REPORT FROM BRO. CORNELL.
By Merritt E. Cornell
The interest here in the vicinity of Boston seems to be spreading and deepening. Last week I gave four lectures at the Christian church in Boston, and five at our hall in Chelsea. There are now between thirty and forty keeping the Sabbath, so far as we know. They have two evening prayer meetings, and two Sabbath-day meetings, each week, and they appear to be growing stronger. The interest at the Christian congregation is good. Eld. Edmunds, the pastor, and the deacons and officers of the society, have all treated me with the utmost cordiality, and bid me to be free among them. By special request, I preach for the pastor every Sunday morning at 10½ o’clock. The subject of the first angel’s message was well received, and the elder, in a few remarks at the close, spoke well of Father Miller as a humble, Christian man. I continue there, as the interest may demand, for weeks to come. An intelligent gentleman from Cambridge, who had been in attendance, with three others, was to have been excluded from the Baptist church last Sunday, for holding Advent views. A copy of the Ten Sermons on the Sabbath was left in a horse car, and was taken by a passenger, and carried to Roxbury, and is producing a sensation there. Several families have read it, and are troubled on the Sabbath question. Some are convinced, and there is quite a stir, in one of the churches, over the matter. I expect to go there and give lectures next, if the way opens. The fruits of our labors here are being manifested in several places along the coast from New York city to Nova Scotia. Persons visiting here, and hearing one or more lectures, and taking books, have, on returning to their homes, set the ball to rolling in several places. It does appear that the light is spreading by the influence of the books. In this kind of preaching all can engage, and not be in danger of hurting the cause. All must see by this time that the book enterprise is a move in the right direction. Let us be no longer faithless, but believing. Let the weak say, I am strong. By God’s blessing, the most feeble can engage in the work of saving souls. Why, then, should so many stand all the day idle? Now is the time to work, for the night cometh. “Let us work for the truth with our hearts and our hands,
Let it never, no, never decline;
For its praises are sung by the good in all lands,
That are blest with the gospel divine. “CHORUS.
“Rally then, rally then, stand by the truth;
Why should it languish and die?
Rally then, rally then, stand by the truth;
Why should it languish and die?”