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THE KING’S BUSINESS AMONG THE LUMBER CAMPS
By REV. H. I. O NLY a beginning has so far been made among the men of the forests of the northwest, yet it would far exceed the scope of this article to tell all about this beginning. It has only to do with a few counties in the northwest corner of the State of Washington, which advanced in 1905 to first place in lumber production, with a “cut” of almost four billion board- feet. Two-thirds of all the State’s indus trial wage-workers are employed in this great industry. There are four men,-com missioned by the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, who give their whole time to ministering to these loggers. In the five counties north of Seattle, which constitutes his parish, the writer has visited . seventy-eight different camps, of from twelve to 200 men, with an aggregate popu lation of 5682 men, besides a number of women and children. Living and working conditions in these camps are better now than, four years ago, and better than in some other sections of the State. Some of the camps are the best- housed and best-equipped to be found any where, and the physical and the economic conditions of the men who work in the camps have quite noticeably improved since the State outlawed the saloon. The spiritual condition of most of them is truly described as “dead in trespasses and sins,” but God, being “rich in mercy, through his great love,” is raising up some with Christ to “sit with him in heavenly places.” Many of these men have not been inside a church for more than fifteen years, and some have never been in church. Once I preached on the importance of confess ing Christ before men, and four men came to my room afterward to ask me more about it. In talking with one of them, a fine-looking fellow of about 22, I asked what church he had been brought up in as a boy. This was his reply: “So far as I know, Mr. Chatterton, your’s are the only religious meetings I ever attended.”
CHATTERTON Not long ago I was rejoiced over the clean-cut conversion of a popular young logger who may, pray God, become the means of bringing several of his friefids into the kingdom. The instrument which the Holy Spirit used in this case was the old allegory, “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Only that day this young man, best known as “Tennessee,” had been to town with other loggers and had been drinking. Neverthe less he came to the service that night in the camp dining-room. On the way back after service, he said to his chum: “I’m going to change my ways, if I have to quit the woods to do it.” Soon afterward he did quit his camp job, which paid him well,- and hired out to a Christian farmer, say ing he would rather work for less wages in order to be with good people. When revival services were held in the nearby church, a few weeks later, Tennessee made his publit confession' of faith and was baptized. He is now ready to go with me on my next trip to the camp where he used to work, to testify what the Lord ,has done for him. $ ----- <>------ | The following interesting statement appeared in a recent number of the Mis sionary Review of the World: The United States has assigned to pay for the present troops movements to protect our border the sum of $130,000,000. This amount is too tremendous for us to grasp. How far it would go toward the real solution of the Mexican problem! It would place in every town and city of Mexico with more than 4,000 people, a church, a college, a hos pital and a social center, all magnificently equipped, and sustain an ample corps of workers in all these institutions for a per iod of ten years; and over and above this it would enable us to endow the public school funds of municipalities with the sum of $750,000, the annual interest at 6 per cent on which would be more than the Mexican government has ever paid for education in any single year of its history!
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