REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA.
By D. T. Bourdeau
We have now been at Healdsburg over three weeks, and have held upwards of thirty meetings, besides meeting with the brethren at Santa Rosa four Sabbaths, and holding one meeting with the brethren at Windsor. Last Sabbath we had our first Sabbath meeting in this place, while Bro. Loughborough was keeping up the interest in Santa Rosa. We both had a good time. The brethren and sisters in Windsor met with us in the tent, with over a dozen from this place, a few of whom have commenced to keep the Sabbath. Owing to harvesting, our attendance from the country is small during the week, except Sundays, when we have a large audience. We have now quite thoroughly canvassed the Sabbath question, and last evening we closed a series of four discourses on the immortality theme, which greatly increased the interest. Yesterday (Sunday) the main burden of preaching rested upon me, as Bro. Loughborough was called to Santa Rosa to listen to an opposition discourse on the Sabbath, now that we have left the place. This discourse is to be replied to this evening. Notwithstanding the burdens of yesterday, this morning finds me as well as I was yesterday morning, which encourages me to trust in God. The journals in this county have from time to time noticed the progress of the work, and their columns have been kindly opened for us to speak in defense of the truth, and to expose false assertions thrown out to prejudice the minds of the people against us, for which we are thankful. But we regret that we are not treated so kindly by the religious press. To illustrate: The first Sunday evening we were in this place, Mr. H. C. Benson, editor of The Advocate, a Methodist paper published at San Francisco, preached at Healdsburg, and had but a small congregation. In his next editorial, he came out against us and our views, calling us false prophets, saying that in 1843, as well as now, “the lecturers only exhorted the people to believe that Christ would come that year, and on the day named, and be immersed—then they would be ready;” that “they did not preach repentance, and faith in Christ; they said nothing of the new birth; they did not implore mercy and pardon through the blessed Saviour; they offered no gospel to perishing sinners. They simply harangued the gaping crowds on prophecy, exhorted them to abandon the churches—to come out of Babylon, to believe that Christ would come on or about the 6th day of April; and with such belief they would be ready to meet him in the air.” He also resorts to the oft-repeated, but unsubstantiated assertion, that “a multitude of believers procured fine muslin and prepared ascension robes,” etc. Again, he says, “Well, to come to the point, the Millerites are repeating the old stories in Sonoma County. They opened their mission last fall at Petaluma; they have labored at Santa Rosa, also at Windsor; and now their tent is pitched at Healdsburg. The people, being curious to hear, flock to their tabernacle for a time. They do not worship, at least they do not pray and preach. They do not have any message for sinners, etc. Such, we are told, is the character of their teachings.” And such is the impression made on those who are not acquainted with us and our teachings. With those who know us, and were acquainted with the Advent movement, this article refutes itself. Now what if these things are not just so? What if the coming of the Lord is a strong incentive to repentance? What if the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are the burden of our message, and the means of true conversion, and what if sinners and infidels are being converted to the Lord? What then? What shall we say of a Christian (?) editor, who publishes with eagerness, on the strength of hearsay, and saying that he was acquainted with the Advent movement, such bare falsehoods? God pity the man. We are sorry for him, and for those whom he may, for the time being, influence against the truth. But, in the language of Paul, he “can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” This is a sample of the article, and he concludes in the following words: “Christian people should give all such prophets a wide berth. In listening to their harangues, you give them encouragement. The apostolic injunction must be kept in mind: ‘With the unfruitful works of darkness have no fellowship.’” Healdsburg, Cal., July 5, 1869.