Items of Interest and Progress
By R. A. Underwood
I LEFT my home in Minneapolis, April 20, to attend the General Conference at Washington. As I came through Ohio, I stopped at the Ohio State meeting, which was in progress at Cleveland, Ohio. It was a real pleasure to meet the Ohio workers and many of the brethren and sisters of my former acquaintance. It was a happy surprise to here meet Elder E. H. Gates. Elder Gates and I began laboring together in Ohio about twenty-eight years ago. The providence of God has separated us largely in our fields of labor for many years. It was a joy to meet those who embraced the truth under our united labor years ago, and to see this zeal and know of their love and sacrifices for the cause of God. The Ohio State meeting was a blessing to those in attendance. I reached my father's old home in Wayne, Ohio, April 27. This day was father and mother's fifty-eighth wedding anniversary. To meet with them at that time was not only a great pleasure to me, but also to my dear parents. Father is nearly eighty-nine years old. Mother will be eighty-eight years of age if she lives till the twenty-eighth of June. At the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday evening, April 29, several of the neighbors, and the children and some of the grandchildren, came together, and we had a grand meeting, which was greatly enjoyed by father, and mother. Father and mother embraced this message under the laborers of Elder J. H. Waggoner in 1864. The message of Christ's soon coming has lost none of its sweetness to these aged pilgrims. They are looking for the glad day, and are ripening for the kingdom. I spoke to the church in Erie, Pa., Sabbath afternoon, April 29. This was another pleasant occasion. I reached Williamsport on Sunday, and spoke in the evening. Here I had the pleasure of meeting my daughter, and friends, and remained with them for a few days. My next stop was at Dr. C. D. Christman's in Wiconisco. The Lord is greatly blessing Dr. Christman in his work for the sick. His efforts are not limited to the physical man, for he and his family are alive to all branches of the message. At the different places where I stopped in Ohio and Pennsylvania, it seemed as if I had come home. My last stop was at Philadelphia, May 5-8. The work in this city, as well as at other places in eastern Pennsylvania, is making advancement. Sabbath morning I spoke at the North Philadelphia church, and in the afternoon at the church in the western part of the city. The cause in Philadelphia has gained more during the last five years than it had in fifteen or twenty years before. We now have two of the strongest churches in the conference in the city, and a good prospect for a third church to be organized the coming year. The North Philadelphia church has a permanent meeting place at 1942 North Seventeenth Street. It was my privilege on Sunday, May 7, to assist in appropriate services at the laying of the corner-stone of the new church building of West Philadelphia, at the corner of Fifty-first and Locust Streets. Over four thousand dollars has been raised for the purchase of the ground, and the erection of this building, which will be pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Not least among the advance steps to place the cause of truth on vantage-ground in Philadelphia is the recent opening for the purchase of suitable property for the use of the medical work, on Girard Avenue, at about one third of its original cost. This will make a creditable place for the sanitarium work, so far as the city is concerned. The sanitarium and its work is becoming better known in Philadelphia, and its friends are increasing. All these developments are indications of a permanent advancement of the cause we love, and should cause thanksgiving, and serve as a stimulus to greater activity and service for the Master.