REPORT FROM BRO. MATTESON.
By John Matteson
We have continued our meetings in Montcalm with good interest. Some prejudice is overcome, and the number of people in attendance is increasing. The habits of the people are so gross, and their minds so dark, that it will truly be a great wonder if they are ever transformed to become fellow-citizens and of the household of God; yet the Lord is with us, and the word has had good effect as far as it has been presented. There has been solemnity, and tears have been freely shed in the meetings. This place is in the town of Montcalm. It is in the pine woods, yet the soil is very fertile. The land yields more wheat to the acre than most other places in Michigan; and the people are very industrious and good farmers. But their industry borders on the extreme, and they work themselves to death. Oh! that there was as much eagerness to work for heavenly riches. Fruit does well here. The peaches are mellow and nice. Greenville is a good marketplace. And I could say much more in favor of the place; but I know, dear brethren, that the sons and daughters of Adam have become very unstable in this generation. Many of our brethren long for the fruits of Michigan, and think they must try to get there before the Lord comes. Well there is one kind of fruit in abundance here which you don’t like. Some call it fever and ague. It flourishes this fall in Greenville and vicinity. When I came to this town I stayed one week with a family where all four were down with it. The man’s sister came there to help them. Now she is taken violently with the same. In the house where I am now one is sick abed with the ague, and another half sick. In the next house I went to visit two women and two children who were sick with the same disease. In the fourth house the woman had just got about. The doctor had been successful in changing the ague into a swollen head, with which she now suffers terribly. In the fifth place the man had been sick about a year, with the rheumatism, and a poor woman, with two little children, had well nigh used herself up trying to take care of him. In another place the man was about to die. The medicine had cured his ague into a disease that is likely to prove fatal. Shall I speak of more cases? I forbear. Many who would like to go to meeting cannot come, for they are sick. They have fruit, to be sure, but what good does it do them, when they can’t eat it?205Health reformers may fare better here, it is true; yet health reformers have also been dangerously sick in this vicinity, with the same malady. I do not deny that this year is worse than usual, yet it is my opinion, from personal experience, that the climate of Michigan is not so healthy, in general, as that of Minnesota; and that there is no country on the face of this old, trembling earth, that has not got more curses and inconveniences than blessings. But in the kingdom of God all blessings are combined without the slightest touch of the curse. That is the land for me. That is the land of fruit, rich and sweet; and pleasures, pure and eternal. It is the goodly land which we are now soon going to possess. Let us try to get as many with us as we can, brethren, before the door of mercy closes. Greenville, Montcalm Co., Mich., Oct. 1, 1868.