Grapes From Eschol by M. E. OLSEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 3, 1913

Grapes From Eschol

By M. E. OLSEN

Not least among the benefits to be derived from a great meeting like the late General Conference are the after-results in the way of spiritual uplift and stimulus that come to the various churches and companies through the reports brought back to them by those who were in attendance.

I was led to feel this with peculiar force on spending the first Sabbath after the General Conference at the Hinsdale Sanitarium. In the ten o'clock meeting with the heads of departments, the keynote of the Conference morning meetings in the large tent was clearly struck; namely, victory over sin in every form, and a new daily experience in the overcoming life in order to be able to direct suffering humanity to the one Great Physician, who is able to heal both mind and body.

Later the whole family of helpers came together for the Sabbath morning meeting, and the superintendent, who had just returned from the Conference, led out in an animated recital of the good things dispensed so freely at the meeting. He took for his text Num. 13:23-26: "And they came unto the brook of Eschol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. . . . And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land."

He had been to the Conference, he said, and while enjoying the rich privileges of the meeting, he had also been mindful of those who had tarried by the stuff. In short, he had gathered a basket of grapes for them; and he proceeded forthwith to pass out the fruit. It was good to look at that staff of workers and see their eyes brighten and their faces take on new determination as Dr. Paulson rehearsed for them the most encouraging items from the home field and from the foreign fields, and told them of the rich truths brought out in the various sermons and Bible studies conducted at the Conference.

When he had finished his remarks, he called on other brethren present who had also attended the Conference, among them Elder A. G. Christiansen from California, Dr. D. H. Kress, Dr. A. B. Olsen, and Dr. Whitelock. It was like being at the Conference over again to hear these stirring testimonies, and there were not many dry eyes in the room when the experiences of our brethren in heathen lands were reported, and some facts concerning the hardships undergone and the victories won in those far-off fields were brought home to the hearts of the people.

The following morning I had the privilege of attending a meeting of workers in Chicago where Elders K. C. Russell, M. H. Serns, and P. E. Broderson, with others, were planning the summer's campaign. There likewise frequent references were made to the late General Conference, and it was evident that those who had attended the meeting had come away with a new vision of the world-wide field and a new inspiration to nobler service, and that those who had not had the privilege of attending were eager to respond to the suggestions made, and to plan with their brethren to achieve larger things than ever before in the cause of the Master.

While I sat in these meetings, the vision came to me of what may be accomplished if all our brethren and sisters who, at a considerable expenditure of time and money, attended this great Conference, go out in the same spirit, feeling that as they have enjoyed a rich blessing, it is their duty to use it to uplift the fallen, to cheer the downcast and the discouraged, to infuse new strength into the churches everywhere. God alone knows how wide-spread would be the blessings of such a ministry, how many times the benefits of the Conference would be multiplied for the good of this people throughout the world.

M. E. OLSEN.