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Review and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 46.

Cast Thy Burden on the Lord

Review and Herald

Sep 16, 1915

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1915

Cast Thy Burden on the Lord

Christian, when thy way seems darkest And thine eyes with tears are dim, Straight to God, thy Father, hastening, Tell thy sorrows unto Him. Not to human ear confiding Thy sad tale of grief or care, But before thy Father, hastening, Pour out all thy sorrows there.
Sympathy of friends may cheer thee When the fierce, wild storm has burst, But God only can console thee When it breaks upon thee first. Go with words or tears or silence, Only lay them at His feet. Thou shalt prove how great His pity, And His tenderness how sweet.
Though His wise and loving purpose Clearly now thou mayst not see, Still believe, with faith unshaken, All shall work for good to thee. Therefore, when the way seems darkest, And thine eyes with tears are dim, Straight to God, thy Father, hastening, Tell thy sorrows unto Him.
— Selected.

Note and Comment

Haiti’s New President.

THE election of a president in Haiti, to succeed the former president who was dragged from a foreign legation and killed by a mob on July 28, took place on the twelfth of August, with the consent and under the protection of Admiral Caperton, commander of the American forces which now control the capital.
On the day of the election the United States marines guarded the senate and house with field pieces and machine guns. They also erected barricades in the streets. But there was no disorder. General Dartiguenave, president of the senate, was chosen, having 94 votes out of a total of 116. Only three were cast for Dr. Rosalvo Bobo, the leader of the revolutionists who opposed President Sam. The new president publicly expressed his appreciation of the support given by our forces, without which, he said, a free election could not have been held. It is asserted that he could not retain the office for a day if these forces should be withdrawn. America’s course has the approval of France. . . .
Word was received during the latter part of August to the effect that the rebel chiefs, Bobo and Zamor, were pressing a large army into service, and an attack against American forces was imminent.— The Independent.

The Theater

A MOST excellent answer has been given by the Sunday School Times to a query from one of its subscribers on the question of Christians’ attending the theater. We quote:—
The fundamental objection to attending plays lies not in the character of any play witnessed, but in the fact that it is a play at all. The objection rests upon acting as a life work. It is an unworthy and demoralizing effort to devote one’s life to seeming to be another person than oneself. Even though the character simulated is a good character, acting is poorer business, always, than being. Therefore any play that necessitates the profession of acting, as all professional plays do, is open to this fundamental objection. And to attend such a play is so far to indorse and encourage a profession which is unworthy, and the tendency of which is harmful in its effect upon its own members. From this standpoint, just where any line can fairly be drawn between plays does not appear.
To this answer of the Sunday School Times we say, Amen. The Christian’s duty is not to discriminate between plays. Our example must tell for more than the nicety of our discrimination between plays given in a theater. Those who take us for an example may not have the fine powers of discernment which we pride ourselves in possessing, and at the first might not be able to discriminate, and at the last might not care to. We are not to draw the line between plays, but between attending them and not attending them. There will then be no difficulty on the part of any in understanding our example.

They Are Waking Up

The point of efficiency in military preparation in any nation is considered to be that point where the nation is better prepared to defend itself from the attack of any nation than any nation is prepared to attack it. This makes the race for military preparation an endless race, as no nation dares to have its military affairs remain in an inefficient condition. The lessons of the present war are being scanned by all the nations; and no nation feels that it would be safe for it to let its military affairs drift while the others are straining every nerve to reach military efficiency. Each feels that to do so would be to write its own doom.
Thus does Satan drive the nations into harness and armor for the last great battle. President Yuan Shi-kai, in a recent speech to the Chinese cabinet, laid before the Chinese nation the urgent necessity of united action for the defense of China against the aggression of the more military-inclined nations of the world. He said:—
Our suzerainty in southern Manchuria has gradually gone into the hands of foreigners. The foreign aggressor has come to our doors, but our people are still dallying in the midst of calamities. . . . To avert the impending disaster is the sacred duty which lies upon the shoulders of every one of us. . . . Some people say that on account of our vast country and population the destruction of our country by an alien people is an impossibility. Look at Korea, the area of which is not smaller than Japan. . . . Now the condition of our country is comparable to a small boat wandering on a wild sea. It is not time for us to pursue our pleasures and let things drift into the course of destruction. Above all do not forget the national disgrace of May 7 [the acceptance by China on May 7, 1915, of the Japanese ultimatum, under the terms of which Japan obtained extensive political and industrial concessions]. Take off your easy garments and go ahead with all your effort to avert impending disaster.

A Short Work

THOSE things which seem impossible to man are easily accomplished by the Lord. It is faith in God's power by which we are fully persuaded that what he has promised he is able also to perform. There is a great work to be done; and looking at it from the human standpoint, we might conclude that it is impossible to complete it in the time allotted; but our confidence is in the Lord’s promises and in his power to fulfill them. “For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” It only needs the willing instruments through whom the Lord can reveal his mighty power in fulfilling his promise. “And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?”

The Bible and Evolution

WE are frequently accused of being behind the times because we do not accept the Darwinian theory of evolution; but quite frequently we are finding that noted scientists, those who have had even more opportunity of investigation than did he, are drifting away from the hypotheses which he laid down, and which some—even religious teachers—would have us believe have overthrown the Genesis record of creation. An exchange has the following interesting item, which we consider worthy of reproduction:—
Professor Otto, a German scientist who has been a follower of Darwin in his advocacy of evolution, has written a book in which he makes the candid admission that “the gulf between living and nonliving matter widens with every new investigation.”
The old Book stands, and its principles will stand when these human theories have been forever forgotten.

Finishing the Work

By F. M. W.

“THIS gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” In this statement the Lord foretells the extent to which the gospel message will be proclaimed just before his return.
The apostle John likewise declares that the gospel message will go to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” See Rev. 14: 6, 7. The extent to which this is being fulfilled is one of the encouraging omens of the Lord’s soon coming.
The gospel heralds are penetrating earth’s darkest regions, and in nearly every nation under heaven the banner of the cross has been unfurled. Many and wonderful providences have attended this propaganda. God has broken down adamantine walls, and opened iron gates. In many lands an excellent beginning has been made; and what has been done can be regarded only as a beginning. Only the outer fringes of the great heathen world have been touched. Millions upon millions on every continent, in nearly every nation, and in some cities, know naught of the coming Saviour.
We felt impressed with this stupendous fact recently as we visited some of the great cities on the Atlantic seaboard. In Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and other great centers of population, how many are still unwarned. Considering the problem of their evangelization from a human standpoint, the task would seem most difficult, and well-nigh if not quite impossible; but “with God all things are possible.”
It is not by might, nor by power, but by his Spirit that his work is accomplished in the earth. He could take the single sermon of the humble fisherman on the day of Pentecost and carry it very shortly to earth’s remotest bounds. In the fullness of time he can as easily and rapidly and widely diffuse the message of the kingdom.
How mightily could God manifest his power in the spread of this message if he so willed! The agencies of communication are prepared. The fast mail, the newspaper, the express train, the ocean steamer, the telephone, the telegraph, the airship, will become his messengers when his wisdom determines, to do a speedy work in the earth. A Spirit-filled and spoken message uttered by a humble messenger of the cross could be sent with convicting and convincing power to every corner of the earth in an incredibly short space of time.
And sometime God will employ in behalf of his truth these agencies of rapid transmission. The inventions of the age will do service for the Master. He is ready, we verily believe, to work in this mighty manner today. But his church is not ready. Its members are not prepared to stand the searching test of critical publicity.
We need feel no concern over the triumph of the message of God, nor by mathematical calculation seek to determine the time required to sound it abroad. We need to take careful heed to our personal relationship to heaven, seeing that our hearts are cleansed from sin, and that we stand in that condition where the Master can work through us for the manifestation of his power and glory. When we are prepared for service, prepared to become the agents and agencies through whom God can manifest the wonders of his saving grace, we shall see of the revelation of his power in the speedy triumph of his truth.
F. M. W.

Some of Our Basutos

By W. A. S.

At the Durban union conference, Brother H. C. Olmstead had reported of the Basuto converts of the Emmanuel Mission: “Some of them are the most earnest Christians I have ever met—either among white or black.”
I can well believe it here in North Basutoland, as I see what God has wrought. Right out of the darkness they have come into the marvelous light.
Would that it did not take so much space to give even a glimpse of these sights and scenes among strange peoples whose hearts beat the same as ours. Look into last Friday night’s prayer meeting.
The lamps showed the school room well filled with members, believers, inquirers, and interested ones from the kraals. These Basutos have strong faces. The headdress of the women is the turban, and the bright colors of these and of the blankets which many, both men and women, wear these cold evenings, lend an Oriental aspect to the scene.
The leading thought in the meeting was the pathway to the city of God. Up stands a tall young Basuto from the kraals. “I want to follow this path,” he says, “and to teach my people who are in darkness the truth of God.”
Teko, an assistant pupil teacher: “I have learned to cast my burden on the Lord. I will cling fast to the Word of God, not in my own strength, but in the strength of the Lord.” Teko is a baptized member. “When I first saw him,” Brother J. R. Campbell told me, “I said to myself, ‘Oh, but here is a dull-looking boy!’” No dullness now; he is a good student and hopes soon to be in out-school work.
Here a young man in striped blanket stands: “Although I am a sinner, Jesus keeps me, and I want to be with those who enter the holy city.” Who are these who talk and pray of the holy city?—Souls straight out of heathen darkness, every one of them; and now they sing the songs of Zion and are pushing along the highway of the Advent people to the city of God.
A chief’s son speaks: “I want to be in that city of the New Jerusalem.”
Some herd boys—who come only to the night school—not yet Sabbath keepers, tell of their love for Jesus,—little lads wearing only their ragged and abbreviated blankets. Some present are speaking for the first time; one, a girl not in the school but from one of the kraals, says with breaking voice, “I love Jesus and want him to keep me.” And how much these souls need his keeping power, in those kraals with the beer drinking and the ever-sounding evening dance drums.
Mantea, a true sister in Christ, who has won freedom to meet with the believers by endurance of bitter persecution, having prayed earnestly in the prayer season, now speaks: “Only because of God’s love I am standing here. I am weak, but I want to please him day.He is my strength and my Saviour.”
John, the ox-team driver, who had just been held up by the Free State border police because he had lost his “pass,” told of his determination not to lose his passport to the heavenly land.
Thus the meeting ran on. All this, I know, is very like the witnesses borne in the week-night prayer meeting everywhere. But that is exactly why it is good to hear these testimonies, borne in tones that thrill the heart, away up here by the Leribe Plateau of Northern Basutoland.
Our missionaries came here foreigners and strangers. They have preached and taught the Word of God. And, lo, one after another, men and women, boys and girls, are breaking away from customs that have held their fathers as in an iron vise for ages, and are resolutely setting their feet in the pathway to the holy city. It is good to see it, brethren and sisters, you who have prayed and given for missions, and angels must rejoice as they write these new Basuto names among those whom the Lord will call when he makes up his jewels. The meeting closed with this thought; and the company sang the Sesuto version of the hymn—
“When he cometh, when he cometh, To make up his jewels.”
Freely translated, the Sesuto runs,— “How have you made me the beloved! A thing that is precious; And like a diamond that is precious.”
We went out into the dark night; but in our hearts the light streaming from the gates of the heavenly city seemed nearer than before. The light of the last message is spreading over the dark places of the earth.
W. A. S.
Emmanuel Mission.

Representing or Misrepresenting Christ

By C. M. S.

If we profess to represent Christ in his closing work for this age, our actions should leave no reasonable doubt in the minds of our neighbors and associates that we are indeed his servants and doing his work. Every experience we pass through gives us an opportunity of exemplifying our Master. Our daily walk should so set him before the world that hearts would be drawn even out of sin to him. Every affliction that comes is an opportunity to preach Christ to an audience that will hear, and that might hear of him in no other way — and there is no hall rent to pay.
But if, when affliction comes, we allow it to cause us to complain, we are misrepresenting him whose name we have taken upon ourselves, and the cause of the adversary wins recruits through us. This preaching by living is a kind of preaching we can none of us escape. We cannot miss our appointments, but we can misrepresent the One who makes them for us.
A correspondent says: “The devil is reflected in many of our acts, not all of them, but the actions are often so mixed that a casual observer cannot tell whether God or Babel is represented.” We must eliminate such teachings from our lives, or we shall one day hear the terrible sentence, “I never knew you: depart from me.”
Let us say with Paul: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” “Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.” “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation.”
Do we wish to be among those from whose eyes “God shall wipe away every tear,” who “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,” who are to be shepherded and guided by the Lamb himself, who have “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” and “stand before the throne of God,” serving him “day and night in his temple,” over whom he “shall spread his tabernacle”? Of that company it is said, “These are they which come out of the great tribulation.” Rev. 7: 13-17.
Shall tribulation separate us from the love of Christ? It will unless, in that tribulation, we permit Christ to shine out through our manner of bearing it. Do we expect to reach heaven without trials? It is a false hope, which will ruin us if clung to. Paul says, “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 14: 22. He said that while still bearing the bruises of his stoning at Lystra. Christ said, “In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Every tribulation borne as Christ would bear it preaches Christ to the world, and makes you more like Christ than you ever have been before.
C. M. S.

The Prophecy of Daniel 7

By W. A. S.

Part 2. The Fourth Kingdom and the “Little Horn”

It was the fourth great monarchy, Imperial Rome, and the events to follow it, that engaged the anxious inquiry of the prophet. He says:—
“Then would I know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Dan. 7: 19-22.
The prophet wanted to know the truth about it; and the angel told him the truth. First, the angel said:—
“The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Verse 23.
The fourth kingdom, as we have seen, was Rome. As Cardinal Manning said of the empire, “It was ‘exceeding terrible,’ according to the prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, breaking down and subduing the nations.”
Of the ten horns that appeared out of this fourth great empire, the angel said:—
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Verse 24.
We look to the history of the Roman Empire, and what do we see? — Just the picture of the prophecy. We see the original Roman Empire of the West divided into lesser kingdoms. We see the barbarian peoples of the North, sweeping down upon the empire, breaking it up, and establishing within its boundaries the various kingdoms that are to this day represented by the kingdoms of western Europe.
And as we watch the history at this point, we surely see “another little horn,” another kind of power, rising among the horns representing the kingdoms of divided Rome — a kingdom, yet a kingdom “diverse” from the others. The work of this power riveted the attention of the prophet; and it is of the greatest importance that we also should watch closely to catch the lesson of the divine prophecy.

The Prophetic and Historic Pictures of the “Little Horn”

This is plainly the picture presented by the prophet, as we look again, observing details more closely:—
The prophet beheld the division of the Roman Empire into lesser kingdoms. Then, springing up among these kingdoms, he saw the little-horn power, subduing three of the ten kingdoms, speaking great words, and making war with the saints of God. It was to be a religious power, then, ruling among the kings of the earth, and asserting religious dominion over the faith and consciences of men. “The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.”
We look to history, and this is what plainly appears:—
We see, as described in the prophecy, a time when ten contemporaneous kingdoms filled the territory of the original Western Empire. Just there we see an ecclesiastical kingly power rise to religious supremacy — the Roman Papacy.We see, through its influence, three of the ten kingdoms overthrown, “plucked up by the roots”—three Arian, or heretical kingdoms. And as we watch the history, we find this power making “war with the saints” and prevailing against them through long ages.
A Roman Catholic writer describes it in a paragraph:—
Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of barbarous hordes, Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, in this simple manner, the best title of all to kingly right, commenced the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of Cæsar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages.—Rev. Jas. P. Conroy, in American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911.
Yet again we look at the picture presented in prophecy. Then we turn to history; and precisely where and when the prophet saw the “little horn” coming up, we see the Roman Papacy rising to supremacy. We see this ecclesiastical power wielding a kingly scepter among the kingdoms of divided Rome, exalting itself above them, with a look “more stout than its fellows.” We hear it speaking great words, and we see it carrying on warfare against the saints.
Clearly, there was no other power in history, rising at that time and in that place, which suggests the slightest correspondence to the prophecy. In every detail the Roman Papacy does correspond to it.
The prophetic outline has brought us to the rise of the great apostasy, so fully dealt with in New Testament prophecy. Yet further specifications in this prophecy of the seventh of Daniel demand brief study.
W. A. S.

Rallying to the Call

By C. M. S.

A CALL has gone out into the world that is designed to bring out of the world a people that shall stand loyally for God against a program that is designed by the author of evil to deceive and ruin the last generation of men.
For six thousand years good and evil, light and darkness, have been working toward the culmination of a conflict which is to determine who is to be the ruler of this world—God or Satan. In point of numbers, that conflict might have been decided long ago; for the majority of this world seem always to have been opposed to the rule of righteousness in the life, and their actions have been in harmony with their feelings in the matter.
There must come a culmination. This conflict of the ages, with its dower of misery, sin, and death, could not go on forever. The physical strength of the human race could not stand up under it forever; it is not standing up under it now. The downward tendency of the physical man is easily discernible from generation to generation. Military boards are compelled from time to time to reduce the height limit for army recruits and to make the physical tests less exacting in order to keep the necessary number in the ranks. More than that, the proportion of insane to the entire population is steadily and rapidly increasing. What does it mean? It means that if the race should go on from generation to generation as it is, the physical man would be unable to endure the strain of the conflict, and the race would go to pieces.
The only hope for this world lies in the second coming of Christ; and we can have no legitimate hope of meeting him in peace when he does come unless we enlist in his service in obedience to his last call for faithful bearers of his last message.
It is a hopeful omen that we see so many now laying aside various occupations, and enlisting for this final conflict. A spirit has come among our people such as we have never seen before,—a spirit, a feeling, that the work needs them, and that they must not longer hesitate between the service of the world and the service of Christ.
This spirit to enlist in the closing message is particularly noticeable among the younger generation, and many are taking hold of the work with the energy and freshness of youth. It is an encouragement to the hearts of the veterans in the service to see this movement among the young. There is something striking also in the remarkable success that is attending the work of many of these young recruits, especially in the book and periodical work. Years ago young men and women were told that they should not consider themselves failures in the canvassing work until they had canvassed at least a month without taking a single order. But today many sell several hundreds of dollars’ worth of books in that length of time.
In these developments we see evidence that God is setting his hand to the work, to make it a short work, and his Spirit is striving with the hearts of men. They who yield to it will be a power for him. They who refuse now are putting themselves in a place of terrible danger. The times are urgent; the generation is nearing its close; God must have workers, and he cannot wait on those who persist in their uncertainty as to whether they will serve him or not. The powers of evil are mighty at the present time. They who will be his must now come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
John says, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, . . . and ye have overcome the wicked one.”
If ever the professed followers of Christ needed strength, they need it now. Against them is focused the accumulated cunning of him who is the chief of deceivers and conspirators. It will take strength to overcome this wicked one; and it will not be the strength of the natural, physical man. It must be a strength that is superior to the human, or defeat is certain. There must be no trusting in our own strength; “for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph. 6: 12. If that admonition was necessary in the days of Paul, much more is it necessary now in our days. There is no strength but God’s that can be called strong in comparison with the strength of the principalities of darkness with which we must contend.
Heaven does not send us out unarmed into this struggle. “Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Eph. 6: 13-17.
There is the armor, and there is the source of strength. Moreover, such provision would never have been made were it not that God foresaw that it would be needed. To go about it in our own strength at such a time is to invite destruction. To go with any less armor than God has provided is to set our wisdom above his, and make many a vital part vulnerable to the shafts of the devil.
While Satan is mobilizing his forces in all the world, it is a grand spectacle to see consecrated young men and women being mustered into the service of God and drilling in his camp. Let us take courage; the conflict will be short, but it will take all there is of us, coupled with all Heaven has promised us, to make us conquerors. The blessed part of it is that the victory is certain and near at hand, and we may be victors.
C. M. S.

Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

As Saul disobeyed and displeased God in sparing the sheep and cattle of the Lord's enemies to sacrifice to the Lord, so do they disobey and displease God who profane the Sabbath which he has appointed and commanded, and offer him another day in its stead. “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Foreigners in Our Large Cities, or the Need of the Hour

By D. H. KRESS, M. D.

D. H. KRESS, M. D.
A PROCESSION of over one million people from all lands is pouring into the United States each year. Over twenty thousand immigrants arrive at the New York harbor alone each week of the year. Should we hear of a city of 86,000 people of foreign tongues springing into existence each month, it would be considered phenomenal, and yet this is what is actually taking place before our eyes. The United States is being peopled by foreigners. The cities of America are no longer American. They are made up largely of strange tongues. New York has nearly a million Italians, and over a million Jews. On Manhattan Island every fourth person is a Jew. There are more Germans in New York City than in any city in Germany except Berlin. There are twice as many Irishmen as in Dublin, Ireland. There are more Italians than in Naples or Venice. In thirty-three of our largest cities of America the foreign population is greater than the native.
Men and women have in the past responded to the call to go to foreign fields. Many more would have gone had there been funds in the treasury to send them. God has opened the way for these to engage in foreign mission work in our homeland. There is room for thousands of workers among the foreigners in our large cities. Separated from their native environment and friends, their religious ties weakened if not entirely broken up, these people are in the very best possible condition to respond to acts of kindness and to other influences of the gospel of Christ. We may not be able to do much by talking religion. The gospel of neighborliness must be practiced in order for the gospel of faith to make converts. The best way to win the foreigners on our shores is by manifesting a real, unpretentious interest in their welfare. The heathen at our door will respond to the same efforts which prove successful in winning them in their homeland; in fact, the foreigner on our shores is more easily reached than the foreigner abroad.
No such opportunity has ever before come to any people, to reach so many nationalities with so little expense and sacrifice. We can see why in the providence of God the third angel’s message had its origin in the United States.
There was a parallel at Christ’s first advent. When the time came for the gospel to go to all lands, representatives from all lands were gathered together in Jerusalem. When the Spirit of God came upon the Christian church, and these representatives heard the wonderful truths proclaimed in their own tongue, they were amazed. By the converts thus made the truth was carried to all parts of the earth. And means were freely given by others of their number to send out and sustain these missionaries. In a very short time Paul could testify that the commission had been met—the gospel had been preached in all the world.
A similar work will be done in our day. This work will begin in this great cosmopolitan center,—the United States,—and from here it will reach the ends of the earth; and when this gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.
Christ in his efforts for the people gave tangible evidence of his interest in them. He ministered to their physical needs and healed their diseases. This gave him favor with the people, and enabled him to reach the masses.
The first American Baptist missionary to China, after seventeen years’ labor, found it necessary, owing to the death of his wife, to return to America. The experience he gained abroad helped him in laboring for the Chinese in America. Sixteen were baptized as the result of his labors. Some of these returned to their own land as missionaries. Among his converts was Wong Wui, a man of piety and power, who became pastor of the first church in Canton, and was termed “the Luther of the Chinese Christians.”
Another missionary, who had to return to America owing to the ill health of his wife, began his work among the Chinese of Portland, Oregon. The church he raised up sustained missionaries in their own country and made large individual gifts to the general work for the spread of the gospel. In fact, China is leavened with Chinese missionaries who were converted on American soil by home missionary effort.
In Germany, at the council held at Friedensau, about forty nationalities were represented. Many of the leaders among these nationalities are men who received the truth in America, and then returned to their home fields as missionaries.
It will be seen that by reaching the foreigners in America we greatly simplify the problem of reaching the world. Those who come to America have heard of our liberty and prosperity. In the minds of all who come a favorable impression exists of this country. These people usually come from the rural districts and are unloaded in the city. On account of scarcity of funds they are compelled to secure work at once. This forces them into the worst part of our large cities. The crowded tenements in the slums, with their drunkenness, immorality, and crime, become their homes. They are caught in a trap from which there is no escape. In New York City there are 360,000 dark, windowless rooms occupied by this class. Entire families are often crowded together in one or two rooms. These people are disappointed, for all they can see of America is their immediate surroundings.
Unless help is brought to them, hopeless degeneracy, physical and moral, will be the ultimate result. Their great need should appeal to us. Our neighbor has fallen among thieves and has been left wounded by the wayside. Shall we pass him by on the other side and ease our consciences by making donations to foreign fields? By doing so we omit the weightier matters of the law—judgment, mercy, and truth. “These ought ye to have done,” said the Saviour, “and not to leave the other undone.”
As the foreigners have moved into these crowded districts, Protestant churches have moved out. The people have been left, therefore, without church privileges, or religious influences and instruction. Yet these people respond to the gospel. In one district composed of Italian Roman Catholics, a tent effort was conducted by two consecrated Protestant ministers. From three hundred to six hundred were nightly in attendance. In less than one year two hundred were ready to join the Protestant church. Later a church building was erected by these worshipers at a cost of sixty thousand dollars. Can we not see that God has taken these people from their overcrowded countries and has brought them to our very doors that we may have an opportunity to help them and save them, and through them carry the third angel’s message quickly to all the world?
“If you cannot cross the ocean, And the heathen lands explore, You can find the heathen nearer, You can help them at your door.”

B. L. HOWE

By B. L. HOWE

Saving Our Children — No. 1

B. L. HOWE

“THE church that fails to provide for her children, destroys herself.” A woman entered a room where this statement was hanging in bold type on the wall. She read it slowly, and said, with much emphasis, “That is true, and no one knows it better than the Catholic Church.” She is a convert to the Sabbath truth from that church. Go where you may, and note the work of the Catholic Church, you find that the oldest monuments of its missionary effort are provisions for its children. In many instances, the Jew, in his home and under the influence of the rabbi, so trains his child that he will hiss at the mere mention of the name of Jesus. The Christ-loving and God-fearing parent may, by the same persistence, so influence his child that the name of Jesus will be to him a shield and a joy forever.
Israel failed to reach the high destiny that God marked out for them, because they did not train their children in the way the Lord directed. For hundreds ofyears they were in the land of Egypt, where they were surrounded by superstition, unbelief, and infidelity. The generation that came out of Egypt was weakened mentally and physically by the teachings and practices of the people among whom they dwelt. It seemed impossible for them to believe in and trust God for more than a few hours at a time. After repeated efforts, in which Egyptian education always asserted itself, the Lord shut them up in the wilderness. Here he set himself to work to save the “people of promise” by educating their children. It took forty years to bring these children to a place where they could trust God and do as he said. The older ones, except two, died, and the children, trained under the direction of Jehovah, went into the Promised Land. Of this generation it is written, “Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.” Joshua 24: 31; Judges 2: 7. Hence we conclude that had Israel continued the training of their children as God ordained in the wilderness, they would have fulfilled the purpose of the Lord, and would not have become a hissing and a byword as it is this day.
Today, the Lord looks upon the children of modern Israel as those upon whom he must depend to finish the preaching of the gospel in this generation. For years he has been sending messages, teaching us how to care for and educate our children. If our faith can grasp it, he has given us, in the Sabbath school, the young people’s organization, and the church school, the means of saving all our children.
At a camp meeting in one of our conferences, two hundred and one additions to the church by baptism were reported. More than seventy-five of these were from among the young people. At the same camp meeting there were forty-five youth and young people baptized. During the year the work of winning the young people for Christ was kept constantly before the officers, leaders, and teachers in the departments already mentioned. Another feature that contributed largely to this harvest was a series of institutes, conducted by the president of the conference. These meetings were held in all the principal centers of the conference. At each place, the Sabbath school, Missionary Volunteer, and church school work was given careful and thorough study. This was a means of greatly strengthening these lines of church activity.
Money and time spent in properly caring for our children is an investment that pays large dividends. Experience teaches that one who has been trained in the message from his childhood, other things being equal, makes the strongest missionary. The majority of the men who are moving the world with the third angel’s message today, have spent some time in our schools.
From the standpoint of the cross, who will estimate the difference in value between the mother and the babe in her arms? “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” What shall the parent give in exchange for his child?
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