(Reflate red at 6.P.O.. Melbourne, for traasmisaien by post as a
Transcription
(Reflate red at 6.P.O.. Melbourne, for traasmisaien by post as a
(Reflate red at 6.P.O.. Melbourne, for traasmisaien by post as a newspaper.) ffljrfetma* ^ I k . CHRISTMAS BELLS, ye ring and ring! I hear your music pealing. To me there's mockery in the tones that on the air are stealing. For peace is but an empty name; good will—ah, who can find it? For selfish greed stalks through the earth and misery walks behind it. 0 Christmas Bells! what other sounds now fill the earth with sighing! The earth brings forth enough for all, yet men for bread are crying. Though they are given Christmas cheer, and told to banish sorrow, Their mournful eyes behold with fear the spectre of to-morrow. And round the world is heard the sound of busy hammers ringing; And hands are moulding guns for war while lips of peace are singing. Gigantic vessels sail the seas with weapons forged for killing; And hearts that should with love o'erflow, hate's vengeful tide is filling. 0 bells the curse is over all, and Adam's children languish; For back at Eden's gate began six thousand years of anguish. God's wrath has rested on the race; its marks are all about us. Go search throughout the whole wide earth, and see what sin has brought us! On every side disease holds sway; hear now the captive's moaning. The curse of sin is on the race, the whole creation's groaning. Vice, crime, and evil prey on man; and death fills up the measure. The bells toll o'er ten billion graves. How can they tell of pleasure ? Peal out, peal out the heavenly joys that breathe a glad to-morrow; Ring out the message God has given—how He will banish sorrow. Tell earth the song the angels sang full soon will have fulfilling; That God shall give eternal joy to every soul that's willing. Tell out, 0 bells, their long-lost dead shall rise from Death's dark prison! Tell them the earth will be renewed because the Lord is risen! He holds the keys of death and hell; His powers shall wake the sleeping, And raise them up to perfect life, and end earth's night of weeping. THE CHRISTMAS TREE. Its Symbology. By Henry Proctor, F.R.S.L. At this season of the year everyone's heart is opened to be giving gifts one to another. Even little children will, if possible, give some childish gift to friends or parents. It is the influence of the Christ-child, the Heavenly Babe who was born in Bethlehem over 1900 years ago, who was Himself God's greatest gift to all mankind. For though we are indebted to Him for what we wear, for what we eat, and for every breath we breathe, all this concerns only our natural life, which must come to an end; but to have God's Christmas gift, to have Christ born in us, is to have a never-ending life. All other gifts will waste and wear away, but this gift will last forever. We love to have a tree at Christmas, laden with gifts for the children. So our Heavenly Father provides His children with a Christmas Tree, the Tree of Life, for:— My Christ, He is the Tree of Life Which in God's garden grows. The tree of life is laden with gifts, because since God has given us His Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us ALL things? "To him that overcometh will I give to eat," He says, "of the Tree of Life, which is in the Paradise of God." The tree is hung with lights, because light is the symbol of life— "the life was the light of men"; and we are united to Him who is "the Tree of Life" and "the Light of the World".that we also may become "the lights of the world": "lights shining in a dark place," because our "whole body is full of light," having no part dark. But not only are we privileged to be full of light, but all the gifts on the tree are ours: "Everything belongs to you": "All things are yours." The Lord Jesus is Himself the Tree of Life, of which he gives the over comer to eat (Rev. 2: 7)^ We sit down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit is sweet to our taste. By this mean.s we ourselves become trees of life, and trees of righteousness of the Lord's own right hand planting (Psalm 1: 3), for we see that in the age to come "on both sides of the River grows the Tree of Life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, and the leaves thereof are for the healing of the (earthly) nations," those on the new earth (Rev. 21: 24 to 22: 2). We are the lights on the tree, because the Light of the World is shining through us, and the "fruit of the light is (seen) in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Eph. 5: 9). And we are "all sons of light and children of the day." Of all this the Christmas Tree speaks to us—of life and light and fruit. The Divine Wisdom, which Christ is made unto us, and produces in us, is called a tree of life (Prov. 8: 18). The Tree of Life is also the True Vine, of which we are the branches. If we remain in Him and He in us, His life will be continually filling us—ust as the lifesap fills the branches of the vine—and it will be His fruit that we are bearing in thought, word, and deed. For meditation on the Word of God is shewn to be the means of fruit-bearing (Psalm 1, 2, 3), and words are of vast importance, for "by thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." And more especially His words, for "They are spirit, and they ARE LIFE." His words, therefore, hid, as good seed, in our heart, cannot fail to bring forth fruit, cannot return unto Him void, but must accomplish the Divine purpose, both in our own lives and that of others. And by the good fruit that we bear even the heart of God is refreshed; for the Husbandman must be the first partaker of the fruit that grows in ninefold clusters of "love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5: 22). THE TIME TO TRUST. Rev. A. B. Simpson. What is the time to trust ? Is it when all is calm, When waves the victor's palm, And life is one great psalm Of joy and praise? Nay; but the time to trust Is when the waves beat high, When storm-clouds fill the sky, And prayer is one long cry, 0 help and save! What is the time to trust? Is it some future day When you have tried your way And learned to trust and pray By bitter woe? Nay; but the time to trust Is in this moment's need. Poor broken, bruised reed! Poor troubled soul, make speed To trust thy God. What is the time to trust? Is it when friends are true? Is it when comforts woo ? And in all we say or do We meet but praise? Nay; but the time to trust Is when we stand alone, And summer birds have flown And every prop is gone, All else but God What is the time to trust? ; Is it when hopes beat high, When sunshine gilds the sky, And joy and ecstasy Fill all the heart? Nay; but the time to trust Is when our joy is fled, When sorrow bows the head, And all is cold and dead, All else but Trust. ®lf£ ptatl of i\\t (&\\ximxt ^vdlzxtx* By Mina Ross Brawner, M.D. "I will arise and go to my Father." I have been in a far country—the land of suffering. All the diseases of Egypt are here, consumption, blindness, inflammation, madness—I have had them all, and have spent my substance in riotous living. I've tried all the water-cures, sanitariums, and health resorts, the various nature-cure establishments; the only effect so far is that I have spent all my substance. I lived on health foods for years, found them to be only husks. Have had my share of operations, also, but it has been riotous living. I travelled from one physician to another asking for the bread of healing; none gave nje, for I am an incurable. Then I became disgusted with them all, and decided to do something for myself; undertook self-medication, took the husks of patent medicine, filled up on them. The advertisements were alluring; they gave me great promise of health, printed wonderful testimonials from sufferers who had been restored by their use. 1 became a Walking apothecary shop; ruined my digestion, shattered my nerves, and clouded my brain, but only filled my belly with husks, only husks. I am spent, undone, hopeless, penniless, and in a far country! What shall I do? Commit suicide, put an end to my intolerable sufferings? No! "I will arise and go to my Father." Even His hired servants who labor in the vineyard have more to eat than I have; they go to my Father's table for healing, they are eating the children's bread, while I, His own son, am filling up on these husks of patent medicine. I will say unto Him, "Father" (it is long years since 1 spoke that dear Name; I have been saying "Doctor," not "Father," when I told my troubles) "I am no more worthy to be called Thy son." "I have been in a far country, but could find no healing there; I filled up on husks while Thy servants had bread and to spare. Make me as one of Thy hired servants, anyone, the lowliest servant; give me bread, the bread that heals my rheumatism; I am full of aches and pains; but I do not ask a son's portion, or a son's rights—only the bread of a servant. I have been in the land of suffering so long that I am footsore, my bones ache, my joints creak, my back is lame, I lean upon a staff, I am no longer worthy to be called Thy son; Thy son should be at home, enjoying the good things on the Father's table. These crutches, these rags, these groans of pain, these weary nights and dreary days do not belong to a son—make me as one of Thy hired servants." "He arose and came to his Father." The Father saw him coming a great way off. He had been watching His son's wanderings in the far country; knew all about his spent substance, his suffering, his hunger; the Father's tender eyes saw it all. As soon as the prodigal made a movement towards home, the Father ran to meet him; He gathered the weary sufferer into His arms. "Bring a robe, the best, the garment of praise! A ring, a signet ring; he shall be sealed with the Spirit to show that he is Mine. Bring shoes, the soft, comfortable shoes of the Gospel of Peace. Prepare the feast, he asks only a servant's place, only a crust of healing, enough to relieve his sufferings and make life bearable; but he is a son still; prepare the feast, kill the fatted calf. Bread ? His hunger shall be more than satisfied; load the table, every infirmity is provided for. "The fruits of the Spirit will restore his failing sight. "The wine of the Spirit will strengthen his weak heart, and revive his drooping courage. "The oil of the Spirit will make fat his bones and cause his face to shine. "The children's bread will give nourishment and the fatted calf will reinstate him into the Father's house. "Spread the feast, let us eat and be merry. I have waited long for this day; the lost is found, the wanderer has returned to the Father's house." —From the "Bible Standard." THE FAITH SONG. Clara Mai Howe. From Faith I've learned a wondrous song; I love to sing the whole day long, This: "As a little child, I believe." I cannot understand how He, My Christ, came down to die for me. But, "As a little child, I believe." I do not have to understand, But just receive this truth so grand And, "As a little child, I believe." There oft are times I cannot see How ills of life can blessings be, But, "As a little child, I believe." My Father knows what's best for me„ He'll guide me safe o'er life's rough sea, This: "As a little child, I believe." I thank thee, Faith, this gladsome song It brings me joy the whole day long. Yes "As a little child, I believe." WE ARE SAFE. H. W. Smith. A lady told me a sweet story illustrative of what it is to have Christ between us and everything else. She was wakened up by a very strange noise of picking, and when she got up she saw a butterfly flying backward and forward inside the window pane in great fright, and a sparrow pecking and trying to get in. The butterfly did not see the glass, and expected every minute to be caught, and the sparrow did not see the glass, and expected every moment to get the butterfly, yet all the while that butterfly was as safe as if it were three miles away, because of the glass between it and the sparrow. So it is with Christians who are abiding in Christ. His presence is between them and every danger. I do not believe that Satan understands about the mighty and invisible power that protects us, or he would not waste his efforts by trying to get us. He must be like the sparrow; he does hot see it; Christians like the butterfly, they do not see it, and so they are frightened and flutter backwards and forwards in terror, but all the while Satan cannot touch the soul that has the Lord Jesus between itself and Him. The evangelisation of the world to-day is only possible when we believe in the doing of the impossible oy God through manifestly and ridiculously inadequate persons and things. (2 Thess. 1: 4, 5.) Professor Upham says it is a known fact that God has always allowed every new movement of Christ, every new manifestation of His working, to be baptised in tribulation and opposed by the forces of evil, and that it is the sign, the token, the hall-mark of heaven. The strange part about it is that God's people are so blind that they take the tribulation as the hall-mark of Satan, and because they desire an easy time, when the opposite comes they are led to think they must either have gone wrong, or God must have forsaken them. "Hold fast the profession of your faith," for you have the hall-mark of heaven, the visible token to those who understand; and even if no one does understand, Christ Who has gone all the way, says:— "Take the Cross, thou need'st not fear, For I've tried the way before thee, And the glory lingers near." Then when Christ is revealed from heaven to take vengeance on all who obey not the gospel of love and faith, He, promises unto His own rest (verse 7), "Behold the goodness and severity of God!" To them that receive and abide in His goodness, more goodness; but to those who turn down the manifestation of the goodness of God, severity; for He loves everyone too much to let them go if He can save them, even by anguish. Has it ever really gripped you that the Christ (Who came, lived in Nazareth, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and went back to glory) is being multiplied in His saints ? God is after a new race like the Sample, the last Adam, the everlasting Father, the Begetter, the Firstborn; and this was the joy set before Him, to give to the Father these sons, when He comes "to be glorified in His saints." But more than that, "to be admired in all them that believe." Unto this central position of the universe I see myriads of angels crowding to get a vision of the manifested Christ. They have no clear conception, but dimly see something being worked out, and the wisdom of God is being revealed to them by means of the Church (Eph. 3 : 10). But the day still waits for the full unveiling, when they shall see the outbirth of the mystery. The strange part is that the saints on earth do not know much more regarding this than the angels in heaven do, and yet they are born to it; it is their birthright to be admired. But to those who have their eyes open to pierce the outer veil, the glory of His indwelling sometimes breaks through when God is working a special manifestation of His Spirit. The devil tells you sometimes that you are useless, that the world would be better if you were out of it, and you say, "It were better I had never been born." But God sees at our worst the glorious possibility of making us a site for a superstructure that shall be to the praise of the divine Architect; He sees the rising up of the Christ Who is being formed in us, and looks forward to the day when the old scaffolding shall be pulled down; and then with wondrous admiration there shall be a crowding round to see the new building. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him"—like Him, twin brothers! We shall see Him as He is, and, being like Him, we shall know what we are like; He will be our Mirror. You cannot wonder, then, that people are optimists who have their eyes open to see this wondrous life. It is the devil who makes pessimists. May God help us always to assert our faith in the upward calling and the reality of the work of grace in us, and never to take on the lie presented to our consciousness concerning ourselves or our brethren. Now follow the progressive development and unveiling of the embodied, incarnate Christ towards that glorious day. First, He came to the world as the Christ in His humanity in the incarnation—that was the first unveiling. As Christ, on the Cross for the sin of the world He was unveiled the more. Was it the real Christ on the Cross, or was He on a loop-line because it was a necessity for Him to go there through my sin? It was the Christ, for He was the Calvary-Christ before He was incarnate. It was as natural for the God of love to give His Son as it is for man to sin; it was as natural for the Son of God not to avoid the Cross as it is for us to do so. It was the Christ-spirit that took Him there, and so Calvary is the unveiling of the one side of the love of God. Then He is unveiled to the Church as the risen Christ, and, further, as the indwelling Christ in the Church, His Body, as the result of an actual Pentecost. The Holy Ghost broods over the redeemed soul as He did with Mary, to beget Christ in him, to impart the nature of the Son and to bring Christ forth in the manifestation of the glory of the Son of God. Beloved, is that what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit has done for you? It is the highest manifestation in this world or the next; do not let people persuade you that this is a receding from the Holy Spirit to Christ. Christ is the centre of the manifestation of all that is worth having, and all that is of God. Any so-called work of the Holy Spirit that does not make Him the central person at all times, in all things, in all places, shows, to say the least, that something is lacking. Many have been brought through as far as they could be down here, waiting for His appearing and the gathering out unto Him of those whom the Holy Ghost is preparing, making ready in secret, forming Christ within. Some are ready by the time they meet natural death. Do you know where you are on the pathway? Have you counted the old man crucified once for all? Have you apprehended Christ as your whole life, or have you, on the contrary, taken in the thought that the Holy Spirit will doctor up the old nature, the old body? Not a shred of it is ever going to enter the Kingdom; there all things are to be new and all things of God, and out of this tribulation that is working around us is coming that great host who have followed the Lamb. Are we in the procession? The chariot is passing now, and there is coming a day when this dispensation will close and the dispensation of tribulation and judgment will begin. Thus we are led up to the wondrous exhortation, "Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling" (by letting you have the tribulation which works out faith and patience aiid is a visible token that you are tailed to the Kingdom.) The whole Book from beginning to end tells the story of God's purpose from its incipient stages; the last pages tell of those who will be caught up from earth to be like Him, and are seen descending from heaven, having the glor,y of God, to reign with Him in an ecstasy of eternal blessedness. Millions of years shall roll, and the song be sung over and over again, "Unto Him that loved us, and loosed us from our sins. . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." —"Faith Links." LITTLE BOY'S BIG QUESTION. A father was one day teaching his little boy what manner of man a Christian was. When, the lesson was through the father got a stab that he never forgot, when the boy said: "Father, have I ever seen a Christian?" It is possible so to live that our lives shall each of them be a lens by which God is magnified. May that be the supreme desire of all our hearts! The Briand-Kellogg peace pact, by which 15 nations renounce war as an instrument of national policy, was signed in Paris on August 27. Many are enthusiastic, but it is well to remember the warning of Scripture: "When men shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh." • In the midst of man's arbitration damnation is slumbering behind. "Making the world safe for democracy" was the boasted result of the war. There is a lot of uncertainty about the safety attained, to say no more. It is like the safety pin when the pin catch is sprung. The safety pin is not very safe with a point not fitting in its sheath. The failure of the recent League of Nations conference for the reduction of armaments is a warning and is an eloquent tribute to man's failure. On the other hand, secret preparations to meet the need of the next world war are being made in every nation. It is conscription of everything, as well as the conscription of man and woman power. Every nation's resources are being conscripted beforehand, In other words, every nation is preparing to pawn everything, and it will be universal bankruptcy. "When they shall say, Peace and safety"—there are many who are saying it now—"then comes sudden destruction!" The World War was sudden. Between the time of the massacre of the Austrian prince in Serbia, July, 1914, and the date of the declaration of war in August—only a few weeks—the world passed from seeming calm into the greatest war in history. You say that we are alarmists. We might have been called that in the spring of 1914, but in the light of the World War and of subsequent events, we cannot be called alarmists because sudden destruction is due. The last World War is in the nature of warning—an emphatic warning from heaven to earth; the second event will not have so much warning, and we shall not have the long period of warning, and it will outdo the first World War because the result will mean sudden destruction. The result of the first World War was catastrophe; that of the next war will be destruction. Nebuchadnezzar came three times against Jerusalem. The first two invasions were serious, and the consequences were disastrous. But the last time meant destruction to Jerusalem, to its walls, and to the temple of Solomon. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy," is true of nations as well as of individuals. When you speak in this manner people say, "You are an alarmist!" There is need to-day of such speaking. John the Baptist was an alarmist heralding the first advent. Would to God that every preacher were an alarmist in the midst of so many optimists who cry, "Peace and safety." God does not send men dressed like John the Baptist in strange, out-of-the-way places to-day. They would be ridiculed. Even the Pharisees did not ridicule John the Baptist, nor did the soldiers. So God is using men in the pulpit, and those who use their pens, and the Press to warn men, to make them think, and to interpret signs. The signs are multiplying in spite of statements by men like Sir Oliver Lodge, who declare there is no increase of earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and storms; only our means of recording same have been increased and improved. Peter sums up such by saying, "These things they are willingly ignorant of"—blind leaders of the blind. Weather bureaus all over the world, that go back 50 or more years, record increase in catastrophies and earthquakes. Christ foretold "earthquakes in divers places"—in other words, further afield than before. You may have lightning conductors, but you cannot stop the lightnings. You may have instruments recording earthquakes, but you cannot stop the 'quakes. God is going to rise to shake terribly the earth. Earth is anticipating His arising. We are having the preliminary shudders anticipating world catastrophies. The bird oils its feathers, preparing for the rain. Animals seek shelter, having a premonition of impending storm; but man laughs at warnings. Nay, he says it is all right. He says it is "peace and safety" when the Word says "sudden destruction" is coming. The record of things happening, given in the daily Press, is verifying the Scriptures with its warning of what is to happen. The Press comments on such happenings are man's efforts to explain away these signs. Revolution in Russia and China is called the birth pangs of a nation. Children are not born into the world with hatred, malice, and murder in the hearts of their parents for them. These are not the birth pangs of the nations—they are the death struggles, inspired by him who has the power of death. Not birth pangs, but death, raising its head prior to stalking up and down the nations. Birth pangs of a nation, indeed! They are the death throes of wicked and adulterous generations. Pessimists, we are called. We are the true optimists, for when the Prince of Peace shall come, then war shall cease, as the fomenter and author of war will be bound with a chain in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Men are trying to chain war. God has the chain ready for the author of war. Satan has broken man's chains—their arbitration treaties and alliances, which they have been forging during the past centuries— but he will never be able to break God's chain. He knows it. He knows his time is short. And he is hoodwinking the nations with a false hope of peace, and, at the same time, preparing them for his holocaust. He laughs up his sleeve at the blindness of man, and he is moving forward toward his harvest. The world's expression is, "I've got his number." God has Satan's number, very clearly. Six hundred sixty-six is his number, or the number he will give to men to whom he will give his seat and power. Six, six, six—a trinity of evil. -- Pent. Evang. PICTURES BY WIRELESS. Successful Transmission. Experiment Pleases Experts. London, October 30. Two pictures, the first of the King and the second a cartoonist's line drawing, were successfully broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation and received by the Fultograph system. Each occupied four minutes to transmit and receive. It is a far cry from this to television, which requires moving pictures at a speed of 16 a second, but experts are entirely satisfied with the result, and express the opinion that there is a great future for the Fultograph. There is a small box, which has a revolving cylinder, over which travels a length of sensitised paper. A platinum-tipped needle traverses the paper until, line by line and dot by dot, the picture is completed.—From Melbourne "Argus." TELEVISION TO RIVAL FILMS. Mr. Samuel Izenstark, the pioneer of wireless manufacture in America, prophesies that television will rival the cinema, and will be installed in 14,000,000 homes within the next twelve months. He has made a flying visit for the purpose of purchasing the American rights of television. "Negotiations are now concluded," said Mr. Izenstark, "and, within thirty days of our arrival in New York, television sets to suit the convenience of every home and pocket will be on the market." MEN'S HEARTS FAILING THEM FOR FEAR. LOUD SPEAKERS. Lord Rayleigh, a distinguished scientist, and Lord Halsbury, a barrister, made the members of the House of Lords in London do sojne serious thinking recently with their forecasts of what may happen in the next war. They said: "The principal buildings should be made gasproof, and means might be devised of sucking the gas away through the sewers of London." The Earl of Halsbury said that it was his duty, late in the war, to consider plans for the bombardment of Germany. The recent accident at Hamburg had shown what might be done by an escape of poison gas in a town. Mentioning an area of about twelve square miles in the centre of London, he went on, "the total of phosgene gas required to produce a lethal atmosphere over the whole of that area up to a height of forty feet is under 2000 tons. Yet phosgene gas, for purposes of war, is as out of date as a blunderbuss." He described a new gas so deadly that a concentration of one part in ten million parts of air would probably incapacitate a man in a minute. With this gas only forty tons would be needed instead of 2000. "Multiply it by ten," he added, "and you still have something in the nature of 400 tons to do the thing ten times over. "A bomb filled with this poison gas, dropped in the centre of London, would kill every man, woman, and child in an area of about two miles. Ask any expert, and he will agree with me, that at the present moment London is at the mercy of any nation, reasonably close, which is evilly disposed enough to come and obliterate it, and that London could be absolutely and completely obliterated." —Pent. Evang. How illiteracy will be countered by science under the Antichristian power and the soul of an illiterate people reached the Soviet reveals. "During the past year," says a Press correspondent, "the whole of Russia has become a slave to wireless. Everywhere there are loud speakers, loud speakers of super-volume, which can throw a voice with a vast bellow across the large squares of the city. When the. Kremlin has something to say there is a buzzing—a noise like the roaring of a thousand seas—and with a titanic bellow the Voice from the Kremlin makes an announcement. Nowhere in Europe are there people more superstitious than the Russians. In thousands of the remoter districts of Russia there are villages which hush when the Voice from the Kremlin speaks. For them the wireless is not an electrical phenomenon, but something supernatural. The Voice booms loudly, and it speaks with accents brusque. The peasants listen with dread." Recently a cartoonist pictured Europe as a stout Old Lady Seated in an Armchair, working an embroidered pillow with the word "Peace." Underneath the chair is a bomb with frowning face marked "Mussolini." It is alight, and a whiff of the burning fuse reaches the nose of Dame Europe. In her fancied security she makes a mistake. "I think," she says, "I smell the Peace Incense." We have now the mechanical man invented. "The device responds only to sound, will do nothing unless addressed in the proper tone. . . . If it is addressed in the correct manner, it becomes the perfect subordinate, answering promptly and precisely what is asked of it, and acting at the word of command not only with the promptitude of a soldier on the barrack square, but actually with the speed of electricity" ("Daily Express," October 15, 1927). Is this the beginning of which the image that speaks (Rev. 13: 15) will be the end? It seems to be well within the bounds of possibility. An engineering exhibition in England was opened recently by this mechanical man, which arose from its seat, bowed, and delivered a speech. The voice was that of the inventor, speaking through wireless mechanism concealed in the throat. (See Rev. 13: 15.) MOUNT PETRA, EDOM. Simultaneously with the announcement that an English scientist had overcome gravity, Dr. Sergius Grace, Vice-President of the Bell Telephone Laboratory, gave a similar demonstration at Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.A.), in which a supermagnetised piece of cobalt stee* floated in air above a similarly magnetised cobalt bar contained in a wooden box. Dr. Grace explained that natural repulsion caused the upper bar to remain suspended. "Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, MIGHTY TO SAVE (Isaiah 63:1)." In a letter we received this winter from Palestine, Rev. S. B. Rohold, of Haifa, stated he thinks he may have discovered the mountain Jesus referred to in Matthew 24:16, where he speaks of the remnant Jews "Fleeing to the mountain." Mount Petra, in Edom, is about 70 miles south-east of Jerusalem. It is a solid rock mountain, with caves absolutely impregnable to any ancient or even modern methods of warfare, it being bomb proof. He, Bro. Rohold, and his helpers have been placing books of literature in their care. Hebrew, Arabic, and English Gospels and Tracts for the Jews who may, during the Tribulation and Reign of the AntiChrist, "Flee to the mountain." —Editor, "Prophetic News." "We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4: 16). A TOWER OF BABEL FOR BABYLON THE GREAT. FAMINE. Plans are said to have been completed for the erection in Rome, Italy, of the largest and tallest skyscraper in the world. It is intended to be a monument to Fascism. The architect, Mario Palanti, is a native of Argentina, South America. The building, of eighty stories, will be about one thousand feet high, and will have a frontage of one thousand feet. It will contain four thousand five hundred rooms, including a large theatre, a concert hall, and a gymnasium. For twenty floors the building will stand square, after which it will taper almost in pyramidal fashion. :—"Jewish Age." OVERCOMING GRAVITY. "Knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. ("The Argus," Saturday, October 27, 1928.) Famine again rears its ugly head. In Shantung, whence several millions have been pouring into Manchuria in the greatest mass migration of the modern age, within an area of a hundred square miles a million souls are destitute, another million probably cannot be saved, and a third million must starve to death before help can come from anywhere. Roots of trees and blades of dried grass are the sole food; and the harvest seeds have been dug up and eaten by the starving millions before they could begin to sprout. M\\t JRcfaarbg for (§btxt$mw%~ By D. M. Panton, B.A. That by 'overcomers' our Lord does not mean believers in general, the mixed mass of the saved, but— as the word implies—a faithful and conquering section only, is put beyond all doubt by one crucial and decisive case. "Thou hast a few names," He says to the Sardian Angel (Rev. iii. 4)—'names'; as though looking over the Angel's shoulder at the Church roll lying open before Him—who, because clean-robed, should one day walk with Him in white. These 'few,' walking in sanctity, cannot be the only regenerate souls in Sardis; for the Lord accepts the whole Church as an 'ecclesia,' that is, a body of the vitally 'out-called'; and the 'dead' Angel himself, who is not among the 'few names,' is reminded of his conversion—"Remember how thou hast received, and didst hear." Throughout the Letters it is "he that overcometh"—not an overcoming Church, nor even an overcoming group, but the solitary saint shining like a star above a corrupt Church and a midnight world. Every one of the Churches our Lord thus separates into two sections; only a perfect Church could consist of one division alone, and He names no such Church; seven times He holds out peculiar glories matching exceptional nobility, and seven times He gives the gravest warnings (by implication) ever given to servants of God. In the words of Bengel:—"There is a remarkable difference between each address and each promise. The address has immediate respect to the seven Churches in Asia, and consequently also to all Churches and pastors, in all times and places; the promise, on the other hand, is given forth to all spiritual conquerors, not excluding those in Asia." The Tree of Life. The first promise takes us back into the dawn of the world. It is Paradise regained. The Seven Churches (as Victorinus, the first of all commentators on the Apocalypse, has said) stand for the entire Church, the complete society of the saved, the Church universal; and after the Lord's unerring finger has separated the sanctified from the unsanctified, the spiritual from the carnal, the conqueror from the conquered, disclosing stupendous glories and incalculable perils, both made wholly contingent on faithfulness or unfaithfulness up to the moment of the Advent, to Ephesus He says:—"To him that overcometh"—-a verb without an object: not an overcomer of some specific temptation only; but a victor altogether, one who perseveres in his Christian course (Moses Stuart)—"to him"—throughout, the overcomer is singled out with peculiar emphasis: to him and to him only—"will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God" (Rev. ii. 7). The Paradise of God is Eden. There can be no reference here admitted to a lower Paradise in Hades (Stier). Upon the overcomer is conferred 'the freedom of the City,' he is made a burgess of the New Jerusalem. "The same exhortation at the close of all the seven epistles—the exhortation to overcome—denotes the victory of a steadfast life of faith over temptations and trials and over all adverse things in general" (Lange). The Crown of Life. The only two Churches which are blameless are the only two which are warned of persecution; and the promise to Smyrna is the martyr's crown. Jesus says:—"Be thou faithful unto death"—to the deathpoint, to resistance unto blood—"and I will give thee the crown of life; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (Rev. ii. 10). A crown is the loftiest pinnacle of human glory: against therefore the supreme peril—martyrdom—the Lord balances the supreme glory; and against the terror of man he balances the more awful terror of God—not, he shall have no part in the Second Death, for that is assured on saving faith; but shall not be hurt of it, shall not be injured by it (Alford), in temporary castigation for such sins as apostasy under torture. It is the martyr's Letter and the martyr's crown. "Before the end no man is crowned; though from the beginning, and throughout all the conflict, the crown is held out and exhibited as a reserved treasure" (Stier). When one of Napoleon's generals asked him for a marshal's baton, "It is not I," said Napoleon, "that make marshalls; it is victory." There can be little doubt that the insignia of the glorified saints are the symbols at once of their victory in the contest of earth; and of their authority as Kings in the Kingdom of Heaven. The White Stone. To the overcoming Pergamite is promised a reward second to none in its exquisite wonder. It is the loftiest peak of intimacy with God ever revealed in the Bible, and ever experienced in eternity. "To him that overcometh, to him will I give the hidden manna"—hidden because, as angels' food (Ps. lxxviii. 25) and bread of heaven (Ps. cv. 40), it is at present invisible—"and I will give him a white stone"—both white and lustrous, probably a diamond—"and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it" (Rev. ii. 17). This marvellous gift is probably a duplicate of the Urim and Thummim; on which appears, in divine crystal vision (of old seen by the High Priest alone) a new name; a new name expressive of a new blessedness, and a consequence of the new life kept new. The conferring of a new name by our Lord always signified final approval as Kingdom saints: so, in human honors, Scipio Africanus, or Kitchener of Khartoum: it is the King's signet, "a token of reward and approval from the Son of God" (Alford). The revelation is overwhelming. If an overcomer, this name will be for ever a secret shared between my Lord and me: none other will ever know it: it will be an innermost shrine where walk only two —something of Christ for all eternity that is mine alone. National Authority. The promise to Thyatira reveals, among other things, the critically important truth that these promises and warnings are purely and solely Millennial. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth"—-watchfully performs, obeys (M. Stuart)—"my works"—both the example and the precepts of Christ (here is a grave proof that believers who, on principle, dissociate themselves from the body of our Lord's teaching on the ground that it is "Jewish" will, in that day, experience the saddest dissillusionment)—"unto the end"—therefore these promises are never fulfilled in this life; the end of trial or probation, or of life, is here meant (Moses Stuart)—"to him will I give authority over the nations"—I will make him king (Moses Stuart)—"and he shall rule them with a rod of iron" (Rev. ii. 26). "He who conquers," as Dr. Swete says, "is he who keeps: works are in these addresses to the Churches constantly used as the test of character. The Only Begotten Son of God imparts to His brethren, in so far as their sonship has been confirmed by victory, His own power over the nations." That this royal rule is confined to the Millennium is certain from nations shattered as pottery: "crushed or shivered; as multitudinous fragments collapsing into an heap" (Alford): because rebellious nations, foretold as in the Kingdom (Zech. xiv. 18), are unknown in the Eternal State, and no punishment is foretold for all eternity beyond the Lake. "The 'iron sceptre,' " says Dr. E. C. Craven, "is not promised to the Church Militant, as an organism, but to individuals; and not to individuals in the present state of conflict, but to those who, 'at the end,' should appear as conquerors." The life moulded according to Christ's pattern (as Dr. Maclaren says) is the life capable of being granted participation in His dominion. ''Assuredly it is the Millenial Kingdom, to which, in a certain sense, all these promises point: that power over the nations is here held out to those wno overcome as a reward is very plain" (Stier). "And I will give him the morning star"; the star, a symbol of royalty (Num. xxiv. 17; isa. xiv. 12); and the "morning star'—royalty in the dawn: the star, which, in Milton's gorgeous language, "flames in the forehead of the morning sky." "He that overcometh .shall be present at the first entrance and dawn of my true Kingdom over the nations, and share it witn me" (Stier). The comment of Victorinus is:—"1 will give nim the first resurrection." What a picture of an overcomer! White Robes. The Sardian promise gives, more than any other, the direct relationship between sanctity and glory. "He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and 1 will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels" (Rev. iii. 5 ) . The little band of the undefiled bursts into glory in the dawn. "They who have kept their garments here, as a few in Sardis have done, shall have brighter garments given them" (Trench), glittering robes: "the bright garments," as Dr. Stier says, "are something other and greater than the clean, of which they are the reward." As Dean Alford says:—"They have kept their garments undefiled: they of all others then are the persons who should walk in the glorious white robes of heavenly triumph." The Immovable Pillar. The Philadelphian reward reveals particularly the stability of coming glory. "He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out hence no more"; expelled no more for ever, for any cause, either of external foe or internal sin: "and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, and mine own new name" (Rev. iii. 12). The victor's probation is finally over: stability in grace culminates in stability in glory: more than a "living stone" quarried by grace for the heavenly Temple (1 Pet. ii. 5), he is its everlasting ornament and support. "The promise is special, on the ground that the virtues in question are special" (Moses Stuart); for these promises appear to be distinct rewards conferred for totally distinct services or sufferings; and he who kept Christ's property inviolate is now, as himself the Lord's supreme property, stamped all over with the Name, as His for ever. The Throne. The rewards (as Dr. Stier says) close on their highest peak: the severest rebuke of all is counterpoised bj; the most lustrous promise of all. "It gathers all the promises into one" (Alford). To the Laodicean the Lord says:—"He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in my throne"; (the Eastern throne is much ampler and broader than ours—Trench): "as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in His throne" (Rev. iii. 21). Our Lord's throne, as separate from the Father's is purely and solely the Messianic, the Millennial; for it never appears before or after the Kingdom: and therefore the proof here is beyond chal- lenge or doubt that, whoever the overcomer is, to him, and to him alone, belongs a share in Millennial Royalty. None can ever share the eternal Throne of God and the Lamb. It is obvious that though the lukewarm Laodicean is converted—"as many as I love I rebuke and chasten" (Rev. iii. 19)—co-session on the Lord's Throne is impossible to him as a lukewarm Laodicean, in momentary peril of being spewed out of the mouth of Christ. "This enthronisation," as Prof. Moses Stuart says, "will be granted to all who prove to be final victors in the contest with the world, the flesh, and the devil." The overcomer (the Lord says) conquers in the sense that He conquered; "even as I also overcame": which, obviously, is not conversion, but life-long sanctity. Thus to a believer's grossest carnality is presented, so long as the day of grace has not yet merged into the day of wrath, the most golden reward; and "these promises," as Dr. Seiss has said, "are to brace up the courage of the Church, to carry her to the pitch of bearing the cross and crucifying herself with Christ, and actualising her professed expatriation from this world." Eumenia. An extraordinary proof that a Laodicean believer can nevertheless (through grace appropriated) achieve the summit of devotion before he dies is found in the neighborhood of Laodicea itself. Two centuries later than our Lord's letter, in Eumenia, a neighboring city whose Church shared Laodicea's reputation for lukewarmness, the whole body of believers, herded by soldiers into the Church, and refusing apostasy, were burned to a man, "calling upon the God over all." KEEP LOOKING UP. Keep looking up— The waves that roar around thy feet, Jehovah Jireh will defeat When looking up. Keep looking up— God only knows the way we take, But plain and clear the path He'll make If we look up. Keep looking up— Though darkness seems to wrap thy soul The Light of Light shall fill the whole When looking up. Keep looking up— When worn, distracted with the fight; Your Captain gives you conquering might When you look up. Keep looking up— Though all goes wrong and leaves thee sad, The Peace of God shall make thee glad When looking up. Keep looking up— When Christ comes, fear not thou the gloom, Your Lord smiles on you, saying, "Come!" Then still look up.—Sel. PRAYER FOR ENEMIES. There is no such softener of animosity, no such soother of resentment, no such allayer of hatred as sincere cordial prayer. And we can only learn the duty, so difficult to human nature, of forgiving those who have offended us, when we bring ourselves to pray for them to Him whom we ourselves daily offend. When we pray for those with whom we have worldly intercourse it smooths down the swellings of envy, and bids the tumult of anger and ambition subside.—Hannah More. dWfr ^fefa$L By EVANGELIST DR. BRAWNER. The OFFICIAL ORGAN of the APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION of AUSTRALASIA. "He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love."—Song of Solomon, 2-4. P U B L I S H E D MONTHLY -- EDITOR, J. LANCASTER. I was very young when first He brought me there, and gave me that wondrous invitation, "Come and The Editor is responsible for the soundness and dine." I was hungry, too, but didn't like the look of general character of every contributed article—but not the place. Outside the white lights of the worldly for every detail of interpretation. Writers must be ambition were burning brightly; they dazzled my eyes and made the banqueting hall look dark and dismal. allowed latitude to express their own thoughts. Then, too, I didn't like the food served—there was an Adventist on my right, a Presbyterian on my left, a Baptist across the table, farther down a Methodist; every denomination was represented. I looked at what they had on their plates—none of it suited my weak digestion, and without looking at what was on my plate I rushed out crying, "I can't eat this food." So out into a far country I wandered, feeding on the husks of worldly ambition, pride, and unbelief—was almost starved to death. But a little over three years ago I received another invitation to come to the feast of the Lord. The Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, "Wilt thou go with this Man?" I answered, "I will go." Again He brought me to the banqueting house, but it seemed a very inviting place this time. I noticed that "His banner over me was love." The light of heaven scattered the darkness of sin, and the warm glow from the empty sepulchre took away the chill of death. I soon found my place at the table of the Lord —the same people were feasting as before. The Adventist was closing his shop at sunset Friday eve, his wife airing her opinions on the clothes line Sunday morning; the Baptist was splashing water in the tepid baths; the Anglican reading his prayers; the Methodist was singing Wesley's hymns; the Salvationist beating his drum; the Presbyterian telling about Predestination; and the Pentecostal folks were praying aloud and altogether. But, do you know, it didn't disturb me at all this time, for I was starving with hunger. It just seemed to be holy confusion. I said, "This sounds like a banquet—they seem to be enjoying their dinner," and I never thought of finding fault with what was on anyone's plate, but just bowed my head and said my own grace. Then "The Governor of the Feast" rose up from the table and girded himself to serve me. He brought me a golden plate on which my new name was burned in letters of fire, and upon the plate lay the Word of God sealed with seven seals. He placed in my hands a golden key to unlock the Word, and Pastor Evangelist Mina Brawner is the latest God- told me that I would find my dinner inside. I opened given addition to the official staff of the Apostolic the Book, and such a surprising thing happened— Faith Mission of Australasia. She was formerly, a everyone at the table rose and came to my assistance; Methodist was bearing a pitcher of water on his medical practitioner in N.S.W., but returned to U.S.A., the shoulder, fresh drawn from the Well of Salvation. He 'where she was converted, and later baptised in the Holy put it to my parched lips and my thirst was quenched, Spirit in Los Angeles Temple. No such satisfactory my soul revived, and I began to live once more. Then credentials as hers have been produced by any his wife—God bless her!—brought me a golden goblet Evangelist from America; and presenting, as she does, filled with sparkling wine of the Spirit. I became the Pentecostal message from a scientific viewpoint, in gloriously drunk on it. A converted Jewess brought me honey in the rock—that sweetened all the disappointa fascinating and highly instructive manner, she capti- ments of past experiences. A school mistress brought vates her listeners and compels them to believe that the Bread of Life—it was made from the finest of "This is That." wheat, baked in the oven on Calvary, which was heated by the sufferings of God's only Son. The Baptist put Below she tells her own story, and also asks for me under the cleansing wave. The Anglican told me prayer for Sydney. We trust that many prayer to pray for the sick. The Adventist shouted, "Jesus is warriors will hold our sister's hands up in her bold coming again." The Salvationist sent me out into the entry into the dominions of the Prince of this world, highways and byways to bid others to the Feast. The Pentecostals taught me to pray clear through, and where, we doubt not, God will give her every place she when the Presbyterian laid his hands in benediction puts her foot upon. on my head the Fire fell, and it is still burning, bless God! So you see you have all had a share in satisfying my soul hunger and slaking my thirst, and that is why I invite you to come to the Full Gospel Feast. But, someone objects, "You might preach some things we don't believe." That is very likely; indeed, it would be hard to preach a sermon that everyone could accept in every particular. I know better than to attempt the impossible. I can only give you what I found on my own plate when "He brought me to the banqueting house." The feast that satisfied my own starving soul is what I dish up for other hungry hearts; there is plenty of room, and a feast for all. If the wine of the Spirit makes you tipsy, try water from the Well of Salvation—I have great joy in drawing out the Water of Life. If strong meat gives you spiritual indigestion, take the sincere Milk of the Word—I am sure you will find something to suit your taste. And if you don't like my cooking, or the informal way that I serve, just come along anyway to the banqueting hall and bring your own dinner basket and eat off your own denominational plate. But let us "Keep the Feast" and enjoy Christian fellowship together. You surely do not care where souls are saved, just so they are saved; then roll up your sleeves, don your aprons, and go to work! God bless you all! "What meanest thou, 0 sleeper ? Arise and call upon thy God." Feeling deeply that God's time for a mighty Holy Ghost revival in Sydney has come, I am making my bow to the Apostolic Faith Mission of Australasia with this burning plea: Will you surround this city with your prayers night and day till we hear from heaven? If ever there was a city needing the prayers of God's people it is Sydney. Beautiful for situation, the largest city in Australia, more than a million souls within its borders, but a hard field because of the many setbacks the Full Gospel work has received here. There is no spot on this earth I love so much as Sydney. As soon as the Lord baptised me in the Holy Ghost He placed the burden of this city upon my heart, and for four years this burden has never lifted; and when, some three months ago, He permitted me to come here again, no words of mine can express the ecstacy of soul with which I watched the day break and the beautiful harbor creep out of the shadows and spread itself before my eyes. My sunny South, from whom I had been separated for 16 years! I simply could not wait, so eager were my feet to feel its pavements once more. For days I walked up and down the streets praising the Lord for letting me come again, and very softly (under my breath) shouting, "Glory to God! Hallelujah! Here let me burn out for God!" So now I ask you to enter the fire with me and burn with a pure white fire of intercession. Will you encircle this city with prayer, every hour of the day and night till the victory comes? I want a prayer chain 24 hours long. Will those dear ones who will volunteer to pray one hour each day, or night, for one month for Sydney please write me, and I will send you your hour for prayer; if you have any choice of the hour, please mention it, and, if possible, we will arrange for you to have night prayers and day prayers on alternate weeks. Who will heed this burning plea?—Yours in the King's glad service, Evang. Mina Ross Brawner, M.D., C/o Mrs. J. Metcalfe, "Chevin," Tunks Street, Northbridge, N.S.W. QUEENSLAND GLEANINGS. At Ipswich during last week there were two real and very wonderful conversions, also eleven more were immersed in water, and three were sealed by God with the Holy Spirit of Promise. God has been very present in Brisbane Assembly since the Conference, and has graciously baptised 10 people in the blessed Holy Spirit, and on one brother, after waiting on Him for some time past for the same, He has bestowed the Gift of Interpretation. Praise His Holy Name. Please pray that this brother may be kept humble and that the gift might be perfected in him for the edifying of the Church. At Mundubbera, as a result of one week's meetings held by Pastor Evangelist George Burns (President of the Queensland Advisory Council), 23 accepted Christ on the last night, also eight were baptised in water, and one in the Holy Spirit, and so God proved Himself to be with the evangelist by the signs following his ministry. PASTOR'S REPORT OF MACKAY CAMPAIGN. Mackay has the reputation for being hard to awaken to spiritual realities. The people suffer from a peculiar disease which goes by the name of "indifferentism," originating, with all other diseases, in the evil one. The prince of darkness had been busy before the campaign, endeavoring to thwart the work of God; but, in the face of all opposition, Brother Van Eyk pushed right on, fearlessly proclaiming the truth of God. The campaign opened in the Britannia Hall, Sunday night, September 23, and continued right through to October 21, with great interest. The second Sunday night of the Mission was truly a most wonderful meeting. The evangelist gave his chemical demonstration, together with the story of his own conversion. Oh, what softening in the presence of the Almighty One as the words of life went forth and the blessed Holy Spirit moved upon the audience! It seemed as though the veil had given way and we were ushered into the presence of the great Jehovah, God Himself. Every heart was hushed in His wonderful presence, and the burning words fell from our brother's lips as coals of fire. There were not many dry eyes in that fair-sized audience by the time the message was fully given, and, when the altar call was made, about one hundred arose and made their way to the front to consecrate and reconsecrate themselves to God. It was the Divine healing meetings that probably most interested the people, and they were well attended. The second Divine healing meeting was truly aweinspiring. One after another testified to having received deliverance as hands were laid on them by our brother. People were heard saying one to another, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" Glory to our wonderful God! Mrs. Wilson's case was an outstanding one. What more than a score of doctors—over a period of ten years—had failed to do, Jesus did instantly. Blessed be His name! Many gainsayers were convinced by her testimony amidst the tense interest of the hour. On the last day of the Mission a number of candidates were buried with Christ by baptism into death. Many hundreds of people turned out to watch the proceedings. Many came to antagonise and interrupt, and it was with difficulty that the service was carried through. This, however, on the other hand, gained the sympathy and attention of many, so much so that the night service was crowded. The break had just come, and we were sorry that the evangelist was booked for other needy fields, for we believe that, given another two weeks, the Mission would have stirred the whole city, and, most likely, would have cured it of its "indifferentism." On the -Monday night a tea was arranged to farewell the evangelistic party. About 70 of the saints, together with many touched and interested ones, carne together, and an enjoyable evening was spent in fellowship and singing the songs of Zion. Several seekers were sealed with the blessed Holy Spirit of promise during the campaign, and a number more are earnestly pressing on for the fulness. Sister Wecker presided ably at the piano, and added considerably to the spirit of the meetings with her talent. We praise God for sending our beloved Brother Van Eyk to Mackay, and for the blessing received through his ministry here during the campaign. Bless God! —C. G. ENTICKNAP, Pastor. MACKAY DIVINE HEALING TESTIMONIALS. Ten years ago I took ill with pain in the back, which was diagnosed by the doctor as rheumatics, but which subsequently proved much more serious. During that time 22 doctors treated me. I had six major operations performed and had several organs of the body removed. Two years ago I went to Sydney, and was under treatment of four of Sydney's leading specialists, and never received one moment's relief. On my return I was immediately taken to the hospital. The doctor then told me that they would perform a chance operation, but I refused to submit. I was Xrayed three times, and my case absolutely baffled medical analysis. My suffering was excruciating, and in all this time I spent hundreds of pounds, and travelled thousands of miles without any avail. I went to Mr. Van Eyk's first healing meeting. That night, while I was in the meeting listening to the message, I was in excruciating pain, and could hardly sit still. As soon as Mr. Van Eyk placed his hands upon me I felt the healing power of God go through my body, and I just felt as though something came out through my mouth. Bless God! I was instantly healed and delivered from every trace of pain. Since that night I have never had a trace of that pain. I am strong and healthy now. I can carry a kerosene tin of water without any difficulty. I do praise God with all my heart for what He has done for me—what doctors, money, and human skill could not do! And I give Him all the glory.—EVA L. WILSON. October 3, 1928. This is to testify that my back feels perfect since the laying-on of hands last Thursday by Brother Van Eyk through Jesus Christ. I had my body bent (by God's working) for about an hour the other day, and when I stood up I felt nothing more of pain. Glory be to Christ! Brother, I shall never forget the feelings I experienced when you called on God to heal me. I felt a thrill go through me; I shook; I felt as if I was going to see Christ, Himself; but there I fell short. Brother, it was a wonderful experience, and I hope that, in after-life, when I am being oppressed by earthly things, the memory of that night will help me to go on in His name. I close, thanking you with a full heart for the new road you have opened for me.—Yours in Christ's service, E. SILVESTER. I wish to testify I suffered with a bad leg for eight years. I attended Evangelist Van Eyk's healing meeting, and had my leg prayed for, and immediately I felt the power of God moving in my leg, and I feel thankful. It has wonderfully improved, and I feel it improving every day. Thanking you in Jesu's precious name. —(Mrs.) E. ROXBUGH. Mackay, 1/10/28. I wish to testify that since I had my little boy, Ivan, prayed for at the healing meeting last Wednesday he has never once complained about his ear, and he can hear much better with it than before. The cause of the trouble was an abscess, which kept forming and discharging. I thank God for healing him, and also for your prayers. —M. BELL. October 12, 1928. Just to let you know what the Lord has done for me. For years I suffered with neuritis in my shoulders. I was almost afraid to put my arms up, as my left shoulder was awfully painful. I was prayed for by Brother Van Eyk at his first Divine healing meeting, and, praise the Lord! I never had a touch of pain since. I do think it is just lovely. One cannot help praising the Lord when they have no pain. Praise the Lord! I am always expecting the pain, and it is not there. I thank God for what He has done for me. —MYRTLE DEMPSEY. Marian, October 15, 1928. I want you to know that God is answering your prayer on my behalf. I thank Him with all my heart that He is healing me, both spiritually and physically. I was hoping to be able to tell you that my recovery was complete, but that is not yet. God is working slowly, but surely, and it is my earnest prayer that I may stand steadfast in faith until such time when He will finish what He has commenced. Praise His dear name! I feel better and happier. He is a wonderful God. By the way He arranged everything so that I could get into the meetings I knew He was going to bless me. I thank you for your intercession, on my behalf and pray that God will bless and strengthen you and fill you with mighty power from His own dear self, so that many, many souls may be saved, and bodies healed and strengthened during your Mission amongst us. —(Mrs.) L. KELLY. Note.—Mrs. Kelly suffered from appendicitis, with other internal complications. She was to be operated' on for appendicitis, but came to the meetings, and was prayed for instead.—C.G.E. 20/10/28. Just a few lines to let you know that I have received a blessing through your prayers. My deafness has been of three or four years' standing—I had to put my hand up to my ear to hear anyone talking to me. I can now hear without the aid of my hand; also, I can hear the preacher on almost all subjects. Also, my leg has been bad for 22 years with ulcer left from typhoid fever; also, I had lost the use of my toes, but, thank God! I can use them at present; and, also, my leg had scales on like a fish, and, thanks be to God! they have gone, and my leg is nice and clean. Also, I had blood pressure very badly—I could hardly move, and could not sleep—but, thank God! I have neither pain nor ache, and can sleep like a top; also, I feel I am getting stronger in every way. Mind, I have been a total cripple for 22 years with my leg, 34 years deaf, and 12 months with blood pressure. —W. J. LOVEGROVE. Townsville, November 1, 1928. Greetings in Jesu's name! Peace through the blood of Jesus! I am pleased to be able to say that Jesus is still proving Himself to be the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. What a Saviour! Our work goes steadily along, despite the fact that the enemy is endeavoring to undo all that he can; but he is so feeble compared with our mighty God that we need not be afraid. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." So, resting on His promises, we march along, more than conquerors through Him that loved us. God has, indeed, been blessing in many ways. Several dear ones have been brought into the fold of late, and others are being baptised in the Holy Spirit. Thirty-three have "received" since the campaign and others are pressing in for the fulness— and they will receive, for the Word says so; and we believe His Word. God has very graciously healed many of our dear ones; one young sister especially, who was attacked by the enemy with severe pains, showing every symptom of appendicitis, after being prayed for, was delivered in a mighty way. Our open-air meetings draw great crowds. We praise God because we can deliver the message on the street, and His Word shall not return unto Him void. We are sorry, also, to have to report the death of our dear Brother Erickson, who was a member of the Council of this Assembly. After taking ill and suffering for a few days, he passed away. But still we do praise God that we sorrow not as do others, for we know that we shall indeed see (and that not in the far future) our dear brother at that glorious meeting in the air. We do ask, though, for your prayers and the prayers of all the saints for his dear wife and children, who are left here to battle along in this world of sin. We know that God will prove faithful and impart to our dear sister His own blessed divine comfort. .Trusting that God's richest blessing will rest upon you all continually.—Yours in His happy service, BRO. W. J. E. ENTICKNAP, Jnr. Woombye, October 17. I must let you know that Brother Banks received his baptism on October 8. You can imagine the joy when he came through. We tarried through the week-end, but he did not get full deliverance until the Monday, when he and I tarried again after lunch for three-quarters of an hour, and then brother spoke in tongues for fully ten minutes. It is such a help to me, and, indeed, to us both, to have the same glorious experience. We had quite a houseful on Sunday to the meetings, 38 all told. We went to the tarrying meeting at Brother Connell's on Saturday night. The books and tracts arrived safely, and we often think of the blessing you were to us here. May God abundantly bless you in His work.—Your Sister in Christ, M. Banks. At this blessed Christmas season when all should be peace, we are reluctantly compelled to draw the attention of Assemblies to the fact that David Harris does not possess a Fellowship Credential of the Apostolic Faith Mission of Australasia. We have refused his application for such credential because his behavior for several years past has caused most of the Queensland Assemblies to exclude him from their meetings, and credentials may only be issued to those who are of the same spirit. By recent reports of his conduct we are assured that there is no change yet in his principles. Hawthorn, 13/11/28. Dear Sister in Christ,—Your kind and welcome letter to hand some time ago, in answer to mine asking you for special prayers on behalf of my sister-in-law, Mrs. Annie Eamage, of Frenchman's. Well, dear sister, she has been healed of cancer in the stomach. Her mother and sister both died of cancer. She has been in Maryborough Hospital, and the doctors could not do any good, so they took her to the Chinese doctor at Ballarat, but he, also, said he could not do her any good. They took her to her own home at Frenchman's. Two of her relations went to visit my brother, Alex. Ramage, living two miles away. They found him very ill in bed. He could see the Lord sent them to him in order for her healing, so he got up next morning, walked the two miles, and when he got there found she was very ill in bed. She got up and dressed, and then he went into the bedroom and prayed for and laid hands on her, and she is all right now. Isn't it wonderful what the dear Lord has done ? Praise Him! Laud Him and magnify His name for ever! The Lord is doing great things for us, whereof we are glad. My other brother, James, has suffered for many years from gall stones in the bladder, and had been three years in four different hospitals—they only made a wreck of him. Last place was St. Vincent's Hospital; they took out several great stones four or five years ago, and the wound m?.de in the stomach never healed until just a,few weeks ago. Then one day my brother, Alex., was up on his block of land away from home, and God sent him home, and, when he got home, found my brother, James there waiting for him, and Alex. prayed for him and laid hands on him, and the wound has healed, and he is a marvel now—though over 72 years, he can work and do things he was not able to do before.—Yours in the Risen Lord, M. BRINER. OUR LETTER BOX. Our trials have been great since I last wrote you—the devil has been at work destroying our horses, stopping the growth of our crops, and hindering my husband from getting work. Everything is wrong, but, praise the Lord, He has fenced our persons in His blood, and us Satan cannot touch. In all our tribulations I have had great fellowship with Christ my Lord which was very sweet, and has helped me bear my burdens with peace unspeakable. I had a dream about you all. I could see about thirty of you making a new kitchen, with a stove and every convenience. I had to pray for you all, and while I was praying the tears dropped. God will hold you tight, darling, through every storm. Without Him where would we be? Oh, Christ for me! How I wish He would come; but while I am waiting "He is mine and I am His." He often tells me that in tongues. Praise Him! He speaks to me and tells me lots and lots of things, and shows me things to come. Oh, how precious He is! We must just rest in Him. He is soon coming to release us from all our burdens. I always know when any of you are praying for me: it lifts me up! Oh, I am proud to know that I am on the roll of Father's prayer list, and by God's grace I'm going to defy Satan. He is working His hardest, but in Christ I am strong, and happy, too, for our great Redeemer is guiding and holding me. When I write of Jesus I want to gallop my pen; it seems as though x cannot tell you quickly enough how precious He is to me. You know a little of the great trials I have passed through, but I tell Him all. Yes, Jesus knows, and that's why my Lord has been so dear to me of late. Tons of love from me, darling, and many blessings from God. Our Sister's dream shows activity in the preparation of spiritual food for the hungry. This dear sister was one of the unloved waifs of Melbourne. Crouching one night in the doorway of a city warehouse, looking up to the heavenly bodies for company, she saw a man walking right through the bright moon. As He went He turned a compassionate look upon her, the sweet memory of which never left her, and truly our Saviour did keep watch over this poor, neglected child, until, in His mercy, some fourteen years ago, He sent one to bring the sweet message of salvation, and then another to tell how God was pouring out His Spirit; she gladly received both precious gifts, and we can never forget her impassioned testimony, "I was black, black, black! But Jesus washed my black heart white. Praise His Holy Name for ever." On a tiny farm she plies her daily tasks, surrounded by a group of growing little ones, no Christian near to give her fellowship, but her love never grows cold, and when—a while back—we sent an evangelist along with a word of cheer, he reported, "I went to give blessing, but found instead that blessings were showered upon me through the glowing testimony of this unsophisticated child of God."—Editor. A TOUCHING STORY. October 29, 1928. " I would like to tell you just a few of our experiences as a family. For several years we had sickness constantly in our home, one after another falling seriously ill, until we were the talk of the neighborhood, and everyone wondered what was going to happen to us next. One day my little Winnie was taken to the hospital with diphtheria. In the evening of that sad day I said, "I will read the 91st Psalm; that always strengthens me." But I found that I could not read. My eyes were weak, burning with pain, and the words were all blurred. I lifted up my heart to God, and when I looked at the Book again the words of the Psalm stood out as though they were magnified. I went to bed and repeated the 91st Psalm until I fell asleep, then slept well in spite of my anxiety over my dear child's illness. In the morning it was just as though someone woke me, saying loudly, "All is well with thy house, all is well with the child." The night before a neighbor over the road had sent her husband to ask how Winnie was. I could not speak to him; everything looked black around me. After getting the message in the morning, I went over and told my neighbor about it. She said, "Now that is a message from the Lord, so don't you worry any more about it." That day I got the message from hospital. "A slight improvement." The improvement continued, and when Winnie came home she told me that she had never suffered or had pain in any way from the morning after her removal from hospital. In August of this year Winnie was again in bed suffering with white ulcers in her throat. I was just reading in "Good News" that the papers were prayed over before being sent out, so I took one in to Winnie. It was placed on her throat. I asked her to go tp sleep with it there. In the morning she was quite free; the ulcers had all gone, and she has had no sore throat since. Winnie has always been a spiritual child. When she was eight years old she was going a message in Chapel Street with Percy, who was six. A poor old man was evidently in need of help. "Percy," said Winnie, "let me have your penny to give to the poor man, and I'll give you twopence when I get it." The penny was soon slipped into the old man's hand, and, less than half an hour after, someone gave a shilling to Winnie. Truly, to her was the promise fulfilled: "Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down, and running over." My two little boys had pneumonia, and, after that, our dear baby Jim, who was three years old, contracted double pneumonia. He was ill for a fortnight, and, as the doctor did not know what was the matter with him, we called in another doctor, who said the child .was dying. This was in May and June, 1927. Little Jim lay unconscious, with closed eyes, for three days. One night the nurse and I were sitting watching him, and two Salvation Army women were watching with us. He was expected to die at any moment, but suddenly he opened his eyes, and looked at me. "Oh!" I said, "he's looking at me; he's better!" "Hush," they said. "Don't speak; you are calling him back." But from that time he steadily improved, until he was quite well. The doctor said to little Jim's grandmother, "There has been some wonderful work done here; that child was nearly as dead as a doornail; this is a miracle!" Again, my eldest girl was afflicted for more than twelve months with a serious illness, and my husband was taken bad with pleurisy. When he was young he was an earnest Christian, and loved to speak for Jesus, but he became a backslider and listened to Socialists until he was almost a materialist. But his devoted Christian mother died, and his own Bible, out of which she had read every day, was sent to him. He was deeply touched, and more so when from the Bible dropped a slip of newspaper, in which he was spoken of as "The Boy Preacher." Little Jim's illness also softened his heart, which he gave to the Lord, and has now become an earnest worker for the salvation of others. Please pray that God may bless our family more.—Ada. GOD'S "I WILL'S" OF PROMISE. God's promises are pledges of His performances. 1. Protection. "When I see the Blood I will pass over you" (Exod. 1 2 : 1 3 ) . 2. Peace. "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11: 28). 3. Presence. "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exod. 33: 14). See nine "I will's" in Exod. 33: 14-23. 4. Power. "I will strengthen thee" (Isa. 41:10; see three "I will's" in the verse). "I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth" (Isa. 4 1 : 15). 5. Purity. "I will save you from all your uncleanness" (Ezek. 36: 29). See the many "I will's" in the chapter. 6. Prosperity. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (2 Cor. 6: 16). 7. Promise. "I will bring them all the good I have promised" (Jer. 32: 42). Some time ago I was taken through a large factory where there were hundreds of looms at work in the spinning of very fine linen thread. . . . The manager of the mill said to me, "So delicate is this machinery that if a single thread out of the whole thirty thousand which at this moment are weaving should break, all of these looms would stop instantly." . . . He stepped up to one of the'machines and broke a single thread, and instantly every loom stopped, and remained stationary until the thread was rejoined, then they went on automatically. It is through one sin, one disobedience, that I lose the ministry of the Spirit, and not until that thread is rejoined is the ministry of the Spirit continued.—Sel. A NERVOUS MAN'S VICTORY. The Archbishop of Dublin related the following incident at a recent R.T.S. gathering. On one occasion, when Bishop Wilkinson was returning from a holiday, a number of men in the parish whom he had influenced decided that they would welcome him by preparing a public tea. Afterwards several of them spoke, and one man said, "I wanted to do something for God, and I was given a bundle of tracts to distribute. I looked at my tracts, and my tracts looked at me; and finally I decided I would take them on Wednesday. And the tracts said, 'No, take us on Thursday.' I said, 'You are going to-day.' Then the tracts looked at me, and said, 'Well, if you are going on Wednesday, don't you think we might go after dark?' 'No,' said I, 'you are not going after dark, you are going in broad daylight.' 'Very well,' said the tracts, 'if we are going in broad daylight don't you think we might go under your coat?' 'No,' said I, 'you are going in broad daylight, and in the open.'" Though that man was nervous, yet he wanted to do the work God had given him to do as openly and whole-heartedly and graciously as he could. Can others see Jesus in me? Can others see Jesus in me? Oh! how can the lost learn of Jesus if they cannot see Jesus in me? ^tsstunarg ^trtwxt. A TEN THOUSAND PER CENT. INVESTMENT. As a rule, when any corporation offers a high rate of interest on loans they cannot offer very good security. There is, however, one absolutely safe investment that brings a sure and certain and tremendously high rate of interest, back of which the security is limitless. The investment to which we refer is the work of the Lord, the great business of gathering souls into the kingdom of God. Jesus told us that for whatever we would give up for His sake and the gospel's He would repay "a hundredfold now in this time," and, for a makeweight, He added, "and in the world to come eternal life." That is, for every dollar we put into His business He will give us a hundred dollars. Heaven and earth will pass away, and everything they contain, including all the so-called gilt-edged securities, but His word can never pass away. So this is the only business on earth that is really secure. The early Pentecostal people believed what Jesus said, and so they sold their lands and brought their all to the apostles' feet for them to distribute as the Lord should lead. Had they tried to keep their property they would soo5i have lost it, for Jerusalem was soon to be destroyed by the armies of Rome. But they lost nothing, for they had laid up their treasures in heaven, and as they had need Jesus provided the hundredfold returns. Jesus took some of the Galilean fishermen from their business of catching fish and made them copartners with Himself in His great business of catching men. He was not content with catching a few round about Galilee and Judea.' He told them, and His word then holds good for His disciples to-day, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now it is estimated that there are about 1,600,000,000 people on the earth to-day, but half of them have not heard of Jesus. Why have not these 800,000,000 heard the gospel? Because so few lives and so little money have been invested. The Word says, "The tithe (that is, the tenth of all our income) is the Lord's" (Lev. 27:30), and some folks even steal that from Him, and so His business is suffering. There are about 200 Pentecostal witnesses who have invested their lives in this concern, and they are out "catching men" in China and India, in Africa, and in South America and other parts, and some have gotten quite a netful. But what are these few witnesses compared with the colossal task before them? They are writing home for reinforcements, and some of them have told us that they may have to quit, for funds sent them are not adequate. Someone is robbing the business this end. Are you that one ? Remember the Word of Jehovah: "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse."—S.H.F. —Pent. Evang. Indooroopilly, 25/10/28. "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice." My Dear Sister,—Grace be to you and peace from God our Father through Jesus Christ, His Son. Well, Sister, praise the Lord for His wonderful answers to prayers, in that our Brother and Sister Smith and Marie set sail for their field of labor on Thursday last, October 18. I can assure you, Sister, that it has indeed been a pleasure and a joy to have been able to participate in preparing them, materially, for their services beyond the seas, and in a few brief words is the account of their departure from Queensland. At the Wednesday service an opportunity was given the Assembly to bid them farewell. There was a large gathering of some 250 people, and the presence of God Was with us. At this meeting a mail bag for the purpose of receiving letters and gifts for our Brother and Sister and Marie was suspended from the table, and, needless to say, many were the letters and packets deposited therein, the idea being to proportion the number of letters to the number of days on the journey, and thus they are daily being kept in touch with the people in the homeland. On the Thursday night, on board their ship, th,e "S.S. Tanda," we were privileged to have the permission of the ship's officers to hold a service in the dining saloon, at which service, although a severe storm was raging outside, some 60 odd members of the Assembly braved the elements to attend. This service was arranged by the Queensland Foreign Missionary Committee, which consists of 12 members of the Brisbane Assembly. We had a glorious time of praise and fellowship. 1 feel sure that they, as well as we, received a time of spiritual uplift upon the eve of their departure. Brief addresses were given by Bros. Buchanan and Everitt for Brisbane Central; Pastor Martin, Bethel, Bro. Hobbs, State Advisory Council, and Bro. Jordan, the Central Assembly Sunday School and Missionary Committee, whose parting exhortation was "Go Preach." "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms," and after singing two or three times, as a parting hymn we gave "We're Marching Through Emmanuel's Land," etc. We took our final leave of our beloved Brother and Sister and Marie at 10 p.m. May God richly use them in Japan, and keep their needs daily upon the hearts of the Assemly.—Yours in Christ's service, Bro. Keith P. Cannon. "S.S. Tanda," October 22, 1928. Dear Editor,---Sweet peace through the Blood of His Cross. Greeting to all the dear ones at headquarters. After the bustle and excitement of the past few weeks in getting things in readiness for our departure to Japan, it is sweet to rest in the Lord, and to contemplate on the mighty wonders of the deep, and the blessed creative work of our Heavenly Father, and to praise Him for all His wonderful works to the children of men. Last Thursday evening the dear saints of the Brisbane Assembly came to give us a farewell service on board ship. Although heavy rain was falling, we had a happy time of fellowship, and Bros. Buchanan, Everitt, Hobbs, Martin, Cannon, and Jordan spoke works of love and encouragement, exhorting us to put our whole trust in the Living God, and loying wishes were given by all the dear ones assembled. The dining-room seems hallowed to us on account of that service. Some who were unable to be present sent messages of cheer and promises to pray for God's blessing on His work in Japan. One dear friend who was unable to come on Thursday came early Friday morning, before the boat left, and this was a glad surprise. We would like to thank, through "Good News," all the dear ones who have been used of the Lord in sending us forth again into the harvest field. Dear Bro. Cannon, who is Missionary Agent of the Brisbane Assembly, the members of the Missionary Committee, and many others in whose hearts God has put a burden for the heathen in Japan, and who have wholeheartedly done what they could. We do thank our Heavenly Father for the way He is stirring up His anointed people on behalf of those who are in heathen darkness, that they may have the Gospel light. May many precious souls be won for Jesus through our service and the prayers and help of the dear ones in the homeland. Many have now got the vision of the "fields white unto harvest" in India and Japan. Praise God. "The Lord of the harvest will soon appear, His smile, His voice, we shall see and hear; The Lord of the harvest will soon appear, And gather the reapers home." With much love in Christ to all the dear saints from Cairns to Melbourne, from us all.—Yours in the Master's service, H. E. Smith. P.S.—£)ur address will be: Mr. H. E. Smith, c/o,Mrs. M. Taylor, P.O. Box 328, San no miya, Kobe, Japan. A FORGOTTEN CAUSE FOR GRATITUDE. The high-caste Brahmins of India are not only highest in rank among the Hindus, but they are deemed by their countrymen as gods. They are superb in appearance, and perhaps there is no more noble or lordly-looking set of men. For a proud and noble high-caste Brahmin to become a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus is considered as great a miracle as the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Narayan Sheshadri, D.D., in his white robes and huge, snowy turban, which set off in fine relief his handsome, olive complexion, seemed a lord among the lordly. I heard him give a brief address to a fine Christian audience in a church in West Philadelphia on the value of Christian Missions. As he stepped forward in his imposing presence and dress he stood looking down into the faces upturned to his, and then said: "My friends, if I had ever had any doubt as to the value of the Christian Missions, that doubt would be removed as I stand here and look into your bright and intelligent faces and consider the facts in the case. When my ancestors were among the lordliest persons on the earth, being considered as one with the gods and worthy of divine honors, your ancestors were among the most degraded of human beings, looked down on and despised by those of my race. Yet, by Christian missionaries, your fathers were sought out and won for Christ. In consequence you now sit here clothed and in your right mind as a living proof of the value of Christian missions, concerning the interest of which we are to consult together this afternoon." That was a fact to be remembered, a truth to be considered. It is indeed a truth we do not always consider as we should. I never realised it before hearing it brought out thus forcibly; but, after hearing it, I recalled that when the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward the Seventh, visited India with Dean Stanley, the Indian officials sent into the jungle and lassoed a few specimens of the ancient Aryan race, from which the English people are supposed to have sprung, and brought them in for the young Prince of Wales to look at as speciments of his ancestry. It is owing to Christian missions that we are above the low depths of our ancestors. All the civilisation and refinement and Christianity which we enjoy, and on which we pride ourselves, we owe to this glorious agency. Would it not be well for us to heed the words of the evangelical prophet: "Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek Jehovah: look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged"? Since hearing Dr. Sheshadri, the Christian Brahmin, I am more ready than ever before to consider not only what is my duty to the cause of the Christian missions, but what gratitude I should have to Christian missions in view of what has been done by them for me and mine. —H. Clay Trumbull. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. We are glad to be able to give a few extracts from the annual report of Rev. S. B. Rohold, F.R.G.S., of the Haifa Bible School and his assistants. If we envy any of our fellow servants it is those who are privileged to labor amongst the brethren of our Lord according to the flesh.—Ed. HAIFA, PALESTINE. We have great cause for gratitude to our Heavenly Father, both for the way in which He has led His children in all departments of the work in this vineyard of the Lord and for the increasing signs of the national restoration of the people of Israel to their fatherland and the speedy return of the Lord of Glory to set up His Kingdom of righteousness and peace. Dr. W. M. Christie, of the Scots Mission, Tiberias, whose authority to speak on the subject is unrivalled, says: "Thirty-five years ago Hebrew was practically dead. Every Jew in Palestine speaks it to-day. Multitudes speak nothing else and it has a growing literature on every subject." The liberation of the people from religious and racial bondage is a noteworthy feature of the times. So near a neighbor as the former ruler of Palestine—Turkey— cannot abolish the fez for men and the veil for women, and suggest Sunday as the day of rest, and introduce the Christian era for its annual date, without affecting the Moslem population of Palestine, which is still in the majority. The Gospel by printed page and by word of mouth is spreading among the Moslem people as well as among the Jews, and although it is a subsidiary part of the work of Mount Carmel Bible School, we cannot be indifferent to the need or ignore the opportunities that this field affords. It is well to remember that the return of the Jews to Palestine is no mere matter of British policy or of the League of Nations mandate; nothing can defeat it, for behind its merely human aspects is the Divine purpose. In this connection, the financial strain of Palestine on the British exchequer has sometimes been brought forward as an argument against the Zionist movement in the Holy Land. Palestine, however, into which the returning Jews have put more than £7,000,000, has been rapidly improving its budget, so that instead of, as four years ago, a deficit of £2,000,000, the British administration shows a favorable balance of £1,200,000 in the last annual accounts. The readiness of so many Jews in the Holy Land to read the New Testament is remarkable. It is no longer looked upon as a sinful book, but is cherished and venerated by many Jews just as they cherish their own sacred and religious literature. We rejoice greatly in the steady increase of enquirers and requests for baptism. For these enquirers we have had classes and given opportunity of further study. Provision is being made for a few resident students. There is a marked change in the attitude of Jews in Palestine to the New Testament. Two instances out of many must suffice. When a party of us were paying a visit to the tomb of Rabbi Meyer at Meron, where 10,000 Jews annually gather for the Feast of Lights, and where the Zoar, a remarkable Cabalistic book was produced, which, it is believed, would, if read, bring a Jew to faith in Christ, Mr. Sigel gave a tract to a Rabbi or official of the synagogue and began to quote in Hebrew John 1: 17, "The law was given by Moses," and, to his surprise, the Jewish teacher immediately completed the sentence with the words, "but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The second incident occurred in a visit to one of the orthodox colonies, "The Inheritance of Jacob." When we first visited this colony we had a very unfriendly reception, but, on this occasion, the attitude was entirely changed. A Hebrew Bible, including a New Testament, was bought. A little openair gathering was held, and one Jewish woman said she was praying every clay for a clean heart, but could not see how it could come through the Messiah. Naturally this gave us an opportunity for the proclamation of the Gospel. Throughout the year there has been wide circulation of the Scriptures in the cities and colonies of Palestine, as well as in Haifa and the surrounding district. Visits have been made regularly to a large number of Jewish settlements in which testimony has been given by literature and word of mouth. Opportunity has been also given for witness in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and we thank God for the favorable reception we have nearly always had, and the real interest such witness-bearing arouses. Requests have been made, not only for us to return, but to stay and further expound the Gospel message. Side by side with our concentration in the city has been a widespread evangelism through the country, and visiting the colonies has proved a means of blessing not only to the colonists but to ourselves. There is no doubt of the value of these visits in spreading God's Word. On asking a patient where he lived he mentioned a colony in the Valley of Sharon. In reply to the query "Why did you come here?" he answered: "I received a New Testament from a party that visited us in a car and I have read it and have come to learn more." A young man working in a small colony has been several times to the Reading Room and has told us how they were studying the New Testament and other literature which was left in that colony. In the Reading Room a table covered with Scripture portions and with tracts commands the entrance and like a spiritual machine gun challenges all comers. Our chief weekly service for Jews held on Saturdays has gone on without a break except for the summer holiday. The Lord has blessed us. We have had good attendances from the very beginning, but now there is not even standing room and the hall is decidedly too small for those who are coming. The prayer, Scripture lessons, and hymns are in Hebrew. The adress is either in Hebrew or translated into that language. There is also an address in Yiddish. After the service there is a rush for tracts and a greater demand for Bibles and Testaments than we can afford to give away. Many of the people buy the Scriptures, but many, also, are too poor to pay even a nominal fee. We were approached by a group of five young men living together who asked for a Bible. We suggested that they should each contribute a trifle and make up the cost. As they had no money at all they produced bread tickets and asked if they could not be taken in lieu of cash. Great was their satisfaction when they were given a Bible and told that they could keep their food tickets and go and enjoy a meal. Our Night Classes for teaching English have outgrown all their former proportions. We have over seventy students every evening when we are open. Besides our own workers we have some voluntary workers, for whose aid we are thankful, and without whom we could not have helped so many. Over 600 young men and women have passed through our hands during last year. The classes are preceded by a message, given at the beginning of the week by the writer and in the middle of the week by the Bible reading from Mr. Payne. Every teacher has opportunities to talk with his or her pupils upon the way of salvation, and one is glad to see the crowd of pupils always standing round the tables where literature is displayed. We have been enabled to visit sixty-five agricultural colonies and settlements during the year. In these journeys we visited and spoke in several synagogues. The number of tracts distributed was about 5500. In all these colonies we found people wanting to know the way of life and glad of Christian literature. Several have asked for baptism. Here are some testimonies:— "I thank God for taking all fear from my heart, and I am now prepared to confess Him before the whole world." "Being convinced of the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, I desire baptism from the depth of my heart." "Having seen my father read the New Testament three evenings in succession gives me courage to speak to him of my desire for baptism." A student of the Hebrew University says, "I want more instruction in Scripture with the object of being baptised." Two other enquirers have expressed themselves in verse, part of which is here translated. K. writes:— My head is a dark cloud, My heart is a heavy load, 0 God's Son have compassion, Send light, freedom, redemption. R. writes:— Thou which art this world's only light And call'st it in love to unite, A long night of Thee I have thought, And now wish to Thee to be brought. Here is a letter from J., a veteran Hebrew writer:— "I love and adore the Lord Jesus like you, and wish to follow Him. I am convinced that the Talmud, as the whole of Judaism, is a hindrance instead of a help to one's spiritual life. The Old Testament is on a different footing, but it still falls short of the highest, and is insufficient. Jesus alone leaves nothing to be desired." My last quotation is a prayer by F., when his father threw him out of the house when his faith in Christ was discovered. " 0 dear Lord Jesus, my righteous Messiah, forgive me for hiding my faith so long, and help me at this time of testing and trial and let not Thy hand lie heavy on me. I am young and inexperienced, O help me in this, my new path, etc." I will quote at the end a couplet written in Hebrew by one of our own enquirers and sent to me on a Christmas card. "As the lion for strength is incomparable, So to measure Jesu's love we are unable." Dear reader, remember our bit of vineyard when you approach the Throne of the Heavenly Grace. We are astonished to note from Brother Cannon's figures the small amount (less than £18) which Brother Smith carries to establish his centre in Kobe. When we suggested that £200 or more would be needed, some thought that an incredible amount, yet Missionary Leonard Coote, with whom Brother Smith formerly labored in Japan, writes:— "I want 5000 dollars (£1000) for Bible School, 3000 have already been 'subscribed." "A sister gave 500 dollars for six months' rent of headquarters of mission. I am now asking 500 dollars to renovate the hall, buy piano, etc." "I also want the money to build cottages on the compound we already hold." These are modest requirements for Brother Coote, and are cumulative on cash required for running expenses; yet Australians are overwhelmed at the suggestion that they should turn a modest £250 out of their pockets to help Brother Smith to be lifted out of abject poverty in his undertaking to carry light to millions of our benighted contemporaries who are sitting in darkness and shadow of death. Anyway, do you own the money? Or are you stewards of God's money ? Whilst thanking God that a saving love for the souls of the dying heathen has been kindled in the hearts of some of His people, we pray that many more will speedily realise that they ARE their brothers' keepers, and that their Saviour expects them to do their utmost to save others. . Oh, for a white-heated love for the heathen. May our God kindle it in every bosom.—Editor, SUN KEEPS SUNDAY. By Ross E. Stoddard. A rug manufacturer in Peking by tne name of Sun was converted. With fear and trembling he decided to shut his factory on Sundays, though it was necessary for him to pay his boys the regular weekly salary whether they worked or not. Then he found these young boy apprentices were very restless on Sunday, and needed some occupation. So, at his own expense, he engaged a teacher for them, since he was not well enough educated himself, and had Bible classes for them on Sundays, incidentally teaching them all to read and write. This is the more benevolent when.one realises that these boys would otherwise have been beggars on the streets. There are an enormous number of these, and all in terrible condition. One of the missionaries (Miss Go wans) asked Sun to report to her after a year on how his experiment in faith came out. At the end of the year he came delightedly to say that he had never before been so prosperous. He had never before been out of debt. He now owns his own buildings, is now out of debt, and now has money in the bank, so much has God prospered him. Later on, from a conversation overheard on a train, something more was heard about Sun's Sunday keeping and his thoroughly Christian methods of conducting his business. Two rug buyers, either from Europe or America, were talking together and comparing notes about their business experiences. "I ran across a queer thing a couple of weeks ago," said one of them. "I went to see that rugmaker, Sun. It happened to be on a Sunday morning, and I found the place locked up. I went round to the back, where there was some noise, and, if you will believe it, the whole bunch was singing 'Nearer, My God to Thee!' With a reasonable amount of respect, I waited till they would finish, but no sooner were they through with that than they started in on 'Jesus Loves Me.' "I thought it was a bit thick, so I called for Sun. He came out and very politely told me that he would not talk business matters on the Sabbath. You could have knocked me over with a feather! He, a maker, was telling me, a buyer, to come round on Monday! Can you beat that? "I was just that curious that I did go around on Monday, and went through the plant. But, if you please, I had to wait again on Monday morning until they had finished morning prayers! That factory is the cleanest and finest in Peking, and their rugs are quite equal to, if not better, than the others. I took his entire output for the year." In the whole compass of human benevolence there is nothing so grand, so noble, so Christian, so truly Godlike as the work of evangelising the heathen. —Selected. God willing, Dr. Mina Brawner, with an efficient staff of Pentecostal helpers, will open a Gospel Tent on Sunday, December 9, in Military Road, Mosman, opposite the Fire Station. Exception having been taken to the words "our beloved and faithful friend" in the obituary notice in October "Good News," page 18, we wish to state that the words were purely the expression of the personal sentiments of the Editor, and that neither the A.P.M. norjthe Editor is, or have been, associated with certain doctrines taught and published by Mr. Ames. Whilst on the subject we may also say that the A.F.M. Constitution does not endorse the teaching contained in a foot note to the testimony of Brother S. G. Jansen, Eudunda, South Australia, in the December issue of the "Good News." NOTICES OF THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION of AUSTRALASIA. VICTORIA :-HEADQUARTERS. Good News Hall, 104 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne. Sunday—11 a.m.( Breaking Bread; 2 p.m., P r a y e r ; Sunday, 4.30 p.m., Open-air, cor. Little Bourke and Russell Streets. 7 p.m.. Gospel Service. Tuesday, 8 p.m.—Prayer for the Holy Spirit. Thursday, 8 p.m.—Bible Study. Friday, 8 p.m., Open-air at Victoria Market. Saturday, 8 p.m.—Fellowship. Prayer every morning, 10 a.m.; Monday and Wednesday, 7 p.m. - REVIVAL The Ballarat Campaign started on November 18th. and is at the present time in full swing at the A. N . A. Hall Camp Street. Secretary: Bro. M. Anstis, 73 Clayton Street, 'Phone 692. Write to him for information. Ballarat. GEEL.OWG. The Lecture Room, Central Hall, Ryrie Street. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread. Sunday, 7 p.m.—The Full Gospel. Saturday, 8 p.m.—Lecture Room, Central Hall—Prayer and Fellowship. For place of meeting on Wednesday night write to the Secretary, M. Field, "RiversdaJe," Barwon Terrace, South Geelong. Pastor: O. Field. Heidelberg. Outhwaite Road, Heidelberg. Wed., 8 p.m.—Bible Class. Bro. Tom Warburton. KORUMBURRA. At Mr. C. C. Buchanan's, "Arolfblane," Kardella Road, Korumburra. Sunday—7 p.m. Prayer for Holy Spirit. Wednesday—8 p.m., Prayer. At Brother Fisher's, Leong a t h a Road. Saturday—8 p.m., Bible Reading. At Bro. Buchanan's, Kardella Road Secretary, Chas. Hogan, Station Street, Korumburra. WONTHAGGI. At Sister Henderson's, Drysdale Street. Sunday, 3 p.m.—Prayer and Fellowship. KLLC1TNDA. Cooloongatta. Friday, 8 p.m., Bible Class. Sunday, 2 p.m., Sunday School. Sunday, 8 p.m., Gospel Service. Sister Ray Ridgway. Secretary, "Cooloongatta." FOOTSCRAY. J. Jenkins, 45 Stirling Street, Footscray. Thursday, 8 p.m.—Prayer. WERRIBEE. Brother Johnstone, "Glenora," Station Street, Werribee. Wednesday, 8 p.m.—Bible Study and Prayer. Sunday, 3 p.m.—Bible Study and Prayer. MEENIYAN, At Brother B. Ridgway's, Friday, 7.45 p.m., P r a y e r and Bible Study. FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE. penny—that wouldn't buy anything good enough. I would have liked to give Him something on His birthday; He did such a lot for us." The bells were ringing merrily from the tower of "We can try to please Him, Angel," said her mother, the old church close to Pleasant Place. The street near the church was full of people "and do everything that we think He would like." "Yes," said little Angel, "we must try all day long." bustling to and fro, going in and out of the different That was a very happy Christmas Day for Angel and shops, and hurrying along as if none of them had any time to lose. The shops were unusually gay and tempt- for her mother. "This is the Lord Jesus' birthday," was Angel's first ing, for it was Christmas Eve. Even Pleasant Place looked a little less dull than usual. There were sprigs thought when she awoke in the morning; and all of holly in some of the windows, and most of the through the day she was asking herself this question: houses were a little cleaner and brighter than usual.- "What would Jesus like?" And whatever she thought Angel and her mother had been very busy all day. He would like, that she tried to do. Angel's father was at home to dinner, and was very They had just finished their mangling, and had put all the clothes out of the way for Christmas Day, when kind to her all day. He had not been inside a public they heard a knock at the door, and Angel went to house since Angel's birthday. It was a very good little Christmas dinner. As they were eating it Mr. Blyth open it. "It's a basket, mother," she said. "It can't be for said, "Emily, have you seen those bills on the wall at the top of the court?" us." Angel's mother said, "No; I have not been out toThe man who had brought the basket laughed. "It's for an Angel!" he said. "Have you got any day." of that article in here? Here's the direction I was to "There's to be a meeting to-night in that little bring it to—'Little Angel, No. 9 Pleasant Place.'" schoolroom just a bit of way down the street. That "Then, please, it's for me," said Angel. new young minister's going to speak; and it says on "For you!" said the man. "Well, to be sure! So the bills it will all be over in half an hour. I've a you are the angel, are you ? All right; here's your bas- good mind to go and hear what he's got to say. Will ket!" and he was gone before they could ask more. you come with m e ? " The basket was opened with some difficulty, for it "Yes, that I will," said Mrs. Blyth, with tears in her was tightly tied up, and then Angel and her mother eyes. She had not been inside a place of worship with put out the contents on the table amidst many ex- her husband since the first year they were married. clamations. "Can't Angel come, too?" said her father, as he There was, first, a plum pudding, then a number of looked at her earnest little face. oranges and apples, then a large cake, and then a "Not very well," said Mrs. Blyth; "we can't all pretty Christmas card, with a picture of a robin hop- go. Someone must stop with baby and the children." ping about in the snow, and these words printed on it: When Angel's large plum pudding was put on the "A Happy Christmas to you all." table a sudden thought seized her. "Mother," she whis"Where can they all have come from?" said little pered, "don't you think Jesus would like poor old Mrs. Angel, as one good thing after another came out of Sawyer to have a bit of i t ? " the basket. At the very bottom of the basket they "Yes," said Mrs. Blyth, "I'll cut her a slice, and one found a tiny note. for Annie, too, poor girl. Will you take them i n ? " "This will tell us about it," said Mrs. Blyth. "Why, So Angel went next door with her two slices of plum it's directed to you, Angel!" pudding. She found Mrs. Sawyer and her niece, Annie, So Angel's mother sat down, stirred the fire, spelt just beginning their dinner. There was nothing on it carefully out, and read it aloud by the firelight. the table but some tea, and a loaf of bread with a few in it, so Angel felt very glad she had brought "My dear little Angel,—I send you a few little things currants the pudding. She was sure Jesus would be pleased they for Christmas Day. I hope you will have a very happy should have it; and she thought it would make Him day. Do not forget whose birthday it is.—Your friend, glad on His birthday to see how Mrs. Sawyer and "Mabel Douglas." Annie smiled when they saw what she had brought "Whose birthday is it, mother?" asked little Angel. them. "Are you going to this meeting to-night?" said "The Lord Jesus Christ's," said her mother reverently. "Did I never tell you that, little Angel? Annie, as Angel turned to go. "No, I'm not going," said Angel; "but father and It's the day we think about Him being born a little mother are. I must mind the children." baby at Bethlehem." "I'll tell you what," said Annie^ "If you'll bring Angel was sitting on her stool in front of the fire thinking, and it was some time before she spoke again. them in here I'll mind them. I can't leave aunt, and Then she said, suddenly, "What are you going to give they'll be a bit of company for her." And so it came to pass that Pleasant Place beheld Him, mother?" the wonderful sight of Mr. and Mrs. Blyth and Angel "Give who, Angel?" "What are you going to give the Lord Jesus for all going together to the little meeting in the schoolroom. His birthday?" A good many Pleasant Place people were there; and "Oh, I don't know," said her mother. "I don't see they looked round in astonishment as Mr. Blyth came how we can give Him anything." "No," said little Angel sadly; "I've only got one in, for they thought him about the most unlikely man THE GREAT BIRTHDAY. in the whole court to be there. And his wife and little Angel, as they sat beside him, prayed very earnestly that he might get a blessing. Mr. Douglas' text was a very strange one for Christmas Day—at least, so many of the people thought when he gave it out. It had only four words, so that even little Angel could remember it quite well— "Give Me Thine Heart." "Suppose," said the Minister, "it was my birthday, and everyone in my house was keeping it. They all had a holiday and went out into the country, and there was a very good dinner, which they all very much enjoyed, and altogether it was a very pleasant day to them, indeed. "But suppose that I, Whose birthday it was, was quite left out of it. No one gave me a single present; no one even spoke to me; no one took the slightest notice of me. In fact, all day long I was quite forgotten; I never once came into their thoughts. "Nay, more. Not only did they do nothing whatever to give me pleasure, but they seemed all day long to take a delight in doing the very things which they knew grieved me and pained me, and were distressing to me. "Surely, my friends, that would be a strange way of keeping my birthday; surely I should feel very hurt by such conduct; surely it would be a perfect sham to pretend to be keeping my birthday, and yet not take the slightest notice of me, except to annoy and wound me! "My friends," said the Minister, "this afternoon I took a walk. In the course of my walk I saw a number of people who pretended to be keeping a birthday. And yet what were a great many of them doing ? They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves, and having a merry time of it. "But I noticed that the One whose birthday it was was quite forgotten; they had not given Him one single present; all day long they had never once spoken to Him; all day long He had never been in their thoughts; all day long He had been completely and entirely passed by and forgotten. "Nor was this all. I saw someone who seemed to be taking a pleasure in doing the very things He does not like, the very things which offend and grieve Him —drinking and quarrelling, and taking His holy name in vain. "And yet all these, my friends, pretended to be keeping the Lord Jesus Christ's birthday! "But, I trust, by seeing you here to-night, that you have not been amongst their number. I would, therefore, only put to you this one question: "The Lord Jesus Christ's birthday! Have you made Him a present to-day? " 'A present!' you say; 'what can I give Him? He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. What have I that is fit for a present to a king?' "Give Him what He asks for, my friends. He says to you to-night, 'Give Me thine heart.' "That is the birthday present He is looking for. Will you hold it back? "Oh, think Of what we are commemorating to-day. Think how He left His glory, and came to be a poor, helpless babe for you; think, my friends, of all His wonderful love for you. And then I would ask you, Can you refuse Him what He asks? Can you say— " 'Lord, I cannot give Thee my heart. I will give it to the world, to pleasure, to sin, to Satan, but not to Thee—no, not to Thee. I have no birthday present for Thee to-night'? "Oh! will you not rather say— " 'Lord, here is my heart; I bring it to Thee; take it for Thine own. Cleanse it in Thy blood; make it fit to be Thine'? "Will you not this night lay at your King's feet the only birthday present you can give Him—the only one He asks for—your h e a r t ? " "Mother," said little Angel, as they walked home, "we can give Him a present after all." It was her father who answered her. "Yes, Angel," he said, in a husky voice; "and we mustn't let Christmas Day pass before we have done it." And that night amongst the angels in heaven there was joy—joy over one sinner who repented of the evil of his way, and laid at his Lord's feet a birthday present, even his heart. There was joy amongst the angels in heaven; and a little Angel on earth shared in their joy. THE HEART OF A CHILD. An angel paused in his onward flight, With a seed of truth and love and light, ''Oh where," said he, "shall this seed be sown To yield the largest fruit when grown?" The Master heard, and said as He smiled: "Place it for me in the heart of a child!" By SARA C. BOOTH. Sometimes we see the comical side of life, which relieves the severe strain. One night in winter we left the Assembly Hall, and went home to Jolimont alone. Dear Esther was delighted. "Now you can have a nice rest, and tea all to yourselves. It will be lovely." So our little maid proposed, but God disposed. He knew one of His wandering sheep was coming, and wanted us to be at home to receive her. We had just sat down to a nice, cosy tea, when a violent ring was heard, followed by another peal of the bell. Esther sprang to the. door. We heard a lady's voice pleading with someone, and then a passionate, wilful girl's voice, and over and above all the angry tones of a half-intoxicated cabman. We rose from table, in order to receive our guests, when, just as the cabman was standing at the corner with the girl's box, unfortunately he knocked against the gas meter, and we were all in darkness. Esther grew so nervous that she could not find the matches, and there was general confusion. At last they were found, and she handed them to me and said, with a sob in her voice, "Miss Booth, why do Satan's people come to God's house?" I could not help smiling at the odd question. We dismissed the cabman, and then the young lady turned to her friend and said-, "You need not introduce me to Miss Booth, for I will not stay at the Y.W.C.A. Home. Let me go. I will go at once." "Certainly," we answered; "we do not wish to detain anyone against her will." As I spoke, I opened the door and closed it behind her. Her lady friend was very much astonished. "Oh, I must follow her," she said. "Will you allow me to advise you?" I said. "I understand this young lady perfectly. If you follow her there will be a scene. It is precisely what she wants you to do, but, if you remain, she will soon grow tired of being alone, and will come back. Meanwhile, sit down and tell me how she came to you." Thus reassured, the lady told me the girl's mother was a friend of a friend of hers. "She married a Russian gentleman, who died and left this one child. Her mother, not being able to manage her, sent her to be educated in a convent in Russia. At last the girl grew tired of being there, but her mother would not remove her, so one day she tore the veil from the nun's head, and was expelled for bad behavior. Then she came home, and said she wanted to be an actress. Her mother did not know in the least what to do with her, and wrote and asked me to take charge of her, as there was an actor, a friend of her father's, in Melbourne, and if she was determined to go on the stage she would be put under his care. "I reside in lodgings, and to-day things came to a climax, and two of the boarders refused to stay if she was allowed to remain." Just then the young lady returned. "Give me my boxes," she said. "Certainly," I answered; "will you come and take them?" Knowing they were very heavy, and that it had taken all the cabman's strength to lift them, I knew it was impossible. She walked into the room, and, standing by the piano, said, "I will be an actress. I shall be an actress." "My child," I said, "you are acting the part of a spoilt child." To my surprise, she answered, "I like you, and I will stay if you will take down those texts." "I cannot do that," I answered. "This is the Lord's house to receive strangers, and I must have His words on the walls." Her lady chaperon seemed very pleased when she found what had threatened to be such a stormy scene settling down so quietly, and was very glad to leave her in our care. The girl made use of some strong language in French and English, then, finding no one took any notice, calmed down and behaved very nicely while she remained with us. We obtained suitable board and residence with a retired clergyman and his wife, as she wanted to continue her studies for the stage. At last the manager told her she would never become an actress, as she had neither talent nor application. She came to see us just before she returned to England to her friends, I hope a wiser girl than when she landed. "You see," she said, "if mother had only been firmer when I was a child, I should have been a better girl, and had more self-control. Do you think it is better for mothers to be firm?" she added. I advised her to hand over the reins of her life to God, and let Him show her His plan for her life. About this time two young girls arrived from England. They were both anxious to obtain positions as nurses in one of our large hospitals. At that time we had no difficulty in securing their admission. The night before they left Jolimont Home we asked them to come into our room while we knelt down and commended them to the Lord, and asked Him to make them a blessing to the poor sick ones. One of them was quite willing to do so, but Olive laughed as she said, "I do not profess to be a Christian." "Oh, Olive, child, if I had only known that I would never have dared to recommend you for a nurse. My only excuse is that I have been so busy since your arrival that I have not had time for a personal talk. Well, you must go now, and all I can do is to pray for you and ask God to bring you to Himself." After they had been there a few months, Olive caught the typhoid fever. We did not hear about it till she was recovering. When I saw her she seemed very weak and ill. "Olive," I said, "when you found yourself so ill, a stranger in Melbourne, did you not want the Lord?" "No," she said, "never once." "Are you sure, dear? Did you neyer feel a longing in your soul for my great, splendid Master?" "No," she answered again, "never once, truly, Miss Booth." "Ah," I answered, "it is no use talking to you about Him then—I might as well talk to a blind man about color; but I want you to do one thing for me. Will you pray this little prayer every day—'0 Lord, give me Thy Holy Spirit for Jesus Christ's sake?' For He only can open your blind eyes." "Oh," she said, "it would be of no use if I did." "Never mind about the use of it, Olive, dear. Will you do it for love of me ? " She waited some time before she answered. I knew she was the sort of girl that, if she gave her promise, would keep it. At last she promised. A fortnight passed away, and one night dear Mrs. Robinson, one of the Mothers of Israel, was spending an evening at the Home, and about 10 o'clock at night a message came from the hospital. "Olive has had a relapse. She is dying. Come at once." I hurried down, and on the way Satan suggested, "Go, of course, because she is a stranger, but of what use will it be? Olive will not listen." In an agony, I cried to the Lord, and in a few minutes the answer came—"I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out." "How long, Lord?" I said. And the answer came, both clear and distinct—"Until I find." Glad and happy, I went on my way. When I got there the lights were burning low, but I saw by her calm, peaceful face a great change had taken place. "Olive," I said, "the Master has come, and is calling for you. Are you ready?" "Not quite just yet," she answered. The night went on. I sat by her side, repeating one text after another. At last I said, "Olive, are you ready, child?" "Yes," she answered; "it is one thing to live without Christ, Miss Booth. It is quite another to die without Him." Contrary to all expectations, her life was spared, and she came back right from the very borders of the grave, and she lived to show by her after life the reality of the change, and to prove "that our Lord Jesus died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with Him." "Teach me to live, 'tis easier far Gently and silently to pass away, On earth's long night to close the weary eye, And waken in the fields of heavenly day. "Teach me to live, no idler let me be, But in Thy service, hand and heart employed, Prepare to do Thy bidding cheerfully. Be this my highest and my holiest joy." A Little Lad, After a heavy fall of snow, Wishing to be Useful, began to make a path through to his grandmother's cottage, and the only tool he had was a little spade which children use at the seaside. A gentleman passing stopped to look at the little lad, who was working hard, but making such slow progress. "How do you think you can get through with that little spade?" said he. "Just by keeping on shovelling," was the cheery reply. That story brings to mind a little verse which, perhaps, is not familiar to our cousins, but is worth memorising:— "It takes a little courage, and a little self-control, And some grim determination, if you want to reach a goal; It takes a deal of striving, and a firm and stern-set chin, No matter what the battle, if you're really out to win. There's a rule in life to guide you as you seek prosperity: Never put your wishbone where your backbone ought to be." "He'll suit," said a man, speaking of an office lad who had been only a few hours in his service. "What makes you think s o ? " said a friend. "Why, I watched him When He Swept the Office, and, although a procession went by while he was at work, he paid not the slightest attention to it, but kept diligently on with the sweeping. Then I set him to envelope-addressing, and, although on the same desk there were several interesting picture books, he took no notice of them, but kept steadily on with the envelopes as if that were the one task that was urgent. He'll do." And it goes without saying that he did suit, and simply because he did not put his backbone in place of his wishbone. BREACHES IN THE WALL. O, TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD. "The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and delivereth them." In the year 1860 an Armenian merchant of Erzerum, Turkish Armenia, was sending some merchandise from Erzerum to another town. There have never been any railways in that part of the country. Everything had to be transported by caravan, and, as the load was valuable, he himself went with the caravan. A God-fearing, earnest Christian, he had been instructed in the faith by his believing parents. It is the custom on such expeditions to camp at night, and the country was infested by Kurds—bandits who live by robbing the caravans. A band of these highwaymen followed the caravan, intending to rob it at the first camping-place on thq plains. At the chosen hour, under cover of darkness, they drew near. All was strangely quiet. There seemed to be no guards, no watchers. But as they pressed up, to their astonishment they found high walls where walls had never stood before. They still followed, but the next night they found the same impassable wall. The third night the walls stood, but this time there were breaches in them through which they went in. The captain of the robbers, terrified by the mystery, woke the owner. "What does it mean ? Ever since you left Erzerum we have followed, intending to rob you. The first night and the second we found high walls around the caravan, but to-night we entered through broken places. If you will tell us the secret of all this, I will not molest you." The merchant himself was surprised and puzzled. "My friends," he said, "I have done nothing to have walls raised about us. All I do is to pray every evening, committing myself and those with me to God. I fully trust in Him to keep me from all evil; but to-night, being very tired and sleepy, I made a rather halfhearted lip prayer. That must be why you were allowed to break through." The Kurds were overcome by such testimony as this. Then and there they gave themselves to Jesus Christ; and from highway robbers became God-fearing men. But the Armenian never forgot the breach in the wall of the prayer.—Tract. When a young Christian was asked the question, "How do you know Jesus Christ loves you?" he immediately replied, "How do you know when you have sugar in your t e a ? " This reply was unanswerable. He had tasted the Lord, and knew that He was gooa. LITTLE THINGS. The publican takes the profits, the policeman gives the kicks, and the public pays the bill of expenses! It was a little thing for Nell To brighten the kitchen fire, To spread the cloth, to draw the tea, As her mother might desire; A little thing—but her mother smiled, And banished all her care, And a day that was sad closed bright and glad, With a song of praise and prayer. MY LITTLE PLACE. 'Twas only a little thing to do, For a sturdy little Ned, To groom the horse, to milk the cow, And bring the wood from the shed; But his'father was glad to find at night The chores were all well done. "I am thankful," said he, "as I can be For the gift of such a son." Only small things, but they brighten life, Or shadow it with care; Just little things, yet they mould a life For joy or sad despair; Just little things, yet life's best prize, The reward which labor brings, Comes to him who uses, and not abuses, The power of little things.—Selected. I hid a selfish little thought, To think and think about, I did not know it would be caught, Or ever be found out. But it was like a little seed, And it began to sprout! It grew into a little weed, And blossomed in a pout! I hid another little thought, 'Twas pleasant, sweet, and kind; So, if this time it should be caught, I knew I shouldn't mind. I thought about it, hour by hour, 'Twas growing all the while; It blossomed in a lovely flower, A happy little smile! —Publisher Unknown. "When Luther's translation of the Bible was. printed, some proofs were found by a little girl playing in the shop. Onq of them was John 3:16, unfinished, 'For God so loved the world that he gave .' She was delighted with the words, and her mother asked her the cause of her happiness. She handed her mother the paper, who, upon reading it, asked, 'What was it that God gave?' The little girl answered, 'I don't know what He gave, but if He loved us enough to give us anything, we need not be afraid of Him.'" A Salvation Army officer once related how, as a poor collier lad, he used to visit a public house. "One day the landlord showed us, with great good humor, a beautiful gold watch he had just bought. 'Well, lads,' he said, smiling, 'I reckon you have all helped to pay for it, eh?' It struck me we had all been playing the fool, and it was time we finished the game. I walked out, followed by the others. When outside we cast lots—the Salvation Army or go for a walk? The lot fell on the former. We went, and I was converted." My little place! 'Tis large enough For all God has for me to do; My little place! I'm only asked To help and trust, be real and true. Then let my service be to rest Within my Lord's kind, gentle hand. Submission to His loving will Whether or not I understand. —J.H.T. The things we do, and the words we say, Are the fruit that we bear every day." God will never abandon this old world until Armageddon. Money never stays with me; it would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hand as soon as possible, lest it should find a way into my heart.—John Wesley. Published by the Victory Press, 106 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, Australia. QUEENSLAND:-BRISBANE. (Jc.Oul Assembly. D mill's Hull, Oeurge Street. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Fellowship. Sunday, 2. 5 p.m.—Tarrying lor the Holy Spirit. Sunday, 6.30 p.m.—Open Air, Corner George and Tank Streets. Sunday, 7.30 p.m.-—Gospel Service. Wednesday, 7.45 p.m.—Bible Class in School of Aius-ic, Entrance Little Roma Street, oft Turbot Street. The sick will be prayed for. BRISBANE], West End Mission, Cr. Montague Road and Raven Street. Thursday and Saturday, 7.30 p.m.—Prayer for the Holy Spirit. BRISBANE. "Bethel" Assembly, Wilmington Street, Wooloowin. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread. Sunday, 3 p.m.—Afternoon Service. Sunday, 7 p.m.—Fellowship. Wednesday, 7.45.—Prayer. Saturday, 7.45.-—Prayer for the Holy Spirit. Pastor: H. Martin. CHERMS1DE. At Brother Hannah's, Hamilton Road. Tuesday, 7.45 p.m.—Prayer and Exhortation. Thursday, 7.45 p.m.—Tarrying Meeting for the Holy Spirit. Saturday, 7.45 p.m.—Gospel and Prayer. Monday, 8 p.m.-—Albany Creek. The sick yrayed for and visited. TOOWOOMBA. Philharmonic Hall, Herries Street, near Ambulance. Sunday, 10 am.—Sunday School, also Bible School for all. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread; Exhortation to Believers. Sunday, 7 p.m.—Pull Gospel Address; Song Service. Evangelist J. Larsen. MARYBOROUGH. Tlie Tabernacle, Alice Street. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread and Exhortation. Sunday, 3 p.m., Bible School; 7 p.m., Song Service and Prayer; 7.30, Pull Gospel Service. Monday, 8 p.m., Island Plantation, Tarrying Meeting. Tuesday, 3 p.m., Sisters' Tarrying Meeting. Tuesday, 8 p.m., at Sister Clarke's, Praise, Prayer, and Bible Study. Wednesday, 8 p.m., Prayer, Praise and Bible Study. Thursday, 8 p.m., Central T a r r y i n g Meeting, Tabernacle. Saturday, 8 p.m., Open-air, Main-way Corner. Pastor, G. E. Burns, Walker Street, Maryborough. 'Phone, 549. Local Secretary: J. W. Will, Tooley Street, Maryborough, Queensland. CROYDON JUNCTION. Sunday, 3 p.m.—Sister Croom: Bible School. Friday, 8 p.m., a t Sister Clarke's, Praise, Prayer and Bible Study. Bro. CAIRNS. Chas. Kajewski, Sheridan Street. Sunday, 10.30 a.m., Breaking of Bread at 274 Sheridan Street, Pastor Kajewski. Sunday, 3 p.m.—Sunday School, Bro. F. G. Schipke, 42 Upward Street. Sunday, 7.30 p.m.—Gospel Service, Oddfellows' ,Hall. Wednesday, 7.30 p.m.—Bible Study at Pastor Kajewski's Home, 274 Sheridan Street. Thursday, 3 p.m., Women's Help Meeting, 274 Sheridan Street. Friday, 7,30.—Waiting Meeting and Exhortation at 27 t Sheridan Street. Local Secretary: Bro. Geo. Schipke, 42 Upward Street, Cairns. ROCKHAMPTON. Old Oddfellows' Hall, Denham Street. Sunday, 11 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. Tuesday Evening.-—Study of the Scriptures. Thursday Evening.-—Divine Healing and Prayer Meeting for those only who seek to be nearer to God. Saturday Evening.—Open-air Meeting and Testimony Meeting. Communion alternately morning and evening each week. Pastor: J. H. Smith, 184 Archer Street, Rockhampton. IPSWICH. Over Nixon's Cafe, Brisbane Street. Lord's Day, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread and Exhortation to Believers. Lord's Day, 2.30 p.m.—Tarrying Meeting. Lord's Day, 7.15.—Gospel Service. Tuesday, 7.30 p.m.—Tarrying Meeting. Thursday, 7.30 p.m.—Prayer Meeting. Saturday, 7.45 p.m.—Bible Class. P a s t o r : J. Armstrong. WOOMBYE. At Brother Banks'. Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread. Sunday, 2 p.m.—Prayer and Tarrying. NAMBOUR. At Brother Conwell's. Saturday, 7.30 p.m.—Tarrying Meeting. WEST AUSTRALIA :-PERTH. Meetings:—Women's Service Guild Rooms, 191 Murray Street—Opp. Boan's Ltd., Sunday, 11 a.m.—Breaking of Bread. Sundays, i .30. < In.- p- . Tuesday, 7.45.—Open air in Forrest Place. Friday, 7.45.—Fellowship and Prayer. Saturday, 7.45.—Full Gospel Service, at 197 Murray Street. Sisters Edie and Ruby, 1 Knebworth Avenue, Perth. SOUTH AUSTRALIA:-ADELAIDE ASSEMBLY MEETINGS. Leavitt Hall. Sunday, 3 p.m., at Botanic Park.—Open-air. Sunday, 7 p.m.—Full Gospel Service. Wednesday, 8 p.m.—Bible Study, "Beth-Car," H u g h ' s Street, Mile End. Saturday, 4.30.—Prayer Meeting. Saturday, 8 p.m., at Kingston Statue.—Open-air. Please address correspondence to G. H. Jansen, "BethCar," 4 Hughes Street, Mile End, S.A. 'Phone, Cent. 8749. Evangelist, Sister P. Heath. NEW SOUTH WALES :-- SYDNEY. Tent Mission, Military Road, opposite Fire Station, Mosman. See advertisement in Sydney "Herald." Evangelist Mina Ross Brawner. Permanent address: "Chevin," Tunks Street, Northbridge; 'Phone, X 1317. Our Brisbane representative, Brother Tooth, has suggested that, in order to bring "Good News" up to its rightful date, one number be dropped. We are prepared to compromise, and drop the number in name only; we will, therefore, D.V., publish January and four pages of February on the 1st of February, 1929, giving four pages each succeeding monthly issue until we have repaid the whole of February number. Members of the Apostolic Faith Mission of Australasia are hereby notified that the third Annual Conference will begin D.V. at Good News Hall, North Melbourne, on Friday, March 29, with an all day of prayer. Business commences Saturday, March 30. Secretaries are requested to forward name or names of delegates who will represent their Assemblies. Assemblies with more than 50 members are allowed one delegate for the first 50, and one for each subsequent 50 or part thereof who possess a Credential of Fellowship of the Mission in accordance with Section 8, Clause (c) of the Constitution. Eeports from Assemblies and subjects for discussion should be forwarded to the General Secretary by February 20, that the agenda may reach the Assemblies a fortnight before Conference. W. ANDREWS, General Secretary, A.F.M. (Mzgazint, ©rati, 8c ^IWfe ^Ktrmtu QTofarefr ^tdortal ^Imartats for IB2B HELPFUL BOOKS FOR BELIEVERS. Two designs to choose from. Very beautiful pictures. Prices: 1/6, posted 1/7. Order Early. Evangelist Van Eyk's book, "Stupendous World Changes Imminent," now on hand, l / l post paid. Friends who have ordered same please send a post card if you have not yet received it, "The Gospel of Healing," 1/-, posted 1/2. "The Budding Fig Tree," 3/3, postage extra. "Praying to Change Things," 3/3, postage extra. "Healing from Heaven," 3/3, postage extra. "The Brooding Presence," 3/3, postage extra. "Soul Food for Hungry Saints," 3/3, postage extra. "The Whirlwind Prophet," 3/3, postage extra. "Faith Reminiscences," E. Sisson, 3/3, postage extra. "The Not-Ashamed Club," 1/9, postage extra. "Slumber Time Stories," 1/9, postage extra. "The Midnight Hour and After," by Reginald Naish 2/6 Testaments from 3d. upwards. Nicely bound Testaments, with psalms in back 4 / - each "The Thrilling Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh" . . 1/6 Rotherham's New Testament 10/"Prayer a Mighty Force," by A. Sims . . . . . . 10d. "A Prayer Answering God" 5d. "C. G. Finney" . . . 5d. "Startling Signs" 1/3 "Coming Great War" 1/3 "Present-day Miracles: The Story of the Ministry of Pastor Stephen Jeffrey" -. . . 2/9 "The Little Flock in the Last Days." By Anna C. Luce 5/"With Signs Following." By Stanley Frodsham 9 / "Satan's Last Dread Counterfeit" 1/1 "The Voice of God Unheard, and the Reason Why." By J. A. D. Adams 3/6 "God's 'Ifs': The Problem of Unanswered Prayer." By J. A. D. Adams 3/6 When ordering books, kindly add money for postage. A reduction made on quantities'. Send your orders early to avoid the Christmas postal rush. BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. ipUgpK: Books for children with good stories bearing on the Scriptures 6d. Scripture Books from 6d. upwards. Childhood Bible Stories—Series 5 1/Childhood Bible Stories—Series 4 . . I0d. Childhood Bible Stories—Series 3 8d. "Our Darlings' A.B.C. Book" 1/6 "Stories From New Testament" 3/Illustrated Bibles—nice for S.S. Children . . . . 4 / Sheets of Gospel Tickets for S.S. Children . . 3d. sheet Scripture Seals for backs of letters—72 in pet. 8d. pet. Sunday School Reward Cards—10 in pet. . . . . 8d. pet. Sunday School Reward Cards—10 in pet 4d. pet. Big Book of the Bible for Children, illustrated . . 3/6 Anointing Oil Vials, 3 / - ; posted, 3/1. We have just received from England a fine assortment of illustrated books, carefully selected, so that parents and Sunday School Superintendents may know their children will not only receive enjoyable reading but that Christian principles will be inculcated. Prices from 1/- to 4/6. There are also Bible Story Books, illustrated. Prices from 1/- to 3/-. In addition there is a line of touching stories (paper covers) at the popular price of 3d. For Sunday School teachers there are Reward Sheets 3d. each, also Reward Cards in packets. Beautiful Wall Texts ranging from Id. each to 2/-. "Life of Billy Bray," 1/6 each; paper covers, 3d. On all these, postage is extra. Published by the Victory Press, 106 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, Australia.