THE sixth biennial session of the British Union Conference convened in the Batersea Town Hall, London, S. W., July 31 to August 4. As the meeting was held at the time of the August bank holiday, when the railways issue cheap excursion tickets, a large company of our people were able to attend the meeting from all parts of the country. Over 1,200 were present. All the workers in the union attended; also Elders L. R. Conradi, J. C. Raft, and L. P. Tieche, and the writer. The president's report showed that there has been a steady growth, the net gain in members during the last biennial period being 412. The tithe also showed a gain of $10,000 over the previous biennial period.
Comparing the year 1913 with 1903, the president stated that the work in the union has more than doubled during this period. In 1903 the total membership was 1,160, the gain since that time being 1,260. The tithe has also more than doubled during this period, and the offerings were seven times more in 1913 than in 1903.
The manager of the International Tract Society reported a total sale of literature during the two years of $140,000, a gain of $1,600 over the previous biennial period. The financial gain of the publishing house during the two years was $11,300. Speaking of the disposition made of the annual gains, the manager said:—
"For years we have paid a tithe of our profits to the British Union Conference, and have also turned over to the general work $4,870 a year. It has not been our policy to pile up money, but to devote whatever can be spared from the profits of our business to the building up of the general work. In this way we have during the last eight years given to the union nearly $60,000."
A short but very profitable workers' meeting preceded the conference session. Elders Raft and Tieche gave valuable assistance in the workers' meeting.
GROUP OF WORKERS IN ATTENDANCE AT BRITISH UNION MEETING
The experiences which Elder Raft related of his successful evangelical efforts in Copenhagen and other cities in Scandinavia, were very much appreciated by the workers.
Elder L. R. Conradi gave a very interesting and encouraging report of the progress of the missionary operations being carried on by the European Division in different parts of Africa; and when a call was made for special donations to these missions, over $1,500 was raised. On Sabbath afternoon Brethren L. F. Langford, W. Maudsley, and B. Armstrong were ordained to the gospel ministry. This was the largest meeting, and one of the best, ever held by our brethren in Great Britain.
The rapid developments of the war in Europe, which broke out during this conference, lent a special interest to the meetings. As the brethren were brought face to face with the grim realities of this great war, they were led earnestly to seek God and to consecrate themselves to his service as never before. On the second day of the meeting Germany declared war on Russia, the following day England called up all her naval reserves. On the last day of the meeting England sent her ultimatum to Germany. Elders Conradi and Tieche both left the meeting to return home as soon as hostilities began.
It was with some anxiety that I awaited the time I was booked to sail for home, August 6; but fortunately the boat left Liverpool at the time appointed, and we had an uneventful voyage to New York. There were hundreds of Americans on the boat returning home, many of whom had been obliged to leave most of their baggage on the Continent and to flee with only what they could carry in their hands. Some had little more than the clothes on their backs. Elder Conradi's last request as he parted from us was that we remember the work and workers in Europe in prayer in this time of trial.
Resting in God’s Love and Power
"WE can never float beyond the ocean of God's love. We can never sink beneath the reach of his power. Environments of sin can never be so intricate but that his wisdom can unravel and loosen their grasp. He is too wise to err, too good to be unkind. We may not at all times be able to discern the workings of his providence, but in the darkest gloom and greatest danger we may rest securely in his love and wisdom and power."
Keeping the Soil of Life Soft
By F. G. Peabody
KEEP the soil of life soft, its sympathy tender, its imagination free, or else you lose the elementary quality of receptiveness, and all the influences of God may be scattered over you in vain.—F. G. Peabody.
LORA CLEMENT
By Lora Clement
Missionary Biography — No. 1
LORA CLEMENT
David Livingstone
On March 19, 1813, a hero was born in Blantyre, central Scotland. It was an age of great missionary activity, and the literal fulfillment of the spirit of the great commission had led Carey, Judson, Moffat, and scores of others to give their lives to the promulgation of the gospel of the kingdom of God in heathen lands. A dozen missionary societies were then in their youth. Interest in travel and exploration was at its height, and the attention of adventurers centered in the Dark Continent, the last of the great unknown regions of the world to be explored. Into the kingdom for such a time, and to do a divinely appointed work, came David Livingstone.
His home was a humble cottage. A rugged constitution came to him as a birthright, for his parents were of sturdy peasant stock. They served God devoutly, and though poor in this world's goods, were honest and industrious, being able to teach their children lessons in economy and thrift which proved of life-long help to them.
David was a merry, brown-eyed lad, and a general favorite. Perseverance seemed bred in his very bone. When only nine years old, he received from his Sunday-school teacher a copy of the New Testament as a reward for repeating the one hundred and nineteenth psalm on two successive evenings with only five errors. The following year, at the age of ten, he went to work in the cotton factory near his home, as a "piecer." Out of his first week's wages he saved enough to purchase a Latin grammar, and set himself resolutely to the task of thoroughly mastering its contents, studying for the most part alone after leaving his work at eight o'clock in the evening. His biographer tells us that he often continued his studies until after midnight, returning to work in the factory at six in the morning. Livingstone was not brighter than other boys, nor precocious in anything save determination. He was very fond of reading, and devised the plan of fastening a book on his spinning jenny in the factory so that he could catch a sentence now and then while tending the machines. In this way he familiarized himself with many of the classics.
In his twentieth year the embryo missionary and explorer was led to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. Out of the fullness of peace, joy, and satisfaction which filled his heart, he wrote, "It is my desire to show my attachment to the cause of him who died for me by devoting my life to his service." The reading of an appeal by Mr. Guetzlaff to the churches of Britain and America in behalf of China, brought to the young student's attention the need of qualified missionaries, and led him to dedicate his life as well as all he possessed to foreign service.
As a surgeon carefully selects the instruments with which he works, so it is ever with the divine Physician; and though Livingstone was anxious to enter his chosen field, providence led him to tarry for a little while in preparation. During this time of waiting he put into practice the motto which in later life he gave to the pupils of a Sunday school, "Trust God and work hard." Having set his face toward China, he had no notion of turning back in the face of difficulties, and finally, after four years of untiring effort, he earned in 1840 a medical diploma, thus equipping himself with a training indispensable for one whose life was to be hidden for years in the fever jungles of Africa. He wrote, "With unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession which with unwearied energy pursues from age to age its endeavors to lessen human woe."
Livingstone also secured the necessary theological training, and was duly accepted by the London Missionary Society as a candidate for China. But the breaking out of the Opium War effectually closed the doors of that field. Just at this time came his providential acquaintance with Robert Moffat. The missionary was home on a furlough, and at a meeting which the young physician attended, stated that sometimes he had seen in the morning sunlight the smoke of a thousand villages in the Dark Continent where no missionary had ever been to tell the sweet old story of redeeming love. This message came to Livingstone as a Macedonian cry, and he willingly answered, "Here am I; send me." The purpose once formed, he never swerved from it.
The change of fields caused some alteration in his plans, and he remained for a time in England, further preparing for his mission with scrupulous care. On Nov. 17, 1840, Dr. Livingstone spent the last evening with his loved ones in the humble Blantyre home, going at once to London, where he was ordained as a missionary. He sailed for the Cape of Good Hope on the eighth of December.
Arrived in Africa, the new recruit immediately turned his steps toward the interior, where there were real things to do. After a brief stop at Kuruman, the home of the Moffats, he spent six months alone among the Bakwains, acquainting himself with their language, laws, and customs. In that time he gained not only these points, but the good will and affection of the natives as well. His door of opportunity had opened, and from the Bakwains he pressed farther north, until, within the first three years of his service in the Dark Continent, he was giving the gospel to heathen far beyond any point before visited by white men.
Both Livingstone and his wife learned early the secret of power that comes from living with the heathen, rather than merely living among them. He possessed a certain indefinable power of discipline over the native mind, which made for orderly, thorough, and effective service. The natives knew him for their friend as well as their teacher. Under his loving care heathen chiefs became Christian leaders of their own people; Christian customs replaced heathen practices; and peace settled down where trouble had been rife.
Leaving his well-established work among the Namangwato, the Bakaa, the Makalaka, and the Bechuana tribes to be carried on by trained native helpers, this fearless man pressed on — always toward the dark interior. When his course was criticized, he wrote, "I will go anywhere, provided it be forward," and "forward" he went.
(To be concluded)
The Song of Victory
By Eliza H. Morton
ELIZA H. MORTON
FROM mighty hosts in days of old a song
Arose,— a song of victory and praise,—
E'en like the voice of ocean waves sublime,
Majestic in their harmony. For then
And there deliverance had come from foes
Behind and from the sea before, and why
Should not the people sing, and all the hills
Rejoice, for God had triumphed gloriously?
And now we hear a song of victory,
A victory over sin within the heart.
Our God hath wrought for us, and we will sing
His praise. What love, what matchless love! O, shout
For joy, ye ransomed of the Lord, yea, shout
And sing! Put sin beneath your feet. Arise
And shine; the victory is ours. Amen.
A greater song of victory will be sung
When all the foes of righteousness have fled
Before the beauty of the Lord, and all
The pure in heart, the Israel of God,
Stand on the sea of glass, redeemed, with harps
Within their hands, and clothed in robes of white.
Their song will be the song of old, and yet,
Far more, the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Portland, Maine.
When Life Speaks
“It is an easy thing to let the lips talk. Words are cheap, and are often spoken without much consideration or forethought. But there is another way of talking—through the life. This is usually impressive. One whose life was clean and noble suddenly joined a company of friends. He never said a word of reproof or disapproval, but for some reason the questionable stories were dropped, and the none too kindly gossip just died out, and very soon everybody was thinking of nice things and saying them about the very ones they had been criticizing just before he came. What wrought this change? There was goodness in his life, and it spoke more loudly and forcibly to them than any mere words of reproof he might have uttered. Learn the lesson. Live a good life, and then it will speak a convincing and helpful message.”
Hints for Home Life
By Mrs. C. C. Lewis
Conducted by Mrs. C. C. Lewis, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.
Through the columns of this department, hints will be given on all matters pertaining to the home life. Short articles and letters are solicited from home makers, telling of their everyday experiences,—their joys and sorrows, their failures and successes.
From a Letter to a Mother
I SUPPOSE by this time you have returned to your home. I regret so much that I was not able to see you again. I think you should subscribe for the REVIEW, because you would get so much to encourage you. You know it is our church paper, and it is just like a letter from home. I could not think of getting along without the REVIEW. I believe that you owe it to yourself to have this paper. I know that you are anxious to send literature to those who do not have the message for this time, but I feel that you need this for your own sake and for the sake of your family. It is right and proper for us to do for others, but we must take the spiritual nourishment for ourselves in order that we may be able to help others; and the reports from the laborers in the home field and in the mission fields would so cheer and comfort you that I believe you would be better able to bear the responsibilities and burdens that come to you.
And you must not forget that you can use the REVIEW among your neighbors, especially on account of its Home department, with general matter in which any mother would be interested. I think that any Christian woman would be interested in the mission reports and in the Home department. So from a missionary standpoint you should have the REVIEW.
I remember what you said about your peculiar trials, and I think it is your duty, just as far as you can without the sacrifice of principle, to please your husband. He does not look at things as we do, and he cannot appreciate your viewpoint; but it is right that you should just as far as possible make yourself agreeable and companionable and helpful. Go out with him where you can go without sacrificing your conscience or your influence for good over others, and invite friends to your home who will be agreeable to him, as far as consistent.
I think of you often, and I wish to assure you of my sympathy. If there is anything at any time that I can say or do to help and comfort you, please be free to write me.
MRS. C. C. L.
What the Home May Do to Save the Children and Youth
By L. A. Hoopes
L. A. HOOPES
Children, home, salvation — what endearing words! What words appeal to our hearts more than these? What would home be without children? and what happiness would there be to children with no prospects of a home? And what a blight there would be if salvation was not obtainable!
Home — what an endearing word! How much it means! Home is the center of the universe. It is where father and mother, brothers and sisters, are all inseparably linked together by ties of love. Do you ask, What can the home do to save our children and youth? Rather, ask, What can it not do? Is there any factor that can be more potent than a Christian home should be? Every phase of its organization constitutes the home a life-saving station.
Home is more than a tent, a cottage, or a mansion; more than a mere building in which one resides. Home is the place where father's and mother's presence has been revered because of so many hallowed recollections. Every nook and corner is dedicated, "Sacred to the memory of the ones who love God, and to whom the law of God is a sacred legacy." Whether at play, or work, or prayer, every room seems to have written on its doorposts "the commandments of God." Father and mother have been there, and God has been revered.
"Father the high priest of the family, and mother the home missionary"! Father's word is alpha and omega to the young, trusting heart of his child. His word is consolation in the hour of grief and trouble. Father knows how to comfort and console. Every true father's heart anticipates the burden long before it reaches his child. His petitions reach the throne of grace, anticipating every real need of his child. An unseen tie links the hearts of both. And mother's place! What child has not felt the tender caresses, the loving touches, unnumbered, of mother's hands? No mortal can take mother's place. Neither time nor space will permit to tell all that mother is to the home. No one language has a vocabulary large enough to record the story.
Do you ask what fathers and mothers can do for the salvation of our boys and girls? — All that anybody can do. The destiny of our children is in our hands. If we know how to win for ourselves in the conflict with sin, then we know how to win in behalf of our children. "Like parent like child" is true to life. With this truism God lays upon parents a responsibility which cannot be placed upon another. Parents must face the situation exactly as it is. The judgment alone will determine how we performed our part. Other responsibilities may sometimes be shifted to another, but this one never. When we took the step of parentage, we, by that act, said that we would be as Godward to our children. Job recognized this when he said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." He "offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. . . . Thus did Job continually." Job did not, could not, feel that his responsibility ended when his sons came to possess houses of their own. Nor can we.
Every means of grace must be put into operation to save our children, and to keep them saved. This is the time. It cannot be put off to a more convenient time. What can we do? — We can pray. We must pray. We must pray for ourselves. We must pray for our children. We must pray for the children whose parents do not pray. Pray until every pure motive is put to the stretch. Then we must know that our prayers are answered.
Our children must know that this is the most serious business of our lives, and that they can never get away from father's or mother's prayers.
We must teach our children to pray. Prayer must be the child's stock in business. It is the great check book on the bank of heavenly blessings. Temporal food is essential, but there is something more essential. Prayer is the great battering-ram by which we demolish all the battlements of the enemy. Prayer is the electric spark that sets in motion the great dynamo of the universe, the Spirit of God. Prayer is the heart's wooing, longing for a better life.
Come close to your children. Be a child with them. Enter into their joys and sorrows. Anticipate their needs and direct their young, energetic, plastic minds. Look upon every God-intrusted gift of your child as a sacred legacy, a talent upon which both parent and child must trade. See that each talent brings definite returns. By and by God's cause has a wide-open door for your child. Its demands are for boys and girls who have made a success.
Far more attention must be given this question at all our meetings than has been given in the past. Is it not time that special parents' meetings should be held, where the salvation of our homes is the theme? How can we rest as long as one of our children is out of the ark15of safety?
Why not make this the time when the Elijah message will be proclaimed in very deed and truth? We cannot complete this message in this generation without our children. God needs them, and we shall not rest satisfied until we see the last one saved who will be saved.
Graysville, Tenn.
The Family
THE family is like a book:
The children are the leaves;
The parents are the cover, that
Protective beauty gives.
At first the pages of the book
Are blank and purely fair;
But time soon writeth memories,
And painteth pictures there.
Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust;
O, break it not, lest all the leaves
Shall scatter and be lost!
— Selected.
How a Missionary Mother Plays and Works With Her Children
By Sister W. R. Smith
[The following suggestions from Sister W. R. Smith, of Korea, are so practical and helpful that I am sure she will pardon me for printing them in the Home department.—Mrs. C. C. L.]
I look back upon the hours I spent with my babies in their play as time very pleasantly and profitably used. I also look forward to the time when our little babe will be old enough to play.
From the time that our little boy was a year old, we were building, at times for several months; so, naturally, from seeing his papa and the carpenters working, he would want to drive nails. As it was in the wintertime, our play had to be in the house. There were only two small rooms, with cracks that let in an abundance of fresh air. He would want to hold the nails for me to drive into a board. A little later I stood the nails in the large cracks of the floor, and soon he learned to drive them quite deftly. When the warm days of spring came, he would sit by the hour on a board, driving spikes into the hard earth with a light wooden mallet.
Another of his chief pleasures was on baking day. I made him a little cook apron. He had a small rolling board, and, sitting in his high chair by the table, could with a bottle roll out his little biscuits or cookies. He never would eat them alone.
I used to roll up his sleeves so he could wash his hands. Then he would show them to me for inspection. If they were not clean, I showed him where they were dirty, and he would wash again and return with the question, "Keen now?" In a short time he could wash his little hands and arms very well. He was only two years old at the time.
On afternoons we often went to the creek near by and threw stones into the water. He would laugh with glee to see the splash, and enjoyed watching the little waves chase one another to the farther banks.
It requires considerable time to join the children in play; but when they are taught to help about the work, it is as interesting to them as play, and in a short time they learn to do things so well that they are really a help.
The Housewife's Exchange
By E. E. K.
To Remove Mildew
To two quarts of warm water add one tablespoonful of chloride of lime and one teaspoonful of oxalic acid crystals. Stir until dissolved. Strain, and dip the mildewed garment into the solution. The stains may disappear immediately, or they may require soaking for a few moments. Put into fresh, clean water and rinse several times.
Gravies and Sauces
Gravies, sauces, and similar foods thickened with flour, are among the most common of the poorly prepared articles of the cuisine, although their proper preparation is a matter of considerable importance, since neither a thin, watery gravy nor a stiff, pastelike mixture is at all palatable. Their preparation is a very simple matter when governed by that accuracy of measurement and carefulness of details which should be exercised in the preparation of all foods.
In thickness, a properly made sauce should mask the back of the spoon; that is to say, when dipped into the mixture and lifted out, the metal of the spoon should not be visible. The proportion of material necessary to secure this requisite, is one teaspoonful of flour, rather more than level, for each half pint of water or stock. If milk be used, a trifle less flour will be needed.
For thickening soups, which should be of a much thinner consistency than gravies, one tablespoonful of flour to a quart of liquid is about the correct proportion. The flour in all cases must be first braided, or rubbed perfectly smooth in a very small amount of the liquid reserved for the purpose (salt, if any is to be used, being added to the flour before braiding with the liquid), and then carefully added to the remaining liquid, which should be at boiling temperature. It should then be continuously stirred until it has thickened. If through any negligence to observe carefully these simple details, there should appear lumps in the sauce, they should be removed before serving, by rubbing the whole through a wire strainer.
The double boiler is the utensil par excellence for the preparation of gravies and sauces, since it renders them less liable to become scorched, and facilitates even cooking.
Cream gravies for vegetables and toasts may be delicately flavored with celery, by steeping a few stalks of celery in the milk for a few minutes, and removing them with a skimmer before adding the thickening. Sauces for puddings may be similarly flavored, by steeping coconut or bits of lemon or orange rind in the milk.—E. E. K., in Home and School.
Importance of Training the Youth in Habits of Self-Control
YOUTH is the period of mighty impulses that move the world. Now is the time for danger signals. The appetite for drink, and other perverted appetites, must not be permitted to sweep away the foundations of character. In youth all the feelings are intensely active. Shall we leave our youth to throw conscience and duty to the winds and sow their wild oats?
After a few gay and giddy years of lawless gratification of their appetites and passions, will they return to a life of duty and purity? Survey yonder battle field of the mad passions after the battle. Where, O where are the armies of the glorious youth you saw enter? Alas! alas! most of them have fallen to rise no more.
Those stragglers you see are individuals called back to the path of duty by mother love and the early education of conscience. The vast proportion of these prodigal sons and daughters will never return to their father's house. There is absolutely no safety but in self-control. Early and often foster self-control from a conviction of duty.—Baldwin's Psychology.
Summer's Done
By Mrs. L. C. Whiton
THINNER the leaves of the larches show,
Motionless held in the languid air;
Fainter by waysides the sweetbriers
grow,
Wide bloom laying their gold hearts
bare,
Languishing one by one:
Summer is almost done.
Deeper-hued roses have long since died;
Silent the birds through the white mist
fly;
Down of the thistles by hot sun dried,
Covers with pale fleece vines growing
nigh;
Little brooks calmer run:
Summer is almost done.
Later the flush of the sunrise sweeps,
Shortening the reign of the slow-com-
ing day;
Earlier shade of the twilight creeps
Over the swallows skimming away;
Crickets their notes have begun:
Summer is almost done.
Darkened to mourning the sad-colored
beech;
Empty the nests in its purple boughs
lie;
Something elusive we never can reach
Deepens the glory of days going by;
Aftermath lies in the sun;
Summer is almost done.
Child, why regret that the summer must
go?
Sweet lies the aftermath left in the
sun;
Lives that are earnest more beautiful
grow
Out of a childhood in beauty begun:
Harvests of gold can be won
Only — when summer is done.
— Mrs. L. C. Whiton.
Faithfulness Is the Highest Success
By Moore
SOME one has said that he is glad God did not say, "Good and successful servant," for some of the most faithful have been failures from a worldly standpoint. In the truest sense, plain faithfulness is the highest success. It wins God's approval, and there are no limits to his power to use one that gives absolutely faithful service.—Moore.
Eastern Canadian Union
By M. N. Campbell
THE extended circle of REVIEW readers will doubtless be interested in learning of the progress of the cause in the Eastern Canadian Union Conference. This union stretches from Port Arthur, on the west, to the farther coast of Newfoundland, on the east—an immense reach of territory, half the width of the United States. The population of this section of the Dominion is estimated at more than five millions. The work in Canada has grown rather slowly in past years. In spite of the fact that every inch of ground has been bitterly contested and won by the very hardest and most persistent effort, yet the cause has made progress.
The present season we held seven tent efforts in this field, each of which has been successful in gathering in a company of Sabbath-keeping believers. At Moncton, New Brunswick, the tent in which the union conference session was held was left standing, and Elders M. M. Hare and D. J. C. Barrett conducted a series of meetings in it until the latter part of July. Twelve persons embraced the truth as a result of this effort. Early in August, Elder Barrett pitched a tent at Florence, on Cape Breton Island, and succeeded in bringing out twelve persons at that place.
At Sherbrooke, in the province of Quebec, Elder A. V. Olson, the president of that conference, conducted a tent effort, assisted by Brother M. O. Dingman, and Miss Eva Johnston as Bible worker. As a result of this effort, between twenty and twenty-five persons accepted present truth.
In the Ontario Conference four tent efforts were conducted. Elder F. W. Johnston held a series of meetings in Peterboro, assisted by Brother Nathan Wagar. This series brought out a company of twenty. Elder M. J. Allen conducted a tent effort in Toronto, near the center of the business district, and had a large hearing throughout the entire series. At the close of the tent meetings, twelve had taken their stand with us, and an interest had been created, which Brother and Sister Allen are following up. They expect several others to unite with us. Elder F. C. Webster, assisted by Brethren Leonard Payne and G. W. Sowler, conducted tent meetings in St. Catharines, in the Niagara District. Ten persons accepted the faith at that place.
Another series of tent meetings was opened among the Pagan Indians on the reserve south of Brantford, by Brother B. E. Manual. This series was begun quite late and only three meetings a week were held, so he was obliged to take down his tent before the interest had been well developed. He remains there to follow up the work, with good prospects of a number of converts. The six tent efforts from which we have had reports have resulted in bringing out over eighty persons. The expenses of these six efforts amounted to $617.66. The collections amounted to $475.33, leaving a difference of $142.33. We feel that this is a most excellent record.
From reports that have reached me of late, however, nearly as many have been brought into the truth by other means in this union as were gathered in from the tent efforts. This means a material increase in the number of believers in this field, and has proved a source of great encouragement to our people who have been loyally maintaining the work with their tithes and offerings. Our churches generally have been organized for the missionary campaign, and are busy in the circulation of literature and in holding Bible studies among the peo-[[FIGURE]]ple. This is already bearing fruit in addition to the number of believers. Altogether the work is moving forward in a very satisfactory manner in this field, and we believe that there is a great future before it. A splendid spirit of unity and good fellowship prevails among our workers and churches, and all are thoroughly aroused to the importance of quickly finishing the work.
M. N. CAMPBELL.
The Southern Idaho Camp Meeting
By F. S. Bunch
ThE camp meeting held at Weiser, Idaho, was truly a spiritual feast. The attendance was said to be not quite so large as last year. It could hardly be said to be regular, for many who were present at the first of the meeting returned to their homes, and their places were filled by others who came later.
Weather conditions were not the most favorable, it being extremely warm or uncomfortably cold. Yet there was no complaining.
From the first meeting, there was evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As the work progressed, the quiet working of the Spirit was17manifest.
The Sabbath meetings were especially helpful. Those who wanted definite help were instructed and encouraged. Parents were burdened for unconverted children, and others whose hearts were troubled for loved ones out in the world were helped to lay hold of the "exceeding great and precious promises." The people of God were encouraged, and many precious souls were born into the kingdom. Some drove in from long distances to attend this meeting, and found him who alone could speak peace to the soul. These returned home with joy, having found the pearl of great price. Thirty-six followed their Lord in baptism and were added to the church.
The meetings of the conference were pleasant, and were as truly spiritual as any part of the camp meeting. Elder J. J. Nethery was unanimously elected president, and T. L. Copeland secretary and treasurer.
Idaho Conference has many bright young people. The meetings with them were among the best held on the ground.
Miss Della Burroway attended this meeting, and gave two or three talks on India. Her personal experiences were full of interest, and were enjoyed by all.
We shall long remember the Idaho camp meeting because of the blessing of God, and the new ties of friendship formed.
F. S. BUNCH.
Camp Meetings
By GEO. O. STATES.
IN the year 1868, while I was living in Lapeer, Mich., Elder James White and other leading brethren introduced the idea of holding camp meetings. There was considerable prejudice against the plan in those days, but finally a meeting was held at Wright, Mich., September 1-7. A large representation of our membership was present, and when the brethren and sisters returned and reported concerning the feast of good things they had enjoyed, we decided that this was surely one of God's plans for giving the third angel's message to the world. From that time until my nervous breakdown ten years ago, I made it a point when possible to attend one or more camp meetings every year.
I was rejoiced to be able to attend the recent meeting at Montrose, Colo., during the first four days. It brought me in closer touch with the message than I could possibly come by simply reading reports in our papers. It was indeed a great privilege to meet some of our dear brethren connected with the general work, and listen to their words of counsel, and to meet all the laborers in my own conference. Some of these I had never seen before. It is comforting to know that while some of us who have carried heavy burdens in the past must drop out of active service in this work of God, younger men and women are raised up to hold aloft the banner of truth and press forward with the message.
But, brethren and sisters, as I attended this meeting one thing brought sadness to my heart. Upon making inquiry concerning some who loved this message some years ago, I learned that they were drifting away and letting go their hold on God. Surely it is no time to let go now, with the city of God almost in sight. Our people, whether they have been in this truth for many years or for only a short time, need the help that God gives through his servants at our annual camp meetings. While I could not preach a sermon, yet I felt the Lord's blessing in taking part in the social meetings and in our conference sessions. There are rich blessings in store for all who attend camp meeting. Let us ever be faithful.
GEO. O. STATES.
Ontario
By M. J. Allen
Toronto.—For over forty-five evenings we held tent meetings in this city during the past summer. We were well located on a prominent street, and the attendance was good from the beginning, increasing steadily till the closing meeting. A number of ministers attended, took notes on the Sabbath question; and paid strict attention to our views on religious liberty and temperance. As the result of our effort, twelve have definitely taken their stand for the truth, and I expect to baptize a few others soon.
We have started Sunday night meetings in one of the most popular halls in the city. Each service will cost us nearly thirty dollars. So far our attendance has run between six hundred and seven hundred. This is very encouraging, and we hope for a steady increase in numbers and interest.
I recently visited Brantford, where we held a tent effort last year. There I had the privilege of baptizing eight new believers, which makes forty added to that church in one year. We praise the Lord for all his goodness.
M. J. Allen.
Mississippi
By W. D. Woods
Red Banks.—The members of my family are the only Seventh-day Adventists in this community, and there is room for some good work to be done. On two occasions recently the Lord opened the way for the presentation of the truth to interested congregations. Some prejudice exists against us, but there are a number who will gladly listen to the message. Of course we have to work very carefully in order to overcome the existing prejudice and avoid creating more, but we pray God for wisdom in these matters, and for direction as to how we may work to the best advantage. I can make good use of a limited number of our weekly and monthly periodicals.
