Pennsylvania by J. S. WASHBURN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 11, 1915

Pennsylvania

By J. S. WASHBURN

PHILADELPHIA.—This city, the third largest in the United States, has a population of nearly two million. We have here three church buildings, four churches, and an aggregate membership of four hundred and thirty-five.

We had the largest attendance at the tent meetings this summer I have ever seen. Over twenty began to keep the Sabbath. Some of these have been baptized and united with the church, and others will unite soon. We have the names of over two hundred interested persons who need our labor. But though the harvest is great and the fields are white, yet the laborers are few. We have only one Bible worker in all this great city, and she does not have good health. In these great cities there is a crying need for more Bible workers. May the Lord greatly revive that branch of the work among us. These large cities are a great problem. We realize now more than ever why the Lord, through the spirit of prophecy, has made such earnest appeals for work in these great centers of population and wealth and sin.

We have many indications that the Lord himself is going before us and preparing the way for the honest and sincere to receive the light. When in England several years, I became acquainted with a family whose home was in Ireland. Two brothers and three sisters were faithful to the truth, one brother being on the conference committee for many years. The father was very bitterly opposed to our faith, and other members of the family were unfavorable. During the tent meetings last summer, I received a letter from one of the sisters, requesting me to call on a brother living in Philadelphia, who was unfavorable to the message. When I found him, I was surprised to learn that he was already coming to the tent meetings. Shortly after, he said to me: “About sixteen years ago I left Ireland for the United States, and one of the main reasons why I left was to keep my wife from becoming an Adventist; and now I see that Adventists have the truth of God, and I can’t get my wife to the meetings at all.” But he worked wisely and carefully, and finally she began to come, became greatly interested, and then began to keep the Sabbath. They were baptized a short time ago, and are now earnest, working members of the church.

This brother did a good work with the Harvest Ingathering number of the REVIEW, and found many interested persons. One man and wife that he found have interested me very much. He is a civil engineer of ability and a Boston graduate. She is a graduate of the Chicago University, a woman of talent, and until recently a Catholic. When sick not long ago she tried to pray, but found it hard to believe because of the infidel teaching of a Protestant minister who was a teacher in the Chicago University. It seems a terrible thing for a Protestant minister to weaken the faith of a Roman Catholic who is seeking for light. She gave had met but one Seventh-day Adventist, a lady teacher, who had helped her to understand the Bible. We need never fear that a knowledge of the spirit of prophecy as held by us will keep persons out of the truth. Experience has proved that honest persons everywhere are reaching out for the light of the spirit of prophecy. A few weeks ago this woman said to me, “Why is it that God never speaks to his people now as he once did, directly through his prophets?” I answered, “God does speak to his people now.” I told her that I once in Washington lent “The Great Controversy” to a highly educated woman, and after reading the book for a time, she said to me: “That is the most wonderful book I ever read. How do you know but that it was written by one inspired?” Then I said to this woman in Philadelphia, “I will lend you this book.” She read it through in a very short time, and said, “It is a most wonderful book.” Then I lent her “Steps to Christ” and “Early Writings.” She is reading them now. I am certain that many Catholics, like this woman, are longing for the light of present truth, and will accept it.

A few days ago one of our doctors brought to three of the ministers of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference a young woman, one of our faithful canvassers, who had been afflicted with hysteria for six months, with most terrible cramping spells and spasms, in which she suffered indescribable pain. After one of those strange spasms she would be out of her mind for days. Nine physicians and specialists, including the leading nerve specialist of Philadelphia, had given her up as a hopeless case. She seemed to be afflicted by a power outside of herself, verily tormented by an evil spirit, and was rapidly going into permanent insanity. Helped by two men into the house, she utterly collapsed, then went into one of those fearful cramping spells, every joint seeming rigid and her whole body violently contorted. Yet even in her delirium she said she knew Jesus would heal her. It was touching to see her with wavering mind appealing to the Saviour for help. After prayer and anointing, according to the directions in James, with mind perfectly clear she prayed with strong faith. The Spirit of the Lord was present in unusual power

of God to heal. The experience has been a great blessing to all who know of it. She is still rejoicing that the Great Physician is able to keep as well as to heal.

I have been greatly interested in a young married couple here. The husband was a Catholic and his wife did not belong to any church, but her mother was a faithful Adventist in Pittsburgh. They had paid no attention to the truth until, seemingly by accident, she heard of the tent meetings. At the close of the third meeting she attended, she signed the covenant. I have been having readings with them for some time, and now the husband has given up smoking. He believes the truth, and will, I hope, soon take his stand with us. Through their influence the next-door neighbors, Irish Protestants, are deeply interested, and the wife is already keeping the Sabbath. Through the influence of the latter a wealthy woman in Pittsburgh is now keeping the Sabbath.

A native Syrian woman of ability is greatly interested. She was born at Mt. Lebanon, and is a physician and surgeon. We have so many names of persons who are greatly interested, but O, so few workers! I realize as never before the great need of workers in these large cities, for Satan is here in mighty power. Surely in this field the work is great, but the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that he may send forth more laborers into the field.

J. S. WASHBURN.