The Silesian Conference by Guy Dail

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1910

The Silesian Conference

By Guy Dail

GUY DAIL

JANUARY 5-9 about two hundred of our brethren assembled for their annual meeting at Breslau, Silesia, the second city of Prussia in size, with over half a million inhabitants. Besides the local workers, Elder L. R. Conradi, H. F. Schuberth, O. Lupke, and the writer were present. We were favored with pleasant weather. The business sessions were held in the chapel rented by the Breslau church, one of our neatest chapels in all Germany, while the public lectures (attended by from three hundred to seven hundred persons) were delivered in two of the finest halls of the town. The illustrated lectures of Elder Schuberth were of special interest. The missionary spirit made itself felt by the delegates again voting one thousand marks for the Galician Mission, and four hundred marks toward the educational fund for the training of laborers in the German Union Conference. To assist in the payment of the money demanded by the purchase of seventy acres of land recently secured at a very reasonable figure for the Friedensau school, over thirteen hundred marks in pledges and cash was raised in about half an hour. Thirty copies of “Ministry of Healing” were sold among the delegates (seventy-two in number) and among the other brethren in attendance. The results of the tent-meetings conducted by others of the conferences in the union encouraged the Silesian Conference to vote that a gospel tent be secured for the summer’s effort. The discussion of the young people’s work and the training of our children proved of more than usual interest.

As to the growth of the field: three new companies, with a combined membership of thirty-eight, were received; during the year, one hundred twenty-eight persons were baptized, six were added by vote, the net gain being eighty-three; so that the present membership of the two provinces in this field (Posen and Silesia, with about seven million people, among whom are many Poles) is six hundred seventy-four, belonging to thirty-one churches and companies. The tithe of 1909 was thirty-one thousand eighty-eight marks, against twenty-seven thousand two hundred fifty-three the previous year. After settling all the bills, there was a small surplus left for the year 1909.

One instance was related, showing how a Catholic family became interested in the Bible, purchased a copy of the Holy Scripture, and how the priest, through the help of the servant girl, who secretly took it from the house, got possession of the book and had it burned. The priest invited the man to visit him, while the man in turn asked the priest to take the time to call upon him and his family in their own home, to speak with them concerning the Word of God; but the priest did not come. Later the man, with his wife and one of his daughters, was baptized; and through their zeal in scattering our literature among their customers, often from sixty to seventy persons assembled in their house to hear the truth explained, and as a result, an earnest, wide-awake company was received at this conference.

In another place, after fourteen lectures had been held, the clergy of the town invited a man to come and speak against the Adventists. Our worker, knowing what to expect, carefully presented the Sabbath question the day before the minister referred to arrived. The clergyman came; he spoke against us. He started out to prove his assertions by the Bible, but used tradition and the Fathers much more than he did the Word of God. He gave one unique explanation

of Antichrist; it is, according to him, “Antiochus, who will be resurrected from the dead in the last days, and go out to deceive the nations.” He sneered at Farmer Miller, the founder of Adventism, forgetting that the lad Martin Luther was a poor boy, singing from house to house that he might secure the coveted education. This opposition has served very largely to create still more interest, and to bring to a knowledge of the message those who are seeking for light.

Brother G. Perk, who was again chosen president, and the dozen workers assisting him, desire to be remembered before the throne of grace by our brethren everywhere, that the work of God in their field may advance more rapidly than ever. There is special need for laborers among the Poles, as we have only one man who can give his whole time to this nationality, and the work among this Catholic people goes slowly here, although it does move some. Let us not cease to think on the cause in the Silesian Conference.

Insterburg, Germany.