AGAIN and again Isaiah's prophecy speaks of the gathering out of the Lord's people from among the nations in the days of the final triumph of the gospel.
He tells how the feet of those bringing good tidings will press into the waste places, the long-neglected regions, and the voices of the watchmen will be lifted up. And as the messengers go among the nations, the Lord is to make bare his holy arm, and “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
In Isaiah 49 is one of the prophet's outlines of the finishing work. True, the work began in apostolic days; but the prophecy reaches to the end, and in it we see the progress of this advent message into every far corner of the earth until the shout of victory is heard:—
“Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause thee to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. . . .
“And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” Isa. 49:8-13.
The suggestion is that when the Lord's children are gathered from north and west, and at last from the remotest of all peoples—those of “the land of Sinim”—the shout of victory will come. The greatest body of humanity is found to-day in the land of Sinim; for by that word is evidently indicated the peoples farthest eastward from Palestine, of the ancient land of Sina, or China.
And now the third angel's message is reaching into China, and we are face to face with this vast multitude of over four hundred millions. And true to the prophet's words, though we have but touched the far fields as yet, we see that God is calling to his own with a loud voice in the dark and desolate places. “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all.” Verse 18.
All who lift up their eyes and look on the fields may see it. Here is a word from the land of Sinim, written by Elder I. H. Evans in a personal letter to a member of his family, telling just the facts that press so forcefully upon the hearts of the few workers among China's millions. Writing after one of their council meetings at Shanghai, he says:—
This morning we had a blessed meeting, in which we felt the deep movings of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts were touched with love and devotion as we saw the whitening fields waiting for the sickles of the reapers. We have thirty companies of believers where a foreigner never spent a week. Think of it, thirty companies without the help and aid of a foreigner! Never have I seen such wonderful opportunities for service as here; never have I seen such possibilities for gathering in fruit as here. It stirs my heart to its depths to see what God is doing, and to realize what we could do with men and means. Surely, if the world ever saw golden opportunities for the reaper's hand, they are seen here in China. It is appalling to think of these multitudes, yet many are keeping the Sabbath, who never had a teacher for a day. What does it all mean? Surely, the Lord is at the head of this people, doing a mighty work in getting these people to keep his commandments. . . .
Really, there never was such a prospect for success as for us now. We have such great opportunities for work, it is impossible to describe them. It seems as if in the whole world there is no place that holds such promise of a mighty ingathering of souls as China. The seed sown through our literature has ripened, and the harvest is now ready for the sickle. Truly if ever there was a time when effectual, fervent prayers should be offered that the Lord of the harvest would send forth reapers into the field, that time is now.
It is for such a time as this that the message comes:—
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. . . . And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged.” Isa. 60: 1-5.
Thus, with hearts enlarged, all believers of various nationalities united, the glory of God shining forth from lives surrendered, the last witness will be borne, the whole earth lightened, and Christ will come; and that right early.
These are wonderful times. Brethren in the churches, to you comes the privilege of “holding the ropes” at home, and of laboring to send the supplies of men and means to hasten the message through the waste places of earth, where God's providence is so mightily at work.
W. A. S.
Nothing to Say
By F. M. W.
TIME was when the doctrines held and advocated by Seventh-day Adventists were made the object of many bitter attacks from both press and pulpit. Many religious teachers fondly hoped that by Scriptural proof they could overthrow what they considered very unscriptural doctrines. However, there has come a change of late. Many are coming to realize that the views held by this people have a firm foundation in the Scriptures of truth, and that they can not be set aside by the same authority to which they plainly appeal for confirmation.
A writer in the Way of Faith of Jan. 26, 1911, refers to this, and asks why it is that such religionists as the “Plymouth Brethren people, Annihilationists, and Seventh-day Adventists,” should be let alone to propagate their heresy on the doctrine of conditional immortality. He says:—
Strange to say, this dreary and hurtful heresy receives scant notice from preachers, whose business it is to banish all strange and erroneous doctrines from the land.
The World’s Crisis of March 1, in quoting the above criticism, justly comments as follows:—
The fact is, many preachers and Bible scholars who have examined those doctrines with the intent to refute them, as the result of such examination, like honest men, were compelled to embrace them. Others, less bold, and less ardent in search for truth, have concluded that “discretion is the better part of valor,” and are quite willing to allow conditional immortality to be presented to the people—realizing their own inability to meet that subject.
In speaking of the claims of inherent immortality, the editor of the Crisis concludes:—
Inherent immortality is simply taken for granted. Its premises are assumed; consequently its apologists can not feel sure of their position; hence they lack boldness in its defense. Those who have measured arguments against the Bible teachings of immortality through Christ and the resurrection, many of them, realize full well the weakness of their own cause.
Truth is never injured by investigation. The more it is assailed, the more its foundations are examined, the clearer grow its outlines. The Word of God is a Gibraltar of strength amid the sophistry of these last days.
F. M. W.
Religion in the Public Schools
By F. M. W.
WHAT is known as the Religious Education Association held its annual meeting recently in Providence, R. I. William Lawrence, D. D., bishop of Massachusetts, delivered the opening address. In speaking of the founding of the American republic, according to the Boston Evening Transcript of February 15, he ascribes great wisdom to the framers of the Constitution, and shows how far removed they were from the bias of their age, and how great was their wisdom for the future, in enunciating the principles which they did as the foundation of the American state:—
Each decade in the history of this nation reveals more distinctly the wisdom of the men who framed our Constitution. So remarkable were some of their acts, and so prophetic, that we are sometimes forced to think that they builded better than they knew. In no subject is this more noteworthy than in the principle which they laid down in regard to the independence of church and state.
Bishop Lawrence considers this the more remarkable for the reason that these men did not represent various religious beliefs, but were for the most part of one common faith:—
Had the country been peopled with men of such varied races, faiths, and traditions as at present, this would not have been so remarkable. But with a population composed largely of one race, with sympathetic religious traditions, accustomed, most of them, to a close relation of church and state, we wonder at the clearness of their vision in recognizing that in the freedom of church from state, and state from church, was the secret of civic as well as religious liberty. For thereby the citizen and official were freed from religious tests, and the forces of religion were set free to do their work without the bondage and, what may be more dangerous, the patronage of the state. The story of the struggles of the nations of Europe, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, and England toward this freedom during the past generation, fills us with gratitude for our happy heritage.
Turning to the present condition of religious faith in the United States:—
Now, however, that in most parts of our country we have all races and faiths and no faiths, there is a sensitiveness to the teaching of even the simplest elements of the Christian faith, which, if we are to uphold liberty of conscience, must be regarded. And so it has come about that through protests from many directions, religious teaching has been reduced to a vanishing-point in the public schools. Here, then, we have one acute phase of the American situation,—a people of nearly one hundred millions, who, on the whole, are a religious people, heartily supporting a great educational system in which they firmly believe, from which the positive teaching of religion is excluded.
Many are arguing to-day “that we are paying too high a price for our religious liberty in the loss of religion from our public schools.” This situation, however, he believes can be met through the religious influence of the home, and through the personal religious awakening of those who stand as instructors and educators:—
You may shut out every word of Bible or God from the class-room; but while the teacher, a woman of faith, love, and prayer, teaches, you can not shut out religion. More, far more, you may call your schools godless, and harden your churches with formalism; but if the boy is going home every night to a home saturated with the spirit of religion, he is getting a religious education. This, then, is the thought that I want to emphasize: We may have in our public schools fuller and better teachings in morals and ethics; we must have, so long as there are some religious teachers and some religious homes, a touch of religious atmosphere in the schools; but we can not have, and have no right to expect, any such definite or positive religious education in our day-schools as to sustain, or even give much aid to, the religious life of the children. We must keep this clearly in mind, if we want to rouse ourselves or to rouse others to a sense of duty and opportunity in discovering other means for the religious education of our children. Let this also be clear: Because there is no definite religious teaching or even religious atmosphere in the school, that is no reason why the child should not receive a rich religious training; the question of place and hour is of little importance. We have become so accustomed to the thought of religion in the public schools that we think that if the schools do not provide it, there must be no religion. One might almost as well say that because the public schools provide no breakfast, there is no breakfast.
Above all, Bishop Lawrence argues that in the conditions which exist in the world at the present time, the chief peril to be considered is that of the home and home life. He argues that it is time to cease repining, and go to work to redeem the home and upbuild the ideals in the family:—
Our conclusion, therefore, is this,—that as a power for personal religion, there is nothing equal to the influence or teaching of a spiritually minded, praying, and intelligently praying mother in the first few years of a child's life; then comes the opportunity of both parents, in simple, quiet leadership, carrying the son or daughter as far as is in their power toward an intelligent, thoughtful faith. The essence of true religion is in its touch upon the individual soul; but its results must be the development of the whole man, body, mind, and spirit, “into the measure of the fulness of Christ;” and while the church worships, preaches, and educates, she must have such interest in the improvement of conditions, especially in relation to the family, as will make her work effective.
As Bishop Lawrence truly says, the first and most important place for religious instruction is in the home. Our forefathers built wisely and well when they established the American state with the recognition of no religion, leaving the religious instruction where it properly belongs,—to the church, the home, and the individual. The strength of this government will be in conserving those high ideals which stood before the minds of its founders. A departure from them will corrupt the church, and wreck the ship of state upon the shoals and rocks of religious bigotry and intolerance, as European nations have been wrecked before it. The strength of the American state, and the strength of the Christian church in America, is in preserving inviolate the principles of state and church separation upon which this government was established.
F. M. W.
Easily Understood
By F. M. W.
MANY are asking to-day why it is that the Roman Catholic Church ostensibly adopts a different attitude toward questions of church and state in America than in the countries of the Old World, or in the states of South America. The Independent of February 2 raises this query:—
Among the things not easy to understand is this: Why some of our religious teachers who are so much pleased that in this country church and state are separated, should grieve when separation is decreed on the Continent of Europe. Thus the Catholic World, in its December issue, describing very fairly the changes in Portugal, says: “Other measures are proposed which in no way deserve the name of reforms: Church and state are to be separated,” etc. We would like to be told why what is so much valued here would not be a reform there?
The answer is evident. The underlying policy of the Roman Church toward all state government is identically the same. Throughout her history the papal church has sought government control whenever that could be made possible. Its entire history has been one long series of political intrigue and maneuvering, as it has sought to the extent of its influence to shape governmental affairs, and to influence reigning kings and dynasties to favor its churchly designs. It has had the same purpose toward the government of the United States ever since that nation had birth. It has been tolerant and apparently liberal in its views, only because it was helpless; but it has fondly anticipated the expected time, and studiously worked to that end, when it would have in this government, the same as in the governments of Europe, sufficient influence to make its power felt. Current history and rapidly shaping events clearly indicate that Rome is doing this work. Silently and insidiously, but most adroitly, is she working, and waiting for the time when America, the same as the nations of the past, will bow the knee of homage at her shrine.
F. M. W.
Revising the Ten Commandments
To the early Christian church the Scriptural record appealed as the plain, unvarnished history of God's dealings with the human family. Subtly and insidiously Satan has sown through the ages the baneful seed of unbelief and skepticism, and it is reserved to the last generation to see the full fruitage of this terrible harvest. Side by side with the revival of the downtrodden truth of God respecting the claims of the Bible Sabbath, have counter-claims been put forth to meet and parry the plain, positive testimony of the Word of truth.
The theory of evolution has done service in casting doubt upon the creation record. In order to evade the claims of the Sabbath truth, many have found pleasure in the wild claims of false science, and the creature rises up and passes judgment upon the works of the Creator.
According to the Beaver Valley News, of New Brighton, Pa., Bishop Williams, of the Episcopal district of eastern Michigan, announces himself in favor of revising the ten commandments. The bishop says:—
I don't think there is any person nowadays who believes the Lord created heaven and earth in six days, and that is my reason for favoring an abridgment of the fourth commandment. If the American Episcopal Church should take up the matter of abridging the decalogue, I would be in favor of abridging the first, second, third, fourth, and tenth commandments. The others are short enough.
When God spoke his law from the blazing peaks of Mount Sinai, and wrote it with his own finger upon tables of stone, the record says, “And he added no more.” The psalmist, speaking of this law, declares that “the law of the Lord is perfect.” Weak, finite, fallible man may seek to juggle with it, may seek to evade its claims and deny its authority, but sometime he must stand before it in judgment. The psalmist says that to the froward man, God will show himself froward. Frowardness does not exist in God or in any of his dealings; but the froward man, judging God by his own standard, thinks he sees frowardness in his works, and believing that he sees this, he judges God by his own judgment and conception. God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Instead of finding fault with his dealings, and seeking to pick flaws in his righteous requirements, let us rather labor to conform our lives to the standard of his Word.
Close of the Knoxville Ministerial Institute
By Arthur G. Daniells
THOSE who have read the report of the beginning of the Knoxville Ministerial Institute, will be glad of a word regarding the closing part of that important meeting. A few who could not get to the institute at the beginning came later, so the total enrolment reached seventy-seven, nearly all of whom were ministers or Bible workers. Most of them remained to the close, and held steadily to the program of earnest study.
The following statement was presented at the closing meeting as an expression of the feelings of those in attendance:—
In this, the closing meeting of the Knoxville Ministerial Institute, we esteem it a pleasure to unitedly express our deep gratitude to God for granting us the privilege of attending this institute.
Our study of the third angel's message in its various phases has greatly enlarged our understanding of the meaning of this message, and strengthened our hold upon it.
Our study of the great field we are to work, and of the best methods to be pursued in doing the work, has encouraged us to press on with zeal and energy.
Our study of the Word regarding the Holy Spirit sent by our Lord to give efficiency to our labors, has brought to our hearts new inspiration and hope.
We would that all our workers throughout this country might be granted the privileges we have enjoyed, and we earnestly request the General Conference to arrange to hold another ministerial institute for the Southland within a reasonable time.
Personally, I feel sure that the Knoxville Ministerial Institute will prove to be a great blessing to our workers and our cause in the South. It brought us all together for Bible study, counsel, and prayer for three weeks. It brought the workers into closer touch with one another, and strengthened the bonds of Christian brotherhood. It gave us new and larger views of the message, and increased our desire to study the Word.
It is not too much to say that this meeting will mark a new era in the ministry of many who were present. In the testimonies that were borne from time to time, many expressed their determination to turn their minds and hearts to the more truly spiritual side of our great work, and to devote themselves as never before to earnest endeavors to win souls to Christ.
The work before us is great, and it will not be accomplished by force of numbers, but by the agency of the Holy Spirit working in and through the workers. The Lord has wrought in mighty power through humble men in the past, and he is just as willing to manifest himself through his servants to-day in the closing work of the gospel. The baptism of spiritual power awaits every laborer, and for this refreshing we shall most earnestly pray. A. G. DANIELLS.
Methodists and Tithing
By years of experience, Seventh-day Adventists have proved the blessing of the divinely ordained tithing system for the support of gospel work. There is a personal blessing in following the plan. In isolated cases, here and there, others have adopted it, to find also a blessing in the Lord’s way of finance. The Methodist World-Wide Missions says that the tithing system was adopted in one district of India in 1909. Of the result we are told:—
With every preacher-in-charge an enthusiastic advocate of tithing, the district continues to be a worthy example to the Indian church of the practical value and spiritual benefit of thus dealing with the Lord. Our annual tithers’ rally at the district conference was a meeting filled with enthusiasm and joyful testimony as each circuit reported the fruit of the grace of giving.
Swedish and Norwegian Emigration
DURING the first six months of 1910, 14,002 persons emigrated from the Swedish and Norwegian harbors for different parts of the world. By far the largest portion of these have come to America.
Flattering Ministers
MANY forget that ministers of the gospel are still human, and as such are the prey of Satan’s temptations. In consequence of this forgetfulness, many ministers have been ruined by unwise confidences, and by false praise and flattery. Speaking of this danger to which preachers are subject, the editor of the Christian Advocate of March 16 says:—
Hardly anything outside the line of immorality has done more evil to ministers than flattery. A young man is told by an admiring hearer that he can preach as well as Spurgeon or Beecher or Simpson. If he believes it, he is already half ruined. When such flattery increases vanity, he may be good-humored and happy, but it is a happiness that can be overthrown in a few minutes when some unquestionably able critic points out gross infelicities or errors. If actual pride is created by excess of adulation, he may become so imperious as to threaten to leave the congregation if his whims are not fed, or his plans immediately adopted.
The editor advises young preachers to find comfort in their ministry, in the consciousness that they have been a source of strength and help to some poor, struggling souls. This, after all, is the only real encouragement that life affords. Praise and adulation may bring a momentary selfish pleasure; but the consciousness that, when the day is done, we have helped some one in life’s struggle, have made some lives purer, truer, and stronger through our influence, and that although unrecognized by our fellows, God has taken account of the spirit of love and faithfulness which prompted our service,—in this is sweet, abiding joy. This is true happiness, which comes as the result of unselfish Christian service.
East Caribbean Mission
By H. C. J. Walleker
As the old year with its many blessings is past, I feel to praise the Lord because of his love and tender care, and for his protection through dangers seen and unseen. We have made some advancement in this field, and only wish that more had been accomplished. During the year a number have been added to our churches in the different islands. The latter part of the year Elder Philip Giddings labored some in Guadeloupe, one of the French islands; and while many of the people are indifferent to religion, he was well received, and was able to dispose of considerable of our literature, and also to read the Bible with many of the people. We are the only Protestants working there. I hope we may soon have a French canvasser for Martinique and Guadeloupe.
We are receiving urgent calls from other islands to bring them the message for this time, and we hope soon to start work in more of these unentered fields. Sabbath-keepers are springing up in some of these islands where nothing has been done so far. This shows that God is searching out honest hearts here and there, without the aid of the living preacher.
The other day, traveling on a steamer, I met a Methodist minister. When he learned that I was a Seventh-day Adventist minister, he told me that on the island where he lives is a young man, about sixteen years old, who in some way had received our literature, and had begun to keep the seventh day. He said that the boy's parents and himself had done their best to take this notion out of his head, but they had entirely failed. He said to me, “The boy stands as firm as a rock.” Surely the Lord is going before us.
Two ladies here at St. Thomas have lately begun to observe the Sabbath, one of whom was a Catholic. Most of her own people have turned against her, and are doing their best to get her to turn back, but she is standing firm. She has heard the call, “Babylon the great is fallen. . . . Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues,” and she is casting her lot with those who have taken their stand on the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. May many others quickly heed the same call.
H. C. J. WALLEKER.
First Graduation at Bethel Girls' School, Canton, China
By Ida E. Thompson
TUESDAY afternoon, January 10, the boys and girls and friends of the school gathered in the chapel, and listened to the first baccalaureate sermon preached in connection with our school work in China. Dr. Lau made a very happy combination of Scripture texts, and spoke with freedom. The regular graduation exercises were held Wednesday afternoon. Our first class consisted of two young ladies, both of whom are to teach in our schools next year.
Our educational secretary of China, Elder B. L. Anderson, was present, and spoke to the class and audience, his remarks being interpreted. He said that when he first read the motto chosen by the class, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” he thought it a bit strange, and unlike any he had ever heard; but upon reflection, considering the name of the school, Bethel, and that it was here that these two graduates had found “the gate of heaven,” it seemed indeed most fitting. About three hundred persons were present.
You who are in America, where you can so readily turn to teachers who have come from Christian homes, and who are able to teach, can not appreciate what this day meant to us, who have watched, waited, and worked seven long years to see this, our first class, fitted in a very limited way to teach others. It means a truer consecration to this work, and a constant fresh experience in the things of God, so that in fact these students shall go forth with their chosen motto so exemplified in their lives that their efforts may truly become the “gate of heaven” to many in China.
IDA E. THOMPSON.
Off for the Mission Field
By M. E. Olsen
The students' prayer and social meeting at the Foreign Mission Seminary on last Friday evening took the form of a farewell gathering for six members of the school family, who are now on their way to the regions beyond; namely, Brother and Sister F. S. Bolton, who are bound for the West Coast of Africa, and Brother and Sister J. D. Lorenz, Miss Nora Davis, and Miss Maud Carner, who sail for South America.
The meeting opened as usual with the singing of several stirring hymns, after which Elder A. G. Daniells offered prayer. Brief remarks were made by several speakers from the stand, and cheering testimonies were borne by teachers and students. The foreign mission atmosphere was marked.
The principal, Prof. M. E. Kern, struck the distinctive note of the Foreign Mission Seminary in his opening words. Other schools, he said, have their commencement exercises at the close of the school year; but the Seminary celebrates commencement when any members of its family, responding to the calls of the needy millions, start for a mission field.
Elder N. Z. Town rehearsed briefly the recent developments in South America, which has been rightly called the land of opportunity, and assured those who are going to that field that they would be warmly welcomed by the heavily burdened workers already in that field who have been calling for help. Elder T. M. French, who has just returned from the Gold Coast, after sustaining the loss of his companion, spoke feelingly of the conditions in that field, and the rich opportunities it offers the gospel worker. Elder W. A. Spicer, in a few pregnant words, brought the great world-mission field before our eyes, and put the question squarely before us: What are you going to do about it? Surely there can be but one answer. A people holding the solemn truths entrusted to us must be a world-missionary people. With open doors on every hand, and urgent calls from many of the darkest places, how can we do otherwise than carry to them the tidings of a soon-coming Saviour?
Following the remarks by Brother Spicer, the students who were leaving gave their personal testimonies. Angels of God hovered near, and there were few dry eyes in the room as these young men and women, in the prime of life, dedicated themselves to this service. And the scene was the more impressive because there were many others who knew that their turn would soon come, and who longed for it to come. It is one thing to be willing to go to a foreign16field. It is another thing to have the heart fixed upon a certain field, to be studying that field, praying for it, and earnestly fitting one's self to enter it. Any one present that evening must have been impressed with the advantage of having an educational institution where the one overmastering thought is a preparation for the mission field.
These young people have not been in the Seminary for a long time, but they have been here long enough to become acquainted with the leading members of the Foreign Mission Board and with their instructors, and to get a good start in the study of their field; also to review important Bible truths in the Bible and history classes, and in some cases to study the languages, customs, and religions of the peoples among whom they are to labor. Thus they go to their field at a great advantage, both in respect to the conditions they will meet there and in respect to the instructions that may be sent them from the headquarters here. Their acquaintance with conditions here, and the instruction they have received in the various lectures given by our leading brethren, will enable them in times of crisis to act far more intelligently and with greater confidence than they otherwise could.
As one of the instructors at the Seminary, I feel sure that many earnest prayers will follow these young people to their fields of labor. We have enjoyed having them in our classes for a time, and we hope that their places here will be filled by other young men and women, in all the strength and glory of young manhood and womanhood, who feel that they ought to carry this gospel to the millions who sit in darkness. May there be many of them! M. E. OLSEN.
West Russia
By H. J. Loebsack
At the beginning of the new year, we of western Russia send brotherly greetings to all the believers. The Lord has blessed us during the year 1910. Slowly yet surely the work in our field has gone forward. We have a multitude of Jews and Poles in our territory. Twenty-five persons have been received into the church. The number of colporteurs has increased, and they have sold many books, tracts, and papers. The year 1911 opens with yet greater promise. We are pressing on the way of the commandments of God, and are seeking to lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes. Pray for us.
H. J. LOEBSACK.
Wonsan, Korea
By W. R. Smith
The company of believers two hundred miles north of here is developing into a strong church. They are quite a substantial class of people, some of them being merchants, some farmers, and one of them a hotel keeper. The leader of the company is a merchant, and comes to this place to get his merchandise. As yet they have no church building, but use one of their own houses for a meeting-house. I have made them two visits, and our Korean worker is spending the winter with them.
Here in Wonsan, from time to time, our hearts are made glad by seeing some one accepting the message. Those who do accept it face much opposition. The natives around us have been under church influence for some time, but very few of them have ever professed to accept Christianity. We are trying to work for them through the children. Mrs. Smith has a class of ten girls, who come to our house and study five days each week. She teaches them Bible, arithmetic, and physiology. I trust that you will remember us in your prayers.
W. R. Smith.
Preparing for Service
In this age of activity, there should be no excuse for any one saying, “There is nothing I can do.” The world calls for workers, and men of the world are not slow to answer. It is only the mentally or physically incompetent who find no place. In the work of the church, an equal amount of activity should be found. There are various campaigns which should be completed soon. One definite call made to our people for years has come from the South.
Advantages of the South
1. It is a near-by field, easy of access, requiring no great outlay of time or of money to reach it, and no great change of customs or habits or manner of life.
2. There is no new language to learn; hence work can begin as soon as the field is reached.
3. There is a work for the well educated, for the professionally trained, and for the Christian whose training has been along practical lines rather than books. Farmers, mechanics, business men, teachers, ministers, canvassers,—all will find work awaiting them when they cross the border line.
Training for Work
For six years the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute has been assisting men and women whom God has called to this field to prepare for a definite work. This summer the institute offers a special course for teachers and the other Southern workers. The summer term opens June 22, and closes with a convention of self-supporting Southern workers the last of August.
Information will be given freely if you are interested, and will write for it to E. A. Sutherland, Madison, Tenn.