Biennial Report of the Southern Union Conference
By George I. Butler
This conference is composed of nine States, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Its population is 14,907,519, of which 5,823,023 are colored. As will be seen, these States once constituted the very heart of the Southern Confederacy. This has quite a bearing upon the conditions and difficulties that exist in connection with our work in this field. The other States outside of the Southern Union Conference are not so intensely affected by the color-line and its peculiar characteristics as the States composing the Southern Union Conference. Northern influences have permeated the other States composing the old South far more than those in this conference. This makes our field more difficult to penetrate and more difficult to affect with anything originating in the North. We thus have distinctive characteristics with which we come in conflict in our Southern field, that are not to be found in any other part of our country. The Southern was one of the first union conferences organized. At that time only three of the States composing the conference had been organized into conferences. The rest were organized soon after, however, the General Conference promising to assist them with as much of their means, after they were organized, as they did before when they were mission fields. When the question of the organization of the union conferences as a part of our great organization system came up, it was felt by our leading brethren that it would be a great relief to the General Conference to have this vast mission field organized into a union conference. Instead of having to be wholly supported from the General Conference funds, as a mission field, if it could be brought into a union conference, some of its burdens might be taken from the shoulders of the General Conference. But the field was in a discouraging condition to be organized, as the number of Sabbath-keepers in many of the different States which were to enter the union conference, was so few that they could not well bear the responsibilities of a State conference. The progress of the work in the nine States now composing the Southern Union Conference has been very slow. For nearly forty years, the truth has been making inroads into that territory. There were Sabbath-keepers, more or less, for some twenty years before the first conference was organized in 1879. Literature was sent southward; here and there a minister penetrated into that portion of the field, and a few believers sprang up, but the general progress was very slow and difficult. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the Southern mission field was a pretty heavy burden on the General Conference, as the peculiar difficulties in that field greatly hindered the laborers in their work. This was especially true in regard to the colored work, which must necessarily be an important feature. More or less effort has been expended for a series of years upon this branch of the work, but comparatively little has been accomplished. Until Brother J. E. White and his fellow laborers began their work in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Miss., with the “Morning Star” as a basis of their operations, very few colored churches existed. The movement begun by him and his fellow laborers has resulted in accomplishing as much in the conversion of the colored people to the truth as all other efforts put together, I believe. Very few except those taking part in this feature of the work, can realize the tremendous difficulties attending it. As a whole, we can not claim any great evidences of growth or financial prosperity. There are some of the States which have had a good degree of growth, others which have grown comparatively little, and one or two where there has been a loss; yet there has been some advancement. At the time of the last General Conference there were eighty churches, now there are ninety-nine; then a membership of 1,824, now 2,353—an increase of nineteen churches and 529 members. Including the unorganized companies and isolated Sabbath-keepers, there was a total number of 2,240 Sabbath-keepers; now there are 2,766—an increase of 526. At the time of the last General Conference, the tithe paid was $20,571.30; the tithe last year was $22,035.97, making an increase of $1,464.67. As for the tithe per capita, considering the poverty of our field, it compares fairly with our Northern conferences. Dividing the amount by the church-membership, the tithe per capita would average nearly ten dollars. But including the scattered members and isolated Sabbath-keepers and unorganized companies, it would be about two dollars less. We believe there has been a gratifying growth in the spiritual condition of our conference during the last two years. Our general meetings, especially the last year, have been characterized by peace and union and harmony, brotherly love prevailing, with evidences of the Spirit of the Lord working in our midst. Our camp-meetings and other general gatherings have been seasons of spiritual interest. Our people are united in all the great truths taught by Seventh-day Adventists. There is a general feeling of regret among us that the work does not move forward with greater success, and a longing desire to see the whole conference permeated with the light of the message. We see no reason why we have not reached the stage where great success may be seen in the work, if proper labor can be bestowed and our workers be properly supported. But we are struggling under great difficulties for lack of means. The people who have embraced the truth are generally in very moderate circumstances. The conference treasuries are empty. In some States the laborers, in their earnest desire to do good, in view of the dearth of means, have worked without pay for months together. Other laborers, for lack of means, have been compelled to give up the work, in order to support their families. There is not a single conference in this field but feels greatly crippled for lack of means to carry on its work successfully. The union conference itself is laboring under difficulties of this kind. It is a very unpleasant thing to have to make these statements, but we know not how a truthful report could be given without doing so; and we shall not begin to tell you all the truth in this matter. After a personal acquaintance of some sixteen years with the Southern people, we have learned to love them, and we know from personal observation and large experience that there are thousands of noble souls here in the South who would be glad to receive the truth if they understood it as we do. It is a pleasure to live among them, and become acquainted with their kindness, hospitality, and goodness of heart. The people here are more attached to their own churches than in the North, and it is more difficult to get them to break off their connection with them. There is greater respect for the Bible, for the ministry, and for religion, than in the North. The influence of the ministers among their members is far greater, on the average, in the South. There is more or less prejudice against laborers coming from the North. The habits of the people are different. All these things tend to make it difficult to reach the people. But our work is gradually gaining in strength, and people are learning more the nature of it. We consider the near future as favorable a time as we shall ever have to reach the Southern people and bring them to a knowledge of the third angel’s message. This report would not be complete unless some reference were made to our leading institutions in the Southern Union Conference. The Southern Publishing Association—really the leading institution in the Southern field—is comparatively young, having an existence of only a little over three years. Like all institutions of this character, its early history was one of constant trouble, with difficulties and perplexities. The testimonies of the Spirit of God spoke emphatically in regard to the propriety and the necessity of having a publishing institution in the South. And they have continued to speak in its behalf until the present time.11Up to the last General Conference, for months it required all the effort possible to keep the institution running. The presses and other machinery and furniture were necessarily of second quality, and it was really impossible to do good work. The building had been erected by the gifts of our people, but the furnishing of the building for its future work had been very meager. After careful investigation, those who bore the responsibility decided that it was necessary to purchase machinery suitable to do the work of publishing this glorious truth to the world. About twenty thousand dollars was raised, mostly by loans, with which to purchase new presses and other necessary machinery and furniture to equip the building. There was no lavish expenditure of means, but the closest and most careful economy, at the same time an endeavor to secure the best. A great change occurred after the improvement of our institution. The stockholders at our meeting all seemed pleased with the progress made. Before this, at times the institution was running behind at the rate of a thousand dollars a month. Last year, on the whole, was a very favorable year. During the last half of the year the office met its expenses without loss. But since that time, we regret to say, our experiences have been quite unsatisfactory. The sale of our publications and books has been small. During the winter season, few of the canvassers were at work. We have been forced to cut down our help, which was at one time as high as from fifty to sixty employees, and the office had oftentimes to run night and day to meet the wants of our expanding trade. Our notes created to purchase our machinery, etc., have been coming in, and at the present time we find ourselves in great embarrassment financially. Our credit, however, has remained good, and we have had no special disasters of any kind. But our income has greatly decreased within the last few months, from a variety of causes, which I will not at this time undertake to explain. Should the conference see fit to appoint a committee to consider these things, we shall be happy to appear before it and present all the facts at our command. A very heavy responsibility has rested upon our business manager and myself. We have done our best, in the fear of God, to carry it, and we feel it a privilege at this juncture to come before the General Conference with our difficulties, which we shall be glad to lay before any committee they may appoint. And if they have those who can carry the work better than we, we will cheerfully step down and out, and place these responsibilities in hands that can manage them better. The Graysville Training-school for white people is our most important educational institution. The attendance the last two years has been fairly good. Last year we think it exceeded that of any previous year of its history. The religious influences connected with the school have been excellent. A large majority who attended the school have become Christians, believers in the great truths for this time. Prof. J. E. Tenney, principal, has a warm place in the hearts of our people generally, and is thought a great deal of by his students in particular. He has had the help of other valuable assistants. Plans are being laid to make this school more of an industrial institution in the future than it has been in the past. A large farm has been rented, lying contiguous to the institution, where we shall have abundant opportunity to carry out the teachings of the testimonies of the Spirit of God in regard to the importance of industrial knowledge and experience. The school is in great financial need. With the most careful economy, we have been able to make ends meet thus far in the management of the school. But special improvements are needed in the buildings. We need the help of our friends outside of this union conference. We hope that the committee on plans will carefully consider the wants of this important institution. Our colored training-school at Huntsville, Ala., has, during the last few years, passed through various experiences that have been trying and perplexing in the extreme. This is the only distinctive training-school for colored people in this denomination. With nearly six million colored people in the Southern Union Conference, not to speak of the two or three millions in other parts of the United States, with the colored races all through Central and South America and the West Indies, a great work is opened to this school. The last year has been by far the most encouraging of any recent year in the history of Huntsville. Through the efforts of Elder Sharpe—our financial agent—and others, quite a sum has been raised to make needed improvements. The building and premises have been greatly benefited by the changes made, and there has been quite an increase in the attendance, so that with its present accommodations but few more could be received. Sister White said that there should be one hundred in attendance last year, with accommodations for two hundred or two hundred and fifty in the near future; but with our present facilities, the one hundred could not be accommodated. The work of improving the institution has come nearly to a stop for lack of means to carry it forward. The Board has fully decided to have an orphanage also upon the farm, not far away. Steps have been taken to bring this about. Some money has been raised. More will be needed. There are quite a number of little ones whose parents were earnest, devoted Sabbath-keepers, who felt exceedingly sad at the time of their death to think their children should be turned over to those out of the truth. With an orphanage on the farm, and land sufficient to make its expenses light, these children could grow up and then enter the training-school to be trained for God. This seems a very important thing to be done. Our great perplexity in our colored training-school is how to carry it on without running into debt, as the colored people are not able usually to pay their tuition. We lay this matter also before our brethren in the General Conference to consider and to provide means to meet the wants of this very important and worthy institution. Our various conferences are endeavoring to create intermediate schools to connect between the church- and training-schools. One or two of these are in operation. We hope it will not be very long before these important institutions shall be provided throughout all the conferences of the Southern Union. Most earnest and pointed counsels have been given by the servant of God in regard to the establishment of small sanitariums in the large cities in this conference. In our financial weakness, we have been sorely perplexed to know how to carry out this plain and most important instruction. But it can not be said that we have not made an effort. The first one of these is located at Graysville, on an elevation called Lone Mountain, overlooking the village of Graysville. There is a beautiful spring some distance above it, abundantly supplying the purest mountain water. The building is three stories high, with basement. There has been an expenditure of about sixteen thousand dollars, with an indebtedness of six thousand dollars. The building is very creditable, but it is not finished, although it has been receiving a few patients. There is great need of more funds, as some of the debts are pressing. The building formerly owned by the Review and Herald publishing house, in Atlanta, Ga., is now being put in readiness for sanitarium purposes. This was donated to us by the Review and Herald Publishing Association. To put it in proper shape, made it necessary to borrow two or three thousand dollars. The building stands in a very nice locality, and the surroundings are pleasant. It is quite retired from noise and everything that would disturb patients. We hope it may yet be a useful institution. We have many friends interested in the sanitarium work in Atlanta. There was a building at Hildebran, with an investment in all of about three thousand dollars, but it was totally consumed by fire, with no insurance. The brethren there feel very anxious to replace it, and we cordially sympathize with them, and hope they may be able to do so at some time in the near future. The health work in Nashville was first begun by Brother L. A. Hansen and his good wife, who labored hard to establish that work.12Later the conference took the property off their hands, and decided to have a sanitarium in that city. Dr. Hayward united with the effort, and they have had to rent buildings at a large expense, in which to carry on their work. They have had a liberal patronage, considering the lack of suitable buildings. During the last year they have not run behind. In addition to these efforts to increase our sanitarium work, in response to what the Lord has shown to his servant to be our duty, we have established in various places quite a number of treatment rooms, which seem to be prospering. We wish to speak favorably of the good work that has been accomplished by the Southern Missionary Society, especially in the State of Mississippi and at one or two points in Tennessee. Nearly two thirds of the Mississippi Conference is made up of colored believers, most of whom came out under the labors of this society. It has not only been directly helpful in bringing souls into the truth, but has been the means of inspiring others to labor for the colored people. To the best of the writer’s judgment, nearly one half of our colored brethren and sisters in the Southern field were brought out through the agency of this society, and we are happy to say that this work is being carried on, more or less, by all the conferences in the Southern Union. When we can secure ministers and Bible workers for the colored people from among their own number, and place these in every station in the South, as seems absolutely necessary, then we shall begin to see an increase in our work along the lines which the Testimonies have clearly instructed us ought to be sustained and supported. We firmly believe that our brethren and sisters all through the North are under the same obligation to realize and appreciate the importance of the colored work as we who live in the South. The Sabbath-keepers in the South to-day are not responsible for the conditions of the past any more than are our brethren in the North. We are here because we want to be here and labor in this most difficult and trying field. If our people throughout our great Northern countries would look at it in the light in which they should view it, we should not be hampered and hindered at every turn to carry on this important branch of the work. No one can rejoice more than the writer in seeing the cause go to the utmost parts of the earth. It is most inspiring to hear such reports as come from our dear Brother Conradi. But while the truth is going in Europe to-day, and extending to different parts of the world, here is a place right in our beloved country, where the people speak the same language, and are connected with our people by ties of blood and kin, where the cause, through a complication of various difficulties, has been hindered so that it has made but little advancement. These conditions lie at our very doors, and we firmly believe that this body composing the General Conference of our people is under a great moral obligation to God and to humanity to try to do as much as other denominations are seeking to do for the poor colored people of the South. We have hardly begun to do it yet, although many of our people seem to feel that they have done all that it is their duty to do. We know very well that there has been greater advancement in the colored work in the last two or three years than ever before. It is becoming more extensive, and greater efforts are being made, but these need to be vastly increased. We were greatly interested in and encouraged by the good news of the work in far-distant Africa, presented by Brother Hyatt in his interesting discourse. Our hearts rejoice that there is such a disposition to receive the blessed truths of the message in those distant lands, the inhabitants of which have been under the shadow of idolatry for ages. It is a most encouraging thought that the truth is going to them, and that there are many ready to receive it. Their minds are simple, and have not been perverted, as is the case with many of their race who are living in this so-called Christian land. They have not had the difficulties connected with the color-line to stand as a hindrance to their embracing the truth. The bitterness which has been springing up in many places, the mob spirit, and the race prejudices, which are mutual between black and white in many places in the South, make the progress of the truth exceedingly difficult. Yet we have many most devoted and precious souls who have seen the light of present truth and embraced it, who are an honor to their race, and there are multitudes of others who need this same blessed instruction. We verily believe the difficulties are greater, as the testimony indicates, because of the difficulties connected with the color-line, than even those in dark Africa. Yet, notwithstanding all these difficulties, the solemn obligation rests upon us as a people to penetrate this darkness and overcome these difficulties. The greater they are, the more earnest must be our efforts to reach every earnest soul by the light of the present truth, in our great Southern field. That that obligation rests upon us, can not be denied; and our duty will never be discharged until the light is shining all through this great Southland. It is utterly impossible for those of us dwelling in the South to cope successfully with all the difficulties of the situation. We need the help of our Northern brethren and sisters. We need means; we need ardent workers. We must go on in our work of instructing the colored people who embrace the truth, and secure workers from their ranks. Our hopes for the future of the work among whites and blacks in the South are strong. We are in no sense discouraged. The battle goes hard; the difficulties are great. At times they seem almost impossible to surmount. But God is mighty. His truth will prevail, and we propose to devote ourselves to its promulgation in every way in our power. Our plans are to go into our largest cities with the large tent given us through the liberality of the California brethren. We expect to enter upon this in the city of Nashville as soon as we return from this meeting. Elder Haskell and myself mean to make the greatest effort of our lives to break through the difficulties and bring souls into the truth. The spirit of prophecy has impressed it upon us mightily that it is our duty to do this, and we hope to begin the campaign in our larger cities which will result in bringing to them light and truth for this time. We love the Southern people. We have no desire to leave the field. We hope to labor on with all our hearts, and we crave the sympathy, the love, and the assistance of our brethren. GEO. I. BUTLER, President.