REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA.
By D. T. BOURDEAU
We pitched the tent in Santa Rosa four weeks ago last Wednesday; have held upwards of forty meetings. Nine new ones have embraced the Sabbath, and several more are deeply convicted and seem to tremble under the cross. Eleven have been baptized, and three more are expected to move forward in baptism next Wednesday. Two of those who have come out are school teachers, one of whom leaned strongly toward infidelity when we came into this township. Two others have preached some, and one of these is talking the truth on Sundays, one hundred miles north of here, while laboring with his hands five days in the week. We have sold eighty dollars’ worth of books since pitching the tent. Our greatest difficulty as to books, is to keep a full assortment on hand. Ere we are aware, we are out of some kinds. Our brethren and sisters from the Piner district have stood by us in our efforts here, and have had the benefit of a second course of lectures. Though a few of those who arose for the Sabbath in the Piner settlement have gone back for not moving forward in the Christian duties, yet their number has been made up by more embracing the truth in this place. Twenty-six in all have been baptized, and we hope this number will be swelled up to thirty or more. Five of those who were baptized were from other places. Upon the whole we feel that we have been paid for coming here, even if no more is done than what has already been accomplished. But we hope and labor for more, though we now expect to close our tent operations in this place next week, as we have been laboring in this township between three and four months (in which time we have held over one hundred and fifty meetings), and hope to be able to so select for the field of our next effort with the tent, that we can fall back to Santa Rosa for several Sabbaths after leaving. Our minds now rest on Healdsburgh, sixteen miles north of here, being only six miles from Windsor, where a company of believers was raised last fall. The Lord direct. Before leaving here, we shall call for volunteers on Systematic Benevolence. Farmers here have been haying for two weeks, which has kept back some from the country. But some have got through with their haying; yet harvesting is coming off soon. This valley is only about fifteen miles from the coast, and is not the most favorable field for tent operations, as the nights generally are quite cool, making it uncomfortable at times for the speaker and for the audience. Yet here we commenced, and we cannot leave. Our trust is in God, and he sustains us. While we would not be presumptuous, we would stretch forth our hand as an act of faith, as the man sick of the palsy was bid to do; do all we can on our part, that God may be honored and his cause advanced. Santa Rosa, Cal., May 24, 1869.