T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S 212 members, a Sunday School o f 225, B. T. P. U. o f 60, Junior B. Y. P. U. of 50, Adult Bible Class o f 50, and other organi zations, all well attended. I have ju st or ganized a Bible Study and Personal W ork Class and am w ell satisfied w ith the re sponse. Our greatest need- is a new church, as some o f our Sunday School classes consist o f from 20 to 30 and no further division is possible for lack of room . Pray fo r us that the Lord w ill con tinue to lead and guide and supply the much needed new building.” E. G. Hansell, ’20, is preaching “The Second Com ing” to his church at Arm strong, B. C. These sermons are the first of their kind that have been preached in that place for years, and a packed church seems to give evidence that the subject is one o f importance and interest. Miss Em ily Beck, ’21, writes from her home in Norway, where she has been try ing to witness fo r the Lord among her own people, that she expected to enter a hospital in Kristiania, for training, hoping to become a deaconess if the Lord so wills. Mr. and Mrs. Ford Canfield have been freed from the business w ork at *Ping- yangfu and have been given charge of the church at Yoyang, Shansi, China. They desire prayer that they may have wisdom and power from on high for the responsi bility. Mr. Canfield w rites: “This district is a bit of hill country, not densely popu lated; but I have ju st learned today that there are over 57,000 in the more than 500 towns and villages in the district, accord ing to official figures. There is plenty for us to do even among the eighty Christians and the fam ilies of the Christians, and we are most thankful for the opportunities before us.” Donald Barnhouse, ’15, writes from Trois, Marabouts, Oran, Algeria, Africa, where he had gone for the purpose o f hold ing evangelistic campaigns in three French colonial towns. He is pastor o f a French Reform ed Church at Pallons par St. Crepin, H. A., France, and has been holding evangelistic meetings in that country during the past winter. Miss Olive Rohrbaugh, ’17, writes from Cebu, P. I.: “We need faith, hope, courage and a lim itless amount of patience. It is hard to keep from holding up our own standards and expecting new -born babes to walk in them ; to so harness our energy as to be a real help and not a hindrance to the slow , easy-going pace of the Orien tal. I praise God that I believe and stand in the faith ‘once fo r all delivered unto the saints/ but oh, how w e need to hold this faith in love. W e may be ever so orthodox and fail m iserably because we have not the love that ‘taketh no account o f evil, that rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.’ Pray for the Am er ican people in th se Islands, . . . and how I covet prayers fo r our Bible class that meets every week for American w om en /’ W. A. H ick writes from Chunking, China, enclosing a letter telling of fam ine conditions in Kw eichow, which runs in part as follow s: ftw e have commenced
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giving out rice gruel to about thirty or phans* every morning. The number is grow in g daily, but we are restricting our efforts to children at present. W e have secured a house where w e can provide a shelter fo r about a hundred children. The more sturdy ones we are employing at present to carry coal; and shall sift out those who are w illing to make some effort to better their condition; and have them taught trades. Tating and Chen- yuan districts are in sim ilar condition. Food dear, fields filled w ith poppy, and the roads infested w ith robbers. Things are gettin g into a really hopeless condi tion in the province. The government m a chine seems to have got out o f control— no cash in the exchequer, lots of unpaid soldiers, and no strong men in-pow er able to cope with present conditions. Any funds you are able to. send w ill be admin istered personally. Women and children are carrying coal, but cannot make enough to support themselves. Lots o f children are being abandoned, and distress is be com ing daily more acute.” Miss Nancy Ellen Parker, ’15, writes of a thrilling and dangerous trip over the mountains from Quito to Agato, a suburb o f Otavalo, Ecuador. She says: “Otavalo is settled mainly by Spanish-speaking people, while Agato is strictly an Indian settlement. And there is a great differ ence between the Indians o f this com munity and those o f Quito. The Indians about Quito are absolutely dependent upon and subject to the Spaniards. /Their servi tude is pitiful. But the Indians in this section are independent, even sassy. They own their own fields and have their own industries and are more independent of the whites than the whites o f them. They are light-hearted and gay, and yet they are bound in sin and haunted by fear. Perhaps you can realize the situation bet ter if you realize that fo r several cen turies these Indians have had the name of Jesjis Christ w ith hundreds o f images of Him and o f the V irgin and the saints, but nothing o f the purifying power o f the living Christ. The Bible does not mdan anything to them— they cannot read and do not care to—-and why should they think our Christ any different from the name and images that they have in abundance? Indeed, they have been so 'careless and indifferent about their souls’ great need, and eternal issues, that religion of any form receives but brief and passing notice with them. Spiritual lethargy is consum ing them as a fearfu l disease. Can I urge you too strongly to pray?” SEED SOWING “ Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thine hand; To doubt and fear give thou no heed, Broad-cast it o'er the land. Thou canst not toil in vain; ' Cold, heat, and moist and dry, Shall foster and mature the grain, For garners in the sky.”
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