AFRICA

The following extracts from the report of a Missionary Conference held in Belgian Congo are worthy of prayerful consideration.

The Message

"Our Christian message is eternal, unchangeable, and all-powerful. It is summed up in John 3:16."

"Let Jesus Christ and Him crucified always be upheld as the only hope of salvation."

The Messenger

"Ambassadors to be fit to proclaim Christ as Saviour must be filled by His Spirit. This involves personal pre-paration by contemplation of Christ, by meditation on His Word, and by living in a condition of prayerfulness. We must live Christ."

"The character of the worker must be above reproach for successful evangelism. Those who exhibit the power of Christ in their lives may win many in their daily walk. As of old, men still take knowledge of those who have been with Jesus and learned of Him."

"The missionary should display such Christ-likenes? and evangelistic ardor as will insure that the native Church shall be founded on a deep and genuine spiritual experience."

Early Preparation for Service

"The development of the evangelistic gift should begin in youth. Early in life there should be a sense of responsibility to God, and a habit of prayer and Bible study. From this will result, naturally and normally, the dedication of lives to Jesus Christ and the practice of bearing witness to Him in youth."

We are glad to have the following brief note from our brother H. Wilson:

INKONGO, October 30. – God is working here for blessing. Quite a number of Christians go out preaching every Sunday after the meetings, and God blesses the Gospel as elsewhere. Some weeks ago I baptized some elderly women who cannot speak our language. Some of their tribe are breaking bread, and know two languages, and have gone to their villages with the Gospel, and God has worked in souls. I am now putting the roof on the hospital and we expect the doctor before very long. It has been very hard work for my wife and myself, but we felt we could not leave it all for the doctor to do on arrival. The hospital is one hundred feet long and will have an operating-room, consulting-room and rooms for patients.

CHINA

Brother Foggin sends the following interesting letter telling of a journey made with other missionaries to "spy out the land," with a view to further Gospel activity. The book mentioned, "Through the Jade Gate," and its companion volume, "Something Happened," can be obtained from Loizeaux Bros. They are well worth reading.

KAOTAI, KANSU, October 16.-Your good letters to hand. I have not been able to answer them sooner, having been on the road for about six weeks, on our trip to Tunhuang. It is marked on the map inserted in the bottom left hand corner of the Kansu Postal map. There is a line branching southwest from Ansi, marked 280, arriving at Tunhuang. When I got to Suchow, Dr. Beauchamp and Mr. Hayward had decided to hire a cart for the trip and take Elder Wei of the Suchow Church, so as to allay any suspicion as to our motive. After some time we were able to hire a cart through the Elder at a reasonable rate, but with a misunderstanding which took us two weeks to find out. At first the cart was supposed to be hired by the month, and when we arrived at the first stage, the Jade Gate, which marks the passing out of China proper, the carter wanted to rush on with another cart of his, travelling all night. I was pretty sharp with him, and gave him to understand we were out to preach, and not run the road, and that we wanted to stop at the different places along the way. However, as it was Gobi Desert, Mr. Hayward and the Doctor agreed to leave shortly after midnight. Later we learned that the cart was not hired by the month, but by the trip. However, we demanded one stage for one day, and not to rush on at breakneck" speed. The night travel was kept up for several nights, but was not at all suitable for me as I was riding horseback, so after we got to Yumen we changed to day travel. From the Jade Gate to Yumen there are three stages. We preached at two small places between. Each place along the way is like an oasis after crossing long stretches of gravel and sand. The last town where we stayed before coming to Yumen is called Chin Hsia, with a population of about ten families, and has been of late years destroyed by Ma Chung Ying's troops because the local people refused to recognize it as a "Ping Chan" (soldiers' free fodder stage). At Yumen, which is a considerable city, we spent a day-and-a-half. The doctor got a room in the house of a Mr. Chang for the purpose of seeing patients, and he was kept busy from morning till night. However, we started with a united open-air meeting first thing in the morning. The doctor and Mr. Hayward left to receive patients, leaving Elder Wei and me to continue preaching. In the evening the doctor and I went out together and had another open-air. The power of the Holy Spirit was present so that one could make an appeal. The next day we started for Ansi, which is three-and-a-half days' journey. The first place, only a half-day's journey from Yumen, is a rather large town from which Yumen draws its supplies. Here we had a meeting with a fairly large audience. We noticed all along the road posters which the three ladies had put up over two years ago. I suppose you have heard of the Misses French and Miss Cable. They are now in England planning to come out here again. They used to travel the road with two carts of their own, and we were told that they did the bill-posting themselves. It was a thorough work.

We arrived at Ansi, which is more or less a barrack-town on a sandy desert. Having put up at a Mohammedan inn and had a good meal, we went on the street and had a good meeting. The next day the doctor and Mr. Hayward received patients, the Elder and I did the preaching. I was buyer, cook, and preacher for that day. The following day we left for Tunhuang (pronounced Doong-hwang) which is four small stages, but heavy going for carts. The three stages in between are simply three inns and not villages. I forgot to mention that when at Ansi we met the crew, headed by a Mr. Tanberg, of the American Auto expedition into Hsin-chiang for sausage-skins. They had been there for about a month, not being able to go any further owing to trouble in Hsinchiang. They were waiting for camel-loads of skins to come through. That is over a month ago, and they haven't come past this way yet as far as I know. They seemed to be having a good holiday. We also met a Mr. Psuck who was enjoying their company, having been there alone for quite a while. He is a German in charge of the radio station for the Eurasia Air Line. We arrived in Tunhuang to find that it was the largest and most prosperous place along the road. Here we had some of the largest crowds I have ever preached to. I had a cornet, and Mr. Hayward a guitar, and that accounts for the crowds. However, we trust that the Word has lodged in some hearts. There is a Moslem element here, and at one of the meetings nearly half of the crowd left instantaneously. A priest came along and called his flock away. While there we visited the Crescent Moon Lake, mentioned by the Misses Cable and French in their book entitled, "Through the Jade Gate." It is about three miles from the city across sandy desert until you come to a fertile patch with trees and vegetation. In front are sand-hills rising from one to four or five hundred feet high. You ascend one of these sand-hills, and from its top have a full view of the Crescent Moon Lake which lies in the deep hollow of surrounding sand-hills. There are beautiful trees beside the lake, and the Chinese have built there a picturesque temple, with many adjoining buildings. It was understood that we were to come back after five days, but on the third day the carter came to us and said he was going on the morrow irrespective of whether we went or not. We were quite indignant and threatened to prosecute him if he dared to do so. In fact we thought we would stop his going out of the city if he attempted to do so. In the evening I went to talk with Elder Wei, and then discovered that the cart had only been hired one way. We had had trouble with the carter on the road and could not understand his actions, but now it was all plain. Of course, we had to make apologies, not having understood the circumstances. The next trouble was to get back. Carts were more expensive and our money short. Besides, we had to wait until we could get a cart, as they were taken up as soon as they arrived. We were there about two weeks before we could get away, and when we got on the road the animals could not pull the cart through the sand.
The first ten miles consisted of irrigated land, and we stuck in every ditch we came to. We did about ten miles, and had to put up for the night. The next day it took thirteen hours to do twenty-three miles. The following day was somewhat the same, so we decided to change the cart when we got to Ansi, and take camels. We still had seventy li (twenty odd miles), and not wanting the same slow process it was decided to let my animal do the pulling and tie his animal behind. My animal pulled as if he had been used to it all his life, and we went so fast that we decided to go straight through to Suchow. However, I had to take him away from the cart the last day as he was worn out, and his neck was badly chafed as he was not used to the collar. When we get back to Suchow we discovered that he had developed a large ulcer over his shoulder-blade, about the size of a dinner-plate. I had hoped to get back to Kaotai, but was held over several days as I could not use him. However, during the delay I was able to preach the Word; and I am glad to say the animal is now almost normal. Mr. Hayward decided to go back to Tunhuang and start work, so he and his wife were preparing to go as soon as possible when I left Suchow. Dr. Beauchamp was not able to get through to Hsinchiang, so he and his wife will be leaving for Lanchow in a few days. I hope I have not wearied you with these details. I had a nice letter from brother Kautto telling of the encouragement in those parts, having baptized both men and women. I am ^ afraid I do not get much news of current events or of assembly affairs at home, and would be glad to get the news if you have time to spare.

GEORGE E. FOGGIN.

WORK AMONG THE INDIANS IN U. S. A.:

Brother Anderson writes:
Thanks ever so much for the ministry, and the love ; and fellowship that goes with it. Two weeks ago I bap-.tized five-all from Kingman. We are very much encouraged with the work there. Tomorrow I go to Oat-man, a mining town sixty miles west, and two carloads will go with me from Kingman. A young brother saved nearly three years ago is being used of the Lord, and getting a good interest from the young boys at Kingman. Miss Olsen has been sick for some time, and was in Los Angeles, but has now returned, being somewhat better. We use her home for the meetings. Will close with much love in our Lord, -J. P. Anderson.

Miss Holcomb writes:

Yours of October 25th came in our last mail. We do thank you for the enclosed ministry. It came as another reminder of the loving care of our dear Father.

Today Mr. Girdner and Dannie, our second boy, have started out for Denehotso. They will probably be gone for two or three days. They were over there for the week-end two weeks ago, and reported a good time in cane work. This is one of the farther points in our new field. We cannot do justice to the three new neighborhoods that have been added to us, but we shall make an attempt to give some testimony in each from time to time. We understand that school-buildings are now going up in some of them, and in another one or two, rock is being hauled for the buildings, and when these are completed and the children gathered in to school, it should be up to us to have a Bible lesson once each week in each of the five schools. This would hardly seem possible with our present equipment.

Yesterday I held a Bible class with the women in the western part of our neighborhood, and I hope I have a place for this class located for the present. Just now a number of families are living rather close to the store, and they suggested that would be the most central place for most of them. There were eleven women there yesterday-two new ones, and the rest had been coming during the Spring to a class farther West. From there I went on over to Rock Point, where I am trying to get together the women who came to my class last Spring. It is slow work, but I can see that I am making some
progress. At both places the attention and interest were quite good. Some of the women are beginning to set their quilt tops together, and that adds interest in coming more regularly. The day before yesterday I had classes with my two groups of women in the mountain. This is late for them to be still living there, and this class is due for a move some time in the next few weeks. That makes attendance irregular for a time. These four classes makes a weekly mileage of over seventy-five miles, and of course the roads are rough and crooked, in some places long stretches of deep sand, and in others long stretches of climbing up over bare rock, so that the driving is none too easy. But it is what one must expect out here. Roads around here have been much improved to what they were during the past three years, but we hear that the present Head of Indian Affairs does not intend to keep up Reservation roads so as to make them passable for autos, as he thinks Indians are so much more picturesque on horseback. -Clara E. Holcomb.

A Word to Young Christians

Paul, the aged servant of Christ, in writing to young Timothy, says in 1 Tim. 4:12:"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers," etc.

Many young people today excuse their poor spiritual condition and their lack of missionary interest by stating that the older people give them no opportunity and no encouragement in serving the Lord. Paul does not mention such an attitude to Timothy, but rather encourages him to be an example to them who are older.

If we feel that our seniors do not understand us, and do not properly encourage us in the Lord, let us so walk with the Lord that ultimately we will be examples and an encouragement to them. The mission field today is in great need of workers, and especially of young people. Young men and women can adjust themselves to new circumstances and can learn new ways more rapidly than those in later life. And is it not a fact that people today will often listen to young people because of their youth? If these young folk are devoted to the Lord and the proclamation of His Word, there is not a doubt but what they will be used of Him to the salvation of souls, the edification of saints and the glory of Christ.

Young people, awake to your opportunities and responsibilities. Realize your indebtedness to Christ who hath redeemed you and made you His own, and go forth in His name with the glad tidings. First at home, being an example to the brethren that your services may be commendable, and finally into lands abroad where Christ is not known. Thus you will fulfil the Lord's command to go into all the world with the gospel, and then will you spread the glory of His name, the glory of Him who hath redeemed us by His own precious blood.

-JAMES ANNAN.