THE church school at Moon, Wis., reports an enrolment of forty-five pupils.
AT the last quarterly meeting of the church in Kansas City, Kansas, eleven new members were added.
SIX members have been added to the company at League City, Texas, under the labors of J. N. Sommerville.
AT Abilene and Enterprise, Kansas, twenty-five converts are reported by Brethren C. A. Beeson and A. R. Ogden.
THE brethren of Montana Conference have started a subscription for the purpose of putting a colporter wagon in the field next spring.
AT a called meeting of the churches of Portland, Deering, and Falmouth, Me., it has been decided to establish a mission in Portland.
THE biennial conference of General Conference District No. 1, will be held at South Lancaster, Mass., November 28 to December 10.
THERE is to be a meeting of the Foreign Mission Board, at its rooms, 150 Nassau Street, N. Y., December 12, which, it is expected, will be continued two or three weeks.
AFTER three weeks' progress the church school at Topeka, Kansas, reports thirty pupils, with a good interest and every prospect of success. It is taught by Mrs. J. W. Westphal.
THE church of Allentown, Mo., was reorganized, October 22, with eighteen members. In connection with this service five persons were baptized by Brother A. P. Heacock.
THE Kansas Worker of October 25 stated that there were already orders in for 6,000 copies of the World's Harvest issue of the SIGNS. Orders were still coming in at that date.
THE church school at Thayer, Kansas, numbering eighteen pupils, is taught by Sister Nora Hiatt. The school at Galena is taught by Sister Stella Secrist. We learn that there is also a good school at Emporia.
TWO CANDIDATES were baptized and added to the church at Poplar Bluff, Mo., October 22, Brother W. S. Cruzan officiating. The church, tho small, voted to take 1,000 copies of the World's Harvest issue of the SIGNS.
FOUR persons were recently baptized at Appleton, Wis., by Brother C. J. Herrman. The Reporter also notes other additions, as follows: At Linwood, four; at Brodhead, two; at Oakland, six; at Milton, one; at Ashland, two.
A REPORT of labor from Brethren C. H. Chaffee and L. W. Terry, in the Workers' Record, notes the conversion of sixteen persons through meetings held at Carrollton, and the addition of five members to the church at Goldsberry, Mo.
FROM the Boulder, Colo., Helping Hand we learn that Brother D. T. Jones, who has been sojourning in that State for some time, has returned to Guadalajara, Mexico, to resume active duty as superintendent of the sanitarium at that place.
IN the Bulletin of October 24 we notice that the Iowa Tract Society had already received orders for 5,000 copies of the World's Harvest number of the SIGNS, and orders were still coming in daily. The editor adds, "The prospects for a large circulation of this paper are favorable."
A REPORT from Union College, College View, Neb., says: "Our enrolment has reached 318, and new students are continually coming. We have a much larger number in the Home than in former years." Another report says, "This is the best year in the history of the college."
THE church school at Spokane, Wash., will be taught by Prof. I. C. Colcord and wife the coming winter. The school at Seattle, Wash., will be conducted by Brother Boorman and wife. Sister Clara Rogers, also of Upper Columbia Conference, goes to Montevilla, Oregon, to teach the church school.
DR. T. J. ALLEN, of the well-known Battle Creek, Mich., Sanitarium, has located in Oklahoma City, and is putting in bath and treatment rooms, which will be ready for use about November 1. The rooms will be complete in every respect, and heated by steam. Office and consultation rooms in connection. Dr. Allen's nine years' experience at the Battle Creek Sanitarium renders him thoroughly acquainted with all the methods of treatment used in that institution. Those wishing to avail themselves of the advantages of the treatment rooms in Oklahoma City can obtain particulars and rates by addressing Thos. J. Allen, M.D., 209 Main St., Oklahoma City, Okla. Ter.
A LETTER from Brother W. H. Thurston, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to the Wisconsin Reporter, says: "Our work so far has been mostly among the Germans and what few English-speaking people there are here, but we are now getting books and tracts, and will soon have a paper in the Portuguese language, and be laboring directly for the natives."
A GOOD report of the camp-meeting at Anoka, Minn., comes in the Worker: "As the needs of foreign fields were considered, many hearts were touched, and responded by raising $200, which was sent immediately to the relief of destitute missionaries, and $400 was pledged, which it is hoped will be realized soon. Many pledged from this time on to pay a second tithe for the support of the foreign work. A real spirit of consecration was manifest."
AS FAR as heard from, the brethren in Kansas have subscribed enough means to send the SIGNS to 1,535 persons for six months. Of course these papers will reach many more individuals than those to whom they are directed, as most of them will go to families. The church at Atchison is sending to 103 families in that county. The conference laborers who attended the Wichita camp-meeting donated a liberal fund with which to send the papers to families in Sherman and Sheridan Counties. This is certainly an expedient mode of working with the "pioneer."
AN appeal from Brother J. M. Freeman, missionary in Basutoland, is made to the South African brethren for assistance in erecting a schoolhouse and other inexpensive buildings. Among other things mentioned are a wagon, and six oxen, which are said to be very scarce since the rinderpest plague destroyed so much live stock in that country. Brethren Freeman and Kalaka met a very cordial reception in their new field from the natives, who are very anxious to have their children taught. Their address is Mount Kola, Mafeting, Basutoland, South Africa.
A SURPLUS of several hundred dollars in the treasury of the Oklahoma Conference is to be used in extending the circulation of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in those regions where there are no churches. Here is wisdom. When a conference decides to follow the Lord's order, and prepare the way for the advancement of the work by sending forth the "pioneer" into new fields, success will surely follow. Consecrated laymen can carry, women and children can carry—yes, even the U. S. mails can carry—the "silent preacher" where the living preachers can not be sent on account of their scarcity. Where the "pioneer" is liberally circulated, there will soon come a demand for other publications, and for the living minister to organize and care for the fruit.
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When you write, please mention the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
THE GOSPEL IN GREENLAND.
WHEN missions were begun among the stupid Greenlanders, it seemed as hard to change them as it would be to melt the ice around the North Pole. They made fun of the missionaries. One stole a Bible and sewed the precious leaves together to make himself a coat. During preaching they would pretend to sleep, and snore, or drown the singing by beating drums. They stole the food and papers of the missionaries, stoned them, and when their food was gone, refused to sell them any. The Eskimos were dirty and low in their ways; the mothers licked their children instead of washing them, just as cats do kittens. At last the Gospel story touched the heart of one Eskimo, named Kayarnak. He drew near to the missionary, saying, "Tell it to me once more, for I, too, want to be saved." From that day Kayarnak's heart and life were changed. Daily he came to the missionary's hut, and sat, with tears rolling down his cheeks, listening to the stories of Jesus. The other Eskimos, seeing his changed life and actions, began to listen too. It must be a wonderful Book which had so changed him. They, too, wanted to be changed. Cruelty gave place to kindness. Sins were confessed, and forgiveness sought. They began to love and even to help others. Kayarnak became their teacher, and even taught the missionaries their language, and helped them to translate the Bible.—Selected.
Methodist Missionary Appropriation
THE Woman's Foreign Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church at its last meeting appropriated $99,000 for this year's work, the largest appropriation ever made.
PERIODICALS WANTED—POST-PAID.
By Editor
Copies of the Signs and tracts—especially on health and religious liberty—are solicited by Mrs. E. J. Popplewell, Albany, Mo. These are distributed from a box kept at a public roadside, and good results are reported.
Clean copies of the Signs are called for by George Bell, San Bernardino, Cal., with which to do missionary work. Can use all he can get.
Late copies of the Signs, Review, and Instructor, for missionary work. Address, L. W. Axton, Jr., Lock Box 84, Norborne, Mo.
Scripture Answers to Worldly Questions
A tract that is calculated to be a help to those who are halting between two opinions. A. G. L. No. 33. 25 cents per 100.
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WONDERS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
Is a 32-page tract. Its object is to recount and describe some of the principal inventions of this closing century, and to show their significance.
It contains fifteen illustrations. Is an easy seller. Price, 5c each or $2.00 per 100.
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New York City Kansas City, Mo.
THE INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER BODY.
By David Paulson, M.D.
THERE is something strikingly real in mind-cure. I had a patient last summer who was doing well—he was recovering rapidly—when a man in a joke said to him, 'How bad you look; you had better speak for your coffin!' That remark put that patient's case back three weeks. So I believe in mind-cure, for a thing that will have a bad influence when used in a wrong way, may have a good influence when used in the right way.
But there must be a reality,—something in which we can have faith. We, therefore, seek to inspire patients to have faith in right principles and methods of treatment; to have faith in the bath-room treatments, in the clean, pure food, in vigorous exercise, and in all those measures and principles upon which they are based, if they wish to be cured. That is true mind-cure. There is all the difference in the world between a lack of confidence in these things and faith in them. When I see a patient full of enthusiasm, staying day after day and conscientiously following directions to the very letter, and saying to other patients, 'I tell you this treatment is doing me good,' I know the battle is already more than half won for him. But when I find a patient who simply has a sort of confidence in the shadow of the institution or in the physicians and the manner in which they look at his tongue or feel his pulse, imagining that there is some healing influence about that, I know that man will be doomed to disappointment.
Above all things we must have faith in a divine healing power which operates in everybody. An abrasion of the skin of the hand is healed by the same power that brings out the flowers and the grass and the bark of the tree; it is the same power that keeps our hearts going and that produces gastric juice. It is that power which cures us, if we are cured.
Dr. Potter says that there is no more clearly established dogma in science than that nature is of itself adequate to cure all curable disorders. Herbert Spencer says of this power, that back of all that we know and back of all that science has been able to discover, there is an unknowable intelligence at work—this is the power that heals us, and not the shadow of a medical institution nor the wisdom and skill of physicians. Great stress should be laid upon these facts.
There is a divine law which says, 'By beholding we become changed.' So if a patient fixes his attention upon this or that symptom, he will soon be quickly rewarded by having it intensified. Some time ago I saw an article in a paper in which it was stated that if we fixed our thoughts upon some imaginary feeling on the top of our heads, we would feel it after a while. I tried the experiment on a class of thirty students, and one-half succeeded in finding the feeling there within a minute.
Sometimes one patient will say to another, 'Haven't you a pain in such and such a locality?' And he at once begins to try to find it, and finally succeeds. Physicians have sometimes done harm by asking questions in reference to symptoms; a patient is asked if he hasn't a certain symptom. He says he has not. After thinking the matter over, the next day he tells the physician that he has that identical symptom. He says, 'I didn't know I had it when you asked me about it, but now I find that I have actually got it.' In this manner, and without intending it, we sometimes create feelings.
We once had a patient whose doctor wrote us that there wasn't much of anything the matter with him, but that he dwelt upon his symptoms all the time. In this manner, by beholding he was becoming changed; he was largely sick because he was thinking of disease when he should have been thinking of health. I saw from his physician's intelligent description of his case in a letter that all the patient needed was a simple diet, accompanied with appropriate treatment, and that he should be kept from talking disease. So I refused to talk to him in reference to his case at all. In a day or two he said to me, 'I am amazingly better.' I said, 'I knew you would be; you were not very sick in the first place.'
The most wonderful thing that can be done for some people is to keep them from talking disease. Such need to be encouraged to talk health, and have faith in the principles and the treatment that they are receiving.
I remember when a prominent judge first came to us a broken-down man; he was a nervous wreck, and greatly depressed; he admitted it, and said, 'What shall I do?' I suggested to him to go into the waiting-room and cheer up some of the patients. He was naturally a very jovial man when well. He took my advice, and went to entertaining the patients, and he did it beautifully. The next day when he came down to my office he said, 'I am in big business now; I don't know as I will take treatment any more, I am feeling so much better.' I assured him that he was taking treatment all the time, while making others cheerful. He kept on improving, and all the while making others feel well. So if there is anything encouraging about your case, think of that and tell others about it; but if there is anything discouraging about your symptoms, don't say anything about it—except to the proper person who should know. Talk health, and encourage others.
Nature is kind, and, so far as is proper and right, and as we co-operate by using her means, she will cure; and, even tho we are sick for a time, there are some valuable lessons to be learned even through sickness, and by and by, if we are true to our principles, we will see that even amid these broken hopes and disappointments, nature desired to teach us some lessons which we could not well afford to lose.
BE YOUR OWN EMPLOYER.
By T.
ONE of the greatest complaints made by men and women in these times is that they can not get work. Is there one class of men that are by nature so constituted that they must find work for all the rest? And, on the other hand, is there another class who can never find anything to do unless some one else gives them work?
It can not be that the foregoing statement of the case is true, yet a great many act as tho they thought it were.
There is nothing that seems more pitiful than to see an old man or woman who has no home and no independent way of making a living, and who has to go from door to door hunting work. It is an unnatural order of things that brings this about.
There are too many persons being raised on the factory idea that you must "find a job" somewhere, in order to have work to do; and if some one is not good enough to give you a job, then you will have to suffer. Children are raised by parents who live in this way, and the children naturally come up with the same idea of things.
But why not put a little study on the subject of employing yourself? Certainly it is much more natural, and at the same time it is very much more pleasant. All may not be able to run a shop or factory, and employ themselves in this way, for there is a limit to the number of factories and shops that can be profitably sustained. But there is a field in which all may find employment for themselves; and that field, too, is the natural line of work for man. And the man who has not been molded in some of these unnatural ways will not be so happy anywhere else.
The sphere that we speak of is that of agriculture. A man who has from two to forty acres of land, owing, of course, somewhat to the condition of the soil and location of the land, can make an excellent living for himself and family.
But many will say that the life of the farmer is that of drudgery. This is a slander on the farmer who puts thought and heart into his work. He will need to work hard, it is true, if he succeeds. But hard work may be drudgery, or it may not.
He who works by the day, let it be either in the shop, or factory, or on the public works, or wherever it may be, is required by his employer to be there at a stated time in the morning, and he must stay there until a stated time in the evening. His hours are regulated for him. He has but very little to do with it. If he is feeling poorly, he must be there just the same. For if he is not on hand, some one else comes in to take his place, and he is "out of a job," and his family will have to suffer.
But he who works for himself—who is his own employer—while he will be methodical about his work and will have regular times to go to work and quit, the same as the day laborer, yet he is not obliged under all circumstances13to rigidly follow that rule. If he has taken a cold, or is in any way indisposed, he can take a little extra rest and thus soon recuperate. Many a man is made prematurely a physical wreck because he felt that he was not able at the proper time to take some needed rest and receive some proper restorative treatment.
There are times in the year when the farmer will have to rise early and work hard and late in order to plant and save his crops. But then there are other times in the year when he can take it more moderate, and thus rest up. Indeed, he will find times when he can take several days or even a week or two at a time for some educational and recreative rest. And all the time that he is taking this rest he is buoyed up by the thought that, in the place of his losing by it, he is really gaining; for he is getting rest and physical recuperation, and at the same time his crops are growing and bringing him in something while he is enjoying his recreation.
Now, honestly, who is the one who does the drudging? Is it the farmer, or is it the one that works by the day, and who is all the time filled with nervous anxiety for fear he will "get out of a job"?
It is perfectly true that the few hints that we have given of what may be the life of the farmer are not the thing that we find at all times in the actual practise of farming. But we have seen many farmers who run their business in just that way, and who are happy and independent all the time. But they put thought and heart interest into their work, and of course there is all the time a pleasure and no drudgery in it.
Some people have a great faculty for making drudgery out of everything they try to do. Of course all such, unless they turn from their wrong habits, would make drudgery out of farming. But such persons should not be taken as examples.
We do not think that it may be possible for every one to go to farming, unless many should materially change their minds in regard to it. But we do believe that large numbers who are now crying out because they are out of work, might find employment for themselves by renting a little farm, and then, by study and faithful work, soon get enough ahead to buy a home for themselves.
If there was more thinking done in this line there would be less people out of work, and more happy homes. T.
WORK OF RUM.
By George Paulin
I KNEW him as a sportive boy,
Of age some fifteen years—
A child in sweet simplicity,
A boy in hopes and fears.
He grew to manhood, nature's child,
Of earth's fair garden floweret wild.
Heroic fancies early rose
And reveled in his soul;
Of hopes to quell all human woes,
A glorious torrent roll;
Through beating heart and burning brain
Hope surged and swept, but surged in vain
They pledged him in the flowing cup;
He bowed beneath their cheers:
That fatal draught has swallowed up
The residue of years;
High hopes laid low in one short hour,
Life's glory blighted in its flower.
No mother's tears, no father's sobs
To light that eye avail;
One frenzied blow life records robs
Of an unfinished tale—
A tale that might have been the story
Of manly faith and lasting glory.
—George Paulin.
SHINE IN THE HOME.
BE a light to all that are in the house. Shine where you live. "Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may . . . shine." Phil. 2:14, 15. Eat without faultfinding. Mend the torn garment without complaint. Go on the unpleasant errand without bewailing the necessity. Respond to the call for help cheerfully. Commend often; censure only when you must.
"Papa, I do try to do right; won't you please tell me sometimes when I please you?" a little girl said to her father, who was constantly correcting her.
The lights of kindness, gentleness, patience, and consideration should never go out. We should keep the light of a holy example always burning.
A boat went out to sea, carrying a father and a daughter. A terrible storm came up as they were hurrying back. The coast was dangerous. The mother lighted a lamp and started up the worn stairway to the attic window. "It won't do no good, mother," the son called after her. But the mother went up, put the light in the window, knelt beside it and prayed.
"It won't do no good, mother," the son called after her.
Out in the storm the daughter saw a glimmer of gold on the water's edge. "Steer for that," the father said. Slowly but steadily they came towards the light, and at last were anchored in the little sheltered harbor by the cottage.
"Thank God!" cried the mother, as she heard their glad voices and came down the stairway with the lamp in her hand. "How did you get here?" she said.
"We steered by mother's light," the daughter answered, "tho we did not know what it was out there."
"Ah!" thought the boy, a wayward boy, "it is time I was steering by my mother's light," and ere he slept he surrendered himself to God, and asked Him to guide him over life's rough sea.
Months went by and disease smote him. "He can not live long," was the verdict of the doctor; and one stormy night he lay dying. "Do not be afraid for me," he said as they wept; "I shall make the harbor, for I am steering by my mother's light."—Selected.
MATERNAL AFFECTION.
MEN talk of the silver cord of friendship, of the silken ties which bind young lovers together, of the pure affection of husband and wife, as if they were as durable as adamant and as pure as the love of angels. But a hasty word, a thoughtless action, or a misconstrued expression may break the first; a slight neglect, some inconsistency, or a trifling favor denied may sunder the second; and even the last may be destroyed, for the green-eyed monster may find some entrance and blight the fairest flowers of this sweetest earthly paradise.
But there is a love which neglect can not weaken, which injury can not destroy, and which even jealousy can not extinguish. It is the pure, holy, enduring love of a mother. It is as gentle as the breeze of evening, firm as the oak, and ceases only when life's last gleam goes out in death. During all the vicissitudes of this changing world, in sickness or in sorrow, in life or in death, in childhood's halcyon days, in youth's untroubled hour, or in manhood's vigorous prime, the mother clings with the same unwearied affection to her child.—Selected.
A UNIQUE JOURNAL
By Editor
The AMERICAN SENTINEL is unique among all the papers published in the United States, in that it is the only journal devoted exclusively to the interests of Religious Liberty—Christian and Constitutional.
LIBERTY! LIBERTY!
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CHRIST AND THE SABBATH: Or Christ in the Old Testament and the Sabbath in the New, by Elder James White. Paper covers, fifty-six pages, sent post-paid for ten cents.
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1 "AND as He went forth out of the temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, behold, what manner of stones 2 and what manner of buildings! And Jesus said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left here 3 one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down. "And as He sat on the Mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately."
3 "And as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things 4 be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end 5 of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. For many shall come in 6 My name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many 7 astray. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for these things must needs come to 8 pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be 9 famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these 10 things are the beginning of travail. Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you; and ye shall be 11 hated of all the nations for My name's sake. And then shall 12 many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall 13 hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and 14 shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come. 15 "When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, 16 which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the 17 holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them 18 that are in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him that is on 19 the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in 20 his house; and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath."
NOTE.—The texts inclosed in marks of parentheses, while not essential to the lesson study, will be found to throw much light upon the lesson, and are suggested for those who wish to study further.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
Upon departing from the temple to what did the disciples call the Saviour's attention? Mark 13:1. (Luke 21:5.)
What prediction did Jesus make in reply to these observations? Verse 2.
To what place did they go? Which of the disciples questioned Jesus concerning His prediction? Verse 3. (Luke 21:7.)
What was involved in the questions asked? Matt. 24:3. Note 1.
Why was this caution necessary? Verse 5. See note 2.
What further caution did He give them relative to His second coming? Verse 6.
What events did He mention as marking the beginning of sorrows? Verses 7, 8. (2 Chron. 15:6; Luke 21:11.)
What would be the experience of Christians during that period? Verses 9, 10.
What did Jesus say of false prophets? Verse 11. (Matt. 7:15-20.)
What was to be the effect upon God's people of all this iniquity? Verse 12.
What precious promise is given to the faithful? Verse 13.
Before the end of the age, what must surely take place? Why is it necessary? Verse 14. (Acts 1:8.)
Having traced events in a general way to the end, with what does Jesus begin to specify the events to reach to His coming? Verse 15. (Mark 13:14; Luke 21:20; Dan. 9:27.)
What were Christians to do when this sign appeared? Verse 16.
How much haste were they to manifest in their movements when the time was indicated? Verses 17, 18.
Between the time of the Saviour's prediction and the occurrence of the events predicted, over what two points were the disciples constantly to pray? Verse 20.
Side Lights.—"Desire of Ages," chapter 69.
NOTES.
1. Tell us.—Three questions were asked, involving the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, which the disciples believed would stand until the end of all things, the sign of Christ's second coming, and the end of the age. Christ took up first in His answer the end of the world, or Gospel age, and treated that in a general way. He then spoke of the destruction of the temple as the beginning of a series of events which are to terminate in His coming.
2. I am Christ.—That is, men would proclaim themselves the Anointed, and by certain signs and wonders lead many to accept their statements for truth. See Matt. 24:24. This has ever been a favorite method employed by Satan to mislead honest souls.
