California Conference and Camp-Meeting by E. W. Farnsworth

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 28, 1913

California Conference and Camp-Meeting

By E. W. Farnsworth

The forty-second annual camp-meeting of the California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was held in San Jose, Cal., July 23 to Aug. 3, 1913. Nearly eight hundred persons were encamped on the ground, occupying one hundred and eighty-five tents. The afternoon and evening preaching services were exceptionally well attended by the people of San Jose. The one thousand six hundred chairs placed in the main pavilion were all occupied at every evening service.

The local press was especially courteous, each daily paper devoting a column to a column and a half of each issue to camp-meeting news. A week before the meeting opened, one of the dailies published an unusually full account of the development, mission, and present status of our denomination throughout the world.

During the first five days of the meetings we were favored with the exceptionally helpful services of Elder W. A. Spicer, of the foreign mission department of the General Conference. His sermons and other addresses not only confirmed anew the faith of our brethren in the truth of the great message, but led us all, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to make a more thoroughgoing consecration of our lives to God. Sinners were born into the kingdom, and the discouraged and backslidden were reclaimed. The labors of Elder I. H. Evans, who was with us during the closing days of the services, and of Elders R. C. Porter and E. E. Andross, contributed signally to the same blessed end. The missionary talks given by Elders W. A. Spicer; R. C. Porter; R. W. Munson, of the East Indies; J. S. Jones, of Southern India; C. L. Butterfield, of Korea; and Walter Bond, of Spain, proved most inspiring. The evidence that the advent message is going to all the world with unprecedented progress was shown to be overwhelmingly convincing.

Approximately five hundred dollars was contributed to the cause of missions by the members of the Sabbath-school on the two Sabbaths of the camp-meeting. About four hundred dollars was also given to special phases of foreign missions in response to urgent calls.

The camp services closed with an excellent interest on the part of the people of the city who attended the services. Nearly a score of these arose in the closing meeting, thus expressing their determination to walk in all the commandments of God. Quite a large company of workers was left in San Jose to ripen off the interest and to give those

who did not attend the camp services an opportunity to hear and obey.

The California Conference held its yearly session in connection with the camp-meeting. One hundred regularly elected delegates and alternates were seated, besides the delegates at large, representing the General Conference, the Pacific Union Conference, and the local conference committee and ordained ministers. As nearly as could be ascertained, two hundred and fifty persons were added to the denomination in this conference during the past year. The tithe for 1912 was $48,476.98, an increase of a little more than $2,000 over the previous year. The whole amount given to missions by the Sabbath-schools for the year was $6,298.65. It is interesting to note that the offerings in this conference alone amounted to $354 more than the offerings made by the whole conference the corresponding quarter before it was divided into three conferences.

Our conference has thirteen church-schools, with twenty teachers employed. Over four hundred children are enrolled in these schools. The expense of annual maintenance is over $8,000. Every one of the schools has an organized missionary society. The total offering reported by these societies for the year is $222.82.

The delegates voted unanimously that, in order properly to maintain and support the constantly increasing army of workers throughout the world, and in order to liquidate the liabilities of our institutions, the standard of offerings to missions be raised from fifteen to twenty cents a week per member.

The uniform testimony of those who attended these services was that it was spiritually the most profitable camp-meeting that the conference has ever had. In the preaching services, in the young people's meetings, and in the missionary rallies the Holy Spirit was present in unusual fulness, and as a result, sinners were converted and believers were constrained to yield themselves in deeper consecration to the Master. It is especially gratifying to have the privilege of reporting that our ministers and other laborers have received a fresh baptism of the divine Spirit. Assuredly, then, they will resume their labors in the field with a degree of courage, inspiration, and power that will greatly multiply the effectiveness of their ministries. We are deeply grateful to God for these wondrous tokens of his grace.

E. W. FARNSWORTH.