To the Brethren and Sisters in Ohio by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 8, 1879

To the Brethren and Sisters in Ohio.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Dear Brethren and Sisters: We make an earnest appeal to you to assist us in our endeavors to bring up the work in this State. Indeed, we must depend upon you almost wholly for the advancement of the cause. There are many of you who are so situated that you seldom attend Sabbath meetings, while others do not attend at all. Many there are who have embraced the truth by reading, and hence have no church or meetings to which they can go. We include you in our address. Do you really love the Sabbath of the Lord? Do you really have faith in the third angel's message, and is your heart one with us in this work? Do you pray God daily to bless and prosper this cause? Now if you do, your heart will rejoice to know that we are making a great effort to wake up, and build up the cause of Christ in this State. We come to you for help. Let me lay before you some things which we regard as of great importance.

You should all take the REVIEW, Good Health, and the Instructor, but especially the REVIEW. Unless you have the REVIEW, you cannot keep up with the spirit of this message. You have no pastor, you hear no preaching, and everything around you is dark. You need daily food, encouragement, and instruction. This is just the matter which the REVIEW will furnish. We shall have a great deal to say about the cause in Ohio, and shall make appeals to scattered brethren, and we can only reach you through the REVIEW. If you do not have it, you will lose all we say. You need it for your benefit and that of your family, and it is your duty to assist in this work. Do not say you cannot afford it. Where there is a will, there is a way. Earn a dollar somewhere, and send it on immediately for your REVIEW; or if the subscription is about out, be sure to renew before your time expires.

You need Good Health. You will find many things in it just suited to your wants,—just such things as you ought to know. If you have been unable to take it before, subscribe now, and post up on these matters. Let us be whole-hearted in this work. You need the Instructor for your children. Besides, it is your duty to help support it in any way. The REVIEW will cost you two dollars, Good Health, one dollar, and the Instructor, weekly, seventy-five cents.

After you have taken these periodicals, the next thing is to assist in raising means to support the cause in Ohio. There will be more than a dozen men, perhaps twenty of them, laboring in this State in 1879. We shall run five or six tents. This will take three or four thousand dollars. Our friends are few. Wealthy men among us are scarce. All must contribute something, or else we cannot do this work.

My brother, my sister, you who read this, I appeal to you personally: Are you doing your duty in this matter? Can you say you love the Sabbath and love the message of God, and then neglect or refuse to contribute anything to their promulgation in your own State? Some of our brethren are giving very liberally all they can spare; but I know there are many, particularly among the scattered Sabbath-keepers, who are giving nothing at all. Now I am afraid that the Lord will curse you, at least, he will not bless you unless you do differently from this. You have means; you are able to give something if you will. If we are disposed to do so, we can feel stingy and poor, and withhold from the cause of God. Do you not pray God to convert your neighbors? Do you not want us to give a course of lectures in your town? If you do, we want you to show your interest by contributing means to help us in prosecuting this work. Our ministers must be supported. It takes money to do this. Our tents must be bought. It will take the cash to pay for them.

Do not sit still, and think others will lift this burden. We must have help from every Sabbath-keeper in Ohio, man, woman, and child. The Lord requires this at your hands. The Bible plainly requires that we give one-tenth of all our increase, each week, for the support of the ministry. Please read carefully the following scriptures: Lev. 27: 30–34; Mal. 3: 8–12; 1 Cor. 16: 2. Our brethren throughout Ohio where we have been have solemnly subscribed to the following pledge: “We, the undersigned, believing that the Scriptures require us to give one-tenth of all that comes into our hands each week for the support of the ministry (1 Cor. 16: 2), do hereby solemnly pledge ourselves in the sight of God and in the presence of each other, to lay by each week one-tenth of all that the Lord shall give us, and pay this amount into the s. b. treasury at least once each quarter.” We appeal to each of you to make this covenant with God, and commence promptly to lay this amount by. Have a little box, and put into it one-tenth of what the Lord has given you that week. If you belong to a church, or are near a church so that you can conveniently do so, give this to the s. b. treasurer; but if you are not, you can send this amount each quarter to our State treasurer, J. B. Gregory, Bowling Green, Ohio. I therefore request every scattered Sabbath-keeper who does not pay his or her s. b. into some treasury, to send his or her name, attached to the above pledge, to me immediately, and I will forward it to the treasurer.

The next important thing we want to urge upon your attention is that you take a deep interest in the tract and missionary work. Indeed, we are doing about as much for the cause through this society as our ministers are doing. All our organized churches are spending a large amount of money and time every year in carrying forward this work. And I am sorry to learn that very many of our lone, scattered Sabbath-keepers are doing little or nothing in this branch of the work.

My brethren and sisters, these things ought not so to be. You are not doing your duty before God in this matter. Why should all the burden come upon the churches? You ought to unite with the nearest tract society in your district; then you can obtain tracts and papers from the librarian. You ought to take several copies of the Signs, and scatter them freely. You ought to distribute a great many Annuals. Particularly you ought to work in your neighborhood and among your friends with our small tracts and books. Endeavor to obtain subscribers for our periodicals. If any want information in regard to the manner of doing this, write to me at Clyde, Ohio, and I will answer you.

Finally, we appeal to you to live out the truth in your families. Have family prayer, keep the Sabbath sacredly, read our books yourself, teach your children in the work of the Lord.

And if there are any of you who would like meetings in your place, write to me and we will visit you as soon as possible.

D. M. Canright.