Report from Bro. Ingraham.
By Wm. S. Ingraham
As the friends of the cause would like to know my whereabouts, I submit a few lines for the Review. I have moved my family into Minnesota, where I am permanently located for the present. It has consumed some little time to change my location and prepare for the cold weather, and driving winds of a Minnesota winter. I have labored most of my time since my arrival in the state, in preaching the word. I met in Quarterly Meeting with the churches at Greenwood Prairie, Oronoco, Deerfield, Bass Lake, and Brush Creek. Our meeting at Greenwood Prairie was one of encouragement. The church was prompt in paying up their s. b. fund, and also in engaging in the services of the meeting. All were encouraged. Oronoco meeting was quite good, but not so interesting as the first. Here we passed by the ordinances in consequence of the funeral of sister Harlow. This church has been distracted in the past by trials, and some have become very slack in paying their s. b. funds, and have run behind a whole year. We hope this church will come up, and with renewed vigor take hold of the work. Deerfield meeting was not so well attended as on some other occasions. A large number of this church have moved away, some to Cleveland and some to Mantorville. Bass Lake meeting was well attended. This church was organized in part last fall when I was there. I found all striving to walk in the light. Bro. Kunselman, formerly from Michigan, was appointed elder. If this church moves on in harmony, others will soon join them. Two of late have received the Sabbath. I am now at Brush Creek. Last fall I gave a few lectures here and the result was good. Some decided at once to obey the commandments; others soon after. Nine or ten have commenced to keep the Sabbath. As soon as the Seventh-day Baptists heard some had come out on the commandments, in our absence two of their preachers came into the place, not to lead people into the great truths of the third angel’s message, but to stop the work where it was, and keep the people from embracing the kindred truths that cluster around the present truth. The first thing was to imbitter the minds of honest souls against the visions. One of them having Experience and Views, but admitted he had never read the visions at all. Solomon has expressed his opinion in relation to those that judge a matter before they understand it. Our meetings here are interesting, and the people begin to see that God requires them to advance and keep pace with present truth. When an interest is awakened and not followed up, how easy it is for some one to cause the honest soul to halt, by presenting a lower standard of truth; but the work in which we are engaged is of God, and will move on. Calls are coming for help from every quarter. I have a circuit of two hundred miles to travel, in attending Quarterly Meetings, and this by private conveyance, crossing unsettled prairies, meeting howling winds that sweep over miles of land without anything to stop their force, sleeping in houses where the wind finds you in your sleeping hours, leaving you to awake to find your beard frosted in the morning. Whoever preaches the truth in new fields in Minnesota, will find a great amount of hard labor to perform. Brethren pray for me.