After the good meeting we had in The Hague, I spoke to our brethren in Brussels, August 19. This is the beautiful capital of Belgium, a city of about five hundred thousand inhabitants. Belgium itself is Catholic or infidel, with the exception of twenty thousand. But the Lord has helped Brother Klingbeil and his coworkers to gather out, even in this dark place, a company of twelve, and we have a church of twenty-six members in Antwerp. In Brussels some are interested, and the brethren have secured a nice little hall in the center of the city, at a reasonable rent.
The night of August 20 I spoke to our church in Paris. I found they had made considerable growth since my last call on them several years ago. We now have a church of over thirty members in Paris; and as most of them pay a good, faithful tithe, they pretty well cover their expenses. Thus far Elder Augsbourger has been our only laborer there, and God has blessed his work. It has now been decided to place some additional help in the northern part of France.
In company with Elder Augsbourger, I went to Nîmes, where I learned to my surprise of the illness of Elder Dexter, who lives here. We were sorry that he was unable to attend this important meeting, but are glad that he is recovering. Elder Tieche, the president of the Latin Union, arrived from Algeria the sixteenth, and they had baptism in Nîmes on the seventeenth.
Our French meeting was held in a country town ten miles south of Nîmes, at a place called Beauvoisin, August 21–25. The brethren had secured a lot in the center of the town, where the large tent and twelve smaller family tents were pitched among the olive-trees. Our attendance was larger than ever before, there being about eighty altogether. We were glad that the different portions of the French field were represented. There were several from Paris. That which most encouraged our hearts was that nearly half the camp was composed of promising young people. The tent was well filled in the evening, and the people seemed to give good attention to the word spoken. Elders Tieche, Nussbaum, Augsbourger, and the writer did most of the preaching, and conducted the Bible studies.
WORKERS OF THE FRENCH CONFERENCE AT BEAUVOISIN
As there are now about two hundred thirty-five members in France (there are nine churches), and the number is steadily increasing, it was recommended at Gland that this field be organized into a conference. After setting before the people the duties and responsibilities of such an organization, they unanimously voted to perform all their duties faithfully, and to do their utmost to forward the work among the great French nation. Elder Dexter was chosen president of the newly organized conference. For the present this conference includes all France, but it is expected that, when the south becomes strong enough, a separate mission field will be organized in northern France. If we consider that France has forty million people, and that its territory is equal to that of Germany, we can see the reasons for such a division. The French Conference will begin its existence Jan. 1, 1908, with probably two hundred fifty members.
As the young people are coming to the front, and our brethren can already see some of the benefits of our training-school, they naturally feel a still deeper interest in this department of the work. When the call was given to strengthen the educational fund that had been started in Roman-Switzerland, it did not take long to raise two hundred dollars in cash and pledges. Money was also given toward their tent fund. A conference poor fund was started, and fifteen dollars was collected for that. Liberal donations were made to the Sabbath-school and weekly offering funds.
All were glad to learn from Brother Tieche that fruit had already appeared in Algeria, where two had just recently been baptized; and it was voted to give Brother Steiner, one of their promising young men who has full command of the French, German, and English, and has also studied Hebrew, to labor among the mixed population of Algeria, and at the same time to study Arabic. Thus, within a short time, we shall have three good workers in Algeria. They expect to hold a course of lectures in the city of Algiers this winter.
There are now in the French field three ordained ministers, four licentiates, three Bible workers, and about eight canvassers. Thus far we are spending six thousand dollars a year on the forty million people in France. One third of this is raised by our brethren in France itself, while the other two thirds come from the appropriations of the Mission Board. When we remember that to-day France has more than as many more subjects in its colonies, and that, naturally, France will be the recruiting ground for workers for these colonies (they have already sent French workers to Algeria and Hayti), we can realize the necessity of liberally assisting them to carry on this work.
Sabbath was especially a good day. Thirty-five came forward for prayer. Both forenoon and afternoon the Spirit of God deeply convicted those present.
There will now be in the Latin field two conferences,—the Roman-Swiss and the French Conferences,—thus making the Latin Union a full-fledged union conference, completely organized, pushing the work into every part of its wide-extended territory. Let all remember the Latin Union Conference in their prayers and by their gifts.
