An Interesting Meeting by L. A. HANSEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

An Interesting Meeting

By L. A. HANSEN

It was at a conference session of the North Dakota camp-meeting, one of those business meetings sometimes considered uninteresting because of being devoted to the discussion of recommendations. But this proved one of the most interesting meetings that any one in the company had ever attended. The recommendation dealt with plans of work in distributing reading-matter. As the discussion proceeded, various persons were impressed to give their experiences. Several nationalities were represented, and their testimonies had to be translated. Here are some of the many good incidents related:—

Words Versus Works

A German laborer of many years’ experience, Elder Valentine Leer, said: “One time another brother and I were holding meetings with a certain church, when this brother gave a very strong talk on the importance of doing missionary work by the circulation of our literature. There was no response to his admonitions. Then he charged the church with coldness and backsliding. But his exhortation seemed to have little effect on the congregation except to cause greater coldness to settle over it. As he saw that he was powerless to move the people, he began to show distress, and with a sense of failure in his effort to impress them with their responsibility in the matter, he finally asked me if I had anything to say.

“I was on my feet at once, and said, ‘Yes, I have something to say. I believe in the importance of this thing. I have always carried with me a good supply of literature to give out on trains or wherever I could do so. I remember that most of our brethren used to do this. And this gave an example to our brethren and sisters, and they were active in the same work. This is only as we may expect it to be; for they are more ready to do what we tell them if they know that we are doing it ourselves. Now, my brother,’ I asked, pointing to his satchel on the floor, ‘have you your satchel filled with literature? and do you practise what you have been preaching?’ He could only hang his head in confusion; for it was well known that he was himself inactive in the very thing he was exhorting the church to do.”

The German Hotel-Keeper

A man of small stature made his way to the rostrum, that he might be the better heard. He was H. J. Peters, a German brother living at a little crossroads place on the plains, thirteen miles from the railroad. He keeps a small hotel and restaurant. A store and a blacksmith shop, with a few houses, make up his neighborhood, so that his range of home missionary work is limited to the persons who come to his place, or those he might visit in the sparsely settled country about him. He is sixty-five years old, and speaks English with considerable effort. Considering how people usually make excuses for not doing more missionary work, it might seem that this man could make some claim of that kind. But hear him:—

“I have had three strokes of paralysis, and the last stroke was such that my family thought I would die. With such consciousness as I had left, I promised the Lord that if he would heal me, I would do faithful work in distributing literature. I ordered a club of ten copies of the Signs of the Times, besides some foreign papers. These I use on a reading-table in my restaurant, and people have them to read while waiting for their meals.

“As the harvest ingathering time came, I ordered an extra quantity of papers, and through some error my order was duplicated, and I found myself with four hundred papers on hand, in three languages. This was more than I could use in my locality. But my son wished to go on a trip to see some land, and he proposed that I go with him. He suggested that I could thus distribute my papers and solicit donations. I went with him, and as I met people on the trains and elsewhere, I was able to dispose of all my papers, and I secured $64.10 for the foreign mission work.”

After Many Years

A very interesting case was reported by Elder R. A. Underwood:—

“A canvasser sold a copy of Bible Readings in a little home away up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The book was laid up on the shelf and remained there nine years, until one day the woman found it while cleaning house. Being tired, she sat down to look at it a moment. She opened it to the reading on the new earth, and became so interested that she read on until, as a result, dinner was late. When her husband asked her about the lateness of dinner, she told him of the treasure they had had in the house so long a time, and of which they were ignorant.

“They began to study the book together, and at the end of six months, as it drew near the first of the year, the time when people make resolutions and turn over a new leaf, the husband said, ‘Wife, I have been impressed that we ought to become Christians.’ She replied, ‘That is just what I have felt.’ ‘Well, let’s do it, then,’ he said. ‘But we shall have to keep the Sabbath if we do,’ his wife answered. ‘Of course we shall, for that is what we have learned from that book.’ Together they knelt, and found pardon and peace with God. They kept the next Sabbath, not knowing of others who observed the day.

“Sometime later another canvasser came to them with Coming King, and as the woman saw the book, she mentioned that it was something like one she already had. The conversation led to inquiry about the first canvasser, and when it was ascertained that it was possible to meet him again, the man and his wife were most anxious that such a meeting be arranged. By the help of the conference officers the first canvasser paid these people a visit, and an angel could not have been more welcome in that home than he was. The man fell on his neck and wept. It was arranged to hold meetings in that neighborhood, and as a result a church was raised up. This man himself entered the canvassing field, and became a successful worker.”

The Man From Russia

An old man arose, and tottered forward to the pulpit, holding on to it while speaking. With his gray hair and beard, and his form bent with the weight of years, he looked indeed a pilgrim who had traveled a long, hard road. With the intense earnestness shown in the telling, his story was thrilling, and was listened to with deep interest:—

“I am now seventy-seven years old, but I can’t keep in my seat as I hear these things. Thirty-two years ago I lived in Russia, and there received a tract from some one in Kansas. From it my wife and I learned of the Sabbath truth. We talked it over, and my wife said that if we lived in free America, we could keep the Sabbath, but not in Russia. She presented the dark picture of what it would be for us to try to keep the Sabbath there. I presented the darker picture of what it would be to live in Russia in violation of God’s commandments, and die there, not having kept his holy Sabbath. The next Sabbath was observed by us, the first Sabbath-keepers in Russia.

“I presented the truth to a neighbor of ours, and soon he and his wife accepted it, and for a long time there were only we four keeping the Sabbath in Russia,—my neighbor and his wife, my wife and I.”

He told further of his going to Odessa and other points, and in the face of opposition giving the truth to others. There was something inspiring in listening to this old man, the first to keep the Sabbath in Russia, as he told of the work that started from some one’s mailing a tract.

Well could the conference president, C. J. Buhalts, urge the people not to stay away from the conference sessions for fear they would not be interesting; and little wonder that, as we separated, we felt more determined than ever to be more faithful in the use of our good literature. L. A. HANSEN.