A Visit to Newfoundland by K. C. R.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

A Visit to Newfoundland

By K. C. R.

SEPTEMBER 26 I left Washington for a visit to Newfoundland. It was thought advisable at this season of the year to make the trip by rail as far as possible, and so I went via Portland and Bangor, Maine, and St. Johns, New Brunswick, to Sidney, Nova Scotia, where I took the steamer across the gulf to Port Aux Basque, Newfoundland, and resumed my journey again by rail to St. Johns. This necessitated traveling the entire length of the island. It was a most interesting trip, as the island is interspersed with beautiful lakes and rivers. Newfoundland has been very fittingly called the “Switzerland of North America.” The chief industry of the island is fishing.

After a ride of twenty-eight hours from Port Aux Basque, I reached St. Johns, a city of forty thousand inhabitants. This being the first visit paid to the island by any of the General Conference workers, I was accorded a most hearty welcome by our church in St. Johns.

The purpose of my visit was to speak at a mass-meeting Sunday evening, October 4, in opposition to a movement of the Lord’s Day Alliance to secure by moral suasion and legislation a stricter observance of Sunday. This meeting was held in British Hall, one of the largest halls in the city. The attendance was large. It was found necessary to supply additional seats, and then people were standing in the entrance. This large attendance was most gratifying to Elder C. H. Keslake, the superintendent of the Newfoundland Mission Field, and also to the members of the St. Johns church.

The meeting opened by singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” which was followed by an earnest prayer from Brother Fred Johnson, a licensed minister of the Canadian Union Conference and former student of the South Lancaster Academy. After an appropriate and earnest address by the chairman of the meeting, Elder Keslake, the writer was introduced as the speaker of the evening.

After paying a fitting tribute to their country; assuring them that I was not there to antagonize individuals, but to present what we believed to be right principles, and expose wrong ones; and showing them that we were not in opposition to the Lord’s day, but in its defense, I gave a lecture on the limits of civil authority, setting forth the legitimate sphere of both the church and the state. I endeavored to apply the principles to the Newfoundland Lord’s Day Alliance movement. Scarcely had I begun my lecture before I was interrupted by members of the Lord’s Day Alliance, who were in attendance, interjecting words of disapproval. This conduct continued at intervals during the entire lecture, notwithstanding our vigorous protests. It was evident, however, that, with but few exceptions, the audience was in sympathy with us, for the applause was frequent and enthusiastic throughout the lecture whenever points were made against the Lord’s Day Alliance movement.

It was feared at times that the meeting would be disturbed by a violent mob, as the course pursued by the members of the Lord’s Day Alliance who were present became exasperating to the audience. Quite a number of women left the meeting when the outbreaks were the most violent. We feel sure that the angels of God were there to hold in check the efforts to break up the meeting, and that this was one of the instances where the Lord made the wrath of men to praise him, and the remainder of their wrath he restrained; for it was a most practical demonstration of the wicked spirit that lies back of every effort to secure Sunday legislation by civil enactment. Nothing could have emphasized the principles we presented to the people, at our lecture, more than the unseemly conduct displayed that night by the representatives of the Lord’s Day Alliance. The meeting is being freely discussed by the citizens of St. Johns on account of these things, and there seems to be a general disapproval of the unchristian treatment accorded to us.

In order that the readers may better understand why such a violent spirit was exhibited at this meeting, I would say that for the past year there has been carried on a discussion on the Sabbath question and religious liberty, through the columns of the Plaindealer, between Elder C. H. Keslake and the champions of the Lord’s Day Alliance, and a week or two before this mass-meeting, there was a mass-meeting called by the friends of Sunday legislation, at which time the Newfoundland Lord’s Day Alliance expounded their side of the question. From this, it will be observed that our meeting was a climax to the controversy that has been carried on through the public press of Newfoundland on the Sabbath question and religious liberty. The night following the mass-meeting, we held a service in our church building in St. Johns.

My visit to Newfoundland was a most pleasant, and, I trust, profitable one. The work in this island is prospering under the direction of Elder Keslake, notwithstanding the difficulties which exist in the work of evangelizing the inhabitants.

K. C. R.