p. 15 | Review and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 12. (3/23/1911)

Honan, China

By O. A. Hall

Recently Brother Esta Miller and I visited five of the out-stations. We left Thursday, and went by boat all day, sleeping on the boat that night. The next morning we hired a cart drawn by two mules. These carts are very rude concerns, and not the most comfortable to ride in. They have no springs, and are quite small, so when we got our baggage, lunch-baskets, beds, etc., packed in, there was not a great deal of room for us. Our team was not very satisfactory, but after driving all day we reached the first station. We found a place prepared for us in one end of the new chapel built last spring. We were soon supplied with hot water, which is always used in China in abundance. Our supper was eaten with relish, after which we held a meeting with the people who had gathered for the evening service; a large number also came for the purpose of seeing the yang kuei, or “foreign devils.” After the meeting we opened our folding cots, and prepared for the night. This station is fifteen li from the place where we planned to spend the Sabbath, so we got up quite early and started on our long day's journey.

Reaching the next station, we held two meetings in close succession, and ate our dinner, which consisted of food we had taken with us, and hot water given us by our Chinese brethren. We found here that our journey was not yet ended; for there was an urgent invitation to go on eight li farther to visit a company of new Sabbath-keepers. Here another meeting was held, and we were ready for our return trip of twenty li or over to the station from which we had started in the morning, at which place we had left our beds and lunch-baskets. You can imagine that we were ready for a night's rest after the long walk. The next morning we hired two wheelbarrows to take us and our baggage and evangelist on to the next station. Here we found it difficult to secure a cart to take us to the next station we had planned to visit, so we prepared to spend the night. During the night it began to rain. The next morning we succeeded in hiring a cart, and after two days' travel we were again at home.

We enjoyed the trip very much, and have a better idea of affairs in the province than before. At the homes of some of our people we had opportunity to partake of our first meal of genuine Chinese food. When an invitation is extended, it is impossible to escape, even though one may plead that he is not hungry. We found that their food tasted much better than we expected.

The Chinese inns at which one stops consist of a kitchen and dining-room at the front. When guests arrive in their cart, the front door is opened, and they are invited to drive in. They are then shown the room which they are to occupy, and their cart is backed into it. The donkeys are placed in one end of the room and they in the other. The room is furnished with a table and a bench, nothing more, except perhaps a mat or two on the floor, which is bare earth. Here they may spread their beds, and make themselves just as comfortable as they can.

O. A. HALL.

From Wisconsin to New Mexico

By C. McReynolds

LEAVING Grand Rapids, Wis., October 7, Mrs. McReynolds and I spent Sabbath and Sunday with the church in Bethel. The next ten days were spent with our little company in Rice Lake, where we held several Bible studies with those who are interested in the truth. We hope to see fruit in the kingdom from those days of labor.

The month of November and a few days in December were spent in Iowa. We met with our people in Iowa City, Mount Pleasant, and in my old home country near Lone Tree, and visited my sick brother, Thomas, in Wellman. I spoke in these places six times, and Mrs. McReynolds spoke once. The Lord blessed us much in these meetings.

Leaving Iowa, we came to Topeka, Kan., where we spent the latter half of the week of prayer with our church. It was a season of refreshing to all. Next we went to Altoona, Kan. The first Sabbath and Sunday in January were devoted to quarterly meeting and other services with the Eureka church. This

was a precious season, and an encouragement to our people there.

Leaving Eureka, January 9, we arrived in Las Vegas, N. M., our new field of labor, January 10. After spending some days in finding a house and getting settled, we began our work by first hunting up our own little company. We found five who were holding Sabbath-school. Through the kindness of the Baptist people our Sabbath-school is held in their church, free of cost, except for fuel. We hold services each Sabbath, following the Sabbath-school. Our numbers are increasing.

We find but little prejudice. I have spoken twice on Sunday to the Baptist church, and have conducted prayer-meetings for them twice. The church has no pastor at present. By invitation of the Methodist pastor, I have conducted prayer-meeting in that church once. I now have an invitation to speak to the Y. M. C. A., and the urgent request of the secretary to co-operate with him in his work every Sunday.

We have formed acquaintance with most of the leading business men, and find many opportunities to enter homes with the truth. I secured a stock of the Signs of the Times Monthly for February, and find its use an excellent means of introduction into the homes of the people. The greatest hindrance we find to the work of the message is a spirit of indifference to religious services or sentiment. The churches are very poorly attended.

My health has greatly improved. The climate is all we could desire—much sunshine and excellent water. The altitude is between 6,200 and 6,400 feet. Hundreds of people come here for their health, and many who are troubled with lung diseases find complete restoration in this climate.

We ask an interest in your prayers, that God may give much fruit for our labor.

C. McREYNOLDS.

The Fear of the Lord

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Give the Message

By Minnie L. Scott

MINNIE L. SCOTT

O, THE longing, anxious faces That one passes in the street, With such strained and haggard features, And such weary, aimless feet!

O, the endless, sad procession That one passes day by day! Hastening hither, thither, ever, With no time to pause and pray.

How my heart goes out in pity To this fevered, anxious throng, And I long to give them succor, Long to help them every one;

For the world is sick with sorrow, And they seek they know not what; And I long to give the message To the ones who know it not!

Brothers, sisters, be not weary In your efforts against sin; Tell the blessed, dear old story To the ones that you would win;

So that, when the Master cometh, Takes his faithful children home, They with you may shout, “Hosanna,” Round our blest Redeemer’s throne.

What a Nurse Might Do

By A. W. Spaulding

“Of what use could you be in a work like this?” I should like to take you with me for a little trip around the country, and let you see conditions; this would answer your question. I should like to have you see, just over the hill from us, the windowless, mud-daubed log cabin, 12 x 14 feet, filled at one end with two beds, and at the other with the wide fireplace, over which the cooking is done. Take dinner with me there, and you will see, the iron pot swung over the fire with a mixture of cow-peas, pork, and lard. This is the main dish. To support it, the bake-kettle is brought out, a few coals are raked out on the hearth, upon which the kettle is set; then the woman brings in her hands two cakes of corn-meal dough (meal, water, and salt), and throws them into the pan, covers it up, and heaps coals over it, and soon dinner is ready. Possibly, as a luxury, you are offered coffee, or sorghum, often in milk.

In this little cabin there are four children, though in many such there are six or more. There is no privacy, unless it be behind the wide-open door. Under the cabin the chickens sleep; six feet away is the pigsty; for it does not pay to walk too far to throw the slops. There are no outbuildings, except a pole shed for the cow and the mule. The children are usually thinly clothed. At one such neighbor’s, where I called to invite them to our Thanksgiving social, the mother said, “We’d be right glad to come, but my little children hadn’t got no shoes yet.” It was cold. They crowded in behind her as she opened the door, all except one barefooted, pinched-faced little fellow, who was bravely chopping at some poles for the fire.

One such cabin my wife visited to attend a new-born baby. The little thing caught cold in a week or so; they dosed it, and then sent for Mrs. Spaulding. She and the girls stayed there several nights, and treated it; but in their absence there were plenty of advisers to recommend various things for the cure of the baby. “Just stuff it,” said one; “stuff it with a spoon; ’tain’t no matter what ye stuff it with; that’s the way to cure them fits.” Mrs. Spaulding saved it from one dollar-bottle of dope, and brought it out of spasms with a warm bath. She recommended the warm baths, and the people were grateful, but in her absence they would not bathe it. Not they! “Ony [the husband] wouldn’t hear to it.” For ten days they did not send for the teacher, for fear she would treat it some more; and she, overbusied with the work of the school, could not get away except on emergency calls; besides, the baby was reported to be doing well. What do you think they did to cure the baby?—They followed a famous prescription, which is reputed to have saved the life of many a child here in the mountains. They took the little two-weeks-old baby, turned it on its stomach, pinched up a thumb-and-finger-ful of skin, jabbed it with a penknife, and squeezed out a little blood. When the first operation did not have the desired effect (curing pneumonia), they did it a second time, and then a third time. They told of this later. It had cured little Ted Myers of colic one time; why shouldn’t it cure pneumonia? The baby died.

I have given but a little picture. It is true that there is another side. Many of our neighbors are of a higher type, neat and orderly in their persons and premises. We have some of as fine culture as any of our friends in the North, perhaps finer. But here is a great field of need, reaching to our very doors, and growing worse the farther one goes back in the mountains. We have done what we could, or what we thought we could; but we need nurses to help us. We should have now one or two visiting nurses, who can lead our students in helping the people, and who can instruct the people privately, and perhaps later in groups. If we could have a nurse to start, or rather develop and systematize this work, we would make strenuous efforts to get a modest treatment-room.

In “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VII, pages 56, 57, 61, we read: “I have a message to bear in regard to the Southern field. We have a great work to do in this field. Its condition is a condemnation of our professed Christianity. Look at its destitution of ministers, of teachers, and medical missionaries. Consider the ignorance, the poverty, the misery, the distress, of many of the people. And yet this field lies close at our doors. How selfish, how inattentive, we have been to our neighbors! We have heartlessly passed them by, doing little to relieve their sufferings.” “Brethren, take hold of this work. Give no place to discouragement. Do not criticize those who are trying to do something in right lines, but go to work yourselves.” “In this work, it is best to make small beginnings in many places, and allow God’s providence to indicate how rapidly facilities should be increased. The small plants established will grow into larger institutions. There will be a distribution of responsibilities, and workers will thus gradually acquire greater mental and spiritual power.”

A. W. SPAULDING.

W. H. THURSTON

By W. H. Thurston

Wisconsin

It is an old proverb that “a good report maketh the bones fat.” There-fore we have deferred reporting to the REVIEW until we had a good report to give. At the close of the annual session of the conference last September, the officers and workers began to study very carefully the different departments of our work, with the view to improvement.

We gave attention to the spiritual condition of the conference, and, realizing that we have a great work to do to elevate men and women and win them to Christ, we resolved to give more time to study, counsel, and earnest prayer. Workers are ordained that they should go and bring forth fruit, and we are now seeing some good results, and hoping and praying for greater results. We investigated our finances and determined our obligations, then addressed ourselves to the task of supplying the needs. We first resolved that we would avoid further indebtedness, and endeavor to live within our means. A monthly financial statement of the conference was planned, and a copy furnished to each member of the conference committee. At the beginning of last quarter we had an overdraft at the bank of about eight hundred dollars’ tithe, and the beginning of the present quarter it was changed to a credit of about two hundred dollars. This is a crumb of encouragement. All trust funds have been forwarded to the union conference at the end of each month since camp-meeting, and our gradual increase in tithes will eventually pay up the overdraft on trust funds, which had been used in the conference work. Our laborers arranged, by mutual agreement, to appropriate one day’s salary a month to the debt on the new school building at Bethel, and in this way, with donations from our churches from time to time, we are meeting this obligation. Our schools have good enrolments this year, and the work is going on well. The teachers seem to be doing faithful work, and the students are obtaining knowledge. The sanitarium is enjoying a good patronage this winter, and the results are quite satisfactory. During the winter the patronage is the lightest of the year, and the expenses are heavy. However, by careful management and hard work on the part of those in the sanitarium, and the co-operation of our people, with the blessing of God, the work has gone forward thus far through the winter with a slight gain each month. We are rendering a monthly financial statement of receipts and disbursements, and this is appreciated. Our people desire to know whether we are gaining or losing, and they have a right to know.

The “Ministry of Healing” campaign is well organized, and our churches are having a part in this good work. Books are going out each month, and money is coming in, and this is applied on the indebtedness. At our camp-meeting we voted to sell ten thousand copies in addition to the six for each member for three years. Our conference laborers agreed to help sell this book; and while some have lagged a little, others have sold a goodly number. We expect all to rally to this work during the year. There is no place to ask to be excused in this all-round gospel work.

We have recently held a profitable workers’ and church elders’ meeting, and all departments of work were given careful consideration. At this meeting it was recommended that we appropriate five per cent of our conference tithe to the Sustentation Fund and ten per cent to the General Conference for the support of laborers in foreign fields. These appropriations, with the ten per cent to the union conference, make twenty-five per cent of our conference tithe to be used outside of our conference. We believe that all will concur in this, and that the tithe will increase sufficiently to retain our present force of laborers, and erelong place more in the field.

I am endeavoring to visit all the churches in the conference as soon as possible in connection with my other work, and thus become personally acquainted with all, and study with them our conditions, obligations, and privileges, individually as well as collectively. I have thus far visited twenty-six churches, and have had good meetings in every place. Our people are loyal and willing; and when they are counseled with, and made conversant with the conference work, they will co-operate to a member. As officers and workers, we desire that all shall have full information relative to our conference work in all departments. The conference is the people, the institutions in the State under conference control belong to the people, and their failure or success depends upon the people. In union there is strength, and in concentrated and consecrated effort there is success. We are abundantly able, under God, to lift the burden of debt and go out free.

The tithes and offerings are gradually increasing, and this increase will undoubtedly continue. We are doing our best to respond to all the calls for help in the field. As we realize that we are laborers together with God, we are constrained to move carefully and prayerfully, but keep moving. We are messengers with a message, and we are debtors to the world. We believe that the Wisconsin Conference will fill her place in the work of God.

W. H. THURSTON

The Southern Bookmen's Convention

By R. Hook, Jr.

As we look over the past year, and consider what has been accomplished in our work, we see much to cheer and encourage. It is, therefore, with heartfelt gratitude to God that we submit a report of the work of the Southern Publishing Association and of the bookmen's convention recently held in Nashville.

During the past year, 150,170 volumes of our books were manufactured, and 222,124 pages of the Family Bible Teacher printed.

CANVASSERS WHO EARNED THEIR ATTENDANCE AT THE NASHVILLE BOOK-MEN’S CONVENTION, HAVING SOLD $1,000 WORTH OF BOOKS OR PUT IN 40 HOURS A WEEK FOR 40 WEEKS

Of the Watchman, one 313,000 copies were printed; and of the Gospel Sentinel, 132,500 copies. To accomplish this we have worked an average of fifty-five hours a week. An outlay of over twenty thousand dollars for ink, leather, paper, and other materials has been required. As is well known, our office is engaged entirely in turning out our denominational work, with occasional job-work from the food factory, the sanitariums, and other of our institutions.

As we look over the year, we see many things to be thankful for. Under the blessing of God we were enabled to collect one hundred per cent of our deposit with the defunct City Bank and Trust Company, so that we have come out of this experience without the loss of a cent to the office. Surely there is cause for rejoicing in this, when we remember that the majority of the depositors have received only a ten-per-cent dividend.

Our branch offices have also had a splendid year. In midsummer we shipped two entire car-loads of books to the Fort Worth (Tex.) Branch. These books were speedily disposed of, the canvassers making prompt remittance to the branch office, which, in turn, remitted to the home office, thus greatly assisting in paying off heavy bills for material, which had accumulated as a result of the large volume of business. It is a common thing to receive large-case orders from both Atlanta, Ga., and New Orleans, La.

During the year we have erected a metal warehouse for the storage of signatures, etc. This has released needed room in the bindery. We have also made connections with the city water-supply, which has been a great assistance to us during the year, and has saved considerable expense in hauling water. We are also relieved of the danger of being without water in case of fire.

We are of good courage, and while we have had many perplexities, and decisions have had to be made that called for earnest prayer, the Lord has been with us; and we thank him with all our hearts for the success that has attended not only the work in the office but also the work in the field. The interests of the publisher and canvasser are one. There has been a splendid spirit of co-operation, and to this, in large measure, we attribute the success that has attended the work this year. Above all, we know that the Lord has not only sent his angels to deliver us from pestilence, sickness, and death, but he has also blessed the efforts of the workers. Thus the largest number of books ever sold by this office in a single year has been sold during 1910.

The book sales in our territory by union conferences are as follows: Southern Union Conference, 1909, $30,452.93; 1910, $32,022.60. Southeastern Union Conference, 1909, $29,483.57; 1910, $35,341.85. Southwestern Union Conference, 1909, $62,278.40; 1910, $72,782.34.

Truly there is a great work to be done. The fields are ripe to the harvest, but the laborers are few. There is a demand for more workers, for our literature is to be scattered as the leaves of autumn. There is opportunity for all to have a part in this work, and any tract society secretary or publishing-house officer will be glad to furnish all the information necessary regarding this important branch of the work.

Attending our bookmen's convention were thirteen canvassers from the Southern Union Conference, who had earned attendance at the convention by selling one thousand dollars' worth of books or by putting in sixteen hundred hours. We felt so pleased with these faithful workers that we had the picture taken which appears with this article. The total attendance at the convention averaged about seventy. These represented the general agents, field agents, and conference presidents of all the local conferences of the Southeastern, Southwestern,

and Southern union conferences.

The three union conference presidents were present, also a number of tract society secretaries. From the General Conference office Brother A. J. S. Bourdeau was present, and gave us much interesting and valuable instruction. Brother J. B. Blosser, of the Lake Union Conference, was also in attendance, and the instruction given by him was much appreciated.

Our workers left the convention feeling that it had been indeed good to be there. After returning home, one of the canvassers wrote: “While I am writing, I must say that all who did not attend the bookmen's convention in Nashville missed a feast. I am thankful that I had the privilege of attending.” We believe all our workers returned to their fields with new zeal, and that the close of 1911 will prove that the instruction given at this convention was of a practical nature, and that our book and periodical business will show a large increase over that of any previous year. The work is onward, and we are of good courage.

R. Hook, Jr., General Manager.

Our Schools in Other Lands

By H. R. S.

Meiktila (Burma) Industrial School

A SCHOOL calendar just received from Brother Robert T. Thurber announces the opening of this school. Brother Thurber writes:—

“We can boast of only rented quarters as yet, but have conducted the school for about six months, with a total enrolment of sixty boys. We have not taught any industries, and so far have confined our intellectual work to the standards. But we have just hired a Chinese carpenter and contractor, who will teach the boys, and superintend the building of the school. By the time this reaches you, we shall have bought land, and begun. We have succeeded in raising about five hundred dollars in cash, and two thousand dollars in pledges, in the country here, and expect to get much more. But we must have some help from our people, too; and if we get it, this Burma school bids fair to exceed our first expectations.”

Avondale (Australia) School

A letter just received from Prof. B. F. Machlan tells of the continued success attending the educational work in Australia:—

“You will no doubt be interested to know that we started this year with the best attendance in our history. We have our boys’ hall filled, and have had to make a second home at the Avondale Health Retreat, where we have a nice family of boys under an assistant preceptor. We have a few more rooms left in the young ladies’ hall, but the prospects are now that these will soon be taken. Ten per cent of our students are full pay, thirty-five per cent industrial, and fifty-five per cent half pay; that is to say, ten per cent pay their way in full; thirty-five per cent pay nothing, but must have their board, room, tuition, books, and, in many cases, clothing, from the school; fifty-five per cent work five hours a day, and pay eighteen pounds for the year. As we had extended the course of study, I was in doubt as to how the students would take hold of the work, and was much pleased to see the willingness on the part of all to take up the longer courses. Up to this time, our teachers’ course had been only two years, and really meant very little to the one who took nothing but that course. Now it is four years in length, and will fit our students to do good work as teachers. Our commercial courses were also strengthened. Some changes were made in the Bible training-course. These changes, I am glad to say, seem to meet the approval of the brethren, and also of the young people.”

“We have had our regular January rains, and everything looks beautiful and green, and the prospect for crops is good. Of course this means much to us here. Our farm ran at a loss last year. Indeed, I think it hardly ever has paid; but we hope this year to make it pay, and we are straining every nerve to that end.”

British East Africa Mission School

Our brethren have to work slowly and patiently among the native tribes of Africa. Truly with them it is “precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” However, the gospel of Christ is all-powerful; and by the patient efforts of our mission teachers, it finds its way to the hearts of those who have been brought up in the midst of the darkest heathendom.

“We have,” writes Brother A. A. Carscallen, “a nice class of boys coming forward for baptism, but I am not hurrying them. I want to be sure they are going to stay, and that they are in earnest, before we urge them to take that step. We hope to baptize several in a few months. I shall be very glad to report a few members in this dark part of Africa. I have been on this site for over four years now, and have labored hard; and if I can see a few of our boys take their stand for Christ,—and a stand that will last,—I shall feel fully repaid for all I have done. They are now beginning to grasp what it means to be Christians, and are taking a lively interest in the people. I sometimes hear some of them say such things as this: ‘We must think of and love the lives of others;’ and in their prayers they say, ‘We wish to spread thy Word, O God.’ So you see they are thinking of telling others what they have themselves learned.”

How true it is that wherever Christianity goes, the spirit of the Author of Christianity asserts itself in the lives of the believers, and they are not content until they have passed on to others that which they have received. H. R. S.

Prosperity of the Loma Linda Sanitarium

We are pleased to learn of the prosperity of the Loma Linda (Cal.) Sanitarium. Dr. T. J. Evans, in a letter recently received, says:—

“Our institution is now running to its fullest capacity. We have improvised rooms in ends of halls, and used our medical offices for sleeping-rooms, and are holding off people all we can. We

have about twenty applicants waiting for rooms. Of course our dormitory is now about completed, and the girls are moving in, so the congestion will be relieved; but unless we begin to prepare now for the patronage next winter, I fear the same condition will then exist. Our family is growing, and our patronage is increasing each year. We are very busy, but the Lord is blessing us in caring for those who are with us.”

Moths and Sins

“MOTHS do not destroy the garments that are in use, nor do sins corrupt a busy life. It is when the body is relaxed that malaria seizes upon it; and it is in its hour of need that the soul becomes diseased.”

Mortgage Your Day to God

“MORTGAGE your day to God before it begins. Form a plan for every instant of it. Live by schedule. It is the stagnant stream that rots. Keep your mind moving.”

Christian Education

Conducted by the Department of Education of the General Conference

H. R. SALISBURY . . . . . Secretary

Medical Missionary Department

By D. H. Kress; L. A. Hansen

Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference

D. H. KRESS, M. D. - - - Secretary

L. A. HANSEN - - - Assistant Secretary

From Our Sanitariums

The following good report comes from Dr. P. A. DeForest, who for a number of years has had charge of the medical work in Switzerland:—

“During the month of January I held health meetings in six different towns and cities. There was a good interest manifested, especially for the first series, the audiences ranging from twenty-five to one hundred twenty. The people seem interested and hungry for these truths, if one may judge by the number of questions asked. I expect to hold another series soon. The sanitarium has paid its way for three years, independently of the food factory or farm, and has on hand a small surplus. We are thankful for these results, especially when we think of the competition which exists on every side. Surely the protecting hand of God is over this work, which was begun and has been carried on in the face of bitter opposition and ridicule. I hope that the time will soon come when the institution will be provided with its own legally qualified physician; but until that time does come, I expect to remain at my post, and do all I can to further the interests of this work.”

“Our hearts are made glad to see patients accept the truth from time to time. In 1909 thirteen persons accepted Christ as the result of visiting or working at the sanitarium. Eleven were baptized here, and two started keeping the Sabbath at home, one in Egypt and one in Switzerland. Last winter a lady came to rest and take a course in massage, who was in a sad state of mind, and about to take a fatal step. Something seemed to tell her to come to the sanitarium. After days of struggle, she began to read the Bible, and finally gave herself to the Lord. These things give us fresh courage to go on sowing the good seed, being assured that it will take root and grow in some hearts. Only recently I heard of a young Armenian lady who was here two years ago with her mother, and who on her return home to Cairo, surprised her friends one day by stating that she would attend the school no more on Saturday, because she had decided to keep that day holy. She told inquirers that she had found this truth at a sanitarium in Switzerland, where everybody stopped work and went to church on that day. She now attends our church services in that city, and is studying the way of God more perfectly. As the institution is now equipped, we shall be able to treat from fifty to seventy patients daily.”

Religious Liberty Notes

A SUNDAY bill is pending in the Pennsylvania Legislature, on which a hearing has been promised us on April 4.

NINE years ago there were two hundred ten branches of the Lord’s Day Alliance. Now there are over eight hundred branches, and almost fifty thousand members. This shows the rapidity with which the Sunday movement is growing.

THE Lord’s Day Alliance in Canada is advocating that, as a means to Canadianize foreigners, they should be made to keep Sunday. Such an effort may Canadianize men, but the important question is, Will it Christianize them?

A SUNDAY-CLOSING crusade is threatened in the cities of Hancock and Houghton, Mich. These agitations afford an excellent opportunity to place the true principles of religious liberty before the citizens of the cities and towns where such crusades are carried on.

A SPECIAL religious liberty service was held with the Takoma Park church, Sabbath, March 4. To some extent the meeting assumed the character of a praise service, owing to the fact that the Lord has given his people another respite by hindering the enactment of any Sunday law during the sixty-first session of the United States Congress.

The Religious Liberty Department has just issued a four-page document, a little larger than the weekly Signs of the Times, that is well illustrated, and is filled with up-to-date, wide-awake matter on the question of religious liberty. It can be used for campaign purposes when Sunday-closing crusades or other similar agitations are on. It is printed from plates, leaving a space at the head where any name may be placed that will make it adaptable to the location where it is to be circulated. This document is printed by the Foreign Mission Seminary, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., to which all orders and remittances should be sent. The price is $7.90 a thousand, in lots of less than two thousand. On larger lots, a liberal discount will be allowed.

ELDER S. B. HORTON, religious liberty secretary of the Atlantic Union Conference, who has been assisting the Religious Liberty Department in Washington during the Sixty-first Congress, has left for his field of labor in the Atlantic Union Conference.

The president of the British Columbia Conference, Elder J. G. Walker, is planning a vigorous campaign in his field with the two new religious liberty tracts, entitled “Should Parliament Prescribe Your Religion?” and “A Present Danger.” These tracts should be circulated like the leaves of autumn throughout the Dominion of Canada.

Religious Liberty Work in Oregon

By W. F. Martin

THE readers of the REVIEW will perhaps remember that two years ago a strong effort was made to force a Sunday bill through the Oregon Legislature. A large delegation of ministers went from Portland, and joined with the Salem ministers, urging the passage of the bill. They failed to accomplish their purpose, but declared their intention of trying again in 1911. Soon after the convening of the legislature, the writer went to Salem to look after the church work there, and watch developments in the State legislature. Before the legislature convened, I wrote to local members of the senate and house, apprising them of the contemplated move on the part of the churches, and asking them to give some thought to the matter. Many of them wrote me very courteous replies, a number frankly saying they would oppose such a move. The magazine Liberty had been going to the members of the legislature, and it had a great influence in creating a sentiment against religious laws.

No Sunday bill appeared this year till the session was more than half over. The first notice I had of it was an editorial in the Pacific Christian Advocate, upbraiding me for consorting with theater managers, saloon-keepers, and “other reprehensible characters,” in trying to overthrow the work that the churches were trying to build up. My letter to the legislators fell into the hands of the Oregonian, and was published by them. This paper and other large dailies gave considerable space to a discussion of the merits of Sunday legislation, and several times mentioned my opposition to it. This was what called forth the editorial in the Advocate. When the Sunday bill appeared, it was aimed at drug-stores, groceries, and Sunday excursions. Theaters this year were exempted. In order for a merchant to escape the penalties, the bill decreed that he must be a member of a religious society that observed some other day than Sunday as its day of worship. This showed the religious character of the bill.

Again ministers came to lobby for the bill, among them Mr. Tufts. I went before the committee, and presented my arguments against the measure. It was presented to the house the following day, with a recommendation that it should not pass. The framer of the bill made a plea for it, and the chairman of the committee on revision of laws, to which the bill had been referred, in a fine speech defended the recommendation of the committee. He told the house plainly he considered the bill a step toward a union of church and state; spoke of the division in the Christian world over the Sabbath question; and said to pass such a bill would be legislating on a disputed religious question. A vote was then taken, and the bill was killed, with only two votes in its favor. A strong effort was made to have the bill reconsidered, but the committee as well as the speaker of the house would not hear to it.

Thus another religio-political measure has failed in Oregon. There is talk now of initiating the measure, and having the people of the State vote on it. We shall watch this move with much interest. We thank the Lord for his sustaining hand thus far; the battle is his.

W. F. MARTIN.

Continue reading: Sanitarium Relief Campaign