REPORT FROM BRO. MATTESON.
By John Matteson
With our dear brethren in Battle Creek I found a friendly home while I rested a couple of weeks before the camp-meeting. God is still with his people in this place; not to make them great before the world, as perhaps some would like, but to chastise, instruct, warn, and lead them in the way of holiness. Now, brethren, we must receive this as a fixed principle: If we follow wholly after the Lord, we shall be counted fools by the world. But those who court the friendship of the world, will be enemies to God. We had a pleasant journey of two days with the brethren from Battle Creek to the camp-meeting. The intervening night they pitched their tents and lodged in the woods. I am thankful for the privilege I had of sharing their hospitality and company. The camp-meeting was a perfect success in point of order, decency, and regulations. We did also receive the blessings of God's Holy Spirit in a great measure. A good work was done for many brethren, who will long remember the vows they made, and obtain meekness enough to faithfully carry out their determinations. I will strive to do so for one. And I want especially to remember one sentence out of all that I heard: “It is a terrible thing for a man to have his own way.” Yet that is what most everybody wants. And yet they expect to be saved. What consummate folly! Our only chances stand thus: Submit to God, and live; or, refuse, and be condemned. Brethren, we must receive salvation on God's own terms, or else give up, and perish. Who does not know this? Yet, how many act accordingly? Few, very few. I think it was made plain at this meeting that we are living in the last watch. It is the last hour before day. There is much weariness on account of the long waiting and watching. A terrible drowsiness has fallen upon the people of God. Now it is time to awake, or never. If we wait a little longer we will be too late for the kingdom. We will awake, to be sure, by the shaking of the visible things; but only to lament and weep bitterly, when the summer is past, and the harvest is ended. The Spirit of the Lord is directing Bro. and Sr. White to labor with God's people now, that we may sell, and give alms, and lay up a treasure in Heaven. Our present duty on this point, I have summed up for myself in the following way: It shall be my plan to study how little property I can hold in this world, and yet fulfill my duty toward God, my family, and fellow-men. If I can live economically, and save something, I have no trouble in finding places where it will do good. I have, generally, four or five places on hand before I get means. “For the poor always ye have with you.” What say you, brethren? Is it not time now to study how we can begin wisely and consistently to reduce our property, and continue so to do, until all of it shall be transferred to Heaven? The coming of the Lord is nearer than we are aware. Cut loose from the world. Get ready for translation. I am now with Bro. Maynard, Fairplains, where I find a good home for a weary pilgrim. Next week, the Lord willing, I will begin to labor among our Danish friends in this county. Pray for us, that the Lord may work with us for his own glory, and the salvation of precious souls. My address is Greenville, Montcalm Co., Mich.