California and Utah by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 2, 1911

California and Utah

By John Norton Loughborough

My last report was made August 6. Since that date I have been privileged to attend a few meetings with our people. From August 10 to 20 I was in the camp-meeting at Long Beach, Cal. Of this camp-meeting Brother W. C. White has made a report. There was one item in his report which I wish to notice. He spoke of the ready disposal of the five-dollar and one-dollar packages of tracts. The amount sold was about half as much as the whole stock of tracts and pamphlets in the Review Office in the spring of 1854.

In those days our tracts and pamphlets were first printed in the REVIEW, and then the type was made up into pages the same width as the REVIEW column, and an edition of 1,000 each, printed. The number in stock in the spring of 1854 was 2,000 pamphlets, and 3,000 tracts of 32 pages each. One pamphlet was “The Sanctuary,” 80 pages, by Elder J. N. Andrews. The other pamphlet was “The Two-Horned Beast,” 65 pages, by the writer. The three thirty-two-page tracts were by Elder J. N. Andrews, and their titles were: “Seven Reasons for Sunday-Keeping Examined,” “The Seventh-Day Sabbath,” and “The History of the Sabbath.” The latter has grown to a book of 548 pages.

In July, 1854, a tent-meeting was held in Shelby, Mich., on three Sabbaths and Sundays. In that series of meetings about thirty persons accepted the truth. On the three Sundays I made the first effort of our people to sell books to the public. The pamphlets were 10 cents each, the tracts 5 cents each; one of each, 35 cents. On those three Sundays I sold fifty dollars’ worth. Elder James White said, “Now we can do much more in getting our books to the people, for they will buy the books.” Before that the books and tracts were given away, and paid for by donations from our people.

While the brethren at Long Beach were talking up the sale of the tracts on the stand, and making an estimate that the pile was about half as much as the whole Review Office stock in 1854, in about fifteen minutes, and before I had a chance to report, the tracts were all sold, and the call was for more.

From Long Beach I went to Loma Linda, spending three days there. I spoke to a well-filled chapel on the Sabbath day. I was pleased to see the improvements in buildings and grounds that have been made since my last visit there, some fifteen months before.

From August 29 to September 6, I was with our people in the yearly meeting at Salt Lake City, Utah. It was pleasing to see the unity and good will of our people and the laborers, in this meeting. They are full of courage and confidence in the prosperity of the cause, as they unitedly press forward in the strength of Israel’s God. The tent-meeting, being conducted in Salt Lake, is the best attended of any effort made there.

Accompanied by Brother D. A. Parsons, we held a meeting on the evening of September 7, at Ogden, and on the 8th and 9th at Logan, with a company of Sabbath-keepers who did not have the privilege of attending the conference. The Lord blessed in speaking to the Utah people on the subject of his leading in this last, glorious third angel’s message.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.