The largest gathering of Seventh-day Adventists ever held in South Africa, the brethren tell us, was the meeting of the South African Union Conference, held as a camp meeting, in Durban, Natal, in April.
It was preceded by a workers' institute, opening April 7, and continued from April 15 to 26, followed by several days' further meetings in continuation of the councils of conference workers and missionaries.
Twenty-nine years ago, at the General Conference of 1886, the first call from South Africa was presented. Australia and New Zealand had been entered just before, and we had a growing work in Europe. Many will remember the reading of Africa's call in the Tabernacle at Battle Creek that day. Brethren wept for joy as that word came from Brethren G. J. Van Druten and Peter Wessels, of the African diamond fields region, that there were Sabbath keepers in Africa longing to have workers sent out to preach the message of truth, more precious than diamonds and rubies. Then Elders D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd were appointed to South Africa, with several associate workers.
These twenty-nine years have swiftly passed. They have been years of expansion in South Africa. The two brethren who made that first call were not with us at the conference; but I met them both at Cape Town, and found them rejoicing in the message, and glad for what has been seen in South Africa since they sent the call for help.
Here in the Durban conference were gathered about three hundred and fifty representatives of the work. Thirty-four churches are spread through the field, from the Cape to Central Africa, beyond the Zambesi and the regions of Lake Nyasa; while the one mission station not represented by a delegate—the Tanganyika Mission, just being opened by Brother and Sister J. C. Rogers—is about eighteen hundred miles north of the Cape, where our first workers landed twenty-eight years ago.
Up and down this vast region the tiny jets of light are shining in the darkness—far separated in some areas, but with the points of light slowly and surely increasing in all parts of the continent.
WORKERS AND BELIEVERS AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE, DURBAN, NATAL
Three conferences occupy the southern portion,—the Dominion of South Africa,—while the mission fields of Rhodesia and Nyasaland were at this conference organized as a union mission under the union conference.
Twenty-nine years ago the call came. Today there are twenty-nine hundred members in the Sabbath schools of South Africa. Here was our first missionary effort to the heathen; and today, 727 of the church membership of South Africa are in the ten churches on the mission stations. In the mission schools now operated, about 3,000 young Africans are under instruction.
This is almost enough of figures. While looking over the work of these twenty-nine years, we must bear in mind the fact that the entire white population of the union is only about that of Philadelphia—a million and a quarter people, spread over an area of nearly two thousand miles from north to south. This helps to measure properly the labors represented in the fruitage springing up. In this population equal to that of one of our cities we find three conferences, twenty-four churches, nearly a thousand members, with institutional and departmental work merging into a union conference that added three hundred to its membership during the last term.
Yet the keynote of the union conference was consecration to God for yet more determined soul-saving work. It was a good old-fashioned camp meeting, with all the inspiration of the new time. These brethren and sisters love this third angel's message, and seek God and put away sin, just as the believers do in the older fields. The presence of the Dutch brethren, and their meetings in the “Dutch tent” in the intervals between the united services, gave the camp meeting the very aspect of the meetings in our Middle West, where services in the various languages are held.
The three conferences held their annual meetings during the union conference. Though we were twelve hundred miles from the headquarters of the Cape Conference, over seventy delegates were present in the sessions of that conference.
The officers in each conference were reelected—H. J. Edmed (Cape), W. S. Hyatt (Natal-Transvaal), O. K. Butler (Orange Free State).
Elder W. B. White was elected president of the union conference. The Lord is blessing Brother White in leading out in the work here. The workers' meeting was a profitable time, and the round-table conferences of the missionaries were a blessing not only to the workers from the missions, but to all the brethren and sisters who thronged these meetings. The instruction in the workers' institute was given mainly by Brethren White, Edmed, Hyatt, and the writer, other brethren also taking part.
The pressure of reports from the world-wide field forbids giving details. It was a blessed meeting. Souls found the way of victory by surrender. A number rejoiced in the marked manifestation of God's power to heal serious bodily infirmities. It was a good place to be.
The newspapers accepted full reports,13supplied by Elder I. J. Hankins, and our brethren are planning to push the circulation of the printed page. During the last two years, as reported by Brother G. H. Clark, over $20,000 worth of our books have been sold, and the English and Dutch paper—the Sentinel—has been given a large circulation since the outbreak of the war. Eight months ago the regular subscription list of these papers stood at 275 copies only; now it is over 4,000, and the brethren are aiming at 10,000 subscribers. Of several specials from 30,000 to 70,000 each have been sold.
There is a waking up in South Africa, both in the world and in the church, and reports from every side showed that the Lord is indeed pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh.
Often these believers wished that greetings be sent to the believers in North America, with thanks for the help that has been sent. These dear brethren and sisters are with us for the finishing of the work. Their children are entering the work in both English and Dutch fields and in the mission stations. The camp meeting Sabbath school set a mark for missions of $50 a Sabbath for the three Sabbaths; the people enthusiastically put double this into the envelopes. Their hearts beat true to the message, and God's providence has given us a splendid base in this dominion—with its Dutch and English population and its open Bible—for the great work that is to be done for the English- and Dutch-speaking colored people of the provinces, and the vast native populations of many tribes and tongues.
