IT is pleasing to give our brethren and sisters in Christ a hint of God's blessings upon the work here, so that we may rejoice together in the speedy triumph of the message.
The year just ended has been one of activity, peace, and growth in the little church. Nearly all seemed to have worked and given in establishing the truth here, and in helping to carry it on in other fields. This has been manifested in personal labor, in selling and giving away literature, and in bringing in the tithe and offerings.
While we have had no regular Bible workers, yet several have rendered good service in that respect, bringing some into the truth, and opening the way for the writer to instruct others.
The Sabbath school and the Young People's Society of Missionary Volunteers have made steady growth, and have done much to bring life and activity into the church. The Christian Help band has not failed to do good and lasting work for the cause.
The treasurer's books show that the per capita tithe for twenty members amounted to $23.30; and the average per member for all funds amounted to $41.39. We think this is a splendid showing considering the financial condition of the general membership. It shows how freely our people give of their means and labors to the Lord's cause when properly instructed.
Dec. 27, 1913, I baptized six persons, making ten that have been added by baptism since last May. This brings the number on the revised church roll up to twenty-four members.
The writer and some of the members have visited and held meetings in many homes, giving away and selling literature at the same time.
We are struggling to get money together for a building, and have raised outside of the church fund, in cash, $114.
W. H. GREEN.
Encouraging Reports
By J. L. S.
We are receiving very encouraging reports from our colleges and academies. Prof. H. U. Stevens writes from Argentina, South America:—
“This, as you may know, has been my first year in the Colegio Adventista del Plata, and truly it has been a good one to me. Our enrollment reached one hundred and twenty-one. This is thirty per cent over the total enrollment of last year, the largest in the history of the school. Throughout the year a spirit of earnestness and consecration pervaded the school. The rite of baptism was celebrated three times during the year, and nearly all the young people who remained with us throughout the year at least showed the movings of the Spirit of God in their hearts. Some of these are of families not of our faith. This year our students have put in regularly twelve hours a week in industrial work, which has had the effect of reducing our disciplinary matters to a minimum. We are fully convinced that our industrial work is a blessing to both students and teachers, and we expect to continue this work the coming year, with an attempt at more complete organization.
“At the close of the school year, the Argentina Conference held its annual camp meeting on the school campus. Elder W. W. Wheeler was appointed educational secretary of the conference, and action was taken which looked to the organization of a system of church schools. A call was made for means with which to help worthy young people prepare themselves for service as quickly as possible in the Colegio Adventista. This call was answered by the brethren with a donation of eight hundred and forty dollars United States money.
“I have been very much interested in the plans for the educational convention to be held in the summer of 1914. I wish I might attend and partake of the good things that will be there.”
Elder E. J. Hibbard, Bible teacher at the Pacific Union College, speaks of the spiritual interests in that college as follows:—
“This morning, after several of the students had related their experiences in holding Bible services in Calistoga during the vacation period, the Holy Spirit again took possession, and we gave him the school all the forenoon. Many devoted their lives to the ministry of the word. I am confident that to the twenty-five or more who had already decided on that calling, about as many others were added. We hope this school may become such as were the Waldensian schools during the Middle Ages. We really dare hope that it will be such. It is all the work of the Holy Spirit, and no man has any credit coming his way for what has been done here of late.”
Prof. G. C. George, principal of Plainview Academy, at Redfield, S. Dak., writes:—
“At this time I shall give you a brief report of what we are doing here at Plainview Academy. At present our enrollment is ninety-four. This is not quite so large as last year at this time. Our enrollment for the year 1912-13 was one hundred and fourteen, but we had passed the hundred mark by the middle of the term. The crops in South Dakota were very light last season, due to the drought that prevailed quite generally over the State. All things considered, we feel that our enrollment this year is very good.
“During the week of prayer, we had splendid meetings. Services were held at the regular chapel hour and every evening. Aside from these two general meetings, the prayer bands met twice a day, just before chapel for twenty minutes and just before the evening service for a short meeting. After the general services of the evening, special prayer was offered for the unconverted, and those who had just made a start had the privilege of seeking God. We have continued these after meetings after our Friday evening service, and we consider that the week of prayer was only the beginning of a spiritual awakening in the school. Our students have been advancing step by step since that time. We are very grateful for the evidence that God’s Spirit is attending and blessing our efforts here.
“Financially our school is in a prosperous condition. We have every reason to expect that this will be a good year for Plainview Academy.”
J. L. S.
Educational Sabbaths
By W. E. H.
OUR readers are already familiar with an action taken at the autumn council setting apart two Sabbaths in the year for educational endeavor in all the churches. It now remains for every believer in Christian education, especially the educators themselves, to make the most of these occasions. They are not intended merely to occupy the time of the church services, nor to provide a program that will divert or entertain the people; they are to be solemn occasions for seeking the Lord earnestly, for drawing near to him by repentance and confession, and for studying seriously the instruction he has given for our guidance in the education of our children and youth.
Our denominational leaders have granted these two days, at the earnest request of the Educational Department, with the deep conviction that the time is due when the third angel’s message should be given a mighty impetus forward, and that one effective means of accomplishing this is to gather all the children and youth into our own schools, and to rally all the people everywhere to more adequate provision for their proper instruction.
Our schools are recruiting stations for the field forces. They are places of refuge where our young people may escape the corrupting influences so prevalent in the world in these last days. Christian schools were originated by divine direction, and have been revived in our day, to supplement, reenforce, and carry on to perfection the work of character building and training begun in the home. The Christian home is the center of supply for missionary advance. In the circle around the hearthstone of many a devoted father and mother in Israel, there is a vacant chair. The accustomed occupant has gone forth to a recruiting station to train for service, and perhaps already enlisted at the front. Before this work is finished, especially if it is cut short in righteousness, more chairs at home will have to be vacated, and more homes share in the blessed sacrifice.
Our leaders are setting the example. At this writing many chairs in our General Conference and North American offices are vacant. Their occupants have gone forth, some for weeks, some for as long as five months, laboring night and day from place to place, to preach repentance, revive the hearts of the people, and counsel with officers and workers on how to press the work more speedily to a finish. God is witnessing to their efforts, and so he will to ours in the home churches if we but rise at the Lord’s behest and let him work out his own purposes through the means that he himself has ordained.
Equally important to recruiting forces at the front, is the strengthening of every hand and heart at home. No Christian parent can afford, in this time of spiritual peril, to be lax or negligent of the highest charge committed to men, — the care and training of his own children. He cannot follow the example of the worldling in his own home; how can he, then, intrust the instruction of his children to the worldling in the home annex — the school? Yet by our slowness in training competent teachers and in properly equipping and establishing schools, we are compelling parents to place their children under instruction that is manifestly and professedly for this world only. Some will weather the storm if influences at home are right, but some will fall by the way, and all are constantly exposed to great spiritual danger.
It is true that in our efforts to provide proper instruction for our children we are hampered by the lack of efficient, seasoned teachers. We must do more vigorous work in developing teachers from the inexperienced but promising youth in our advanced schools; yet meanwhile we cannot ignore the fact that the secular schools are taking a large toll from the teaching talent among us. While we may not say that it is any less justifiable in some cases for a teacher to sell his services to the world than for a carpenter to do so, or for the farmer to pursue his semi-secular occupation and sell his products in the open market, yet there is this essential difference, that the teacher deals primarily with minds and hearts, and virtually pledges himself to teach certain things and not to teach others; and this important difference also in the interests of our work, that whereas we have enough carpenters to meet our needs, we seriously lack qualified teachers to man our schools as they deserve.
Shall the Lord’s work be permitted to18languish while believers of talent who are looking for the soon coming of Christ go on serving tables? Shall we rest content to have but five of our children of school age attending our own schools while four are learning the ways of the world? We lay no blame on any one. We are only endeavoring faithfully to portray the situation as it is, and to raise the question, What can we do to turn our denominational resources to more effective ends than we are now doing? The time is not far hence when loyal Seventh-day Adventist believers of all ages, down to the children in the elementary grades, will take an active part in giving the last warning message to a perishing world. Are we doing all we might to lay the foundation and develop our forces for such a movement of triumph?
These are some of the reasons, briefly touched upon, why two Sabbaths have been appointed when every Seventh-day Adventist believer in all the land may focus attention upon the conditions and possibilities in our educational work, and with earnest heart searching and prayer, study with others how we may institute a decided forward movement in caring for our children and youth and in recruiting our field forces.
The first Educational Sabbath has been appointed for March 7, and will be devoted to the interests of the church schools. The second will probably be in August, and deal with advanced education and the filling of our schools. A suggestive schedule and the material for the program on the first Sabbath will appear in the March issue of our magazine Christian Education, which is to be ready for the mail February 20. The entire contents of this number will be adapted as far as consistent to the interests of this important occasion, and a copy supplied to every local church elder. Look for further announcements, and pray that God may pour out a blessing on his people at that time whose influence will be felt to the end. W. E. H.
Educational Department
By J. L. Shaw; W. E. Howell
J. L. SHAW — General Secretary
W. E. HOWELL — N. Am. Div. Asst. Secretary
Missionary Visiting
By Jennie Thayer
“To be like Christ and to be with him is the aspiration of every Christian.” In fact, to be a Christian is simply to be Christlike. In order to be like him, we must know what he is like. Fortunately, four records of his life have been left with us, that we may become familiar with every feature of his character and work. From these records, we learn that he came to “seek and to save that which was lost.” This implies an effort on his part to find those who were sick of this life of sin, and lead them to a life of purity and holiness. To this end “he went about doing good.” He was no recluse. He mingled so freely with his fellow men, and so often accepted their hospitality, that he was called “a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” Yet all this while he was about his “Father’s business,” seeking to save humanity; and never for one moment did he lower the standard of his life to that of the world19around him. With the tenderest sympathy and love, he ministered to the physical wants of the multitude, while with the greatest tact he broke to them the bread of life.
We not only have the example of Christ before us as a guide to direct us in our association with our fellow men, but we have direct instruction in regard to our intercourse with them. When he sent forth the twelve apostles, he told them to minister to the physical and spiritual wants of the people as freely as they had been ministered unto, but cautioned them to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,” because they were “as sheep in the midst of wolves.”
He has given to every man his work, and as the Father sent him into the world, so also has he sent his disciples into the world, not to live in obscurity, but to be the light of the world, a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid. Unless we become so intimately acquainted with Christ that we reflect his image, we shall not be light bearers to the world around us, and cannot fulfill the mission on which we are sent. Having become acquainted with him, and having him in our hearts, we must so live before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven, or we shall come short of accomplishing our mission.
When the King says to those on his left hand, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” he does not accuse them of any flagrant crimes, but simply of neglect of duty, giving as the reasons of their rejection, “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not,” and adds that “inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”
It has been said that more individuals will be condemned for sins of omission than for sins of commission; and is there not great danger that this will be the case with us as a people? Are we who claim to have the last message of mercy to a fallen world, doing all we can to bring the light of the truth before others? How many of the rank and file of our people are so engrossed in business and home cares that they have no time to attend to social duties, to show to their neighbors that Christ dwells in them, and that, like him, they are interested in the welfare of those around them?
Some years ago as we entered a railway carriage at a station where one of our largest churches is located, a gentleman on the train said that he formerly resided at that place, and began at once to inquire about the Seventh-day Adventists and the progress of their work. He seemed interested in the progress of their institutions, offered no criticism upon their religious views, but said they were “the most clannish people” whom he had ever known. In proof of this assertion, he gave the fact that he “was sick a whole year” while living among them, and only three members of the church in whose midst he was located ever called upon him.
The apostle James tells us, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Here is a work in which every one can have a part. Weary mothers and tired home-keepers, whose lives are circumscribed by the four walls in which you live, and who long for a wider field of usefulness, an open door is before you. Call upon your neighbors who are in affliction, alleviate their suffering as far as possible, show them that you sympathize with them, tell them of the love of Christ, that he does not afflict willingly, but for our profit, and point them to the joy of the Christian’s hope. When you have become acquainted with your neighbors, have won their confidence, have shown them by your life that there is a reality in your religion unknown to them, they will desire to learn why you entertain such peculiar religious views. Do not, even then, attempt to bring unpopular truth before them without careful thought and earnest prayer that you may present it in an acceptable manner. Much may be learned by studying the discourses of Christ and the apostles, and noticing the tact which they exercised in adapting the truth to the minds of their hearers.
We are first to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, and then be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us; but it is to be given with meekness and fear, not with any spirit of controversy or assumption. “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you,” is a very forcible illustration of the folly of presenting precious truth to those who do not wish to hear it, and should lead us all to endeavor to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,” in our missionary efforts, that we bring no reproach upon the cause of truth.
While our object should be to draw those around us to Christ and his truth, great care should be taken that we do not drive them from it by giving prominence to points of doctrine that they are not prepared to receive. The views entertained by our people upon the question of temperance, health, dress, and social purity reforms, furnish topics which, if properly introduced, will not arouse prejudice, but will impart valuable information, and create confidence in our work, thus preparing the way for other views entertained by us as a people to be received with favor. The love of Christ, his sacrifice for us, the privilege he grants fallen humanity of laboring together with him, are inexhaustible themes that cannot fail to interest all who are subjects of his mercy. Go to your neighbors with your heart filled with this love, and their hearts will open to receive you.
“There are many who have no desire to become acquainted with their unbelieving neighbors, and those with whom they come in contact; and they do not feel it their duty to overcome this reluctance. . . . They should remember that they must meet these very men and women in the judgment. Have they left words unsaid that should have been spoken? . . . Have they united discrimination with zeal, heeding the direction of the apostle, ‘Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh’?”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 255.
Do we hear you, busy housewife, say, “I have no time for this work”? Then there is need of a temperance reform on your part, which very likely must be brought about by a dress reform, and perhaps by a reform in cookery. Let your adorning not be “that outward adorning.” Dress plainly, live simply, and take time to sit at the feet of Jesus, and enjoy the rest that communion with him brings to the weary soul. Then with light heart and clear brain, go to your overworked neighbors, and give them the benefit of your experience.
Let all who realize that they have not done what they might in the year that is gone, begin at once to reform. Make this year so full of earnest work that should your record close during the year, you will not rise to hear, “Depart,” but, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
JENNIE THAYER.
“The Impending Conflict”
By C. S. L.
“A GREAT crisis awaits the people of God. A crisis awaits the world. The most momentous struggle of all the ages is just before us. Events which for more than forty years we have, upon the authority of the prophetic word, declared to be impending, are now taking place before our eyes. Already the question of an amendment to the Constitution restricting liberty of conscience, has been urged upon the legislators of the nation. The question of enforcing Sunday observance has become one of national interest and importance. We well know what the result of this movement will be. But are we ready for the issue? Have we faithfully discharged the duty which God has committed to us, of giving the people warning of the danger before them?”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 711.
This instruction was written more than thirty years ago, just at the time the National Reform Association was putting forth its first efforts to change the national Constitution, so that the door would be opened for further religious legislation. There was a great crisis before our people and this nation at that time. That crisis has not yet passed. The danger that then threatened our liberties has simply been extended to our own time, and we are now facing the crisis with intensified proportions and significance. This nation ought to be grateful to God that this terrible crisis has been delayed and peace has reigned. But the storm cloud has in the interval been gathering power for the tempest.
“There are many, even of those engaged in this movement for Sunday enforcement, who are blinded to the results which will follow this action. They do not see that they are striking directly against religious liberty. There are many who have never understood the claims of the Bible Sabbath and the false foundation upon which the Sunday institution rests. Any movement in favor of religious legislation is really an act of concession to the Papacy, which for so many ages has steadily warred against liberty of conscience. Sunday observance owes its existence as a so-called Christian institution to the ‘mystery of iniquity;’ and its enforcement will be a virtual recognition of the principles which are the very corner stone of Romanism. When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism.”—Id., pages 711, 712.
That many of our leading and influential men are blind concerning the results of Sunday legislation is very apparent from some recent experiences we have had in presenting these principles to such men. The religious editor of a very prominent daily newspaper, whose influence is nation-wide, visited one of our sanitariums recently. On various occasions this editor, through his newspaper, had expressed himself very decidedly in favor of Sunday legislation. But while he was at our sanitarium as a patient, he picked up a recent number of the Liberty magazine, and read it through. There was an article in that issue which contained a speech by Hon. Richard Bartholdt against Sunday legislation. After the editor had read it, he was thoroughly convinced that Sunday legislation and Sunday laws are entirely wrong, and he promised to use his influence in the future against compulsory Sunday legislation.
Some nine years ago a mayor of Pittsburgh issued an edict to the police commissioner to enforce the Sunday laws rigidly upon every one, irrespective of belief. A committee of seventy ministers had called upon the mayor and presented a memorial to him in which they made this demand. In his blindness, he obeyed their order as the only proper thing to do. The writer immediately organized another large committee and likewise called upon the mayor. We presented No. 1, Vol. I, of the Liberty magazine, which had just come from the press, to the mayor, as our memorial to him, and exacted a promise from him that he would read it and give us his answer in one week, at which time we intended to call again to discuss the question.
The third day after our visit to the mayor’s office, we were surprised one morning to notice in bold headlines in the daily newspapers that the mayor had rescinded his order to the police commissioner to enforce the Sunday ordinances. It was with much interest that we waited for the time to come when our week should have expired so we could call on the mayor again and learn the reason for the repeal of his former edict to the chief of police.
The first thing he said upon our return was: “Gentlemen, I kept my promise. I started to read your memorial in the form of a magazine just before I got ready to retire in the evening of that day you called upon me. I had thought I should read it by installments, but I got so intensely interested that I could not stop until I had read it through. I did not retire until two o’clock the next morning. I have read it through twice since to get the full import of its principles. If I had known and understood those principles as I now do, I should never have been guilty of issuing my Sunday edict to the police commissioner of the city, and that is the reason I have revoked the edict notwithstanding the fact that the law is on the statute books, together with many other laws which ought not to be there, and are virtually obsolete from nonuse. Gentlemen, the public needs to be educated upon this subject, and I wish it were possible for you to put that magazine into every family in the city of Pittsburgh.”
If space would permit me, I could present many interesting letters from men in high public positions who confess that whereas they were once blind, now they see. Will not the blood of men be required at our hands if we neglect to warn them, and give them the message for this time? C. S. L.
Religious Liberty Department
By C. G. Longacre
C. G. LONGACRE N. Am. Div. Secretary
Publishing Department
N. Z. TOWN - - - General Secretary
W. W. EASTMAN - - - N. Am. Div. Secretary
Work at the Sanitariums
By H. W. M.
The first sanitarium it was my privilege to visit in my itinerary of our medical institutions was the Wabash Valley Sanitarium, situated on the picturesque bank of the Wabash River, three miles distant from the city of La Fayette. An interurban railway makes regular stops in front of the sanitarium grounds. This institution has a splendid location. From its front rooms and veranda one has a beautiful view of the fertile plains of the Wabash Valley.
I arrived there the day before Christmas, and most of the patients from the immediate vicinity had returned home for the holiday festivities. This afforded me an opportunity to have a visit with the doctors and nurses, who otherwise would have been exceedingly busy with their routine work.
The institution has made a great many improvements in its grounds and building. These will give to the sanitarium’s guests a better impression of our work. A complete X-ray equipment has been added to the treatment facilities of the institution, and already this has proved a profitable investment. It not only adds to the fees of the institution, but is a valuable aid to the doctors in arriving at correct diagnoses of otherwise obscure cases. This is a great essential before proper treatment can be administered in many cases.
If there has been any weakness shown in our institutional work in the past, it has probably been on the question of diagnosis. Everywhere I find that our physicians have recognized this weakness in the past, and are availing themselves of every facility to enable them to diagnose more correctly. They are taking advantage of every possible opportunity for advanced work at the large clinics in medical centers. As a result, our institutional work is becoming very strong in this most important feature. There are many who are qualified to treat the20sick successfully provided they are guided by one who understands the nature of the disease and is qualified to make a diagnosis. As it is important for a mechanic to be able to determine the defect in a certain machine before he can successfully repair it, so it is important for the physician to be able to make a reliable diagnosis of the disease before attempting to treat it.
There are many classes of people in this country who claim they have in the treatment they administer certain cures. Some claim to cure by remedies; some cure by manipulations. These practitioners give all manner of assurances to their patients, and yet these individuals have never qualified themselves to diagnose disease. They cannot be sure that what they recommend as a cure is at all suited to the condition of the individual. One of the first qualifications which the sick ought to demand of those to whom they trust themselves is that they be competent to make a complete diagnosis of their cases. By means of the facilities connected with our institutions, by the use of the X ray and other diagnostic instruments, our institutions are splendidly equipped for determining the nature of the illness of those who come to them for help. The physicians in charge of these institutions have devoted three fourths of their time to the study of diseases, their manifestations, and the methods of differentiating the same. Our physicians are worthy of the confidence of the sick.
The Wabash Valley Sanitarium Board has provided suitable treatment rooms in the heart of the city of La Fayette, and in connection with these well-equipped treatment rooms Dr. Loop, the medical superintendent, has regular office hours, and prescribes for the sick that come there for treatment. It is hoped that these treatment rooms will not only prove a source of income to the institution, but that they will be a means of sending many patients out to the main institution for the needed rest and treatment.
The sanitarium has been conducting a nurses’ training course. It was my privilege, while there, to meet with this earnest family of workers who desire to further the interests of this cause among the institution’s guests, and also to prepare for work in the needy fields beyond.
The next institution which I visited was the Kansas Sanitarium, which is located near the city of Wichita, one of the most prosperous and wide-awake cities of the Central West. The sanitarium has had quite a good patronage during the last year, and I found many sick being cared for by the doctor and nurses. The institution gave evidence that it was being carried forward in a very economical manner, and in order to accommodate a large number of the needy poor and those of ordinary means, the institution has provided a very low weekly rate for this class of patients. Much has been done to beautify the grounds around the institution, and a nice grove surrounds the main building.
I was glad to find that a number of the nurses in training were looking forward, at the completion of their preparation, to taking up active field work either in the homeland or in the fields beyond. Some desire to take further preparation in the study of the Bible.
The training of young men and women are to become missionary nurses is one of the important phases of sanitarium work. I know of no class of laborers that is needed more in the fields of our mission operations than missionary nurses. There is always an open door awaiting them, and from the day they land in the field there is always something they can do in helping the needy natives.
The Lord has given us the medical branch of this work for no other purpose than to be of service to humanity and to bring the people to look with favor upon the great world-wide third angel’s message. Instead of seeing the nurses graduated from our sanitariums seeking secular employment, we must see them, in the future, passing from these institutions into active field work. They cannot afford to miss the opportunity, nor can this cause well afford to be without their service. Our training school faculties in the various institutions, I find, are greatly burdened in providing the right kind of training to fit these nurses for usefulness in connection with the proclamation of the third angel’s message, and surely much has been accomplished in adapting the training to this need. If all who have been graduated from our sanitariums were in the field upholding faithfully the principles of this truth and of the health reform movement, they would arouse an intense interest in these principles, and our institutions would find in them a most valuable asset, for they would turn patients and funds to their Alma Mater.
The Wichita institution has certainly a bright future before it, since it is accessible to a most splendid territory. It is doing an important work for the community and in behalf of our church in the surrounding section. The nurses in training are all of mature years, and are very earnest and show considerable proficiency in their work. The institution had just purchased a new sterilizer for the operating room, which was to be installed within a few days of the time of my visit. This will give them one of the most modern equipped operating rooms in the vicinity of Wichita. I left Wichita feeling that we should see the work there taking on added efficiency and power.