p. 21 | EASTERN TOUR by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 12, 1869

EASTERN TOUR.

By James White

Our meetings at Wellsville, N. Y., closed Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 22, and in the evening of the 23d we took the sleeping cars for Cleveland, Ohio. We pleaded for ventilation, but steward objected. We pleaded for less fire in the stove, which was also disregarded. We slept but little, and felt languid and faint in the morning. Mrs. W. was much worn by incessant labor, and poorly prepared to sleep in a heated car nearly as tight as a bottle. In the morning she fainted, and suffered much for an hour.

We reached Toledo at 10, A. M., the 24th, where we met several brethren and sisters on their way to the Conference. At Tontogany we found about thirty brethren and sisters waiting for conveyance to the place of meeting. Soon teams came for us, and before dark we all found homes near the place of meeting. This was the largest gathering of the brethren ever held in Ohio. Here we met some old friends, as Brn. Mears, Clarke, Smith, Sharp, and more that we had never before seen, as Brn. Grant, Crous, Mock, Haughey, Abbott, and others. These brethren all listened to our testimony with deep interest. The meeting lasted four days. It was a good meeting. Our interest for Ohio increased each day. Mrs. W. was not able to speak much. I spoke during the four days nine times, besides presiding in business sessions, and doing a great amount of business. We have left no meeting feeling stronger union with the brethren, or greater interest for them, than this people in Ohio. They are anxious for a camp-meeting next season, and are ready to act their part for the advancement of the cause. Ohio must have help. Why not send Elders Canright and Van Horn to that State next summer? May the Lord direct.

We reached home Dec. 30, after an absence of sixteen weeks. We found a convenient and pleasant house built at Battle Creek for us, and partly furnished with goods moved from our home in Montcalm Co. This place seems like home. Here we find rest in several senses of the word. We had become tired of meetings, tired of traveling, tired of speaking, tired of visiting, and tired of the business and cares incident to an absence from home, living, as it were, in our trunks, nearly one-third of a year. Here we find quiet for the present. Is it lonesome? Blessed lonesome! Mrs. W. is much worn. I am stronger, yet need rest from care. I have reached the comfortable weight of one hundred and sixty-three pounds, notwithstanding the labors of the fall and winter. I never worked harder. Since the first of September I have sold and given not far from five tons of books. I have preached from one to ten discourses each week, have traveled more than three thousand miles, and during this time have gained fifteen pounds in weight. Let God be praised for his sustaining grace and power.

Returning home in heated cars with poor ventilation, we were put in a condition to take cold. And, notwithstanding every precaution, I took a severe cold which has greatly affected my health, and rendered my labor with the Battle Creek church, the last two Sabbaths, of little value. Our meetings, however, have been encouraging. My cold is leaving, and we all hope for better days.

JAMES WHITE.

Battle Creek, Jan. 10, 1869.