Earlier text: The Modern BedroomI HAVE recently made three trips up the Rio Grande River, taking orders and delivering books. It takes about eight or nine hours to make this trip by small steamers from Guayaquil. These trips were interesting ones. Baboyo, where I went, was once the third town of importance in Ecuador, but since the railroad has advanced into the interior, nearly all freight and passengers go by rail, which is much quicker. After arriving at Baboyo the first time, I went to work taking orders. The Lord helped me in securing several orders for “Patriarchs and Prophets.” The next trip, to deliver, was more interesting than the first. All to whom I went, took the books. The first man took two. Besides not having enough books to fill the orders, I took more orders than on the first trip, something that I never did before. My third trip was the most interesting of all. On board the steamer there was an American who belongs to a syndicate that has many natives killing alligators for their hides. As the steamer stopped at his place, we saw the skins of hundreds of these animals ready to ship to the States. On board there was a Catholic priest, also a man with him who seemed to be the sexton. Both of these read their “missal” much of the time during the voyage. After offering my books to the passengers, I gave all a tract to read. The sexton took the tract that the priest was reading, and threw it overboard. I told the priest he had him well trained. One of the passengers asked for another tract, and on hearing that, this young man yelled out, “Deliver us from the works of the devil!” Not thinking that he would bother me any more, I took very little notice of him, but on turning my back a Bible was gone — overboard of course. After this I kept my eye on my books and on him. He watched me very closely. I tried to talk to him in private, but to no avail. Sometimes these young men can be convinced. One in the same business who treated me in a similar manner in Chile was convinced in a few minutes. The principal of the boys' school in Baboyo treated me very kindly, he and one of his teachers each buying a copy of “Patriarchs and Prophets.” After school they listened attentively to a reading on the coming of Christ in this generation. The words from the Bible seemed to make quite an impression on the four teachers present. A young druggist of that town offered me a hall in which to hold meetings; he also offered to bring his friends to the services. This is the first offer of the kind that I have had since coming to Ecuador, and I am thinking and praying about going back and starting a series of meetings there. My heart is rejoiced to hear that Brother Casebeer is coming to Ecuador. I wish to thank all the brethren who have sent me papers to distribute among the English-speaking people. Kansas Camp-Meeting
By E. T. RUSSELL
THE ninth session of the Kansas Conference was held at Hutchinson in connection with their State camp-meeting, August 24 to September 4. The camp was located on the county fair-grounds at the north limit of the city. Quite a large delegate representation was present, and about eight hundred of our people were encamped on the ground. The night meetings were devoted to the presentation of the principles of the message that has made us a separate and peculiar people. The laborers present from outside the conference were Elders G. A. Irwin, K. C. Russell, H. Shultz, and Profs. C. C. Lewis and G. A. Grauer. Elder Irwin called the attention of the people to Sister White's new book, the "Ministry of Healing," which has been donated by the author for the relief of sanitariums and the establishment of the medical work in new localities. The Kansas Conference will enter upon a vigorous campaign for the sale of the book, that the truth which it contains may be placed before the people, and also for the benefit of the Kansas Sanitarium. One day was devoted to the interest of sanitarium work, and health principles were ably presented by Dr. B. E. Fulmer, medical superintendent of the Kansas Sanitarium. A call was made for means with which to assist the sanitarium, and about five hundred dollars in cash and pledges was received. Elder Shultz and Professor Grauer labored in the interest of the German work, and most excellent meetings were reported, and several conversions. A call was made by these brethren for means for foreign mission work, and about three hundred and fifty dollars was raised. They also sold a large amount of German literature. James Cochran, manager of the Pacific Press Branch, Kansas City, Mo., had charge of the book tent, and several hundred dollars' worth of literature was sold on the ground. The work for the young people was conducted by Elder L. F. Trubey, and the children's meetings by Sisters Hiatt and Humphrey. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, I. A. Crane; Vice-President, H. F. Ketring; Secretary and Treasurer, Miss Florence P. Rice; Educational Secretary, I. C. Sultz; Sabbath-school Secretary, Mrs. Dora Meyer; Traveling State Agent, F. L. Limmerick; Conference Committee, I. A. Crane, H. F. Ketring, J. G. Hanhardt, A. R. Ogden, I. F. Thorn, L. F. Trubey, and B. W. Brown. L. N. Muck, editor of the Christian Record, our paper for the blind, was present one day, and presented the needs of the work for the blind, and about fifty dollars was subscribed for the same. On the first Sabbath revival services were held, and about one hundred and twenty-five came forward in response to the call for consecration. On the following Friday and Sabbath, revival services were conducted by Elder K. C. Russell, and a goodly number responded to the invitation to give their hearts to the Lord. Prof. C. C. Lewis, president of Union College, was present, and gave interesting talks on the subject of Christian education. Near the close of the meeting about sixty followed their Lord in baptism. As the result of the camp-meeting many souls obtained a new experience in the things of God, and a firmer hold on the message which we as a people hold so dear. May the benediction of God rest upon the work of that great conference in the future. COLUMBO.—The work seems to move slowly among so many difficulties. Oftentimes after we have worked hard and long to bring people up to the point of decision, we see them turn away with an indifference that brings sadness to us. But we meet with some encouragement, and we know that God has a people in the East whom he desires to gather unto himself. We have our little Sabbath-school each week, and we enjoy the lessons prepared for this new quarter. We also have a Tamil Bible class each Sabbath, at which the Tamil Sabbath-keepers are present. I do wish you could see this class. I think there can not be another like it in the world. We have just completed our furniture and fittings for the tent, and now we have two hundred good, strong, portable chairs, which are our very own. I know the Lord has greatly blessed us in preparing these things at such a small cost. This month we have had an organ given us, for which we are indeed thankful. Before this reaches you, we shall in all probability have opened our tent effort. How I do wish we could have begun with a little more help! We are all alone, with the exception of Elder Owen, who has been with us for over two months. However, we are going forward; for the Lord can bless with many or with few. We pray that many may respond to the invitation to attend. This work and this truth grow more precious to us every day. We hope to be spared to labor among these people until the work shall be finished. I am learning the language, and am just beginning, after five months’ study, to know how to read a little. Tamil is much more difficult than Hindustani, and is not such a beautiful language, but it is a language representing a large and influential people. It is of the utmost importance that some one learn the vernacular, for the purpose of interpreting and translating. We sincerely trust that the revival of the true missionary spirit which was so much in evidence during the meetings of the General Conference, may become fruitful in answering the need of these foreign fields in which we labor. We have confidence that you will arrange for the sending out of additional laborers as soon as you possibly can do so. Until then we are determined to go forward with just as much as we can do, ever praying that help, experienced help, may soon arrive to strengthen our hands in bringing the light of present truth to those who are sitting in darkness. Trust God with the Results
“If Christ is at the helm, why should we be running about the deck in distress lest the vessel should sink? Duty belongs to us, results to God. Then let us work and wait and trust, cast our burdens on the Lord, leave them there, and go right on with our work.” A WRITER in the Pictorial and Dart, a weekly paper published in Birmingham, England, gives his impressions concerning the annual meeting of the British Union Conference which was held in the suburbs of that city. He says that “four large tents are set up in leafy glades, and here for ten days, from early morn to dewy eve, three hundred delegates of an American religious sect known as ‘Seventh-day Adventers,’ hold a ‘religious picnic’ in homely fashion.” After giving a brief account of the arrangements for the meeting, including a reference to the vegetarian bill of fare at the dining tent, the writer says:— “The sect I was told was founded about sixty years ago in the United States, and has branches all over the world. “Delegates are at King’s Heath from the north, south, east, and west of England, from Germany, Cape Town, and America.18 “A visit to the camp at Springfield Road should be an interesting experience to every thinking man and woman, for a study of the religious thoughts and beliefs of others is dull only to those with no soul or imagination. “The idea of a ten days’ religious picnic is one that has great possibilities. “And the thought was irresistible that if the churchmen and the dissenters wish to reach the masses, they must begin by open-air services, where there is the least possible ceremony, but the great fervor of conviction. “But for their insistence about the seventh day as the proper Sabbath, and the great point they make about the early second advent, they might be earnest Wesleyans or Church Missioners. “The speaker on Sunday morning was Elder Daniells, of Washington, U. S. A. He is an orator of a quiet but engrossing style, a born word-painter. He held his audience for forty minutes by a graphic account of the history of the prophet Daniel and his dealings with the Babylonian king, following out the history of that empire and those which followed it down to the present day. “His allusions to palmistry, a fraud as he called it, but the success of which showed the great human anxiety to know the future, was only surpassed by his graphic description of his visit to the great painting by Michael Angelo, at St. Peter’s in Rome. The grand panorama of the birth and life and future of the human race had proved confusing to him when he first beheld it; but when he grasped the sublime subject, the figures and their story stood out like a real and living vision. “The Seventh-day Adventers are a body bound in closest social ties by a creed which brings out intense human sympathies, and their persecution is only another element which stimulates, as it always does, religious fervor. “After all, the Seventh-day observance is only the same drawback which is surmounted by all devout Hebrews, but it is a sufficient distinction to cause them some inconvenience, and to mark them off sharply from other sects, with which in other things they agree. “The hymns are those of Moody and Sankey, and accompaniments are rendered by a cornet and two pianos. “In the sunny mornings, with the sides of the tent up and a background of green pasture, a leafy fringe of oaks and elms and the blue sky above, the service is conducted in enchanting surroundings, and would move the dullest soul by its poetic beauty.” Western Washington Conference Proceedings
By W. C. Raley
In the meetings of the fourth annual session of the Western Washington Conference held in connection with the camp-meeting at Green Lake, Seattle, Wash., Aug. 24 to Sept. 3, 1905, the following business was transacted:— Upon written request, it was voted that the two churches of Startup and Sedro Woolley be accepted and recognized by the conference as regular church organizations. The organization at Hoquiam was disbanded, inasmuch as the members of that church had all, or nearly all, withdrawn their membership, and placed it in the organization at Aberdeen. Ministerial credentials for the ensuing year were granted to E. L. Stewart, W. W. Sharp, W. F. Martin, W. C. F. Ward, A. J. Stover, H. C. J. Wollekar, T. Godfrey, and T. H. Watson; ministerial licenses to W. J. Boynton, O. E. Davis, Joel C. Rogers, and J. E. Van De Mark; and missionary licenses to David Dodge, W. H. Coffin, R. R. Reinhold, E. L. MacLafferty, Jack Johnson, J. A. Bartow, Mrs. W. W. Sharp, Mrs. M. E. Watson, and M. Belle Shryock. Among the recommendations adopted are the following:— “Whereas, A good degree of prosperity has attended the work during the past year; therefore,— “Resolved, That we thank God and take courage, endeavoring by increased faithfulness and greater diligence to testify the gratitude of heart that we feel for all the Lord’s benefits toward us. “Whereas, An immediate demand exists for an intermediate school in the southern part of this conference; therefore,— “Resolved, That we recommend the completion of such a school at Manor; and that we further recommend that the additional sum of two thousand dollars be raised as soon as possible for providing necessary facilities for the schools at Mount Vernon and Manor. “Resolved, That our intermediate schools be placed under the management of local boards of five persons each to be selected by the conference or by the conference committee, and be responsible to said committee. “Resolved, That we place the workers of the Western Washington Conference at the disposal of the General Conference to be used in foreign and other needy fields; and that such workers as are accepted by the General Conference be supported by our tithes until such time as by mutual understanding such support shall cease. “Whereas, We are told that the duty of maintaining the work for the colored people of the South devolves upon the people of the North equally with those of the South; therefore,— “Resolved, That we recommend the use of the self-denial boxes furnished by the Southern Missionary Society, and the sale of the ‘Story of Joseph’ on a missionary basis, as a suitable means of aiding the mission school work among the colored people. “Resolved, That we adopt the general plan for the missionary campaign for the coming fall and winter, formulated by a committee appointed for that purpose by the General Conference Committee. “Resolved, That as far as possible, our church-school teachers be employed by the conference during the vacation months as Bible workers and helpers in the tent-meeting work. “Whereas, The sale of our bound books is a very important part of the work of disseminating present truth,— “Resolved, That an earnest effort be put forth for a revival of the canvassing work in the Western Washington Conference. “Whereas, Our Sabbath-school work has met with good success during the year that is past; and, whereas, we desire to continue this good work in every way possible; therefore,— “Resolved, That we hold at least one Sabbath-school convention in each conference district during the coming year. “Whereas, Our young people’s work is growing in importance, and should have our hearty support and co-operation; therefore,— “Resolved, That a young people’s convention be held in connection with each Sabbath-school convention.” By vote the constitution of the conference was amended as recommended in the following report of a special committee appointed to make the necessary recommendations:— “Your committee appointed to present necessary amendments to the constitution presents the following recommendations:— “That Article IV, Section 1, be so amended that it shall read as follows: ‘The officers of this conference shall be a President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Missionary Secretary, an Educational Secretary, and an Executive Committee of five, of which the President shall be a member, all of whom shall be elected at each annual meeting.’ “That the following shall be Article V, Educational: ‘At each annual session of the conference there shall be elected a board of five directors for each of the intermediate schools; namely, the Forest Home Industrial Academy and the Manor Industrial School.’ “That what is now article V be article VI, and the number of each of the following articles be increased by one.” In harmony with a report of the nominating committee, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, E. L. Stewart; Secretary and Treasurer, W. C. Raley; Missionary and Field Educational Secretary, E. L. MacLafferty; Executive Committee, E. L. Stewart, W. F. Martin, J. R. Clark, H. C. J. Wollekar, D. MacLafferty; Board of Directors of the Forest Home Industrial Academy, L. I. Stiles, O. C. Hollenbeck, E. D. Slosson, Eva M. Davis, W. W. Sharp; Board of Directors of the Manor Industrial School, J. R. Clark, A. J. Stover, F. N. Boardman, A. C. Hardy, Charles Lengel; Board of Trustees of the Western Washington Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, E. L. Stewart, W. F. Martin, J. R. Clark, H. J. C. Wollekar, D. MacLafferty. The financial reports of the conference rendered by the treasurer, showed that during the year ending April 30, 1905, there had been received into the treasury $11,961.83 tithe, and offerings for the work outside of the conference as follows:—
Weekly offerings ................. $ 780 29
Annual offerings .................. 716 83 Sabbath-school offerings ......... 822 31
Haskell Home offerings ........... 149 23
Miscellaneous offerings .......... 436 88
Total ............................ $2,905 54 Besides these offerings, more than thirteen hundred dollars had been received as miscellaneous cash donations for the educational and other work in the conference. Full business statements and balance sheets of the conference, and the missionary society, a department of the conference, were given. These, with the auditor’s report, certifying their correctness, were accepted in due form. Western Washington Conference Balance Sheet for the Year Ending April 30, 1905
GAINS
Tithe from churches and Individuals ............ $11,961 83
Donations to laborers .......................... 190 14
Sabbath-school tithe ........................... 149 73
Special Signs Fund ............................ 1 50
Total .......................................... $12,303 20 LOSSES
Camp-meeting expense ................ $ 205 91
Institute, Tacoma, 1904 .............. 46 36
Canvassers’ school .................... 50 36
Labor ................................ 6,857 60
Expense .............................. 1,450 68
Furniture ............................ 12 26
First and second tithes to union conference .... 2,272 75
Personal accounts donated ............ 23 08
Total ................................ $10,919 00 Net gain for the year ................ $ 1,384 20 PRESENT WORTH
May 1, 1904, net worth ............... $ 712 91
April 30, 1905, net gain added ........ 1,384 20
Present worth ........................ $ 2,097 11 Departmental reports given orally by the heads of the departments, showed that the work in all its branches is advancing, and that we have no reason to be discouraged or to slacken the pace. On the other hand, they give every reason for encouragement, and show that during the coming year, we, as a conference and individually, must use every energy for the advancement of the message to every nation. The Wisconsin Camp-Meeting
By Wm. Covert
THE annual camp-meeting and conference for Wisconsin, held at Janesville, August 30 to September 11, is one precious occasion of the past, but it will not soon be forgotten. Its sweet experiences brought a joy into the hearts of many that will abide. The weather was good, and all the environments were favorable for such a meeting. The speakers presented the message in the clearness and beauty of the truth, and it met a hearty response from the people. There were three baptismal services, in which thirty-nine persons were buried with their divine Lord. These, with one hundred and fifty-eight others recently baptized in the State, make one hundred and ninety-seven who have received the sacred rite since the winter passed away. Many were convinced of the truth by hearing the preaching, and some decided to obey it. A very kindly feeling was manifested by the citizens of Janesville toward the work we were doing. On this occasion, Elder C. McReynolds, late from the Kansas Conference, was, in harmony with the recommendation made at the last General Conference biennial session, elected president of the Wisconsin Conference. He was well received by the workers and the people, and entered upon the year of service with courage and gladness of heart. The various interests in the State received proper attention. There was a general consideration of the work abroad; also special study and time were devoted to the work and cause of the third angel's message in India, China, and the Society Islands. Mrs. Burgess, from India, who is at present visiting among our people in this country for the purpose of interesting them in the needs of the field she represents, spoke at the meeting, and solicited help for the mission which she and her husband expect soon to establish in Hindustan. She said she wished at that meeting to sell fifteen hundred copies of the special number of the Bible Training School, and also to raise a small sum of money in addition to the price of the papers, to help found the Hindustan school and mission. The people did more than she asked for, and would have done twice as much had our sister requested it. Miss Jennie Nelson, a teacher who went to the Society Islands from Wisconsin four years ago, but who is now on a short visit to her native State, attended the camp-meeting, and spoke of the school work she is doing for the islanders. She asked our people to purchase shells and other articles which she had brought from the far-away island school. In this way she secured probably forty dollars to help equip the little industrial school which she represented. Of course she could have obtained much more funds for the work she is doing had she asked for it; but as the splendid work she is doing is almost self-supporting, the considerate sister thought best to be modest in her request. The delegates in open conference voted to send B. L. Anderson and his wife to China to labor in that field, and still retain them on the conference pay-roll. This was in harmony with a suggestion recently made by Elder J. N. Anderson, superintendent of the Chinese mission field, that the services of his brother, B. L. Anderson and his wife, of the Wisconsin Conference, would be gladly accepted for the Chinese field if they could be sent to China by the Wisconsin Conference. This action places two more workers in China from the Wisconsin Conference. It was also cheerfully voted to continue the support of Miss Ida Thompson in China, together with the school work she is doing in Canton. Additional facilities are to be provided for the school. The desire is to secure a home so that the students may be brought up under Christian influences, instead of being perpetually subjected to the influence of demon and ancestral worship. The brethren and sisters were encouraged by a report of the good work the Lord is doing in the South England Conference, through the labors of Brother and Sister Ritchie. It was voted to continue the pay of these laborers another year in the field where they are now working. A little more than five hundred dollars was raised in cash and pledges to help pay for some improvements recently made at the Bethel school. Six hundred dollars was also secured in pledges and cash toward lightening the conference obligations on the General Conference Association indebtedness. The enterprise assisted by this last-named item is known in Wisconsin as the Six Thousand Dollar Fund. The load on this line has now been drawn over the halfway mark. It is to be hoped that it will soon reach the terminal point. Others will give a more detailed account of the meeting: I simply wished to make special mention of the things I have considered in this meeting.
WM. COVERT. En Route for Australia
By Ole Andres Olsen
My last report for the REVIEW was written last March after our British Union Conference held in February. Soon after that meeting I made a short visit to Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, in the North England Conference, and Belfast, Ireland. I was glad to find the work prosperous, and our people and workers of good courage. After this tour I returned and visited some of our brethren in the South England Conference. At Southsea, where Brother and Sister Farnsworth and Brother A. E. Bacon had been laboring during the winter, I found a growing interest. Here we had the privilege of baptizing ten dear souls. We are grateful for the blessing of the Lord so manifest at Southsea. We also visited East Cowes, Southampton, and Bath, and had profitable meetings at all these places. At Bath one was baptized and two added to the church. At Newport I met Brother Farnsworth, who, together with Brother Meredith, had visited several places in the Welsh mission field. At Newport all the workers in the mission were gathered, and all joined in a four days' institute, which was very profitable. The Lord greatly blessed Brother Farnsworth in presenting some of the early experiences and underlying principles of the message, to the encouragement and edification of all. In company with Brother Farnsworth, we visited Plymouth, where we had a four days' meeting. At this time three were baptized and united with the church. From here I returned to London to get ready for attendance at the late General Conference. On April 26 quite a delegation from Great Britain started for the General Conference. Of this meeting I need not here speak, as it has been fully reported, further than to say that to me personally it was a great blessing and source of much encouragement. The strong missionary spirit that prevailed through the entire meeting enthused every heart. May we not expect to see the truth go forth with that grace and power that19will hasten its final close and usher in the final consummation? At this meeting it was recommended that I make Australasia my field of labor, and in compliance with this request I began at once to arrange for the move; but it was necessary first to return to England. It was also the request of the conference that I should attend the general meetings in Scandinavia; so I was present at the Denmark Conference held at Fredrikshavn, June 16-19. This was the most largely attended and I may say the best conference yet held in Denmark. All seemed full of courage, and we may expect to see a rapid advancement of the message in that country. From Denmark I went to Sweden, where I was present from June 20 to 24. This meeting was held at Grythyttehed, and proved to be the most largely attended conference our people have held in Sweden; this was also a most excellent meeting. Our time was too limited to attend the Norway Conference, and on returning to London we made all haste to get in readiness for our departure for Australia. During our short stay in England we had the privilege of meeting with several churches and companies, also of baptizing four dear souls at North London, and fifteen at Catford. At this latter place Brother Ritchie has been laboring for some months. By this time, no doubt, others have been baptized and a church organized. On July 12 we took our departure from our friends in London and the work in the British Union, with which we have been connected for the past four years. My experience in the British field has been a profitable one to me personally, and while our hearts have been made sad by seeing some depart from the truth, on the other hand we have been made to rejoice by seeing the truth advance, and a goodly number of souls added to the company of believers. We have also been made glad by the starting of our training college, and the special blessing of the Lord that has attended it, also in the establishment of the health work. Indeed, the blessing of the Lord is very marked in every department of the work, and the outlook for the future is most encouraging. In taking our leave of the work and the friends in the British Union we realize that we are bound to the work and friends there by many tender ties, and our prayer shall be that God's blessing may rest on the work there in a very special manner, and that a rich harvest of souls may be gathered for the kingdom. The call to go to Australia was a very unexpected one, but as it seemed to be the unanimous mind of the brethren, we accepted it as the call of the Lord. Still it was a very serious matter to us on account of the condition of Mrs. Olsen's health. She has been a sufferer for a long time, and during the winter and spring has been confined to her bed much of the time. But we reasoned that if God called us to this distant field, and we believed he did, he would also give Mrs. Olsen the needed strength for the long journey. And in this we have not been disappointed. Every step has been taken by faith, and I wish to say to the praise of the Lord that he has honored our faith in a most marvelous manner. As the journey via America seemed to be the most favorable, we decided to go that way. We made very brief stops at Washington, Battle Creek, Chicago, and San Francisco. At every place we met the utmost kindness, and were assisted on our way after a royal fashion. This was much appreciated, as Mrs. Olsen so much needed this attention. At San Francisco we embarked on the steamship “Sonoma” direct for Sydney, August 10. We are now twelve days out, and we are grateful for the favorable weather and accommodations with which we have been favored thus far. At Honolulu we made a stop of twelve hours, and had a pleasant visit with the workers located there. We shall send this back from Pago Pago, which we expect to reach to-morrow. August 28 we are due at Auckland, New Zealand, and at Sydney on September 1. Elder L. A. Hoopes and his family are also on this boat, bound for Australia. What we earnestly desire and pray for is that we may be fitted by the blessing of God for the work he has for us in our new field of labor, and to this end we crave the prayers of God's people. The Work Among the Colored People
By James E. White
(To be Read in all the Churches on Sabbath, October 7) THE annual offering for the colored work in the South will be taken on Sabbath, October 7. The General Conference has set apart this day as the time when collections shall be taken up in all our churches in this country to aid in carrying forward the work among the colored people of the South. These donations, when received, will be divided so as to aid the different departments of this field. Last year a portion of the collection was apportioned to the Southern Missionary Society for its work in establishing and maintaining mission schools in various portions of the Southern Union Conference. Another portion was given to the support of the training-school at Huntsville, Ala. A third portion was given to the medical work among the colored people. The division of these funds is in the hands of the Southern Union Conference, which will apportion the money according to the needs of different branches of the colored work. All branches of the work for the colored people are in distressing need of all the aid that can be given. The Training-School at Huntsville
Last year a special effort was made to place this school upon vantage-ground. Great improvement was made upon the place, and the efficiency of this school is now much greater than it ever has been before. The present condition of the grounds and of the buildings is such as to teach object-lessons to the pupils which will be of great value to them in all their future life-work. But the work for this institution has just begun. A water system must be supplied to the place. Bath rooms must be put in operation. This school must not be allowed to fall behind, in equipment and efficiency, other schools for colored people operated by other denominations. Every teacher and worker before going to the field should have a training in simple treatments, practical hygienic cookery, and housekeeping. To no other workers are these requirements so essential as those who go out as instructors among the colored people in the South. Some thorough preparation must be made, and funds are required to fit up for this work. The Southern Missionary Society
This organization has in charge the mission-school work for the colored people. We must be pardoned if we express our opinion that perhaps this is the most important of all lines of work among the colored people in the South. Early in the history of the work we were instructed that not much could be done in the way of ordinary preaching, but it is through mission schools and house-to-house work that the most success can be attained. Through ten years of experience the correctness of this instruction has been demonstrated over and over again. Beginning in some place with a tent effort, or with preaching in some church, stirs up the ministers to opposition, and the people make decisions against the truth before they have an opportunity to investigate. On the other hand, school work pleases everybody. It does not awaken prejudice, and the teachers make friends in the homes of the pupils. Gradually the truth accompanies the work of teaching, and in quite a short time a church is raised up as the result of school work. In fact, every school established so far has resulted in the organization of a church. After a work is thus established in a place, it can be followed by tent work or other ministerial labor to good advantage. From the foregoing it will be seen that among the colored people of the South the mission-school work occupies a place similar to the tent-meeting or course of lectures given in schoolhouse or church in the North. In counting the cost it is demonstrated that the expense of this work, according to results accomplished, is much less than it is in the North as now being conducted. And a long time ago the word came to us that “this is the most fruitful field.” The success of the work demonstrates that nowhere in the North is there as much fruit gathered according to the labor and money expended as can be shown in this field. The Southern Missionary Society is the pioneer in this work. It goes ahead and builds small schoolhouses, which are also used as churches. Companies of Bible-reading Christians are raised up, and taught to read the Word of God for themselves, and the most promising ones are then chosen to be sent to the training-school at Huntsville to be fitted for workers among their own people. A united effort in all our churches ought to result in raising quite a goodly fund at this October offering. In a recent conversation with Elder I. H. Evans,20he said that he hoped that not less than ten thousand dollars would be raised as the result of this offering. This can be easily done if all our churches will lift together; and what a blessing it would prove to this important work in this needy field! It can be done if all the church elders will properly present this matter before their churches. A united effort is always successful among our people. There are demands at the present time for more than twelve new mission schools, and other demands are also important. Shall we all lift with our might at this time so that the work can go forward with a greater impetus than ever before?