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2 THE PRESBYTERL
SABBATH SCHOOL EXTENSION WORK.
A most important and useful feature of our Richmond
Committee's work, and one never to be forgotten
by the Church at large, is the aid which this Committee
gives to Sabbath Schools established in new localities,
either as mission schools or as branches or extensions
of schools and churches already established. But
for this help, which has been rendered most cheerfully
and liberallv to hundreds nf ???... it
?. w. iivv> OV.HUU15, me latter
would not have been able in some cases to begin or to
continue. And yet the schools of this class represent
in many instances the beginnings of new churches.
They are in large measure the aggressive feature of
our older churches, sometimes the only aggressive feature.
Nourished with care for a few years they become
the foundation of substantial churches and the
sources of help to others.
The writer knows of one case, in which he has been
personally concerned, where this help is gradually
working out into practical results. For two or three
years a little school has been held. Meanwhile it has
been a light in a very dark quarter, an oasis in n von't.
able desert of Romanism. With each passing month
it becomes better known and more influential in all the
section where its beneficent work is carried on. Seventeen
people, nearly all of them young people, have
already come into the church through its instrumentality,
and if all works well they will prove the nucleus
after awhile of a promising church. But for the aid
rendered this little enterprise by the Richmond Committee
it could not have been carried on. The offering
that our Assembly asks in March tor Sabbath School
Extension and Publication, is for just such practical
cases as this.
WALDF.NSTAN5 TM tuu a
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PROVINCE.
Protestants have been by far the largest contributors
to the earthquake sufferers. It will be found that relief
from America, England and Germany has been the
most effective and abundant. It is a matter of concern
therefore that relief funds shall ?be honestly and justly
administered. A letter written by a Waldensian pastor
in Italy which came to the "Herald and Presbyter"
gives reason to fear that these evangelistic Christians
will not share the relief which their brethren in this
country are furnishing. The letter written by Rev. Alberto
Clot, says:
"We had a strong church at Messina, a station at
Reggio di Calabria, and four or five stations in the
stricken district. The pastor at Messina, Rev. Adolfo
Chauvis, was a schoolmate of mine. He had married,
four years ago, a very nice young lady from Palermo
the best friend of my wife, who is from Palermo
also. In 1905, when there was that awful earthquake
in Calabria, the members of our churches in that region
did not receive any help from the funds collected for
the sufferers, because they were Protestants. The
Duke of Aosta, who is the head of the Committee for
the Relief Fund, is a very bigoted Catholic, and you
may be sure that this time also they will be left aside
\N OF THE SOUTH. ^ February 17, igog.
because ETotestants. The idea, therefore, of sending
the funds collected to the president of our church is
very wise, and you may be sure that Rev. Arturo Muston
is a man of such high Christian character that he
will make the best use of the money. His address is
Rev. Arturo Muston, No. 107 Via Nazionale, Roma."
When we remember the heroic struggles of these adherents
of the apostolic faith, through centuries of
Papal persecution, as cruel and relentless as human
malice could devise, it becomes a thoughtful and humane
public sentiment to demand that in this crisis they
shall share the relief that is being provided to save
them, in common with their Catholic fellow-citizens,
from starvation. When Papal bigotry goes to the extreme
of withholding bread from starving humanity, as
a device of religious torture, it is time for prompt and
determined protest.
BRIGHTSIDE NOTES.
Our violets are blooming under the ice spread over
them by the sleet storm. It is such a pity that they
could not have been left in their beauty and fragrance.
But suffering patiently they live and bloom on, look
ing out irom their cold beds, still warm at heart and
hoping for a better day of freedom and sunshine.
Some of the sweetest spirits among the child-ren of
God arc blooming under the afflictions which have come
upon their lives.
There are blind, and crippled and palsied ones now,
as in the days of the great Healer.
Want and sickness, bereavement and sorrow are
spread far and wide, and very patient and gentle are
many lor whom the Father's discipline, wise and loving,
has appointed the chill covering of adversity.
And yet they look up into his face without complaint.
They grow in the beauty that is within, and are fragrant
in love and patience.
Our hands are full df the violets we have gathered,
and our Little Lady has heaped them in the skirt of her
dainty dress. We bring them in from the icy beds to
the brightness and warmth of the home.
A xl? ' -- ' ? '
?_mic win wear mem giaaiy, ana tne nome De
beautified by their loveliness, and be cheered by their
sweetness.
How many will God bring with Christ from all the
ice and winter of the world's covering of tribulation,
into the home above to bloom forever in the love and
happiness of his presence?
How surprisingf that so manv who hear the name nf
Christ change their homes, and do not transfer their
church membership.
The letter of transfer remains uncared for in the
trunk, or has never been asked for. And in the new
place of residence they are not known as followers of
Christ; they take no part in Christian service to the
world, and bear no part in the Church's burden of care