Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 25. (6/20/1907)

Review and Herald

Jun 20, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 20, 1907

Our Publishing Work

*The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.* Psalm 68:11.

“Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones” is an excellent kindergarten book, containing 52 lessons with suggestions for teaching them, 39 songs and hymns, written especially for the lessons, 36 full-page half-tones and colored plates, and 52 pen drawings, showing the use of the illustrative material. The whole book contains 160 pages, profusely illustrated, and bound in four styles, ranging in prices from $1.50 to $3.75.

“My Garden Neighbors” was written especially for our young people as a substitute for the harmful fiction and vicious literature that is being prepared for the young. It is full of beautiful illustrations and true stories. Every parent and friend of the youth who is interested in keeping them away from fiction and harmful stories, will be interested in seeing that this book is placed in the hands of all our young people. Besides presenting something that will fill profitably the time, its stories of birds and other of nature’s creatures, give an outlook on nature that will enlarge into a world of pleasure and profit. It is impossible in this limited space to make mention of all you will find in this book. It is for sale by the Review and Herald, but you may order it through your tract society. 256 pages. Price, $1.

“The New Testament Primer” is a new book for children, composed of simple Bible and nature topics with clean stories. It sparkles with bright two-color illustrations. It is one of the most attractive children’s books ever published. It is arranged in four graded departments, beginning with a Scripture alphabet. The first letter of each Scripture text is printed in two colors, and decorated with vines that grow in Palestine. The second department is entirely devoted to trees, flowers, animals, birds, and insects, with a slate exercise in writing, drawing, and stick-laying. The third and fourth departments contain simple, yet thrilling stories of Christ and some of the leading disciples. The entire book is admirably adapted to direct in the teaching of children. It is clean, cultured, and convincing. Beautifully bound in board and cloth covers, 25 and 50 cents.

“Home and Health” is our new health book, especially designed for home reference, treating of the many details pertaining to the home and the care of the body. Its general scope embraces “The Home”—how to make it; “General Housekeeping”—all of its details; “The Diet”—what it should be; “The Care of the Body”—revealing the simple things one must do to keep the body healthy; “The Care and Training of Children”—sound common sense for all parents; “The Home Treatment of Disease”—a valuable instructor, doctor, and nurse. This book will prove to be an all-round, valuable counselor in every feature of home and health. It contains 592 pages, and is illustrated with over 250 original drawings made especially for the book. We want 500 agents to present the book to the public. Write to the State tract society for particulars in connection with soliciting for “Home and Health,” rates to agents, etc.

Kindergarten class-room supplies can be secured of the Review and Herald Publishing Association. These supplies consist of folding tables, little chairs, and three boxes of special kindergarten material. Price of the tables, $3.75, with freight or express extra, chairs from 50 to 60 cents according to size, and three boxes of material, $1.75.

“The Church: Its Organization, Order, and Discipline,” is a book our church-members need to study at this time. It contains the instruction given to the church through direct Testimony in a condensed, classified form, arranged especially for study and reference. Every home should have a copy, and every individual should become familiar with its teachings. It is a pamphlet of 184 pages; price, 25 cents.

“The Christian Educator Reading Series” adopted by the General Conference at its Educational Convention held in College View, Neb., in 1906, is now being printed. Nos. 1 and 2 are off the press, and Nos. 3 and 5 will soon be ready. The other numbers of the series will probably not be ready before next summer. This series of readers comes to us as the result of successful experience in teaching. An experimental edition of the books of the series was issued during the year 1904. During the two succeeding years they have been used quite largely in our schools on the Pacific Coast. In many other conferences they have also been used to some extent. Almost without exception they have been welcomed by teachers as a blessing in their schools. The price of Nos. 1 and 2 is 75 cents each, post-paid. The books may be ordered through any of the usual channels.

The Religious Liberty Leaflet Series is gradually growing, and we can furnish our readers the eleven numbers mentioned below, which deal forcibly and conclusively with the questions indicated by their respective titles: (1) Principles Too Little Understood, 8 pages, 40 cents a 100; (2) Sunday Laws, 8 pages, 40 cents a 100; (3) Logic of Sabbath Legislation, 8 pages, 40 cents a 100; (4) The Civil Sabbath, 12 pages, 60 cents a 100; (5) Civil Government and the Church, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (6) Religious Liberty—What Eminent Authorities Say, 8 pages, 40 cents a 100; (7) The Church’s Greatest Need To-day, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (8) Church Federation, 12 pages, 60 cents a hundred; (9) Limits of Civil Authority, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (10) A Vital Question, 8 pages, 40 cents a 100; (11) What Are Works of Charity and Necessity? 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (12) “Backward States,” 8 pages, 40 cents a 100.

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society, or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich. Also Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Forth Worth, Tex.

Editorial Letter

By William Warren Prescott

Jottings from the Editor's Note-Book

I FIND it very difficult to present on paper any adequate and correct view of China, its people, and the work in that great field. No doubt this may be largely due to my brief stay in the country, but I find, in reading the writings of those who have lived almost a generation in China, that the verbal picture needs to be supplemented by actual observation in order to understand its meaning fully. I can therefore only hope to give some imperfect glimpses of a most interesting people and a most difficult situation.

The first impression which seems to be made upon the mind of the visitor is that of unlimited numbers. There appear to be uncounted and countless Chinese everywhere. Without any implements or with implements of the crudest kind, they accomplish the largest undertakings by virtue of the sheer force of numbers, and it appears to be an economic necessity to use just as many as possible in doing any given work, so that the “cash” may be distributed as widely as possible, and thus the necessities of life be provided for the greatest number. If large excavations are to be made for docks or for other public improvements, the dirt will probably all be carried out in baskets suspended from poles carried on the shoulders of coolies. The continuous and apparently never-ending procession of these coolies insures the reasonably rapid progress of the work. If a large dike is to be built or a sea front extended, the necessary dirt will probably all be brought to the place in baskets in the same manner, rather than conveyed on dump-cars loaded by steam shovels, but the total cost of the improvement may not be more than in other countries, because coolie labor is cheap, ranging from four or five cents to twenty-five cents gold a day, according to location and circumstances.

In the cities it is people, people everywhere. The main streets (if it is really proper to call the narrow, winding passages “streets”) are thronged and almost constantly choked with people of all ages and descriptions, as the beggars and the coolies, the merchants and the teachers, the women and the children rub shoulders together, as they must of necessity do if they move at all. Even so-called villages contain as many as five hundred thousand inhabitants, and Canton is credited with two million and a half, although its territory is not large. It is doubtful whether any Chinese, even the officials, could give a correct estimate of the population, as the difficulty of numbers is complicated by a national trait of inaccuracy. It is certain, however, that a foreigner would be utterly unable to number them. To him they seem as the sand of the seashore for multitude.

A second impression made upon the mind of the visitor from the West is that of abject and widespread poverty. In the words of another: “Among a dense population like that of the Chinese empire, life is often reduced to its lowest terms, and those terms are literally a ‘struggle for existence.’ . . . The Chinese have been well said to ‘reduce poverty to a science.’ . . . A population of five hundred to the square mile, it is hardly necessary to observe, is not one of the conditions adapted to lead to practical verification of the adage that industry and economy are the two hands of fortune.”

The conditions under which the Chinese live are a constant demonstration of their poverty. Many of their homes in the country villages are not so well built or so attractive as the average stable in the West. Their clothing is of the cheapest possible material, and often limited in quantity. They use the least possible amount of fuel in winter as well as in summer, and never keep their houses comfortable in cold weather. Everything that can possibly be classed as food is eaten. “All is fish that comes to their net, and there is little which does not come there sooner or later. In the northern parts of China the horse, the mule, the ox, and the donkey are in universal use, and in large districts the camel is made to do full duty. . . . It is the general practise to eat all of these animals as soon as they expire, no matter whether the cause of death be an accident, old age, or disease. . . . Dead dogs and cats are subject to the same process of absorption as dead horses, mules, and donkeys.” The usefulness of old clothes “will not be exhausted till there is nothing left of them for a base with which other materials can unite.” These are some of the indications of the struggle for existence.

Another thing which will attract the attention of the foreigner will be the filth and the foul odors in both the villages and the cities. Pigs, dogs, donkeys, hens, geese, and people share the streets in common. There is no system of public sewers, and the public conveniences are allowed to remain in a wretchedly unsanitary condition, poisoning the air for a long distance. In many places the refuse collects and rots in the streets.

In the villages during the winter the thrifty farmer collects as much manure as possible, and makes a compost heap just in front of his house, which the frequent rains will often transform into a mass of oozing slime. The streets of such cities and villages as are unpaved with stone seem never to be repaired, and in the rainy season they become so miry as to be almost impassable, and of course a liberal quantity of this sticky mass is carried into the houses by those who venture to navigate these channels of liquid filth. If we accept the proverb that cleanliness is next to godliness, there are not lacking evidences that the Chinese are quite a distance from that most desirable possession.

Of course the outward indications of an idolatrous worship press themselves upon the attention everywhere. “Temples and pagodas are the architectural contributions of Buddhism to the community. . . . Except in cities, temples are always beautifully situated, usually in some quiet and picturesque spot. Their generous courts and capacious buildings are the resort of visitors, as well as the dwelling-place of many gods and of their human attendants. . . . The portly abbot supported by his retinue of monks, candles and burning incense, the monotonous droning of liturgies, the repetition

of merit-bringing phrases and prayers accompanied by the rattle of rosaries, the measured beating of wooden fish heads, and prostrations in an atmosphere heavy with pent-up smoke, are the prevailing impressions brought away by the visitor.” The same sights are duplicated in almost any church in a Roman Catholic country, and suggest the identity of pagan and papal worship.

One who is accustomed to the almost unlimited size of Western farms and the wasteful methods employed in their cultivation will be sure to notice the extreme subdivision of the land and the painstaking care with which every small plot is made to yield the greatest possible returns. Two crops a year are obtained from much of the land, and large tracts (cultivated by many different owners, although not necessarily fenced off) present the same appearance as the Chinese gardens in America. Some of the methods of fertilizing the growing crops show unwearied care and attention, but they can not be described here, and often render the crops unfit for consumption by foreigners. The products of the soil in inland China, generally speaking, are sold for very moderate prices, and so far as they can be used, help materially in reducing the cost of living, but the necessity of importing some foreign products makes the food bill for the missionary on the average as much or more than in America or Europe.

I do not wish to give the impression that the Chinese are a bad people, or that China is an undesirable place in which to live. On the contrary, in the face of some of the conditions which I have mentioned in trying to give a truthful account of my experiences, there is something almost fascinating about the country, the people, and the language. “China possessed culture and civilization at a time when only the Egyptian, the Chaldean, and the Hittite had risen above the level of surrounding nations. Forty centuries ago—nearly a thousand years before the earliest assured event in Greek history, the Dorian invasion, and a century before Abraham was born—we find in North China, in the modern province of Shan-si, a people with institutions, government, and religion, with a fairly well-developed literature and a knowledge of sciences and arts.” Many of the institutions and inventions of ages long since past survive to-day and form an interesting subject of study. “There is in China much civilization that is indigenous.” In spite of the fact that this remarkable people have been more or less in touch with foreigners for centuries, yet they retain to an astonishing extent their old-time ideas and customs, and in many ways constitute a world by themselves. One who becomes acquainted even to a limited degree with China can hardly fail to be possessed with a desire to know it much more fully.

In my next letter I will try to write of the situation and the outlook from a missionary standpoint. W. W. P.

Using the Gifts

By C. M. S.

We rob ourselves of much that God designs should be ours when we neglect to seek a preparation for the work he designs we should do.

To each person endowed with reason God has given gifts for whose exercise and development that soul is held responsible. It matters not how forbidding the environment, there is a debt upon that soul which none but he can discharge. It matters not how humble the birth, how lowly the occupation, the demand of the Creator is upon every one of us for service. It is a just demand, for has he not purchased us with his own blood out of the very jaws of death?

Because we have not the gifts another possesses does not excuse us from using to the utmost of our power the gifts God has bestowed upon us. It is not for us to choose our endowment. That is in God's hands. “All these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.” 1 Cor. 12: 11. The gift God bestows upon you, use to his glory. You may consider it nothing. He does not so consider it, or he never would have bestowed it. Rest assured it was precious in his sight, or you would not possess it.

God's gifts were bestowed for a purpose, and that purpose can not be accomplished while they are unused. He says they were given that we all might “attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error.” Eph. 4: 13, 14. But it is not possible that the “gifts of the Spirit” should accomplish that work in us while we leave them unappropriated and unused. We can never “come into the unity of the faith” while practising idleness toward the cause of God. We can not possess a “knowledge of the Son of God,” while refusing to labor for the souls for whom he died. We can never be “a full-grown man” in the Christian sense until our labor for souls has taught us the worth of a soul; and “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” how can it be attained but through the school which he himself found necessary for his perfecting?

The child is not expected to have the judgment necessary for its guidance, either temporally or spiritually. With the gifts of the Spirit unused, we are reckoned as “children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine;” but the gifts appropriated, developed and strengthened by use, furnish ballast, sail power, and anchoring facilities. They make our voyage straighter, steadier, and safer toward the eternal haven.

With every professed member of the household of Christ using to the utmost of his ability the gift or gifts bestowed upon him “for the perfecting of the saints,” the cause of God presents a strong, impregnable front; the work goes with rapidity and force; and the coming of Christ is hastened. If we are not busy with the Master's business, using whatever gift it has pleased God to bestow, we may be sure Satan will put something into our hands to take our attention and absorb our energies and means. Then let us work. Let us lay plans to broaden and strengthen whatever work we may be doing. While praying for opportunities, let us practise using on those we already have. We are in a busy world. Let us be busy about the greatest business in the world—the third angel's message. C. M. S.

The General Conference Committee Council at Gland, Switzerland

By William Ambrose Spicer

Third Report

Still the council faces, day by day, in its study of the fields, the divine call to bring every resource into service for the closing work. The following recommendations were passed:—

Whereas, There are in our ranks many thousands of young people for whom the most earnest and vigorous efforts should be put forth to fully instruct them in the gospel of our Lord, and lead them to give themselves to the work of the third angel’s message; and,—

Whereas, The special blessing of God has attended the efforts among our young people put forth under the fostering care of the Sabbath-school Department, until it has grown to such an extent that it is difficult for this department to give this work the attention and help which it needs; therefore,—

Resolved, That in order that this work may be properly developed, and thus an army of workers properly trained for service, a special department, with the necessary officers, be created, the same to be known as the Young People’s Department of the General Conference.

In the discussion of the action by representatives present, it was testified that the youth of the denomination in all the world are being moved by one common impulse to offer themselves for service.

The time for the next week of prayer was set for December 14-21, and the program of readings was arranged.

Growth and Organization in Europe

An action of the council in further

developing the organization of the work in Europe was discussed with deepest interest. Elder L. R. Conradi, vice-president for Europe, first spoke of the growth since the General Conference in 1901, and recommended the organization of all these fields under a general European Conference. Then, he said, there were no unions, and but seven conferences in Europe; now there are three union conferences and two union missions, with sixteen conferences and twenty-three mission fields.

From the organization of the European field into unions, a strong movement forward is seen in the work. The membership now, 14,000, is double that at the time of organizing the field. The finances have more than doubled. In the last two years $233,000 tithe has been paid, and nearly $40,000 in offerings. In the last two years 4,765 members have been taken into the churches. The spirit of prophecy had said in the beginning of the work that as the field was organized, growth would appear. Every array of statistics presented bore witness to this truth. In four years after the union organization in Great Britain, as many were added to the churches as in the twenty-three years preceding. The blessing of God has rested upon all the fields as the laborers have pressed forward, and the work has been organized. After Elder Conradi’s outline, the council discussed and adopted the following recommendations:—

Whereas, The signal blessing of God has attended the efforts that have been made to establish the cause of the third angel’s message in Europe, thereby creating many grave responsibilities to be borne; and,—

Whereas, The organization of union conferences and union mission fields has located in Europe a number of members of the General Conference Committee; and,—

Whereas, The General Conference has elected a vice-president to take the general supervision of its work in the European division of the field; therefore, we recommend the following:—

1. That the organization known as the European General Conference, organized by advice of the General Conference in 1901, be discontinued.

2. That a secretary of the European division of the General Conference, who may be a member of the General Conference Committee, be associated with the European vice-president, to assist in carrying forward the work in this vast field.

3. That the General Conference Committee appoint a subtreasurer to receive and disburse, under such arrangements as may be established, the General Conference funds of the European division of the General Conference.

4. That the vice-president and other members of the General Conference Committee in the European division meet for counsel at such times as the needs of the cause may require, and that the European members of the General Conference departmental committees be invited to meet in counsel with the European members of the General Conference Committee at least once a year.

5. That such steps be taken as may be deemed necessary to prepare the way for the organization of a Russian Union Conference at an early date.

6. That a superintendent be chosen for the Latin Union Mission field, who can give his entire time to the development of its interests.

7. That as far as possible the vice-president of the European division of the General Conference be left free from official responsibilities in local organizations, that he may have more time to attend to the larger and more general interests of the field, and visit other fields as may be arranged by the General Conference Committee.

8. That a subtreasury for the European field be provided by the General Conference, with a competent treasurer, to foster and encourage the raising of mission funds.

9. That the funds belonging to this subtreasury consist of (1) tithes of all union conference tithes; (2) all the tithes paid in mission fields in European territory not included in organized union conferences; (3) all annual offerings; (4) all First-day offerings; (5) all Sabbath-school offerings; (6) all foreign mission donations; (7) all appropriations from the General Conference for mission work in European territory.

10. That the European members of the General Conference Committee shall, at the beginning of each fiscal year, submit to the treasurer of the General Conference a detailed estimate of all prospective receipts and disbursements of such fields as require appropriations for the ensuing year.

11. That these needs be covered by appropriations by the General Conference Committee as far as the funds of the General Conference will permit.

12. That all General Conference appropriations or funds for European territory be paid through the European subtreasury.

13. That the accounts of all laborers not employed by union and local conferences in the European field, be audited by the General Conference Auditing Committee.

14. That the treasurer of the subtreasury be instructed to make monthly remittances to each field receiving support through his department, in harmony with the previous appropriations by the General Conference Committee.

15. That this subtreasury report monthly to the treasurer of the General Conference all receipts and disbursements, together with all available cash on hand.

Elder Conradi called attention to the fact that, as we look over the map of Europe, we can thank God that every country is now provided with workers, except Servia and Montenegro, and we have fifty Servians in the truth in Hungary, and hope soon to be in Servia itself. From Iceland to Mt. Ararat our line stretches, and from Portugal to Siberia. An ordained minister of the German Union is now in Turkestan, at Tashkend and Samarcand, and will soon be on to Omsk and central Siberian regions, where we have believers.

Educational

In connection with reports by the representatives of the union conferences in the United States, which were followed with interest by the European brethren, Prof. F. Griggs, chairman of the Educational Department, reviewed the outlook among our 567 schools. There are 870 teachers employed. The total assets of our schools are estimated at $1,200,000. The schools are working on the basis that the one purpose of our educational system is to prepare workers for carrying on this message.

Later the subcommittee on education presented its report, which was adopted, as follows:—

Whereas, There is a most urgent call for trained workers in both home and foreign fields; and,—

Whereas, We have hundreds of young men and women who would make valuable workers provided they had sufficient education; therefore,—

1. Resolved, That we urge upon all our union conferences throughout the world the importance of educating and enlisting in the service of our cause every consecrated young man and woman in our ranks; and that to this end they establish and maintain at least one advanced school in each union conference.

2. We recommend, That each of our union conferences establish and maintain an educational fund to assist worthy young men and women to secure an education in our advanced schools, for service.

Whereas, Experience has taught us that counsel and co-operation in all branches of our work are of great value; and,—

Whereas, There is need of a better development and more thorough organization of our educational work in the European field; therefore,—

3. Resolved, That the General Conference Committee arrange for and hold an educational convention for the European field during the summer of 1908.

4. Resolved, That we call the attention of our people all over the world to the importance of church-schools, and that we urge that such schools be established and maintained wherever consistent.

5. Resolved, That we advise the managers of our various schools to conform themselves, as far as possible, to the courses of study as outlined by the General Conference Educational Convention of 1906.

The European brethren were deeply interested in discussing the educational work. The Latin Union Training-school particularly needs fostering care, as so many youth in these Catholic lands need help to secure means to attend school. Then, too, in most of the continental countries our youth, at the very age when others in other lands are pressing into the training colleges, are here compelled to turn aside for from two to three or five years of military service. But our youth of Europe are pressing through into the work just the same. It was felt that where unions, such as the Latin, find it difficult to raise a proper

educational fund, other unions ought to help.

Study of the Fields

One of the most important features of the council has been the study of the fields and work. It is the first time the little army of workers in Europe, amid the victories and perplexities of their fields, have had opportunity to meet in General Conference Committee council.

When the German Union began its report, twenty-one conference presidents and superintendents of missions or departments lined the platform. Their reports are not yet completed. In 1898, Elder Conradi said the first German conference was organized. Now there are nine fully organized conferences, which means the addition of a new conference every year. Each conference pays a second tithe for missions, and not a conference has a debt. There are 8,600 members in the German Union, amid a population of 300,000,000. Their tithes for 1906 were, in round numbers, $80,000, and the gifts, $20,000.

Of the German-Swiss Conference, Elder H. F. Schuberth reported an increase of over $1,000 in the last year’s tithe, and told how their work among the recesses of the Alpine valleys and mountains suggested the prophet’s description of the sending of many hunters to hunt out the people amid the rocks and caves.

Elder J. T. Boettcher, of the South German field, reported religious freedom, as regards public meetings, in Wurtemberg. In Baden they are free to hold a meeting under cover—even an umbrella over the heads out of doors meets the law. Nearly all the religious papers have tried to put our work down and stir up oppression, but in vain. In Bavaria for a long time meetings had to be held secretly. Brethren were repeatedly fined for attending meetings. There he learned to speak low so as not to attract the attention of police. But now, as the brethren have petitioned and prayed for years, liberty to meet has just been granted. At the first meeting afterward, a church elder writes, the believers sang a hymn and prayed, things before forbidden, and then their hearts were so full that they sang again and prayed again, and rejoiced together at the mercies of the Lord. But in this conference canvassers sold $16,074 worth of books in 1906, and seventy-three members were added to the church in the first quarter of 1907.

Elder H. J. Loebsack reported for the East Russian Conference, which stretches down through the Caucasus to the Persian border. Several times the field of which this is a part was divided. “Every time we divided the conference into smaller and more workable divisions,” he said, “we had at the end of the year following as many believers in each division as we had before in both together.” “At first we did not like dividing and losing territory,” he said, “but now we believe in dividing up the work and going at it systematically.” In 1906 in his field there have been baptized eighty-five, mostly Russians. They have twenty-two churches, German, Russian, and Cossack. They are with us in the message to all the world. As he showed to a Cossack church pictures from the REVIEW, views of India and Africa, and spoke of workers laying down their lives for the truth, his Cossack translator wept, and the entire congregation wept, and all desire to do everything possible to send the message onward. These stern-looking Cossacks are loyal Seventh-day Adventists.

Sabbath, May 18, the second Sabbath of the council, was a blessed day. Elder R. C. Porter spoke Friday evening, referring to providential workings to hold back the elements of oppression to allow the sealing message to go forward. Sabbath morning Elder Irwin spoke from 2 Kings 5:26: “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and maid servants?” Not for this world, but for the world to come, God’s people must now live. In the afternoon Elder G. B. Thompson spoke on the supreme necessity of receiving the Holy Spirit, the gift that comes with the yielding up of every sin and the surrender of all to God, as we ask in faith for the enduement of power for service. The entire council and congregation joined in a consecration service. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit were realized in a blessed measure.

In the hour between five and six o’clock Brother Fant, of Italy, related his experience. As a priest in Rome he was rebuked for liberal tendencies and was cast out. Losing confidence in the only religion he knew, he was practically an atheist, but longed for rest of soul. Often at Florence he looked at the beautiful Arno River, and thought what a quiet rest he might find in its depths. But he cried out for the God who made the world to reveal himself to him. Then a Protestant tract led him toward the light. He bought a Bible, and returned to Rome, studying with the Baptists and Methodists and others. He was helped, but still sought for certainty and rest. A young man brought him to Brother Everson, of our mission in Rome, and there he found “the Christ of prophecy.” The study of prophetic truth made the Bible a new book, and now he is laboring in the message. At Turin and Monasterollo he has found souls now awaiting baptism. He said: “Once dead, I am now alive; once in chains, now free; once a slave, now a son of God,—why should I not praise God?”

W. A. SPICER, Secretary.

Continue reading: The Council at Gland, Switzerland