom there was found to be volcanic. The depth was 4,475 fathoms, or a little more than five miles. The immense weight of water gave a pressure of five tons to the square inch, while the temperature at that depth was 33.9° Fahr.
The Tuscarora, a United States ship, while making soundings off the mouth of Okhotsk Sea, found bottom at 4,600 fathoms, or about five and one-fourth miles.
The above figures justify the following language, found in the "Encyclopedia Britannica:" "For a long time the opinion that the Pacific was a comparatively shallow ocean was entertained by geographers, and it is only the recent soundings of the Challenger, Tuscarora, Gazelle, and other surveying ships, that have succeeded in dispelling the illusion. It is now known that the average depth of the Pacific is greater than that of the Atlantic, and that areas of deeper water occur in it than in any other part of the globe."
WE KNOW NOT HIS TIME.
By New York Observer
Nor one upon this floating ball can say,
The task which God gave me will all be done
To-day, and I can rest at set of sun.
It is not given to man to know the day
In which he may his work completed lay
Before the King. Full oft but just begun
Life seems to us when suddenly the race is won,
The victor crowned. Palm branches shade the way
With shadow dark, as if they were graveyard yew—
It seems defeat when it is victory,
For we know not when we've attained our best.
When task is done assigned to each to do,
When utmost limit of our power to be
Is reached, know not his time to give us rest.
—New York Observer.
New Mercies, New Returns of Praise
New mercies for new returns of praise, and then these new returns will fetch in new mercies. If the end of one mercy were not the beginning of another, we were undone.—Henry.
Learning and the Scanderbeg Sword
"LEARNING is like Scanderbeg's sword, either good or bad, according to him that hath it; an excellent weapon if well used, otherwise like a sharp razor in the hand of a child."
UNFERMENTED WINE AT THE LORD'S SUPPER.
By Editor
WE have several times called attention to the fact that the wine used at the Passover feast was unfermented and the bread unleavened, because no leaven, or ferment (processes of decay), was permitted by the Levitical law. See Ex. 12:15, 19; Deut. 16:4. Neither is the liquid then used called wine, but "cup" and "fruit of the vine." The following letter from B. Lomas, of Texas, to the N. Y. Voice on this point may be of interest to our readers:—
"In a recent issue you draw attention to the fact that the Coptic Church of Egypt uses unfermented wine for sacramental purposes, regarding this as one of the historical evidences that unfermented wine was used in the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and you conclude by saying:—
"And yet we are confronted by an imposing array of biblical scholars, including the learned editors of the Independent and the Sunday School Times, who solemnly assure us that Christ knew nothing whatever of unfermented wine, and that the idea that there were two kinds of wine in his day is absurd.
"There need be no question or difficulty as to what Christ used in the institution of that last Supper. He and his disciples, as consistent Israelites, obeyed the requirements of the Mosaic law with regard to the Passover. By carefully reading what was required in the preparation for and keeping that festival (Exodus 12) we do not need the help of reverend doctors or learned editors. The whole thing can be summed up in one single statement, very easily understood,—nothing leavened—fermented—was permitted there, and the heaviest penalty known was incurred for using anything leavened at that sacred memorial feast; that to use drink was optional—the word 'eat' implying both to eat and to drink—but a seven-day festival rendered drink a necessity, and what that drink was to be was left to the force of circumstances and common sense. Only in one thing it was absolute,—it could not be leavened.
"Now at the Passover, when Christ instituted his Supper, they had a cup and used some kind of liquid which he called 'this fruit of the vine.' It is a very peculiar fact that unleavened grape juice bears a singular resemblance to blood. Dr. B. W. Richardson says:—
"The constituent parts actually of blood and of the expressed wine are analogous. One of the most important elements of the blood, that which keeps it together, that which Plato spoke of as 'the plastic part of the blood,' is the fibrin, and is represented in the gluten of the unfermented wine.
"The nourishing part of the blood, which we call the mother of the tissues, we find in the unfermented grape, in the albumen; and that is also present in the blood, the proportion being nearly the same in both. Really, on a question of symbolism, if there be anything at all in that, the argument is all in favor of unfermented wine. Whatever is meant by 'this fruit of the vine,' one thing is absolutely certain, it was not fermented—leavened."
ENGLISH THE MISSIONARY LANGUAGE.
WHATEVER languages may be necessary for missionary work in special localities, the one language for all the world is English. Be sure to get a good knowledge of English; the better your English the better you are prepared for acquiring any other tongue that may become necessary. A good illustration of the utility of English is thus given in Christian Work:—
"The English language is to become the missionary language of the globe. The fact that at the recent National Congress in India all the speeches and proceedings were in English is a striking illustration of the wide diffusion of that tongue. There were gathered at Madras seven hundred delegates, from all parts of India, Afghanistan, Nepaul, and Scinde. They spoke nine different languages, and the English was the only medium through which the proceedings could be satisfactorily conducted. Great Britain's colonial enterprises have been probably the largest factor in spreading a knowledge of English. It is also found that in countries like Java, where Great Britain has no control, the knowledge of English is steadily growing."
Jottings from the Pacific, Fiji and Samoa
By Editor
This small volume presents a series of pictures of life in the Fijian and Samoan Islands of the South Pacific. They are most interesting and graphic, and convey a large amount of information respecting these islands—their history, their geography and scenery, their products, the character and customs of the people, their evangelization by missionaries, and many other things. During the past year the attention of the world has been attracted toward Samoa by the political troubles there between its rival kings; and this pleasant volume will meet the public interest thus created, with its vivid and entertaining sketches. It is attractively illustrated.—The Lutheran Observer.
"Jottings from the Pacific, Fiji and Samoa," by Emma H. Adams, is included among the volumes of a Young People’s Library series; but we do not see any reason why the parents of young people may not join in a careful perusal of this special issue. It contains a pleasing record of observations and incidents in the Fijian and Samoan Islands; and one enjoys what is written all the more because of the simplicity and directness of the author-narrator’s style. It occurs to us that a missionary society meeting could be made doubly interesting by the reading aloud of many passages from this book.—The Interior.
This book is one volume of the Young People’s Library series. It contains 160 pages, is fully illustrated, and will be sent postpaid for 60 cents. Send for circular giving complete list of books published in the Library, with press notices and description of each book. Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUB. CO., OAKLAND, CAL., OR 43 BOND ST., N. Y.
The history of many of the interesting island groups of the Pacific are comparatively unknown to ordinary readers except through the writings of missionaries. When international complications arise, as a year ago at Samoa, or, more lately, at Ponape, so little is known of the locality or the people that it is like showing pictures to the blind. This little volume gives something of the history of the Tongas, the Hervey group, and the Marquesas Islands, before they were visited by the missionaries, and indeed were hardly known to the first navigators of those seas. The habits of the people, their government, the vegetable wonders on shore, and the great wonders of the sea about them, are graphically told in a manner that cannot fail to entertain and instruct young readers.—The Christian Cynosure.
This is the second in a series of "Jottings from the Pacific." The author has produced a series of picturesque, descriptive articles written from a missionary point of view and tending to excite interest in these Pacific islands and people, to show how promising the field is for evangelical work, what has been done, and what may be done.—The Independent.
This book is one volume of the Young People’s Library series. It contains 160 pages, is fully illustrated, and will be sent postpaid for 60 cents. Send for circular giving complete list of books published in the Library, with press notices and description of each book. Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUB. CO., OAKLAND, CAL., OR 43 BOND ST., N. Y.
Cleveland Bicycles,
STODDARD & LEE,
306 McAllister St., San Francisco, Cal.
STEPS TO CHRIST. The Pacific Press Publishing Co., Oakland, Cal., have received an entirely new stock of the latest edition of that excellent book entitled "Steps to Christ," by Mrs. E. G. White. The price, postpaid, is only 75 cents. Address as above.
Preparation for What Comes Next
"WHAT God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about. Everything he gives you to do, you must do as well as you can, and that is the best possible preparation for what he may want you to do next. If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what came next."
Deserving Without Praise
"It is better to be well deserving without praise than to live by the air of undeserved commendation."
MISSIONARIES FROM NORTH CHINA.
The San Francisco Examiner of September 22 contained the following interesting item:—
Rev. Paul D. Bergen and wife, missionaries of the Presbyterian Church at Chinanfu, a city of 200,000 people in North China, 300 miles from Pekin, are at the Russ House. They have been in China nine years.
Mr. Bergen says the Chinese do everything in a primitive way. They have a telegraph line, but it is seldom used even to transmit important information. The officials and others prefer the old way of sending by messengers. These are Manchuria horsemen, who make by relays about 100 miles a day on stout ponies of great endurance. The soldiers are armed with old-fashioned bows, and the only test for admission as soldiers is a certain skill with these weapons, and an ability to perform certain feats of strength. They are consequently in poor condition for fighting. Still, Mr. Bergen says they are braver than most people suppose.
As for missionary work there Mr. Bergen says that it is in a pretty prosperous condition. "All the Protestant churches which have missionaries there," said he, "have about 10,000 communicants, and fully 50,000 more adherents. Besides these there are about 5,000 Chinese children in the schools. We also have a college in North China, with 100 Chinese students. It gives a complete college course, only the Chinese classics, like Confucius, being substituted for our classics."
MUCH CHARITY NEEDED:
THERE is too much harsh judgment in the air at all times. Perhaps it is growing these last few years. However that may be, harsh judgment will not fit a Christian to do the best work. We must be tender and kind and loving in our thoughts and in our estimates of others. It may be they do not deserve it; it may be there are a thousand seeming reasons why we ought to be otherwise; but, after all, is there anything more like Christ, is there anything that will actually do us so much good, as a heart full of sympathy, full of the tender Christ love for the erring? We do not mean by this a weak sentimentalism, by any means, or underestimating the evil that is in the world, or underestimating the evil deeds of those whom we are called upon to deal with one way or another; but let us be charitable; let us be kind; let us go more than half way; let us err to this one side rather than to the other.
"It was the sympathy and kindness of one Christian worker that put me on my feet. If it had been harshness, it would only have driven me the other way."
He is now not only on his feet, but a prosperous, successful, earnest, working Christian.
A young girl said, "It was the sympathy and kindness in the voice of a Christian lady that saved me and brought me to my senses and showed me what Christ was like."
She is now happy, has a happy and joyous home, with her own children about her.
"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; . . . beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."—Union Gospel News.
FIELD NOTES.
THE brethren at Stanleyton, Va., are erecting a building to be used as a church school.
THE industrial school at Keene, Texas, will be opened November 14, and continue thirty-six weeks.
ELDER C. SANTEE reports the membership of the new church at St. Joseph, Mo., at thirty-five.
SEVENTEEN persons, writes Brother Ketchum, were baptized at the close of the local camp meeting held at Ruthven, Iowa.
AT Nebo, Ark., Elder W. F. Martin and Prof. J. L. Shaw report an accession of twenty adults and a Sabbath school of thirty members.
AT Arbela, Ohio, fourteen have accepted the Sabbath of the Lord, under the labors of Elder O. F. Guilford and Brother Albert Carey.
A PRESS dispatch says that 100 converts were baptized at the close of the recent Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting at Emporia, Kansas.
EIGHT persons were covenanted to obey the commandments of God, in tent meetings held at Viroqua, Wis., by Elder C. A. Smith and Brother R. J. White.
THE interest in meetings being held in Middletown, Del., by Elder S. B. Horton, encourages the hope that a church will be organized there in the near future.
AT Mount Holly, N. J., September 17, there were present more than the tent would hold, to hear Elder S. J. Hersum speak on the subject of "The United States in Prophecy."
THE Bible Echo says: "A letter from Elder J. O. Corliss states that thirteen were baptized at Hobart, Tasmania, August 19. A baptismal service was to be held at Bismarck the next week."
AT the Southern Illinois camp meeting, held at Fairfield last month, sixteen persons were baptized. The work is being continued by a series of tent meetings conducted by Elder H. W. Decker.
THE officers elected by the West Virginia Sabbath School Association for the ensuing year are as follows: President, T. E. Bowen; Vice President, D. N. Merideth; Secretary and Treasurer, M. L. Merideth.
ELDER H. E. ROBINSON, president of the Atlantic Conference, was obliged to flee to his old home in Oswego County, N. Y., on account of an annual attack of hay fever, to which he is subject in his Conference field.
LETTERS from Elder J. E. Graham and others, of the Pitcairn, state that the vessel arrived at Papeete, Tahiti, on the 12th of August, nine days from Pitcairn Island. They intended to remain there until the 20th, and then start for Raiatea. Brother Stringer and wife will settle on Rurutu Island, and Sister Maud Young, of Pitcairn Island, will remain with them.
A LARGE attendance at tent meetings held at Frankton, Ind., is reported by Elder H. M. Steward and Brother J. M. Warwick, notwithstanding active opposition and six adverse discourses by ministers of other churches.
THE steamer Monowai, which arrived at San Francisco on the 29th ult., from Australia, brought Sister May Walling as a passenger. She has been in the employ of Sister E. G. White during her sojourn in the Southern provinces.
ELDER A. G. DANIELLS has been holding quite successful meetings in N. S. W., in the interest of religious liberty. They have become much interested in the subject through the prosecution of Seventh-day observers for laboring on Sunday.
IN connection with the tent meetings held at Cumberland, Wis., by Elder C. W. Olds and Brother J. B. Scott, ten were baptized, increasing the company to twenty. A house of worship is about completed, and there is good prospect of a progressive work.
AT Carrollton, Mich., a building has been purchased to be used as a house of worship for the accommodation of the new converts at that place and Zilwaukee. Thirty have recently taken their stand for truth under the labors of Elder H. C. Basney and J. G. Lamson.
IN the Sanitarium training class at Battle Creek, Mich., says the Review, there are two Japanese, one Maori, a negro from British Guiana, a Syrian from Jerusalem, an Armenian, and a Greek, besides representatives from other European nations and all English-speaking countries.
THE Scandinavian tent in Brooklyn, N. Y., was cut down on the night of September 2, just after the meeting was closed. The captain of police assured Elder Hansen that they should not be troubled any more, and since that time the tent has been well guarded, and an increasing interest is reported.
THERE is always ground somewhere upon which the enemies of truth will unite, no matter how bitterly opposed to each other in general. This fact is often substantiated in connection with the work of our people. The report of Brethren J. P. Lorenz and George Lesch, who have been holding meetings in Reserve, a village near Buffalo, N. Y., says that "ministers who otherwise do not even speak to each other, united their efforts against us." Such reports are quite common.
Of the tent work in Baltimore, Brother A. J. Howard writes as follows to the Union Record, concerning the first Sabbath meeting: "Our tent was well filled—eight adults taking their stand to keep all God's commandments, beside about the same number of children belonging to these persons, who will be members of the Sabbath school. The Lord is wonderfully blessing the work here; our audiences have not been large, but have been very regular and attentive. It has never been our privilege to speak to an audience more intent on catching every word than our present one."
THE MERCY SEAT.
By John Greenleaf Whittier
FOREVER round the mercy seat
The guiding lights of love shall burn;
But what if, habit-bound, thy feet
Shall lack the will to turn?
Oh, doom beyond the saddest guess,
As the long years of God unroll,
To make the dreary selfishness
The prison of the soul!
—John Greenleaf Whittier.
