Cheering News by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 13, 1910

Cheering News

By Editor

Editorial

Cheering News.—All value highly the reports sent in for our World-wide Field and Field Work departments. Nothing is more cheering than news of progress. So Paul and Barnabas realized: “And when they were come [to Antioch], and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.”

Our First Reports.—When the little paper, Present Truth, was sent out, reports soon began to come in. Small though the paper was, the editor felt that he must pass on the good news. Following the first report from the field ever published by us (in No. 4, September, 1849), Elder White wrote: “I did not intend to publish letters from the brethren, but it does seem to me that such cheering news as Brother Bowles’s letter contains, should be published.”

Michigan First.—That first report was from Jackson, Mich., written by J. C. Bowles, who had evidently been leader of a group of believers in the second advent. He wrote:—

Your first and second numbers of the Present Truth are received, and we are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the light of the truth. I would say for your encouragement, that the little band here have received the truth on the Sabbath, without an exception. And we thank God for ever inclining Brother Bates’s mind to come to Jackson. O, sound the alarm, and let the message fly! We herein send you ten dollars for the spread of the truth. If you need it all, use it; if not, let Brother Bates have a part of it to travel with.

Working for a Neighbor.—From Sutton, Vt., Harvey Childs wrote that when the little paper came, it did him so much good that he passed it on to a neighbor, who had been much opposed to the Sabbath. “It convicted him very much.” Then a tract by Hiram Edson came to Brother Childs, which he likewise sent to his neighbor. Here is the interesting sequel:—

I sent it to him on the Sabbath. He had been at work all the morning; but he came in and sat down and read it. He came here the next day in distress, and said there was such a mighty blaze of light that shone out, that he trembled in every limb while he read. He told his wife they could go no further in that course, and they sat down and kept the rest of the day. He has come out and confessed his faith publicly.

First Fruits.—It is interesting to read in the few numbers of Present Truth the reports of the early progress of the cause, as the tiny band of workers went out. The word of the Lord did not return void. We are still reaping from that first seed sowing. The last lines in the last number of Present Truth (November, 1850) were the closing words of a letter from Joseph Bates, reporting a tour in Vermont and New Hampshire which had established believers in a number of places, including Joseph Baker, who later preached the message, and E. P. Butler, of Waterbury, one of the stand-bys in the early times. Captain Bates’s closing words fitly closed the first volume of our first paper:—

So you see, dear brother, that in places where all was dark and dreary a few weeks since, light is now springing up. Then let all the swift messengers that God has called, and still is calling into the field, to give the loud cry of the third angel, move forward.