Canada by W. H. THURSTON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 17, 1905

Canada

By W. H. THURSTON

The work in the Canadian Union Conference is moving on steadily, and all are hopeful, and are working hard for the advancement of the truth. We have five tents in the field this season, and would have run two more had the ministerial help which we expected been secured following the General Conference. All the tent companies report some interest, and we are hoping for good results from these efforts.

In some localities we have had a great deal of rain, and this has hindered the people from attending the meetings. We have not sufficient help to carry on our tent work properly, only one company having two ordained ministers, and one company has not even a tent master, but we are doing the best we can. We expect two ministers to join us this fall from Pennsylvania, and yet there is room.

One night last week during a hard storm the chain supporting the top of my tent gave way, letting it down upon the people in the midst of a temperance lecture; the meeting was abruptly dismissed. The people were somewhat frightened, but no one was hurt, and the tent was put up again in the morning, no damage having been done.

Aside from our tent work, regular gospel work is being carried on in some of our cities by other workers. Brother George Skinner is doing Bible work and holding meetings in Montreal, and the church there is taking steps to buy or build a place of worship. They are soliciting funds with the intention of raising the money before building, that no debt shall be incurred. Should some who read these lines be sufficiently interested in the work in that great city, the metropolis of Canada, to contribute to this fund, they may send the money to Geo. W. Skinner, 9 Evans St., Montreal, Canada. Elder Hanna is still laboring in the city of Halifax, with prospects of others joining the little flock.

The school work is receiving its share of attention, and preparations are being made for the coming school year. Elder Leland, principal of Lornedale Academy, is making a tour among the churches, accompanied by his wife, in the interest of the educational work, and with the view of helping the churches in general, in the Ontario Conference.

Elder Guthrie is giving considerable attention to the Farmington Academy,—with hammer, saw, and plane, as well as in other ways—endeavoring to get the new building ready for occupancy the first of October.

The crops on the school farms are looking very well this year, and the prospect for these schools the coming year is somewhat encouraging.

Some church-schools will be operated in the conference, but at this writing we are not able to say how many.

Our medical work is coming up gradually, and the patronage at the Knowlton Sanitarium has been good this summer. A few improvements are being made from time to time as the finances will permit, but greater improvements are demanded.

We are now laying plans to sell the new book, “Ministry of Healing” for the benefit of the medical work, thus endeavoring to help ourselves while others are helping us; and in this united co-operation on the part of all we hope to improve the conditions very much. We still hope that some of our well-to-do conferences in the States will, in their giving, remember the call for the Knowlton Sanitarium before winter comes on, that, with what we are able to do here, we may be able to make the necessary improvements.

The treatment rooms at Lindsay, Ontario, are gaining influence and patronage gradually, and the work is progressing.

The canvassing work is not reviving as rapidly as we had hoped, but some earnest, faithful work is being done in this department, and good results are sure to follow. We are planning to give more attention to this branch of work at our annual gatherings this year, and to encourage those who are in the field as well as others to enter.

We live in hopes that there are some earnest, successful workers, both ministers and canvassers, in our sister conferences who will get a burden for the work in Canada, and then arrange with their conferences to send them over, under approved arrangements, to labor in this needy field.

Encouraging reports are received from Elder Tracy, of St. John’s, Newfoundland, of the work there, and he is now planning to go to the northern part of the island, for the winter at least, and labor at Twillingate, where Elder Farman made a tent effort two years ago. There are prospects that another minister will go to Newfoundland to labor, and if so, he will locate at St. John’s and devote his time to city work.

We are of good courage, and are trying to press the battle to the front as vigorously as possible with our limited corps of workers.

W. H. THURSTON.