Eastern Pennsylvania by W. H. Smith

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 14, 1905

Eastern Pennsylvania

By W. H. Smith

WILLIAMSPORT.— My work for the last eight or ten weeks has been mostly among the churches, and the Lord has richly blessed in every effort.

I am glad to report that although I have been permitted to be with my home church only one Sabbath and Sunday during the last two or three months, they have by no means lost sight of the all-important fact that the world must be warned in the few closing years of this generation. They sent for a club of two hundred of the special number of the Watchman, and have been selling them from door to door with remarkable success, and have also sent copies of the special Sabbath number of the Watchman to every minister and Sunday-school worker in the city.

As soon as this had been accomplished, their attention was called to a notice in the daily papers announcing a State convention to be held in the city the following week (November 21 and 22) by the Sunday Crusaders of Pennsylvania. All felt to praise the Lord for his guiding hand, which was so plainly seen in placing in the hands of all the ministers this timely issue of the Watchman.

I returned home just in time to attend the convention, and never had I seen such a wonderful demonstration of the spirit of evil as I saw in this movement. Surely the restraining Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth. They are now endeavoring to effect an organization in every county in the State; and already twenty-seven counties have been organized, with instructions to their committees to spy out and arrest every person who is found doing any work upon the first day of the week. These committees have also been instructed to call upon every lawyer, judge, justice, or any candidate for any public office in the State, and get a solemn pledge from him that he will stand by them, and enforce Sunday rest upon every person in his domain. Some judges have pledged themselves to give them their services, free of all compensation.

The following are some of the resolutions which were passed without one dissenting voice:— “That we instruct and urge upon all Christian people everywhere to patronize only such druggists as are law-abiding [referring to the Sunday law] and worthy of our patronage. That we most earnestly urge all Christian people and all who have any respect for law, human or divine, to cease from buying all Sunday papers on the Lord’s day. That we urge all civil officers to enforce the law against these and other law-breakers, as they are sworn to do. That we urge all Christian people everywhere to patronize only such barbers as are obedient to the laws of the State.”

Surely the time has come for the people of God to be seeking him for a right way for themselves and their children, that God may not be disappointed in his people, but that he may cut his work short in righteousness, and thus hasten the glad day when victory shall crown his work in the earth.

W. H. SMITH.