An Opportunity for a Good Work in the South
By Othio C. Godsmark
THERE are openings for a good work to be done in nearly every place in the South; but the one that appeals to our reason as one that the Lord is especially pointing out at the present time is an opportunity in Earleyville, Tenn. About one year ago Brother C. G. Howell, one of our former laborers in the Michigan conference, and his wife, Mrs. Elsie Westphal Howell, came to this portion of our Southern field, and began a school for the benefit of the people living among the mountains of eastern Tennessee. Brother Howell also preached in the neighborhood as time and opportunity permitted. Their burden has been to establish an industrial school where the people could be taught not only the various branches of elementary knowledge, but also proper methods of cultivating the soil, and thus bettering their present condition. This plan has been encouraged by the generous donation of one hundred acres of land for this purpose, by Brother Ben Auten, one of our well-known members of the Iowa Conference. It was our privilege to visit this interesting corner of our Cumberland Conference some time ago, and we were impressed that here was an opening to do good, and reach many honest-hearted19people with the truths of this last message. It is to just such quiet corners as this that our people will be glad to retire, and find a refuge from the storms of strife and bloodshed that are fast gathering about our larger cities; and why not begin now to do a work for these people who are honest at heart, religiously inclined, and anxious to learn and know the truth? Brother and Sister Howell are both earnest, devoted workers, both fully qualified for this special branch of our work, and are doing all that their means will permit. Just now they are getting out the rough timbers for their school building, depending upon the donations that personal friends, knowing of their good work, have kindly sent to them. This we believe to be right. The Lord has long been calling the attention of our people to the work here in the South, and we firmly believe that every dollar put here in this particular place will be money well invested in the bank of heaven. They are not asking for expensive buildings, or even the ordinary home comforts of life that they enjoyed in the North; but we ask for them the immediate help of our brethren who prefer to know where their money goes, that they may be able to erect a few simple cabins in which to live, and teach this truth to the people in that section of the country. With but little opportunity for learning, and shut off from the world as they are, these simple-minded, honest-hearted people earnestly grasp just such opportunities as Brother and Sister Howell are trying to place within their reach. Who will help them in their self-sacrificing efforts to carry this message to the very homes of the people here in this long-neglected South land? May God bless the givers. Address C. G. Howell, Earleyville, Tenn.; and, brethren, while you help in this effort at Earleyville, remember in your prayers the earnest workers here in the South who left the strong conferences of the North, and came here to do the work for these days in this Southern field. OTHIO C. GODSMARK,
President of Cumberland Conference.