The annual meeting of the Maritime Conference, covering Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, was held in the new school building at Williamsdale East, Nova Scotia, November 2-12.
It was a good conference. From day to day the work of the meeting deepened, and the last Sabbath was a blessed season indeed. Quietly and resolutely burdens were surrendered, the divine promises were laid hold of, and victories were gained that must mean new strength and courage in the work.
Not a soul was passed by. It seemed for a time that one in that Sabbath meeting might hold out, resisting the pleading of the Lord’s Spirit, but we all rejoiced that the loving-kindness of the Lord broke every barrier down. On Sunday Elder Guthrie buried eight in baptism in the River Philip, which forms the lower boundary of Sunnyside Farm, on which the school is located. All the Maritime ministerial laborers were present, and lifted in the meeting,—Brethren Guthrie, Andrews, Gardner, Hanna, and Longard,—while Elder Thurston and the writer joined with them. It is a united and courageous band of workers and people who take up the work for another year in this far northeastern part of the North American continent.
This new school is a source of much satisfaction to the conference. Williamsdale is a valley north of the Basin of Minas, famous in the story of Acadie, as the water round which many of the early French settlers made their homes. On the sunny slope of the valley our people have secured a two-hundred-acre farm, mostly cleared land. The accompanying picture shows the new school building, the farmhouse and stables, and the greater part of the farm, though little of the woodland can be seen. It is a quiet place in which to study, with a beautiful view down the valley, and the farm will supply ample opportunity for useful outdoor employment.
Eighteen students, I think, were ready to enter the first term, and no doubt the number will be increased. There are sturdy young people growing up in this truth in these provinces, and at last provision has been made to train them into service. No wonder that new hope fills the hearts of the people. In supporting Elder E. E. Gardner as principal of the school, Iowa is making a good contribution to mission work, and Sister Gardner is well qualified to take a strong part in educational work also. Too long the young people of Canada have had to come to the States for training in our work, to the loss of the Canadian field. Now, with this school in the easternmost provinces, the Ontario school in the middle ground, and the Manitoba school in the west, new strength will come to the work in the great Dominion.
WILLIAMSDALE ACADEMY, “SUNNYSIDE FARM,” WILLIAMSDALE EAST, NOVA SCOTIA
The brethren of the maritime provinces are deeply grateful for the gifts by believers in a number of the Western conferences, by which it was possible to get the school started. Still there is need for realizing any unpaid pledges or other indications of good will. The believers in the field will lift, but they are few, and the resources are not large. But a good work has been begun, and we must stand by it with our prayers and means.
Prince Edward Island, one of the maritime provinces, is still without a laborer. Two sisters were present from that part of the field. There is a portable tabernacle all ready for work in Charlottetown, the chief place of the island, and these sisters are doing what they can with literature, and are praying that some laborer may come soon to lift the standard. The Maritime Conference invites any conference that can do so to send and support some ministerial laborer in that large island field. It is an agricultural region, with a population of one hundred thousand, a good field for some enterprising young couple to enter. The tide is turning eastward in the work on this continent. The strength and resources of the West are being drawn out toward the needier and more populous Eastern districts. At the Maritime meeting the following action was taken:—
“Whereas, In the providence of God the tide of effort in behalf of the advent message is turning eastward in these closing days of the message; therefore,—
“Resolved, That we of the easternmost conference on the continent, redouble our efforts to develop laborers and resources to enter every unworked portion of the maritime provinces, and that in this time of the latter rain we will specially seek for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service, in order that we may be soul-winners and witnesses for God.”
This region of the Bay of Fundy is famous for its high tides, which rise along its shores to heights unknown in other parts. May the flowing tide of interest and effort in behalf of this third angel’s message sweep into the Maritime Conference in overflowing blessings; for here is a beautiful, rugged country, with sturdy, warm-hearted people, many of whom are only waiting to hear and obey the truth.
