Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 28. (7/15/1909)

Review and Herald

Jul 15, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1909

Wait for God

By Edgar C. Mason

O soul, so sore oppressed And fraught with pain, So burdened and distressed With struggles vain, Thy struggling cease, and fix thy hope in God, And meekly bow beneath the chastening rod, And wait for God.

Thy soul must needs be still, And patient wait; God’s holy, sovereign will Shall fix thy fate; The holy things of God belong to God; Thy constant part to pray and hope and plod, And wait for God.

If thou hast wrought and prayed, As if in vain, Let no rash zeal invade God’s own domain; Thy part to plant and till the stubborn sod, And keep the path that patient faith has trod, And wait for God.

To wait is not of sloth, But doing well; For faith and works are both The powers that tell; Thine is to be and do thy very best, And leave with God to be and do the rest— But wait for God.

— Edgar C. Mason.

THE WORK

By Editor

— AND —

THE WORKERS

Brother R. G. Spohr, of Indiana, has just telegraphed a rush order for 2,000 July Life and Health for his periodical scholarship company.

Miss Hattie Hamer, one of our church-school teachers in Michigan, sends us an order for 1,875 copies of Life and Health, Liberty, and the Protestant Magazine,—625 copies of each to be sold in three of Michigan’s largest cities.

There is no better teacher than nature. Man can learn many good things from animals and insects. “Elo the Eagle” and “My Garden Neighbors” are two good books for children to read. “My Garden Neighbors” sent, post-paid, $1. “Elo the Eagle,” $1.

“Surely the July Life and Health is the best yet,” writes Brother Milton K. Dymot, of California. “Everybody says so. Please send 100 copies to —, post haste. I will delay an urgent trip till they arrive. So please rush! Enclosed find check for $4.” We are receiving nothing but praise for the July number. Have you ordered your supply? The edition of 80,000 copies is fast melting away. Send $1 for 25 copies, or $4 for 100 copies.

We again call attention to that excellent, rare book entitled “The Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia,” by Charles F. James; 272 pages; $1.25. This book traces the history of religious liberty through three periods: Before the Revolution; during the Revolution, and after the Revolution. It cites the important part taken in this great movement by such men as George Washington, as against those favoring church and state union. Every reader of the Review should study this book on the struggles for religious liberty in Virginia. Only $1.25, post-paid.

A prominent attorney in New York City sends us $1.10 for four yearly subscriptions to the Protestant Magazine. He wishes the magazine sent to his friends, one of whom is an ex-presidential candidate. He writes: “It has taken me some time to complete a study of the Protestant Magazine. Every article was well worth the time and energy spent upon it. To my mind ‘Our Theses’ is a masterpiece. I think your magazine has sufficient field to be issued monthly instead of quarterly. Its title should cause a considerable sale. To —, you may write a letter, stating that I am having it sent to him, and that I intended sending him a marked copy, but decided I would have to mark the entire copy, and therefore asked that he read the entire magazine.” This magazine presents to our people a virgin field in which to do self-supporting work.

“I received the 25 copies of Life and Health yesterday,” writes a lady from Montana, “and sold ten after supper. Please send 50 more. Find enclosed $2. Will want 100 of the July number.”

“We have just finished selling our first thousand magazines,” write Miss Augusta Blosser and Miss Randall, of Missouri. “We have certainly had some good experiences while selling them.” These ladies are selling Life and Health and the Protestant Magazine, and are doing good work.

No Sabbath-school is complete without a kindergarten department and a kindergarten outfit. A little money invested in a few essentials for entertaining, interesting, and impressively instructing “the babes of the flock,” will bring rich returns in a devoted youth of the church. Our kindergarten outfit consists of an instruction book, “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones,” three boxes of illustrating materials, seven small chairs, a small folding table, and a copy of Blackboard Sketches—a complete set for only $12.50 plus freight. About 24 cents a week for one year will pay for a set that will last the Sabbath-school indefinitely. It will hold the children’s attention, impress the lesson, reduce the worry and trouble of the teacher, and add much in making the Sabbath-school the children’s delight. Orders may be sent to any State tract society.

Brother H. B. Tucker, secretary-treasurer of the Central New England Tract Society, has just sent us an order for 1,000 copies of the Temperance number of the Youth’s Instructor. He writes: “We have a young man here on the camp-ground working in the interest of the Temperance number of the Youth’s Instructor. Very soon you will receive an order for 500 copies from Mrs. —. She is the president of the W. C. T. U. of —. This order comes through the effort of this young brother.” This special issue of the Youth’s Instructor is still being sold in large quantities by our agents.

One of our Montana sisters has just ordered 1,000 copies of the July Life and Health. She says: “I go to the houses, and my daughter sells on the street. Wednesday she sold 156 copies; and yesterday, 146 copies.”

“Mrs. Hunt sold 120 copies of Life and Health in seven hours,” writes Brother C. C. Hunt, “and my sister sold 121 magazines. We are doing well, and are of good courage. Enclosed please find money-order for $45, for the magazines we have had.”

The new edition of “Christ in Song” is giving good satisfaction wherever introduced. Its 300 new songs, together with the 650 good songs of the old edition, make it the best selection of choice songs published. “It can not be beat,” taking all things into consideration; for while the songs are the very best that can be secured, its mechanical construction renders it almost indestructible. Flexible cloth, 45 cents; art canvas, stiff back, 60 cents; half morocco, $1.

The Life and Health Leaflets are being used more and more as they become known. A new edition of all the numbers of this health series is being printed. Only a short time ago a large edition was printed. They certainly serve as small “entering wedges” for the great truths of the third angel’s message. There are 10 tracts in the series at the present time. The number and name of the tracts are as follows: No. 1, “Alcohol and Disease;” No. 2, “Alcohol and Poverty;” No. 3, “Counting the Cost of Alcohol;” No. 4, “Is Alcohol a Food?” No. 5, “The Cure for National Intemperance;” No. 6, “Patent Medicines;” No. 7, “Simple Treatments for a Cold;” No. 8, “Some Effects of Tobacco Using;” No. 9, “Pointed Facts About Tobacco;” No. 10, “Pure Air in the Home.” All these tracts are ½ cent each, excepting Nos. 6 and 9, which are ¾ cent each.

The Religious Liberty Series consists of small, yet effective tracts. There are now fifteen numbers completed, names of which are as follows:— No. 1, “Principles Too Little Understood,” 50 cents a 100; No. 2, “Sunday Laws,” 50 cents a 100; No. 3, “Logic of Sabbath Legislation,” 50 cents a 100; No. 4, “The Civil Sabbath,” 75 cents a 100; No. 5, “Civil Government and the Church,” 25 cents a 100; No. 6, “Religious Liberty—What Eminent Authorities Say,” 75 cents a 100; No. 7, “The Church’s Greatest Need To-day,” 25 cents a 100; No. 8, “Church Federation,” 75 cents a 100; No. 9, “Limits of Civil Authority,” 25 cents a 100; No. 10, “A Vital Question—Is the Sabbath a Civil Institution?” 50 cents a 100; No. 11, “What Are Works of Charity and Necessity?” 50 cents a 100; No. 12, “Backward States,” 50 cents a 100; No. 13, “Alexander Campbell on Moral Societies,” $1.50 a 100; No. 14, “William Lloyd Garrison on Sunday Laws,” 50 cents a 100; No. 15, “Sunday Mail Reports,” 75 cents a 100.

Editorial

By Editor

Response of the Conferences

RESPONDING at the General Conference to the call of the mission fields, representatives of home conferences proposed, by resolution,—

That the ten-cent-a-week plan for missions be agitated until the result is attained, adding a third to the income.
That conferences, wherever expedient, by curtailing local expenses, definitely appropriate from one fourth to one third of the tithe to the support of the work in the regions beyond.

That was an enthusiastic meeting in which, one after another, brethren from local conferences gave heart and hand to this vote.

Kansas: “I believe in the doctrine, and am satisfied, from experience, that we shall be none the poorer in our home conferences.”—Charles Thompson.

Central Union Conference: “Two of our conferences have already squared themselves to reach the maximum mentioned, having pledged one third of the tithe. I believe others will do the same.”—E. T. Russell.

Northern Union Conference: “The best way to increase our tithe is to put forth aggressive work in our home conferences. We will build up the work at home, and ask our brethren to go to the distant fields. So we shall have a healthy growth, and we shall give our brethren courage in the home fields.”—R. A. Underwood.

Nebraska: “A few weeks ago we wrote to the treasurers of all our churches, asking them to submit to the people a proposition that we forward one third of our tithes to foreign missions at the close of each quarter during 1909. Out of fifty-one churches we received forty-six replies; and with two exceptions these letters stated that the proposition met with most enthusiastic approval. In several instances members confessed the sin of withholding their tithe, and brought in the Lord’s portion. As the result of this little agitation in our churches, we received the largest tithe ever paid in one quarter, with one exception.”—A. T. Robinson.

Oklahoma: “We propose as a conference to carry out this resolution.”—Andrew Nelson.

East Michigan: “I believe that as ministers and workers we have given too little attention to the ten-cent-a-week plan. We have the inspired Word that it is God’s purpose that there shall be systematic giving.”—E. K. Slade.

Eastern Colorado: “Eastern Colorado has already adopted this plan. I believe this is a move in the right direction.”—J. W. Lair.

Wisconsin: “No other resolution has interested me more. When we strike the question of this message to the world in this generation, the people are interested as in no other question.”—C. McReynolds.

Southwestern Union Conference: “I heartily favor this resolution, and believe it will be the means of interesting many that are not paying tithe.”—C. Santee.

Southern California: “In the United States last year there was raised $797,990 in tithe. Of this amount $105,700 was appropriated to mission fields. We shall not reach the ideal until we include the whole world in the use of the tithe. This will raise the tithe in our own fields.”—E. E. Andross.

Lake Union Conference: “I firmly believe that if our hearts are filled with a love for this work, we can accomplish more with two thirds than we are now accomplishing—not that we have not a love for the work, but as we take hold of it in the way proposed, I believe the Lord will bless our efforts in yet greater measure.”—Allen Moon.

Northern Illinois: “I believe that our own souls, in a measure, depend upon the things involved in this resolution.”—Wm. Covert.

Upper Columbia: “This resolution is good. We ought to pass it.”—G. E. Langdon.

For the Rank and File: “I believe this means more to us than any other resolution that has come before this Conference,” said M. C. Wilcox, of the Signs, speaking not as a conference president, but as one of the rank and file. “It means, if we go back with the spirit of this resolution in our hearts, that we are going to see our people, from one end of the world to the other, stand with us on that resolution. It means that every president of a conference can say to his people: We have more than our own conference on our hands; we have a world-wide field, and it demands world-wide faith on our part to take hold of this message.”

Europe With Us: “I am thankful that this resolution does not say that this shall be done in the United States alone. I believe I speak the sentiment of Europe when I say that we are perfectly willing over there to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brethren and conferences in the United States on this basis. I believe the time has come for this people to move forward.”—L. R. Conradi.

Australasia Shares the Burden: “Our souls have been thrilled with the reports that have come from all parts of the world field. Now I think this meeting is one of the most interesting of them all. It

is the response from the home fields to the calls for help. Australasia will be with you in every forward move. Brethren, this looks much like the loud cry of the third angel’s message.”—O. A. Olsen.

What It Will Mean to Missions

By A. G. Daniells

“I have run over some figures while we have been discussing, and find that fifteen of our stronger conferences pay a tithe of $500,000. Now if these pay one third to missions, after the tithe to the union is taken out, it will come to about $150,000. I have compared the tithe reports of these fifteen conferences for 1903 and 1908, and find that the increase of their tithe during five years has been $147,000. So, after giving to missions one third, they will still have as much for their local work as they had five years ago. . . . And I believe that if something of the earnestness of these conference presidents can come to our people, to spring all to a full tithe, we shall soon have our tithe increased a half million dollars, all of which can go into the mission fields. And when that is done, it will seem that we are in the loud cry of the message, surely.”—A. G. Daniells.

Providential Deliverances

By W. A. S.

An Informer's Lips Sealed

THE Catholic authorities of Leeuwarden, Holland, were making a savage effort to rid the district of Baptists. In 1542 an edict had been published against Menno Symons, a godly and scholarly man, leader of this sect in that time. It was declared that any who sheltered him should forfeit goods and life, and “one hundred gold Carolus-guilders” were promised to any one giving information leading to his arrest. Menno Symons' daughter told of one providential deliverance at that time:—

A man agreed with the magistrates to deliver her father up for a sum of money, or lose his head. One day he went with an officer to arrest him. Menno passed by in a boat, but the man said nothing until he saw Menno land some distance off, and then he exclaimed, “See! the bird is flown.” The officer called him a villain. “Why did he not speak before?” He answered, “I could not speak; for my tongue was held.” The would-be informer lost his head! The sleuth-hound persecutors of Menno Symons missed their prey. He died a natural death at the age of sixty-five.—'Story of the Anabaptists,' by E. C. Pike.

The same God who sent his angel to shut the mouths of lions in Daniel's day, must have sent his angel to seal the lips of the informer.

The Opened Prison Door

Two young Baptist women were arrested in Leeuwarden, Holland, in 1549. One Elizabeth was tortured by thumb-screws, and drowned in a sack. Death by immersion in water seemed to the Catholics of Holland, as to the Protestants of Zurich, the proper method of putting Baptists to death. The other young woman, Hadewyck, was waiting in prison for trial, and perhaps torture and death. T. J. Van Braght, a Dutch author, in his “Martyrology of the Churches of Christ Commonly Called Baptists,” says:—

As she was praying, a voice came to her and called, “Hadewyck!” Looking up and around, she perceived no one, and proceeded with her ardent prayer. She heard the voice a second time, and still seeing no one, persevered in her supplications, until the same voice a third time said to her, “Hadewyck, I tell you to depart!” Seeing the door open, she put on her cloak, and went out of the prison.

She knew not then where she would hide herself, and went, for the present, into the church, where she heard it said by those who were walking there, that the gates of the city were shut in consequence of a female Baptist having escaped from prison without its being known by what means, and as many suspicions were excited that it might be by means of witchcraft, great exertions were used everywhere to discover her.

Leaving the church, she immediately heard the drummer giving notice in the street that whoever should give information of her should receive a reward of a hundred guilders, but that whoever should conceal her should incur a fine of one hundred fifty guilders, which accordingly increased her alarm.

At last she found refuge in the garret of a priest's house, through a weak-witted servant whom she had known, and by whom she sent a message to her brother-in-law, who came by boat to the steps at the rear of the house, on the canal, and took her away. She was spared to work for God many years, and died a natural death at Emden.

W. A. S.

Political and Religious New York

By W. W. P.

Two articles in the June magazines are of more than ordinary significance. One of these, in McClure’s Magazine, describes the control of New York City by a political organization which uses professional criminals to control the elections. The opening paragraph reads thus:—

From 1870 to 1890 the Democratic party was in absolute and natural control of New York City. By reason of great changes in the population, its natural popular majority then left it. From 1894 to the present day—fifteen years—it has been in charge of New York two thirds of the time. In all that period, with one doubtful exception, it has never had one majority of the popular vote at a city election that was not obtained through the votes of trained bands of “repeaters,” composed largely of professional criminals.

The testimony adduced to justify this shocking statement is full and explicit. Names, dates, figures, and places, together with circumstantial details, may abound in an article of seventeen pages, which tells of the shameless traffic in votes with the same definiteness as one would employ in reporting the cotton or grain market. One paragraph, which analyzes the present situation, ought to be reprinted:—

No stranger spectacle has ever appeared than the present organization of this criminal population of New York as professional fraudulent voters. The two thirds of a million registered votes of the city are divided so closely along conventional party lines that only a slight balance is needed to secure control of the government. This balance is furnished by these organized criminals, trained to manufacture fraudulent votes at elections and primaries. And by this means not only the city but the party organization is held in absolute control. The government of the second largest city in the world, when the system is in full working order, depends at bottom upon the will of the criminal population—principally thieves and pimps. The eighteenth-century governments founded on mercenary troops offer mild examples of social decadence compared with this.

In the light of such facts as these, popular government in New York City becomes a farce, and property and life have little promise of permanent protection.

If investigation should show that other American cities are similarly controlled, it will require no prophetic vision to foresee that the stability of these great municipalities is no longer assured, and the effect of such corruption upon state and national governments will be most demoralizing. This is one of the signs of the times.

The other article to which we call attention is in the American Magazine, and is entitled “The Godlessness of New York.” Some paragraphs will indicate the general tenor of this striking article:—

No, there is no lack of money. The Protestants have the money, and they are willing to expend it. More money is put into Protestant church work now than ever before; but in spite of this inflow, the churches have steadily lost influence. . . .

Many church leaders have been seeking endowments, building more churches and parish houses, preaching more energetically. And like any institutional group under pressure, its position has often been one of denial and opposition. Having no power of prophecy, no triumphant message, it has scattered its energies in preaching and working against various minor evils. . . .

All the new devices, indeed, taken together, have not prevented the steady decline of church influence, nor have they changed, as yet, the tone of disheartenment with which many Protestant leaders look upon the situation. A million or more Protestants are still outside of Protestant church influence, to say nothing of the Roman Catholic and Jewish people. . . .

The Protestant churches, as churches, may be said, indeed, to have no longer any very positive convictions or any very definite program. They no longer believe their own creeds, and the old fervor of hostility with which they becudgelled one another (a sign of life at least) has departed. No longer fighting one another, neither do they unite; there is no fire to fuse them. . . .

This is the situation which the Protestant churches are facing. Many of the rich are in the churches: nearly all the poor are outside. The churches feel that somehow they must “get back to the people.” But they have not yet touched the real problem. Here and there a man is crying in the wilderness, crying to a people who are spending their money on themselves. The churches, as churches, have not waked up. . . . It is not enough that men give money, they must give themselves: and the same is true of churches. The churches are still far more interested in having fine buildings, in being Baptists, or Lutherans, than they are in reaching the people. They make no real surrender. A complaint has gone up

from the churches for several years of a lack of young men entering the ministry: it is laid down as a reason that ministers are not paid enough salary. But that is not the true reason: the true reason is that young men of ideals feel no inspiration or vision within the churches. The churches offer them no great message to deliver. . . . Can the Protestant churches, divided among themselves, full of the pride of tradition, and rich in worldly possessions, ever rise to the situation?

Those who see in the present departure from Bible standards and the loss of spiritual power in the churches a clear fulfilment of prophecy, the inevitable result of the rejection of a heaven-sent message to this generation, are thought to be prejudiced observers, and their testimony is often discredited; but no charge of this kind can be brought against Ray Stannard Baker, who has here written down facts and conclusions. “These quoted paragraphs show to what an extent the churches are failing to fulfil their message. How significant are the words, ‘Having no power of prophecy, no triumphant message’! And yet the true church of Christ should have both.”

It can hardly be thought that it was through any collusion of writers or publishers that these two articles should appear at the same time, but together they give a terrible picture of conditions in New York City, and it is not likely that other cities are in a condition to throw stones at New York. The great cities certainly need the third angel’s message.

W. W. P.

Cutting Loose

By W. A. S.

A FEW weeks before the Conference an Ohio brother wrote about Madagascar as an unentered field, asking if there were any plans under way by which he, a missionary nurse, could serve in opening such a field. As the Mission Board had no plans for Madagascar, it was suggested to this brother that he might well consider South America's needy fields, and he was asked if he could go on short notice if a call came.

“At the present writing,” he replied, “we are not in shape to leave on short notice.” He had on his hands a country property, the Mountain Springs Sanitarium, near Cleveland. A few weeks later he was at the Conference, and is now on the way to Bolivia.

As he was leaving, we asked Brother F. A. Stahl how he got free so quickly. He said that he felt he ought not to be so tied up that he could not respond if the call came. He began to look for a buyer. “You will never sell,” people told him, “except to some sanitarium company.” “It seemed impossible,” Brother Stahl said, “to get untied.” But with the conviction that he ought to be free to respond, if needed in lands where there are few witnesses for the message or none at all, he went out into the woods and definitely surrendered the whole situation to the Lord.

Working with his prayers, he quickly found a buyer who wanted the property as a private residence. Thus he was at the Conference, with his family, and with means to advance the transportation to Bolivia at a time when the Mission Board treasury was depleted.

Where there is a will, there is a way—if it is God's way. W. A. S.

Our Business

By C. M. S.

THE eradication of sin from this world, and so from this universe, is a great business. It is God’s business; and because it is his business, it is the business of every child of God. Jesus realized this when he said, on one occasion, “Wot ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Paul understood it when he said, “This one thing I do.” The Christian martyrs of all ages realized it when they faced and endured torture and death rather than be turned aside from the work to which they had consecrated their lives. There is no other such important business undertaking in the world. It lays hold on two worlds, that which is and that which is to come. It reverses the inclinations of the natural man, and causes him to sacrifice the temporal things, in order that he and those who will give heed to his ministry may enjoy the fadeless, the imperishable, the eternal. In this business the death of the witness is an incident, not a finality. Every Christian missionary’s grave is a monument of Christian exploration, Christian witness, in that country. It testifies that the business of the everlasting kingdom has been established there.

Jesus told his disciples that when “this gospel of the kingdom” had been preached in all the world “for a witness,” then the end would come. The bearing of that testimony in all the world was their part of the Father’s business. With that completed, God would crown their work with reward, and begin to do “his work, his strange work,” that must close the history of sin.

But our work is witnessing for God, proclaiming his message, winning souls for his kingdom. The fact that millions will not heed the warning does not in any manner release us from giving it. Every soul will have an opportunity to decide whether he will serve God or not. The Christian’s business just now is giving them that opportunity. Not in the attempt to reform nations by the enactment of laws, not in political machination, not in “social regeneration,” or the proclamation of a “gospel of civic righteousness,” but in the advancement of the cause of Christ through the conversion of individual souls are we, as Christ’s representatives, to find our occupation.

When every land has had the message, then will the end come, righteousness will be rewarded, and the unrepentant punished. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” The manner in which every soul receives that last message will determine the nature of his reward. That being true, how important that we who are giving that message shall give it aright. Properly given, it will regenerate hearts, reform individuals, and bring salvation. Properly done, that work will accomplish every good object that the true Christian can wish to see attained; but the Christian worker who turns aside to “social reform,” endeavoring to reform the state or nation by political means, is out of his element, attempting a work unauthorized of heaven and transient in nature, while he is neglecting the greater and permanent work to which he was called. “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah.” “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.

This is the business that God has placed in the hands of his servants. It will require all the faculties and powers of the soul, vivified and strengthened by the Spirit of God, to perform faithfully all that is comprehended in that commission; and while the graves of the missionaries are, in a way, landmarks showing where that work of witnessing has been carried on, there are great fields yet unentered that must be entered, and will be entered soon. There is a field of sufficient size in the work of witnessing for Christ to engross the entire attention of the whole Christian force in the world at the present time; and the more completely that force is so occupied, the sooner our Lord will come.

C. M. S.

The Chief Qualification

By F. M. W.

MEN must be won to Christ through love. There can be no other motive power. Method has its place, argument and logic may contribute valuable assistance, but these can never take the place of the great impelling power of the gospel, exemplified in the unselfish sacrifice of the Saviour of men. There are men of giant intellects in the ministry of the world-wide church to-day, men who have been skilfully taught in right method and movement, graceful in gesture and eloquent and logical in expression, and yet their labors are fruitless in soul-saving. The trouble is they are legal, intellectual Christians. Their souls have not been touched with the heavenly fire, and their very lives set ablaze with the flame of divine love.

They can appeal only to the intellectual or emotional in their hearers.

He who would lead men to God, must first go himself to the divine fountain and drink. He can become the agent in the hands of divine grace to give only that which he has received. If he has tasted of heavenly sweetness, and found it precious to his own soul, then he can invite others to come and partake likewise. In his testimony there will be the ring of assurance, the spirit of confidence born of personal knowledge, which will carry conviction of truth to his hearers. To such an experience the Spirit of God can witness, whereas it can not work through the dry forms of professionalism.

Best of all is the intellectual culture and the practical Christian experience combined; this is the ideal in the efficient Christian worker. But better a thousand times the practical Christian experience, with the intellectual culture lacking, than all the wisdom and culture of the schools without the saving knowledge of God in the soul.

It is incumbent upon the disciple to make himself, under divine grace, the most efficient worker possible. He should seek the highest culture, the broadest knowledge, the best methods, which lie within his power to secure. But above all else, he should seek that preparation of heart and soul which will enable the Spirit of God to use him as its agent in the accomplishment of the Lord's work in the hearts of men.

F. M. W.

A Chance to Help

By I. H. Evans

Six months of the new year have now passed, and we are on what is called the “home run” for 1909. Almost before we realize the fact, the end of the year will be upon us. It seems only fitting that we pause for a moment and note the financial condition of the General Conference treasury, and determine whether we can do more during the last six months for the support of God’s cause than we have done during the six months just passed.

Nearly every conference has already voted that it will endeavor to raise a sum for the support of foreign missions equal to ten cents a week for each church-member. This is no new idea among Seventh-day Adventists. For ten years we have been talking about this ten-cent-a-week plan. Some of our conferences are already raising this amount each year, while others are falling far behind.

It must be that there are many individuals who are faithfully paying their ten cents a week. Last year we received the largest amount of money in our history from the ten-cent-a-week plan. Yet, notwithstanding the large amount that was raised, it fell short more than $108,000 of the full amount of the ten cents a week from each church-member. That means that either there were 20,770 Sabbath-keepers who gave nothing, or a much larger number who failed to give the full amount.

It takes time to get any plan into operation. We all need patience, faith, and perseverance. Those who are faithfully giving their offerings, ought to be a working committee to encourage other members of the church who are not remembering this donation, to take hold of it and help to carry forward God’s work.

In church-membership and in organized companies, which are to constitute the basis for this pro rata work, we have in the United States and Canada 63,148 members. This means that for the year 1909 $328,369.60 should be raised from the ten-cent-a-week plan. The first six months of 1909 have turned into the treasury of the General Conference from all the fields for that period of time, the sum of $106,596.77, made up as follows: Annual offerings, $21,437.50; First-day offerings, $8,780.55; midsummer offering, $398.22; mission fund, $37,049.71; Sabbath-school donations, $32,321.38; Thanksgiving ingathering, $6,609.41.

Our true proportion at ten cents a week for six months would be $164,184.80. During the coming six months, therefore, we have, in addition to the full quota for the last half of the year, a shortage of $57,588.03 to raise. Surely the demand for funds with which to support this work is rapidly increasing. I am sure, however, that none of us wish it otherwise. Our hope lies in the finishing of the work.

The General Conference pay-roll averages approximately one thousand dollars a day. Every Seventh-day Adventist in the world can understand that for 1909 we will have to produce approximately one thousand dollars a day for the support of our workers stationed throughout the world under pay of the General Conference. Our appropriations for 1909 are by far the largest in our denominational history, and we shall be unable to meet these demands unless we have the hearty support of every conference and all our people in the matter of donations for foreign mission work.

The call for workers in foreign fields was never so imperative as at the present time. Where there is one worker there ought to be ten. We have large territories all unentered, and tremendous demands must be made upon our people for means and men if we expect to man the field within the lifetime of those who are now rejoicing in the message. Knowing this to be the closing message to the world, and believing that our work is to triumph in this generation, is it not becoming us, as Seventh-day Adventists, to apply ourselves with greater faithfulness than ever before in contributing funds for foreign work? We believe that every Seventh-day Adventist ought to systematically pay into the treasury his full quota for the support of the work. It is not a great strain upon the poor, while the rich can give far more than this small amount.

We hope that in every church the envelopes will be distributed week by week, the regular offerings taken, and the matter of the needs of the foreign fields kept before our people, that each one may be induced to do his best to carry his share of the load.

I. H. EVANS.

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