The Anniversary Meetings at Nashville, Tennessee
By George I. Butler
We have reached the close of our anniversary meetings at Graysville and at Nashville. They closed Sunday night, January 22. These first three weeks in January have been full of business cares and perplexities; yet they have been very pleasant, because of an utter lack of discord, and a blessed state of union and good feeling among the leading brethren of the cause in the Southern Union Conference. The Graysville meetings, the first week in January, were pleasant and profitable. A kind and friendly spirit prevailed throughout. The past two weeks in Nashville have been exceedingly busy. There was a more thorough, careful scrutiny given to the work in the conference than at any previous meeting since the writer’s connection with the work in this field. We have sought to investigate carefully every department of the work to the best of our power and ability, to ascertain its condition, and to provide, as far as possible, for its wants. Every day has been filled with careful study of the various conditions and needs of the work. There have been many encouraging evidences of progress. To those of us connected with the work, the outlook seems more hopeful than it ever has been before. A better spirit of union and love prevails. Good progress has been made by the Publishing Association, and there are great changes for the better in its efficiency and financial condition. Whereas a year ago it was running behind at the rate of a thousand dollars a month, it is now more than paying its expenses. The volume of its work is increasing; a better class of help is employed; conditions surrounding the institution are being improved, and a general feeling of confidence is taking the place of fear and anxiety. But debts had to be incurred to secure machinery and stock, and these debts have to be paid. We shall look for the friends of our work in the South to help us in the circulation of the Watchman, and largely increase its subscription list. This must be done, so that it will become self-supporting, and not be a drag on the progress of the office. We trust that our brethren who have means will help us financially, and that those who have money to loan at a low rate of interest, or, what is much better, without interest, will stand by the work until our office becomes thoroughly organized and able to stand alone. Our educational institutions are seeing a prosperous year, and are better supplied with students than in previous years. At Huntsville, Ala., great improvements have already been made. The work seems to be assuming a far more favorable condition. Our sanitariums are hopeful of better days. They are greatly in need of funds to place them in an efficient condition. Our medical helpers are struggling with great energy to overcome every difficulty. For two years preceding this the General Conference kindly granted to our field, considering our poverty, the use of the money that was raised in this field in the week-of-prayer donations. It was very kind in them to do this; but this year the union conference committee has voted that all the money that was raised for missions in the Southern Union Conference shall go into the general missionary fund of the denomination, as is done in other fields. We are not willing to forego the privilege of helping in the general missionary work of the denomination, as has been the case in the last two years. We know not at this date how much has been contributed here in the South, but we hope it will be at least one thousand dollars. Graysville raised upward of two hundred dollars, Nashville about one hundred and fifty, Bartow, Fla., about one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and doubtless other places in proportion. The accounts have not come in, and indeed will not all come in for many months yet; but the money is all devoted to the general missionary work of the denomination. A full delegation to attend the next General Conference at Washington in May was selected.19 We greatly hope to be able to secure a place for our tent-meeting in Nashville the present season. The work is slowly but steadily increasing in the Southern Union Conference. It has been a great encouragement to us that the amount of tithe paid in the Southern Union Conference per capita is fully up to the average of the Northern conferences, though we know that our people here are much poorer, on an average, than in those rich fields. The amount of canvassing being done is also fully up to the average per capita, compared with other fields. While this result is at least encouraging, we are by no means satisfied with it. We want to see a far greater increase of success in all these lines. The number of members received during the past year in the Southern Union Conference compares very favorably with the conferences of the North, when we consider the disparity of numbers in our field. Our meetings are fully as spiritual as those of any of our Northern fields, so far as we have been acquainted with them. Altogether, our brethren left for their homes in the best of spirits, all determining in their hearts to labor with more intense interest than ever before. We believe that God is going to bless and encourage our hearts by success in this great Southland.—Geo. I. Butler, in The Southern Watchman.