Our Preliminary Meetings in Battle Creek.
In view of the approaching General Conference, it was deemed advisable by the General Conference Committee that the week previous to that meeting should be spent in a special season of seeking God, and in putting away the sins and faults that have grieved the Spirit of God at Battle Creek. These meetings have been very solemn and searching, and deeply interesting. The Battle Creek church has taken hold in earnest to return fully to the Lord. We think there was never so good a prospect of raising the standard of piety as it should be in this place, as there is at the present time. We now feel very hopeful that even those who have stood chiefly in the way of the work will heartily return to God. Our meetings on sixth-day were of remarkable interest. Those who heard Sr. White during the forenoon and afternoon meetings can never forget the solemnity of her words, their soul-stirring character, their severity of reproof for sins and wrongs, with their tender pity and compassion toward the erring and the sinful. We hope for still more gracious manifestations of the presence of God. Something like one hundred of our brethren, from Maine to Iowa, have come in to attend these meetings. We have been very thankful for their presence and their help. We believe that none of them will regret the means spent in the journey, or the time devoted to this work in Battle Creek. We gratefully acknowledge the special blessing of God. We rejoice before him with trembling, and still entreat the special outpouring of his Holy Spirit. Since writing the above, we have witnessed and participated in the meetings of Sabbath and first-day now just closed. These meetings will ever be memorable in the experience of those who have attended them. They have been of the most solemn, searching, and melting character. We have good reason to hope that these meetings will mark a new era in the experience of the Battle Creek church. Especially has the meeting of first-day afternoon been one of the most impressive seasons that we have ever witnessed. It has been marked by godly sorrow for sin, humble confession, brokenness of heart, genuine repentance, and also by what is sure to attend all this, the gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit.