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THE KING’ S BUSINESS WORK IN THE OIL FIELDS William Sloan, Supt.
This month has been spent in the West Side oil fields, at t^oalinga. It has been hard to get about, owing to continual rain, and a wind storm on the 27th blew down ?ome 490 rigs in this territory. A Sunday School has been started at the Alpha school house, and has an attendance o f over thirty. Two Bible study classes were started in homes at out places in the field. Three
preaching places are kept up now each week. A fair degree o f interest is shown in the eight services that are held each week. Visiting and distributing o f tracts are car ried on every day. W e expect a harvest time before the three months which we are giving to this field, are up, and that a work will be organized which will be self-sustaining. This is a great place to work.
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SEARCHING OF HEARTS
World’s Greatest Calamity is Leading Men of All European Nations to Seek Light on their Present Attitude Toward God
/ ’"\NE o f the greatest calamities that ever ' “'b e fe ll the world is beyond a doubt the present war, and yet, God is overruling this calamity, in many ways to produce good. It is leading to great searchings o f heart on the part o f the people o f England and other lands. In a recent issue o f The Life of Faith, one signing himself “ Spectator,” writes : “Last Monday week, at the National Day o f Prayer, at Kingsway Hall, Sir Andrew Wingate was pointing out how God is using the Germans to thrash us, even as He used the Babylonians to thrash the Israelites, and said we were still asking, ‘Has God a controversy „with us?’ That very day in a morning paper, under the heading, ‘Things that happen in war-time,’ the fol lowing ifems appeared one under the .other: “ ‘The Rev. ------ , Methodist minister o f ------, has been granted six months’ leave o f absence to work in a shipyard.’ “ ‘The two daughters o f the Dean o f ------ , the Misses — , are among the work ers who on Sundays are engaged in shell- making at —— -.’ “ ‘The ‘apathy’ and ‘impotence’ o f the church, at a period o f such grave crisis as the present, forms the subject o f strong condemnation at the hands o f the leading clerical journal, the %— .’
“ Surely a heathen on reading the above would say, ‘Then the English find, after all, that their God is o f no value, and they have ceased to worship Him—and are trusting to their own munitions and power instead.’ _ Even idolators' do not withdraw their priests and cease worship in war time. “ Statistics told us before the war that between 75 per cent and 80 per cent o f the inhabitants o f our beloved island did not even formally acknowledge God by attend ing some place o f worship on His holy day. And, since the opening o f the war, except for the first three months, when people were afraid, we learn on good authority that, not taking into account the men who have gone abroad, there are even fewef attendants than before. “ Shall we be surprised if God has to 'speak in a louder voice, and send us reverses if we will not listen and obey? Already it has been discovered that working seven days a week means loss o f power to the worker, and that God’s plan o f a Sabbath rest is best, even from a worldly point o f view. ' “ There is a paragraph in Daniel which says—in the marginal reading: ‘As for the Almighty God, in His stead he shall honour a god o f munitions’ (Daniel 11:38). Is this what has happened to us? Have we publicly recognized His hand in pro-
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