p. 28 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 44. (10/30/1907)

Mexico

By George M. Brown

By Superintendent George M. Brown

THE Mexican Republic has an area of 757,005 square miles, and a population of 13,607,259, of which some 13,500,000 are Roman Catholics. There are 60,000 Protestant members and adherents, and notwithstanding the efforts of the government to establish a free public-school system, only about 2,500,000 out of the entire population are able to read and write.

S. D. A. Church in Bridgetown, Barbados.

About one-half of the people are mestizos, persons of mixed blood, the result of intermarriage of Europeans and Indians. They are the ruling element in the country, and are intelligent, active, independent, and, as a rule, progressive. The Indians comprise about one-third of the present population, and the majority of them are still in a state of semi-civilization.

Present Favorable Conditions.

The laws of reform enacted in 1858 curtailed the power of the oppressive church in civil matters, and the law of 1874 provided for the separation of Church and State and guaranteed religious liberty.

Since then missionary work has been systematically carried on under the auspices of the principal evangelical denominations of the United States, and the beneficent influence of this effort is now being seen in many ways.

Chief among these evangelizing influences should be mentioned the American Bible Society, which, since 1878, has distributed 533,039 volumes. To accomplish this noble work some of the society's colporteurs have sacrificed their lives.

Our Work.

The world-wide movement which the Signs of the Times represents is stirring Mexico. What has been done is but a small beginning, but it is based upon the word of God which is living and powerful, and as a result a people will be prepared for the soon-coming of the Saviour and a home in those mansions which He is now preparing.

Organized companies of believers are to be found in Mexico City, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, and Torreon. Medical missionary work is being done in Guadalajara, Ameca, Celaya, Torreon, and Guautla.

A printing-office has been established in Tacubaya, the largest suburb of Mexico City, where a sixteen-page, illustrated monthly is published. Sabbath-school lessons and tracts and pamphlets are produced in numbers sufficient to supply the needs of the Mexican mission and the calls that come from near-by Spanish-speaking fields.

The paper above referred to is called El Mensajero de la Verdad, "The Messenger of Truth," and undoubtedly has the largest circulation among Roman Catholics of any evangelical periodical in the Republic. 3,500 copies are printed each month.

Our Needs.

Patients at Guadalajara Sanitarium, Mexico.

We need consecrated persons who have given their lives to God's work. Such persons laboring as Bible teachers and colporteurs can do a great work.

We need money to support these persons and provide the literature which is indispensable to the success of their work.

We need substantial families having a living Christian experience and some of this world's goods to settle at different points where there are interested people. Such families, while being self-supporting, will be able to give stability to the work, and exert a powerful influence in favor of the truth.

We need "intercessory missionaries!" These are men and women of strong faith, who, tho they can not go to a mission field, will pray systematically and continuously for those who are in the field.

Avenida 20, No. 1426, Tacubaya, D. F., Mexico.

Porto Rico.

By Editor

BROTHER B. E. CONNERLY writes from Porto Rico of the good work of their paper, El Centinela de la Verdad, and of the faithful colporteur work which has been done, and says:

“The appeals for help that we long to make for our needy field die upon our lips as we think of the other greater and needier fields, and we pray for the power to carry forward the work here to the final triumph with the means that God has graciously provided.”

Beautiful Bible Mottoes

Special Holiday Offer.

There is no better time than the present to sell them. They sell readily everywhere, and agents are making good wages. An inspiration to higher living in every home. Nearly 75 styles of mottoes in English, and two each in German, Danish, and Swedish. 100 mottoes, assorted, packed in strong box, by prepaid express, $5.00. Sixteen samples, all different, $1.00. All prepaid. Safe delivery guaranteed. Particulars free.

Address, Home Art Co., Box 114, College View, Neb.

In Papal Lands.

Papal lands also present an open door. Here for many centuries the Protestant missionary has been as effectually shut out as from any part of the heathen world. Fifty years ago, whoever expected to see Italy free to the Gospel, and even the Eternal City occupied by forty Protestant centers? Or the land of the Inquisition permitting Bible-carts on the streets of Madrid? What a marvelous work Robert W. McAll did from 1872 when he opened his first “salle” in Belleville until twenty years later when failing health drove him to England! Think of one man establishing a chain of 130 stations from Paris to Rome, and of the French Government making this Protestant worker a knight of the Legion of Honor, and giving him permission from time to time for a new “salle,” on the same principle as establishing a new police station in the interests of law and order!

South America and Central America likewise challenge the Protestant missionary to take possession. What changes since the days of Allen Gardiner in Tierra del Fuego, and Matilda Rankin on the Mexican border! The whole of the Neglected Continent is before the Christian church, from the Gulf to the Cape. Think of the great Argentine Republic with its 1,600,000 square miles and 3,000,000 people; of Brazil with twice the territory and four times the population; of the twelve other States, averaging about 300,000 square miles and a population of a million and a half, and with few if any obstacles to surmount, except the barriers of sin everywhere to be met.

Report from Amoy, China.

By W. C. Hankins

THAT the “Gospel . . . is the power of God unto salvation” when preached in its purity and kept free from the traditions of men is as true in China as in the more enlightened portions of the earth.

This truth we are daily seeing demonstrated in this part of the Fukien Province, which speaks what is known as the Amoy colloquial.

With no other inducements than those held out to them by the Gospel itself,—which, after all, are the strongest in the world,—men and women are taking a decided stand for the truth, altho opposed and often bitterly persecuted by friends and relatives.

There have been eight adults baptized from this province since we arrived here a little over a year ago, while there are quite a number who are observing the commandments, but who are not yet ready for baptism. These we are instructing as fast as possible in the truth of the Bible, and we hope to be able to baptize them soon.

Most of the men who have received baptism were formerly users of wine and tobacco, but, thru the power of God, they gave them up when shown how contrary was their use to the principles of the Gospel.

The work here has shown the guiding hand of the Lord from the start. None have been requested to join us, but one by one, as the Spirit of God has impressed their hearts to obey the truths they have heard, they have come and asked to unite with us.

An incident as to how the Spirit of the Lord is working: Last year a young man in Tsoan Chiu, about seventy miles north of Amoy, read the Sabbath tract by Elder Keh. After carefully studying the matter, he decided to obey, and altho bitterly persecuted by his father and a younger brother, he remained faithful until his death, which occurred a few months later.

This man told the truth to a friend who was so impressed by what he had heard and by the faithfulness of his friend, that, later on, he came to Amoy to inquire further concerning these things.

Returning to his home he told what he had learned to neighbors and friends, and so interested them that in March of this year we received a letter from ten men who desired us to come at once and teach them more concerning these truths.

Accordingly, Elders B. L. Anderson and Keh, and myself went to see them, with the result that there are between ten and twenty who have decided to keep all the commandments of God, among whom is the younger brother who so bitterly persecuted the first Sabbath-keeper in that city.

Thus we can see how “this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations,” in this generation. Even here in China, with her hundreds of millions of people, the good news will spread from neighbor to neighbor, from village to village, and from city to city, “and then shall the end come.”

“Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” For “the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” W. C. HANKINS.

Kulangsu, Amoy, China.

What Opportunity Means.

By Editor

Surely God has set before us open doors in Asia, Africa, South America, Papal Europe, and the islands of the sea. And opportunity means responsibility. Wo to us if the Laodicean lukewarmness and indifference make the Philadelphian privilege and duty to be lightly esteemed and practically neglected. Never had the church a louder trumpet peal ringing in her ears, saying, “Occupy till I come”! Men are needed, money is needed, but above all prayer is needed; for while neither men nor money will fill the gap if prayer be lacking, true prayer will compel men to offer both themselves and their substance. There is no place where a lack of self-surrender and of true liberality is so mercilessly exposed as in the closet of secret communion!

The Bugle Call of Missions.

O'ER the ocean comes the wailing of the millions in the East, Burdened with the heathen's dreary, blank despair; Can we hear these brothers calling, Can we see their sad tears falling, And delay the saving message that we bear?

Chorus: Let us take the message to them as they die in heathen lands, Let us tell them that the Lord is at the gate, Tell them with the Spirit's power That we're in the judgment hour, For their blood will be upon us if we wait.

Hark! a nation now is waking from the lethal sleep of years, Waking her four hundred million hopeless souls. They must hear the wondrous story Ere our Saviour comes in glory, They must know the promise which our heart consoles.

Afric's swarthy tribes are waiting for the Gospel's sweet release From the burden of long centuries of sin; Sick, with hopeless days of sorrow, Blind, but dreaming of no morrow, Knowing not eternity will soon begin.

And the Church-and-State dominions, which for centuries have crushed Like a mountain on the mind and soul of man, Now are losing fast their power, And to freedom one brief hour Now is granted to proclaim the Gospel plan.

Here are we among the people who profess the Saviour's name, And we have a saving message for to-day, And to every tribe and nation, Every rank and every station, We must take it, lest His coming we delay.

A GREAT WINTER RESORT.

Do you know that Colorado, and especially the valley in which is situated the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium, is a most delightful winter climate, equal in every respect to that of California or the sunny South? The tide of winter tourist travel is starting in strongly toward this region at the present time as its advantages are becoming recognized.

The Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium is a well-equipped medical institution, employing the same methods of treatment as the famous sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., and the institutions located at St. Helena and Loma Linda, Cal., and College View, Neb., Melrose, Mass., and Washington, D. C.

The medical staff comprises four physicians—two men and two women—graduates of leading medical schools, together with a large corps of nurses of both sexes.

No tubercular or consumptive patients received.

Special reduced rates are afforded during the winter months. Write to-day for large illustrated catalog, with card of rates. Address, Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium, Boulder, Colorado.

BEAUTIFUL BIBLE MOTTOES.

They are selling everywhere. Three agents ordered 5,000 each. One agent has taken, in less than eight months, 6,783 mottoes. If you send us a good recommendation from the elder of your church we will mail you one dozen on thirty days' time. 100 mottoes, as fine as you ever saw, for $6.00, by mail. Address, Hampton Art Company, Hampton, Iowa.

Branch offices:

812 Seventh Ave., 119 Pearl St., Peoria, Ill. Portland, Maine.

WANT A POSITION?

If so, write me. Room for a manager in each large city west of the Rockies. Work is easy. He will be required to hire ladies and boys to distribute samples and take orders and place our goods in stores and with the jobbers. For terms write to-day to Alfred Mallett, Sacramento, Cal.

Good Books

For Children AND Young People

Gospel Primer

This book begins with an attractive alphabet, each letter of which is connected with some Bible scene. Following that, the word method of reading is introduced, together with illustrated Bible stories. It contains 128 pages. Price in board binding, 35 cents; cloth, 60 cents. Published in German, Danish, Swedish, and Spanish at the same prices.

Making Home Happy

A bright, cheery story in which good, wholesome lessons are taught. Contains 200 pages. Price in cloth binding, 50 cents.

Christ Our Saviour

A graphic account of the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, interwoven with many interesting incidents in His life. Contains 182 pages. Price, board binding, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents. Published in German, Danish, Swedish, and Spanish at the same prices.

Uncle Ben's Cobblestones

Familiar talks with boys and girls about such common things as air, water, sunshine, fire, smoke, glass, coal, salt, paper, matches, etc. Uncle Ben has a very pleasing way of telling about the origin and use of these things. Profusely illustrated. Contains 221 pages. Price, $1.00.

Steps to Christ

One of the most helpful books for young Christians ever written. It presents in a simple and practical manner the steps by which the sinner may find Christ and be made complete in Him. Contains 163 pages. Price in cloth, 50 cents. Published in German, Danish, Swedish, French, Dutch, Spanish, Finnish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, and Bohemian at the same price.

Making Home Peaceful

A companion volume to "Making Home Happy" by the same author. It tells more about Deacon Beardsley's family and how an unhappy home was made peaceful. Cloth binding, 75 cents.

Mount of Blessing

This is an excellent companion volume to "Steps to Christ" and is by the same author. It is an exposition of Christ's Sermon on the Mount. In imagination the reader is taken back to the scene on the mountain-side where He sits with the disciples, and enters into the thought and feelings that fill their hearts. As one reviewer has said, "It is a book for the quiet hour." Beautifully illustrated. Contains 218 pages. Price in cloth, 60 cents.

New Testament Primer

This book begins with an illustrated alphabet and description of New Testament Trees and Flowers; New Testament Birds, and Bible Insects, followed by 31 short chapters treating upon various New Testament incidents. Profusely illustrated in colors. Price in board, 35 cents; cloth, 60 cents.

Our Little Folks' Bible

Nature

A series of complete lessons on nature, taking up the subject in the order of creation. It is designated as a beginner's book in reading, and at the same time to teach beautiful lessons from nature, based on the Bible. It contains 128 pages. Price, board binding, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.

Power for Witnessing

A work on the Holy Spirit. Not an exposition of doctrine, but an exhortation to doing, illustrating by live and interesting experiences the work and use of the Spirit. Some of its interesting chapters are: "Something to Tell," "Ye Are My Witnesses," "Secret of Rejoicing in Tribulation," "Filling and Feeling," "Miracles of Healing," "How to Seek Spiritual Gifts." It contains 200 pages. Price, cloth binding, 75 cents.

Bibles

The publishers of this paper carry a line of Oxford Bibles, a description of which will be gladly sent on request.

Complete Catalog of all our publications sent free on application

Pacific Press Publishing Company

Mountain View, California 285 Salmon Street Portland, Oregon Box 666, Regina, Sask., Canada

God's Advance Guard.

By Editor

ON pages 14 and 15 will be found the portraits and short biographical notes of thirty-two pioneer and noted missionary workers in various fields. Never before was such an array presented in one publication.

Our thanks are especially due to the Revell Company and to Funk and Wagnalls Company for the courtesy granted us in the reproduction of some of these portraits from their publications; from the former's those of Thomas J. Comber, David Livingstone, Pandita Ramabai, Egerton R. Young, Griffith John, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, Christian F. Schwartz, John Scudder, William Carey, and Mary Reed. Several were taken from that excellent set of books "Miracles of Missions," published by Funk and Wagnalls. Others came from England and elsewhere.

We regret that space was so limited as to prevent more extended biographical notes. We have cut out from our original notations till the heart was sick. We hoped to obtain more definite data for some of these than we have given, but all the libraries and authorities to which we have access have been too meager. Some of these names are little known, like those of Ziegenbalg, Schwartz, and Wilson, but we hope these notes will lead to fuller study of these devoted laborers.

Certain impressions have come to us as we have reviewed the labors of these devoted men and women:

1. Nearly all gave themselves to God in the very freshness of youthful vigor. How God accepted the consecration and blessed His youthful soldiers!

2. Most of them had devoted religious parents, who early instilled into their children the love of the Bible and a belief in its truth. The one land where this is preeminently done is Scotland, with its tremendous rigidity of discipline. But of the thirty-two whose portraits are given, twelve are of Scotch parentage, and eleven were born in Scotland. Tho Scotch blood runs in our own veins, we do not believe that the Scotch are naturally more disposed to be missionaries for Christ than are those of any other nation. The reason lies in the love and reverence for the "Buik of God," the Bible.

We regret greatly that we could not place among our portraits those of Samuel J. Mills, the leading spirit of the "Haystack" prayer-meeting, and Bishop William Taylor, a pioneer in self-supporting missionary work in Africa. Mr. Mills left no portrait or likeness of himself save in character, and we have found none of Bishop Taylor.

This Missions Number to Your Friends

By Editor

We regret that at the last moment we were compelled to leave out the song and music we had promised; but we were forced either to omit the music or several of the excellent appeals from the great field. But as good music is everywhere obtainable, and as these appeals stand alone and infrequent, we decided in favor of the appeals—the little messages from the dear souls who are giving their lives for others, living strains, so to speak, in the triumphal march of God's saving truth.

This Missions Number to Your Friends.—There may be many who will wish to send copies of this Missions Number to their friends and relatives. To such we will say that five or more copies will be mailed direct from this office to names and addresses furnished, at the rate of 8 cents a copy. In accepting this offer, please write all the names and addresses very plainly. Papers will be sent promptly on receipt of price. Address, Signs of the Times, Mountain View, Cal.

This World's Missions Number of the Signs will no doubt come into the hands of many who are not regular subscribers to the paper. Such we earnestly hope will become so interested that they will want to join our family and read further on these interesting subjects. To all such we would call especial attention to page 2, where is given what the next six months' issues will contain, together with subscription price, etc. Whether you may agree with us or not in regard to some of the theology which this paper presents, we are sure there will be sufficient in the next year's volume to more than repay you in the helpful messages which the paper will present, to which your hearts will respond. It will be the earnest endeavor of the publishers and editors of this paper to make every succeeding number a special number, of special value and interest to every reader. Your interests shall be ours.

"Left Over."

By Editor

IN almost every printing-house where periodicals are published, galleys will be found headed "Overlay," or "Left Over." It means that there was not room enough in the previous issue, and therefore they are left over until later ones. It does not necessarily mean that they are inferior in any way. Many times they are really superior to those printed. Sometimes they are matter that will keep. Sometimes exigencies in make-up leave them out, so that try as one will, it is impossible to get them in of the length that they are. These are some of the difficulties we have met with our present issue. We did not want to leave over any of the excellent things which had been put in type for this number, but we find ourselves compelled to leave out several excellent appeals from various fields. For instance, from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the appeal of H. F. Graf, the conference president, is omitted. Also from Mr. F. W. Spies on the "Outlook in Brazil." Both of these are in a way covered by the comprehensive article by the superintendent of South American work, Mr. F. W. Westphal. Yet the great South American fields deserve more space than we were able to give. Porto Rico and Central America are also left over. The articles on Mexico and other Spanish countries apply well to these, and yet we would have been glad to present before our readers the appeal of Brother H. C. Goodrich of British Honduras, as well also a little note from the superintendent of the Korean work, F. W. Field. All these are equally good with those we have presented, all of them appealing touchingly, earnestly, strongly, to the readers.

Gentlemen's Dormitory, Washington (D. C.) Foreign Mission Seminary. This is but one of several buildings, beautifully situated in the suburbs of our national capital, devoted to the exclusive work of preparing consecrated men and women in the quickest time consistent with what such a preparation ought to be, for the great needy mission fields of the world. It is, we understand, full to overflowing in this its first year. Catalog may be obtained by addressing Prof. H. R. Salisbury, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.

We wish it were in our power to condense in this little note the appeals from these devoted missionaries in South America, Central America, Porto Rico, Korea, and other mission fields from which we have not heard in time. We had hoped to have space in this number to supplement by up-to-date notes these excellent reports since the time they were written. Wonderful things have occurred in some of the fields. For instance, news comes that the work is established on a good basis in Sierra Leone; a good strong church has been organized. New mission stations have been opened among the colored people of South Africa by the earnest zeal of Brethren Sturdevant and Anderson. New missionaries have gone to other fields. Work in India and China is rapidly advancing. The Mountain Mission Home in the Himalayas is purchased, paid for, and dedicated; and from all over the great field, east, west, north, and south, come songs of victory, in connection with appeals for more workers.

God's great work is onward, and all the powers of darkness can not check it. While He will not force men to serve Him, He will send forth His message to every nation, tongue, and people, and those who try to hinder it, as in olden days, help to spread it more widely. And so in this number we are only echoing forward in a feeble way the ringing cry which comes to us from all parts of the world, that the great everlasting Good Tidings of God is going forward to the nations, strong and loud as an angel's cry, and souls in darkness are responding to it. Let us be glad and rejoice.

Issue Pricing and Bulk Rates

By Editor

The price of this issue is, single copies, 10 cents; 5 or more copies mailed direct from this office to names and addresses furnished, 8 cents; 25 to 75 copies to one name and address, 7 cents each; 100 to 400 to one name and address, 5 cents each; 500 and over to one name and address 4 cents each. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

Announcements and Publications Catalog

By Editor

Note announcements on pages 2 and 31. A complete catalog of publications sent on application.