MEETING AT DIXON, CAL by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Apr 22, 1880

MEETING AT DIXON, CAL.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

The meeting at this place was of deep interest, and of profit to the cause in this section. The rain during the week, until Friday night, made the roads almost impassable, yet our brethren came from Vacaville, a distance of 14 miles, and the evening meetings were attended by friends living six or eight miles distant.

The truth was preached in this village two years since by Elders Healey and Stephens, when quite an interest was awakened, but only a few, and those mostly sisters, took their stand upon the truth.

The first appointment for Mrs. White was Sabbath at 11, A. M. About 150 were present. The impression made was good, and the word spoken took effect.

On Sunday at 4, P. M., a district quarterly meeting was held, which showed a good degree of labor performed. But the missionary effort through the Sabbath interest of a few individuals in this vicinity gave rise to the demand for this meeting. Should the same missionary effort be put forth in hundreds of villages where the truth has never been presented, an interest might be awakened by which scores would be led to embrace the truth.

Sunday evening Mrs. White spoke about two hours to a large and attentive audience. At this time she had more than usual liberty in speaking on the subject of Christian temperance. In a most forcible manner she showed that God holds parents responsible for their children, to subdue their passions while young, lest they become uncontrollable, and drunkenness and ruin be the result. The instruction of the angel to the wife of Manoah, and of Gabriel to Zechariah and Elizabeth, were cited with good effect. God selects men to fill important places in his work whose passions and appetites were controled in infancy, and who have thus in manhood moral power to resist the evils which surrounded them. No passionate man or drunkard can enter the Kingdom of God, nor the rumseller who, for sordid gain, places to his neighbor's lips that which will dethrone reason and bring wretchedness and misery upon households.

The influence of the meeting was good; prejudice was removed, and all who love the truth were encouraged. S. N. HASKELL.